DRK fast paced Blood Weapon + Delirium

[AC9Breaker]

wall of text

Didnt read all of that but you don't sound too happy with tanking classes. Maybe try playing something else?

[DRKoftheAzure]

Didnt read all of that

Then take your time to actually read it. Just a suggestion.

you don't sound too happy with tanking classes.

HUGE understatement.

Maybe try playing something else?

I would but DPS que times suck and not a lot of level 80 dungeons to keep me interested in even playing in general while waiting for the next expansion...

[OdinelStarrei]

Didnt read all of that but you don't sound too happy with tanking classes. Maybe try playing something else?

People have said similar things to me honestly.
"If you hate DRK and tanking so much, why do you keep playing them and complaining about it?"

There's two reasons for me. One, my entire character identity (not RP, but what I like to do in the game) revolves around tanking well. Ever since late-Midas, I've made it a priority to be competent in every tank, since back then, that was rare and people relied on me for that. It was and is incredibly difficult for me to mentally accept the fact that years of putting my heart in one role, and putting my soul into one job in that role probably wasn't worth it. So, sunk cost fallacy on top of being too stubborn to give up.

Two, I literally cannot switch off tank because of how the savage gear progression works. I'm i498, missing my ring, a few shellacs for BiS accessories, and raid weapon. I've already dumped over two months of tomestones into tank gear. Switching off it would drop me down to i480 pentamelds at best, in a role I haven't been meticulously optimizing or playing in relevant EX and above content in 3 years. I pug everything, so I have to play my absolute best, with the best gear possible, or I'm griefing random players. It's why I don't play anything but DRK in savage right now, because I know it has the largest margin of error, and I can safely turn my brain off and watch the party/mechanics.

I wish I could just drop DRK and switch to a GNB main, at least I'd be pressing more buttons. At a high level, you aren't mentally engaged with the core tank gameplay, regardless of actual fight complexity, and this kills DRK harder than anyone else. Think about how many things were added for tanks, and how many things were taken away/simplified into non-mechanics. For people who've been playing for a while, this is a massive contrast, and is similar with what happened with healers. If you have a room called "Tank Role" full of people of different sizes with a high skill ceiling, everyone can fit in, everyone has room to grow taller, there's always someone to teach, and probably someone to look up to. When you then suddenly reduce the ceiling by half of it's height, everyone who was trying to reach the ceiling has now EXCEEDED it automatically, and is bending over trying to even fit in the room. That's what's happening right now.

The first step in fixing this is adding back in uniqueness to tank identity, and wide-sweeping role changes are not possible right now. Notice the amount of suggestion/complaint threads pertaining to specific jobs, even I broke a personal rule and made one. Ideas that are not even feasible in design, ideas that are intricately thought out, and everything in-between. Because we're desperate for absolutely anything to change. It's boring. So bring back what worked in HW/SB by making mana faster, make Darkside matter, GCDs faster, BW and Delirium not awful skills. Anything, even an attempt would be welcome. That way, I can be actively engaged in the job of which I experience the majority of the game. Seriously, fix blood weapon, every time I use this skill and not get the fifth hit for some reason despite a 2.38 GCD and a delayed weave I get actually angry make it like bunshin FFS.

And people wouldn't be nearly as insistent if SE would just say something about tanks or healers. Healers have gotten small changes, but things like bringing back Energy Drain were not done lightly, I think. And those changes don't change the core of what happened to the healer role in the ShB transition, just the actual jobs. Tanks? We've gotten AoE Reprisal, +5 seconds on 30% CD, and small WAR defensive adjustments. Nothing else, and certainly nothing revolving around individual job mechanics. No dialogue, no acknowledgement of feedback, no discussions, no statements, absolutely nothing of substance for 10 months. "Wait until next expansion." And that's discouraging. I would love it if they would just say "We're not changing anything, deal with it." so I can stop hoping for DRK and the role to become better than they are right now.

tl;dr Things used to be fun, they aren't now, are we all screaming into a void?

[Hierro]

Maybe try playing something else?

Funny how that's a point of yours. If you truly enjoy this iteration of DRK, and weren't too happy with its style beforehand, why didn't you just play WAR back in stormblood? Or how about WAR in this current expansion? You're playing the same job today anyways.

Part of the thread's draw attention to and hopefully thereby rectify that DRK lost its identify as the fast tank. And no, before anyone else suggests, playing GNB is not a suitable replacement-- it is far too inflexible and slow compared to SB DRK's glory-days.