Dancer Tank!!!

[Kathyz]

What about a Stance toggle like Love dance, wich make the enemies Damage 10% of the damage they going to make against you and you recive 10% more defense while lossing 20% power or anithing new like, you are dacing so lets make all your GCD .30 secs longer? so you can let the dancer with low atack power with the stance but cover the diference with that and that 10% damage "reflection"

And other types of dances wich creates distraction to the nemies and bosses, like Flank dance, make the enemies at 5 yalms of distance take more damage for Flank position, and rear Dance for more damage for Rear, these effects can't use together and drain your mp in use (or maybe can use together but the MP drain its faster?). That can be cool xD

[heynowjose]

I want this soooo bad. I hate tanking right now. Its a choice between 3 jobs that all basically look the same and act pretty much the same. Its so boring. At least dancer as a tank would look and feel different

[Xyphon]

Pugilist was able to evade tank just fine in 1.0. That's the whole reason haymaker existed in the first place. The biggest thing missing in ARR/HW is evasion stat/gear/materia. So there's no real way to stack up on it. Also since 2.0, fists of wind and featherfoot have both been nerfed heavily.

Dancer of XI wasn't just an evasion tank, but also a drain/heal tank. The biggest advantage they had was the party wide dance buffs, and the ability to store up for massive heals or esuna effects. I'd love to see something like this in 2.0, and Tanaka had it on his wish list:



Except, it looks like its weapon was a whip @_@

[Kuwagami]

Bard => Musical.

Yeah, right xD

[Calypsx]

I want this soooo bad. I hate tanking right now. Its a choice between 3 jobs that all basically look the same and act pretty much the same. Its so boring. At least dancer as a tank would look and feel different

My exact problem. Tank choices are super dull thematically in this game, at least in other mmorpgs I can usually find a light armored tank like Stalker in Wildstar and Monk in WoW.

[Duelle]

As mentioned earlier, it wouldn't need to be about fully evading attacks. I'd probably draw from WoW brewmaster monks or Wildstar tank stalkers. The former had a mechanic that allowed it to receive less direct damage; it was an 80-20 split where you took 80% of the damage on hit and the remaining 20% over time. They also had a buff that they'd gain from using certain abilities that increases their evasion rate. The idea can certainly work here. We just need to know where to look for inspiration.

[Anova]

I don't quite see how the tanks are the same. They certainly have similar functions: an enmity combo, a utility combo, a damage stance, a tank stance, a stun, group enmity, group area enmity, and then a couple unique buffs for their job. Any tank you make for this game is going to need those basic tools. If its aesthetics, that's your own thing. For me, it makes sense though for the person in heavy armor to be more survivable than the person wearing a bikini.

@duelle
That is an interesting tank idea and I'd like to see it implemented in ffxiv. The biggest concern is that the delayed damage tanks may eat in to healer dps times, which makes it a huge detriment to endgame groups and thereby unpopular in the meta. There's probably a few tricks and testing to find the best ratio of damage:delayed-damage, but it is something to be aware of when developing the idea.

[Calypsx]

Dancer Lilisette shows us there is no need for heavy armor if they can't even touch you.
https://youtu.be/3eg_Xz-OFyI?t=1m10s

I forgot to mention Jedi Shadow in SWTOR is another light/medium armored tank in mmorpgs, the list goes on.

[Shurrikhan]

I don't quite see how the tanks are the same. They certainly have similar functions: an enmity combo, a utility combo, a damage stance, a tank stance, a stun, group enmity, group area enmity, and then a couple unique buffs for their job. Any tank you make for this game is going to need those basic tools. If its aesthetics, that's your own thing. For me, it makes sense though for the person in heavy armor to be more survivable than the person wearing a bikini.

@duelle
That is an interesting tank idea and I'd like to see it implemented in ffxiv. The biggest concern is that the delayed damage tanks may eat in to healer dps times, which makes it a huge detriment to endgame groups and thereby unpopular in the meta. There's probably a few tricks and testing to find the best ratio of damage:delayed-damage, but it is something to be aware of when developing the idea.

I imagine it will end up with a balance and reception similar to Defiance's. Granted, a delay of damage increases eHP but by itself does not increase mitigation/healing efficiency. That said, this would almost certainly be paired with something else, or the evasion itself should have enough average benefit (it might well be that "something else").

On other fronts there are two other possible additions/revisions I think would help:
1. [Variable Glancing Blows] Revise the system for Blocks, Parries, and Dodges to be dependent on and affect enemy accuracy and accuracy to have an analog/percentile effect on damage, rather than a pure "hit" or "miss".

Make each "miss" a percentile dependent on the accuracy lacking, rather than having only 0% misses and 100% hits. Give Parries and Blocks both a 'Guard/Barrier' (a flat reduction of incoming damage and increase to personal Defense against said attack), and a 'Deflection/Evasion' component (reducing the accuracy of the enemy attack). Dodges normally carry only a 'Deflection/Evasion' component. (Crits,) Parries, Blocks, and Dodges are no longer categorically exclusive, and may stack. "Parry" stat replaced with "Guard" and "Deflection" stats. "Guard" increases the flat reduction, bonus to calculated defense, and the damage required to interrupt your casts "Deflection" increases the modifiers by which your own accuracy, AP, and weapon damage/block value may affect enemy accuracy. "Deflection" works as the go-to anti-tank-buster stat, and "Guard" as the smoothing/utility stat.
(Note: they might also be able to make use, though to lesser degree, of the Critical Strike and Determination stats, though Skill Speed would be a bit more difficult to find a place here for. (See below.))

2. [Helpful hidden RNG dynamics] Dodges, blocks, and parries work on a hidden eHP-esque resource system. Proc chances vary according to urgency and remaining resource. (More resource used to proc the evasion type with the most remaining eHP that would most closely prevent you from dropping below 15% HP.)

Dodges, block, and parries each have / share [undecided] a hidden eHP resource that is generated over time and with each normal proc, but may be drained to force a proc to prevent crucial damage. Evasion/mitigation resources will be tapped into according to(1) the %HP that you would otherwise reach, (2) the %HP that would otherwise be lost, and (3) current remaining eHP in the resource. Evasion/mitigation type will be automatically selected according to each criteria, aiming to most closely avoid dropping into critical health with the least resource.
As resource dwindles, overall proc chance and effects are reduced (at a lesser proportion).
The overall effect of this change is that evasion resources tend to go off more when you need them, but not necessarily more overall. Optimal use would revolve around relying on evasion/mitigation types only very occassionally, since there is no benefit for having excess resource, but proc chances and effects are somewhat reduced by having reduced resource. Inversely, though evasion/mitigation types will even then produce the same safety net as they do currently through more timely usage, working in the red will actually drop proc rates and efficiency beneath their current norms.
(Further, Critical Strike and Determination could also work well in this system, but so too could Skill Speed. Determination would increase overall efficiency, Critical Strike would have a chance to increase efficiency greatly, and Skill Speed could increase the speed at which resource is regenerated.)

And, if you really want lightly armored tank jobs to shine, put a natural evasion reduction on upper-defense armor types and then boost base general evasion slightly and/or give back Dexterity its mitigation/evasion-embonusing effects.


---> That said, I still just want Dancer as a highly versatile hybrid melee support with a few ranged opportunities, who simply can tank for a time.

[Freyyy]

Dancer Lilisette shows us there is no need for heavy armor if they can't even touch you.
https://youtu.be/3eg_Xz-OFyI?t=1m10s

Wow and they told me that FFXI was ugly. I find it quite good looking in this cutscene (yeah never played it and just watched a bunch of screenshots).

A light armor tank would be awesome. There is one in a lot of MMOs and when it's done right, they are pretty good tank classes with no mitigation issues at all.