Rune Fencer Merit Ability List

[Zagen]

Physical damage mitigation
Moving forward we plan on adding more equipment that reduces physical damage taken for all jobs, not only rune fencer.

The fact that paladin is the job that is most apt to deal with physical damage will not change; however, our goal is to bring other jobs closer to where paladin is currently.

Rune fencers are not supposed to be strong defenders against physical damage, and as such we have no plans to add stats that will make them like a paladin.

First on the note of PDT gear for other jobs unless the developers are being obtuse every front line job can effectively cap PDT to swap into place as needed. Many of the front line jobs not only can cap PDT they can do it in a hybrid armor setup meaning the could keep the gear on a more full time basis than just swapping into it for "oh crap" moments.

As to bringing other jobs closer to PLD for physical damage mitigation: Are you actually trying to completely kill off the need for a PLD it's already very very small and RUN fills none of those reasons?

As to RUN not supposed to be strong against physical damage then unless the developers plan on adding monsters that do exclusive single element magical damage or a way for RUN to convert physical damage into magical damage you've killed the job's potential of being a tank for those few situations where a tank would be considered over a heavy melee damage dealing job.

[*]Comparisons to paladins with Aegis/Ochain
When comparing magic defense between the current rune fencer and equipment to a paladin that is completely decked out, a paladin with Aegis will be better at reducing the magic damage of all elements. However, since rune fencer excels at elemental defense, they are also extremely strong towards status ailments in addition to elemental damage.

Also, the effects of Aegis only apply toward the paladin, while rune fencers are able to spread the elemental damage reduction effect to party members making them extremely beneficial in party situations. When adding job-specific equipment to rune fencer moving forward, we will be paying careful attention to the balance between them and Aegis/Ochain and be making necessary adjustments.

The thing is there isn't a need for an additional aoe single element magic damage mitigation job. The job does poor damage when compared to an accepted heavy damage dealer and the specialty of reducing damage of magical damage is easily replaced by a WHM, SCH, BRD, and even COR. Now you could argue that RUN could compliment these job's abilities but the thing is these jobs are already going to be in the party meaning that you aren't taking a party/alliance slot to add their buffs but with RUN you will be doing just that.

As to the status aliment issue, that's great if it were actually true to the degree GEO's enfeebles work. In other words if RUN could 100% remove the chance of paralyze landing on the party or amnesia or any other enfeeble that could be deemed a threat to the party a WHM and various supports casting ~na/erase or DDs using Remedies or Panacea avoid the need to take up a slot on RUN.

Rune fencer stats
We understand that there are aspects that make it difficult for rune fencer to act as a tank and players often see them as being in a support role instead.

With the addition of the rune fencer merit point category as well as artifact equipment, we plan on making adjustments to make it more possible for rune fencers to tank and shine even more on the support front.

These are not the only adjustments that will be made, so rest assured that we will continue to adjust this job.

Actually when RUN (currently all new content) has difficulty acting as a tank the players leave it at home because it isn't worth losing a support role slot.

I really hope that the AF gives RUN a chance to tank but considering the responses in points 1 and 2 I won't be holding my breath. Merits were a step in the right direction but that's just it, they are a step and well you've got quite a few steps to go before it fills any role besides "fun job" or "abyssea tank", in either case both are useless roles when compared to the other jobs available.

As to fitting the "support role" unless you're planning on giving RUN a way to increase Attack, Accuracy, TP, Multi-Attacks, etc. it won't be filling a support role slot. Only helping mitigate magical damage when getting to 50% Magic Damage Taken isn't hard, where existing support roles can already offer the DDs a way to further mitigate magical damage while still providing damage dealing buffs isn't enough.