Dark Knight needs serious help

[Rithy255]

Dark Knight and Gunbreaker are both damage tanks but they are apples and oranges to each other. I like both of them. its the difference between a GCD focus and off GCD focus. The damage diff is like 5%. You're splitting hairs while I'm talking about job fantasy which square has stated is their priority. you can have your 5 percent. I like my bigass sword. and as far as damage goes, Tanks and healers are the bottom 40% of total damage to bosses. I'd guess that tanks are probably about 30 percent of that 40, so a 5 % dmg diff in 30 percent of the max damage done to a boss...its not even worth stating as an argument against Dark Knight. As far as the "less functional warrior" argument...idk warrior bores me to tears and I don't think it plays like Dark Knight at all. Warrior feels really safe to play at all levels. Dark Knight feels...less safe. The lack of excessive over self healing (which everyone hates apparently) gives Dark Knight an exciting razor's edge feeling while playing it. I think Gunbreaker skirts on that edge as well but not to the extreme that Dark Knight does.

I like rotational complexity, I don't find pressing buttons in your burst then going back to 1, 2, 3 enjoyable, at least warrior keeps up their damage buff. The most fun I had on a tank was previous paladin before it became easier down to fit the burst meta, It actually felt like you were maintaining a rotation that could also change depending on the fight, It was honestly one of the most hardest tanks to play at the highest of levels which gave the job a low skill floor but a high skill celling which is healthy for the game.

In reality both bores me, I think I'd enjoy warrior more if it had less sustain and more gauge options (overpower being removed) and have some more actual buttons I pressed, APM to me doesn't make a tank more interesting. If we want to talk about "job fantasy" why isn't the berserker tank the top dps? Dark knights OG job fantasy was to be a actual DPS, Neither is really consistent, when I think of a "dark knight" to me it's a class that slowly drains their target down, uses magic attacks ect. I don't think the "job identity" should be burst every 120 minutes then go back to pressing 1, 2, 3 blood spiller

DRK vs GNB, Gunbreaker personally feels like they do the "weave" busy tank a lot better because they don't have all their ogcds at once, they feel fun and high APM, I'd much prefer dark knight had alternate combos and paths then the current playstyle but that's just me I guess. I don't mind if it remains busy but it's core GCD and down time is so boring I rather be playing warrior at that point (and I don't like warrior lol).

I agree warrior is boring and has excessive self healing (PLD to a extent needs to also cut down on some self healing), but my main point is if dark knight is meant to be the high DPS tank that's cutting through enemies then why is it doing the same damage as PLD/WAR? It doesn't even have a niche in it's current form, If Dark Knight is meant to be a risky tank then it should have a small dps advantage over war/pld.