Dark Knight

[SirTaint]

No... they really weren't. They could tank WEAK targets, sure, but they basically required cure-bombing from the white mages, red mages, summoners and etceteras in the party or alliance. Aggro wasn't an issue, but their squishy-as-all-hell bodies sure were!

The reason they 'tanked' is because there was a means to basically cap their haste to extreme levels, making their swings almost as fast, if not AS fast, as a dagger. And on a two-hander, it was simply devastating. Stealing aggro against that is futile, so they relied on NUMBERS rather than having a single DRK tank. If one died, he could be revived and be back in the fight in no time flat.

Just no. I tanked Tiamat Cerberus khimera fafnir nidhogg sandworm omega. I was a career Ffxi endgame tank.

Look me up on ffxiah.com
Cerberus server
Taint

[Errors]

FF11 - DRK Tank reporting in!
FF14 - DRK Tank reporting in!

[SirTaint]

That same boss would do exactly the same to a Paladin. Blame Utsusemi for them never fixing defence properly.

Only when they introduced Ochain and fixed Aegis did that game get anything resembling a proper tank. And it was still useless for anything but tanking adds due to the ridiculous "enmity cap" system.

^ This

If DRK wasn't a tank in 11 what was? PLD couldn't hold hate off a DRK. NIN subbed DRK to keep hate but that got nerfed.

DRK SAM MNK were 11s "tanks" from around 2007 until today. And the reason it took until 2007 was because players didn't understand the mechanics. NIN made a comeback in abysses but that was because of broken dex/Crit ATMA.


Edit: Forgot WAR, they were solid tanks the last few years I played.

Edit2: I had a near capped PLD (Ochain,Aegis,Excal,Almace) and even with all its relics/emps it was "easy prey" fodder holding job for the game. You wouldn't bring a PLD to an endgame fight, you would bring a SAM,MNK,WAR,DRK

[Clayers]

Sorry if this is coming out of nowhere with any conversation that's going on in this thread I just wanted to throw this out there since they're probably getting a lot of feedback regarding DRK. Scythe please... that is all.

[Tsukino]

Sorry if this is coming out of nowhere with any conversation that's going on in this thread I just wanted to throw this out there since they're probably getting a lot of feedback regarding DRK. Scythe please... that is all.

Scythe was only in XI. Dark Knights have used swords in all the other games they were in.

[Clayers]

Yeah, I know. Just would like the option. I wish more jobs could equip different weapons. That being said I do love great swords too...

[Ecks007]

Sorry if this is coming out of nowhere with any conversation that's going on in this thread I just wanted to throw this out there since they're probably getting a lot of feedback regarding DRK. Scythe please... that is all.

Greatswords work perfectly. No need for Scythes. Botantist use those already anway.

Not to mention ... Do you see how bad-@ss that greatsword (likely relic) is???!! I can't wait.

As for other conversations about tanking properly. If you're going to level up a tank job, then you have to tank... that's uh.. kind of a no brainer.

Before it was actually announced, the idea of a Dark Knight tank made me rather angry. But that was because I was picturing it as if it was a secondary job from Gladiator (and thank god it's not). I couldn't see Dark Knight using a small single blade and a shield either.

Well both of those concerns are now properly laid to rest with the confirmation slides we've received, and though it's still a tank and not a dps... I can handle that. I'm excited to learn how it will tank and become a darn good Drk tank. I have already amazed players with my Gladiator and Marauder tanking skills at the lowest level dungeons where it's a real challenge to tank exceptionally well. So, I'm good. The description of Dark Knight works well enough for me. They look bad-@ss, their weapon looks bad-@ss and they use dark magic. So they tank instead of full dps, I can deal with that now.

[Sapphic]

I have already amazed players with my Gladiator and Marauder tanking skills at the lowest level dungeons where it's a real challenge to tank exceptionally well.

No it's not, had to burst your bubble there.

Flash spam and riot blade combo, can hold any number of mobs in low level dungeons easily.

[Ecks007]

No it's not, had to burst your bubble there.

Flash spam and riot blade combo, can hold any number of mobs in low level dungeons easily.

Thing is, you don't flash spam. That wastes MP like nobodies business at the early levels. One flash is enough for initial aggro retention then you Riot Blade combo bouncing it back and forth so that you maintain equal aggro on all mobs, you can flash again after a bit to solidify your aoe aggro but really once is enough if you know how to juggle your hate building sword combo. Any flash used after is in case of emergencies. Or if more mobs end up getting pulled that you intended.

Also, I've been in low level roulette many a time where the tanks just didn't understand how their skills worked. Gladiator doesn't play like most primary tanks in other MMOs do. (ie you can continually use your single target and aoe aggro taunts to keep aggro on you and that's really all you have to do in most other games) You can't just flash spam, not a with a good party. It doesn't grab as much aggro and if you are just using it and not doing your combos properly aggro is going to just get ripped right off of you by the dps or healer pretty quickly. And again, you'll run out of MP really fast.

I've seen many a bad beginning tank, thinking they need to spam flash, then they run out of mp and the healer rips hate off them because they are just healing like normal and they have no more mp for flash. Flash spam is just bad in general at the lower levels. I can't comment yet on how it works at the higher levels and endgame, but I'll find out easily enough after 2.4 (gonna level up my tanks more and take advantage of the mass ninja ques).

I did experience some good tanks as well, but I'd say the bad ones or mediocre ones outwieghed the good when I leveled up my Summoner, Black Mage, White Mage, Monk and Dragoon. I primarily did dungeons so I kind of know what I'm talking about, at least from my experience. I also have a real good friend who I leveled up my first job with (Summoner) who mains Paladin and I took mental notes on the things he was doing, plus he would explain stuff as we did dungeons together. I learned a lot about Gld/Pld tanking by watching him. He's definitely one of the best tanks I know.

So, when I started leveling up Gladiator and Marauder to the point where I could run dungeons on them players in my party that had obviously been with bad tanks before would be amazed that I'd keep aggro on 3-4/5 mobs at the same time without aggro coming off and another player being attacked (this was also with trigger happy archers). I'm not trying to toot my own horn, it's just this is what happened. It's what I've experienced. But I can't lie, it is a pretty nice feeling when you're congratulated for tanking well. There are many people that don't know how to play Gladiator and Marauder and tank well at the early levels. Hell there are people that are level 50 with i90+ gear and still can't tank worth a darn.

[Zantitrach]

Thing is, you don't flash spam.

....
You can't just flash spam, not a with a good party. It doesn't grab as much aggro and if you are just using it and not doing your combos properly aggro is going to just get ripped right off of you by the dps or healer pretty quickly. And again, you'll run out of MP really fast.

I've seen many a bad beginning tank, thinking they need to spam flash, then they run out of mp and the healer rips hate off them because they are just healing like normal and they have no more mp for flash. Flash spam is just bad in general at the lower levels.

I'ma stop you right there, spamming flash is indeed OP at lower levels. Up until... 40-ish you can just spam flash and then spend all your GCD combo'n Riot Blade to get your MP back just fine. The only thing this doesn't really apply to is bosses.