Quote Originally Posted by Seku View Post
snip (pressing buttons?)
I don't know where you get that I demand buttons to smash?

I could spam Dark Mind vs everything... it would do literally nothing in most cases, but at least I have buttons to click?

I don't know if or how long you experienced Heavensward, but there DRK had the same amount or even more of mitigation than any other tank (excluding invuls).

WAR: Raw Intuition, Vengeance, Thrill of Battle, (Storm's Path [all])
PLD: Bulwark, Rampart, Sentinel, Sheltron, (Rage of Halone [STR/physical only])
DRK: Dark Mind, Dark Dance, Shadowskin, Shadow Wall, Reprisal, (Delirium [INT/magical only])
You also had Foresight, Bloodbath (MRD/WAR) and Awareness (GLA/PLD) as cross class actions.

Now back to the present, let's list what unique actions every tank get before lvl 70 (exluding 30% mitigations and invuls):

PLD: (Passive block since start) Sheltron [35], (Clemency [58])
WAR: Thrill of Battle [30], Raw Intuition [56], (Equilibrium [58]), Shake It Off [68]
GNB: Camouflage [6!], (Aurora [45!]), Heart of Light [64], Heart of Stone [68]
DRK: Dark Mind [45], (Abyssal Drain [56])

DRK lost Dark Dance as Anticipation, and Reprisal, PLD lost Bulwark, and WAR lost... nothing. GNB even gets its first unique mitigation action at level 6! And their hot/heal before 50, too! This is huge for dungeon runs, or level 50/60 content. Having a disadventage for 2 out of 4 expansions leaves a bad taste.

Additionally, they nerfed DRK in SB hard, (TBN was okayish) gauge generation was a mess (1 per physical hit during BW, 4 per tick in BP, some awkward number in Salted Earth yada yada), Dark Arts usage was awkward and overused, aoe damage before Abyssal Drain was abysmal low (lol at 50 pot on Unleash), and SE did not buff ShadowWall, DM or DP until late into expansion, while still ignoring that DRK was missing additional mitigation AND damage on lower levels. WAR and PLD got buffed since start, or shortly after the launch. DRK was undertuned/underperforming, even on SB endgame content.

Dark Mind needs to be avaiable sooner and get a physical mitigation bonus/trait, or SE needs to add another physical mitigation skill similar to Dark Dance.

tl;dr: It's not about having more buttons to press, but having abilities at your disposal. DRK is missing those when synced lower than level 70.