Guess that Gunblade Job function.

[Farkle]

Katana = Japanese sword.
Not all sword users are tanks

[HumsterMKX]

Gunblades... why settle for just blades with guns?

Why not a blade that fires guns with in turn shoots out blades at your target?

On impact the blades fire mini bullets which contain nano tech bots armed with nano blades and guns.

[LineageRazor]

I'm glad some folks realize just how silly gunblades really are. See, we have a gun - a powerful ranged weapon that revolutionized warfare due to its destructive potential. Good, now let's remove the range. And the power. Erm...

A gun with a blade attached makes sense... IF the primary use of the weapon is still as a ranged weapon, with the blade only as a last resort for close-quarters combat. Gunblades as presented in FFVIII were pretty much the total opposite, pretty much functionally equivalent to a sword with a fancy hilt. All style, no substance. Of course, style isn't a bad thing in a fantasy world, but I don't think I'd want to build a job around such a weapon.

If there was going to be such a thing, though, I'd guess it'd be DPS. Gunblades have the most appeal to rabid FF fanboys and fangirls, and such folks would likely rage themselves into a stroke if their pet weapon was anything but omgl33tdeeps.

You know what's similar to gunblades in terms of silliness? Sword chucks, yo! And way more awesome! A gunblade (Sword plus Gun) is pretty much used like a regular sword. But sword-chucks (Sword plus Nunchucks) are used like nunchucks - WAY more flashy! I'd rather have a sword-chucks job than a gunblade job anyday, much more fun to watch!

[abzoluut]

I made a post about it on the first page but since you didn't read it

I did. It said "class". DRK is a job. :-)

[Kuwagami]

Sword chucks, yo!

someone give that person a cookie!

that said, gunhammers like nero's weapon are just awesome things and well made for close range (use the blast to swing that hammer in their head, or just blast their heads instead). I love those since I played Monster Hunter ^^

[EdwinLi]

Katana = Japanese sword.
Not all sword users are tanks

Well they originally wanted Samurai to be the Tank of 3.0 before they changed their minds and replaced it with Dark Knight so that speaks on what they thought about the Katana.

Though I believe their reason for replacing SAM for DK in 3.0, and holding it for future release, was because they didn't want another "Eastern themed" Job released this soon in FF14 since Ninja was just released in 2.4.

[TouchandFeel]

I don't recall Yoshida ever saying that they were originally planning to have Samurai as the tank for 3.0 or as a tank at all. As far as I know, SAM being a tank was all conjecture and wishful thinking on the players' part.

I do remember Yoshida saying that they had the game planned and mapped out all the way to the expansion by the time 2.0 was released, so I kind of feel that DRK was planned for as the 3.0 tank all along.

He did say though that they decided to not include SAM with the expansion since NIN was already being released and they did not want to overdo the Eastern themed jobs.

Yoshida also did make the comment that SAM seemed more like a dps class to him.

In the end, SAM may end up being a tank or may end up being dps. We won't know until that is revealed later down the road.

As far as sword classes being tanks, my guess would have to do with typical fantasy associations and how those tropes translate into an MMO.
Most typically in high fantasy, the character most associated with using a sword is the knight. Knights tend to be seen as heavily armored defenders or champions which usually makes them end up being classified as tanks in MMO's. So we get the result of sword usage being heavily swayed towards tanks or tanky type classes. You see this in many MMO's as well as the FF series as a whole.

However, I do believe that eventually we will probably get dps that use swords now that sword+shield and two-handed sword are out of the way. For example, there are still Katana for Samurai which has been mentioned as a potential dps. Fencing swords are most associated with Red Mages which to me would make the most sense as a dps job.
So as it is now, yes the only sword classes are tanks but it will most likely not stay that way.

[MageBlack]

I really want a Sword DD class. I don't like the Pally as a sword and board tank, I've been hoping for a secondary job (Like SMN/SCH) for the GLD that would probably be a DD but with the way it sounds like things are going, we wont see that kind of split anymore.

Or a DD Axe Job, Viking!

[AlexionSkylark]

Nero uses a gunblade, and he's a DPS class mostly.

[Kuwagami]

Nero uses a gunblade, and he's a DPS class mostly.

this is not a gunblade. And can't really say if the judges (oops sorry, the garlean generals) are dps or tanks...