Regarding no DRK adjustments in 4.1

[Aana]

Snip

TLDR: Pretty much that.

SE backed themselves into a corner with Drk. Over time you should refine and enhance job's identity/feel and then create new jobs for new experiences.

Example done right? Holy, protective sturdy Paladin. It was already sturdy. They refined the holy/protective aspects of the theme. Regardless of balance, people LIKE playing paladin as it is. It fulfills the paladin fantasy.

Example done mediocre? SB Warrior. They did ok refining the fluid, 'toe the line' play between control/rage, but they went a little heavy on the 'rage' part but took a giant step back with the clunky gauge implementation (that doesn't mean it wasn't strong or balanced, but the fluid aesthetic was dead). BUT they quickly fixed the aesthetic via minor changes (they only changed numbers. No new combos, no fundamental changes because the core abilities and changes were actually still in line with the original aesthetic and quite well refined tbh).

Example done wrong and then some? Drk. They killed the old feeling of playing drk. SB drk doesn't feel like HW drk at all. Then they let it sit so long that the current playstyle is the 'new normal'. But changing a few potencies wont bring back the 'old' Drk feeling. They cant drop the cost of a random ability and recreated heavensward Drk (a la War). Drk would need a fundamental redesign to recapture that. But a full redesign would have so many unintended consequences it would set back tank balance even more. The best we can do at this point is get the balance right with the playstyle they made Drk into unfortunately.

TLDR: They refined Pld/War aesthetic and are now able to tweak the balance via numbers. Drk they upended the aesthetic in SB. Redesigning an entire job midstream would be complicated with lots of unintended consequences that would just set tank balance further back and anger the 'new' drks because its sat to long in this form. But we can still achieve balance via tweaks.