Dark Knight is broken.

[Derio]

I am not going to abandon DRK due to imbalance. However my main issue is that 1, WAR has double the amount of defensive tools than DRK. 2, 4.2 just made WAR the king of tank dps( which ideally it should be).

Also people are going to prefer WAR and PLD this patch cycle due to both tanks having party mitigation, WAR having great dps and PLD having still better dps than DRK and providing more utility.

[Kalocin]

I know this has been said and I am not alone but we need to let SE know that leaving DRK in such a broken state is driving people away from both the class and the game. When i saw the 4.2 notes and knew DRK would be broken for another whole patch I almost lost all interest in the game. Please voice your concerns if you have not already to let SE know this is a big issue to us.

I certainly don't find it to be exciting, and I probably won't renew my sub once I'm done the content again. It's not just the lack of Dark Knight changes though, however, they definitely contribute.

[AriaFairchild]

Oh come on, it's not that bad. In 3.x, DRK was the 2nd best tank in PvE, worst tank in PvP. Now in 4.x, DRK is the worst in PvE, yet is the king of tanks in PvP. I'd say it's fair balance of power! All 3 tanks take turns to be FOTY in the 2 game modes.

[Mahrze]

Oh come on, it's not that bad. In 3.x, DRK was the 2nd best tank in PvE, worst tank in PvP. Now in 4.x, DRK is the worst in PvE, yet is the king of tanks in PvP. I'd say it's fair balance of power! All 3 tanks take turns to be FOTY in the 2 game modes.

Does it have to be that way, tho?

Edit: Don't get me wrong. I am not even going to contest this, but again, they talk about changes and make a bonfire festival about how these changes are going to be amazing and please look forward to it only to baffle you with their conclusions.

Besides, WAR is really the FOTY every year because you think they have PTSD from early 2.0 WAR or something.

[MagiusNecros]

Really tired of the flavor of the month Tank mentality the devs seem to have.

[jstamos]

Without slashing debuff bringing a DRK over a warrior is a massive DPS loss

Lol yeah a group that doesn't have a NIN or SAM, like those exist.

[whiskeybravo]

But the first 2 savage bosses have magic auto attacks. DRK making a comeback!

Huehuehuehue

[Xenosan]

DA-DM is a 140 potency loss. 140 potency is the difference between a Fell Cleave and an Inner Beast. That standard that WAR wants to avoid IB at most cost, but DRK should jump for joy in raids where DA-DM can be utilized boggles my mind.

[Valdegarde]

DA-DM is a 140 potency loss. 140 potency is the difference between a Fell Cleave and an Inner Beast. That standard that WAR wants to avoid IB at most cost, but DRK should jump for joy in raids where DA-DM can be utilized boggles my mind.

It's even more of a DPS loss if one tries to pair it with other cooldowns. Dark Knight has to fit so many oGCDs into a window and either clip hard, hold GCDs, or hold offensive oGCDs. Learning fights to the letter eases this slightly, but Dark Knight is still prone to being completely frozen and having to mash tons of oGCDs in a very short span to answer a buster or mechanic, while the other tanks easily 1~2 oGCD, GCD, anything else, they're set.

[TouchandFeel]

Honestly, the DRK kit and design is indeed "busted". Much of it seems cool conceptually but fails or underwhelms in practice.

You need look no farther than DRK's core job ability, Dark Arts.

Dark Arts is cool conceptually but the implementation of it has become both bland and cumbersome.
Just providing blanket +140 potency, while easier to balance, is incredibly boring and seems unnecessarily redundant to have multiple abilities all just have +140 pot for their effect. Why not a potency boost plus an additional effect so that there is some additional choice, strategy and depth to what you DA?
Also don't get me into the forced double-weaving due to having DA effects on OGCD abilites which are separated by GCD abilities that eat your DA. Seriously not a good design decision imo. They need to change it so that OGCD abilites that have DA effects like Dark Mind and Carve and Spit are redesigned so that they no longer have DA effects. Keep it so only GCD abilites have DA effects so that the OGCD DA and the ability you are enhancing with it aren't butting heads trying to fit into your rotation.

There are so many other things that are wrong with DRK that I am going to abstain from going into right now, especially since they have been repeated over and over for such a long time, but when the main "gimmick" of a job has obviously flawed implementation then there is definitely a problem with the job.

If the devs can spend as much time reworking WAR as they have been, I genuinely feel that at this point they owe it to DRK to give it that level of attention and focus.

Seriously SE stop with the blinders and the constant need to fiddle with WAR, just go hands off on it. I don't even care if it gets left in the debatably OP state it currently is in, just stop.
Now go and fix DRK. You've shown us that you can do some pretty extreme changes to a job during regular patch cycles, so do that for the tank that really needs it.

/rant