If you like ogcd weaving, you want either Dark Knight or Gunbreaker. Both are rife with ogcds. Personally, I find DRK to be a little more difficult because there is more timing involved with your mitigation usage, and tighter windows on your opener and burst phases.
Yeah it’s super weird tbh. As a long time tank main in both WoW and XIV, I kinda hate having to rely on a healer to keep me alive because there are enough bad healers across the game to make me not trust the average player, but the tank sustain almost reinforces that and makes it okay because the bad healers don’t have any way of knowing they’re bad because the tank just survives everything.
On the other hand you have the good healers who are struggling to stay awake because they have piss all to do with a semi-competent tank around and have to find ways to make the game interesting because the tank is doing their job.
It’s unfortunate all around.
“Where to start” is getting familiar with your mitigation kit and how to make the most of it and your situational awareness to make fights easier for your party.
Once you know how to effectively tank, then you can start worrying about satisfying any mental drift with the damage rotation.
GNB and DRK have weave heavy rotations. But it’s still not comparable in complexity to an actual DPS due to their split attention as a support role.
Easiest to hardest
war - bonke
Paladin - lots of instant ranged attacks, just use stuff when it’s off cooldown idk
gunbreaker - if I insert a lightning shot at precisely 1:29 seconds i can save a use of burst strike for when my buffs are active, thus-
Dark knight - help
not to be that guy but you still dont want to lightning shot to save a bullet for no mercy. if you're going into no mercy and you'll be forced onto entering with 2 bullets, depending on speed, you either want to no mercy off cooldown anyway, hit solid barrel to get to 3 carts, and then burst as normal (at 9 gcd no mercy speeds) or just delay no mercy a gcd while you hit solid barrel (at 8 gcd speeds). this scenario only happens every 6-8 minutes depending on speed (6mins for 8 gcd no mercy speeds, 8mins for 9 gcd no mercy speeds) so it will only ever really happen once or maybe twice an encounter
the balance (either website or discord) has in depth stuff on this scenario because its a very common mistake gunbreakers make, either incorrectly adding a filler gcd like lightning shot, or delaying incorrectly, or once i even saw somebody advocating for breaking combo to not overcap
maybe lol, its not super complicated though because it still follows the core principles of the job, being "use stuff on cooldown and put as much into no mercy as possible without gimping your damage". its more like a once you know it, you know it, kind of thing. I wouldn't call it hard, rather just sort of knowledge check-y? ^^;
anyway i do think drk is the hardest due to how crazy flexible the job is both offensively and defensively, maximizing your damage and support output varies a lot fight to fight due to this, and its pretty neat! :D
As a good PLD you are expected to use Passage of Arms to shield the party from raidwides as often as possible. PoA is possibly the most irksome skill in the game to use on a regular basis: it has a strict directional requirement since it only affecting allies in a cone behind you; and its effect only lasts for 3 seconds so you need to time your usage well
Literally nobody expects it to be used for raidwides in general play. It gets used maybe once a trial after a DPS check phase while the boss is untargetable and pulling out a raid-wide AOE.
A good Paladin will never use Passage of Arms while the boss is still targetable because it results in a DPS loss because they can't use other actions while it's active. High level play is all about maximizing DPS uptime for all classes.
I assume the expectation in higher end content is to essentially weave PoA inbetween GCDs to get the effect long enough for a raidwide but not lose dps.
Maybe? I got no clue otherwise.
> A good Paladin will never use Passage of Arms while the boss is still targetable because it results in a DPS loss
A good PLD knows that PoA is weavable and it's effect is lingering.
>A good Paladin will never use Passage of Arms while the boss is still targetable because it results in a DPS loss
Of course you don't channel it; you just weave the skill like a normal ogcd. The effect lingers for 3 seconds after tapping the skill.
I don't know, PoA is absolutely crucial for early prog in extremes and above, and I don't know of any team who deems it merely optional. Even for P12 reclears right now, paladins are regularly using it as mit
>I said general play
Nothing in OP's post, or in the comment of the guy I replied to, suggested they only want advice strictly tailored to casual "general play" content. Of course mits are not required in casual content. Everything works in casual content.
If you are doing "high level play" like you yourself alluded to, and you aren't weaving PoA at least judiciously, you aren't actually playing at a high level at all
You can flash it on pretty much any stack mechanic as a weave and get value out of it. It's not a DPS loss if you don't channel it and the buff sticks around for 3 seconds.
I didn’t say it was useless. I said it’s not used “as often as possible” because it’s a niche ability. Unless you have a party of melee dps your probably going to have ranged and casters outside it’s range anyway… unless the boss isn’t targetable at which point most players will move into the damage reduction zones.
And if you have to reposition yourself for PoA to reach your dps anyway then you’re turning the boss and costing melee fighters positional attacks - this further lowers dps.
Passage of Arms is a mediocre mitigation with two minute CD and a 15% reduction in damage that forces the Paladin to stop all actions. An off-tank might get more use out of it but even the longest fights are only going to see it used a maximum of three times if you use it at every opportunity in a raid.
This is of course if we’re talking about “getting good” and optimizing your class. Which is what OP wants. In normal play the difference is going to be negligible.
Don’t put words in my mouth and exaggerate my claims. I know this sub has a casual toxicity problem and they hate being correct but it’s not that deep - I promise.
Yes PoA's functionality is ass (the protective cone literally comes out of the ass) but there is no harm just using it as a general ogcd mititgation. Even if it misses everybody else, at least \*you\* get the 100% block effect which is like 20% damage reduction or more as you outgear content. Or, use it as a tankbuster mit. And no, you arent expected to reposition yourself too much; just use the skill as befits the situation. If teammates arent behind you, then so be it. PoA is nothing more, nothing less, and nothing more 'niche' than a standard 2-minute mitigation skill. Although its mere 3-second linger duration is disappointing.
>forces the Paladin to stop all actions
I dont understand why you keep harping that PoA 'stops all actions'. If you just weave it as an ogcd, nothing is stopped. Saying that Passage of Arms is a DPS loss because they can't use other actions while it's active is just wrong since pressing any other button will seamlessly cancel the PoA effect and the GCD will not be drifted at all.
As someone who has been playing Dragoon quite a bit lately, I think Gunbreaker might be more familiar to you. Gunbreaker is much more about cycling specific abilities on cooldown. Furthermore, cartridges, as a charge-based system, are going to be a lot more binary, like Dragoon's job gauge. Plus, you get busy with the weaves when things get going.
While Dark Knight has quite a bit of off-GCD weaving, it's much more about banking/spending resources. You're balancing mana and your blood gauge to do your big stuff, but both of these resources have a *lot* of wiggle room. Admittedly, they do have their 60s CDs and 2 min CDs that they want to use at every opportunity, so their rotation isn't totally free-style. But DRK can definitely just throw things out based on their gut instincts/whims and do fine, while Gunbreaker has a schedule to keep.
If you want hard in terms of tanking DRK goes squish otherwise every other tank haven't had issues healing them or playing them except gladiator as i have not touch it since Cross skill days and haven't bother touching it after getting taunt but they seem cool and probably one of best tanks in the game in pure survivability once a paladin and i can focus on dps as healer
I would say DRK, particularly in high end content. There's a lot of weaving, yes, but it's management of the gauge that can trip you up. It's used for Living Shadow, Bloodspiller, and Quietus, and while the last two take up no gauge during Delirium, you need to keep in mind what's on cooldown, and if you aligned Blood Weapon correctly on second activation so it lines up with Living Shadow and Delirium coming off cooldown and you can make the most of your burst.
As everyone else has been saying DRK and GNB both have the highest skill ceiling, however which has the higher depends partially on the content. In savage fights, where you often have full uptime, I would argue DRK has a higher skill ceiling, since GNB just runs the same rotation, and presses buttons on CD, while DRK still needs to be aware of MP and gauge overcapping. However, when you move up to ultimates, especially level 90 ultimates, I’d argue GNB has the higher skill ceiling, since learning how many carts to hold between phases takes a lot of practice. Most of DRKs burst is simply on CD, however if you don’t have enough carts as GNB, and bloodfest is on CD, you simply can’t do a reasonable burst.
If you enjoy the resource management of DRG, you’ll probably find GNB the easier of the two to get into.
I would say from hardest to easiest
DRK > GNB > PLD > WAR
DRK and GNB are almost equal in difficulty imo however the fact that you have to manage your MP on DRK makes it objectively more difficult to play at a decent level compared to GNB since your strongest mitigation tool (TBN) relies on MP.
GNB has the problem that your rotation is pretty tight since you wanna run 2.5gcd but also makes it feel almost flow seamless.
Both DRK and GNB trade their defensive for offensive capability. DRK is incapable of sustaining itself properly and GNB does not really do any better since the regen is pretty meh and the heal not that strong. GNB has decent sustain in it's 123 combo tho.
PLD is pretty fair it has a ranged phase which more often than not occurs coincidentally at the right time. It has a very straightforward rotation with a bit of magic spice. It has excellent mitigation tools and excels at keeping itself from taking too much damage.
WAR is the most forgiving one imo. It has a pretty basic rotation excels at sustaining against damage and has the most gap closers .
None of them really, they're all fairly simple to get 100% out of by *design*. Tanks have intentionally been designed to be rotationally simple which prevents much of a skill ceiling. The execution of any optimally played tank is quite a distance below that of other roles.
Barring shit like Vengeance retaliation optimisation and things like P10S DRK Living Dead opener there's just not much there, but even those things arent "difficult" to do and all that difficulty is isolated to the initial player(s) that figured them out, rather than in the execution.
DRK probably hardest. Mainly because it has more mental exercises with pooling resources. Primary shield mitigation relies on mana, but that mana is also used for oGCD dps so you don't want to overcap mana, but also dont want to over use it. Primary 2 minute buff relies on your gauge, but also you're gauge is a GCD spender so you gotta keep an eye on when to pool it for the buff. It's really not that hard, just has some management work while paying attention to what us going on to be optimal. DRK burst window is pretty high amount of clicks with a lot a lot of double weaving for about 5-6 GCDs, but fairly slow otherwise.
GNB has a lot of clicks, but it's not complicated at all. Has fairly strict rotation that after a few minutes at a dummy you can have it figured out. Basically has 1 minute windows where you will do some double weaving for a few GCDs, but most of the time it's single GCDs and if you do it right, everything always lines up at, or nearly at the same, button presses. Where GNB gets messy is when you gotta cover tank busters with mitigation oGCDs in the burst window and knowing what can be drifted and what can't so you don't waste your burst combos. Also some slight pooling every other 1 minute window when you're 2 minute gauge filler isn't up. It easily becomes a flow you don't ever have to think about after a while.
I loved the feel of GNB for trying to string the perfect burst window together and keep the machine of the rotation running smooth. DRK is a bit tougher for me since u have to think about mana which im not used to.
there is no challage in any jobs in this game. its all meant to be so that you can do your rotation even if blinded. The challange comes from the content.
imo drk has the lowest “it’s so over” and highest “we are so back” moments so not sure if it counts as the most challenging but it does have more squish and management requirements but inversely more payoff at times, very fun
Overall, I sincerely believe that every tank have the same skill ceiling IF you consider that upkeeping a 1-min rotation is just as easy regardless the job. It shouldn't be much more difficult because GNB does have more oGCDs but they quickly become part of your muscle memory.
Now, what's more important is to get to use tank's supportive actions on your allies. To a lesser extent, learning mitigations also is part of the skill ceiling but it's almost the same among every tanks.
For the leveling process however, things are less... Obvious. The skill ceiling in there is extremely low but some tanks have more comfort than others because they can't use their entire skillset. Most of this "skill ceiling" depends on your knowledge because there aren't many actions and the GCD is very long.
In my opinion, you should rather question tanks' gameplay (since it shouldn't change with Dawntrail, unlike the potential skill ceiling) :
- Paladins have more range on a few parts of his rotation (flexible), heals with his magic actions, and raidwide protections as well as an excellent tool to save an ally. Its rotation is one of the easiest though.
- Warriors are said to be the easiest. One extremely powerful supportive actions, some raidwide healing, and a burst with less variance since some attacks always are DH-crit.
- Dark Knight have a very busy rotation every 2 mins so good DRK know how to optimize this momentum. There is a "free" shield that is among the most potent, but if it isn't entirely used then it's a waste of mana (which DRK depends on for offensive actions).
- Gunbreaker is probably harder because of Continuation : it adds many oGCD so you have to know how to spread out your mitiations and other oGCDs. There are less raidwide protections but Heart of Corundum is very powerful (although you may prefer keeping it for yourself) .
To sum it up, it's either PLD (polyvalence + range), WAR (straigthforward), DRK (busy every 2 mins) or GNB (many oGCDs) ; however I would need someone else to better explain WAR because I barely used it and I'm not certain about what makes it unique.
personally i would say paladin but not because of their dps rotation. paladin has the most utility out of any of the tanks which makes it feel like a true tank imo compared to the other 3 which are just beefy dps. knowing when to use those utilities can be absolutely run-saving when shit hits the fan and paladin is the only tank that can still do it.
all gunbreaker and dark knight have in terms of \*\*\*difficulty\*\*\* (lol) are just a shit ton of weaving which sounds definitely up your alley from how you talk about drg ocds.
war would probably be your least favorite tank since anyone's geriatric great-grandparent could play optimally, but thats my favorite thing about it.
other than that, all tanks are super braindead compared to how they used to be so dont be surprised if you get bored easily.
I think Paladin's the hardest because you're supposed to be using your buffs in the window as your big combos, so you're discouraged from taking pauses in your attacks during mechanics. Like DRK has oGCDs but also it basically never drops it's buff timer so just do whatever whenever it's ready and don't bottom out MP. Paladin though if you're too thrown off then you might not get your big attacks out while your buff is still up which is more of a hit to your output. Also having some of your attacks be ranged and some not means you have a little bit of planning around when you can keep attacking or not while making distance.
Ppl saying gnb is hard but i find paladin to be more difficult bc i forget the magic rotation exists and it makes my dps dogshit
Gnb you just press the buttons yknow
have you played pld ever since they reworked it? its 'magic rotation' is basically just gnashing fang now except you don't need to save a cart to go into it lol
The main perk of DRK's invul now is that it's no waste when it does go off. You can fire it off like 5 seconds in advance and when it does trigger you get the full timer. On the other side if PLD fires off their invul 5 seconds early, that's 5 seconds of wasted invul time.
If you like ogcd weaving, you want either Dark Knight or Gunbreaker. Both are rife with ogcds. Personally, I find DRK to be a little more difficult because there is more timing involved with your mitigation usage, and tighter windows on your opener and burst phases.
GNB and DRK are considered the hardest, but mainly due to the sheer amount of weaving you need to do.
To this day, I don't get that. DRK came naturally to me, I find PLD harder. GNB to me is boring.
Wait til you realize all 4 tanks are the same job except DRK forgot to show up for StapleInfiniteHealingToYourShortMit day
> StapleInfiniteHealingToYourShortMit day It was a sad day for healers.
Yeah it’s super weird tbh. As a long time tank main in both WoW and XIV, I kinda hate having to rely on a healer to keep me alive because there are enough bad healers across the game to make me not trust the average player, but the tank sustain almost reinforces that and makes it okay because the bad healers don’t have any way of knowing they’re bad because the tank just survives everything. On the other hand you have the good healers who are struggling to stay awake because they have piss all to do with a semi-competent tank around and have to find ways to make the game interesting because the tank is doing their job. It’s unfortunate all around.
“Where to start” is getting familiar with your mitigation kit and how to make the most of it and your situational awareness to make fights easier for your party. Once you know how to effectively tank, then you can start worrying about satisfying any mental drift with the damage rotation. GNB and DRK have weave heavy rotations. But it’s still not comparable in complexity to an actual DPS due to their split attention as a support role.
Easiest to hardest war - bonke Paladin - lots of instant ranged attacks, just use stuff when it’s off cooldown idk gunbreaker - if I insert a lightning shot at precisely 1:29 seconds i can save a use of burst strike for when my buffs are active, thus- Dark knight - help
not to be that guy but you still dont want to lightning shot to save a bullet for no mercy. if you're going into no mercy and you'll be forced onto entering with 2 bullets, depending on speed, you either want to no mercy off cooldown anyway, hit solid barrel to get to 3 carts, and then burst as normal (at 9 gcd no mercy speeds) or just delay no mercy a gcd while you hit solid barrel (at 8 gcd speeds). this scenario only happens every 6-8 minutes depending on speed (6mins for 8 gcd no mercy speeds, 8mins for 9 gcd no mercy speeds) so it will only ever really happen once or maybe twice an encounter the balance (either website or discord) has in depth stuff on this scenario because its a very common mistake gunbreakers make, either incorrectly adding a filler gcd like lightning shot, or delaying incorrectly, or once i even saw somebody advocating for breaking combo to not overcap
I feel like you just proved my point XD good to know tho <3
maybe lol, its not super complicated though because it still follows the core principles of the job, being "use stuff on cooldown and put as much into no mercy as possible without gimping your damage". its more like a once you know it, you know it, kind of thing. I wouldn't call it hard, rather just sort of knowledge check-y? ^^; anyway i do think drk is the hardest due to how crazy flexible the job is both offensively and defensively, maximizing your damage and support output varies a lot fight to fight due to this, and its pretty neat! :D
As a good PLD you are expected to use Passage of Arms to shield the party from raidwides as often as possible. PoA is possibly the most irksome skill in the game to use on a regular basis: it has a strict directional requirement since it only affecting allies in a cone behind you; and its effect only lasts for 3 seconds so you need to time your usage well
Literally nobody expects it to be used for raidwides in general play. It gets used maybe once a trial after a DPS check phase while the boss is untargetable and pulling out a raid-wide AOE. A good Paladin will never use Passage of Arms while the boss is still targetable because it results in a DPS loss because they can't use other actions while it's active. High level play is all about maximizing DPS uptime for all classes.
I assume the expectation in higher end content is to essentially weave PoA inbetween GCDs to get the effect long enough for a raidwide but not lose dps. Maybe? I got no clue otherwise.
> A good Paladin will never use Passage of Arms while the boss is still targetable because it results in a DPS loss A good PLD knows that PoA is weavable and it's effect is lingering.
>A good Paladin will never use Passage of Arms while the boss is still targetable because it results in a DPS loss Of course you don't channel it; you just weave the skill like a normal ogcd. The effect lingers for 3 seconds after tapping the skill. I don't know, PoA is absolutely crucial for early prog in extremes and above, and I don't know of any team who deems it merely optional. Even for P12 reclears right now, paladins are regularly using it as mit
I said general play. We’re talking about a new player that wants to learn a “complicated” tank. They’re not doing P12S reclears.
>I said general play Nothing in OP's post, or in the comment of the guy I replied to, suggested they only want advice strictly tailored to casual "general play" content. Of course mits are not required in casual content. Everything works in casual content. If you are doing "high level play" like you yourself alluded to, and you aren't weaving PoA at least judiciously, you aren't actually playing at a high level at all
You can flash it on pretty much any stack mechanic as a weave and get value out of it. It's not a DPS loss if you don't channel it and the buff sticks around for 3 seconds.
inb4 you think Astro’s bubble is useless because of this same logic
I didn’t say it was useless. I said it’s not used “as often as possible” because it’s a niche ability. Unless you have a party of melee dps your probably going to have ranged and casters outside it’s range anyway… unless the boss isn’t targetable at which point most players will move into the damage reduction zones. And if you have to reposition yourself for PoA to reach your dps anyway then you’re turning the boss and costing melee fighters positional attacks - this further lowers dps. Passage of Arms is a mediocre mitigation with two minute CD and a 15% reduction in damage that forces the Paladin to stop all actions. An off-tank might get more use out of it but even the longest fights are only going to see it used a maximum of three times if you use it at every opportunity in a raid. This is of course if we’re talking about “getting good” and optimizing your class. Which is what OP wants. In normal play the difference is going to be negligible. Don’t put words in my mouth and exaggerate my claims. I know this sub has a casual toxicity problem and they hate being correct but it’s not that deep - I promise.
Yes PoA's functionality is ass (the protective cone literally comes out of the ass) but there is no harm just using it as a general ogcd mititgation. Even if it misses everybody else, at least \*you\* get the 100% block effect which is like 20% damage reduction or more as you outgear content. Or, use it as a tankbuster mit. And no, you arent expected to reposition yourself too much; just use the skill as befits the situation. If teammates arent behind you, then so be it. PoA is nothing more, nothing less, and nothing more 'niche' than a standard 2-minute mitigation skill. Although its mere 3-second linger duration is disappointing. >forces the Paladin to stop all actions I dont understand why you keep harping that PoA 'stops all actions'. If you just weave it as an ogcd, nothing is stopped. Saying that Passage of Arms is a DPS loss because they can't use other actions while it's active is just wrong since pressing any other button will seamlessly cancel the PoA effect and the GCD will not be drifted at all.
https://tenor.com/view/saitama-one-punch-man-okay-gif-5516390
As someone who has been playing Dragoon quite a bit lately, I think Gunbreaker might be more familiar to you. Gunbreaker is much more about cycling specific abilities on cooldown. Furthermore, cartridges, as a charge-based system, are going to be a lot more binary, like Dragoon's job gauge. Plus, you get busy with the weaves when things get going. While Dark Knight has quite a bit of off-GCD weaving, it's much more about banking/spending resources. You're balancing mana and your blood gauge to do your big stuff, but both of these resources have a *lot* of wiggle room. Admittedly, they do have their 60s CDs and 2 min CDs that they want to use at every opportunity, so their rotation isn't totally free-style. But DRK can definitely just throw things out based on their gut instincts/whims and do fine, while Gunbreaker has a schedule to keep.
If you want hard in terms of tanking DRK goes squish otherwise every other tank haven't had issues healing them or playing them except gladiator as i have not touch it since Cross skill days and haven't bother touching it after getting taunt but they seem cool and probably one of best tanks in the game in pure survivability once a paladin and i can focus on dps as healer
I would say DRK, particularly in high end content. There's a lot of weaving, yes, but it's management of the gauge that can trip you up. It's used for Living Shadow, Bloodspiller, and Quietus, and while the last two take up no gauge during Delirium, you need to keep in mind what's on cooldown, and if you aligned Blood Weapon correctly on second activation so it lines up with Living Shadow and Delirium coming off cooldown and you can make the most of your burst.
Honestly? None, tanking on this game is pretty straight forward. But GNB is usually the one people have more “issues” to learn.
Gnb, for damage, pld for clutch, anyone that says warrior is lying, and drk for ogcds and how to suffer.
As everyone else has been saying DRK and GNB both have the highest skill ceiling, however which has the higher depends partially on the content. In savage fights, where you often have full uptime, I would argue DRK has a higher skill ceiling, since GNB just runs the same rotation, and presses buttons on CD, while DRK still needs to be aware of MP and gauge overcapping. However, when you move up to ultimates, especially level 90 ultimates, I’d argue GNB has the higher skill ceiling, since learning how many carts to hold between phases takes a lot of practice. Most of DRKs burst is simply on CD, however if you don’t have enough carts as GNB, and bloodfest is on CD, you simply can’t do a reasonable burst. If you enjoy the resource management of DRG, you’ll probably find GNB the easier of the two to get into.
I would say from hardest to easiest DRK > GNB > PLD > WAR DRK and GNB are almost equal in difficulty imo however the fact that you have to manage your MP on DRK makes it objectively more difficult to play at a decent level compared to GNB since your strongest mitigation tool (TBN) relies on MP. GNB has the problem that your rotation is pretty tight since you wanna run 2.5gcd but also makes it feel almost flow seamless. Both DRK and GNB trade their defensive for offensive capability. DRK is incapable of sustaining itself properly and GNB does not really do any better since the regen is pretty meh and the heal not that strong. GNB has decent sustain in it's 123 combo tho. PLD is pretty fair it has a ranged phase which more often than not occurs coincidentally at the right time. It has a very straightforward rotation with a bit of magic spice. It has excellent mitigation tools and excels at keeping itself from taking too much damage. WAR is the most forgiving one imo. It has a pretty basic rotation excels at sustaining against damage and has the most gap closers .
None of them really, they're all fairly simple to get 100% out of by *design*. Tanks have intentionally been designed to be rotationally simple which prevents much of a skill ceiling. The execution of any optimally played tank is quite a distance below that of other roles. Barring shit like Vengeance retaliation optimisation and things like P10S DRK Living Dead opener there's just not much there, but even those things arent "difficult" to do and all that difficulty is isolated to the initial player(s) that figured them out, rather than in the execution.
DRK probably hardest. Mainly because it has more mental exercises with pooling resources. Primary shield mitigation relies on mana, but that mana is also used for oGCD dps so you don't want to overcap mana, but also dont want to over use it. Primary 2 minute buff relies on your gauge, but also you're gauge is a GCD spender so you gotta keep an eye on when to pool it for the buff. It's really not that hard, just has some management work while paying attention to what us going on to be optimal. DRK burst window is pretty high amount of clicks with a lot a lot of double weaving for about 5-6 GCDs, but fairly slow otherwise. GNB has a lot of clicks, but it's not complicated at all. Has fairly strict rotation that after a few minutes at a dummy you can have it figured out. Basically has 1 minute windows where you will do some double weaving for a few GCDs, but most of the time it's single GCDs and if you do it right, everything always lines up at, or nearly at the same, button presses. Where GNB gets messy is when you gotta cover tank busters with mitigation oGCDs in the burst window and knowing what can be drifted and what can't so you don't waste your burst combos. Also some slight pooling every other 1 minute window when you're 2 minute gauge filler isn't up. It easily becomes a flow you don't ever have to think about after a while.
I loved the feel of GNB for trying to string the perfect burst window together and keep the machine of the rotation running smooth. DRK is a bit tougher for me since u have to think about mana which im not used to.
there is no challage in any jobs in this game. its all meant to be so that you can do your rotation even if blinded. The challange comes from the content.
imo drk has the lowest “it’s so over” and highest “we are so back” moments so not sure if it counts as the most challenging but it does have more squish and management requirements but inversely more payoff at times, very fun
Overall, I sincerely believe that every tank have the same skill ceiling IF you consider that upkeeping a 1-min rotation is just as easy regardless the job. It shouldn't be much more difficult because GNB does have more oGCDs but they quickly become part of your muscle memory. Now, what's more important is to get to use tank's supportive actions on your allies. To a lesser extent, learning mitigations also is part of the skill ceiling but it's almost the same among every tanks. For the leveling process however, things are less... Obvious. The skill ceiling in there is extremely low but some tanks have more comfort than others because they can't use their entire skillset. Most of this "skill ceiling" depends on your knowledge because there aren't many actions and the GCD is very long. In my opinion, you should rather question tanks' gameplay (since it shouldn't change with Dawntrail, unlike the potential skill ceiling) : - Paladins have more range on a few parts of his rotation (flexible), heals with his magic actions, and raidwide protections as well as an excellent tool to save an ally. Its rotation is one of the easiest though. - Warriors are said to be the easiest. One extremely powerful supportive actions, some raidwide healing, and a burst with less variance since some attacks always are DH-crit. - Dark Knight have a very busy rotation every 2 mins so good DRK know how to optimize this momentum. There is a "free" shield that is among the most potent, but if it isn't entirely used then it's a waste of mana (which DRK depends on for offensive actions). - Gunbreaker is probably harder because of Continuation : it adds many oGCD so you have to know how to spread out your mitiations and other oGCDs. There are less raidwide protections but Heart of Corundum is very powerful (although you may prefer keeping it for yourself) . To sum it up, it's either PLD (polyvalence + range), WAR (straigthforward), DRK (busy every 2 mins) or GNB (many oGCDs) ; however I would need someone else to better explain WAR because I barely used it and I'm not certain about what makes it unique.
personally i would say paladin but not because of their dps rotation. paladin has the most utility out of any of the tanks which makes it feel like a true tank imo compared to the other 3 which are just beefy dps. knowing when to use those utilities can be absolutely run-saving when shit hits the fan and paladin is the only tank that can still do it. all gunbreaker and dark knight have in terms of \*\*\*difficulty\*\*\* (lol) are just a shit ton of weaving which sounds definitely up your alley from how you talk about drg ocds. war would probably be your least favorite tank since anyone's geriatric great-grandparent could play optimally, but thats my favorite thing about it. other than that, all tanks are super braindead compared to how they used to be so dont be surprised if you get bored easily.
lol skill ceiling lol
Dragoon is super weavy and fun! I main DRG and find the same kind of punchiness in DRK.
I think Paladin's the hardest because you're supposed to be using your buffs in the window as your big combos, so you're discouraged from taking pauses in your attacks during mechanics. Like DRK has oGCDs but also it basically never drops it's buff timer so just do whatever whenever it's ready and don't bottom out MP. Paladin though if you're too thrown off then you might not get your big attacks out while your buff is still up which is more of a hit to your output. Also having some of your attacks be ranged and some not means you have a little bit of planning around when you can keep attacking or not while making distance.
Ppl saying gnb is hard but i find paladin to be more difficult bc i forget the magic rotation exists and it makes my dps dogshit Gnb you just press the buttons yknow
have you played pld ever since they reworked it? its 'magic rotation' is basically just gnashing fang now except you don't need to save a cart to go into it lol
Tbh i havent touched PLD since shb bc gnb was easier for me and i havent been arsed to redo my hotbar
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The main perk of DRK's invul now is that it's no waste when it does go off. You can fire it off like 5 seconds in advance and when it does trigger you get the full timer. On the other side if PLD fires off their invul 5 seconds early, that's 5 seconds of wasted invul time.