I have an idea for a caster/tank.

Firstly, i dont like tanking, never been able to handle the pressure the community puts on tanks, that being said, in order to keep the job system varied, how about you SE gives us a caster tank?

Secondly, english is not my first language, so my spelling and grammar may be a little wonky so bear with me.

Thirdly, im well aware of the speculations about Blue Mage getting added to the game and it may or may not be a possible tank caster depending on what rumours you hear or read.

Here´s my idea for a caster tank.
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First of all, how about making a job based on the ff14 world and lore instead of going back to the standard classes that been around since pretty much forever in the Final Fantasy franchise?
you know, create something fresh, something new that can be used in future Final Fantasy games onward.

So here´s my take on a possible caster tank job.

A caster/mage that focuses on barriers for defense, let´s say an Eorzean one day decides to try creating something new, with a focus on barrier magic, he travels all over the land learning the arts of Scholars, White Mages and Astrologians.
Then he also starts to dabble in the other arts of magic, he starts to mix the teachings he has recieved over the years, through trial and error and many failures and small successes he finally makes as breakthrough, he manages to create barriers that absorbs most of the force from attacks aimed at him, although the barriers doesn´t absorbs all of the attack force it´s enough for him to consider it a success.

The downside to the barriers is that they continually drain MP while being active, and they also demands concentration thus making it hard to throw powerful attack magic at the enemies, as such a balance need to be maintained, the caster will be able to throw spells atleast strong enough or being aggravating enough to piss off the enemies so they will focus their attacks on the caster, spells like electric shocks or setting the enemy on fire should be aggravating enough i believe.

You might then ask, what about the MP if the barrier drains it constantly? well how about our caster having a alternative barrier spell, one that might or might not demand channeling for a set amount of time thus interrupting all your attacks and instead it absorbs the enemy attacks in such a way that the force becomes your strength/MP.

Add to this Tank Buster barriers that will only remain active for a very small time, there is probably alot more of other functions that can be added to a job like this that i havent thought of but im sure you the community can come up with some ideas of your own.

The main focus of the barrier caster/tank job would be MP management, to make sure you don´t run out of MP which otherwise will result in your death, and then you will have to dance, switching between different barriers, you could probably give the job a Reflect spell based barrier aswell, reflecting a balanced amount of damage the enemies that attack you for a short time.

oh and then you might ask, what about the shields and stuff that healers can provide to the group? wouldnt those together with the barriers the barrier mage can create make him OP AF?
Probably, which means we need a solution, my take on a solution is that make it so shields from healer jobs interact with the barriers instead, unique interactions like small buffs for a short time, stuff like making the barrier mage immune to debuffs for 3 seconds as an example, or make it so the barrier doesnt drain MP for 3 seconds, an effect that might need a cooldown.

Another thing that might be useful for balancing the barrier mage, is to make the Reflect barrier reflect healing spells from your own teammates aswell, thus you wont be able to get healed while its active, so you will have to choose carefully what kind of barrier you want to keep active and when to have them active.

How will healers be able to tell what barrier is active? give the different barriers different colors and different looks, by the end of the day only 1 barrier will be able to be active at any one time so you gonna have dance around with the different barriers and the tank buster barriers.
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There you have it, my idea for a unique Job for FF14.
Will it work? maybe, maybe not, it might probably fit better in another game then in FF14, but if SE really wanted to im sure they could probably come up with something functional.

Thoughts and feedback are appreciated.

Isnt paladin already kinda caster tank?

I actually quite enjoy the idea of dancing around between different shields - reminds me of bard somewhat with their songs. Would be interested if each shield provided a strength and weakness as you said!

Though I suspect SE would already be mid-development on whatever class may be to come, I can see myself playing a tank that worked like this. Sounds like fun!

> Sunako
Maybe? i wouldnt consider the ff14 paladin to be a caster tho, in my eyes they are more of a traditional warrior with a shield and sword with a little bit of white magic incorporated into their skills, my idea for a barrier focused caster tank is a character wearing more lightweight clothing instead of heavy armor, and perhaps not necessarily wielding a melee weapon like a sword or something like that, tbh i dont really know what a class focusing on barrier magic would be carrying weapon wise tho, perhaps a pair of magical arm guards through which the energy to the barriers are channeled, it should be something lightweight, after all a caster tank who has focused more on learning and studying magic instead of honing his physical strength wouldn´t have the strength or skill needed to wear and use something like a sword and shield, atleast not in comparison to a paladin who spent his whole life training and using a sword and a shield.
He would definetly not have the strength needed to wield big 2 handed weapons like the warrior or dark knight.

Edit: magical gloves could be a thing aswell weapon wise for a barrier caster tank now that i think about it.

Well. It is important their equipment too. As tank they will be strictly attached to Fending gear (heavy armor) and STR/VIT base stats, independent of the skills they have. So the idea of a light armor/cloth tank will not be possible with the current itemization of Final Fantasy XIV. The weapon can be anything, because is unique per job, but the armor is strictly in this line. A caster tank, if you choose to change his base stats to INT, will cause either need use caster gear or have is own exclusive gear, and neither of them will happen unless they heavily change the game core.

Of course it is still possible a caster tank, but the equipment will be shared with the other tanks.

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Originally Posted by Xlantaa

Well. It is important their equipment too. As tank they will be strictly attached to Fending gear (heavy armor) and STR/VIT base stats, independent of the skills they have. So the idea of a light armor/cloth tank will not be possible with the current itemization of Final Fantasy XIV. The weapon can be anything, because is unique per job, but the armor is strictly in this line. A caster tank, if you choose to change his base stats to INT, will cause either need use caster gear or have is own exclusive gear, and neither of them will happen unless they heavily change the game core.

Of course it is still possible a caster tank, but the equipment will be shared with the other tanks.

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Well, a barrier caster tank could be considered something akin to a black mage with a energy shield around him, so he will be wearing caster gear obviously of some sort, when it comes to the stats then INT/VIT or MIND/VIT could both work, and the barriers will have strengths and weaknesses that make up for what he lacks in comparison to the melee tanks that uses a bunch of strength gear.
The main focus lies on the barrier skills, how the barrier caster dance between the different barriers all the while managing his MP so he doesnt go OOM = wipe, and let´s not forget skills for aggro management in the mix aswell.

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Originally Posted by Xlantaa

Of course it is still possible a caster tank, but the equipment will be shared with the other tanks.

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I don't understand why people still say things like this.

There's no requirement for all tanks to share the same gear, especially if a new tank comes that is a Disciple of Magic. We have Traits. A mage wearing cloth/leather can easily have the same defense, VIT, and/or HP as a heavy armor tank via traits that increase one or more of these stats.

Isn’t dark knight kind of a caster tank?

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Originally Posted by Hugowulf

Isn’t dark knight kind of a caster tank?

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None of the current tanks is a mage, though.

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Originally Posted by Hugowulf

Isn’t dark knight kind of a caster tank?

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It would seem there are some confusion as to what my idea entails, let me clarify, Barrier Caster/Tank = Mage/Wizard/Sorcerer/Gandalf with tanking abilities with a focus on energy shields = Barriers that surround the Caster/Tank and protects him from both physical and magical attacks, my idea is mostly to try to introduce a new unique tank class into mmorpgs, i kinda want to change the stereotype of tanks normally being steroid swollen brutes only and usually they are also decked out in 5 tons of steel and spikes.

It's similar to what I've created, it's something original, using FFXIV world and plot. You can see the link in my signature.

Into short words, my concept is more a Job that can shift between Tank, Healer and DPS. Though, I've only finished the DPS part, leaving the Tank stance and healer stance only as a brief sketch, without any interactions/trait altering the skills.

Basically it has The Aether Blade Stance, which depletes MP for more power, and it can adapt this power if he's using Crystal Blade (Tank stance) or Life Blade (Healer stance). Using Aether Blade alone, gives more damage to enemies who has the Aether resistence down Dbuff, but does less damage to who don't have the dbuff. Combining with Crystal blade, you receive % less damage, more aggro, while some of the damage goes to deplete more MP. Combining With Life blade, adds % more heals, while converting overheals into shields, that does not stack.

Aether Blade

Spell | instant | 2.5s Cooldown | 0y /5y
Buffs current weapon with Aether Power, 25% more potency to Life Blade and Crystal Blade, dealing 25% more damage to Aether weakened targets and 25% less damage to Normal targets.
Deals damage with a potency of 200, Knockback 15y and binds for 5s the first enemy within 5y that damages caster during 5s initial duration of Aether Blade and generates Anima.
Depletes MP over time, and unable MP regeneration or Refresh.
Effect ends upon reuse or 0 MP.

Crystal Blade

Spell | instant | 2.5s Cooldown (30s recast)| 0y /0y
Buffs current weapon with Crystal Power, Receiving 60% less damage, drawing more emnity and dealing 40% less damage to Aether Weakned targets, while receiving 50% less damage and dealing 40% less damage to Normal targets. Converts a portion of damage dealt from Spells or Time to HP shield. Partially mitigate the damage received to MP while Aether Blade is active.
Shares recast time with Life Blade.

Life Blade

Spell | instant | 2.5s Cooldown (30s recast)| 0y /0y
Buffs current weapon with 40% more Healing Power, able to Heal party members with all damage Spells and specific Abilities, except Weaponspells, also dealing 25% less damage to Aether weakened targets and 50% less damage to Normal targets.
All overheals will convert into a HP shield, does not stack, but higher overheals replaces the lesser ones.
Shares recast time with Crystal Blade

It has some internal mechanics such as: It has weak Spells, but each usage of weaponspell gives 40% more potency to the next spell, up to 4 Stacks (160%).
All spells are into a delay effect, which can be unleashed with the Time Ability at any time.

It surely has the tank stance and healer stance pretty raw, but it's pretty clear the idea with just the DPS side finished.

It has a lot more than that, but it's up to you to read.

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Originally Posted by Hugowulf

Isn’t dark knight kind of a caster tank?

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Not in lore, no. In lore Dark Knight uses his inner feelings, his darkness, and manifests it. Some skills are spells mechanically (really...it's hardly relevant until silenced/pacified), but they are not spells in-world.

Paladin does use spells, but paladins and white magic go hand in hand in all games, but they never are considered anything other than "warriors with a bit of magic". They are NOT casters, which them being disciples of war prove.

And I agree with Rongway. I don't get why people bring up the gears saying that everything needs to share the current fending gear for a tank either. That's just stupid. People are limiting already limited game for the most ridiculous reasons.

A caster will depend on his magic to survive, not being thick with muscles.
Trait, lvl1: "Re-purposed Weaving" "Switch defense and resistance values of worn gear."
Trait, lvl1: "Magical Decoy" "Add X% of MP to HP. Stops interruption of spells on damage."

Voila. A caster that wears caster gear and have the survivability of a tank. Offense doesn't need to be affected. In this game damage and enmity bonuses on skills are what generate hate majorly, and those can be manipulated without any special traits or anything. Potency of attacks can be decreased to avoid excessive damage with the high, caster stats. No problem.

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Originally Posted by Jaegerkrantz

i kinda want to change the stereotype of tanks normally being steroid swollen brutes only and usually they are also decked out in 5 tons of steel and spikes.

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This game already mostly breaks that trope considering we got petite hyurs, lithe catgirls, and tiny potatoes throwing down with the burliest of them. And a fair amount of Fending gear goes out of its way to be functional armor that permits movement instead of traditional RPG "I wear a slab of metal" armor.

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Originally Posted by SilverObi

This game already mostly breaks that trope considering we got petite hyurs, lithe catgirls, and tiny potatoes throwing down with the burliest of them. And a fair amount of Fending gear goes out of its way to be functional armor that permits movement instead of traditional RPG "I wear a slab of metal" armor.

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True, still i want to bring a pure magic tank to the scene, we got pure magic healers, we got pure magic damage dealers, might aswell introduce a tank to the mix of magic users.

A slight update on my idea btw, we have set the foundation that the barrier caster/tank which i from here on shall call Varia Mage will be defending himself through the use of energy shields/barriers, but how will he attack?
I gave this some thought and decided to come up with a concept of attacks, the Varia Mage will actually use his own energy shield/barrier to attack with!
This concept is based on his weapons being something akin to arm guards with crystals or something.

Basic Attacks

3 skills that unleashes the energy of the current active barrier, effects will vary depending on active barrier, you cant attack btw if you dont have a barrier activated.

1. Single target attack.
2. Cone attack.
3. AoE attack on the area surrounding the caster.

Additional Skills

1.Critical Unleash. (Job gauge skill)


The Barriers

The plan on the barriers is that the standard/Neutral barrier will be your main barrier and the rest are more temporary elemental enhancements that will only stay active for a short period of time.
Enhancement barriers will be used up and disappear when you use a unleash attack so attacks are best used right before a enhancement barrier runs out.
When a enhancement barrier disappear you will default back to your Standard/Neutral barrier.
Each enhancement barrier will have a separate cooldown. (15-30 Sec)

1. Standard/Neutral Barrier. (Haven´t decided on color yet)
2. Red Fire Barrier.
3. Green Wind Barrier.
4. Purple Thunder/Lightning Barrier.
5. Yellow Earth Barrier.

Standard/Neutral Barrier
Your basic barrier, this is the one you will have active at all times when in combat, unless you want to die instantly that is.
It will constantly drain your MP while being active.
It will reduce incoming dmg by a certain amount.

Red Fire Barrier
Elemental fire enhancement on your barrier, only active for a short time (5-10 Sec)
Burns all enemies that attack your character causing damage and enmity on them.

Green Wind Barrier
Elemental wind enhancements on your barrier, only active for a short time (5-10 Sec)
Increases your healing received while active.

Purple Thunder/Lightning Barrier
Elemental thunder/lightning enhancement on your barrier, only active for a short time (5-10 Sec)
Zaps nearby enemies with electric shocks.
Regenerates MP.

Yellow Earth Barrier
Elemental earth enhancement on your barrier, only active for a very short time (3-5 Sec)
This is the Varia Mage tank buster shield.

Job Gauge
Your barrier absorbs a small amount of energy from enemy attacks filling the bar, the bar can hold up to 3 charges of absorbed energy.
Each charge will boost 1 of your barrier unleash attacks with more potency and additional effects.
Charges will be used up when you use Critical Unleash.
If you save up to 3 charges your barrier will enter a hyper mode, when you use Critical Unleash with 3 charges the cooldowns on your enhancement barriers disappears, you will be able to unleash as an example 3 fire barrier attacks in a row if you so desire.

Edit: This is just the basic concept atm, adjustments will most likely be necessary at some point, all these skills will currently take up 9 hotbar spaces so far.

After playing Octopath traveler I really want a runelord. Hmm... perhaps call them Rune Magus and give them magical runes to cast.

Either way I don't care what the job is called I just want an ability called:

You shall not Pass

I swear too many people come up with this tank idea for SE not to do it. I mean, they get the final say on design and implementation, but come on, the entire fanbase, mostly, has the same idea, lol.

Geomancer would make a great barrier mage. And if it ever gets announced, I will share my idea. Until then its wishful thinking.

Thought dark knight was a mage/knight. It uses a lot of mp for its defense and offense skills. Only other can think of was magitek knight that used elemental attacks.

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Originally Posted by hynaku

Thought dark knight was a mage/knight. It uses a lot of mp for its defense and offense skills. Only other can think of was magitek knight that used elemental attacks.

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Those aren't mages though, they are just knights who use magic. And Magitek Knight? that's not a job, more like a role, specifically from FFVI. I think you mean Magic Knight/Rune Fencer/Spell Blade/Mystic Knight/Spell Fencer/Rune Knight

The only reason Dark Knights use MP over the traditional HP, is because they are a tank and HP is their main resource.

Another small update, made a concept image of my Varia Mage idea, my drawing skills are bullocks so take it as it comes.

Miqo´te Varia Mage VS Vicious Lalafells!
He is using fire barrier and im going by the weapon idea that the Varia Mage got 1 arm guard thingie on one arm and 1 bracelet on the other arm as a weapon atm.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...psfh4qihpi.jpg

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Originally Posted by Jaegerkrantz

snip

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Umm... why no pants?

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Originally Posted by Eloah

Umm... why no pants?

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Because FF14, most people ingame are either rocking a cool cosplay glamour or they settle with Coeurl Beach Tanga glamour or something resembling it, or to be more precise, this is what it actually looks like when your character run around wearing nothing but tanga swimsuits.

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Originally Posted by Jaegerkrantz

Because FF14, most people ingame are either rocking a cool cosplay glamour or they settle with Coeurl Beach Tanga glamour or something resembling it, or to be more precise, this is what it actually looks like when your character run around wearing nothing but tanga swimsuits.

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Hmm... reminds me of an FC mate, XD

Another update with a new image on my Varia Mage concept!

Miqo´te Varia Mage VS Shiva!
He is using the tank buster shield Earth Barrier in this image, remember that timing and protection is important in order to ensue a happy end!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...psjyevwla6.jpg