IS WAR as hard as it seems?

[Brian_]

People will tell you that DRK is harder because that aspect of their playstyle that is DPS-like never stops, and isn't limited to just their burst period.

The hardest part about playing a DPS is not their cruise-control rotation spam while fitting in their oGCDs. It's properly aligning their burst based on fight mechanics, boss phases, skill synergy, CD windows, and up-time -- and, that's what WARs are constantly doing. You don't just say "oh hey, 20 seconds of uptime, time to triple FC." You have to understand how your CD expenditure fits into the entire fight like I already explained. Again, this is why I repeatedly say the DRKs play more in the moment and WARs require a much better understanding of the overall fight. You can't say that WAR's similarities to DPS are incredibly simple without going two steps further and reaching the realization that DRK's DPS elements are even simpler.

Looking back, I'm pretty sure that the exact wording was that Pld is the hardest tank for maintaining threat, specifically, due to the fact that they have the lowest enmity multiplier of all three tanks.

No. Numerous people in this topic have made the claim that in general, PLD is harder than WAR. It was not restricted to threat. Are you agreeing?

But, even if you look at threat, it's not harder to keep aggro on PLD. It's just less damage efficient. It's not harder to use RoH instead of RA in your 3 combo rotation. It's not harder to Flash instead instead of Overpower or Abyssal Drain / Unleash.

In regards to AoE enmity, I don't know what world you live in but how are you supposed to rotate RoH through a pull of 10 mobs before the rest of your party starts to bomb heals / AoEs? You can't. You pull, you CoS after the gather, you Flash a couple times to solidify enmity, and then you are trying to get up as many unique GB DoTs as possible before switching to RA to finish off the almost dead mobs. You use your SS and SW to neutralize an annoying AoE or just to push damage / enmity and CoS off CD. You do not spam Flash. Outside of the very rare small pull, you do not cycle RoH. You make the claim to know the math but clearly don't. RoH is something like 163 potency per GCD in ShO. GB when you are getting full and unique DoT duration is 230+ per GCD. For every combo rotation of GB, you are gaining more than an extra GCD of damage over RoH. On a large pull, if you prioritize GB and use the occasional flash to supplement your AoE enmity (single-target enmity should be handled through your GB damage + SW + SS), you get more enmity AND more damage.

Is that harder than what DRKs and WARs deal with? Sure. But, it doesn't outweigh the overall ease of playing PLD.

Sorry to tell you this, but this is also not accurate.

I never said they were exactly the same. They obviously aren't since DRG oGCD is much more nuanced. But, all your details ignore the fundamental ways they are the same and instead argues the minutia and is just superfluous ranting.

On both DRG and DRK, you have a lot of oGCDs that you want to use as frequently as possible with a set priority and within a given rule set.

Just like how DRGs shouldn't use animation lock oGCD jumps before they need to reposition for a positional GCD, DRKs shouldn't be blowing their Reprisal proc at an inappropriate time when it's needed to mitigate an upcoming damage mechanic. The priority and rule set DRKs play around consists of fight mechanics and potency to MP efficiency. The priority and rule set DRGs play around consists of fight mechanics, GCD synergy and buff synergy. Same general concept but with different rules.

If you are familiar with the ideas behind oGCD usage on a DRG, DRK oGCD usage is child's play. Why? Again, because you are merely adapting to different rules and priorities. It's not hard to remember MP priorities of DA C&S --> Dark Passenger --> DA Soul Eater if MP is ever an issue (and it's usually not). It's not hard to remember to save Plunge when it's needed as a gap closer -- DRGs and MNKs already do that with their gap closers. It's not hard to hold Salted Earth to avoid an immunity window or Reprisal for a fight mechanic -- DPS already do that with their buff management.

Oh god no war might have a few extra keys but it's far easier then pld or drk since your not worrying about things like mp management. Once you've learned the rotations it's fairly easy plus you got a kick ass axe instead of a sword and shield. imo best to put your points to str when lvling to 50 before desiding on switching to something like str and vit just make sure you got your provoke and whatever else you think you'll need

PLDs have MP management?

And you could say the same thing about DRKs in relation to their MP management. Once you've learned the rotations it's fairly easy since your MP management is based on a priority rotation and not being a complete moron.