Roles for Samurai, Red Mage, Dancer

[Shippuu]

That's not a consistent tank trait though is it? Tanks always having a skill that is the strongest damage move, that is. Once again, I'm not saying they can't be tanks, I'm just arguing that one side does not overrule the other. By your view, you're literally implying that the SAM job from FFXI is not "Samurai", just because it is a DD/DPS, regardless of story tied to it, and not a tank. It can, and does, work both ways. Just as much as they can fit the tank role, so too can they fit the DPS. Blinding yourself to such thoughts is contrary to the very idea of Samurai lol.

We're arguing for the same point just from different sides now. I've never said Samurai can't be a DPS, and have only argued that it makes sense and has merit as a tank. That it should not be confined to a DPS (Not that it cannot be a DPS). The DPS role doesn't need to be argued for when it comes to designing new jobs as everything can be a DPS. It's the simplest role from a design standpoint and only needs one thing: Does it do Damage? Yes. That's it, that's all it takes to really decide on a DPS job. It's the tanks and healer jobs that need more consideration into how they are made etc. Especially in this game that has pretty narrow categories of Tanks and Healers.

And FFXI SAM is a terrible example to bring into this as it was designed as a Tank but due to poor foresight and design players didn't play it as such and the devs just went with it.

The thing is, this argument about SAM's role comes up all the time because when you look at things from a realistic viewpoint, many favorite and iconic Final Fantasy jobs can be DPS, but only a few fit the bill for Tanking roles. Samurai is one that easily fits into this game as a tank, with a common damage type shared with the other tanks, a history of wearing heavy armor like the other tanks, and a job fantasy that goes perfectly in line with being a tank. To take something that so easily fits into FFXIV's tanking mold and make it a DPS is a bit of a disservice to be quite honest. Other options for tanking jobs are either obscure, unpopular, or have little actual identity that is any way different then existing tanks. Then there's options that require potentially problematic situations when it comes to itemization/loot that would require extra development time to sort out.

When it comes to development often times the path of least resistance is the one taken. Samurai tank is the most logical one that takes this path of least resistance barring some new job they think up to be unique to FFXIV (but even that has issues of being potentially not as popular of a job or concept to help intice players to try tanking, which needs to be considered.)