Tank Balance

[Donjo]

If you all want Balance so much, why don't you go bug the nearest Astrologian?

[karateorangutang]

If you all want Balance so much, why don't you go bug the nearest Astrologian?

.... oh I know some of the conversation is dull in here but really?

[Ivellior]

this long post[/URL].

That cooldown usage is not optimal for Savage 1. You will never waste both Rampart + Sentinel on that tank buster, especially since only the later is enough and the healers will be on full healing duty due to all the aoe and damage during that phase.
PLD will go: Sentinel => Hallowed => Sentinel => Rampart + Awareness + Drac Pot of Vit + Stoneskin + whatever the healers can throw on you to keep you alive.
DRK will go: Dark Arts + Dark Mind + Shadow Wall => Living Death + Benediction => Dark Arts + Dark Mind + Shadow Wall => Dark Arts + Dark Mind + Rampart

It's more efficient (for both tanks) to use Rampart/Shadowskin after the bombs and use convalence + tank stance when the boss starts casting the missiles. If you are able to time the living death properly you can get mitigate more damage because the effective duration but we will just assume it will be used for the tank buster.
As for the benediction, it really shouldn't be a problem since 99% of the groups doing savage have SCH + WHM combination for healers. In the rare case that you don't have that combination you can just have WAR spend some of his self healing cooldowns to help the healers that have to top up DRK.
If you have a WHM using Benediction it is a no brainer since the healers can focus on WAR after Holmgag and just throw you the benediction a few seconds before the timer runs out.

Also while the 4th tank buster should no longer be an issue now with the items people have from tomes, it was something that people would face, especially in the first weeks.
However since the enrage timer was very close to the tank buster a lot of time it was simply preferable to just use the cooldowns earlier and just let the pld die so he could use a STR pot earlier rather than save the cooldown for the VIT pot on the last tank buster.

Not to mention Delirium in as well. So in that fight DRK not only mitigates more damage but is overall more efficient because he does more damage.
On Savage 2 PLD will mitigate more damage, but since PLD has not real aoe damage to speak of, it's still more efficient to use a DRK, since you can "mitigate" more damage by simply killing things faster.
On Savage 3 most damage is physical but the orange tethers are magical tank busters (The first hand is somewhat of a tank buster. You can cheese it using your I wont die button but you can always just turn it around and share damage with the group).
Whether you want to use PLD or DRK here depends on whether you can pass the dps checks, which are plenty and tough. Haven't cleared this, so I can't comment on 4.
WAR is a must have on all Savage raids because it does more damage.

The problem is the current META (because tanks need to be a beefy dps now) and the way savage encounters are designed. To make it short because DRK deals more damage and the raids have a lot of magical tank busters it's more efficient to use a DRK.
And because WAR deals the most damage it's a must have.

[SpookyGhost]

Drac Pot of Vit

You speak in riddles.

e: Oh, I see, a 4th buster in A1S. That's pretty unlikely to happen, but yeah PLDs do kinda get super shafted if it does. Though if your group is getting a 4th buster... that's less PLD's problem and more the DPS. Probably should get that sorted out instead of wasting your money/time away on Drac Pots of Extremely Situational Uses.

[Ivellior]

You speak in riddles.

There was literally no other way to survive that 4th tank buster with the cooldowns you had left and the items available at the time. And yes you normally use STR potions as often as you can.

Edit:
It is no longer an issue now with the new items, but at the first week it was. On the bright side the Drac VIT pots were dirt cheap because of how useless they are :P

[Windklinge]

strange. we always seem to get 4th buster and then self destruct right after. most the time the pally dies there then boss dies basicly very shortly after. imo i say 4th buster is a bit strange. since it doesnt happen all the time. sometimes boss does self destruct before it does buster. which is totally akward.

[Brian_]

snip

Good job ignoring everything that has changed from 2.X to 3.X that has hurt PLD in real and quantifiable ways. People are hardly being unreasonable and facetious when they point out the issues with enmity, now unusable skills, etc. But, you don't play PLD and have never played PLD so of course you wouldn't understand.

[Iagainsti]

Good job ignoring everything that has changed from 2.X to 3.X that has hurt PLD in real and quantifiable ways. People are hardly being unreasonable and facetious when they point out the issues with enmity, now unusable skills, etc. But, you don't play PLD and have never played PLD so of course you wouldn't understand.

Reg: If you want to join the People's Front of Judea, you have to really hate the Romans.
Brian: I do!
Reg: Oh yeah, how much?
Brian: A lot!
Reg: Right, you're in.

[Anyndel]

I'm honestly surprised how people is obsessed with minmaxing in this game, specially with tanks and healers doing dps... Unless your party is behind on damage for the fight, which then is the DPSs fault, the tank shouldn't have anything to do with it.
I understand people wanting to maximize their dps as a warrior since you can deal some serious damage that can be compared to the dps jobs and also increase your self healing on doing so since the job's motto is more like "kill it fast before it hurts you", but stuff like people used to do like determination on PLD shield for almost no dps increase at all, why? you can perfectly clear stuff by playing normally and I would take parry over determination anytime when tanking (and yeah, I do know the "if you have block parry loses value" but still almost no parry gain > almost no dps gain).

I always end up getting into the discussion of "WAR can't do this" or "PLD can't do that" like the "WAR can't MT T9" but then you have a video of people 4manning it with a WAR tanking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbYYx7_G3NM).

I think tanks are just fine and people is just picking on numbers, the only thing I see lacking is the PLD aggro/enmity and I do think it should get a buff, even since I started playing. Still got a lot to see about DRKs since they're still kinda new but I don't think PLD is so bad outside of the enmity, it has less dps and higher mitigation like it always did and is still picked as the standard MT. Don't get so caught on numbers and just enjoy your class, unless it's completely broken and unplayable; hardcore players gonna love their numbers and nitpick on taking this or that tank based on this or that minimal benefit but if you're so hardcore just go and change class instead of crying bout it, you can have all of them in a single character and each one of them is obviously best at something.

[Wizhard]

I'm honestly surprised how people is obsessed with minmaxing in this game, specially with tanks and healers doing dps... Unless your party is behind on damage for the fight, which then is the DPSs fault, the tank shouldn't have anything to do with it.

Yes, you go tell that to Living Liquid and his friend, Living Limb when they perform the Hand of Pain on you.
Although i must admit it was the case in the raids before the expansion.