Endwalker Tank changes: new info from the Media Tour

With the end of the Media Tour news embargo, numerous FFXIV content creators from around the world have been flooding their subscriptions’ feeds with tons of info about all the class changes, job feel, and general Endwalker news which was guarded until now. While I did write a preliminary article about each class’s changes in the Job Actions trailer, some info is either out of date or speculation that was off the mark. I plan to remedy that now, so here are the Endwalker Tank changes!

Do note that the information is subject to change between now and the release of Endwalker. This applies especially to potency numbers, but we can still glean some ideas as to how the team wishes to balance the jobs based on general potency numbers.

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Paladin

While the main change to Paladin is that of its four-step Confiteor combo, it appears the team did realize how insanely strong it could be. While Confiteor still deals a ton of damage, the follow-ups are all individually weaker. Fans look to love the new combo, so it is good they managed to not make it overcentralizing with Paladin’s damage output. Other damage changes which are notable are those to Spirits Within and Requiescat, neither ability’s damage being based on current HP or MP.

Paladin’s defensive kit also received some welcome changes, such as Shelltron and Intervention upgrades. It appears they want each tank to have an active mitigation role as main-tank or off-tank, and all four tanks now have the ability to put up a low cooldown, high uptime defensive cooldown that either applies the same benefits to another tank, or another action has near-identical effects. As such, Holy Shelltron is Paladin’s self mitigation while Intervention has extremely similar effects on another player. Holy Spirit and Circle also heal now, so I better not see anyone using Clemency anymore in a panic…

Warrior

Warrior received yet another guaranteed critical direct hit attack as the level 90 skill. With high potency and being an AoE move, it looks to cap out the Fell Cleave phase quite nicely. It also can act as a gap closer! Similar to Dark Knight, Inner Release no longer is a 10-second window of Fell Cleaves, but instead a 30-second buff which allows for three Fell Cleaves at any time on a new 60-second cooldown.

Nascent Glint and Flash are Warrior’s take on Holy Shelltron and Intervention. While Paladin’s addition is a cure, Warrior takes that healing and dishes it on its own. When landing attacks during the buffs’ effects, the relevant tank/s will heal a certain amount per weaponskill the Warrior lands. As a minor aside, all the invulnerability cooldowns have been extended to last 10 seconds, which is kind of insane considering Holmgang’s low cooldown.

Dark Knight

Dark Knight is probably the most different from my predictions. The Job is mostly an extention of the Shadowbringers iteration. Delirium has been changed in the same vein as Inner Release. Salted Earth’s combo action has 500 potency, which signifies that they at least want it to be a big hit. Shadowbringers is the “upgraded Flood of Shadow” I mentioned in my previous article on the Job, and is a 600 potency line AoE which has a cooldown of one minute and has two stacks. The simulacrum also replaces one attack with its own Shadowbringer with a potency of 450. On the whole, Dark Knight looks to be the tank which was given the most extra damage with little potency nerfs around the board to compensate.

In terms of the defensive side of things, Dark Knight only recieved one action. Oblation, a two stack defensive cooldown, provides a 10% HP shield on the selected player. The Blackest Night is already considered one of the best defensive cooldowns in the game by a number of Tank mains, so Oblation looks to level the playing field with the buffs to Shelltron, Nascent, and Heart of Stone.

Gunbreaker

The main changes to Gunbreaker are those I mentioned in the past: another cartridge, a two cartridge nuke, and a continuation on Burst Strike. Double Down, the aptly named two cartridge move, is a staggering 1200 potency. For reference, this is the potency of a Kaiten’d Midare Setsugekka. On a one minute timer, the skill looks to fit naturally in the Job’s busy burst window for high damage. Burst Strike’s follow up is only 200 potency, which is a nice addition and looks cool, but probably won’t be a game-changer to the Job. One thing to note, however, is that the potencies of the entire Cartridge Combo and the Continuations have been nerfed. Math puts this nerf at roughly 1020 potency per minute-ish. Ultimately the Job will certainly do more damage overall, but Double Down, while an absolutely awesome move, did have to pay for its extreme potency.

On the defensive side of things, Gunbreaker’s take on main and off tank mitigation is Heart of Conundrum. Think of this as similar to Shelltron and Nascent, but the niche here is shielding (passing Brutal Shell’s buff to another tank) and a small Excogitation. When the tank goes below 50% HP during the effect of Heart of Conundrum, a heal will be provided. While the exact amount is unclear, the harder requirements for activation lead me to think it’ll be the best of the heals for these types of cooldowns.

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Phew… And those are the main Endwalker Tank changes! While not too much was shown beyong that of the Job Actions trailer, the look into the potencies, malleable as they may be, and exact tooltips allows us to get a much better grasp of the Endwalker Tank changes. From what I can gather, this may be the most balanced tanks have been, each tank looking to have a notable defensive kit. Even Dark Knight, which probably has the least overall mitigation, was given a number of high potency off globals to compensate.