Favourite Tank Incarnation?

[DaulBan]

Mainly for WAR/PLD/DRK since Gunbreaker hasn't changed much this expansion.

Are you, like me, hot and heavy for some classic 4.1 Warrior? Are you a member of the army of people waxing lyrically over HW DRK? Are you some sort of sick soul who thinks ARR had it best?

For me,

4.1 WAR (It's my favourite Tank full stop.)

4.x PLD (Easy number 2).

and 4.3+ DRK (Sue me).

Edit: Figured I'd give a more in-depth rationale;

4.1 Warrior I think is the best tank the game has seen specifically because of how tight the rotation was with old zerk and IR. Lining up with TA felt like a challenge, you had your specific burst you were trying to land in it every minute, and while it was punishing at times I loved it.

StB Paladin was kinda ridiculous, and while I think it was overtuned I do think that the sheer grab-bag of tools it had for the time made for a lot of options for handling mitigation. I prefer the older 1.5 GCD casts to the current instant ones as well.

4.3+ (aka 80s delirium, 30% Dark Mind) DRK was just good because I liked speed sets. Still had haste on Blood Weapon, and it was still viable to reduce your GCD to comedic levels. Sure, it was kinda spammy, but I'd rather be doing something than nothing.

[Enkidoh]

Although I miss ARR GLA/PLD with the old cross class system and thus being able to use a few CNJ spells (Raise, and Cure in low level content especially), I admit I like where GLA/PLD now is as it's strength and survivability is well balanced, I can finally hold my own solo with Clemency's potency buffed up rather than the impotent spell it was since HW, and it's just so much more enjoyable now.

I still miss 'old style' GLA/PLD, but it's now in a good place.

[Undeadfire]

AI still miss 'old style' GLA/PLD, but it's now in a good place.

I don't, all you do is 1-2-3 repeat. Cross class CNJ spells were weaker versions versus the main, only good one was stoneskin.

[Vyrerus]

5.0 PLD

3.x DRK (Whatever patch where they changed Living Dead to be total HP amount healed, rather than full HP for Living D)

3.0 WAR

Basically, PLD was always really boring to me despite having great defenses and Flash being the most braindead AOE "rotation" ever in its earlier incarnations. They've improved it every year, never downgrading it, ever. It's clearly a dev favored tank, and the only reason it fell out of favor in HW was because of the higher DPS that DRK brought to the table, as well as most of the fights being designed around magically inclined tank busters. The rotation it has today is the most interesting its rotation has ever been, as well as one of my favorite tanking rotations of all time. I'd never trade 5.0 PLD for any other variety of PLD.

DRK is more interesting to talk about than PLD. Its original incarnation was the most intricate they've ever made a tank, and it's really the only tank rotation that ever fully felt like a DPS rotation to me with a total of 9 oGCDs related to damage on top of MP management with a single DOT to maintain, and a DPS stance that could be on simultaneously with tank stance. Not too mention Low Blow being a proc based oGCD that could reset like BRD's Bloodspiller(I miss you River of Blood trait). In Stormblood they made it newbie friendly by not allowing Darkside to fall off even if you hit 0 MP, so MP management largely became a non issue, and turning off Darkside was only applicable depending on fight transition length vs. MP recovered.
HW DRK vs. SB DRK, basically DRK traded everything really cool about its oGCD total and DOT for the Blood Gauge and Blood Management. While I did enjoy Blood Management and loved the addition of the Blackest Night, SB DRK is always a little less fun. 5.0 DRK is basically SB DRK -1 to me, since I had no problem with the Dark Arts spam. I still have fun on DRK, and it is my preferred tank for dungeons, but I'd take 3.0 DRK over current iterations any day.

3.0 WAR is somewhat personal, and it relates more to the dev's philosophy on tank DPS. In 3.0 until... I wanna say... 3.2? Whichever patch dropped Sephirot Ex wherein they did the first tank nerf... Tanks were all in an outrageously awesome spot where maximizing their DPS could really carry weaker DPS players. It felt great. Berserk, Maim, and Storm's Eye really solidified WAR in the party. It was the strongest tank, and it certainly felt ultra powerful. If you lined up everything right, then you'd get 3 Fell Cleaves in under Berserk which was a raw +50% damage at the time. Before the tank ATP nerf, this meant that an i210 WAR could critical hit a Fell Cleave for over 10,000 damage. After the tank nerf that sort of damage wasn't seen on a Fell Cleave until i270 BIS. As far as why 3.0 WAR vs. 4.1 WAR... well, 4.1 WAR felt great, especially after they had at first nerfed 4.0 WAR with its heavily awkward gauge cost for stance swapping. However it steered the job into a bad spot, because the dev philosophy mentioned earlier has been to clip tank's DPS potential every expansion. 3.2 we got a straight up -218ATP which at the time was like a little more than 1/6th of tank ATP. In Stormblood they cycled back to STR but at first put no STR on tank accessories, leading to tryhard tanks wearing level 60 STR accessories to deal as much damage as low tier, poorly performing DPSes. The 4.1 WAR still had Berserk, and it was that new Stormblood Berserk that was ultimately weaker, but hey, no pacification. It lead to them rolling Berserk into Inner Release though, and changing the ATP+ to Direct Crits, actually lowering the damage potential of WAR while raising its consistency (and also causing it to meld/gear differently than every other tank). Basically when I say I want 3.0 WAR, I am saying that I want my tank's DPS rotations to be unfettered. I want playing tank well to feel rewarding again. I also want them to get rid of Shirk and bring back enmity combos though, so hey... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, yeah, also I liked the cross class skills for WAR, cause it had Pugilist skills Internal Release (sounds familiar, doesn't it?), Second Wind, Featherfoot, and Mantra. If SE had been ballsy, they coulda given it Fists of Earth as a cross class skill. Hehe, imagine the outrage of the other tanks if they had.

[Sqwall]

5.3 Warrior for me. I never felt more comfortable playing a tank then I did when storm's eye got a 60 maximum timer. And Nascent not having to target another player and I could just be self sufficient in healing myself. Warrior is beastly and I love that it can throw out DPS level burst every 90 sec.

2.0 + Paladin as I actually miss Flash, and that I could actually Raise during that time. Paladin has slide down for me and it just can't compare to WAR's bombastic level of RAWR. Paladin feels delicate when it does it's burst phase and not as tanky. My hopes are that SE will double down and lean into the whole block chance/value more and give paladin a real mitigation it can use. Give us some more Oath spenders, rework cover, rework attonement to be oGCD so I can weave it . Fix Paladins feedback loop to where I also gain oath when I block. IDK maybe endwalkers will give PLD much needed love since it's the poster child now.

3.0-4.0 DRK I miss dark arts and scourge. I liked choosing when I wanted to buff an attack or wait for MP regen. DRK was pretty complex and liked it a heck of a lot more then what we have now.

5.0 + GNB. *sigh* super flashy, very DMC, and was very complete when it was released. I honestly don't know what they could add to this class to that already isn't there. It's my least played tank.

[Dzian]

1.23 pld. Aegis boon was such a satisfying skill to use. Watching your hp shoot up when you blocked the right attacks. Took skill to as if you timed it wrong you'd just block an auto and not the tank buster and then you were stuffed.

And while not a fan of the 1 combo 123 repeat of ARR. It did have some interesting stuff going for it. Like silencing ads high voltage in early coils or using shield swipes to pacify early bosses. And prevent them launching some big attacks..being able to combo cover with tempered will or even hallowed ground to make a party member invincible and immune to knockbacks..

Things that actually impacted a fight in ways more interesting than just dps dps dps..

Modern tanks. Have become less tanks and more just blue dps. Same way healers have become less healers and basically just green dps. And honestly that's boring af.

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

Dunno why people hang onto PLD had raise in 2.X and 3.X, as it was completely and utterly useless, 1) you could not use in combat, 2) you're an idiot for accepting a raise after combat is over. You were and still are better off to release back to the beginning of the duty and use a shortcut to catch up, than suffer weakness, especially back then with the HP penalty. Exception being Eureka, Bozja, Deep Dungeons.

As for the topic, 5.x Paladin is without a shadow of a doubt, it's best iteration to date. I love the fact they consistently build upon what already exists and makes it better each expansion. Although I do miss Shield Swipe procs, as a minor optimisation tool and something else to weave frequently.

War 3.X and DRK 3.X are probably both the best iterations of both respective jobs that have been eroded further and dumbed down to astronomical low levels at this point, both play out similarly in that you avoid overcapping gauge and don't let damage buff fall off and you're pretty much set.

[Imora]

I liked PLD in 3.0 but can't wrap my head around it now. Too many buttons.

I'm a simple person. -_-

[Hierro]

I think if I were to talk purely about emotional payoff, 3.X WAR was best because those were the most satisfying FC crits, ever. You felt like a beast! But, in terms of gameplay, 4.2 WAR feels more complete with the addition of a gap closer and other neat tools.

4.X DRK was great all around as an improvement over 3.X DRK. 5.X DRK sucks!

4.X PLD feels great cause its cover felt like a real cover with it's mitigative property, though having a gap closer with confetti feels nice too. It's a toss up between 5.X and 4.X.

[Vyrerus]

5.0 + GNB. *sigh* super flashy, very DMC, and was very complete when it was released. I honestly don't know what they could add to this class to that already isn't there. It's my least played tank.

A shorter oGCD AOE for more convenient trash pick up in dungeons. Bow Shock is on a minute long cooldown, and if you use it while running through trash to solidify hold on a group, then you don't get to hit the whole pull with it. With how gung ho is these days, this means that GNB has to stop and wait a sec to do another GCD AOE to solidify hold, and it makes the people who make you have to do that complain that you're stutter stepping the pull etc.

Of course, you can pop Aurora just for enmity, but it won't do when there's a MCH single target firing on one monster in the pack while the pack is on the move.

I'd also love an AOE version of Continuation, but it's pretty obvious they invested ZERO time in GNB's aoes, as they consist of spins. Two are exactly the same but one is anti-clockwise. The third is the same as the first but with explosions. Very, dreadfully, boring.