Have Tanks been dumbed down to much?

[EpicOverlord85]

With how we can place 2000 ogcd Potency anywhere every minute. We are actually the most flexible by far. Having gains from raid buffs equivalent to even DPS classes. DRK at max optimization shoots up from bottom tank dps to second just because of our flexibility.
GCD is only half of the equation and current DRK is no more rigid than old DRK. You still pressed 1-2-3 in SB. You pressed 1-2-4 sometimes and 5 every 30 seconds(Bloodspiller replaced Scourge in terms of usage and being more frequent and flexible than Scourge).

DRK now controls their mana and makes it their b****. Choosing when to blast it all instead of having to constantly mash Dark arts just so it doesn't overfill. Running out is more threatening if it cuts out a TBN because regen is more slower but predictable. Some may have liked the "sustain" dps DRK of old. But current controlled burst DRK has far more interplay with their party than any past iteration of DRK. Being thoughtful with your oGCDs and mana usage can see big potency gains instead of idly mashing buttons as they light up.

SE has made it so just mashing buttons on DRK is fine for basic performance(filling their goal of shortening the skill gap), but if you wanted to push DRK; you can be aware of your party and work in harmonic unison to go above and beyond. Playing with a nin as DRK is like night and day.

Every tank now has one instead of just DRK having 0.

You keep mentioning having to be careful with your mana as a DRK, but idk if I can agree with that. As long as you hover at about 6,000 MP constantly you can keep dumping resources into Edge/Flood without much of a worry with easily enough MP to keep up TBN. Hell the only times I can think of where I’ve run out of MP on ShB DRK is when I start getting tunnel vision after hitting 1-2-3 and sometimes 4 and then sometimes 5 (or 5 over and over again for 10 seconds every 80 seconds). My point is this; with basic attentiveness you will never run out of MP because it is so easy to manage now.

Also yes I’m aware we were hitting 1-2-3 back in SB, but that doesn’t change the fact that instead of giving us something more interesting SE decided to double down on it while also making us a poor mans Warrior. I don’t hate the new DRK, but I adamantly believe we’ve lost a lot of what used to make us unique and function far too much like another job. It wouldn’t be so bad if PLD and GNB had done the same, but they didn’t. Why must DRK be a copy of Warrior when the other two get to be unique?