Yoshi P talks about Warriors- from Producer Letter Live @ TGS

[Ehayte]

Don't want Warriors to be buffed? Fine. But then you have to nerf the hell out of Paladins to bring them down to the Warrior level.

I've seen this sentiment a few times. Disclaimer - I am not at end game (obviously), however, I have been at end game in several other MMOs. Those of you with righteous indignation for a class that is the exact single-target tanking equivalent of another class have a narrow view on combat-oriented co-op video games (isn't that funny? : D ). Take, for instance, Everquest original. Ask any EQ raider who the best tank is, they will immediately say Warrior without hesitating. Sony built Wars to be the best single target tank.

There are 2 other tanks in EQ, Paladin and Shadowknight. Can they tank end-game stuff as well as Warriors? Not even close. Can they tank group content as well as Warriors? Yes, some would say they do it better. Before you get red-faced, I do think Warriors are currently underpowered.

Aside: A lot of really cool and great ideas have been thrown around here, and I do sincerely believe that it would be possible to make a tank that is all about massive piles of hit points, something that was brought up before was that warriors would get 1 % increase in healing on them for each 1% they are away from maximum health - so at 75% hp, they get a 25% bonus, at 10% hp, they get a 90% bonus. That would scale away overhealing and other stuff, etc. I'm not a dev, nor do I have the time to think of the best way to do it, but I think it could work somehow.

Now, my main point is, YES there is such thing as a tank in an MMO that is not intended to be the main "raid" (large group) tank. When I was leading raids in EQ I would have been laughed out of ventrillo for suggesting a Shadowknight MT an expansion boss. But there are plently of Shadowknights wandering around because they are fun to play, compete on a small group level (excel even), and they have specific roles in raid events.

WARs need a fix, pretty badly, but it doesn't need to be "become as good as a PLD at main tanking". I just wanted to suggest a new line of thought - because PLDs are the main tanks of FFXIV right now, and I'd love to see two things: 1 - content is implemented/changed to give WAR a more specific role that allows them to exceed the PLDs usefulness in certain situations | 2 - WARs recieve some more fire-power, so the increased healing inverse health ratio idea, or something like all of their attacks (no matter what) always heal them for 30% of the damage they do, effectively giving them a pleasant stream of incoming health.

Iunno, open up your minds!