Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
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Sure. And what is the lore mechanism by which a non-magical Warrior heals themselves on every attack? Or constructs a magical barrier around a party member that negates incoming damage? You can put whatever actions you like on any job, sure. But the execution of it tells a story of sorts. If you don't want to create the impression of a vampiric Warrior, then you need to convey whatever alternative explanation that you're offering through the animations and effects.

I don't think that self-sustain is a unique (or even necessary) tank concept. There are many non-vampiric ways that you can do it. But you have to tell that story through the animations.

Even take something standard and mandatory like mitigation. Mitigation doesn't always have to be fixed %DR. Perhaps excess healing over cap gets converted to temporary HP. Perhaps you have a flat damage shield barrier. Perhaps your %DR ramps up as you take more damage. Perhaps incoming damage gets delivered in a delayed fashion by being converted into a DoT. If you come up with something fun, why not make it a theme across the whole job? Shadow Wall, TBN, Oblation, and even Dark Force have a running visual theme across them featuring magical bubbles with inscriptions on them. That's great, but what if it was a consistent visual signifier of something like 'absorbs flat damage'?

Going in a different direction, the first DRK quest carries a vivid description of a Dark Knight, armor soaked in their own blood as well as the blood of their opponent, transforming itself into a twisted aura. Could you create a tank mitigation theme around that? Absolutely. Just develop it and expand on it in a consistent fashion through the skillset and animations. But when you start throwing in random vampiric effects, random barrier effects, random %DR effects without any real consistency, then there's no coherence to the job. That's what players are getting at here with 'identity'. What is the story that you're trying to tell?

There are plenty of directions that you can take individual jobs, but you have to have a clear idea in your head about the visual story that you want to tell through the job actions and animations.