How to make tanks more fun to play (devs please read)

[Ehayte]

The real problem is not the nostalgia of FF being removed from PLD. I love FF games, and I don't even notice that. BLMs get to see: "Fire III 1973!" and MNKs get to see steady streams of 795! 698! 590!, even healers get to see huge amounts of tank HP restored on critical hits. When a tank is successful in their job (mitigating dmg), it makes the fight LESS exciting!

They should figure out a way to either display damage mitigated as its happening, or add cool animations to show dmg is being mitigated by the tank. Feeling powerful in a digital world is all about seeing things happen. When I use HG on Garuda X and zero out 2 WWs, a Slipstream, and a downburst, NO ONE will notice except maybe one healer. I would love for there to be reactive lighting/plasma effects for the damage that I mitigate with abilities. Its probably a lot of designer time, but I think that is the main fun factor missing.

[Sadana]

They should figure out a way to either display damage mitigated as its happening, or add cool animations to show dmg is being mitigated by the tank...

I love this! You're right that dps get all excited at their damage numbers, healers get to be excited at their healing numbers... tanks should be able to be excited over their damage taken numbers. ^_^ Makes sense to me!
....

I was wondering, what about making hate generation easier (and yes, I fear using that word here) for tanks? Aren't tanks yelled at most often if they let a mob slip away to go nom on a dps or healer?

I will agree that targeting with a ps3 controller is awful. Why does it select a mob across the room rather than the one next to me? I get the whole character-view not camera-view thing, but still. :-/

I get the argument that it's the players not the game that makes tanking unappealing. What can the devs do to make tanking less rage inspiring?

I'm a big FF fan myself, but renaming abilities wouldn't really do much for me. :-/

(Tank alt at level 23 MRD, level 16 GLD. Afraid to go any farther.)