Developing Samurai into a "Tank" Job

[Akujima]

I always thought it would be neat to see SAM take up the role of a Tank within FFXI. Back in the days where everyone craved for a PLD (but settled with a NIN if they needed it), it was hard to come by making EXP PT's due to the short supply of Tanks.

I thought about "Well Third Eye is already in place... They could really do something with that, and also SAM has a high level of Parry(A-), so they could sort of tank with Parrying blows and using Third Eye" And it seemed like that was the intention by SE when they implemented Seigan. But maybe people didn't really catch on to the idea? Or it's possible many just wanted SAM to remain a DD.

In any case, it could be possible to still take SAM down the path of a "Tank" by giving them some form of Parry JA/JT, something like "Perfect Parry" kind of like MNK's "Perfect Counter". Also boosting their natural defense and further developing Seigan/Third Eye would help too.

I just thought it would be a neat idea and a way to add more "Tank" roles into the game. Let me know what you think.

[Greatguardian]

I think just about every good SAM in FFXI thought of this half a decade ago and had been doing it perfectly fine up until they became crap-tier in Abyssea post-Razed Ruins. They still tank perfectly fine outside Abyssea.

[Delvish]

Fun fact: back when Rise of the Zilart was first released, Samurai were intended to be something along the lines of a warrior grade tank, while Ninja were reduced to a light DD/puller, essentially a secondary thief but without the TH. Somewhere though someone had the balls to say "Chill out, I got this." and proceeded to tank for a bit (until he lost his shadows and likely died a horrible death). Since then, the previous dev team tried to nerf ninja so that it would be played as intended... but we are a stubborn bunch.

The new dev team however has been following this trend and even gave them this "perfect parry" you speak of. Their vision for Samurai though has remained as a primary DD, renowned for our weapon skills. That isn't to say we can't tank, it just requires better player skill, key merits, and more acute gear selection, much like a SAM/RNG needs to spec appropriately in order to be sufficient.