SAMURAI SHOWDOWN

[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~

[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...