New Job System Incoming!!! - But what does this mean??

[Abriael]

The fact that I was testing how long you'd keep on biting doesn't make what I was saying any less true, by the way. Don't misunderstand!

That doesn't make it any less true. The simple fact that it was untrue makes it so, don't misunderstand!
By your logic, everyone that leveled a ninja sub in FFXI is a tank.

[Cairdeas]

That doesn't make it any less true. The simple fact that it was untrue makes it so, don't misunderstand!
By your logic, everyone that leveled a ninja sub in FFXI is a tank.

Your job didn't really make you a tank, its what you did in a party that did.

A Thief/dancer can tank. It isn't pretty and you need a hella good support healer, but its viable.

[Abriael]

Your job didn't really make you a tank, its what you did in a party that did.

A Thief/dancer can tank. It isn't pretty and you need a hella good support healer, but its viable.

Viable != being defined by the role of tanking.
There are classes that are tanks, and classes that can be viable for tanking in situational instances due to the utsusemi exploit and similar. That doesn't make them tanks.

God forbid we end up in FFXIV in the aberrant situation in which specialized tanks may be excluded from their own role because they deal less damage

[Cairdeas]

Viable != being defined by the role of tanking.
There are classes that are tanks, and classes that can be viable for tanking in situational instances due to the utsusemi exploit and similar. That doesn't make them tanks.

God forbid we end up in FFXIV in the aberrant situation in which specialized tanks may be excluded from their own role because they deal less damage

Thief/Dancer doesn't have Utsusemi. 0.o How can it abuse it.

[solracht]

That doesn't make it any less true. The simple fact that it was untrue makes it so, don't misunderstand!

Do let me know how you managed to overcome hits that were not diminished by defense and why that was better than taking no damage at all.

Do let me know how your Paladin (/ninja or not) was more useful than a DD that was capable of outdamaging you while taking the same amount of damage as you would while doing so.

Square-Enix has never tried hard enough to make defined tanks.
See: "defense stat" or "criticall hit rate down" in Warcraft. Other western MMORPGs have it, too.

Basically, anyone who doesn't have enough of that stat will get crushed when getting hit by the hard bosses. No questions asked. By only letting tanks get that stat, and making defense actually matter (something neither XI or XIV have done) you guarantee that your "tanks" are not eclipsed by smart use of game mechanics.

Being serious now: ignoring the problem is the worst thing to do. Things aren't necesarily looking bright for Gladiators in this game either.