Different types of tanks?

I can't find any similar thread to what i'm asking so i'm making one

So lately I've been wanting to work on my tank(I'm very newb at it atm) but i've been seeing multiple types of tanks and is wondering if I should consider choosing a different weapon for it.
Them being xbow/shield, knuckle/shield, and 0H/shield (Even staff/shield but this one doesn't seem as popular)
I know knuckle has more abilities to do stun/flinch/tumble but I don't even know why xbow is even a thing

Can someone clarify the difference or advantages of each type of tank over the other? or what might your preference as a tank might be and why?
Thank you in advance!

 

Bowgun - you dont get the Decoy disadvantage as other weapons would. This one is also good for sub-DPS tanks who want to abuse Long Range Shield Cannon as well. Typically however, its for the AMPR with Decoy and having some range as a buffer if you need to. This is the one I use.

Knuckle - it is exactly as you say, interruptions and good defensive capability.

OHS/THS - I put them both here because it's pretty simple, you can use Rage Sword and Blinding Strike for good Aggro (plus Rage Sword can act as Impact for you). your AMPR can be Rampage + Trigger, you get invincibility with Meteor along with having P.Def, and you can even use Buster Blade pretty well if you want.

 

As far as pure tanks concerned, any skills with high mp cost can be used to hold the aggro, but it's preferable to use party buff skills to generate aggro for the whole map. A combo of Decoy shot, guardian and warcry is my staple to generate aggro. Without even touching every single mobs.

With that being said, the only difference between each weapons is how you use it and the skills that comes with it in term of versatility.

Bowgun- long range decoy shot to recover mp at all times. Has Long range proration capability with the auto attacks. You can use arm break to inflict lethargy which reduces the target's damage by 25%. It also has 700mp cost so it's a huge aggro generation in an instant for a single target.

Knuckle-100% success rate on flinch, stun and tumble. You can also use dancer skills to get some support for your party. Spirited dance can recover 200mp approximately every 8 seconds, which is when the counter is at under 5 secs. Elegant poise can be used to get a long invincibility frame that is hard to do even with p. Def spam. Nature's wonder can give a good amount of healing.

One handed sword tank-could also use dancer skills, could 100% flinch and stun. Binding strike has the largest area of effect of all aoe skills at 5m radius so you can hit much more mobs compared to impact or other aoe skills. Useful for bosses like usasama or venena balls, on top of the extra aggro. You can also get sonic blade that could substitute shukuchi and then get power wave to do long range proration, which gives you the ability to recover mp from long range+proration while still being able to close out on the target albeit the extra mp cost of the sonic blade(200mp). Imo it's the most complete-all around tank I could think of, which is what I use.

Staff tank-finale could generate huge aggro at 1600 base, so if you get aggro gears you could enhance it more, also if finale got canceled the aggro will still be generated at full cost. You can use mp charge+maximizer to recover mp. I don't really like it all that much because you still need to have crit if you want to prorate using auto attacks, while spamming impact with a tumble unavailable Stat is also a viable option, I don't like to tap the shortcut over and over again.

2h-it's more of a semi-tank, as a pure tank it's not really preferable as you don't have p. Def

So, yeah I think one handed sword-shield is the best. Long range proration concerned, Bowgun tank can't shukuchi right in front of the target, knuckle tank can't use power wave if you also want to shukuchi near the target. Ohs tank could do both without getting shukuchi.

Shameless advertising here, here is a vid on my tank:

 

ooohh these are all super informative! Thank you so much! Tbh they all sound really good depending on playstyles. My tank is currently a OH/shield so i'm probably going to stick to it (I'm also depending on toy hammer for 100% crit lol)

@Yunan I'm very interested in putting dancer skills in my tank as you made some really good points of the usage! Ahh I never realized how versatile tanks can be xD

 

I don't even use toy hammer most of the time, usually I use NPC 4th anniv sword ix that has 30% magic resist on top of 16%maxhp and 10 ampr. Yashiro azuki and seele zauga xtals gives me some extra crit to get a decent crit rate when interrupts aren't a necessity. On higher level cap, I'm planning to get the frenzied dance skills that reduces the part break's hp to help out the party. I was lucky to have proto clarity from the last event so my tapping has decent power

 

why none plays barehanded tank

 

Cuz it defies common sense