Healing DRK tanks sucks.

I find healing DRK tanks to be alright. It's really up to the individual. The key is to pop their defensive buffs before impending massive damage occurs, not when their health is already at 30%.

I'm guessing it might just be piss poor player quality then maybe.

Back to back DD runs the other day. One DRK was a breeze, the other in better gear.... Felt like he was wearing toilet paper.

And yes, I use essential dignity. Loving the crap out of that spell.

Trying to work kinks out with noct sect though ATM.

I've ran with DRK's... I think they're pretty easy to heal. No problems at all.

Maybe you're just that lucky?

I only run things currently with my friend who is DRK his health never dips too low (though he said he is squishier) and I am even able to dps in most pulls and bosses without having to panic heal him, are you sure that your tanks know how to rotate their cooldowns and stuff? DRK's are all in their learning phases so its gonna be hard on us healers but I imagine as they learn to rotate and use their health giving skills we will have a load off our shoulders.

At present 99.5% of all DRK I have encountered ... Which is a lot... Outright make my life hellish. I need to spam heals on them whereas with war or pld I have no issue dpsing and contributing to the speed of our run..
It drives me frigging insane. I can shave an average of like 5 minutes off the dungeon run with war or paladin but with drk it takes 5 mins more.

I just.. Ugh. I realize some dark knights authentically want to tank but most the ones I see want to DPS.

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Originally Posted by SovereignAegis

I just.. Ugh. I realize some dark knights authentically want to tank but most the ones I see want to DPS.

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This right here. I have a friend at work who only plays dps, and he made a dark knight because," It looks cool and I'm just going to DPS with it anyways." -_-

I have been running several farm runs in the lvl 60 Dungeons for PoL with the DRK tank from my static. It really is a breeze, DRK has some neat migration tools. WAR on the other hand are hell. Why would you switch into your DPS stance when pulling 10+ mobs? Do you hate me that much?

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Originally Posted by Lacifarus

This right here. I have a friend at work who only plays dps, and he made a dark knight because," It looks cool and I\\'m just going to DPS with it anyways." -_-

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And then they get to The Vault and explode on the first wave of trash.

I have seen 8 dark knights get 100-0d by the first trash then we had to vote abandon.

"We can do this guys!" No we can't.

The only thing that bothers me with DRK is a lot of what I've encountered still have the speedrun mentality, for the 51-59 dungeons when we're all not yet overgeared for the content and then wipes happen. Then the "lol sorry i'm still learning how to tank/play this class" comment goes out... -_-.

Thankfully I've only had 1 or 2 wipes happen on me so far but it's bloody stressful haha.

I had no probs with DRK and i love to watch their dark abilities! In fact we just cleared bismark extreme with DRK and WAR　♡

I'm only lvl 40 astrologian, however I have slightly noticed what you are talking about though. On another side though, me(as AST), an FC member(as DRK), and another FC member(as MCH) were running dungeons and I had no problem what so ever healing him as he tanked. I think, like others have said, it has to do a lot with people still learning the job. Because where as I didn't have any problems healing my DRK friend, I got a random DRK in duty finder which was a nightmare. I do not know how we even finished that dungeon because he was constantly causing me to run out of MP. I think as more people get the hang of it, it will be better.

Had no issues, like has been stated it's a large amount of new people playing tanks and getting to grips with how DRK's work, i've personally only ran into a couple who refused to use defensive cooldowns, but even then they still held agro well(DRK seems much better than PLD in that regard at least). I think it's also partly down to people playing Astrologians and not realising how weak their heals are early on causing you to spend that much more mana and effort, gear also being an important factor, i've noted a lot of people levelling the new jobs kind of half assing gear which doesn't make things easier.

I don't disagree that they have less mitigation than a pally or less hp than a warrior. But to be honest I think what you are experiencing is a lot of new tanks that are still learning the job and simply don't have experience tanking and understanding the cool downs. The hype train is in full effect but I think you will see a lot of it die down once people start making it to the demanding content and the community starts establishing who is and who is not a good tank.

i havent had a problem with DKs in the vault or aerie.



In fact, on average for my 10-15 runs, warriors were more squishy.

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Originally Posted by Nague

i havent had a problem with DKs in the vault or aerie.



In fact, on average for my 10-15 runs, warriors were more squishy.

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Exactly this. Since I've been back, and I've been leveling new content as my SCH, I've noticed the WAR's being extremely squishy. On the other side of things, DRK's have been the best to heal for me. I know I'm a SCH, and this isn't related to AST in any way, but I have been hearing of people mentioning how WAR seems to have become so squishy. I had a damn difficult time healing a couple of WAR's earlier today in The Aery.

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Originally Posted by Merylx

Exactly this. Since I've been back, and I've been leveling new content as my SCH, I've noticed the WAR's being extremely squishy. On the other side of things, DRK's have been the best to heal for me. I know I'm a SCH, and this isn't related to AST in any way, but I have been hearing of people mentioning how WAR seems to have become so squishy. I had a damn difficult time healing a couple of WAR's earlier today in The Aery.

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I noticed this as a WHM too, i prefer to heal Paladins by far (although i'm only 57 yet). But in case of the scholar one problem is that Lustrate and i think some other spells too, are not affected by healing boosts, such as the Warriors Defiance stance. The paladin has "i take 20% less damage" in his tank stance, so it doesn't matter, but the warrior has "i have 20% more hp and get 20% healing", and the latter part is partially bugged at the moment.

Warriors get new DPS tools and some of them want to try it out during dungeon runs. I noticed it when I was Vaulting that one warrior switched to Deliverance after he had gotten enough emnity. That was a bit of a nightmare.

On the other hand the 60 warriors that I've run with have been quite tanky. Granted they were geared but it's been pretty even so far among all 3 jobs.

I have had good and very bad experiences while healing Dark Knights. Last night I had a horrible time healing a Dark Knight that fully specs point wise in to damage and refused to use damage reduction moves in the Aery. This particular Dark Knight was getting wreaked every hit that landed and I was not able to switch between cleric stance at all. Other than that in the Aery I have had exceptional experiences with healing properly specs Dark Knights that would only randomly take large damage and allowed me to cleric stance plenty. I feel that there are just some people that want to do pure dps with Dark Knight and some that can balance both or pure tank well.

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Originally Posted by Aphel

Warriors get new DPS tools and some of them want to try it out during dungeon runs. I noticed it when I was Vaulting that one warrior switched to Deliverance after he had gotten enough emnity. That was a bit of a nightmare.

On the other hand the 60 warriors that I've run with have been quite tanky. Granted they were geared but it's been pretty even so far among all 3 jobs.

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there must be a warrior memo or something, i leveld a whole level in vault and all the warriors dropped their tank stance no matter hwat.
pull 2 constructs AND 2 horses? drop that tank stance for MORE DPS.
One guy got 1 shot by the 2nd boss frontal cleave attack and all of them tanked all bosses without tank stance, really nice for the last boss, like i dont have anything else to do than to spamheal the tank.

I can heal some of it, but there is no way a newer person or an AST can heal trough that.
And all that so they do 200k more dmg in vault, but i drop from 250k-300k dmg to 0 dmg because i have to spam adlo.



I hope this stops or warriors will regain their bad reputation.

Had a DRK in my Low Level Roulette today, first time I've healed one in The Vault. I had been prepared for some difficulty, but he was...good. Maintaining his HP during larger pulls was not an issue. He held enmity well and appeared to be doing respectable damage, and I was able to help DPS as much as I normally would with a PLD or a WAR. Should also mention that this DRK wasn't level-synced; he was actually lvl 58 mostly with quest reward i58 gear.

Speaking as a lvl 60 WHM, I dislike healing DRKs. To be honest, it feels like I'm healing a 2.0 WAR. They're like wet paper. Their HP just melts and I'm stuck constantly healing them so they don't disintegrate.

I've had maybe 1 or 2 okay DRKs that didn't need constant mending but even then it still was more attention than I needed to give an equivalent WAR or PLD.

You also absolutely run into DRKs who care more about making damage than mitigating it. I had a DRK with an i180 sword and the rest of his gear was all white quest stuff. He totally prioritized a better weapon over better armor.

Bottom line, they're too squishy.

been healing some DRK until 60: no issue whatsoever
I take a DRK tank over a MCH DPS anytime of the day

Ok I didn't go through all 62 pages here but the first dungeon run I got was with a DRK tank and it was just as easy to heal him/her as any other tank. I'm assuming you got someone who didn't know what they were doing....I've had no issues with them so far.

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Originally Posted by xxhieixx

Ok I didn't go through all 62 pages here but the first dungeon run I got was with a DRK tank and it was just as easy to heal him/her as any other tank. I'm assuming you got someone who didn't know what they were doing....I've had no issues with them so far.

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It's really a mixed bag, but I think the average quality (my perception) has already risen... people are figuring it out, not making gear mistakes, etc etc. Sometimes I still get the ultra squishy ones, however.

I agree, definitely mixed bag. I've had those where I'll have to spam Benefic among other spells with barely time to see which cards I'm drawing during battle. Then there's those roulettes where I get a really good drk and I'm sitting there with my finger over my heals waiting to heal them. Its pretty apparent which kind of drk you get from the first or second pull. I obviously prefer the ones that do well at mitigating damage and absorbing hp, as it let's me cleric stance pretty often

I just recently started leveling my scholar (53) after getting my ast to 60, and I've noticed that war actually seems faaaar more squishy than drk. Sometimes even had wars running that new offensive stance and they're tanking with a max hp of 8k while taking huge spikes if I'm not on top of heals.

Edit; Forgot to add, I have no issue healing warriors at 60. They just feel extremely delicate in the mid 50s atm

Same - it's probably as mixed bag as any player in the playerbase - just more apparent at the moment while people are trying to get a hold on them. It will probably be like this for a month or so, as people play and level their jobs at different paces and at different times. I found DRK fun when I did the first job quest, so I might actually seek out to level it a bit, but not till after I get WHM better geared and through the MSQ, MNK to at least upper 50s and start my BRD character/alt int he Heavensward MSQs....(and I'll probably poke around moreso at the other two new jobs, first), so I'll be late in the game to start figuring it out. Just to use myself as an example.
It will even out with some stragglers (like myself) on top of fresher/newer players hitting the Heavensward content for the first time.

With that said, I haven't had many probs healing DRKs - had one mass pull one area in Vault and, while it was a sudden shift from prior run throughs with everyone taking one mob encounter at a time, it wasn't anywhere near undoable, nor too squishy to handle it.
Had another in Aery that was as good as a good WAR (I don't know why, but I just compare them to WAR, rather than PLD - though it's described as playing between the two... o_O)

Only time I did have a problem was in a roulette into a lower level dungeon

The OP's DRK problems almost certainly stem from poor gear.

I made the mistake of entering Cutter's Cry in my level 30 gear and got dunked pretty bad. We made it, but the myself and healer had a few heart attacks along the way.
Upgraded to level 40 gear and all was much better.

There's also the matter where tanks take a lot more damage in general in the later ARR leveling dungeons, especially when you're used to ilvl 110-130 tanks.

As a healer who has healed a number of level 60 tanks, I didn't find them any harder to heal than other tanks. I heal as a SCH.
In fact, all of the bad runs I had were with PLDs or WARs, so it's definitely more of a skill issue than a job issue.

Someone on the Tank forum did some testing and it appears there's a defense bug with Drks atm. With the same gear on, and the Plds shield unequipped, the Drk was taking more damage than the Pld. But removing all gear, they were taking the same damage.

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Originally Posted by Trespar

In fact, all of the bad runs I had were with PLDs or WARs, so it's definitely more of a skill issue than a job issue.

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Can honestly say in the dozen or so runs of Fractal and Neverreap I've done so far, the tank I enjoy healing the least is by far WAR. An FC mate of mine argued that WARs were the sturdiest tanks atm, but I'm just not seeing it.

This long string of horrible WARs just makes me cringe when I queue into a dungeon with 'em.

Comparatively, DRKs have been very pleasant to heal and PLDs are a breeze as always.

I have a friend who mains DRK in my FC and he is very good with his Defensive CDs. Shadowskin and Shadow Wall are VERY BIG CDs, and popped off at the same time is an instant 50% mitigation. As a WHM I haven't had any problems with him even when we started in i145 gear in Neverreap. He didn't use Convalescence until today, however, so at least I was doing alright with my heals when I using Cure for 2k HP. The cross skills from MRD and GLD are very useful as always for DRK.

The only Healing CDs I've had to pop on occasion is Divine Seal and the usual Shroud, maybe Assize after a room-wide AoE or Eye for an Eye if he's doing a big pull.

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Originally Posted by SDaemon

Can honestly say in the dozen or so runs of Fractal and Neverreap I've done so far, the tank I enjoy healing the least is by far WAR. An FC mate of mine argued that WARs were the sturdiest tanks atm, but I'm just not seeing it.

This long string of horrible WARs just makes me cringe when I queue into a dungeon with 'em.

Comparatively, DRKs have been very pleasant to heal and PLDs are a breeze as always.

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My experiences so far (at 60) seem to echo yours. I find the easiest tanks to heal are PLD > DRK > WAR when they are appropriately geared and at least moderately skilled.

some warriors i had just drop their tank stance, even during bosses or double pulls, tthey dont even care that their HP drops from 100 to 5% in one global cooldown.

I healed a DRK tank in a Fractal run as a WHM and had no problems with it. The DRK appeared less squishy than a WAR. I guess that DRK knew how to play that class well.

DRK is a relatively new tank so people are still learning how to use one as a tank well. Give it some time.

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Originally Posted by Nague

some warriors i had just drop their tank stance, even during bosses or double pulls, tthey dont even care that their HP drops from 100 to 5% in one global cooldown.

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As someone who has a WAR alt, I can say that any Warrior that doesn't use CDs when changing from Defiance to Deliverance is doing something wrong. If I have stable aggro and want to start DPSing, I'll swap to Deliverance, pop either Convalesence+Raw Intuition (not against casters, obviously), or Bloodbath+Vengeance (ideally with Berserk, if I have it up), and go to town until one CD set runs out, then pop the next combination. If things get dicey, I use Thrill of Battle, swap to Defiance, and use Equilibrium, which at 60 with i148 heals me for around 3.5k, and has crit for 7k.

Honestly, though, it's all about discretion. I'm not as CD spammy against bosses (usually using them one at a time in Defiance or Deliverance), but if I'm comfortable with my healer I'll go ham in Deliverance without many CDs, but I'll always be ready to get back into Defiance.