Arm's Length (with Leg/Foot Graze) saved my 🍑 as a MCH once when my team died, allowing me to burn the dungeon mob down while running away till I could use LB. Team came back to find me Step Dancing 😎💃🏽🎉
Thank you for the guide. I am a dragoon main that recently took up tanking, but was suffering from tanking anxiety for awhile. I feel like this guide will really help.
Played tank in WoW for about 8 years. Recently started tanking in FFXIV. A message to those trying the game after playing WoW: Tanking in this game should not scare you. The dungeons are largely very linear so you don’t need to know what to pull and where to go like in a Mythic+ dungeon. Plus the duty timer is very forgiving in that it gives you more than enough time to complete the dungeon even with some wipes, unlike in WoW. Most large attacks that bosses and trash mobs do are also very easily avoidable or mitigated, unlike in WoW. This game is very very new player friendly and the stress associated with high-end dungeons in a game like WoW is almost nonexistent. Have fun, kick ass, and enjoy the beautiful music.
@@frozencloudzzful Actually, tanks and healers are better off AoEing as long as there's more than 1. Healers, because total damage dealt is still higher even if there's only one other mob, tanks, because it makes enmity retention easier.
I just want to say that I just picked this game up a week ago and this video is a god send. I gravitated immediately to tank, but was unaware of just HOW difficult this class is to learn. I have scoured the internet for information to explain what in the actual fuck is going on and came up incredibly empty handed until your video. I am very new to MMOs. Thank you for taking the time to explain enmity to a higher degree and touching on mitigation. I have been focusing so much on pulling enmity that I have been overwhelmed with any mitigation skills. Most guides just explain your damage rotations and tell you what your mitigation skills do (I can read them in game you dummy). For the time being I'm going to focus less on doing damage and making sure that I'm paying attention to my mitigation cooldowns. Thank you.
This is a rad video. Thanks. Mitgation is definitely somewhere I'm struggling as a new player. I definitely feel overwhelmed by all the tools at my disposal. I'll come back to this video a couple of times.
As a SCH main, and recently picking the 'Sword and Board' This is a timely and invaluable Cliffs Notes of Tanking. I've found remembering to turn 'Tank Stance' on at the start of a dungeon something I've forgotten to do far too many times than I wish to admit.
The thing about losing your way in dungeons is something I needed to hear when I started. I had been wanting to try tanking, but things like Haukke Manor made me feel like I would be the worst tank ever. I had to go back through and solo it once I got to a high level SCH and just memorize the path and what keys I had to get and where to use them before I even felt comfortable getting tanks to 30.
Glad I could help. Dungeons after ARR get much more linear in their design, which I appreciate. But for the older ones, I definitely ran through them unsynced as well to get used to their layouts. Keep at it :)
Honestly, set a macro that just puts in party chat “hey, don’t really remember the layout of this place. If anyone else does, feel free to take the lead”. It’s what I do bc like fuck do I remember all the ways to go in the ARR dungeons
As a current sprout I really appreciate when we all get a little lost cause that's what happens when you're new. It's tougher when everyone else already knows what they're doing to the point I'm self conscious of even looking down the wrong direction.
Didn’t see you mention it here but Arms Length is an ability you learn near level 32 on most melee classes, tanks included. It slows enemies attacks down when they strike you by 20% for 12 seconds. Really helps sometimes in giant pulls because of how much of a total DPS down it is on the enemies attack cool downs.
Your introduction reminded me of every duty I've run on AST where the tank wall-to-wall pulls and never uses a cool down mitigations because "those are only for boss fights"
I love tanks running into boss fights to pop 2 mitigations on auto attacks while the healer is having a heart attack trying to sustain them through wall to wall pulls :)
I’ve met some really bad healers too trying to level a paladin recently. Had my friend play along who mains a tank tell me many times “your healer is bad don’t pull at all” or he’d say “mitigate” at a boss fight cause healer was too busy doing dps and not paying attention to tank buster moves…. So I guess it goes both ways. Thanks for the video it was very helpful and encouraging as a new tank.
Here's hoping they use the "play as a scion" schtick, to teach sprouts how to tank/heal/DPS. Especially tank, from my experience, limited though it may be, tanking absolutely needs an in-game tutorial.
The most difficult part of tanking is realizing I cannot trust anyone to heal well except myself. I've mained White Mage for years so seeing what other a large chunk of White Mages and healers do while I'm tanking makes me die inside...and often on the outside due to their janky heals. It's like a gamble on whether I get the healer that spaces out spamming their AoE and forgets to heal or the healer that refuses to let me go below 95% health and is constantly wasting their mana on overhealing.
Agreed. Definitely agreed. As a WHM main myself when I am tanking solo without my fc mates 9 out of 10 times I get a healer who does not know how to properly heal or one that simply "forgets" healing. Ps: even had a guy who did not have both afflatus AND benediction on their hud.
There needs to be a tutorial breaking down regen healing. People need to realize how much passive healing can negate the need for all but infrequent burst heals. WHM regen is 1200-1400 potency depending on tick timing. That's beefy.
If you play healer you wish to be the tank, if you play tank you wish to be healer and if you play in PF you wish to be able to clone yourself 7 times.
Best honest trailer about tanking. Love the tone and the straightness, especially at the end when comparing tank group survival responsability against DPS (afk spamming macros gameplay) or even healer. Been here on and off since 1.0, and pld is my main job, but few yearly pauses make me learning all basics all over again. Came back to ff14 few days ago, feeling like a total sprout, and those types of guides are exactly what we tank need to watch. Cheers !
A Mentor actually giving valuable advice? Bravo to you, sir. Brilliantly done video, and a good amount of wit (I especially liked the bit about blocking the players that flame newer tanks, or flaming those still trying to learn the role. "F'k them.")
I'm barely half-way to need the commendations needed to unlock battle mentor... and the only reason I'd want to in the first place is because I want the mount :D
Not sure if I'd go for it, even for the mount. I like the idea of the Mentor System, but there's a lot of negativity aimed at it by the general masses. Still, though, thank you for being one of the exceptionally good ones!
Super helpful for someone like me with tank-xiety and who only plans to tank in dungs. And especially since I'm playing on console right now I dont have a mouse to easily click on enemies to ranged attack/provoke them when someone else aggros them, or I cant easily hover over boss buffs/debuffs to read them. So I get mad anxiety about tanking overall.
4:15 it’s worth noting that SE had the dumb idea to remove the ‘increased enmity’ special effect on everything but your ranged attack, so pulling with only your aoe move, especially uncombo’d mythril tempest, will only go so far. you can even see in the footage the dancers easily ripping aggro off you. in general you’ll need at least two aoe attacks of some form to hope to match the enmity gain of just using your ranged attack (which is a better pull method in some cases like this one where ranged > provoke > ranged > ranged while sprinting past to the next room would hold all four enemies till you get to the next set, for warrior at least) as red mage it’s common for me to rip aggro off tanks who think just one aoe attack is enough. in stormblood it might’ve been but sadly it changed.
Very true. It's also why I'm poking at WAR's ability to AOE, cause you need to land the Overpower to even get your combo'd AOE. It might have been worth mentioning that DPS players should bring enemies to the tank so they have an easier time tagging them if they lose aggro - I'll include it in my DPS guide.
I've been maining tank (drk specifically) for a while now and these tips are fantastic! These are just things all tanks should know regardless of where they are in the game.
Another thing to note for my fellow sprouts, during a realm reborn levels the equip recommended gear button can often equip dps gear and not tank gear so pay atention to it.
Thanks alot mate. Im a new tank and was very surprised about the amount of dungeon content in the game. I watch a video before every dungeon but alot of them don't cover the trash pulls in the dungeon and i feel like i could be doing bettter. This video helped alot.
I was flamed hard in the first mandatory raid for not knowing the mechanics. It was also the first time I was in a full party with 2 other tanks and I was overwhelmed. We were getting messed up (2 tanks down, 2 healers down and a lot of DPS down) and the other tanks were pissed off and letting me know all about it in the chat. But then something just clicked and I somehow got the situation under control and survived what I thought was a wipe. They stopped flaming afterwards, they were actually pretty chill and gave me some tips for the other bosses. Greatest feeling I've ever had from an MMO.
“Alliance B is always main tank.” Primal server tanks: “I must show dominance by being the alpha tank.” *gets provoked by PLD* “You dare challenge the alpha!?” *steals aggro naturally *
I don't know anything about alliance raid rules but today I was dpsing in crystal tower and the tank in my alliance (A) went full caps lock in alliance chat to shout that alliance A is main tank and I'm like there's rules for that?
That's the general rule over on JP servers but I think it only extends to Aether on NA. I've NEVER encountered it on Crystal (where my main is) and Primal (where my alt is) despite having 80s on both, as a tank. Whichever tank throws up stance and rushes ahead, he's the Main Tank. If someone else decides that Provoke is part of their rotation, then they've just promoted themselves to Main Tank instead.
This is a good guide! The icon tip was something I really wish the game explained, I’m very new to the game, started earlier this week. I enjoy tanking so far, seems like the one class that a party always needs. Hoping once I moved from msq to doing a dungeon people are willing to be helpful
People are 99% of the time, very very helpful. Just tell them you're new! So many people don't say this and get wiped by easy mechanics that just need a basic explanation.
Just coming to the game and maiming Gladiator, having quickly out leveling my friends I switched to healer and oh gods. Only managed 3 dungeons as not a single tank would use any aoe at all. Was a total nightmare. I did ask them to as well but not knowing all the skill names yet it went on Def ears.
Proper mitigation spacing and enemy placement I would say are the most important things to learn while leveling, enmity is easy enough to maintain if you have your "Iron Will" or equivalent buff up.
I agree with your frustration. I myself started as a white mage and for the most part love it. EXCEPT the issues with tanks not using the mitigation tools they have been given or ignoring agro. So eventually I ended up saying screw it and moved to black mage. Maybe in a few months I’ll return as a white mage or scholar. Until then it’s burn baby burn.
About time someone said that tanking makes you feel like you are doing 1v1 with the bosses, that is exactly the reason i have loved tanking in most MMO's over the years. I could not imagine having any other role as a main role, DPS classes can be fun but tanking is still way more epic. Oh and tanks and healers have this cool little bond between each other, if you are good on tanking role you will see a lot healers who would like to do stuff you and vise versa.
I main TANK, and everytime I drop off tank to play as a DPS for another friend who may only have a Tank Class, I see the differences even as a DPS player. In even lower dungeons I try to make it as less straining on my healers and even utilize potions throughout dungeons to give me that extra sustain. I'm always looking for situations to stun or even interrupt and slow enemies. Lots of tanks never utilize Arm's Length in Pulls and don't know how to space out their mitigation well. Good tanks always have answers for every pull. If they don't, they SHOULD let the party know let's pull slow till I get my mitigation up. Additionally lots of Tanks I see have no spacial awareness for their team. Even the Off Tanks. Sometimes off tanks will stand right next to the MT. It's ridiculous.
A lot of tanks are staring at their hotbars, trying to get their rotation right which is a common thing among anyone learning a new job... it's just much more punishing on tanks. Arm's Length is something I had notes on but didn't manage to include in the video, but it's such good mitigation.
4:15 I started playing about 2-3 weeks ago and I have a lvl 52 paladin now but this still troubles me. For one, I keep getting lost when dungeons have multiple paths and objectives (like get this key to unlock the door). And two, I'm not comfortable to wall to wall so I pull 2 groups at a time and if I push myself I will pull a 3rd every now and then. Even though I have these problems I still love paladin because the rotation is straight forward, queue is shorter than dps, and I don't need to move (unless aoe)
I never paid much attention to dungeon maps as dps, even ones I'd run a lot. So when I started tanking it helped me to watch a video first, then go on dps and make a note of the layout and mob placement, then go on my tank. Though of course this only works if you have a dps to do this with.
Another thing when it comes to mitigation is tanks BY DEFAULT have 20% damage reduction (Tank Mastery trait lvl 1), so tanks, please bear this in mind when your allies are getting hit by something, they have like 70% your health, resistances, and take the full damage of every hit. This is why making sure you have enmity is so important, enemies are balanced around hitting tanks :) When it comes to tank swaps it's usual for the off tank to provoke, then you shirk them, otherwise the enmity doesn't stack the way it should and can be stolen if you are a higher damage tank.
first off, awesome guide. 2nd off, my wall of text is definitly not directed at you its just my general rant lol. so i havent played for about a year and a half and just came back. but back when i played constantly, ive personally only done a bit of tanking but i alwayys worry im gonna be bad so its nice to see some info even as a 1.x player because god..tanking scares me xD. now as for the wall to wall. i mained sch till halfway through stormblood and while i didnt main them i was aslo up to date on whm till stormblood. i wasnt a bad healer by any means, even doing some of the early savage stuff with groups. i will say, even as a good healer, even with a good tank, i HATE wall to wall. its ALWAYS been stressful in my opinion. i hate people that force it and i hate that people try to reccomend it as a normal esspecially in a PUG/daily.. its NOT a normal thing its NOT how things are generally supposed to be played. like, doenst matter if the healer or tank is new, or the healer or tank is seasoned and good. i atleast prefer healer and tank discussing what they prefer to do. for me personally, i dont care if it takes an extra 10 minutes in the dungeon, id rather take a little extra time and not wall to wall then have to wall-wall and freak out about shit. lol. i understand everyones different but wall to wall is horrible and if people cant handle taking a few extra minutes in a dungeon and want to blast through on high then they should do it with a pre built group they can trust. a pug daily roulette group is one that should be accepted that it very much may not happen. rant aside, again. awesome video and thanks for the info for tanking. one day i may try to get into it again. i got war to 60ish but never really did much for pugs with it out of fear of being terrible lol. i generally stick to my heals (rip sch) and dps. =D
I never go wall to wall while tanking. Naturally, when healer says to pull more, then I pull more. I've had healers who run ahead of me or use rescue to pull me towards more enemies, but it's rare. More often healers seem to like it when I don't cause anxiety by pulling everything. Or they don't want to say anything and I'm being optimistic :D As a side note, DRK and WAR became easier to use ever since tp was removed.
Thanks for the video! I'm leveling a tank now, still level 25 haha but I'm already struggling a bit. Its' nice to tank in this game, but the thing is I need to get used to the mitigations, because I comes from games where mitigations where more "spammable", here they are few seconds and the recast is like minutes. It's not necessarely a bad thing, on the contrary I think it could be more intriguing like this, because you can think of a strategy while you are leveling and it's not just spam some buttons, I just need to get use to it.
I'm a Monk main that just started Tanking (Warrior), and my constant thought is 'Oh god, would this piss me off?'. If yes, I know that after this dungeon I'm kicking my own ass. Teach me to do stupid shit like that again. Great vid! This goes a long way to helping me manage my tank anxiety.
It's one of those things where you're not sure why it's not included in the in-game tutorials. I've wiped several times on savage fights like E7S where the tank just didn't know they had to interrupt mechanics....
@@ryanneilan3223 yeah, Interject only works on flashing cast bars. Low Blow should be your go to on mobs that have a dangerous cast and that can be stunned. A good example is the succubus mobs in Haukke Manor, that cast a big AOE which can be hard to dodge in corridors. Interject won't work, but low blow will interrupt their cast as they can be stunned. Low Blow won't work on any bosses and most elite mobs that are stun resistant. This is why WHM is so strong in dungeons, as Holy can stun for up to 7 seconds and interrupt most mob casts.
I have over 1000 hours in this game, a PLD at level 80, and I had no idea the flashing cast bar meant it could be interrupted. I would just use interject sporadically and see what worked.
Apparently that was the norm back in the day, too. Not sure in what patch they added the flashing cast bar, but it's important to know for some fights. There are abilities that can be only interrupted if you stun the enemy, but they don't seem to have a indicator, so that one's more of a trial and error situation.
Commenting to applease the allmighty algorithm. More eyes need to see this vid. As someone who recently returned to 14 (again) and really wants to get into tanking (for reals this time!) I know mine did. Thanks for making it!
I've been playing SCH and its really fun, haven't had any issues until recently. Got into a Somh Al run and the tank didn't use stance at all. So aggro was bouncing around everyone like crazy and I was stuck constantly healing. We asked him to turn tank stance on and he didn't listen until the last 3/4s of the dungeon. After that, they refused to use their CDs, so I was still stuck spamming heals. I asked if he could at least use CDs on the last boss so I can actually DPS and he hit me with "no, you're a healer. You don't need to dps, just focus in healing." I don't know if they were new or just an asshole, but I honestly hate being a healbot in dungeons
as a tank main who does savage tier raiding, i have never not gotten dropped into haukke manor and *not* gotten the party tragically lost ngl. it's ok, someone will always know the map🤣 unless you're all sprouts, in which case nobody knows so o7 only thing i'd add is rec keeping an eye on the party hp list + minimap, since in some places it can be hard to see adds and then oh shit suddenly someone is dead (if you haven't tagged an enemy at least once it won't show up in your aggro list). if you play with a keyboard, you can cycle thru the emnity list with tab and grab them with your ranged pull. something nice for your healer is keeping an eye on cast bars for raid/party wide aoes- if you aren't sure if something is a tb or raid wide, reprisal it just in case. (in raids, if the reprisal icon is already on the boss, don't use yours bc it won't stack.) one thing that really helps after getting the hang of tanking- pick up a healer class! it's already easier if you know one or the other than going from dps to either, bc you mainly have to watch the same things (cast bars). plus then you know what your healer wants you to be doing, as a tank or vice versa. it also gives you a feel for what your healer can handle based on the dungeon lv, the player's skill, etc. and you can adjust accordingly.
As a new player who started as a healer I got really confused every time I ran a dungeon and hardly had to heal, Only for the next run to be sweating profusely while spamming cute 2 and still having the tank die on me. I got blamed almost every time and it honestly made me not want to play healer because I didn’t know what I was doing wrong.
I have an 80 DRK and recently leveled up my PLD from 20 to past 60, and I must say, going big pulls will most of the time get you killed, even with mitigation the adds hit like a truck think people forget that you actiually have to gear up through the grind as well. The Aoe below l60 dungeons is also quite bad.
Ok, this is basic and this HELPS a lot, I've been playing for some time about to start Shadowbringers, i totally didn't know about that cast interrupt indicator so Interject its not useless, also its good to remind of those icons on enemy list.
And people wonder, "Why so few people playing tanks?" Why most duty finder "Waiting for a tank" Haha. When u get a really good tanks paired with a really good healer, u felt like they're unkillable. Its true. When u get a bad tank... ohhhh ur in a world of hurt.
Play on Crystal-Zalera as a WHM main. Leveling Tank and DPS is a pain with 7min+ queues. Everything is always Healer needed around here. Tanking is not really that hard in basic content and I recommend everyone give healing and tanking low level dungeons to grasp abilities and pace. I just wish caster/range DPS would also be prepared to lb3 break during trash pulls. Tank or no, there is an easy way and a hard way to play each role through story: low risk is slow, but guaranteed to stay up; high risk is fast with good chance of wipe when something goes wrong. You just go high risk until it doesn't work, then pull back. Dying isn't really a big deal at the end of the day.
9:39 the math is a little wrong here. There is no actual "losses". The mitigation is working as it is, thinking they should add up additively is more of the wrong way to think about it. You have no losses, you're getting the 30% and 20% mitigations as it is mathematically when you consider it in terms of effective HP. The reason to split it up is simply just to prolong the amount of time where your health and heals and regen can keep up rather than topping out and wasting the additional heals.
I like leveling multipole jobs together. I'm playing on a trial account. The first few times I play through a dungeon, I go in as ranged DPS, then I go in as a healer. The whole time I'm watching the tank, especially the good ones, to learn how they go about things. And - yes, I even learn from the bad ones about what not to do. When I finally do go in as the tank I let everyone know that it's my first time tanking that dungeon and would appreciate help where necessary. All of those experiences have been amazing mostly because the FF14 community is amazing. Also, playing all 3 roles, helps with perspective.
Thanks a lot for the guide, I try to do my best but as tank sprout (lvl 58, hopefully I’ll get GNB, PLD is so boring to me) my main issue is when to use the cooldowns. I come from a game where you’re supposed to save them for a boss but in FFXIV it’s different apparently Edit : thanks also for the trick for assholes, only met 2 and everyone else and runs went fine, but it stings especially when you’re used to always play DPS and try to do your best as a tank.
Hello, I'm still very new to tanking and MMOs altogether, so this tutorial is super helpful, thank you! I have a question if anyone could answer: What are signs/big tells to look for to gauge your party's experience e.g. if the "healer is good". A lot of videos mention that as a tank you need to gauge how experienced your party members are. It sounds like you should be able to tell at the beginning of the dungeon in your first pulls. When I'm leveling people are rearing to start running immediately, so it's kind of hard for me to tell who is who and how good they are....that and I'm still getting used to keeping track of Everything on the screen (I only recently started using the chatbox more LOL). Of course if I'm not dying, that's a good thing, but I'm not sure what else I should be eyeing for. Any tips?
There's a few things you can do, but the simplest would be to just ask. I like to right click the healer (and tank!) in my party list and have a quick look at their search info - is this their first healer job, and do they normally play other roles? That's an easy indicator for experience, but it's not always accurate. I've met plenty of healers that were level 80 on all jobs and still struggled, so that's something to keep in mind. If asking doesn't work, do a medium-sized pull (around 2 packs of enemies) first and see how close you get to dying while using standard mitigation. That should give you a good indicator of how experienced the healer is :)
This video is very helpful. I didn't know that you can see the aggro in the enemy list, for example. I la ymainly healer, but I haven't got a class to 80 yet, but I have a DRK lvl 54. Thank you for this
For me, my pet peeve is when tanks use provoke in their rotation. Like whenever it's off cooldown tanks use it. No. Stop it. It's pointless if you grab hate and keep attacking. Use it for swaps or if you happen to lose hate...and if you lose hate it (in a dungeon) it's cause you're not attacking something (or your stance is off)
FF14 is my first MMORPG and I wanted to swing a big fucking sword as a Dark Knight one day. So I naturally jumped into a tank role to begin with having no clue whatsoever how to tank. I just knew there are tanks in parties. Thanks to guides like yours I hopefully will be able to avoid common mistakes.
I feel you, literally the only reason I am tanking is because I want a sword and shield with badass plate armor. I figured if I was going to take up the role of tank I should at least learn as much as possible to try and prevent making simple mistakes regularly. Good luck on your tank journey!
There one thing when pulling wall to wall and if you lose 2 mobs enemity, one it is use Provoke and the other use your pull skill example in PLD Shielf Lob since this skill use enemity points. On 24 Raid man an unspoken rule in Chaos/Cerberus NEVER USE PROVOKE to win the AGRO over other tanks.
"Tank is the most unforgiving." Ye... Was still new to the game, on ps4, ended up picking up the Odin side boss; and got murdered. Got flamed a bit, and the other tank took up my slack. Felt real bad, i ended up taking a break. Came back later, switched over to DPS, and it help feel less stressed, and scout out a dungeon without needing the full help of a guide (could watch a guide video on repeat during que times :'|) then when i unlocked DRK and GNB, it help revitalize my want to be a tank.
And as well, please keep in mind how much MP the Healers have. If you just had a battle don't rush into another one, look over at the healer and see how much MP they have and wait if it is not maxed
Why is Paladin always an off-tank? I thought being almost immortal fits the job of a main tank and focusing more on dps suits more off-tank. I have zero experience on tanking, but interested to jump in. This video was really good, thanks.
I would like to reiterate that your Tank stance increases the agro you gain on ATTACK. So if you pull a large group of mobs, please continue to use your AoE skills. If you switch to single target and focus one enemy in that group, over time your other party members will rip the agro of the other enemies off of you.
So far I've been absolutely flamed 2 separate times on my first dungeon runs. The first guy atleast gave me advice after it was all over. I have no idea where I'm going in any of these dungeons and my gear isn't good enough yet to do big pulls. I'm swapping to dps as soon as I possibly can.
I don't understand why people are so obsessed with clear times. I'm often playing RPGs, be it single- or multiplayer, and I usually clear the whole map, even the corners where there's nothing but enemies. And I think that's the way it should be, because how else would I even know that there's nothing but enemies there? And I don't see a reason why it should be different here. I hate it when I enter a dungeon with strangers and they storm off immediately doing their wall-to-wall pulls before I even have the time to take a look at the map. If everyone uses a strategy like that, I can do that same dungeon ten times and still not know the least about the mechanics and layout. Yes, I can read up on the internet beforehand as you suggest, but that can't be the way it's supposed to be, can it?
10:06 Also don't forget that pretty much every boss fight is initiated by the player so even if you big mitigations are on cooldown, just wait a minute. Tell everyone to grab a drink and a piss, hopefully not at the same time, and get back to it. I haven't encountered too many try-hards in FFXIV that are too fussed to wait a sec for a good cooldown to come back. Most people would rather waste 1 minute waiting than 20 minutes recovering.
This is my only MMO and my first run as a tank was average. But my nature get all heat and mitigation; this is my real world martial arts concept and seemed to match the tank.
There is guide video to every dungeon on the internet, with move list for every boss, sometimes move have extra warning noted on it, like "heavy party-wide dmg, healers watch out" or "tank buster, tanks should mitigate the hit". And enemies have castbars which show name of oncoming move. Aoe markers, stack markers and "get away from me" -markers are ingame things. WoW has adventure guide ingame to tell all these things too, but since no one seems to remember it is there, without addons it would be way more painful to play. There is also community difference. In FF after wipe, people that realize what went wrong, tell party what move they need to watch out next time and everyone adjusts. In WoW, wipe is always "healers cant heal, tanks cant keep aggro to save their lives, dps havent simmed their shit and changed talents accordingly, who doesnt have deadly mobs and bosses on etc." -fingerpoint experience, with no one checking the guide what move caused the wipe and what disables that move from happening. But I've seen in both games that if you type critical info in party/alliance/raid chat before the fight, some wont read, some get irritated and respond "everyone knows this already" and rest of them are silently actually reading and learning about the fight.
No, not natively. We don't have Deadly Boss Mobs or similar things like WoW does - there are ways to emulate those features, but they're not supported natively.
@@SmokingManSan That seems like a rule they don't enforce because I've seen streamers have dps recounts and they stream often. Nothing happens to them and anyone can go to their stream and see they're using mods.
If you have some friends ask if they will help you out every time I try to teach a new tank I heal for them and have them wall to wall and practice it. I think it’s very important to go out of your comfort zone. Good video 10/10
@@AlZahard yeah I try to teach early on failure is something that should happen I heal them and let them fail if they did something wrong. Failing in life and in games when your trying to get better is not a negative it's a necessary part of improving. Let yourself make mistakes don't be afraid of them they are the best teachers.
I really have to thank my company squadron. The man not be the best AI but they do their jobs well enough so I can ease into different roles and new jobs, at least in the lower level content.
Here is another tip for new players as a tank main. Do not get a big head when you tank, you are not above anyone by taking on the role, you are not special. Try to not become one of those whiny entitled types that feel like you are the "leader" and that your word is law, to many fragile people that try tanking take on this mentality and they get ego trip from this.
I saw bunch of high level people scream iron will at tank. As a new player starting off as healer, I was wondering why some mobs still went to dps. It did help me learn healer at a rapid pace though...lol
That's trial by fire :p I was going to include "turn on your stance" in the guide but it felt condescending lol. Still not sure why stance isn't on by default for tanks.
@@AlZahard I'd imagine it'd make things awkward for 8-man and 24-man. 2 tanks just staring at eachother, then one drops stance sooner and the other just has to accept that they're MT now. (also syncing removes all buffs and stances, including tank stance. Since it doesn't happen if you don't sync, the inconsistency keeps tripping people up. pls fix, Yoshi-p)
Yesterday, nearly each tank pulled to much, even when he had low items or it was clear, that the others had low items to and needed long time, to kill one group. Why must tanks run the half Floor, before he stop?^^
Arms length is something I never touched for ages until another person told me that it adds slow. >< I had been tanking since I began and learned that at around level 55 or 60. Was emberassing.
WAR is probably the most straight-forward tank to learn - it definitely has the most forgiving rotation and is the strongest Main Tank at the moment :)
I’m a white mage main now leveling scholar the pain I feel when I see a non sprout preced to over pull without any constant from the party is indescribable and preceded to blame me for there death when I can’t out heal the damage and they don’t pop invulnerable
It was today I was told to use my LB as tank. I didn't do it, not because I'm a stubborn bastard but because 1. I was so shocked someone was asking for it and 2. I didn't even have it on my bars
im a brain dead dps main but ive learned how to do casual content as a tank and i HIGLY recommend taking a few minutes to learn how to casually play tanks. when i see players that have some experience in the game not wall to wall or use mitigation made me die a little on the inside because its only making it harder for everyone else from what ive experienced. its understandable not to when theres a new player but id usually ask if im tanking if the healers are okay with big pulls
Let's not forget about the best mitigation in the game. Shield bash 100% mitigation you can rotate between mobs. Been preaching it since 2.X AK and WP speed runs
Not too bad, about the same as playing as a DPS. Targeting enemies is much easier than targeting allies and you just need one target close enough to spam AOE anyway to secure aggro.
Hello: Played Tank in several MMO's and actually your guide makes me to try FF XIV as well. Which Tank would you recomment? You said Paladin is always second Tank. Makes me feel not to go for it, or does it still have it's uses?
Hey man, welcome to the rabbit hole! PLD is a really strong tank - it's just preferred as off-tank as it does more damage that way and handles specific mechanics better as off-tank instead of main tank. PLD can run as main tank in most content if needed, especially if the PLD has significantly better gear than the other tank. The easiest tank to learn is probably Marauder which turns into Warrior at level 30. The rotation is fairly straight-forward and very satisfying - plus the huge amount of self-sustain is very nice. Feels good to be independent from the healers. I'd recommend you play WAR until you unlock DRK around level 50 in the Heavensward storyline, or wait until level 60 when you can unlock Gunbreaker - then you give all the tanks a try and see what speaks to you the most. Rest assured, all tanks are equally viable at all levels of content - it's just that each tank plays a bit differently in terms of mitigation and rotation. They're all quite fun and engage you in different ways. Gunbreaker is fast and full of combos, Paladin combines ranged magical damage with physical damage, Dark Knight has a high skill ceiling with attacks that hit hard and require you to manage your mana, and Warrior goes unga bunga and crits like a boss.
Reprisal and Arm's Length is another thing that people always leave out and forget about in dungeons. Use them in big pulls for dungeons.
Aaaaah I knew I forgot to add something.
Arm's length is so good now. That slow is amazing for trash. =))
I agree Arm's Length is OP and should be used more
low blow is also free and nice in dungeons
Arm's Length (with Leg/Foot Graze) saved my 🍑 as a MCH once when my team died, allowing me to burn the dungeon mob down while running away till I could use LB. Team came back to find me Step Dancing 😎💃🏽🎉
Thank you for the guide. I am a dragoon main that recently took up tanking, but was suffering from tanking anxiety for awhile. I feel like this guide will really help.
I hope it helps! As DRG you already have the fundamental positioning skills down, just a matter of getting used to the rest of the role now :)
You were already tanking the whole time
@@Murasame13 No that’s back in XI
@@Murasame13 The floor?
Played tank in WoW for about 8 years.
Recently started tanking in FFXIV.
A message to those trying the game after playing WoW:
Tanking in this game should not scare you. The dungeons are largely very linear so you don’t need to know what to pull and where to go like in a Mythic+ dungeon. Plus the duty timer is very forgiving in that it gives you more than enough time to complete the dungeon even with some wipes, unlike in WoW. Most large attacks that bosses and trash mobs do are also very easily avoidable or mitigated, unlike in WoW.
This game is very very new player friendly and the stress associated with high-end dungeons in a game like WoW is almost nonexistent. Have fun, kick ass, and enjoy the beautiful music.
This! its basically tank stance up. Use cooldowns when u take alot of damage.
Single target on 1-2 mobs and aoe on 3+
@@frozencloudzzful Actually, tanks and healers are better off AoEing as long as there's more than 1. Healers, because total damage dealt is still higher even if there's only one other mob, tanks, because it makes enmity retention easier.
I just want to say that I just picked this game up a week ago and this video is a god send. I gravitated immediately to tank, but was unaware of just HOW difficult this class is to learn. I have scoured the internet for information to explain what in the actual fuck is going on and came up incredibly empty handed until your video. I am very new to MMOs. Thank you for taking the time to explain enmity to a higher degree and touching on mitigation. I have been focusing so much on pulling enmity that I have been overwhelmed with any mitigation skills. Most guides just explain your damage rotations and tell you what your mitigation skills do (I can read them in game you dummy). For the time being I'm going to focus less on doing damage and making sure that I'm paying attention to my mitigation cooldowns. Thank you.
This is a rad video. Thanks. Mitgation is definitely somewhere I'm struggling as a new player. I definitely feel overwhelmed by all the tools at my disposal. I'll come back to this video a couple of times.
As a SCH main, and recently picking the 'Sword and Board' This is a timely and invaluable Cliffs Notes of Tanking.
I've found remembering to turn 'Tank Stance' on at the start of a dungeon something I've forgotten to do far too many times than I wish to admit.
I forgot tank stance on one of my first times tanking. now i always remember cuz... that was a disaster.
Tank stance turns itself off every time you lvl sync too, which is ass but if you're playing tank it's something you need to check.
I didn't even know what a "tank stance" was in my first dungeon, because the ability doesn't have the word "tank" or "stance" in it. Lol!
The thing about losing your way in dungeons is something I needed to hear when I started. I had been wanting to try tanking, but things like Haukke Manor made me feel like I would be the worst tank ever. I had to go back through and solo it once I got to a high level SCH and just memorize the path and what keys I had to get and where to use them before I even felt comfortable getting tanks to 30.
Glad I could help. Dungeons after ARR get much more linear in their design, which I appreciate. But for the older ones, I definitely ran through them unsynced as well to get used to their layouts. Keep at it :)
Honestly, set a macro that just puts in party chat “hey, don’t really remember the layout of this place. If anyone else does, feel free to take the lead”. It’s what I do bc like fuck do I remember all the ways to go in the ARR dungeons
As a current sprout I really appreciate when we all get a little lost cause that's what happens when you're new. It's tougher when everyone else already knows what they're doing to the point I'm self conscious of even looking down the wrong direction.
Didn’t see you mention it here but Arms Length is an ability you learn near level 32 on most melee classes, tanks included. It slows enemies attacks down when they strike you by 20% for 12 seconds. Really helps sometimes in giant pulls because of how much of a total DPS down it is on the enemies attack cool downs.
Your introduction reminded me of every duty I've run on AST where the tank wall-to-wall pulls and never uses a cool down mitigations because "those are only for boss fights"
I love tanks running into boss fights to pop 2 mitigations on auto attacks while the healer is having a heart attack trying to sustain them through wall to wall pulls :)
LOL!
Holy shit. I never knew about the flashing cast bar.
Same here. I was beginning to think that it was a matter of level. XD
Thanks for this info!
I’ve met some really bad healers too trying to level a paladin recently. Had my friend play along who mains a tank tell me many times “your healer is bad don’t pull at all” or he’d say “mitigate” at a boss fight cause healer was too busy doing dps and not paying attention to tank buster moves…. So I guess it goes both ways.
Thanks for the video it was very helpful and encouraging as a new tank.
Sprout here. Glad to learn that I was pretty much following everything here except for the mitigation math and the enemy icons for aggro. Great guide!
Glad to help! Enjoy your sprout icon while you can, I really miss mine :D
Here's hoping they use the "play as a scion" schtick, to teach sprouts how to tank/heal/DPS.
Especially tank, from my experience, limited though it may be, tanking absolutely needs an in-game tutorial.
The most difficult part of tanking is realizing I cannot trust anyone to heal well except myself. I've mained White Mage for years so seeing what other a large chunk of White Mages and healers do while I'm tanking makes me die inside...and often on the outside due to their janky heals. It's like a gamble on whether I get the healer that spaces out spamming their AoE and forgets to heal or the healer that refuses to let me go below 95% health and is constantly wasting their mana on overhealing.
Agreed. Definitely agreed. As a WHM main myself when I am tanking solo without my fc mates 9 out of 10 times I get a healer who does not know how to properly heal or one that simply "forgets" healing.
Ps: even had a guy who did not have both afflatus AND benediction on their hud.
There needs to be a tutorial breaking down regen healing. People need to realize how much passive healing can negate the need for all but infrequent burst heals. WHM regen is 1200-1400 potency depending on tick timing. That's beefy.
If you play healer you wish to be the tank, if you play tank you wish to be healer and if you play in PF you wish to be able to clone yourself 7 times.
The most difficult part of healing is dealing with new tanks. lol
@@daviewaviee6079 And the added benefit that they are EXTREMELY mana efficient for how much healing they do
Best honest trailer about tanking.
Love the tone and the straightness, especially at the end when comparing tank group survival responsability against DPS (afk spamming macros gameplay) or even healer. Been here on and off since 1.0, and pld is my main job, but few yearly pauses make me learning all basics all over again. Came back to ff14 few days ago, feeling like a total sprout, and those types of guides are exactly what we tank need to watch. Cheers !
Pro tip: Arm's lentgh is a good mitigation that most people dont even now it has a mitigation effect.
A Mentor actually giving valuable advice? Bravo to you, sir. Brilliantly done video, and a good amount of wit (I especially liked the bit about blocking the players that flame newer tanks, or flaming those still trying to learn the role. "F'k them.")
I'm barely half-way to need the commendations needed to unlock battle mentor... and the only reason I'd want to in the first place is because I want the mount :D
Not sure if I'd go for it, even for the mount. I like the idea of the Mentor System, but there's a lot of negativity aimed at it by the general masses.
Still, though, thank you for being one of the exceptionally good ones!
@@lanorenbelmont2809 The mentor system deservedly gets a lot of flak IMO... so I'll just stick with my crafting mentor crown ;)
Super helpful for someone like me with tank-xiety and who only plans to tank in dungs. And especially since I'm playing on console right now I dont have a mouse to easily click on enemies to ranged attack/provoke them when someone else aggros them, or I cant easily hover over boss buffs/debuffs to read them. So I get mad anxiety about tanking overall.
4:15 it’s worth noting that SE had the dumb idea to remove the ‘increased enmity’ special effect on everything but your ranged attack, so pulling with only your aoe move, especially uncombo’d mythril tempest, will only go so far. you can even see in the footage the dancers easily ripping aggro off you.
in general you’ll need at least two aoe attacks of some form to hope to match the enmity gain of just using your ranged attack (which is a better pull method in some cases like this one where ranged > provoke > ranged > ranged while sprinting past to the next room would hold all four enemies till you get to the next set, for warrior at least)
as red mage it’s common for me to rip aggro off tanks who think just one aoe attack is enough. in stormblood it might’ve been but sadly it changed.
Very true. It's also why I'm poking at WAR's ability to AOE, cause you need to land the Overpower to even get your combo'd AOE. It might have been worth mentioning that DPS players should bring enemies to the tank so they have an easier time tagging them if they lose aggro - I'll include it in my DPS guide.
I've been maining tank (drk specifically) for a while now and these tips are fantastic! These are just things all tanks should know regardless of where they are in the game.
Another thing to note for my fellow sprouts, during a realm reborn levels the equip recommended gear button can often equip dps gear and not tank gear so pay atention to it.
I'm currently a lvl 63 whm aspiring to be an asteologian but I was interested in tanking, thanks for the video. :)
63 Paladin now :P
Thanks alot mate. Im a new tank and was very surprised about the amount of dungeon content in the game. I watch a video before every dungeon but alot of them don't cover the trash pulls in the dungeon and i feel like i could be doing bettter. This video helped alot.
Glad I could help. Keep tanking!
I didnt realize damage mitigation wasnt additive. Thank you!
My stat till i saw this video was to wait till i was less then 50% health and then pop all my defensive CD. I realize the error of my ways.
Thank you, i already leveled all my tanks to 80 and i still learn new things here. I will pass this video to my friends who will pick up tanking
Please do!
as a brand new tank this is really helpful thank you...and i apologise for the bad tanking!!
I was flamed hard in the first mandatory raid for not knowing the mechanics. It was also the first time I was in a full party with 2 other tanks and I was overwhelmed. We were getting messed up (2 tanks down, 2 healers down and a lot of DPS down) and the other tanks were pissed off and letting me know all about it in the chat. But then something just clicked and I somehow got the situation under control and survived what I thought was a wipe. They stopped flaming afterwards, they were actually pretty chill and gave me some tips for the other bosses.
Greatest feeling I've ever had from an MMO.
“Alliance B is always main tank.”
Primal server tanks: “I must show dominance by being the alpha tank.” *gets provoked by PLD* “You dare challenge the alpha!?” *steals aggro naturally *
I don't know anything about alliance raid rules but today I was dpsing in crystal tower and the tank in my alliance (A) went full caps lock in alliance chat to shout that alliance A is main tank and I'm like there's rules for that?
That's the general rule over on JP servers but I think it only extends to Aether on NA. I've NEVER encountered it on Crystal (where my main is) and Primal (where my alt is) despite having 80s on both, as a tank. Whichever tank throws up stance and rushes ahead, he's the Main Tank. If someone else decides that Provoke is part of their rotation, then they've just promoted themselves to Main Tank instead.
@@remarus Yeah, I’ve always went with the “first come, first serve”
on light it’s kinda weird because everyone simply has their tankstance on and the highest dps is maintank lol
@@remarus Same on my server , there is no alliance B stuff. Whoever go in ahead or just announce themselves on chat is the tank.
This is a good guide! The icon tip was something I really wish the game explained, I’m very new to the game, started earlier this week. I enjoy tanking so far, seems like the one class that a party always needs. Hoping once I moved from msq to doing a dungeon people are willing to be helpful
People are 99% of the time, very very helpful. Just tell them you're new! So many people don't say this and get wiped by easy mechanics that just need a basic explanation.
@@Murasame13 I find the hardest part is typing that I’m new while playing on ps4 with a controller 😂
Just coming to the game and maiming Gladiator, having quickly out leveling my friends I switched to healer and oh gods. Only managed 3 dungeons as not a single tank would use any aoe at all. Was a total nightmare. I did ask them to as well but not knowing all the skill names yet it went on Def ears.
Proper mitigation spacing and enemy placement I would say are the most important things to learn while leveling, enmity is easy enough to maintain if you have your "Iron Will" or equivalent buff up.
Appreciate the video. I’m coming back to game after a 4 year break and working on leveling up my Warrior
I agree with your frustration. I myself started as a white mage and for the most part love it. EXCEPT the issues with tanks not using the mitigation tools they have been given or ignoring agro. So eventually I ended up saying screw it and moved to black mage. Maybe in a few months I’ll return as a white mage or scholar. Until then it’s burn baby burn.
I've recently been playing DPS too and forgot how much less stressful it is... enjoy the big DPS!
Thanks so much for this guide. Just did my first dungeon and, using your tips, it went very well!
Nice work!
About time someone said that tanking makes you feel like you are doing 1v1 with the bosses, that is exactly the reason i have loved tanking in most MMO's over the years. I could not imagine having any other role as a main role, DPS classes can be fun but tanking is still way more epic. Oh and tanks and healers have this cool little bond between each other, if you are good on tanking role you will see a lot healers who would like to do stuff you and vise versa.
Thank you so much for this guide, as Yet Another Sprout, this is super helpful!
I main TANK, and everytime I drop off tank to play as a DPS for another friend who may only have a Tank Class, I see the differences even as a DPS player. In even lower dungeons I try to make it as less straining on my healers and even utilize potions throughout dungeons to give me that extra sustain. I'm always looking for situations to stun or even interrupt and slow enemies. Lots of tanks never utilize Arm's Length in Pulls and don't know how to space out their mitigation well. Good tanks always have answers for every pull. If they don't, they SHOULD let the party know let's pull slow till I get my mitigation up.
Additionally lots of Tanks I see have no spacial awareness for their team. Even the Off Tanks. Sometimes off tanks will stand right next to the MT. It's ridiculous.
A lot of tanks are staring at their hotbars, trying to get their rotation right which is a common thing among anyone learning a new job... it's just much more punishing on tanks. Arm's Length is something I had notes on but didn't manage to include in the video, but it's such good mitigation.
4:15 I started playing about 2-3 weeks ago and I have a lvl 52 paladin now but this still troubles me. For one, I keep getting lost when dungeons have multiple paths and objectives (like get this key to unlock the door). And two, I'm not comfortable to wall to wall so I pull 2 groups at a time and if I push myself I will pull a 3rd every now and then.
Even though I have these problems I still love paladin because the rotation is straight forward, queue is shorter than dps, and I don't need to move (unless aoe)
I never paid much attention to dungeon maps as dps, even ones I'd run a lot. So when I started tanking it helped me to watch a video first, then go on dps and make a note of the layout and mob placement, then go on my tank. Though of course this only works if you have a dps to do this with.
Another thing when it comes to mitigation is tanks BY DEFAULT have 20% damage reduction (Tank Mastery trait lvl 1), so tanks, please bear this in mind when your allies are getting hit by something, they have like 70% your health, resistances, and take the full damage of every hit. This is why making sure you have enmity is so important, enemies are balanced around hitting tanks :)
When it comes to tank swaps it's usual for the off tank to provoke, then you shirk them, otherwise the enmity doesn't stack the way it should and can be stolen if you are a higher damage tank.
Ah yes, we call that Tank Mastery trait... "tank privilege." :D
first off, awesome guide. 2nd off, my wall of text is definitly not directed at you its just my general rant lol.
so i havent played for about a year and a half and just came back. but back when i played constantly, ive personally only done a bit of tanking but i alwayys worry im gonna be bad so its nice to see some info even as a 1.x player because god..tanking scares me xD. now as for the wall to wall. i mained sch till halfway through stormblood and while i didnt main them i was aslo up to date on whm till stormblood. i wasnt a bad healer by any means, even doing some of the early savage stuff with groups. i will say, even as a good healer, even with a good tank, i HATE wall to wall. its ALWAYS been stressful in my opinion. i hate people that force it and i hate that people try to reccomend it as a normal esspecially in a PUG/daily.. its NOT a normal thing its NOT how things are generally supposed to be played. like, doenst matter if the healer or tank is new, or the healer or tank is seasoned and good. i atleast prefer healer and tank discussing what they prefer to do. for me personally, i dont care if it takes an extra 10 minutes in the dungeon, id rather take a little extra time and not wall to wall then have to wall-wall and freak out about shit. lol.
i understand everyones different but wall to wall is horrible and if people cant handle taking a few extra minutes in a dungeon and want to blast through on high then they should do it with a pre built group they can trust. a pug daily roulette group is one that should be accepted that it very much may not happen.
rant aside, again. awesome video and thanks for the info for tanking. one day i may try to get into it again. i got war to 60ish but never really did much for pugs with it out of fear of being terrible lol. i generally stick to my heals (rip sch) and dps. =D
I never go wall to wall while tanking. Naturally, when healer says to pull more, then I pull more. I've had healers who run ahead of me or use rescue to pull me towards more enemies, but it's rare. More often healers seem to like it when I don't cause anxiety by pulling everything. Or they don't want to say anything and I'm being optimistic :D
As a side note, DRK and WAR became easier to use ever since tp was removed.
@@Lurker1991 Rescue you into mobs, good gravy that is a shitty thing for a healer to do.
@@Lurker1991 Dang, couldn't be me. I love wall to wall. It's exhilarating, especially as WHM when you're just holying.
@@spring1610 I simply regard it as one way to say "pull more, plz". I don't mind, so far all rescuers have been good healers.
Thank you, I'm trying to learn how to play a tank for the first time and this was really, really helpful
17:56 I really, really wanted you to say “or watch me whip, watch me nae nae” there
Thanks for the video! I'm leveling a tank now, still level 25 haha but I'm already struggling a bit. Its' nice to tank in this game, but the thing is I need to get used to the mitigations, because I comes from games where mitigations where more "spammable", here they are few seconds and the recast is like minutes. It's not necessarely a bad thing, on the contrary I think it could be more intriguing like this, because you can think of a strategy while you are leveling and it's not just spam some buttons, I just need to get use to it.
I'm a Monk main that just started Tanking (Warrior), and my constant thought is 'Oh god, would this piss me off?'. If yes, I know that after this dungeon I'm kicking my own ass. Teach me to do stupid shit like that again.
Great vid! This goes a long way to helping me manage my tank anxiety.
I main dark knight and I didn't know about how interrupt worked. Thanks for the advice!
It's one of those things where you're not sure why it's not included in the in-game tutorials. I've wiped several times on savage fights like E7S where the tank just didn't know they had to interrupt mechanics....
@@AlZahard So does interjection only work on specific attacks/mechanics? Lowblow should be my go to interrupt 90% of the time?
@@ryanneilan3223 yeah, Interject only works on flashing cast bars. Low Blow should be your go to on mobs that have a dangerous cast and that can be stunned. A good example is the succubus mobs in Haukke Manor, that cast a big AOE which can be hard to dodge in corridors. Interject won't work, but low blow will interrupt their cast as they can be stunned. Low Blow won't work on any bosses and most elite mobs that are stun resistant. This is why WHM is so strong in dungeons, as Holy can stun for up to 7 seconds and interrupt most mob casts.
@@AlZahard Thanks for that!!
I have over 1000 hours in this game, a PLD at level 80, and I had no idea the flashing cast bar meant it could be interrupted. I would just use interject sporadically and see what worked.
Apparently that was the norm back in the day, too. Not sure in what patch they added the flashing cast bar, but it's important to know for some fights.
There are abilities that can be only interrupted if you stun the enemy, but they don't seem to have a indicator, so that one's more of a trial and error situation.
Commenting to applease the allmighty algorithm.
More eyes need to see this vid. As someone who recently returned to 14 (again) and really wants to get into tanking (for reals this time!) I know mine did. Thanks for making it!
Thanks for sharing!
I've been playing SCH and its really fun, haven't had any issues until recently. Got into a Somh Al run and the tank didn't use stance at all. So aggro was bouncing around everyone like crazy and I was stuck constantly healing. We asked him to turn tank stance on and he didn't listen until the last 3/4s of the dungeon. After that, they refused to use their CDs, so I was still stuck spamming heals. I asked if he could at least use CDs on the last boss so I can actually DPS and he hit me with "no, you're a healer. You don't need to dps, just focus in healing." I don't know if they were new or just an asshole, but I honestly hate being a healbot in dungeons
Sounds like an asshole lol. You get people like that from time to time - the blacklist is your friend.
That happened to us, we just kicked the tank out. I warned him multiple times, even let him die, he never turned it on.
as a tank main who does savage tier raiding, i have never not gotten dropped into haukke manor and *not* gotten the party tragically lost ngl. it's ok, someone will always know the map🤣 unless you're all sprouts, in which case nobody knows so o7
only thing i'd add is rec keeping an eye on the party hp list + minimap, since in some places it can be hard to see adds and then oh shit suddenly someone is dead (if you haven't tagged an enemy at least once it won't show up in your aggro list). if you play with a keyboard, you can cycle thru the emnity list with tab and grab them with your ranged pull.
something nice for your healer is keeping an eye on cast bars for raid/party wide aoes- if you aren't sure if something is a tb or raid wide, reprisal it just in case. (in raids, if the reprisal icon is already on the boss, don't use yours bc it won't stack.)
one thing that really helps after getting the hang of tanking- pick up a healer class! it's already easier if you know one or the other than going from dps to either, bc you mainly have to watch the same things (cast bars). plus then you know what your healer wants you to be doing, as a tank or vice versa. it also gives you a feel for what your healer can handle based on the dungeon lv, the player's skill, etc. and you can adjust accordingly.
As a new player who started as a healer I got really confused every time I ran a dungeon and hardly had to heal, Only for the next run to be sweating profusely while spamming cute 2 and still having the tank die on me.
I got blamed almost every time and it honestly made me not want to play healer because I didn’t know what I was doing wrong.
I have an 80 DRK and recently leveled up my PLD from 20 to past 60, and I must say, going big pulls will most of the time get you killed, even with mitigation the adds hit like a truck think people forget that you actiually have to gear up through the grind as well. The Aoe below l60 dungeons is also quite bad.
Watched your leveling guide and now this. Got a subscription from me. Some really good info in these videos. Keep it up, my dude!
One of the best guides I have seen so far. Well done!
Glad you enjoyed it!
it was pretty interesting to remember all this before coming back to do our thing ;)
Thank you for this video. Super easy to watch and concise. Just started my journey in FFXIV as a pally eventually movin up to gunbreaker.
Great to hear! Both PLD and GNB have involved DPS rotations - try DRK or WAR if you'd like the less weaving-heavy approach to tank damage :D
@@AlZahard I’ll keep that in mind thank u! :)
Ok, this is basic and this HELPS a lot, I've been playing for some time about to start Shadowbringers, i totally didn't know about that cast interrupt indicator so Interject its not useless, also its good to remind of those icons on enemy list.
And people wonder, "Why so few people playing tanks?" Why most duty finder "Waiting for a tank" Haha. When u get a really good tanks paired with a really good healer, u felt like they're unkillable. Its true. When u get a bad tank... ohhhh ur in a world of hurt.
Play on Crystal-Zalera as a WHM main. Leveling Tank and DPS is a pain with 7min+ queues. Everything is always Healer needed around here. Tanking is not really that hard in basic content and I recommend everyone give healing and tanking low level dungeons to grasp abilities and pace.
I just wish caster/range DPS would also be prepared to lb3 break during trash pulls. Tank or no, there is an easy way and a hard way to play each role through story: low risk is slow, but guaranteed to stay up; high risk is fast with good chance of wipe when something goes wrong. You just go high risk until it doesn't work, then pull back. Dying isn't really a big deal at the end of the day.
9:39 the math is a little wrong here. There is no actual "losses". The mitigation is working as it is, thinking they should add up additively is more of the wrong way to think about it. You have no losses, you're getting the 30% and 20% mitigations as it is mathematically when you consider it in terms of effective HP.
The reason to split it up is simply just to prolong the amount of time where your health and heals and regen can keep up rather than topping out and wasting the additional heals.
thank you for the great video my fellow Elemental Tank
I like leveling multipole jobs together. I'm playing on a trial account. The first few times I play through a dungeon, I go in as ranged DPS, then I go in as a healer. The whole time I'm watching the tank, especially the good ones, to learn how they go about things. And - yes, I even learn from the bad ones about what not to do. When I finally do go in as the tank I let everyone know that it's my first time tanking that dungeon and would appreciate help where necessary. All of those experiences have been amazing mostly because the FF14 community is amazing. Also, playing all 3 roles, helps with perspective.
Thanks a lot for the guide, I try to do my best but as tank sprout (lvl 58, hopefully I’ll get GNB, PLD is so boring to me) my main issue is when to use the cooldowns. I come from a game where you’re supposed to save them for a boss but in FFXIV it’s different apparently
Edit : thanks also for the trick for assholes, only met 2 and everyone else and runs went fine, but it stings especially when you’re used to always play DPS and try to do your best as a tank.
Hello, I'm still very new to tanking and MMOs altogether, so this tutorial is super helpful, thank you! I have a question if anyone could answer: What are signs/big tells to look for to gauge your party's experience e.g. if the "healer is good".
A lot of videos mention that as a tank you need to gauge how experienced your party members are. It sounds like you should be able to tell at the beginning of the dungeon in your first pulls. When I'm leveling people are rearing to start running immediately, so it's kind of hard for me to tell who is who and how good they are....that and I'm still getting used to keeping track of Everything on the screen (I only recently started using the chatbox more LOL). Of course if I'm not dying, that's a good thing, but I'm not sure what else I should be eyeing for. Any tips?
There's a few things you can do, but the simplest would be to just ask. I like to right click the healer (and tank!) in my party list and have a quick look at their search info - is this their first healer job, and do they normally play other roles? That's an easy indicator for experience, but it's not always accurate. I've met plenty of healers that were level 80 on all jobs and still struggled, so that's something to keep in mind. If asking doesn't work, do a medium-sized pull (around 2 packs of enemies) first and see how close you get to dying while using standard mitigation. That should give you a good indicator of how experienced the healer is :)
@@AlZahard Alright, I'll keep those things in mind. Thank you for the advice! :D
This video is very helpful. I didn't know that you can see the aggro in the enemy list, for example. I la ymainly healer, but I haven't got a class to 80 yet, but I have a DRK lvl 54. Thank you for this
For me, my pet peeve is when tanks use provoke in their rotation. Like whenever it's off cooldown tanks use it. No. Stop it. It's pointless if you grab hate and keep attacking. Use it for swaps or if you happen to lose hate...and if you lose hate it (in a dungeon) it's cause you're not attacking something (or your stance is off)
by „hate“ you mean aggro, right ?
FF14 is my first MMORPG and I wanted to swing a big fucking sword as a Dark Knight one day. So I naturally jumped into a tank role to begin with having no clue whatsoever how to tank. I just knew there are tanks in parties.
Thanks to guides like yours I hopefully will be able to avoid common mistakes.
I feel you, literally the only reason I am tanking is because I want a sword and shield with badass plate armor. I figured if I was going to take up the role of tank I should at least learn as much as possible to try and prevent making simple mistakes regularly. Good luck on your tank journey!
There one thing when pulling wall to wall and if you lose 2 mobs enemity, one it is use Provoke and the other use your pull skill example in PLD Shielf Lob since this skill use enemity points.
On 24 Raid man an unspoken rule in Chaos/Cerberus NEVER USE PROVOKE to win the AGRO over other tanks.
I always test the healer and DPS on a smallish pull first, if they don't keep healing up and the dps struggle with aoe then I hold back.
Damn I felt like he was talking to me personally, cause Im currently lvling all the tanks at same time (sharing same tanking gear). Thx for advice!
"Tank is the most unforgiving."
Ye...
Was still new to the game, on ps4, ended up picking up the Odin side boss; and got murdered. Got flamed a bit, and the other tank took up my slack. Felt real bad, i ended up taking a break.
Came back later, switched over to DPS, and it help feel less stressed, and scout out a dungeon without needing the full help of a guide (could watch a guide video on repeat during que times :'|)
then when i unlocked DRK and GNB, it help revitalize my want to be a tank.
I love that the POV is over-it healer.
And as well, please keep in mind how much MP the Healers have. If you just had a battle don't rush into another one, look over at the healer and see how much MP they have and wait if it is not maxed
Why is Paladin always an off-tank? I thought being almost immortal fits the job of a main tank and focusing more on dps suits more off-tank. I have zero experience on tanking, but interested to jump in. This video was really good, thanks.
iirc its because paladin has the best raid wide mitigation but his self mitigation is not great
I would like to reiterate that your Tank stance increases the agro you gain on ATTACK. So if you pull a large group of mobs, please continue to use your AoE skills. If you switch to single target and focus one enemy in that group, over time your other party members will rip the agro of the other enemies off of you.
3. "guide" ive watched and first guide where i actually learned something, thanks.
So far I've been absolutely flamed 2 separate times on my first dungeon runs. The first guy atleast gave me advice after it was all over. I have no idea where I'm going in any of these dungeons and my gear isn't good enough yet to do big pulls. I'm swapping to dps as soon as I possibly can.
I don't understand why people are so obsessed with clear times. I'm often playing RPGs, be it single- or multiplayer, and I usually clear the whole map, even the corners where there's nothing but enemies. And I think that's the way it should be, because how else would I even know that there's nothing but enemies there? And I don't see a reason why it should be different here. I hate it when I enter a dungeon with strangers and they storm off immediately doing their wall-to-wall pulls before I even have the time to take a look at the map. If everyone uses a strategy like that, I can do that same dungeon ten times and still not know the least about the mechanics and layout. Yes, I can read up on the internet beforehand as you suggest, but that can't be the way it's supposed to be, can it?
10:06 Also don't forget that pretty much every boss fight is initiated by the player so even if you big mitigations are on cooldown, just wait a minute. Tell everyone to grab a drink and a piss, hopefully not at the same time, and get back to it. I haven't encountered too many try-hards in FFXIV that are too fussed to wait a sec for a good cooldown to come back. Most people would rather waste 1 minute waiting than 20 minutes recovering.
This is my only MMO and my first run as a tank was average. But my nature get all heat and mitigation; this is my real world martial arts concept and seemed to match the tank.
as a summoner/scholar this was a big help, as I want to try gunbreaker out. :D
Does this game not have boss mods that tell you what the boss is going to do or announce vital information like in WoW?
they can ban for modding the game, it is against ToS
There is guide video to every dungeon on the internet, with move list for every boss, sometimes move have extra warning noted on it, like "heavy party-wide dmg, healers watch out" or "tank buster, tanks should mitigate the hit". And enemies have castbars which show name of oncoming move. Aoe markers, stack markers and "get away from me" -markers are ingame things.
WoW has adventure guide ingame to tell all these things too, but since no one seems to remember it is there, without addons it would be way more painful to play.
There is also community difference. In FF after wipe, people that realize what went wrong, tell party what move they need to watch out next time and everyone adjusts. In WoW, wipe is always "healers cant heal, tanks cant keep aggro to save their lives, dps havent simmed their shit and changed talents accordingly, who doesnt have deadly mobs and bosses on etc." -fingerpoint experience, with no one checking the guide what move caused the wipe and what disables that move from happening. But I've seen in both games that if you type critical info in party/alliance/raid chat before the fight, some wont read, some get irritated and respond "everyone knows this already" and rest of them are silently actually reading and learning about the fight.
No, not natively. We don't have Deadly Boss Mobs or similar things like WoW does - there are ways to emulate those features, but they're not supported natively.
@@SmokingManSan That seems like a rule they don't enforce because I've seen streamers have dps recounts and they stream often. Nothing happens to them and anyone can go to their stream and see they're using mods.
@@Lurker1991 Fascinating. Thanks for the information. The FFXIV community really is different.
If you have some friends ask if they will help you out every time I try to teach a new tank I heal for them and have them wall to wall and practice it. I think it’s very important to go out of your comfort zone. Good video 10/10
It's much easier to learn when you have an experienced healer at your back who knows what to expect :)
@@AlZahard yeah I try to teach early on failure is something that should happen I heal them and let them fail if they did something wrong. Failing in life and in games when your trying to get better is not a negative it's a necessary part of improving. Let yourself make mistakes don't be afraid of them they are the best teachers.
I have only seen wall to wall pulls on the main story raids :(
I really have to thank my company squadron. The man not be the best AI but they do their jobs well enough so I can ease into different roles and new jobs, at least in the lower level content.
Here is another tip for new players as a tank main. Do not get a big head when you tank, you are not above anyone by taking on the role, you are not special. Try to not become one of those whiny entitled types that feel like you are the "leader" and that your word is law, to many fragile people that try tanking take on this mentality and they get ego trip from this.
I feel like shit if I die or lose aggro or dont know my way around. Feel like im slowing everyone down.
I saw bunch of high level people scream iron will at tank. As a new player starting off as healer, I was wondering why some mobs still went to dps. It did help me learn healer at a rapid pace though...lol
That's trial by fire :p I was going to include "turn on your stance" in the guide but it felt condescending lol. Still not sure why stance isn't on by default for tanks.
@@AlZahard I'd imagine it'd make things awkward for 8-man and 24-man.
2 tanks just staring at eachother, then one drops stance sooner and the other just has to accept that they're MT now.
(also syncing removes all buffs and stances, including tank stance. Since it doesn't happen if you don't sync, the inconsistency keeps tripping people up. pls fix, Yoshi-p)
Yesterday, nearly each tank pulled to much, even when he had low items or it was clear, that the others had low items to and needed long time, to kill one group.
Why must tanks run the half Floor, before he stop?^^
I came from WoW and was used to high mythic plus tanking and it's actually quite similar.
I found dungeons in WoW much, much harder than in XIV
@@AlZahard yes but raid tanking is easier so its the other way around
Despite the direct and informative commentary. I think it's super cute you're in an actual TANK, ahahahaha.
Catgirl riding a tank while giving advice about tanking hits different
Tank in a tank, what can I say. :D
@@AlZahard you should also use the tank technician title while tanking in that tank 🤣
Arms length is something I never touched for ages until another person told me that it adds slow. >< I had been tanking since I began and learned that at around level 55 or 60. Was emberassing.
Same here, it’s totally embarrassing & I found out about it from another tank whilst in an Instance… LOL!
which tank can you recommend for easy tanking first time? I am white mage main and wanna level. Especially for the new addon wanna have a good tank
WAR is probably the most straight-forward tank to learn - it definitely has the most forgiving rotation and is the strongest Main Tank at the moment :)
@@AlZahard you think also good in new addon cause dont wanna level two tanks ^^
Even tho i don't particulary fall under the category of a sprout due to me tanking in other mmorpg's it still helped me a bit
I’m a white mage main now leveling scholar the pain I feel when I see a non sprout preced to over pull without any constant from the party is indescribable and preceded to blame me for there death when I can’t out heal the damage and they don’t pop invulnerable
good stuff. somewhat new and every good guide is something i treasure.
It was today I was told to use my LB as tank. I didn't do it, not because I'm a stubborn bastard but because 1. I was so shocked someone was asking for it and 2. I didn't even have it on my bars
im a brain dead dps main but ive learned how to do casual content as a tank and i HIGLY recommend taking a few minutes to learn how to casually play tanks. when i see players that have some experience in the game not wall to wall or use mitigation made me die a little on the inside because its only making it harder for everyone else from what ive experienced. its understandable not to when theres a new player but id usually ask if im tanking if the healers are okay with big pulls
I completely understand haha. There's nothing like getting stuck in a leveling dungeon only to kill trash packs one at a time :)
Let's not forget about the best mitigation in the game. Shield bash 100% mitigation you can rotate between mobs. Been preaching it since 2.X AK and WP speed runs
How do you get the flying thank?
It's buyable from the dwarven beast tribe once you reach reputation rank 7 with them :)
@@AlZahard in which expansion? :D
@@zsoltlang2144 Ah, you'll meet them in Shadowbringers around level 72 I believe
Thoughts on tanking with controller?
Not too bad, about the same as playing as a DPS. Targeting enemies is much easier than targeting allies and you just need one target close enough to spam AOE anyway to secure aggro.
@@AlZahard good to know. Yeah targeting anything specific is a real pain on controller.
What is that tank Mount and how do you get it?
That's the Rolling Tankard. You can buy it with beast tribe tokens once you achieve Rank 7 reputation with the Dwarf Tribe in Shadowbringers!
@@AlZahard thanks!
Hello:
Played Tank in several MMO's and actually your guide makes me to try FF XIV as well. Which Tank would you recomment?
You said Paladin is always second Tank. Makes me feel not to go for it, or does it still have it's uses?
Hey man, welcome to the rabbit hole! PLD is a really strong tank - it's just preferred as off-tank as it does more damage that way and handles specific mechanics better as off-tank instead of main tank. PLD can run as main tank in most content if needed, especially if the PLD has significantly better gear than the other tank.
The easiest tank to learn is probably Marauder which turns into Warrior at level 30. The rotation is fairly straight-forward and very satisfying - plus the huge amount of self-sustain is very nice. Feels good to be independent from the healers.
I'd recommend you play WAR until you unlock DRK around level 50 in the Heavensward storyline, or wait until level 60 when you can unlock Gunbreaker - then you give all the tanks a try and see what speaks to you the most.
Rest assured, all tanks are equally viable at all levels of content - it's just that each tank plays a bit differently in terms of mitigation and rotation. They're all quite fun and engage you in different ways. Gunbreaker is fast and full of combos, Paladin combines ranged magical damage with physical damage, Dark Knight has a high skill ceiling with attacks that hit hard and require you to manage your mana, and Warrior goes unga bunga and crits like a boss.
@@AlZahard thanks alot bro!