is it okay to not enjoy big pulls?

[SyzzleSpark]

@OP -

In dungeons I usually expect only the bare minimum from people so I won't wax elegant in gritty detail on how to min-max in this context.

But, what I will say is that you are probably playing the worst tank for a person that doesn't enjoy big pulls, since so many of DRK's abilities are directly reliant on pulling big. BP, Delirium-BP, DA-Abyssal Drain, even Quietus and TBN all directly or indirectly get more effective and functional when you pull bigger. You can pull small on DRK, but you're making the run take longer, as more than any other tank DRK's AoE DPS is gimped in smaller pulls, and then of course you need to be mindful of what DPS jobs you have with you. A lot of them are extremely effective at AoEing and will be frustrated by single-pack-pulling.

BP, if you do the math, is actually directly balanced around tanking at least 5 mobs, and most individual packs are only 3-4. Even in high end raiding or trials, in situations like Sephirot EX or O3S where there is a choice between one tank handling a single big add and the other handling a bunch of smaller adds, groups will usually elect for the DRK to handle the latter. All about the right tool for the job I suppose.

That and DRK's AoE rotation is far and away the most complicated of any of the tanks, even by DPS job standards its relatively involved. My question to you is do you enjoy the job itself more than you don't enjoy big pulls? If so, stick with it, if not, I'd highly recommend looking into WAR/PLD, as they function at far less of a deficit when pulling smaller. Both of them can AoE 70% of their resources away just as easily in a small pull as in a big one, and their means of recovering those resources don't depend on tanking a greater number of targets.

[whiskeybravo]

But, what I will say is that you are probably playing the worst tank for a person that doesn't enjoy big pulls, since so many of DRK's abilities are directly reliant on pulling big.

Best post here IMO

Since I've been leveling drk recently this has become quite apparent. That and the fact that shadow wall is practically DRK's only native damage reduction CD for big pulls (I'm not 70 yet so don't have TBN), it seems like you get one good big pull then have to piece the rest together. I think I've done OK so far, one of my healer friends said if anyone told me drk was squishy I could rightly tell them to stfu. So I'll take that as a compliment at least lol.

Regarding big pulls tho, I mean I get a little nervous if it's a blind run (or like most of these it's my fist time back since initially leveling so I don't remember that much), but once you do it once or a few times you'll find it's quite literally the exact same CD rotation over and over again. There are still things that can be a little stressfull, such as large mobs hit boxes shuffling around smaller mobs you may need to kill first (Kugane castle bomb goblin things come to mind), or just in general if you've got a lot of stuff trying to fit it under salted earth, or you know the random straggler that occasionally gets away. But it all becomes quite ordinary after doing them a few times, and I'd think like many others have mentioned, you'll start to realize how much of a waste it is to use CDs on 2-3 mobs at a time, not just tank damage reduction cds but dps popping cds as well.

You can really make due just doing double pulls, you don't have to pull a whole floor, but you can easily grab 2 sets of mobs at a time and it really makes the dungeon much smoother.