-Content- is what balances the Tanks

[Reynhart]

Ideally you want to make sure the fundamentals are equal -- so all the tanks need to be able to live through the baseline damage, all tanks need to be able to hold aggro over healers and DPS.

That would be asolutely true, if FFXIV was not frequently designed to have a coulple of tanks.

(Incoming FFXI comparison but not saying that this game need to be like FFXI, it's just an example)
In FFXI, at very-low level, NIN had only Utsusemi: Ichi, and the recast was so long that they ended without shadows frequently.
So, what did groups do ? Bring two NIN. This way, they could manage their enmity to swap when needed thus ensuring enough mitigation.
And since NIN were designed to be DPS from the get go, you didn't lose any DPS by bringing two NINs instead of a PLD with an additionnal DPS.

So, on really tough bosses, not all tanks would be able to be MT 100% of the time, but any combination could do the content. That's why I suggested on another topic to slightly reduce WAR's mitigation (To be clear, just giving them back the old Inner Beast while keeping other skills as their are now).
BUT, as a counterpart, fusing Wrath and Abandon and giving WAR full acces to Wrath/Abandon skills regardless of their stance.

[EddardStark]

In what world would someone swinging a one handed sword while blocking with a kite shield hit anything as hard as someone swinging a great axe or bastard sword worth a two handed grip, rofl. If anything, paladin deserves more defense, not more offense.

[LeeraSorlan]

In what world would someone swinging a one handed sword while blocking with a kite shield hit anything as hard as someone swinging a great axe or bastard sword worth a two handed grip, rofl. If anything, paladin deserves more defense, not more offense.

In what world would arrows do more dmg then a gun and a turret, in what world would a dude punching things with a blunt weapon do more dmg then a ninja swinging around with huge daggers?That world is: fiction.. This is not reality. Do not confuse the two.

[Reynhart]

In what world would someone swinging a one handed sword while blocking with a kite shield hit anything as hard as someone swinging a great axe or bastard sword worth a two handed grip, rofl. If anything, paladin deserves more defense, not more offense.

In what world would a normal humain wield a great axe or great sword taller and heavier than he his ?

Don't go that way, comparing to real world is walking on thin ice.

[EddardStark]

In what world would someone swinging a one handed sword while blocking with a kite shield hit anything as hard as someone swinging a great axe or bastard sword worth a two handed grip, rofl. If anything, paladin deserves more defense, not more offense.

[karateorangutang]

Agreed with the OP.

We can talk about balance til we are blue in the face, but there doesn't seem to be a huge discrepancy in balance among the three. PLD has a higher physical mitigation cap and has a little bit more room for error. WAR has a higher risk, high reward playstyle ( yes im aware its not hard to do, but just by comparison), and DRK seems to be somewhere between the two. None of them seem overwhelmingly powerful.

I've said it before and i'll say it again, WAR is just sitting on a really synchronous and complete kit that works in a streamlined fashion. Not that its overwhelmingly more effective, but it is smoother. PLD and DRK by comparison feel a bit clunky, and there are times when its frustrating to play them after playing WAR because of that clunky nature.

I think we'll have a better picture when we get some new raid material in upcoming expansions to see if this is gonna be a long term trend or we just got thrown a curve-ball with 3.0.

[NFaelivrin]

In what world would someone swinging a one handed sword while blocking with a kite shield hit anything as hard as someone swinging a great axe or bastard sword worth a two handed grip, rofl. If anything, paladin deserves more defense, not more offense.

It must be depressing to you to realize that dudes with just their fists do more damage than gigantic axes or swords.

[EddardStark]

It's a world of magic and super heroes, of course it's fiction, but the intent is pretty obvious. In what fantasy game are two ilvl comparable weapons of the same rarity slated with the same damage where one is two handed and the other is one handed? You still ignored what I said regarding the defensive buff for paladins to help further clarify the intent.

[Reynhart]

In what fantasy game are two ilvl comparable weapons of the same rarity slated with the same damage where one is two handed and the other is one handed? You still ignored what I said regarding the defensive buff for paladins to help further clarify the intent.

In the same fantasy games that don't care that by the time you swing your two-handed weapon, the one-handed is swung at least twice.

[EddardStark]

Okay lol. I was simply advocating for a logical interpretation of the rationale for damage differences based on what I belive to be the intent which happens to coincide with the general idea of the op. I never said anything about real world comparison, I said, "in what world." Somehow monks were involved and no one seemed to reference the lore about the class and called it an argument as to why a one handed sword would cause as much damage as as a great axe or two handed bastard sword. I didn't mean for your post to deteriorate to this op, my apologies.