I recently started trying to tank after being terrified of it forever and this really, REALLY makes me feel better. Especially that last bit about being brave enough to tank.
You are one part of the team. Walkthrus can help if you feel tense, but you just need to be bold. You're a wall of steel!! Let them try to take you hehe
For my case, I ve been a tank main since I started the game over year ago now and, the thing that helped me the most to improve my tanking was to play other jobs. When you re a main tank suddenly playing MNK, you realise the pain of a Tank spinning the boss every 2 seconds or putting it in impossible corners, but also you start to catch the spirit of a dps and you re always working on "how do I make my rotation more efficient" And then you learn about healing and you realise that if tanks and dps used their mitigations and selfheal, the Healer's job becomes way easyer, wich means less wipes from lack of healing but also more dps
this is also true when tanking and you've played healer with a bad tank. the tank not popping cooldowns or just sitting on a 1 pull everytime. or the tank is severely under geared but proceeds to pull wall to wall because it's his "alt" job but has lvl 50 gear in lvl 60 dungeons (especially that since the gear stats were massive in lvl 60s compared to lvl 50) or the tank just not popping CDs whenever he needed it.
Same came to me with pre-Shadowbringers AST I didn't know Bard was all about critical hits so once I played one I was giving them crit cards whenever I could. Then they killed that mechanic. AST is still my fave healer though. But yeah playing other jobs gives you an idea on how their combos and general playstyle works which is useful for other jobs.
That's part of why I try to play all three main roles...It gives me the perspectives to know what helps the rest of my party regardless of if I'm on damage, tanking, or healing. Everyone appreciates taking less damage because I worked in a Feint or Addle for group busters, healers love not having to heal me because I didn't just stand there casting Fire IV and eating avoidable mechanics, melee appreciate not having to bounce around because I'm always moving the boss, etc.
I started as Tank and I didn't know a lot, but as I learned and read I realized how badly I was using my abilities. What's really needed is people speaking up more about cooldown rotation - I had to read about that on Reddit and realized "oh my god I'm an idiot." And felt instantly bad for my healers x.X
As a MNK main Tanks that spin the boss make me wanna leave, with 6 positionals you will destroy my DPS output Be kind to your melee DPS, hold the boss still
@@Zayindjejfj To be completely fair, spinning the boss can "technically" work sometimes. World of Darkness alliance raid bosses can be cheesed into doing nothing by spinning the boss. That said, this is obviously a bug; not a feature. Tanks are not meant to move the boss; the monks in your party will thank you.
@@GT-legendary depends on when i see the sprout icon, if i see it in a HW dungeon and the tank is single pulling because "im new to tanking" i just sigh and tell them. or you get sync dungeons (50/60/70) the enemies dont hit hard anymore and can easily pull 2 groups or wall to wall without stressing your healer, yet the tank does 1 pull at a time. i generally just want quick completions but if a sprout is just fucking it up everytime it gets frustrating. or you get the comment "why don't you tank" thanks, i do main tank, PLD in fact, im leveling my alt jobs which takes ages to get in a dungeon as it is (thanks SE) and then i gotta deal with a 40 minute dungeon that can be easily completed in 15 minutes. I've been nice to newer players in the past, but either they get off on it or they straight up ignore you (especially baguettes) or they start speaking french after i speak english to them, learn the fucking world language.
I being pretty much brand new to mmo style rpg started out as a paladin and things went seemingly for me until I hit the Brayflox dungeon where I unknowingly was supposed to pull the dragon away from the poison puddles which he healed in, nevertheless my armor was nothing special and I kept dying when people kept telling me to use my moves to pull the dragon til he was away had me thinking that I was supposed to use a special physical attack to literally push or pull him and needless to say they were pissed it was a mess and one of them kept calling me an idiot and and telling me to quit playing the game. And it was a very disheartening experience. I later realized how to use the Agro and realized what my cooldowns did to physically pull the bosses and realized I shouldnt run around in circles like you said. I almost did give up then I realized wait a minute I want to be a paladin I’m gonna really learn how to do this no matter what the malicious criticism I’d receive . And what you said at the end about those who give scrutiny why don’t they step in the hot seat. But I implore you if you ever had to learn anything in your life treat others with the same respect you would want. I can’t deny I’ve played with far more helpful people with constructive things to tell me and treated me with the same respect I warrant them.
Just in case you're still new, or for anyone else reading this, I've got a really good tip on how to keep a boss positioned correctly while still dodging mechanics and the like. If the boss does a big cone attack or whatever that you need to dodge, if you move back in front fast enough the boss will still be in the same position he was in when it started the attack. Then you can stand on the little compass arrow thing (that shows which directly the boss is facing), so that when it's movement "unlocks" again, you'll already be back dead center of where it was facing, and it'll barely move at all. All the melee dps in the back, who DIDN'T have to dodge anything, can keep on trucking without the boss moving around, and it's a nice boost for them. In the same way, if the boss uses a stack up mechanic and whoever has it is smart enough to put it in melee range of the boss, you can duck through, stack, and then run back to the arrow before the boss starts to move again (unless the boss isn't animation locked, anyway), so you won't lose forget where you were.
Same thing happened to me but I just decided to get into Sam since it's my 3rd favorite class I really wanted to be a dark knight after I first unlocked it but my experience as a paladin has almost fully killed my mood on being a tank
Guys relax, tanking is really easy! Just pick your tank and start doing duties that's the best way you'll learn! And don't forget to use your job specific abilities like arm's length and reprise, they're often overlooked but they're super strong!
I'm new to Tanking (and I'm quick to point out that I'm still learning and getting used to the role) but I'm starting to feel the same way that for the most part I can just focus on keeping the Boss focused on me and then trust the rest of my team to know how to do their jobs. Thankfully I've only run into "toxic" players a small number of times in the time I've been playing.
Thank you for this. I started tanking 2 days ago and today just got yelled at and kicked from the Stone Vigil for not pulling big enough. My RDM was pulling mobs before i would even make it to the rooms because he didnt like my pace. It made me want to never pick up tanking again, but hearing you towards the end makes me want to keep trying, thanks.
that is definitely not the norm, most people just want to finish the dungeon and if you are tanking good enough to be able to finish it, they won't even bother kicking
Yeah, I get that too. I freely admit I'm a slower tank, preferring not to pull large groups, but when people, including the healer, start kicking off fights before I'm there, it pisses me off. Then again, part of my decision to take things more slowly comes from playing SAM all through Stormblood. I hated tanks in that that would rush and draw all the mobs ahead into one big group. Too many AOEs to dodge while dealing with positionals. I know that's not as big a thing with SAM as other Melee DPS classes, but it still annoys me. Having a much better time doing ShB dungeons as tank. Can't do big pulls with those, everyone would die :3
After a few more days of attempts and getting made feel awful by the random parties id be in, i will literally never try a support role again. DPS for the rest of FF career lol not dealing with that anymore. Maybe you guys just ran into nicer people, however that was very very rarely my experience.
Been tanking for few months now, and I figured a few things out. 1. Your DPS rotation is less important than your mitigation. Getting a defensive cooldown up in time is better for the group than you getting one more GCD off. 2. Healers are a crapshoot. Keep your invuln and self heals prepped. 3. Only point the boss at the healer if they're annoying you, or as a bot check. 4. Shirk is the tanks way of enforcing justice.
the thing is, you can easily weave in Rampart+another CD in a GCD cycle (typically called double weave which i guess is dependant on your ping but in general it's enough) in most cases 1 CD is enough for a TB (granted the healer is ready for a quick heal burst) Healers can indeed be garbage, but i've seen more healers who focus on healing than DPS (literally doing 0 dps over the course of a given fight) only point the boss at the healer if they're annoying you, yes, if you have the knowledge which of the boss' moves cleave, done this myself plenty of times. (or when the healer thinks he/she is in charge of the pace) Problem with Shirk is that it transfers 25% of your emnity to your target, in 99% of the cases this won't give the healer or dps agro since you'll be in tank stance for a bit, build up a metric fuckton of emnity and then transfer 25% of that. If you disable tank stance then do the shirk and do it once it's off CD then maybe. (it works wonders with a coordinated effort, 2 tanks working togheter, by the OT provoking then shirking your target and you shirking the target giving effectively 50% of the total emnity to that 1 target, do this when they have over 50% emnity bar and the guy/girl is toast, although this isn't really working on SHB unfortunately since emnity generation from tanks is insane compared to tanks switching off tank stance sooner due to the dps loss)
@Urazz Its Honestly one of the reasons I have drifted away from FFXIV when I reach the Endgame content, there is so much focus on damage output with little to no leeway for error, that Healers and Tanks are expected to pump out almost as much damage as Dps to meet the enrage timers which I find rediculous. I get that they don't want another Pandemonium Warden situation all over again, but they seriously need to give more leeway to groups and stop setting up boss abilities that deal so much damage that they'll one shot anything that isn't a tank with active damage mitigation.
That second misconception is sooo prevalent and I appreciate you pointing it out. Having played since ARR and having mained every role at some point, my experience is that tanking is the easiest. People mistake responsibility for difficulty.
Welll... Tanks are easy, but not if you leave your entire brain in Limsa Lominsa. ;P You'll need to bring atleast half of it to duties. I've met quite a few... originals... through duty finder, where the only logical explanation is that not only have they never played tank, but also they haven't played the game, or any other game for that matter haha. I'm not going to flame anyone for it, for all I know someone is letting their sweet little 102-year-old grandma play their paladin and she would obviously have no idea what a tank stance is, or the concept of hitting the entire pack to prevent them from killing the rest of the team. There are certainly people out there who experience a whole lot of difficulty with these comparably easy classes.
tanks are the esiest ? well maybe out of the few point of someone who allready entered every content 10000x times what about players without a static and 50000+ In game hours who needs to learn is it still that easy huh?
I used to only heal because i was terrified of doing anything else. Pretty much all my friends were healers (except for a single bard) so if we wanted to do any content together one of us had to become a tank. Pretty much all of us tried it but as soon as i started warrior I knew i would love no other class as much as i loved it. So now i am the only tank in our group and i know im not super great but i cant imagine doing anything else. And its totally because of people who are supportive of getting better while still having fun like you. This year I’ve decided to take a pause on my sub to help improve my mental health and not rely on video games as much but BOY this makes me want to go back simply because i love tanking so much. Thank you for making this video :)
@Urazz having come from a healer class, it's something i'm already used to doing honestly i already have to pay attention to tank busters, hard hitting auto attacks, stuff like that just to make sure that i'm using the right stuff to keep the tank healthy
As a DRK, I tend to keep an eye on the healers hp. If I see one has gotten low, and I know a hi dmg aoe is coming, I'll hit them with the Blackest Night if doing so won't kill me. Better to keep your healers alive if possible, since they lose all their mp on revival, and raising them can take time if you lack a rdm or your other healer is waiting on their swift cast cooldown.
May I just say that the part at 4:28 is just beautiful? When I saw it the first time I got chills. Desperius will be the savior of the sprouts and also a symbol of epicness ♥
I actually find dps is often a lot harder than tanking in FF14, myself: tanks have to work about tank busters and positioning (and then all the normal stuff that everyone does), while dps have to do much more complicated dps rotations, and dodge EVERYTHING a boss does because you often can't just fudge your way through like a tank can.
DPS rotations, etc, may be more difficult than tank ones, but I think generally DPS is considered easier simply because there IS less responsibility on your shoulders. If a tank screws up and dies, the party will probably wipe. If a healer screws up and dies or lets the tank die, the party will probably wipe. If a DPS dies, it's usually not a big deal, and you can usually wait to Rez them until it is safe to do so. In less challenging content, if the DPS constantly screws up, the Healers may even opt to not Rez them at all and save their MP for somebody more important (seems they figure the DPS is probably just going to get themselves killed again) - and that's alright, you'll probably still be able to clear alot of content like that. That's not to say a DPS's contribution to the party isn't important, it still is of course, it's just usually not AS important, which means there is less responsibility on the shoulders of a DPS than the other two roles, and that's why people consider it easy. There's just less pressure. You can screw up and while you might die, the party will still be just fine. That being said, people definitely over estimate how difficult tanking actually is in FFXIV. Alot of it just comes down to tactical awareness and knowing your foe, but assuming your healer doesn't suck (and even if they do if you've got ample ability to heal yourself), once you've done a fight once and know how it goes, it actually becomes alot easier - and due to your natural hardiness quite a forgiving role - you can often survive a boss' big nuke attack if it still hits you, whereas a DPS or Healer might not be able too. And I'm saying that as a primary tank. I actually think Healing is the hardest role in FFXIV (though I know other disagree), because the fact you're also a DPS makes maximising your casting up-time trickiest, seems you've got to constantly switch between allied and enemy targets, unless you use macros, which by their very nature reduce your casting efficiency due to lack of queing. But mostly, as before it's the responsibility. If you're DPS, in most cases the only person you're really responsible for is yourself. If you die, it's almost always entirely on you. If you're a tank, you only really have to worry about the Healer in your group being bad, and due to the hardiness of the job making it so forgiving, if you die there's a good chance it was your fault. But if you're a Healer, if either the tank or the DPS in your group is bad, it can put a real strain on you. You might feel like your failing at your role, but it legitimately might not be your fault one bit, and it's pretty stressful to feel responsible for that, especially if the tank or DPS take it upon themselves to blame you when in reality you're doing everything you can, your allies need to start using their cooldowns and stop running into the red circles.
@@KotCR Honestly, I find healing to be the least stressful job in the game and I technically main healer right now. It basically boils down to “Can I heal through someone being dumb?” and if the answer is no, there’s not much more to be done. When I heal anything I usually just toss on music an bop along without a care in the world. It’s why I switched to healing from NIN recently. I genuinely can carry an entire group without expending any effort whatsoever. As a DPS I find it a bit more stressful just because I want to smash ALL the buttons like a DDR player on speed but can’t. Particularly as Ninja it can make a huge difference missing one GCD or button press. You accidentally miss-click a Mudra? You’re BONED. The other thing with DPS is that you directly control how quickly your group can clear a dungeon. You could absolutely SHRED a boss, never stand in a single mechanic, save the healer, and set landspeed records for clearing trash and you’re NEVER going to get a commendation at the end of a Duty. Ever. Tanking is really just “Hold aggro, don’t stand in bad stuff”. Sorry to tank mains, I love you, but the job isn’t that demanding. You can literally clear most dungeons by pressing the AoE button and defensive cooldown cycling. Das it.
@@phaton89 Honestly, I'm the opposite and I tend to play DPS when I feel like I want to go into some content with no stress and no pressure. Doesn't really matter if I screw up my DPS rotation much, the Healer will probably pick up the slack anyway lol. Clearing the content fast also doesn't matter half as much as actually just clearing it. While I'm sure that's probably not the case for the hardest content in the game, in the more casual stuff it certainly is. That being said, I totally understand you on the commendations thing. Your healer can screw up, and/or your tank can screw up, and you can totally carry the group on a DPS class with access to group support, like a Red Mage or a Summoner. You still won't get a commendation, for some reason they'll probably still go to the Healer or Tank whom spent 80% of the encounter dead. Very much feel like holding up a big sign saying "You're Welcome" when that happens.
I love playing PLD; as my supportive cooldowns always give me something to do, even when I'm the off-tank. Raid wide AoE spam? Divine Veil. Big tank buster the main tank doesn't have enough HP to live through? Intervention. Somebody in trouble, and can't get out of the way (or the main tank too)? Cover. Hell; I can even heal myself when the healers need to me to. I just have so many tools to help in so many situations; its amazing.
PLD is an amazing off tank, simply because of all it's supportive abilities. the main thing i absolutely hate about the change to shadowbringers is that cover no longer has a natural rampart build into it. why do we even have cover at this point, it was amazing in SB to straight up say no to tank busters, since we took the debuff and 80% of the total damage, now they hit us for 100% of the damage + we take the debuff and we have to use our own CDs for it aswell. This is especially bad when Intervention grows stronger the more CDs you have up and since you had to use them to take a cover TB.
AS PLD: in my most recent run of Copied Factory, we had a healer leave...so I started off-healing for group. at one point during Engels, the healer actually died so it was up to me to keep everyone in my party alive until he got ressed
@@DarkRijin on my 1st run of copied factory we had a party who would keep dying (save for me (PLD) and an healer) and we got in multiple situations where we needed time for the healer to rez the other healer but mechanics were happening (like party stack and the like) so i covered the healer and hallowed, gave the healer plenty of time. the amount of time i saved that party was amazing (even had the entire alliance say shit like "well, atleast we're still alive if thanks to the paladin" never had i received every commendation. the amount of times i had to save other alliances aswell, especially in the final fight where the tanks drop, i was main tanking the boss since the other tanks were like "nope" so i ran up to a tank and tanked that aswell, the amount of improv i had to do that run was amazing, an actually challenging experience (granted it was caused by lazy other tanks and a party that couldnt stop kissing the floor, but it was the 1st run for most so can't blame them, even though if you played nier a lot of those mechanics feel familiar)
@@DarkDyllon That definitely puts a damper on Cover strats for sure. Usually if my Main Tank is a DRK I just let them TBN anyway though. Dunno too much about it, but the buddies of mine who play DRK really love it lol
The one single tip that I recommend over any other for new tanks(or any role for that matter) is to join a learning party when starting out if you want the best experience. As long as you have patience and can work together to figure out how to beat a boss's mechanic one-by-one, you're much less likely to have a toxic experience and you'll be much more prepared when joining a random PUG. Sometimes you'll only get the boss down past the first phase, others you'll get it to 10% and just not have the DPS, but I've had plenty of groups that were able to clear in a learning party and they almost always include more positive people willing to learn and stay with the group since it's so easy to see your progress from the first pull to wherever y'all end up. edit: I do recommend watching a quick rundown of the fight from someone like MTQ or the like, but if the party info says going in blind is ok, have at it.
I'm a Lv59 Paladin and did the Striking Tree (Hard) duty yesterday and kept getting called out for not knowing how to tank (rushing in, not knowing positioning, etc.) by the other tank. Thank you for explaining this properly.
The Legend of Mana theme came up and I was immediately more invested in this video than I thought. I don't even tank. I'm a main healer. Now I wanna re-learn Gunbreaker.
Thank you for finally addressing some of these problems. I have a lot of friends who don't want to even try tanking cause they think it sounds really complicated, and, especially lower level ones, don't do anything to improve their dps cause they think they're job is just to stand there and not get let their team get hit. Even after tanking in other games this one is super lenient in its system and rewards you for improving and I hope they learn to look past these misconceptions to give it a try and get better.
pre shadowbringers, low level tanking dungeons had some depth to it since before lvl 30 you didn't have tank stance, now it comes extremely early. in dungeons you generally just pop your tank stance and sit on it for the remainder of the dungeon (since your dps matter a lot less there than trials) with Shadowbringers, having integrated the tank stance positive effect into a passive effect and getting rid of the damage debuff basically made tank stance a non brainer. People saying it's complicated are just delusional, dungeon tanking is relaxing, all you gotta do is spam your AOE's all the time and pop a cooldown every now and then, healing can be frustrating if you got an undergeared tank that pulls wall to wall, or doesn't pop CDs on decent pulls.
@@DarkDyllon well it doesnt help tanks get forced to pull wall to wall regardless of being new or not and insulted heavily if they dont. Tanking can be complicated when you have to deal with world first wanna be, who are all must go fast, and dont let new ppl be new. hell when i was new to tank i asked for tips, what i got was no info on which guide or anything. then expected to pull wall to wall, and was heavily insulted when i didnt since i was a fresh 50 player at the time and had 0 clue what the dungeon layout was.
@@azadalamiq tanking has been made easier since shadowbringers. also not gonna lie, the way you describe kinda resonates with me, i despise a tank that pulls 1 group at a time, forcing the DPS into a single target rotation (most packs are 2 to 3 enemies which in some cases just isnt worth using the AOE's for) it's easy to pull 2 groups, for wall to wall pulls i rarely get criticized (if ever) i generally pull 2 and maybe 3 depending how the healer is geared/experienced. When i pop into DR 50/60/70 and i get any sync lvl 50 dungeon i expect to atleast do 2 to 3 group pulls, instead they pull 1 group at a time. Their excuse is often "i can't trust the healer" when the healer is keeping them completely topped off at 100% at all times. I've grown hostile against sprouts in the past months, simply because i enter a lvl 60 or 70 dungeon by duty roulette and guess what? a sprout who doesn't pull 2 to 3 groups at a time, who spin the enemies around like their fucking beyblades and don't know how to pop their defensive cooldowns. When i was learning tanking, i purposefully pulled 2 to 3 groups in each dungeon, force myself to adapt to harder pulls and know how to deal with situations. now it's "i don't want to learn how to tank properly, i'll just be a hinder to everyone else" and in most cases the healer agrees because they can just sit on their fat ass just spam their basic healing spell without ever casting an offensive spell. It's ok to test the waters, pull 3 groups, barely survived? 2 groups, barely survived? 1 group, instead of testing the healer a bit, they proceed to bore the healer, hinder the DPS and just be fucking idiots for the rest of their FF14 playthrough. Sprouts have went from "hi, i'm new, can you give me tips?" to "hi, i'm gonna make a 15 minute dungeon a 30 minute dungeon, oh you waited for 20 minutes for this party? oh well!" The reason why most people want to play fast is because in general the dps have queue times of upwards to 15-20 minutes, adding a 20 minute queue ontop of a 30 minute dungeon because the tank doesn't to mid pulls adds to a nice 50 minute spend for 1 dungeon (out of a lot of dungeons to get to max level)
The best teacher is still experience. Also it is a good way to learn by looking into the other jobs as you learn their perspective and see what other tanks do. By doing so you can compare your style.
Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of insta pull tanks in trials and raids, please make sure you are taking your time and giving your party space to prepare, change equipment, and eat if they need to. You can use the action found in general called “ready check” and “countdown” (I put mine at 10 seconds) and with that you still get a quick start while also ensuring your party is ready!
Agreed. When I’m tanking something, especially when I see people coming out of cutscenes, I give a good greeting and make sure we’re ready to go underway before rushing forward.
My friend who tanks had the best advice i heard about positionals as a tank. At the start of the fight bring the boss close to center, and turn them 90 degrees to one side. Dps that need positionals stay between boss and healer. So healer can see it all. My friend always goes left so I (whm now) can see from left to right. Tank. Boss and flank dps. Rear dps. No one goes to the far side of boss.
It also helps to let teams know you are new to tanking or to the specific dungeon, many are very forgiving and will give essential tips. Those that don't aren't worth worrying about lol The essentials are covered in the novice hall missions, the rest you will learn in time with a good free company or some experience
I've recently been tanking after being afraid to do it and it's super fun! It was interesting to hear how the old system was, I have vague memories of that from when I first started playing at launch. That melee DPS take- as a DRG main I definitely try to position the boss as best I can for them even though I'm still in lower level content. I got a rude awakening in World of Darkness since the other two tanks decided they just wanted a fast queue time, and I was kinda hesitant to take the lead tank role since I'm newer to tanking. But since they wouldn't do it, popped stance and got the rest of the dungeon down quite easily- felt amazing haha. Thank you for the tips! Also, Legend of Mana music is simply so cozy and amazing.
@@Megaranator make the 1st move, 7/10 tanks in alliance raids switch off tank stance so they can sit back and relax. I know i do when i don't feel like being the MT, or when i try to be the MT but i see the other tanks trying to match me, i don't want this pissing contest for who gets the agro of the boss.
For a little practical advise: If you're new to tanking and nervous about it, jump into PotD with your tank class/Job. PotD is designed to where you can have 4x DPS and still clear (most of) it. It's a really good "low stress" way to learn your rotation and get used to trying to hold agro, experiment, etc with the cost for failure being essentially nothing. Other good options are Guildhests - which are all level 40 or lower, I believe - and are short and quick, so in the event of a wipe, you get to try again right away without a lot of walking, and worst case scenario you're out maybe 5 mins total instead of having to finish the rest of a run with "these people" if they turn out to hate you. When you decide to do dungeons, make sure to say "First time tanking" or "New to tanking here". The FFXIV community is generally VERY nice to new tanks, you just have to let them know you're a new tank. People will remind you of things like your tank stance being off (it turns off if you go into ANY sync'd content, so you always have to reactivate it) and can even give you some advice for fight mechanics if you need them. The community as a whole is really good to new tanks, you just have to let everyone know you're new. And if you want to try higher end stuff on your max level, make sure you go into learning parties in PF, have spent at least a little time on a target dummy with your rotation (since once you get in there it's easy to lose focus with all the dodging and craziness going on; there's some target dummies right outside the first Aetherite town in Kholusia), and it also helps if you get a theme group or whatnot going (I had my PLD geared but hadn't tanked much and was running Eden with an all Lala group and we needed a second tank, so I told them I had almost no idea what I was doing on it, but they got me on PLD and it was nice running all 4 with a sympathetic group that was cool with me not being perfect right out of the gate.) ...tanks are also fun to run story content on, since there's something damn heroic about pulling sword and shield/axe/greatsword/gunblade and charging into the hordes (a little more heroic looking than...pulling out my book or cane, anyway. XD)
(Haha, this video was uploaded the same day as my birthday!) Hi I'm new to the game and dove right into Tank after seeing Dark Knight I got some good reviews so far so maybe I'm doing the right thing. I felt like I was missing something fundamentally as a Tank and came across this reassuring video. Thank you for uploading it!
I just picked the game back up after leaving at 4.2. Gunbreaker looks amazing but I’m a nervous player so these guides are helpful with picking it all back up.
No need to be nervous, I promise. I’m sure you’re past this point by now, but tanking is very comfy once you get comfortable taking damage and trusting your party. Keep the enemies steady and plentiful and DPS will love you, use cooldowns and Healers will love you. But above all, be friendly and everyone will love you.
Hardest part I had with tanking at first was trusting my healers and not using abilities to early. Only complaint I have about tanking now a day is when the DPS tries to run ahead and starts pulling enemies early because they get impatient
When gun breaker came out I switched to a healer for the queue times, and god the amount of DPS or healer players that don't bother to read their abilities or context behind being a tank.... the number of times I had to explain to people how to tank and to use cooldowns, but as I say, it better to help, maybe one day ill be the one learning and not doing good, and I would very much love for someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong and how to do better.
to bad he gave bad/wrong info with the raid calculation. :/ which has been a common misconception that even yoshida has been fighting for years. the truth: When the devs set up any battle content, healer dps is not calculated. yoshida has said this time and again. And has stated time and again healers are not required to dps. He does stated as a world first prog group you might due to going into the content asap, but healing dps isnt required in any fight.
I've been tanking in MMO's since 2005 and I've never enjoyed it nearly as much as I do in FFXIV. They just get it. I get to be the tank the way I've always loved while also being entertained by actual cool-looking animations and contributing DPS>
Main healer here. Can't agree more on the 2nd argument. Tanking is for personally still the most difficult classto play with: need to see the surrounding (that dps, and healer got enough space to move), to see all mobs are agroed to me, and not running loose behind the healer, all def skill on correct moment to use and interupting enemy skill management.
Main tank here. Maybe in dungeon content? Even so, I feel tanking is the easiest one to perform 'well'. Getting at least decent DPS on every tank is way more easy than on most DPS if not all. Probably the hardest part is to optimize damage mitigation in a way that is the most effective for healers, but even so for most content as long you are rotating through your defensive CDs well enough it should be sufficient for like 90% of the content. I feel that DPS and Healers requires a way deep knowledge of the fight to perform 'well' and way more effort to perform 'optimal'
@@giuseppetangana6086 tanking is easier not then in the past. they removed the need to stance dance, and removed the enmity combo. You used to have to balance out the enmity combo with your dps combo. And if u was a baby face tank with max geared dps... you was in for a bad time.
Please, please,.please remember that as a tank you can use Arm's Length as a minor defense cooldown for dungeon pulls. It's a pretty significant slow on every eneny. Also, if you have a WHM in your dungeon group, you have much more leeway to space out your CDs during pulls because their Holy AOE will stunlock enemies for a fairly long time
I've been playing tank since I first started XIV, and I've always found tanking easier than heals or dps, due to the lack of awareness it requires, whether it's keeping your buffs and dots up, or keeping everyone's hp up without too much overheal. As long as you weave cooldowns and dodge mechs, keep the boss still and smack it a bit, you're set.
Well, I agree with three of them. I wanna add something on no.2. I think tank might be tough if you’re a noob tank at the beginning. Because your team can easily tell you’re an inexperienced tank, nothing against new tank though. As a tank, you should lead the dungeons, place the boss on the right position, and you should know the mechanics and tank buster so you can be ready for them. These things can be intimidating for beginners, but once you pass that phase, you’re good to go. Tank is a rewarding job, we all love good tanks. Also, for some hard raid, say eden savage, tanks, healers, dps are equally challenging. Can’t make one single mistake on some mechanics. The perk is, tanks usually have easier rotations than dps, and unlike healers, who need to switch targets between enemies and teammates frequently. So I would say, when you pass that “noob phase”, tanks are not significantly harder than healers and dps as some people might think. Raiding is just equally challenging for everyone.
I’m a noob, I finally unlocked dark knight but I was using a warrior class for a while, and I actually can’t stand any other class unless it’s tank. But every time I play I get better it’s really fun.
Same here, started as a archer/bard, switch to tanking in Stormblood and I never look back, the only non tank jobs i like are bard, machinist and dancer. thz to their mobility and me starting off as an archer/bard
As a player who's been tanking in MMOs for years, I love tanking in FF14. things that irk me most is positioning. It really is the most simple thing to correct and so many don't care. they pull bosses and leave it faced toward the party. they spin it like a top. it's positioned at the far north because they gap closed to pull. simple things that are super easy to correct and learn. Some of the other points should come naturally as you get used to the fights and learn the bosses. some it doesn't really matter too much. In raids, definitely working with your co-tank helps a lot with mitigation and not overwriting each others reprisal.
I’ve been main tanking as I’ve levelled with a friend (dps) and been watching guides to learn the dungeons more than anything, my advice is dont worry about criticism, if it’s not constructive then its pointless, I haven’t had any complaints yet from my tanking even though I have messed up a few times and I’ve had someone help me learn what I did wrong, that sort of behaviour is always welcome and improves the game for all. As for positioning, I learned to pull the enemies to face away from the team is always good and try to leave and much of the back and sides open as you are able, only move to avoid markers as you need and remember to use your defensive cool downs to push through the less damaging ones as long as your healer feels comfortable to pick you up, you’re all a team so it’s more important to understand how you work with them than just your role in general, and this doesn’t mean you need to understand every class more so a general idea of the type of party you have, whether they’re melee dps or range, leave openings as necessary.
I've returned to this game in December and now have pld gnb 80 war 75 doing story and 65 drk. I have completely enjoyed the changes to the tank rolls since I lasted played way back when heavensward came out. I try my best when i look at what dps i have and if they have moves that they have to move for i try my damndest to stay still more than other dps that doesn't
So, i should NOT run after any other fancy adds that may spawn in during the fights, like those lanterns in room corners on Huakke or Ifrit totem thingy, but keep still and let others deal with them? Also, I read up a bit and heard about tank busters and tank swapping, when do I worry about them? Post ARR story or only on Hard?
Healing is the most difficult role by a large margin. The reason being is that healers have to fix everyone else's mistakes, all while doing their own responsibilities.
"Your rotation isn't as complicated as DPS" This may be true, but weaving in my OBCD rotation, while playing ring around the rosie with a boss because my DPS wants to lick my right ass cheek during a frontal tank buster, can get a bit overwhelming and leaves us alot too think about.
That was the entire point of the comment. Your rotation while overwhelming at times is still not as complicated as the dps rotations. So while the DPS needs to be aware of mechanics and positioning to help you and the healer, it's just as important for you to take steps to help your dps. The absolute biggest misconception that wasn't clearly spelled out in this video that traverses all rpg's is simply this: My job is X why should I bother worrying about Y. We all have difficult jobs in one way or the other and we all have downtime in those jobs, what we do with that downtime is what determines victory or failure. This is the sole reason pugs fail more than premades, you don't care about the other guy and are quicker to watch him struggle than to take steps to help. Your group will fail if the tank fails at holding aggro Your group will fail if the healer fails at healing Your group will fail if the dps fails to do damage Sure 14 takes some of those lines and blurs them but without one piece of the puzzle the whole picture becomes a mess.
Yo, if a DPS is standing with me in a Tank Buster, I try to warn them of it. If they continue to stand there even after their positional, I kindly "Shirk" them. I know, it's not right to do.
Let. Them. Die. It’s been the rule ever since graphics were applied to the first MUD - dps stand behind the boss. You moving around to keep the dummy alive probably screws up the pro who relies on positionals.
And Remember Folks: If someone is trying to convince you that DPS is the hardest role in the game they're just trying to use you because no one else in the fc wants to tank or heal, cuz it's stressful and hard and without the healer and tank it's over. A seriously good raid team can carry a lame dps, but no team out there can handle a bad tank or healer.
Enrage mechanics: Allow me to introduce myself. But no seriously, all roles have their responsibilities. Endgame content is designed to be difficult for everyone. For some it's rougher in certain aspects. Easier for others in different situations. In my experience there are PFs that are struggling to find DPS.
DPS rotations are more complex and skill ceilings in many cases are much higher than for tanks. So as to which is harder to play, it really depends on the mechanics of the encounter rather than being a general rule. Personally, I find healing to be the most stressful role, as the healer has little control over an encounter, has to avoid mechanics the same as DPS, and then often is the one who pulls DPS or tanks bacon out of the fire when they screw up mechanics, and on top of that is generally expected to actively DPS. I find that tanking is the least stressful role in Shadowbringers, due to the very cookie cutter nature of the tanks (so it's easy to learn any of them if you know any others) and the bone simple rotations and similar defensive cooldowns. But that's just me. In ARR and Heavensward, I found tanking to be the most stressful role.
All jobs have their own difficulties. Doing DPS good is just as hard as anything else. Because if you are doing your job good, then you pump out high enough dps, while avoiding every avoidable attack, so you don't give your healer an unnecessary headache. As far as my experiences go, I find tanking the easiest of them all, because you have a simple as fuck rotation. You can basically stand in one place for the whole fight. And you only have to look out for the tankbusters. Then comes dpsing, for the the already mentioned reasons. And the most stressful is healing. Basically for the same reasons as dps, but you have to keep everyone alive. And saying that "without a healer and tank it's over" is just lame. It's a freaking team game. To clear endgame stuff you'll need everyone. And everyone has their own role in the team, that can't be replaced. Good luck clearing out endgame content with one role missing or being lame, whether it be the tank or the dps or the healer.
2:37 Repositioning the boss while those bats are out is a big middle finger to your melee dps. Keep the boss still, and everyone can just squeeze between the bats like they always do during every Slicer. Turning the boss and moving them through a bunch of bats can either screw up a melee's positional or get them hit by a bat as they try to land one (both of which happen in this very clip). If I ever see a tank who pulls Voidwalker to the middle like this during Slicer, I will have my healer rescue you off a cliff. For the love of god: Don't bother moving the boss until after Shadowflame. Cuz guess what: you're about to have to move all the way over to B anyway for Flare. Theres no reason to center up for all of 15 seconds before having to move again anyway. After Shadowflame, move to B. After flare, whichever tank has Void just runs straight across from B to re-center. Too easy.
@Urazz exactly, same with his healer video. Like, we get it, you want people to stop saying that healers should only ever have to heal. Thing is: nobody actually says that or believes it. Everybody knows that healers should do damage whenever possible -WHENEVER POSSIBLE. Meaning if they know that people aren't about to die because they're in the middle of casting Glare. Tanks and healers have to prioritize their primary role first. I wholly expect a healer who is new to the fight to heal a lot more than they should. I would rather have that than have a wipe because they wanted to parse on a prog. Same goes for tanks: if you have a mechanic to do, youd better friggin do it. If you have to double weave Shadow Wall and TBN together for that Tank Buster, do it. Don't make your healer's life hell just because you didn't want to put a second cooldown on. This video as asinine. "How to do it correctly" yet this video clearly shows that he doesn't actually know how to tank.
I had a pretty easy transition to tanking, I mained dps till shadowbringers and just recalled all the things I didn't like tanks doing and didn't do them. My main philosophy was absolute minimal movement and static positions, chances are if the boss was looking one way I would keep it looking that way barring forced movement
I know that it probably made tanking a lot more tolerable for people who didn't like it before, but I REALLY miss stance dancing and all the other things they took out of tanking in FFXIV. I mained WAR for a long time, and I felt really good when everything matched up and I hit that perfect Fell Cleave window and just poured out the chainsaw swings. I liked having to think about how to do it and maximize damage and tanking. Now I just push one button to toggle things on and throw my stuff out near-mindlessly. It just doesn't feel the same any more. I even tried to switch tanks to try and see if another job had more to it, but tanking just feels so straightforward and simple now. Put tank stance on, never lose aggro again, basically just go brainless and hit buttons.
I feel that a lot of these should be givens for anyone tanking. If you have had a tank that done stuff like Desperius mentions, I'm sorry to hear that. If YOU are a tank and do this sorta stuff... Well, keep working on it.
Worst thing about tanking is people complaining about you not drawing Aggro Yet...they run off...engage enemy...and don’t bring it to you... Listen, DPS, I love you, but sometimes I feel there’s not enough communication in our relationship
Would also like to point out one misconception that I find a lot of tanks doing, during large dungeon pulls they pop every since cooldown they have in the first 5 seconds rather than spacing them out during the pull or when tanks don’t use cooldowns and say it’s the healers job to keep the tank alive
So much this. When i do a big pull, once i get the pack together, i pop reprisal and the tank role mitigation, if the pack is still big after that, i pop a job specific cooldown, then use minor mitigations as needed.
As a tank main it really is sad to see when ppl do this since I know how much of a burden it places on the healer and even more so when the tank blames the healer for their mistake when they pull wall to wall pop no cooldowns and die when the healer can’t keep up
I almost never blame my healer. If i die, then i assume they arent super confident, and will often ask if they would like smaller pulls to make it easier for em. But it is certainly the tanks job to keep thenselves alive just as much as it is the healers.
@@loganpope6680 think the NA community needs a wake up call on better communication. It be better if we tanks can ask what prefered pull size the group wants. this non communication is causing problems in the community.
Positioning: Please don't turn the dragon to face the rest of the group, kthx. Know what enemies/bosses have deadly "cleaves" (frontal cone attacks) and which ones do not. Don't try to dodge bosses that have them, they are designed that they are 100% going to hit you (except for the ones that give some kind of tell that you're supposed to dodge them). Even when you do dodge frontal attacks, try to dodge as little as possible. Sidestep out of the cone (but just barely and then quickly step back in after the attack!) when you can, to prevent the boss from turning and nailing some hapless melee with the follow-up cleave. There are a very few exceptions, but they are a rarity. And if it is a lizard, has four legs and wings, for Pete's Sake don't face it on the rest of the group. Others like Susano are a bit less obvious, but yes, his Stormsplitter cleaves. As does Titan's Mountain Buster. Nothing like being a melee and then end up eating dirt in a split second because the tank decided he was gonna attack a gaol to break someone out and then faced Titan towards the rest of the group and then see 3+ people drop dead to a Mountain Buster. Also, aggro management. In fights with 2 or more tanks, know who is OT and who is MT. Don't fight each other for aggro. Nothing like having a boss turning back and forth between two tanks competing for aggro and dumping cleaves on a group. If the other tank seems to want the boss, turn your stance off and let him have it. Regardless if you're better geared. Or better yet, ask before the pull who is MT and who is OT. Also, get to know the icons for the tank stances and/or the sounds of their activation. If the other tank throws his stance up or has it up upon entering, turn yours off. Just be ready to turn it on, or wait 20-30 sec and then turn yours on in case he gets killed so you can grab the boss quickly. EDIT: Also, as a tank, remember that you cannot block, dodge, or parry attacks that come from your sides or your back. Keep stuff in front of you except for during the pull. EDIT2: Just going to go out on a limb and say that facing the boss away from the group and towards the edge of the Arena is usually the best thing to do when in doubt unless there's some mechanic that requires otherwise.
What's the best hybrid? I haven't played ff14 yet, but I want to preplan at least to an extent for what I want to play as, I'm interested in something that can mostly tank, do moderate DPS and minor healing. Any advice or is this not a thing?
Hey, vorab mal wüsste ich gerne wo dein DC Link hinterlegt ist um überhaupt zu Join. Zu meinem Hauptpunkt, ich wollte mal wissen ob du einen Astroguide machen würdest. Ich weiß es ist mit einem hohen Aufwand verbunden, jedoch wärest du wenn dieser ordentlich recherchiert ist Konkurrenzlos. Lg Qrit
Tanking at first in this game was a bit intimidating and super stressful. I used to HATE tanking but overtime I got real comfortable and started to really enjoy it. I mostly started a tank because I got sick of the dps queue times and just bad or lazy tanks. Plus it's a lot easier to earn commendations. The most fun as a tank though is when running something like a dungeon or trial and your whole team wipes but you and you're the final hope to beat the boss and end up finishing him all by yourself. You truly feel like the glorious badass hero of the team when you can pull off shit like that and earning those 3+ commendations from that run.
I used to be a tank main in other games and decided to main DPS in ff14 just for SAM (i play tank sometime but not on savage content) so i know the pain of tanking late game content better than many. The 3rd misconceptions hits hard and closer to home especially through experience that is why my advice for newbie tank player is to keep the back of the enemies to to your party and never move the enemy unless necessary.
Sometimes in lower level dungeons specially, when my party gets damaged and is a little spread apart, i use my mitigation enabling the healer to heal the party members without worrying about me for a few seconds, i have not played any healer job so i do not know how strong their AoE heals are / how fast they can heal multiple people, should i keep doing this or am i wasting my defence cooldowns?
I think tanking when you first start is the hardest, however the longer you tank the easier it becomes and eventually should be the easiest job. As a long time tank I don't understand why you wouldn't be doing damage as it's required to hold aggro, so tanks should be dpsing as much as possible. As a healer though I'll choose to save mana to keep my party alive over dps every time. However if regens are doing their job and the party is doing well in mitigation I'll dps with DOTs and anything I can spam. Problem is most of the time mitigation is done poorly so I spend 99% of my time trying to keep people on their feet doing their own dps. But never focus on dps and allow party health to drop as one big AOE could wipe the party. I see that ALOT healers.
Tanks are the leaders. They decide the whole flow of battle. Making sure your dps members can get good flanking and behind positions as well as staying in your healer's range while keeping them out of static aoe's and doing dps yourself, and using buffs and shield abilities at the right times can be overwhelming. Shirking is another animal as well. It just takes mad amounts of practice but it's so rewarding and worth the effort. Sprouts should try GNB due to their ease of use and dps output overall. Their aggro aoe is really wide and zoning enemies and gaining enmity is a breeze though every tank is amazing in their own way. Tanks are always in demand and the queues are almost instant. Its stressful at first but such a rush afterwards. Could be worse, you could be healing Savage content. Good luck!
I started tanking 3.1 or so when I started the game, HW had been out for a while and they started adding Alex. This was before the Void ark started too. I got to Haukke Manor before someone taught me my Gladiator rotation. I had never tanked in a game and wanted to step out of my comfort zone. I love tanking now.
I started tanking at the beginning of Heavensward. I had never been interested in tanking and I had some pretty serious social anxiety at the time so the idea of standing at the front and leading the way through dungeons had me absolutely terrified. But when dark knight came out I absolutely HAD to play it, (I had been so disappointed when I learned it would be a tank, I still think it would have been better suited as a dps considering how dark knights in past ff games tended to be some of the biggest damage dealers out there.) Been maining dark knight ever since but I had been really stepping out of my comfort zone when I started.
How in the seven hells did you get a custom character into the trailer?! Is there a cutscene somewhere in the Unending Journey that I should know about?
For increasing DPS, obviously using your rotation is the way. However, I know it's easy to make mistakes sometimes. That's why I like to learn the fight with also paying attention to my combo. For example, in E6S as a paladin, my ranged combo starts when I move away from Garuda. So I know next time, that if I end up using melee combo, I ended up doing something wrong. Or it reminds me that hey I should be on my ranged combo now. Practice makes perfect. Even if I cleared the content, I'll join learning parties, not only to help progress other people but also to find ways to improve myself and learn to breed a bit more. Plus when mechs end up being second nature coz you practiced the fight so many times, naturally you'll pay attention to your combo more. Though ACT is a 3rd party software against ToS, I still use it to monitor my and only my DPS. Because I like to see myself improve, and when I see the numbers rising, I get satisfaction that yes I'm doing it right. Dont keep an attitude of berating yourself, no, keep it fun, like an achievement you are aiming for. It'll takes time.
I got a question. I see everyone running three bars of skills. How do they and you press the different skills on the bar? The Default option for using secondary hotbars is cumbersome imo.
You answered your own question. We don't use the default options, at all. However, the problem with that is that many beginners get so used to using the default keybindings, so when they change, they start messing up because of muscle memory, but retraining your muscle memory is a part of the job, but most are too lazy to do it. Which is why, whenever I get a new protege to teach the game, I tell them immediately to overhaul their keybindings so down the line, it doesn't become such an issue.
Reprisal is shockingly under used, it's great for raid wide damage and being AoE it's helpful on mob pulls. Have to admit though.... I only recently noticed they added a slow debuff to arm's length, also useful for mobs.
Ikr?? I use Reprisal on every big pull whenever I tank, and now use AL every time it's up since I realized the slow effect. Funnily enough, I recently got yelled at for telling a tank to use those skills. They told me to stop and just do my job. But what do I know, I'm just a new DPS with 1,300 hours of tanking experience :^)
The way FF14's design works, the best defense is a good offense. Damage is truly the best mitigation. The faster you kill the trash pack or boss, the less damage everyone takes. Once you learn how to use your tanking cooldowns, master both your single target and AOE rotation. The same advice applies to healers. Once you learn how to heal properly, learn how to maximize your damage.
I recently started trying to tank after being terrified of it forever and this really, REALLY makes me feel better. Especially that last bit about being brave enough to tank.
You can do it !
I've been tanking in XIV since 2.2 and I still get a bit of anxiety sometimes. Usually when I haven't played a particular tank job for a while.
You are one part of the team. Walkthrus can help if you feel tense, but you just need to be bold. You're a wall of steel!! Let them try to take you hehe
For my case, I ve been a tank main since I started the game over year ago now and, the thing that helped me the most to improve my tanking was to play other jobs. When you re a main tank suddenly playing MNK, you realise the pain of a Tank spinning the boss every 2 seconds or putting it in impossible corners, but also you start to catch the spirit of a dps and you re always working on "how do I make my rotation more efficient"
And then you learn about healing and you realise that if tanks and dps used their mitigations and selfheal, the Healer's job becomes way easyer, wich means less wipes from lack of healing but also more dps
this is also true when tanking and you've played healer with a bad tank.
the tank not popping cooldowns or just sitting on a 1 pull everytime.
or the tank is severely under geared but proceeds to pull wall to wall because it's his "alt" job but has lvl 50 gear in lvl 60 dungeons (especially that since the gear stats were massive in lvl 60s compared to lvl 50)
or the tank just not popping CDs whenever he needed it.
Same came to me with pre-Shadowbringers AST I didn't know Bard was all about critical hits so once I played one I was giving them crit cards whenever I could. Then they killed that mechanic. AST is still my fave healer though.
But yeah playing other jobs gives you an idea on how their combos and general playstyle works which is useful for other jobs.
That's part of why I try to play all three main roles...It gives me the perspectives to know what helps the rest of my party regardless of if I'm on damage, tanking, or healing. Everyone appreciates taking less damage because I worked in a Feint or Addle for group busters, healers love not having to heal me because I didn't just stand there casting Fire IV and eating avoidable mechanics, melee appreciate not having to bounce around because I'm always moving the boss, etc.
@@TransientWitch Yeah I'm a flex in most games that have set roles.
I started as Tank and I didn't know a lot, but as I learned and read I realized how badly I was using my abilities.
What's really needed is people speaking up more about cooldown rotation - I had to read about that on Reddit and realized "oh my god I'm an idiot." And felt instantly bad for my healers x.X
As a MNK main Tanks that spin the boss make me wanna leave, with 6 positionals you will destroy my DPS output
Be kind to your melee DPS, hold the boss still
I've seen a lot of tanks that aren't new do that because they think it's funny and then they act surprised at the cleave that kills the party.
@@Zayindjejfj To be completely fair, spinning the boss can "technically" work sometimes. World of Darkness alliance raid bosses can be cheesed into doing nothing by spinning the boss. That said, this is obviously a bug; not a feature. Tanks are not meant to move the boss; the monks in your party will thank you.
When things go south,use true north ;)
@@marinhatlak6459 20 seconds isnt nearly long enough for bad tanks ;_;
Yeah,they should at least make it 3 charges,for mnk at least XD
i personally learnt tanking by just jumping into duty finder as a tank i messed up and got shouted at but who cares i never saw those guys again lol
Yo same but they actually gave me tips the community is a lot nicer than a lot of other games
@@dfusion6414 on a whole this is true and the community is extra nice to you when they see the sprout icon next to your name
That was how I learned to tank way back in wow.
@@GT-legendary depends on when i see the sprout icon, if i see it in a HW dungeon and the tank is single pulling because "im new to tanking" i just sigh and tell them.
or you get sync dungeons (50/60/70) the enemies dont hit hard anymore and can easily pull 2 groups or wall to wall without stressing your healer, yet the tank does 1 pull at a time.
i generally just want quick completions but if a sprout is just fucking it up everytime it gets frustrating.
or you get the comment "why don't you tank"
thanks, i do main tank, PLD in fact, im leveling my alt jobs which takes ages to get in a dungeon as it is (thanks SE) and then i gotta deal with a 40 minute dungeon that can be easily completed in 15 minutes.
I've been nice to newer players in the past, but either they get off on it or they straight up ignore you (especially baguettes) or they start speaking french after i speak english to them, learn the fucking world language.
@@DarkDyllon Yeah, you don't sound toxic at all lmao
I being pretty much brand new to mmo style rpg started out as a paladin and things went seemingly for me until I hit the Brayflox dungeon where I unknowingly was supposed to pull the dragon away from the poison puddles which he healed in, nevertheless my armor was nothing special and I kept dying when people kept telling me to use my moves to pull the dragon til he was away had me thinking that I was supposed to use a special physical attack to literally push or pull him and needless to say they were pissed it was a mess and one of them kept calling me an idiot and and telling me to quit playing the game. And it was a very disheartening experience. I later realized how to use the Agro and realized what my cooldowns did to physically pull the bosses and realized I shouldnt run around in circles like you said. I almost did give up then I realized wait a minute I want to be a paladin I’m gonna really learn how to do this no matter what the malicious criticism I’d receive . And what you said at the end about those who give scrutiny why don’t they step in the hot seat. But I implore you if you ever had to learn anything in your life treat others with the same respect you would want. I can’t deny I’ve played with far more helpful people with constructive things to tell me and treated me with the same respect I warrant them.
Just in case you're still new, or for anyone else reading this, I've got a really good tip on how to keep a boss positioned correctly while still dodging mechanics and the like. If the boss does a big cone attack or whatever that you need to dodge, if you move back in front fast enough the boss will still be in the same position he was in when it started the attack. Then you can stand on the little compass arrow thing (that shows which directly the boss is facing), so that when it's movement "unlocks" again, you'll already be back dead center of where it was facing, and it'll barely move at all. All the melee dps in the back, who DIDN'T have to dodge anything, can keep on trucking without the boss moving around, and it's a nice boost for them.
In the same way, if the boss uses a stack up mechanic and whoever has it is smart enough to put it in melee range of the boss, you can duck through, stack, and then run back to the arrow before the boss starts to move again (unless the boss isn't animation locked, anyway), so you won't lose forget where you were.
@@kedolan4992 omg so helpful ty
@@kedolan4992 Thx for the tip
Same thing happened to me but I just decided to get into Sam since it's my 3rd favorite class I really wanted to be a dark knight after I first unlocked it but my experience as a paladin has almost fully killed my mood on being a tank
Guys relax, tanking is really easy! Just pick your tank and start doing duties that's the best way you'll learn! And don't forget to use your job specific abilities like arm's length and reprise, they're often overlooked but they're super strong!
Yep, Practice makes perfect. And if anyone gives you shit, remember you're the one that gets the instant queues.
Most helpful comment here thanks
I love my Paladin, and this video was very informative and great refresher before I returned to FFXIV!
Desperius trying to sneak that FF8 music past me in the background. But I will not miss a track from my favorite FF!
☺️
Lol same, I was like "Aye, ff8 music, this brings me back to the good old days!"
This gave him the like, but the video was accurate and helpful
Right,its the soundtrack when they try to kill Edea! Thats where i Heard it,ty!
I felt a sudden positive chill down my spine and thought, the hell just happened? Then I noticed the FF8 tune... Even my subconsience knows.
I find tanking the most relaxing out of the classes! I can focus on one thing as well as feeling a big part of the party
I'm new to Tanking (and I'm quick to point out that I'm still learning and getting used to the role) but I'm starting to feel the same way that for the most part I can just focus on keeping the Boss focused on me and then trust the rest of my team to know how to do their jobs. Thankfully I've only run into "toxic" players a small number of times in the time I've been playing.
Glad ya made this video. There is a reason why tanks were given tools to better do damage rather than more mitigation tools - maximize 'em!
love the guide/tips. also love the legend of mana music around the 4:00 minute mark.
Thank you for this. I started tanking 2 days ago and today just got yelled at and kicked from the Stone Vigil for not pulling big enough. My RDM was pulling mobs before i would even make it to the rooms because he didnt like my pace. It made me want to never pick up tanking again, but hearing you towards the end makes me want to keep trying, thanks.
Next time that happens just let the DPS tank the trash mobs if they want them that badly. Eventually they'll get the hint
that is definitely not the norm, most people just want to finish the dungeon and if you are tanking good enough to be able to finish it, they won't even bother kicking
and yeah if DPS is purposefully pulling thne i let them tank
Yeah, I get that too. I freely admit I'm a slower tank, preferring not to pull large groups, but when people, including the healer, start kicking off fights before I'm there, it pisses me off.
Then again, part of my decision to take things more slowly comes from playing SAM all through Stormblood. I hated tanks in that that would rush and draw all the mobs ahead into one big group. Too many AOEs to dodge while dealing with positionals. I know that's not as big a thing with SAM as other Melee DPS classes, but it still annoys me.
Having a much better time doing ShB dungeons as tank. Can't do big pulls with those, everyone would die :3
After a few more days of attempts and getting made feel awful by the random parties id be in, i will literally never try a support role again. DPS for the rest of FF career lol not dealing with that anymore. Maybe you guys just ran into nicer people, however that was very very rarely my experience.
Desperius I just wanted to thank you for all of your guides, super informative and concise! One of the best FF14 content creators on youtube :)
Thanks alot for that compliment. I am glad to at least have the best community with you guys 🤗
Been tanking for few months now, and I figured a few things out.
1. Your DPS rotation is less important than your mitigation. Getting a defensive cooldown up in time is better for the group than you getting one more GCD off.
2. Healers are a crapshoot. Keep your invuln and self heals prepped.
3. Only point the boss at the healer if they're annoying you, or as a bot check.
4. Shirk is the tanks way of enforcing justice.
the thing is, you can easily weave in Rampart+another CD in a GCD cycle (typically called double weave which i guess is dependant on your ping but in general it's enough) in most cases 1 CD is enough for a TB (granted the healer is ready for a quick heal burst)
Healers can indeed be garbage, but i've seen more healers who focus on healing than DPS (literally doing 0 dps over the course of a given fight)
only point the boss at the healer if they're annoying you, yes, if you have the knowledge which of the boss' moves cleave, done this myself plenty of times. (or when the healer thinks he/she is in charge of the pace)
Problem with Shirk is that it transfers 25% of your emnity to your target, in 99% of the cases this won't give the healer or dps agro since you'll be in tank stance for a bit, build up a metric fuckton of emnity and then transfer 25% of that.
If you disable tank stance then do the shirk and do it once it's off CD then maybe. (it works wonders with a coordinated effort, 2 tanks working togheter, by the OT provoking then shirking your target and you shirking the target giving effectively 50% of the total emnity to that 1 target, do this when they have over 50% emnity bar and the guy/girl is toast, although this isn't really working on SHB unfortunately since emnity generation from tanks is insane compared to tanks switching off tank stance sooner due to the dps loss)
@Urazz Its Honestly one of the reasons I have drifted away from FFXIV when I reach the Endgame content, there is so much focus on damage output with little to no leeway for error, that Healers and Tanks are expected to pump out almost as much damage as Dps to meet the enrage timers which I find rediculous.
I get that they don't want another Pandemonium Warden situation all over again, but they seriously need to give more leeway to groups and stop setting up boss abilities that deal so much damage that they'll one shot anything that isn't a tank with active damage mitigation.
@@galeden5700 good thing u r not a developer
@@veiregor Because of my opinion that having too much focus on damage output isn't that fun of an experience?
Also it doesnt hurt if you would give the tank a commendation if he or she did a good job.
That second misconception is sooo prevalent and I appreciate you pointing it out. Having played since ARR and having mained every role at some point, my experience is that tanking is the easiest. People mistake responsibility for difficulty.
Welll... Tanks are easy, but not if you leave your entire brain in Limsa Lominsa. ;P You'll need to bring atleast half of it to duties.
I've met quite a few... originals... through duty finder, where the only logical explanation is that not only have they never played tank, but also they haven't played the game, or any other game for that matter haha. I'm not going to flame anyone for it, for all I know someone is letting their sweet little 102-year-old grandma play their paladin and she would obviously have no idea what a tank stance is, or the concept of hitting the entire pack to prevent them from killing the rest of the team. There are certainly people out there who experience a whole lot of difficulty with these comparably easy classes.
tanks are the esiest ?
well maybe out of the few point of someone who allready entered every content 10000x times
what about players without a static and 50000+ In game hours who needs to learn is it still that easy huh?
I used to only heal because i was terrified of doing anything else. Pretty much all my friends were healers (except for a single bard) so if we wanted to do any content together one of us had to become a tank. Pretty much all of us tried it but as soon as i started warrior I knew i would love no other class as much as i loved it. So now i am the only tank in our group and i know im not super great but i cant imagine doing anything else. And its totally because of people who are supportive of getting better while still having fun like you.
This year I’ve decided to take a pause on my sub to help improve my mental health and not rely on video games as much but BOY this makes me want to go back simply because i love tanking so much.
Thank you for making this video :)
dude it's like you read my soul
i JUST started looking up tanking guides
same thing happened with the healer guides lol
@Urazz having come from a healer class, it's something i'm already used to doing honestly
i already have to pay attention to tank busters, hard hitting auto attacks, stuff like that just to make sure that i'm using the right stuff to keep the tank healthy
As a DRK, I tend to keep an eye on the healers hp. If I see one has gotten low, and I know a hi dmg aoe is coming, I'll hit them with the Blackest Night if doing so won't kill me. Better to keep your healers alive if possible, since they lose all their mp on revival, and raising them can take time if you lack a rdm or your other healer is waiting on their swift cast cooldown.
"... the more healers can keep your 2b glamoured ass safe."
Desperie you kitten skittle!
i love your selection of music you use for your videos. Great work
When I first played tank I just copied what I had seen other tanks do over the past two years, which for the most part worked for me
Great video, I really enjoyed when the FF tactics music came up. I just hit 80 paladin, I really enjoy helping people out.
May I just say that the part at 4:28 is just beautiful? When I saw it the first time I got chills. Desperius will be the savior of the sprouts and also a symbol of epicness ♥
Thanks a lot !
“Tanking is harder than a DPS Job”
*Ninja mains begin to cry*
I actually find dps is often a lot harder than tanking in FF14, myself: tanks have to work about tank busters and positioning (and then all the normal stuff that everyone does), while dps have to do much more complicated dps rotations, and dodge EVERYTHING a boss does because you often can't just fudge your way through like a tank can.
DPS rotations, etc, may be more difficult than tank ones, but I think generally DPS is considered easier simply because there IS less responsibility on your shoulders. If a tank screws up and dies, the party will probably wipe. If a healer screws up and dies or lets the tank die, the party will probably wipe. If a DPS dies, it's usually not a big deal, and you can usually wait to Rez them until it is safe to do so. In less challenging content, if the DPS constantly screws up, the Healers may even opt to not Rez them at all and save their MP for somebody more important (seems they figure the DPS is probably just going to get themselves killed again) - and that's alright, you'll probably still be able to clear alot of content like that.
That's not to say a DPS's contribution to the party isn't important, it still is of course, it's just usually not AS important, which means there is less responsibility on the shoulders of a DPS than the other two roles, and that's why people consider it easy. There's just less pressure. You can screw up and while you might die, the party will still be just fine.
That being said, people definitely over estimate how difficult tanking actually is in FFXIV. Alot of it just comes down to tactical awareness and knowing your foe, but assuming your healer doesn't suck (and even if they do if you've got ample ability to heal yourself), once you've done a fight once and know how it goes, it actually becomes alot easier - and due to your natural hardiness quite a forgiving role - you can often survive a boss' big nuke attack if it still hits you, whereas a DPS or Healer might not be able too. And I'm saying that as a primary tank.
I actually think Healing is the hardest role in FFXIV (though I know other disagree), because the fact you're also a DPS makes maximising your casting up-time trickiest, seems you've got to constantly switch between allied and enemy targets, unless you use macros, which by their very nature reduce your casting efficiency due to lack of queing. But mostly, as before it's the responsibility. If you're DPS, in most cases the only person you're really responsible for is yourself. If you die, it's almost always entirely on you. If you're a tank, you only really have to worry about the Healer in your group being bad, and due to the hardiness of the job making it so forgiving, if you die there's a good chance it was your fault. But if you're a Healer, if either the tank or the DPS in your group is bad, it can put a real strain on you. You might feel like your failing at your role, but it legitimately might not be your fault one bit, and it's pretty stressful to feel responsible for that, especially if the tank or DPS take it upon themselves to blame you when in reality you're doing everything you can, your allies need to start using their cooldowns and stop running into the red circles.
@@KotCR Honestly, I find healing to be the least stressful job in the game and I technically main healer right now. It basically boils down to “Can I heal through someone being dumb?” and if the answer is no, there’s not much more to be done. When I heal anything I usually just toss on music an bop along without a care in the world. It’s why I switched to healing from NIN recently. I genuinely can carry an entire group without expending any effort whatsoever.
As a DPS I find it a bit more stressful just because I want to smash ALL the buttons like a DDR player on speed but can’t. Particularly as Ninja it can make a huge difference missing one GCD or button press. You accidentally miss-click a Mudra? You’re BONED. The other thing with DPS is that you directly control how quickly your group can clear a dungeon. You could absolutely SHRED a boss, never stand in a single mechanic, save the healer, and set landspeed records for clearing trash and you’re NEVER going to get a commendation at the end of a Duty. Ever.
Tanking is really just “Hold aggro, don’t stand in bad stuff”. Sorry to tank mains, I love you, but the job isn’t that demanding. You can literally clear most dungeons by pressing the AoE button and defensive cooldown cycling. Das it.
@@phaton89 Honestly, I'm the opposite and I tend to play DPS when I feel like I want to go into some content with no stress and no pressure. Doesn't really matter if I screw up my DPS rotation much, the Healer will probably pick up the slack anyway lol. Clearing the content fast also doesn't matter half as much as actually just clearing it.
While I'm sure that's probably not the case for the hardest content in the game, in the more casual stuff it certainly is. That being said, I totally understand you on the commendations thing. Your healer can screw up, and/or your tank can screw up, and you can totally carry the group on a DPS class with access to group support, like a Red Mage or a Summoner. You still won't get a commendation, for some reason they'll probably still go to the Healer or Tank whom spent 80% of the encounter dead.
Very much feel like holding up a big sign saying "You're Welcome" when that happens.
The only thing ninja should cry for is having to move while ten chi jin is on 🤣...
Havent had such fun as a dps in a while since i got ninja to 80
I honestly didn’t recognize who was speaking in German at 6 minutes then I realized that’s Desperius!!
I love playing PLD; as my supportive cooldowns always give me something to do, even when I'm the off-tank. Raid wide AoE spam? Divine Veil. Big tank buster the main tank doesn't have enough HP to live through? Intervention. Somebody in trouble, and can't get out of the way (or the main tank too)? Cover. Hell; I can even heal myself when the healers need to me to.
I just have so many tools to help in so many situations; its amazing.
PLD is an amazing off tank, simply because of all it's supportive abilities.
the main thing i absolutely hate about the change to shadowbringers is that cover no longer has a natural rampart build into it.
why do we even have cover at this point, it was amazing in SB to straight up say no to tank busters, since we took the debuff and 80% of the total damage, now they hit us for 100% of the damage + we take the debuff and we have to use our own CDs for it aswell.
This is especially bad when Intervention grows stronger the more CDs you have up and since you had to use them to take a cover TB.
AS PLD: in my most recent run of Copied Factory, we had a healer leave...so I started off-healing for group. at one point during Engels, the healer actually died so it was up to me to keep everyone in my party alive until he got ressed
@@DarkRijin on my 1st run of copied factory we had a party who would keep dying (save for me (PLD) and an healer)
and we got in multiple situations where we needed time for the healer to rez the other healer but mechanics were happening (like party stack and the like)
so i covered the healer and hallowed, gave the healer plenty of time.
the amount of time i saved that party was amazing (even had the entire alliance say shit like "well, atleast we're still alive if thanks to the paladin"
never had i received every commendation.
the amount of times i had to save other alliances aswell, especially in the final fight where the tanks drop, i was main tanking the boss since the other tanks were like "nope" so i ran up to a tank and tanked that aswell, the amount of improv i had to do that run was amazing, an actually challenging experience (granted it was caused by lazy other tanks and a party that couldnt stop kissing the floor, but it was the 1st run for most so can't blame them, even though if you played nier a lot of those mechanics feel familiar)
@@DarkDyllon That definitely puts a damper on Cover strats for sure. Usually if my Main Tank is a DRK I just let them TBN anyway though. Dunno too much about it, but the buddies of mine who play DRK really love it lol
yeah, PLD is Busted.
At launch, I had a healer die at every dungeon end boss, with roughly 50% HP remaining.
i carried every single fight.
The one single tip that I recommend over any other for new tanks(or any role for that matter) is to join a learning party when starting out if you want the best experience. As long as you have patience and can work together to figure out how to beat a boss's mechanic one-by-one, you're much less likely to have a toxic experience and you'll be much more prepared when joining a random PUG. Sometimes you'll only get the boss down past the first phase, others you'll get it to 10% and just not have the DPS, but I've had plenty of groups that were able to clear in a learning party and they almost always include more positive people willing to learn and stay with the group since it's so easy to see your progress from the first pull to wherever y'all end up.
edit: I do recommend watching a quick rundown of the fight from someone like MTQ or the like, but if the party info says going in blind is ok, have at it.
I'm a Lv59 Paladin and did the Striking Tree (Hard) duty yesterday and kept getting called out for not knowing how to tank (rushing in, not knowing positioning, etc.) by the other tank. Thank you for explaining this properly.
The Legend of Mana theme came up and I was immediately more invested in this video than I thought. I don't even tank. I'm a main healer. Now I wanna re-learn Gunbreaker.
😊
7:55 - Rampart, not Bulwark. Bulwark was the ability we had to block 60% more often but it was removed because Sheltron did it better.
Thank you for finally addressing some of these problems. I have a lot of friends who don't want to even try tanking cause they think it sounds really complicated, and, especially lower level ones, don't do anything to improve their dps cause they think they're job is just to stand there and not get let their team get hit. Even after tanking in other games this one is super lenient in its system and rewards you for improving and I hope they learn to look past these misconceptions to give it a try and get better.
pre shadowbringers, low level tanking dungeons had some depth to it since before lvl 30 you didn't have tank stance, now it comes extremely early.
in dungeons you generally just pop your tank stance and sit on it for the remainder of the dungeon (since your dps matter a lot less there than trials)
with Shadowbringers, having integrated the tank stance positive effect into a passive effect and getting rid of the damage debuff basically made tank stance a non brainer.
People saying it's complicated are just delusional, dungeon tanking is relaxing, all you gotta do is spam your AOE's all the time and pop a cooldown every now and then, healing can be frustrating if you got an undergeared tank that pulls wall to wall, or doesn't pop CDs on decent pulls.
@@DarkDyllon well it doesnt help tanks get forced to pull wall to wall regardless of being new or not and insulted heavily if they dont. Tanking can be complicated when you have to deal with world first wanna be, who are all must go fast, and dont let new ppl be new. hell when i was new to tank i asked for tips, what i got was no info on which guide or anything. then expected to pull wall to wall, and was heavily insulted when i didnt since i was a fresh 50 player at the time and had 0 clue what the dungeon layout was.
@@azadalamiq tanking has been made easier since shadowbringers.
also not gonna lie, the way you describe kinda resonates with me, i despise a tank that pulls 1 group at a time, forcing the DPS into a single target rotation (most packs are 2 to 3 enemies which in some cases just isnt worth using the AOE's for)
it's easy to pull 2 groups, for wall to wall pulls i rarely get criticized (if ever) i generally pull 2 and maybe 3 depending how the healer is geared/experienced.
When i pop into DR 50/60/70 and i get any sync lvl 50 dungeon i expect to atleast do 2 to 3 group pulls, instead they pull 1 group at a time.
Their excuse is often "i can't trust the healer" when the healer is keeping them completely topped off at 100% at all times.
I've grown hostile against sprouts in the past months, simply because i enter a lvl 60 or 70 dungeon by duty roulette and guess what? a sprout who doesn't pull 2 to 3 groups at a time, who spin the enemies around like their fucking beyblades and don't know how to pop their defensive cooldowns.
When i was learning tanking, i purposefully pulled 2 to 3 groups in each dungeon, force myself to adapt to harder pulls and know how to deal with situations.
now it's "i don't want to learn how to tank properly, i'll just be a hinder to everyone else" and in most cases the healer agrees because they can just sit on their fat ass just spam their basic healing spell without ever casting an offensive spell.
It's ok to test the waters, pull 3 groups, barely survived? 2 groups, barely survived? 1 group, instead of testing the healer a bit, they proceed to bore the healer, hinder the DPS and just be fucking idiots for the rest of their FF14 playthrough.
Sprouts have went from "hi, i'm new, can you give me tips?" to "hi, i'm gonna make a 15 minute dungeon a 30 minute dungeon, oh you waited for 20 minutes for this party? oh well!"
The reason why most people want to play fast is because in general the dps have queue times of upwards to 15-20 minutes, adding a 20 minute queue ontop of a 30 minute dungeon because the tank doesn't to mid pulls adds to a nice 50 minute spend for 1 dungeon (out of a lot of dungeons to get to max level)
The best teacher is still experience. Also it is a good way to learn by looking into the other jobs as you learn their perspective and see what other tanks do. By doing so you can compare your style.
Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of insta pull tanks in trials and raids, please make sure you are taking your time and giving your party space to prepare, change equipment, and eat if they need to. You can use the action found in general called “ready check” and “countdown” (I put mine at 10 seconds) and with that you still get a quick start while also ensuring your party is ready!
Agreed. When I’m tanking something, especially when I see people coming out of cutscenes, I give a good greeting and make sure we’re ready to go underway before rushing forward.
Quick unrelated question:
Where are you getting all these badass dark knight cutscenes or character cutscenes in general?
A lot of the footage that was used in this video was from the Shadowbringers Benchmark Tool.
I'm a Dark knight main I just dropped in to see what this video was about and I gotta say good job
My friend who tanks had the best advice i heard about positionals as a tank.
At the start of the fight bring the boss close to center, and turn them 90 degrees to one side. Dps that need positionals stay between boss and healer. So healer can see it all.
My friend always goes left so I (whm now) can see from left to right.
Tank. Boss and flank dps. Rear dps.
No one goes to the far side of boss.
It also helps to let teams know you are new to tanking or to the specific dungeon, many are very forgiving and will give essential tips. Those that don't aren't worth worrying about lol The essentials are covered in the novice hall missions, the rest you will learn in time with a good free company or some experience
I've recently been tanking after being afraid to do it and it's super fun! It was interesting to hear how the old system was, I have vague memories of that from when I first started playing at launch. That melee DPS take- as a DRG main I definitely try to position the boss as best I can for them even though I'm still in lower level content. I got a rude awakening in World of Darkness since the other two tanks decided they just wanted a fast queue time, and I was kinda hesitant to take the lead tank role since I'm newer to tanking. But since they wouldn't do it, popped stance and got the rest of the dungeon down quite easily- felt amazing haha.
Thank you for the tips!
Also, Legend of Mana music is simply so cozy and amazing.
I wish sometimes other tanks would let me main tank in allaince raids, it is generaly painfuál to watch
@@Megaranator make the 1st move, 7/10 tanks in alliance raids switch off tank stance so they can sit back and relax.
I know i do when i don't feel like being the MT, or when i try to be the MT but i see the other tanks trying to match me, i don't want this pissing contest for who gets the agro of the boss.
For a little practical advise:
If you're new to tanking and nervous about it, jump into PotD with your tank class/Job. PotD is designed to where you can have 4x DPS and still clear (most of) it. It's a really good "low stress" way to learn your rotation and get used to trying to hold agro, experiment, etc with the cost for failure being essentially nothing.
Other good options are Guildhests - which are all level 40 or lower, I believe - and are short and quick, so in the event of a wipe, you get to try again right away without a lot of walking, and worst case scenario you're out maybe 5 mins total instead of having to finish the rest of a run with "these people" if they turn out to hate you.
When you decide to do dungeons, make sure to say "First time tanking" or "New to tanking here". The FFXIV community is generally VERY nice to new tanks, you just have to let them know you're a new tank. People will remind you of things like your tank stance being off (it turns off if you go into ANY sync'd content, so you always have to reactivate it) and can even give you some advice for fight mechanics if you need them. The community as a whole is really good to new tanks, you just have to let everyone know you're new.
And if you want to try higher end stuff on your max level, make sure you go into learning parties in PF, have spent at least a little time on a target dummy with your rotation (since once you get in there it's easy to lose focus with all the dodging and craziness going on; there's some target dummies right outside the first Aetherite town in Kholusia), and it also helps if you get a theme group or whatnot going (I had my PLD geared but hadn't tanked much and was running Eden with an all Lala group and we needed a second tank, so I told them I had almost no idea what I was doing on it, but they got me on PLD and it was nice running all 4 with a sympathetic group that was cool with me not being perfect right out of the gate.)
...tanks are also fun to run story content on, since there's something damn heroic about pulling sword and shield/axe/greatsword/gunblade and charging into the hordes (a little more heroic looking than...pulling out my book or cane, anyway. XD)
PLD misconception: "I'm not topped up so I should use clemency" Please trust your healers ;_;
Well said. Tanking is intimidating. Often seen the easy criticism, but they would never take a stroll in your shoes.
(Haha, this video was uploaded the same day as my birthday!) Hi I'm new to the game and dove right into Tank after seeing Dark Knight I got some good reviews so far so maybe I'm doing the right thing. I felt like I was missing something fundamentally as a Tank and came across this reassuring video. Thank you for uploading it!
I just picked the game back up after leaving at 4.2. Gunbreaker looks amazing but I’m a nervous player so these guides are helpful with picking it all back up.
No need to be nervous, I promise. I’m sure you’re past this point by now, but tanking is very comfy once you get comfortable taking damage and trusting your party. Keep the enemies steady and plentiful and DPS will love you, use cooldowns and Healers will love you. But above all, be friendly and everyone will love you.
Hardest part I had with tanking at first was trusting my healers and not using abilities to early. Only complaint I have about tanking now a day is when the DPS tries to run ahead and starts pulling enemies early because they get impatient
Da liegt er wieder xD
Nice video man!
"Crazy chicken dancing" 😂😂😂
I love it! Please spread the term! It's awesome!
When gun breaker came out I switched to a healer for the queue times, and god the amount of DPS or healer players that don't bother to read their abilities or context behind being a tank.... the number of times I had to explain to people how to tank and to use cooldowns, but as I say, it better to help, maybe one day ill be the one learning and not doing good, and I would very much love for someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong and how to do better.
Well articulated, spoken, and a good guide. Thank you!
to bad he gave bad/wrong info with the raid calculation. :/ which has been a common misconception that even yoshida has been fighting for years.
the truth: When the devs set up any battle content, healer dps is not calculated. yoshida has said this time and again. And has stated time and again healers are not required to dps. He does stated as a world first prog group you might due to going into the content asap, but healing dps isnt required in any fight.
I've been tanking in MMO's since 2005 and I've never enjoyed it nearly as much as I do in FFXIV. They just get it. I get to be the tank the way I've always loved while also being entertained by actual cool-looking animations and contributing DPS>
Main healer here.
Can't agree more on the 2nd argument. Tanking is for personally still the most difficult classto play with: need to see the surrounding (that dps, and healer got enough space to move), to see all mobs are agroed to me, and not running loose behind the healer, all def skill on correct moment to use and interupting enemy skill management.
Main tank here.
Maybe in dungeon content? Even so, I feel tanking is the easiest one to perform 'well'. Getting at least decent DPS on every tank is way more easy than on most DPS if not all. Probably the hardest part is to optimize damage mitigation in a way that is the most effective for healers, but even so for most content as long you are rotating through your defensive CDs well enough it should be sufficient for like 90% of the content. I feel that DPS and Healers requires a way deep knowledge of the fight to perform 'well' and way more effort to perform 'optimal'
@@giuseppetangana6086 tanking is easier not then in the past. they removed the need to stance dance, and removed the enmity combo. You used to have to balance out the enmity combo with your dps combo. And if u was a baby face tank with max geared dps... you was in for a bad time.
Please, please,.please remember that as a tank you can use Arm's Length as a minor defense cooldown for dungeon pulls. It's a pretty significant slow on every eneny.
Also, if you have a WHM in your dungeon group, you have much more leeway to space out your CDs during pulls because their Holy AOE will stunlock enemies for a fairly long time
I've been playing tank since I first started XIV, and I've always found tanking easier than heals or dps, due to the lack of awareness it requires, whether it's keeping your buffs and dots up, or keeping everyone's hp up without too much overheal. As long as you weave cooldowns and dodge mechs, keep the boss still and smack it a bit, you're set.
What is the name of that dps counter mod? At 9:05
Well, I agree with three of them. I wanna add something on no.2. I think tank might be tough if you’re a noob tank at the beginning. Because your team can easily tell you’re an inexperienced tank, nothing against new tank though. As a tank, you should lead the dungeons, place the boss on the right position, and you should know the mechanics and tank buster so you can be ready for them. These things can be intimidating for beginners, but once you pass that phase, you’re good to go. Tank is a rewarding job, we all love good tanks. Also, for some hard raid, say eden savage, tanks, healers, dps are equally challenging. Can’t make one single mistake on some mechanics. The perk is, tanks usually have easier rotations than dps, and unlike healers, who need to switch targets between enemies and teammates frequently. So I would say, when you pass that “noob phase”, tanks are not significantly harder than healers and dps as some people might think. Raiding is just equally challenging for everyone.
Oh Final Fantasy Tactics music! Now we're talking about my favorite Final Fantasy game 😁
Awesome video, as a new player this was very helpfuly, thank you good sir, you had my like from jesters theme only ^^
I’m a noob, I finally unlocked dark knight but I was using a warrior class for a while, and I actually can’t stand any other class unless it’s tank. But every time I play I get better it’s really fun.
Same here, started as a archer/bard, switch to tanking in Stormblood and I never look back, the only non tank jobs i like are bard, machinist and dancer. thz to their mobility and me starting off as an archer/bard
As a player who's been tanking in MMOs for years, I love tanking in FF14. things that irk me most is positioning. It really is the most simple thing to correct and so many don't care. they pull bosses and leave it faced toward the party. they spin it like a top. it's positioned at the far north because they gap closed to pull. simple things that are super easy to correct and learn.
Some of the other points should come naturally as you get used to the fights and learn the bosses. some it doesn't really matter too much. In raids, definitely working with your co-tank helps a lot with mitigation and not overwriting each others reprisal.
I plan to look at the Dark Knight guide because that's what I'm trying to do as a tank right now. Cheers for the hints on basic tanking though.
Growing into a tank who's finally able to do wall-to-wall pulls in dungeons makes me so proud of my growth (TBN definitely helped).
I’ve been main tanking as I’ve levelled with a friend (dps) and been watching guides to learn the dungeons more than anything, my advice is dont worry about criticism, if it’s not constructive then its pointless, I haven’t had any complaints yet from my tanking even though I have messed up a few times and I’ve had someone help me learn what I did wrong, that sort of behaviour is always welcome and improves the game for all.
As for positioning, I learned to pull the enemies to face away from the team is always good and try to leave and much of the back and sides open as you are able, only move to avoid markers as you need and remember to use your defensive cool downs to push through the less damaging ones as long as your healer feels comfortable to pick you up, you’re all a team so it’s more important to understand how you work with them than just your role in general, and this doesn’t mean you need to understand every class more so a general idea of the type of party you have, whether they’re melee dps or range, leave openings as necessary.
I've returned to this game in December and now have pld gnb 80 war 75 doing story and 65 drk. I have completely enjoyed the changes to the tank rolls since I lasted played way back when heavensward came out. I try my best when i look at what dps i have and if they have moves that they have to move for i try my damndest to stay still more than other dps that doesn't
So, i should NOT run after any other fancy adds that may spawn in during the fights, like those lanterns in room corners on Huakke or Ifrit totem thingy, but keep still and let others deal with them?
Also, I read up a bit and heard about tank busters and tank swapping, when do I worry about them? Post ARR story or only on Hard?
Healing is the most difficult role by a large margin. The reason being is that healers have to fix everyone else's mistakes, all while doing their own responsibilities.
"Your rotation isn't as complicated as DPS"
This may be true, but weaving in my OBCD rotation, while playing ring around the rosie with a boss because my DPS wants to lick my right ass cheek during a frontal tank buster, can get a bit overwhelming and leaves us alot too think about.
That was the entire point of the comment. Your rotation while overwhelming at times is still not as complicated as the dps rotations. So while the DPS needs to be aware of mechanics and positioning to help you and the healer, it's just as important for you to take steps to help your dps. The absolute biggest misconception that wasn't clearly spelled out in this video that traverses all rpg's is simply this: My job is X why should I bother worrying about Y. We all have difficult jobs in one way or the other and we all have downtime in those jobs, what we do with that downtime is what determines victory or failure. This is the sole reason pugs fail more than premades, you don't care about the other guy and are quicker to watch him struggle than to take steps to help.
Your group will fail if the tank fails at holding aggro
Your group will fail if the healer fails at healing
Your group will fail if the dps fails to do damage
Sure 14 takes some of those lines and blurs them but without one piece of the puzzle the whole picture becomes a mess.
Yo, if a DPS is standing with me in a Tank Buster, I try to warn them of it. If they continue to stand there even after their positional, I kindly "Shirk" them. I know, it's not right to do.
Let. Them. Die. It’s been the rule ever since graphics were applied to the first MUD - dps stand behind the boss. You moving around to keep the dummy alive probably screws up the pro who relies on positionals.
And Remember Folks:
If someone is trying to convince you that DPS is the hardest role in the game they're just trying to use you because no one else in the fc wants to tank or heal, cuz it's stressful and hard and without the healer and tank it's over. A seriously good raid team can carry a lame dps, but no team out there can handle a bad tank or healer.
Enrage mechanics: Allow me to introduce myself.
But no seriously, all roles have their responsibilities.
Endgame content is designed to be difficult for everyone.
For some it's rougher in certain aspects.
Easier for others in different situations.
In my experience there are PFs that are struggling to find DPS.
Healer is so much fun. Tanking, however, hate it.
DPS rotations are more complex and skill ceilings in many cases are much higher than for tanks.
So as to which is harder to play, it really depends on the mechanics of the encounter rather than being a general rule.
Personally, I find healing to be the most stressful role, as the healer has little control over an encounter, has to avoid mechanics the same as DPS, and then often is the one who pulls DPS or tanks bacon out of the fire when they screw up mechanics, and on top of that is generally expected to actively DPS.
I find that tanking is the least stressful role in Shadowbringers, due to the very cookie cutter nature of the tanks (so it's easy to learn any of them if you know any others) and the bone simple rotations and similar defensive cooldowns.
But that's just me. In ARR and Heavensward, I found tanking to be the most stressful role.
It's possible, horrible but possible.
All jobs have their own difficulties.
Doing DPS good is just as hard as anything else. Because if you are doing your job good, then you pump out high enough dps, while avoiding every avoidable attack, so you don't give your healer an unnecessary headache.
As far as my experiences go, I find tanking the easiest of them all, because you have a simple as fuck rotation. You can basically stand in one place for the whole fight. And you only have to look out for the tankbusters.
Then comes dpsing, for the the already mentioned reasons.
And the most stressful is healing. Basically for the same reasons as dps, but you have to keep everyone alive.
And saying that "without a healer and tank it's over" is just lame. It's a freaking team game. To clear endgame stuff you'll need everyone. And everyone has their own role in the team, that can't be replaced. Good luck clearing out endgame content with one role missing or being lame, whether it be the tank or the dps or the healer.
That Legend of Mana music made me extremely nostalgic.
2:37 Repositioning the boss while those bats are out is a big middle finger to your melee dps. Keep the boss still, and everyone can just squeeze between the bats like they always do during every Slicer. Turning the boss and moving them through a bunch of bats can either screw up a melee's positional or get them hit by a bat as they try to land one (both of which happen in this very clip). If I ever see a tank who pulls Voidwalker to the middle like this during Slicer, I will have my healer rescue you off a cliff.
For the love of god: Don't bother moving the boss until after Shadowflame. Cuz guess what: you're about to have to move all the way over to B anyway for Flare. Theres no reason to center up for all of 15 seconds before having to move again anyway. After Shadowflame, move to B. After flare, whichever tank has Void just runs straight across from B to re-center. Too easy.
@Urazz exactly, same with his healer video. Like, we get it, you want people to stop saying that healers should only ever have to heal.
Thing is: nobody actually says that or believes it. Everybody knows that healers should do damage whenever possible -WHENEVER POSSIBLE. Meaning if they know that people aren't about to die because they're in the middle of casting Glare.
Tanks and healers have to prioritize their primary role first. I wholly expect a healer who is new to the fight to heal a lot more than they should. I would rather have that than have a wipe because they wanted to parse on a prog. Same goes for tanks: if you have a mechanic to do, youd better friggin do it. If you have to double weave Shadow Wall and TBN together for that Tank Buster, do it. Don't make your healer's life hell just because you didn't want to put a second cooldown on.
This video as asinine. "How to do it correctly" yet this video clearly shows that he doesn't actually know how to tank.
As a rule of thumb: Tank + Heal = one DPS (damage wise)
I had a pretty easy transition to tanking, I mained dps till shadowbringers and just recalled all the things I didn't like tanks doing and didn't do them. My main philosophy was absolute minimal movement and static positions, chances are if the boss was looking one way I would keep it looking that way barring forced movement
I know that it probably made tanking a lot more tolerable for people who didn't like it before, but I REALLY miss stance dancing and all the other things they took out of tanking in FFXIV. I mained WAR for a long time, and I felt really good when everything matched up and I hit that perfect Fell Cleave window and just poured out the chainsaw swings. I liked having to think about how to do it and maximize damage and tanking.
Now I just push one button to toggle things on and throw my stuff out near-mindlessly. It just doesn't feel the same any more. I even tried to switch tanks to try and see if another job had more to it, but tanking just feels so straightforward and simple now. Put tank stance on, never lose aggro again, basically just go brainless and hit buttons.
Just a comment for the UA-cam algorithm ^^
Me2
I feel that a lot of these should be givens for anyone tanking. If you have had a tank that done stuff like Desperius mentions, I'm sorry to hear that.
If YOU are a tank and do this sorta stuff... Well, keep working on it.
Worst thing about tanking is people complaining about you not drawing Aggro
Yet...they run off...engage enemy...and don’t bring it to you...
Listen, DPS, I love you, but sometimes I feel there’s not enough communication in our relationship
Would also like to point out one misconception that I find a lot of tanks doing, during large dungeon pulls they pop every since cooldown they have in the first 5 seconds rather than spacing them out during the pull or when tanks don’t use cooldowns and say it’s the healers job to keep the tank alive
So much this. When i do a big pull, once i get the pack together, i pop reprisal and the tank role mitigation, if the pack is still big after that, i pop a job specific cooldown, then use minor mitigations as needed.
As a tank main it really is sad to see when ppl do this since I know how much of a burden it places on the healer and even more so when the tank blames the healer for their mistake when they pull wall to wall pop no cooldowns and die when the healer can’t keep up
I almost never blame my healer. If i die, then i assume they arent super confident, and will often ask if they would like smaller pulls to make it easier for em. But it is certainly the tanks job to keep thenselves alive just as much as it is the healers.
as a tank, i dont recall anyone actually explaining proper cd use. been asking since ARR.
@@loganpope6680 think the NA community needs a wake up call on better communication. It be better if we tanks can ask what prefered pull size the group wants. this non communication is causing problems in the community.
That cutscene beginning bit looked awesome. Where do you get that?
That was Shadowbringers official benchmark (to see how a PC performs)
Do a bigpull. Use arm's length, pop rampart. Worry about other CDs depending on what happens after.
the cut scene that is at the start of the video when does that take place in the game?
Its the Shadowbringers Benchmark
Positioning: Please don't turn the dragon to face the rest of the group, kthx. Know what enemies/bosses have deadly "cleaves" (frontal cone attacks) and which ones do not. Don't try to dodge bosses that have them, they are designed that they are 100% going to hit you (except for the ones that give some kind of tell that you're supposed to dodge them). Even when you do dodge frontal attacks, try to dodge as little as possible. Sidestep out of the cone (but just barely and then quickly step back in after the attack!) when you can, to prevent the boss from turning and nailing some hapless melee with the follow-up cleave. There are a very few exceptions, but they are a rarity. And if it is a lizard, has four legs and wings, for Pete's Sake don't face it on the rest of the group. Others like Susano are a bit less obvious, but yes, his Stormsplitter cleaves. As does Titan's Mountain Buster. Nothing like being a melee and then end up eating dirt in a split second because the tank decided he was gonna attack a gaol to break someone out and then faced Titan towards the rest of the group and then see 3+ people drop dead to a Mountain Buster.
Also, aggro management. In fights with 2 or more tanks, know who is OT and who is MT. Don't fight each other for aggro. Nothing like having a boss turning back and forth between two tanks competing for aggro and dumping cleaves on a group. If the other tank seems to want the boss, turn your stance off and let him have it. Regardless if you're better geared. Or better yet, ask before the pull who is MT and who is OT. Also, get to know the icons for the tank stances and/or the sounds of their activation. If the other tank throws his stance up or has it up upon entering, turn yours off. Just be ready to turn it on, or wait 20-30 sec and then turn yours on in case he gets killed so you can grab the boss quickly.
EDIT: Also, as a tank, remember that you cannot block, dodge, or parry attacks that come from your sides or your back. Keep stuff in front of you except for during the pull.
EDIT2: Just going to go out on a limb and say that facing the boss away from the group and towards the edge of the Arena is usually the best thing to do when in doubt unless there's some mechanic that requires otherwise.
What's the best hybrid? I haven't played ff14 yet, but I want to preplan at least to an extent for what I want to play as, I'm interested in something that can mostly tank, do moderate DPS and minor healing. Any advice or is this not a thing?
Hey, vorab mal wüsste ich gerne wo dein DC Link hinterlegt ist um überhaupt zu Join.
Zu meinem Hauptpunkt, ich wollte mal wissen ob du einen Astroguide machen würdest. Ich weiß es ist mit einem hohen Aufwand verbunden, jedoch wärest du wenn dieser ordentlich recherchiert ist Konkurrenzlos.
Lg Qrit
Kommt in den nächsten Wochen 😊👍
Ehrenmann 🙏
Tanking at first in this game was a bit intimidating and super stressful. I used to HATE tanking but overtime I got real comfortable and started to really enjoy it. I mostly started a tank because I got sick of the dps queue times and just bad or lazy tanks. Plus it's a lot easier to earn commendations. The most fun as a tank though is when running something like a dungeon or trial and your whole team wipes but you and you're the final hope to beat the boss and end up finishing him all by yourself. You truly feel like the glorious badass hero of the team when you can pull off shit like that and earning those 3+ commendations from that run.
Ninja main here. You've really encouraged me to move past the anxiety and try tanking. Thanks!
That is good to hear 😊👍
I used to be a tank main in other games and decided to main DPS in ff14 just for SAM (i play tank sometime but not on savage content) so i know the pain of tanking late game content better than many. The 3rd misconceptions hits hard and closer to home especially through experience that is why my advice for newbie tank player is to keep the back of the enemies to to your party and never move the enemy unless necessary.
Sometimes in lower level dungeons specially, when my party gets damaged and is a little spread apart, i use my mitigation enabling the healer to heal the party members without worrying about me for a few seconds, i have not played any healer job so i do not know how strong their AoE heals are / how fast they can heal multiple people, should i keep doing this or am i wasting my defence cooldowns?
you do right
get that reflex CD popping underway, learn where your cooldowns are so you can pop them reflexively in big pack pulls.
I think tanking when you first start is the hardest, however the longer you tank the easier it becomes and eventually should be the easiest job.
As a long time tank I don't understand why you wouldn't be doing damage as it's required to hold aggro, so tanks should be dpsing as much as possible.
As a healer though I'll choose to save mana to keep my party alive over dps every time. However if regens are doing their job and the party is doing well in mitigation I'll dps with DOTs and anything I can spam. Problem is most of the time mitigation is done poorly so I spend 99% of my time trying to keep people on their feet doing their own dps. But never focus on dps and allow party health to drop as one big AOE could wipe the party. I see that ALOT healers.
Dat ff9 music doh. Dat castlevania symphony of the night music doh. Dat FINAL FANTASY TACTICS music doh. Holy shit great music choices.
Thank you
Tanks are the leaders. They decide the whole flow of battle. Making sure your dps members can get good flanking and behind positions as well as staying in your healer's range while keeping them out of static aoe's and doing dps yourself, and using buffs and shield abilities at the right times can be overwhelming. Shirking is another animal as well. It just takes mad amounts of practice but it's so rewarding and worth the effort. Sprouts should try GNB due to their ease of use and dps output overall. Their aggro aoe is really wide and zoning enemies and gaining enmity is a breeze though every tank is amazing in their own way. Tanks are always in demand and the queues are almost instant. Its stressful at first but such a rush afterwards. Could be worse, you could be healing Savage content. Good luck!
Also how does positioning affect AoE attacks and stationary enemies?
That final fantasy tactics background music though...
I started tanking 3.1 or so when I started the game, HW had been out for a while and they started adding Alex. This was before the Void ark started too.
I got to Haukke Manor before someone taught me my Gladiator rotation. I had never tanked in a game and wanted to step out of my comfort zone.
I love tanking now.
I started tanking at the beginning of Heavensward. I had never been interested in tanking and I had some pretty serious social anxiety at the time so the idea of standing at the front and leading the way through dungeons had me absolutely terrified.
But when dark knight came out I absolutely HAD to play it, (I had been so disappointed when I learned it would be a tank, I still think it would have been better suited as a dps considering how dark knights in past ff games tended to be some of the biggest damage dealers out there.)
Been maining dark knight ever since but I had been really stepping out of my comfort zone when I started.
How in the seven hells did you get a custom character into the trailer?! Is there a cutscene somewhere in the Unending Journey that I should know about?
You mean like at the start? That was the benchmark tool and you could import your character iirc.
are the scene in the beginning, DRK specific??
They are from the Shadowbringers Benchmark
Legend of Mana music ♡♡♡
For increasing DPS, obviously using your rotation is the way. However, I know it's easy to make mistakes sometimes. That's why I like to learn the fight with also paying attention to my combo. For example, in E6S as a paladin, my ranged combo starts when I move away from Garuda. So I know next time, that if I end up using melee combo, I ended up doing something wrong. Or it reminds me that hey I should be on my ranged combo now.
Practice makes perfect. Even if I cleared the content, I'll join learning parties, not only to help progress other people but also to find ways to improve myself and learn to breed a bit more. Plus when mechs end up being second nature coz you practiced the fight so many times, naturally you'll pay attention to your combo more.
Though ACT is a 3rd party software against ToS, I still use it to monitor my and only my DPS. Because I like to see myself improve, and when I see the numbers rising, I get satisfaction that yes I'm doing it right. Dont keep an attitude of berating yourself, no, keep it fun, like an achievement you are aiming for. It'll takes time.
How do you unlock the cutscene from the beginning of the video 🤦🏾♂️ I’ve been lookin for it for months
Its the official Shadowbringers Benchmark, just download it from the respective website 😊👍
I got a question. I see everyone running three bars of skills. How do they and you press the different skills on the bar? The Default option for using secondary hotbars is cumbersome imo.
You answered your own question. We don't use the default options, at all. However, the problem with that is that many beginners get so used to using the default keybindings, so when they change, they start messing up because of muscle memory, but retraining your muscle memory is a part of the job, but most are too lazy to do it. Which is why, whenever I get a new protege to teach the game, I tell them immediately to overhaul their keybindings so down the line, it doesn't become such an issue.
@@DeepbloodFang I am trying to figure out what button layout people use that makes 3 hotbars easy to use
@@FeneFeline If you have discord, maybe I can help you out with that?
7:07 me as a BLM main :
*Yes something I'm good at*
Reprisal is shockingly under used, it's great for raid wide damage and being AoE it's helpful on mob pulls. Have to admit though.... I only recently noticed they added a slow debuff to arm's length, also useful for mobs.
One dungeon... The Burn. Mist Dragon's Rime Wreath is a perfect time to use Reprisal
Ikr?? I use Reprisal on every big pull whenever I tank, and now use AL every time it's up since I realized the slow effect.
Funnily enough, I recently got yelled at for telling a tank to use those skills. They told me to stop and just do my job. But what do I know, I'm just a new DPS with 1,300 hours of tanking experience :^)
The way FF14's design works, the best defense is a good offense. Damage is truly the best mitigation. The faster you kill the trash pack or boss, the less damage everyone takes. Once you learn how to use your tanking cooldowns, master both your single target and AOE rotation. The same advice applies to healers. Once you learn how to heal properly, learn how to maximize your damage.