I have an idea for a caster/tank.

[Jaegerkrantz]

Firstly, i dont like tanking, never been able to handle the pressure the community puts on tanks, that being said, in order to keep the job system varied, how about you SE gives us a caster tank?

Secondly, english is not my first language, so my spelling and grammar may be a little wonky so bear with me.

Thirdly, im well aware of the speculations about Blue Mage getting added to the game and it may or may not be a possible tank caster depending on what rumours you hear or read.

Here´s my idea for a caster tank.
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First of all, how about making a job based on the ff14 world and lore instead of going back to the standard classes that been around since pretty much forever in the Final Fantasy franchise?
you know, create something fresh, something new that can be used in future Final Fantasy games onward.

So here´s my take on a possible caster tank job.

A caster/mage that focuses on barriers for defense, let´s say an Eorzean one day decides to try creating something new, with a focus on barrier magic, he travels all over the land learning the arts of Scholars, White Mages and Astrologians.
Then he also starts to dabble in the other arts of magic, he starts to mix the teachings he has recieved over the years, through trial and error and many failures and small successes he finally makes as breakthrough, he manages to create barriers that absorbs most of the force from attacks aimed at him, although the barriers doesn´t absorbs all of the attack force it´s enough for him to consider it a success.

The downside to the barriers is that they continually drain MP while being active, and they also demands concentration thus making it hard to throw powerful attack magic at the enemies, as such a balance need to be maintained, the caster will be able to throw spells atleast strong enough or being aggravating enough to piss off the enemies so they will focus their attacks on the caster, spells like electric shocks or setting the enemy on fire should be aggravating enough i believe.

You might then ask, what about the MP if the barrier drains it constantly? well how about our caster having a alternative barrier spell, one that might or might not demand channeling for a set amount of time thus interrupting all your attacks and instead it absorbs the enemy attacks in such a way that the force becomes your strength/MP.

Add to this Tank Buster barriers that will only remain active for a very small time, there is probably alot more of other functions that can be added to a job like this that i havent thought of but im sure you the community can come up with some ideas of your own.

[Jaegerkrantz]

The main focus of the barrier caster/tank job would be MP management, to make sure you don´t run out of MP which otherwise will result in your death, and then you will have to dance, switching between different barriers, you could probably give the job a Reflect spell based barrier aswell, reflecting a balanced amount of damage the enemies that attack you for a short time.

oh and then you might ask, what about the shields and stuff that healers can provide to the group? wouldnt those together with the barriers the barrier mage can create make him OP AF?
Probably, which means we need a solution, my take on a solution is that make it so shields from healer jobs interact with the barriers instead, unique interactions like small buffs for a short time, stuff like making the barrier mage immune to debuffs for 3 seconds as an example, or make it so the barrier doesnt drain MP for 3 seconds, an effect that might need a cooldown.

Another thing that might be useful for balancing the barrier mage, is to make the Reflect barrier reflect healing spells from your own teammates aswell, thus you wont be able to get healed while its active, so you will have to choose carefully what kind of barrier you want to keep active and when to have them active.

How will healers be able to tell what barrier is active? give the different barriers different colors and different looks, by the end of the day only 1 barrier will be able to be active at any one time so you gonna have dance around with the different barriers and the tank buster barriers.
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There you have it, my idea for a unique Job for FF14.
Will it work? maybe, maybe not, it might probably fit better in another game then in FF14, but if SE really wanted to im sure they could probably come up with something functional.

Thoughts and feedback are appreciated.

[Sunako]

Isnt paladin already kinda caster tank?

[Odstarva]

I actually quite enjoy the idea of dancing around between different shields - reminds me of bard somewhat with their songs. Would be interested if each shield provided a strength and weakness as you said!

Though I suspect SE would already be mid-development on whatever class may be to come, I can see myself playing a tank that worked like this. Sounds like fun!

[Jaegerkrantz]

> Sunako
Maybe? i wouldnt consider the ff14 paladin to be a caster tho, in my eyes they are more of a traditional warrior with a shield and sword with a little bit of white magic incorporated into their skills, my idea for a barrier focused caster tank is a character wearing more lightweight clothing instead of heavy armor, and perhaps not necessarily wielding a melee weapon like a sword or something like that, tbh i dont really know what a class focusing on barrier magic would be carrying weapon wise tho, perhaps a pair of magical arm guards through which the energy to the barriers are channeled, it should be something lightweight, after all a caster tank who has focused more on learning and studying magic instead of honing his physical strength wouldn´t have the strength or skill needed to wear and use something like a sword and shield, atleast not in comparison to a paladin who spent his whole life training and using a sword and a shield.
He would definetly not have the strength needed to wield big 2 handed weapons like the warrior or dark knight.

Edit: magical gloves could be a thing aswell weapon wise for a barrier caster tank now that i think about it.

[Xlantaa]

Well. It is important their equipment too. As tank they will be strictly attached to Fending gear (heavy armor) and STR/VIT base stats, independent of the skills they have. So the idea of a light armor/cloth tank will not be possible with the current itemization of Final Fantasy XIV. The weapon can be anything, because is unique per job, but the armor is strictly in this line. A caster tank, if you choose to change his base stats to INT, will cause either need use caster gear or have is own exclusive gear, and neither of them will happen unless they heavily change the game core.

Of course it is still possible a caster tank, but the equipment will be shared with the other tanks.

[Jaegerkrantz]

Well. It is important their equipment too. As tank they will be strictly attached to Fending gear (heavy armor) and STR/VIT base stats, independent of the skills they have. So the idea of a light armor/cloth tank will not be possible with the current itemization of Final Fantasy XIV. The weapon can be anything, because is unique per job, but the armor is strictly in this line. A caster tank, if you choose to change his base stats to INT, will cause either need use caster gear or have is own exclusive gear, and neither of them will happen unless they heavily change the game core.

Of course it is still possible a caster tank, but the equipment will be shared with the other tanks.

Well, a barrier caster tank could be considered something akin to a black mage with a energy shield around him, so he will be wearing caster gear obviously of some sort, when it comes to the stats then INT/VIT or MIND/VIT could both work, and the barriers will have strengths and weaknesses that make up for what he lacks in comparison to the melee tanks that uses a bunch of strength gear.
The main focus lies on the barrier skills, how the barrier caster dance between the different barriers all the while managing his MP so he doesnt go OOM = wipe, and let´s not forget skills for aggro management in the mix aswell.

[Rongway]

Of course it is still possible a caster tank, but the equipment will be shared with the other tanks.

I don't understand why people still say things like this.

There's no requirement for all tanks to share the same gear, especially if a new tank comes that is a Disciple of Magic. We have Traits. A mage wearing cloth/leather can easily have the same defense, VIT, and/or HP as a heavy armor tank via traits that increase one or more of these stats.

[Hugowulf]

Isn’t dark knight kind of a caster tank?

[Rongway]

Isn’t dark knight kind of a caster tank?

None of the current tanks is a mage, though.