
Originally Posted by
Tetsaru
Well, here's my thoughts:
The way that enmity is set up now, all it takes is a large spike in damage or curing in order to yank hate right off a gladiator tank. Here's the problem:
All the other Disciples of War - Pugilist, Lancer, Archer, and Marauder (especially Marauder) - all generally do more damage than Gladiator.
Disciples of Magic - Conjurer and Thaumaturge - can both do sudden bursts of damage with their spells, as well as cure for large amounts of health, especially now that Cure spells can crit now (at least, according to a friend of mine who normally uses Cure III to heal around 800-900 and then got a crit heal for around 1200).
In order for a Gladiator to even come close to holding hate, they have to level up many other jobs to learn moves and traits, such as War Drum, Taunt, Intimidation, etc., which is really stupid, in my opinion. I can pop Provoke II, Taunt, Disorient, War Drum, Heavy Slash, Heavy Stab, AND Riot Blade while wearing my Sentinel's Sabatons and having Intimidation set that give +Enmity and STILL sometimes cannot get hate over other people who are actually doing their jobs like they're supposed to. I also use Phalanx II from time to time, but it becomes useless if the enemy's not focused on me, or if I don't get any blocks, which has also become a problem after the last patch. I've even gone so far recently as to make a Dated Maddening Dagger (which gives +25 Enmity now, by the way) and Maddening Potions to try and see if I can hold hate easier with it than with my Ul'Dahn Scimitar or Cobalt Winglet, but I have yet to test them.
That said, here's what I would like to see happen in the future:
1 - Give Gladiator an exclusive move similar to Provoke/Taunt/War Drum/Disorient (or adjust the existing moves) that IMMEDIATELY forces the enemy's hate towards you for a set amount of time, regardless of enmity. All the HP, defense, vitality, and moves like Sentinel/Rampart etc. a Gladiator has are completely useless if you can't get the enemy to focus on you instead of everyone else.
2 - Allow Gladiators to block AND parry to lessen or negate damage. If other DoW's can parry and DoM's can use shields to block OR use two-handed weapons to parry, then GLA should be able to do both as a tanking job.
3 - Adjust existing enmity algorithms so that Gladiators can tank more easily, other damage-dealers can keep doing their job without fear of pulling hate, and healers can use that desperately needed Curaga II to save everyone without getting KO'd immediately afterwards. I suspect this is already being worked on, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
4 - Get rid of Riot Blade's Pacification effect and Rage of Halone's casting time. There's no need for them when other moves like Storm's Path can do a LOT more damage.
5 - Intimidation needs to be a Gladiator or Sentinel trait, not a Marauder trait. Marauders should be hitting things with their axes for tons of damage, not tanking. Same could be said for a lot of other moves, like Speed Surge, Taunt, Decoy, etc. that would be PERFECT for a tank, but are instead wasted on other jobs that don't really need them as much. I don't mind playing as other jobs everyone once in a while, but I shouldn't have to level all the other combat jobs to 40+ just to be a decent tank. Put some of this stuff on Gladiator, or even better - Sentinel, since it doesn't have that many moves anyway.
6 - Add more gear and/or materia that improves enmity, parrying, and block rates. I'd love to see something like a Blood Sword (all auto-attacks you perform heal you for the same amount) or some armor set other than the Sentinel gear that gives as much enmity as the Maddening Dagger, for instance.