Red Mage the Caster Tank

[BlueMageQuina]

I do love the idea of a caster tank and I have been thinking one up. The Red Mage just isn't th caster tank for me lorewise. But it's an interesting choice as a tank as I never would have considered it anything other than DPS. I would have to see an actual concept drawn out for this to get a feeling for a Red Mage as a tank.

I don't know why it would stance dance between INT and VIT instead of INT and STR though, as STR is the damage dealing factor and VIT is the HP factor. Don't forget however that it would also require a switch between skill speed and spell speed in its stance lest you want what should be a 2s cast time to be 8s.

If you used Arcanist's Resurrection or Astrologian's Ascend though, those are combat-ready right out of the box.

AST has a level 20 trait which allows it to cast Ascend inside of battle though you're right about ACN, its trait was removed.

[Selvokaz]

I also don't mind the stance-dancing between int and vit, as there's a potential for balancing damage, enmity generation, and armor there. However, I'm not certain how I feel about making it so you're either doing damage or taking hits. Truth is the Red Mage would need about equal VIT and INT as you also need to maintain aggro while tanking (and it is really difficult to do that in high-end raids without also doing damage).

Like I said, its not a fully fleshed out idea, but the my thoughts were that they would have a series of spells that build and hold enmity, kind of lack flash but a spell or two, one might be single target, the other might be aoe, with the stance being in vit mode it would build more enmity than normal but the trade off is you deal less damage, while in int stance the spell deals higher damage but doesn't build nearly as much enmity.

[Anova]

@BlueMageQuina
Hmm, i need to take a closer look at those AST traits. Also, it seems swiftcast does overwrite the out-of-combat only check on AST and CNJ's Raise. Guess that's one reason to play gladiator instead of paladin.

@Selvokaz
That sounds like the standard mechanic for tanks (i.e. sword/shield oath, grit/darkside, defiance/deliverance) and would work with anything. Is there any particular gap in tanking you think needs to be addressed, or is it simply for the flavor of a red mage? Either way is a good way to make the defining mechanic for the class (e.g. shield blocks, Dark Arts, Wrath). Instant cast on spells is a good start, but it's no different from every other tank ability that is instant with a 2.5 second cooldown (unless you're saying you want to remove the global cooldown...)