Dark knight, Victim of good design

[Rithy255]

Snip

I feel like this is loosely based off the current design of how the tanks are functioned but the current game has watered that down heavily to the point where tank choice really doesn't matter at all currently.

I really like the Idea of PLD becoming a very strong supportive tank, I think it fits the theme of PLD, War keeping its sustain at it's current level I'm iffy on as it really doesn't feel fun for the healer if warrior can handle everything though if there was more outgoing damage on non tanks and certain mechs (possibly like a self heal block widow in aoe which you'd have to esuna) possible ways of balancing it, DRK having high dps protentional and having to play safe at certain times I'm a big fan of, GNB being this DPS tank with a bit of sustain and a bit of utility (aka a allrounder with high damage) I think fits the job.

Making tanks more interesting and dynamic is Ideal as a whole, I think looking back at the games history you can tell tanks started out very different and slowly became very similar, I mean even look back at shadowbringers I remember being told I shouldn't MT as PLD because back then there was a massive difference in its self survivability and while I personally do like that Paladin has become more durable over recent years (like it's the shield tank ofc it should be durable lol) at the same time it's not hard to see.

I don't think we should strictly "lets go back to stormblood" we should look for a new direction for tank design as stormblood and shadowbringers had a lot of issues, I think EW/DT have a lot of issues in similarities, what I hope is they can learn and tailor tanks into something that offers actual sense of identity.

[Shistar]

[...] War keeping its sustain at it's current level I'm iffy on as it really doesn't feel fun for the healer if warrior can handle everything though if there was more outgoing damage on non tanks and certain mechs (possibly like a self heal block widow in aoe which you'd have to esuna) possible ways of balancing it [...]

Thanks for reading through all of it!

I have to admit WAR is the one I am least familiar with, so what I wrote is just a rough idea and I'd rather leave it to the people who actually care about the job to voice their opinions on what its identity is and isn't. My idea is that it is very effective at keeping itself alive for long stretches of time, but it basically cannot really help anyone else or help with mitigations if things go sideways. Healers can ignore the WAR way more than other tanks, but they have to mitigate and heal more because WAR isn't really contributing to the party's defense in any other way besides being a sponge for incoming damage.

My ideas are also based on the assumption that healers would get a more involved DPS kit they can fall on when they have nothing better to do, or even better, other things to do rather than simply babysitting the tank.
Having a WAR in this situation would mean the healer has one less strain point and they can more effectively attend to other issues, such as other party members needing their support (cough cough DRK), performing personal mechs or contributing to damage (I think healers could also benefit from being able to prepare and cast buffs on their off-time rather than just DPSing, but since it wasn't relevant to the conversation I left it out)