ABC: Always Be Casting. The Ultimate Mantra to become a better player. Welcome to my lengthy Beginner’s Guide to all things a beginner will want to know! But don’t be afraid of the length, I cover a lot of topics you can implement now or later!
Here I will explain many topics that separate the good from the great tanks. Some topics more advanced than others, but topics you will still want to know and think about for later when you are ready. These topics almost all connect together with other ones.
Check the videos in the cards for more guide, and check for any other player suggestions in the comments below!
Music List External Link: https://imgur.com/a/gclnJu7
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/weskalber
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeskAlber
Discord: https://discord.gg/mbZkAgy3ej
Timestamps:
Welcome to ABC: 0:00
Introduction: 2:26
The Three Rules of Tanks: 6:40
The Three Rules of Tanks – Gear: 7:26
The Three Rules of Tanks – Stance: 10:44
The Three Rules of Tanks – DPS: 12:29
In Case of Emergency: Die: 14:27
Spin the Battle: 19:09
Dog not God: 22:16
Limbo: 27:08
Dealing With Trash – Dangerous Business: 29:02
Pull Size & Commitment: 39:25
Not Like, but Actually a Boss: 46:46
Swapping Gears – 8-man Content: 52:52
Play Other Roles: 58:46
Miscellaneous Topics: 1:00:51
ABC: 1:11:03
Outro: 1:19:13
FINAL FANTASY is a registered trademark of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
© SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.
#FFXIV #ABC #Tank
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Ok but anyone who doesn't love the Shiba Inu hat is a heathen and I do not think we can be friends.
Yay you actually did it!
Paladin tank here, I still don't exactly know how to use Holy Spirit. I've read the rotation, but every time I have tried to use it I find it very clunky. I don't see where the DPS comes in save in off-tank scenarios. Can you give me a few tips / ideas on why people use Requiescat and Holy Spirit?
Thank you Wesk! I never knew how using 2 mitigations at once worked. I shudder at where I'd be in this game without the help of guides, especially yours
Glad I could inspire the little talk about communicating when to use ultimates, lol.
We all know that the arbiter of who lives and dies is the healer
Always nice to remind new players that people don't need to immediately start massive pulls, I remember when I started and pretty much single pull in ARR and HW, learning is part of the experience and wish all people that try or are playing tank to never be discouraged.
Casual tanking is basically playing a DPS where you take the damage and get the healing.
man thank you so much for this lol this might get me back into tanking. i developed tankxiety (lol this word) sometime in my ffxiv hiatus and have been having the damndest time shaking it. which sucks cuz i used to love my DRK but now its one of the most unused jobs in my pool. i dunno. aside from the fact that i hate 'leading' so to speak, i kinda just have this "ill do my thing, you do your part, and we'll all come together somehow" mentality when it comes to the trinity. but when it comes to tanking, whatever you call it, leader, team player, meat shield.. people basically can't do their parts, unless you're always doing your part well. and while im good at what i do, it doesn't exactly come with the air of confidence that ill always be so 😣
I haven't watched yet but YOU ARE THE MAN!! This is exactly what I've been waiting for!
It should be "Always Be on Cooldown" in this case since only mages can cast. Also, thanks for the video. It helped me understand Gunbreaker better and I got mine up one level. Now I can grind up to 70 in Heaven on High and do the Tank Role Quest! 🙂
I absolutely love your way of speaking! <3
Pull until the wall stops you was the only tipp i got before this video
I'm glad other people enjoy tanking, because it's my least fav role.
Still, doing a bunch of tanking made me a better player, so no regrets.
the whole "you don't have to wait for the AOE animation to finish" is massively counter-intuitive and confused the hell out of newbie-me.
I'm still kinda surprised that that wasn't part of the basic training.
Ah Tanking. The role I’m forced to do because I’ve fallen in love with Gunbreaker but that I don’t mind doing because I get to play Gunbreaker.
Now lemme watch this guide despite being level 80 and having years of WoW tanking experience lol. Seriously though, great guide.
Thanks for the tips!
Most valuable tanking tip I’ve learned after completing all the non-savage/ultimate content in the game:
Watch out for the bees.
Seriously.
Final sting hurts man. More than most tank busters. Watch out for it, especially with multiple bees.
This can split to any dangerous enemy however. So if you need to do a small pull to make sure you survive fighting these dangerous enemies, do that. Not every pull needs to be wall-to-wall.
Wait is the intro card meant to say "An A Nidhoggs Production" and not "A Nidhoggs Production"?
9:12 More tanks need to do this!
USE YOUR STUN!
Nobody – and I mean nobody – does as good of a job as WeskAlber. Ridiculous. Sitting down to watch this whole thing now and so excited to learn a ton.
Thank you so much for this series! Tanking is the role I'm always apprehensive about and this video dispels so much misconception I have about the role. I've been lurking around your YT channel for a while and I seriously love that the way you lay out the content of your videos in a way that's very easy to follow for beginners and experienced players alike. Very in-depth but also very understandable! Great work and looking forward to more!
Dark knight has a line aoe with flood of darkness/shadow so drk especially needs to clump up enemies for selfish reasons as well as reasons to help the party
Why I don't tank in dungeons anymore:
Dungeon starts
Me: o/ big or small pulls? 🙂
Group: ….
Me: oooook then…
Pulls big
Group: OMG wtf why u pull whole dungeon i want to experience the game not speedrun!!!!111!!1!!!
or
Pulls small
Group: WTF trash tank pull big this isnt sastasha!!11!!!1!
Me: -_-
A tad hyperbole but it happens way too much, I only ever tank trials and raids cause theres like atleast a 40% chance people sperg out on me for like no reason, or blame me for shit that is clearly not my fault etc. Idk what it is with groups in dungeons, I've not even a single time had people get mad at me in raid content, even when something WAS my fault. I know I'm not some perfect amazing world first ultimate raider, but I know how to tank, I didn't play my first 700 hours tanking (and tanking in other MMOs prior) and not learn anything. It's just frustrating that I get shit from stupid ass healers for shit like "not using CDs" even though I very very clearly did. IDK whatever lol I play DPS now anyways. Sry rant over lol
Cannot agree enough about the recommended gear button being crazy, I got to level 50 on Warrior and didnt have ironworks tanking accessories on hand so it decided to put all my ironworks HEALING accessories on me
Thank you for these guides, as always! I've been leveling every job for my own Seto, and have gotten to the point where I only have tank jobs left, because I've been terrifed. Your white mage actions guide helped me get over my fear of healing a few months ago, so seeing a whole guide to actually tanking and not just actions is such a lifesaver.
53:55 "Do what I do and just give up"
Yup.. playing tank made me stop caring about others and only do my thing right.
An excellent macro I made is called "Set and Forget," and it's a single button I can keep available but out of the way that attempts to cast all of the abilities people turn on and then leave on when they swap to a job:
/merror off
/ac grit
/ac "iron will"
/ac defiance
/ac "royal guard"
/ac "fists of flame"
/ac "summon selene"
/ac "diurnal sect"
/ac "closed position" <t4>
/blueaction "mighty guard"
It saves a decent bit of physical UI space but also a notable amount of mental energy. There are exceptions – in 8-man content you want to throw Closed Position on someone other than Target 4, on a few fights you want to actually turn tank stance on and off, and until Endwalker comes out you might want to use Nocturnal Sect (and AFTER Endwalker comes out that ability won't exist anymore anyway). But the core of it is just those first four lines: It's one button that tries to cast Grit, Iron Will, Defiance, and Royal Guard all at once, and in doing so ends up casting whichever one is actually valid and ignoring the rest. And because you're always outside combat when you do this the weird macro-clipping that can happen isn't a problem.
Thank you for explaning why chain pulling sucks. Wasting buffs playing as dps feels bad, and as healer losing your bubbles feels horrible. The amount of earthly stars, asylums and sacred soils that have been left as a decoration on the road could make up enough aether to bring a rework/buff for scholar.
So helpful and the legacy settings was a huge help! Love your video!
I was legitimately looking for a digestible tank guide video yesterday because I really want to play DRK, but have never played a tank before. So this is a pleasant surprise. Thank you sir 💕
yessss
All the examples of floor artistry helping guide the player are excellent examples but still pale in comparison to how helpful the floor art is on the fight known as Hades.
For real, once you get to this fight – no matter what job/role you are – pay attention to the art on the floor. It can literally save your life.
"tanks really are the role that benefit most from playing other roles" HONESTLY… tbh i had a Lot of tank anxiety and only got around to it when i was a year into the game and was going around leveling every job. i did ask my friends for some basic advice but really I learned most tank etiquette just Being a healer and melee player for a bit. also if youre worried about being a bad tank, nows a great time to learn!! theres looooads of sprouts and specifically folks playing through early content for the first time, so you're all learning together! Plus if you're an experienced player, just in other roles, you'll look like a genius explaining mechs to sprouts.
this is – by far – by waaaaaaay far – the best guide the internet can offer
While I agree with the advice not to stack a bunch of mitigation cds, I feel the need to correct you on the technicalities.
Getting less benefit from stacking multiple mitigation buffs is just not true. If a healer could keep you alive when you pull 100 enemies (just a nice, round number for the example) then a 20% mitigation would mean that same healer could keep you alive against 125 enemies because 125 enemies dealing 80% of their damage is the same as 100 enemies dealing 100%. If you throw in another 10% mitigation buff, the healer could keep you alive against 138 enemies (138.88… to be precise.) That's an additional 13 enemies or 11.1% of 125. If you were just using the 10% buff, the healer could only keep you alive against 111 enemies (111.11…) So not only do you get the same benefit from stacking buffs in relative terms, you get even more if you look at it in absolute numbers.
That being said, yes of course it would be even stronger if the mitigation percentages were added together instead of multiplied, but that doesn't mean there are diminishing returns. And yes, even if more cds allows you to make bigger pulls, you maybe should still conserve them because your group might not be able to kill enough enemies before they run out.
The thing you say in 1:12:52 is the one of the very few things I've seen ping(latency) spoil in whole game. And it pisses me off. I can't dodge any aoe if i'm not out of it like 2 to 3 seconds before it goes off. I pray everyday for brazilian servers, but this aesthetic kind of game does not have much adherence in my country… Sadge
Edit: the Arm's length slow dude, I never knew about it. 4 months in, almost all classes at 60+. You are a beast dude, watched all your class guides and always check them when i have any doubts.
Keep up the good work!
I really love your use of the chapters in guides. It makes it sooooo nice to come back and review key points like a level 60 rotation or role specific information. Great job here as always 🙂
Hi Wes! Amazing video as usual, and I have kind of a silly question if you don't mind me asking it. Why do you have Limit Break on your hotbars 15 times? Haha! Thank you for the video, I learned a lot!
Are you trying to sound obnoxious? Your tone and accentuation is so annoying, it has to be intentional.
oh my god, as a tank main, seeing this vid makes me so happy
Any non-tank running away from the tank when they get aggro from a mob, needs to do better. And I'm saying this as someone that never played a tank.
I'm only 4 minutes into the guide (as a with lvl 80 PLD and working on rest of the Tank class, probably in order of Warrior -> Dark Knight -> Gunbreaker so as to minimize dungeon armor set amount just taking up space in my Armor Bag :D) and I feel like I can't help agreeing to the fact that tanking is liberatingly easy – especially Main Tanking.
Mind you, this is a newbie talking stuff 😛 I have experience doing normal/hard content I did up to MSQ lvl ~78 and with NO raids for Heavensward and Stormblood expansions, so there is still a whole ton waiting for me. I feel like ARR Extremes don't count as I did all of them at lvl 70 unsynced, bare some few I did earlier with Dungeon Finder groups.
I just stand there, forcing boss to face me in the other direction as my party (recently learned to move to where he is facing after mechanics to avoid too much spin) and follow my rotation to the tee, save for some attacks and adding defensive cooldowns when necessary. Meanwhile rest of the group has to dance around with their rotation and healer needs to pay attention to my sorry ass eating tankbusters after tankbusters.
Only thing that's IMO hard is judging how much adds you can take with the healer you're grouped with. And managing the cooldowns if not doing wall to wall pulls. 🙂
Now off to enjoy the rest of ABC…
Even as a level 80 DRK, I knew I was bad. Thank you for this video!
"Don't let that length scare you"
[laughs in looking forward to longer videos because I learn a lot from them and your thorough explanations are easier for me to digest than "tank in 15 seconds"]
My main issue with trying to do multipools as a sprout tank, is that I simply dont know where to go a lot of the time. Or if there's 2 mobs just around the next corner that should be picked up and such.
As for holy vs Hollow Ground. Isnt it just better to let the healer do holy spam, then use cooldown after?
No talking needed, and WHM can EoA with issues
Thanks! Still learning to play my tank in Squadron Command Missions, but I already did an MSQ run the other day as an offtank. I picked up the trash during a pull when the MT suddenly DC'd just when we hit the wall. 🙂
if 'You pull you tank' is a raid group rule 'cos of some of the dps players in the group, you deal and you enforce it. Just don't enforce it on other groups.
One example of boss that I can think of to not run through the boss in the first attack is Ifrit. Ifrit first attack is a frontal conal attack and if you run through him, that attack will immediately cleave the party behind you.
Also, /pets sad Wesk drg