So, what goes into off tanking? Really it’s pretty simple when you wanna sum it up. But for someone new to it, they might not understand the mechanics or the potential roles involved. Here’s my overview of Off Tanking!
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/weskalber
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeskAlber
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/weskalber.bsky.social
Discord: https://discord.gg/mbZkAgy3ej
FINAL FANTASY is a registered trademark of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
© SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.
#FFXIV #Endwalker #tanking
source
in normal, it's fine.
just turn on tank stance and provoke if mt dies.
it occasionally happens and you can have a good laugh if the dps gets smacked.
bad tank? leave mt alone. everyone adjust.
That last clip. A9N. Alexander the eyes of the creator normal. Now this is a killer. The normal content that occasionally get voted abandon. Off tank or main tank doesn't matter. Please bring faust to southeast platform. It doesn't matter if you kill him fast. The boss will drop all the floor before his defense buff falls off.
Another excellent video guide, thanks for this. I'd say the biggest issue with multiple tanks is people not communicating, especially in alliance raids. Selfish players always want to be the one to tank the boss, despite it already being taken cared of by someone else. But that's just something we gotta live with.
I'd like a guide on criterion or variant dungeons, I joined a pf thinking it was just another VD clear but instead got a crash course in Savage level raiding haha
Turns on stance after a min has past but soon overtakes MT in enmity…….. The amount of times this has happened to me really makes me wonder wtf were those MTs doing.
the amount of times the MT dies and boss pimp slappin healer and dps HP bars left and right while OT just sits in corner widdlin their thumbs as party chat says "VOKE BOSS" and we wipe
When I tank as GNB, I will sometimes wordlessly defer MT to the other by using Heart of Stone/Corundum on them, as a sort of like "I got your back" sorta thing; considering I also play SGE quite often and started playing as WHM, I'm quite used to flicking to the tank to use an oGCD
But yeah, tanks need to use their abilities to help the other tank. I'm okay with being MT if they don't want to, but I generally don't prefer it, and it's nice to receive a Clemency or TBN if I'm NT
9:10 this is somewhat correct but it seems like dps is so high nowadays that orbs will never touch the party
There are two types of blue dps in alliance raids that kill the fun.
1. Keeps tank stance on, Provoke is part of their rotation, and they either stand with the earnest MT and "shares" tb's or is with the melee dps and "shares" cleaves with the whole raid.
2. Never puts on stance, may attempt to take adds when relevant, but always loses aggro to the top dps attacking the add.
a little bit toxic, i admit,
but i start with stance off, do my opener, and turn it on.
if i get aggro, without provoke, i'm MT now
edit: i play PLD
You're sounding better:-).
'the code is more what you might call, guidelines.'
Something I like to do when offtanking is just weave my stance in my opener then shirk the other tank for good measure.
I don't always see the boss spinning but when i do im a healer or dps and the only think i can do is to ask them to point the boss north.
Tbh i never understand this trouble with "OffTanking" when i go savage its always something like "MT or OT" "dont care" "me either"
Some people try to explain me with something like "Yeah but im not feeling like the Hero when im not the MT!" what is for me one of the dumb things i ever heard.
The only thing that strikes me to add isn't specifically "off-tanking" so much as a general reminder for tanks and ranged phys:
There are abilities susceptible to Interject and Head Graze, even in normal content, all the way in Endwalker. Put your interrupt on your cast bar and keep your eyes open for those abilities with flashing cast bars! A good main tank will handle this, but double the eyes on the task means double the odds it gets handled.
Thank you so much for going into details on proper enmity management and stuff. Most tanking advice I've seen for 8mans tends to be "off-tanks don't turn on tank stance at all, unless the other tank dies or there's adds". Tanking is the least intuitive role for me, but ff14 tanking is very fun so this helped me a lot
TIL that a lot of alexander has a lot of shared TB
When I OT I position myself on the side (at one of the arrows if there are any) of a boss when there are no other mechanics for me to do. I hope I'm doing this right
Maybe it's different with which DC you play on, I play on Elemental, but in Alliance raids, it seems the unspoken rule of who is MT is always Alliance B, since they are the middle and front most group in the starting spawn of most Alliance raids.
Zeromus ex tbs are actually role based, which uhhhhh why
I feel like ive been seeing a lot more players just…not knowing what they are doing lately, mainly tanks and healers but do see dps as well.
Seeing way more tanks single pulling and not aoe, healers using their useless heals once they get their better ones, dps only using aoe/ranged attacks against single targets and bosses.
And if i say something its either ignored or im told to shut up.
I just dont commend people anymore unless they go out of their way to do extra.
And its not just sprouts, i see people with all roles maxed out or even just all tanks at 90 still doing these things
my favorite part is when i've already pulled, tank stance on and all, and the ot suddenly turns theirs on too and vokes. why. why?
I spent like the last 2 weeks trying to find this specific video. It is ungodly how YouTube and google will only show you the legion of introductory guides this game has. This answered all my questions and worries of attempting being a tank outside of 4-man content. Thanks a ton!!
Another good example of responsibilities an OT can have, albeit usually limited to Extreme and higher content: some line attacks deal greatly increased damage to the first one or two players hit by it, and you want the two tanks to be in front
And yeah like you said, as OT I usually just turn my stance off sometime during the opener, and shirk if I'm about to rip aggro. I'd rather have my stance on as much as possible just in case of an accident.
"There is an unspoken rule about Main tank."
Me: Please not the same DRK/WAR mt PLD/GNB ot bs
"Whiever hits their button first is MT"
My MT PLD smile
tehe, he keeps saying doodie
Just a fact some people might find Interesting.
On JP they have some silent rules for alliance raids where the B tank is the default main tank. And if there are two bosses, such as tower 2 Boss, the A tank and C tank each take a boss where the B tank becomes the off tank.
Oh cool! I suggested this video in your "how to be healed" video and I'm super happy to see this! It even cleared up some things a friend and I had been debating on.
One thing I personally like to do when I'm on GNB in particular, especially if things are getting weird and RDM are helping to raise… throwing Heart of Corundum on a freshly raised player. It gives a burst heal as well as the shield, which is great when a RDM raises and the healers either aren't able to follow with a good heal or they're struggling and aren't able to. Bam, instant heal from the GNB.
Love to see a good guide on topics that are often brushed over in more general tanking guides. The one thing that's super niche I would add if instructing a friend on off-tanking is that sometimes a sprout wants to main tank a big cinematic fight like the last alexander raid, and letting them do that is great, but responsibility to use required tank limit breaks isn't MT (or OT) responsibility so you need to be ready to jump in to use the lb3 if you're the more experienced tank.
Always makes me happy to see dark night sprouts the 5.3 trial for the first time, need their OT to limit break, and think about the sprout doing the same for the next msq journeyer.
Super useful, thank you!
The only thing you need to know about OT'ing is :Not answering questions and not turning your stance on unless there's adds or you gotta swap lmfao
I realized recently that if i mess and up and get revived (both as MT and OT really) it takes a really long while for me to go up the enmity list, though i don't actually understand if i should be using provoke in such situations or not.
Thanks for the guides! They help a lot!
Love it. Tons of great little stuff in here. Great guide, simple, to the point. Thanks as always, Wesk!
420th like. Haha meme number. Lolz
That one (or pair) in the EW Alliance Raid you referred to around 13:00, i believe there is SUPPOSED to be a tank swap on the the main one of the two, but unless you're doing a MINE run i don't think it does enough damage that it really requires it. But yeah, so MT + OT on one, and TT on the 2nd
OT is my favorite role, I don’t even know why.
With regards to Alliance raids, especially the early ones, situation awareness is king.
This room has 3 groups of adds; perhaps each of the the 3 tanks should grab one. Adds have joined the boss arena and I'm not presently being slapped; perhaps I should grab those guys. A tether formed between these 2 enemies when they got close to each other; I should probably try to break that.
I'd also add that, in situations where all 3 tanks need to hold something away from each other or 3 areas of the arena are about to be locked with an add inside, you typically separate left to right parties A, B, and C. Sometimes people put markers down, but if they don't just remember that A goes left, B center/north, and C right.
As OT for trials, I typically just turn my stance on after opener. If my damage is much greater than the other tank that I risk ripping aggro, just shirk and turn stance off.
I want Dawntrail to include more fights like Chrysalis second phase. Gives all players responsibility according to their role instead of typical target dummy fights.
I can't think of anything myself seeing as you brought up the mitigating mt and reprisal already. Anything I could say would just be for harder content and would be more about getting comfortable with how close you are to the boss pre pull and getting used to the reafy check and countdown menus. This is a really good video and I wish I could have watched something like this before I started doing harder content as a tank.
I'm odd but off tank feels like a poor term for it. Sub tank always is what I call it. One cause substitute tank makes more sense and two well as a big Capcom and more so Megaman X and Zero fan sub tanks are key to some pretty hard fights when new.
Great vid as always and wow I totally never knew Double Rocket punch was a tank stack and I feel like a no duh now.
really helpful stuff, thank you!
Do healers have any mechanics like this?
Fantastic guide! This is what I was looking for last year and there wasn't anything. Thank you so much for your amazing guides!
I do hope that more content gets specific jobs for off-tanks in Dawntrail, it can be a little boring in a lot of content if you're stuck just 1 2 3'ing with little to worry about.
Stop I’d give (and it maybe gets said in the video); don’t sit in your healing cool-downs. As a paladin you have Intervention which gives a target mitigation and a heal. If you’re sitting on 100 gauge and a dps is clipped with an aoe, you can freely use this just for the heal. Warrior has nascent flash and gunbreaker has Aurora which all act in the same way. Don’t just over cap your job gauge, use it! And that’s a tip for all classes (unless you’re stacking for a burst window of course!)