Think we'll get any Magic Tanks?

[statikcat]

Isn't PLD already this? They're a tank, and they use magic (cures and stoneskin, protect etc.). I actually miss the flexibility of the old armoury system, where alot more skills were able to be cross classes. You could be a gladiator and use fire etc. which would maybe be more what you are after

Paladins need more magic.. and then they are more different from Warrior and fix this issue.

[Gamemako]

Oh no I certainly agree it wouldn't be clean or very nice... I just think it's not impossible. I mean in that same vein Arcanists have only one healing spell (and nine offensive ones) and the wrong trait stats too and I've heard a lot of WHMs lately grumbling about Scholar being the better designed healer.

WHM has 6 offensive abilities. ACN has more offense than a pure healing design, but it's not actually that obtuse. ACN also has two healing abilities (Physick and Resurrection). The main thing is that ACN has, though, is a mechanic to hijack for making it into a healer. You tick all the necessary boxes as soon as you hit 30: normal heal, burst heal, baseline heal, AoE heal, enmity reduction (innate), combat raise. The weaknesses are addressed at 35 and 40 with AoE boost and cleanse. At 45 and 50, you hijack another mechanic (Aetherflow) to carve out a niche.

To me, a smooth role change requires either innately-appropriate abilities or readily-repurposed mechanics. CNJ is as vanilla a caster as it gets. There are no special mechanics to hijack, so you either deal with the current ability set (resulting in crap job), completely change spells (cure -> dia? Lol.), or ham-handedly ignore the ability set entirely (e.g. level 30: transform into bear!).