Tank Feedback, Pre-Savage

Thank you SE for your attempt at improving the three tank jobs, you've been mostly successful. After leveling all three tanks to 70 and testing them out in all current content, I want to give you my feedback and impressions.

PLD

Summary: Damage output too high compared to other tanks, Unnecessary buttons on hotbar.

While it's great that it does more damage, I think it's a problem to the extent it's at right now. I don't believe high damage should define PLD. However, my primary complaint for PLD is it has been overlooked when it comes to reducing unnecessary actions on jobs. Here are the actions I believe should either be removed or combined with other actions:

Shield Bash - I think this ability should be removed. I see no situation occurring that will require a tank to have this if the combination of DRK/WAR is to be viable. Its high cost also ensures that this ability will rarely see use when PLD is played optimally.

Shield Swipe - This ability seems a little broken in that shield blocks now occur even when hit by AoEs as an off-tank. I think you should eliminate this ability for the same reasons you removed Reprisal and Low Blow from DRK entirely.

Tempered Will/Bulwark - Bulwark remaining while DRK lost Dark Dance to role actions is questionable at best. However, rather than removing Bulwark, I would suggest combining the effects of these two abilities into a single ability. This will free up hotbar space, and Tempered Will rarely sees use while Bulwark is not an essential ability. Combining these will allow PLD to still use it for Bulwark's effects while being able to hold onto it if needed.

Spirits Within - This ability is just damage every 30 seconds. It makes this ability very boring and the potency on it could easily be added in other places to make up for the loss. I believe Fight or Flight and the new Requiescat rotations already make PLD interesting enough to make up for the loss of this ability.

WAR

Summary: Difficult to achieve optimal damage output, Lack of Utility.

This job has become a lot more fun and interesting, however as many would point out, it's become difficult to achieve optimal performance. Some are even confusing this with believing that WAR has low damage output. Furthermore, WAR currently lacks utility and I don't think balance should revolve around damage output being WAR's sole utility. I think the job should be changed to allow more players to reach the potential of WAR. The following should be considered before any changes to damage output:

Unchained/Inner Release - [EDIT - I previously thought these should be split up, however with learning more about how this job is meant to function, I think the problem becomes a bit more difficult. I'm a bit torn now if Unchained should receive some kind of buff or not.]

Thrill of Battle - Upgrade this ability to Thrill of War. That is, extend its HP%+ to the entire party. I believe this will be significant enough to remedy WAR's current lack of utility.

Onslaught - [EDIT - This ability is actually much better than it appears at first. Kudos to SE for balancing this perfectly in my opinion.]

Shake it Off - [EDIT - While this ability will never be overpowered, I can see reasonable uses for it that won't break anything. Considering WAR doesn't have many abilities for 4.x, I think it should remain. As such, I have no complaints towards it currently.]

DRK

Summary: Damage output is too low compared to other tanks, some actions need improvement.

While the changes to DRK's play-style have been great, some issues have not been addressed since HW. More importantly however, I believe the nerfs it has received have been too extreme. It makes no sense for DRK to have the lowest damage output. Abilities that need attention are:

Blood Price - Barely gives any MP, even with Delirium. The requirement for Grit is okay.

Living Dead - This ability can be strong, but the bad outweighs the good. While I will continue to work around this ability, seeing it go unchanged has been a major disappointment. Suggestion: I would have liked this ability to summon a "shadow clone" that would take all enmity from the DRK, is immobile, auto-attacks, and absorbs damage taken for a few seconds before transferring all the enmity back to the DRK upon disappearing.

Carve & Spit - Using this ability without Dark Arts is bad unless in very specific AoE situations. Still not a true "threefold" attack.

Quietus - Currently not worth using Dark Arts on unless you're about to cap out, but Blood Price's nerf greatly hinders the possibility of this happening.

Dark Passenger - MP cost is too high. Would favor moving the Blind effect to an action such as Quietus or even Abyssal Drain and removing Dark Passenger.

Plunge - The animation lock on this ability is a hindrance. While not game-breaking, I would love to see it reduced significantly.

The Blackest Night - Many have suggested that the duration be increased to 8 seconds. I think this is reasonable and would not break it while allowing it to serve its intended purpose.

Final Words:

PLD is in the best place right now providing extensive utility and being easy to achieve optimal DPS that significantly exceeds DRK and is not far behind WAR, often exceeding WAR due to the difference of difficulty. While you are probably already aware of this, PLD cannot fit all of its abilities in two pages whereas DRK easily can and WAR even has space left over due to some abilities overlapping. WAR is in a place where it is very difficult for the majority of players to see that it has the highest damage output. DRK is easy to achieve optimal damage output but is simply far behind the other two tanks. Please give utility to WAR other than damage output and please take a second look at the functionality of certain abilities for DRK. It would be very nice if we could finally get that Living Dead change as it has been controversial at best since its implementation and I know you can do better.

You've done a great job so far with all three tanks, and I think you just need a tiny bit of improvement to make everyone happy in the long run. Balance is not a swinging pendulum.

In regards to the 270 accessories:

Please add STR to tank accessories. While you will have to take a little time to calculate projected STR values just like you do for DPS, it is the ideal solution for us all. If you simply remove our ability to equip former STR accessories, you will have to spend nearly just as much time, and managing threat for tanks will become a greater issue over time. Reverting back to VIT being the modifier for attack power will, as you already know, require much more planning to work around weakness debuffs.

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to any upcoming changes, Omega Savage, and the rest of Stormblood. Keep up the good work!