Oh god, DKs!

[Marveth]

Because Dark Knight us still a relatively new job, a lot of people who level dark have low level gear and are generally low level for the dungeon in itself. Most other tanks in the same dungeons are level synched, thus their stats are vastly different and is probably the reason to this topic.

[Viviza]

DRK don't really have any sort of special weakness. Their armor is comparable to the other tanks, and grit is the same as shield oath. They don't get blocks, but they parry a lot, so that might even be equal in terms of RNG physical mitigation, I'm not sure.

You're just running into newer players. People not familiar with tanks, in vendor gear, not popping their cooldowns liberally, probably not positioning well.

Personally I've always found newer paladins to be the most difficult to deal with. They don't get shield oath until way after the others, and their threat generation is less solid.

[Raminax]

If there's anything that Dark Knights lack compared to their other tanking brethren, it's passive mitigation, so to speak. Ignoring each tank's stances...

Paladins get their shield and can thus block a fair amount of physical damage. They also naturally Blind enemies while generating AoE enmity.
While tiny, Warriors will be getting some bonus Parry (2% per Wrath stack, I believe) by just performing their basic rotation in Defiance.
Dark Knights get... nothing. Zero, zilch, nada.

So, if your tank barely ever uses their defensive cooldowns, then it isn't particularly wierd that Dark Knights may seem weaker (and I don't know about your experiences, but a tank popping so much as a Rampart is a serious contender for a commendation to me). They have no passive mitigation besides their tanking stance bonus, while the other two at least get something by playing the bare minimum. Dark Knights need to regularly use their cooldowns, else they're mitigating less than the other two tanks.

[Phoebus]

I know 40 to 50 was rougher on drk to level in dungeons due to no relic armor the other two tanks have. As far as mitigation their skill set is very similar to pld.

[Kumori_Kumo]

I can't speak with any real authority on it, but I'm told that tanking with DRK at 60 is way different than tanking at 50, so there remains a possibility that it was just built differently? Like it's not a full set pre-60? I can't say for sure, I'm still only 35 DRK myself.

I do notice however that WHM and AST have a harder time healing DRK, while as a SCH I really don't have half the problems they do. Perhaps they just interact better with a mitigation healer? It's hard to say.

[Alisi]

DK's are fine, some might be a bit new to tanking, but the job itself works fine.

I never said they weren't. Thanks for not reading the thread. I said the DK tanks I've gotten seemed to be doing things right but I'm having difficult keeping them up so what am I doing wrong?

[Shurrikhan]

My HW healer-leveling experience has been that if I get a new tank, I spam heals sometimes. If not a new tank, DRK or otherwise, I don't have to heal outside of Divine Seal and regen maintenance. PLDs tend to be a seem a bit less squishy by default, unless they assume as much and forget to CD/dodge.

The only thing to do 'better' with DRK tank is probably to think about their two-stage defensive CDs (DA-DD), which can seem more delayed than they ought to since some don't like to double-weave, and their Souleater self-heals, but frankly it won't feel reliable unless you've seen them open a couple times already (so... when you're on the last boss) and watch their animations. I tend to just remember when they're likely to die if they dropped tank stance and put up no CDs, and the rest of the time only aim to keep them within a DA-Souleater of full health, which saves me some mana for when I really do need to Cure II spam (usually on dps standing in AoEs). And... try to remember how many CDs they have. If you see Dark Dance and Shadowskin both up, and they're only taking physical damage, that's not going to leave them with much reliable damage reduction for the next 90s; also, assume they'll likely pop Shadowwall (30%) after the going gets rough, giving you enough time to save them but mitigating less than you'd hope.

[Alisi]

As for keeping them alive--utilize regen.)

I do use regen. It's my most utilized spell (I keep the others up with regen while I'm spamming the tank.) As for Cure 1, I couldn't. The damage he was taking was greater than what Cure 1 healed. That was my problem with going OOM. I know that. But Cure 1 just wasn't doing anything. He dropped so fast. With my scholar, I had the buffs and the fairy heals and shields, and all that. I level my scholar to 60 first and I don't remember DKs being so hard to heal on my Scholar. But in a dungeon lower than level 50, I don't have Benediction and regen is my only insta-heal.

That's my biggest problem. It's that huge drop of HP. It's so sudden and random. They'll be up at 100% HP and suddenly they're at 15% HP, and it's a scramble to get them back up. Maybe this is a WHM problem though. Just the way the class is set up.

[justinjarjar]

I never said they weren't. Thanks for not reading the thread. I said the DK tanks I've gotten seemed to be doing things right but I'm having difficult keeping them up so what am I doing wrong?

Point is beyond PLD's being a little more "easy" to heal, DRK's are healed just like the other tanks their is no reason you should have any problems healing them over other tanks. And the title "Oh, God, DRKs" make it sound like DRK's are having major problems tanking. However without watching you play outright no way to tell what you or the DRK is doing wrong.

[Alisi]

Point is beyond PLD's being a little more "easy" to heal.

I've never thought of PLDs are being easier to heal. Actually, I find warriors to be easier to heal and I'd take them any day over a PLD.

And the title "Oh, God, DRKs" make it sound like DRK's are having major problems tanking. However without watching you play outright no way to tell what you or the DRK is doing wrong.

I authored this after finishing yesterday's daily leveling roulette, as I said in the post, so yeah, I was mentally going ARG! If I wanted to complain about tanks who can't play their class, I would've gone to the tanks section and not the healer section. I was banking on the collective experience of my fellow healers to give me tips because I feel really bad about wiping in below level 50 dungeons. I suppose I should've put the 'I don't think the tanks were doing anything wrong' bit in caps with bold and blinking text. That's my bad. =P