Tanking

Well, what would you like to do, exactly? It's easier for a designer to reverse engineer wishes into a balanced thing, than to 'stab in the dark and hope they manage to make something you like'.

Assuming you have a wish, even an extremely specific wish, it's very likely to be considered because there are lots of ways to 'make sure you have a path to what you want' without necessarily overcomplicating the whole class.

If you just 'want to try something different', what would you consider 'different enough'?

Ah, sorry, yes.

Have you played FFXI? I'm trying to understand if you have this wish because you have had the experience before, or because you specifically haven't, since the 'concern type' is different.

That's a game where it isn't too difficult to find all sorts of ways to tank, at least respectably, using just basic game mechanics. Two or three clearly defined tanks, at least seven alternate special tanks for tanking enemies with particular mechanics or attack styles.

Our summoner does not do much tanking in that game, but she could have. We expect that the way she tanks in that game will be the same in Ashes, and would also be concerned if it wasn't possible.

But the devs would have to go completely out of their way, to make it not possible, and that's why we're not worried and why so many posters might seem to be misunderstanding you. It's possible they all just 'can't see how it would be difficult' since they've done it before in other games.

The reason that Ashes only has 8 Classes is (whether through intentional design or convergent evolution) the fact that MMOs, especially fantasy MMOs, always have only 8 or 9 different design archetypes.

"The protected one who takes or avoids the brunt of the damage while holding enemy focus"
"The one that gets close and hits things really hard or fast."
"The one that stays far and hits things really hard and can hit many"
"The one that stays far and hits things really hard focusing on just one."
"The one that heals damage."
"The one that specializes in ranged Damage Over Time"
"The one that uses stealth and positioning to get damage or bonuses."
"The one that openly uses positioning to get buffs and debuffs."
"The one that controls other entities to do a little of all these things."

You can mix and match these, which is probably the point of augments, and games really do try, very often, to mix and match them, and these often result in new 'classes', but because there simply aren't enough other things to even do , that's all it usually is.

If someone told you 'you have 100 points over 6 related sliders, pick which ones you want', it's almost always possible. Everything an MMO developer tells you is just 'their way of putting that fact into words'. They're just moving the sliders (Damage Mitigation, Melee Offensive Output, Ranged Offensive Output - choose DoT, Burst, or Highest Single Target, or take a little of all, which is what nearly all people with this slider will do, Healing, Positioning Bonuses, Pet Control).

Obviously this is hyperbole a little, but 'classes' are almost always just 'a mask put over a slider preset'. All we have to care about is 'how well the Augments let us move the sliders'.

The car analogy is technically 'they're all vehicles'. Most of them are cars, maybe one is a truck, maybe one is a jetski.