Ranged Tank

[Askio]

I've played ranged tanks in other MMO's and there are some perks. I'll list them out. I'm also assuming I wouldn't go bard for this case. That limits too many cross class skills. It wouldn't be the first time I've gone end game without an "advanced class" and made it work.

Pros
Draw enemies in locally to you from a distance. Sometimes, someone will go rush in as a DPS and suddenly it's that much harder to aggro because I have to chase the damn things down. With range, you can aggro from afar, meaning less chasing and more meatshielding. This is probably my biggest pet peeve right now as a tank. Let me aggro first dammit, and stop rushing in.
Ranged dps over time. Usually the best way to go, so you can save MP or whatever system a game has for healing and abilities. It just means simpler management of the field.
Annoying people in pvp. Nothing amuses me more than to hit someone from afar, or to be a tank healer and not be squished.

[Askio]

Con
Right now, no access to heavy armor. This is probably the saddest thing for me for mages *tear. Imagine a Thuamaturge in heavy iron armor. *forlorn sigh* And the greatest limitation.
Jobs limit cross class skills.
So,I think ^^TheodoreMcIntyre^^ probably has the best point on why it wouldn't happen, setting aside current equipment limitations pointed out by ^^Ceodore^^(curiosity is good). My counter to Theodore would be that a good tank could compensate for this, regardless if it's melee or ranged. In fact, a ranged tank could lead enemies into better position by running away and exposing the flank. A good tanker is good, a bad one is bad. How far they hit enemies is irrelevant. Though since it was mentioned, there are few, true ranged enemies, now that I think on it. Even magic wielding enemies seem to charge at your face as if to say "kill me, please." Odd.

[TheodoreMcIntyre]

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Well, as it stands, all enemies already have their flanks exposed in some form or another without having to kite. Now, if you did have a kiting tank, another problem arises, again, with melee DPS. See, you have to be in a pretty close range to use any melee attack in the game, aside from jumps and a few other select skills, and the way the game processes melee attacks is a little weird, so if you try and run and use a melee attack on an enemy but they run out of range before the animation finishes, it will cancel a skill.

Though, this may all be moot depending on what they do with Dark Knight. I was kind of hoping machinist would fulfill ranged tank hopes. Looking like the Eng from guild wars 2, and that's not all bad.

Screw it, I'm going to hop on the most populated server I can find and try it out. See how much I take. Keep the ideas coming if you'd like, or rage against it and call me a fool. I will always dream.

I don't think anybody's particularly mad at you for it.
I mean, I know it's definitely possible.
To say it isn't would be silly.
It would just require alot of reworking of some of the fundamental ways the game processes combat.