I used to have tankxiety (fueled by my actual anxiety) but when I was learning dps and healer, I saw just how genuinely bad an average df tank is and realized “wait why am I nervous when these bags of hot air cant even position the boss right?” That and I wanted to play drk as my main job so I got over it.
That is also a way to get over it, to realize that a lot of other players are significantly worse than average and somehow things are fine! 😊I'm glad you got over it!
That was definitely a factor for me too lmao. Was like "I'm not gonna be great, but at least I know better than that". I think it helps having played the other roles beforehand, too. That way you already know how to make your party's lives easier as a tank.
Dealing with noticeably bad tanks when I heal is why I can be a little gun-shy at times when tanking. I *know* I'm a good healer, and I don't want to afflict on my healers some of the things my less desirable tanks have afflicted onto me. Also heyo fellow dark knight!
Tank main here. As someone who was once crippled by tankxiety, I tackled it in a few different ways... but the one that helped me the most was taking things step by step. First, learn the absolute basics of what a tank is. What you should usually be doing, what a tank stance is, how defensive cooldowns work and how you should generally use them. There, now that you've learned this, you can stay alive. Now that you're not dead, you can work on being not bad! Second, learn the specifics. Learn how to judge if a pull is wise or not. If you don't know the dungeon, it's usually wise to keep it to 2 packs of mobs at the max. If in doubt, talk with your healer, voice your newness to the job and let THEM decide how big you should pull. Every dungeon will be a cooperative effort between you and your healer, so listen to them. Now that you're getting more confident, learn how to make that confidence apparent. Sprint into pulls, use your cooldowns better, judge in the moment if you can spend less cooldowns on a pull for the last one. It's at this stage where it's also wise to learn proper pack positioning. Position the mobs in front of you, with their back to the party. Keep aggro on pulls by using your projectiles as you run. You've already got the basics down, so now you can work on specifics. These were my steps, but they don't have to be yours. The important thing is to take them one at a time, at the pace you're most comfortable with
I took the “thrown into the flames” approach to getting over any tank anxiety. I just jumped in and realized that as long as I put in any amount of effort into learning the role I would be doing more than most. Haven’t looked back since.
@@CaetsuChaijiCh This makes me feel so much better! I am not a confident player at all. But I am finding within the community if I express I am nervous players so far have been so kind and supportive as I am trying. Its making tanking a little less anxiety inducing and I am starting to enjoy it. Thanks for your videos they are helping! :)
@@CaetsuChaijiCh I have a similiar but at the same time completly different problem. I just cant bring myself to que for Trials/Alliance Raids that ive never seen before. Its not that im not confident enough to think that i could do it, its just that i dont know the mechanics and i dont want to inconvience someone with dying because i just didnt know how to properly deal with something. And the next problem is the language barrier since people telling me the names in english but my Game client is german and skills have other names in 90% of the time.
Tankxiety is real and I had to overcome it when I first switched to tanking. But I think the funniest thing about tanking in FF14 is that, in some ways, tanking is the MOST forgiving role. You get to set the pace in a dungeon so you can go slower if you're not confident; you have the most survivability of anyone so you can make more mistakes before dying; and you generally have to deal with the least number of mechanics in boss fights, because you're exempt from a lot of mechanics that require running around. Honestly my biggest surprise was how comfy it felt to do stuff as a tank. The learning curve is still there of course, but you easily get 90% of the way there by watching a beginner's guide to tanking and running a couple low level dungeons. It's really fun, plus you get to benefit from tank queue!
As a healer main I wanted to say for the tanks that have tankxiety towards healers ; honestly communicating that you may be a little less confident in your pulls/skills is so helpful! When a tank goes "hey I'm a bit new to this job" it lets me know as a healer to work a bit more and sort through my own skills in how I can help them. What I'm meaning to say is just communicate with your party!!
The biggest tip I'd give is to understand that *wanting* to do good for the sake of the party already puts you leagues ahead of most tanks. If you're willing to take advice and work around people's needs, everyone will love you for it. For me, I got over my tankxiety in Eureka spending hours in there. You can pull exactly how much you like, and push yourself to your limits, where no one can see you and the consequences aren't dire. But at the same time, you can be helpful and see appreciation for your role and how your hard work helps everyone. Another thought to chew on is that unlike other MMOs, if you can queue into a duty with a job, you have everything you need already. Skills, stats, party comp. 14 isn't like other MMOs where you need to worry about builds/specs/gear.
That is a very good point! Simply being concerned about doing your best - often the source of the anxiety in the first place - is a great sign that you will be doing fine! 😊
What really got me into tanking was DRK. I liked the theme a lot so, I tried to use all the stuff that I had seen other tanks use, which worked surprisingly well! One thing I did to help learn the dungeons was play them as DPS on my first run to know the pulls, then try tanking after. If you haven't yet, I'd really like a video like this on playing healers! It's my main role, so it'd be interesting to see if I agree with your tips.
Learning from watching others to see what they do is a great way to do it too! Both because it gives you an idea of what to do... But also gives you insight into what you'd like a tank to do from a different perspective, which let's you do even better! 😊 I am considering making a similar healer anxiety video!
Those early days when I was but a humble Dark Knight learning the do’s and dont’s of managing enmity and remembering to use my defensives and AOEs during wall to wall pulls were the most transformative aspects of turning into the tank main I am now, like a baby taking their first steps you could say. Granted I still don’t consider myself good, passable at best, but my answer to all that intial anxiety and fear? Turning to others for help, like learning my ABC’s. You were one of my guiding lights Cae, my fist steps in my toddler days of tanking as I watched a lot of your guides, it’s the best advice I can give to anyone wanting to try it for themselves. You’d be amazed how helpful and willing others are once you put in the time to study and be more practical and attentive. We’re all here for eachother, no one gets left behind.
I am really happy to hear that! 😄 I am sure you are much better at tanking than you personally think! Most of us have a tendency to be a lot harsher on ourselves after all! Thank you! 😊
@@CaetsuChaijiCh I still need to make chat macros for my Invulnerabilities frankly, it’d save my healers a heart attack or two I wager. But thank you Cae, that means a lot.
A bit of a psychological perspective: I think being anxious about any particular role (not just tanking) shows that you care about your performance and not letting your party down, which is ultimately a good thing! If you care, you can improve. Loved the tip about starting at low level dungeons, I do this exact thing with expansion jobs that start at higher levels since it helps you learn their abilities slowly and gradually. If I can make it through a dungeon with no issues, I move on to the next. If I make mistakes and things don't go well, I tough it out and try the same dungeon again, hopefully with better results the next go around. Ultimately it just comes down to forcing yourself to get over the fear and giving it a shot. Like others have said in the comments already, you're probably better than you think you are, and even if you're not, making mistakes is how you learn.
I absolutely agree! ^^ And as you said, it all comes down to getting over the fear and trying. It is about going out of your comfort zone in some ways!
Ironically I would give perhaps the opposite advice: start at heavensward dungeons. ARR dungeons were not built to the formula later expacs have and as such are a lot harder to tank.
I generally have massive gaming anxiety, which often times gets to me hard. For example, I sit there, want to play an online game and keep hovering over the "play" button with the mouse for several minutes with (and I kid you not) sweaty hands, just to finally play something else entirely. But lately I've partially overcome this by telling me over and over again, that a really small minority is judging me online, even fewer people are harsh with their comments and even if they were, I've paid the exact same amount for those games, so I have every right to play them. And that mindset really helps. That AND what you said in this video: "the worst thing that could happen in a game is you wipe (or die in any non-mmo)." In the end, it's JUST a game and we should be having fun with it :)
This literally came at the perfect time. I'm considering going from a summoner main to a warrior main since it's always in need. But the tankxiety is real xD.
To expand on one of your points, I'd like to point out that, at least as a general rule: If you mess up as a tank and someone in your party gets mad at you and starts being rude, _that's not your fault._ It is perfectly possible to be frustrated by someone's poor performance and not make that someone else's problem, I do it all the time. If your healer or DPS can't do that, that's _their,_ let's say, "Emotional Skill Issue" 😂
Absolutely! Let people vent, that is THEIR emotional problem. Don't ever take internet nonsense personally, people tend to act in ways they would never DARE in the real world precisely because there are no consequences to being a jerk, so don't ever let it get to you personally.
Ive played lots of mmos over 24 years. never tanked in the past. but FF taught me to tank, and now.. Its my favorite role, just as you mentioned! it helps to know the dungeons you are going to lean to tank .. that helps alot. another pro tip, I see many not to: USE AOE when pulling and tanking trash packs. see way too many tanks tomahawk pull a single from the pack, and run to the next. and others then get aggro. when in 3 or mobs, use aoe please. and mitigation cool downs.. CD's.. are more for trash packs, than bosses. I used to "save" CD's.. bad habit.. use em, in serial, not all at once. o7
I found it easy enough to play tank, as healing high-level tanks and seeing what they do on specific wall-to-wall pulls gives me idea to improve on *if* i'm forced to tank. I suppose most of my tankxiety comes from the fact that my group has two tank mains, and that one of them berates their healer if they die during a pull. I don't play much with him now but he still watches every once in a while. My being a healer main also exposes me to experienced and inexperienced tanks and I can sometimes tell when a tank is *really good* if they use their cooldowns really well (letting me know they're invuln'ing early, or using bloodwhetting early). I can then go "hey that works on me a lot, maybe I should do that too when I play WAR or GNB. Great video!
Thank you! That berating tank is certainly an example of the mean players I mentioned in the video 😔 Indeed, I also play tank and healer far more than dps, so I get a ton of experience to carry between the two which leads to an even more masterful performance overall I think! That's also how I learn many of the ways I mentioned about not big braining tanking too much, which I imagine you might have too! 😊
Something that helped the small amount of tankxiety I had is knowing that a pull is a group effort. If you are spacing out your cooldowns correctly and you still wipe, it may not be entirely your fault. Maybe the dps didnt dps hard enough or the healer was dpsing too much. Those things can happen. And if they do happen dont point fingers. Just do the best you can to improve the next pull and if your party members are decent party members they will too.
Very true! Just because things go wrong, it might not be your fault. And regardless of whose fault it is, what matters is the group learns, and you overcome the challenge. It is not about making anyone feel bad about failing in a video game we play for fun! 😊
I haven't watched all the vid yet but boi do I have a story about one dungeon. Was possibly the most toxic kind of healer pulling mobs ahead rescuing me to pull more and then finally got both dps to agree to kick me (I was a sprout at the time too) and put me off tanking and extension ffxiv for so long - Glad i came back and eventually came over my tank anxiety but it still comes back with harder/new content but the fact of everyone beaing new to that content helps.
That is a terrible experience! 😥 It's difficult to know what to do in such a situation when you are a sprout, but such behavior from that healer (and it's dps that probably queued with it) is not acceptable and honestly that should have been reported 😥 I'm glad you got over the tank anxiety with time, but that story is really unfortunate 😔
@@CaetsuChaijiCh As bad of an experience as it was, I am glad I came back and know it was one of the very minority situations in the game and personally now strive to help as many people as I can even if I don't have the funny crown yet 🙂 and want to start savage and ex content just wish there was more up to date guides. 😅
I came from wow where I would never even consider doing anything but DPS. I rolled a warrior when starting ff14 and never looked back. I liked the aesthetic of the axe so much it cured my tanxiety. I found healing to be a much more anxiety inducing role that was harder for me to get over. However, I find in general people in runs have been so kind that it's a big boost to my confidence, whether tanking or healing.
The kindness aspect is a huge part in ffxiv! Personally I could understand way more having dps anxiety in wow what with how close people sometimes watch the meters there, but tanking is absolutely also scary in a way there!
as someone who has very heavy tanxiety, i will add to the point about duty support: after doing a dungeon in duty support, you gotta also make the effort to then GO INTO THE DUNGEON AGAIN WITH OTHER PEOPLE. i, unfortunately, just end up reinforcing my anxiety by relying too much on the duty support. for one thing, while i am aware that the npcs are much worse than real players, i still always end up trying to pull a bit big (never anything ridiculous in a normal context) and whenever i end up dying, i begin thinking "oh god maybe i am a horrible tank. if i go in with REAL PEOPLE i'll make a fool of myself!" so i don't do it (when in reality, the pulls would definitely go much smoother with others). this then leads to me staring at the DF screen, trying to encourage myself to just jump in, and then chickening out and going back into duty support.
Going with other players is a completely different experience! Just to take a very clear example I observed in the making of the sastasha footage in the video is this: The NPC healer heals for about 111 hp every 3 seconds or so. An actual player in appropriate gear can heal for 200+ every 2.5 seconds, and if it isn't a white mage in that particular dungeon, all other healers can do even more than that! Like, just HAVING a player healer doubles the healing output! 😊
I am so glad you highlighted the benefit of being predictable. Even if you're not being optimal, so long as you are consistent a good dps will know what youre going to do and compensate. If that changes throughout the fight/dungeon it leaves people trying to guess and leads to a lot of frustration. Just make sure to leave the back end available. Also know when pulling that most players are aware if they have aggro on a mob and will run it into the pack for you(definitely not always) so trying to stop while running to grab every single mob isnt necessary, we are all going to the same place, the end of the corridor, no one is squishy enough to not be able to handle 1 or 2 mobs on them for 20 seconds
Very true about the aggro thing! It can often make things more confusing if you circle back around to pick up mobs that fall off, especially since most jobs can survive some hits, regardless of role! 😁
At its most basic, so long as you have tank stance toggled on, a 'move' button, and an AoE ability bound, you can be a successful tank. Not a good one, but you can do your job and hold aggro. From there, just screw around with your buttons during dungeons. Chances you get often since tank queues are instant. It's genuinely that easy.
I've been tanking in FF14 for a long time now, but ironically this came out just as I was trying to convince myself to try tanking in WOW SOD - lot of applicable tips there too :D
I'm glad this could help you there as well! Sometimes I've heard wow players can be a bit less patient though, but for the most part, I hope some of the tips still work! 😄
I’ve done a lot of tanking over the past few years in FFXIV, and I still strikes me if I take a break from it. Same with healer anxiety. If I take a break from something for long enough, it’s gotten back out of my comfort zone. Jumping into duty support a couple times shakes it off pretty well.
Yeah I get it. You feel like "what if I don't remember how", thoughts like that, and it can really shake your confidence. A bit of solo practice often helps yes! 😊
Tbh I never really warmed up to Tanking until DRK. The lore around it, and how it felt so cool that, despite it being deemed difficult compared to other Tanks, it was the class that helped me clutch a bunch of dungeons, plus one of the coolest mounts in the game. I personally enjoy DPS and Healing more still, but Tanking as DRK has a special place in my heart :3c
I used to main a paladin years ago and had some bad experiences with hecklers. I didnt realize how much it got to me until trying Dark Knight. I was having the shakes going into my first dungeon but I ran it 3 times and it went well. Was proud of myself. Its a shame people can so casually ruin a nice gaming experience but ultimately its up to us to be confident and like you said, ignore the haters.
Just wanted to say that this video helped me a lot with this; I ended up eventually getting a healer and tank to 90, definitely improved my enjoyment of the game. Also if anybody ever reads this and is going through a similar struggle I'll say that I've had times where I've gotten lost/sort of had to stop and check my map early on during dungeons, of course times when wipes have happened (not always your fault though!), and I've surely made mistakes; nobody really cares though, and if on the off chance you do end up meeting someone who gives you a hard time you could always just blacklist them afterwards if you wanted, plus you'll probably never see them again anyways regardless; have fun.
As a failry un-confidant Tank myself, I always just ask the party what pace they want. More often than not they want a W2W but simply getting that confirmation (especially from the Healer) that they think they can handle it helps. If they want a slower run, then that's perfect because it's easier & everyone is expecting small pulls.
I'm working hard on my tanxiety (and my healing anxiety), and one thing I've found helpful is related the tip about people getting mad. This was actually I mindset I had to RElearn after someone got mad at me during an alliance raid because I did, in fact, mess up (fat-fingered tank stance), and proceeded to make fun of me through the remainder of the instance. 😅 I haven't tanked since, but I plan on trying again because of a lil epiphany: In the end, even though there are other real people on the other side of the screen, it's important to remember that FFXIV…is a video game. And messing up is not an indictment on your ability to play it and play it well. It's not an indictment on your competence. It's something to learn from. And if people don't realize that, that says more about THEM than YOU. You're doing your best. Keep on keeping on. Tell people you're new. And remember, as mentioned, the worst thing that can happen is that you wipe. In a video game. That's it. You're not going to immediately get kicked from the dungeon and then get the game uninstalled from your computer before it self-destructs, even though it really does kind of feel that way. FFXIV means a lot to me, and I like to learn and do well, but in the end, this isn't SAO. If the party dies in the game they're not gonna die IRL, but some people get mad like you are. If you're trying your best and you KNOW you are, that's enough. Still aim to learn and improve, but just know that "doing your best" doesn't have to mean perfection. It doesn't even have to be that good. It's okay to suck so long as you're trying your best in good faith. 💛 (Also the channel member font size grows ever-smaller, lol. That's a TON of people!)
What in the world?! Someone got on your case for pressing tank stance in alliance raid??? 😂 Whether you turned it on or off it still sounds absurd with two other tanks there 😂 I'm sorry it shattered your confidence though 😥 i do think you can do it though, Lemon, so don't be afraid! 😊
@@CaetsuChaijiChI accidentally turned my tank stance off in the middle of a boss-I turned it on right after, and we didn't even wipe, but they never let it go aha Scared me out of tanking for a while, but ironically a good healing experience in Stone Vigil where we wiped and the tank was not only chill but really helpful partly led me to my "This is a game and most people aren't like that one guy from LotA" mentality, haha. 😅 I'm working on it, slowly but surely! Thanks for the support.
@citriosis so weird! So what if you turned off the stance! I've had alliance raid situations where NO TANK had a stance on for like a full minute due to a misunderstanding and aggro didn't even change! 😂 Such a strange situation! 😊 I'm glad to hear about the good stone vigil experience!
I feel like the most important thing to know, and this is coming from previous savage experience - is that every job has their own responsibilities. Every job has their own mechanics that they have to do in content, and every job can make mistakes. The best thing you can do, is familiarize yourself with those mechanics (Yes going blind is okay), and own up to those mistakes. If you don't understand a mechanic in a dungeon, don't be afraid to ask the party for advice. When I was a new player I had heavy tank anxiety, when I finally picked up a tank class and ran content however, it became my main job. I went on hiatus for a number of years and just returned, so I was nervous to go back into level 90 expert dungeons, since a lot of things have been revamped in those years - but popping mitigation and dodging AOEs still worked just fine. Tankxiety for me was always about letting the party down, but most groups are cool as long as you admit fault when you make a mistake (And don't assume all advice has negative motive behind it).
Exactly. As long as you try your best and can own up to mistakes and seek advice in a friendly way, the vast majority of players will have no complaints at all! 😊
I was lucky enough to have friends guide me through the game. Even now I am leveling my tanks/healers and my anxiety for those classes are gone. It is interesting to see others have DPS anxiety, but I respect it more then anything when someone is worried of they aren’t doing their best. It just means they want to grow!
Just to reinforce the part about the healer being able to adjust if they know you're new I play AST, even in casual dungeons I have a plan for my healing because the rest of the time I'll be drawing cards and that's a complicated rotation. My plans are usually tight enough that in most of my pulls, by the end of them I'll just be letting mobs do their thing because It's like a 90% that at that point the tank doesn't need any healing, the mobs will die before he drops below 20% Another thing about AST is that, while it is not entirely lacking in "Oh shit!" healing, it has significantly less and weaker of those If you are new and I can expect mobs to deal a bit more damage or survive a bit longer, I am beyond glad to adjust that plan, I'll have one or two more heals prepared to pop and it'll barely interfere with my carding, meaning we'll only have good come out of you telling me you're new
Exactly! Actually in my experience it is also with astrologian that I get the most tripped up if the tank surprises me like that. Simply letting the group know really helps everyone after all! 😄
I'll agree that knowing your Tanks strength and weakness is going to be the first most important thing to overcoming any anxiety about playing it. While many saying 'play one tank played them all' that isn't really true given how each is built. All of them, in some form or another, have their own unique mitigations and knowing how to use or even pair those together is an important part of the tanks kit. For example, preparing for a tank buster is different on each job. In some cases, the tank focuses on mitigating a portion and having some form of restoration for the rest, or they are more focused on mitigating more of that damage and focusing less on restoring after. Understanding that each has something in their kit to help out others in dire straights is also important. Not just the AOE buffs each has, but what can be used to either redirect damage from another to you (pld), what can target another to restore health to them (war, pld, or gnb), or what can be used to mitigate damage while providing a benefit to the tank (war or drk). This means that just reading about tanking, or watching a video may be a good start, but actually reading your various actions and abilities will go a long way to. Not just in knowing what they do, but if they share recast, which is better to use in a given situation, and just knowing how much you can support others helps a lot too. It's the difference in being a War that can survive a boss fight, and a war that can survive and help keep someone else up too (Bloodwetting vs Nascent flash).
I've been tanking for 15+ years and I still get it. For me it's mostly when it's new content and when people expect me to hurry through said content. People in this game are usually genuinely helpful, which is awesome. Sometimes, when the anxiety is bad, I'll just do the dungeon as some other role first or I'll find a walkthrough online. I find it worse for alliance raids where everyone is just rushing through to get it done. For me, more people = more anxiety.
To reduce the tankxiety: Consider yourself a glorified DPS. Honestly, tanking is as simple as 123. You're not the one with the spotlight, you're not the "leader", you're part of the team. IF a healer feels confident you can pull more, do so. Wiping literally doesn't matter int his game 99% of the time, so just go ham, limit test and see how well you actually can do. No one's gonna blame you if you explain you're trying to test some limits.
Tanking can be intimidating, especially your first time tanking high end stuff where tank swaps are needed. That is something I am still not experienced or proficient in. I tried it in P9S a handful of times and it didn’t go well, plus the parties weren’t exactly understanding about it
Yeah once you get into current savage content, it isn't unusual for the other players to assume you already know how to do most things, which is strange since certain tanking tricks and mechanics (like tank swapping) are rarely necessary in casual content, so it should be perfectly understandable not to know these things. Best you can do is try your best!
Been playing ff14 since 2016, tryed tanking in HW and SB with some mixed results. Then, right before EW, i started complty fresh on a new character as Tank and finished EW as Paladin, lvling all other tank classes on the way, to see which i liked the most. Watching some guides and asking other tank players for advice in this time was a big help in getting somewhat rid of my tank anxiety^^
While trying to overcome my own healer-anxiety, I've found party finder a great boon. If you're not on the free trial, you'd be surprised to see how many people are up for joining you if you advertise you are a learning tank/healer wanting to get some practice. I had 4 separate people voluntarily join PFs I made this evening just cause they wanted to help. And knowing people are there TO help geuinely eases so much of the pressure. Everyone signed up for this, so if we wipe, that's ok!
I got stuck in ARR cuz my anxiety would flare so high every dungeon and I just wanted to play Paladin and ended up just quitting the game for years. Just recently came back with Duty Support and just cleared Heavensward. Started learning Monk on the side, figured I'd do Duty Roulettes to help level and maybe overcome my anxiety, and found I had no anxiety flare ups queuing DPS, even when I objectively perform bad in the dungeon. Wild what the lack of "responsibility" can do for anxiety, but now that I know it's focused specifically when I play this role, I know what I'm fighting. I WILL be a tank, goddammit.
I really like your way of thinking by the way, I really think it is a great thing to encourage players to improve themselves while simultaneously being positive and non-elitist about it. I wish this was the standard "Mentor" or general XIV play guide mentality. Keep up the good work.
i started ff14 as a healer, then years later did dps, and only the past few years i starated tanking. while dungeons are a bit nervous for me because of reasons mentioned in the video, i don't seem to have any issues with prae or casturm (good places to practice i suppose). trials and raids are fine too. tanking is fun, but i still don't want to be the lead of the party (i'm mostly a follower/supporter. maybe next year, i'll try tanking more. love DRK it also helps to let others know at the beginning of the dungeon that you're new to tanking, then they are most likely to be supportive and give you tips on what to do. for me, it helped to be a healer and stay close to the tank while doing wall to wall pulls and see what they do and you kinda build off of them. of course, tanking yourself, is the main way to gain experience on tanking. trial and error is always your friend.
I used to have tanxiety but then I healed once and found actual, reasonable anxiety. Tanking is so, so easy, in all content once you’re used to it. Easier than DPS, most times. Slap the tank buttons, do your baby rotation, and lead the charge in dungeons with your party comp in mind. If you aren’t walking, pulling more than two enemies, and actually keeping the boss still, you’re already better than half of the DF. Also go Warrior to learn, if you want the path of least resistance.
Yeah I can see what you mean! Once you get past the spotlight of being the tank, tanking also means, for the most part, that you can dictate a large part of the pace of the group. Meanwhile, the healer can often feel like a captive audience to whatever the dps and tank gets up to, and you might not be ready to deal with that! 😅
the biggest source of tanxiety for me was mainly the fact that i barely knew any dungeon layouts when i started. i picked up drk as my first tank in late HW and i was a little baby sam back then, so i always would just follow the tank and kill stuff ! so i never really payed attention to the layouts, which kinda messed me up when i started myself. ultimately, it was just the arr dungeons that gave me trouble, but just watching some yt and some practice got me thru it ! now drk and gnb are some of my fav jobs, at least for running dungeons- i am still deathly afraid of tanking trials.. it seems a bit overwhelming
i just started xiv in general last month and mad running thru the msq something i noticed is how much more streamlined dungeons have become, which definitely helps the tank experience when you don't have to worry about memorizing them. which is also unfortunate because the lower level dungeons im try to use to learn how to tank are a maze on their own-
I learnt by leveling as a tank and doing dungeons with duty support first, as I got high dungeons I watched guides on them to know what tank busters to shield for, also a macro that says Hi and lets people know I'm new to tanking. As I mention in your mentor video I also had a mentor talk me through 2 dungeons as we ran them. 1: added suggestion I would make try doing taniking while your solo outside, so useing defensive come as second nature in dungeons
Tank anxiety, I still have a little bit of that. I practiced using duty support, but the event that helped break the anxiety was when I accidentally queued for The Stigma Dreamscape as warrior and I realised I'd just have to do my best. (Healer on the other hand, that really fills me with anxiety)
Based on what others said, it sounds surprisingly effective to just accidentally find yourself in the situation and having to try your best. Like just finding yourself on stage and having to perform! I'm glad it ended well! Based on what feedback I have gotten, it certainly sounds like I should see if I can get some good tips together to help with healer anxiety as well! 😅
I got used to tank anxiety by main tanking a savage fight with FC mates. It was P1S when the tier was pretty much dead. The FC mates provided the guides and resources needed for the fight. Their help encouraged me to do the next tier as well. I think I was the only one in the FC to clear Asphodelos before Abyssos came out.
Part of how I deal with it, is that I focus on how much fun I'm having playing my role and how very much I love my job. Naturally, trying my best comes out of it. And while embarrassing, wiping isn't the end of the world.
Great Video! I'm usually a Summoner main, but I kinda fell in love with both Dark Knight and Gunbreaker. Currently I level them mostly by doing the MSQ with them (and the MSQ Dungeons in Duty Support while still going in with my DPS for any Trials). I sometimes run them in normal Dungeons when a Friend of mine is healing because the communication to the healer helps me a lot in getting a feeling for how much I can pull and they even said that they don't notice a difference between me and other Tanks so I guess I'm slowly getting there.. But I'm still mostly scared of anything where I might need to know specific tanking mechanics, even though I know they aren't as common in the content I'm currently in.
Being concerned about specific details like that already tells me you care a lot more about doing well than the average tank! I am sure you would be fine in a group with randoms, but as long as you do content in a way you feel the most confident with, that's good enough 😊
I used to be crippled by tankxiety like many in the comments. Lots of experience, guides, communication, and talking to better players was my answer. I started around the Stormblood launch and caught up in time for Shadowbringers. It took me until a fair bit into Endwalker before it was gone. A good attitude helps a lot too.
Anxiety in tanking is much like anxiety in life, a lot of it comes down to two thing: a lack of knowledge, and the fear of the unknown. It's hard programmed into us as part of the "Flight or Fight" response. Everyone has it, so if you are nervous about making mistakes, just remember that everyone else who walked that path also felt the same thing. They made the same mistakes you will. What matters is learning from it. The only people that never make mistakes are those that have never tried anything new. Start small with easy things, then slowly work your way up. Don't look to the masters , that will only cause stress. Don't try to be perfect when being decent is all that will be required. Look to the person who is slightly better than you and match them, then look to the next person who is slightly better than that person. Do this in a lot of things and you will go far.
Tank (usually BLM main) here! I fell in love with the Dark Knight quest and fell even harder for the class, playing tank was scary for me because of performance anxiety but it was so satisfying to get 3 commendations in one dungeon! I even got compliments for how I played and it became less scary and more rewarding! Obviously I still have a lot to learn but I truly hope I can start raiding as a tank and slowly make my way to more challenging content. I love how rewarding it feels to distract the boss and smack it with my large hunk of iron that was too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough!
Apart from my overall anxiety, I believe tanking in wow slightly traumatized me. I have no friends in-game so I'm gonna have to stick to duty support until I'm more confident, hopefully :')
I can say that players are a lot nicer about it in ffxiv by comparison, but building up your knowledge and confidence with duty support first is a great idea 😊
Can't speak for other people, but I have very recently diagnosed anxiety and I've had to fight it in order to max all my jobs and do the other group content I like doing, even when it's harder content with a group of friends. In particular, waiting for a queue to pop can often make me feel sick enough to leave the queue and try again later, which is one reason I heal normal content most of the time. 1. As said, preparing and knowing what you *want* to do ahead of time helps a lot. Even if you freeze up and do dumb things, at least you know what went wrong and you've actively improved a little. Being able to record and watch back also helps, particularly for cases where the healer is being really dumb and you're too focused on getting your rotation right to notice. 2. WAR was really liberating at 56+, especially since I heal most dungeons by default. Rather than having to rely on the healer to be decent enough to handle normal pulls, you have that control back to be able to manage with just about any healer and salvage things when shit happens (and if you have to salvage things, it's usually bad enough that no one's really expecting you to salvage things, so the judgment factor is a lot safer). 3. Obviously, the more you play something, the comfier it gets, especially with #1, knowing how you *want* to play and actively working on that. 4. Spite can be a really useful short-term motivator. Nothing is quite as effective for me to jump into something and stop caring about anxiety than being spiteful. That practice feeds into #3. For me, this was most notable with one healer I had in my first ShB dungeon (Qitana) on PLD before EW. I wasn't playing perfectly of course, it was my first chance to use all my 70+ stuff, but it took me recording and going back through very slowly to realize that if I were on healer, I'd be more than happy with myself as the tank. The SCH pushed approximately 0 of their buttons, both making it incredible that I even survived as much as I did and making the pulls significantly longer. I had caught whiffs of adlo and physick on the first actual pull (the one where you have literally every cooldown up on healer+tank) and thought for the rest of the dungeon that I was doing poorly because of that, but it turns out the SCH was playing worse than a bot and then being either passive aggressive or clueless when I died later. You'd better believe that discovering this was a good motivator to go back and level my tanks. 5. Closely related to #1, if you're doing that, you're already better off than a ton of people. It's magical, really. Simply knowing what you *want* to do and failing to do it already realistically means you're playing better than most random people. Any mistake you make or failed chance you take is a lot easier to write off because it's for the sake of improving-it's going to good use to improve everyone's experience in the future. 6. When things are still very new is the best time to hop in and get some practice. Anyone who's expecting people to know the content and not make mistakes on day 1 in a learning party is being unambiguously idiotic. Normal content is easy enough and similar enough to other normal content that your practice elsewhere heavily carries over and you can be confident that the new content will go fine (and it's okay if something takes you by surprise, it's new and most normal content has a lot of leeway anyway), so this is mostly for the harder content. 7. General thing for me, thinking about something happening is almost always a lot worse than it actually happening. Of course I don't want to do something dumb and die, but it still happens after years of practice, can't really help it and there's no way I'm going to adjust my entire play around flukes. When it happens, it's almost always just a "woops I did a dumb" and that's it. Of course it's easier to shrug off when it's a job you're more comfortable on and you wholeheartedly know that it was actually a fluke.
Just wanted to drop by and say that this (along with one other video) helped me get over my own tankxiety. Now lately I've been learning Warrior and having a good time with it. In fact I just main tanked one of the ShB Boss Fates today (which was my first time ever main tanking anything, I've always been off tank before if anything) and I think I did pretty well and didn't even die once (liberal use of Bloodwhetting and the occasional Equilibrium is to thank for this)! And while I'll probably always be a DPS main, I've learned that, with the right job, tanking can be a lot of fun too. If anyone is reading this and still has a bit of tankxiety, one thing I ran into was I tried Paladin first and idk its playstyle just didn't click with me for some reason so I dropped it. Then I gave Warrior a try and I liked it a lot more. So if you're trying one job and not loving it, maybe try another, might help! Anyway I appreciate you for making this, and to all the encouraging comments as well!
A good video with good points. I would encourage everyone to play all of the roles till you have a basic handle on them because they typically all deal with slightly different mechanics. Knowing how you impact them and they impact you is the single biggest thing to improve on party play. And real do just let your group know if you are new to a role or back to it after a long time, most of us are entirely happy to adjust for you.
FFXIV is my first MMO. I started as tank because I heard it has short queues. So I did. It's fun. I never really had tanxiety. I mainly played with NPCs, though, and once I was overleveled from my Road to 80 buff, I did it unsync/solo. I did it with NPCs for the additional story, so there's a bit more to it than that. I had healxiety, though. First of all, why did I have that? I play on console and I thought targeting party members on console is bad/troublesome, so they'd just die with me healing. How did I overcome it? I saw a nice glamour for WHM that I wanted. There was my reason for playing healer. But there's a bit more. I did unsynced content as tank and sometimes had to hard carry the party by casting Clemency or using Cover on an undergeared Healer. That's when I learned targeting party members is not as hard as I thought and after a while I started leveling WHM and figured out that it's not difficult at all. It just takes a while getting used to. IDK what to recommend, really. Maybe start small. Face the enemies away from the party. There, you're already tanking and are doing a better job than some players. Also, be consistent. If you pull small at the start, announce it when you want to pull bigger. This can throw your healers off when they don't have to pay all that much attention to suddenly having to heal a lot more.
I had tank anxiety for the longest time and it was mainly cause I kept MELTING during pulls, even had one very rude healer tell me that “buying gear doesn’t mean you have skill” or something like that and then quitting at the end of the dungeon, I was using defensive CDs and all too, learning how to properly cycle defensive cooldowns helped so much! That and learning that tanking is a two way street, if your healer isn’t doing any mitigation or at least throwing a regen at you then it was also their fault
But yeah I’d do two dungeons back to back on the same job, one where it’d go super well and I feel invincible and then get into the same dungeon but melt like American cheese in a heatwave
Yeah it makes it hard to be sure who was at fault when there are so many possible reasons things are going wrong. Is it gear? Is this pull just really hard? Is my job weak or something? Am I using cooldowns wrong? Is the healer using cooldowns? Wrong? Is the dps too low so we run out of cooldowns? And that's just some of them. Learning what you can do helps a lot, but still doesn't make it perfect since everyone's involved 😅 I'm glad to hear you feel more confident now!
I got tankxiety before starting raiding but it got soooo much worse after p5s when I can't seem to do the tank swap. Quit got like 6 months until 6.4. I resubbed, got into a stactic for Anabesios and was progging p9s as reaper, a lot of tank inconsistency happened and we never got through it. Not until 6.5 and ex7, I went tank on ex7 clearing and learning it blind in less than a week and bringing said tank (warrior) into p9s and acing that guy in half of the time we got trapped on, and then less time on p10s and even less time on p11s. Progging p12s and aiming to clear DSR before Dawntrail. Good luck all of you, tank mains. May your pulls goes smoothly and your raids clear.
I’ve been playing tank since I started (in shb currently so not an endgame raider or anything) but if you can having a friend healing is amazing. My and my friend started together and it gives a better understanding of how the roles intersect and how we both play. For example I play DRK and they play SGE and knowing each other means they know when they don’t need to shield me because I’m about to pop tbn so they can focus on dps or healing someone else. Thanks for the video btw. Despite loving the role and having all the time I do on it my tanxiety from level 1 still has never entirely dissipated. My own bit of advice is just keep moving. You’ll get cocky and wipe at some point but now you know the dungeon/boss better or you have a better idea of your team or have gotten better at cooldowns.
In terms of dungeons, I actually found once you get to higher levels it’s easier regardinghow big to pull as they all start following a steady amount of stopping walls in between packs. so wall to wall actually feels less dangerous than in some low level dungeons where you can pull to infinity. I was a new player a few months ago and once I learned the dungeon meta was to pull wall to wall (which I learned around stormblood) it became much less stressful once I wasn’t having to make judgement calls about how big to pull most of the time
That is very true! It's a bit awkward how early levels where the toolkit is easier, the dungeons are much less structured so you can easily over pull. Meanwhile at higher levels, pulling is simple, but now you have some shoes to fill in regards to your toolkit! 😅
I overcame my tanxiety by watching WeskAlber's guide on tanking as I was starting the game and learning WAR and he mentioned that it's often an issue that new tanks often face, so that was when I first acknowledged that it was something that I was subconciously facing. I then started putting myself in uncomfortable positions from the very start so I didn't know what being comfortable was like and I haven't dealt with tanxiety as much since besides returning from a break, but at that point I just do the same as I always do, put myself in discomfort till I feel comfort
I had my tankxiety flare up when my first attempt at being an MT led to the OT getting mad at me for spinning the boss. Even after I took that lesson to heart and learned to position the boss correctly, the idea of disappointing everyone still stuck with me. But I was able to overcome it when some of my later trials ended in wipes due to no fault of my own. When I realized that I wasn't actually bothered by wiping, it helped assuage my tankxiety a lot. People mess up, but we all move on and learn from it.
The most important lesson here is that you learned that wiping and even outright failing is okay. This can be used to learn so many other things (even unrelated to ffxiv!) so that is wonderful! 😄
If the issue is coming from a lack of knowledge just running the content as a dps can help a lot too. Unless your mashing your head against the key board your going to see what the tank is up to. Watching what other tanks do is a good source of first hand knowledge. Even if the tank is bad it gives you a source of what NOT to do instead. This works for both tanking and healing, actually. Playing melee dps and the tank keeps spinning the boss? You know not to do that now because you've felt the frustration yourself. Playing healer and the ranged dps just keeps hanging outside of aoe heal range? You now know not to sit at the edge of the fight arena when playing ranged dps.
A very good point! Learning a job second hand like that is also a way to go at it! Some players find it hard to watch others while playing of course, but I do imagine it helps for most!
When I started playing about two years ago, I was dead set on never becoming a tank because the concept alone seemed so intimidating. I stuck to DPS for the most part. One day the completionist urge took over and I started picking up the tanks to passively level via Frontline. However, I wanted to at least give them a shot before deciding I'd never play them again. The first few dungeons I ran with my healer friend for a confidence boost. Eventually I queued for stuff on my own. Now I almost exclusively tank dungeons, and sometimes other content. I feel like it really gets easier the more you do it, and you figure out what works and what doesn't (pull sizes etc.). If you've played other roles before, you might already know many of those things from observation and can just copy what other tanks do. You might also have seen other inexperienced tanks before and already know to avoid the mistakes they made. Either way, it's a learning process, but a fun one! I encourage everyone to give tanking a try. You might enjoy it more than you thought! :D
Absolutely! On top of all that, because the tank gets so much out of remembering how to deal with each dungeon, you get so much more reason to learn more about each fight as a tank as well! 😄I'm glad you had such a good experience trying tanking!
Funnily enough, I dont think I ever had Takxiety or Healer anxiety, I just picked up the roles and started playing. At first I didn't know what I was doing and didn't even know there were roles like tank, dps and healer. I thought Gladiator must be a damage dealer but I was wrong lol I don't quite remember how it was in the beginning for me, tried playing in HW but dropped it not long after, however I happened to see the trailer for Shadowbringers and saw the beautiful gunblade and decided to play again. I then unlocked and leveled Gunbreaker to level 80 before I even finished ARR xD. I don't recall ever feeling anxious about tanking and healing, I just fell into those roles and started enjoying them. I've always liked the roles that put the most attention on me and allow me to take the danger away from teammates. In games like Mass Effect, there are situations where you can make things harder for yourself but story wise it helps other people. Like if you don't choose to redirect enemies to yourself, those enemies could kill some of your allies in another group. I've always played the traditional selfless hero role in games so tanking and healing just came naturally to me. I like taking the most risk away from others and supporting them. I don't remember when or why I picked up healing but I always liked healers in games since I played .hack//G.U. on PS2. Ironically I'm most anxious about DPS because of the long rotations and messing them up. Never been good at fighting games so stringing together combos is difficult for me.
What helped me when I started tanking was having a tank mentor. I know not everyone has friends in the game but I feel the community has enough friendly players that if you ask, you shall receive. My tank mentor taught me the basics of the role and how important positioning was when playing my role. I was able to get over the anxiety and it is by far the best class to play in the game imo. In return, when my friend started playing the game, I had him just start as a tank and he never experienced tankxiety from the start. On the other hand, he is terrified of DPS so I have to fix that haha
That is wonderful! Sometimes you get a golden mentor that really knows their stuff! 😊 It is quite funny that the aftermath of teaching your friend how to tank is that they are afraid of dpsing instead! 😅 I am sure you can teach them there too!
The things that most mitigate (heh) my tankxiety are thinking these thoughts: 1. If tonnes of people are completely able to tank appropriately all the time, I should be able to as well - I don't think I'm amazing at FFXIV or anything, but I'm also not much less capable than the average player. 2. I think back at the times a tank I've been running with has made a mistake. How bad was it? How annoyed was I? How much did it affect me? The answer to all these questions are "Not much". Chances are, the people you'll be tanking for will feel the same way. Even if you don't tank well, no one will care that much. It's fine. Not that you shouldn't try, but even the biggest mistakes usually won't annoy your teammates much. To me the tankxiety comes from the thought of inconveniencing people and making their day worse - not even necessarily them getting mad, just you know, being annoying. I don't know how many people are the same way, but keeping those two thoughts in mind does genuinely really help me out. They also help me out to a lesser extent with IRL anxiety. When I was starting to tank, it also helped out to ease in through generally easier roulettes like levelling or trials rather than jumping in at the deep end with the endgame dungeons and normal raids, though I think that's general advice for trying out any class.
Absolutely true! Realizing that so many tanks are perfectly fine despite not playing even close to perfectly is a good thing to consider when you start! 😊
Letting the team know you're new is so important. This is what happened to someone who was new but silent. This weekend, as I was starting to bring my minimum levels to 30, I encountered what was likely a new healer in Haukke Manor, but not a new player (not a sprout, only has starter AST set, not even accessories). Without giving a heads up that he's healing for the first time, one of the party was aggressively vocal about what the healer should do until he eventually dropped out. I kinda feel bad for not intervening, but yes definitely let people know you're new. It can mean the difference between aggressive criticism and people like me taking the time to type out helpful tips
I had a strategy that others have called "weird" for learning to tank. I started playing in HW and started leveling the tanks after all the melee dps so I had decent idea of dungeon layouts ahead of time. The "weird" part was that I just got it in my head that if a healer has time to cast a Damage spell, then clearly I'm not pulling enough. Glad I got that out of my system before Stormblood, but it did get me very comfortable with large pulls.
I mean, technically if the healer is attacking then things are good. Naturally you'd rather have the healer attacking than not, but a good reference point is that the healer is probably getting stressed if they start to spam heals instead (unless it's a cure spammer in which case who knows!!)
@@CaetsuChaijiCh 100%. I certainly valued having the chance to go through that experience, but I can definitely understand that I was working with some very incorrect assumptions at the time lol. For context, I Heal more than I tank now and would hate newbie tank version of me lolol.
I think the tipping point for me to getting over Tanxiety was Brayflox Longstop HM back in like 2.2 Everyone was barely geared for it, and the strat was just to Leroy Jenkins it. Pull literally the entire room. You were a good tank if you learned your mitigations and stayed alive. Bad tank if you pulled and dropped like a rock. I miss those days sometimes even if you had to use aoe skills like....flash....
How i combated tankxiety was to just start a new character as marauder and go from there, if you devote enough time to leveling a class, you will become more accustomed to its abilities and encounter enough scenarios where you will figure out how and when to use abilities effectively. And besides, most ppl in ffxiv are more forgiving of sprouts, so there's your free pass for making mistakes. Your "get out of jail free card" if you will. It IS true that if you look like an experienced player, people will have more questions when you fail. So my advice is: just make a new character & go through the stories from square one, it helps a lot.
I play all of the roles and in my experience rules 3-5 are truly the most solid advise to take away and combat tankxiety. My addition to this topic would be even though at this point I’ve very confident in my tanking (89 GNB and 84 PLD), I will never run a dungeon for my first time as a tank. Get a few runs as your most confident DPS role as that knowledge goes a long way to then tank smoothly. More specific your AOE’s are your best friend while pulling and by far the best way to keep monsters angry you ate the last Christmas cookie. Secondly, (other guides will go over defensive CD’s in more depth), my simple advise for them is be proactive with using them, not when you’re half HP or less, and aim to use them one at a time, flowing into the next. Wall to walls generally flow well enough that using CD’s proactively will have them ready by the time you gather the next pack. GLHF, I’m Tyrse Laer’lai on Primal Behemoth if you want any further help 😁👍
Getting to see a dungeon in a safe environment is always a good idea! 😊 Indeed, my tank guides always recommend being proactive with defensives and planning them out in an effective way, since that is really what makes a tank truly feel sturdy like one! 😊 Very nice advice to share, thank you!
I had a ton of Tank Anxiety when I thought about learning how to tank for the first time. A lot of it stems from the fact I have incredibly severe Anxiety so I worry about every tiny little thing I was able to overcome it with a lot of time and practice but I would tank with people I knew from my fc who were experienced with the game and they’d give me advice on what I could do better or if I was making any mistakes I mainly tank now (Gunbreaker is best tank) in most content and most of that anxiety is gone now
I've been tanking for a while now, how I dealed with my tanking anxiety was just "i dont wanna wait 30min for dungeons and wanna do my daily rouletts NOW"
As a WHM main, I feel I don't tank enough. It's funny how some of the things you say here for tankxiety are also true for healer anxiety -- such as the worst you can do is wipe. Your mentions tho about playing a tank to be predictable had me thinking -- have you done any videos that "bridge" between healing and tanking? Specifically, what should healers watch for in a tank to create the most effective partnership --or perhaps tip you off to when you may have some extra work on your hands? I certainly have learned quite a few things myself over the years, but I'm guessing I am missing things specific to different tanking jobs simply because of my lack of familiarity with them.
That is a really good idea. I have actually had an idea of discussing how to deal with the different tank invulnerabilities from the healer perspective on my list for a bit, but this does sound like a more full idea of a video, explaining what to watch for as a healer, in terms of what the tank does! Thank you for the idea! Also as you said, a bunch of the suggestions in this video could probably also work for healer anxiety, but then again, I am sure some would prefer a more focused healer anxiety perspective when they are really needing it! (So that means I am not writing off a healer anxiety video because of this! :D)
@@CaetsuChaijiCh I think the key for me in getting to the point where I could main a healer were four words: "People die. So what?" When you get comfortable with that fact, then you can start acting instead of reacting (like blowing your long recast abilities just to keep people at 100% health)
Duty support and Command Missions really helped me get over my tankxiety. It also made me want to start tanking with real people since the npcs can’t really handle wall to wall pulls lol.
Tanking certain ARR dungeons is worse than tanking higher level ones :') If you can handle Stone Vigil with a baby sprout healer youre more than ready for what comes after
That is also a good point! It is an unfortunate trade off that lower level content is less well structured, but also gives you less tools to worry about! But as you say, that also means if you can master them, then you are pretty good already!
I got over my tanxiety when I realized how easy it was. All I had to do was pull everything, make sure everything kept beating on me at all times, and let the rest of the party do their thing. Much fun.
I have all the tank jobs at cap, mostly through roulettes, but I have still never gotten over my tanking anxiety. Some of it is the fear of failure in front of strangers that you mentioned, but at this point, I think most of it is the ambiguity. That is, I can't reliably tell if I am tanking properly, nevermind well. When I am healing, I can tell that I have a decent grip on my job because I can successfully heal (and dps) even when things go sideways, or the tank is undergeared or not performing well, or the dps stand in everything. When I am tanking, I don't know if I am doing well because I can't tell if I am making the healer's job harder. Consequently, I always assume the worst. Perhaps it is a form of imposter syndrome. :)
I think it might be imposter syndrome as you say 😊 you could watch some tanking guides or job guides appropriate for the tank you play the most, and see if the way you play matches with what others suggest. Something others suggested was to record your own gameplay, and watch it back and imagine yourself as a healer seeing you tank, and consider whether you think you'd be happy with that! I think it is mostly about reinforcing your confidence in your own ability!
About toxic players, its probably good to mention that any kind of toxic behavior, berating or insults are strictly against TOS and SE tend to have a no warning suspension approach to dealing with it. Report them and give them a nice forced holiday from the game where they can't bother other normal players.
Yep. I've been tanking since 1.0 and during EW decided to give DRK a try. Had a good handle on it after a few runs with NPCs. Joined a DF party where they obviously all knew each other. I died on the second pull despite accurate use of CDs, likely because healer was used to healing warriors, paladins and gunbreakers. I immediately got "relentlessly" blamedz name calling, etc by all three players and they ended up booting me. I reported every single one of them. That said, I was so put off by that experience, I haven't touched the job since.
The thing that ultimately broke my tanxiety was my FC's weekend blind alexander (savage) runs. I volunteered to fill in for our usual tank on A10S because they couldn't see mechanics clearly on their new monitor and just kinda got used to tanking "serious" fights from there. We're up to A12S now.
when i first picked up drk, i used to run haukke manor a lot to get used to the idea of tanking. it's an easy dungeon to tank with some packs on the more difficult side if you pull big. gets you used really nicely to how to pull and gauge what you can handle depending on the rest of your group too.
That is a very good example yes! Multiple bosses also have things that can be made easier by using your more niche utility tools like stun and interrupt that you can also practice!
I developed Tankxiety back in ARR trying to progress Twintania while over geared with a party of casuals that would disband after 1 wipe. I always loved ffxiv tanking but never felt I had a group to over come the tankxiety. I played on and off from then til shadowbringers, mained healing for raids and then figured "healing is actually harder than tanking; as well, between the expanded tool kit and the simplicity of generating and creating aggro, I really should just go and do it." Tanks now just feel like a melee that can eat fun stacks and laugh at the boss for everything but savage or higher content. Today, I go back and forth between the 2 roles, but prefer to heal unless I know the healers.
I want to let people know, even high-end players have tankxiety. I'm a DPS main who cleared DSR on release and I still deal with it. I only feel comfortable tanking in random parties if I have a friend with me. It's something I want to work towards getting over this year. Fear is always going to exist. It's about not letting it define you. You like Dark Knight a lot, play it. Be bad at it. It's OKAY to be bad. Success is falling 9 times and getting up 10. You have to fail to improve and that's a-okay! The fact that you care about doing a good job is more than most tanks that exist.
As a White Mage main who never played another job for a decade almost I finally branched out and got Paladin to 90 soon to have Monk at 90. Tanking I think on the casual level is easier than it's ever been. Dungeons are very stream lined for you to run through nowadays and you don't lose aggro so if you want to level tank just to have it you got nothing to fear of 98% of content.
In one of the normal Alexander raids that require a swap, I had a DRK co-tank flaming me for "not knowing what my buttons do" because I didn't swap properly (since that was my first instance requiring a swap). He passive-aggressively described the swap, saying I needed to swap at "6 stacks", and I (accidently) got it right the second time. Definitely didn't help tankxiety much. However, in one of the subsequent Alexanders, I had *another* DRK. This one noticed I had a sprout, actively asked me to main tank, did all the fancy off-tank mechanics and even THEN stayed behind after the raid and asked if I'd like an entire run down on what the off-tank is doing during the raid. The ironic thing is that, as far as the wiki tells me, the first person who was rude was actually wrong, it's *4* stacks of a debuff before a swap. I still have a little hesitation when doing new dungeons or bosses, but knowing the people who actually want to help will almost always be polite and excuse a couple mistakes, it helps that I can pretty much ignore the rude ones straight up. It's definitely worth it to say "hey I'm new, sorry if it's slow or wipe" or even just apologizing after a mistake, since most people either give feedback or just don't mind letting you try it again.
Speaking as a healer main, I got over my anxiety by spamming Aurm Vale. It's a heal check. Especially when the tank is new and pulls that entire first room. It went from me constantly apologizing to whatever poor tank I was healing apologizing constantly to which I responded "No worries. We got this." Now I run it sometimes in duty finder and just tell the tank to go nuts. Because I can keep them on their feet pretty confidently. If I want to see more good tanks, I need to encourage the bad ones. They do better when the healer is patient with them. And I love watching people grow. When we inevitably get past it, I tell them they did great and we move on.
tbh, as someone who enjoys tank and maxed all of them out. i find you unironically can just mash the aoe abilities to do your pull and once you colect all you plan on pulling pop 1 mitigation and just mash aoe. 9 times out of 10 itll work occasionally you may needa use some other stuff and if youre a higher level where you have some ogcd just weave it after or in the middle of the combo while waiting for your other gcd ability. it may not be most optimal but its an easy entry point to follow as you get use to all your abilities. boss fights obviously use single target and just stay in a position unless an ability is going to hit you. but unironically if you just do those things you will pretty much be able to do all msq with little problems. also HUGE HELP IF YOU GOT TROUBLE WITH MIT TIMING arms length is pretty much another mitigation as it slows enemy attackers attack speed by 20% so on smaller pulls you can settle for saving your better mit and just use arms
i do recommend though holding off a tiny bit before doing something like savage content but if you plan to try it early watch a video of the bosses attacks or read up guides there are plenty for every boss.
Failure is the best teacher. I know how hard this is to communicate to people, knowing everyone has different experiences with failure, but I’d rather deal with someone that tried and wiped thrice than someone that didn’t and singlepulled all the way to Endwalker.
Yes, I have actual anxiety. I have genuinely felt ill dealing with players both in and out of ffxiv; it’s far enough to the point I rarely ever play other games solo. That anxiety, however, translates more into not wanting to waste other people’s time. I still believe that the solution to getting better at both tanking and healing is to actually put oneself in a position to improve even at risk rather than avoiding these opportunities. Your tank isn’t gonna get better if you singlepull and never actually have to use mits. Ditto for curefishers and other healers that elect to use first healing spells.
@@CaetsuChaijiCh Always glad whenever I see more peepo try to say that it's not only okay but good to get experience from failing instead of trying to put together that it's somehow courteous to avoid failure at all costs.
I got over tankxiety when they released Dark Knight. I just kinda had to suck it up cause that's what the role Dark Knight is and these days tank more then I don't and usually do everything as a tank first. Again, cause it's usually easier
I have Tanking Anxiety still but I enjoy it in small doses, like dun scaith fun run. FF14 tanking is by far the easiest, it's still tanking. One think I've seen Is guides. While learning a boss or the content is helpful overall, tanks generally need to know every detail. For many, myself in that. "Why do I need read a book to play a game when I can just want hit buttons and watch colorful animation". I fine dps easier. Hit buttons and don't get hit. I die, oh well. Rez.. With Healer or Tank die can lead to a wipe.
Indeed, a common reason for it to be scary is the huge responsibility that death can lead to a wipe if you are a tank or a healer! :/ I am impressed you'd tank Dun Scaith sometimes though! :D
As an optimistic player, I will cheer for anyone who manages to get over their Tank anxiety! But my tank anxiety is more of frustration mixed with anger than a "fear of failing". I'm WHM main and I can't for the love of Twelve remember more than two button rotations or remember when tank busters happen. Yes, I'm the Casual with a big capital C. Guess how many times players have yelled at me? It has happened on multiple occasions, that I don't enjoy dungeon content at all. But I'm very glad that there are other options for leveling combat jobs. Squadron and Duty Support have saved my skin so many times! Bless for Yoshi making them! I bask in the Frontline's sun because winning that mode is really a coin flip and I see less salty players there (CC is another topic of worms so I'll skip it this time). I run Deep Dungeons by myself and level up with Fates. Yes, this is properly the slowest method of leveling, but when you've seen the pile of poop I've seen fling at my in-game chat window, I think you would understand. Luckily I have a few friends to play with and they have been kind to help me to level up jobs that I find hard to play. Cheers for a good vid with good tips!
The overall impression I get is that you have found a way to work around your limitations and still have fun! A while back I made a leveling guide and the most important part of the guide was that there is no point in leveling in a way you don't like. Focus on a way you enjoy, regardless if it is the fastest or whatever! 😊 It takes a lot of practice to memorize all these things, and if you desire to, I am sure you can do it! 😄
Drk and Pld are the only 2 90 jobs I have outside of gathering/crafting, with GNB at 80 and WAR my next job to start. I have a serious love for tanking but I just can’t stand people. I could not tell you the last time I did DF. It does get a lil lonely but I’ve grown accustomed to Trust/Duty Support.
Not everyone's big on other people 😅 I do recommend trying to find a group of friends to play with somehow, since I do think most people agree the game is more fun with other players! But it is of course not fun if you feel forced! 😊
I don't tank because of my tankxiety, but I do like Paladin and the aesthetics of Dark Knight. I actually leveled my DRK up to 60 with the help of a friend, but I put it down after a while since it was just too much for me at the time. I do have a friend joining once the game drops on Xbox, and I have been saving my lvl 40 Warrior for him so I can practice tanking again while he gets used to the game.
@@CaetsuChaijiCh To be clear, I do tank as Paladin for friends if they wanna run daily roulettes or something, I just put down Dark Knight. Paladin is more comfy for me and I feel like I have better control of my own health bar as opposed to DRK. Which is fine because nothing hits quite as nice as a *HOLY LALAFELLIN SMITING* 🗡️.
as a tank main... something I saw when I started playing DPS that doesn't really help people who are starting with tank jobs is when a DPS or Healer starts pulling all the mobs before the tank... that way, many can't even learn because many don't let them at least try...
This is true, and a quite ironic situation as well, because these healers and dps sometimes do this because they are annoyed that tanks don't know how to pull bigger, but by taking the chance to learn away from them, only perpetuates the problem 😔
Honestly, the way I got over my Tankxiety was pretty much just Spite. I started playing DRK when I finally hit Heavensward, sucked balls at it because I mained Summoner up to that point (Shadowbringers Summoner, aka Petjank - the class) and so I went back to yelling at ifrit to please do as it is told. However, for some reason, my Dungeon Experience during both Heavensward and Stormblood was so abyssmal in regards to tanks, that I decided "Nah, i can do that better" so I picked DRK back up and then proceeded to Tank my way through Shadowbringers and Endwalker. So yeah, its been almost 4 years since I started tanking, and whenever I level my DPS in dungeons and I see a tank spinning a boss for the entire encounter, even after being asked to maybe, please stand still for a minute or so, I remember why I did it. Also sorry to any healer who had me in their group when I was learning to tank, it took me ages to learn proper cooldown management.
FF14 is my first real MMO and I’ve been an active player and Tank main since the Heavensward patches, and back then, Tanking was twice as engaging and twice as challenging than it is now in my opinion. Enmity is a non-issue for majority of content now and tank jobs feel like beefy dps at times. However, tanxiety is valid in a way, because Tanks are relegated to the “main character hero” role in a sense, and some people don’t vibe with that.
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I used to have tankxiety (fueled by my actual anxiety) but when I was learning dps and healer, I saw just how genuinely bad an average df tank is and realized “wait why am I nervous when these bags of hot air cant even position the boss right?” That and I wanted to play drk as my main job so I got over it.
That is also a way to get over it, to realize that a lot of other players are significantly worse than average and somehow things are fine! 😊I'm glad you got over it!
That was definitely a factor for me too lmao. Was like "I'm not gonna be great, but at least I know better than that". I think it helps having played the other roles beforehand, too. That way you already know how to make your party's lives easier as a tank.
That was how i got over it too lmao. I leveled all healers to lvl 90 and realised they are the ones who actually do a lot of the work lol 😂😅
Dealing with noticeably bad tanks when I heal is why I can be a little gun-shy at times when tanking. I *know* I'm a good healer, and I don't want to afflict on my healers some of the things my less desirable tanks have afflicted onto me.
Also heyo fellow dark knight!
"For the love of... Fine, I will do it myself!"
Ah, spite tanking.
Tank main here. As someone who was once crippled by tankxiety, I tackled it in a few different ways... but the one that helped me the most was taking things step by step.
First, learn the absolute basics of what a tank is. What you should usually be doing, what a tank stance is, how defensive cooldowns work and how you should generally use them. There, now that you've learned this, you can stay alive. Now that you're not dead, you can work on being not bad!
Second, learn the specifics. Learn how to judge if a pull is wise or not. If you don't know the dungeon, it's usually wise to keep it to 2 packs of mobs at the max. If in doubt, talk with your healer, voice your newness to the job and let THEM decide how big you should pull. Every dungeon will be a cooperative effort between you and your healer, so listen to them.
Now that you're getting more confident, learn how to make that confidence apparent. Sprint into pulls, use your cooldowns better, judge in the moment if you can spend less cooldowns on a pull for the last one. It's at this stage where it's also wise to learn proper pack positioning. Position the mobs in front of you, with their back to the party. Keep aggro on pulls by using your projectiles as you run. You've already got the basics down, so now you can work on specifics.
These were my steps, but they don't have to be yours. The important thing is to take them one at a time, at the pace you're most comfortable with
Thank you! Those are some great tips! 😊
I took the “thrown into the flames” approach to getting over any tank anxiety. I just jumped in and realized that as long as I put in any amount of effort into learning the role I would be doing more than most. Haven’t looked back since.
Very true! Simply caring enough to want to get better already means you are probably doing better than average!
@@CaetsuChaijiCh This makes me feel so much better! I am not a confident player at all. But I am finding within the community if I express I am nervous players so far have been so kind and supportive as I am trying. Its making tanking a little less anxiety inducing and I am starting to enjoy it. Thanks for your videos they are helping! :)
@@CaetsuChaijiCh I have a similiar but at the same time completly different problem. I just cant bring myself to que for Trials/Alliance Raids that ive never seen before. Its not that im not confident enough to think that i could do it, its just that i dont know the mechanics and i dont want to inconvience someone with dying because i just didnt know how to properly deal with something. And the next problem is the language barrier since people telling me the names in english but my Game client is german and skills have other names in 90% of the time.
Tankxiety is real and I had to overcome it when I first switched to tanking. But I think the funniest thing about tanking in FF14 is that, in some ways, tanking is the MOST forgiving role. You get to set the pace in a dungeon so you can go slower if you're not confident; you have the most survivability of anyone so you can make more mistakes before dying; and you generally have to deal with the least number of mechanics in boss fights, because you're exempt from a lot of mechanics that require running around. Honestly my biggest surprise was how comfy it felt to do stuff as a tank.
The learning curve is still there of course, but you easily get 90% of the way there by watching a beginner's guide to tanking and running a couple low level dungeons. It's really fun, plus you get to benefit from tank queue!
As a healer main I wanted to say for the tanks that have tankxiety towards healers ; honestly communicating that you may be a little less confident in your pulls/skills is so helpful! When a tank goes "hey I'm a bit new to this job" it lets me know as a healer to work a bit more and sort through my own skills in how I can help them. What I'm meaning to say is just communicate with your party!!
The biggest tip I'd give is to understand that *wanting* to do good for the sake of the party already puts you leagues ahead of most tanks. If you're willing to take advice and work around people's needs, everyone will love you for it.
For me, I got over my tankxiety in Eureka spending hours in there. You can pull exactly how much you like, and push yourself to your limits, where no one can see you and the consequences aren't dire. But at the same time, you can be helpful and see appreciation for your role and how your hard work helps everyone.
Another thought to chew on is that unlike other MMOs, if you can queue into a duty with a job, you have everything you need already. Skills, stats, party comp. 14 isn't like other MMOs where you need to worry about builds/specs/gear.
That is a very good point! Simply being concerned about doing your best - often the source of the anxiety in the first place - is a great sign that you will be doing fine! 😊
Eureka is a really undersung way of getting used to it. I started out single pulling. By the end of Anemos I was giga-packing
eureka?
if you're not a warrior, you're griefing yourself.
What really got me into tanking was DRK. I liked the theme a lot so, I tried to use all the stuff that I had seen other tanks use, which worked surprisingly well! One thing I did to help learn the dungeons was play them as DPS on my first run to know the pulls, then try tanking after. If you haven't yet, I'd really like a video like this on playing healers! It's my main role, so it'd be interesting to see if I agree with your tips.
Learning from watching others to see what they do is a great way to do it too! Both because it gives you an idea of what to do... But also gives you insight into what you'd like a tank to do from a different perspective, which let's you do even better! 😊
I am considering making a similar healer anxiety video!
Those early days when I was but a humble Dark Knight learning the do’s and dont’s of managing enmity and remembering to use my defensives and AOEs during wall to wall pulls were the most transformative aspects of turning into the tank main I am now, like a baby taking their first steps you could say. Granted I still don’t consider myself good, passable at best, but my answer to all that intial anxiety and fear? Turning to others for help, like learning my ABC’s. You were one of my guiding lights Cae, my fist steps in my toddler days of tanking as I watched a lot of your guides, it’s the best advice I can give to anyone wanting to try it for themselves. You’d be amazed how helpful and willing others are once you put in the time to study and be more practical and attentive. We’re all here for eachother, no one gets left behind.
I am really happy to hear that! 😄
I am sure you are much better at tanking than you personally think! Most of us have a tendency to be a lot harsher on ourselves after all! Thank you! 😊
@@CaetsuChaijiCh I still need to make chat macros for my Invulnerabilities frankly, it’d save my healers a heart attack or two I wager. But thank you Cae, that means a lot.
A bit of a psychological perspective: I think being anxious about any particular role (not just tanking) shows that you care about your performance and not letting your party down, which is ultimately a good thing! If you care, you can improve.
Loved the tip about starting at low level dungeons, I do this exact thing with expansion jobs that start at higher levels since it helps you learn their abilities slowly and gradually. If I can make it through a dungeon with no issues, I move on to the next. If I make mistakes and things don't go well, I tough it out and try the same dungeon again, hopefully with better results the next go around.
Ultimately it just comes down to forcing yourself to get over the fear and giving it a shot. Like others have said in the comments already, you're probably better than you think you are, and even if you're not, making mistakes is how you learn.
I absolutely agree! ^^
And as you said, it all comes down to getting over the fear and trying. It is about going out of your comfort zone in some ways!
Ironically I would give perhaps the opposite advice: start at heavensward dungeons. ARR dungeons were not built to the formula later expacs have and as such are a lot harder to tank.
I generally have massive gaming anxiety, which often times gets to me hard. For example, I sit there, want to play an online game and keep hovering over the "play" button with the mouse for several minutes with (and I kid you not) sweaty hands, just to finally play something else entirely.
But lately I've partially overcome this by telling me over and over again, that a really small minority is judging me online, even fewer people are harsh with their comments and even if they were, I've paid the exact same amount for those games, so I have every right to play them. And that mindset really helps.
That AND what you said in this video: "the worst thing that could happen in a game is you wipe (or die in any non-mmo)." In the end, it's JUST a game and we should be having fun with it :)
Very true! I'm glad to hear that you are getting better with this! 😄
This literally came at the perfect time. I'm considering going from a summoner main to a warrior main since it's always in need. But the tankxiety is real xD.
It can be very scary at first, but everyone starts somewhere! I am sure you can do it!
To expand on one of your points, I'd like to point out that, at least as a general rule: If you mess up as a tank and someone in your party gets mad at you and starts being rude, _that's not your fault._ It is perfectly possible to be frustrated by someone's poor performance and not make that someone else's problem, I do it all the time. If your healer or DPS can't do that, that's _their,_ let's say, "Emotional Skill Issue" 😂
Hahaha that is an excellent way to put it! 😂
Absolutely! Let people vent, that is THEIR emotional problem. Don't ever take internet nonsense personally, people tend to act in ways they would never DARE in the real world precisely because there are no consequences to being a jerk, so don't ever let it get to you personally.
Ive played lots of mmos over 24 years. never tanked in the past. but FF taught me to tank, and now.. Its my favorite role, just as you mentioned! it helps to know the dungeons you are going to lean to tank .. that helps alot. another pro tip, I see many not to: USE AOE when pulling and tanking trash packs. see way too many tanks tomahawk pull a single from the pack, and run to the next. and others then get aggro. when in 3 or mobs, use aoe please. and mitigation cool downs.. CD's.. are more for trash packs, than bosses. I used to "save" CD's.. bad habit.. use em, in serial, not all at once. o7
That is wonderful to hear! 😄
I found it easy enough to play tank, as healing high-level tanks and seeing what they do on specific wall-to-wall pulls gives me idea to improve on *if* i'm forced to tank. I suppose most of my tankxiety comes from the fact that my group has two tank mains, and that one of them berates their healer if they die during a pull. I don't play much with him now but he still watches every once in a while.
My being a healer main also exposes me to experienced and inexperienced tanks and I can sometimes tell when a tank is *really good* if they use their cooldowns really well (letting me know they're invuln'ing early, or using bloodwhetting early). I can then go "hey that works on me a lot, maybe I should do that too when I play WAR or GNB. Great video!
Thank you! That berating tank is certainly an example of the mean players I mentioned in the video 😔
Indeed, I also play tank and healer far more than dps, so I get a ton of experience to carry between the two which leads to an even more masterful performance overall I think! That's also how I learn many of the ways I mentioned about not big braining tanking too much, which I imagine you might have too! 😊
Something that helped the small amount of tankxiety I had is knowing that a pull is a group effort. If you are spacing out your cooldowns correctly and you still wipe, it may not be entirely your fault. Maybe the dps didnt dps hard enough or the healer was dpsing too much. Those things can happen. And if they do happen dont point fingers. Just do the best you can to improve the next pull and if your party members are decent party members they will too.
Very true! Just because things go wrong, it might not be your fault. And regardless of whose fault it is, what matters is the group learns, and you overcome the challenge. It is not about making anyone feel bad about failing in a video game we play for fun! 😊
I haven't watched all the vid yet but boi do I have a story about one dungeon.
Was possibly the most toxic kind of healer pulling mobs ahead rescuing me to pull more and then finally got both dps to agree to kick me (I was a sprout at the time too)
and put me off tanking and extension ffxiv for so long - Glad i came back and eventually came over my tank anxiety but it still comes back with harder/new content but the fact of everyone beaing new to that content helps.
That is a terrible experience! 😥 It's difficult to know what to do in such a situation when you are a sprout, but such behavior from that healer (and it's dps that probably queued with it) is not acceptable and honestly that should have been reported 😥 I'm glad you got over the tank anxiety with time, but that story is really unfortunate 😔
@@CaetsuChaijiCh As bad of an experience as it was, I am glad I came back and know it was one of the very minority situations in the game and personally now strive to help as many people as I can even if I don't have the funny crown yet 🙂 and want to start savage and ex content just wish there was more up to date guides. 😅
I came from wow where I would never even consider doing anything but DPS. I rolled a warrior when starting ff14 and never looked back. I liked the aesthetic of the axe so much it cured my tanxiety. I found healing to be a much more anxiety inducing role that was harder for me to get over. However, I find in general people in runs have been so kind that it's a big boost to my confidence, whether tanking or healing.
The kindness aspect is a huge part in ffxiv! Personally I could understand way more having dps anxiety in wow what with how close people sometimes watch the meters there, but tanking is absolutely also scary in a way there!
as someone who has very heavy tanxiety, i will add to the point about duty support: after doing a dungeon in duty support, you gotta also make the effort to then GO INTO THE DUNGEON AGAIN WITH OTHER PEOPLE.
i, unfortunately, just end up reinforcing my anxiety by relying too much on the duty support. for one thing, while i am aware that the npcs are much worse than real players, i still always end up trying to pull a bit big (never anything ridiculous in a normal context) and whenever i end up dying, i begin thinking "oh god maybe i am a horrible tank. if i go in with REAL PEOPLE i'll make a fool of myself!" so i don't do it (when in reality, the pulls would definitely go much smoother with others). this then leads to me staring at the DF screen, trying to encourage myself to just jump in, and then chickening out and going back into duty support.
Going with other players is a completely different experience! Just to take a very clear example I observed in the making of the sastasha footage in the video is this:
The NPC healer heals for about 111 hp every 3 seconds or so. An actual player in appropriate gear can heal for 200+ every 2.5 seconds, and if it isn't a white mage in that particular dungeon, all other healers can do even more than that! Like, just HAVING a player healer doubles the healing output! 😊
I am so glad you highlighted the benefit of being predictable. Even if you're not being optimal, so long as you are consistent a good dps will know what youre going to do and compensate. If that changes throughout the fight/dungeon it leaves people trying to guess and leads to a lot of frustration. Just make sure to leave the back end available. Also know when pulling that most players are aware if they have aggro on a mob and will run it into the pack for you(definitely not always) so trying to stop while running to grab every single mob isnt necessary, we are all going to the same place, the end of the corridor, no one is squishy enough to not be able to handle 1 or 2 mobs on them for 20 seconds
Very true about the aggro thing! It can often make things more confusing if you circle back around to pick up mobs that fall off, especially since most jobs can survive some hits, regardless of role! 😁
At its most basic, so long as you have tank stance toggled on, a 'move' button, and an AoE ability bound, you can be a successful tank. Not a good one, but you can do your job and hold aggro. From there, just screw around with your buttons during dungeons. Chances you get often since tank queues are instant. It's genuinely that easy.
Indeed, the minimum is quite low, so going beyond that is all beneficial!
I've been tanking in FF14 for a long time now, but ironically this came out just as I was trying to convince myself to try tanking in WOW SOD - lot of applicable tips there too :D
I'm glad this could help you there as well! Sometimes I've heard wow players can be a bit less patient though, but for the most part, I hope some of the tips still work! 😄
@CaetsuChaijiCh can confirm. It's really unfortunate. Pretty common to get kicked while trying to learn.
I’ve done a lot of tanking over the past few years in FFXIV, and I still strikes me if I take a break from it. Same with healer anxiety. If I take a break from something for long enough, it’s gotten back out of my comfort zone.
Jumping into duty support a couple times shakes it off pretty well.
Yeah I get it. You feel like "what if I don't remember how", thoughts like that, and it can really shake your confidence. A bit of solo practice often helps yes! 😊
Tbh I never really warmed up to Tanking until DRK. The lore around it, and how it felt so cool that, despite it being deemed difficult compared to other Tanks, it was the class that helped me clutch a bunch of dungeons, plus one of the coolest mounts in the game. I personally enjoy DPS and Healing more still, but Tanking as DRK has a special place in my heart :3c
I used to main a paladin years ago and had some bad experiences with hecklers. I didnt realize how much it got to me until trying Dark Knight. I was having the shakes going into my first dungeon but I ran it 3 times and it went well. Was proud of myself. Its a shame people can so casually ruin a nice gaming experience but ultimately its up to us to be confident and like you said, ignore the haters.
Just wanted to say that this video helped me a lot with this; I ended up eventually getting a healer and tank to 90, definitely improved my enjoyment of the game.
Also if anybody ever reads this and is going through a similar struggle I'll say that I've had times where I've gotten lost/sort of had to stop and check my map early on during dungeons, of course times when wipes have happened (not always your fault though!), and I've surely made mistakes; nobody really cares though, and if on the off chance you do end up meeting someone who gives you a hard time you could always just blacklist them afterwards if you wanted, plus you'll probably never see them again anyways regardless; have fun.
I'm glad to hear that! Thank you for sharing! 😄
As a failry un-confidant Tank myself, I always just ask the party what pace they want. More often than not they want a W2W but simply getting that confirmation (especially from the Healer) that they think they can handle it helps. If they want a slower run, then that's perfect because it's easier & everyone is expecting small pulls.
I'm working hard on my tanxiety (and my healing anxiety), and one thing I've found helpful is related the tip about people getting mad. This was actually I mindset I had to RElearn after someone got mad at me during an alliance raid because I did, in fact, mess up (fat-fingered tank stance), and proceeded to make fun of me through the remainder of the instance. 😅 I haven't tanked since, but I plan on trying again because of a lil epiphany:
In the end, even though there are other real people on the other side of the screen, it's important to remember that FFXIV…is a video game. And messing up is not an indictment on your ability to play it and play it well. It's not an indictment on your competence. It's something to learn from. And if people don't realize that, that says more about THEM than YOU. You're doing your best. Keep on keeping on. Tell people you're new. And remember, as mentioned, the worst thing that can happen is that you wipe. In a video game. That's it. You're not going to immediately get kicked from the dungeon and then get the game uninstalled from your computer before it self-destructs, even though it really does kind of feel that way. FFXIV means a lot to me, and I like to learn and do well, but in the end, this isn't SAO. If the party dies in the game they're not gonna die IRL, but some people get mad like you are.
If you're trying your best and you KNOW you are, that's enough. Still aim to learn and improve, but just know that "doing your best" doesn't have to mean perfection. It doesn't even have to be that good. It's okay to suck so long as you're trying your best in good faith. 💛
(Also the channel member font size grows ever-smaller, lol. That's a TON of people!)
What in the world?! Someone got on your case for pressing tank stance in alliance raid??? 😂 Whether you turned it on or off it still sounds absurd with two other tanks there 😂 I'm sorry it shattered your confidence though 😥 i do think you can do it though, Lemon, so don't be afraid! 😊
@@CaetsuChaijiChI accidentally turned my tank stance off in the middle of a boss-I turned it on right after, and we didn't even wipe, but they never let it go aha Scared me out of tanking for a while, but ironically a good healing experience in Stone Vigil where we wiped and the tank was not only chill but really helpful partly led me to my "This is a game and most people aren't like that one guy from LotA" mentality, haha. 😅 I'm working on it, slowly but surely! Thanks for the support.
@citriosis so weird! So what if you turned off the stance! I've had alliance raid situations where NO TANK had a stance on for like a full minute due to a misunderstanding and aggro didn't even change! 😂 Such a strange situation! 😊
I'm glad to hear about the good stone vigil experience!
I feel like the most important thing to know, and this is coming from previous savage experience - is that every job has their own responsibilities. Every job has their own mechanics that they have to do in content, and every job can make mistakes. The best thing you can do, is familiarize yourself with those mechanics (Yes going blind is okay), and own up to those mistakes. If you don't understand a mechanic in a dungeon, don't be afraid to ask the party for advice.
When I was a new player I had heavy tank anxiety, when I finally picked up a tank class and ran content however, it became my main job. I went on hiatus for a number of years and just returned, so I was nervous to go back into level 90 expert dungeons, since a lot of things have been revamped in those years - but popping mitigation and dodging AOEs still worked just fine. Tankxiety for me was always about letting the party down, but most groups are cool as long as you admit fault when you make a mistake (And don't assume all advice has negative motive behind it).
Exactly. As long as you try your best and can own up to mistakes and seek advice in a friendly way, the vast majority of players will have no complaints at all! 😊
I was lucky enough to have friends guide me through the game. Even now I am leveling my tanks/healers and my anxiety for those classes are gone. It is interesting to see others have DPS anxiety, but I respect it more then anything when someone is worried of they aren’t doing their best. It just means they want to grow!
Absolutely precisely! Usually when players have anxiety about it, it is because they care about doing a good job, which is always commendable! 😊
Just to reinforce the part about the healer being able to adjust if they know you're new
I play AST, even in casual dungeons I have a plan for my healing because the rest of the time I'll be drawing cards and that's a complicated rotation. My plans are usually tight enough that in most of my pulls, by the end of them I'll just be letting mobs do their thing because It's like a 90% that at that point the tank doesn't need any healing, the mobs will die before he drops below 20%
Another thing about AST is that, while it is not entirely lacking in "Oh shit!" healing, it has significantly less and weaker of those
If you are new and I can expect mobs to deal a bit more damage or survive a bit longer, I am beyond glad to adjust that plan, I'll have one or two more heals prepared to pop and it'll barely interfere with my carding, meaning we'll only have good come out of you telling me you're new
Exactly! Actually in my experience it is also with astrologian that I get the most tripped up if the tank surprises me like that. Simply letting the group know really helps everyone after all! 😄
I'll agree that knowing your Tanks strength and weakness is going to be the first most important thing to overcoming any anxiety about playing it. While many saying 'play one tank played them all' that isn't really true given how each is built. All of them, in some form or another, have their own unique mitigations and knowing how to use or even pair those together is an important part of the tanks kit.
For example, preparing for a tank buster is different on each job. In some cases, the tank focuses on mitigating a portion and having some form of restoration for the rest, or they are more focused on mitigating more of that damage and focusing less on restoring after. Understanding that each has something in their kit to help out others in dire straights is also important. Not just the AOE buffs each has, but what can be used to either redirect damage from another to you (pld), what can target another to restore health to them (war, pld, or gnb), or what can be used to mitigate damage while providing a benefit to the tank (war or drk).
This means that just reading about tanking, or watching a video may be a good start, but actually reading your various actions and abilities will go a long way to. Not just in knowing what they do, but if they share recast, which is better to use in a given situation, and just knowing how much you can support others helps a lot too. It's the difference in being a War that can survive a boss fight, and a war that can survive and help keep someone else up too (Bloodwetting vs Nascent flash).
I've been tanking for 15+ years and I still get it. For me it's mostly when it's new content and when people expect me to hurry through said content. People in this game are usually genuinely helpful, which is awesome. Sometimes, when the anxiety is bad, I'll just do the dungeon as some other role first or I'll find a walkthrough online. I find it worse for alliance raids where everyone is just rushing through to get it done. For me, more people = more anxiety.
To reduce the tankxiety: Consider yourself a glorified DPS. Honestly, tanking is as simple as 123. You're not the one with the spotlight, you're not the "leader", you're part of the team. IF a healer feels confident you can pull more, do so. Wiping literally doesn't matter int his game 99% of the time, so just go ham, limit test and see how well you actually can do. No one's gonna blame you if you explain you're trying to test some limits.
Tanking can be intimidating, especially your first time tanking high end stuff where tank swaps are needed. That is something I am still not experienced or proficient in. I tried it in P9S a handful of times and it didn’t go well, plus the parties weren’t exactly understanding about it
Yeah once you get into current savage content, it isn't unusual for the other players to assume you already know how to do most things, which is strange since certain tanking tricks and mechanics (like tank swapping) are rarely necessary in casual content, so it should be perfectly understandable not to know these things. Best you can do is try your best!
Been playing ff14 since 2016, tryed tanking in HW and SB with some mixed results. Then, right before EW, i started complty fresh on a new character as Tank and finished EW as Paladin, lvling all other tank classes on the way, to see which i liked the most.
Watching some guides and asking other tank players for advice in this time was a big help in getting somewhat rid of my tank anxiety^^
While trying to overcome my own healer-anxiety, I've found party finder a great boon. If you're not on the free trial, you'd be surprised to see how many people are up for joining you if you advertise you are a learning tank/healer wanting to get some practice. I had 4 separate people voluntarily join PFs I made this evening just cause they wanted to help. And knowing people are there TO help geuinely eases so much of the pressure. Everyone signed up for this, so if we wipe, that's ok!
I got stuck in ARR cuz my anxiety would flare so high every dungeon and I just wanted to play Paladin and ended up just quitting the game for years. Just recently came back with Duty Support and just cleared Heavensward. Started learning Monk on the side, figured I'd do Duty Roulettes to help level and maybe overcome my anxiety, and found I had no anxiety flare ups queuing DPS, even when I objectively perform bad in the dungeon. Wild what the lack of "responsibility" can do for anxiety, but now that I know it's focused specifically when I play this role, I know what I'm fighting. I WILL be a tank, goddammit.
I know you can do it! Just try your best, and I am sure you will actually do better than the average tank anyway! 😁
I really like your way of thinking by the way, I really think it is a great thing to encourage players to improve themselves while simultaneously being positive and non-elitist about it. I wish this was the standard "Mentor" or general XIV play guide mentality. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much! 🥰
i started ff14 as a healer, then years later did dps, and only the past few years i starated tanking. while dungeons are a bit nervous for me because of reasons mentioned in the video, i don't seem to have any issues with prae or casturm (good places to practice i suppose). trials and raids are fine too. tanking is fun, but i still don't want to be the lead of the party (i'm mostly a follower/supporter.
maybe next year, i'll try tanking more. love DRK
it also helps to let others know at the beginning of the dungeon that you're new to tanking, then they are most likely to be supportive and give you tips on what to do.
for me, it helped to be a healer and stay close to the tank while doing wall to wall pulls and see what they do and you kinda build off of them. of course, tanking yourself, is the main way to gain experience on tanking. trial and error is always your friend.
I used to have tanxiety but then I healed once and found actual, reasonable anxiety. Tanking is so, so easy, in all content once you’re used to it. Easier than DPS, most times. Slap the tank buttons, do your baby rotation, and lead the charge in dungeons with your party comp in mind. If you aren’t walking, pulling more than two enemies, and actually keeping the boss still, you’re already better than half of the DF.
Also go Warrior to learn, if you want the path of least resistance.
Yeah I can see what you mean! Once you get past the spotlight of being the tank, tanking also means, for the most part, that you can dictate a large part of the pace of the group.
Meanwhile, the healer can often feel like a captive audience to whatever the dps and tank gets up to, and you might not be ready to deal with that! 😅
the biggest source of tanxiety for me was mainly the fact that i barely knew any dungeon layouts when i started.
i picked up drk as my first tank in late HW and i was a little baby sam back then, so i always would just follow the tank and kill stuff ! so i never really payed attention to the layouts, which kinda messed me up when i started myself.
ultimately, it was just the arr dungeons that gave me trouble, but just watching some yt and some practice got me thru it ! now drk and gnb are some of my fav jobs, at least for running dungeons- i am still deathly afraid of tanking trials.. it seems a bit overwhelming
i just started xiv in general last month and mad running thru the msq something i noticed is how much more streamlined dungeons have become, which definitely helps the tank experience when you don't have to worry about memorizing them. which is also unfortunate because the lower level dungeons im try to use to learn how to tank are a maze on their own-
I learnt by leveling as a tank and doing dungeons with duty support first, as I got high dungeons I watched guides on them to know what tank busters to shield for, also a macro that says Hi and lets people know I'm new to tanking. As I mention in your mentor video I also had a mentor talk me through 2 dungeons as we ran them. 1: added suggestion I would make try doing taniking while your solo outside, so useing defensive come as second nature in dungeons
That is a great approach as well! 😊
Tank anxiety, I still have a little bit of that. I practiced using duty support, but the event that helped break the anxiety was when I accidentally queued for The Stigma Dreamscape as warrior and I realised I'd just have to do my best. (Healer on the other hand, that really fills me with anxiety)
Based on what others said, it sounds surprisingly effective to just accidentally find yourself in the situation and having to try your best. Like just finding yourself on stage and having to perform! I'm glad it ended well!
Based on what feedback I have gotten, it certainly sounds like I should see if I can get some good tips together to help with healer anxiety as well! 😅
I got used to tank anxiety by main tanking a savage fight with FC mates. It was P1S when the tier was pretty much dead. The FC mates provided the guides and resources needed for the fight.
Their help encouraged me to do the next tier as well. I think I was the only one in the FC to clear Asphodelos before Abyssos came out.
Part of how I deal with it, is that I focus on how much fun I'm having playing my role and how very much I love my job. Naturally, trying my best comes out of it. And while embarrassing, wiping isn't the end of the world.
I think that is a very healthy way to look at it! And a very positive one at that! 😊
Great Video! I'm usually a Summoner main, but I kinda fell in love with both Dark Knight and Gunbreaker. Currently I level them mostly by doing the MSQ with them (and the MSQ Dungeons in Duty Support while still going in with my DPS for any Trials). I sometimes run them in normal Dungeons when a Friend of mine is healing because the communication to the healer helps me a lot in getting a feeling for how much I can pull and they even said that they don't notice a difference between me and other Tanks so I guess I'm slowly getting there..
But I'm still mostly scared of anything where I might need to know specific tanking mechanics, even though I know they aren't as common in the content I'm currently in.
Being concerned about specific details like that already tells me you care a lot more about doing well than the average tank! I am sure you would be fine in a group with randoms, but as long as you do content in a way you feel the most confident with, that's good enough 😊
I used to be crippled by tankxiety like many in the comments. Lots of experience, guides, communication, and talking to better players was my answer. I started around the Stormblood launch and caught up in time for Shadowbringers. It took me until a fair bit into Endwalker before it was gone. A good attitude helps a lot too.
Anxiety in tanking is much like anxiety in life, a lot of it comes down to two thing: a lack of knowledge, and the fear of the unknown.
It's hard programmed into us as part of the "Flight or Fight" response. Everyone has it, so if you are nervous about making mistakes, just remember that everyone else who walked that path also felt the same thing. They made the same mistakes you will. What matters is learning from it. The only people that never make mistakes are those that have never tried anything new. Start small with easy things, then slowly work your way up. Don't look to the masters , that will only cause stress. Don't try to be perfect when being decent is all that will be required. Look to the person who is slightly better than you and match them, then look to the next person who is slightly better than that person. Do this in a lot of things and you will go far.
That is very well put, thank you!
Tank (usually BLM main) here! I fell in love with the Dark Knight quest and fell even harder for the class, playing tank was scary for me because of performance anxiety but it was so satisfying to get 3 commendations in one dungeon! I even got compliments for how I played and it became less scary and more rewarding! Obviously I still have a lot to learn but I truly hope I can start raiding as a tank and slowly make my way to more challenging content. I love how rewarding it feels to distract the boss and smack it with my large hunk of iron that was too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough!
Apart from my overall anxiety, I believe tanking in wow slightly traumatized me. I have no friends in-game so I'm gonna have to stick to duty support until I'm more confident, hopefully :')
I can say that players are a lot nicer about it in ffxiv by comparison, but building up your knowledge and confidence with duty support first is a great idea 😊
Can't speak for other people, but I have very recently diagnosed anxiety and I've had to fight it in order to max all my jobs and do the other group content I like doing, even when it's harder content with a group of friends. In particular, waiting for a queue to pop can often make me feel sick enough to leave the queue and try again later, which is one reason I heal normal content most of the time.
1. As said, preparing and knowing what you *want* to do ahead of time helps a lot. Even if you freeze up and do dumb things, at least you know what went wrong and you've actively improved a little. Being able to record and watch back also helps, particularly for cases where the healer is being really dumb and you're too focused on getting your rotation right to notice.
2. WAR was really liberating at 56+, especially since I heal most dungeons by default. Rather than having to rely on the healer to be decent enough to handle normal pulls, you have that control back to be able to manage with just about any healer and salvage things when shit happens (and if you have to salvage things, it's usually bad enough that no one's really expecting you to salvage things, so the judgment factor is a lot safer).
3. Obviously, the more you play something, the comfier it gets, especially with #1, knowing how you *want* to play and actively working on that.
4. Spite can be a really useful short-term motivator. Nothing is quite as effective for me to jump into something and stop caring about anxiety than being spiteful. That practice feeds into #3. For me, this was most notable with one healer I had in my first ShB dungeon (Qitana) on PLD before EW. I wasn't playing perfectly of course, it was my first chance to use all my 70+ stuff, but it took me recording and going back through very slowly to realize that if I were on healer, I'd be more than happy with myself as the tank. The SCH pushed approximately 0 of their buttons, both making it incredible that I even survived as much as I did and making the pulls significantly longer. I had caught whiffs of adlo and physick on the first actual pull (the one where you have literally every cooldown up on healer+tank) and thought for the rest of the dungeon that I was doing poorly because of that, but it turns out the SCH was playing worse than a bot and then being either passive aggressive or clueless when I died later. You'd better believe that discovering this was a good motivator to go back and level my tanks.
5. Closely related to #1, if you're doing that, you're already better off than a ton of people. It's magical, really. Simply knowing what you *want* to do and failing to do it already realistically means you're playing better than most random people. Any mistake you make or failed chance you take is a lot easier to write off because it's for the sake of improving-it's going to good use to improve everyone's experience in the future.
6. When things are still very new is the best time to hop in and get some practice. Anyone who's expecting people to know the content and not make mistakes on day 1 in a learning party is being unambiguously idiotic. Normal content is easy enough and similar enough to other normal content that your practice elsewhere heavily carries over and you can be confident that the new content will go fine (and it's okay if something takes you by surprise, it's new and most normal content has a lot of leeway anyway), so this is mostly for the harder content.
7. General thing for me, thinking about something happening is almost always a lot worse than it actually happening. Of course I don't want to do something dumb and die, but it still happens after years of practice, can't really help it and there's no way I'm going to adjust my entire play around flukes. When it happens, it's almost always just a "woops I did a dumb" and that's it. Of course it's easier to shrug off when it's a job you're more comfortable on and you wholeheartedly know that it was actually a fluke.
The tip to watch your own gameplay and realize that you are actually really good is so good especially! Thank you for all the additions! 😄
Just wanted to drop by and say that this (along with one other video) helped me get over my own tankxiety. Now lately I've been learning Warrior and having a good time with it. In fact I just main tanked one of the ShB Boss Fates today (which was my first time ever main tanking anything, I've always been off tank before if anything) and I think I did pretty well and didn't even die once (liberal use of Bloodwhetting and the occasional Equilibrium is to thank for this)! And while I'll probably always be a DPS main, I've learned that, with the right job, tanking can be a lot of fun too.
If anyone is reading this and still has a bit of tankxiety, one thing I ran into was I tried Paladin first and idk its playstyle just didn't click with me for some reason so I dropped it. Then I gave Warrior a try and I liked it a lot more. So if you're trying one job and not loving it, maybe try another, might help!
Anyway I appreciate you for making this, and to all the encouraging comments as well!
I'm glad to hear you found a way to fight past the tanxiety! 😄👍
A good video with good points. I would encourage everyone to play all of the roles till you have a basic handle on them because they typically all deal with slightly different mechanics. Knowing how you impact them and they impact you is the single biggest thing to improve on party play. And real do just let your group know if you are new to a role or back to it after a long time, most of us are entirely happy to adjust for you.
Exactly, the most effective way to get the best you can at your preferred role is almost always to also have some insight into the other roles!
FFXIV is my first MMO. I started as tank because I heard it has short queues. So I did. It's fun. I never really had tanxiety. I mainly played with NPCs, though, and once I was overleveled from my Road to 80 buff, I did it unsync/solo. I did it with NPCs for the additional story, so there's a bit more to it than that.
I had healxiety, though. First of all, why did I have that? I play on console and I thought targeting party members on console is bad/troublesome, so they'd just die with me healing.
How did I overcome it? I saw a nice glamour for WHM that I wanted. There was my reason for playing healer. But there's a bit more. I did unsynced content as tank and sometimes had to hard carry the party by casting Clemency or using Cover on an undergeared Healer. That's when I learned targeting party members is not as hard as I thought and after a while I started leveling WHM and figured out that it's not difficult at all. It just takes a while getting used to.
IDK what to recommend, really. Maybe start small. Face the enemies away from the party. There, you're already tanking and are doing a better job than some players.
Also, be consistent. If you pull small at the start, announce it when you want to pull bigger. This can throw your healers off when they don't have to pay all that much attention to suddenly having to heal a lot more.
I had tank anxiety for the longest time and it was mainly cause I kept MELTING during pulls, even had one very rude healer tell me that “buying gear doesn’t mean you have skill” or something like that and then quitting at the end of the dungeon, I was using defensive CDs and all too, learning how to properly cycle defensive cooldowns helped so much! That and learning that tanking is a two way street, if your healer isn’t doing any mitigation or at least throwing a regen at you then it was also their fault
But yeah I’d do two dungeons back to back on the same job, one where it’d go super well and I feel invincible and then get into the same dungeon but melt like American cheese in a heatwave
Yeah it makes it hard to be sure who was at fault when there are so many possible reasons things are going wrong.
Is it gear? Is this pull just really hard? Is my job weak or something? Am I using cooldowns wrong? Is the healer using cooldowns? Wrong? Is the dps too low so we run out of cooldowns?
And that's just some of them.
Learning what you can do helps a lot, but still doesn't make it perfect since everyone's involved 😅
I'm glad to hear you feel more confident now!
I got tankxiety before starting raiding but it got soooo much worse after p5s when I can't seem to do the tank swap. Quit got like 6 months until 6.4. I resubbed, got into a stactic for Anabesios and was progging p9s as reaper, a lot of tank inconsistency happened and we never got through it. Not until 6.5 and ex7, I went tank on ex7 clearing and learning it blind in less than a week and bringing said tank (warrior) into p9s and acing that guy in half of the time we got trapped on, and then less time on p10s and even less time on p11s. Progging p12s and aiming to clear DSR before Dawntrail. Good luck all of you, tank mains. May your pulls goes smoothly and your raids clear.
A great journey with a good ending! That's awesome! 😄
Thank you thank you! But still, countless thanks to my static mates who dragged me out to tank and guided me when I needed help.
I’ve been playing tank since I started (in shb currently so not an endgame raider or anything) but if you can having a friend healing is amazing. My and my friend started together and it gives a better understanding of how the roles intersect and how we both play.
For example I play DRK and they play SGE and knowing each other means they know when they don’t need to shield me because I’m about to pop tbn so they can focus on dps or healing someone else.
Thanks for the video btw. Despite loving the role and having all the time I do on it my tanxiety from level 1 still has never entirely dissipated. My own bit of advice is just keep moving. You’ll get cocky and wipe at some point but now you know the dungeon/boss better or you have a better idea of your team or have gotten better at cooldowns.
In terms of dungeons, I actually found once you get to higher levels it’s easier regardinghow big to pull as they all start following a steady amount of stopping walls in between packs. so wall to wall actually feels less dangerous than in some low level dungeons where you can pull to infinity.
I was a new player a few months ago and once I learned the dungeon meta was to pull wall to wall (which I learned around stormblood) it became much less stressful once I wasn’t having to make judgement calls about how big to pull most of the time
That is very true! It's a bit awkward how early levels where the toolkit is easier, the dungeons are much less structured so you can easily over pull. Meanwhile at higher levels, pulling is simple, but now you have some shoes to fill in regards to your toolkit! 😅
I overcame my tanxiety by watching WeskAlber's guide on tanking as I was starting the game and learning WAR and he mentioned that it's often an issue that new tanks often face, so that was when I first acknowledged that it was something that I was subconciously facing. I then started putting myself in uncomfortable positions from the very start so I didn't know what being comfortable was like and I haven't dealt with tanxiety as much since besides returning from a break, but at that point I just do the same as I always do, put myself in discomfort till I feel comfort
Another Caetsu video, another great day ☺️
Thank you so much! 🥰
I had my tankxiety flare up when my first attempt at being an MT led to the OT getting mad at me for spinning the boss. Even after I took that lesson to heart and learned to position the boss correctly, the idea of disappointing everyone still stuck with me.
But I was able to overcome it when some of my later trials ended in wipes due to no fault of my own. When I realized that I wasn't actually bothered by wiping, it helped assuage my tankxiety a lot. People mess up, but we all move on and learn from it.
The most important lesson here is that you learned that wiping and even outright failing is okay. This can be used to learn so many other things (even unrelated to ffxiv!) so that is wonderful! 😄
If the issue is coming from a lack of knowledge just running the content as a dps can help a lot too. Unless your mashing your head against the key board your going to see what the tank is up to. Watching what other tanks do is a good source of first hand knowledge. Even if the tank is bad it gives you a source of what NOT to do instead. This works for both tanking and healing, actually. Playing melee dps and the tank keeps spinning the boss? You know not to do that now because you've felt the frustration yourself. Playing healer and the ranged dps just keeps hanging outside of aoe heal range? You now know not to sit at the edge of the fight arena when playing ranged dps.
A very good point! Learning a job second hand like that is also a way to go at it! Some players find it hard to watch others while playing of course, but I do imagine it helps for most!
When I started playing about two years ago, I was dead set on never becoming a tank because the concept alone seemed so intimidating. I stuck to DPS for the most part. One day the completionist urge took over and I started picking up the tanks to passively level via Frontline. However, I wanted to at least give them a shot before deciding I'd never play them again. The first few dungeons I ran with my healer friend for a confidence boost. Eventually I queued for stuff on my own. Now I almost exclusively tank dungeons, and sometimes other content. I feel like it really gets easier the more you do it, and you figure out what works and what doesn't (pull sizes etc.). If you've played other roles before, you might already know many of those things from observation and can just copy what other tanks do. You might also have seen other inexperienced tanks before and already know to avoid the mistakes they made. Either way, it's a learning process, but a fun one! I encourage everyone to give tanking a try. You might enjoy it more than you thought! :D
Absolutely! On top of all that, because the tank gets so much out of remembering how to deal with each dungeon, you get so much more reason to learn more about each fight as a tank as well! 😄I'm glad you had such a good experience trying tanking!
Funnily enough, I dont think I ever had Takxiety or Healer anxiety, I just picked up the roles and started playing. At first I didn't know what I was doing and didn't even know there were roles like tank, dps and healer. I thought Gladiator must be a damage dealer but I was wrong lol I don't quite remember how it was in the beginning for me, tried playing in HW but dropped it not long after, however I happened to see the trailer for Shadowbringers and saw the beautiful gunblade and decided to play again. I then unlocked and leveled Gunbreaker to level 80 before I even finished ARR xD.
I don't recall ever feeling anxious about tanking and healing, I just fell into those roles and started enjoying them. I've always liked the roles that put the most attention on me and allow me to take the danger away from teammates. In games like Mass Effect, there are situations where you can make things harder for yourself but story wise it helps other people. Like if you don't choose to redirect enemies to yourself, those enemies could kill some of your allies in another group. I've always played the traditional selfless hero role in games so tanking and healing just came naturally to me. I like taking the most risk away from others and supporting them. I don't remember when or why I picked up healing but I always liked healers in games since I played .hack//G.U. on PS2.
Ironically I'm most anxious about DPS because of the long rotations and messing them up. Never been good at fighting games so stringing together combos is difficult for me.
What helped me when I started tanking was having a tank mentor. I know not everyone has friends in the game but I feel the community has enough friendly players that if you ask, you shall receive. My tank mentor taught me the basics of the role and how important positioning was when playing my role. I was able to get over the anxiety and it is by far the best class to play in the game imo. In return, when my friend started playing the game, I had him just start as a tank and he never experienced tankxiety from the start. On the other hand, he is terrified of DPS so I have to fix that haha
That is wonderful! Sometimes you get a golden mentor that really knows their stuff! 😊
It is quite funny that the aftermath of teaching your friend how to tank is that they are afraid of dpsing instead! 😅 I am sure you can teach them there too!
The things that most mitigate (heh) my tankxiety are thinking these thoughts:
1. If tonnes of people are completely able to tank appropriately all the time, I should be able to as well - I don't think I'm amazing at FFXIV or anything, but I'm also not much less capable than the average player.
2. I think back at the times a tank I've been running with has made a mistake. How bad was it? How annoyed was I? How much did it affect me? The answer to all these questions are "Not much". Chances are, the people you'll be tanking for will feel the same way. Even if you don't tank well, no one will care that much. It's fine. Not that you shouldn't try, but even the biggest mistakes usually won't annoy your teammates much.
To me the tankxiety comes from the thought of inconveniencing people and making their day worse - not even necessarily them getting mad, just you know, being annoying. I don't know how many people are the same way, but keeping those two thoughts in mind does genuinely really help me out. They also help me out to a lesser extent with IRL anxiety. When I was starting to tank, it also helped out to ease in through generally easier roulettes like levelling or trials rather than jumping in at the deep end with the endgame dungeons and normal raids, though I think that's general advice for trying out any class.
Absolutely true! Realizing that so many tanks are perfectly fine despite not playing even close to perfectly is a good thing to consider when you start! 😊
Letting the team know you're new is so important. This is what happened to someone who was new but silent.
This weekend, as I was starting to bring my minimum levels to 30, I encountered what was likely a new healer in Haukke Manor, but not a new player (not a sprout, only has starter AST set, not even accessories). Without giving a heads up that he's healing for the first time, one of the party was aggressively vocal about what the healer should do until he eventually dropped out.
I kinda feel bad for not intervening, but yes definitely let people know you're new. It can mean the difference between aggressive criticism and people like me taking the time to type out helpful tips
It always gets dicey when someone starts getting aggressive about it! 😅 But indeed what could've helped here is if the ast had said something!
I had a strategy that others have called "weird" for learning to tank. I started playing in HW and started leveling the tanks after all the melee dps so I had decent idea of dungeon layouts ahead of time. The "weird" part was that I just got it in my head that if a healer has time to cast a Damage spell, then clearly I'm not pulling enough. Glad I got that out of my system before Stormblood, but it did get me very comfortable with large pulls.
I mean, technically if the healer is attacking then things are good. Naturally you'd rather have the healer attacking than not, but a good reference point is that the healer is probably getting stressed if they start to spam heals instead (unless it's a cure spammer in which case who knows!!)
@@CaetsuChaijiCh 100%. I certainly valued having the chance to go through that experience, but I can definitely understand that I was working with some very incorrect assumptions at the time lol. For context, I Heal more than I tank now and would hate newbie tank version of me lolol.
I think the tipping point for me to getting over Tanxiety was Brayflox Longstop HM back in like 2.2
Everyone was barely geared for it, and the strat was just to Leroy Jenkins it. Pull literally the entire room. You were a good tank if you learned your mitigations and stayed alive. Bad tank if you pulled and dropped like a rock.
I miss those days sometimes even if you had to use aoe skills like....flash....
"I miss those days sometimes even if you had to use aoe skills like....flash...."
...i still can hear it, even after all those years xD
How i combated tankxiety was to just start a new character as marauder and go from there, if you devote enough time to leveling a class, you will become more accustomed to its abilities and encounter enough scenarios where you will figure out how and when to use abilities effectively. And besides, most ppl in ffxiv are more forgiving of sprouts, so there's your free pass for making mistakes. Your "get out of jail free card" if you will. It IS true that if you look like an experienced player, people will have more questions when you fail. So my advice is: just make a new character & go through the stories from square one, it helps a lot.
Have confidence ?! Yes, confidence!
Confidence in the tanking, yes! 😁😄
I play all of the roles and in my experience rules 3-5 are truly the most solid advise to take away and combat tankxiety.
My addition to this topic would be even though at this point I’ve very confident in my tanking (89 GNB and 84 PLD), I will never run a dungeon for my first time as a tank. Get a few runs as your most confident DPS role as that knowledge goes a long way to then tank smoothly.
More specific your AOE’s are your best friend while pulling and by far the best way to keep monsters angry you ate the last Christmas cookie. Secondly, (other guides will go over defensive CD’s in more depth), my simple advise for them is be proactive with using them, not when you’re half HP or less, and aim to use them one at a time, flowing into the next. Wall to walls generally flow well enough that using CD’s proactively will have them ready by the time you gather the next pack. GLHF, I’m Tyrse Laer’lai on Primal Behemoth if you want any further help 😁👍
Getting to see a dungeon in a safe environment is always a good idea! 😊
Indeed, my tank guides always recommend being proactive with defensives and planning them out in an effective way, since that is really what makes a tank truly feel sturdy like one! 😊
Very nice advice to share, thank you!
I had a ton of Tank Anxiety when I thought about learning how to tank for the first time. A lot of it stems from the fact I have incredibly severe Anxiety so I worry about every tiny little thing
I was able to overcome it with a lot of time and practice but I would tank with people I knew from my fc who were experienced with the game and they’d give me advice on what I could do better or if I was making any mistakes
I mainly tank now (Gunbreaker is best tank) in most content and most of that anxiety is gone now
I'm glad to hear your journey had a good ending! 😄 It really can be scary to start with!
Anyone who has Tankseity should start with WAR. Sometimes you get shitty healers and this will let you know if its you making mistakes or the healer.
I've been tanking for a while now, how I dealed with my tanking anxiety was just "i dont wanna wait 30min for dungeons and wanna do my daily rouletts NOW"
Haha that is certainly also a way to get over it! 😂
As a WHM main, I feel I don't tank enough. It's funny how some of the things you say here for tankxiety are also true for healer anxiety -- such as the worst you can do is wipe. Your mentions tho about playing a tank to be predictable had me thinking -- have you done any videos that "bridge" between healing and tanking? Specifically, what should healers watch for in a tank to create the most effective partnership --or perhaps tip you off to when you may have some extra work on your hands? I certainly have learned quite a few things myself over the years, but I'm guessing I am missing things specific to different tanking jobs simply because of my lack of familiarity with them.
That is a really good idea. I have actually had an idea of discussing how to deal with the different tank invulnerabilities from the healer perspective on my list for a bit, but this does sound like a more full idea of a video, explaining what to watch for as a healer, in terms of what the tank does! Thank you for the idea!
Also as you said, a bunch of the suggestions in this video could probably also work for healer anxiety, but then again, I am sure some would prefer a more focused healer anxiety perspective when they are really needing it! (So that means I am not writing off a healer anxiety video because of this! :D)
@@CaetsuChaijiCh I think the key for me in getting to the point where I could main a healer were four words: "People die. So what?" When you get comfortable with that fact, then you can start acting instead of reacting (like blowing your long recast abilities just to keep people at 100% health)
Duty support and Command Missions really helped me get over my tankxiety. It also made me want to start tanking with real people since the npcs can’t really handle wall to wall pulls lol.
Tanking certain ARR dungeons is worse than tanking higher level ones :')
If you can handle Stone Vigil with a baby sprout healer youre more than ready for what comes after
That is also a good point! It is an unfortunate trade off that lower level content is less well structured, but also gives you less tools to worry about! But as you say, that also means if you can master them, then you are pretty good already!
I got over my tanxiety when I realized how easy it was. All I had to do was pull everything, make sure everything kept beating on me at all times, and let the rest of the party do their thing. Much fun.
I have all the tank jobs at cap, mostly through roulettes, but I have still never gotten over my tanking anxiety. Some of it is the fear of failure in front of strangers that you mentioned, but at this point, I think most of it is the ambiguity. That is, I can't reliably tell if I am tanking properly, nevermind well. When I am healing, I can tell that I have a decent grip on my job because I can successfully heal (and dps) even when things go sideways, or the tank is undergeared or not performing well, or the dps stand in everything. When I am tanking, I don't know if I am doing well because I can't tell if I am making the healer's job harder. Consequently, I always assume the worst. Perhaps it is a form of imposter syndrome. :)
I think it might be imposter syndrome as you say 😊 you could watch some tanking guides or job guides appropriate for the tank you play the most, and see if the way you play matches with what others suggest. Something others suggested was to record your own gameplay, and watch it back and imagine yourself as a healer seeing you tank, and consider whether you think you'd be happy with that! I think it is mostly about reinforcing your confidence in your own ability!
What people dont know about tanking is that you get to make the most mistakes out of all the jobs mechanic wise c:
True, tanks can somehow paint over and hide the most mistakes in regular content! 😂
About toxic players, its probably good to mention that any kind of toxic behavior, berating or insults are strictly against TOS and SE tend to have a no warning suspension approach to dealing with it. Report them and give them a nice forced holiday from the game where they can't bother other normal players.
Indeed, if someone actually gets really mean about it, reporting them and not worrying too much about it is the best action!
Yep. I've been tanking since 1.0 and during EW decided to give DRK a try. Had a good handle on it after a few runs with NPCs. Joined a DF party where they obviously all knew each other. I died on the second pull despite accurate use of CDs, likely because healer was used to healing warriors, paladins and gunbreakers. I immediately got "relentlessly" blamedz name calling, etc by all three players and they ended up booting me. I reported every single one of them.
That said, I was so put off by that experience, I haven't touched the job since.
my way of dealing with tank anxiety is telling myself its a game and i can simply mute or block people who decide to flame me harshly for mistakes 😅
That is also a way! There is no reason for people to get so angry over a wipe in a game! 😊
The thing that ultimately broke my tanxiety was my FC's weekend blind alexander (savage) runs. I volunteered to fill in for our usual tank on A10S because they couldn't see mechanics clearly on their new monitor and just kinda got used to tanking "serious" fights from there. We're up to A12S now.
That's awesome! Good luck with Alexander prime!
when i first picked up drk, i used to run haukke manor a lot to get used to the idea of tanking. it's an easy dungeon to tank with some packs on the more difficult side if you pull big. gets you used really nicely to how to pull and gauge what you can handle depending on the rest of your group too.
That is a very good example yes! Multiple bosses also have things that can be made easier by using your more niche utility tools like stun and interrupt that you can also practice!
I developed Tankxiety back in ARR trying to progress Twintania while over geared with a party of casuals that would disband after 1 wipe. I always loved ffxiv tanking but never felt I had a group to over come the tankxiety. I played on and off from then til shadowbringers, mained healing for raids and then figured "healing is actually harder than tanking; as well, between the expanded tool kit and the simplicity of generating and creating aggro, I really should just go and do it." Tanks now just feel like a melee that can eat fun stacks and laugh at the boss for everything but savage or higher content. Today, I go back and forth between the 2 roles, but prefer to heal unless I know the healers.
I want to let people know, even high-end players have tankxiety. I'm a DPS main who cleared DSR on release and I still deal with it. I only feel comfortable tanking in random parties if I have a friend with me. It's something I want to work towards getting over this year. Fear is always going to exist. It's about not letting it define you. You like Dark Knight a lot, play it. Be bad at it. It's OKAY to be bad. Success is falling 9 times and getting up 10. You have to fail to improve and that's a-okay! The fact that you care about doing a good job is more than most tanks that exist.
That is a very nice way to put it! Thank you for that addition! :D
As a White Mage main who never played another job for a decade almost I finally branched out and got Paladin to 90 soon to have Monk at 90.
Tanking I think on the casual level is easier than it's ever been. Dungeons are very stream lined for you to run through nowadays and you don't lose aggro so if you want to level tank just to have it you got nothing to fear of 98% of content.
In one of the normal Alexander raids that require a swap, I had a DRK co-tank flaming me for "not knowing what my buttons do" because I didn't swap properly (since that was my first instance requiring a swap). He passive-aggressively described the swap, saying I needed to swap at "6 stacks", and I (accidently) got it right the second time. Definitely didn't help tankxiety much.
However, in one of the subsequent Alexanders, I had *another* DRK. This one noticed I had a sprout, actively asked me to main tank, did all the fancy off-tank mechanics and even THEN stayed behind after the raid and asked if I'd like an entire run down on what the off-tank is doing during the raid.
The ironic thing is that, as far as the wiki tells me, the first person who was rude was actually wrong, it's *4* stacks of a debuff before a swap.
I still have a little hesitation when doing new dungeons or bosses, but knowing the people who actually want to help will almost always be polite and excuse a couple mistakes, it helps that I can pretty much ignore the rude ones straight up.
It's definitely worth it to say "hey I'm new, sorry if it's slow or wipe" or even just apologizing after a mistake, since most people either give feedback or just don't mind letting you try it again.
Speaking as a healer main, I got over my anxiety by spamming Aurm Vale. It's a heal check. Especially when the tank is new and pulls that entire first room. It went from me constantly apologizing to whatever poor tank I was healing apologizing constantly to which I responded "No worries. We got this." Now I run it sometimes in duty finder and just tell the tank to go nuts. Because I can keep them on their feet pretty confidently. If I want to see more good tanks, I need to encourage the bad ones. They do better when the healer is patient with them. And I love watching people grow.
When we inevitably get past it, I tell them they did great and we move on.
tbh, as someone who enjoys tank and maxed all of them out. i find you unironically can just mash the aoe abilities to do your pull and once you colect all you plan on pulling pop 1 mitigation and just mash aoe.
9 times out of 10 itll work
occasionally you may needa use some other stuff and if youre a higher level where you have some ogcd just weave it after or in the middle of the combo while waiting for your other gcd ability.
it may not be most optimal but its an easy entry point to follow as you get use to all your abilities. boss fights obviously use single target and just stay in a position unless an ability is going to hit you.
but unironically if you just do those things you will pretty much be able to do all msq with little problems.
also
HUGE HELP IF YOU GOT TROUBLE WITH MIT TIMING
arms length is pretty much another mitigation as it slows enemy attackers attack speed by 20%
so on smaller pulls you can settle for saving your better mit and just use arms
i do recommend though holding off a tiny bit before doing something like savage content but if you plan to try it early watch a video of the bosses attacks or read up guides there are plenty for every boss.
Failure is the best teacher. I know how hard this is to communicate to people, knowing everyone has different experiences with failure, but I’d rather deal with someone that tried and wiped thrice than someone that didn’t and singlepulled all the way to Endwalker.
Exactly! That's why it is important to remember that the worst that can happen in ffxiv is that you wipe, and you try again! 😄
Yes, I have actual anxiety. I have genuinely felt ill dealing with players both in and out of ffxiv; it’s far enough to the point I rarely ever play other games solo. That anxiety, however, translates more into not wanting to waste other people’s time. I still believe that the solution to getting better at both tanking and healing is to actually put oneself in a position to improve even at risk rather than avoiding these opportunities. Your tank isn’t gonna get better if you singlepull and never actually have to use mits. Ditto for curefishers and other healers that elect to use first healing spells.
@@CaetsuChaijiCh Always glad whenever I see more peepo try to say that it's not only okay but good to get experience from failing instead of trying to put together that it's somehow courteous to avoid failure at all costs.
I got over tankxiety when they released Dark Knight. I just kinda had to suck it up cause that's what the role Dark Knight is and these days tank more then I don't and usually do everything as a tank first.
Again, cause it's usually easier
I have Tanking Anxiety still but I enjoy it in small doses, like dun scaith fun run. FF14 tanking is by far the easiest, it's still tanking. One think I've seen Is guides. While learning a boss or the content is helpful overall, tanks generally need to know every detail. For many, myself in that. "Why do I need read a book to play a game when I can just want hit buttons and watch colorful animation".
I fine dps easier. Hit buttons and don't get hit. I die, oh well. Rez.. With Healer or Tank die can lead to a wipe.
Indeed, a common reason for it to be scary is the huge responsibility that death can lead to a wipe if you are a tank or a healer! :/ I am impressed you'd tank Dun Scaith sometimes though! :D
As an optimistic player, I will cheer for anyone who manages to get over their Tank anxiety!
But my tank anxiety is more of frustration mixed with anger than a "fear of failing". I'm WHM main and I can't for the love of Twelve remember more than two button rotations or remember when tank busters happen. Yes, I'm the Casual with a big capital C. Guess how many times players have yelled at me? It has happened on multiple occasions, that I don't enjoy dungeon content at all.
But I'm very glad that there are other options for leveling combat jobs. Squadron and Duty Support have saved my skin so many times! Bless for Yoshi making them! I bask in the Frontline's sun because winning that mode is really a coin flip and I see less salty players there (CC is another topic of worms so I'll skip it this time). I run Deep Dungeons by myself and level up with Fates. Yes, this is properly the slowest method of leveling, but when you've seen the pile of poop I've seen fling at my in-game chat window, I think you would understand. Luckily I have a few friends to play with and they have been kind to help me to level up jobs that I find hard to play. Cheers for a good vid with good tips!
The overall impression I get is that you have found a way to work around your limitations and still have fun!
A while back I made a leveling guide and the most important part of the guide was that there is no point in leveling in a way you don't like. Focus on a way you enjoy, regardless if it is the fastest or whatever! 😊
It takes a lot of practice to memorize all these things, and if you desire to, I am sure you can do it! 😄
Drk and Pld are the only 2 90 jobs I have outside of gathering/crafting, with GNB at 80 and WAR my next job to start. I have a serious love for tanking but I just can’t stand people. I could not tell you the last time I did DF. It does get a lil lonely but I’ve grown accustomed to Trust/Duty Support.
Not everyone's big on other people 😅 I do recommend trying to find a group of friends to play with somehow, since I do think most people agree the game is more fun with other players! But it is of course not fun if you feel forced! 😊
I don't tank because of my tankxiety, but I do like Paladin and the aesthetics of Dark Knight. I actually leveled my DRK up to 60 with the help of a friend, but I put it down after a while since it was just too much for me at the time.
I do have a friend joining once the game drops on Xbox, and I have been saving my lvl 40 Warrior for him so I can practice tanking again while he gets used to the game.
It can be really scary, if you gave it a shot and concluded it was too much, that is also okay! I hope your journey with your friend goes better!
@@CaetsuChaijiCh To be clear, I do tank as Paladin for friends if they wanna run daily roulettes or something, I just put down Dark Knight. Paladin is more comfy for me and I feel like I have better control of my own health bar as opposed to DRK. Which is fine because nothing hits quite as nice as a *HOLY LALAFELLIN SMITING* 🗡️.
as a tank main... something I saw when I started playing DPS that doesn't really help people who are starting with tank jobs is when a DPS or Healer starts pulling all the mobs before the tank... that way, many can't even learn
because many don't let them at least try...
This is true, and a quite ironic situation as well, because these healers and dps sometimes do this because they are annoyed that tanks don't know how to pull bigger, but by taking the chance to learn away from them, only perpetuates the problem 😔
Honestly, the way I got over my Tankxiety was pretty much just Spite. I started playing DRK when I finally hit Heavensward, sucked balls at it because I mained Summoner up to that point (Shadowbringers Summoner, aka Petjank - the class) and so I went back to yelling at ifrit to please do as it is told.
However, for some reason, my Dungeon Experience during both Heavensward and Stormblood was so abyssmal in regards to tanks, that I decided "Nah, i can do that better" so I picked DRK back up and then proceeded to Tank my way through Shadowbringers and Endwalker.
So yeah, its been almost 4 years since I started tanking, and whenever I level my DPS in dungeons and I see a tank spinning a boss for the entire encounter, even after being asked to maybe, please stand still for a minute or so, I remember why I did it.
Also sorry to any healer who had me in their group when I was learning to tank, it took me ages to learn proper cooldown management.
FF14 is my first real MMO and I’ve been an active player and Tank main since the Heavensward patches, and back then, Tanking was twice as engaging and twice as challenging than it is now in my opinion. Enmity is a non-issue for majority of content now and tank jobs feel like beefy dps at times. However, tanxiety is valid in a way, because Tanks are relegated to the “main character hero” role in a sense, and some people don’t vibe with that.
Indeed, just because the role has been made easier doesn't mean it isn't still challenging! 😊