SAMURAI SHOWDOWN

[Khalithar]

Even if you went with a mage tank, it complicates itemization.

This is patently untrue. In other games where they have tanks that wear leather or cloth, they simply have passive buffs (think shield oath/defiance/grit style) that bring their hp/armor levels up to par to the appropriate point and make certain defensive moves scale off their primary stats. They don't actually have to change itemization, at all. If you're worried about avoidance stats of which this game only has the one of (parry) then they can simply make the stat something like "mage armor: increases armor by X%, increases HP by Y%, and increases parry by Z% (based off intelligence)."

Edit: Found a good example of one of my favorite mage tanks, the Arbiter in Rift. I forget the exact level but shortly in the tree they get an ability called Arcane Ward that functions like the tank stances in this game, here's what it does, "enables Block. Causes Block to derive from the Mage's Intelligence. Increases Base Health by 25%, Resistances by 35%, and Armor by 150%. Increases threat generation by 300%. Reduces damage and healing done by 20%. " They could very easily add a buff like this without changing current itemization.

[Duelle]

Found a good example of one of my favorite mage tanks, the Arbiter in Rift. I forget the exact level but shortly in the tree they get an ability called Arcane Ward that functions like the tank stances in this game, here's what it does, "enables Block. Causes Block to derive from the Mage's Intelligence. Increases Base Health by 25%, Resistances by 35%, and Armor by 150%. Increases threat generation by 300%. Reduces damage and healing done by 20%. " They could very easily add a buff like this without changing current itemization.

This is basically how I think a caster tank would work here. Of course, we do have the issue of gear being too split up as is. You have fending, striking, maiming, scouting, healing and casting; it's not an easy division like Rift and WoW have (plate, mail, leather, cloth).

[Khalithar]

Snip

Factoring in the mage tank idea above, I feel that putting them on casting gear and making their tank stats scale on Int would be the best bet. Putting three classes on "of Casting" would even it out with what we have on "of Healing" and "of Fending."

[Duelle]

Factoring in the mage tank idea above, I feel that putting them on casting gear and making their tank stats scale on Int would be the best bet. Putting three classes on "of Casting" would even it out with what we have on "of Healing" and "of Fending."

At that point it's more an issue of nomenclature. Having a tank wearing "of Casting" gear and fighting with the BLMs and SMNs in a raid over it would be weird.

If you could find a single instance of them using chainmail, I'd like to see it. Usually their armor was woven scales, the strongest being iron scales and plates.

Yes, Samurai used lamellar armor. I've never found any comparison between that and the plate armor worn by knights as far as weight. Just by the way its built and the materials used, I would assume it's arguably lighter than plate, but I've found no evidence one way or the other.

To the people saying we need a Mage tank, we have DRK. It revolves around MP management already, so making another tank revolve around that would be just as redundant as another 2-handed weapon tank. Plus, I'm not sure you've thought out the defense aspect when you say that they could just cast spells. Surely you realize how under-powered this would be as time went on. They'd have to either give lighter clothing the same defense as heavy armor or rework defense entirely.

Not really. Firstly because DRK is a knight that consumes MP for some of its attacks. The bulk of its MP consumption stems from Dark Arts and Darkside ticking away, not use of attacks.

Secondly, stances can do more than just increase enmity. Our presumed mage tank would have a stance that modifies its stats and gameplay to have the same EHP as the other tanks along with safeguards to allow it to perform its job uninterrupted. Using magic to reinforce equipment or outright reduce damage taken would be expected out of our mage tank. I'd probably have the stance reduce cast times, remove interruption chance or reduce damage taken while casting to take us further in that direction.

Even if you do this, it would mean tanking w/o tank stance becomes even worse than what tanks do now since they now have caster defense/HP without it.

That's sort of the point, and something I hope SE gets around to enforcing to all tanks. You're supposed to tank in stance and switch when you're not the tank. There may be exceptions (a tank built around swaps as part of its gameplay), but the rule still applies.

What is so wrong with a RDM healer? RDM are known to be jacks of all trades. That means they shouldn't be able to take hits like a warrior or paladin, but should have some means of shielding. They shouldn't have the dps of monk or dragoon, but have decent dps along with a rapier. They shouldn't have the healing of white mage, but should be able to heal a party. To me this clearly points to it being a frontline melee healer.

And to me it points to a melee DPS with utility and damage options via spells. "Healer" is the last thing that comes to mind when thinking of the Red Mage.

DNC should be a frontline support job in the future.

DNC would actually be another good option for a tank.

[Handheld]

This is basically how I think a caster tank would work here. Of course, we do have the issue of gear being too split up as is. You have fending, striking, maiming, scouting, healing and casting; it's not an easy division like Rift and WoW have (plate, mail, leather, cloth).

The only way Arbiter can even tank decently is if it takes a very specific subset of souls and if it doesn't it is by far one of the worst tanks in rift. To make it even a mage melee tank you first have to take both arbiter and Harbinger which means you are mixing a melee magic dps with a ranged magic tank. Not too mention the only way arbiter can tank is through spamming a shit ton of shields but also by using a ton of self healing abilities to help it survive through some of the crazy burst in that game.

If you want a tank like something similar to what the arbiter is when its at its best then we already have it and thats a warrior.