Time BattleMage (job suggestion)

I just wanted to post my idea for a new job for FF14 and i think the Time mage (more specifically the the time battlemage for ff12 zodiac) would be a perfect fit for the fourth tank job. Lore wise for most final fantasy games the time mage has been generally a support character but ff12 remaster they are able to wear heavy armor which just screams tank. they can wield crossbows or swords and their spells mainly focus on slowing things down to stop damage from happening.

a lot of slows and stuns would be in their tool kit all giving an enmity boost to keep agro while maybe giving them some spells to increase the speed of the attacks of their allies to burn things quicker. they also have access to low level white magic so a cure with the addition bonus of enmity increase or a skill that buffs healers heals while also lowering the enmity of those heals would be cool.

im not sure a crossbow would really work out as a ranged tank would piss off too many melee dps players, but a sword with some sort of magical shield offhand would work. they'd have to be the best at tanking magical damage and the worst at tanking physical damage.

not sure what else id add to this, but just wanted to float this idea out there and see what other people thought :D


bonus: it would likely start at lvl 50 making those low lvl dungeons have faster que time ;)

Technically we already got Time Mage in the form of Astrologian as that Job already manipulates time and space anyway (albeit using cards, but it's still influencing the stars, planets and the passage of time). Also, one of Time Magic's big spells in past FF games, Haste, Yoshi specifically mentioned ages ago (back during the Beta Test in fact) will never be implemented as he felt spells that sped up time casting and attacking made the game too easy, so he decided early on not to implement such spells. Now, he may have changed his stance since on that, but as far as I'm aware he hasn't.

Either way, there is no need for Time Mage as it's place is already taken with AST I'm sorry to say.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

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Clearly, 'e's gone back on it with AST as ya already mention, since they can an' do speed up attacks. I think yer thinkin' about it too narrowly, it's like sayin' Samurai an' Dark Knight can't both exist 'cause they both use swords.

OPs idea has some merit an' I think it would be an interestin' idea. Time mages have always been my favorite since everyone loves haste an' all that. Much like AST is a support focused healer, Time Mages could work as a support-focused tank - And in the same way, no less. AST give up personal DPS for group DPS, Time mages could have lower potency abilities than other tanks an' make up for it with group buffs of some sort, which is somethin' they haven't explored yet with tank.

I'd love ta see a tank with AoE slows an' stuns, those are always fun an' we don't get enough of 'em. Of course it'd help if evry bloody enemy wasn't immune ta CC nowadays, but ya know.

I think the fact that "Quick Arm" and "Quick Tongue" materia exist gives us an indication that they found a way to balance "Haste" against content. (I think the original concept was saying "no we wont let you hasten the Global Cool Down, but that was a long time ago.)
Basically the buff would be influencing those stats.

I don't really see the cross bow as a viable tank weapon though.
Shotgun/blunderbuss maybe, but crossbow would be counter intuitive for the player looking at a range weapon to be used in melee range.
I don't think a "crystal ball" has been used yet though. You could have that and then you swing it around like a magic ball and chain (without the chain) and it sort of fits into the theme since Crystal balls are used to the see the future.

EDIT: My other additional recommendation would be to not limit yourself to "class name X" has to be in the game. Think of something nameless and then when you think the idea has a good core to it, then check out existing FF classes that thematically line up.
Otherwise you end up with the White Mage situation, where the lore screams Druid/Geomancer and the only reason it was called White Mage was for name recognition and nostalgia.

Unfortunately most magic with time and space is currently on the Astrologian. About the only thing they're missing is Reflect.

Well I only see one option, change astrologian to a triple triads influenced job and we can move in time battlemage. Totally my unbiased opinion.

I personally thought of the time mage as the caster version of bard. Low dmg support caster.

Also, being the best at X and worst at something else doesn't really work unless "best and worst" are really close.
I also hardly see how you could sell a new tank tankier than paladin just in term of flavor or better at handling caster burst than Drk with the TBN.

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

Also, being the best at X and worst at something else doesn't really work unless "best and worst" are really close.

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I see your point, maybe making it the least bulky and average damage with the bulk of the tanking coming in the form of time magic with making the enemy attack slower and you faster(increased party rate)

I've considered having Time mage as an offensive class (though most of the abilities I thought of are actually space, but it's time/space in JP) with Comet being a low damage spell, demi being a spell that does more damage when the enemy has more of it's health (though not actually percent based, you could kill something with it if you felt like it) X-Zone being a DoT (not actually warping them out but trying to and exposing them to the capital V Void).

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Originally Posted by Pastahnak

I see your point, maybe making it the least bulky and average damage with the bulk of the tanking coming in the form of time magic with making the enemy attack slower and you faster(increased party rate)

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Ever play WoW Monk tank? They have an ability where when they get hit the damage is applied to a debuff that does damage over time. So they spread out their damage over time to be more manageable.
That *might* be workable for a time mage to manage their incoming damage.

I'd be hesitant about tanking through Slow and Haste though, or really any debuff. Because either the ability is mostly useless or it immediately becomes mandatory since the Slow could be applied while the Time Mage is the off tank, thus making the main tank even more tanky.
The meta would have a freaking field day.

I think when you consider the "mitigation style" of the tank, you have to consider it to be an internal thing, not an external thing for that reason. Utility would be the external consideration, so while a Slow Debuff would be possible, it would have to be the "Utility" of the tank and not it's primary Mitigation.