Optimizing for Success in Mentor Roulette!

[@RagnarokiaNG]

You can make yourself as strong as possible, but the bigget factor to success is the mood, keep the "mentor" part of roullete in mind, make it seem like you want to be there to help and motivate others when the duty struggles, and the number of roulletes completed will fly by compared to sitting there watching the number with every duty trying to force it to go faster.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Definitely! Being polite and helpful will also just get you through much more easily in general! 😄

[@CeliLarsonient]

Optimizing Physick is incredibly cursed. XD

[@ddfb494355]

AND auto-attacks. Unlimited power

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Sometimes you gotta work with what you have! 🤣

[@gazel7424]

I am still grinding Sealrock so that... I can play SMN optimally in certain situations!

[@hasenearl6228]

​@@gazel7424 Grinding Seal Rock is incredibly painful. First it only is on every 3rd day, Second there are 71 other people in there, an they can be anything from PVP veterans to complete first timers. Third, the allagan beacon things are randomized, so you can get incredibly luck or unlucky with placements. You need 100 wins to unlock the complete set. Let's assume you would win an average of every third Seal rock run, you would need 300 games to do that. Every game is max 20 mins long, from my experience normally it is done around the 12-15 min mark. With around 5mins of wait during busy hours you need about 20 mins per game. This means you would need about 6000mins or 100h of game time to farm that set.

[@jasonlove5811]

​@hasenearl6228 sounds about right to me. My win rate for frontline is literally 33.3٪. I now veiw it as a crap shoot on if i get a functional team

[@hasenearl6228]

Had a dungeon run in The Aery as Red Mage ages ago before the rework in EW. Healer DC on us on entry so I told the Tank to go slow and I'd Vercure until he came back. He never did, but we were having a blast trying to do the dungeon without one so we didn't vote-kick and carried on as 3 with me as heal-dps. We even beat Nidhogg first try even though you needed to keep Estinien alive back then. RDM is an absolute support beast in that level-range because Vercure heals for a lot, comparing to later level ranges.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That's the spirit! And exactly why red mage is among those jobs I recommended! 😁

[@bookwyrm5799]

will never forget this one aetherochemical research run where the healer was struggling so bad with double star it was just the dark night and me, the vercure bot, for the last few minutes of the fight😅

[@noscea]

Well Fun Fact 2 : As 7.15 just hit, we got to check in-game for the chaotic raid gear stats, and tank chest will be Crit > Det, making it the new BiS chest piece as soon as the raid is available. Same fore healers, they will have option to remove their piety without lowering their ilvl.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That's true! At least the fun fact still applies for the ring? 😂

[@Viech54]

That's good to know. Where can I see that?

[@xsteelersx6]

It’s on a website called garland tools database. You can pick apart stuff that’s been added to the game

[@xsteelersx6]

Note: spoilers ahead on that website. It’s very much a ‘datamine’ type of deal. You can actually also see the armor on the vendors already in solution 9 if you talk to the bunny girl you trade totems in for from the extremes

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@Viech54 the vendor that you trade dt extreme totems to 😊

[@etoiledefeu7504]

We got mentor roulette BiS before getting the raid tier unlocked T_T

[@kalebdoesthings]

Reminder that status recovery potions can be used on other players if you are nearby, mostly useless but nice to bring to clear silence on healer in DDs and the few times there is silence in dungeons

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I had completely forgotten echo drops could be used on others!

[@iPlayOnSpica]

I did not know this and always thought those items were self-use only

[@cbanana665]

Going to have to try your tenacity build for pre-Dawntrail content. 😀 In terms of paladin, at least compared to the other tanks in roulette, they're the absolute best at keeping the rest of the party alive. Paladin does have the following tricks in older content that no other tank can do: - The Sunken Temp of Qarn: Low Blow + Shield Bash on first boss so party doesn't have to do the doom mechanic - Haukke Manor Hard: Cover on healer + Hallowed Ground to not wipe to third blood rain - Lost City of Amdapor: Use Reprisal on first ruinous omen. Then cover healer + Hallowed Ground on second one. - Leviathan Extreme: Shield Bash on Sahaugin caster to stun lock for much longer Admittedly, if your party is so hopeless that you need to solo the fight, paladin at low levels is definitely the worst option. 🤣

[@lolthesystem]

Just a small nitpick I have to mention as a spaniard: the tonic syllable in "pastor" is "tor", not "pas", so it would look like "TAcos al pasTOR", with the capital letters symbolizing where the tonics are. I was getting incredibly triggered by how it sounded like you were saying "al pesto" instead of "al pastor" 😂

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Oof! Well I tried my best! I know zero Spanish you see! 😂 Thank you!

[@lolthesystem]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh yeah I imagined that was the case, no worries! 😂

[@hoodiesticks]

I've tanked a lot of low-level content, and I'd like to defend Paladin a bit. Yes, it has no self-heals outside potions, but it has the best and most consistent mits by a long shot. In dungeon wall-to-wall pulls (which is the situation where you're most likely to wipe to bad heals), the key metric is how long it takes for the healer to realize you're in trouble. Below 55, only GNB has self-heals strong enough to extend this time. WAR and DRK's self-heals don't actually give you that much compared to how much damage you take, and the 123 heals can't even be triggered on command. Mits matter much more than self-heals for these pulls, because they give the healer more time to notice your health decreasing and gives them a clearer understanding of how long they have before you die. And in this regard, PLD comes out far on top. Shelltron can be used on every single pull on top of the mits you would otherwise use, and it can often be used while running as well to reduce that damage. Not to mention that PLD's shield naturally reduces damage from autos, which is most wall-to-wall damage. The fact that Shelltron is so spammable also solves a common issue with sprout healers where they expect each pull to do the same damage. If I pop my big mits on the first pull, the breaker might not realize I have fewer mits for the second pull, and will take longer to raise I'm in trouble. Shelltron-ing every pull makes them much more consistent and predictable for sprout healers. I probably could've made those points more concisely, but you get the idea. PLD mits are so good in low-level dungeons, you really notice their absence when you play other tanks.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That's fair. Personally, even as someone who has done plenty of low level duties as paladin, I feel that Sheltron and the blocking is not as helpful as having the option to heal yourself extra with the 123s in a desperate situation. I'd say that the reasons I prefer the three others is a mix of things. At level 40 now dark knights have a 10% mit for 10 seconds on a minute cooldown (dark mind) which is pretty competitive with Sheltron, not quite, but close. And then it still has souleater. Gunbreaker as you said, is a hard comparison because of how much gunbreaker has. Warrior among the three is nowadays probably the most awkward in its low levels, but it being rather close to drk (and thrill of battle is an extra heal that interestingly also has synergy with potions) and then being the one to get invuln first (meaning it has invuln in dzemael and aurum), and how broken it is in higher level content once it gets raw intuition, is what ultimately makes me weigh paladin much lighter than the rest. But I feel like I did say that I only viewed paladin as slightly weaker than the rest, and of course, it can be a subjective thing! 😅

[@hoodiesticks]

@CaetsuChaijiCh "But I did say that I only viewed Paladin as slightly weaker than the rest" idk, you used two > symbols in the hierarchy. That's a whole extra > symbol, you know? I'll concede that in 50 trials and EXs, the 123 heals matter a lot. And the fact that you don't know what kind of content you're getting in Mentor Roulette does encourage you to hedge your bets.

[@shiro12okami69]

@@hoodiesticksI mean to be completely honest in lvl 50 extremes, no amount of self heal or mitigation will do any significant difference,if your the last man standing or healers are in a pinch. I think for extremes the whole grp or selected few need to function to clear. Every extreme is mostly solvable with one good tank and one healer which usually carry the weight till finish line. Ramuh is always rly funny in that regard, you can instantly find a good knowledgeable tank/healer in that encounter. The real interesting mentors are the lvl 60+ extremes but sadly they are rly rare. Always feels rly special to help ppl clear them if the grp is capable to do so^^

[@necrolord1920]

You put WHM at the bottom, but I would argue that it can be one of the best. For me, most of my healer mentor roulettes are 4 mans. In that context, trash is the greatest challenge. The holy spam from whm greatly trivializes that. After your holy no longer stuns, you can toss up asylum, then regen the tank (which is buffed by asylum), then maybe weave in an ogcd heal before resuming your aoe. If asylum is on cooldown, you can replace it with temperance if you are in a higher level dungeon. In addition to holy spam being godly for trash, whm gets thin air, which can help prolong your mana pool when you have to do a lot of aoe healing or ressing. It is true that whm is more difficult in dungeons below level 45 though.

[@madderred7853]

the real treat of this guide was hearing Caetsu say 'tacos al pastor' like 3 times, thanks

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you! Although I have been told I said it wrong! 🤣

[@SREDISKRAD]

I feel like if we take the premise "the dps checks will be met" to its logical conclusion, wouldn't the best set be Ten=Det>Sks (pref)>Crit? I feel like if the DPS are (theoretically) covering the damage in most instances then, as a tank, ten/det making you more unkillable and increasing the overall consistency of every hit/cure would be better than occasionally surviving because of a lucky crit heal. I understand the idea here is to be a "best in slot" to maximise damage and consistency simultaneously, but I feel like leaning away from crit to maximise the "guaranteed" bonuses instead of "lets go gambling" on crits would be more consistant overall. This might also alleviate some of PLD's early issues by leaning more into the "unmoveable bulwark" with the block allowing newer, slower, tired healers more time to react (I'm also theoretically assuming the healer is also trying their best) I thought it would be fair to give the healer a chance here to do their job, since you focused entirely on the self healing aspect for them. I'm not saying I disagree, I just feel in ff14 we're in a place where tanks try not to rely on healers, and I feel that's somewhat unfair to the healers of the team - tanks taking longer to kill increase the reaction time for healers to do someting ((Also, WAR is the only job to get its invuln before 50 (lvl 46 iirc) so, in Aurum Vale for example, WAR is the better tank on the technicality they have invuln and it's the shortest invuln cd in the game.))

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I get the idea that "wouldn't det be better for consistency?" and I thought the same, but when you CAN maximize crit, it reaches such a high chance (over 25%) that it is consistent enough, and due to the scaling, it is simply better than determination, regardless of whether you focus on healing or tanking! 😊 I mean anything you can do to make healers job easier simultaneously also makes the healer less significant, so there's only so much you can do. The healers that benefit from this help will probably appreciate it, and the ones that don't need it will probably just attack a little bit more 😊

[@shiro12okami69]

I would always consider a full group 4/4 being standard in mentor anyway,since you usually ain’t walking around solo much even in lower dungeons. So I think the most important stuff is how good support one can provide towards the whole grp and themselves. For example GNB and PLD are the only tanks having support abilities for teammates at earlier levels,while DRK and WAR gotta wait longer. Aurora heals teammate,Cover makes teammate invulnerable. GNB having early Camouflage for more mitigation,PLD earliest spam OGCD lvl 35 with 15% double usage most of the time. Also ppl tend to forget Shield Bash being spamable every 2,5sec let’s you stall so much time for the grp to rejoin with you in mob pulls. Only tank which can stun 2 at same time technically. WAR earliest invuln in game huge plus aswell. I did write down all mitigation and support tools from lvl 45 downwards once for each tank and DRK sadly still has least on low levels. But maybe they will add a regen to dark mind at some point that would be good for DRK. About tenacity, I had a complete tenacity set for tier 3 endwalker, it was actually pretty funny,but I didn’t rly seen a huge/impactful difference to normal Crit det build Def/heal wise x)

[@hoodiesticks]

WAR getting their invuln early is a curse in disguise, honestly. Trying to climb back up from 1HP without Raw Int is really hard on healers, so often you'll end up dying to pulls that you could've survived if you used Vengeance and the healer focused you.

[@Thundawich]

Because most healing is spread over many individual instances, you won't really see a difference between crit and det. Outside of the rare times where you need a guncog or equi to crit to survive, they'll do about as well as each other in every pull.

[@duncanmacleod6274]

Having just finished the grind, my optimization was just playing Summoner for busy times, and healers for dead DF times. DPS queues get shorter duties, and SMN is a backup for rezzing struggling healers and constantly dying DPS that would otherwise prevent a group from clearing. Unlike RDM, this works in the ARR and HW Extremes you actually see in roulette. It's also just an easy class with relatively high mobility at higher levels, and it has some inconsistent but occasionally useful free heals. Also actually teaching people things. By the time I was done with this, I was still willing to teach, but I'm not going to go in without the ability to peel you off the ground if you don't learn.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That's great advice! And yes absolutely, if you can teach the team the things they need, you also have less things you need to carry on! 😁

[@Viech54]

The following won't be about the optimal choices, just what I'd choose. Prio 1 has to be that it's a job I can play well enough to bring it to extremes AND have done all the job quests that unlock new skills. Because yes, there are jobs in the level 90 range or at level 100 that I cannot play at all and the only job quest I did is the one that unlocks the job (samurai, sage, scholar whenever I feel like unlocking it). Didn't intend to bring those to any type of content, so didn't feel like doing those or learning the job. I will fix that someday, but want to level the remaining jobs first and then figure out which one I actually like and want to get good at. Until then, I'll stick with what I can do unless I discover a new job that's just incredibly fun to play for me that I want to main. After that, it depends on the role. For tank, I will choose whatever tank mount I'm currently farming and hope for a sufficiently high level duty. For DPS/healers, whichever one I feel like or want to level. Don't think I'd optimize my gear sets around hard carrying runs. I'll try to help to the best of my abilities, but whatever happens, happens. If players are overly impolite because a mentor cannot hard carry a fight, there's always the option to attempt to vote kick, leave, and report should the need arise. But seeing that I still need more than 300 commendations and rarely do content in duty finder these days, it will take a while before I can even become a mentor. Commendations are the only limiting factor, I already did all required content. To my knowledge at least.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Oh absolutely to the optimization bit, this optimization in this video is entirely for your own enjoyment. If someone actually complained that you aren't carrying as a mentor, they are in the wrong 😂

[@furo822]

Stay hydrated is also a way to maximize the success rate.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Also good advice! Also make sure to eat healthy and get plenty of sleep!

[@idaret.]

"Although I find it unlikely you would be using buff food constantly for mentor roulette" hahaha, yeah, who would do such a thing? *hides 300 units of Moqueca*

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

"why is there a splashing noise every time you jump?" "no reason!" - moqueca filled mentor 🤣

[@DiscountSupport]

Squenix buffed tenacity and said "tanks will be using this, I will not elaborate"

[@acehealer4212]

This is advanced math.

[@vespi57]

In my experience, optimizing for mentor roulette is not really worth the effort. What matters more than having optimal gear is that you know how to play your job and that you know/learn the mechanics of the duty. Gear only becomes a factor if someone is literally wearing gear, that has way too low item level for the particular duty.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I mean, everything helps, while this might not make a colossal difference, it may make some difference. Whether it's worth the effort is of course a different matter and I can imagine few will bother, but it is fun to think about what could be optimal if you were to optimize! 😊

[@xalzaixhungers2442]

Recently had a dragoon however who only used ranged attacks, which made our tank (also a mentor) pretty pissed, asking to be kicked. It was fine, we managed despite their whining because the dungeon was so low level, but in a case like this, I wonder what advice you would give on how to handle this, especially in higher content where stuff like that could make you unable to complete a duty (they did not respond to text messages and only once went in melee to use one other ability before going back to ranged mode) Love the content, keep it up

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

If the dragoon is simultaneously not willing to communicate and clearly playing in an extremely ineffective way, to the point of it seeming deliberate (seems so in this case), you would be justified in kicking the dragoon. This would be justified on the grounds they are unwilling to cooperate with the team, and vote kicking is in a gray area where disagreements can be a justified reasoning sometimes. Case in point, didn't sound like you all agreed with the dragoons choice of strategy! The main reason I think it would be justified to kick them is that maybe they would be more willing to communicate if clearly the team kicks them when they ignore them. That might not be the best solution, and personally, I might just shake my head at the situation and clear the duty if possible anyway. 😂

[@xsteelersx6]

I find it mildly humorous where the only place in the game ‘build variety’ exists and may get optimal outside of speed tiering is in the mentor roulette! Nice vid I enjoyed seeing the numbers. I wish the ‘tanky’ stat was less taboo for, you know, tanks!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I do too! Actually, someone just recently showed me they could stack tenacity to take like 16% less damage than the best in slot tank set, at the cost of less than 3% dps. So hey, maybe it could work if people weren't so focused on perfection! 😂

[@hoodiesticks]

I always found this community's aversion to tenacity/piety kind of jarring. If that extra damage reduction and healing gives the healers more GCDs to do damage, then you've just made the fight more consistent and manageable at a negligible DPS cost. Not to mention that the 5 seconds you'd save by focusing on damage stats might be offset by the 5 minutes you'd lose by wiping.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@hoodiesticks the awkward part of the conversation is that time and again it turns out that healers don't really get extra attack gcds thanks to tenacity, but that's obviously under optimal circumstances, and something that is more and more clear, is that to some degree, optimization forgets the part where not everyone's perfect 😅

[@xsteelersx6]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh if 3% of one tanks damage cost you an enrage, my guess would be the group could just do more mechanics right or the dps can pull their weight a bit better 😂

[@Scerttle]

WAR straight up is the worst levelling experience of the tanks for the reasons laid out here lmao This is also the same reasoning why I will only queue as GNB for levelling. With the change to bolide there's literally no downside to the job in dungeons now.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Oh yeah true! For a moment I forgot about the superbolide change! 😂

[@Scerttle]

Gonna be honest, I'm glad the devs are making it so sometimes there's no option to avoid "bad" substats, so having the only options contain tenacity is completely OK with me.

[@shiro12okami69]

Im not going to start the PLD thing again here….maybe I’m just to gifted with job I guess xD But it has a similar progression road like WAR in mentor,once u reach 58 u kinda have similar tools if u know how basically.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It can be a preference thing 😊 Let's just say the reason I weigh self healing in lower level content (even if it is mainly on single target) this way, is that being slightly better at taking less damage isn't as valuable as having a healing option at all. At least in my opinion 😅

[@shiro12okami69]

@@CaetsuChaijiChI can respect the opinion, no problem in that rly. I can see the reason and all,but I generally think PLD is for many the most misunderstood tank,so I always try to like put it into a better light if possible. Like to understand where i come from. I genuinely think once you reach your healing effects as PLD you are the best tank in any content for every situation by a mile. Like the sustain is so tremendous that I could heal an complete auto atk session from Omega P3 with barely any issues. And any level before self sustaining stuff till clemency and MP manipulation. You can out smart by precise mitigation rotation,Food,HP pot if needed,and planned pulls we can’t solo low dungeons as tanks,but we can definitely impact the outcome of a pull by a lot. It’s rly worth learning PLD. I highly encourage ppl to see for themself xD I definitely agree on GNB tho early Camouflage and Aurora make him the best low content Tank. But it’s really all good, I respect opinions,it’s healthy:)

[@hoodiesticks]

​@shiro12okami69 I'm a fellow PLD enjoyer, but even I think this is a stretch, especially at 60. Clemency just costs too much, and both WAR and GNB have better heals at that point.

[@shiro12okami69]

@@hoodiesticks I mean is again opinion based. I’m playing PLD for a very long time by now, and I did a ridiculous amount of undoable things by now with PLD, just as an example, Cover the useless tool gave my Grp a week 1 clear on p7s last harvest mech,since I just cover my healer and invulned myself,she was safe and LB3 res all, and I sometimes also made it out alive aswell, I soaked Double tank busters in savages took both basically. It’s mostly the creativity holding you back when it comes to PLD. And yeah cover is an Healer invuln on 45 upwards it’s literally broken to fix a mistake from a critical situation. Shield bash being a Holy for poor ppl at lvl 10 till resistance. Only tank with double stun, u got the tools to stall till team arrives. Some tanks might have the healing aspect for them earlier on, but Pld has more mitigation and better tools to not even end up being solo in 1st place kinda. But as mentioned everyone has own opinions which are completely fine. Ps: the 58 Clemency is a stretch true,it helps but it ain’t a raw xD But our most powerful tool is cover,just babysitting healer and it’s gg

[@ScubashrimpLive]

I made a clip for you showing why warrior is the clear favorite on this matter. :p

[@NatiiixLP]

You are technically correct, but it's a _Mentor_ Roulette, not a _Carry_ Roulette. The success should be measured by how many party members (mentees, if you will) learned something useful. Working around others rather than working with others is a mindset that doesn't really scale super well, and unfortunately, too many people tend to play that way in MMOs. Something-something about giving a man a fish vs teaching a man to fish. :^) Frankly, I wish they never added any achievements or rewards tied to the Mentor Roulette. Yes, fewer people would do it, for sure, but those who would, would be significantly more likely to a) want to help new players, or b) expose their superiory complex over said new players.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Well the purpose of being a bit over prepared as a mentor in this case is also to give more breathing room, sometimes to teach with. But I do see your point 😊 I would however also add that the success of *a* duty is measured by whether the duty is cleared or not. Just because you entered through mentor roulette doesn't change that 😊 and I never claimed it was a mentors job to carry, but it is an option you have. I also talked about this in my mentor tier list, that the more individually capable of winning a job is, the more capable it is of carrying the group on its own. Simultaneously, the less capable it is of handling things on its own, the more dependent the player is on teaching the team how it's done. But that doesn't mean the self sufficient tank cannot teach their team things when it matters 😁

[@NatiiixLP]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Of course, it is the purpose of a duty to be cleared, but the purpose of a Mentor is to help the others clear it. If you want to clear an EX, you could always just unsync it. If you get a Mentor into your EX, and the prevent you from wiping by doing something a normal player wouldn't typically do (like the Physick optimisation gear), you may not learn anything from it, and you may get the wrong impression.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@NatiiixLP or Alternatively the mentor doing something unusual to overcome the challenge teaches you something unique a normal player could never have 🤔😊

[@NatiiixLP]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Yes, but I fear a sprout with healer/PvP gear on SMN. 💀😂

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@NatiiixLP well, that's their problem for not asking for confirmation 🤣 This reminds me of when someone told me I shouldn't be using art of war at level 50 as Scholar, not because it was bad (art of war is a gain on 1 at level 50 after all), but because "oh what if a sprout sees it and copies it without thinking?" 🤣 I try to assume my fellow player, even the sprouts, are a bit smarter than that! 😊

[@JetEriksen]

If this doesnt mention my physick summoner comment, I will be mildly peeved. Edit: It didn't but it did mention bringing multiple gearsets, so i'm satisfied c:

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I might have missed this comment, but there's at least something about physick and summoner in there! 😅

[@MerrorCat]

That physick optimizing is disgusting...but holy crap I wanna try it now

[@asdsad17]

the highest level extreme i ever got is 70 and only rathalos. occasional lv60. mostly lv50. everything else is chill.

[@LCH415]

Summoner has SLEEP

[@Taldemarr]

I don't know if this is more telling of your content or myself, but this has to be the most interesting video in ages for myself. And that's while I still haven't even unlocked the damn roulette!

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I'm glad you found it interesting, Taldemar! 😄 I'm not sure either! 😁 But it is at least a subject i just found fun and silly to look into, so maybe it is something like that? 😄

[@Hoooound]

When your favorite FFXIV youtuber supports Physick healing as a SMN 😔😩😭😭🌝😢😩 So when are we getting the single target doton guide?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Maybe for April fools day 🤣

[@resenas5063]

Why now the Video after I am done with Mentor Roulette? XD >/////

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Well now you have to get the gear and get back in there just for fun! 🤣

[@arknightsboi2050]

Cae out here making PVP players valid in their brainrot

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Just make sure you have fun during the brain rotting grind! 🤣

[@TobinatorTx]

The bias towards pld xD drk is easily the worst mentor tank imo. People seem to forget that pld can block damage with the shield making it the thickest tank at all levels tbh. Its rng i understand, but low level dungeons dont hurt anyway. Actually the smoothest mentor roulette runs i usually have on either warrior or paladin, gnb and drk not so much

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Paladins blocks average 6% damage reduction. I'm not forgetting those. But in the content you will see the most as a mentor tank, paladin has only that, and sure, also Sheltron, but with the additions recently, both drk and gnb have options like dark mind(now also reducing physical damage) and camouflage, and on top can heal themselves while paladin cannot. Yes the self healing is single target, but let's just say that if your healer is bad enough, you can at least force your way forward yourself! 😁 I think the main reason you have this experience is that gunbreaker and dark knight are much more likely to attract players that aren't really interested in tanking in the first place. It's surprisingly common to see, and just because many players don't know how to use them, doesn't mean they're bad as a result 😅 That said, you might have had better experiences with paladin than I did. That's okay! 😅(and I play plenty of paladin, and prefer it and warrior over drk and gnb when playing myself for most content, so it's not like I hate paladin!)

[@TobinatorTx]

@CaetsuChaijiCh oh i have definitely realized that drk attracts a lot of players purely because of aesthetics and gnb probably because it starts at lvl 60. My go to tank is always warrior (because im not a tank main and just want to get the job done) in the end it will always be a preference of choice which tank you pick for which content. Experience is also heavily influenced by the sprouts you get. There are sometimes cases where no matter what you choose to play will help you much.

[@hoodiesticks]

The shield block is definitely noticeable. I usually play PLD, and whenever I run a few roulettes as DRK I'm often surprised by how much damage I'm taking. Funnily enough I don't get that feeling from low level WAR, so maybe I'm wrong. Whatever the reason though, DRK just feels squishier to play.