Is it me, or is DRK really isn't that super great, nor super bad.

[Niyuka]

I am lvl 50 now, tanked 2 high level dungeons (Keeper of the Lake, Hullbreaker), Ramuh and Moggleking (Hard and Extreme respectively) now, with the exact same gear my PLD and WAR use (full 120)
You only really need your aggro combo at the start of a fight, once or twice. Afterwards, you spam your Syphon Strike to fuel Dark Arts Souleaters. The whole thing plays a LOT like the Paladin, and not as reactive as the warrior. It also doesnt feel like there is CHOICE in what you do: You have cooldowns that you really just keep rolling, you never go out of Darkside, and I believe Dark Passenger is a trap. It eats too much Mana outside of AOE situations.

AOE aggro is insane. Unleash is sick! It doesnt do Blind, so its a worse Flash, but the aggro is top.

it feels underwhelming: the DRK is a worse progression tank than the PLD, and a worse farm/offtank than the WAR (MUCH worse, in fact. So much worse as offtank that he really only competes with the PLD for maintank)

[Niyuka]

The issue is, pretty much, Reprisal being garbage compared to Storm Path, and impossible to apply when offtanking. Also, you bring no debuff that increases any damage on the mob, thus you need a Ninja to go with the DRK (and DRKs have TP issues anyway). If you use a DRK maintank, though, you ll want a warrior offtank, who will make your Reprisal useless. Reprisal is really only useful with a PLD offtank (yeah, right), or a second DRK.

Lets not talk about the disappointment of our Invulnerability skill.

I hope the next 10 levels bring us a bit ahead. So far I can safely say, DRK is noticably worse than the other tanks, by a solid margin. Probably not impossible to do all content with a DRK tank of course, but it sure is going to be more of a pain in terms of setup optimization, healer strain and general DPS.

[Faytte]

I've been leveling my Dark Knight and I cannot see myself raiding with it. The cooldowns are inferior or at best, equal

shadow skin=rampart
shadow wall=a crappy vegeneance (less uptime, longer cd,missing other effects)
Nothing like Inner Beast--Shadow Mind is hardly comparable.
Your damage debuffs on foes is worse, and with the nerf to how parry works, Dark Dance is --really-- bad. A 30% chance to reduce damage by 20% is craptacular.

You arnt a good offtank like a warrior/paladin since you have limiting debuffing if not an active tank.

I do not see what the advantage is, other than you do not have to maintain your maim damage buff as a warrior(although managing mp is far more intrusive) and that you will likely do more damage while tanking as a paladin. What is it you bring that others do not? It seems like a union that on a whole, is quite mediocre.

[Xenosan]

Keeping Darkside up alone is not full/competent DPS; sorry but it's not going to be that simple. Just for example if you could only have 1 buff for Souleater, you'd want DA, not DS.

It's difficult to sim because of the scaling nature of spell cost, MP pool, native MP regen, and Darkside's MP drain.

I'm doing some modest experimenting with some rotations and with one of the rotations I've found there's fidelity with Darkside/Dark Arts/Blood Weapon. CDs lining up perfectly and reliably for when they're needed, and it's sustaining (TP dies out first), but still a longs ways off from knowing what is optimal combo priorities or when DS should be on/off, or when that squeezed in DA is actually killing your sustained DPS potential

DRK has a lot of testing to go

[ShaolinMike]

It's a new job and people are going to have to figure it out, just like the other new jobs. At first glance it looks like it's a mix between the other two tanks and doesn't DPS/mitigate as well as the others, BUT it's fun and I'm willing to stick with it. And I'm sure Yoshi-P will make adjustments if it really turns out to be inferior, just like he did with WAR.

[Faytte]

Sure, but who knows when? It took the majority of a year for them to address summoner and the like. I'm not saying Yoshida is not god--he is, but I do not know realistically how long it will take for them to recognize the Dark Knight issues if they are also a very popular class.

[Hundred]

Seems like DrK is relevant for Magical enemies/bosses. Given that Delirium reduces Int in comparison to Rage of Halone reducing Str, and that he has a 15% reduction to magic dmg cooldown.

So Drks significance is dependent on them changing the enemy primary damage from Str based to Int based?

[Gooner_iBluAirJGR]

If you use a DRK maintank, though, you ll want a warrior offtank, who will make your Reprisal useless. .

I might be wrong but I think I saw Reprisal stacking with Storms path in my run of Ravana earlier today. Worth testing on a dummy at some point because I'm not 100% sure if I was reading the right stuff.

[Timat]

Once again has anyone actually checked to see if DOT ticks grant mana through Blood Weapon?

Cause I havent seen any mp gain when I tested it on on mobs.

[BadRNG]

I might be wrong but I think I saw Reprisal stacking with Storms path in my run of Ravana earlier today. Worth testing on a dummy at some point because I'm not 100% sure if I was reading the right stuff.

Both debuffs are definitely active at the same time but I am not certain they are actually stacking, can't imagine them allowing that. Needs testing.