Pipe Dreams: The tank pool
Welcome to the ARR edition of Pipe Dreams, my series of threads dedicated to personal fantasies involving game design.
Since the job system was implemented, we've not been short on options for a tank given the number of jobs and classes currently in-game. We have our choices between the sword&board Paladin and the two-handed axe wielding Warrior. While we don't have much need for additional tanks as of right now, it might be a good idea to at least think of what else we want for this role once the number of jobs in-game grows.
As is always the case, tanking is all about damage mitigation with a couple of additional mechanics to mix things up (active mitigation via barriers, self-heals, procs for damage avoidance/reduction, reactive abilities). Luckily, PLD and WAR have not used up the pool of good mechanics for tanking, which leaves some room for additional members for this current roster of two.
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Samurai: With WAR being at the half-way point between self-heals and parry tank, SAM would be a pretty good addition as a true parry-tank. We already know Parry mitigates damage rather than outright negate it like in older MMOs, and with the right set up of skills this would serve as a good alternative for someone who wants a job a little bit more refined than the barbaric WAR. I'm also thinking a counter-attack mechanic would compliment a parry-focused SAM very well.
Beastmaster: This has been a personal concept and one of the few ways I can think of a job like BST working in this game. Aside from the standard array of aggro tools, the BST's main gimmick is that if standing within 3 yalms of each other, the master and pet will always split the damage. To help compensate for two targets rather than one (because I know healers would hate having two targets to heal), you could have a bond mechanic between master and pet so that a heal received by one also partially affects the other (something like Spirit Bond: If you or your pet receives a heal, 40% of the healed amount goes to whichever of the two was not the target of the heal). Mind you, the damage split does NOT have to be 50:50. As Modern MMO pets have relatively low HP pools, a 70:30 split between master and pet may suffice.
An alternative would be having BST pets be non-targetable, have the BST themselves do the tanking and their type of pet determining the array of skills available, with their 15-minute cooldown ability being a summon that calls all pets to attack the main target for 15-20 seconds or something along those lines.
Mystic Knight: I came up with this one when trying to devise a second job for Fencer (the first job being RDM). The main gimmick here would be the closest thing to a caster tank. Aside from being able to enchant your main-hand weapon (an ability native to Fencer), you would be able to enchant your offhand with an elemental property for you to spend when you use certain abilities. Additional abilities would consume both your weapon and offhand enchants for damage mitigation cooldowns and such.
MKT in detail:
Job
Mystic Knight: Though Red Mages embody the ultimate marriage between martial prowess and magic, there are others who bend the concepts behind magical combat to different ends. In the case of the mystic knights, the end is protection of their allies and surviving the onslaught of their enemies.
Forsaking the lighter side of fencing, these individuals instead ensorcel their blades and now-famous "gants", allowing them to use a very basic, yet effective, level of magic to the benefit of those around them. Though basic, the magic used on the mystic knight's armaments are more than up to the task of protecting their allies and ensuring the enemy does not stray from them.
Concept: Tank that uses brands and gant enchantments to shield themselves as they keep the attention of their enemies.
Mechanics: Equipping the MKT crystal allows the player to have a second enchant called a "gant" (glove). While brands still reduce your max MP by 15%, gant enchants reduce your max MP by 5%. Assuming no buffs, your second activated brand will become your gant enchant. You cannot have a brand and gant of the same element.
Sample Abilities
Ice Brand: Your auto-attacks deal additional ice damage and increases enmity generated by all actions by 35%.
Gant-Lightning: Increases your parry rate by X%
Gant-Earth: Increases defense by X%.
Gant-Ice: increases resistance to status effects by X%
Riposte: Delivers a melee attack that generates additional enmity. Can only be used after you parry an attack.
Backhand: Consumes your gant enchant to deliver a melee attack with your offhand that generates high enmity but low damage. Grants an additional effect that depends on the gant enchant you have active:
* Ice: binds target to the ground
* Lightning: Knocks target back
* Earth: Slows target's attack and casting speeds
Arcane Discharge: Smash your fist into the ground, spending your gant enchant and hitting all enemies within 10 yalms of you with a discharge of magic that deals light damage but high enmity.
Arcane Shield: Spend your Brand and gant enchants to reduce all damage taken by 75%.
Improved Reveal: Passive trait. The defense debuff from Reveal can now stack up to three times. Increases enmity generated by your attacks by 33.33% per stack.
Notes:
-I originally wanted Gants to be a separate piece of equipment, but I know the devs have a rule against special equipment that is completely different from what the classes can equip. To illustrate the point with Gants, I would design the MKT AF gloves to reflect this by having the off/left hand be covered by a bulky gauntlet while the main/right hand is wearing a thinner glove to facilitate movement.
- The way activating brands works with MKT is that the first brand will affect your weapon like normal. The second and all following brands will affect your Gant.
- In the event GLA is one of MKT's support classes, I would think shield abilities from GLA can be used while a Gant enchant is active.
- MKT gameplay should ideally involve blending Gant abilities with sword WS.
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On a couple of personal notes, while I understand someone will come and say that PLD and WAR should be the only tanks in-game, I will say what I said in the healer thread a while back: variety in roles is necessary for the good of the game. Limiting options in roles like tanking and healing does more damage than good in the long run.
Second, because I know someone will try to bring it up, Utsusemi tanking was an abomination that should have never existed, and I pray that it never darkens our doorstep here.
As always, questions, comments, death threats and so on are welcome.