4.11+ DRK Suggestions/Balance Changes from a "Hardcore" Player

[Hruodig]

Seriously, why does every player want to make each tank equal and a carbon copy of eachother?

You have 3 different type of tanks! Make them different.

1) paladin.

King of protection in my book. Should be the Tank with the lowest damage, the highest survivability and lowest HP. This is the class that protect it's friends and itself, is excellent at solo mob/boss tanking, bad at multi mobs.

2) Warrior.

Well this is the barbarian, the berserker the big damage dealer, low defense. High HP, Highest damage, no party wide protection and medium self protection. Enrage abilities? Avarage bosses, avarage at multimobs?

3) Dark Knight

This is your AoE tank, your drainer/debuffer. It should have Avarage HP, Avarage Damage, High self sustain trough leeches of mana and hp. No party wide protection, avarage Self protection. Able to place debuffs on the mob/boss. Excells at Multiple mob tanking, avarage on bosses.

This would never work. Dps is king, so no one would want to take a pld to anything past savage progression. They need to be balanced dps wise and, by default, need the defensive cds to actually do the content. They also need to be able to do all types of content, from trials to raids, to dungeons. *How* they do these things is where they can have their own little identity.

[Syrellaris]

This would never work. Dps is king, so no one would want to take a pld to anything past savage progression. They need to be balanced dps wise and, by default, need the defensive cds to actually do the content. They also need to be able to do all types of content, from trials to raids, to dungeons. *How* they do these things is where they can have their own little identity.

And that is exactly where the problem is at ain't it? DPS is king? No, dps is part of the fight but should not be the go to for everything. There is multiple ways to balance fights around classes, it doesn't have to be purely dps. It takes a bit more effort sure, but at least it removes the issue of cookie cutter templates that we currently have. Each tank is pretty much the exact same thing, there is no uniqueness to any of em. Well besides how flashy some of the animations are.

[Hruodig]

And that is exactly where the problem is at ain't it? DPS is king? No, dps is part of the fight but should not be the go to for everything. There is multiple ways to balance fights around classes, it doesn't have to be purely dps. It takes a bit more effort sure, but at least it removes the issue of cookie cutter templates that we currently have. Each tank is pretty much the exact same thing, there is no uniqueness to any of em. Well besides how flashy some of the animations are.

Well I don't personally have a problem with it, it's how I came to enjoy the game. If I wanted a different meta I'd play a different game.

[MauvaisOeil]

Well I don't personally have a problem with it, it's how I came to enjoy the game. If I wanted a different meta I'd play a different game.

There isn't enough "good game" anywhere around to announce "I choose the game for the meta", pretty much you just came and fitted into a meta and now can't imagine something else.

[Azerhan]

And that is exactly where the problem is at ain't it? DPS is king? No, dps is part of the fight but should not be the go to for everything. There is multiple ways to balance fights around classes, it doesn't have to be purely dps. It takes a bit more effort sure, but at least it removes the issue of cookie cutter templates that we currently have. Each tank is pretty much the exact same thing, there is no uniqueness to any of em. Well besides how flashy some of the animations are.

In FF XIV, dps is king. Maybe it should be not, but it is.

I know a WAR than can hold the aggro very easily, but he doesn't make a lot of dmgs. By that I mean even less than the heal. So ok, it's easy for this last one to heal him, but in Trials or Raid, we are risking the enrage just because he can't make a lot of dps.
It's just an exemple, but this is how the game is done: dps dps dps...

Btw, I've read your idea of "DRK is the AOE tank", and it's not a good idea, at all.
So the DRK will be usefull for what? Dungeon? And? That is all.
So the DRK will be useless. And personally, I find the WAR better for dungeon.

[Syrellaris]

In FF XIV, dps is king. Maybe it should be not, but it is.

Again, that is the problem of the game. People got so accustomed to it, they don't want anything else or cannot see anything else. There's plenty of MMO's around that use plainly DPS as the key factor, luckily there is also some that rely on dps but did not make it the key factor in every fight. Some fights can be extremely mechanic heavy for example. Try to think outside of a box for a change, but because players don't, developers don;t either. They rather stick with tried and tested(while boring) methods that work.

And no, in my example DRK isn't useless. All 3 tanks can easily MT bosses in raids, they just bring different things to the table. But that is why this is a forum, people can express idea's and opinions as they see fit. You don't always have to agree with them.

[Shinkyo]

And no, in my example DRK isn't useless. All 3 tanks can easily MT bosses in raids, they just bring different things to the table.

DRK is certainly viable and only marginally suboptimal. The problem is that they don't bring anything the other tanks don't do better.

[Azerhan]

Again, that is the problem of the game. People got so accustomed to it, they don't want anything else or cannot see anything else. There's plenty of MMO's around that use plainly DPS as the key factor, luckily there is also some that rely on dps but did not make it the key factor in every fight. Some fights can be extremely mechanic heavy for example. Try to think outside of a box for a change, but because players don't, developers don;t either. They rather stick with tried and tested(while boring) methods that work.

And no, in my example DRK isn't useless. All 3 tanks can easily MT bosses in raids, they just bring different things to the table. But that is why this is a forum, people can express idea's and opinions as they see fit. You don't always have to agree with them.

And what do you want to do with tanks so? Just hitting without any dmgs ? I don't know what they can do to make Tank's job fun without having a good dps.
I mean, we don't have many tanks right now. How devs can make the players want to play tanks? I haven't the answer.
But for the DRK, my main issue is the gameplay. I've done the three tanks now, and since I was sub DRK in HW, now I'm playing WAR and enjoy it really more, juste because WAR's gameplay is more complete and less repetitive.
For my part, I think they need to revisite tanks just to make a real goal beside each one. Like: PLD: a wall-man with alot of utilities, the WAR: the one-man-army, and the DRK: why not a full magic tank (that means main combo is magic dps, and not physical) with a real and interresting mp rotation. Not something like "Lol, you need Dark Art to: make dmg, recover your hps, taking aggro, and to protect you allies you need a spell that use the same amount of mana!" At the end, DRK is just a spamming DA when it's available, with only one combo that is... Meh. Only recovering hps with tank stance and in dps stance only recovering half of the mana you should recovering.
Beyond balancing, this is the gameplay that I want to focus people. I see a lot of players playing DRK now because "it's easier". So, DRK is now the real Dragoolol? Just playing it because it's badass and easy?

[347SPECTRE]

Full magic DRk would kinda invalidate the "Knight" part of Dark "Knight"

[Azerhan]

Full magic DRk would kinda invalidate the "Knight" part of Dark "Knight"

Oh, "Knight" is almost a title x)
At least, he holds a sword, and an armor.