SAMURAI SHOWDOWN

[Nalien]

A tank player can gear all 3 tanks at the same time, this gives them the freedom to play whichever tank job they feel like at any given time.

Honestly? I'd rather have the freedom to play different roles than picking my own poison with a single role...

If I gear Dark Knight, that's Fending, that gear is only good for Dark Knight, Paladin, and Warrior. All tanking Jobs. There is some variety there, and certain situations see a different tank shine, but ultimately the game wasn't designed with "You need X tank" in mind, so I really don't care which is technically better... The only place that is ever going to matter is at the bleeding edge of Alexander (Savage), which is a shocking minority of this games playerbase to begin with...

I would honestly much rather have something like Blue Mage as a tank for the exact reason you seem to want all tanks sticking to Fending... I'd rather have a tank that makes use of Casting gear, or healer that uses Ranging/Scouting, so I can gear up and have variety in what role I play, than be locked to a single role because reasons... Having the option of tank or DPS is much stronger than tank or tank IMO...

[DWolfwood]

I'd rather have a tank that makes use of Casting gear, or healer that uses Ranging/Scouting, so I can gear up and have variety in what role I play, than be locked to a single role because reasons...

This is actually the first, honest and legitimate reason to have a tank wear caster gear that I've seen in this entire thread.

It should definitely be considered, but it has to be weighed against the fact that if you could potentially have 3-5 people all rolling on Caster gear, and that is clearly something people would not enjoy. I suspect such a tank would have to bring serious utility to the table for any serious raid groups to decide on it, which would lead to less popularity again. Something to think about though.

[Shippuu]

Honestly? I'd rather have the freedom to play different roles than picking my own poison with a single role...
I would honestly much rather have something like Blue Mage as a tank for the exact reason you seem to want all tanks sticking to Fending... I'd rather have a tank that makes use of Casting gear, or healer that uses Ranging/Scouting, so I can gear up and have variety in what role I play, than be locked to a single role because reasons... Having the option of tank or DPS is much stronger than tank or tank IMO...

There's a few caveats to consider with this however. I'm not saying it's not possible, and in fact it would be a good thing for players. But there's a few things to consider if this path was taken.

1.) You now have 2 roles competing for the same gear. In content progression for raiding, tanks already usually get last picks when it comes to things like upgrade items, now throw in that they have to compete with a mage for gear too? They'll usually always get last pick. Things like Void Ark? Where there can be sometimes up to 5 mages in a party? It's not all that fair to have a tank competing that much for gear. You want to encourage people to play and keep playing tanks, not discourage them.

2.) It goes against the MMO concept of keeping players playing. The gear grind is there to keep players subscribed to the game longer which means more money for SE. If you suddenly start allowing people to gear 2 completely different roles at the same time, their time to gear is half what it could be. Half the time spent = potential loss of subs earlier.

So again, it'd be great for the players, giving them more flexibility but it does have drawbacks that need to be considered.