Lets Talk Dark Knight

[Akumu]

I hope Drk is a soul eating, blood drinking, 2hd wielding, fire balling terror. Clad in the blackest of black armor with glowing red eyes and veins.

Drk as a tank is a horrid idea if i've ever heard one but thats just my opinion.

If you want the high powered slayer, the get one shotted by bosses just cause you dropped a massive ws on it speak up and be heard DRK FTW!

I'm guessing you're not much of a tank loving guy? Everything you described(besides the one shotted reference) could still be applied to a Tank. There are many different types of Tanks and not all are weak in the damage department or even need a sword/board. WAR is a good example of that.

However, even as a pure DD having them one shotted so easily is a bad idea for the way these encounters are designed.

[Duelle]

I'm guessing you're not much of a tank loving guy? Everything you described(besides the one shotted reference) could still be applied to a Tank. There are many different types of Tanks and not all are weak in the damage department or even need a sword/board. WAR is a good example of that.

However, even as a pure DD having them one shotted so easily is a bad idea for the way these encounters are designed.

Agreed. That sort of thing turns DRK into a liability. And unlike XI, you won't have extra people laying about that you can invite into the main alliance in the event one goes down.

The "more damage taken for a ton of potential damage dealt to the mob" bit works in console FFs because you don't have threat/enmity tables to worry about. Your DRK in that party of four is just as likely to get hit as the PLD or the WHM in the group. When SE tried to copy/paste it into XI, what we got was DRK in its current incarnation, to the point their enmity spikes put THF out of the role it was intended to have...because of all that awesome damage.

Personally, I'd be more conservative with DRK this time around. If it HAS to be a damage dealer, then I would make it one whose damage scales with a darkness-based debuff it has to cast on the target mob. Like, place debuff on mob, let it tick to add a DoT component to your overall DPS while still auto-attacking (your auto-attacks would deal X% more damage while the debuff is up). When the debuff is close to wearing off, do something to break/consume/detonate the debuff to add some burst damage. Rinse and repeat. Toss in drains and such to help in weakening a mob and using its own strength against it. It's a different approach, but meh.

PS: Considering the drama that too place over scythe vs great-sword, I'd say it would be safer to have the devs pick a weapon and stick to it.