The 4th Tank.

[Giantbane]

As has already been mentioned a number of times, Yoshi already said he thinks SAM should be DPS. Given that, I really think the chances for SAM as tank are pretty low.

Something hammer based would be cool. And another tank that shares the shield with PLD would be interesting. I could see Templar as a good option (1H Lance + Shield).

Maybe even BLU as a tank. As the BLU is all about getting hit by monster abilities to learn them, it makes the most sense to me if it were a tank here. Granted, it wouldn't be the same where you permanently learn 40 or 50 skills and choose between them. Instead, a BLU here could absorb specific skills to get limited use charges to use within the next 30s or so. For instance, if hit by titan's table flip, it would give them one charge of that ability, and they could turn around and use it right back (a scaled down version, obviously).

[Khalithar]

I could see Templar as a good option (1H Lance + Shield)

I do like the idea of another tank class with the shield, but I think it should be a weapon we haven't seen before like a one handed mace or a flail maybe. But I think the whole knightly protector thing is pretty much covered with paladin, I don't really think we need two of them. In my mind I keep going over what would be a good theme for a new tanking class, the game currently has three tanks, three melee dps, three healers, and four ranged dps.

If we assume that Samurai is meant to be the fourth melee dps class (I still like my idea of putting it on the leather armor and keeping the eastern style themed armor for mnk/nin/sam) then what does that leave us for tanking? We have a berserker in the warrior, we have a knightly protector in the paladin, we have the darkness wielding knight in drk.

So after really tossing thoughts around I came to two possible conclusions as to what made the most sense to me:

1. If SE sticks with their continued insistence on tanks only wearing the heavy plate armor, the only thing that I can think of is a heavily armored frontline soldier carrying a shield and possibly a mace. Not the light wielding knightly protector or a berserker, but a professional soldier/mercenary sort that is sent to fight on the front lines. I was inspired for it by everquest 2, everquest 2 has the berserker style tank, the paladin tank, and the shadow knight tank, then there was the class that's meant to be the opposite of the berserker while being a tank, that class is called Guardian: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Guardian No magic, no special powers or rage to harness, just a badass highly trained heavily armored soldier.

2. The other thought I had was a magic wielding tank that creates defensive shields and buffs to survive, the only caster I can think of that did that was the Red Mage armed with a rapier and no offhand.

[Zophar]

As has already been mentioned a number of times, Yoshi already said he thinks SAM should be DPS. Given that, I really think the chances for SAM as tank are pretty low.

I'm still not willing to dismiss the possibility of SAM as a tank though. It was also said that SAM was under consideration as the new tank for HW, but they decided to go with DRK instead. Plus, I mean, SAM just feels like it would fit really well as a tank, and there aren't a lot of other jobs out there that really do.