I'm not the only one that thinks DRKs are boring now, am I

I don't care too much about maxing DPS as a tank as that's not my job so I'm not worried about the damage drop most of the tank classes took, but in my opinion DRK went from the most entertaining tank class to play to the most obnoxiously boring one.

When Main tanking I find myself spending most of my time cycling my enmity generation rotation to keep enmity away from the Red Mages and since I don't generate Blood Gauge with that rotation I don't get to play with any of the new SB abilities except when my Blood Price and Salted Earth generation finally produce 50 BG and allow me to use a SINGLE ability.

But even then this single ability isn't an OCD it's a GCD which interferes with my normal rotation which isn't a major thing but it certainly removes some of the entertainment that comes from timing OCDs between your GCDs to maximize your rotation.

tl'dr: I think DRKs are boring to play now vs PALs which are probably now the most entertaining. Am I the only one thinking that?

Is Grit on? If yes, use AD 4 to 6 times and switch to SS combo. DA When appropriate

If no, turn on Grit.

I hope this helps.

Keep Grit on for larger pulls. It's a DPS loss for the precise reason you said. You can dip out of it once some of the mobs die to weave in Blood Weapon. If the RDM isn't using their aggro dump, let him have the mob(s). Frankly, I find that the best teacher for DPS not using their abilities. :p

Something else you can do for better aggro generation is equip some 270 STR accessories. The added Attack Power does wonders for your aggro. I would start with the Alex ring and Augmented Shire earrings just to see how you feel. If it's going well and the less HP isn't a hindrance, experiment with more.

I'm not terribly concerned about my ability to maintain aggro while stance dancing, that part I've got fairly well figured out even though I can't do it as often as I would like. My problem is with how repetitive and boring DRK play has become. There's no "skill" required to play them anymore. MP management is jokingly easy, there aren't any DOTs or Debuffs to try and keep up all the time on the enemy, and the new skills are mostly GCDs meaning there's no OCD and GCD weaving that needs to be done.

Playing DRK is easy, having fun with DRK not so much.

Nope you are not. If you browsing through my recent Posts you will see that I exactly feel the same. As casual Player I don't care about DPS. I havent even entered a raid dungeon since a year. But with Stormblood I dropped DRK because the class feels utterly boring to me now. They really broke the class.

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Originally Posted by Talec

I have dropped DRK with this Expansion and not gonna take it up again. The playstyle of DRK has been ridiculously destroyed. (...) And unlike the DRK, Paladin still looks somewhat fun with cool new animations and a broad range of actions.

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But exactly that's the reason. I'm a casual Player who didn't enter any raid Content since a year. I don't care about the DMG I did or do now as a DRK. I'm not one of those People salty because DRK has 100 less DPS than the rest of them.

I simply stopped playing DRK because he is no more fun. From Mana Management and Dark Dance-Playstyle to a boring mitigation Tank who just spams Dark Arts. DRK is boring. This class surely go a hard nerf and it doesn't matter if SE will buff their DPS for a thousand, I'm not gonna play it again until I get back more skills, more ways to tank and more possibilitys to evade DMG. And this won't happen before 5.0. So R.I.P. DRK.

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Originally Posted by UnitedWeSTand

MP management is jokingly easy,.

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It was always easy. The difference is that you're punished for it more now. If you screwed up before you lost Darkside and had your natural regen and Blood Price filling you back up in an instant. Screw up now, Darkside is still there and Blood Price is returning crap for MP, you're stuck needing to get off some Syphon Strikes or wasting Carve and Spit to get back up to decent MP levels.

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there aren't any DOTs or Debuffs to try and keep up all the time on the enemy

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And good riddance. A lot of Jobs got trimmed back in that regard because there were so many that in large enough groups the game just could not show them all. Even if you set things to only show yours, once the target hit a certain number it wouldn't display them for anyone under any circumstance. Good luck tracking your stuff if you got there half a second to late to be in the visible category.

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the new skills are mostly GCDs meaning there's no OCD and GCD weaving

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Delirium and The Blackest Night are oGCD. Quietus and Bloodspiller are GCD. That's 50/50 not mostly. This also matches up with the loss of Reprisal and Low Blow as far as weaving goes. You'd have made a better argument bringing up Dark Passenger for this sort of complaint, but even so it still exists and still has some niche uses. Due to Syphon Strike being able to be subjected to Dark Arts means that needs to be woven in more frequently as well. If you're finding that there's no weaving to be done, that's on you not the Job.

Tell your red mages to take their emnity reducing skills. They have two for a reason.

If you pop Dualcast+Swiftcast+Acceleration 10s before fight you better also use Diversion with your Veraeoro+Fleche+Contre-Six->Verthunder for those 1320 potency in 2 GCDs.

It's not just you. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why it feels so dumb to play now, but I'd probably attribute to the lack of DoT/Debuffs to keep track of, and the fact that 2/3 Black Blood abilities are just damage weaponskills that we press every 20 seconds when they light up. I mean, they don't even offer any utility other than "big numbers".

I really don't get the people who complain DRK became "too easy".
Balance issues aside, we lost Scourge and Delirium. Let's not pretend refreshing a 30 sec dot was in any way difficult, nor was hitting a different keybind at the end of your usual combo.
Mana managment was also a complete non-issue. Dark Arts isn't on a cooldown, you therefore don't lose anything if you don't use it right away, meaning you only had to use it prevent capping your mana outside of "burst" phases (burning what's left at the end of the battle or before lull intervalls).

Meanwhile at 70, we got new tools like the blood gauge, Bloodspiller, the new Delirium and the fantastic Blackest Night.
Sure, if you're just going to spam your Souleater combo it's braindead easy, but TBN changes everything.
Considering it's a dps gain in Grit, careful use of the Blood Gauge is required and mana managment is much harder than it was at 60. You have to juggle in as much TBN as possible while in grit (making sure they break), with your usual DA Souleater combos, DA CnS and DA Bloodspiller while not capping or running out of mana.
The blood gauge also isn't something to ignore that lights up once in a while, if you use your abilities correctly blood will flow and you'll have to make sure not to cap it (meaning you'll have to use mana) while also having enough when Delirium is about to come off cooldown (and not overfill your mana when you use it while not delaying it too much). The fact Bloodspiller is stronger in Grit is important as well, it can be better to hold off on it if you're going into grit soon and your blood gauge won't cap in the process. A good example for this is Susano EX, optimally you'll use TBN on your fellow tank when the tankbuster hits so you have a grit Bloodspiller ready when you take back the boss, but you'll need to get your blood gauge below 50 before so you don't overfill.
Admittedly, grit Bloodspiller juggling fades off if you can main tank outside of grit but I mostly run with pugs myself and they have a hard enough time keeping me alive with it on. If Savage does hit hard however, a DRK main tank in an organized group will need to optimally use Bloodspiller while getting as much Delirium extended Blood Weapon as possible.

That's it for personal dps. However, while TBN is a dps loss outside of grit, it's very minor (around 11 potency overall) and is a great and polyvalent mitigation tool which could account for more healer dps and could be a crutch in random situations.

Overall, past the initial shock of the starting SB experience, I find the new DRK to be much more fun and difficult to play. I have to think a lot more about what I'm doing. Can I use TBN now ? Will it break ? Will I have enough mana to shield the next tankbuster ? Will I have enough mana when CnS comes off cooldown in turn ?
It's also surprisingly easy to cap mana with the increased mana regen if you're too skittish about mana usage. DA Syphon Strike is a good safety net to prevent it but remember that a DA Souleater is still better (EDIT : Just realized it's actually the same potency gain).

I'd like to add that for now aggro is a non-issue on single target if the two tanks share aggro with Shirk. You'll get so far ahead your aggro combo will be something of the past for the rest of the fight.
Example : Main tank pulls in tank stance, does one aggro combo. Off tank provoke offs him. Main tank shirks the off tank before provoking back. Off tank then shirks main tank. You now have aggro forever.
We'll see how it plays out in further tiers if they don't fix tank stat weights/accessories.

Agree with Walfan, I'm still having fun. There is still plenty to do. My biggest gripe is AoE threat is a major chore now, and it's infuriating because I know our MP pool isn't going to grow to make it any easier. I also hate that they stopped VIT from effecting Tank damage. In my opinion, this needs to be reverted.

There are some changes I would like.

I would like our Enmity Combo to match that of the other tanks, since ours inherently produces less. Some argue that that is why we can DA+Power Slash, but I shouldn't be spending resources just to match another tank. Instead, make DA+PS add Scourge to PS and put on a 25pot/Sec for 30Sec DoT. Would be a great way to keep out old attack in a different way.

Also, remove DA from Dark Passenger, lower MP Cost on DP and increase the base potency to current DA+DP amount. Currently, I completely avoid DP, waste of MP.

And last, I would like Abyssal Drain added as a Syphon Strike Combo where when used from Syphon Strike, the MP cost is reduced by 50%. AoE threat is a pain in the butt right now.