I’ve always had trouble with tank glamours, since so much of the heavy armor in FFXIV looks awful on miqo’te females (or smaller characters in general—female au ra have similar issues with some tank stuff). I had hoped for some new tank gear to really speak to me from Stormblood, but much of the new gear faces some of the same problems that older tank stuff does (wide skirts and coats that fit strangely on miqo’te, namely). That’s not to say it’s all bad, of course, but so far, I’ve had a lot of trouble coming up with new tank glamours for the long term.

Since starting the journey on Paladin from level 60 to level 70, I’d had my eye on the Doman Steel Tabard, which is far more like Alahra’s normal style than most of the game’s tank armor. Once I got to the appropriate level, though, I couldn’t actually figure out anything to do with it. It’s not especially dye friendly in that more or less the entire piece goes one color, which makes it hard to coordinate other pieces (namely on the hands and feet slots of course), and it’s also one of those pieces of gear that doesn’t seem to really mesh with much outside of the full item set.

That left me kind of aimless once I hit 70. I had thought to use the Arhat Hare-Ate of Fending (and I did, for a few hours while I did my level 70 Paladin quest and an Expert to get a better feel for the class at 70), but I wasn’t satisfied with it for the long term. There was one other piece I had been thinking about using, but I hadn’t been a huge fan of it in preview windows, which kept me from picking it up to play with until I was all out of ideas. I’m happy to report that the preview window is a liar sometimes, as once I actually had the body piece to wear and dye, I was far happier with it than I thought I would be.

Glamour Components (Required Level: DRK/PLD/WAR 64)
Head: Elegant Rimless Glasses (Halatali Yellow)
Body: Tigerskin Coat of Fending (Pure White)
Hands: Doman Iron Gauntlets of Fending
Legs: Light Steel Subligar (Pure White)
Feet: Doman Iron Greaves of Fending (Metallic Silver)

I’d been hoping for dyeable Aery gear forever, as regulars to the site probably know by now. Along with the Orthodox Tunics, the Orthodox Coats were high on my list of things that needed to be dyeable. At first glance in the preview window, though, I really didn’t care for the way the Tigerskin Coat dyes—it seemed like it would have been better off with one less dyeing channel, since I very rarely like items that have two or three modified sections with a given dye. Once I actually got it out to see it in in-game lighting I was much happier with it though, and the rest of the glamour fell into place pretty quickly.

The corresponding Doman Iron pieces were really the only things I found that went with the metal on the Coat itself, much like the trouble with the Orthodox and Dravanian versions of the coat. I went with Metallic Silver on the Greaves to give them a bit more silver, since there’s a more prominent bit of that on the Gauntlets. Of course, outside of the colors, this is more or less my standard glamour for the other Coats, and I saw no reason to really change the individual parts since the whole thing has always worked really well.

I’m happy enough with this look that I’ve been actually excited to tank Experts (though I suppose the new tank mount and the Paladin changes don’t hurt), which is usually the sign of a glamour that will last awhile. I’ve not often kept the other versions of the Fending Coat for long, but my issues with the others have normally been due to colors, so I’d say the Tigerskin one has a decent shot at lasting!