Bard tank.

[Mini Neruto]

Gimme some info! Subs! Levels! Whatever you know about the subject and if your experienced in it, spit it out. (Also, tell your bard tank stories if you have some ^^)

[Murphie]

One time I tanked for my party on BRD. About three or four hits in I was totally dead.

[Raydeus]

One time I tanked for my party on BRD. About three or four hits in I was totally dead.

[Mini Neruto]

No,no...75 bard all buffed up are good tanks, I know a few *cough* yeargdribble. Anyone else done this?

[Yeargdribble]

Me tanking Hakutaku.


BRD seems to make a superior tank for Hakutaku. By tanking it backward I can avoid Hex Eye (a gaze attack) and never get Paralyze. Mazurka produces enough hate so that I do not have to melee it to help hold hate. He spends so much time casting spells and using abilities that he's easy to blink tank with only one March. Using Dark Carol as well will help lower the damage from Death Ray.


Here's me tanking Bune.


This one is a bitch. NIN is far better tank for this. Bune is a pain in the ass especially when he combines moves such as Dispeling Wind and Ripper Fang to take all shadows very quickly. All in all he's not that bad though.
Here is my DEF full buffed as BRD/WAR.


I was put into a position to potentially tank Apocolypse Nigh where shadows are useless. I've not done it yet, but I'm confident. Kam spams hate reset moves, but as BRD/WAR I have access to 2xMazurka, Provoke and Warcry to help me pull hate back onto myself after hate reset so that the WHM need not worry. With this build I was taking around 45-50 damage a hit from VT Aerns.

I could easily improve this build with a few modifications such as Cheviot/Umbra Cape. I didn't wear all of my HP gear for this shot either.


Here's me tanking Garuda.


I've found avatars very easy to tank with a competent WHM to help support.


Here's me tanking a handful of ZMs.




I was able to tank all of the ZM missions leading up to sky with great ease. Kam wasn't nearly as worrisome as I had expected and turned out to be a bit of a joke.




The general points of BRD tanking is the fact that BRD can build more hate than any other job. With enough cycles it would hold hate off of Invincible. With haste gear, songs and Haste (or Nightingale) I can get off 4 mazurkas in just over 30 seconds. That's a ridiculous amount of hate. For straight tanking situations in particular BRD can be a very viable tank. BRD has access to a lot of gear that makes them decent meat shields, though most LSs won't give their BRD the better pieces of gear that would allow this.

[Mini Neruto]

{Thank you.}

Anyone else experimented with this?

[Jei]

D:

Woaw awesome.

[Raydeus]

Heheh, this is exactly why I was saying in that other thread that BRD had access to much better gear and songs than RDM, yet is RDM the one that gets all the hate from other players.


A BRD with good equipment and skill can do some crazy stuff.

[Icemage]

Also note that for hate gathering, Mazurka (both versions) has a huge enmity rating - and hits 6 players! There's a thread over at BG that talks about the power of BRD/NIN. I can't find the thread at the moment, though. :/


Icemage

[Nukapai]

WOW!

I love this thread - what great shots and an unusual concept. Seems to kick ass!

It's so great to see people play a bit "differently" and making it not only work, but be very good.

/ma "ThankYou" "Yeargdribble"

[Yeargdribble]

Some things to keep in mind is that Carnage Elegy mostly makes up for your lack of evasion. On top of that 2xMarch = 20% haste. The spells is 15%. Being able to give youself 20% haste and have access to much of the same haste gear as NIN gives you that much more advantage.

Often a NIN tank for HNMs needs enmity+. I find that Mazurka alone generates so much hate that I can rip mobs off of PLDs with full enmity+ merits. For stationary mobs this gives the ability to have the hate holding ability of a PLD (or greater) with the blinking ability of a NIN. Additionally, since we do not need to focus on enmity+ or anything of the sort... our DEF is often able to outclass that of many NIN/WARs even without Defender. My BRD/NIN doesn't have nearly the DEF of my BRD/WAR, but when I do get hit I take hits far better than most NINs which are absolute paper without shadows.


The question I hear most often is, "WHY!?"

PLDs often have complained that NINs are taking their glory and that PLD is the pre-destined tank of the game. Instead of bickering they need to realize the limitations of each job. Faust is definitely easier to tank with a PLD than a NIN (though NIN is possible). CoP 6-4 is much easier with NIN though a PLD can do it with ridiculous amounts of meds.

The same is true for BRD. There are situations where PLD is best and where NIN is best and also where BRD is best. Hakutaku is the best example. We are very self sustaining and are able to avoid facing him while still holding ridiculous amounts of hate which lets everyone go pretty nuts damage-wise.

For HNMs like Fafnir the benefit is that BRD can hold a lot of hate in a battle where loose hate can cause a wipe or flail (especially if someone is standing on it's tail trying to MPK you from another group). Instead of a horribly drawn out fight where BLMs have to pace themselves a lot, BRD can hold a lot of hate and speed up the process.

I also was the primary Kirin kiter for my previous LS. Using BRD/NIN to do this frees up tanks to focus on Demis. BRD tanking is great in pinch situations where no other tanks are available (which is why I've tanked Bune many times).

[Raydeus]

What's the cap on Haste effect you can have on you?

How fast can a BRD with a RDM or WHM casting Haste plus Marches and +Haste gear get?

[Icemage]

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Haste_%28Status_Effect%29

Haste is capped at approximately 70% for melee attacks and 50% for recast timers.
Haste from equipment is reported to cap at 25%.

Icemage

[Raydeus]

I think I might level BRD instead of THF for my next lvl 75 job.

[Murphie]

I didn't realize the OP was specifically referring to @75 tanking. I would have been a bit less flip with my response. XD

Excellent stuff though, Yeargdribble. I always like to see people pushing the limits of what they can do with their job. Plus, I'm leveling BRD after I get RDM the rest of the way to 75, and I have to support my fellow Taru BRDs. :3