An idea for a pet tank

[Marveth]

Imagine a shapeshifter, something that has been done before in games to quite satisfactory levels. Although never perfect.

One of the big issues with shapeshifting jobs however is that you hardly get to see your character. This renders a lot of gear progression to becoming just stats on a sheet. Not to mention the popular glamour end-game ends up moot.

Enter the pet job, you get to have both your pet and character but it's quite clunky and if we are going to have a tank we need a pet that is able to react quick and dodge mechanics accordingly, lest it risk being OP or useless.


THE IDEA
My idea is simple yet very cool, or so I believe Your character is of magic origin with clothing to match. He have at least two very defining skills just like all the other tanks. But where the other tanks have two stances he have two pets. One defensive and one offensive.

Sigh you think, because you already imagine lots of issues with this proposition already. Like the clunkiness of stance dancing or how the seemingly slow responsiveness of the pets in this game would make this idea impossible. But I'm not done yet.

When you click one of the pets, it will appear immediately and a visual bond will be made between you and your pet. The camera will shift to the pet instead of your character and your controls will now control the pet and only the pet. Just as if it were your character. This should prevent any clunky lag that can happen when ordering pets around, it will also give you total control over your pet.

But what about my character? The character will float in the air in a stasis like posture for all intent and purpose you are now your pet and your character is nothing but an empty husk drifting between worlds.
A voidwalker if you will. You will retain your HP and all other stats, and every hit on your pet will count towards your own HP. Your character will be immune to damage until you remove your pet or your pet dies, because if your pet dies you die. Thats right, your life and the life of your pet is one.

A very ugly interpretation of the execution that I designed only for you.


The differences between the two pets are simple, one has a 20% reduced damage taken and 20% damage reduction like tank stance and the other has a higher DPS potential like a DPS stance of our current tanks. The time to summon the pet should be immediate to simulate stance dancing, the enmity of your pet will transfer to your other pet should you switch, or to you if no pet is present. HP and other resources will also carry over when switching pets to prevent abuse.

The pets could be visually very different and offer different abilities. Your character itself does not need any abilities, in fact all the ROLE SKILLS should be useable by your pets and not by you.

Sounds like fun?
I deliberately left most design and abilities very vague as I'm trying to sell a concept rather than a fully fleshed out job. An idea of something we have not yet seen in FFXIV or any MMO that I can recall. Hope you like it =)

TLDR
A pet tank but when your pet is summoned your character is immune to damage, the camera and all control is moved to your pet that you are now in total control of. The hp and rescources of your pet is directly linked to the HP and resources of your character. Should your pet die while you are controlling it, you will also die.