My friend told me not to bother with Dark Knight

[DWolfwood]

DRK did in fact get no love in 4.x, and it only makes it worse in that people keep saying stuff like "DRK is fine" when they really don't know what they're talking about. DRK's toolkit is greatly flawed compared to the other two tanks and makes up for it by being extremely situational, that being magical damage. DRK needs enemies to perform magical damage tank busters to be on par with the other two tanks, and while this happens more often then not, it does not always happen. That being said, it still falls short in DPS.

I wouldn't say not to bother entirely because there is the hope and chance that one day they actually give DRK some attention and care into having a strong identity of its own. For now, it's simply got the most undertuned ultimate CD, most undertuned -30% CD, the poorest passive mitigation, weakest self-healing, most boring rotation, and lowest DPS.

WAR has a better ultimate CD they can use every 3 minutes (literally on same CD timer as WHM's benediction) as opposed to DRK's 5 minutes, better self-healing, and higher DPS. DRK has a 10% HP shield it can give other players. While this is strong, it simply isn't *that* strong compared to what WAR brings when in the hands of a capable player. On par would be the closest you could argue.

As for PLD vs. DRK, that's just a joke. PLD is massively stronger than both tanks combined right now.

They've made this tier "viable" for all tanks by making the fights really easy in comparison to previous raids.

[Reynhart]

DRK's toolkit is greatly flawed compared to the other two tanks and makes up for it by being extremely situational, that being magical damage.

DRK has exactly one magical CD while WAR has exactly one physical CD. The only fully universal mitigation tank is PLD, which fits with the "king of mitigation" archetype.

[Lyth]

Level DRK to 70. Even if you don't like the gameplay, it arguably has the single best job storyline/lore in the entire game, and it is one of the few story segments where the WoL's individuality and personality gets explored, instead of being treated as a simple PoV character. It also touches on some really plot important character interactions, to the point where it's worth playing through regardless of your preferred job.

DRK in SB feels familiar, yet different. It retains HW's fast-paced, free-form combat, except with more of a focus on resource management. It rewards quick thinking and understanding first principles over simply memorising rotations. Defensively, it's the only tank where it feels like you're always tanking, regardless of whether you're MT or OT. The Blackest Night lets you smooth out the damage on a weaker tank who doesn't quite understand cleave timings, secretly assisting from the sidelines and launching into devastating counterattacks whenever your shield shatters.

In terms of difficulty, the SB changes have made an admirable attempt at making DRK's accessibility at the lowest levels more on par with PLD and WAR (although it's still really the only tank where you can get locked out of tank stance if you mismanage your resources). Unfortunately, there's an added layer of complexity compared to HW if you want to play DRK well. There are a lot of subtle interactions between the new abilities, and even slight adjustments seem to change around our dps priorities significantly on what seems to be a weekly basis. I wonder if the devs even have the interplay between the new actions completely figured out.

I think a lot of frustration over the job comes from the fact that you're investing a lot of additional effort and and taking on greater risks to produce results which, at best, are just barely on par with the other two tanks. But this is also an MMO, and accessibility is important. It's a niche playstyle, but if you're looking for a challenge, it's there.

"In your darkest hour, in the blackest night... think of me... and I will be with you."

[MahoSenshi]

(although it's still really the only tank where you can get locked out of tank stance if you mismanage your resources)

Not quite so. DRK can overspend mana and don't have it for Grit. PLD spend all mana in magical phase and can be unable to turn on ShO right after it (it costs mp to activate). Luckily, we don't need tanks stance for swapping anymore.

[Lyth]

True enough. Shield Oath costs 600 MP. HS spam from full leaves you at about 444 MP. One tick of MP gives you 141 MP. Riot Blade gives you 600 MP. You're then forced to choose between one Riot Blade or going afk for six seconds. That's about a 5 second window once every minute.

[Talec]

Some say, they like the new DRK. What's true however, is that gameplay drasticaly changed.


- Dark Arts became a spaming Utility.
- Mana Management became somewhat harder.
- The new gauge is, compared to other classes, straight forward and simple.
- he lost his old trademark skills while the new Trademark skill is saved for lvl70.

So there are a lot of disapointed players who prefered the old playstyle over the new one. however, since the OP doesnt know the old DRK I don't see a Problem why he shouldn't like the new one.

[Mycow8me]

Your friend sounds like a buzzkill. Perhaps you need new friends.

[Reynhart]

Some say, they like the new DRK.

I like what we got, I'm not a fan of some of our losses (Third combo and Scourge), but in the end, I still think the job is still very fun to play.

[Seku]

Issue with DRK is that they didn't gain anything new this round outside of their LV 70 skill, the blackest Night. They just got their 1-60 skill set nerfed, only to regain a portion of it through the 61-70 skill set.

As for functionally...

It's probably going to be the go to co-tank for raids due to it having The Blackest Night (20% shield on itself or 10% on other people).

and I feel with the new update to Quietus, it's possibly the best tank for dungeons due to having re-obtained the ability to DA+Abyssal drain to deal damage and at the same time recover it's HP, during large pulls.

Is it the best tank right now overall? No.
Does that mean you should not level it and enjoy it? No.

While the Job needs major re-work, it's still playable and probably will be desired during raids when they need the limit break bar to fill due to the small utility of TBN and any tank can run dungeons, but I personally think DRK is the best for the dungeons due to it being the only tank to retain the ability to push out AoE damage while at the same time curing itself consistently.


tldr;
Don't listen to your friend. While Drk needs major re-working, it's still playable in all content

[MagiusNecros]

You don't build a class around one skill which is what they did with Dark Knight. It's kinda pathetic really. It definitely doesn't feel as fun or complex as it used to be. Feels really clunky to be honest and lost a lot of fun stuff you could do.