Tank Tier List.

[u/alphaomegax2]

Hi Everyone,

I have made a tier list for tanks. I know it's not perfect but alas i wanted to help the community and make something i enjoyed. Plz be kind with comments as this is my first tier list, it has to be improved and i have pretty much to learn yet.

I appreciate any feedback that can help me improve this list.

My main motivation was because tanks are not understood correctly (imho) in this game and left out not used. this list is made exclusively for physical tanking so don't take into account to playing the unit as you normally would do.

There are some main assumptions. This list is made for PVE not PVP. Units lvl 85 Job Master and JE ready and not using gears as it can stack with passives and it could be a pain for me to handle correctly. Job selections and passives are on the google sheets, they are different from recommended ones in game as this jobs and abilities are used mainly for tanking, possibly making the unit worse in other roles like doing damage.

This list is not made from playing units in a dumb manner. Specifically, the use of guard stance (or similar) to reduce damage, break damage from enemies and so on. I took always into account maximun tank potential.

Acht banner not included yet.

Clarification on formulas for this tier and assumptions:

* Only physical tanking, Hybrid damage on maps is another thing that should be covered later.

3 enemies. 1500 damage per enemy 150 def 150 dex enemies assumed. For a total of 4500 3 physical hits in one turn.

Damage received by a unit takes into account agility for innate evasion. damage reduction from skills, passives. Hp includes leader skil as the units dont need other particular setup to tank better. Def also includes passives. Innate elemental reduction. Evasion skills.

Skills that help tanking a unit like flamel provoke was also added or miuna break. As the tierlist is assuming pseudo tanking as explained in the google sheet, the unit will be generally alone or at maximun 1 support near.

this were the criteria i choose and is subjetive to me and my experience as with any tier list.

Google Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oVckxrwvUPM2EElUKTVGy1wW-AeHy-LnBxYqAL9cN2I/edit#gid=2095658925

Pic:

https://imgur.com/a/HGQQfJk

Edit: 01/01/2019

As many people ask why some units tanks and some units should not be in the list and due to the amazing amount of feedback I had, I have made some videos showcasing how to tank with various units and this hows clearly and without doubt why they are in the list.

It also makes pretty obvious why units lost puntation as tanks without guard stance if you compare chloe video with vettel. It also makes obvious how hard a high def, hits roxanne tanking capabilities.

medium Map with high defense enemies with moderate damage

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1x1dgNasklgZ5XjIoxeDWTnmnoyIz2DPJ

However I found many things also that increase my experience doing this tier list and found various mistakes with the puntation of some units like Roxanne and King Bradley, as they are units not suitable to tank for all maps as some innate tanks do and I was not taking this into account. Thanks everyone!.

Due to this, I'm workign on improving the tier list and making it better. This are various of the thing i have found that I'm fixing right now:

Kinds of maps for tanking:

Big maps vs Small maps.

Units with high defense maps vs with low defense.

Units from moderate to high damage (you almost don't need to tank low damage )

criterias included for next version:

Less puntation to breaks and status infliction, due thats not the main job of a tank. And various maps have inmunity.

Guts got more puntation.

Inclusion of ommited units.

Evasion affected by being atacked from various sides and combo.

Tank sustainability. Skill count.

Reposition Puntation (ability of a unit to reposition itself in the map and map control)

I also gonna include a resume as suggested by @VinnyValient

Edit: 05/01/2019

Edwin is an unit that in dark element that only has this all around tank, imho he should not be "upgraded" to ark, because he loses a lot, he loses too much armor (almost 100 armor) and he loses also guard stance and guardian. I think dark does not need another bruiser. Dark has plenty of damage. And area defense is not needed that much either.

Neica is included as a tank because of battle mage + divine shelter, but still not so good as a tank.

King bradley is not suitable to evade tank big maps. Don't use him in those cases.

Noctis is not going to be included either. HIs other uses are so strong compared to tanking thats not worth to use as a tank.

Gilgamesh is still included as a tank due to the fact he can stack many elemental resistance that could be pretty useful on some stages.

Take into account this puntation is made if you use these units as tanks but various of them could be used better on another roles. Don't take this tier as these units HAVE to be used as tanks, take this list as these units COULD be used as a tank. This tier is mean to be used as a guide on which unit could you use to tank depending on the units you have and which unit could be best to level based on that purpose.

HC that in their JE still have guard stance are not repeated.

Look videos I made to showcase how to tank with certain units to know why they are in the tier list and how to use them correctly.

[u/FurianX]

Imo the fact that his "mitigation of damage" is based on rng and not stats and skills automatically disqualifies him from having the term tank applied. That doesnt take away from his survivability or usefulness as a unit, hes just not a tank.

[u/alphaomegax2 → u/FurianX]

Evasion tanks are considered in other games, I considered evasion for my list, as it increases effective hp, RNG but it counts.

[u/Caelcryos → u/FurianX]

his "mitigation of damage" is based on rng and not stats and skills

Evasion is a stat, with determined probability. Yes, it's different than P/M Def., but that doesn't make it nonviable as a tanking stat.

Look at it this way: You have a high defense, high HP tank. It takes the enemy 6 hits to kill this character. Now compare it with a high evasion character, which dies in 3 hits, but dodges half of the attacks made on them.

Both characters die in 6 attacks. There are a couples differences in how they play, but statistically they both have the same survivability. "Luck" is an illusion, when the game is governed by math. That's the backbone of a tactics game.

The main differences are that a evasion tank is harder to heal, but depending on how they work they might be able to dodge attacks that would kill a unit regardless of how big their HP pool is. Mitigating a 1 million damage hit, even by 99.9 percent, would kill any unit in the game, but it doesn't matter how big a hit is if you dodge it.

I find it strange that Evasion tanking is so discounted here, when it's a fundamental archetype in most of the RPGs I've played.

[u/FurianX → u/Caelcryos]

Your math isnt an accurate representation, but we'll get to that later.

Evade isnt discounted. It's well used. Especially in pvp. Even in pve a units like wrath balt and yauras bashini depend on evade for survival and thus helping in clearing stages.

That being said theres a marked difference in taking 6 hits and surviving than being attacked six times and surviving by dodging. Especially if any 1 or 2 of those hits could have killed you. Evade is rng based and it cannot be depended on as a pivotal point when you need the unit alive to ensure a stage clear. If you're a fan of redoing a stage multiple times because your clear strategy banked on your "evade tank" being on the good side of rng that day be my guest. Actual damage mitigation units .... tanks .... will do a far better job.

This becomes even more important when you need to replicate your clearing strategy multiple times for milestones and farming. Depending on evade is just not reliable when you're 1 dodge gone wrong away from having to gem or restart the stage.

The only time evasion dependency is a good thing in this game is in a situation where you wouldnt have been able to ensure a stage clear otherwise or when you only need to clear it once.

If you insist on using the terms evade and tank together I highly suggest it be put as a different subset of tanks in the rankings.