Tankbusters are an attack that many boss enemies in Final Fantasy XIV have.
They are usually aimed at the tank of the party to do a lot of damage.
If you’re not ready, these attacks can mess up even the smoothest fights.
Tanks are supposed to stop the “threat” from the enemy, which is also called enmity, hate, or aggro.
All of these words mean the same thing: tanks have tools in their skill sets that allow them to draw away the most dangerous, keeping the rest of the group safe.
If a tank is doing its job right, every enemy in the room will be focused on it.
If the tank moves, the monsters will follow him and try to kill him before the weaker members of the team.
At this point, Final Fantasy XIV has so many different boss fights that it’s almost like an army.
Even though many of these fights can be won by following some common sense rules, it will help a lot if you know how to destroy tanks and reduce damage.
Tankbusters are made to stop the normal flow of battle.
Most of the time, the tank pulls the boss away from the rest of the group.
This keeps a lot of attacks aimed only at the player who is best to handle them all.
If the tank isn’t doing its job right, the boss will go after characters with less health, which can force the healer to use a lot of mana and wait for a long time before they can heal again.
Tankbusters do a lot of damage when they attack.
And if they aren’t dealt with well, they could cause failure.
If the tank dies, the boss can’t be sure to focus on just one person, so the healers have to split their attention.
How Do You Handle It As A Tank?
The best way for your process to go is in two steps.
The first step is getting ready.
This can be done by reading about how fights work, watching guide videos, or talking to other tanks.
So, you’ll know what to watch in each fight.
Usually, the boss’s casting bar will show you what moves to look out for.
Once you know what to look for, the next step is to take steps to fix the problem.
Every tank has a few skills they can use to reduce the damage they take by different amounts.
Intervention is a skill that Paladins can use to reduce incoming damage by 30%.
Gunbreakers have Nebula and the risky Superbolide, which makes them immune to damage for a short time but lowers their health to 1.
All of these skills have cooldowns after you use them, so to get the most out of them, you should wait to use them until the situation calls for it.
By reducing the damage, the healer has an easier time getting you back to full health and is less likely to have to use their big cooldown skills to save the day.
Unless you’re a Gunbreaker who keeps hitting Superbolide when you mean to hit Nebula (I owe multiple healers a lot of apologies).
The good news is that tank busters won’t shoot you very often outside of Extreme-level content.
You’ll be in real trouble only if you’re already hurt or if the healer isn’t around.
But getting rid of tank busters in a good way makes life much easier for the party.
Healers won’t have to hit their panic buttons, and they’ll have more resources to keep the party going during the fight.
A happy healer makes everyone else happy.
How Do You Handle Tank Busters As A Healer?
Your process will be pretty much the same.
If everything goes horribly wrong, healers just have more options.
Read up on the fight ahead of time, keep an eye on what the boss is casting, and have your big heels readily in case the tank misses the mark.
It’s likely that many new tanks won’t know how to fix the damage, so you may have to help them more often when they get hit by a tank buster.
And, as we’ve already said, these moves aren’t likely to kill tanks in a single hit in normal fights, unless they’re already in bad shape.
A tank with experience will be able to stop these attacks.
And on their status bar, you should be able to see what buffs they have.
This is a good way to know when these attacks are coming, so you won’t have to panic.
Just make sure the tank’s health is always full, and you should be fine.
If the tank goes down, you should get them back up as soon as you can.
They’ll be able to get their enmity back quickly, which will make your job easier than having to heal multiple DPS players.
How Do You Handle Tank Busters As A DPS?
Don’t get in the way.
Even if tank busters don’t usually come your way, though, it doesn’t hurt to be aware of them.
If they do, you might get crushed.
But by then, things have already gone wrong.
If the tank goes down, keep your mind on the task at hand.
The boss will go after the player who has the most “enmity,” which is built up by doing damage and healing HP.
Keep avoiding AOE attacks and do your best to maintain the boss away from the healer until they can get the tank back up.