When would you take DRK over PLD or WAR?

[Ipkonfig]

I'm not talking about tank busters, I'm saying magic attacks in general, T13's Flare Star for example it was a heavy hitting mechanic that benefited greatly from -10% INT. I'm not sure what you're talking about.. How often in any extreme primal or raid fight has there been "periods of low AoE"? There is always something going on in a primal/raid boss fight, having any form of extra flat damage reduction is fantastic. The less your healers need to heal the better.

If WAR uses Equilibrium for TP then they lose the burst heal, and in reality when MTing TP is going to be about the same. There were only a few fights in FCoB where I would run low as WAR/PLD.

[Rbstr]

Reprisal stacking with Storm's Path is very strong. Parry procs often enough that it's up very nearly on cooldown just about every time in my experience. Used with Dance you can pretty much force a proc when you know you'll want it. That has the potential to really help with low-HP dps in progression.
Thinking to 50 stuff, since that's all the "raid" content we have to look at (where we remember that 50+ skills don't apply). Before nerfs/echo:
Fights with magic tankbusters, obviously. T12's revelations would be very easy.
DRK/WAR would have made a pretty good pair in t13. DRK would swap in as MT where they would do the exact same rampart/sentinel rotation as PLD on flattens. Plus Reprisal. Then Akh Morns are super easy with buffed Dark Mind.
In turn 4 the AOE damage might be nice over PLD.
That's really the case with any level-50 content. The "reliable" CDs match up with Paladin's plus they get the extra magic CD. Pretty easily plug and play for whatever.

I wouldn't care for them in T5, where chain-stun PLD is great and WAR MT is the best choice anyway. Leviathan EX's chain stun comes to mind as well.

WAR takes hits roughly the same as DRK but with the Defiance hp boost it is sturdier.

This is just wrong. If you plop them into the same gear DRK has a minor defensive advantage (2-5%ish) from Grit compared to Defiance. War gets varying parry buff they burn all the time?
It's funny how people used to claim Shield Oath was significantly better than Defiance, but now where Shield Oath is renamed to Grit, it has become the opposite.

[Tila]

snip

You bringing up flare kinda solidifies my point. If you dont have a reprisal up and ready to use, your advantage goes right out the window. And many bosses dont give you much room to get, hold on to, and use reprisal for the big hits. It doesnt mean much if you use it and mitigate a bunch of smaller AoE attacks. What matters if having it for those clutch moments where everyone needs healing fast because a big move hit.

[Tila]

This is just wrong. If you plop them into the same gear DRK has a minor defensive advantage (2-5%ish) from Grit compared to Defiance. War gets varying parry buff they burn all the time?
It's funny how people used to claim Shield Oath was significantly better than Defiance, but now where Shield Oath is renamed to Grit, it has become the opposite.

The difference is that paladin has a lot more passive defense on top of shield oath that the DRK does not have. Parry buffs are kinda shit and too RNG. Thats pretty much the big issue with DRK: to much randomness, when fights need the class to be dependable. A raid cant rely on crossing their fingers that the DRK parries the right moves, or the DRK has reprisal ready for the big hits.

Lets not forget this discussion so far is centered on DRK being a MT. They bring absolutely nothing to the table as a OT, which is a problem in and of itself. PLD and WAR both make better OTs.

[Hundred]

Dark MT/PLD OT, Ninja DPS.
Magical tank busters or aoe to the party
Drop reprisal, Throw int down, Ninja increases DPS, PLD goes sword oath and hits Divine Veil as needed for the extra prot, Int down and Str down covered.

Dark MT/ WAR OT, throw in Ninja/Dragoon.
War provides slashing buff and 10%, Drk provides another 10% down from reprisal with just under 66% uptime. Boss is doing 20% or 19% less damage, to everyone about 66% of the time, not including Int down.

Add phases that need to be held. Dark handles adds quite well between Dark dance ,Abyssal drain (when not bugged), Dark passenger (when not bugged), Unleash, Salted Earth and Sole survivor

[Daega]

@Daega Burst healing can only be achieved if the WAR uses Equilibrium for HP, and then they are in the same TP boat as DRK. I have zero MP issues as DRK, people honestly spam Dark Arts WAYYY to much, even with the current Dark Side draining MP bug, I still always maintain 50% MP and use Dark Arts for every CD I want, and if I need some burst healing, for Souleatters.
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Yeah but you can get TP back while we don't have that option. TP just burns away forever. And if you aren't having MP issues as a MT in RavEx or other higher content then something isn't right. Not talking spam DA/SE. MT'ing most of the time you are having to spam SE combo solely to keep MP neutral. C&S for very minor mp regain. Many fights Blood price doesn't regen as much as it should. The typical solution is to drop Grit and go Blood weapon and regen on low damage phases. At this point you're not focus on maximizing DRK potential but on actually staying useful for the fight. Which will be an issue for Alex.
I can run dungeons and spam MP like a boss due to many mobs, but on single monster fights like RavEx you run into MP issues and have to spam SE the majority of the time.(unless you're OT then you have TP issues)

On PLD I used cover all the time, the range is completely legit for most any encounter. Plus if you actually want to cover someone you should actually be next to that person...
Utility on the other tanks is much greater than that of DRK. This is especially noticeable in PvP where you can't use many of your 50+ abilities yet that make you more effective.

[Ipkonfig]

So this wasn't a legitimate post you just wanted to bash DRK more? Most of your points are moot. What raid/primal fights are you in where there are times of low damage? You also don't make sense.. how is parry any different than block? They are both RNG mitigation tools and not meant to deal with burst mechanics, they are also mutually exclusive so PLD doesn't even double dip into them.

You seem to have zero end-game experience with all three tanks. Having tanked all three coils and every primal as PLD/WAR and now tanking Ravana Extreme as DRK and soon WAR I have never once felt like I needed something extra on DRK. It's a solid tank, good mitigation, great OT/MT DPS, -10% INT and a stackable 10% all damage reduction.

It needs tweaks since there are bugs currently, and I'd love a TP management tool for OTing so I don't rely on my BRD for TP when Blood Weapon eats it all, but having 1650 burst DPS is pretty awesome for a tank.

@Daega - I don't have MP issues at all on Ravana Ex, why would I? It's the same as any fight I don't need to spam Dark Arts. C&S has the same MP return as Syphon Strike, half the cost of Dark Arts. Also Delirium Blade is our highest average potency combo so you should be spamming Syphon Strike. If you don't need threat, which I usually only have to Dark Arts one Power Slash and I'm good, you either Delirium Blade or Dark Arts + Souleater.

[Morcavious]

And since when did the RNG of paladin block become considered 'reliable', even though it's just as RNG reliant as reprisal?

[Daega]

And since when did the RNG of paladin block become considered 'reliable', even though it's just as RNG reliant as reprisal?

Do you even PLD? It was my main before 3.0 and I can 'reliably' say I blocked almost every other attack. Oh, and if that failed there was parry as well.

[Ipkonfig]

It's a % chance to block a % of damage... it's RNG Block/Parry they are the same and since you can't parry an attack you've blocked the more block you get the less effective your parry is.