Dark Knight

[Bloodclaw]

Except there was no such thing as a tank prior to XI. It was fast DPS, slow DPS, full healer, semi-healer.

Red Mage is even weaker in armour setting than Dark Knight ever has been.

I get you might be objectionable to the concept of a RDM as a tank, but you have yet to say what role they should be? They can take hits, deal, damage, and heal not only themselves but others. Sounds like an interesting new magic based tank. Its key class ability would be to make the protect spell on the personal level very beef-y making taking damage much more possible with a good deal of magic based mitigation. Just a thought, but I really don't care what the RDM does, I just hope its good, and more fitting than the Summoner and Archer class has turned out.

Now since there is a large emotional attachment to Dark Knight from the FFXI players and it seems that they don't like to look at things from a logical stand point, let me explain a few things.

Since, prior to FFXI, there was no such thing as a tank we must look at all previous classes as potential tanks, dps or healers.(List)

Yes this is true, but the question comes in on which best fits which class that exsisted previously. I understand the need for this to make sense, and the need for more tanks in the game as I have started leveling non-tank classes. However you fail to acknowledge my OP support, while be if flimsy, and bring up to any evidence to the contrary. With such flimsy support from a wiki it should be easy to knock over it, as all it is, is another perspective on the class not hampered by the bias of a single player.

The Dark Knight is characterized by wearing tight, sometimes enclosed black armor and wielding a sword steeped in wicked powers. Their physical stats, with exception of Defense, are usually high, but their other stats depend on the game they appear in. The typical Dark Knight ability is Souleater, also known as Darkness, which allows them to sacrifice their HP to perform stronger attacks.

However, Souleater is not exclusive to the Dark Knight class. Dark Knights may also have abilities based on Blood Equipment that allows them to absorb HP and MP from enemies. The Dark Knight is opposed by the Paladin, holy knights who protect allies and wield sacred powers. Unlike many classes, Dark Knights bear a signature weapon, the Deathbringer, which has a chance to kill certain enemies in a single blow.

On top of this Leon, often considered the first DRK, used two handed weapons primarily, such as the axe and lance (Trolls just look at his proficiencies and don't bother), and his most powerful weapon was a lance. It is a class that focuses on damage above all use. It can not be any simpler than that and thus if they follow previous incarnations.

One could construde that here: http://www.secrets-eorzea.com/en/news/news-of-the-day/220-interview-of-naoki-yoshida-by-secrets-of-eorzea
even the questioner as well as the response to the question by Naoki Yoshida acknowledges that this concept of a dark knight as a tank would be odd.

Will you make the second jobs very different from their class or first job? For example, the Dark Knight is a very aggressive job and since you seem to want it to become the second Gladiator job (This has never been confirmed but since Yoshi-P always uses it as an example, you never know... ), don't you think Gladiator's abilities are in contradiction with his style?

• Naoki Yoshida (NY):

I see what you mean. We created the system, but we do not necessarily need to follow it all the time. For example, let’s say that the Dark Knight is the second Gladiator job (attention, it is still not a confirmation), when you get its job stone at level 30, all acquired Gladiator skills will certainly be modified to better fit the image of the Dark Knight.

It was just to give an example to explain that we are not going to destroy how players consider different classes / jobs. It could be an interesting way to introduce future classes / jobs. We will consider your concerns on this issue, rest assured.
This should make things more interesting, don't you think?

So again, your opinion of a DRK seems to be the minority as Mr. Yoshida clearly states no disagreement as to the DRK as being a damage dealer, or remark that it could be anything else.