Dark Knight

[Ghastly]

I can stop being this pansy paladin touchy feely tank and still use a sword, epic win.

This is exactly what I mean. Paladin 3.0
Goodbye paladins

[Rhaja]

I saw a lot of people wanting Samurai as a counter-based tank. Got to thinking, what if they keep in the using your own HP as a oh shit button? Let's say similar to Holmgang (minus the dreaded self bind), but you get a short pacification to take as much damage as possible, without chance of death. Once the ability ends, the Dark Knight unleashes all that built up damage on the enemy? The ability to use your own HP to attack could also link into draining it back, possibly building up a pool for defense or increased healing effects?

Would could be seeing a type of tank that doesn't so much rely on self-healing, and more absolute destruction. Using the darkness inside of themselves, it doesn't matter what happens to themselves, so long as their enemies die.

[Parodine]

The only real time DRK could tank a significant amount of things in FFXI was after the implementation of Dread Spikes, which helped absorb HP from enemies that were hitting them (which I think seems like a winner for a FFXIV skill for tanking).

I forget if it got nerfed or not, but that was something, I guess.

[Hagen]

The only game DRK wasn't a tank was in FFXI because that was the only game that had that kind of division. All melee characters with good HP and armor could take hits in any FF game quite well.

[Klive]

Introduction of Death Knights didn't kill the paladin in WoW and it will not kill the paladin here. At launch of the expansion there will be an explosion of Dark Knights, but after a time the number will even out again. People will tank what fits their tastes in the end.

[BanefulGamer]

Seems to me that SE just needs to implement some kinda of system that allows jobs to do different roles; so a Dark Knight could be a dps or Tank. Seems like a win win to me.

[Giantbane]

I'm ok with a DRK tank. DRK does make more historical sense as a DPS, but there's only so many available jobs that are both popular and could fit the mold as a tank (wearing heavy armor), so I always though this was a possibility. I'm actually happier that it is a tank, because I imagine that I'll have more opportunity to play DRK consistently due to the higher demand for tanks in the game.

The one thing I'm sort of confused about is DRK as an parry/evasion tank. If there was one tank class that would scream, "GO AHEAD AND HIT ME IN THE FACE, I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR IT", it would be the self sacrificing DRK. Parry I get, but DRK as a nimble evasion tank seems ... odd.

[Deusteele]

DRK might function similar to Guardian Druid on WoW. Massive Health pool, Very High Dodge, but has a way to convert a resource into a scalable self heal. That latter part is what WAR lacked during the launch of 2.0. They may implement a damage taken pool for DRK that accumulates during the fight.

[Shurrikhan]

If anything it looks like a heavier, more "do your best" and take hits in the face, passive mitigation tank (or at most evasive mitigation through spells/seals) than anything physically nimble... Its heavy armor and likely enlarged health pool seems to make it ideal as a dual-option heavy dps / tank that, when in the dps role, can easily swap into off-tanking and can use increased vitality for larger nukes (though at cost of consistent dps compared to going full strength)... I don't exactly have faith in the team's ability to make something interesting of a self-sacrificial mechanic in a tank either, though I think it's possible in other hands. Of course, just as much as none of this is perfectly set in stone yet, I really doubt we have a voice in the matter.

:: just a side-note, from what little we have here, the impression I get is that of a 2h Frost tank, back when that was a thing. Huge armor, decent enough health, acclimating and sapping defense, good parry and magic defense, and a bit of burst mitigation/absorption through spells.