Ideas for a Caster Tank

[Opus]

So all current tanks are melee which limits the play style somewhat. They are all too similar. I'm imagining something radically different.

Share your ideas what one may look and play like. Here's mine.

Weapon: Baton on each hand, one long and one short. Used to cast defensive and offensive magic.

Play style:

• Low armor and natural defense. Leather/cloth-based designs.
• Relies solely on self-buffs for constant mitigation, e.g. an always-on mitigation stance.
• Dancing between magic and physical stances.
• Attacks like BLM but mostly melee-range.
• AoE debuffs on enemies, e.g. slow/bind/blind/vulnerability up.
• Less on reducing received damage, more on weakening enemy attacks.

What do you think? What should this tank be called?

[Freyyy]

Could be Blue Mage

[nothingtoregret]

I've been recently thinking a time battlemage might be a good idea for a caster tank, or a tank in general, using time manipulation to reduce damage, self heal and buff it self e.g haste. But beyond that I'm not sure what to do with it.

[Opus]

Time manipulation sounds interesting. So it's like going back to an earlier state of damage-has-not-been-done. But a misstep may cause you to go back to the exact moment of the previous tank buster.

[nothingtoregret]

Time manipulation sounds interesting. So it's like going back to an earlier state of damage-has-not-been-done. But a misstep may cause you to go back to the exact moment of the previous tank buster.

Yeah that would be one possible direction they could go with it, or things like using slow to the damage into a dot, or stop being the invulnerable where u would take no damage but couldn't move/attack.
The biggest problem tho, is this would be very difficult to tune.

[DRKoftheAzure]

Used to cast defensive and offensive magic.

Play style:

• Relies solely on self-buffs for constant mitigation, e.g. an always-on mitigation stance.
• Dancing between magic and physical stances.
• Attacks like BLM but mostly melee-range.
• AoE debuffs on enemies, e.g. slow/bind/blind/vulnerability up.
• Less on reducing received damage, more on weakening enemy attacks.

Those things sound like what DRK should be doing in terms of both offense and defense but is basically a re-skinned WAR in 4.0 now... I really hate those nerfs...

[ManuelBravo]

Play style:

Low armor and natural defense. Leather/cloth-based designs.
Relies solely on self-buffs for constant mitigation, e.g. an always-on mitigation stance.
Dancing between magic and physical stances.
Attacks like BLM but mostly melee-range.
AoE debuffs on enemies, e.g. slow/bind/blind/vulnerability up.
Less on reducing received damage, more on weakening enemy attacks.



What do you think? What should this tank be called?

Play style:

Low armor and natural defense. Leather/cloth-based designs. Already a non tank role , Red Mage or possible Blue
Relies solely on self-buffs for constant mitigation, e.g. an always-on mitigation stance. No CD's hmmm Possible Blue some Ninja in there
Dancing between magic and physical stances. So a Dancing Red mage ( they do jump around ) or a Ninja ( DRK without heavy gear )
Attacks like BLM but mostly melee-range. Hmmm sounds like a Red Mage
AoE debuffs on enemies, e.g. slow/bind/blind/vulnerability up. Wow so close to a Red mage or Ninja
Less on reducing received damage, more on weakening enemy attacks. So same thing either way

So make a Red Mage / Ninja tank roles -.-

[RitsukoSonoda]

Magic damage based tank that still fights close quarters?

A spiritualist using a battlestaff?

[Duelle]

Low armor and natural defense. Leather/cloth-based designs.

This would need a modifier. Either keeping a buff active that increases your mitigation or debuffs on the enemy that make them deal less damage to you and only you.

Relies solely on self-buffs for constant mitigation, e.g. an always-on mitigation stance.

With the outlook people in this game have to stances, I don't think that would be well received. People would probably shit on this tank for having to keep a mitigation stance active becuz teh d33pz.

Dancing between magic and physical stances.

I'm guessing you mean it transitions from a physical mode to a magic mode as part of gameplay. Shifting from one to the other over time?

Attacks like BLM but mostly melee-range.

This I can dig. The devs already crossed that line by allowing PLD to never get interrupted while casting, so at this point I'll say "why not?".

[Deus_ex_Machina]

the one problem with caster tank is blocks/parries will not work while casting. So I suppose if the class doesn't rely on block/parry for mitigation, the concept would work. Also, it locks them out of Anticipation as a cross class skill.