Hey guys, this is my first time posting and first time playing FFXI. I just want to know if warriors are expected to tank exclusively when people first party up for Valkurm Dunes, and if it's possible to tank with a great axe. I'm level 13 and have mostly scale gear except for body and don't have any experience tanking in this game so I fear I would just be a burden if I were to try. If possible I'd just want to try DPS so I wouldn't have much effect on the success of the party, but I don't know if that's really a thing in this game.

You'll be fine tanking. With or without gear or even subjob. It's the dunes. If a party asks you to tank it's bc they got no other choice.

Most of the time since you are new you may be asked to be a 2nd voke depending on what else is there to tank.

When you say voke do you mean provoke? As in I'd just grab another enemy if more than one was aggro'd?

voke is Provoke, yeah. 2nd voke, or off-tanking, is more like a backup tank. If the tank is low on HP you'll provoke to pull it onto you for the time being while he's healed. Just a precaution. If there are no Ninjas or Paladins then you can expect to be doing tank duties. It's simple at those levels and it's worth trying even if you think you'll be bad at it. At those low of levels all you have to worry about it Provoking when the mob tries to go after anyone else. Also, if a mob linked then I think you should voke the second one so the main tank's HP doesn't drop too quickly for curing. Unless you have a higher level mage outside of the party who can grab it.

More edits: For valkurm, tanking with a great axe is perfectly viable and I'd even prefer it. More damage is more hate and less of the mob running around after other people. I'd say it's worth the defensive trade-off. Past level 20 or so, if a party asks you to tank as WAR, I'd be weary haha.

Re: Great Axe. On top of what Beethoven said, you benefit from having access to Shield Break, which is a large evasion penalty to monsters, and at low levels, your party's accuracy is going to be pretty bad, so it's a nice bonus.

Really though tanking isn't bad at all. Voke and hit the monster, past that is up to the healers. Don't use berserk. That's...pretty much it.

Thanks for all the answers. I haven't gotten a party yet, but I'm feeling a bit better about what I should be doing.

Once you get your sub, spend some time to get your monk up to 10 or so. It's a good subjob to use for warrior (boost will help you generate hate to tank with).

Or just level Thief to 15 and then sub that to your war until 30 then unlock sam or nin. This is the lazy mans route ;P

My plan was to do war to 18, then mnk to 15, at which point I would take war to 30 and do sam. After actually getting mnk to 15, though, I'd say I enjoy it more than war.

You'll want War up to lvl 37 at least anyway. It's a very useful sub for a wide variety of jobs.