How fitting

[Lyth]

Ahh, salty water fishing.

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There's definitely a subset of the playerbase that really enjoys interesting ability interactions, myself included. I think that BLU (and possibly other limited jobs in the future) are a good choice for that sort of MtG style 'deck building' which favors elaborate interplay between skills. I don't think it's a good choice for standard job design, however.

A lot of people think that they want ability complexity. They don't.

MMOs seem to be very inefficient when it comes to ability design. You can create interesting PvP gameplay in a MOBA with just 4 or 5 abilities. You don't need 25-30. It's the content design that matters, and that's where the gameplay complexity needs to come out. You need to be able to intuitively pick up and play, and it needs to feel good to do so.

You certainly can build a 'lifesteal' tank as a central concept. What's the most memorable thing about Bozja on tank? Bloodsucker. Green numbers. That little vampiric noise that occurs every time you siphon HP. You absolutely could focus in on that experience. You still need a way to survive the attacks upfront, but that's why I suggested tacking on temporary HP as well.

Similarly, why do you think that people obsess about TBN? You could mitigate the same amount of damage with %DR, but you wouldn't get the same reaction from it. It's that feeling of activating the bubble, seeing 0 pop up, and following up with a counter attack. It's just like that green numbers effect. It works because it's viscerally satisfying, not because it's clever. Focus in on that.

Why is the most talked about GNB issue the sound effects? People just want to recapture that feeling of pressing the R1 trigger during Renzokuken. The best GNB action ever designed in this game was Heavensward DRK's Reprisal. The explosion delay was glorious.

If you sit down with a word document and try to type up a job design, you'll probably come up with something that sounds intellectually engaging but is incredibly dry to play. You can't math this stuff out. What matters is if the actions actually feel good to use. Every tank job has a few features that just resonate well with a lot of people. Rather than diluting these experiences across every tank, they should become the centerpiece for job design in their respective jobs.