Gunbreaker breaks my heart

[Imuka]

One of the issues is that too many people have this mentality that if a character in a game isn't using a shield then they are a DPS. Or because they use a weapon designed to kill things they are a dps.

It is more how a Character is designed and the Animations in a Game.

Lets compare Designs.
For this, I will take 2 Characters from Fire Emblem Blazing Blade, Hector and Lyn.
Even without playing this Game for a single second and only seeing the Cover of the Game the Viewer gets a clear Picture, that Hector is more of the bulky defender.
He is big, wearing Plate Armor, wieliding a double headed heavy axe and just looks like a guy who could eat some hits.
Now there is Lyn. She is smaller wields a single edge blade and no Armor. And again, even without playing the Game a Player would know: Lyn is fast and stabby and Hector heavy and a hard hitter.

Now we go for Final Fantasy:
If we compare a few Characters from FF10, we can see such differences.
Tidus comes with a faster Idle Animation in Combat, his Animations are fast and slashy.
And then there is Auron.
Auron comes with this slower stone Statue like idle Animation, holding his heavy Zweihänder over the Shoulder, moving not that much and his Sword slashes are slower and with more force behind them. This makes him look super though.

You even could create two Characters that look exactly the same, with the same Weapon and the way they move can sell two absolutly different things.
You could make two Characters that move the same, but could sell different roles with two different Designs.

Yeah I get it. But if DRK didn't hook 'em nothing will.

This is true in some way. If they can't make people play Tank with a Class that is more or less Guts...what else could sell tanking. ^^
I still miss a Glamour that reminds me of the Black Swordsman Armor and a Sword like Dragonslayer.

[Physic]

They usually were the closest thing to a tank in their respective game in most instances. However offline single player FF games have miniscule emphasis on roles so that players can just use whatever they want and still be able to easily complete the game. FF8 was broken further with the way enemy levels scaled on your party level so it was possible to clear that entire game while only reaching like lv 15.

One of the issues is that too many people have this mentality that if a character in a game isn't using a shield then they are a DPS. Or because they use a weapon designed to kill things they are a dps.

they didnt have those type of roles. They were fighters, some ff gave you options to make charachters tougher, but the entire paradigm wasnt really a thing. You basically had healers, and everyone else. And if you didnt mind using items, you didnt even need healers.

[Menae]

they didnt have those type of roles. They were fighters, some ff gave you options to make charachters tougher, but the entire paradigm wasnt really a thing. You basically had healers, and everyone else. And if you didnt mind using items, you didnt even need healers.

But what if I need one of my 87 Elixirs for later?

[MrKimper]

They usually were the closest thing to a tank in their respective game in most instances. However offline single player FF games have miniscule emphasis on roles so that players can just use whatever they want and still be able to easily complete the game. FF8 was broken further with the way enemy levels scaled on your party level so it was possible to clear that entire game while only reaching like lv 15.

One of the issues is that too many people have this mentality that if a character in a game isn't using a shield then they are a DPS. Or because they use a weapon designed to kill things they are a dps.

Tidus was definitely never a tank, he had a lot of HP but he was always characterized as a speedster, Squall is the same though I belieeeeve he had more HP? Vann could be whatever but I believe he had the highest possible ATK growth? Lightning could spec into whatever, Zidane's a thief, Cecil, despite being a PLD/DRK was never a tanky character I believe, he was more of a support main attacker.

Noctis is...Noctis, Tera's an esper, and all the other FF games to my knowledge have the job system.

I do believe though that tanks are sort of the 'main character' archetype. They rush into battle, hold aggro, and control the pace of the encounters in instances.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Tidus was definitely never a tank, he had a lot of HP but he was always characterized as a speedster, Squall is the same though I belieeeeve he had more HP? Vann could be whatever but I believe he had the highest possible ATK growth? Lightning could spec into whatever, Zidane's a thief, Cecil, despite being a PLD/DRK was never a tanky character I believe, he was more of a support main attacker.

Noctis is...Noctis, Tera's an esper, and all the other FF games to my knowledge have the job system.

I do believe though that tanks are sort of the 'main character' archetype. They rush into battle, hold aggro, and control the pace of the encounters in instances.

This is generally a sort of MMO archtype where there is far more discrepancy in the defensive capabilities of a tank vs everyone else. However with single player games in the series this discrepancy doesn't exist. Thoughts as to why I feel are due to designers not wanting to make the game too difficult to people. We could consider the single player games in the series like a solo MSQ. There might be mechanics to navigate on some fights but because they have to scale damage output to make most attacks survivable by every character, having a dedicated tank scaled like typical MMO's would be like adding a broken character to the game that takes almost no damage from any attack, or create a situation where everyone but the tank either gets killed in 1 hit or takes heavy damage when something hits them.

On many of these single player games the party order in the roster also plays a role in target priority from enemies on single target attacks and their roles are often more defined by the actions they take in the story more than specific skills or traits in their build.

[NessaWyvern]

Cecil, despite being a PLD/DRK was never a tanky character I believe, he was more of a support main attacker.

Ehhh, Cecil was hellah tanky in FF4, just having the cover ability made him level up more in HP than the other characters.

Squall is a tank in reference to lore reasons, he's the leader, and just like all other gunbladers in FF8 he swears to protect a sorceress.

[Bacent]

Don't gun breaker my heart
I couldn't if I tried
Honey if I get restless
S.E. you're not that kind

Felt like I needed to make a joke.

But seriously... I'm glad we're not solely getting DPS this time around. And you're kind of a bit late to the gunbreaker isn't a DPS topic.

[TitaniaZero]

As my group's 4 man tank, I'm pleased with something new. And assuming that DNC is a fun class I'll have something new for my 8-24 man stuff too. Though I sympathize with the healers that wanted something new, it sucks not having something new to work with for most of your game time.

Edit: And thinking of it... FFXIV doesn't have SPECs for their jobs. If you want a DPS spec for a Tank then well... there are few DPS jobs to choose from for the DPS 'Spec'. Specs can go and stay in WoW.

[Anthonywb]

I guess I'll just have to tank.... T_T tanking is too much anxiety for me, though.

[LittleChickenNugget]

I'm excited about Gunbreaker actually. When I heard it was a tank, even more so. It looked like a really cool concept and while I main healer, I'm considering maining tank depending on how GB plays.