Red Mage (Tank) Please!

[Mimilu]

I prefer a new caster.

We already have Black Mage, Summoner, Bard, and Machinist.

[Saccharin]

We already have Black Mage, Summoner, Bard, and Machinist.

Only Black Mage and Summoner are casters the rest are (physical) ranged.

[Krylo]

Couple of things to note:

Caster, melee, and ranged physical DPS all do the same thing: DPS. You should try to keep them roughly equal to each other (so our next classes should avoid melee DPS and drop another caster and/or range physical if any DPS at all), but you shouldn't compare them directly to the tanks or healers.

Standard groups are either: 1 tank, 1 healer, 2 DPS, or 2 tank, 2 healer, 4 DPS.

That is to say an equal amount of healers to tanks, and 2 DPS per tank, and that's the ratio we want. The one that parties are made in. IF ANYTHING, we should shoot for more tanks and healers than DPS to try to draw people into playing those roles to fill out parties more easily as most MMO players naturally gravitate toward DPS (this is for lots of reasons I don't feel like covering here).

However, we currently have 7 DPS to 3 tanks and 3 healers. That means our proper ratio for party filling is off by about a third of a class. To even it out you'd want 1 more DPS and one more of each tanks and healers. To err more toward the side of party filling you'd just put in the tanks and healers and leave the DPS alone.

That said, I don't really care what role red mage or blue mage or samurai fill. What I DO care about is if we just keep making all the 'favorite' classes into DPS we're going to end up going back to 30-45 minute DPS queue times for every roulette during prime time, and hours off prime time.

[Intaki]

IF ANYTHING, we should shoot for more tanks and healers than DPS to try to draw people into playing those roles to fill out parties more easily

Except that isn't how it works.

Remember how DPS queues got super fast in the first two weeks of the expansion, but then wound up returning to normal after a month? Yeah.

[AlphaFox]

Except that isn't how it works.

Remember how DPS queues got super fast in the first two weeks of the expansion, but then wound up returning to normal after a month? Yeah.

Agreed, it doesn't really matter how many tanks you make. If people do not want to tank, they will not play the class.

[Krylo]

Except that isn't how it works.

Remember how DPS queues got super fast in the first two weeks of the expansion, but then wound up returning to normal after a month? Yeah.

They're nowhere near as bad as they were pre-heavensward. They're still about half that. 10-15 minute queues for end game is nothing like what it used to be.

Also, ninja + mch + ast + drk = what ratio?

[Intaki]

They're nowhere near as bad as they were pre-heavensward.

They're exactly what they were pre-Heavensward, not counting the pre-expansion lull period when subs are more apt to drop.

[Krylo]

They're exactly what they were pre-Heavensward, not counting the pre-expansion lull period when subs are more apt to drop.

Listen, I'm not going to argue over things neither of us can prove, BUT, here's the thing:

There's, what? 5? 10 posts? In this thread saying 'rdm should be caster because there's 2 casters and 3 tanks'. If the ratio isn't going to change anything then THAT doesn't matter either.

Also, even if you think things will completely normalize eventually, most people hate the idea of sam as tank because A: already have a two handed sword tank, B: no sword melee DPS. No one wants Rdm to be tank, and most don't like the idea of it being heals either (which, I agree, is completely different from Rdm's role in the other games, with the possible exception of FFXI? I never played that). Everyone also wants Blu to be DPS because it's just a weird class that never really fit as tank or heals in any of its previous incarnations.

Whenever new classes are released people try them. Lots of people. From every class. And, yes, some people stick with them--yes we did lose some tanks to ninja, and lost some DPS to drk--but even if that wasn't the case, that'd still be between 2 and 6 weeks of absolutely abysmal queue times.

Further: People do, indeed, try new classes outside of their favored role and stick with them. You can, indeed, get DPS players tanking by offering them new tanking experiences until one clicks with them. It's one of the many strategies that multiplayer games use to get people to play the needed roles. Most games shoot for closer to a 40% ratio of classes tank capable to try and get parties to fill (of course most games also allow tanking classes to use DPS builds, which gets people hooked on the class and then people ask them to try tanking, etc. etc. but that's a whole other thing).

[ckc22]

However, we currently have 7 DPS to 3 tanks and 3 healers. That means our proper ratio for party filling is off by about a third of a class. To even it out you'd want 1 more DPS and one more of each tanks and healers. To err more toward the side of party filling you'd just put in the tanks and healers and leave the DPS alone.

This all assumes that people filter into classes evenly which is a bad assumption. There could be twice as many tank and healer classes and you'd still have more people play dps.

[Xaenith]

I really hope they would add red Mage as a tank class since it would be sweet. If they use your suggestions though it will be ridiculously OP