Future Roles: Red Mage as a Tank

[Alistaire]

"Evasion tank" is a problem here though, the way fights work you have small regular damage followed by big tank busters. So your evasion tanking is either going to get one-shotted a lot or be severely broken. The closest RDM has been to a tank was in xi where they didn't really have evasion abilities, they had tools to reduce incoming damage and cures, very much like pld. It wouldn't have to be like pld here but no job can really do an "evasion tank" without a complete overhaul of the game.

[Seku]

The closest RDM has been to a tank was in xi

You mean was the tank. Until they killed enmity from enfeeble spells.

[Lyth]

So in essence, this proposes a tanking job which uses a mix of swords and magic to create a unique tanking experience. It has skills built around improving parry and evasion, with a riposte move to counterattack. The third step of its threat combo features an attack spell instead of a sword strike. The alternate combo tree features an MP regen skill.

...Isn't this DRK reskinned?

If you want to really capture the RDM experience, I don't think that a tank role is the best approach. You need something with a bit more flexibility and freedom from responsibility so you can get that sense of being everywhere at once. Tanking is much more focused.

Support DPS is the way to go. BRD and MCH already have their caster stances to bring them in line, and it's historically been one of the most in demand raid roles. Just be sure to give them flèche as a gap closer.

[Ageofwar]

good luck to the OP, keep dreaming

IF SE was to do a Red Mage tank they will more than likely implement Rune Fencer or mystic knight then make Red Mage a tank

what SE is more than likely to do with Red Mage is healer or maybe DPS and unless SE decides to move away from the trintiy role system Red Mage will NOT be a jack of all trades

[Ametrine]

As much as I love the concept here, I foresee Red Mage being more of a melee version of BRD/MCN way before we'd see it as a tank.

Although, I'd play the tar out of a Red Mage Tank.

[Fevelle]

I'd prefer Red Mage not to be a tank. They're casters who wear light armor, not supposed to be taking damage in the frontline. Plus, aside from FFXI where a lot of the stereotypes for jobs were unfortunately broken, spellblade skills are bound to Mystic Knights.

Everytime I see the "RDM Tank Thread", all the depictions people can think of falls under Mystic Knight, described by the FF wiki as "skilled in both magic and swordsmanship, they fuse both arts into Spellblade and are resistant to magic as a whole".

Dark Knight is already the "magic resistent tank", so adding something so close to that might cause overlapping problems where one of the jobs will be left out.

For me, the most fitting for Red mage would be a healer. They could explore both black and white magic patterns of the job, by creating an original Cleric Stance for the it and also use Dualcast as a main mechanic for the job, inserting close-range combat as MP-management.

So we would have all the points a Red Mage needs to have without breaking from the origins of the class:

White Magic - healing skills
Black Magic - DPS skills
Dualcast - main mechanic behind the job (alike to how Aetherflow is the main mechanic for Scholar)
Close range combat - MP management (think Energy Drain with some tweaks and a combo)

This could also counter-balance the fixed SCH spot we have now in raid groups.

[Khalithar]

I'd prefer Red Mage not to be a tank. They're casters who wear light armor, not supposed to be taking damage in the frontline. Plus, aside from FFXI where a lot of the stereotypes for jobs were unfortunately broken, spellblade skills are bound to Mystic Knights.

Everytime I see the "RDM Tank Thread", all the depictions people can think of falls under Mystic Knight, described by the FF wiki as "skilled in both magic and swordsmanship, they fuse both arts into Spellblade and are resistant to magic as a whole".

I don't know if people on the forums remember this, but I'm going to post it here anyway, it's a little old but I think it's worth looking at. Specifically, look at question 1 only. That's the important bit to take away.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...IX-(06-04-2012)

You'll notice we've gotten every one of those classes so far. Although "musketeer" is what became machinist, the red mage concept was wanted even more than dark knight and it's the only class we haven't gotten yet. If they are still going to stick with the results of that poll, red mage will probably be a dps, but then again they could surprise us, compare the description of drk to the description of rdm, I mean none of us expected drk to be a tank, but it was.

[Fevelle]

I don't know if people on the forums remember this, but I'm going to post it here anyway, it's a little old but I think it's worth looking at. Specifically, look at question 1 only. That's the important bit to take away.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...IX-(06-04-2012)

You'll notice we've gotten every one of those classes so far. Although "musketeer" is what became machinist, the red mage concept was wanted even more than dark knight and it's the only class we haven't gotten yet. If they are still going to stick with the results of that poll, red mage will probably be a dps, but then again they could surprise us, compare the description of drk to the description of rdm, I mean none of us expected drk to be a tank, but it was.

Yeah, and that's bad because enfeebling is NOT a RDM characteristic outside of FFXI.