My apologies, just one last question in regards to the tanks.

[Kitfox]

An invincible PLD spamming Flash with a healer spamming Holy/Gravity will out damage a DRK/WAR spamming AoE moves with a healer spamming Cure.

I challenge your idea with a DRK in Living Dead spamming AoE damage with no tank stance, with WHM spamming Holy and topping DRK off with a Benediction at the end of Walking Dead. Also, do not underestimate WAR's AoE burst even if the healer had to heal them a little more, it's insane and definitely on par with WHM Holy spam. Both cases also come with a shorter cooldown than Hallowed Ground. PLD is still the worst tank for dungeons.

[Rongway]

I challenge your idea with a DRK in Living Dead spamming AoE damage with no tank stance, with WHM spamming Holy and topping DRK off with a Benediction at the end of Walking Dead. Also, do not underestimate WAR's AoE burst even if the healer had to heal them a little more, it's insane and definitely on par with WHM Holy spam. Both cases also come with a shorter cooldown than Hallowed Ground. PLD is still the worst tank for dungeons.

PLD doesn't need Hallowed Ground to be sitting at near-full HP for the entirety of a ginormous pull. An AST can put up regens on a PLD and then cast nothing but Gravity til the end of the fight, and still have the resources to do it again on the next pull. Any non-PLD tanks for whom that can also be said are outliers and certainly not the norm.

[Launched]

PLD doesn't need Hallowed Ground to be sitting at near-full HP for the entirety of a ginormous pull. An AST can put up regens on a PLD and then cast nothing but Gravity til the end of the fight, and still have the resources to do it again on the next pull. Any non-PLD tanks for whom that can also be said are outliers and certainly not the norm.

Wrong, PLD's cooldowns aren't any better suited to tanking big packs than WAR/DRK. Those two should be easier to heal on almost every pull because they can get high self healing from their aoe damage and they have cooldowns that are at least as good as PLD's.

[shao32]

don't force youself, don't think in utility or DPS, just play all 3 tanks and choose the one how by gameplay and stethetic fits with you, the most important is have fun, you work much better whit a job you love it, so if you like paladin or dark night choose the one how you have more fun, but dont worry to much bcs tanks share gear excep weapon so whit time you can play all when you want.

[Seku]

An invincible PLD spamming Flash with a healer spamming Holy/Gravity will out damage a DRK/WAR spamming AoE moves with a healer spamming Cure.

A good DRK/WAR can be an exception, but even a terrible PLD is still easier to heal than a mid tier DRK/WAR.

Someone doesn't know how to play a "mid tier" DRK/WAR.

To the OP. As I said in your other post. As far as cool downs go, PLD and DRK play just about the same when it comes to their standard cool downs at the start, thus playing PLD isn't going to 100% teach you how to tank. DRK is probably about to get a bit harder for you and as you gain new skills, I'd slow down the leveling and get use to your oGCD's and mixing your defensive cool downs together a bit or the damage you take will more than likely go up.

[Malicewolf]

PLD doesn't need Hallowed Ground to be sitting at near-full HP for the entirety of a ginormous pull. An AST can put up regens on a PLD and then cast nothing but Gravity til the end of the fight, and still have the resources to do it again on the next pull. Any non-PLD tanks for whom that can also be said are outliers and certainly not the norm.

dot dot dot
Yea, are you talking about doing copperbell or something? The new dungeons mobs pack a decent punch even without grabbing huge pulls. Yes, a good healer can keep a good tank up without issues, but PLD's aren't THAT invincible (i would know, I main one). I've tanked the ground plenty of times due to lack of heals and sometimes, trusting my healer too much ("yea yea, don't worry i'm just going to get the 10% buff, i'll bene you in time for sure!" *dead*)

But I've also played WAR and by no means do I feel like I'm better off as a PLD doing big pulls. Infact, I usually sustain MORE damage because the mobs die more slowly. Best I can do is fight or flight, bloodbath, circle of scorn. And a holy spamming WHM has a downfall too. If the other 2 DPS are derps that can't help AoE, the WHM is OOM and you're low hp with no CD's and probably long out of mana (riot blade and sheltron all day). Could Clemency as well, but that takes up 2/5 of your mana, which means after 2, good luck flashing to hold aggro.

I've had plenty of good WHM's holy spam big pulls while I'm my WAR and it goes beautifully. Usually much better than big pulls with my PLD. A good PLD will make big pulls even as a PLD go well, yes. But a good WAR or DRK will too. And they'll kill the mob faster doing it.

[TalentedTrack98]

If you don't plan on going into any form of savage then it really doesn't matter which tank you go, just pick what you like best. Even in extreme primals as long as you have all your cross class abilities any of the tanks can perform well. Sure even in primals some tanks may handle situations better than others but they can still all clear content equally.

[Truefaith87]

Just poking a head in here, you all kind of glanced over a point based on the leveled classes, too... Lack of Mercy Stroke is not a huge punch, but 26 MRD is still very handy to have, it is oGCD and has a healing effect on it, so definately worth at LEAST getting 26 MRD. As far as the balance of gameplay goes... Play what you find fun, not what the world dictates your choices should be. All three have their moments they shine. Or just do what i do and main all 3 tanks... They share gear aside from weapons currently, after all. I am no raider so none of the issue of "BiS different for all 3, L2Tank, Scrub", just do what is fun to you, and what you find interesting. As someone who has played all 3, they all definately have their individual strengths and weaknesses, but judging a choice based on just conjecture is not worth your time.

[Renryuu]

Well I find Dark Knight to be incredible amounts of fun and honestly Drk is the whole reason I now want to tank because I enjoy the class immensely and it had become a sort of security blanket for me to get into tanking and get me comfortable with the idea of being a tank instead of the dps I always default to in MMOs. I love frenetic style of it's rotations along with the use of a giant sword and always loved the concept of being a wielder of dark elemental (or dark themed) abilities as a force of good instead of the stereotypical Dark = Evil and Light = Good.

[Rongway]

Someone doesn't know how to play a "mid tier" DRK/WAR.

I know how to play a fabulous AST, and while Launched's points about what should be are true on paper, they are at least not true in execution on Primal's DF. In DR:Expert and DR:60, for 9/10 PLDs trash pulls are three GCDs of buffs going up and then Gravity spam til everything's dead, while I can only say that for at most 1/10 of the DRKs and WARs I've been paired with.

In this case I'm not making any claims about potency math and theory, nor am I saying that WAR and DRK played to their potential are anything but amazing. I'm saying that in practice, as AST, on Primal, in DF, when paired with random DRKs/WARs, there be more healing and far less gravitying than there would be on the same sized pulls with a PLD.