Getting refused to EX groups as a DRK

[Launched]

Huge wall of cooldowns

Sure, DRK's cooldowns don't look bad if you compare them 1:1, but that's not how WAR tanks. WAR has IB for every single tankbuster, on top of one of their other cooldowns (Vengeance, Thrill, Equilibrium, Raw Intuition). They're effectively stronger than all of DRK's cooldowns.

I specifically didn't include any skill that any tank can use, such as Convalescence and Awareness. All tanks can use them, so trying to use them in argument is ridiculous.


@Giantbane I didn't include healing, because healing isn't mitigation. And DRK's self-healing is very good anyway.

You can easily compare Foresight/Convalescence/Awareness because each tank has different cooldowns to use them with. On DRK/PLD, you can't use any of those three to mitigate a tankbuster. You need to use them with one of your big cooldowns. A WAR can use them with IB, giving them 20% mitigation and the extra effect from the weaker skill, and then they'll still have their stronger cooldowns like Vengeance.

Heals like Bloodbath, Path, IB, Souleater, Clemency etc. aren't great for mitigating incoming damage because they're either gated behind the GCD or are pretty weak. Thrill of Battle increases your max HP AND heals you, so by using that you're effectively losing a smaller percentage of your max HP. Equilibrium is off-GCD and pretty strong, so you can use IB to reduce incoming damage and then Equilibrium for a quick burst of healing. For example on Ravana Ex, reduce Blinding Blade by 20% (18k to 14.6k) and then heal for another 3.5k immediately after the hit.

I'd say between Vengeance and Shadow wall, Vengeance is certainly better (without a doubt)...but also keep in mind that the 30% that shadow wall gives is doesn't include the 20% multiplier that Grit already does....and in the case of Defiance, War DOES get the hp boost, but a lot of warriors these days don't really stack Vit on their accessories so the HP bonus from Defiance isn't being used to it's full potential which is holding it's usefulness back a bit (sometimes by a lot).

Grit and Defiance do effectively the same thing. A WAR with Defiance+Vengeance will lose the same amount of their eHP as a DRK with Grit/Shadow Wall. The 20% from Grit is completely ignoreable.

And why would you assume a WAR is using STR accessories all the time? If you're going to compare how effective they are at tanking, you should always assume identical gear.