New abilities in next xpac?

[Chrono_Rising]

* Tank stance ground up rework. SE has not (yet) acknowledged that players dont play tanks like SE designed them to be played. Tank in tank stance. Offense stance when not. This has created a litany of issues trying to balance them and even more complaints from the players. Tanking skills locked behind tank stance makes sense in the dev room. It makes for a bad time when players dont actually use tank stance. The stances are to punishing for to little reward and the inconsistent locking and unlocking of defensive skills for different classes with stances makes them hard to balance properly. Are they balanced offensively in offense stance? Are they balanced defensively in tank stance? Are the ALSO balanced defensively AND offensively while tanking in DPS stance? That last bit is pretty friggin hard when pld has nothing locked, Drk has a mana gain and HP drain locked in tank stance and a powerful offensive tool locked in DPS stance, and war has arguably the best defensive tool in the game, but only in tank stance and has used holmgang as a crutch ever since. A rework to holmgang, tank stances, and stance locked abilities would go a LONG way in setting a more even baseline for all tanks instead of the ridiculous pendulum swings we have had from 2.0 to now.

Theres lots of room for new abilities to add to the character of each class and continue to give them unique play. While the AOE Stun+TA shout suggested above is far to OP, warcrys as a concept are a completely reasonable direction. It's a very 'warrior-ish' way to add basically anything. Party buffs/support (rallying warcrys), offensive/enfeebling (intimidating warcrys), self enhancing (zerker rage style battle cries). Think the warcry skills for barbarians in diablo 2/3. Perfectly good area to expand into.

Drks have no shortage of inspiration in past FF games. More enfeebling/buffing magic (dread spikes, stat absorption, etc). Look at any old Drk FF for a laundry list of options. Or lean more on the 'knight' side of Drk. Armor crush type skills. Weapon break, etc. Get your debuffs and new tools+damage there.

Pld, similar to drk has no shortage of options. More holy/enhancing skills are always an option. More 'knight' type focus like above. Holy sword style skills that have a wide range of enfeebling, damage, and ranged capabilities (like agrias in FFT for example).

There is TONS of room to grow these jobs into more unique styles in line with their themes while removing the baggage and clunky crap they are still saddled with now.

Damn straight i expect new abilities and pruning/consolidation on old crap.

Could not agree more. In particular I want to see skills which highlight tank identity while striking some balance between tanking and contributing damage.

Example: Making a skill like "shield oath" be a maintainable buff through a job mechanic which increases your block rate and enhances enmity achieves "tank stance" without having "tank stance". Need to tank swap? Stop maintaining the buff. Suddenly Paladin has a lore driven tanking ability matching its theme which is also thematically different from dark knight and warrior abilities.

I would also like to see our existing oGCD buttons take on more abilities/have more effects/absorb other abilities.

Example 1: Dark Knight Blood weapon bolsters damage by increasing attack speed and generating blood, why not add an effect that grants a shield for 20% of the damage inflicted to an opponent (like an auto tbn but for far less hp) that grants a 10% damage reduction when a shield is broken.

Again this becomes a tanking tool that thematically fits a dark knight as passive mitigation, while also addressing the duel need to tank and deal damage. Of course it is a big game and changes cannot just be made, and I'm not claiming the above ideas are practical, but I know I would enjoy having more thematically driven kits and abilities.