What other tank jobs could come to XIV?

[Kitru]

Tinkerer ~ Ranged (Gun) Tank.

Ranged tanks exist in a *really* fuzzy place in the annals of non-FPS game design. Unless it has to stand still a vast majority of the time (i.e. has to hardcast everything), you're not really going to create a balanced tank because they'd be able to kite the living crap out of everything while also being super durable. If the kiting is factoring into their survivability, on anything that has ranged attacks or can't be kited (like most bosses), their survivability suddenly plummets. Even if it did have to stand still, there wouldn't be much point to it being called a "ranged tank" since stuff is in melee with it all the time any way.

Basically, ranged tanks are either not really ranged tanks, situationally overpowered, or situationally underpowered. There's a reason that they don't really happen: they don't work in a balanced game construct. The only reason that they work in FPSs is because everything is ranged.

I'd be curious to see how LNC gets turned into a tank class, though, since it's got a lot of positional attacks. They'd have to effectively ignore most of that and find some other gimmick for it.

One of the biggest problems with creating second jobs is that you only have 5 abilities and no traits to completely change what a class is going to be doing. That's a lot that you have to do with 5 abilities, especially if you want it to be able to do its job from 30 rather than waiting til 40+. SCH barely manages it because it already starts off with a heal in its base class and the summon can be converted into a heal pet. A tank class isn't *too* hard because you can just slap on a tank stance that adds high enmity to a lot of the attacks, but it still has problems because, at least where DPS is concerned, it's completely changing the fundamental playstyle.

[Ehayte]

Agreed with Kit here, based on hearsay and reading forums, they are just going to want to add Jobs. That being the case, I can't see GLD or MRD being anything but tanks, as they receive the enmity generation abilities (not WAR+PLD). So we will probably see DRK be a tank branched from GLD, and SAM from MRD.

I would be ecstatic if they just left current classes/jobs as is and gave us new base classes with Job upgrades, because as stated above its going to be very hard to switch something like a PUG or LNC to a tank due to the flanking and rear attacks they get as a base class.

[Kitru]

Agreed with Kit here, based on hearsay and reading forums, they are just going to want to add Jobs.

I recall that there was an interview where they explicitly said that they were planning on adding some new classes to the game, specifically Musketeer and Thief. Adding only jobs gets *really* limiting on what you can do, since it's not like there's much you can change about a MRD to make it tank like something other than a WAR: the WAR class abilities just don't do enough to fundamentally change how MRD works.

[Ehayte]

I recall that there was an interview where they explicitly said that they were planning on adding some new classes to the game, specifically Musketeer and Thief.

Awesome - that is great news. And yeah, I wouldn't expect Jobs branching off MRD/PLD to be extremely different, it would just change stylistically.

[Kitru]

Awesome - that is great news. And yeah, I wouldn't expect Jobs branching off MRD/PLD to be extremely different, it would just change stylistically.

Stylistic changes don't really accomplish much though. New jobs/classes, to be worth the development effort, need to be appreciably different from a playstyle perspective. Just like I doubt that Thief will play like MNK or DRG more than superficially, I expect any new tanks that they add to deviate from WAR and PLD in more than just aesthetic choices and minor tweaks to the abilities.

[ChriskoOnAnotherLevel]

To be totally honest, SE did not think this whole class/job system through very well. And because of this they will have a difficult time adding any jobs to the current base classes.

If they had planned slightly ahead, they would have thought to stop ALL Class abilities and traits at level 30, and transfer every skill gained after that to the job side.

This would leave a very basic level 30 class with 30 levels worth of skill gap to build new skills around.

What you have now is a class that is 90% set in stone, with room for very little modification via job abilities.

I see a total revamp of all classes and jobs within 6 months, just to make things work in the long run.

Also they should not have released a single class with dual job capabilities....

[Obreck]

I'd like to see Red Mage as a tank modeled off their classic hybrid playstyle, not the FFXI buff/debuff setup. Fire, ice, and lightning for offense, one element specializing in single target enmity, one in AOE enmity, and one for raw attack power. Their White Mage type powers could be setup as their tank cooldowns, each spell specialized to deal with unique circumstances (Stopping a big hit, soaking up sustained damage, dampening enemy AOE damage for the party, etc.)

To be totally honest, SE did not think this whole class/job system through very well....

Yoshida stated in a interview that certain jobs would radically effect the moves of their base class to better adapt them to their roles (a "possible example" he gave was Dark Knight retooling Gladiator's tank moves into dps moves).

It still sounds a bit clunky, but at least suggests the class/job system is intended to be more flexible than the current jobs would suggest.

[Kako0404]

I see a total revamp of all classes and jobs within 6 months, just to make things work in the long run.

Also they should not have released a single class with dual job capabilities....

Totally Agreed. The jobs concept is basically just to lure FFXI vets back in and get non FF tactic job names back to the game. I don't know how i feel about adding jobs to existing classes so the players don't need to level them (might be a good thing; grinding is pretty meaningless) so I can see a total revamp for the expansion. More of an emphasis on cross abilities (more flexible to balance) rather than locking in the skills/traits for class/jobs.

[KogaDrake]

I recall that there was an interview where they explicitly said that they were planning on adding some new classes to the game, specifically Musketeer and Thief. Adding only jobs gets *really* limiting on what you can do, since it's not like there's much you can change about a MRD to make it tank like something other than a WAR: the WAR class abilities just don't do enough to fundamentally change how MRD works.

They already said that adding second jobs can and likely will adjust some of the core class skills to work differently, eg GLA or MRD +emnity on skills could change to something more dps buff in the presence of the new soul crystal, allowing the current tanks to have a DPS option, similar could be done with current DPS's positional to change to be infront of mob + emnty on a tanking soul