When would you take DRK over PLD or WAR?

[Hundred]

Does Dark Mind really makes the difference ?

It naturally does. 30% magical for 10s, every 60s. Vs a Block against physical, every 30s.
Different skills as they cater to different damage types in different ways, but are guaranteed mitigation options against their respective damage type either way.

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Let's put aside every pure physical skill and compare WAR and DRK.

Stopping you right there.


We're going to look at Dark and Paladin.
Rampart and Shadowskin are the exact same skill.

The difference between Sentinel & Shadow skin is that Sentinel is 40% to Shadow Walls 30%

Dark dance vs Bull wark. Block is more powerful mitigation then Parry, Bullwark increases the block rate substantially. Magical attacks cannot be blocked or parried, however magical attacks can be evaded. Dark Dance offers minor defense against magical where Bullwark does not, while Bullwark is good at covering physical hits. Dark dance has a third of the cool down. Both skills are at their most consistent against adds.

Str down vs Int down. A wash, however there are currently no other producers of Str down, so Pld is the sole contributor of the effect in the game when it is desired.


Shell tron vs Dark Mind: Shelltron has half the cooldown, but is good for a single hit which must be physical. Dark Mind is good for any magical hit within a 10s period.

Shield Swipe vs Reprisal - Both cut into the power of the opposition however relevant enemies ignore Pacification, Reprisal is not ignored.
Outside of TP demands, DRK is poised to do more damage Main tanking with their higher potency and off-gcd options.

If we like pre 52+ Drk has 1 more mitigation option via Dark Mind than Paladin. With shelltron the option spread is the same. It later delves into all 3 Tanks getting a sustain option (Clemency, Equilibrium, Sole Survivor), where Clemency has its cast time and costs a large sum of mana, Equilibrium has its cooldown and must choose health or tp to be restored. Sole Survivor requires something dies but requires Health & Mana both (albeit on a longer CD). Plunge gives means to sticking which the Drk lacks @ 50 compared to Tempered Will & Holmgang.

Like how many ways is there to put it.
Drk goes for Magical mitigation and add control, PLD excels at Physical mitigation and defensive team support. Except for Raw Intuition, War will basically mitigate anything indiscriminately, while providing some defensive support (Storms path) and some offensive.

Question is how potent everyone is at their job, and how valuable these things all are. Add controls value depends on how they set up Alexander. Magical Mitigation again depends on how they set that up.

To use a dungeon as an example given I heard someone speak of Dark Knights dealing with it. Sanctification and Unholy are magical, you can deal with this through Dark Mind, Shadow Wall and Rampart. Alternative you can DA Soul eater after the sanctification that will be about 3.2k and heal back 800-1100 non crit with general equipment depending on your set up reimbursing you for ~25-34% of the damage non-crit.

Now as I've mentioned before to someone the problem with Soul Eater is something 2.0 Warriors have also seen with storms path. Content will get stronger, and Soul eaters heal will be less relevant. You basically have to know the encounter well enough to have Soul eater set-up to respond after the hit which isn't as intuitive as popping CD's or inner beast.


I am fully aware of Drk requiring tuning and debugging but the bulk of their kit is conceptually sound. The reasons to take a Dark are fairly clear so long as their numbers are potent enough. Its odd for someone to make the first comparison Warrior when their defensive options are closest to Paladin. Darks ideally hold an advantage against magical opposition that the Paladins do not, and can handle adds better which may or may not be relevant in Alexander.