Favourite Tank Incarnation?

[Shurrikhan]

It would be interesting to compare what the action budgets for each tank were across each expansion, but I haven't seen a good archive of the old action lists. A lot of Shadowbringers' PLD's 'design' comes from the fact that it just has a bigger action budget than the other tanks.

More actions doesn't necessarily translate into more engaging (most MOBAs use surprisingly few, as an example), but I think a lot of the fan favorites just had more buttons available to press.

This, for the most part.

I think we can get a pretty good estimate by the number of available buttons that have an element of (1) pacing (forced, as per using CDs on refresh), (2) timing (player chosen) or (3) decision.
Though, for example, if we looked at each of GNB's 30s combo actions as separate buttons and estimated from there, I suspect our estimate would be slightly inflated?

[Shiroe]

imo Warrior is fun in harder endgame content.., but gets stale fast on easy normal & easy content..
Gunbreaker remains the most engaging on all types of content..
Pld & Drk somewhere inbetween..
Most fun & engaging tanks imo:
1) Gunbreaker (by far)
2) Paladin
3) Dark Knight
4) Warrior (by far)

[Shiroe]

in "aoe" situations, the list changes a bit
1) Dark Knight
2) Gunbreaker
3) Paladin
4) Warrior (though the going full out "berserk" aoe moments, are fun :3..)

[Kyser96]

4.X Dark knight.

I loved the management of two stances with the speed from Blood Weapon. It felt so damn good to play, and I gotta admit that I actually liked using Dark Arts.

Legit the only thing it missed were the animations from Scourge and Delirium

[Vyrerus]

Realized I still had the 3.x version of tanks gameplay to an extent in the form of Turn 4 solos during HW circa Midas as the endgame.

3.x DRK solo for Turn 4 circa 2016

3.x WAR solo for Turn 4 circa the same time

3.x PLD solo for... you get the idea.

[Steinar]

5.3 Warrior — It's the most fun I had tanking in a long while. It's simple, comfortable, and allows me to pay more attention to other people and do callouts.

3.0 DRK — I miss having to keep darkside up and the old quietus combo.

5.3 PLD — Feels very good and very complete to me, though sometimes I feel like it requires too many keybinds.

[shao32]

3.0 DRK — I miss having to keep darkside up and the old quietus combo.

In HW DRK didn't have Quietus, you mean Delirium combo perhaps? ^^

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

3.0 DRK — I miss having to keep darkside up and the old quietus combo.

AoE in HeavensWard, as far as I know, was the original on-GCD Abyssal Drain, original Unleash, and Dark Passenger.

Quietus, and the BlackBlood Gauge, showed up in 4.0, as the new toys at StormBlood release.

In HW DRK didn't have Quietus, you mean Delirium combo perhaps? ^^

and yeh, assuming that Quietus was a different kind of typo, perhaps they meant the old GCD combos and original Delirium, rather than AoE... /think

The image I have of a tank is a heavy armor with a sword and a shield, so the PLD. Except that it sucks at ShB by its gameplay.

Don't like the GNB style that only speaks to Squall Leonhart fan, FFVIII is my favorite FF, but a guy in a furry jacket and a T-Shirt, that doesn't make a tank. And its gameplay with ammo doesn't make me think of a tank : Wait I reload and then I start again.
Even though, blah, blah, blah. Mostly, I don't like his gameplay.

WAR is a berserker in armor, a berserker historically is a guy in leather armor, often represented shirtless. And it's more of a 'glass cannon' than a tank.
For the gameplay, it seems slow to me and the axe as a weapon does not speak to me.

So my next tank after PLD is by default a DRK, not because it's too dark.

It would be nice to have a tank with a shield and a spear, too.

So... You prefer Paladin's aesthetic, but do not like its game-play, and disapprove of the aesthetics of GunBreaker and Warrior, so you play Dark Knight
just as the last option? I would hope that what ever happens to Paladin in 6.0 will please you, then...
Dark Knight may end up being a lost cause, always a trash tank with no personal identity from now on, with only its aesthetic still intact, unless 6.0
just happens to be redemption that will clean up the 4.x and 5.x on-going mess...

[Naoki34]

Historically, the unit used to tank depends on what it has to defend against.

- A sword: a shield or a blade composed of a guard and a hook.
- a rider: a spear
- archers against a foot or horse charge
etc.

But let's come back to FFXIV...

The image I have of a tank is a heavy armor with a sword and a shield, so the PLD. Except that it sucks at ShB by its gameplay.

Don't like the GNB style that only speaks to Squall Leonhart fan, FFVIII is my favorite FF, but a guy in a furry jacket and a T-Shirt, that doesn't make a tank. And its gameplay with ammo doesn't make me think of a tank : Wait I reload and then I start again.
Even though, blah, blah, blah. Mostly, I don't like his gameplay.

WAR is a berserker in armor, a berserker historically is a guy in leather armor, often represented shirtless. And it's more of a 'glass cannon' than a tank.
For the gameplay, it seems slow to me and the axe as a weapon does not speak to me.

So my next tank after PLD is by default a DRK, not because it's too dark.

It would be nice to have a tank with a shield and a spear, too.

Understand that my point of view is more historical than Japanese heroic fantasy, where the tank could be a woman in a leather or plate bikini jumping around at the speed of sound.

Tanks with naked swords and shields or in T-Shirts don't work in real life, your attacker is not going to aim just at your sword and shield, to please you.

[Xenosan]

3.0 DRK before the dark arts double-tap bug was fixed. When done like so (ie: DA -> C&s -> Souleater) It was basically a Life Surge and Power Surge in one.. ..Didnt feel like a bug.. felt like a rotation/cd/resource optimization white rabbit.. Wish they stuck with it in some form

People complained it was unfair to those with bad ping, because of the required double-weave. I think.

Then storm blood dark knight happened, ha