Pre Paladin Tanking Guide!

A full and comprehensive guide to gladiator tanking.

Introduction!

Hello, this guide is to help those who are just starting the wonderful world of tanking with their brand new Gladiator. Gladiators, Warriors, Fighters or whatever you choose to call them have been a fundamental part of RPG history since day one. Whether they raise their shields to protect their allies or charge in with devastating two handed smashes, they have always been there to answer the call of battle.

Final Fantasy 14’s Gladiator is the game’s resident sword and board champion, relying on blocking to mitigate their foe’s strikes. The Gladiator has a wide variety of cooldowns at his or her disposal from increasing healing done, to high amounts of damage reduction.

Tanking in Final Fantasy 14 can be rough at the start, especially if this is your first MMO, a 2.5 second global cooldown can even make it look intimidating for a long time World of Warcraft player like myself; a lot can happen in 2.5 seconds for a tank!

I have seen quite a few guides but I felt there was more that could be said in a single source rather than hunting down multiple. This guide will cover both basic tanking fundamentals and Gladiator-specific information to help you become a better tank.

Basic Tanking Fundamentals!

ENMITY

Enmity, also known as the threat that should be the number one thing on your mind as a tank. If the mobs are not attacking you, then you may be in for some trouble. To put it simply, enmity is a mob’s aggression toward someone. The more enmity on an enemy, the more likely it is to attack you.

In Final Fantasy, enmity can be measured two ways. The first and most noticeable is the enemy list. With this, you can easily tell if you have enmity on each mob currently in the battle. A glowing red circle indicates full enmity, while a yellow triangle indicates you are losing enmity. If you see a green circle, then you have lost aggro entirely!

A second, but arguably more important way to check your enmity is in your party list or party frames. You will notice a small horizontal bar next to the class symbol; a full bar indicates that party member has full enmity. This is especially useful for seeing how much enmity each party member has or how close they are to pulling enmity for themselves. Quickly tabbing through targets to check for enmity is highly recommended, but I will go into far more detail later in this section. It is very important that you use both of these tools in tandem, relying on just one can tremendously limit you.

POSITIONING

Now that you know how to measure enmity, let’s talk about positioning. Positioning is a very important part of being a tank and can easily improve the quality of life for a group or raid when done correctly. While there are far more advanced tactics for specific fights and encounters, I will only go over the basics here as you really only need to know the basics to get started.

First and foremost, let’s talk about boss and enemy positioning. As a tank, you are the first one in and first one out, so with this in mind, let’s talk about the beginning of each pull. Like most MMOs out there, players, bosses, and mobs can only dodge/block/parry from the front, leaving their backs open to more damage. Most physical DPS will do more damage from behind the target or, in some cases, the sides. As a tank, you would do well to keep this in mind. When pulling a group it is highly recommended that you face the boss or group of mobs away from the group. Doing this will not only make it easier on physical DPS, but it will ensure that the rest of the group won’t have to move out of frontal cone AoEs or eat up spicy cleaves.

Now let’s talk about movement. Unless there is no physical DPS present, moving a boss or group of mobs radically can drastically reduce DPS as a whole. The more sporadically you move the boss, the more the DPS have to compensate. Of course, movement is often unavoidable but the way you move can have a large effect on our DPS. Your first reaction when moving out of an AoE is to all out run. For most, if not all AoE’s it is entirely possible to strafe to the side and reposition yourself in a timely manner without sacrificing too much downtime on DPS having to reposition.

MARKING

Marking is something else that can improve the quality of life of the group as a whole. While not entirely necessary for most group play, it can ensure that dangerous enemies get put down swiftly. As a tank, you will come to learn what mobs hit you for what. If you know an enemy has been an issue for you, then you can mark it for a quick demise. Marking can also help for lower levels when enmity can be harder to obtain. If the DPS are both focused on different targets, then you will find it much harder to gain enmity on said targets even with tab tanking. While marking is not a must in most cases, it will show that you are willing to go the extra mile. There are “good tanks” and there are “great tanks.” I highly recommend you aim for the latter.

Marking can also be done to any areas of the battlefield to indicate positioning. Say you know a patrol path and rather not have someone accidently face pull them into an existing group of nasties. Simply put a marker over the area you know is near their patrol. It can save you and your healer a lot of grief to not have unexpected enemies crash your party!

TAB TANKING

If you are going take to heart anything in this guide, I hope it is this. Tab tanking is incredibly useful, especially at low levels. The basic concept is to use an ability, switch to another enemy then use another ability and repeat the process until all are dead. Failing to perform this technique is the biggest reason for tanks losing their aggro. I will go into a specific Gladiator rotation for tab tanking later in this guide, but for now, I will just use a simple one. Use your opening pre-combo ability, switch to another target, use your combo, switch to another target, and then use your last combo ability and top it off with an AoE. Simple right? Not doing this at low levels, especially as a Gladiator will lead to you losing aggro fast. It is even damn near mandatory at high levels.

Your opener is the most important part of the pull. In this seemingly split second, you are required to position the mobs and establish aggro on any enemies in the group so the DPS can quickly get in there and fight. Your opening should always start with your ranged attack. For Gladiators, this is Shield Lob. Once done, you should start with a couple back-to-back AoEs. For lower levels, I would highly recommend using your AoE once for each enemy. If there are three mobs, use three AoEs. If there are four enemies, use four AoEs. Honestly, after three, it is a bit overkill but I like to prepare for anything as a tank. Five or more mobs can get a bit more tricky, but I will cover that in the Gladiator-specific section later.

OPENER

The Gladiator rotation is dependant on the size of the pull. For one to four mobs we will use the standard group rotation, It looks something like this.

Shield Lob - Flash (One time per enemy up to four) Fast Blade - Savage Blade - Rage of Halone - Flash (Once) then repeat till mobs are dead.

If you have five or more enemies in the same pull your rotation will be something like this:

Shield Lob - Flash(Up to four times) Fast Blade - Riot Blade - Fast Blade - Flash - Riot Blade then repeat till you have fewer than four mobs then continue your standard group rotation.

Before I talk about your boss rotation let’s talk about a trait you gain at level 20, Enhanced Flash; this handy ability causes your Flash to blind the targets hit by it. It is like having a dodge buff for the duration of the blind. It is very common for Gladiators to do something called Flash Weaving. This is when you use flash on a boss after the pull entirely for the blind effect, this will trigger something called diminishing returns, this essentially halves the duration of a status effect on a enemy each time it is used. With this in mind we can effectively have a cnishing returns, this essentially halves the duration of a status effect on a enemy each time it is used. With this in mind we can effectively have a cooldown up for close to 90% of a boss fight.

Here is how you do it: after your first Flash you will notice the blind debuff on the bosses debuff list; once the debuff expires use Flash again. This will last six seconds, once the debuff is off the boss, start weaving through your available cooldowns, starting each cooldown directly after the last expires. Flash Weaving is something you will need to be very familiar with when doing end game content so it is highly recommended you get used to it now!

Gladiator Specific Tanking Fundamentals!

ROTATION AND FLASH WEAVING

The Gladiator rotation is dependent on the size of the pull. For one to four mobs we will use the standard group rotation, It looks something like this.

Shield Lob - Flash(One time per enemy up to four) Fast Blade - Savage Blade - Rage of Halone - Flash(Once) then repeat till mobs are dead.

If you have five or more enemies in the same pull your rotation will something like this.

Shield Lob - Flash(Up to four times) Fast Blade - Riot Blade - Fast Blade - Flash - Riot Blade then repeat till you have fewer than four mobs then continue your standard group rotation

Before I talk about your boss rotation let’s talk about a trait you gain at level 20, Enhanced Flash; this handy ability causes your Flash to blind the targets hit by it. It is like having a dodge buff for the duration of the blind. It is very common for Gladiators to do something called Flash Weaving. This is when you use flash on a boss after the pull entirely for the blind effect, this will trigger something called diminishing returns, this essentially halves the duration of a status effect on a enemy each time it is used. With this in mind we can effectively have a cool down up for close to 90% of a boss fight. Diminishing returns last for roughly thirty seconds and using the Blind again before the full thirty seconds will start it over entirely, So be careful.

Here is how you do it, after your first Flash you will notice the blind debuff on the bosses debuff list, once the debuff expires use Flash again. This will last six seconds, once the debuff is off the boss start weaving through your available cool downs, starting each cool down directly after the last expires. Flash Weaving is something you will need to be very familiar with when doing end game content so it is highly recommended you get used to it now!

Before each boss pull it is recommended you use Fight or Flight, this will give you a much needed edge to quickly establish enmity before the DPS get their dirty hands in there. You will follow up your Fight or Flight with a Shield Lob then turn the boss away from the group before starting your single target rotation. Your single target rotation will look something like this

Flash(For blind)- Fast Blade - Savage Blade - Flash(For blind again) - Rage of Halone then repeat your Fast Blade/Rage of Halone combos as you cycle cool downs and continue to flash weave.

COOL DOWNS

IMPORTANT! We no longer have cross class abilites; they are no called Role Abilites and you get them as you level. Long gone are the days of grinding other classes for abilites. I will edit this section according. That being said, all of this info is still valid.

Cooldowns are your main way of mitigating damage as a tank, by using cooldowns correctly you will greatly improve the quality of life of the healer and by extension the group as a whole. Let’s talk about the cooldowns you will have up until level 30.

Rampart- This is your first cooldown you will get as a Gladiator and the one you will use the most throughout the game, this cooldown is your bread and butter cooldown, used to mitigate moderate amounts of damage with ease. With a fair cooldown this can safely be used at any time when you need extra raw damage mitigation.

Convalescence- This is the second cooldown you will get as a Gladiator, this is your first “Oh crap!” heal. It will increase any healing done to you by spells and actions by 20% for a limited time, if timed correctly this can give the healer the extra push he needs and save you from a death. This ability is best used at the last second of a healer’s spell cast.

Fight or Flight- This is a straight up damage boost, best used when pulling a boss or a group of mobs for that extra aggro gain. Later when you unlock cross class abilities you may use this with Bloodbath from the Marauder for some extra healing.

Provoke- This is your taunt ability, using this ability on a mob you have lost enmity on will put you are the top of the enmity list. Be careful, you will need to follow it up directly with a Savage Blade or a Shield Lob if you are too far away from the target. Correct timing of this ability is essential, due to the 40 second cooldown this should be saved for when you absolutely need it. A lot of the time you can get away with a single Flash to regain control, so just use your best judgement by reading the situation.

UI Improvments!

The last thing I will talk about here is your UI. Tanks need to focus on their UI more than most people. We need to monitor our party frames, enemy list, hotbar, debuffs combat text, enemy targets, and chat. Why chat you ask? Two big reasons. The first and biggest reason is communication. I cannot tell you how many times I have been on an alt class and some genius tank pulls mobs when a healer said “AFK” seconds before in chat. This should NEVER be you. As stated earlier, UI is very important for tanks. The most important part of our screen is the center as that is where your focus will be most of the time. Because of this I highly recommend putting your enmity meter near or at where I place mine. I cannot express the large quality of life increase you will have when you do this. Because it is in the center of our screen, just out of the way enough to give us a good field of view but close enough to the center that it's near impossible to not to see if you are losing or have lost aggro. This screenshot is a couple years old but it should still apply in today's version of the game.


Revised UI with Hud layout for everyone who is wanting to try a good tank UI.

Parting Gifts!

This will cover everything you will need to tank as a Gladiator 1-30. Later I will upload a Paladin tanking guide that will cover 30-60. I hope this helped you as it took me quite a while to make this. Perhaps I will upload a companion video to go along with this but for now this will have to do. If you feel I may have missed something feel free to let me know in the comments. I would like to extend a huge thank you to my guild-mate BodyOven and his friends for proof reading for my dyslexic ass!

[Rhyspawn]

Hud is great! :D

[Steinhagen24]

I will work on that later tonight and have it uploaded by noonish tomorrow. Don't apolgize for being new! We all start somewhere.

[CurvedSteel1]

Sorry to ask but could you post a screenshot of the UI from the HUD Layout screen? I wish to try setting up my HUD like this but its hard to line it up. Sorry, I'm still a noob at the game lol.

[Steinhagen24]

Added a picture of my UI that I highly reccomend for tanking. The guide has also been edited for mistakes that I made. You can expect the Paladin guide to come out sometime in early Augest. I have re kindled my love for the game and have a new editer backing me so exptect a much better finished product.

[CurvedSteel1]

Could you perhaps upload a screenshot of the UI Layout that you'd recommend having?

[Steinhagen24]

You guys have made my day, I am so glad I have been able to help you guys. The paladin guide is posponed for a while; and for that I am sorry. I am unable to pay for my sub for 14 due to family complications. One peice of advice I can give is once you hit end game the rotation is not much different. As long as you keep to your flash weeving and making the right call with your taunts the only difference is a few extra AoEs.

[mromalley1]

Didn't think I'd read a guide that had me scrambling for one of my daughter's crayons (Robin's Egg Blue...) to write out a rotation so I could try it immediately. Great job! It will help a lot! Thank you!

[BattleMedic]

As a Paladin, I first thought this would be a joke guide of just gifs of spamming flash.

Half disappointed, half happy.

Good job on introducing people to tanking, thumbs up from me!

[TheMagickHat]

Awesome guide! I just started tanking for the first time so this (along with the novice training) was something I really needed. I'm up to lvl 24 so far and it's made things much easier.

[Rivel]

Great guide, the rotation advice was great!