New Tank (Beastmaster)

[Welsper59]

True, and if I had made it into a DPS, I would have come at it entirely differently. This was just an attempt between my partner and I to see if such a theme could be made into a tank. I understand what you mean, that the beasts are a big part of the beastmaster, and that was my very first argument against trying to make it into a tank honestly. However, the challenge was posed to me (mostly due to my partner's stubborn nature) to see what I might be able to come up with from a tanking perspective. I also understand that Beastmaster has always been a DPS class, and I couldn't agree more, that it probably should be such, a melee DPS. However, I did want to see if perhaps my ideas for making a tanking class were worth while. Which is why I posted it here, to get feed back on aspects of what I have proposed relating to balance and capabilities. Other ideas I have had in my head are things like elemental tanks (much like bunker building Elementalists from GW2) and melee weapon wielding ranged classes (like the Revenant, also GW2).

Future posters, please be gentle. I am well aware that BST is a DPS type class, and probably should be such. This was an experiment and a test for me to see if I could make something that is normally considered DPS (Like DRK was in FFXI for the most part) and turn it into something else.

Honestly, Geomancer (in reference to your mention of an elemental tank) would work a lot more plausibly than BST. If DRK in XIV can be a tank, despite traditionally being very low on defensive stats, probably no reason a Geomancer couldn't if they argued a manipulation of the elements to act as magical armor or whatever, and strengthening themselves through INT (since the other stats are kinda overly spoken for) and GEO is typically light armor. BST, being that its core playstyle is through the active use of pets (and a wide assortment of them), would be too difficult to really get to work under an actual tank role (and not just something akin to Titan Egi). Melee ranged would be a little too unusual for this games party setup. They'd essentially be BRD with different animation, afterall.

[Ceodore]

Honestly, Geomancer (in reference to your mention of an elemental tank) would work a lot more plausibly than BST. If DRK in XIV can be a tank, despite traditionally being very low on defensive stats, probably no reason a Geomancer couldn't if they argued a manipulation of the elements to act as magical armor or whatever, and strengthening themselves through INT (since the other stats are kinda overly spoken for) and GEO is typically light armor. BST, being that its core playstyle is through the active use of pets (and a wide assortment of them), would be too difficult to really get to work under an actual tank role (and not just something akin to Titan Egi). Melee ranged would be a little too unusual for this games party setup. They'd essentially be BRD with different animation, afterall.

Yes, melee range is rather strange to me too. Like The Elementalists in GW2 were able to dual wield daggers, and it was still ranged damage mostly. It is strange, but GW2 was very good at their implementation, and thoughts on if it could be applied in this game intrigue me too. To respond about Geomancer, I'd honestly refrain from considering a class that always typically used cloth gear, as was the case with Geomancers usually. It was one reason I thought of something like Ruin Fencer. As far as my melee weapon wielding ranged class, I was considering something magical, like the Red Mage.