My take on Samurai as a tank

[FallenArisen0990]

I prefer how samurai works in 7th dragon. Different skills working with different stances (with each having an emphasis with either offence or defence) and you can either manually change your stance or use combo skills that have you fluidly switch between stances when you finish them. Add to that a reactive counter/parry system on very a short cooldown that either reflect damage or lower or nullify incoming damages depending on your stance and it might be a fun class to play but I'm no game designer and this would probably be broken in an MMORPG....

Omg, I completely forgot to take from that concept of Samurai. I loved the Samurai Class from 7th Dragon 2020 series. <3

[TankHunter678]

It would be better for Sword Drawn to be the Tank Stance.

You can have a number of defensive cooldowns used in Sword Drawn built around countering or avoiding/redirecting the enemy's attack, something commonly seen in movies involving Samurai as they forsake heavy armor like European Knights for a lighter more nimble armor. May have as its sorta of Ultimate Cooldown be a move that cleaves a hole of safety behind the samurai in the AoE it is cast in. Commonly seen in anime done by sword wielders of the Eastern Sword Styles. Would also set it apart from other tanks in that instead of becoming unkillable, it prevents damage to allies.

Sword Sheathed should be the DPS stance.

Build its offensive around the concept of "to defeat the enemy with a single blow", swapping its weaponskills to a charge system where the longer you hold it the more damage it does and its offensive cooldowns around amplifying that damage. Would turn Samurai into dealing spike damage rather then constant damage, perhaps such that a good samurai player could be capable of OHKO'ing boss adds.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

I have to agree about healing style not being watch and wait.
But I do like the idea of iaido for samurai.


It would be my go to tank if it were to be a tank class.
I'm not particularly fond of sword and board, and you really can't go without here...
I'm not particularly fond of large weapons either, but it's a bit better, though I haven't found a weapon I particularly like yet...
And I just don't particularly like axes in general.

[MugenMugetsu]

Samurai as tank? No thanks.

@OP, great post. Your ideas are very creative. As a Sam main when I played FFXI. I would much prefer for Sam to be one of the highest DPS jobs in the game.

Samurai as DPS or RIOT!

[Khalithar]

Samurai as tank? No thanks.

Samurai was originally intended to be the tank for heavensward but they changed it to dark knight instead. Now the question it comes down to, is did they scrap the idea entirely? Or did they shelve it to work on it later? I don't know if they would just scrap it, I lean more towards the idea of them setting it aside to work on it later.

[FeliAiko]

A core mechanic centered around doing nothing for significant periods of time ("wait and watch") would be boring, especially for a role (Tank) where you already spend large periods of time with little to do as it is. Also "wait and watch" as far as healing is only a thing to people who don't know how to fully maximize the job.

[Rhaja]

Samurai was originally intended to be the tank for heavensward but they changed it to dark knight instead. Now the question it comes down to, is did they scrap the idea entirely? Or did they shelve it to work on it later? I don't know if they would just scrap it, I lean more towards the idea of them setting it aside to work on it later.

I'm honestly leaning more towards they took what they liked and put it to DRK. Parry Focus, the gap closer, the stance, More than willing to bet that Dark Arts was Kiai which is why it boost certain moves.

[FeliAiko]

I'm honestly leaning more towards they took what they liked and put it to DRK. Parry Focus, the gap closer, the stance, More than willing to bet that Dark Arts was Kiai which is why it boost certain moves.

This seems more likely. Or that DRK/SAM had the same framework to begin with, and just came down to a matter of which thematic/aesthetic to go with.

[Alaltus]

Samurai tank is highly likely since Ninja is the japanese style dps. Would be nice to see Samurai utilise counters and pugilist's evade + counter abilities.

[Kosmos992k]

If Samurai is a god damn tank I riot. Give me a sword based DPS. Ridiculous there isn't one already.

Yep this, definitely this. Oh, and can we also have whatever job Raubahn has/had where he wields two blades at once. Seems like a offense oriented variant of a Paladin to me.