Question though. Drks mitigation on paper is behind Pld/War. But when you take drk into an actual fight and play it it works out. Mostly out of tank stance (war looses out on IB the best CD in the game) in fights with magical tank busters erywhere (making dark mind REALLY friggin good in practice) it fairs rather well. Is it really a balance problem when it only exists in theory? (Specifically regarding mitigation).

In a vacuum it looks bad, but when you put it into current, real situations the mitigation issues get significantly washed out. I don't know if it was intentional or not but SE has balanced the mitigation aspect with the situation instead of true tank balance. But the question is, does it matter what it is on paper when in practice it works out?

To use an analogy, its like starcraft balance. Zerg crushes terrans on flat, open ground. Terrans win in narrow passageways and chokes. Often the solution to 'imbalance' in that matchup was to change the map pool you play on to better balance open vs closed areas than change the race. FFXIV has given us a buncha spaced out magical tank busters for drk to nom nom on and the meta says play out of tank stance which neuters the bulwark of defence (War) significantly. Do we really need to overhaul drks mitigation based on paper when its performing fine (regarding mitigation. I'm not touching the other stuff).