Drk: worst designed class

So DRK is getting a rework a 5.0?

The developer feedback around the DRK rework in 4.3 suggested that there were issues related to DRK's resource management and gameplay that still needed time to be addressed, so the general thought was that this would happen in the expansion as opposed to 4.4/4.5.

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Originally Posted by Zhexos

Dark Knight
We are aware of the feedback we received globally, and understand that we need to make adjustments to this job. However, adjustments to the fundamentals of a job requires a good amount of time. For this reason, it would be difficult to make these adjustments during the patch series, and we won’t be able to address all the feedback we have received at this time. Please note that we will make as many adjustments as we possibly can.

There have been a lot of comments to adjust the frequency of Dark Arts usage, but for these changes we haven’t made any major adjustments to Dark Arts. Instead we have made overall adjustments to increase their offensive/defensive capabilities and usability.

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Most jobs get some amount of rework during an expansion, but to implement the above considerations with DRK you do need to re-evaluate the resource system and how certain actions are designed.

DRK has a lot of interesting ideas with questionable implementation. It's nice, for example to have the option to either use Carve and Spit to generate MP in AoE, while being able to use DA to boost its damage in single target. In practice, however, most uses of Carve and Spit occur under DA, and it's nearly always a double weave. Is it necessary? No. I'm not actually making two decisions. I just want to press one button with the cost attached.

Likewise, take Delirium. Do I ever want to use Delirium without Blood Weapon or Price? No. There are four conditions to get a benefit from using the action. You need to have the correct amount of blood. Blood Weapon/Price has to be up. You have to activate the buff first and then extend it with Delirium. You need a minimum of 16 seconds of continuous uptime on the boss. Most jobs have one button for their big offensive buff, with no resource costs attached. And nearly all of them have a significantly bigger impact than Delirium.

The other common point is the fact that DRK tends to be the middle ground between WAR's absolute offense and PLD's absolute support, and it really needs a direction of its own. Self-healing/lifesteal is a good direction from this, but it needs to be a thematic direction across the entire job. Bloodspiller is a good example. It needs to be more than just a weaker Fell Cleave clone. Even if it gave you a small bit of health back, it'd offer a bit of unique flavour.

By the way, it's not hard at all to change Bloodspiller's effectiveness without changing the balance on TBN. The single easiest way is to drop both the cost of Bloodspiller and the amount of blood generated by TBN by the same amount. That gives you more frequent Bloodspillers while keeping TBN dps neutral. The alternative is to change Souleater and Bloodspiller by the same potency, which keeps the frequency the same while changing the potency.

I do think that direct "heals" are more a PLD thing in FF series lore, though, while restoring HP through attacks is more a DRK thing.

Jandor reminded me about the comment from fanfest about shields being integrated with the HP bar in 5.0. At the time, I thought that it was just a neat idea (could we see the amount of healing required to cleanse Walking Dead implemented in a similar way?) But I didn't really consider potential ramifications. If shields are now a numerical resource, then they may not necessarily exist as discrete buffs. If you have Adlo, TBN, and Shake stacked, your shield resource measures the total.

So do you keep all the buff timers, and just display the total amount of shielding? Do you remove the timers, and just merge all shields together into a single resource which, say, decays over time? Is there a max shield value that you can attain?

At the moment, shields are pretty powerful. They don't suffer from diminishing returns the way % damage reduction works. There are some limitations placed in terms off SCH and Noct AST interactions, but groups can put out a lot of shielding at the moment. A shield resource with an upper limit would both address the power of shields and rein it in. This would have implications for both TBN as well as the Veil/Shake LB cheese, but we'll have to see what happens.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

The other common point is the fact that DRK tends to be the middle ground between WAR's absolute offense and PLD's absolute support, and it really needs a direction of its own. Self-healing/lifesteal is a good direction from this, but it needs to be a thematic direction across the entire job. Bloodspiller is a good example. It needs to be more than just a weaker Fell Cleave clone. Even if it gave you a small bit of health back, it'd offer a bit of unique flavour.

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This was my biggest issue with the job. It's always been my favorite job throughout the series and as far back as I can remember, it's always had abilities that relies on lifesteal and using health to deal larger amounts of damage. It seems like WAR is more akin to the traditional DRK than the DRK itself with 3 skills that lifesteal (opposed to DRK's two), a skill that uses HP difference to increase attack potency and even in some of it's skill aesthetics such as Inner Release that give that cool black fire animation and glowing eyes...I don't know what SE was thinking when they went this route.

I feel like DRK's defense should be it's offense. It mitigates damage because it's constantly draining health from the enemy.

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Originally Posted by Renato

This was my biggest issue with the job. It's always been my favorite job throughout the series and as far back as I can remember, it's always had abilities that relies on lifesteal and using health to deal larger amounts of damage. It seems like WAR is more akin to the traditional DRK than the DRK itself with 3 skills that lifesteal (opposed to DRK's two), a skill that uses HP difference to increase attack potency and even in some of it's skill aesthetics such as Inner Release that give that cool black fire animation and glowing eyes...I don't know what SE was thinking when they went this route.

I feel like DRK's defense should be it's offense. It mitigates damage because it's constantly draining health from the enemy.

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This.

The dark night theme feels like a mage-tank.

when i picked it up,that job that is,i was very impressed with the aesthetics.as i started playing i noticed a lack of power and clear cut path to improvement.however i must admit,that this could stems from my inability to manage the resource.however for me it was the weakest of the 3 jobs.o do just fine as a PLD and WAR BUT i never seem to quite get it with the DRK. even with hours of training, it seems to be missing something,it doesn't quite get the complete mitigation or attack power i would expect.feels unfinished and unpolished at times.

does this makes any sense?

I feel the same way. As a job, it works fine which is why it's been neglected for so long but compared to the other two tanks it just doesn't "flow" as well. I've been kind of forcing myself to use it lately just wanting to get better with it. But after dropping it for WAR for a while and also dabling a bit in PLD it's easy to point out it's flaws.

It's really noticable doing older content where you really notice how much more you depend on the 62-70 skills. I find myself very rarely using the Power Slash combo and at this point, it's just taking up space on my hotbar. 70 DRK feels a bit better but overall still just feels very clunky. Like I said, it works...you can clear a large majority of content with it if not all but it could be so much better.

I miss FFXI DRK more power O.o/ while I main tank DRK it shoudl be a tad bit more powerful. That or give us a stance that sacrifices defense for offense. Besides dark side -.-

The worlds firsts ultimate tank was a DRK - the answer he gave after he was asked why he played Drk:“cause I like Drk - it’s fun.“

If a job is good/bad/fun/clunky/what ever... is actually always subjective. Our main tank is also a satisfied Drk :)

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Originally Posted by Neela

The worlds firsts ultimate tank was a DRK - the answer he gave after he was asked why he played Drk:“cause I like Drk - it’s fun.“

If a job is good/bad/fun/clunky/what ever... is actually always subjective. Our main tank is also a satisfied Drk :)

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Yeah, I like to play DRK too and I am a bit worried about the rework.

I like the resource management with Dark Arts and stuff. However, I miss the clear defined strenghts and weaknesses of the job he had in HW. It was fun to play out your strenght against magical bosses and feel super powerfull, but it was even more fun to overcome your weakness against physical bosses and win the fight.
What I liked most was that he had physical only mechanics with Low Blow and Reprisal proccs. It didn't felt like an afterthought, they put care even in the stuff the job was not good at.

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Originally Posted by Tint

Yeah, I like to play DRK too and I am a bit worried about the rework.

I like the resource management with Dark Arts and stuff. However, I miss the clear defined strenghts and weaknesses of the job he had in HW. It was fun to play out your strenght against magical bosses and feel super powerfull, but it was even more fun to overcome your weakness against physical bosses and win the fight.
What I liked most was that he had physical only mechanics with Low Blow and Reprisal proccs. It didn't felt like an afterthought, they put care even in the stuff the job was not good at.

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I share this as well, I'm happy but worried about the Drk rework, as it stands I don't like current Drk which is why I went War for my main as it doesn't feel great compared to HW Drk where we lost so much War and Pld have their unique strengths but Drk does not and suffers from DA spam that makes it feel really bad. Nothing beats Reprisaling a boss and lowering the bosses tankbuster and DA + DM or Shadow Wall and take even less damage, yes TBN is very strong but it doesn't feel great at all to use compared to what Drk used to be.

I hope they give it a unique theme or identity as I don't find SB Drk was well thought out at all or as rewarding as it used to be, yes I can play as well as a War who just has to pair their CDs up with say a MNKs Brotherhood but the payoff is so meager in return to the point where I should just play a War instead. To those who enjoy Drk keep enjoying it and love it but from an old HW Drk main I hope the rework in 5.0 is honestly for the better.

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Originally Posted by Neela

The worlds firsts ultimate tank was a DRK - the answer he gave after he was asked why he played Drk:“cause I like Drk - it’s fun.“

If a job is good/bad/fun/clunky/what ever... is actually always subjective. Our main tank is also a satisfied Drk :)

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I agree and disagree. I for one play DRK because it's my favorite job from the series as a whole. I stopped playing FFXIV and came back around the end of 2.x after I found out that DRK was going to be playable. I am one of the people who actually kind of prefers SB DRK moreso than the HW version because the MP is a bit easier to manage now in my opinion. It's still kind of an annoyance for me but it's tolerable. As much as I love the job, I can admit that compared to the other two tanks, it has issues mainly suffering from lack of identity. You know when you're taking a WAR with you, you're going to have a self-sustaining tank that can heal high amounts of damage. And if you bring a PLD, you're going to get a defensive tank with awesome damage mitgation cooldowns, shields and heals. DRK on the other hand has the lowest DPS of the three, can't self-sustain as well during solo fights and doesn't have as many damage mitigating cooldowns.

On top of that, there are a majority of skills that aren't worth using during fights without multiple enemies. There's no reason to use Abyssal Drain. Blood Price doesn't restore as much MP if you don't have a group of enemies attacking you. On top of that, DRK relies on TBN to generate blood that 3 different skills rely on. Because of the MP cost, Dark Passenger isn't really worth using and the Power Slash combo is forgotten during higher level content unless you're tank swapping.

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Originally Posted by Renato

Power Slash combo is forgotten during higher level content unless you're tank swapping.

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Only if you pull, tank swaping is provoke-shirk all day.

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Originally Posted by shao32

Only if you pull, tank swaping is provoke-shirk all day.

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Forgot about that...But that just further proves my point. Both PLD and WAR's combos have reason to want to alternate between the two while DRK pretty much relies on the Soul Eater combo to generate MP, HP and Blood Points.

So a rework is a welcome addition in my opinion.

Was playing DRK today and realized that Abyssal Drain should have been a trait that changed Unleash to Abyssal Drain. Once you get AD, you rarely ever use Unleash.

DRK: The only tank you can actually play with Super Eurobeat appropriately in the background.

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Originally Posted by Deceptus

Was playing DRK today and realized that Abyssal Drain should have been a trait that changed Unleash to Abyssal Drain. Once you get AD, you rarely ever use Unleash.

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Agreed, I've actually macrod these to the same button, so if i have a target it uses AD, and if i dont, Unleash, mainly due to xhotbar space, but of course that's not as effective as having it without a macro.

You know? I preffer if they consolidate unleash with quietus, and when you have 50 blood unleash become quietus rather that transform abyssal drain since both skills works a bit different.

This could also work, as they're both centered around you, however both Unleash and Abyssal Drain function as enmity increasing skills. Quietus is a damaging/MP-regen skill.
I think it terms of 'muscle memory' I use AD for the same reason I use Unleash, while Quietus is used for something completely different.
That said, I could probably get used to it if they did do this.

the thing is abyssal drain area effect is diferent since is around the target and not around you so you perception of the effective area can change constantly depending of the position of the target with will make DRK pulling being more harder, i highly preffer unleash remain as its excelent mass control circle area and i will hate a bit depend only of abyssal for mass pulling bcs of that, if we want to consolidate skills just add emity to quietus and make it a direct upgrade of unleash with 50 blood rather that transform unleash to abyssal forever and have more problems on mass pulling in general, less skilled players will have a lot more problems for this.

Edit: I will rather update unmend to abyssal drain by trait or just by dark arts since both are similar so we don't loose unleash area.

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Originally Posted by shao32

the thing is abyssal drain area effect is diferent since is around the target and not around you so you perception of the effective area can change constantly depending of the position of the target with will make DRK pulling being more harder, i highly preffer unleash remain as its excelent mass control circle area and i will hate a bit depend only of abyssal for mass pulling bcs of that, if we want to consolidate skills just add emity to quietus and make it a direct upgrade of unleash with 50 blood rather that transform unleash to abyssal forever and have more problems on mass pulling in general, less skilled players will have a lot more problems for this.

Edit: I will rather update unmend to abyssal drain by trait or just by dark arts since both are similar so we don't loose unleash area.

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But then you wouldnt be able to use your AoE emnity generator (Unleash 2.0) without using 50 blackblood and you're expending blackblood to carry out the essential task of generating enmity, instead of it being a bonus action.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

But then you wouldnt be able to use your AoE emnity generator (Unleash 2.0) without using 50 blackblood and you're expending blackblood to carry out the essential task of generating enmity, instead of it being a bonus action.

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You could have it so, if you don't have enough blood it does normal unleash, if you have enough blood it does Quietus

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

But then you wouldnt be able to use your AoE emnity generator (Unleash 2.0) without using 50 blackblood and you're expending blackblood to carry out the essential task of generating enmity, instead of it being a bonus action.

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What 347Spectre say, it's basically a temporal upgrade like RDM melee skills, you can use it but with enough gauge will become more powerful, unleash will be still usable and when you have enough blood you will have a better version of it.

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Originally Posted by 347SPECTRE

You could have it so, if you don't have enough blood it does normal unleash, if you have enough blood it does Quietus

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What if you want to use Unleash and not Quietus? What if you want to pull first and save your Quietus for when you've lost some MP?
It doesn't sound like it should be Quietus for me, just some upgraded version of Unleash that deals more damage... oh wait, that's Abyssal Drain, only the upgrade is that it can be targeted instead of being just around you.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

What if you want to use Unleash and not Quietus? What if you want to pull first and save your Quietus for when you've lost some MP?
It doesn't sound like it should be Quietus for me, just some upgraded version of Unleash that deals more damage... oh wait, that's Abyssal Drain, only the upgrade is that it can be targeted instead of being just around you.

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Well I agree with you in will reduce quietus versatility but it won't be a huge loose either since quietus on mass pulling is up pretty often so pulling with quietus is not bad either.

Idk if you even tank sometimes but the difference of being around you or around the target is pretty big and will be a Nerf in that way overcomplicating DRK aoe agro generation by reducing it to abyssal drain targeret aoe and I personally don't want unleash and abyssal merge for that reason, and I don't think it should be never, in any case just remove abyssal, I don't want it to disappear but will be better that just lose unleah entirely.

Yes there is a difference, and trust me, as someone who has macrod AD and Unleash onto the same button, it can be jarring when you expect one and get the other. However its the opposite way you're implying, AD is almost always better than Unleash, free targeting is better than it being centred on you. You dont have to waste time positioning yourself before you use it.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Yes there is a difference, and trust me, as someone who has macrod AD and Unleash onto the same button, it can be jarring when you expect one and get the other. However its the opposite way you're implying, AD is almost always better than Unleash, free targeting is better than it being centred on you. You dont have to waste time positioning yourself before you use it.

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sorry but you are mostly wrong, aoe free targeting is pretty limited to the target size and targets position, a clear example is the burn where the worms and other adds are to big for abyssal since hits the center of then and you can't reach properly the rest of the adds until they are properly stacked, when a big pack of medium and big size monsters spam or are just there AD is just terrible to gathering all of then properly and this happens in almost every dungeon, a wrong targeting and you will waste AD and you healer/dps will get a nice hit, many groups of adds are based with a big add in the middle and others are just spread around the room, others spam a bit far of eachother when you get in to a area like in arboretum were the Dorkkopur spam around you, if you target one you will what? reach 1/3 of then? even less, you will waste much more time using AD on then or just waiting until they decide to go after you or you healer to build agro properly compared to use 1-2 unleash and get all of then quickly.

unleash is far superior in gathering all of then quickly both spread or just random groups of adds with any size specially bcs we charge to the middle of then so we don't waste any time as you say, AD is only superior in potency and needs the adds being properly positionated or you will loose the agro bcs you are missing one of 2, other thing about unleash is superior is you have a clear view of the size of the spell compared to AD, AD is just an aoe unmend so is not even comparable to unleash at all on how it works.

Shouldn't Abyssal Drain replace Unmend more than Unleash? If it replaces anything.

Button consolidation isn't a huge concern for DRK, and if it's done it'd be better as part of a rework, rather than just awkward upgrading buttons with 'sort of similar but not really' abilities.

Unleash, AD and Unmend should stay. DRK doesnt have a button problem. PLD and WAR have more actions than DRK.

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Originally Posted by Derio

Unleash, AD and Unmend should stay. DRK doesnt have a button problem. PLD and WAR have more actions than DRK.

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This! Everything has a time and place for everything.

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Originally Posted by Derio

Unleash, AD and Unmend should stay. DRK doesnt have a button problem. PLD and WAR have more actions than DRK.

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Yes please.

I really don't want to miss either of these skills. Unleash is just too practical and easy to use to miss it. I would rather get rid of Abyssal Drain and buff Unleashs potency, but having a ranged aoe is awesome while dodging ground markers or grabbing adds from ranged.

Both skills are are usefull and have their own niche, they are not interchangeable.

When there are skills wich are more button bloat than usefull then I'll point at Dark Passenger and Quietus. Just bring back Blood Price for mana regen.

I would like to see two skills changed:
Living dead
Salted earth

Everyone would probably agree that the current living dead is lacking(trash). I think they should implement some of that Drk knight lore and make living dead a Self-Raising ability. Drk knight having the ability to return from the darkness just makes sense in my Drk Mind.

They should also make salted earth have hp or mp regen ability when paired with dark Arts. The regen ability should stack based on the amount of mobs, or if you're standing inside the aoe yourself. I know another Drk Arts ability may be annoying, but maybe remove the dark arts ability from plunge?

Not sure if this idea has ever been thrown out there. How would you guys feel about it?

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Originally Posted by AugusAgura

[...] but maybe remove the dark arts ability from plunge?

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What?! Hell no, that's the best thing that ever happened to DRK: Pulling with your gap closer!

I also don't see the benefit of a regen ability on Salted Earth. It already generates Blood based on the amount of mobs standing inside. With Quietus you turn that Blood into MP and with DA Abyssal Drain you turn the MP into a selfheal.
Abyssal Drain is powerfull enough, we don't need another AoE selfheal.

The AoE self heal doesnt work well for single targets though. Having a regen ability definitely wouldnt hurt.

I don't think it's bad designed. A lot of abilities are just very situational or seem like especially meant for aoe, like Blood Price, Salted Earth, DA + DP/AD/Quietus.
Even the required selfhealing of Living Dead is no problem at aoe, since you get a ton of selfhealing with DA+AD.

Blood Price is a joke in single target, but you're locked out from Blood Weapon in tank stance.
Living Dead is a double edged sword.
Sole Survivor is now usable in a non ad fight, but requires knowledge of the fight and planning.
Dark Passenger is a dps gain at aoe, but unneeded at single target.
Abyssal Drain is superior to Unleash, but harder to target.
Souleater doesn't heal in non tank stance.
Dark Mind only works on magic dmg.
Carve&Spit is double weave most of the time.

I don't really think it makes much sense to make adjustements to this skills now, since we don't know what will happen to Dark Arts with 5.0 and how it will affect our whole kit.

But I would scrap Blood Price and make Blood Weaon avaiable in tank stance. Turn Sole Survivor into a party wide regen ability. Give the potency and DA effect of AD to Unleash. Buff the dmg or remove the mp costs at DP, so it's worth using on single target. Make Souleater healing in non tank stance. And decrease the required healing for Living Dead, so it's less dangerous.

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Originally Posted by Reynhart

I personally wouldn't mind losing Dark Mind in exchange for a life leech on Sole Survivor.

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:rolleyes:

If you go back and actually look at the context of that post that you've cherry-picked out from about a month ago (I didn't know that PLDs could raise dead this expansion), it's not an unreasonable point.

Viewed in isolation, Dark Mind is probably a bit too strong. But that's also a reflection of the fact that tank mitigation, on the whole, is much too strong. I think that even if every tank was limited to Rampart, a 30%/120s cooldown, a 5+ min recast invincibility move, and Sheltron/IB/TBN, you'd still power through most of the encounters we've seen designed this expansion.

Right now, tanks are simplified melee dps who pop mitigation cooldowns on a set, fight-specific rotation. The devs, in their infinite wisdom, seem to think that we do too much dps. So if you take that element away, at least the mitigation end of things needs to be more challenging.

I think that the entire suite of tank defensive abilities needs to be re-evaluated. Dark Mind should be removed. So, too, should Thrill of Battle and Raw Intuition, with Holmgang increased to at least a 5 minute recast. Inner Beast should be stance independent so that you actually have to use it to clear content. Sentinel should be dropped down to a 2 minute recast. Cover should be merged with Intervention and incorporated into the underutilised PLD gauge system. Bulwark should be a traited form of Anticipation.

So yeah, Dark Mind is a problem, but it's also part of a much, much bigger problem across all tanks.

As for lifesteal - well, probably the number one thing that people have been asking for is a clear cut identity for jobs like DRK, WHM, and MCH. I'm fully behind the idea of making DRK into a lifesteal-themed tank. WAR can go do something else, as far as I'm concerned, unless they want to give up having the best burst dps and the best burst enmity as their schtick. You can't be everything at once.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

As for lifesteal - well, probably the number one thing that people have been asking for is a clear cut identity for jobs like DRK, WHM, and MCH. I'm fully behind the idea of making DRK into a lifesteal-themed tank. WAR can go do something else, as far as I'm concerned, unless they want to give up having the best burst dps and the best burst enmity as their schtick. You can't be everything at once.

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Is Lifesteal really a sufficient mechanic by which to differentiate oneself, though? It's at best a mechanic of heightened sustain without eMHP bonuses. That's no better than differentiating oneself off HoTs or sustained DPS. They're things that can help make more vivid identities work cohesively, aesthetically and functionally, but not nearly enough unto themselves.

It absolutely is enough, though. A job identity doesn't need to give you a strict advantage. It needs to give you a unique gameplay experience.

I started out tanking on warrior tanks in Warcraft some 12 years ago. Back then, the thing that interested me was their sheer mobility. Charge to an enemy. Intercept back to an ally. It didn't really matter to me if this mobility translated into a gameplay advantage or made my class into a must pick. I felt like I controlled the battlefield. It felt unique. And most importantly, it felt fun.

When DRK was first introduced in Heavensward, we had a lot of unique flair. DRK felt fast, and so, so mobile. We had an attack between every attack. You hit us, we hit you back. Stormblood eroded this in nearly every area. The role action system either gave away or removed most of our counter-attack moves. Onslaught gives WAR double the amount of mobility that we have. The sheer amount of knockbacks this expansion make this painfully obvious. Dark Arts feels like molasses, and doesn't feel nearly as good as throwing in a kick or stab weaved in-between every other attack. Our reprisal is now everyone's reprisal. I don't mind that we're behind the other two tanks in terms of performance. What I do object to is being robbed of all of our unique traits, simply because players maining other tank jobs were too greedy. Enough is enough. Get out of our space.

Fell cleave is sacrosanct. If Bloodspiller or Holy Spirit did more damage, WAR mains would lose their minds over it. I want something that is uniquely "owned" by DRK. I think that there are two natural areas for this. The first is speed. The second is resource draining, be it HP, MP, or blood. I want to see lots and lots of green numbers. This is our space.

And if there's a new gunblade-based tank next expansion, they would do well to kick WAR right out of the mobility department. If we're going to keep introducing new tanks and healers, you simply cannot afford to have one tank which can do everything.

I'd argue that WHM is the worst designed job. At least you can still be competitive in a sense. WHM is just bad in every way you look at it. Worse way of healing, not strongest at healing, not strongest at DPS, entire job mechanic is useless, no utility or raid synergy.

It's crazy.

PLD/WAR and WHM/SCH were designed in ARR around these being the only tanks and only healers. They worked because there wasn't really any significant overlap.

When the devs introduced a third tank and a third healer, they should have narrowed the existing jobs so that they didn't cover as broad an area. They didn't. DRK was introduced as something in-between PLD and WAR. AST was introduced as something in-between WHM and SCH.

The end result over the past two expansions is that we've seen PLD and DRK trade-off with each other based on who is the better PLD, and WHM and AST trade-off with each other based on who is the better WHM. WAR and SCH dabble in a lot of different areas, such that their guaranteed spots have been relatively well insulated. They're also the reason why there wasn't really room for a third tank and healer.

Healers have another layer of problems with raid buffs (Balance, Strategem). I'm glad that tanks haven't really run into this issue yet, outside of the Slashing issue. Because stacking raid buffs don't have diminishing returns, it's pretty much mandatory for your job to bring one in order to stay competitive.

I'm hoping that the addition of a fourth tank and healer will force the devs to re-evaluate tanks and healers from the ground up. There isn't room for a fourth. You have to make room. The starting point for that is to look at how broad WAR and SCH's kits have become, and give them a more narrow focus, in keeping with everyone else.