RPGamer FFXI Wings Dev. Interview

[Weavus]

People talking about Tanking methods made gave me massive brainstorms. And since SE is out of ideas, I might as well share mine. Rough ideas below.

"Lifetap" Tank - Tank uses/possesses AOE JA/Spell/JT that states, "when a party/alliance member takes damage, a percentage is redirected to you." The AOE could be 3 min duration with zero recast, but produce a lot of enmity. This would force this Lifetap tank use lots of -enmity, resulting in a un-Paladin of sorts. A secondary JA that I considered was one that would say, "You absorb a large percentage of the damage that target player takes." This secondary JA would overwrite the AOE one. Figured it would handy to save lives in a pinch, so it would have a short duration.

"Watcher" Tank - Tank uses a JA with a zero recast that says, "Your enmity is equal to target party/alliance members +1." The idea being that your enmity would always be greater then the target you're "watching". This idea would be rather interesting because if hate suddenly fluctuates and the BLM takes hate and you're watching the THF, you then have to quickly "watch" the BLM. All sorts of limitations can be made for this to make it interesting.

If they suck, w/e. 20 min of thought, whatcha want?

[pohibaba]

What about a new buff that acts as a sort of inverse Phalanx that caps damage, rather than shaves it? For example, it might cap physical damage against you at 100 (give or take depending on enhancing skill), so even Geush Urvan or Tiamat's crits won't do more than 100. It also wouldn't overpower them in solo situations, either, since nothing you solo does more than 100 damage per hit anyway. It also wouldn't allow them to solo or hold NMs they couldn't before, as even at 100 per hit, you'd still run out of MP fairly quickly trying to solo hold Tiamat or Geush Urvan. You'd still need as much support as any other tank would need to make it effecient.

Honeslty, I don't see the point of this. PLD and NIN would still be better than this for everything. 0 damage > 100 damage, and even when well geared PLDs have shadows down there's nothing I can think of that would hit them for over 100 damage consistently other than a 2hr'd Tiamat or Nidhogg or something.

[Khamsin]

What about a new buff that acts as a sort of inverse Phalanx that caps damage, rather than shaves it? For example, it might cap physical damage against you at 100 (give or take depending on enhancing skill), so even Geush Urvan or Tiamat's crits won't do more than 100. It also wouldn't overpower them in solo situations, either, since nothing you solo does more than 100 damage per hit anyway. It also wouldn't allow them to solo or hold NMs they couldn't before, as even at 100 per hit, you'd still run out of MP fairly quickly trying to solo hold Tiamat or Geush Urvan. You'd still need as much support as any other tank would need to make it effecient.

Honeslty, I don't see the point of this. PLD and NIN would still be better than this for everything. 0 damage > 100 damage, and even when well geared PLDs have shadows down there's nothing I can think of that would hit them for over 100 damage consistently other than a 2hr'd Tiamat or Nidhogg or something.

Because with haste, elegy, and fast cast, you can put up stoneskin continuously and it'll last 3-4 hits before it wears off. Done right, you could keep it up the entire time and spend very little MP on curing and more MP on spamming hate-generating spells, and it would also absorb AoEs and attacks that go through shadows, like tiamat's attacks from the air. Worst case, if you get stunned or terrored and you lose stoneskin, 100 damage a hit isn't going to flatten you before you can get stoneskin back up.

[Kyreth]

Axe B, Great Axe A, Great Sword A-, Shield C, Sword B-, whatever else. Give me a fur-clad guy with a big 2hander that gets hit, starts foaming at the mouth and mauls things like a bear on crack. And doesn't believe in Utsu tanking.

There's your new tank. It bloodtanks but it doesn't shadow tank, and it tanks better the more it gets hit/smacks things.

Sounds a lot like a Warrior tank in WoW, but with a FFXI twist. You would have to be careful about them being able to gain TP too fast though, thus probably needing to decrease their weapon caps to at most B.

We can all come up with very usable idea for tanking jobs all day, but day-dreaming and speculating doesn't actually make them work in game. SE has to do that.

Fact: A S-E rep is reading these boards. If S-E's devs cannot come up with coherent ideas, we should in the hopes that they are developed into what the game as a whole would find desirable.

Information gets passed on. And if those TP-dependant JA's decay properly (in other words, Viking has to keep burning TP to stay in "tank mode"), and since attack TP gain for Viking comes best from 2 handers (slower weapons, and the onehanders are B/B-)...it's going want to be quite good at getting the attention of mobs. VIK/WAR (or VIK/SAM for Hasso/Store TP) lines of thought.

The playerbase wants a new, viable tank job...and altering existing jobs isn't as effective, as people may and have leveled those jobs already, meaning you have a dearth of "new" tanks. Plenty of people have leveled WAR to 37 already for other jobs. Heck, I don't have a melee job above 30 and I have 18 levels in WAR.

[Septimus]

I don't see how RDM being a thankless job is, um, our problem. Ok, maybe it sucks playing RDM sometimes, but that doesn't mean it isn't one of the highest valued jobs in this game. To be absolutely honest, how happy you people are and how well the job works have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Job balance has nothing to do with how much fun you have. I mean, to put it simply, PUP looks like a fun job. :/

Yes, I'm aware I essentially said the same thing 5 times. That's kind of the point.

Also, the Stoneskin portion is the only truly unique aspect, since PLDs have Sentinel. They don't have it on all the time, but it's a conditional damage mitigation tool, which is what you're talking about (unless you suggest a job should have a latent phalanx effect (JT), which would basically be a PLD, with phalanx instead of def/vit.) Stoneskin is currently more of a stall due to its low HP amount, it's not the defining factor in tanking. IMO, SS has more that could be built on; with phalanx, you can only make the shield stronger, with SS, you can make it stronger, regenerate it, use portions of it for various purposes (think Souleater, only with more control.)

Anyway, while we both have interesting ideas on the subject, none of it's gunna be applied to RDM. You should really hope for something along the lines of better DD or more efficient spellcasting to go along with even faster casting. While refresh is incredibly important, the value is somewhat mitigated by it invariably being casted on all other mages.

Since you are repeating yourself, I shall as well.

But the point is that I came up with a tank (that no one would allow to happen because people hate it when Red Mages are happy) that has very different mechanics from the two existing major tanks in just a few minutes. Square has a bunch of people working on the game, why can't they do the same?

But the point is that I came up with a tank (that no one would allow to happen because people hate it when Red Mages are happy) that has very different mechanics from the two existing major tanks in just a few minutes. Square has a bunch of people working on the game, why can't they do the same?

But the point is that I came up with a tank (that no one would allow to happen because people hate it when Red Mages are happy) that has very different mechanics from the two existing major tanks in just a few minutes. Square has a bunch of people working on the game, why can't they do the same?

But the point is that I came up with a tank (that no one would allow to happen because people hate it when Red Mages are happy) that has very different mechanics from the two existing major tanks in just a few minutes. Square has a bunch of people working on the game, why can't they do the same?

But the point is that I came up with a tank (that no one would allow to happen because people hate it when Red Mages are happy) that has very different mechanics from the two existing major tanks in just a few minutes. Square has a bunch of people working on the game, why can't they do the same?

I admit that the idea would never actually happen, because it is just a concept for something that is a different style of current tanking methods that could be useful in various situations. Look, it's right up in there. Let me highlight it since you probably didn't see it.

But the point is that I came up with a tank (that no one would allow to happen because people hate it when Red Mages are happy) that has very different mechanics from the two existing major tanks in just a few minutes. Square has a bunch of people working on the game, why can't they do the same?

Remember when Sentinel was not a damage mitigation ability? I do. Once upon a time it was just a crappy defense boost. (Remember when Rampart didn't give a stoneskin-like bonus for magic? I remember that as well.) Sentinel is nothing like Phalanx. Sentinel is a percentage damage reduction that last for thirty seconds on a five minute recast. Phalanx is a set damage reduction that lasts for 2:30 and on a 10 second recast. How is 90%(100% with Valor Leggings)-40% damage reduction for 30 seconds similar to a straight 28 (56-112 as I proposed) damage reduction that has to be recast every 150 seconds? It is a completely different mechanic, especially since subbing Ninja to paladin and taking no damage because of shadows is more effective than face tanking in 80% or more situations anyway. Comparing Sentinel to Phalanx is like comparing Souleater to en-spells since they both increase damage done to a mob.

I was trying to come up with a tank that would not benefit from subbing Ninja. Think that 112 damage reduction is all that great? I was fighting Decent Challenge Quadovs in Pashhow Marshlands [S] that consistently hit my Warrior for 110-130 damage without Berserk. Yes, they are a fair bit stronger than your normal DC mob, but how much do you think a VT-IT mob would hit for on a RDM?

Oh and one more for the road.

But the point is that I came up with a tank (that no one would allow to happen because people hate it when Red Mages are happy) that has very different mechanics from the two existing major tanks in just a few minutes. Square has a bunch of people working on the game, why can't they do the same?

[Maxxthepenguin]

Sept your idea is bad and it is never going to happen

[sleekmotorwurkz]

sidestep from the tank conversation:
YAY I CAN FINALLY DROP MY ANNIVERSARY BAND...
Inventory+1

I really dont see the need for another tank job anyway...
1. Im going to assume they are talking xpwise, because there are unlimited tanks for the hnm scene, pld, nin, rdm, blu, war, might even be able to throw dancer in there. Shit with proper support im sure you could be semi-effective on more then just the ones I listed.
2. They are supposedly increasing war ability to tank, there might be another decent party tank there.
3. Do people actually "Tank" in xp anymore? isnt it more of a /nin hate bouncing fest?

[fndragon]

3. Do people actually "Tank" in xp anymore? isnt it more of a /nin hate bouncing fest?

Exactly. Why have one person attempt to overcome the high rate of enmity that 3-4 DD's will generate? End-game merit parties, everybody tanks to some extent, due to the damage avoidance that Utsusemi provides. Do you think MNK/NIN, SAM/NIN or DRG/NIN come /NIN for the dual wield bonus? It's tonko, right? Seriously, though, the system is designed to reward a hate sharing mechanism better than any single tank job due to having a monster overcome everybody's cumulative shadows.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Actually, if there was a good way to have a real tank in a merit party that dealt half the damage of a normal DD while always holding hate I would love it and so would the SAM/WARs.

[Septimus]

Sept your idea is bad and it is never going to happen

Wow, if only I said that it would never happen and it was just an idea to show that the devs are simply being lazy. If only...

[Khamsin]

Sept your idea is bad and it is never going to happen

Wow, if only I said that it would never happen and it was just an idea to show that the devs are simply being lazy. If only...

If you were an admin like you should be, I wouldn't be wooshing you right now.

Woosh.

[Bleu]

How is dancer going to do with B dagger skill on sky gods, anything kited, or anything with high def and high evasion?

Answer: Change to your useful job for the situation.

Who the f*k said that EVERY JOB had to be awesome for every endgame event? DNC will be a solid addition to other endgame events such as Dynamis, Limbus, sea farming, etc...