Here Tanky Tanky Tanky....

So far, I think we have 3 tanks: Gibsauce, Ironbars and Balor.  If anyone else is thinking about it or interested, please let us know.

The main perk will be that you will never be short of a group in our FC! Duty finder will love you!! Healers will swoon at the sight of you!!! You will be honoured and revered throughout Eorzea!!!! Connor will bake you cookies!!!!!

If you are not sure, and need some tank nerd talk time, Gib and Iron are in the know about all thinks tanky.

I am all for people playing the classes/jobs they love, so don't feel pressured.  This post is simply to identify people who want to play the class regardless of Connor's home baking efforts :)

I've been waiting for the obligatory "what class are you going to play" poll thread to see what people are playing before I 100% commit.

I'm considering going tank, I'm not too sure yet. Even if I do go tank, my son will be born middle of September (if he comes ON his due date, not sooner) so the chances of me being any sort of a "reliable" tank are low!!

Great news about your son Bivrip, that's awesome!

Paladin seems to be the "Tank of Tanks" correct?  From what I've been reading up on, Paladin is going to be the better single target tank, while warrior would be more a multi-target tank.

I'm going to have an archer and a warrior (whether or not they are the same character is up for debate still).

I wanna level the magic classes. I like the Idea of casting spells from a distance. of course getting into melee can be fun too but difficult in group battles at times. at least for me. especially when there's a tank running around wildly like in PVP

@ Luskin: I am repeating here what i said in the job/class thread for relevance:

 Pally works on mitigation and defensive capability, Warrior on high hp pool and regen - or at least that is what I picked up on during beta.

I agree with your comments on multi and single target tanking too.

Early congrats, Bivrip!

Suggestion/Tip: Looking a bit beyond the obvious mitigation skills to pick up - for situations where you decide to tank as either a Gladiator or

Marauder (rather than Paladin & Warrior), it might be in your best interests to consider leveling Lancer to 22 for Invigorate, which restores a

flat amount of TP on use (the flat value keeps getting updated, so we will see if this is still worthwhile after Beta Phase 4 launches). Running out

of TP can be dangerous during sustained fights (and a Bard may not always be available for Army's Paeon) where you may have had to "waste"

TP to regain aggro from overzealous pulls and/or ineffective (it can be useful sometimes), split DPS by the Damage Dealers (DD) in your party, or

if (at the opposite end of the spectrum), your DD are asleep at the wheel and fights run much longer than they should. Beyond that, perhaps you

yourself might be trying tanking out for the first time in FFXIV, and are not yet comfortable/situated with your TP/Enmity management. There's a

chance that you may burn through your TP without realizing it through spamming combos and abilities, and Invigorate could be a handy crutch

for you to lean on until you have grown comfortable in managing your resources efficiently (I know I wish I had it these last few Beta Phases).

Suggestion/Tip: Ironbars made another good suggestion some time ago regarding the slotting of Fracture for non-Marauder tanks (GLA/PLD).

The idea being that the DoT effect on secondary targets can help you manage threat for multiple targets a bit easier, by keeping a constant source

of damage ticking on them as you build (or regain), threat on other targets. You'll only have to level Marauder to 6 to have access to this skill.

As for your question Luskin, nobody can really speak on PLD/WAR effectiveness at end-game yet, besides Alpha/Internal testers. What I saw

after running tons of dungeons and FATEs up to level 35 was that early on (up to 15-20~ish), MRD seemed to have an easier time with threat

generation. After that, I went toe-to-toe with a few MRD's for fun on those last few days of Beta on my GLA, and only one was able to pull threat

off me, and he/she had 2 levels on me. So if I had to guess, I would imagine that both classes (and their respective jobs) even out in terms of

enmity generation. That being said, overzealous Damage Dealers could still easily pull aggro off me at the start of dungeon pulls, unless I blew

precious cooldowns to get them back. I read other tanks complaining about this too in many forums posts, accompanied by posts in defense of

DD stating what amounted to essentially, "well if tanks didn't suck, DD wouldn't pull aggro." /sigh Thankfully those players in the minority, and

more often than not we had some really solid players in our dungeon runs. And although it's another thing to add to the myriad of items to keep track

of as a tank, if you can get used to marking targets, it may help to minimize frustrations from split dps/aggro loss. Another thing I noticed, was

that when level synced down, I took a very noticeable hit to my enmity generation, despite having a better handle on my abilities and much

better gear. Hopefully that's been addressed with internal client updates.

Back to the friendly competition with those random MRD's, and particularly to the level 35 who pulled enmity off of me during a 35+ Fate boss;

he/she was getting absolutely demolished compared to my level 32 GLA (and I was in significantly worse gear by comparison). While I was able to

easily sustain my health by cycling cooldowns and setting my chocobo to healing stance (the two Conjurers there switched to DPSing the boss once

they noticed my hp barely budging), the MRD dropped to around 30-40% hp after blowing thier CDs, and Bloodbath + Chocobo heals wasn't making

up for the damage spikes they were eating...requiring the CNJ's to go full heal spam to save him/her after I stole threat back with Provoke. We

shared a laugh and talked briefly about it afterwards, comparing slotted skills, and my best suggestion for him/her was to not stand there and face

tank every weapon skill. I wouldn't even suggest eating avoidable weapon skills on a PLD, unless a boss mechanic made it a necessity to save the

group/raid, in which case I would hope Hallowed Ground or some other CD was available to mitigate/nullify the attack. More often than not, big

attacks are telegraphed in this game, and can be avoided while maintaining the boss' position to protect your party. This wasn't the only time I

noticed the difference in mitigation potential, but it was the most glaringly obvious one, even with the weapon skills aside. Like anything though,

the 5-6 times I really noticed the differences in mitigation potential were still very isolated incidents, and given new information (data mined skill

updates), those observations are not necessarily valid anymore.

I must emphasize that I also saw some fantastic MRD tanks while playing my PGL. And that I'll certainly be leveling both to have them available, as

I can appreciate the strengths both tank types bring to the table (and I might just want a new play style every now and then, but still want to tank).

The "unofficial" changes that have been data mined have shown some nice buffs for both sides, so I really don't think you can go wrong either way

at this point. They are both very good at what they do in the hands of experienced players, especially with a good group that is working with you,

not against you. Besides, I don't think they would show teaser vids hinting at Warriors tanking Behemoth if it wasn't possible (plus Warrior gear

looks beast!).

Well, I've been running sword -n- board tank for beta and while I've had a bit of a challenge getting the hang of keeping aggro (cue the Benny Hill music for Connor) if I have some patient players with me, I think I could get to liking the Paladin play style. We'll see come phase 4. 

Unfortunately I'm deathly afraid of tanking, I'm a health bar lover, so I'll probably stick with White Mage, sorry :(

I'm thinking more and more of going the tank route. I pretty much exclusively tanked in Rift up till near the end of my time there. Lalafell paladin? Sounding more and more amazing.....

Lol it will be like the gnome tanks in Wow.  Punt the gnome in UBRS brings back memories!

LOL

GNOOOOOOOOOME POOOOOOWAAAAAHHHHH! was my rallying cry back in WoW and EQ....

Nice discussion, Chris, and you get an A+ on formatting also!

That is some excellent info.

I am still undecided on either Paladin or Warrior.. definitely going to go tank at first tho.

/cheer at another tank joining us! Look forward to meeting you Makaira :)

I thought you could switch classes on the fly, negating a need for a player to commit to any single "role" ... is that not the case?

You cannot swap classes while aggroed, not sure if it will be allowed after a dungeon starts at all.

You can switch classes out of combat in the open world, but not in dungeons afaik. You are right about the role thing, but after the first job it may get a little more grindy even with the xp boost (this is conjecture!) Many of us (like me) with time constraints will pick one "main" to advance as far as possible and then have lots of other classes/jobs not quite as advanced. Others will level everything evenly.  But however people choose to level, we will always need tanks for dungeons, heroics and beyond, saves our dps waiting for hours in duty finder for things like instances and Ifrit.

(Shmi and Connor will level all the things, and be watching the end game credits before I hit level cap ;)

Also, for those players who like end game progression and raiding, a choice is necessary as to which role you will choose to roll on gear as. We have our initial raid leaders working on some guidelines as far as end game loot goes, but we will post all that stuff nearer the time. My understanding is that you have levelling dungeons through to cap, then heroics, then 8 person content, then 24 person content.

Yay for end game pve content!!! I can't wait to smash it!

Hm.  Maybe the idea of creating two different characters isn't so much of a waste of time, after all.  I still don't really understand the job system of this game.  I can't learn by reading, I have to learn by "hands on" and practice.

Since I have a lot of play time atm, I'm considering creating 2 characters... one for magic/DoM classes and the other for physical/DoW classes.  Obviously, we don't know for sure yet, but it seems like the cross-class skills are mostly segregated between DoM/DoW.  That way one can be banking rest XP and leve allotments (not to mention a complete set of quests and another GC log) while I play the other.  The downside is having to do all the basics a second time: getting a choco, raising GC rank, etc.

My short-term plan is to get the second toon to 10 and park it in an inn room, then revisit whether I still think this makes sense before the monthly subscription fee kicks in (because I understand the sub is cheaper for just one character).

If I were busy with RL (as Hex is) I'd definitely just stick to one character.

To my understanding - You get bonus stat points to allocate for each DoM/DoW class/level up you have, so on the whole your stats will be better if distributed across just one character.

Oooh, that's interesting Luskin. 

Do you mean the 20~50 (unknown total #, at present) bonus stats that we gain on your way to level 50, Luskin?

If so, I don't think you get "more" just for having multiple classes/jobs leveled up, do you?

I thought every combat class just gained access to a flat total of bonus stats that are "unlocked" as you gained in levels (until cap).

And also that the interface saves where you spent those points for each respective class/job, so you're not heavily penalized for switching classes.

Example:

• Let's say I gain 30 points total to spend upon hitting level 50 with my Arcanist.
• Now I decide to level my Lancer for a change of pace.
• At level 10 Lancer, I now have 3 bonus stat points which I can spend.
• I see some players in need of an Arcanist for the FATE "Leaping Lizzy's Revenge," or something.
• I switch back to Arcanist to help, and I still only have the 30 points I originally earned on that class, and not 33.

I thought that's the way the system was working these last couple beta phases, or did I miss out on a ton of stats? ._.

My thinking was the same as Lakshmi, but I did not know about the subscription differences.  Seems odd, but if its cheaper to have just one character, then that's the direction I'll probably go with, depending on extra costs and other factors.  

As for choosing a "holy trinity" role right now, unfortunately I can not decide until I have logged enough hours on my character to see how jobs and stuff feel to me.  I do usually choose a tank-ish support role (ie. Tabitha in GW2) but I've been migrating to ranged/hybrid DPS preferences over the last several years.  With this game, it might be quick or it might take several hundred hours, I won't know until I can level something that won't be deleted in a couple of weeks.

I reckon both ways will be valid.  Having one toon gives you an xp boost (the exact boost is still not confirmed as definite). Having more than one allows more sets of leve entitilements per day. We need more info, and the math formula! I think altaholics will always create many toons to experience the different stories.

I decided to stick to one main due to less time to play, but also in case crafting higher level rares is bop rather than boe. Plus my 1.0 Goobbue mount is my fave thing in the game, and I cannot be without it...ever!!!!

Hrm, the class system still confuses me to no end. I want to play a DoT character. Think Warlock in Warcraft or Magus in Warhammer. Not sure what class that would be in FF14, guides indicate it will probably be the Arcanist that will be available in Beta4. Second choice would definitely be the Monk.

I didn't refer to Monk as a DoTer, more like if a DoTer wasn't available then they would be an acceptable alternative, alot of MMOs don't have DoTer classes. However YAY Summoner looks like my goal, what a coincidence that the preferred race is the one I planned on being as well! :D!