Quote Originally Posted by Celef View Post
The thing is, if they add SAM as a tank I don't see what new it could bring :/ (same for a 4th healer tho)
The thing is, if they add SAM as a dps I don't see what new it could bring :/

News flash : new jobs for any role would add flavor and potentially interesting comps if they're not half-clones of other jobs.

I don't understand why we have to justify SAM being a tank. Why would dps players be entitled to it ? Because there are no sword-wielding dps ? That's it ?
In truth it's only that way because most people play dps and want the very popular samurai to be dps so they can play it, the same as dark knight.

You're going to ask why would tanks be entitled to SAM. Fair enough. They're not entitled to it as much as it makes more sense for it to be tank both thematically, visually and practically.
The samurai is pretty much an eastern knight philosophically, and is most often shown wearing heavy armor both in real life and in the Final Fantasy series.
It's also one of the few fitting choices for a tank class in the game, and can potentially increase the tank population. I can guarantee the tank problem would be much worse if DRK didn't exist.
You need to keep in mind that this game isn't WoW, in WoW a classic raid composition for the hardest content uses 2 tanks, 5 healers and 13 dps. That's 1 tank per 6.5 dps players. In FFXIV you need 1 tank per 2 dps players, more than three times the amount of a far more popular game. That's why the tank population needs to get attractive options to stay alive. Look at what happened to the monk in WoW, it's by far the least played class in the game and its tank spec is probably even less played than survival hunter.

"But if the tanks need free cookies that mean the tank gameplay is at fault". You're partially right, the dev team isn't really making any effort to make the gameplay more engaging besides making us do damage, but it's mostly that way because most people can't handle the pressure. By playing tank you're supposed to assume control of the encounter and make the healers and dps' jobs as easy as possible, which means it's really easy to see your mistakes. It's something you get over with time, but not many are willing to try, and that's where popular jobs like SAM or DRK come in.