Quote Originally Posted by Awful View Post
And what hard math is this? You've been spouting all this hard testing was in Whiskey Bravo's post which is indeed over 67,000 individual census here, you were the one that brought up average players skill are irrelevant but a lot of people posting about DRK literally haven't even hit max lvl, let alone go into an EX trial or Eden normal for that matter. If you look at the previous posts DRK is fine, 200 DPS indeed matters in the top tier, world first group that everyone is playing optimally, average pug groups however that's not the case which is obvious.

The thing is people will always cling to the meta and think that just because DRK doesn't have utility like PLD/WAR/GNB that you can't do anything with it which isn't true at all, we have people still thinking that PLD is MT only, WAR is a one trick pony, and DRK is the magic tank, that should tell you how people still follow these mindsets.
The math I speak of would be the numbers the theorycrafting and high-end raiding communities came up with. They are the ones that have been (and still are) conducting the testing various individuals have spoken of. Their findings are publicly available, though it does seem quite a few people have chosen to ignore said findings in favor of acting like the sky is falling. You are correct in your assertion that DRK is not in a terrible place; it will perform adequately in all tiers of play, though it may not be ideal. Meta-clinging-behavior notwithstanding, DRK is perfectly applicable in most situations. It's functional enough that even some of the more progression-minded players will, as in times past, probably continue to play it despite the fact that its performance is slightly below that of its peers.

Despite the naysayers on the forums, it seems like the current playstyle itself is being fairly universally enjoyed. I myself really don't mind it. What I do mind is the knowledge that I and others whose groups (whether they're actually capable of it or not) like to chase the proverbial bleeding edge when it comes to PvE content are already being told that, due to this slight numbers discrepancy, we will be benched if we don't agree to main one of the other tank options. Is this right? No, probably not. That 200 DPS really doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, and the comparative lack of utility can be partially compensated for by clever individuals. It would be much easier to justify the continued use of DRK if they were to bump its DPS a bit. As it lacks in utility and self-sustain, it's only right to compensate it in some other area.