Quote:
Originally Posted by The_User
Thanks for proving my point by unblocking him and then re-blocking him to prove an invalid point lol.
DRK feels super squish in comparison to the other tanks
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09-15-2025, 10:20 PMGrimforth
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09-15-2025, 10:27 PMGrimforthIt's obvious they don't have an answer and would rather reply with an irrelevant question to your question.Quote:
Originally Posted by Supersnow845
Honestly they don't know what they're talking about (clearly indicated by the fact that they have the reading comprehension of a kindergartner) and you're just going to continue to lose brain cells talking with them like I am. -
09-15-2025, 10:55 PMCarighan
I really wonder whether we're seeing an influx of AI-based bot posts recently, or at least AI-based. We had the one-per-class threads recently that were clearly written by AI down to the formatting and the style, and this poster here seems to have issues that only make sense if your knowledge about the classes is based on the weird mistakes LLMs make with MMORPG classes due to the fluid nature of their design coupled with how the LLM ingests all states of the job concurrently so you end up with a random hodgepodge of information.
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09-15-2025, 11:07 PMThe_UserQuote:
Originally Posted by Grimforth
How long were you hiding in my Closet. Come out! LOL.
It seem I got a personal Jester now. -
09-16-2025, 06:03 AMGrimforthQuote:
Originally Posted by The_User
Were you staring in a mirror when you came up with that one? it's not healthy to talk to yourself, plz seek help. -
09-16-2025, 06:44 AMMesarthimYou were correct when you said I wasn't going to tolerate any more of their stupidity. Though you guys have my respect for still bothering to talk to them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Grimforth
Godspeed in your endeavors. -
09-16-2025, 08:15 PMGrimforthOh no i'm done with them now. But knowing people like them, they'll try to talk shit one last time for the sake of having the final word in. Their kind is incredibly predictable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mesarthim
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09-16-2025, 11:24 PMKatishSorry for the delayed response, I do multiple roles in fact I literally posted the video where I was DrK and self sustained on a plethora of dungeons...If that doesn't say much about the tank role, I'm not sure what will. Though the bigger picture is: sustain is too saturated across the entire role base and they balance around it as well. DrK frankly is fine, the problem children are the other jobs and or roles...you ignore the kindle when the entire building is set ablaze, i.e the problem isn't the small flame but the bigger fire surrounding you (the other tanks, jobs, etc). So the real solution would be to stop the flame from getting out of hand and burning the building (bring all potency down and or remove/repurpose those skills). And the even bigger picture: the game is too formula-based and tanks need something new to answer, same with every other role. IF we replace the mitigation/heal buttons there needs to be mechanics that require some sort of skill that are more continuous and added so the skill(s) gains value. Those "skills" would be the reason as to why there are different tanks to begin with.Quote:
Originally Posted by The_User
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09-19-2025, 11:41 PMCrafoutis
How's that healer strike going? lol
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09-29-2025, 02:55 PMDRKoftheAzure
So I just wanted to give my personal opinion(s) on why I think Dark Knight is not as good as the tanks to try and get the conversation back on topic so here goes...
1. Filler rotation is so boring that I have to actively alternate between Souleater combo and Stalwart Soul combo in single target, and the reverse is also true for multi-target pulls, but at least then Dark Knight would get a little more healing... though having to wait 2 whole GCDs to get some healing for yourself is exactly ideal... and it takes WAY TOO LONG to get another GCD for Dark Knight, which is about 30+ levels followed by another 30+ levels to get another GCD, and Dark Knight starts level 30 when you which Ishgard, and you are probably past level 50 on another job that isn't a tank at that point... Make Dark Knight filler DPS rotation more focused on resource management with several GCD combos for both single target and AoE with 15 second recast timers for both MP and Blood Gauge that also restore HP in the earlier levels and I would GLADLY go back to playing Dark Knight...
2. Dark Knight is the only job that has to sacrifice DPS for mitigation which is problem because DPS is mandatory in this game for high end content, and lack of DPS means no clear, and if Dark Knight dies ONCE, you have to reset the fight... which you would be doing anyway in high end content but in casual content it becomes an even BIGGER issue, which is further compounded by the MP recovery nerf that Dark knight had received...
3. Living Dead works like it is supposed when the game feels like it... And I would rather have it be Homgang + Bloodwhetting for 20 seconds on a 5 minute cooldown with the only caveat being that my HP drops to 50% if it's not at or below that point already since the devs don't like giving healers heart attacks when HP just drops to 1 point...
4. The only way to generate Dark Arts is to have The Blackest Night barrier BREAK! Not fall off... BREAK!!! Give Dark Knight a way to generate Dark Arts outside of The Blackest Night, and put The Blackest Night on 25 second cooldown and remove its MP cost, and The Blackest Night is going to be used more frequently... it doesn't fix the issue of players trying to force it to break without removing Dark Arts generation from it, but it's better than having players not using it because of a potential DPS loss... Maybe move The Blackest Night level 30 so that way Dark Knight has a way to generate Dark Arts in the earlier levels...
5. There is no way to turn on and/or maintain Darkside outside of combat or during downtime... give Dark Knight a way to to do either of those, Darkside will feel less frustrating to have to worry about, or just make the DPS increase from Darkside a trait without really needing to do anything else.
6. The lack Plunge was not justified in the slightest and could have been reworked to where if you used Abyssal Drain it grants Plunge Ready and Abyssal Drain becomes Plunge in the action change settings and make Plunge a target AoE gap closer.
7. There is no way to maintain to Living Shadow, give Dark Knight a way to maintain Living Shadow, or delete the skill and rebalance Dark Knight accordingly... -
09-29-2025, 03:42 PMCarighan
I dunno...
Re TBN: This is not a DRK issue, but one with GNB, PLD and WAR. Tank gameplay should not be entirely braindead. I guess we can make an exception for WAR because we don't want their population to nosedive by >90%, but that'd be about it...
Re Dark Arts: That's long in the game, you can use the Darkness skills directly without the route through TBN. Same mana cost, too.
Re Darkside: This could be sensible, but keep in mind there's a host of such setups in the game, would this be a universal change? Does this also mean that all jobs that instead of a selfbuff like DRK or WAR or otherbuff like DNC use a charge proc like PLD or WHM always start fights with them? Picto-for-everyone, basically? :P
So since apparently there was no justification, what do you say about, well, the justification given for the change to DRK and GNB gapclosers? Did you just miss them giving one?Quote:
Originally Posted by DRKoftheAzure
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09-30-2025, 05:03 PMDRKoftheAzureTank gameplay can be made more interesting it just depends on how far both devs and players are wanting to go in terms of how frequent tankbusters, tank swaps, and raidwides should be... and MAYBE if trash pulls have avoidable AoEs that happen frequently...Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
40 levels in to get a defensive cooldown that costs 3k MP that has a mechanic that might as well not exist do to how devs have both the cooldown and the mechanic setup doesn't exactly inspire confidence for anyone picking DRK as there first tank, and you have to wait until Ishgard to unlock DRK in first place, so you might as well wait until level 60 on your current job to unlock GNB...Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
Well, if it means we don't have another "Pictomancer Incident" it CAN be a universal change if people want it. As for everyone starting fights with all of their resources, the meta sheep are already frothing at the mouth at such an idea for their Parses to be better than they already are.... especially if it means we don't have another "Pictomancer Incident" again...Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
Don't get me wrong, removing damage dealing gap closers on DRK, GNB, DRG, and MNK was stupid idea that they never should have done as it could cause more balancing issues than it solves... it's just that the devs thought it was easier long term to remove such gap closers... Damage-dealing gap closers, in my opinion, should AT LEAST be a GCD combo finisher for a ranged attack GCD combo in an attempt to keep them balanced, ESPECIALLY if you have to be away from the boss for prolonged periods of time...Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
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09-30-2025, 05:34 PMCarighanYou keep jumping topics.Quote:
Originally Posted by DRKoftheAzure
Now you're talking about adding a ranged combo to tanks? And the issue with Dark Arts is now about when you get TBN, not about - supposedly - not being able to just use Darkness skills without using TBN first? And you're talking about encounter design instead of tank design? Which, don't get me wrong, ought to be improved but I thought your issue was with the tank design? -
09-30-2025, 06:02 PMDRKoftheAzureYou were the one who mentioned all of the other tanks first...Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
Unless you're referring to the multi-quote that I did which is a simple a copy+paste, in which case; yeah I was confused when I first saw someone else doing and didn't know how to that despite how easy it is... which a long time ago... it's how some people respond to certain topics they feel like they have enough experience/confidence in...
If you had read my first post, which you only read SOME of it, but not all of it you wouldn't be asking that question, because you would have already understood what I was talking about... which is when 5.00 released and after, DRK is a poorly designed mess that BARELY works like it's SUPPOSE to...Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
If you're referring to me complaining about DRK gameplay design then yes... which is what my first post is ABOUT.... If you were talking about overall tank design; you were the one that brought up overall tank design first... and I was giving my some of my thoughts and opinions on how to improve overall tank gameplay... which I have more of but I already talked about in another thread, but to recap what I said in that thread is that tank cooldowns need to have 2-3 more charges, longer durations, shorter re-cast timers, and for GNB specifically, 3-6 the amount of charges for their cooldowns because Gunblade and FF8 reference...Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
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11-25-2025, 11:05 PMRyskim
DRK needs to be remade from the ground up. It is currently a totally out of place job, and it does not even follow the DRK lore in past FF titles. Now, I understand they wanted to do something new, but most of the time it's better not to reinvent the wheel.
DRK should be a melee/caster hybrid job with dark spells and proper spellcasting animations.
- Should have the Absorb-XXX series of spells as in FFXI
- Abyssal Drain should be a spell with 2.5s spellcasting time, MP consumption and never share timer with Carve and Spit.
- The Power Slash combo needs to return. It was an amazing skill. Nobody wants to smash the same combo for 100 levels. Its absolutely unacceptable.
- Plunge should be back, and that lazy pathetic abomination called "shadowstride" should disappear forever. I'm tired of lazy solutions from devs because they simply do not want to find their way to keep things in the game. They go the easy route every single time.
- Reprisal should be a DRK only skill as it was when added in 3.0
- The animation for Flood of Darkness/Shadow is pathetic and should be deleted for ever, then reworked to be satisfying to use as Edge of Darkness/Shadow. or just replace it with Dark Passenger and return the ability to us.
- Blood Weapon animation is very nice and it's frankly infuriating that it is replaced with "Delirium". Once again CU4 making another horrible decision. Delirium was originally an amazing double-slash skill that was changed into the literal garbage it is today.
- SCOURGE, SOLE SURVIVOR and TAR PIT need to return.
With the arrival of the new unrestricted glamour, the Abyys, Chaos and Ignominy sets, and all AF in general for all jobs, should remain restricted to their respective job to maintain the minimum job identity, if any at all.
Overall, this dumbing down of jobs needs to stop. They keep using button replacers and removing job features to make it easier for them to balance, and uglier or less enjoyable for players. They always prioritize their comfort and not what the players want. If something is hard to balance, they just dumb it down, or remove it entirely. Only the dev's comfort matters. It's frankly lazy and pathetic. They've been doing this for years but with that absolute disaster called Dawntrail, it's even worse now.
Do keep in mind that DRK has had SIXTEEN abilities and actions removed over time. The massacre they have done with DRK is unprecedented and absolutely horrendous (here's the video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXMTLM19JZw&t=180s
The most impressive thing is that the work needed to bring back skills that are already done would be minimal. Those skills are already designed and done, they just need to bring them back, they don't have to re-created them at all. they removed them out of pure dev laziness and this obsession with dumbing down and oversimplifying jobs that they have. It's this very obsession was has led players to decide to leave the game out of pure boredom. And it needs to stop. -
11-26-2025, 05:34 PMShistarDoes it have to, though? I personally see nothing wrong with DRK being its own thing depending on the game, just because it's appeared more than once in the FF series doesn't mean that it has to be shackled to what the previous iterations were like.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryskim
I don't say this to defend its current state, I'm just saying it won't necessarily be better simply by making it more like previous DRK iterations.
What do we do with button bloat, balancing, rotations, etc.? I don't want 16 skills to just drop on my lap. I don't have 16 hotbar slots to fit them in and I can't imagine the horrible mess the rotation would become if they forced us to use that many skills in one go. You're right in that the animations, VFx and original effect of the skills is already there, and while I don't agree with many of SE's decisions I'd say removing button bloat is usually a good one to make (within reason). The issue is that they remove stuff without replacing it with improved versions, but the removal itself is not the problem here imho.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryskim
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11-26-2025, 06:18 PMCarighanNot only that, it'd be inherently silly to assume that past FF-iterations (single-player JRPGs) are somehow sensible for a western-style MMORPG as a basis. That is sometimes true: if applicable, it might be worth copying just the lore, sure. But as the mechanics by-necessity have to differ, often massively so, the lore naturally has to give.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shistar
And that brings me to another important point: Those other FF games, by now, are dwarved by the raw amount of lore, implementation and time given to FFXIV. FFXIV is the "truth" by now, just through its persistence and raw size. If anything, one could argue that other upcoming FF games ought to respect the FFXIV-lore then.
[citation needed] - on both parts of that. Go on, try. Yeah you'll anecdotally find players who left the game citing that it was in particular because a specific skill was removed. Sure. Anecdotally you'll also find a player who joined the game just around that time and hence clearly removing skills brings in new players, huh? :P Nevermind the first part, try to cite a source for that!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryskim
Removal of unnecessary, pointless or otherwise inconsequential skills is - by and large - not "dumbing down". These skills are inherently "stupid" in their existence, hence removing them, if anything, would be the opposite. As their presence is, well, "dumb". As Shistar says, the issue is not removing skills, in fact, they could remove a loooooooot more. The issue is that they don't want to touch the core gameplay loop, because we know from thousands of other games and even from multiple other MMORPGs that with just a handful of skills (for a very direct comparison look to GW2 with it's 12-15 skills at the same time) you can create far more engaging gameplay than FFXIV can with it's 22-30.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryskim
It's also important to keep in mind that when comparing some games (like WoW) then these games have skills that are not combat-relevant, but exist as "flavor". These can be important, see Death Knight group water riding for an example. They're inconsequential, but their presence or absence only matters insofar as to whether controller players can still play the character meaningfully and that's a problem that can also be approached with fly-out menus or autocombos.
But the core issue remains: If the existing 22 skills are already too many and don't provide meaningful gameplay and are just pressed according to a fixed, pre-calculated, sequence, then there is exactly zero point to adding 16 extra. In fact what you ought to do is remove skills, and once you're down to 10 or so actually genuinely meaningful, frequent and powerful ones, you can then re-tool the core gameplay loop to take advantage of a more involved class setup.
Consider for a simple example that if you think honestly about it, there's no reason Dark Knight needs any mitigation skill except The Blackest Night (note that I did not mean the invuln, I'd love to rip those out as they are but that requires extensive combat re-design, too). The issue is that TBN is not strong, available or variable enough to cover all situations where we currently use 1 or more mitigation skills. But in the end, we use all of these for the same reason, "Reduce damage intake". A minimalist and elegant design for a class would then if possible only use a single skill, that is strong, flexible and readily available. Utopian design idea of course, but it's to explain the idea of less-is-more. -
11-29-2025, 09:51 AMDerio
There needs to be a lower level version of TBN. They can reuse shadowskin animation.
They wanted to reduce the number of buttons per minute and combined abyssal drain and carve and spit on the same cooldown and further doubled down by reducing the amount of mp blood weapon grants and combined it with delirium.
Not just DRK. All tanks need to be re-evalutated from the ground up to make healers more relevant and make tanks feel like tanks and not gods. -
11-29-2025, 12:13 PMikarino
There is no such thing as bad work, only bad players.
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12-05-2025, 11:50 AMReginald_Cain
Make dark knight crash 2 energy bats into the enemy. Each hit heals the party. I want a move where we cut ourselves and we use the blood to shield the whole team with magic flying out of our wound.
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12-06-2025, 10:12 PMCarighanEnergy bats? That cause an AoE heal? Yeah I can already see the deep DRK lore all over that. xD That was from when Dark Knights were historically Healer Draculas, right?Quote:
Originally Posted by Reginald_Cain
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12-06-2025, 11:53 PMBrandrHealer bats might be a poor translation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
I guess the idea is a HP Draining skill, like the third attack of the main combo and Gafgarion's signature skill from Final Fantasy Tactics. -
12-07-2025, 12:30 AMCarighan
I want me flapping open a cloak and a swarm of bats flying out, suicide-impacting into AoE explosions that rip energy out of targets hit that them homes into my team-mates like auto-collected XP bits now. Now I'm already sold on healing bats. Yoshi P, please.
Replace the animation of the gapcloser with us turning into a swarm of bats, flying over, and reforming there, too.
Darkula Knight it is. -
12-11-2025, 07:27 AMReginald_Cain
I don't think dark knight really needs much sustain outside of a slight buff to soul eater heals
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12-11-2025, 07:41 AMReinhardt_AzureheimEh. I think something they could do is create a parity to Souleater in AOE.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reginald_Cain
Basically, give Stalwart Soul 200 Cure potency for hitting one or more enemies (like Holy Circle from PLD). This would be 600 heal potency over the course of six GCD actions in both single target and AOE.
And from there of course, sustain can be potentially cranked up or down as needed. -
12-11-2025, 08:23 AMReginald_CainI'd prefer plunge back but unironically that would be an awesome animation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Carighan
The bats motif was a dumb idea i came up with because i think a lot of opinions being tossed around are dumb. Dark knight has barely changed since shadowbringers and before endwalker gave all the other tanks huge buffs to their short cd mitigation skills, tbn honestly made me feel invincible in dungeon content compared to playing Gunbreaker especially. Dark knight isn't that squishy it just requires more engagement with mitigation buttons instead of getting massive heals every 30 seconds. They made living dead really good finally it just takes some communication with your healer. Honestly the only reason I want a soul eater buff is too make Dark knight better at solo unsyncd content. -
12-17-2025, 01:11 AMAkivar
Here is my fix for DRK.
---- Add a healing component to edge and flood of shadow.
This ups DRK self sustain slightly. Especially in aoe situations where TBN will break and now leads into a heal from flood of shadow. Now in situation you know you won't be able to break TBN, you still gain some self sustain by just using edge/flood. Also it gives the whole lifetap theme of drain, trading mp for health.
It isn't a huge change, but a huge change isn't needed. -
12-19-2025, 07:27 PMTerhixI'm not a huge fan of putting either mitigation or sustain on DPS abilities. Using Edge to heal yourself outside of burst has the same issues as using TBN when you should be banking MP for 2 minutes: it's a DPS loss. If we have to go that direction making TBN cost no MP and instead it granting a heal on the next Edge/Flood after breaking would have been preferable. The main issue with that approach is that it turns MP management from very simple to completely braindead, Blood gauge has been already completely neutered and you can basically remove it from the UI without losing all that much.Quote:
Originally Posted by Akivar
DRK either needs to have its defensives be dps neutral like all the other tanks, or it needs to have its incentives flipped where maximizing TBN value rewards you with optimal dps instead of punishing you. -
12-19-2025, 10:51 PMAkivar
If you aren't using your tbn on cooldown in dungeons, you are making your healers life in dungeons miserable as is. No one is lining up burst windows in dungeons or raids. And DRK don't really need anything in extremes and savages. DRK are pretty much fine in high end content. It is aoe content where TBN is actually a pretty trash ability. Also anytime you proc TBN, is automatically never a dps lose, because the dps is being done anyway. And if you use TBN and it doesn't proc, its a waste, at least with this you still get SOMETHING from skipping the TBN and just doing the dps and getting SOME sustain.
I consider this as more just adding more healing to the 123, but more interesting. Its not really something your suppose to think about other than VERY specific situations. All it is suppose to do is give a bit of free healing within the current DRK rotation as is. Like when they added healing to the paladin minute combo, just pure cherry on top. No Paladin is like "well I'm going to not do my 1 minute burst because I might need that healing in 30 seconds". Its just free health on top of just doing whatever you already were. -
12-19-2025, 10:56 PMBrandrI like this ideaQuote:
Originally Posted by Akivar
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12-20-2025, 12:55 AMTerhixDRK is pretty much fine in dungeons, you can W2W every DT dungeon as DRK with 3 dps and no healer. I'm obviously not talking about dungeons.Quote:
Originally Posted by Akivar
That is not correct in this high end content where you say DRK is fine. DRK is one of the lowest single-target rDPS tanks currently, switching last pace with PLD depending on the fight. It makes up for that fact by being able to pool more resources into the 2min window thus gaining more aDPS from raidbuffs and pots than other tanks, especially now that GNB became a 1min job. Edge is 460p and you can cram 5 of them into the burst window, which means you have very limited MP to use on TBN in-between bursts. If you maximize the defensive value of TBN, even when every single use of it breaks, you are losing dps. Contrast that with PLD who is actively encouraged to use Holy Sheltron or Intervention whenever you hit 100 oath, which is effectly "on cooldown" (substituting oath generation for cooldown).Quote:
Originally Posted by Akivar
Alternatively instead of messing with the job in ways that will have consequences in all content, if for whatever reason you need help in dungeons, you can just give DRK a small heal on Stalwart Soul and call it a day. I fail to see how putting a heal on an oGCD instead of a weaponskill makes it more interesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by Akivar
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12-20-2025, 01:47 AMOizen
If you play DRK 100% optimally for damage it feels like you only get a single use of TBN every 2 minutes.
I like TBN's break mechanic but the DT MP nerf is still the worst thing they've done to the job for a while. -
12-21-2025, 12:43 AMAkivar
How exactly does adding some healing portion to edge and flood make any rotational changes? Does paladins sword combo having healing attached make them save it for outside of burst? No, I do not think it does. No paladin is holding back the sword combo so they can heal themselves later. It is just a pure buff with zero consequences. Adding healing to them is the same thing has the regen component to holy shelltron, just different. It adds a healing component to your TBN proc, but it also will just be a healing component to ALL uses of edge and flood. . And in dungeon situations that is nice too, because when those 12 mobs proc your tbn, you now get a heal attached right rigfht as well. Its just cherry on top of the cake. It doesn't change anything about rotations at all.
And what does dps have to do with this. If dps is the problem, then just add some potency to a few things. Boom, dps problem solved. DPS is literally the easiest problem to solve. And requires no discussion. -
12-21-2025, 06:53 AMTerhixSword combo is on cooldown so its use in rotation is fixed, Edge and TBN are resource based and can be (and ARE already depending on boss) moved around.Quote:
Originally Posted by Akivar
It's obviously not the same since sheltron doesn't interact with dps at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Akivar
DPS is not a problem, the incentives are a problem: you are incentivized to put all the MP you can into burst, but actively using TBN already pulls you in the opposite direction, this just exasperates the problem that already exists.Quote:
Originally Posted by Akivar
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12-22-2025, 07:51 AMReginald_Cain
Terhix said it perfectly dark knights biggest problem is intended design clashing with incentive. You are intended to have tbn refund an edge upon breaking but you cant hold multiple charges of dark arts. therefore you can't bank multiple free edge of shadows for the 2 minute window if you use multiple tbn's out of burst.
I really think if soul eater would give mp and hp then dark would feel a lot better -
12-23-2025, 01:44 AMRaionKansenYou made this post and a google doc, but haven't completed any of the savage encounters this tier?Quote:
Originally Posted by WannaBeSuccubs
DRK mit is completely fine. You need to manage mana to use TBN when its needed and you have 2 stacks of Oblation.
What kind of testing did you do? -
12-23-2025, 01:47 AMRaionKansenThis is a very dishonest statement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Terhix
The tanks are within 1-3% of eachother, with the exception of GNB being buffed too much in 7.3. -
12-23-2025, 07:36 AMTerhixIf it wasn't clear from context I wasn't complaining about DRK dps, but explaning to the person I was replying to why TBN can be a dps loss even if it breaks.Quote:
Originally Posted by RaionKansen
If my honesty is in question: I have some complaints about DRK design / gameplay, but I have currently no complaints about current DRK performance, be it DPS or mitigation. -
12-23-2025, 04:50 PMReginald_Cain
Big sword gang let's keep it civilized in here. It's clearly apparent that Dark knight is fine but let's not squabble and belittle eachother over wanting changes or not.
Dark knight has more than enough tools to handle all levels of content when played correctly. You cant use tbn as a crutch the same way as blood whetting but it's a sturdy shield with a low cd. It's important to learn your limits with this job and while it can lead to some wipes early on its a very rewarding job to learn. Saving teammates with clutch tbn is a great feeling too.
For low level dungeons dont use all your mits at the same time. Use reprisal on cd during big pulls,arms length is a mit,
Never be afraid to use living dead for big pulls, especially at levels below 70. It feels awesome to use now that you heal during walking dead attacks per enemy hit
I always saw Dark knight as an antithesis to paladins healing heavy kit. We block damage and retaliate by omnislashing the enemy. If we want take the level 30-70 range more comfortable for less experienced players then I'd just make oblation a lower level skill or add a weaker tbn variant. If we are adamant on returning drain tanking to the kit then re introduce abyssal drain as a gcd and make it the aoe equivalent to souleater.