The 4th Tank.

[Cooperal]

If it's another simple plate-wearing hit soaker, I think I'd start keeping hold of my sub money. Three is enough, if not too many. You can throw as many mechanics as you like at the next job that simply stands in the way, they aren't going to succeed in feeling different.

I'd like something like Dancer to be the next tank. Something that literally requires quick foot-work on the part of the player, not limited only to some fancy flips simulated by the press of a hotkey.

What they miss in defence, they make up for with evasion and a larger than average array of tricks to waste an enemies time. With the help of their own decoys, stuns, petrifies etc, they will be able to move around, use positionals that are unconventional for a tank, and then be back in front in time for the enemy to regain mobility.
Without a doubt, sequencing and timing will be a part of the dancers playstyle too. They should have a 1>2>3 GCD combo, defensive/enmity based ones, but on the condition that they sneak one of a choice of oGCD abilities between each GCD in that combo. Like a load of mini-dark arts.
Of course, some bosses hit hard as hell and it would not be viable to "trick" your way out of them. That's why they should have at least one equivalent to Shelltron (or FFXI ninja shadows) in reserve. Other ideas would be like the DRKs plunge but it puts you on the opposite side of the enemy (sort of syncs with the positional idea).

Their weapons of choice? A pair of fans of course! Give them an oriental vibe to slot comfortably into Doman lore.

Skill speed and accuracy may be key stats to them. While dexterity may function like a highly enhanced version of strengths damage mitigation (this would also make it easier to fit them into gear that already intended for Nin, Brd and Mch).

[Shurrikhan]

Snip

Had lost the reply I was going to make for this and gave up for the time being, but as you mentioned wanting some feedback in discussion on a Dancer(esque) job, here goes:

I absolutely want to see a skill-based evasion tank, where the evasion is more than just a 1.0 Featherfoot / 2.0 Perfect Balance or the standard defensive series of cooldowns. I've been working on a Dancer idea, but it's still super rough and yet also overly complex:

It's very much multi-role, primarily a support-ish melee dps but can heal (inferiorly, but paired with increased support buffing) and tank if need be. It can use it's 'melee' moves (steps) even without a target or being in range, and will commonly do so for the purposes of support or prepping 'combos' (or as close as Dancer gets to combos) during movement. It builds up different elements (which gives it strong and versatile passive benefits and can be unleashed for magic damage or burst support) and creates or maintains dances through its abilities (broader, dynamic support while also modifying and being modified by ability order). I personally made their weapon choice basically any chain-weapon, typically kamas, short-handled blades, or bladed fans. The choice of weapon type within might effect an ability each of magic and physical attacks. Would use leather or preferably a new form of physical cloth armor. Without its abilities, Dancer would be cut like tissue; with its abilities, it's a handful to kill, though it still doesn't synergize quite as well with standard healing as a standard tank would, usually preferring something of a 'new meta' composition.

I'd like to see non-traditional tanks, but I do think, in more ways than just their ability sets, they should perform non-traditionally. I also feel like, if they're going to be an evasion- or especially a blink-tank, they need some way to maintain enemy positioning, hopefully simultaneously enabling the non-traditional tank to perform their own positionals without spinning the tanked enemy. So far what I've mostly stumbled onto is the idea of simply creating either (1) (my preferred) a sort of blur, making our position seem a variable amount of time behind our real position, or (2) puppeting a sort of shade/clone, whatever, giving orders through our regular ability sets and WASD (no pet bar) either in place of or alongside our own (real body) controls. It's a lot to cover a relatively small purpose, but I do think it would be worth it if it could pair into trait-like passives that would aesthetically fit with a job like Dancer (or Ninja, for that matter).

Edit: as for SAM, I really hope it will be a bit about as tanky as DRG by default, but also have some ways in which its rotations and their benefits can be moved from dps in focus to survivability (say, going for parry rather than +crit via certain combo orders, as a painfully simple example) that could make it a pretty sufficient short-term tank. Just, no damage reduction cooldowns greater than Keen Flurry or Featherfoot... It should be a tank by choice, not because it had real (dps) abilities taken away from it and no reason not to use the defensives given in their place.