Roles for Samurai, Red Mage, Dancer

[Evangela]

There's no shortage of tanks problem to begin with.

[Claymore65]

There's no shortage of tanks problem to begin with.

Except for the fact that the "Role in Need" is 95% of time Tanks. Tanks also have "instant queues". That indicates that there probably aren't enough people playing Tanks and Healers, at least in Duty Finder. Now the actual role distribution among characters is a bit better (19% Tank, 19% Healer, 62% DPS according to the official 2015 census here: http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/Eorze...N_Census_L.PNG), but in an ideal world it would be closer to 25% Tank, 25% Healer, 50% DPS. Note that this isn't really surprising. In pretty much any "Holy Trinity" based MMO there is always a surplus of DPS players and a shortage of Healers and Tanks. There are multiple theories as to why (Added "responsiblity" when playing a tank or healer, more "cool" class options as DPS, "Damage is fun") but it's very rare to find a Trinity MMO where Healers/Tanks are more popular than DPS roles.

When Ninja was first added, DF queue times dramatically increased as many players who would normally play Tanks or Healers flocked over to the new DPS job. I can't imagine if the expansion were to add two, let alone three new DPS jobs. That's why I'm guessing it'll be "Tank, DPS, Healer" for this expansion. It keeps the roles balanced and should lessen the effect on queue times, although they will still be affected, especially if a more "desirable" class is the DPS.

For the question above, I could see it going more or less anyway. I'd lean toward "Samurai = DPS, Red Mage = Tank, Dancer = Healer". but I'm not really sure.

I feel like Samurai would work best as either a Tank or DPS. As a tank, they'd likely focus on a "counter" mechanic, similar to the "Swordmaster" class in Bravely Default. As a DPS, I could see them having stances, focusing on either quicker strikes or slower "casting-like" strikes (iaijutsu). As a DPS they could have the added benefit of sharing equipment with Dragoons, which would be pretty nice. I could easily see them going either way.

For Red Mage, they could technically fit all three. Red Mage is going to be tough to fit in this game, if only because they are defined by being "Jack of All Trades, Master of None". The Red Mage will see quite a bit of change, and depending on what they decide to emphasize it will change. As a Tank, they could easily have a number of defensive abilities, support abilities, and offensive abilities (not unlike Paladin), while still fighting in melee. It might make a great fit. However, it would likely need heavier armor, which might not work as well. As DPS it could probably still do all three as well. Healer I see being a bit harder, if only since it's supposed to be melee, but it could fit. I think Red Mage is a pretty good bet for the expansion though. The two major Ala-Mihgan characters we've seen have both combined swordplay with fire magic (Ilberd and Raubahn), I'm just not sure what role they'll fill.

Dancer I could easily see as a Healer, or a DPS. As a DPS they could easily fit the "melee bard" kind of role, with support focused dances and quick melee strikes. As a Healer, they could focus on party wide support abilities, although I'm not sure how they would handle "melee" healing. Tank fits some of their aspects thematically (attracting attention), but I feel like would be a bad fit. Either they would have to wear heavy armor, or they would have to be an "Evasion" tank, and to be frank I don't see that happening. "Evasion Tanks" are notoriously hard to balance correctly, as they usually end up either too weak or wildly overpowered. So, I don't realistically see "Dancer" as becoming a tank, though healer or DPS could work.

[LineageRazor]

Samurai being a tank seems like the obvious choice - but I kinda hope it doesn't happen. Samurai will probably use a katana or great katana, and that would make for THREE out of four tanks wielding swords... It'd be nice to have a sword-wielding DPS for a change. Of course, they could get fancy and give SAM a Naginata, or even a bow...

I'm not sure why people still think that having another tank class is going to fix the shortage of tanks.

It DOES help, some. There was a notable increase in the number of tanks when DRK came out, and that was largely attributable to the fact that folks wanted to play Dark Knight, even if they had to tank to do it. If the job is cool or iconic enough, a lot of people will get over their hangups about tanks and play it anyway.

There's no shortage of tanks problem to begin with.

I can't imagine you saying this with a straight face. The shortage of tanks is beyond easy to prove. Queue up Duty Finder as Tank, Healer, and DPS. Which one gets in immediately? Which one has to wait longest? Tanks get their instant queues for a reason; there are many healers and many many DPS looking for parties, but not nearly as many tanks. So as soon as one queues, they're instantly matched with the DPS and healers that are waiting.

[Zojha]

There was a notable increase in the number of tanks when DRK came out[...]

Was there...? The 2014 official census lists 19% tanks, 13% healers and 68% DPS for the role breakdown (30+) (Note: Ninja was not included in any of the figures). The 2015 official census lists 19% tanks, 19% healers and 62% DPS 30+. And that's with 2 DPS, 1 tank and 1 healer released in the meantime. Seems odd - you release 1 tank, 1 healer and 2 DPS, yet the relative amount of DPS goes down?

Now, there could be bloat in that due to people picking up the job at 30 (thus entering the statistic) but never actually playing it, which would relatively impact tanks and healers far more - 1/3rd of the Tanks/Healers start at 30, only 1/6th of the DPS do. That cannot explain however why healer relatively shot up while tank relatively remained the same and it's doubly odd because DRK is the iconic FF job, not Astrologian.

Now...these are pretty cool numbers, right? Unfortunately, they don't say much, because they only say how the distribution looks like in levels - that means it shows the potential, not the actual participation. I have all jobs at 60, so my personal distribution is like 54/23/23. Yay, I'm pushing the statistic! Shame I play like 85% as DPS. For actual participation, we unfortunately lack data.

Since people dislike logic and deduction, I'll leave the interpretation to you guys. Make of that what you will.

[Evangela]

I can't imagine you saying this with a straight face. The shortage of tanks is beyond easy to prove. Queue up Duty Finder as Tank, Healer, and DPS. Which one gets in immediately? Which one has to wait longest? Tanks get their instant queues for a reason; there are many healers and many many DPS looking for parties, but not nearly as many tanks. So as soon as one queues, they're instantly matched with the DPS and healers that are waiting.

Even as a DPS, I can get a DF pop in 5 minutes for latest content. Sure, it's not as fast as tanks and healers but I'm not gonna call it a tank shortage issue if it doesn't take like an hour.

[Shippuu]

Even as a DPS, I can get a DF pop in 5 minutes for latest content. Sure, it's not as fast as tanks and healers but I'm not gonna call it a tank shortage issue if it doesn't take like an hour.

Your anecdotal evidence means little especially when you simply look at the factors. You're on balmung which is one of if not the most populated server, which resides on a data center that includes gilgamesh, another super populated server. Your experience doesn't reflect the game as a whole and only SE has the metrics to backup any kind of claims regarding tanking populations.