When it comes to choosing a class in Final Fantasy XIV it is easy to be overwhelmed. Even looking at the tanks, you might be wondering which is the best in Final Fantasy XIV. You don't want to pick a bad tank and waste all your time upgrading them only to find you have to start over in a different class. While every class is viable in one way or another, some classes are just better at the moment than others. Let's go through each tank and rank them in Final Fantasy XIV.
Final Fantasy XIV Tank Tier List
Rank S – The Pistol
Gunbreakers are great all-around tanks, with decent damage, low cooldowns, and some sustain. The main downside of this all-purpose tank is that it really doesn't excel at anything. While you won't see a Gunbreaker outlast a Warrior or do more damage than a Dark Knight, it's still a great tank to have.
The Gunbreaker's damage rotation is quite simple and can be boosted through the cartridge system which is the functionality of the classes. As you complete your base rotation, you will gain a canister and can hold up to three canisters. You can use the canisters to perform powerful attacks and launch a chain of attacks for decent damage. Combine that with your 30 second damage, single target DOT, and AOE DOT for damage that rivals Dark Knight.
Defensively, you get increased parry rate and flat damage reduction. Gunbreaker's big selling point on the defensive side is the Stone heart aptitude. It starts with a small damage reduction with a low cooldown. You can also use an ally's ability to give them a shield if you currently have one. Once the ability is upgraded in corundum heart this is where it gets interesting.
It retains the same cooldown but gains a small window of 30% damage reduction, after four seconds it drops to 15% damage reduction. It also applies another effect that will affect the target if they fall below 50% health, the buff lasts for 20 seconds. This can also be applied to any ally and will apply your Brutal Shell shield to them.
As before, the only major downside of Gunbreaker is that you're not the best at anything, you'll do well in any situation, but you'll struggle to find yourself at the top of every leaderboard. New players may also be a little overwhelmed with the class since it starts at level 60 and has many abilities that need to be managed to be optimal. However, once you understand Gunbreaker, you'll be hard pressed to find yourself in a situation you can't handle.
Un level – Dark Knight
Dark Night is the best tank if you want to give DPS a run for the top of the damage charts. Of all the tanks, Dark Knight will hit the hardest for the longest time, as your damage boost is a buff that you constantly refresh and also deals damage. The reason Dark Knight isn't ranked higher is that you don't have a lot of defensive abilities and it's very punishing if you mess up using your primary defensive move.
Simply using Dark Knight's base spin will restore health and mana. Although mana restoration might seem a bit strange on a tank, it is very important for Dark Knight. You have to spend almost a third of your mana every time you want to apply Dark side which is a 30 second damage buff to yourself. In addition to your damage buff, your massive damage will come from spending your blood gauge on blood player. Combine that with Poor they sang et Delirium to be able to use blood player as often as you can. Let you down too living shadow for a little extra damage.
Defense is the main reason why Dark Knight is not ranked higher. Although he has decent defensive abilities for the whole group, his personal defenses are where he falls flat. Compared to the Gunbreakers corundum heartblack knights The darkest night is much more devastating to mess up and offers far less benefit. Compared to the damage reduction and healing provided by Gunbreakers, Darknights protect themselves at the cost of a third of their mana.
The purpose of the shield is to break it so you can use your buff abilities for free, if your shield doesn't break you lose a lot of very important mana to sustain your damage. Having to then spend the extra mana to guard your dark side means you might not have the mana to use your shield when you really need it. Making it Dark Knight's biggest flaw, the high risk low reward shield is too risky for it to be a core ability in your kit.
One Level – Warrior
Warrior shares a level with Dark Knight as they are both equally effective in their own way. While Dark Knight deals the most damage of all tanks, Warrior has the best sustain of all tanks. While not super effective in raids, being a warrior in a dungeon will make you a healer's best friend. Having sustain in both single target and AOE forms will allow your healer to do whatever they want instead of trying to keep you alive.
The base spin for Warrior will have you apply a damage buff to yourself with eye of the storm or treat yourself to some healing with path of the storm. Apart from that, you will use your beast gauge to perform your big damage move, Fente Cleave.
In addition to having a heal in their base rotation, they can also make each of their weapon skills heal themselves and another ally with Nascent flash and make their weapon skills only heal themselves with Sharpen the blood. They can also provide a party-wide shield and heal with Shake Ce Stopped instead of bolstering their defenses like most other tanks. They also have instant self-healing with thrill of battle which increases their max hp and heals them for the increased amount, and with Balance which gives instant healing as well as regeneration.
The only thing holding Warriors back from leveling up is their low damage output. You have your passive damage buff to help you and you can use inner liberation to give you a small damage boost. But that has nothing to do with the damage done by Dark Knights and Gunbreakers.
While not the best tank in the game, it's still a great tank to start with if you're new to tanking. With all the extra healing Warrior has, he can cover any mistakes you might make in Dungeons and Trials. Then, when you're more comfortable with tanking, you can upgrade to Dark Knight or Gunbreaker.
Rang B – Paladin
Paladin has been in a tough spot for quite some time, even with Endwalker's early revamp. The big problem with Paladin is that they're a tank in too literal a sense. They're great at mitigating damage, but they also focus on damage taken by a partner and that's just not necessary in late game content.
Paladin's damage rotation will involve them using fight or flight and try to cram as many moves into that 25 second window as possible or using Let him rest to perform their highest damage combo that uses nearly every damaging move in their kit.
Outside of damage, Paladin's big thing is damage mitigation. allowing them to spend their Oath gauge to block incoming attacks with Sheltron or black attacks for allies with COVER. They can also use moves like Intervention et Divine Veil to provide damage mitigation to one ally or multiple allies respectively.
Paladin also has a built-in slow cast heal like a healer would. It costs the paladin a lot of mana to use, but he can use it to sustain himself or keep an ally alive if the healer is down. It can also be used for proc divine veil if you apply this to an ally. The idea behind healing is to use it on others since you also get healed for a percentage of what you heal others for, but it's nice to be able to heal yourself when needed.
The problem with Paladin is that he has great defensive abilities and that's it. While great defensive abilities are nice to have if you have a new healer struggling to keep you alive, it's not useful in the late game and puts Paladins below all other tanks because the defensive capabilities of other tanks are sufficient to clear any content. . This makes Paladin a wall when it comes to raids and such, but that's not what a raid group needs, they need a bit of extra damage from a tank.
You can use Paladin if you are working with a new healer, this way they can stay alive and focus on your healing and you can pick up the slack they may have with your own healing or making you harder to kill . Other than that, Paladin has low damage which can only be compared to the damage of other tanks in bursts.
Regardless of a tank's rank in Final Fantasy, they're still valid classes to play, the only thing ranks are for is which tanks are the best when it comes to endgame content. You can still raid as a Paladin or Warrior, but don't be surprised when a Dark Knight or Gunbreaker damages you in the DPS tables. The good thing about Final Fantasy XIV is that these rankings will change and you can easily change jobs to fit the ranking as you see fit.
If you were a main paladin until you got to the endgame and then had to upgrade to a dark knight, you'll still have a max level paladin to use whenever they're upgraded in the future fixes. If you need additional help with Final Fantasy XIV, be sure to check out our other guides.
