Next Tank - Giant Fan user

[Aivi_lo]

What about a matador tank? With a Cape

[Linx0r]

Blu's job is literally to get punched in the face to gain it's skills, it's the most likely tank job in a future expansion.

True. I don’t know, the whole idea of a mage tank seems wrong. Mages are supposed to be weak physically to balance out the magic . At any rate, like everyone and their mom wants BLU for tank - I do not so I came up with an alternative.

[KaldeaSahaline]

Seriously, BLU cannot be a tank but what is a new weapon or class that is viable? Have the weapon a giant fan (a la Temari from Naruto). Can use it to block or damage both close and far. What do you think?

Looking at some video game references off the top of my head, most fan users tended to be casters/ranged type, so you're not really helping your case of saying BLU can't be a tank lol.

I've long speculated that BLU could be a tank, use a whip as a weapon, and focus on using "enemy skills" to provide flavor like defensive cooldowns and other stuff.

Could have it's main tank mechanic be "Big Guard" where it has to maintain a "Blue Magic gauge" that drains over time to keep the buff up. Weaponskills and oGCD's would increase the gauge. The buff could be like a Rampart & Blood Weapon hybrid where it reduces damage taken, and grants reduced skill /spell speed. I don't think we honestly need to take MP into account, I really think the gauge system could accommodate that and would help differentiate it from being a hair too similar to DRK.

Some other defensive ideas could be like:

• White Wind - Grants a shield equal to 20% of your current HP for 8s. If the shield is broken, you are instantly healed for that amount
• Death Force - Consumes current "Blue Magic resource" granting you the effect of being unable to die for Xs per amount of resource consumed
• Bad Breath - Deals AOE potency, while also reducing all damage enemies deal considerably for Xs. To minor enemies it can inflict the myriad of status effects
• Dragon Force - Basically Sentinel
• Angel Whisper - Give a tank the ability to res, long CD.

Some offensive oGCDs:

• Matra Magic - blah blah deal damage gain resource, very short recast
• Trine - Instead of like the O8S iteration, it could be a similar graphic, that is placed and repeatedly deal AOE damage and paralysis or something. Have it generate resource on damage tick
• Beta - Maybe a single target hit, that puts a burning DoT on the enemy. same thing - generates resource on hit and on tick.
• Aqualung - Deals damage, not sure what else
• Magic Hammer - deals low damage, but generates considerable "Blue Magic Resource" probably like a 30s CD
• Death Sentence - could be an effect like MCH's wildfire where it's placed on an enemy and doesn't deal damage, but accumulates damage done and then compiles it at the end. Maybe something like 60s CD

Just 15 mins worth of analysis from an armchair dude. Give it short cast times and spells don't interrupt melee combos from the whip.

[Linx0r]

Sigh I didn’t want this to turn into a BLU thread. I was hoping this thread would be about the title I posted, not about BLU since there already is an abundance of those.

[Steelbreeze]

Dancer tank- glaive or chakram weapons.
BLU tank - fan or whip weapons (whip would be more suited to tamer though).
Knight tank (different from PLD) - flail or mace weapon - squire base class?
Fencer - rapier (yeah RDM screwed that one up already lol)

-just looking through a few jobs from previous FF titles.

[KaldeaSahaline]

Sigh I didn’t want this to turn into a BLU thread. I was hoping this thread would be about the title I posted, not about BLU since there already is an abundance of those.

While I understand your disdain for BLU discussions, my statement to you was still valid in that giant fans (across some media I saw) have been a ranged/caster weapon, which directly contradicts your statement regarding BLU not being able to be a tank. Then to further drive the point home that I think your opinion is ill founded I supplied a juvenile, but in-depth iteration that supports my statement.

On the topic of giant fans - I'm not sure what job would be ideal for them. Speaking personally I'd see them as some iteration of a ranged attacker, much like your example of Temari who utilizes those fans to conjure whirlwinds and gusts that shred foes from afar. I'm not entirely sure how you'd' differentiate it mechanically from existing "aero" based spells though. I suppose there'd room for a hybrid caster/ranged in that you use the fans for physical attacks, but supplement the kit with spells as well. Maybe the combos make next spell instant, or significantly shorter cast, or make the effect more potent (size, AOE pattern, damage, effects, etc.).

I'm a huge fan of Chakrams. I don't really want Dancer to be a healer honestly. If I were designing it, I'd probably have Dancer be a melee DPS that uses Chakrams. The idea would be that it's a whirling dervish of dancing death with fast paced mobile combat. Lots of low fast hits and the ability to transition to a ranged form (think opposite of RDM). In that it can use chakrams as ranged weapons for a brief period before returning back to melee. I'd even support it being a "melee version of a BRD/MCH" with some utility attached to it. I draw my inspiritation from a game called C9. It was an niche action MMO, but it had a chakram based class called Erta that was STAGGERINGLY fun to play, even if the game itself was pretty mediocre/bad.

Ideally, DRK should have used scythes instead of great swords. This would have further opened up great sword for a slower more powerful melee DPS job (DRG, NIN, MNK, and SAM are all pretty "fast" jobs).

I think the game may need to shift to allowing jobs to differentiate from roles in the future a la specs, or open new avenues of job customization in the future. It's going to get strange in a few years when the source material dries up and they're forced to create content that stands on its own with no guidance or nostalgia to bolster it. While FF is a massive universe, there is a ton of overlap between them that limits the depth of the pool somewhat.

A few examples could be:

Holy Knight/Swordsman - a la Agrias, Wiegraf, & Orlandu. This "spec" would drop its defensive utilities (HG, Cover, Sentinel, etc.) and pick up more offensive abilities. It would be built off the PLD archetype, but still uses a Sword and Shield and heavy armor and be a DPS.

Chemist - Branches off from MCH and is a healer that uses an elemental pistol. It specializes in "Mix" to craft items that do all kinds of positive and negative effects to be used on the party and enemies.

SAM - could be a tank iteration of the job that specializes in less physical attacks and more "Draw Out" katana effects with blade parries and other defensive utility. Same thing could apply to DRK, a DPS and a tank iteration.

Obviously not all jobs have the ability to "branch out", but it might offer some room to add new jobs or at least differentiate them enough where there aren't a lot of new ideas for jobs.

Alternatively - maybe they go an expansion with no new jobs and focus on revamping a lot of aging systems/code. I'd support that.