Dumb questions about tanking and classes

So… These are probably going to be dumb questions, but I’m really confused.

I’m in the process of setting up my characters to be my different classes (like tank, healer, mage, etc). I get that you just have to assign the abilities and armor that you want to a character and they can be whatever you want.

However, how do designate someone as your tank? I mean, it seems the enemies always target a specific person in my party and it doesn’t seem to be in my control. Like, when my party is Vaan, Basch, and Fran, it seems like Vaan is targeted by the enemies most of the time. However, when my party is Vaan, Balthier, and Fran, it seems that Balthier gets targeted most of the time.

So, how you designate one of these people to be the tank and take the damage? I don’t get it. I feel like I’m missing something really obvious.

Well, until you get an Arcane spell called Decoy, it’s hard to control aggro.

But Decoy makes the enemies target whoever you cast it on.

Whoever is closest to the enemies or makes the first attack will be targeted by the enemies, btw I don’t suggest using Vaan as a tank.

I have 4 tanks actually…lol

I like having plenty of damage sponges available. Vaan, Basch, Ashe, and Balthier are my tanks…but Balthier and Vaan are more like my secondary tanks. Basch is just a badass and Ashe is my sword and shield tank/healer.

Yeah Basch is my tank, he’s pretty good, but Ashe squishes really easy.

My Ashe has Maximillian and Circlet, so she has good defense and magic abilities…plus her Evade is like 50 because of her shield so she rarely gets hit anyway…

Yeah, you want to tank someone that you have really good defense set up on.

To the OP: Decoy is your friend. I recommend getting it on at least 1 character as soon as possible (I got it around Bur Omisace I think).

Once you have it, designate one person as your tank by keeping Decoy cast on them at all times with a Gambit. Equip them with a shield and get them all the Shield Block + and HP+ Augments. Equip them with Heavy Armor for the extra Def. I used Gauntlets (+Shield block rate) for most of the game on my tank, then Bubble Belt (doubles HP) once I found one.

Any character makes a fine tank, it’s all about the Augments. I chose Ashe, and I also gave her all the White magic and Green Magic and had her cure and buff herself while the rest of the party dished out the damage. The nice thing is that she never ran out of MP because I also gave her the Augment that converts the damage you take to MP, and being the tank she took a lot of it.

It would be interesting to make a Tank/Black Mage sometime. I bet with all the extra MP from getting hit, such a character could actually Nuke with powerful spells without running out of MP! Hmm maybe I’ll try that on my next playthrough.

Okay, how do you set it up so that it casts a protective spell on a character if they don’t have it on them? Is that Ally:Character Name —> Protective Spell? And then that’ll just cast it whenever it wears off?

Yup, it should. "Self/decoy" also works well for your ‘tank’.

Good info, thanks. As soon as I get a chance to play again, I’m gonna look into getting some of this stuff set up.

I am in the village south of Giza Plains, forgot the name sorry, where Fran told us to go to learn how to use the Dust Shard, etc.

I have Vaan, Basch, and Balthier as my attackers. (Lvl 22)
While I have Fran, Ashe, and Penelo as my healers.
I understand that this is a very bad set since you are
only allowed 3 characters at a time.
I know I need to change my set up but I just don’t know to what. x_O
I should start working on Ashe and Penelo as well becuase
they are 10 levels lower then the rest of the party. (Lvl 12)

What should my main focus be right now?
Continue through the quest?
Train Ashe and Penelo?
Or Do some major changes in my set up?

To Egg, I would keep all party members at or around the same level until you’re like level 35. That way you don’t take any unnecessary risks. And you’re at the giza plains anyway, that’s a great place to level up your weaker characters. I don’t think you need any major changes, but that may be for you to decide.

This tanking thing really sounds like a good idea. I never really used it in my first playthrough, but I’m gonna get setup now.

hold on, i’m not getting this at all….what is this tank all about? i mean, every character is pretty much the same, especially when it’s very easy to get all the license points. my characters can be anything, just depends what gambits i give them and what armor/weapons they have.

for example, synthia, you said:
It would be interesting to make a Tank/Black Mage sometime. I bet with all the extra MP from getting hit, such a character could actually Nuke with powerful spells without running out of MP! Hmm maybe I’ll try that on my next playthrough.

why do a whole playthrough when you can just earn the license points and poof!… they are a black mage/tank?

Becuase as you advance in a certain direction on the liscense board
more of that same thing become available. So if you’ve spent 2K liscense
points on weapons and armor then if you jumped to magicks and technicks
(Haha I spelled that how they did! Did anyone notice how they spelled
that in the game? Lol.) you would have to start at Green 1, White 1,
Black 1, Time 1, etc. You probably already knew this but this is the only
reason I can find why he should start that on the next playthrough.
So if this isn’t the reason then I agree with you.

Maybe its this, it might depend on what license you choose for what character early on in the game. If 1 character uses all the HP+ license’s at say level 8, then at level 12 every other character uses all the same HP+ license’s, then at level’s 20 5 characters should be around the same HP say 1000, when the character that used the license’s at level 8 will be 1200, even though all the same license’s are on each character. Same go’s for defense and magic i think. I may be wrong though its just a guess.

So if you choose the ‘gain MP after taking damage’ license on ashe at level 8, then choose the same license for vaan at level 12, when both the characters are at level 20 with the same amount of ‘gain MP after taking damage’ license’s on the board, Ashe might gain 8 MP after taking a hit and vaan might gain 5 MP after taking a hit.

Or maybe not i dunno 0_0

Fail to understand what you guys are talking about. LP farm is easy.

Fail to understand what you guys are talking about. LP farm is easy.

It’s also incredibly boring, unfun, and unnecessary.

hold on, i’m not getting this at all….what is this tank all about? i mean, every character is pretty much the same, especially when it’s very easy to get all the license points. my characters can be anything, just depends what gambits i give them and what armor/weapons they have.

I enjoyed choosing paths for my characters and making them the best I could at one thing, rather than running around farming weak enemies for hours to max out LP (which kind of breaks the game anyway so I’m not sure why you’d want to do it).

There’s no reason to give Basch magic Augments and Licenses if all I’m going to use him for is melee DD. There’s no reason to buy Black Magic for my Paladin (described above), because she’ll be too busy either healing herself or attacking.

It’s about being efficient so you don’t HAVE to do boring crap like farm LP.

Farm LP = good — gives you chance to work on something else while you’re doing it like chores or listen to audiobook. Besides, if you have Golden Amulet, it really doesn’t take that long if you’re just going for a particular Augment or few.

Self -> Haste
Self -> Bubble
Self -> Protect
Self -> Shell
Self -> Bravery
Self 50% Hp -> Curaga

=

Super Tank. Muahahahahahaha

I so wish I had known about Self -> Beneficial Spell in my previous playthrough. It woulda helped tons. I kept looking for something like Ally/Self = Not Protective Status -> Protective Status. If only I had realized it could just be done this way.

Now if only there were If Enemy Has Item(s) -> Steal available…

Speaking of gambits I wish I had, how about this one:

"Self: prevents me from getting the Zodiac spear -> don’t open treasure" 😉

I fully agree with you Bene, that one would have been handy.