[Celeal]

In the exp. party ended a few hours ago, I was tanking as WAR/DNC in Caedarva Mire. It was level 68, exp. on Imps and Jnun.

This is the story: Originally the party was intended to be DD/nin TP burn, I was asked to be the 1st Provoke at each entry point of battle. The starting party setup was blu/nin (leader + puller), drk/nin, mnk/nin, war/nin (me), sch/whm, rdm/whm. After the first few fights, well... to sum it up, it was not really *burning* the mob. At the first downtime, I ofter to switch subjob and main tank, with either WAR/BLU or WAR/DNC. The party requested WAR/DNC.... so here we go~

Without using exp. ring, with Sanction alone I got 13k exp. points tanking as WAR/DNC, with three deaths (2 due to bad links/pop, 1 due to hard-hits in a row).

This is my first time tanking as WAR/DNC.. (geez.... and I haven't tank as WAR for many levels), and no one in the party have seen any WAR/DNC tank in exp. party before. It wasn't expected and prepared for WAR/DNC tanking, but the party was functional.

I tried different gear and food:
(1) Sole Sushi + Great Axe (I was using sushi when I was started with WAR/NIN).
(2) After 1st death I switched to Couerl Sub + Great Axe.
(3) After death Sole Sushi + Great Axe again.
(4) Half of party got wiped after the bad link. During downtime I ran to the AH and myself a Hard Shield (size 3), and Sole Sushi + Shield + Axe until party disbanded shortly (was getting tired).

My opinion is the effect of shield isn't noticable for my WAR/DNC. I was using Hard Shield (size 3) ---- there wasn't much choice for WAR at my level anyway.

I think Retaliation + Great Axe really wins. During the downtime after my 1st death, the DRK posted the parser damage output of the party ... I wasn't expecting it.... DRK 37%, MNK 25%, WAR 24%, BLU 10+%, SCH 3+%, RDM 0%.

Note: I was not using Beserk at all, and most of my TP goes to Curing Waltz II spamming in order for me to stay alive.

Unlike my PLD or NIN tank, which trying to hold hate was the focus, my WAR/DNC main focus was HP. It take the majority of the RDM's MP and SCH's MP to cure me. On the other hand, hate control really isn't an issue: I wasn't really trying, and I don't need to spam Provoke or Animated Flourish.

Drain Samba does not work on Jnun (Undead), and most of my TP is used on Curing Waltz II for tanking Jnun. For Imps, it is the Drain Samba and healers Cures when JA cannot be used. Cannot really use all the DNC's tool for each fight in Imps camp, not ideal for WAR/DNC imho.

Added: My normal DD setup is Great Axe + Attack food. But with WAR/DNC, I think I have easier time with sushi + G.Axe. My 1-hand axe skill is a bit behind (I had too much fun with WAR/SAM... Orz), at level 66 WAR skill cap.

P.S. --- 3 Retaliation in a row and Double Attack in between with Great Axe is so epic LOL.