Quote Originally Posted by Lyth View Post
It's kind of like how DRK's gimmick is parry procs
I question whether 2 skills that proc/reset from a Parry and one CD count as a "gimmick". If you look back at 2.0 WAR, as much of a mess as it was, it very clearly revolved around doing damage (Storm's Eye, Unchained, Berserk, Maim, etc) and self healing (Thrill, Bloodbath, IB, Path), as well as an entire system based on GCD usage that needed to be managed and carefully planned for every fight (until they made everything faceroll in 3.0, kinda getting back to the fun times though). Then they revamped WAR, made it more homogenized with PLD instead of fleshing out it's more unique aspects, and now we have the beast that is WAR.
and yet WAR has a built in stance bonus to parry and the only 100% parry rate move in the game
I actually couldn't tell you why WAR gets +Parry for every Wrath stack, it was a really weird change but I guess they wanted to make it different from Abandon stacks so they just threw Parry on it. RI seems really weird in a vacuum, but if you look at the kits as a whole it's not actually so weird. RI lasts the same duration as Rampart/Shadowskin, has the same CD timer, but only is affected by physical attacks. Vengeance is your Sentinel/Shadow Wall. Holmgang is your LD/HG. IB is your Sheltron/(DA+)DM. The thing that stands out is actually Thrill, though DRK and PLD have unique equivalents - Reprisal and Divine Veil.
Speaking of which, Clemency and Equilibrium seem like they've been added in response to the introduction of DRK with DASE, but it leaves both PLD and WAR with ready access to self healing without a significant cost to their damage output, whereas DRK does not. This isn't really an issue in raid content (every tank has their strengths and weaknesses), but with 3.3 ushering in new solo content with an element of speed clears, I could get behind the idea of giving DASE some kind of a healing bonus out of stance.
Equal has a 60s CD, Clemency costs a GCD of 0 damage and most of your MP, and Souleater... does 400 potency + gives a big self heal. Dunno if I'd consider that a balance. I'm all for DRK getting something to help it in this sense, but I just don't think that Souleater is the place to put it. Then again, if it were up to me, DRK would get overhauled from the ground up, but y'know... baby steps.