Quote Originally Posted by Welsper59 View Post
Stats don't mean much to indicate a role in that game, and you're wrong about DPS not having +enmity, as well as jobs not having enmity reducing abilities. THF is a primary example of gear that has enmity (for Trick Attack, probably). Dragoon have a jump that temporarily wipes nearly all threat. Enmity transfer/reduction abilities were very seldom in general, initially only given through THF abilities (main/sub) and the specific DRG Jump... so arguing reduction on that end is kinda irrelevant.
Stats absolutely mattered for that kind of thing in that game. The Thief Artifact armor (And AF+1) has zero +enmity on it so my point still stands, the sets that gave Thief +enmity came WAY later. I specifically said it didn't make sense for SAM to have +enmity as a DPS job because they have no mechanics/abilities to shed or manipulate that like DRG does: " nor any reason to have +enmity, especially on a job that has no enmity reducing abilities like DRG had etc." I specifically mentioned DRG because of High Jump. I mained DRG in FFXI for near 2 years, I'm aware of it's abilities. It made sense to later add +enmity to Thief because the core moves of that job manipulated enmity to place it onto the tank. Samurai has no such skills.

And your mentioning of them only having strong abilities to dish out major damage in other games (nothing to do with defensively taking them besides heavy armor)... doesn't that sound a lot more fitting to be DPS? I mean we're going in circles here. All I'm saying is that nearly every point that you folks have about it being a tank, is ALSO fit for it being a DPS. That's all.
Past FF games don't operate on a trinity system. There is technically no "tanks" in traditional JRPG Final Fantasy titles so the point is moot. You're arguments are pointless at this point because as I mentioned before, literally everything can be a DPS. You don't need to argue for it because of course it can be a DPS. The DPS role requires no extra stipulations aside from an ability to deal damage, that's it. So it's not a matter of "well it can be a dps too just as easily." because that's not the point, as anything can be a DPS, it's the default, the neutral, the base form.

The point is that is has many flags that make it a prime contendor as a Tank. I don't know how else to really break it down. Only that you're arguing for nothing because DPS is the default job archetype when it comes to these things.