Quote Originally Posted by Aword3213 View Post
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you're right. People here are want to either argue against a view they oppose, or some would like to troll. However I'm not ignoring what makes WAR and DRK different.
Yes, WAR is GCD reliant versus DRK's many many oGCDs. That much is true. But my personal take is this: WAR is a more complete in concept job than DRK is.

DRK having salted earth is not a boon, nor a bust, but to say "well WAR doesn't have one" is not a merit for or against either. WAR also can't shield a single party member, like DRK/PLD(/GNB if you HoS with the Brutal Shell buff) can.
WAR's personal shield is instead a personal (or ally targeting) heal, that shares a recast with their short CD mitigation, Raw Int. TBN has a fail state, in such that there's a chance for the shield to break and you are just down 3k mana. WAR with Nascent? the most you will risk is an overheal, but you don't lose out on any resources, nor any damage, as nascent doesn't have a fail state in how it functions.
Comparing Upheaval, an oGCD, to DRK's gauge spenders is an erroneous comparison to make IMO. It's not fair to compare unless you were to say "WAR has both a 20 gauge spender and a 50 gauge spender, whereas DRK only has 50 gauge spenders." Because in this case, all that's asked of infuriate is to use it on cooldown, and in IR windows. The closest analogue DRK has IMO would be Edge of Shadow, and it's my own personal take that EoS is just Upheaval + Storms Eye, to make up for DRK only having 3 GCD weaponskills that aren't cost-reliant.
The augment to IR/Decimate from Infuriate is a secondary effect. Baseline it generates 50 gauge for a WAR to use. There is no fail state, there is no conditional, there is no catch, all it is is just press a button, get resource. DRK has that in TBN (which has the proc that has a chance to not activate if TBN doesn't break), and Blood Weapon, which has been proven time and again to be a faulty skill that has a shorter duration than Del/IR, and doesn't account for dungeon trash pulls and DRK's AoE being classified as spells. As well, WAR's infuriate has the hastened recast thing going for it that pushes more usage of fell cleave/inner chaos. There is no such comparison on DRK, nor any tank, and as best as i recall no other job at all since they removed quickened aetherflow from SCH.
WAR's also got Equilibrium and Thrill of Battle, which the former is what i'd compare abyssal drain to; the latter I cant think of anything DRK would have like it, nor any tank frankly.

The list *does* go on. But the point is there are a lot of areas in DRK's kit that are clunky and make no sense when held up to scrutiny against it's peers, and cherry picking parts of or pieces of skills instead of looking at the entire kit is... not disingenuous because that's too strong an implication, but something along those lines? i don't know.
The best comparison for "well this skill is also kinda meh" i'd levee is Camouflage, but at least it has a 10% mitigation to hold it up with the parry % it offers.
GNB's resource button, Bloodfest, is just a one and done as well. No quirky timings, just press it and 2 cartridges.
PLD generates gauge from autos, so it's consistent but also not all that interactive. Plus with a double nerf (imo) to cover, really all a PLD uses it's gauge for would be shelltron, and intervention.
I'd say to end, comparing blood weapon to brotherhood is, again, an erroneous comparison to make. Brotherhood interacts with the party, and the party can interact with the MNK while it's active; there is nothing to Blood Weapon like that. It doesn't benefit anyone but the DRK.
But ultimately I'd say yes. Carbon copy is a strong word, and given my personal opinion it's also not a fitting word. To me, DRK is a pale imitation of WAR. It has tried to be its own thing, but as the game evolved the developers have been left with nothing else than to make a DRK that's the state that it is now: a clunky mess of disjointed abilities that try to be like it's peers, but fails, and the one saving grace it has in TBN is also the only skill that can affect the job's damage that has a failstate that only affects itself. (And by that i mean: if a boss goes untargetable right after you pop TBN, then it's everyone that's losing out, not just the DRK.)