Favourite Tank Incarnation?

[Undeadfire]

PLD was god awful in HW, Drk did near everything Paladin did except better.

Ok I exaggerated on meta I apologies. However Wars DPS near went on par with melee DPS.

[Lyth]

This isn't historically accurate. DRK's main advantage over PLD in Heavensward was DPS, and if you played DRK you were expected to be able to swap to PLD as required. PLD was used in a minimum of one world first clear every tier, and there were plenty of fights where it could have gone either way. You were pretty much expected to bring Cover for A2S's Gordian Snipers (Equilibrium was the work-around, but that wasn't universal knowledge). Sheltron was incredible for A3S cleaves. PLD was very nearly used in world progression at a net dps loss just to bring Hallowed to do the Nisi cheese in A4S. A6S strategies were dependent on whether you went PLD/WAR or DRK/WAR, and Tempered was great for mines. A7S was pretty much designed for PLD, and still remains one of the best designed tank fights in this game's history. A8S actually favored PLD/DRK comps in progression due to the Final Beam combo requiring a longer invuln, and Veil was very strong for intermissions. WAR was really the only constant in these fights.

The trade-off in Heavensward was that, if you could get away with bringing a DRK instead of a PLD, your team would be numerically better off for it. But the decision was rarely clear cut during progression, especially for Gordias and Midas. Stormblood simply tipped things such that you always wanted to bring PLD.

I think that the 'utility vs. dps' trade-off in Heavensward wasn't a great one. I think this was exaggerated by the fact that a lot of 'pure' PLD players went from ARR to Heavensward thinking that they could keep being the classic 1-2-3 Shield Oath MT who does callouts on mechanics. If you adapted with the times, there was definitely was a place for your skills, and I've seen some pretty incredible PLD players in HW. But I think Stormblood was the worst for balance as far as tanking goes.

[Vyrerus]

This isn't historically accurate. DRK's main advantage over PLD in Heavensward was DPS, and if you played DRK you were expected to be able to swap to PLD as required. PLD was used in a minimum of one world first clear every tier, and there were plenty of fights where it could have gone either way. You were pretty much expected to bring Cover for A2S's Gordian Snipers (Equilibrium was the work-around, but that wasn't universal knowledge). Sheltron was incredible for A3S cleaves. PLD was very nearly used in world progression at a net dps loss just to bring Hallowed to do the Nisi cheese in A4S. A6S strategies were dependent on whether you went PLD/WAR or DRK/WAR, and Tempered was great for mines. A7S was pretty much designed for PLD, and still remains one of the best designed tank fights in this game's history. A8S actually favored PLD/DRK comps in progression due to the Final Beam combo requiring a longer invuln, and Veil was very strong for intermissions. WAR was really the only constant in these fights.

The trade-off in Heavensward was that, if you could get away with bringing a DRK instead of a PLD, your team would be numerically better off for it. But the decision was rarely clear cut during progression, especially for Gordias and Midas. Stormblood simply tipped things such that you always wanted to bring PLD.

I think that the 'utility vs. dps' trade-off in Heavensward wasn't a great one. I think this was exaggerated by the fact that a lot of 'pure' PLD players went from ARR to Heavensward thinking that they could keep being the classic 1-2-3 Shield Oath MT who does callouts on mechanics. If you adapted with the times, there was definitely was a place for your skills, and I've seen some pretty incredible PLD players in HW. But I think Stormblood was the worst for balance as far as tanking goes.

*Wipes Lyth's party by using Equilibrium in A5S causing the Minotaur add to eat the pig rats*

[Bright-Flower]

SHB Paladin and Gunbreaker are my favorites. PLD started off dull but each expansion has added to its abilities and made it more fun.

For WAR and DRK they never appealed to me but I didn't play them all that much and in SHB pretty much just leveled them for the sake of the amaro.

[LogicMouse]

its a hard choice between DRK and GNB

DRK i love the feel of it, and using Blackest Night at just the right time feels fantastic \

GNB all the pew pew

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

my favorite Tank Incarnation is hands-down 3.x Dark Knight.
compared to the more boring, simplified, homogenized, and sort-of its own identity lacking, current Dark Knight; original Dark Knight was amazing and fun, I loved its complexity, it actually felt like a magic-using Tank, and yeh.. it had problems, but those problems could have been fixed.
alas.. instead, Dark Knight was butchered and that was called a fix.

Second favorite is 3.x Warrior, just because the old Defiance and Deliverance stances with Wrath and Abandon resources felt more like Warrior's "identity" than what does Beast gauge does.
but before I go on a rant about 3.x Warrior, whom can instead just look at what I said in a forum that I started up just today, that is about old 3.x warrior and 4.x-up-to-current warrior.

[Kacho_Nacho]

For me, it was GLD/PLD in ARR. It was easy, straightforward, and we had Flash to keep aggro.

[Anienai]

Warrior 2.0

[AziraSyuren]

3.0 Dark Knight, 4.1+ Warrior, and current Paladin.

4.1+ WAR is a weird case because it's technically better now than it was then, but feels a lot worse relative to other tanks.

[Colt47]

Honestly I've found myself sticking with warrior in shadowbringers because paladin just got way too damn busy. You look at flow charts and realize the gap closer ability they have is also an attack you are "supposed" to weave in with all the other stuff going on, and the number of buttons on my bar that I can easily toggle to gets kind of mangled.

My favorite jobs are ones that are easy to swap around. Warrior, machinist, blackmage, and I had samurai on there for a while.