I’ve been watching old vids of stuff from HW/SB as that’s when I started and I felt like having a pang of nostalgia. Tanks have had a lot removed over the years like positioning enemies a lot, more specialized mitigation kits, less homogenous DPS kits, aggro management, the list goes on really. So what from yesteryear’s tank design would you bring back?
PLD having access to certain Conjury spells like Protect. It helped me out more times than I care to admit.
Damage and defence interplay, or otherwise sacrificing DPS in favour of defence when a situation calls for it. It doesn't necessarily have to be stance dancing, it could also be a part of a kits resources or from branching combos. I dislike that we feel extremely tanky by default, and I'd love to have some level of riskier play where I can sacrifice defence for extra damage or vice versa. It'll also give healers the extra healing they're asking for.
Aggro management would be a second choice, although I wouldn't want to rely on DPS using their enmity tools just to be able to contribute damage myself, enmity management should remain a mostly tank-only thing if it came back. I wouldn't mind however if one or two jobs had enmity utility, like if Monk or Dragoon had an enmity grab for when things go REALLY south and had to tank for a short time while healers pick the actual tanks off the floor. I don't mind managing aggro and so I'd be okay if it returned in some form.
Cover which gives some mitigation on the side.
Revive on paladins, was in 1.0 I hear.
Old Abyssal Drain on Dark Knight.
Flash. For everyone.
I'd bring back Dark Knight as a class... right now we have War(over powered) War2(trash) PLD and GNB for choices..
Different Stances on WAR only, and the connected Switch between inner beast and fell cleave.
I'm seemingly a part of the smaller group who enjoyed the enmity management, but as time goes on...I view the homogenization as a bigger issue.
I wouldn't be nearly as mad if they didn't completely neuter DRK at the same time they ALSO completely gutted the role.
Before anything, I want them to make the tanks actually feel like they have their own playstyle again, starting with DRK. GNB's has only survived because it released in Shadowbringers.