Crazy idea to improve DRK mitigation

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Originally Posted by Faytte

Lacking? Compared to whom?Dark Dance isnt as strong as bulwark--no one is debating it is. But you are saying that its 6% mitigation, would mean with a law shield a paladin is getting 12% out of bulwark (shields are blocking 21% at this time, unless you got ravanna ex shield). Of course, it only lasts 15 seconds vs dark dances 20...and it has a 180 cool down vs 60.

PLD get this magic cooldown that's up all the time called holding a shield. It's as good as dark dance, but it's always active.

The thing about bulwark is that you can use it for a pretty reliable cooldown against tank busters and periods of high damage. The reason for this is because because if you take the base PLD block rate and the bulwark block rate and the PLD parry rate, they're *probably* going to mitigate any incoming attack. True, it's not 100%, but it's at least fairly close. You can't use dark dance in the same way because the % to parry is so low.

And then there's sheltron

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faytte

And you are ignoring the 20% dodge which works on auto attacks (which is, against auto attacks, a flat 20% mitigation).

how often, when listing out stuff WAR has, do people include the evasion ability from MNK? There's a reason for that...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faytte

Sorry--its not paladin levels, but paladins dont have your offense, aoe, threat, ability to use magic damage (Ravanna seeing eye force fieldanyone?) and mobility. Yes--you make a trade off. Paladins right now are basically of no use in A4--most of their tricks do not apply, but they retain the disdavtange of terrible threat and damage---and you are better off bringing a warrior as an OT or even MT. So yes--the opposite situation will apply as well. The goal is not to homogenize everyone. You can level up every tank and pick what you need for the fight after all, or deal with a slight imbalance where a fight favors one or the other. Other classes deal with this all the time---movement fights classicaly did not favor Black Mages (and still dont). Certain fights favor WHM or Scholar over one another (pre nerf lustrate and Rammuh Ex when that was new).

The problem, as I see it, is if DRK is supposed to be the magic specialization tank, they're not all that special. Compare a PLD to a WAR when you're talking about physical defense. The WAR is good, but the PLD comes out pretty obviously ahead. If you compare DRK vs. WAR, it isn't as clear due to IB's very frequent use, the ability to keep storm's path up 100% of the time and the fact a MNK can bring magic down, while nobody else has an equivalent to storm's path.

PLD is also better vs. magic than a DRK is against physical. Most of this comes down to a stronger Convalescence, Sentinel > Shadow wall, Clemency, Stoneskin and the almighty Hallowed Ground. And again, MNK can bring the magic down for a PLD. Nobody but a PLD can provide the halone debuff for the DRK.

That's not even considering utility or lack thereof on DRK.

So, I don't think a mild increase is unreasonable. It definitely wouldn't make a DRK as good as a PLD against physical attacks.

I would agree with this if it weren't for the fact that most tank busters are magic based (revelation, akh morn, perpetual ray, A1S name escapes me etc), so you already have the advantage on what matters the most in raid content.

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Originally Posted by RayneBoemir

I would agree with this if it weren't for the fact that most tank busters are magic based (revelation, akh morn, perpetual ray, A1S name escapes me etc), so you already have the advantage on what matters the most in raid content.

DRK has the advantage here over PLD, yes. Advantage over WAR? ... maybe

Besides, despite DRK being better vs. magic busters, we're still seeing PLD in A1 Savage clears (wasn't world first with a PLD?). So we're still seeing PLD being used in A1 where their lower DPS and anti-magic deficiencies put them at a disadvantage. On the other hand, are there DRKs clearing A2, I'd only heard of raids using PLD thus far.

I guess we'll see how A3/A4 play out.