DRK the least chunkiest or is it just me?

[Seku]

AD had only 120 potency, and unleash had 50, both costed MP and you were not using them all the time at below 64 lvl.
Dark passager also costed MP and for the majority of the expansion was 100 potency for 1/4 mp.
The heal from abyssal drain was not worth spending MP on dark arts, you would be oom in a few seconds.

Dark Knight under 56 was far from useless. If having a sucky AoE is your reasoning, I suppose Paladin was unplayable too.

Abyssal drain was only bad during the stormblood re-work and up until quetis due to the nerf to healing potency, other than that it functioned how it did in heavensward which was basically self sustain without giving up damage with bloodprice being the method of getting mp back. They forced quteis to take Blood prices place in mp regeneration which is also apart of why abyssal drain became so bad for a short amount of time during the 60-70 leveling.

As for the best aoe damage dealer for stormsblood? I think that probably would have been Warrior, though Dark Knight was probably close behind because PLD didn't really have a AoE.

This expansion it's aoe damage seems to be better among the three expansions, but feel that it's probably the weakest among the four tanks for group damage since a choice of saving mp is there for TBN to reduce damage.

It would be nice if DRK got an earlier level ability that's "TBN, but self-targeted and weaker" to help with early levels.
But apparently, early levels are meaningless because they aren't cutting edge, current raids.

And my question is why? There are enough tools to over mitigate dungeon trash and previous boss fights by a mile. You literately have Rampart, Shadowskin, Arm's Length, and reprisal at your disposal. If you're dying still with all of those it more than likely means one of the following.

A. You're not using cool downs correctly
B. You're not up to date on your gear.
C. Your healer is letting you die (A and B applies to them as well)
D. You're missing a game mechanic from one of the monsters.

Assuming your character some how doesn't have a built in weakness.