Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > Final Fantasy: The Quickening > Final Fantasy XI Online > Tanks

[Ouch!]

Demand for RDM over WHM for healing roles, I find, is primarily only in merit parties because having a RDM allows for minimal (and frequently non-existent) downtime between mobs allowing for maximum exp. chains.

Using scholar as a sub job goes a long way for MP conservation on WHM, and having Sublimation (stores a reserve of MP for future consumption by gradually draining HP) past level 70 also helps bridge the gap, but a WHM will never be able to regenerate MP at the rate a RDM can. As Del Money mentioned, though, Cure V and Raise III make WHM invaluable as main healers in missions, quests, endgame, etc. They're the superior healer in just about any situation which doesn't require them to go non-stop for two hours.

Neither WAR nor MNK are really viable as a main tank at higher levels. MNK's viability dwindles much earlier than that of WAR, although with specific gear set-ups, MNK/NIN is pretty awesome in certain situations. WAR/NIN works in merit parties, but I wouldn't want one tanking any particularly strong mobs. WAR/NIN is similar. It works in certain situations better than other, but it won't ever measure up to NIN or PLD. While WAR has more over-all viability for tanking, it's more relegated (and very effectively I might add) to a damage dealing role.

As for whether you go NIN or PLD, it's up to you. I'm not even going to pretend that I'm not biased against NIN tanks. I think the idea is an absolute joke. While having the advantage of shrugging off damage completely through the use of utsusemi, NIN has a much more difficult time actually maintaining enmity on the enemy. Even with the introduction of the new job abilities Innin and Yonin, I find that more often than not, it's an uphill struggle for a NIN to establish and maintain hate on the enemy. That's not to say it can't be done--I know of many examples of people who are very good at keeping hate. The problem is mostly that it's just comparatively very difficult.

I much prefer PLD. As far as pure damage negation goes, the only job that comes close to PLD is a fully buffed RDM. Ever since Square Enix buffered shield proc rates and skilling, PLD has become a monster, and they've just made it more and more monstrous since then. Curing yourself not only adds to your survivability, but it's another source of large bursts of hate aside from Provoke (from your WAR sub) and Flash (PLD level 37). You've also got Rampart and Sentinel. /WAR will give you Defender on top of that, even. Reprisal makes PLD's shield even more awesome than before, too. PLD is, while perhaps not the end-all-be-all tank of FFXI, the preferred tank job in almost every circumstance.

As a Galka PLD, you'd be a brick wall. Your main loss would be in the form of a small MP pool, but you'll be better at soaking up the big hits better than anyone else.

[Mirage]

I also think being a pld tank is going to be much nicer on your economy than being a nin tank.

[Loony BoB]

Thankyou for your help. Any advice that you can collectively give Danielle for her Mithra WHM (she's also interested in the Summoner job) would be neat. Also, I take it if I do go with WAR all the way to 75 then I can be used as an effective DD anyway... but yeah, I'll try to take both PLD and WAR to 75 over time and then see how I enjoy it. I think I'd rather enjoy messing around in non-endgame-stuff than have a job I don't enjoy doing at all >_> But I'm sure I'll have fun. I always do when partying with talkative and amusing people. We should get Weiner registered here

[Kentarou]

You should do whatever you feel like, BoB. But ah well.

If Weiner came here that'd be awesome.

[Mirage]

Summoner is a viable subjob for white mage, so it won't be a bad idea to level it a bit. Summoners are sort often asked to main heal though, at least in the first half of the game, because healers are more needed :p.

[Miriel]

I hate when people ask you to main heal as a SMN. =/

Summoner is an amazingly fun job. One of the best things I have ever done in this game is to successfully beat the avatars in the level 20 avatar battles. That was a blast.

[Omecle]

Originally Posted by Mirage ^

war/nin is probably about about as good as nin/war whenever the two have access to the same utsusemi spells.

Highly disagree as far as tanking goes.

[Mirage]

Originally Posted by Miriel ^

I hate when people ask you to main heal as a SMN. =/

Summoner is an amazingly fun job. One of the best things I have ever done in this game is to successfully beat the avatars in the level 20 avatar battles. That was a blast.

Yeah I know many summoners don't like it. I'm just saying that people will ask you to now and then, so be ready for it if you want exp from those parties.