DNC.... good tank?

[Ewok]

I think this was brought up a while ago, but I think was abandoned for a while. Since practice > theory, here is some experiences of people who have done this:

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=19;mid=120329047361136021;num=29;page=1

I plan to attempt this when I start on DNC. I have already soloed a couple lvls on DNC, easily chaining T's (even seeing how the hate works because I have subbed BST and charmed DC+ to EM pets). Has anyone had any experiences with DNC as a main tank? Keep in mind that the OP in the above link states you still need a main healer, similar to PLD.

 

[Dejan]

From my experience with dnc's in my party, it works just fine till 30-40's, but after that there's really nothing you can do that'll keep hate off a good melee.
They have their own little version of provoke, just a tad weaker from what i remember, and subbing /war is out of the question, so with that and healing as your tools, you're limited to so much hate. Dnc's can 1st voke fine, but keeping hate is a totally different story.

 

[Zaltana]

if it can work use it i say.

 

[Raesvelg]

Practically any job can tank to 20, lol. Especially Galkas...

Beyond that... /shrug. With a focus on defensive gear/food/abilities you could probably tank with dancer to 24 without too much difficulty (/WAR), and beyond that... it would get somewhat tricky.

 

[Uzor]

As 46 DNC, I steal hate from other melees just by doing the normal samba, melee step, reverse flourish and waltz, without trying to pull hate. I'm sure if I actually tried to tank I could do it just fine. Especially with Haste, and Stun Flourish. Waltzes seem to give quite a bit of hate, more so than Cures.

I'd say if you want to tank, only use Animated Flourish as initial hate move, and then stick to Waltzes.

 

[Tim Wakefield]

I did a little tanking around 35, but it wasn't very efficient. I guess you could consider it, but I wouldn't suggest it full time. Maybe with a partner that you could pass hate back and forth with.

As far as the actual generating of enmity, thats easy. Waltzes seem to give you a good bunch, plus Animated Flourish (obviously) and your other abilities. I'm Galka and I was still taking pretty large hits.

 

[Uzor]

At 45+ with Haste and stun move I'm sure you could solo tank somewhat well, assuming the mob in question have no triple attack moves (Goblin), or shadow-wiping moves like Weapons.

 

[Ewok]

At 45+ with Haste and stun move I'm sure you could solo tank somewhat well, assuming the mob in question have no triple attack moves (Goblin), or shadow-wiping moves like Weapons.

From my experience with dnc's in my party, it works just fine till 30-40's, but after that there's really nothing you can do that'll keep hate off a good melee.
They have their own little version of provoke, just a tad weaker from what i remember, and subbing /war is out of the question, so with that and healing as your tools, you're limited to so much hate. Dnc's can 1st voke fine, but keeping hate is a totally different story.

Keep in mind, the person in the OP of the link went /war, and was tanking 50+. From what they are saying, /nin is pointless before you get ni, since you will spend alot of time getting interrupted (4 second recast on ichi sucks). And she wasn't using DNCs voke, said it was a waste of tp. 90% of the hate came from cure-bombing herself.

 

[Ewok]

I did a little tanking around 35, but it wasn't very efficient. I guess you could consider it, but I wouldn't suggest it full time. Maybe with a partner that you could pass hate back and forth with.

As far as the actual generating of enmity, thats easy. Waltzes seem to give you a good bunch, plus Animated Flourish (obviously) and your other abilities. I'm Galka and I was still taking pretty large hits.

I duo tanked on nin for a while. I would rather try solo tanking or not at all tbh. And this wasn't my only plan for DNC, just an option, like how I accepted invites a couple times as main healer on BLU.

It's funny that everyone is jumping to the conclusion that I will be subbing nin, though I admit I would've too. If you read through the linked thread, DNC heals better then PLD, since it's instant heals and cant be interrupted, there should be no reason for not getting hit. There was one account of a group doing 2-5 Mammets. 3 BLMs (I think) NIN PLD DNC. They went Tank + Mage on each. He said by the end of it, both NIN and PLD were in red, while he constantly had 3/4 of his HP or more, and the BLM didn't even have to hold back on nukes. Imho, if you can hold hate off a crazy nuking BLM, you can hold hate off of ANY job.

 

[Necrosis]

Practically any job can tank to 20, lol.

this.

beyond that, eh, not really.

 

[Uzor]

actually, I'm sure a DNC could tank at 45+ with EVA/haste gear, haste spell and stun flourish. IT's have a hard time hitting me as it is, and that's with +attack/-eva gear. The problem would be getting decent hate, as it requires people to lose HP to get good hate.

 

[Euphacent]

Works best with two dnc, but at higher levels you're going to get rocked.

 

[Strid]

The only problem with DNC tanking is that it doesn't outlive the role of needin' another /nin assistance tank until they get Utsusemi: Ni at 74. Hate is by far -NOT- an issue as it comes easy it's just all the damage they take later on. It's basically like havin' a THF as a tank except they can heal themselves. However, the Curing Waltzes simply wont be enough to keep them up by themselves later on.

 

[Misrelou]

I was the dancer that tanked 2-5 in that alla thread ^^

I'd really like to try it out in an exp party, but it's hard to get people to trust me to try it. I think with good evasion gear (which I have), plus def food and haste, I could probably pull it off. Only problem is at my level right now people are fighting colibris, and I don't see dancer being able to handle that. Too much food/tp stealing going on.

If I can convince anyone to let me be their tank sometime, I'll post results. Screw the exp! This is for science!

 

[Nifal]

I know no one ever tried to hold hate in campaign, but I am the one tanking (DNC) almost every time I engage, and thats without Animated Flourish.

 

[Guyfox]

Practically any job can tank to 20, lol. Especially Galkas...

Beyond that... /shrug. With a focus on defensive gear/food/abilities you could probably tank with dancer to 24 without too much difficulty (/WAR), and beyond that... it would get somewhat tricky.

I've seen a galka rdm tank through the jungle before just fine.... Ok that galka may have been me!

As more gear becomes available for DNC you will know better if SE will equip DNC to be a possible tank or not. If you have to force it even with weak gear you will always be fighting an uphill battle.

 

[Janos]

I tanked on dnc/war in nest last nite, lvl 35-37. (Crawlers of course)

PT was
smn/whm
dnc/war
sch/blm
blu/rdm
blm/whm
blm/whm

I was puller, tanker and solo healer. I held hate just fine and we were chaining 4 all the time with the occasional 5 (nest just doesn't have enough crawlers for me to pull and tank fast enough for 5th chain).

I never lost hate. I would pull, voke at camp, desperate flourish, box step, then curing waltz or divine waltz and repeat. I would use drain samba every once in a while but since it was just me and the BLU it wasn't as helpful. I never was in danger for hp, and was never short on TP. I found myself spamming heals when I was close to 300tp just for the hell of it a lot. Gear was pcc, fed kukri, emp pin, powder boots, warrior belt +1, jaeger ring, rajas, 2x beetles +1 earrings, hume rse body and gloves, nomad mantle and republic sub. I also ate sole sushi.

I'm sure that it gets harder later on but at 35-37 I was happy with the results. If we had gotten another puller we would have gotten chain 5 every time. Also the blms didn't hold back, and I found myself slowing down the pulls to give them an extra tick or two of rest mp. I was very surprised at how easily I held hate. Had to sub war though, don't think I could have held hate without provoke.

Hope that helps.

 

[Liefe]

I duo tanked a lot until my 50s. VF+Ichi are a viable combination for recasting.

Though, and keep in mind my DNC is 75, I would rather have a NIN for merit/higher levels exping still in every case as tank simply because it will deal more damage. DNC is definitely meant to be more of a healer and it does so well. We'll see what changes SE has in store for it.

 

[Ewok]

I tanked on dnc/war in nest last nite, lvl 35-37. (Crawlers of course)

PT was
smn/whm
dnc/war
sch/blm
blu/rdm
blm/whm
blm/whm

I was puller, tanker and solo healer. I held hate just fine and we were chaining 4 all the time with the occasional 5 (nest just doesn't have enough crawlers for me to pull and tank fast enough for 5th chain).

I never lost hate. I would pull, voke at camp, desperate flourish, box step, then curing waltz or divine waltz and repeat. I would use drain samba every once in a while but since it was just me and the BLU it wasn't as helpful. I never was in danger for hp, and was never short on TP. I found myself spamming heals when I was close to 300tp just for the hell of it a lot. Gear was pcc, fed kukri, emp pin, powder boots, warrior belt +1, jaeger ring, rajas, 2x beetles +1 earrings, hume rse body and gloves, nomad mantle and republic sub. I also ate sole sushi.

I'm sure that it gets harder later on but at 35-37 I was happy with the results. If we had gotten another puller we would have gotten chain 5 every time. Also the blms didn't hold back, and I found myself slowing down the pulls to give them an extra tick or two of rest mp. I was very surprised at how easily I held hate. Had to sub war though, don't think I could have held hate without provoke.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for being one of the few who actually reads what I type, lol. Again people I am talking /war. And to Uzor, the point IS to take dmg, so you can cure yourself, i.e. PLD w/o MP constraints. I think alot of us have the /nin-only mentality, which probably doesn't do enough to hold hate on dnc. Think outside the box

The fact you could hold hate off of 2 blm's says something. I myself was in a party in Qufim and sometimes juggled hate with the war tank, w/o /war. With war I think I could have easily kept hate the whole time.

 

[Josudes]

Thank you for being one of the few who actually reads what I type, lol. Again people I am talking /war. And to Uzor, the point IS to take dmg, so you can cure yourself, i.e. PLD w/o MP constraints. I think alot of us have the /nin-only mentality, which probably doesn't do enough to hold hate on dnc. Think outside the box

The fact you could hold hate off of 2 blm's says something. I myself was in a party in Qufim and sometimes juggled hate with the war tank, w/o /war. With war I think I could have easily kept hate the whole time.

So dnc/war may work at lower lvls but think about it. At 75 you will be getting hit for 200ish with your def as dnc do you think you can generate enough tp to take care of 200 a hit? It doesn't sound very likely. DNC eva is only so-so even capped. My eva is 280 with no eva skill gear as thf and I still get hit about 50% of the time on exp/merit mobs at lvl 75. I mean you would probably be better off trying to tank dnc/sam although Hasso will do jack shit for a one handed weapon. At least that way you would have a way to get tp when needed. My dnc is only 12 so I really don't know for sure but dnc/war seems an unlikely tank at higher lvls.