FFXIV Tank Cooldown Compendium, Mitigation Management, Rotating & More [Outdated]

[@gwelengu]

Hearing how you cycle through your mitigations (not just your rotation) was really instructive for me, and many tanking guides don't talk about this. I found it very helpful.

[@SpiderDilly]

First off, love this video! Super easy to follow and I think it breaks down all the skills in a clean, efficient way! As a tank main (specifically PLD), I do just want to add a couple things: *Be careful about starting trash pulls with Hallowed Ground while running with WHM. Many like to do Holy spam (and for good reason, AOE stun is excellent mitigation), which stuns enemies. Using Hallowed Ground when everyone is stunned is kind of just going to waste it. I'd recommend first seeing if your WHM opens with Holy, then pay attention to a target's Stun counter. Enemies can (typically) be stunned 3 times before becoming impervious, so once you see that they get stunned a third time (or their stun only lasts a few seconds), then would be the ideal time for Hallowed Ground. Same thing for arm's reprise; stunned enemies don't need to be slowed, but AR is a great thing to pop as HG is about to end. I know paying attention to what other players are doing can be super tough, but that's why I usually make the healer my focus target and I put the focus target info right under my WoL (this also helps prevent stuff like popping Superbolide right after a Benediction), around where you have your target info. *I know this is a bit nitpicky, but you moved an awful lot during some of these pulls. I also know this a video about tank mitigation, but I feel like part of tank mitigation is mitigating the amount of damage done to the rest of the party. Getting aggro and running to your party increases the risk of an AOE getting sent towards the party, which might make casters have to interrupt casts (or take unnecessary damage). But again, awesome info and good job on the video! I love the extra attention to detail, like adding that the PLD's magic attacks heal, which is a form of a mitigation in itself. I also love you providing examples of how you'd do things, like starting pulls!

[@ShermTank7272]

A note about Holmgang in trash pulls: it has a secondary effect of binding your target with chains. The bind itself doesn't really have a practical use (it's mostly for flavor), but it does cause a secondary effect: if the chained enemy dies, _your_ Holmgang effect also fades. You'll need to be careful if you're targeting a low health enemy, or use a macro ("/ac Holmgang ") to avoid "hitting" the mob with Holmgang.

[@MoiraineEllisande]

I’m saving this one. I just had a tank who didn’t use cds in a level 90 dungeon. I kindly asked to please use cds or to pull smaller groups and he opted for smaller. he looked so lost and I really would have loved to help him but I’m not a tank. but next time I can ask if they want advice and then link your video 👍🏼 thank you for your great videos!

[@AzuriteTV]

Oh gosh, I'm glad that run didn't go too badly! Sounds like the tank was at least willing to take one of the two options you provided them. I am more then happy for my videos to be a resource for this kind of stuff and I appreciate it as well! :D

[@xeronixxy7845]

Which tank?

[@davidperlich9196]

This was an issue I had switching to drk from warrior.. warrior's self healing is amazing and I did not know how to use my cooldowns effectively. Add to this my girls an amazing healer and I'm a healers worse nightmare. Drk was so squishy, especially 30 through 60 that I had to learn how to use cds, and how to rotate them. That and running with random healers helped out dramatically.

[@10INGENIOUS]

Also, one thing for drk with tankbusters, is that its best to pair oblation with dark mind to gain 30% mitigation similar to a shadow wall. Using oblation on things like shadow wall and rampart, means you wont get the full percentage of oblation with how its multiplied.

[@dkcsi9256]

A majority of the time that’s only 10% mitigation and a waste of dark mind. Dark mind mits magic damage, which most Tank busters aren’t. Besides, that’s putting too much thought into it. Tank brain dows not allow for such math. In dungeons all you really need is TBN + pretty much any mit even if its only oblation (except for magic mit if its not a magic tb). They don’t do enough damage to insta gib you or put you down lower than you can heal or be healed. Even then, once you’re geared above the dungeon you can just *only* TBN it and sometimes it might not even break it.

[@one_eyeddd473]

Lmao I was gonna say what if it's physical dmg

[@ads1281]

I’ve been waiting for this! For me dungeon tanking is a bit more chaotic than raid tanking so this is exactly what I needed. Thank you! Great video!

[@AzuriteTV]

Welcome! It can definitely be chaotic with all the wall to wall pulls, but as long as you rotate correctly then you'll be good! Also in most cases you won't even need to fully rotate cooldowns like I explain because for the most part the packs should die in a timely manner, save for maybe the exception of leveling dungeons. Anyways, glad it helps! :D

[@AsphodeliaAlter]

First of all I just want to say thanks for making this series. I am a sprout and my first MMO is FF14, these guides have made attempting to play the role I wanted to play at the beginning far less intimidating and easy to understand. My first go at tanking was a disaster and I was too embarrassed to go back to it until I recently got to stormblood. I have a lot of work to do but I would be completely lost if it were not for having the basics laid out for me in a way even a complete newcomer can start to comprehend. I am very self conscious of my performance in raids/ dungeons, one of the most stressful things for me is that I feel obligated to look up guides for every dungeon incase I make the group wipe from not knowing a mechanic. I wanted to ask some maybe dumb questions, so please excuse my ignorance as I am a newer player who just hit 70 and swapped over from a ranged DPS job. Which out of the 4 jobs do you think is most suited to a beginner? Not in terms of which is "best" overall but which do you think would be the best for learning the role of tank and practicing the concepts from your videos. I like all of the jobs thematically so there is not really one I want to play over another. Is it helpful to practice stuff outside of the real thing, for example should I go into lower level dungeons unsynced and practice pulling and grouping up mobs better or positioning the boss. If so, any dungeons which you would recommend? Lastly, and sorry for the long comment, one thing I constantly notice in my own play is I take what feels like too much damage when pulling, not when mobs are on me and I am stood still but when I am going from pack to pack I am taking a lot of damage and sometimes die. I have been pulling by using ranged attack, then letting the rest of the pack come closer and using one AoE spell but maybe this is incorrect. I notice in alot of clips you show that this does not happen to you to the same extent, sorry if you did explain this in one of the videos and I missed it. Thank you again, I am enjoying the game so much more playing tank instead of DPS when things go well.

[@AzuriteTV]

Hey! I'm so glad these videos help you the way they do :D to answer your questions. 1. I think WAR is the most approachable tank out of the 4, with the simplest DPS rotation, amazing kit synergy and just great mitigation and self sustain. This job is super comfy and you'll be able to focus on the things around you a lot more then your rotation or cooldowns. And then once you get comfortable on WAR you can begin to branch out, but it's just a superb tank to start with and I will never stop recommending it to new tank players. 2. If you're leveling, just practice as your leveling honestly. Go for wall to wall pulls, if you die you can then opt in to go slower, or if the healer says it was their bad, just try again. You'll get better at mob packing as you play more, but be wary of the big mobs with massive hit boxes, you can't do much about them sadly. 3. Make sure your gear is up to date, as a tank your gear is probably the most important in dungeons, if it isn't up to date, that can be really painful for the healer, make sure to buy some gear from either vendors, market board or even some tome gear from the tome vendors. You can also opt in to use your active mitigation as your pulling but only do this on a pull that's going to take some time to reach the end. I hope this helps you and if you have further questions, leave them here and I'll get back to them :)

[@LuminNox]

You should also use Sprint just before hitting the first mob if it's up. Sprint increases your movement speed for 10s if you use it in combat and for 20s if used out of combat. So by using it just before hitting the first mob of the next pull you get 20s of increased movement speed while pulling the mobs together. Mobs can't hit if you're out of their range so that also helps with avoiding damage while pulling.

[@AsphodeliaAlter]

@@AzuriteTV Thank you very much for taking the time to answer all my questions in detail, was a very nice surprise ^^ I chose Paladin at first out of the 4 as I just assumed it would be the most straightforward, but while it is not crazy by any means I feel similar as to what you said that I am not able to focus on things around me. I am either too focused on my damage skills or too focused on trying to use my utility and doing no damage if that makes any sense. Might take a while but I will work on getting Warrior to the same level as my Paladin over the next couple days. I have watched your video guides on each tank class and I will admit I did think Warrior seemed confusing, perhaps it makes more sense once you have played it a bit. I will try to get over my fear of dying/ getting flamed and just try to wall to wall when possible as you've asked. Maybe it will also be easier as Warrior at higher levels. I have been using tome gear each time it is available, just thought I might have been making an error in getting aggro by stopping to do an AoE attack or something. Once again I need to say thank you, as a new player it is hard to express how amazing it feels going from my first tanking experience of being completely useless and getting scolded in chat, told to play a different role among other things... to now regularly receiving 3 commendations when finishing a dungeon. I've shot up from the low 10s to over 200, all thanks to your guides.

[@meowciferdeofol4809]

I love this video. It has improved my tanking tremendously.

[@imaina98]

Watched this like 5 times now… really helped me improve my DRK play for sure. Thank you!!

[@3rdAgeSoap]

Can't wait to watch this later. I really want to get into tanking but I get so overwhelmed every time I try, even if everyone in the group says I did good. My biggest issue has always been WHEN to use defensives

[@scottcunni]

I saved this to my watch later so I can go back and refer to the cooldowns. thanks my man, very helpful info.

[@LordMidichlorian]

Finally someone who explains the walking dead properly!! Thank you so very much! Every time I've seen anybody else talk about it "you need to top the tank off before the 10s". The most is the addition of "topping off earlier is a problem". Nobody ever says it's not topping off but healing as much HP as the total and that reaching that removes the invulnerability. This latter is more clear in the tooltip, but still one can get some wrong ideas if not focused while reading.

[@tomekk.1889]

Its a confusing invuln. I hope they change it as it's not as good as the other ones

[@junivanofdragonia]

I just hope all tank hopefuls watch this. This is very very very helpful to any new tanks learning mitigation.

[@AzuriteTV]

I hope so too! I want to help as many players and tanks as possible! :D

[@daraam02]

Another solid guide. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to make these.

[@AzuriteTV]

Was my pleasure! I enjoy making these videos and providing resources :)

[@davidmaclean2734]

I recently wanted to try my hand at tanking because dark knight has been my favourite class in all of final fantasy history. I felt so gutted that to play as a DRK i had to run tank and I never bothered. Recently though I decided to get over my tanxiety and give it a go. I started a new playthrouh with a PLD just to dip my toe in the tanking playstyle, but with so many CD's and mitigation options I was lost, literally just spammed them all as soon as I pull. Thanx to this video though, I now know how to work these mitigations more effectively. Excellent video, with a clean and clear presentation, you earned this like and sub my friend. P.S. Your British, like me so bonus there 🤣

[@ThunderHawke]

This is great vid. I really like how thorough it is. I feel I'm better equiped to tank properly

[@AzuriteTV]

Glad its thorough, that's the goal! Keep at the tanking and you'll do well :)

[@derrickduran4949]

One of your best guide videos! Thanks for this one! 😁

[@AzuriteTV]

Thank you! Appreciate you're time and support :>

[@claudinecyr3801]

Thank you so much. This is going to help me improve A LOT. I got tank placement nailed by instinct, but I was barely using cooldowns, only panic spamming them! Will definitely be practicing those now.

[@DanyBoy.90]

Was lit waiting for this vid!! Started a couple a weeks ago FFXIV and was spamming all the buttons thanks to your guides I get commendations and been having a blast doing SMQ dungeons!! Amazing content!! A huge thumbs up!!

[@AzuriteTV]

Ahh I'm glad to hear this! its really nice that you have found my videos useful to your tanking journey and you are getting all the commendations! keep at it :D

[@TintagelEmrys]

I want to add in that Intervention can be a very good mit while off tanking. Being able to throw some extra protection on the MT is great. Sometimes it really helps with TBs, especially ones that grow in power.

[@CrimsonSpikeFlash]

the dungeon cdr help so much tyvm for the effort in this vid!

[@AzuriteTV]

Welcome! glad it helped you :D

[@annkuro9726]

Ooh, just in time! I was just thinking about what "honest" tank should I pick (after getting Raw Intuition WAR becomes a cheat, you can't change my mind) and mitigation is where I struggle the most. Panicking and pressing everything at once is only making it worse so you have no idea how grateful I am for this detailed video

[@AzuriteTV]

Glad this was just in time for you! And yeah, WAR is honestly god mode enabled when it comes to tanking. As for the TBNs, I wouldn't worry too much about this, its easier for the Dark Knight to adjust so you're doing fine! :)

[@be4ut1ful.st4rl1ght]

ri/bw is only rlly god mode in dungeons but yeah, i fall asleep running smileton as a 90 warrior because its so easy to stay alive

[@faiff_k]

It's OK, DRKs can just stall mit for a couple seconds, because after 4-5 holies, all enemies become immune to the stun and they start beating up the DRK again.

[@Anergyne]

Please don't stop the Holy spam? Killing enemies quickly is the best mitigation in the game.

[@StubbsTheWolf]

Started leveling my warrior again (lvl 78 right now) 4 days before patch 6.1. Really loving it right now but I gotta gut feeling I shouldn't get used to it. Get we will soon see! Thanks for the video, it is very helpful :)

[@mwfcod0932]

Thank you. Really helpful for a noob like me. 👍🏼

[@avgoldhead7207]

Thank you for this video!!!! This will help me so much!

[@EPICZEUS.]

For paladin's Holy Shelltron - your auto attack delay is around 2.5 seconds, and it takes 10 hits to get 50 gauge, making it effectively a 25 second cooldown, assuming you're able to consistently hit autos. It is annoying if you're low and the boss phases or you have to step away for an extended amount of time, the "cooldown" isn't ticking down.

[@LuminNox]

Really good and detailed video. I appreciate your effort and leave this comment for the algorithm :)

[@AzuriteTV]

Algorithm senpai notice me

[@Porako]

Thank you so much I love tanking in ffxiv

[@fishbread9208]

When it comes to gunbreaker and Camouflage, while it is a weaker mitigation than Rampart usually, Gunbreaker having a sexy parry animation (and sexy animations everywhere else) makes it a strangely fun button to press!

[@lotharschramm5000]

Great guide as always. One small gripe however: you seem to expect or have competent groups while my DF experience has been quite different. For instance when you say "rampart reprisal should last the entire pull" that's almost never the case for me because everything dies so slow lol it's not unusual that I have to pop my 30% mitigation early and it feels terrible

[@rightful4973]

I’m new to the game and playing paladin, I have spent a week getting my core rotation down then realized I need to learn how to use my mitigations as well lol. This is a very helpful guide. (Edit: paladin section note) so from what I understand here, you’ll mainly be doing mitigation rotations on trash mobs in the halls but on bosses you’ll mainly be focusing on your rotation and boss positioning while mostly saving mitigation skills for tank busters and using holy shelltron whenever you have 100 oath gauge?

[@AzuriteTV]

Pretty spot on, boss damage is pretty negligible and self sustain and passive healing will cover you for the most part. That said make sure to pop your active mitigation as much as possible as it's on a short cooldown and for the most part you can usually get away with a rampart and sentinel usage during boss fights too! Just pop that rampart whenever it's up on the boss and make sure it's back up for the pack after the boss dies and pop sentinel whenever really because it'll be up for the 2nd mob pack regardless

[@Anukii]

28:08 Oh, I'm glad thats inaccurate now 💖 Vindication for dark knights!!

[@godofm3tal1]

I feel like referring to them as "active" and "resource based" is a bit of a misnomer. All mits are active. You have to consciously activate them for them to function so they are never "passive". I think if I had to name them I'd likely go with something more along the lines of "basic mit" and "utility mit". Where basic is any mit that simply reduces damage dealt or received and utility mit grants you bonuses like tbn giving you resources back or warriors mit reflecting damage back. It offers utility beyond simple mitigation.

[@blackmagekongs2588]

Awesome guide for tanks! You should have also mentioned that throwing in a low blow to interrupt an incoming aoe can help the party melt packs faster.

[@AzuriteTV]

True! I should of probably mentioned this, I do go over this in my general tanking guide and this video is mostly for personal cooldowns but I do think it could of benefited from this a bit, which is gutting I didn't include it xD

[@steeldog410]

i love this video but the biggest question i have is... what are the part of you glam in the video. truely the most important thing to kno

[@MissTayzha]

Very helpful. Thanks.

[@AzuriteTV]

Welcome!

[@lolRNG]

I think Vengeance also crits everything reflected if you're hit while using Inner Release.

[@peterblood8074]

Negative

[@fundur2816]

does reprisal suffer the additive issue when stacking as thats more a debuff to the enemy rather than a boost to your own defence?

[@DummyFace123]

No abyssal drain mention? I use this tactically in every trash pack inbetween the first two tbn. Idk why ppl seem to ignore this one, it’s pretty important imo. People don’t ignore aurora but they ignore abyssal drain which can outshine aurora

[@AzuriteTV]

You aren't wrong, but I'm more of the mind set of Abyssal drain only being used for DPS, call it the FF DPS brain if you will. Totally agree though, I have caught myself healing myself for huge amounts with Abyssal drains in clutch situations

[@DummyFace123]

@@AzuriteTV Great vid btw didn't mean to come off as a whiner, just happened to be leveling drk and wanted to know if anyone else found tbn as stressful to use as I do. After I finish though I figure I'll go back to warrior because of nascent flash. Imo warrior is so far the better paladin (I main pld) because shake it is far more clutch, and nascent flash I use during bossfights regularly to heal myself since bloodwhetting is overkill anyways. And what I've noticed is that playing warrior instead of pld is; those "oh shi" moments where Clemency becomes "clutch" happen FAR less frequently because I'm just nascent flashing the people who look to be in trouble anyways, and what I've had happen many times is that its prevented deaths on many occasions. Especially the shield. But most of the time, every 25 seconds I just heal myself and a party member to full, which makes it the best support tank in the game imo I'm leveling them all up to get a feel for them and I am not liking drk so far

[@patrickkimberlin3209]

War is so broken, and as a War main.....I love it.

[@sebastien953]

Interesting guide for end game, but it would be nice to also have strategies for leveling the tanks. I run into this video because I am leveling a Warrior. Bloodwhetting, which is recommended to use for dungeon pulls, is a level 82 skill. So it is not available until you reach Endwalker content and most of the time you won't even have it in daily roulettes afterwards.

[@AzuriteTV]

Just swap Bloodwheeting with Raw Intuition when being synced down, if you don't have Raw Intuition just skip it and start to rotate your other cooldowns, like rampart, thrill +reprisal/arms length and vengeance, just as an example

[@JDxxxxxx]

What chest piece are you wearing in the thumbnail?

[@kinakomono]

What about lower level dungeons, I struggle most in these when you don't have so much options especially because I am currently lvling up. I dont have yet HoC and the magic dmg cd one

[@modex20]

Any guide can regurgitate the in game tooltips. It seems like nobody likes to discuss specific cd parings and rotations when applied to actual dungeons.

[@odinmaveth6224]

Great vid

[@nobody-xh6ii]

Whats the outfit you're wearing in the thumbnail?

[@ashlorusso]

Hi, for TBN, what do you mean by "break"? Do you mean when the timer is up? How does TBN break?

[@DarkMartio]

The Blackest Night gives you a shield equalling 25% of your health. The shield being depleted by damage is what they mean by "breaking"

[@StraytheSkies]

thank youuu 🥹

[@1337penguinman]

How to tank on WAR: Step 1) Bloodwhetting Step 2) Fel Cleave Repeat steps 1 and 2

[@aaronfields7254]

Which gunbreaker weapon is that?

[@sentralorigin]

saving best tank for last i see

[@AzuriteTV]

A few weeks ago I would of disagreed, but I have started to really enjoy my time with Gunbreaker as of late!

[@bigyin109]

5:05 omg I'm such an idiot, I have been totally ignoring arms length for months now, i thought the slow meant it literally slowed the mobs walking speed and i figured it was pointless because if the mobs are too slow and i cant hit them anymore i wont keep threat, fml :'

[@ryanweible9090]

its kind of a hidden secret, took me a bit to figure its use too, but now its a favorite, especially for large pull alphas, so everyone gets that slow.

[@shaunnaruto]

Beautiful

[@Durahan82]

Any Tank Macros ?

[@iPlayOnSpica]

PLD has Bulwark and Divine Veil, too

[@AzuriteTV]

This was before Bulwark, also Veil isn't a personal defensive... the point is this video is old and information is out dated

[@gwelengu]

@@AzuriteTV I know this guide is out of date, however as I am learning PLD I notice Veil absorbs some damage over 30s. Does that mean it recieves a threshold of damage before disappearing? Would you cast this on top of other mitigation to absorb more hits within that 30s? still looking for some good mitigation tips for the current PLD

[@kumoko3728]

Don't be me > Play DRK in dungeons > do a wall to wall pull > realize you have a WHM as healer > They don't heal or use Holy > ...... > party dies

[@Slydaa7]

Paladin has more innate passive mitigation than other tanks thanks to the block strength/rate of the shield.

[@Zanbatoss]

This video helps me for my daily expert roulette, but sadly theres some unfortunate incident makes me really lazy to tank again in dungeons. Both dps not using AoEs so each pulls takes like 5 min to kill until I used everything and I don't even have MP to TBN, then the healer proceed to blame me not using mitigation 🤣. "I have to use synastry like in extremes bro use your mitigation"

[@EinsiJo]

Problem with using hallowed ground on the first pull is that you're liable to be yelled at by players who think that it should only be saved for when you're about to die.

[@Feridire]

I can say as a healer main trying to learn the tank role, I can not stress enough that tanks that use their invulns are the best tanks. People tend to save them but when paired with a half decent healer, and if the tank uses their cooldowns it rarely ever comes to that moment so it tends to be a skill rarely used.

[@elmyratube]

Late to the party but in defence of living dead: if you get to 1hp while living dead is active and enter walking dead, you start self-healing to the tune of cure potency 1500 for every weapon skill or spell successfully delivered. If you're hitting 4 mobs with an aoe you self-heal to full in one attack. Healers I beg you, if your DRK has hit living dead, let them die and self-heal, and use the time to stabilise the rest of the party or dps the f out everything.

[@AzuriteTV]

This video was made before 6.1, which is when Living Dead was changed

[@TwoTwig]

10:08 "Don't use these without-" I can't understand the rest of the sentence from there

[@OhManItsMike]

"Don't use these without requiescat" As a paladin, all of your holy spirits/holy circles will be under the buff of the requiescat, except for pre-pull (before the fight)

[@TwoTwig]

@@OhManItsMike Thank you

[@ishirutaekakura308]

I don't really see DRK getting anything dps gains lol besides a aligned party buff, without that it's pretty shit. I think DRK got screwed over. I don't see why it needs damage tied to it's mitigation, when WAR doesn't, WAR is a super braindead easy rotation job with no drawbacks at all, extremely strong self healing and mitigation and now it out damages DRKs (without alliged party buffs) Honestly to anyone wanna do tanking and just be the best at everything, main WAR.

[@MrProng999]

Rest that voicie-woicie!

[@jpf7942]

Just save your healer some headaches and roll a Warrior 🤷‍♂️😂😂

[@kovacsbenjamin7960]

me: it's just, like what, 5 ability? Should be a quick video The video: *42min long video essay about the ancient art of damage mitigation*

[@antus2629]

:D

[@AzuriteTV]

:D!

[@RB-cs5dw]

Just started playing ff14 since I left swtor a few days ago, ff14 is amazing and I just love tanking. Did my research and warrior was the only choice for me as a tank, really wanted to be pala tank but it wasn't like the wow pala so warrior all the way with all its sustain

[@fkhooligan]

Thanx bro