Your thoughts on DRK as a Tank in the future?

[Huntington]

Personally, I think it's an excellent set designation for the class, and I'm going to take my opinions on that designation from a spin-off Final Fantasy, Bravely Default.


There won't be any spoilers for the 3DS title here, but I will say that Dark Knight is a Job the player can acquire later on, that's it, nothing more.

As for the Job itself in the game, I found it to be the best iteration for it that I've used or seen yet. The Job's main trait was an ability called Adversity. For each increment of damage that the character would take in percentages of 25% I believe in relation to your max HP, your four primary attack and defense stats would increase. So Phys Defense, Phys Attack, and Mag Attack and Defense. They would cap at 150% of their start, and make it a great tank class in the game, if it wasn't designated as more of a DPS of sorts in the game itself.

What made it so excellent is that I could easily make it into a tank in the party just by shifting around gear, and making him two-hand a sword which would give him great offensive capabilities. With Adversity boosting it's stats the more damage it took, it propelled it's abilities means to do damage even higher. You couple that with another Sub-Job that lets it drain stats, and it could become a powerhouse, only having difficulty with enemies resistant or immune to dark damage.

I honestly see DRK in XIV being used in a similar manner. The more the tank is getting pounded on, the stronger it's stats become, and I believe through only my own personal conjecture, that it will be able to rival WAR perfectly in terms of damage output or to even exceed it. This is only my personal opinion as of right now, just because I think Bravely Default's DRK was the most absolute fun I've had with the Job's iteration yet, dat Rage attack.

But let's hear everyone else's thoughts, I've been absent from XIV for over a month and thought I would make this thread for the discussion, hopefully I'm not just clogging the boards with another repeat thread.

[Thistledown]

The only ff I played was FFTA so my knowledge is quite limited. With that said though, gaining higher defensive stats for every loss of raw hp sounds exciting! Something healers will have to coordinate accordingly for sure.

From what it sounds like, SCH would synergise greatly because of relatively lower raw healing done and focus on damage prevention. And WHM could focus on stoneskin as a pseudo heal.

It would also be the biggest noobtrap though. 'Oh I get tougher the lower my hp is!' at below half hp or something.

[Saigwa]

Short and sweet: I have no objections to DRK being a tank. This is FFXIV, not ffXI or previous FF titles. I was honestly a bit saddened because I was hoping if DRK was a dps, then a very high chance SAM would be a tank and I would have a main tank and dps to play - but now that is, of course, not the case, and I am contempt with SE's discussion. HOWEVER, I will miss running dungeons with pallys and warriors because its very eminent that DRK will become 70% of the tanking population. I make this deduction from the fact that Great swords and dual wields are the most popular form of combat in many MMOs. Regardless of role, people will flock to DRK because it is a great sword wielding badass.

[ZanzhizExaverion]

Short and sweet: I have no objections to DRK being a tank. This is FFXIV, not ffXI or previous FF titles. I was honestly a bit saddened because I was hoping if DRK was a dps, then a very high chance SAM would be a tank and I would have a main tank and dps to play - but now that is, of course, not the case, and I am contempt with SE's discussion. HOWEVER, I will miss running dungeons with pallys and warriors because its very eminent that DRK will become 70% of the tanking population. I make this deduction from the fact that Great swords and dual wields are the most popular form of combat in many MMOs. Regardless of role, people will flock to DRK because it is a great sword wielding badass.

70% of the 1% is .7%

You gotta remember that although it is Dark Knight, it is a Tank.

A lot of people for some reason hate tanking, and hate taking responsibility. If you're putting in effort to "lol great sword im so cool" over "I'm a Dark Knight and I'm gonna tank the shit out of this", one of those players is going to be getting berated while playing the class.

Dark Knight will not end up like Ninja. Ninja is a DPS, everyone likes to see Numbers. Dark Knight doesn't have "numbers".

All the plebs will level it up to 60 (Expansion Hype) and then people will realize how much they hate tanking, and some others will continue on with the job.

[RuruKun]

I have nothing against ninjas/rogues, but I'm more excited for dark knight more than Ninjas. I would be willing to give that a try.

[Borascythe]

I have mixed feelings on it.

The good part: I love tanking and DRK is easily my favorite job in the FF franchise. I can understand why DPS players are upset. I was very upset when I started playing this game and thinking "DRK is my favorite class...too bad it will never be a tank ." Luckily, I was wrong!

The bad part: I am not the only one that thinks this way. Sure, it will attract a handful of people that would never tank. Most of them will be terrible and DRK may become the dragoons of the tanking world. Worse yet, a lot of already experienced tanks, like myself, will probably reroll DRK because it's a badass tank class, thereby abandoning WAR and PLD. Hopefully the tanks remain homogenous to an extent. Really don't want DRK to be limited to magic tanking or something.

[Drayton]

Based on the duty finder queues, we are in a definite need of more players tanking. I think DRK will bring more players to into the tanking fold, and maybe more of them might enjoy it. Yeah, every one will go DRK in the beginning but things should really balance themselves out. Everyone who really enjoys tanking has probably leveled them both and can find the use in either class. Adding DRK just means another tool in the box.

[Saigwa]

70% of the 1% is .7%

You gotta remember that although it is Dark Knight, it is a Tank.

A lot of people for some reason hate tanking, and hate taking responsibility. If you're putting in effort to "lol great sword im so cool" over "I'm a Dark Knight and I'm gonna tank the shit out of this", one of those players is going to be getting berated while playing the class.

Dark Knight will not end up like Ninja. Ninja is a DPS, everyone likes to see Numbers. Dark Knight doesn't have "numbers".

All the plebs will level it up to 60 (Expansion Hype) and then people will realize how much they hate tanking, and some others will continue on with the job.

I Said "70% of the TANKING population" not 70% of the player base population. Tanks will stay tanks, and we will get new tanks when this class comes out. Then, there will also be ppl who play this class to get it lvled, but never main it because they don't like tanking. My point was that out of the people who stay tanks, 70% of those individuals will most likely be DRK and drop the paladin/warrior classes because 1.) they are tanks anyway and 2.) its a great sword wielding badass.

[Ocyrith]

I Said "70% of the TANKING population" not 70% of the player base population. Tanks will stay tanks, and we will get new tanks when this class comes out. Then, there will also be ppl who play this class to get it lvled, but never main it because they don't like tanking. My point was that out of the people who stay tanks, 70% of those individuals will most likely be DRK and drop the paladin/warrior classes because 1.) they are tanks anyway and 2.) its a great sword wielding badass.

I expect we'll see a bunch of DRKs at the start, but as the game goes on, some people will find they dislike the mechanics and/or miss their old tank. Also, if SAMs are tanks, that'll also cut the population in half.

[Estevo]

Short and sweet: I have no objections to DRK being a tank. This is FFXIV, not ffXI or previous FF titles. I was honestly a bit saddened because I was hoping if DRK was a dps, then a very high chance SAM would be a tank and I would have a main tank and dps to play - but now that is, of course, not the case, and I am contempt with SE's discussion. HOWEVER, I will miss running dungeons with pallys and warriors because its very eminent that DRK will become 70% of the tanking population. I make this deduction from the fact that Great swords and dual wields are the most popular form of combat in many MMOs. Regardless of role, people will flock to DRK because it is a great sword wielding badass.

I'm not too sure, if the dark knight is a challenge to play (which I would adore) a good number of people would be turned off by it, considering I've read a whole thread basically saying that they wanted drk to be dps so it's easy to play.