contents
- Hate, aggression, enmity – what is it?
- Tip 1: everything in one place
- Tip 2: avoid indentations
- Tip 3: stand still
- Tip 4: get out of the puddles
- Tip 5: pay attention to good areas of effect
- Tip 6: use your defensive cooldowns
- Note: big jerks
- Bonus: little tank lexicon
There are some cheats related to refueling in Final Fantasy XIV. In our beginner’s guide we explain what to look for in dungeons and bosses.
This is what it’s all about: In FFXIV, as in many MMORPGs, the “Holy Trinity” principle prevails. That means the jobs are divided into healers, tanks, and damage dealers. While DDs do a lot of damage and healers have to keep the party going, tanks have to keep the enemy’s attention.
This is a task that involves some degree of responsibility and requires a basic understanding of the tank’s role in a group. Consequently, it can be difficult for new MMOs to access the role.
With our guide and tips for refueling in Final Fantasy XIV, we want to end your fear of refueling. You can find an overview of tank jobs and their special features in FFXIV in our detailed job guide:
Final Fantasy XIV Class Guide: Which Job Is Right For You?
Hate, aggression, enmity – what is it?
Here are the basics: It is known that the main task of a tank in MMORPGs is to keep the monsters’ attention on themselves and make sure they do not destroy the rest of the group. Consequently, the tank must ensure in combat that it maintains the opponent’s hatred for itself.
Several players also refer to hatred as aggro, hostility, or enmity. If you must read these terms as in a group chat, they mean the same game mechanics.
In FFXIV, keeping the hate is basically very easy. If you activate your tank stance before the fight (for example, defender of the warrior or tenacity of the dark knight), almost all your actions will automatically generate massive amounts of hatred. In dungeons, therefore, there is no reason to disconnect the tank position.
If you keep attacking your opponents in combat, your hatred will grow automatically and other players won’t be able to take it away from you. With individual opponents or bosses, you can simply use your combos, with larger groups of enemies, spam area attacks to hit all the monsters and keep the hatred.
Personal Tip: Often times when you enter instantiated content into FFXIV, the game automatically turns off your tank stance. So get in the habit of quickly checking your posture when entering dungeons or boss fights.
I lost the hate after all. Why? However, in rare cases, it may happen that you lose your hatred while refueling despite the tank attitude:
- The equipment is too weak: If you enter a dungeon with weapons and armor that are too weak, it can happen that players who are much better equipped will steal your monsters. Therefore, try to keep your equipment as up-to-date as possible.
- Not enough areas of effect – most dungeons consist of multiple opponents. Everyone has to be constantly attacked to keep their hatred on you. Most players will use their area attacks on 3 or more opponents, and as a tank, you must do that too if you want to keep the hatred.
Holding the hate is not the only job a tank does in FFXIV. To keep your dungeon running and boss fights to go smoothly, here are some basic tips for you.
Tip 1: everything in one place
If you are in the dungeons, you will always refuel larger groups of enemies, which consist of various monsters. These opponents are usually defeated by their party members using area attacks (AoE).
However, in order for the area grabs to really hit all opponents, mobs must be carefully grouped beforehand. This happens by simply running in front of the group of monsters and drawing them into a crowd behind you.
Note that not all area attacks by your party members are circular. Monks or dragons, for example, have AoEs that hit opponents in a straight line in front of them. Try to take this into account when grouping your opponents. This will make the dungeon more comfortable for you and your party.
Left: Example of a bad gangster group. Here, the group’s area attacks would miss some of the opponents. Right: Example of a good group of gangsters
Tip 2: avoid indentations
One of the basic rules when refueling in FFXIV is that opponents must always stay away from the other players in the group. This is very important, especially with bosses, because they use special abilities known as “clefts.”
Clefts are often particularly powerful area attacks that are directed against the tank. They deal a lot of damage and can kill other players in one hit.
The tricky thing about clefts is that they often come without warning. While most attacks in FFXIV are preceded by red circles, markers, or other visual cues, the indentations are often invisible. Only by briefly animating the enemy can you recognize when such an attack is taking place. For example, the first cousin in FFXIV, Ifrit, has such an attack.
For the most part, it’s the bosses who make rifts, but there are also normal trash mobs that do it. So always try to move the monsters you are taking down from the group so that collateral damage does not occur.
In general, you should not stand in the immediate vicinity of your teammates if possible. Some of the so-called tank destroyers, which are particularly strong attacks against tanks in FFXIV, cause damage in the area. If such a tank destroyer catches a healer or DD from the group because the person is standing next to the tank, then they will immediately bite the grass.
Tip 3: stand still
A good tank in FFXIV not only keeps aggro and stays alive. As a tank, you have a direct influence on how the dungeon goes. On the one hand through the rhythm of the pull or the positioning of the opponent, but on the other hand also through your own movements.
All melee jobs in FFXIV have positional requirements on some of their abilities. This means that abilities, for example, do more damage when done from behind or from the side.
Therefore, try to move as little as possible while fighting and not turn the enemy over, unless it is necessary to avoid an area attack or to position him better. Just stop and spam your skills. The melee fighters in your party will thank you.
Personal Tip: It will happen in boss fights that the boss evokes an area of effect area in the place where you are standing as a tank. During the cast time, the boss does not move. You can then dodge the AoE to the side and then run back to your spot. This way, the boss will not rotate and the melee fighters will be able to better meet the positional requirements of their attacks.
Tip 4: get out of the puddles
During the fighting in the cases it will happen again and again that the opponents leave permanent puddles on the ground. They hurt or weaken players if you run into them. As a tank you should of course avoid these ground AoEs.
On the other hand, you should also get your opponents out of the puddles. This especially helps the melee fighters in your group. As mentioned above, your skills have positional requirements. So if opponents stay on the AoE ground the entire time, the melee will take damage themselves or do less damage because they can’t make positions.
But it can also happen that the opponents themselves are reinforced by such puddles. Therefore, it is always a good idea to remove monster groups and bosses from their experience areas.
Left: Example of bad positioning. The chief is still standing in the pool of green poison. Right: Example of good positioning. The boss stands out of the poison and melee fighters can attack him from behind.
Tip 5: pay attention to good areas of effect
While you should take out damage AoE opponents like a tank, there are good AoEs that you should stop at. These include, for example, all kinds of healing balls or earthly areas of effect. They are, for example: Consecrated Land of the Scholar, Refuge of the White Wizard or Earth Star of the Astrologer.
These AoEs heal you or reduce the damage you take. Therefore, you must remain as long as possible and also position opponents in such a way that your party members can be on good AoE ground when attacking.
There are also areas of damage where you want to stop. The DD job ninja can fill his own puddle called Doton on the ground, which continuously deals damage to opponents. When positioning your opponents, try to ensure that as many of them as possible are in doton.
From left to right: Doton, Refugium, Earthly Star, Consecrated Earth
Tip 6: use your defensive cooldowns
That might seem like a no-brainer, but using defensive cooldowns involves more than just kicking it. In general, under no circumstances do you want to fire up all your CDs at the same time and run into the group of opponents. This is a waste.
Likewise, it’s not a good idea not to use CDs at all or only when you still have 10% of your HP and whistle your way out of the last hole. Defensive skills are there to provide continuous assistance to the healer. You power them up one after the other in large groups of enemies to keep the damage constantly lower.
Of course, there are always exceptions. With heavy tank destroyers in raids, it makes sense to trigger multiple defensive cooldowns. However, it will not be necessary in dungeons at normal extraction speeds.
Personal Tip: The Swap ability doesn’t sound defensive, but it can and should be used as such for group jerks. Slow down normal enemies and ensure they attack you less often. This in turn means that it takes less damage.
Note: big jerks
During their tank adventure, they will meet in cases with experienced players. Many of them have already done this content a thousand times and know it by heart. Consequently, they are used to a faster pace when pulling on their opponents.
It will happen that some members of the group run ahead and attract the opponents for you. This is not fun and can cause discomfort, especially for beginners. So if you’re new and filling something for the first time, let your group know.
Try to discuss with the healer whether you think you can go to great lengths or not. If the healer agrees, you can try to attract more than one group of enemies. It’s definitely possible to survive more than one group if you use your defensive cooldowns and the healer is careful.
You can find more FFXIV guides on DLPrivateServer here:
- 5 tips for returnees in FF14: how to get to Endwalker on time
- Final Fantasy XIV: 35 mounts, which you can easily get in the free trial
- Final Fantasy XIV: Which Class Is Best For Solo Players?
Bonus: little tank lexicon
- Hate, Aggression, Enmity, Hostility:Common terms to attract the attention of opponents. As a tank, you must “hold the hatred” so that opponents do not attack other players.
- Pull:Picking up enemies on the way through the dungeon or attacking bosses. A group of opponents can also be called a pull (for example: Big Pull = several groups of opponents).
- (Trash) -Mob:Common name for opponents in dungeons
- Tankpose : Tank An ability that gives you a permanent upgrade that generates much more hatred.
- Voke / Taunt: A tank skill that instantly attracts an opponent’s hatred. Useful if one of the group members accidentally hatched.
- DC / Cooldown:Skills that have their own cooldown, outside of the global cooldown. In the case of tanks, this means defensive abilities that, for example, reduce the damage taken.
- AoE (area of effect): Areaattacks of all kinds
- Tank Destroyer:Strong attack made by bosses against tanks. Tank-Buster are extremely strong and must often be intercepted with cooldowns. Otherwise, the tank is also threatened with immediate death.
- Attach:A heavy area attack carried out on the tank. The indentations are often not indicated by red markings and can also trap players near the tank. Tank destroyers can be cleaved, but they don’t have to be.
What other tips would you give to newcomers to the tank? Write us in the comments and particularly useful tips will be added in the guide, mentioning your name.
