Ummm

[LittleArrow]

Can someone explain to me why DRK gets a 2 hit aoe and GNB gets a 4 hit combo? Plus healing, plus everything? I main drk and know full well the sorry state it's in but thus is pitiful.

B/c the Devs destroyed DRK after HW and handed out all of their skills to the other tanks without ever fixing DRK itself. You know the skill that everyone cries about with Warrior that instantly heals them per hit in battle? Yeah, that was DRK's first and one of their defining class abilities... which was taken from them.. and given to one of (if not the) highest dps tanks in the game... Yep, Bloodwhetting is the stolen skill that DRK's were known for and the tanks had a much better identity (DRK's were vampires that were great for full dungeon pulls, PLDs were the nerdy defense heavy tank you wanted as the mt, and WARs were the crazy glass dpser tanks - please correct me on this if I'm wrong, it's been almost 10yrs lol)

Pretty sad.

[Claire_Pendragon]

please correct me on this if I'm wrong, it's been almost 10yrs lol)

Youre half wrong.
WAR had it 1st in 1.23 When Inner Beast used to heal a butt load, and wasnt a mitigation skill until 2.1 (when they added holmgang, so ppl would inv WAR back into savage (coils normal))
But yes, abyssal drain spam was nice, though blood weapon + overpower+zerk was even better than abyssal drain. since abyssal drain wouldnt heal you w/o using dark arts, so that was 60% of your MP gone unless you had blood price up, and your WHM didnt stun lock mobs, and you werent relying on blindness or evasion increases for mitigation.
In general, WAR was still better at it, even if it was mostly locked to long cool downs. Sometimes DRK was better.

EDIT: forgot it was Steel Cyclone, though inner beast had potent single target healing in 2.0
EDIT#2: Steel Cyclone was nearly spammable in 1.23, which made it the tank of choice for almost all content. (also didnt help that PLD had to do its 123 combo for threat, but couldnt continue the chain if they didnt hit the mob from its flank)

[Kemiko]

B/c the Devs destroyed DRK after HW and handed out all of their skills to the other tanks without ever fixing DRK itself. You know the skill that everyone cries about with Warrior that instantly heals them per hit in battle? Yeah, that was DRK's first and one of their defining class abilities... which was taken from them.. and given to one of (if not the) highest dps tanks in the game... Yep, Bloodwhetting is the stolen skill that DRK's were known for and the tanks had a much better identity (DRK's were vampires that were great for full dungeon pulls, PLDs were the nerdy defense heavy tank you wanted as the mt, and WARs were the crazy glass dpser tanks - please correct me on this if I'm wrong, it's been almost 10yrs lol)

Pretty sad.

I mained DRK in HW and WAR in ARR. When SB gutted the job I dropped it as my main until DT.

I'm confused on what ability you're referring to that was DRK's defining class feature that WAR somehow stole from them. Was it Abyssal Drain, that gained healing after you used Dark Arts to augment it (that it retained in SB)? Was it Sole Survivor, which was an execution ability (a very lenient one) that full healed you? 'cause that was pretty much all it had to sustain in packs in HW. Soul Eater was single target.

WAR had Bloodbath in ARR & HW before SB made it a role skill for melee DPS. Which is just the longer duration less bloated version of Bloodwhetting. Inner Beast also used to heal 100% of the damage dealt and give 6 seconds of mitigation. Steel Cyclone was an aoe that healed for every enemy hit. I think it's safe to say that WAR never once stole any healing from DRK - as it always had it. Healing was always Warrior's thing, since ARR (even to the detriment of its job before it got reworked early in ARR).

DRK definitely needs some love from the devs, since its no longer top dps like it was early in EW and has the worst sustain of the four. Its mitigation is fine, but its sustain is complete butts.