Changing DRK to DPS entirely?

[TouchandFeel]

Also a no thank you to completely changing it into an evasion tank.
Evasion tanking is almost always unintended, such as the case of ninja in FFXI, and is utterly unreliable which makes it undesirable as a tank in high end content. It always ends up either completely op or utter crap, all due to the rng nature of it.
Can a tank have evasion as an aspect of their mitigation arsenal, sure just like block or parry, but basing a tank on it is a bad idea.

[Anger]

Also a no thank you to completely changing it into an evasion tank.
Evasion tanking is almost always unintended, such as the case of ninja in FFXI, and is utterly unreliable which makes it undesirable as a tank in high end content. It always ends up either completely op or utter crap, all due to the rng nature of it.
Can a tank have evasion as an aspect of their mitigation arsenal, sure just like block or parry, but basing a tank on it is a bad idea.

I was thinking more like a Riftstalker in rift. It has some "damage reduction" cool downs but it also relies on evasion quite a bit. In addition, it could raise its defenses through its tanking stance but it would be slightly lower than a plate tank. It could take hits, just not as well.

[Madepossible]

Make Dark Knight a DPS class, yes totally agree!!! *=^o^=*

[Falgern]

I was thinking more like a Riftstalker in rift. It has some "damage reduction" cool downs but it also relies on evasion quite a bit. In addition, it could raise its defenses through its tanking stance but it would be slightly lower than a plate tank. It could take hits, just not as well.

Riftstalker didn't depend on evasion. It had buffs that reduced damage by a % of the incoming damage, as well as increasing their armor. None of the talents increased dodge chance in any way. Even their tank stance increased armor and resistance, not dodge.

It was the best tank for magic due to just having pure damage reduction, they didn't have block but all incoming damage was at an avg lower than cleric and warrior tanks. This was the way riftstalker worked from launch and still works like this. They had higher avoidance than other tanks, but they were still mitigation tanks.

[Delorean]

Okay, fair enough but how would you fix or change it? Do you feel like it's in a good place?

the design philosophy of this game is that

heavy armor = tank
light armor = dps
men in dresses = healers and dps

and i really don't expect it to change anytime soon

i think it is fine how it is, but as the game continues to go on i am sure there will be different DPS classes that will be added. hopefully they will add a class that you feel like you really vibe with. but following that philosophy, it makes no sense for a player unit in heavy armor to be hiding behind everyone else waving around an enormous sword. DRK has to be a tank.

[shinros]

No, honestly I was one of the people at first annoyed that they made Dark knight a tank instead of DPS, yet after looking over the skills, leveling and playing to 60 I have to say it was a good choice Yoshi-p had to get more people to play tank somehow they changed a popular job into a tank. Oh I bet you when samurai comes its going to be a tank also.

[Alacran]

No, honestly I was one of the people at first annoyed that they made Dark knight a tank instead of DPS, yet after looking over the skills, leveling and playing to 60 I have to say it was a good choice Yoshi-p had to get more people to play tank somehow they changed a popular job into a tank. Oh I bet you when samurai comes its going to be a tank also.

I agree with this, When Dark Knight was first announced I thought it was going to be a DPS, when the Tank reveal happened I was taken aback, surely this had to be a mistake. Thing is, it's a Knight, heavy armor is kinda a requirement, while im not saying a big sword can't dish out the hurt, it makes more sense for us to have decent damage output but better survivability than a traditional DPS. That of course just covers the basics of the lore behind the job.

If there was a evasion Tank to be made then it would and should bet built that way from the ground up. An avoidance/ evasion Tank would definitely offer a new and as of yet (in this FF) unseen play style that many may enjoy, ripping apart an already established job to fit the mold would 1. require to much time an effort re-balancing skills, and 2. take away from those that enjoy the jobs core design and fundamental role.

Given the popularity of Dark Knight, i would have to say that SE's gambit of placing DRK into the Tank role has worked. There diffidently much more Tanks out there right now, some of them are even going into the dungeons. Of course that does not mean they'll stick with it, many will simply level for the cool edgy look and feel but never truly become Tanks. However if even half of those numbers stick with it, I see no reason to think that Samurai wont get the same treatment, with Monk and Ninja already catering to the eastern DPS niche, there's no reason why a Samurai Tank wouldn't fit well. If SAM were a DPS, well it's no wonder Doma fell to the empire, not enough Tanks.

[Kaedan94]

Can it be argued there's no reason to take a DRK at the moment in their current state if you're a min/maxer... sure. Basically the argument is you want the safest possible run regardless of how skilled the player is.

The facts are, though, that DRK can perform perfectly well even in Coil, they just have to be played by someone who knows what they are doing. It's true that they have to be careful about their CDs and know exactly when to use them and how to time them correctly to always have the right ones available. So you can't just take any pug DRK and expect them to work like you generally can with a PLD.

[Tila]

snip

The problem is, it'd always be preferable to take a WAR or a PLD.

I think that DRK is a case of the team ran out of ideas. Their active mitigation abilities are rather bland flat percentage mitigation. They have a good bit of self healing, despite 2.0 warrior being garbage because self healing is the worst form of tanking mitigation (why they went back to it, we'll never know). They have lots of ogcd buttons to press, yes, but a lot of these skills dont do much or rely on dumb mechanics ( dark messenger, parry proc, etc...).

DRK needs a lot of work to be a well put together credit to the team. As of now they certainly aren't bad, but they are the worst tank due to a case of having lots of little issues that amount to a big one.

[Kiteless]

Can it be argued there's no reason to take a DRK at the moment in their current state if you're a min/maxer... sure. Basically the argument is you want the safest possible run regardless of how skilled the player is.

Not only can it be argued, that's the simple truth. DRK offers no utility as an OT, while still having less damage and sustainability than WAR, and it has the worst mitigation amoung the tanks as an MT, while not supporting its party at all and still having less damage and sustainability than WAR.