Ideas for a Caster Tank

[RitsukoSonoda]

Please explain how this tank will then tank enemies that are immune to magic damage, or reflect magic damage. That is the single biggest flaw in the notion of a purely magic damage dealing tank.

Tanks should ideally do the same kind of damage as each other because having one that does a primarily different type of damage opens up major balancing issues. You'll end up creating a tank that either no one will want in their parties, or only want in their parties. By keeping them all slashing damage it eliminates a factor they'd have to consider and balance.

I don't immediately recall any enemies that are specifically immune to magic outside of a possible temporary buff as this would make all caster DPS useless on the enemy as well. As for reflecting damage there are enemies that use effects to reflect physical damage already so reflecting magic is moot. FFXIV doesn't even appear to really stress elemental resistances either as a BLM can kill a fire elemental with fire as easily as just about anything else in the game.

As for supposed "balancing issues" with a tank primarily dealing a different type of damage than the 3 current options.
WAR, NIN, SAM can all inflict slashing resistance debuffs.
DRG can inflict a piercing resistance debuff.
MNK can inflict a blunt resistance debuff
BRD can inflict a magic resistance debuff

Now granted much like elemental resistances overall damage type resistances aren't extremely prominent either in this game unlike FFXI where there was an easily noticeable difference in base damage with a lance when used on a colibri and a skeleton of the same level.

Damage and element types in FFXIV play no where near as big a role as they did in other FF titles. The most that is going to happen by offering tanks that don't primarily rely on slashing damage is make the theory crafters think harder about how to min/max a party comp to come up with something that will only be used on savage mode and the supposed super savage that is coming.

[Shippuu]

I don't immediately recall any enemies that are specifically immune to magic outside of a possible temporary buff as this would make all caster DPS useless on the enemy as well.

Get in a queue with 3 of these "magic" tanks, and congrats, you now have 3 tanks who cannot tank one of the bosses. There's a difference between a fight making caster DPS have to change targets but still able to contribute to the fight, and literally making it so a tank cannot tank an enemy boss it's supposed to.

A magic damage dealing tank would need special exceptions for all of these fights so that it could still do it's damage, bypassing the mechanics. At which point, it's not doing magic damage, it's doing special unique damage that only it can do.

The most that is going to happen by offering tanks that don't primarily rely on slashing damage is make the theory crafters think harder about how to min/max a party comp to come up with something that will only be used on savage mode and the supposed super savage that is coming.

Except that's entirely simplifying it. We already have large populations of players shunning tank jobs because they slightly underperform compared to the others, specifically due to those theory-crafters and min/max raiders setting the standard that trickles down into the general playerbase who look towards the best players and judge jobs based on what's being used in savage etc. And that's with all 3 tanks doing the same kind of damage, making them as interchangeable as possible. Throwing one that does a completely different type of damage is throwing an absolutely unnecessary wrench into it. It won't suddenly make different comps more viable to use, it'll more than likely just make a tank that is shunned by the playerbase from the get-go cause it doesn't fit in comfortable with the existing tanks.

And that's not even going into the aspect that the type of damage a job does has zero impact on how the job is played, thus saying something like adding a magic damage dealing tank would bring something new is actually entirely incorrect. You can take a Samurai and make it do magical DPS and it'll still play exactly the same as it does now. You can take a BLM and make it do physical damage and again, it'd still play exactly the same as it does now.

They already have a hard time balancing tanks as it is, so grabbing a concept that inherently is flawed from the very beginning is starting from a very disadvantageous point for no actual real benefit or gain if they managed to figure it out.