Your thoughts on DRK as a Tank in the future?

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

Looking forward to it, levelling my first tank class (Paladin) and having fun, one of my friends wanted it to be DPS (though he quickly came around) but at the end of the day, we are getting Dark Knight and its likely gonna be great. I know I am giving it a go when its out. I for one am happy its a Tank, queues are long enough as it is.

Hoping for a new Healer reveal as well to even things out., I think Salve-Maker/Chemist would be neat.

[Reynhart]

As for the Job itself in the game, I found it to be the best iteration for it that I've used or seen yet. The Job's main trait was an ability called Adversity. For each increment of damage that the character would take in percentages of 25% I believe in relation to your max HP, your four primary attack and defense stats would increase. So Phys Defense, Phys Attack, and Mag Attack and Defense. They would cap at 150% of their start, and make it a great tank class in the game, if it wasn't designated as more of a DPS of sorts in the game itself.

What made it so excellent is that I could easily make it into a tank in the party just by shifting around gear, and making him two-hand a sword which would give him great offensive capabilities. With Adversity boosting it's stats the more damage it took, it propelled it's abilities means to do damage even higher. You couple that with another Sub-Job that lets it drain stats, and it could become a powerhouse, only having difficulty with enemies resistant or immune to dark damage.

Dark Knight wasn't a tank in Bravely Default. He doesn't have any attention grabing or protection skill, and several of its skills required to spend HP to do more damage.
It's not because you can use a heavy armor that you're a tank, especially compared to jobs like Knight (Protect other), Samurai (Supposed to be hit by the enemy) or even...well, I can't spoil the last one, but it's far more focused on defense, with things like Rampart or the enhanced damage reduce to Default.

Actually, you said it yourself, Dark Knight has "great offensive capabilities", and can become a "powerhouse" so...not a tank.

Cecil was very much your damage absorber, but as a dark knight it was always a risk versus reward thing.

Cecil was absolutely not a damage absorber. He was one of the sturdiest character in the beginning, but only because other party members are White Mage, Black Mage or Sage. (And his stats were absolutely pathetic)
You can clearly see the difference when he changes to Paladin, with a lot more Defense, a skill that let him protect party member, and White Magic too. And more HP at level 1 that what he had before the class change

Apart from that, I'm both disappointed and happy to see a Dark Knight tank. Dissapointed because DRK was the DPS I loved most in every game it appears, and happy because tanking is my favorite role in MMOs.

[Rbstr]

On Bravely Default, though, to make a tank as something that is preferentially targeted you really have to pull from Pirate to get Provoke or use the Ninja skill. Adversity really makes the Dark Night quite tanky, even if you don't really use it that way. And wearing heavy armor certainly is a reasonable indicator of a single-player FF job being something that might become a tank.

IMO single-players usually don't have tanks so much as simply more durable damage dealers. The role is far more fluid, especially in BD where you get a full set of secondary skills. I mean, BD's Pirate certainly isn't a tank with that armor rating, and yet there's provoke.

Anyway, I think DRK could have a bunch of cool mechanics as tank, so I'm looking forward to it.

[Ojikuh]

Needs more main class tanking skills mechanics, rather than using the other class restricted cool downs.

[Giantbane]

Glad it's a tank. Means I'll get to play it often.

I will be very disappointed if it doesn't get Souleater in some way shape or form. Perhaps only usable in whatever passes for its DPS stance.

However, I am somewhat worried about it being an evasion tank. Obviously that didn't go so well for NIN in FFXIV (it was either OP or useless depending on content). Curious how they're going to pull that off. Not to mention, DRK doesn't strike me as historically evasive Job type in its previous FF and spin off incarnations.

[Duelle]

However, I am somewhat worried about it being an evasion tank. Obviously that didn't go so well for NIN in FFXIV (it was either OP or useless depending on content). Curious how they're going to pull that off. Not to mention, DRK doesn't strike me as historically evasive Job type in its previous FF and spin off incarnations.

Yeah using the word "evasive" with DRK seems weird. Since the theme seems to be manipulating darkness, I would have thought damage shields made of dark energy would be more in line with DRK than it being evasive. Well, unless the darkness somehow enhances the DRK's movement and strength to a point they would be evasive in heavy armor. Kind of how a jedi knight uses the force to enhance their physical attributes.

Seeing that the armor pretty much screams "my power comes from the void, yo", it might not be a farfetched guess.

[Saigwa]

I just can't see how DRK wearing that heavy lookin armor is an eva. tank...Maybe if it was tight and slim like on the Dragoons (since they use a lot of jumping techniques, it's safe to say their gear is made for mobility) but it looks bulky like the paladin/warrior gear which is not meant for maximum mobility..... logically, less mobility = less eva. Yes, I know there can be magic/darkness involved, but the concept just bugs me >_<

[Marxam]

I knew that DRK was going to be tank when you consider the lore, equipment and disparity of tanks vs. the love of the class basically screams tank. Also, the fact that it can mitigate magic instead of physical just means that dedicated tanks, such as myself, who love tanking now have two options to bring to the table. A boss does a lot of physical dmg, bring in a pld or war, a boss does a lot of magical damage bring in a DRK. Im so glad I have the full divine set for the tank because that is by far the coolest looking set imo outside of raid gear.

Now if SAM is a dps then they've won a customer for life and hopefully, like the dark knight himself, DRK would have a lot of "utility" under his belt when it comes to tanking, mitigation and support.

[Rbstr]

I don't know where the thought DRK would be an evasion tank comes from.
We know almost exactly nothing about how the class actually will work.

[Cassandaria]

Cecil was absolutely not a damage absorber. He was one of the sturdiest character in the beginning, but only because other party members are White Mage, Black Mage or Sage. (And his stats were absolutely pathetic)
You can clearly see the difference when he changes to Paladin, with a lot more Defense, a skill that let him protect party member, and White Magic too. And more HP at level 1 that what he had before the class change

While I agree with you, his introduction for what he was intended early game was very much a tank, bad stats or not. He was hardly a damage dealer either. He was, much as gladiator is now. The base for which his paladin class was built, which then, undeniably made him an epic tank. In the beginning he was a tank, just not a very good one.