Dark Knight needs serious help

[Absimiliard]

Not at all. A tank who mitigates properly still has a LOT of durability. Whenever I run stuff with a DRK main friend of mine, I'm always amazed by the fact that he seems to just not take any damage. If anything, the ridiculous sustain of WAR and PLD means they never learn to use their mitigation properly because they don't need to. Then they stumble into something like The Tower of Zot where the adds actually hit decently hard (in leveling gear anyway), and they fall flat on their face because no amount of healing tools can outheal the combo of a tank not using their CDs and DPS not dealing much damage by virtue of having trash gear.

If we must have a tank that requires little skill due to having at on of healing, then let it be one of them. Don't make them all like that, please.

WAR and PLD sustain doesn't reach what one might consider ridiculous levels for quite some time, particularly in the case of the latter. If you've not learned how to mitigate by then, well, pretty clearly getting access to healing tools was never the issue. At that point it's a lack of willingness to learn issue, not job ability issue. You're also greatly overestimating the kind of durability WAR and PLD have in the absence of their self-healing Even assuming flawless execution of all mechanics and perfectly timed mitigation tool usage, they're not going to match DRK in this department. Their kits are designed around the idea they'll be self-healing in addition to mitigating. There's also the matter of player fun to consider. Do you know how many people enjoy WAR and PLD in large part because they're so effective at self-sustaining? People sure don't go to them for the DPS.

At any rate, I think another part of my point might be unclear. At present, there are things in the game -- things you do by yourself, not necessarily with a group -- PLD and WAR are only able to do because of their ability to self-heal. Should that be removed, they would need to be compensated either with more mitigation tools or additional damage in order to continue doing these things. There's a lot more to factor into this than the fact some healers aren't happy about being optional in max level dungeons.