My take on Samurai as a tank

[Shurrikhan]

I get why people would think this, but when you break it down, why does DRG have to suddenly share their armor? Monks don't have to share theirs, Ninja don't have to share theirs. DRG having "medium" armor doesn't matter when every other melee job has their own classification of armor too. Samurai, if going with Yoshida's idea of them, would end up sharing gear with monk or ninja rather than DRG.

That's not to say it's impossible, but Samurai just make a perfect fit for another tank. There aren't many iconic FF jobs left that can fit the current mold of tank in this game (Heavy armor). Plus samurai in Final fantasy games have a strong history of defensive abilities, protecting others, and capable of being the party's tank or as close as you can with whatever game mechanics are there.

The thought of protecting others also fits exactly in line with the romanticized notions of Bushido (much like chivalry). Hell, even the two named samurai archetype characters in main FF games were staunch defenders/protecors/bodyguards of others.

It is just the most logical choice while also being one that requires a lower level of additional development.

It's not necessarily sharing gear so much as armor class. You'd then have Plate | Mail | Leather | Cloth instead of Tank | Dragoon! | Cloth | Everyone Else.

Who knows, eventually we might not have any job-limited armors, and simply have outputs diminished with increased armor class, where traditionally mail and plate armor classes have, increasingly, decreased penalties, everyone to some degree uses all stats, and what little differences exist between redyed gear sets can just be covered by improvements to dye and glamour systems instead? At that point you have the lamellar war armor, lighter infantry, and "dressed down" samurai ideas as being gameplay differences consequent to freely selectable gear — both in armor class and primary and secondary stats.

In my opinion, they probably won't add another armor type. If samurai is a dps per Yoshida's vision I see it sharing the Striking gear with mnk, if tank it will probably get the Fending gear.

That wouldn't be adding anything. It's simply giving a previously single-user armor class a second user, whereas leather gear is shared by Monks, Ninjas, Bards, and Machinists—so you have 3|2|4|5 instead of 3|1|5|5. That's the only change. That said I think realistically you're right that it would be leather or plate, though I expect that it will only potentially share gear with other tanks; Striking will more likely remain Monk only, as with all other melee. My point was merely that with future changes to other systems, potentially anything goes.

[AlphaFox]

I guess the one thing we need to address is the event we had pertaining to FF11 and the Samurai we helped, didn't she use like a Naginata? Would that perhaps be our clue to what SAM will really be?

[Galgarion]

I think I'd rather have Red Mage or Judge as the new tank class. Mostly the Judge, since they looked tanky as hell in FF XII. We're due for a new melee dps class, and having two great sword wielders as tanks seems a touch unbalanced.

[Shurrikhan]

I think I'd rather have Red Mage or Judge as the new tank class. Mostly the Judge, since they looked tanky as hell in FF XII. We're due for a new melee dps class, and having two great sword wielders as tanks seems a touch unbalanced.

Out of the three, the Judge is the hardest not to see as having innate tanking ability, for sure. Even if you were to imagine them as a DPS variant, they'd still be sporting a mountain of armor. That said, I wonder how much a judge could really differ from, say, a gameplay-improving revamp of a simple Gladiator, where you have the option of taking a second sword instead.

[Galgarion]

Out of the three, the Judge is the hardest not to see as having innate tanking ability, for sure. Even if you were to imagine them as a DPS variant, they'd still be sporting a mountain of armor. That said, I wonder how much a judge could really differ from, say, a gameplay-improving revamp of a simple Gladiator, where you have the option of taking a second sword instead.

Heh, my inner geek would love if they used court room jargon for their moves. Like Hearsay: Silences for four seconds. Verdict: Their opening strike that leads to Guilty for increased dps, or Innocent for a heal. Oh! Prosecution for their dps stance, Defense for, uh, their defense stance. Rebuttal for a defense cooldown, objection for their ranged opener. Man, this stuff writes itself. They could use two-handed maces like Nero tol Scaeva. Could be fun.

[Shippuu]

DRK was fight club, or persona 4 if you prefer to face your true self. Later on you move to vigilanteism but that resolved with the realization that a DRK only going for a duty to protect is bad at what they're doing. Didn't play AST so can't speak there.

The second half of the DRK storyling (50-60) very much had you acting like a bodyguard more than anything. No different than the Ninja 50-60 quest where you were assisting someone to obtain a goal etc. In fact the DRK story is more of a bodyguard considering you're protecting someone who couldn't fight for themself. The NIN one is you pretty much just tagging along someone else's journey.

SAM Job's story will certainly be in question as it may focus more on being a Samurai not fully loyal to anyone due to the WoL being a Adventurer.

Then they have to cover 3 Story Arcs of SAM Job's storyline as 30 - 50 is Arc 1 (aka The Apprentice Arc), 50-60 is Arc 2 (aka Master Arc), and if things follow the same lvl 60 - 70 is Arc 3 (aka Grand Master Arc).

This assumes the new jobs will start at level 30 which could very well not be the case. There is a possibility of them starting at a higher level as well. I would prefer them to start at 30 again, but it's definitely possible they could start as high as 50 if the level cap is increased to 70.

I guess the one thing we need to address is the event we had pertaining to FF11 and the Samurai we helped, didn't she use like a Naginata? Would that perhaps be our clue to what SAM will really be?

There's nothing to really address. She's a character from FFXI in a crossover event, while she remains in Eorzea and it's possible we'll see her again, she will very likely have nothing to do with Samurai job quests if/when they add SAM.

People said all kinds of similar things about all kinds of NPCs, that Yugiri would train the Ninjas (She didn't.) That Merlwyb would train the gun class (She didn't). Even wild things like Raubhan training the Dark Knights (He didn't). The Job trainers are generally new NPC's so their stories are more self contained barring a few exceptions.
Adding Samurai and making them use Naginata (Already covered by some DRG weapons) would be a great disservice as in no Final Fantasy game besides FFXI have they used polearms. To add a job and not give them their iconic weapon is a ridiculus notion and highly unlikely to ever happen. While Katana are a type of sword, in Final Fantasy games they have always been their own classification of weapon.

[Khalithar]

It's not necessarily sharing gear so much as armor class. You'd then have Plate | Mail | Leather | Cloth instead of Tank | Dragoon! | Cloth | Everyone Else.

In my opinion, they probably won't add another armor type. If samurai is a dps per Yoshida's vision I see it sharing the Striking gear with mnk, if tank it will probably get the Fending gear.

[EdwinLi]

This assumes the new jobs will start at level 30 which could very well not be the case. There is a possibility of them starting at a higher level as well. I would prefer them to start at 30 again, but it's definitely possible they could start as high as 50 if the level cap is increased to 70.

While it would be faster to level a New Job to just make all new Jobs start out in the last X.0 content range (such as setting all New Jobs in 4.0 to start out in lvl 50 instead of 30 to skip over 2.0 leveling content phase) it is also a double edge sword as that would mean the player must play the New Job with a large amount of new skills they have yet to understand how those new skills work for the Job role given nor how they function into the Job's Mechanics.


Starting at level 30 is more idea as at that point players can build up a understanding on how each skill works before jumping into a much larger option of skills.

As much as some people want to believe that players would only play a new Job that starts out at level 50, if they already understand how to play a Tank, DPS, and/or Healer, there is still risk of the player not being use to Job role due to never playing that job role before for "reasons" until that Job was released and/or how the Job may function under that Job role if not given the time to adjust to the Job's gameplay style and functions.

[Derio]

Technically we are due for a magic dps class since before mch there was ninja. So it makes sense that Sam is a tank and red mage dps

[SendohJin]

In my opinion, they probably won't add another armor type. If samurai is a dps per Yoshida's vision I see it sharing the Striking gear with mnk, if tank it will probably get the Fending gear.

FF Samurais fits best with DRG type light armor.

Technically we are due for a magic dps class since before mch there was ninja. So it makes sense that Sam is a tank and red mage dps

the game doesn't differentiate that way very often. there are only 2 encounters that i know of where magic vs not magic mattered T4 and T11. what's a lot more significant is that there are 3 melee and 4 ranged. and there are lot more fights where you want to keep 4 members away from the boss and 4 members close to spread out AOEs.