DRK: The safe off-tank?

After a good amount of investigation and thinking, a thought has appeared: DRK could become a more popular off-tank than WAR.

To back my explanation up, I offer a few points

1. WAR must use storm's path much more often to build stacks as soon as possible
2. Darkside's lack of MP drain allows DRK far more time in the OT role
3. storm's path lost its 10% damage debuff
4. blackest night is on a short cooldown and incentivizes the DRK with 50 gauge
5. DRK can more easily switch to tank stance without losing a resource like rage

It's no secret that WAR can very well outdamage DRK, but it seems like an optimized rotation will include heavy usage of storm's path to build rage as soon as possible for fell cleaves, and will pressure WARs to keep at a rage level above 50 to gain as much passive crit without wasting rage. This makes stance changing far more punishing for WAR than for DRK who loses nothing but MP and a GCD. When you consider that bloodspiller practically retains its damage inside or outside of grit, it makes its use that much safer to use, along with their continued and consistent use of DA-SE, their DPS shouldn't trail too far behind WAR.

If WAR is pushed to main tanking in defiance, then they can't just alleviate the switch by burning unchained, since doing so will put inner release on cooldown. So, since there will be prolonged usage of storm's path, and fell cleave simply won't be used whenever there's 50 rage, then perhaps the gap between DRK and WAR damage is not so big.

It also should be considered that WAR's utlity of bringing slashing debuff is no longer so necessary, as both NIN and SAM bring it without being a dps loss to either. It's difficult to imagine a party won't have at least one of those classes, so chances are a PLD DRK tank composition is both viable and efficient, and more importantly, safer when learning an encounter or for progression. Of course, a lot of this stuff operates under the assumption of more continuous tank busters where switching in every so often to holmgang won't cut it, but it is something nice to think about.

tl;dr- DRK can swap and stance dance without much thought, provide safety with blackest night, and still provide loads of damage. Perfect for learning encounters!

War switch stance halves the amount of gauge you have so basically you can empty your gauge bar and switch without any cost.

I'm main warrior , basically i agree with you that war and drk now will do more or less the same while in ot role ( not sure yet we must see in game ) but i think also a drk/war composition will still be good , the dps gained having drk+war will be really great compared to pld+drk/war .. it all depends from the content , pld will be strongest main tank but maybe won't be needed and could be sacrified for the dps boost war+drk .. after this i won't have any problem since my party will go Rdm Blm Brd Drg xD ( a really good composition imo maybe not optimal but good)

If things stay the way they currently are I'd imagine we'd actually see a PLD/PLD meta comp, as they currently offer the highest damage and the highest mitigation. The only caveat would be if DRK really did Soul Survivor's PVP bonus added to the PVE skill, in which case PLD/DRK would be the way to go. WAR really doesn't offer much aside from better CDs, but that can be circumvented. That said, DRK doesn't offer much either since Blackest Night comes at the cost of DPS potential. Hopefully they do some number adjustments before release, though.

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

If things stay the way they currently are I'd imagine we'd actually see a PLD/PLD meta comp, as they currently offer the highest damage and the highest mitigation. The only caveat would be if DRK really did Soul Survivor's PVP bonus added to the PVE skill, in which case PLD/DRK would be the way to go. WAR really doesn't offer much aside from better CDs, but that can be circumvented. That said, DRK doesn't offer much either since Blackest Night comes at the cost of DPS potential. Hopefully they do some number adjustments before release, though.

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Pretty sure i missed something but i can't understand what's going to make Pld dps higher than war/drk , pld got something like + 10 potency on each combo , an aoe with low potency , a big single target cast .. meanwhile war will be able to spamm fell cleave

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Originally Posted by Exira

Pretty sure i missed something but i can't understand what's going to make Pld dps higher than war/drk , pld got something like + 10 potency on each combo , an aoe with low potency , a big single target cast .. meanwhile war will be able to spamm fell cleave

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pld's new spell stacks with the new attack spell buff and is basically fell cleave potency. every tank now has a insta damage fell cleave to some degree.

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Originally Posted by Omni-Vocational_Ryan

pld's new spell stacks with the new attack spell buff and is basically fell cleave potency. every tank now has a insta damage fell cleave to some degree.

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Yes but that ability works wheb mp is 80% or higher for 12 seconds so maybe u will be able to execute 2 max 3 casts with that buff vs 6 fell cleave ( 500 potency cs 430 of that spell ) in berserk

Dont forget that pala combos are buffed plus fight or flight lasts 30 seconds with 60 seconds cd for when he does not have mp...

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Originally Posted by Bhearil

Dont forget that pala combos are buffed plus fight or flight lasts 30 seconds with 60 seconds cd for when he does not have mp...

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Ye i just realized they lowered the cd from 90s to 60 :o

Right now a pala will to regen mp/hit hard using weaponskills while fight or flight is on and spam spells while its on cd, so most of the time pala is self buffed somewhat

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Originally Posted by Exira

Yes but that ability works wheb mp is 80% or higher for 12 seconds so maybe u will be able to execute 2 max 3 casts with that buff vs 6 fell cleave ( 500 potency cs 430 of that spell ) in berserk

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We've mapped out you can get 4-5 casts in that window, plus with the new flight of fight cooldown a pld is buffed for roughly 70% of their uptime in a fight.