Considering what to main

Hello everyone! As my character stats show, I have a 60 war and 55 drk, and I'm unsure of what to main. I enjoy both classes, they're both a lot of fun to play and leveling both classes did not seem a chore. The reason I'm asking this, is because of gear, and time to perfect the class. I consider myself a good tank in all 3 tank roles, but there's no feasible efficient way to gear all 3 (eso, relic) I almost have enough eso for the weapon, and therefore need to pick.
So I guess I'm asking high ilvl tanks what they prefer playing, and why they prefer playing it. I'll have enough eso for a weapon next Tuesday ( after this week's cap I'll have 989 fml) so leveling drk to 60 by then will be easy. Thanks for your input!

I've always preferred Warrior because I like timing Inner Beast with enemy cleaves / tank busters. Since this game doesn't have any active blocking mechanics (like Tera or other action MMO's), Inner Beast is the closest I can get to that feeling. Also I like having finisher attacks—building stacks is fun!

I prefer war a bit because of the axe I guess... Axes just look OP.
I dreaded to level DRK because *everyone* levels it because its a "cool" tank and I feel like looking idiotic with one giant sword in my hands. Still was my second tank to 60 because I enjoy gameplay lol
I'd give the advice I always give... play both for two weeks side by side on level 60 ... then you know better what you prefer and what not.
I'll stick to my war but like with my healers I main sch but use the others for the lols In Dr EX and primals :)

go WAR simple, they are just perfect right now, and get RAID weapons for your DRK.

I know it's not in a good place right now but... I like PLD. I just really like the concept of a tough-as-nails, really hard to kill tank.

DRK, however, which you almost have to 60, is in a good place and I know some friends that really like it. On the flipside, WAR is guaranteed to be relevant even if the next raid is mostly physical damage. So if you enjoy WAR, it's probably the safest long term investment.

Whatever you have the most fun playing is what you should main.

WAR had my heart before Heavensward and with WAR and DRK at 60 it's still my fave, even though DRK is hella fun to play.

Why? Quite simply, versatility. WAR is the tank you want to see in every two-tank instance. I can main tank or off tank with ease. If there's a PLD or DRK I can go full Deliverance. It's just so fun fitting in three Fell Cleaves in that short window. The feeling of saving myself with a crit Equilibrium when the healers are hard pressed is pretty awesome. Managing stacks and weaving abilities in between combos makes sure I'm never bored.

DRK is fun and stylish, but the utility and just plain beastiness of the Warrior play is what keeps me maining it.

WAR since 2.0 because it was the most fun tank for me. Never had a real chance to switch to DRK, because my co tank was fed up with playing PLD by the end of ARR xD.

I mostly picked warrior because I like axes more than swords, but the stack mechanic turned out to be a lot of fun in practice. Proper inner beast timing is satisfying.

DRK has way more off globals though, I feel like I never stop mashing buttons as one. I got killed tunnel visioning my mana bar a couple times though.

Thanks for the responses, I was leaning war, but the eso weapon having parry is garbage.... I know drk has parry on some gear too. I wish I could get the ilvl 210 Gordian axe just a little bit easier than a4s.

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Originally Posted by Kaznym

I mostly picked warrior because I like axes more than swords, but the stack mechanic turned out to be a lot of fun in practice. Proper inner beast timing is satisfying.

DRK has way more off globals though, I feel like I never stop mashing buttons as one. I got killed tunnel visioning my mana bar a couple times though.

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This is the two tanks in a nutshell, though I can't speak on Warrior's feel other than absolutely crushing whatever it is that was stupid enough to fight you.

Dark Knight is very busy and is actually a little multitask-y, which is why I like it. Flitting around aspects of the fight managing this or that ability on this or that mob, and when it comes time to single-target dumping everything in the proper order consistently. Busy, but engaging. Warrior just lets you feel badass for far more straightforward practice than the oGCD micromanagement of Dark Knight.

Warriors will always have raid slots available, though, unless encounter design philosophy changes drastically come 3.1. Dark Knights... from the sounds of the next Savage tier being mostly Physical, it's sounding like DRK and PLD are going to start playing a long game of Irrelevance Leapfrog in the bleeding-edge meta that everyone forgets is bleeding-edge and not standardized.

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Originally Posted by Aurius

Thanks for the responses, I was leaning war, but the eso weapon having parry is garbage.... I know drk has parry on some gear too. I wish I could get the ilvl 210 Gordian axe just a little bit easier than a4s.

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Don't base a class choice on a Secondary stat on one tier of items. Parry is all over the place and you can't really avoid it, but Secondary Stats in general mean very little compared to primary stats and weapon damage. Plus it wont be long before we're in the next tier of gear with relic weapons anyway.

WAR is designed in a universal manner with respect to damage resistance, PLD and DRK are designed with a speciality and a weakness, so in any given raid design WAR will be in the top two most useful tanks even before its extra DPS is considered.

The other two classes as currently designed take turns being the good or bad tank for an encounter, use the class you can consistently take to every raid and be in a good spot. Currently this difference is massive, hopefully in the future it will be much smaller (see final paragraph)

Any future buffs or nerfs aside WAR has the most useful core concepts. It would take huge changes to classes and raid design to ever make WAR a bad choice.

@Erit, the quote about damage type in the second round of Alex was more physical than the first set, not that it would be mostly physical, if this happens DRK will be in an ok spot because it has dark mind for magic and skin/wall for physical, whereas PLD has rampart/sentinel for magic and bulwark for physical, so given its higher DPS hopefully DRK and a PLD will be on more relatively equal footing than DRK being unusable.

Honestly if you are only starting to gear up now and going to end up getting the relic might aswell spend the 990 esoterics on something else, then atleast you'll have either 2 more left side or possibly 2+accessories when you get your relic.

I feel drk has a lot more to juggle and manage than warrior, and war has a lot more synergistic tool kit. Like others have said just choose one you enjoy more but they do change quite a bit at lv 60.

if you love being a challenger go DRK,
if you love being a champion go WAR.

DRK has more oGCD to look out for while WAR pretty much only have brutal swing to spam whenever available.
It's pretty satisfying when you mastered DRK.

As for me i main WAR because that's what i always do in other games.

Warrior is best at the moment and the notion that it's more difficult to optimize is an over exaggeration if you already know how to tank/play the game. If not- well- it's still quite fool proof.

In terms of how the jobs feel I'd say play WAR if you enjoy OTing more and prefer a slower but heavy-hitting playstyle with the greatest ease of stance-dancing. I'd say play DRK if you prefer to MT, and can handle a much faster paced (lots of oGCD weaving) playstyle with a higher skill cap, and don't mind the resource management.

I had PLD to 50 before WAR hit 50. I liked WAR for a while, but over time began to die fast. I guess I couldn't handle the job. My survival rate is much higher on PLD, which is why I decided to retire WAR (50) and push my PLD (55).

PLD is just awful right now hopefully they get buffed i have a feeling WAR will get the nerf bat pre soon as well

If you wanna piss off the raid bosses go drk / pld. If you wanna rearrange their faces go warrior

Been a Warrior since 2.0.Always loved the class.Especially has a huge roegdyn being the kind of axe wielding tank over a guy hiding behind a shield made sense.Been through the good and bad with my Warrior.Was treated like i had lepracy in 2.0 when i tried to do coil or Titan HM.It's funny how things change and now Warrior is in the driving seat and Paladins getting snubbed.I love and hate the way Warrior is right now.I love how my dps is so awesome i can carry bad dps.I hate how bad dps expect us in raids to carry them instead of getting better.I hate how so many Paladins are jumping ship to play us as it's the better class or it's considered the tank for noobs.
I've leveled Dark to 60 too.It's fun class.Relying on mp and getting to use half your dark arts versions of skils very rarely can make it dull though.Both tanks are in a good place.My suggestion though just go whatever you feel is most fun.