the need for 3rd tank class

[ReplicaX]

I see what you are saying, However, a tank is a tank imo, regardless of the job (As long as ppl are willing to play them). Ninja and samurai still served a purpose in-game despite what SE intended them to be.

I'll clarify further and keep it rather simple.

Since NIN wasn't designed to be a tank. There was a long and stale period of time for NIN. At first many players adapted with what they had available to get by. Using Evasion setups, Elemental Wheel spam in the mid-lvls and endgame consisted of some NIN/BLM for more enmity generation as it lacked. New abilities and gear tailored for the new role took years.

It was also the devs fault. They basically gave up and didn't define the original role enough and also readjust it if they accepted the community change in a timely manner. Then you have the years of imbalance just between 2 jobs in one tank role. This is what I meant by never wanting to see this again, especially in XIV.

[Swagcity]

I am merely stating that as long as ppl play them; it does not matter, a tank is a tank. Nin was somewhat harder and took more concentration; that is the only stepping stone I recall (And obtaining Ni). Tanking on nin was quite easy after I obtained Ni. I guess we will agree to disagree. However, I fully understand your sentiments; I just cannot relate, that is all, no biggie.

[Synestra]

Warriors in TERA were/are also perfectly viable without being OP.

Yet nobody really wanted warriors as an tank in there due their way of tanking and in the end they gave blocking for warriors(parry)while also making them one of the best DPS class TERA currently has(iirc warriors are nowdays counted as DPS class more than tank, atleast by community).

[Sylkis]

There is actually space available for OFFTANKS.

Sometimes, you want a role that does more damage than a tank, but doesn't need to tank all the time.
For example: Garuda ex, Twintania

How it works:
-Does higher damage than a tank on DPS spec, but lower than a DPS class
-As tough as a dragoon in terms of hp and defense
-A skill similar to Aetherflow. This allows them to use a skill to reduce damage for the next hit (removes a stack), OR as long as this Aetherflow buff is up then they take reduced damage but they lose a stack when they are damaged.
-A skill that redirects damage to them (like cover) or changes the target to themselves temporarily (like 1.0 taunt), which has a low CD.

Example usage:
-Tank Garuda sisters (DPS can currently do this)
-Tank twintania's egg hatch
-Take a table flip from Titan, incinerate from Ifrit or Death Sentence from Twintania while main tank is the target (Needs to be timed)


This class would be unable to main tank anything a dragoon can't already i.e. anything serious, because auto attacks from bosses or adds would quickly remove their Aetherflow like buff which they cannot maintain constantly.


tldr an offtank kind of like ffxi ninja except their shadows are severely gimped but have no cast time.

[Gamemako]

There is actually space available for OFFTANKS.

No, there isn't. You know what you don't see? 3-tank runs for Garuda extreme. Why? You don't need a third tank, and you do need DPS. Even if you for some reason favor the triangle method for Garuda, you'd be a fool to give up a full DPS for a gimped one just to do one trivial job.

[Lastrada]

My ideal tank would be one which is designed around active mitigation through constant self-buff rotations, similar to how the rift stalker in RIFT works.There stats would (appear) lower than other tanks at first and thus be some what squishy on the starting pull but once they get there buffs up and running they'd become an extremely effective damage-mitigation tank. There buffs and mitigation tools would be tied in with there hate tools to a point but not completely with the aim being to present choices to the player to make for there rotation, weather they need to refresh one of there buffs for example or go for the hate generation this round of abilities.

The skill cap would be higher for tanks who enjoy a good challenge since your rotation is going to be more then 1-2-3, the play style would be faster and funner since you'll always be responsible for your mitigation/survivability instead of just waiting to hit your big CD's for a burst of damage. But, that is just my ideal tank.

[Lastrada]

Snip

The above is simply my opinion however and I'm aware that it wouldn't fix the DPS que problem but I am a fan of options and I feel this would at least reward the people who do enjoy playing tanks and it would of course make a few new tanks out of people who might enjoy tanking but don't enjoy the play style of the current two tanks. Also, who made the character limit on this form? It's so short...I had to delete so much.

[Quiz]

My ideal tank would be one which is designed around active mitigation through constant self-buff rotations, similar to how the rift stalker in RIFT works.There stats would (appear) lower than other tanks at first and thus be some what squishy on the starting pull but once they get there buffs up and running they'd become an extremely effective damage-mitigation tank. There buffs and mitigation tools would be tied in with there hate tools to a point but not completely with the aim being to present choices to the player to make for there rotation, weather they need to refresh one of there buffs for example or go for the hate generation this round of abilities.

You just described WAR

[Swagcity]

The above is simply my opinion however and I'm aware that it wouldn't fix the DPS que problem but I am a fan of options and I feel this would at least reward the people who do enjoy playing tanks and it would of course make a few new tanks out of people who might enjoy tanking but don't enjoy the play style of the current two tanks. Also, who made the character limit on this form? It's so short...I had to delete so much.

I dig it^^ I like options also; the current two are somewhat boring imo (Could be more of a mechanics thing).

[Mardel]

SE has in a sense cornered themselves of developing new forms of tanks w/o making them similar to war/pld.

Say dark knight was brought in and tanked, how would it take differently from pld/war? Parry? Warrior does this. Block? Paladin does this. Perhaps a mage that casts shields on themselves to negate damage, but then that would be essentially inner beast/adloquim. Evasion tanking typically ends up broken in a non-action combat game. Thus this is the reason why we don't have 3 tanks, atm and only 2 healers as well. Each job essentially is designed to be slightly different than another and "specialize" while being just as good as the alternatives.

The other big issue is that SE wants essentially any group make up (that is 2 tank/2heal/4dps) to be able to clear all their content. They've already said this before and this is also why jobs like blm do not do true elemental damage. When you take all these factors into account it isn't a real surprise that we have the issue we have now.