The group was on pace to clear the tier in 6-8 weeks (which was the target I'd said I was aiming for in my LFStatic post) until P8, which was just an absolute wall for the group, partly because of lack of consistency and partly because one person was much, much slower learning mechanics than the rest of the group. It ended up taking the group til mid December to clear phase 1, and then another nearly 3 months to clear phase 2.
I imagine it's pretty boring for DPS but as a tank, between like,
- just managing the fuckton of tank damage,
- learning to be extremely quick with emergency adjustments (aka hitting every mit button I have, self or group, in a panic) to stay up long enough for a raise if my cotank died,
- getting comfortable keeping an eye on the party list while doing my own shit so I could TBN/oblation our casters if their health looked too low going into big raidwides or mechanic damage, and
- (Really 3b) juggling tank mits to keep squishies alive during Dominion
there was quite a bit to do as a tank. I really wish FFXIV tanking were more consistently active and involved though, my last time playing an MMO was WoW 1.0 through late BC and tanking was so much more demanding there.