SAMURAI SHOWDOWN

[Ciri_Wolf]

I think queue times are the silliest reason to make a class. If a class is popular and only lowers the queue times for a couple weeks before getting dropped, it's failed as a class. Just as silly as too many sword tanks.

[Rhaja]

Considering the three tanks we have, PLD having it's dmg mitigation + shield, DRK having it's magic and WAR having it's excessive Durability to allow them to take hits, I can see why Samurai might be hard to implement as a tank.

Though would be interesting if Samurai derived from Garleans and the idea behind it was to allow others to have access to the "third eye" which in theory could perhaps be used as an explanation to allow them to tank. Say the stance of "Third Eye" allows a Samurai to control the flow of energy from attacks causing dmg reduction to occur while also increasing parrying rate and opening access to "Counters" gained from parrying which allow them to use special actions. It could be Counters are used by finishing a combo or parrying an action and with the ability to actively control their parry rate it could potentially work as a tank.

Not going to lie, as much as I'm siding with SAM as a dps, that does have an appeal to it. Then we'd also have gunblades being mixed with Samurai XD. God that would sell like hotcakes.

[MagiusNecros]

All I'm gonna say is if they make SAM a DPS they better make RDM a Tank so I have a magic class for all 3 roles.

[Shippuu]

Viking with Hammer weapon.

How is this even remotely close to being anywhere as popular/iconic as samurai? People complain about samurai overlapping with existing tanks cause "swords" but viking overlaps in almost every other way with what we already have in warrior from a style aesthetic viewpoint. You're suggesting a super obscure job that has only been in one main final fantasy game (ff3) and a very small handful of spinoff titles, compared to one of, if not the most requested job to be added to this game.

[Nalien]

All I'm gonna say is if they make SAM a DPS they better make RDM a Tank so I have a magic class for all 3 roles.

I'd prefer Blue Mage for mage tank... I can see Samurai having a solid counter based tanking style, but I can also see Blue Mage having pretty much the exact same thing, given how Blue Magic typically works.

Red Mage strikes me as either a Summoner style melee DPS (pointlessly having a cure and raise), or just a healer with a few melee tricks... While there are mechanics that call for the healer to distance themselves, are they ever something going on for the entire fight? Even if they're not, mechanics knocking out certain skills is nothing new at all... My Dark Knight cannot use Reprisal when OTing or when facing purely magic based enemies... Could always just slap Mystic Knight/Sword Mage in there like XI did, and give Red Mage En spells to act sort of like Sword Oath, could even work as a party buff... Could make its auto-attacks impressive, but if it's not in a situation where it can melee, it's boosting the parties auto-attacks.

I think ideally I'd like to see;

Samurai - Range/Melee hybrid DPS, no silly support gimmicks like Bard/Machinist, instead a strong focus on building up with a bow and executing finishers with a katana. Rather than directional bonuses, I'd like to see distance based ones, with some Plunge/Repelling Shot style skills to make moving about easier.

Blue Mage - Counter-based tank, INT as main stat so uses Casters gear, Clerics Stance style skill to allow such gear to be used for tanking.

Red Mage - DPS that hijacks Summoners DoT > Fester mechanics, DoTs are magic based, Fester is melee/fencing based.

Summoner - Drop the DoTs and double down entirely on the pet/summoning aspect of the Job, ideally with a rotation that focuses on various Primal Trances, rather than Egi...

Dancer - DEX/Melee based healer, uses a throwing weapon for DPS, dances for healing/buffs.

None of that's going to happen though, but I can dream~

[Tanathya]

All I'm gonna say is if they make SAM a DPS they better make RDM a Tank so I have a magic class for all 3 roles.

I hope they go that way. No "if".

[EdwinLi]

Like I said few post ago, what class can compite with Samurai in popularity to balance the DF in the first days of launch? Dark Knigh on 3.0 was massively popular to the point that on first weeks the DPS got insta queues while tanks got a normal queues and sometimes long queues.
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You do know 1 week is a very short life span compared to the entire life of this MMO. For a Tank to be successful they must last longer than 1 week or 1 month but to the point that tank player base actually increase enough to have a noticable effect beyond 3 months and the Player actually contine to player that tank Job for max level content and endgame.

The 1 week popularity was not actually popularity but a large amount of people were more curious and test out Dark Knight to see what it can do and what does it offer. However once they hit lvl 60 their loyality to the Tank Role was tested as that is when they must either accept the large negative amount of responsibility as a Tank or abandon Dark knight for a DPS or Healer Job.

Also how you are picturing what a Viking Tank may be like is being based on what you know about it from its past role in FF games. What Viking Job ends up as in FF14 can be completely different from Warrior since FF14 gameplay is different from FF3 gameplay which means they can start introducing new mechanics unique to FF14 version of the Jobs and even completely new gameplay.

[Rhaja]

Blue Mage - Counter-based tank, INT as main stat so uses Casters gear, Clerics Stance style skill to allow such gear to be used for tanking.

I'm going to go ahead and say keep them with the current tank stat's; VIT and STR. SE seems to be heavy on not having roles clashing over gear and keeping everything simple and uniformed. Having BLU more into VIT also makes sense in that they have to survive the attack before hand, which leads me to think that a BLU tank will be counter heavy, have the same HP pool as WAR or more, and matching WAR for it's brutality in combat.

[Nalien]

I'm going to go ahead and say keep them with the current tank stat's; VIT and STR. SE seems to be heavy on not having roles clashing over gear and keeping everything simple and uniformed. Having BLU more into VIT also makes sense in that they have to survive the attack before hand, which leads me to think that a BLU tank will be counter heavy, have the same HP pool as WAR or more, and matching WAR for it's brutality in combat.

My main concern is class identity, and this goes for Samurai as well, actually... The vast majority of the Fending sets simply don't suit potential other tanks IMO... I mean the Law Fending set suits Samurai perfectly, but most of the other sets? Samurai in that Darklight tincan? Really? Granted, most of the alternatives aren't better, but I'd sooner see a cloth wearing Samurai, since while not distinctly eastern in design, at least make more sense to me than a Samuria (or Blue Mage) in full plate mail...

I'll admit, it is an issue having people clash over loot, but I can see workarounds... Not inventory friendly, but the Alexander (Normal) method of handling loot could work going forward... Likewise, they could adjust the way the Duty Finder works; Rather than it going "1 Tank, 1 Healer, 2 DPS", we could add "2 Physical, 2 Magical" to that, which could also address issues with distance based mechanics and a potential non-ranged based healer. That's potentially bad for queue times of course, but it's just an idea...

For the most part, endgame is already covered by token systems anyway, and dungeon loot, even while leveling, is hardly worth worrying over IMO, so I don't see it being that big of an issue either way. The biggest issue is perhaps that SE doesn't want someone who leveled a tank to easily be able to switch to an entirely different role... They'd rather someone gear a tank and be locked to that role by virtue of their gear choices, personally I disagree with that though. Coming back to the whole "Getting people to play tanks" thing, I actually think something like that would help a bit, if I could gear my Black Mage, and by that fact alone have a Blue Mage tank geared? I'd be more likely to try out Blue Mage and tanking as a result. Meanwhile, if we have another Fending tank? Sure people might play it initially, but when they start having to pick what to gear? They'll gear their default DPS and forget about the tanks for the most part...

[Rhaja]

I personally don't think that gear appearance is what gives job identity. For example, the Lore set looks Dark Knight and Barbarian ish (WAR), but hardly PLD. Meanwhile all the 2.0 sets were more western knight theme'd, not exactly something the berserking warrior would wear. At least in my opinion. The Midas gear is also fear light in appearance; looking more like a coat than a set of armor. Not only that, but BLU and/or SAM will have it's own job theme'd gear that can be glamored over the current fending set.

What will give identity isn't gear stats or appearance, but play style. So far it sounds like the most common desired playstyle for either as a tank would be counter and redirecting, which would then bring the big decision; which will stand out more doing it? Then, which is going to add more diversity to the tank pool, and way down the line, do we want to keep locking swords behind the least played role? Will BLU duel wield swords, use whips, staves, an invisible weapon and morph itself in combat? SAM, a two handed katana, dual wield, a bow and sword combo, or something awesome like a Kanabo?

I don't know myself, as I'm clearly biased towards BLU as a tank and SAM as a DPS, but honestly as long as it feel's different from the other tanks I'm going to play it. I enjoy the tank role, therefore its a win regardless