Has SE screwed itself?

[Duelle]

I don't even want to see jobs like Red Mage and Dancer in the game, because they're just going to be forced into pure DPS or pure Healing roles and completely ruin the original feel of the job.

My sig. Read it.

On "feel": The important thing to remember is that Red Mage in particular is a guy that wields a sword and uses magic. That's ALL the feel of the job should keep in mind. Enfeebling+buffs was FFXI's terrible rendition of the job. FFI's version wouldn't work because stats would be spread all over (WoW: TBC Ret Paladins had this exact same issue which is why their stat priorities had to be changed). V's version was only set apart by Doublecast, which is a shallow mechanic to define a job with in an MMORPG.

RDM doesn't fit as a healer because of the aforementioned sword&magic thing (besides, that was already forced down our throats in FFXI and I would rather not go through that again). RDM doesn't fit as a tank due to stylistic reasons, as it's a guy that uses a sword and casts magic. The only logical spot would be DPS, especially if you want to continue the only worthwhile thing SE ever did with the job over the years (push it towards the fencer motif to set it appart from Warrior).

On the trinity: The trinity is not a bad thing if it means job classes get direction without some of the BS systems with more "freedom" suffer from. Not counting "support" and its other iterations are less popular than the three roles and would make getting a party together even more difficult. I've seen too many parties held hostage by lack of "support" in the past, and when more recent games threw "support" to the wind, I very happily declared "good riddance".

[jomoru]

RDM doesn't fit as a healer because of the aforementioned sword&magic thing (besides, that was already forced down our throats in FFXI and I would rather not go through that again). RDM doesn't fit as a tank due to stylistic reasons, as it's a guy that uses a sword and casts magic. The only logical spot would be DPS, especially if you want to continue the only worthwhile thing SE ever did with the job over the years (push it towards the fencer motif to set it appart from Warrior).
.

Lets look at fencers and swashbucklers in action shall we? They taunt, they make verbal plays. They get the attention of their foes and between fancy footwork and sword play keep their foes from striking them. A fencer makes more sense in a tanking role than any thing else He is the center of attention.

This is why Red Mages should be tanks.

[Duelle]

Lets look at fencers and swashbucklers in action shall we? They taunt, they make verbal plays. They get the attention of their foes and between fancy footwork and sword play keep their foes from striking them. A fencer makes more sense in a tanking role than any thing else He is the center of attention.

Fencers also wear lighter equipment (for ease of movement), giving them effectively the defense of a wet tissue paper. Fencing in real life also focus on one-on-one duels, which isn't exactly how this game plays (specially once fights with more adds enter the game). Unless you're planning to make all future fights like SWTOR's Infernal Council from Eternity Vault, there's not much of a place for Red Mage to fit in as a tank. That's kind of why I proposed Mystic Knight with good number of changes to push it into the tank role.

[jomoru]

And combat in real life doesn't have someone guy in heavy armor running around getting attention while someone lobs fireballs at them. That's why I use the fencer of fiction. ANd the fencer of fiction takes on large groups with his wit and skill. Now we add in someone who's a master of magic to that either adding regenerative cooldowns via self healing or defensive cooldowns ala the ones BLM already has. Finally being lightly geared is the advantage here since what a stat does is arbitrary programming having a class a tank class that doesn't look just like the other two might actually be useful in getting people to tank on a small level

[Duelle]

And the fencer of fiction takes on large groups with his wit and skill.

And focuses on avoiding damage entirely rather than mitigate it the way a tank is supposed to. And before you even think of it, avoidance tanks are inherently broken and I hope they never darken this game's doorstep.

Now we add in someone who's a master of magic to that either adding regenerative cooldowns via self healing or defensive cooldowns ala the ones BLM already has.

BLM's defenses are for self preservation, not unlike a WoW Mage having Ice Block and its mana shield to save them the otherwise innevitable dirt nap. That's not the sort of thing you should aim to build a tank around.

Finally being lightly geared is the advantage here since what a stat does is arbitrary programming having a class a tank class that doesn't look just like the other two might actually be useful in getting people to tank on a small level

Variety is all and good but there's places where a different tank will actually fit, and RDM is nowhere near that. Pushing SAM into tanking has been a pet project of mine because its design in FFXI pretty much spelled out "this job was supposed to be a parry tank" betwen job abilities and some of the gear sets available to the job. BST would also make a great tank provided it is given the correct mechanics. Mystic Knight would also make a good tank seeing that it would otherwise be a stupidly shallow job given its history, plenty of design leeway.

Tanking simply doesn't suit the unconventional melee-mage (AKA RDM). Leave the tanking to jobs where it would actually fit.