After 1 (arguably 2) expansions what is square trying to achieve with WAR (and PLD)?

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

BW is free to use every 25s and gets 4 GCDs of benedictions with only 17s downtime on a tank, also serves as an auxiliary short cooldowns.

Benediction, a WHM button that does the same but for only 1 shot is a 3m cooldown on a healer.

Do the math. That’s just very lopsided.

inb4 “then let’s shorten Benediction cooldown!!!”

[Aravell]

So you want the tanks become more like DRK then?

I'm not sure why people keep pointing at DRK as if it can't handle big pulls just fine. DRK can handle big pulls just fine, it just requires the healer to not be completely asleep at the wheel, which is a good thing in terms of role balance.

BW is free to use every 25s and gets 4 GCDs of benedictions with only 17s downtime on a tank, also serves as an auxiliary short cooldowns.

Benediction, a WHM button that does the same but for only 1 shot is a 3m cooldown on a healer.

Do the math. That’s just very lopsided.

inb4 “then let’s shorten Benediction cooldown!!!”

Clearly Benediction should gain the ability to be fired off 4 times in a row to match WAR.

[fulminating]

Clearly Benediction should gain the ability to be fired off 4 times in a row to match WAR.

You can now quintuplecast benediction, but you're not able to change target

[Flay_wind]

DRK is just fine in W2W pulls, it's not as easy as press Bendiction 4 times every 25 seconds with no downsides, but it's not braindead and you're actively using your whole defensive kit, which is how things should be.
Also i healed all tanks in dungeons and let me tell you, i'd rather have a good DRK, than a mediocre WAR.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

DRK also get a funzy healing ala Abyssal Drain (W2W only) and different shaped AoEs. Smart use of these together with their other tools really feels great.

[Punt0Mancer]

I'm not sure why people keep pointing at DRK as if it can't handle big pulls just fine. DRK can handle big pulls just fine, it just requires the healer to not be completely asleep at the wheel, which is a good thing in terms of role balance.

i'm not saying it can't handle big pulls, just compared to war it can't roll it face across the key board and expect to survive, Which for Tank/Healer party dynamics is better gameplay wise

[Supersnow845]

i'm not saying it can't handle big pulls, just compared to war it can't roll it face across the key board and expect to survive, Which for Tank/Healer party dynamics is better gameplay wise

Please tell me you mean not being able to face roll your keyboard is better for the combo

WAR is downright toxic for healers

[Punt0Mancer]

Please tell me you mean not being able to face roll your keyboard is better for the combo

WAR is downright toxic for healers

yes that what i meant, a tank shouldn't be able to roll their face on a key board (AKA War), they should have to plan out their defensive cooldowns more like DRk.

[Oizen]

DRK is just fine in W2W pulls, it's not as easy as press Bendiction 4 times every 25 seconds with no downsides, but it's not braindead and you're actively using your whole defensive kit, which is how things should be.
Also i healed all tanks in dungeons and let me tell you, i'd rather have a good DRK, than a mediocre WAR.

The only level area where DRK feels near unplayable is early stormblood with the worst of it being Bardam's Mettle, it gets difficult again around lv 82 but beyond that it works okay. Abyssal Drain feels pretty undertuned compared to other options but its not really needed.

[Amvin]

I've been reading this thread with great interest. I'm one of those "filthy casuals", a former disillusioned RDM main who turned DRG and will sometimes heal for fun. I'll level all my jobs but never touch any of the tanks anymore once they are at max level. The reason for that? I don't trust healers in duty finder. I have met many more cure 1 White Mages than I should and Esuna doesn't even seem to be on some healers' hotbars. So I just did not tank.

However, that changed recently when I was tired of waiting in queue and didn't feel like healing either. So I queued as a tank, WAR of course (based on how the jobs played while leveling, the other tanks except maybe PLD just aren't for me), and I had really fun. I'll keep doing it! It's easy, it's fun and that's all I want from it. And I think I'm surely not the only one, so perhaps that might be a reason for WAR being as strong as it is - to give super casual players a reason to at least give tanking a try? I don't know, but that is my theory. I'll leave the discussion about jobs in high end content to people who actually know what they are talking about.