Red Mage as possible new tank class

[Gardes]

This being said, it is also difficult to make a non tank job coming from GLA because of JA such as these requiring a shield "Shield Lob/bash." It would force the DEV team to give a shield to jobs that natively don't have one.

DRK soul crystal equip effect: renames shield lob to weapon lob, renames shield bash to weapon bash

[Kitru]

This being said, it is also difficult to make a non tank job coming from GLA because of JA such as these requiring a shield "Shield Lob/bash." It would force the DEV team to give a shield to jobs that natively don't have one.

How does being a damage dealer prevent someone from using a shield or force them into being a tank? BLM and WHM both are capable of using shields and it's not like it spontaneously makes *them* tanks or stops them from doing their jobs. Since weapon damage is the same for both a 1h or 2h weapon of equal level, it's entirely possible to have a DPS class based off of GLA to use a shield because, if you're not a tank, shields are just stat blocks. Even Shield Slam, which requires you to be attacked, doesn't make it any less viable to give GLA a DPS job since PGL already has something that's pretty much the same: Haymaker.

A DPS job based off of GLA would really only slight reworking of the secondary effects of the baseline GLA job abilities: remove the high enmity tags from Savage Blade and Rage of Halone, (possibly) remove the STR debuff from Rage of Halone and replace it with something more DPS-y like a DoT, and change Flash from flat enmity to something like 100 potency. All of this is both possible and relatively simple given what the devs have said about turning GLA into DRK before. Honestly, the visual effects are more problematic than the mechanics, though that's just giving the attacks dark visual effects as opposed to the white/light visual effects, which isn't too far outside the realm of what was done with SCH. Flash would likely need a rename, too.

Even to make DRK a tank would be ridiculous

Only if you base if off of an existing tank job, and those aren't problems with DRK itself but rather with creating *any* job for a class that already has that role. Adding a new DPS job to ARC, THM, ACN, LNC, or PGL would present the *exact* same problems. A *new* tank class that uses DRK as its job wouldn't have any of the "crossover" problems.

[Kitru]

Then split it into red mage and mystic knight. Red knight would be a tank

If they're gonna make one of those a tank, it's going to be Mystic Knight. Red Mage would be DPS/support and Mystic Knight would be tank, mainly because, in every previous iteration, Mystic Knight was always more durable than Red Mage, not to mention that the whole "Mage v. Knight" kind of this really does suggest the first being a support/DPS and the second be a tank based entirely upon name.

[Akirakogami]

red mage being a tank doesn't make much sense. Mages =/= tanks.

Lancer > Dark Knight as a tank seems plausible.

[Techro]

I can see something like fencer being a class and from fencer one can be a red mage, which will be a dps/support class and maybe a mystic knight which can be a mage tank of sorts. I can not see red mage being a tank at all. Granted they can just create abilities and make it into a tank but I do no think, they will do that. Someone said this in another post and i'll quote " The devs create classes/jobs based on can this person tank yes/no, can this person heal yes/no, if the answer is no to both he is dps." Which makes sense. There has to be a look and feel to it.. i mean you are equipping cloth and trying to tank a titan punching you in the face..it doesn't feel or look good.

[Dale]

It's an interesting idea to make Red Mage a tank. But I highly doubt it happens.

My guess is they will be a Dps/Support class similar to bard that uses a combination of En-Spells and nukes to do damage.

[Giantbane]

It's possible (it's possible to think up tank variations by applying enmity generation and mitigation increase mechanisms for any class), but I don't think it really fits with the lore at all. Red Mages have always been generalists. They were never as durable as "true" melee classes so it really wouldn't make much sense.

Honestly, Fencer/Red Mage would most likely be a DPS class using a fusion of melee and black/white magic attacks.

The next tank class they add will, in all likelihood, be Dark Knight. Samurai could be a possible second.

Whatever they add next, they will probably branch it from one of the existing base classes and probably won't perform the same role as the Job that already exists. Yoshi already said as much when he stated the difficulties in bringing in an entire new class over adding a single job (new guild location, more quests, new gear, etc).

With that said, DRK & RDM fit perfectly into the existing scheme, but they would work better as DPS classes.

DRK could work well as the DPS version of either MRD or GLD (However, I think MRD, with its health regen abilities and more melee focused base dps set works better in this regard) with LNC & THM as appropriate subs. Soul eater is a must, with perhaps a few drains thrown in to take better advantage of the BLMs abilities. The biggest problem with DRK as a tank is soul eater (sacrifice hp for damage) has been in just about every incarnation of the FF DRK I can think of. It's the iconic ability. And sacrificing HP for anything while a tank sounds like a bad idea.

RDM on the other hand would make an excellent GLD/THM with a WHM or ACN sub (WHM is more thematically appropriate, ACN might be more useful). GLD already has some innate magic focus with flash and riot. Flash can have its threat removed for the RDM, providing an solid AoE debuff, and riot blade to restore MP when needed. Riot blade could have some additional RDM specific effect that empowers the next spell cast so that the RDM is free to concentrate on normal melee stats while getting the most out of any spells he has. This sets up Fast -> Riot -> [CAST SPELL] as part of the appropriate RDM rotation. Throw in a blade enchant or 2 and your golden. However, the RDM would probably need to inherit more of the BLMs current skill set to provide a little more casting oomph. And maybe change Rage of Halone to provide some sort of casting buff such that the Halone combo acts to buff your Riot spell casts further, much in the same way a WAR uses the storm's eye combo.

However, you're right in that the game could use another tank class more than anything right now (and maybe another heal class). To that end, PUG or LNC are probably the best base classes to work from. They already have some tanking abilities (a slow and evasion or parry+). Not sure what the best jobs would be that utilize the LNC or PUG base move sets and weapons.

[Irenae]

Indeed, I like your idea for a mage tank who can tank Magical damage with ease. Sounds like an awesome idea! And Dark Knight is a Damage Dealer, always has been and doubt that will change. It is a good idea to have somebody who can take the magical damage well as opposed to the traditional tank.

[Gardes]

Yoship seems to really care about and abide by the 'class/role equality with play style to differentiate' thing so I don't think any mage tank advantage or disadvantage in capability is gonna fly, even if we have the pld vs war or any other dps vs dps issue atm. He already streamlined damage types as evidence. Any existing damage 'types' can only boost itself but never have a base advantage from what I can tell. Everything starts from 0 and a player can either buff himself or debuff an enemy but never start at +1 or above, like monks having a starting advantage over other class when fighting bone undeads or dragoons having advantage over flying enemies (correct me if this kind of thing exists in ARR). I think this also already applies in reverse to some degree; we can barely modify our elemental resistances (I've never seen someone say that it's worth it to use those potions) and there's only apocatastasis and traited protect; no monsters have an advantage over players with different jobs or armor types. They're almost all just labels at this point.

So I dont think yoship will ever say "Lets make a tank that is weaker at tanking physical damage compared to other tanks and have him be really good at taking magical damage so some dungeons/fights people would want pld/war, some dungeons/fights people would want this magic tank". Especially when some attacks can be vague and needs testing and checking to find out if it's magical or physical (too much stress, you know?). I can already see him not liking that already, judging from his past answers for questions about elemental wheel being removed. I feel that, at best, if we're going to get any caster tank, is yoship aiming it to have the same tanking ability as the pld and war and have it revolve around magic barriers that works for any type of damage for mitigation. Something like stoneskin and sch shields, except better and for the tank's personal use and maybe a different way of generating enmity (ooh maybe party wide barrier cast that transfers/steals enmity back to the caster tank if a monster hits a party member).

[Gandora]

I just really think its a bad idea because of the Storm Path, Storm eyes, BB combo and MRD class traits. Remember that the game mechanics are tied to the weapons a class is using.

This being said that is why a PLD has acces to Rage of Halone, making RDM or BLU of a GLA30 would give them RoA combo and the class main traits.

If a job such as DRK should be a DD, they would need a new main class to give them a full support in their role, a class that will give priority to STR support traits and things that will enhance the final job, I don't see how MRD could do that at this time let alone GLA.

They would need to make changes in the class mechanics for the job to not end up like SCH & SMN.