Tanking with style

[DRKoftheAzure]

WAR is the BLM of tanks. Ponderously slow, punctuated with explosions. Meat and potatoes. The antithesis of style. That's not a bad thing, but it's not what OP is looking for.

Both WAR AND DRK are the BLMs of tanks. Slow, boring, oGCDs with long animations that last longer than the GCD but are interrupted by the GCD making the class look weak as well which already says a lot about WAR and DRK because they are slow and weak, other defensives become obsolete by the time the get a specific skill and are just resource dumping classes, though PLD is also a resource dumping class by the time it gets Holy Spirit but that's a whole other design issue.

GNB has some neat downtime optimization tricks with for when No Mercy burst is almost back up with Demon Slaughter combo and you need to be away from the boss but need to be ready to do your burst and is more of a resource management tank.

And on the topic of PLD being a resource dumping class via Requiescat means they need to make Clemency oGCD and not cost MP during Requiescat effect only.

[Lyth]

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DRK APM is only marginally behind GNB, even after the massive simplification of the past two expansions. It only feels relatively slow because the HW version had nearly double the APM of either of these.

WAR is genuinely slow. The wind-up big hits are an aesthetic choice.