Tank design in FFXIV has undergone many evolutions over the years, with some of the most radical changes coming in Shadowbringers. Most notably, the addition of the fourth tank job, Gunbreaker, and a complete rework of Dark Knight. Beyond that, the aggro system was completely gutted and enmity combos are now a thing of the past. Tank stance is no longer an option to increase defense by sacrificing offense. A handful of role actions were completely removed.

In this article, we will explore and analyze the current iteration of the tank jobs, where their respective strengths and weaknesses lie, what kind of playstyle each job facilitates, and ultimately how they fit into the end-game raiding meta.

Here are links to the FFXIV official job guides to the four tanks, for easy reference:

The Homogenized Aspects of Tanks

In FFXIV, the tank jobs are designed to have very similar kits to balance them so that none of them are too significantly stronger or weaker than the others. Love it or hate it, the four tank jobs are more alike than they are unalike. To understand the tank meta, we first need to understand in what ways they are similar and in what ways they are different.

All tank jobs have the following tools in their kit:

Tank Role Actions

Self-explanatory. Like every other role, all tanks share these basic, essential actions.

Tank Stance

Enmity control. A role action in every way but name and icon.

Big Cooldown

30% Mitigation, 10s Duration, 120s Cooldown. Again, basically a role action in every way but name and icon, with the only difference being WAR’s Vengeance which returns damage to the attacker.

Gap Closer

An attack that closes the distance between you and the boss, or otherwise just used for damage. They all function the same way (30s cooldown, 2x max charges), except for WAR’s Onslaught (10s cooldown, costs 20 Beast Gauge)

Ranged Pull

High enmity ranged attack. Used to pull the boss but also can be used for snap aggro or very occasionally to deal damage when melee uptime can’t be maintained.

Beyond these abilities, the tank jobs have other skills in their kit that are similar to each other in purpose and function, but the differences in these areas are what set the tanks apart from each other and ultimately determine their position in the meta.

Damage Rotation and DPS Output

This is where the tanks will feel the most different to the player as your rotation makes up the vast majority of your button presses and thought processes. But ultimately, it serves the same purpose: to deal damage to the boss. Different tanks have different capabilities when it comes to DPS output.

Here is a snapshot of Tank DPS numbers on the Extreme Primals just before the release of Eden Savage (courtesy of FFLogs). I chose to use these numbers because…

(1) there is a large sample size of data,

(2) the encounters were pretty well-known and familiar to the general public,

(3) the gear discrepancy is small enough at this point in time

…making this a more reliably fair measurement than using something like Week 1 Eden Savage clears. Still, take these with a grain of salt as they are still a rough estimation and not meant to be a perfect representation of tank DPS.

On that note, I won’t bother showing the raw numbers, just the charts. To be honest, a visual representation of the bigger picture is all we need here to show the tanks’ DPS output in relation to one another.

Key takeaways:

-Gunbreaker > Paladin >> Warrior > Dark Knight.

-Gunbreaker (highest) is a little over 2% above average. Dark Knight (lowest) is a little under 2% below average.

-DPS output is separated by less than 5% across the all four tanks. The difference is consistent and noticeable but also minor and not meta-defining.

If you wish to learn more about each job’s openers, rotations, and ways to optimize your DPS output, refer to The Balance Discord, an invaluable resource of information compiled by some of the community’s wisest players. Be sure to first check the Tank Resources channels before asking questions in the job-specific channels:

Anything you wish to know about tank DPS output, you can probably find or ask about in The Balance.

On-Demand Mitigation

Each tank has an ability with a short duration and on a short cooldown. These abilities are meant to mitigate large bursts of damage (eg. tank busters) and are your first line of defense against the boss’ most threatening attacks.

Sheltron

With the currently attainable items, PLD block is worth about 20% mitigation and may scale upwards as gear improves.

A downside to Sheltron is that, unlike conventional cooldowns, it needs 50 Oath Gauge to be used. It generally takes 20-25s of auto attacks to build up that much Oath Gauge putting it in line with the cooldowns of WAR and GNB’s counterparts. However, you start the fight with zero gauge meaning you cannot use Sheltron (or Intervention/Cover) in the first ~20 seconds of the fight. Also, you’re not generating Oath Gauge during downtime and intermissions, while a conventional cooldown continues to tick and becomes immediately available again when the boss returns.

There is an upside, however. Unlike conventional cooldowns, stockpiling 100 Oath Gauge allows you to use two Sheltrons back to back, or a Sheltron + Intervention/Cover together if the situation calls for it. This is something you can’t do with Raw Intuition, TBN, or Heart of Stone. This extra flexibility will serve Paladin well in certain situations.

Raw Intuition

Clean and simple. It essentially replaces the old Inner Beast but without needing to compromise your damage to use it. This is a WAR’s basic, most conventional answer to a tank buster. The short duration (5s) requires you to be somewhat precise when using it, but luckily WAR isn’t a job that is particularly oGCD heavy, making it easy to squeeze into your rotation.

The Blackest Night

TBN is the strongest on-demand cooldown of the tanks and is Dark Knight’s #1 asset. First of all, because it’s a damage shield and not damage reduction, it interacts better with damage reduction cooldowns when you’re combining multiple sources of mitigation as you often should be. Secondly, it scales with the DRK’s max HP rather than with the damage source. This makes TBN even better for mitigating smaller damage sources (such as raidwide AoEs) while still being superior even when the damage source is equal to your max HP. On top of that, it also has the shortest cooldown at 15s (technically Sheltron has a shorter cooldown, but its bottleneck is Oath Gauge generation). Compared to the others, TBN is just superior all around.

There is a caveat though. It costs 3000 MP to use and while it “refunds” the MP cost in the form of Dark Arts, it only does so if the entire shield is consumed over its 7s duration. If it is not consumed, you are 3000 MP (and therefore 500 potency) in the hole which is a massive penalty. When used properly, TBN is damage neutral. However, it is the hardest to use properly as you must save 3000 MP in preparation for whatever you intend to use it on and you have to ensure that the incoming damage source is strong enough to pop the shield lest you suffer a damage loss.

The TL;DR of TBN: It’s the strongest on-demand cooldown by a wide margin, but the hardest to use effectively and punishes you hard for not doing so.

Heart of Stone

Like Raw Intuition, it’s very straightforward, while mitigating less but lasting a little bit longer. Otherwise, there’s not much else to say about it. It is the weakest on-demand mitigation CD in terms of damage mitigated, but even so, an ability that grants you 15% mitigation over-and-above whatever other cooldown you’re using it with is almost always enough to get the job done. Therefore, I don’t consider this to be a significant disadvantage for Gunbreaker despite being the weakest in this area.

Single-Teammate Mitigation

All tanks now have a means to protect a teammate from harm via a short cooldown. Some tanks (DRK, GNB) do so by casting their on-demand mitigation ability on a party member. The others (WAR, PLD) have a different ability that mitigates for your teammate, and shares a cooldown/resource with their on-demand mitigation ability. These can be used on any party member, but the majority of the time they will be used as a means to protect your co-tank.

Nascent Flash

The mitigation aspect is overall the weakest in this category, but it also grants a “mini-bloodbath” to your target, granting them a small amount of healing based on the damage that you do.

In addition to its mitigation, Nascent Flash is unique in the sense that it includes a benefit on yourself when you are the one tanking. This serves as an alternative to Raw Intuition for situations where you’d rather have the self-healing rather than the mitigation.

Intervention

Intervention on its own is the weakest at 10% mitigation, in a tie with Nascent Flash. However, because it grows stronger when used with Rampart and/or Sentinel, it can potentially become the strongest in this category. The dilemma when it comes to using your Intervention with Rampart/Sentinel to protect your teammate is that it would consume those cooldowns which you may need later for yourself. However, where Intervention shines is when you and your co-tank are taking shared or simultaneous tank busters because you are essentially double-dipping on mitigation from Rampart/Sentinel. Your cooldowns mitigate for yourself, while simultaneously buffing the Intervention to mitigate for your co-tank. This is quite valuable since shared and simultaneous tank busters are a recurring theme throughout Eden Savage.

The Blackest Night

When cast on a co-tank, it’s the same mitigation powerhouse as it is when cast on yourself. Because of TBN, Dark Knight can excel in both MT or OT situations. The same caveats and penalties apply when casting it on a teammate of course, but just to reiterate that TBN is DRKs most important asset that sets it apart from the other tanks, both when used on self or on your co-tank.

Heart of Stone

Like Raw Intuition, it’s very straightforward. The 15% damage mitigation is a step above Nascent Flash and a naked Intervention, while being a step down from TBN. Heart of Stone also additionally passes your Brutal Shell shield to your target, effectively making Heart of Stone stronger on a teammate than it is on yourself. At the current item level, Brutal Shell shields for a little over 4000 HP.

Invulnerability Cooldown

All tanks have an ability they can use to prevent an otherwise lethal attack from killing them. These typically have long cooldowns. The variation in the different Invuln abilities from each tank are pretty drastic and can play a big role in how suitable each tank is for a given fight.

Invulns are sometimes used as an answer to tank busters, but since Shadowbringers made mitigation so readily available via on-demand cooldowns and single-teammate mitigation, we might see tanks mitigate more and Invuln less.

Invulns are very effective when used as an answer to certain shared tank busters as an alternative to having two tanks taking heavy damage. They’re also often used to “cheese” certain mechanics, like Titania EX’s Thunder Rune, allowing the party to circumvent some or all of the mechanic.

The suitability of each individual Invuln depends heavily on the boss encounter, what mechanic you intend on use it on, or how often you can use it. In some fights, they’re not even used at all outside of an “oh shit!” button.

Holmgang

Holmgang has the shortest cooldown of the Invulns which historically has been a very important factor in how useful it is in a given encounter. If the mechanic that you intend on invulning happens frequently, the short cooldown on Holmgang becomes an asset. If it only happens once during the fight, it becomes irrelevant. It all depends on the timeline of the encounter.

In addition to having the shortest cooldown, Holmgang also has the shortest duration of the Invulns which can also be a relevant weakness. For example, if the mechanic you’re Invulning lasts longer than 6 seconds, Holmgang might not be an effective answer for it.

Nonetheless, the short cooldown on Holmgang has always been a benefit, and even though it has been lengthened from 3 to 4 minutes in Shadowbringers, it is still an asset.

Hallowed Ground

Hallowed Ground conversely has the longest cooldown of the Invulns, but is the only one that truly nullifies any healing that that the healers need to do. It also lasts ten seconds long.

Again, the pros and cons of Hallowed Ground depend on the encounter itself. In some fights, the “true Invuln” aspect of Hallowed Ground is a big deal. In other fights, the long cooldown may become a detriment.

Living Dead

Living Dead is often considered the weakest Invuln because Living Dead requires the DRK to receive healing equal to the DRK’s max HP. This is even harder to do now because Convalescence was removed from the game for Shadowbringers.

However, Living Dead is on a relatively short 5 minute cooldown and Walking Dead lasts just as long as Hallowed Ground. Also, given the strength of White Mage in the current healing meta, if the party has access to Benediction, the Walking Dead drawback is much less of a drawback.

Nonetheless, Living Dead can be a liability compared to its counterparts. Even with a WHM in the party, if they have to save Benediction for Walking Dead, the WHM can no longer use it for Holmgang or Superbolide.

Superbolide

Superbolide is an interesting twist on Invulns. Its cooldown is relatively long but not as long as Hallowed Ground. Its duration is between that of Holmgang and Hallowed/Living.

The fact that it reduces the caster’s HP to 1 is not the biggest deal when the healers can allow the GNB to drop low before the tank buster comes. It’s even less of a hassle when the WHM has Benediction available.

Still, Superbolide results in the tank needing to be healed at some point, just not as drastically and urgently as Living Dead.

Raidwide Mitigation

Each tank has a tool (in addition to Reprisal) that mitigates incoming damage to the entire party, either via damage reduction or a damage shield.

Shake It Off

Shake It Off is particularly reliable for a few reasons: It provides a damage shield, not damage mitigation. The shield comes up immediately without requiring to be healed first (unlike Divine Veil). It works on all sources of damage, not just magical (unlike Dark Missionary and Heart of Light).

It can be buffed to be stronger when it consumes one of your other cooldowns, which is quite relevant because of how available Raw Intuition is now with its 25s cooldown.

Divine Veil & Passage of Arms

Paladin is still the only tank with two raidwide cooldowns. Divine Veil provides a pre-emptive shield for incoming damage. The duration on the buff and on the shield itself almost guarantees that you’ll get value out of it. Passage of Arms can still be quickly weaved in between GCDs so that the party is mitigated without the PLD losing uptime or clipping GCDs.

Two cooldowns are better than one, so Paladin naturally excels at helping the party deal with heavy raidwide damage.

Dark Missionary

While Dark Missionary mitigates only magic damage and not physical, the most threatening sources of raidwide AoE damage are almost always magical anyway. There are occasional exceptions, but there’s usually some magic damage source in every encounter that gives Dark Missionary a purpose. Therefore, “magic damage only” part of it isn’t that much of a drawback in the grand scheme of things.

Dark Missionary also has an additional benefit that it can be used as a defensive cooldown for yourself and your teammate against a magic damage tank buster.

Heart of Light

See Dark Missionary above. Heart of Light is basically the same tooltip, different name, different icon.

Additional Cooldowns and Utility

Thrill of Battle & Equilibrium

Warrior has two additional cooldowns, both with the purpose of self-preservation. Thrill of Battle acts similarly to a damage reduction cooldown, as it increases your effective HP and reduces the amount of healing required to repair damage taken. Equilibrium grants a big shot of self-healing on a short 60s cooldown, which helps alleviate healer stress when popped before or after receiving damage. It is a perfect “oh shit” button.

Cover & Clemency

Paladin is the only tank that does not get additional mitigation cooldowns. Instead, they get two utility tools. Cover can either protect a teammate from imminent danger and occasionally it can be used in creative ways to safely handle a mechanic or tank buster. Clemency is something you don’t normally plan on using, but the option is there to fix adverse situations when need be.

Dark Mind

Dark Knights get a powerful mitigation tool on a short cooldown. It’s very effective against bosses with magical tank busters, but even against bosses that primarily deal physical damage, mitigating a raidwide AoE still has value.

Camouflage & Aurora

Camouflage is particularly effective against mitigating spurts of auto-attacks, but even against tank busters and the like, an extra 10% mitigation definitely can’t hurt. Aurora is effective as both main tank or off tank since it can be cast on yourself or a party member.

Passive Defensive Benefits

Each tank also has some form of passive defense that grants an incentive for tanking the boss. Paladin has a passive block that procs roughly 30% of the time to mitigate roughly 20% damage. Warrior’s Storm’s Path and Dark Knight’s Soul Eater restores your HP just for doing your rotation, as does Gunbreaker’s Brutal Shell, which is a smaller heal that comes with a damage shield equal to the amount healed.

Tank Meta Overview

Warrior

No tank protects itself better than Warrior, making it the quintessential “main tank”. Warrior’s toolkit is full of incentives for them to have aggro and take the hits: An extra defensive cooldown in Thrill of Battle, a powerful self-heal in Equilibrium, a short cooldown invuln, and even its single-teammate mitigation ability has self-sustaining benefits. Offensively, while WAR does huge amounts of burst damage during Inner Release, it does slightly below average damage in the long run. Gone are the days where Warrior was simultaneously the best offensively and defensively and frankly overpowered. Despite being brought in line with the other tanks, WAR is still the best tank at actually tanking as its defensive options stand above the rest.

Paladin

Paladin’s strength lies in its ability to support. No other tank has two raidwide mitigation abilities, making Paladin a blessing for fights that hammer your party with raidwide AoE damage. Cover is unique to Paladin and often allows for creative ways to safely deal with certain mechanics. Hallowed Ground is one of the most powerful defensive abilities in the game. Intervention allows you to share your cooldowns with your co-tank, which is very powerful for shared or simultaneous tank busters, a recurring trend in Eden Savage. Clemency acts as a safety net where needed. As you can see, Paladin excels in many niche situations, and outputs above-average DPS to boot. However, if there is an area that PLD is lacking, it’s personal mitigation, as Paladin has the fewest defensive options for protecting itself.

Dark Knight

Dark Knight’s bread-and-butter is TBN. Its raw ability to protect yourself and your co-tank is unmatched, with the caveat that it takes skill and encounter knowledge to use effectively. The job rewards players who have foresight to predict and prepare for incoming bursts of damage, and a well-played Dark Knight alleviates a lot of stress on healers when it comes to keeping tanks healthy. DRK’s defensive prowess comes at an offensive cost since it is the tank with the lowest DPS output. Moreover, Living Dead is often considered the weakest Invuln, as it requires a lot of healing to dispel Walking Dead without WHM’s Benediction. However, Dark Knights weaknesses are manageable and often exaggerated, and the defensive benefits of TBN cannot be understated. DRK is an ideal job for players who are protective-minded and defensively-aware.

Gunbreaker

Gunbreaker boasts the highest DPS output of the four tanks and is otherwise very well-rounded in all areas with no remarkable strength and no glaring weakness. Superbolide can sometimes be awkward for healers to deal with but it’s not a significant disadvantage. Being able to do everything decently allows Gunbreaker to comfortably fit into virtually any team comp in a MT or OT role. Its claim to fame is still its offensive capabilities. Some players define the “meta” by what jobs yield the highest DPS potential and Gunbreaker fits that description quite naturally. Expect to see Gunbreaker in many speed run comps. After all, the best way to prevent damage is to quickly kill the thing dealing damage to you.

All in all, the current tank meta is more balanced now than its ever been.

While the tank design in this game was previously criticized by many (myself included) for being homogenized and lacking unique aspects, I’ve definitely had a change of heart after having more time to reflect and more first-hand experience with all four jobs.

Each tank job has a different feel when it comes to their rotation, which make up the majority of your button presses and thought processes. They all have unique resources to manage.

Their strengths and weaknesses lie in different areas and each tank fills a certain niche in the meta. If you like to do most of the tanking or if you’d prefer to support. If you like to play defense or if you’d rather dish out big damage. Whatever your style, there is a tank job for you.

Also, if you love variety and playing different jobs (like me), you’re getting a different experience with each job despite having the same roles and duties. My one minor complaint is that WAR likes different stats and has a different preferred Skill Speed tier than the other tanks, which is somewhat of an annoyance for someone who wants to play all of the jobs.

Whatever tank job(s) you play and whatever your reason for playing it, you can always feel good about your choice. It is definitely a great time to be a tank!

Thanks for reading!

~Bok

Discord: bokchoy#4059

Twitter: @bokchoykn

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