Ranged Tank...

[MaraD_]

I dont think we need a ranged tank just for the sake of the diversity in the role.

this logic applies to all roles.
also, all roles dont need to be the same for uniformity sakes eithers.

Puppet master like tank would be a nightmare for healers. Puppet would eat all aoes all the time.

you forget the player is another bar of health the healers now have to keep up.
if anything it would be unfair to make a pet take AoE dmg. (But for gameplay sakes, id have a short CD like sheltron, meant to neutralize most AoE dmg, except the few for special mechanics, which it would lower them based on the content.)
As long as the player dodges the AoEs, theres no reason to also make them have the pet dodge them too. simply an "AoE mitigation only" CD is fine.

Stuff...
So yes, a "ranged tank" could absolutely work in this game if they follow a similar route.
Stuff...

As the poseter above me stated, having the option to maintain your DPS when having to get out of AoEs, or mechanics require you to stay away from the boss, is still part of being a ranged DPS.
as a ranged DPS ive stayed in melee range in most fights, due to cones which grow harder to dodge, the further away u were from the boss.
along with being out of range of aoe heals if i was too far away.

there are definitely issues with pet healing, if the game doesnt handle the pet client side, like your own character.
no one disagrees with that.
you have to adjust the content obviously.

the best way to position the pet, is honestly with the MC themselves. having the pet tank the whole fight, i feel isnt very good either.
The pet should be a temporary thing.
Mostly likely u build up a bar/gauge, and when u summon it, its in ur current position.
Its HP is your gauge/bar. the ONLY way for it to be healed, is for YOU to be healed. (making things easier on healers)
Various ways can handle this, depending on how much of the UI would be adjusted by the DEVs, such as when you are healed, the heal is redirected to it, IF you are at max current HP. (to your gauge/bar) or your HP is constantly feeding HP to the gauge/bar, to reflect the pets damage intake. (In the later, a "reverse shield" colored bar could show how much healing is needed, before the pet is back to full, and the tank stops feeding HP to it.)
how you want CDs to work with it, doesnt matter too much, w/e flavor u want to give it.
but when its out, its enmity is considered based on YOUR enmity.
YOU need to have the highest enmity of the group, for your pet to be hit. you simply pick it to be attacked when summoned.
(you could have an extra provoke, and give it threat, but this creates imbalance in other ways)
The pets attacks dont actually generate threat. (and at most, are a weak DoT)
Its a mitigation tool for the tank.
it can be used for offense (mostly will be) for TBs (as an HP shield) or to cheeze mechanics by having the tank get into a range position for a boss mechanic.

having a boss run across the field, because the pet dies, and dashes to the player isnt always a very good idea for melee uptime on the boss, so the player needs to plan out how to handle this.
(as all tanks should do, if they plan to provoke from a distance)
unsummoning preserves the gauges/bars spot/progress, but allows the boss to move towards the player.
This way the player can be ready to move the boss themselves, rather than having the pet do it.

over all, it may be different, and require the ranged tank players to get used to it, but it can work just fine in FFXIV. (the pet isnt a requirement, just a way to do it differently, based on making more than 1 ranged tank, such as caster tanks, who wont have the freedom of movement a physical ranged would have. but thats another long reply)

[TouchandFeel]

*pet tanking ideas

I actually created a ranged tanking build on my Mesmer in Guild Wars 2 that functioned similar to what you are describing.

For those not familiar with Mesmers in GW2, their gimmick was that they would summon different illusions of themselves that would do different things before disappearing or would stick around until destroyed but had very little health so would die very quickly. You were able to summon multiple illusions at once and with enough frequency that you could easily string them together to constantly have at least one up. You could also detonate certain illusions to create a sudden burst of damage, also freeing you up to summon more illusions to replace the ones you just blew up.

Basically what I did was dual-spec between a ranged and melee build which allowed me to summon more durable melee illusions that would directly engage the enemy and keep agro on them, while I stayed back summoned some ranged attack illusions and blasted the enemy from a distance. Once my melee illusion was getting towards the end of its brief life or when I wanted to preposition the enemy I would then position myself in the direction that I wanted the enemy to move, detonate the melee illusion, allow the enemy to then came at me until it was in the place that I wanted it and then sick a new melee illusion on it to keep it in place.

So it is definitely possible to do a fully ranged tank if something like the above was done, but it would definitely be way more complex than what we have now with the other tank and likely far more difficult to control. Still could potentially be pretty darn cool though and I really loved my Mesmer build.

So some general off-the-cuff ideas and thoughts on implementing something like that in this game.
- You would likely have to have a primary "tanking" summon that you would summon and destroy to keep agro on and position the boss.
- Your "tanking" summon would have to redirect damage to the tank just so that there is enough of a similarity with how the tank takes damage compared to the others to not complicate how healers would deal with the tank and how stats/gear would work. A "Cover-like" link between the summon and you could pretty much do this, visual representation and distance need not apply.