Is Paladin in a Bad Spot?

[Phoenicia]

Answer this simple question:
Would ANY party NOT bring a WAR to ANY content that requires 2 tanks right now?

So yes, WARs are top dog of tank classes now and should just shut up about other classes being fine and WARs being "weaker" and having oh so many disadvantages that other tanks somehow magically don't face as well.

I never said WAR is weaker than the other tanks. As a matter of fact, it is to my belief that WAR is the "strongest" tank of the three. I just do not call "top dog" because when any combination 2 tanks are present, the non-WAR will be MT.

The point of my post was not that PLD > WAR or DRK > WAR. It is the "ease of use" and "safety" the other tanks bring as opposed to WAR.

Fun fact #1: Removing the I-won't-die-button, WAR pumps its effective HP the highest when it pops all its CDs compared to the other tanks. Makes handling the strongest busters possible. i.e. Double Prey.

Fun fact #2: Back-to-back CDs, WAR has the longest mitigation up-time. If a repeat of T1, T4 or a prolonged AoE wave that isn't getting killed happens.

PLD: Rampart (20s) > Sentinel (10s) > Bulwark (15s) > Hallowed Ground (10s) = 55s total.
DRK: Shadowskin (20s) > Shadow Wall (10s) > Living Dead (10~s) = 40s total. Add in Dark Dance and Dark Mind for the lols
WAR: IB (6s) > Infuriate IB (6s) > Vengeance (15s) > IB (6s) > Raw Intuition (20s) > IB (6s) > ToB+Conv. (~17% effective mitigation) (20s) > IB (6s) > Infuriate IB (6s) > Holmgang for the lols (6s) = 97s total.

In the 97s window WAR can use Equilibrium Twice, Second Wind and all those IBs heal a significant amount. If we put up Berserk in there and add bloodbath, WAR's self healing will be no joke.

I will omit things like Foresight and Awareness because those are shite.

I know VERY well the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three tanks.

I will also acknowledge that of the three tanks, WAR is the tank that "secured" its spot. But it "secured" a spot that any tank can fulfill. Anything the WAR does as an OT, it can do as MT.

WAR is pigeon-holed into the OT spot because of their DPS? Guess what? With the slashing debuff, DRK does the same/more DPS and PLD is very close. And whatever less DPS the PLD does in SwO, WAR makes up for in the additional DPS they do as MT compared to PLD MT. Also guess what? NIN can apply the slashing debuff at a slight DPS loss too! So PLD/DRK + NIN can work just as fine. WAR is by no means "mandatory". A static with a PLD/DRK setup doesn't need to change jobs. They just have the "better MT for the fight" go MT and the other tank go OT. "Hint: PLD will be the MT for most of the fights".

Storm Path, while significant, is overrated. It is also a 40 potency loss from BB. Most WARs drop it from their rotation specially when the group is comfortable with surviving and healing raid-wide damage. A smart WAR will eat the 40 potency loss only when needed and apply SP right before a buster or raid-wide damage. So when DPS is concerned, WAR should be doing SE/BB alternatively, not SE/SP.

WAR is VERY strong and probably the most versatile of the three tanks. But as long as the community pushes it into the fixed OT role (which they are good at, but not really "better" than the other jobs) and not the MT role (which they can excel at), I wouldn't call it a "top dog". I will just call it a solid tank.

I am not complaining about WAR as a class at all. I just think the community - in general - is stupid for ignoring facts and sticking to outdated 2.0 mentality where PLD is the only MT and then coming to the forums and crying about the new competitor (DRK) came into the picture. People are pissed because it is actually "better" to use DRK as MT than PLD in some fights and made them feel "excluded" from a whole lot of 2 encounters (Namely As3 and As4).

How are Darkside and FoF comparable? Darkside = flat increase in dmg by 15% FoF is 30% FoF lasts for 20 seconds. Darkside is UNLIMITED as long as you have mp. How is it NOT a dps stance? Instant increase to dmg and gives you access to Blood Weapon and Dark Arts which increases your attack speed on top of your overall dmg. I think most people would call that a dps stance, especially compared to SO.
And yes, baseline def is 0, but certain bosses can enter stances that dramatically reduce incoming dmg and SO can't cope. Obviously, +potency of 50 is an increase, but it is most certainly not comparable to other tanks, especially those with aoe capability. Sword oath is a single target move. Compared to salt of the earth, for example, raid dmg is down in add phases. My only point was that SO is not something to bank on for raid dmg increase. It's just not what it's good for.

While FoF is not a "constant" DPS increase buff, it is PLD's version of "damage increase".

Again, you are not comparing apples to apples here.

Darkside is not a DPS stance because it does not cancel Grit, just like how Maim and FoF do not cancel the other tanks' respective tank stances. Also, just like how FoF doesn't have a 100% uptime, DRK has no "Oomf my DPS goes mad" burst CD.

Blood Weapon is available as long as you are not using Grit and has NO RELATION to Darkside. Read the tooltip carefully and tell me if Darkside is anywhere in there.

Sword Oath results in a 11-15% overall DPS increase whenever the PLD is doing DPS. PLD has no AoE, it is its major weakness. But if you wanna get technical, auto-attacks are still going when you spam Flash, the 50 potency on AA becomes a LOT more significant percentage wise when you are not doing weaponskills.

All buffs are multiplicative. When a boss goes into a defensive stance or gets a defensive buff, ALL potencies, flat or multiplicative% buff, are multiplied by a malus. If the defensive buff reduces damage by 20%, your overall DPS is going down by 20%. Doesn't matter if it was added potency of multiplied damage buff. Your overall DPS goes down by 20%. I do not see how this affects Sword Oath worse or better than anything else in the game.