Tanking vs DPS

So last night I resubbed to FFXIV for a 3rd month (that's counting my months free trial as well, so this is the second time I've paid for a months play).

FFXIV is the first MMO that I've played, so I went in to it not knowing what things like Tanking, Aggro etc were. My starting class? Marauder. Great for solo play, but when it came to dungeons GEEZ I didn't know what I let myself in for. Didn't have a clue what I was doing! People shouting at me telling me that I was doing things wrong.

That's when I read up on how Tanking works. I did improve a little, but not much. I also felt there was way too much pressure on me within the party. I got MRD to 30 and GLD to 15, so I've unlocked the Warrior Job. But now I'm going to aim for Dragoon. As I've got MRD past 15 I now need to get LNC to 30 before I can carry on with the story quests, so hopefully I'll have better luck in dungeons as DPS.

What are your thoughts on Tanking vs DPS?

EDIT: Also any tips on levelling to 30 quickly? My LNC is currently level 7.

The answer is healer.

I'm guessing you're a healer, then?

Why would you jump to such a conclusion?!

You don't like answering my questions, do you? SO unhelpful! :p

DPSing, in general, requires less of a learning curve than tanking.
Healing's a lot easier in FFXIV than in many other MMO's (notably FFXI), so FFXIV's hardest role is tanking, at least imo.

One of the most important things to know, whether you're a tank or a dps, is how to assist, and in the same vein, how to pick targets and consolidate damage. I thought I would mention it because I've experienced a lot of bad dungeon parties lately where the dps don't assist and it was just much less efficient and more chaotic than it should have been.

FFXIV involves a lot of fighting groups of mobs. Tanks can keep hate pretty easily on groups, but problems arise when everyone starts fighting different mobs. The ideal is to dps dump; fighting multiple enemies simultaneously makes fights take longer, makes the party take more damage, allows for more opportunities for smurf-ups. There are situations where you will need to fight multiple mobs simultaneously, but in general you want to focus down one mob at a time.

Perhaps FFXIV is different than FFXI, but when I played FFXI the tank typically picked a target and the DPS all assisted the tank. You can keybind assist target, or you can make a macro for specific assist actions. Basically, assist makes you target the target of your target. Ok, that's terrible, let's break it down.

Say I'm a tank and you're a lancer. I pull three bats. I decide to fight bat A first. You can target me, hit assist, and you'll automatically target bat A. There are other ways to facilitate mob kill order but in fast-paced dungeon runs, assisting is the easiest method that I've found. (Perhaps I should mention at this point that I've only been playing for a couple weeks, myself?)

Guildhests and dungeon runs have been the best xp for me so far. The mobs in dungeons give awesome xp per kill, and doing the roulettes give great bonus xp once per day (is that right?). Oh, and keep up with your hunts. That's some great easy xp if you keep up with it as you move from area to area.

Thanks for that, chionos :)

I made it to level 10 last night but didn't have all that long to play. I'm playing on PS3 so I'll have to look in to that assist stuff, see how it works. Once I've got to 15 I'll start doing some dungeon runs and, like you said the rouletts. I'm making my way through hunts, almost finished the lancers 1st log. Will continue tonight ^^

I love healing so that's my main.

I've also been DPS and Tank. I much prefer distance DPS over tanking, although playing as a Gladiator is nifty too, but I think I would choose distance DPS.

I guess the good thing about this game is that you can dabble in anything if you so wish.

I'll continue to aim towards Dragoon, but if I find that's not for me I'll try something else.