Janeth's Guide to BLU Tanking

CAUTION!
This article is only a guide. Information expressed in a guide is usually more opinion than fact and should be taken as such. Guides are written by players, based upon their experiences, successes and mistakes, and are meant to aid other players. However, there may be differing opinions than those expressed in a guide.
Strategies and information in guides may not work for everyone.


Introduction[edit]

We all know that BLU is a multifaceted, adaptable job. This is a guide about a rarely explored aspect of that job: tanking. If you're one of the BLUs who chose the job expecting to put all your spells to use and be called upon for something different every party, then this guide is for you, whether you're level 10 or level 75.

I'm Janeth on Bahamut and I have personally tanked EXP parties at every level range, all kinds of missions, and all kinds of endgame events, including the popular Sky, Dynamis, and Limbus, all as a BLU. I've been complimented on my tanking by healers, DDs and even non-BLU co-tanks--often the same people who were initially skeptical. Since I started tanking in endgame, I've been mentioned on forums I've never posted on and even on Limit Break Radio, and after seeing my BLU in action, none of my linkshells have ever asked for my 75 PLD.

You're about to be introduced to a new tank job with an amazing array of tools, one that can fill holes you never knew existed, change functions entirely mid-event and tank things previously considered untankable. It's reliable enough to fit into typical setups and versatile enough to fit into unique ones, and has distinct strengths and weaknesses that give it a style all its own.

Note: This is an old guide and I haven't played much since Abyssea came out. As far as I understand, Abyssea is already tanked by DDs and they aren't expected to do much other than DD, so I don't know if anything needs to be said about it anyway. I'm also aware that PLD is widely considered useless now, and that people who loved playing PLD are unhappy about it. I totally sympathize here--I really like the jobs I play, and this game wouldn't be the same for me if my main was anything else--but I'd like to remind the PLDs posting on the forums about how "PLD should be the top tank job" to keep how you feel now in mind as we move into the future, and try not to give others any crap you wouldn't want to take yourself.

About Tanking[edit]

A tank has two goals: controlling hate and mitigating damage. All your resources--gear, food, subjob, spell slots, MP, time--can be used for either of those objectives (or for objectives other than tanking, like doing damage or sleeping things). Because those resources are limited, no one can be the best at both--at least not at the same time. When you make choices about how to gear, what to sub or what to eat, when you decide what action to take at any given time, or even when your role is something else and you choose what job to invite as your tank, you're making a decision about which one is most important. Some actions contribute to more than one objective, like healing yourself, but a tank using cures primarily for hate uses them differently from one using them to stay alive.

Think of it as a scale, like this:

Hate control _____'_____'_____'_____'_____'_____ Damage mitigation

Every decision you make affects your position on that scale. You might move quite a bit within an event, or even within one fight. (As a BLU, how much you can move within one fight is limited by the spells you have set.) This illustrates how situation-dependent your actions are--your priorities can change in the space of ten seconds. The point of all this isn't to scare you off, but to explain why it's hard to compare tanks to each other, why the answer to tanking questions is so often "it depends," and why BLU can sometimes be so similar to other tank jobs and sometimes so different.

Terminology[edit]

Blink tank - A tank who uses "shadows" like Utsusemi and Occultation to reduce damage.
Supertank - A tank who handles large groups of mobs.
Kiting - Supposedly stands for "kill in transit." Avoiding damage by getting hate on a monster and then outrunning it, either by increasing your movement speed or impeding the monster's.
PDT - Stands for "physical damage taken," as in "-10% physical damage taken."
MDT - Stands for "magic damage taken."
VE - Volatile enmity, or "spike hate." Lost over time.
CE - Cumulative enmity, or long-term hate. Lost when you take damage or lose an Utsusemi shadow (but not an Occultation or Zephyr Mantle one).

About Enmity[edit]

Career tanks have long known that there are actually two distinct types of hate. Today many people call them CE and VE. Basically, the difference is that VE is lost over time and CE is lost when you take damage or lose an Utsusemi shadow. Most abilities used as hate tools add at least some of both, with the major exception of Provoke and Provoke effects like Animated Flourish. You're probably familiar with the way Provoke causes your hate to "spike" and quickly degenerate over time. That's because it's 1800 VE and only 1 CE. You don't need to know all the numbers to do well at tanking, but it's a good idea to know which of your spells build more CE and which ones build more VE. You can find this information on Kanican's Blue Magic Enmity Table.

About BLU[edit]

BLU is great at:

  • Controlling hate. BLU has several equivalents to the white magic Flash, enough spells to spam like an old-school NIN/DRK, damage spikes to rival the DDs' that can be saved for when they're needed, and even a spell to lose hate on command.
  • Managing casting enemies. Not only does BLU have several forms of stun, it has a Magic Defense Bonus trait, an MDB-boosting spell, and a magic-only Stoneskin, like Rampart.
  • Managing multiple mobs. BLU gets a wide variety of AOE spells, including hate tools, stuns, enfeebles, sleeps and even an AOE Drain, and doesn't use directional damage reduction like a shield.
  • Adaptability. A BLU can tank radically different fights (like tanking Byakko, then holding hate off the BLMs and melee/THFs you brought for Byakko while you farm more diorite) or even switch roles within an event without a trip back to town.

BLU is limited by:

  • Spell range. BLU gets some ranged spells, but not enough to hold hate. Assume a BLU can't kite or otherwise tank at a range.
  • MP. A BLU without a way to regenerate it won't do well.
  • Mobs in your camp that you don't want to fight. BLU's big hate tools are all AOE. Trust me, you don't want a BLU tanking Fafnir!

So what can a BLU do anyway?

  • Cocoon is a 50% boost to defense for only 10 MP, and its duration is higher than its recast. A 75 BLU can reach 500 defense effortlessly and cap it at 999 with a little work.
  • Head Butt is a stun with a 10-second recast. Add some Haste and BLU's Fast Cast trait and you can keep a mob stunned almost constantly--assuming your accuracy is high enough.
  • Occultation is a form of Blink with a casting time of 1.5 seconds and a recast time of 90 seconds that gives the caster a whopping seven shadows. Because it costs 138 MP, it's difficult to use outside of Abyssea, and reduces your ability to do other things.
  • Magic Barrier is a magic-only Stoneskin (like Rampart) that costs 29 MP.
  • By 75, BLU has three VE spike spells: Actinic Burst (flash), Temporal Shift (stun) and Jettatura (terror). Actinic Burst's recast is one minute and Temporal Shift's and Jettatura's are two minutes. Each of these spells has the same CE as the spell Flash and slightly less VE. Note that Actinic Burst and Temporal Shift are AOE and Jettatura is a cone. With these spells, a BLU can build hate quickly and handle large numbers of mobs easily.
  • BLU also has a spell called Exuviation, which is 640 VE and 640 CE (a little less than Flash total) on a one-minute recast. Exuviation is a healing spell, but its hate is fixed, not based on how much damage it cures. Between Exuviation, regular cures and damage, BLU can build a lot of CE over time. Note that Exuviation's hate is added to the hate list of any mob the BLU previously cast on, not just the current target.
  • BLU gets a merit ability called Diffusion that makes your next buff hit your entire party. If you use Diffusion with Exuviation and it hits six people, you'll get six times the hate, for a whopping 3840 CE and VE--that's more total hate than a PLD's Invincible, every 10-20 minutes!
  • Setting Bad Breath and Sub-zero Smash gives BLU the Fast Cast trait. Ice Break and Magnetite Cloud give it Magic Defense Bonus, which stacks with its MDB spells.
  • BLU can support itself to some extent, with its own Haste, Refresh, Regen, Erase and cures. Have you mages ever wanted a self-hasting tank?
  • Saline Coat is a self-target Magic Defense Bonus that stacks with the Magic Defense Bonus trait. It starts at +50 and decays to +10 before wearing off.
  • BLU can use Ice Spikes and Shock Spikes.
  • BLU has three different forms of Drain, including an AOE version.

BLU and Other Tanks[edit]

Here's a different take on the chart above:

Hate control ________[______PLD______]________ Damage mitigation
xxxxxxxxxxx _____'_____'_____'_____'_____'_____
Hate control __________________[_____NIN_____] Damage mitigation
xxxxxxxxxxx _____'_____'_____'_____'_____'_____
Hate control [____WAR____]___________________ Damage mitigation
xxxxxxxxxxx _____'_____'_____'_____'_____'_____
Hate control [________BLU________]___________ Damage mitigation
xxxxxxxxxxx _____'_____'_____'_____'_____'_____

There are other jobs that can tank effectively, and some more that no longer can, but let's use examples everyone knows for now. Note that this scale is intended to represent these jobs at level 75--at different levels a job's range can be different--and that the lower level you are, the smaller the scale as a whole is (fewer distinct types of tanking), and as a result, each job's range is smaller too (less difference between builds within a job).

You can see where the popular perception of PLD as a generalist, well-balanced tank comes from: a PLD can focus, to some extent, on either hate control or damage mitigation, but it can't reach every point. It can handle physical and magical damage decently but doesn't excel at either. A PLD is rarely a bad choice, but often a more specialized tank can fill a role better. By contrast, NIN is more specialized, focused on one side of the scale and excelling in specific situations. In the right context, a NIN can do amazing things, but it can't handle everything.

BLU is more specialized too, with a preferred side of the scale and defined strengths and weaknesses; it's amazing in many situations and doesn't work at all in others. If you don't know the job, it's easy to mistake that for a lack of versatility, but in fact versatility is one of BLU's strengths, and I chose the chart above because it's an excellent way to illustrate that. You can see that BLU has a lot of room to move and that overall it's better at hate control than damage mitigation, and that these things don't necessarily contradict each other. A BLU at that notch in the middle is using resources very differently from the way a PLD at the same point is, but from the other party members' perspectives, they function similarly. Both jobs are aiming for the same goal--they're just not getting there the same way. The examples in this guide will show you several different ways to balance your two priorities. Of course, you can never ignore either objective entirely: if you can't keep hate, your healers have to heal a DD, and if you can't deal with damage, your healers have to heal a DD.

BLU and WAR can also go past the left edge of this scale, but at that point you're probably a DD, not a tank. That is, if you wore all your DD gear and did everything you could to keep hate, you'd have more hate than any kind of tank, but at that point you'd be taking damage like a DD too. A NIN or PLD can try the same thing and still function like a tank, having DDs get hate off them and not bothering the healers much or at all, because at its farthest left it's still firmly on the "tank" chart. In practice, tanks often do keep hate off of DDs (and, of course, often don't) simply because the tank is trying to keep hate and the DD isn't--most DD jobs don't even have the tools to control their hate, and the ones that do have those tools are probably using them to avoid it. (That's one reason some people see BLU as "low-hate"--it can be when you want it to.) Past the right edge would be a soloing NIN or RDM.

If you ask players of other tank jobs for advice, you'll notice that some of them worry a lot more about hate than BLUs do. Many PLDs deliberately give themselves damage so they can cure it (a "cure kit") or wear full DD gear while tanking, even in endgame. PLD guides often talk about hate as a shared responsibility: "If the damage dealers or mages in your party want hate from you, they can pretty much get it at any level." NINs may even say that managing hate is primarily the other party members' job. (Of course, some BLUs might say that keeping the tank alive is primarily other party members' job, and a NIN might find that just as funny.)

Tanking in EXP Parties[edit]

Aside from the occasional emergency, EXP is less about staying alive and more about conserving resources, killing efficiently and keeping the mobs focused on you--mostly that first one at early levels, and mostly that last one later. Take a few fights to determine what the party needs most, and ask to change spells if you need to.

What keeps me alive?

Spamming Head Butt, keeping Cocoon up and curing yourself with cures and drains.

How do I hold hate?

Open with Jettatura or a DD spell to establish hate quickly, DD when the DDs do and cure when the healers do. Like most tanks, you'll probably have a provoke from /WAR or /DNC.

What should I set?

A good selection of DD spells, and some enfeebles if no one else is doing them.

What should I sub?

Just as for other tank jobs, /WAR is the solid, reliable choice. You might also like the more complex, flexible /DNC.

What should I wear?

Believe it or not, your usual haste and accuracy gear will reduce more damage than anything else, since it means more frequent, accurate Head Butts. Defense doesn't do much for you simply because you already have so much of it. VIT helps if you can get it in big chunks. Make a macro to swap in DD gear for your DD spells.

Tanking NMs in Endgame[edit]

Endgame is kind of like Valkurm Dunes. Expect to die a lot, see stupid shout wars, and never quite be done with it for good.

This category covers big fights where there's one enemy and a lot of players. When people say "endgame tanking," this is usually what they mean. Your goal is to reduce the damage your party takes as much as possible, which isn't quite the same thing as "keep hate on yourself and reduce the damage you take." It's more like "keep hate on one of the tanks (you and one or more co-tanks) and reduce the damage the tanks as a whole take." This is most effectively done by having multiple tanks bounce hate back and forth, for two reasons:

Utsusemi has defined single-target endgame tanking for years now, and for good reason: what tank wouldn't want the ability to negate attacks entirely? /NIN is an easy choice, especially for BLUs, who have no shortage of native hate tools. However, "blink tanks" are limited by their spells' recast timers, and by Ichi's long casting time. If an NM strips your shadows with a TP move at the wrong time, you might be without them for a while, and if Ichi comes up first you'll need to cast it successfully under fire. Most tanks have some ability to do this--PLDs can use Flash if it's up or try to shield block, NINs might evade, parry or just avoid interruption due to their ninjutsu skill, BLUs can use one of their many stuns or rely on Fast Cast and good timing--but they're all somewhat risky. Even when Ichi is ready and you still have a shadow or two, it takes good timing and luck to cast it safely--Ni overwrites Ichi, so if you don't remove Ni, Ichi will have no effect.

But there's an easy way to avoid all of that: multiple tanks bouncing hate between them. If the tanks' hate levels are similar, hate will bounce around, due to the tanks hitting the mob and using their hate tools at different times, and the hate loss when an Utsusemi shadow absorbs a hit. Since each tank gets a break after a few hits, you rarely have to take a hit without shadows and you can always cast Ichi while someone else has hate.

The other reason is that when you take damage, your enmity goes down--if the tanks' hate is properly balanced, when one tank takes damage, another one will get hate. Not only does this mean the mages don't have hate, it means the damaged tank no longer has hate, giving the healers time to heal them. What that means is that all the tanks should have about the same amount of hate at any given time.

Unless the other tanks have more experience and better gear, you'll be able to generate more hate than they can. That means you need to watch your hate level. You can think of this in terms of the chart above: find the point the other tanks are at and stay around there. It's easy to want to be the best and have the most hate, especially since you're an underdog tank job and you have the tools to do it. The problem is, if you "go off alone," hate-wise, and die, you don't look like Supertank, you look like that DRK no one likes. Endgame is fundamentally a team effort.

All that extra hate, however, isn't useless--it lets you convert other resources into something you need more. While my PLD co-tanks wore haste and accuracy gear so they could use Atonement more often, I used a Terra's Staff and idled in -PDT (physical damage taken) gear. Both of these strategies would sound extreme to some, but if you were a healer or a third co-tank and you didn't check the PLD or the BLU, you would probably assume we were geared similarly--we bounced hate comfortably and took similar amounts of damage (and could do similar amounts of damage, too--you can still swap in a sword and DD gear and do as much damage per spell as a DDing BLU would). Here's a post with more about the terra's staff and tanking dynamics between BLUs and PLDs.

What keeps me alive?

Your shadows, your cures, Cocoon, and Magic Barrier or a well-timed Saline Coat. In an emergency, I immediately stun or flash and then cure myself, or use emergency backup shadows like Occultation.

How do I hold hate?

Actinic Burst, Temporal Shift and Jettatura to spike your VE, Exuviation and cures to build CE, and a cheap, spammable spell like Blank Gaze to fill in the gaps. If I need lots of hate fast (maybe I just unweakened in the middle of the fight), I use Diffusion and Exuviation and try to hit as many people as possible. If it hits six people, you get six times the hate.

What should I set?

Other than that stuff? Give yourself the Fast Cast trait and, if applicable, Magic Defense Bonus.

What should I sub?

99 times out of 100, the answer is NIN. If it's a really weird fight and /NIN isn't going to work, you could try /DNC or /PLD.

What should I wear?

Haste is good all-around; Fast Cast is even better. Lowering your shadows' recasts makes it easier to reduce damage and lowering your hate spells' recasts makes it easier to generate hate. Anything with -PDT will become a staple. Get a Genbu's Shield as soon as you can, and start working on a MDB/-MDT set. You might want some HP gear too, especially if you're a Taru.

One reason a party might ask for a BLU tank, especially since the RDM tank nerf, is because they expect to take primarily magic damage. If you intend to tank in endgame, you'll want a magic damage reduction set, but as a BLU you can still do quite a bit without one. BLU has its own MDB buff, MDB trait, and a spell called Magic Barrier. Unlike the mobs' version, Magic Barrier is actually a Stoneskin effect that only absorbs magic damage. Magic Barrier absorbs an amount of magic damage equal to your blue magic skill, meaning it can easily be more powerful than a mage's 350 HP Stoneskin, and you can cast it yourself whenever you need it. Unfortunately, it can be overwritten not only by a regular Stoneskin effect but by the tiny Stoneskins attached to a WHM's cures under Afflatus Solace.

Tanking Several Mobs ("Supertanking")[edit]

(Janeth) is there anything specific you want me to focus on in Dynamis, or to do that I'm not already doing? (Janeth) since I'm playing a job with no guides or mentors (Crimm) your doing great to me (Freugrer) I feel safer with you around ^^ (Janeth) good to hear ^^ (Ailuj) as i blm i like how you are holding mobs (Crimm) ; ; make me wish i had a blu to do that years ago (Zathra) me too, it really makes a difference to the BLMs

Watch a BLU tank in Sky and you might be thinking "This does seem to work." Watch a BLU tank in Dynamis and you'll be wondering how you did Dynamis so long without one. Unlike other tank jobs, BLU has a wide selection of multi-target spells covering all kinds of functions. In fact, two of its four major hate tools are AOE, one is a cone AOE, and the fourth is self-targeting, meaning it adds hate to every mob you've taken an action against. BLU also gets all kinds of AOE enfeebles, AOE damage spells and (although you probably shouldn't use it in Dynamis!) an AOE Drain. No other job tanks quite like this.

Some supertanks tank mobs that have no hate lists. That means no one has done anything to the mobs other than aggro them. Using this method, jobs with no AOE tools at all can be supertanks. However, it has several downsides. The mobs can't be enfeebled in any way, including being silenced, stunned or slept, no one in the party can rest within hate range, and for some reason, no one can dismiss a pet. Any of those actions cause the mobs to become "claimed" and operate under normal hate rules. This is why Dynamis runs don't have, say, NIN supertanks: the party would have to choose between the supertank and Sleepga. A BLU supertank, however, makes the sleepers' job safer and easier. Even on unsleepable mobs, a BLU allows party members to cast on them and can use its own wide range of AOE enfeebles.

A multi-mob tank is there for the same reason any other tank is: to keep monsters off more vulnerable party members and let them focus on doing their jobs. Having a tank for extra mobs lets your healers know whom to cure, ensures your sleepers can safely resleep a crowd, and allows event leaders to devote more party slots to DD or support rather than bringing multiple tanks. As a supertank, your job is to keep all the extra mobs focused on you and to reduce the danger they pose as much as possible.

Each mob has its own separate hate list: a list of people with some amount of hate on that mob. You can get on a mob's hate list by taking an action targeting either the monster itself or someone already on its hate list. (You've probably known this since the Dunes, in a way: remember how your cures didn't get hate on the mob of the party next to yours, but their PL's cures did?) AOE spells that hit several mobs will put you on all of their hate lists, so you can use an otherwise low-hate "tag" spell, like Sound Blast or Stinking Gas, to get on a set of mobs' hate lists and then build hate using Exuviation and your other cures. Note that unlike other mages' AOEs, these spells' AOEs are centered on you, not the mob you target.

What keeps me alive?

Flashing, stunning and heavily enfeebling the mobs, Cocoon and a serious -PDT build, Magic Barrier and Saline Coat, and liberal use of Occultation. (Yes! I always have more MP than I know what to do with in Dynamis.) In an emergency I use Sentinel from /PLD.

How do I hold hate?

First I "tag"--cast something on--everything in the pull, using Actinic Burst, Temporal Shift and other non-damaging AOEs. If there's one mob sitting away from the others, I use /PLD's Flash. If there are two I use Jettatura. Once I'm on everything's hate list, I use Exuviation and Winds of Promyvion to build up CE and VE on everything. If I need lots of hate fast (like the time the BLMs -ga IIIed an entire pull and everything lived), I use Diffusion and Exuviation, with Sentinel if necessary. (Those BLMs? They were fine.)

What should I set?

As many AOE enfeebles as you can. No one else is going to cast them!

What should I sub?

There's no obvious sub here: /NIN isn't going to hold up against the masses of mobs, it's hard to get enough TP for /DNC to be effective, and a single-target Provoke or Flash won't do much for you. There just aren't many jobs that are set up to deal with lots of mobs! I tried some different subjobs and ended up sticking with /PLD, mostly because Sentinel helped when I was in trouble.

What should I wear?

An earth staff or a Genbu's Shield and -PDT Shamshir, and all the -PDT you can get. Haste and Fast Cast are still all-around great, and you'll want at least some HP gear, more if you're a Taru (I like about 1600 total). Since you take no damage while the mobs are sleeping and then a big chunk when they wake up, and it's hard for you to cure yourself while they're all hitting you, it's easy to get killed before the healers can react.

Tanking Backwards[edit]

If you're a mid- or high-level BLU, you're probably familiar with Gaze Attacks--spells that only function if your target is facing you. Mobs have all kinds of dangerous abilities that work this way, like a hecteyes's paralyze or a taurus's doom, and just like mobs that avoid your Yawn, you can avoid these attacks entirely by facing away. Backwards tanking is just what it sounds like: tanking something while facing away from it.

BLU makes a great backwards tank, since it doesn't particularly mind the loss of sword or shield, and its high hate line means melees don't have to worry that the mob will suddenly turn around and doom them. Set a cheap, low-recast spell and use it as a substitute "melee attack" to keep your hate consistent. Note that as long as the mob is facing you, your gaze attacks will still work.

Choosing a Subjob[edit]

Warrior
/WAR will be your bread and butter for much of the leveling process. At low levels, nothing compares to Provoke, and if you use your MP to keep hate it takes time to recover it. At mid to high levels, you'll need all the hate tools you can get.
As a BLU/WAR, think before you use Defender: if you already have Cocoon, Protect and defense food, adding more defense won't help you. On the other hand, attack only affects your melee damage, so you could use Defender and then eat accuracy food instead of defense. This will affect both sources of damage, and more Head Butts hitting means less damage taken.
/WAR offers you Provoke (10), Berserk (30), Defender (50), Double Attack (50) and Warcry (70).

Dancer
/DNC comes into play once you get Animated Flourish at 40 and really takes off once you get Jettatura at 48. Through the 40s and 50s, you'll have more and more sources of MP, which means more cures, more damage and more hate, but as DDs get more powerful Weapon Skills in the late 50s and the 60s, you may need /WAR to keep up. Change your strategy if it helps, but don't be discouraged: all tanks have trouble at these levels. For PLD and NIN it only gets worse as they approach 75, while BLU gets more and more hate tools and better spike damage of its own.
As a BLU/DNC, using your TP for healing means you can use your MP for damage. At first glance this looks like an even trade, but using MP for damage and TP for healing gives you a lot more flexibility than the reverse: while WSs require 100% TP and lose efficiency fast if you store TP beyond that, damaging spells can be cast at any time. If you have the MP to cast Frenetic Rip once a fight, you can use it at the start to establish hate or save it for when that one DD has TP. (When you're a DD, you can do the opposite to avoid hate: time your spells to coincide with the tank's hate tools or with another DD's WS.)
/DNC offers you Drain Samba (10), Curing Waltz (30), Quickstep (40), Animated Flourish (40), Aspir Samba (50), Curing Waltz II (60), Accuracy Bonus (60), Drain Samba II (70) and Healing Waltz (70).

Ninja
/NIN is positively vital for 75+ BLUs. Not only do you get Utsusemi: Ni at 74, but the three major hate tools you get in the 70s (Actinic Burst, Temporal Shift and Exuviation) let you dominate hate without any help from your sub, and shadows are essential for the hard-hitting mobs you'll face in endgame. A mid-level BLU won't be impressed by NIN's lack of hate tools, but if you're a part-time tank it might be just what you need. Maybe you're bouncing hate with another tank, "first voking" for SATA or getting mobs off the puller in a TP burn.
As a BLU/NIN, you can stun or flash to get Utsusemi: Ichi up under fire, or spam Head Butt on something that's eating your shadows too quickly.
/NIN offers you Utsusemi: Ichi (24) and Utsusemi: Ni (74).

Paladin
/PLD looks a little redundant at first glance, with benefits like Defense Bonus, Auto Refresh and Shield Bash, but its long list of abilities has plenty for BLUs to use. If you ever need an extra hate tool, Flash can be better than Provoke with enough haste, Sentinel is all-around amazing, and even a BLU can put Cover to use now and then. Don't forget, PLD's healing skill will improve your cures, and its Flash has the range that BLU's spells lack.
As a BLU/PLD, you can make better use of Sentinel than a PLD: in 30 seconds, you can cast Actinic Burst, Temporal Shift, Jettatura, Flash, and finally Diffusion and Exuviation. Exuviation with Diffusion is already more hate than Invincible--imagine all that under Sentinel! What kraken DRK?
/PLD offers you Defense Bonus (20), Sentinel (60), Defense Bonus II (60), Cover (70), Auto Refresh (70) and Flash (74).

Thief
/THF obviously isn't my first choice as a tank, but sometimes you get into situations in which you don't have the opportunity or it isn't worth the effort to switch to a tanking sub, like when your tank leaves and someone else wants "just three more mobs..."
As a BLU/THF, you can have someone else "first voke" like you would for SATA and then SACA Mandibular Bite or Death Scissors to solidify hate.
/THF offers you Sneak Attack (30).

FAQ[edit]

Q. Is a BLU tank hard to gear?
A. If you're prepared to play multiple roles, you'll need multiple sets of gear, but it doesn't have to be expensive or rare/ex. If you tank with AH gear you'll tank like any other AH tank. For some things that's not enough; for others it's fine. On the other hand, if you try to tank with DD gear you'll tank like a DD. Put as much effort into it as you would for your existing gear and you'll find there's a lot you can do.

Q. Is a BLU tank hard to play?
A. Depends what you want to tank. Endgame tanking in general is one of the toughest roles, BLU is a complex job, and you probably won't have other BLU tanks in your linkshell to swap tips with. Tanking EXP parties isn't hard at all, and EXP parties are rarely picky.

Q. What's a good first endgame event?
A. Even though it's the one that scares a lot of people, I have to recommend Dynamis. There's no blink tanking involved, it can be done with simple macros, and you'll learn a lot about the dynamics of hate, the areas of your spells and watching the whole battlefield. It's also a skillset few people have. Get good at it and you'll be valuable when the next big multi-mob event comes out.

Q. How much damage does a BLU tank do?
A. More than most tanks, not as much as a DDing BLU. The more sources of MP you have, the more damage you'll get. Damage is BLU's biggest hate tool in many situations.

Q. Does a BLU tank need Refresh?
A. A BLU needs some way to recover MP, but it doesn't have to be someone else's Refresh. High-level BLUs have their own Refresh spell. A lower-level BLU can use MP Drainkiss, Aspir Samba, a Field Manual or just rest after a chain. BLU gets the same selection of HMP gear as RDM, and plenty of DDs and healers appreciate a rest too. For battlefields there's always Yagudo Drinks.

Q. Does a BLU tank need extra support?
A. Not at all--BLU is great at supporting itself. If a BLU asks for something weird and you feel like it's too much, ask if you can skip their Haste to make room. Most BLUs won't mind at all.

Q. Is BLU a better tank than (other tank job)?
A. Depends what you're doing. There are situations where a BLU tank shines and situations where a different tank would be better. That's true of other tanks too: do your BLMs get hit in Dynamis? Does anything where melees do a lot of damage get TP burned, even if it's otherwise dangerous? Do you assign a dedicated mage to Paralyna or Cursna rather than use a backwards tank? Those are things other tanks have trouble with that BLU handles very well. (Conversely, a BLU probably should not tank Fafnir.)

Links[edit]

Kanican's Enmity Testing

Blue Magic Enmity Table

Azure Lore: Kyte's Guide to Blue Mage - General guide to BLU with some information on tanking.

Paladin:_Guide_to_PLD/NIN_tanking_by_Thycian - An introduction to single-target endgame tanking, written for PLDs.

Improving This Guide[edit]

Even if you're a new player or this is the first time you've heard any of this, you can help improve this guide. Which concepts were explained well and which were confusing? Was there too much jargon or too many abbreviations? What would you like to know that wasn't covered, or wasn't covered thoroughly enough? After reading this guide, do you feel like you could explain it to someone else? Leave a comment on the talk page and tell me what you think.

This article uses material from the "Janeth%27s_Guide_to_BLU_Tanking" article on FFXIclopedia and is licensed under the CC-BY-SA License.