Changing DRK to DPS entirely?

[Aquase]

I find DRK to be very comfortable tanking high end content. I switched my main from scholar to DRK this expansion and would be sad to suddenly need to go warrior to fulfill my tank desires.

[Soular]

The DRK has no real edge.

am I the only one who found this ironic

[Reynhart]

Yep it'd be neigh impossible to rationalize blood for blood from a development perspective and they'd get criticized for bad job design and the ability to allow it to take more damage when its use should be seldom in a MT situation. Especially considering moves like this were apart of the traditional dark knight mentality. But I'd have to agree as much as I would like this it wouldn't happen as well.

I wonder if people realize that Grit + Blood for Blood brings damage taken very close to...not having Grit. And that stance dancing (Thus, taking more damage for some time) have already been proven a very valid strategy for high end tanks...
And that stance dancing is especially difficult for DRK since several skills works only with Grit, so being able to do more damage while keeping the stance on would make them closer to what other tank.

The more I think about it, the more it fits both the DRK lore and the tank meta.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

What needs to go in Dark Knight first is the Dark Knight Grit requirement for spells. Blood Weapon should be used in Grit, and Soul Eater should not need Grit to heal.

Darks do such low damage. I don't think Grit itself should lower damage. I think it should be something unique in itself.

Grit Stance:
Increases Parry Chance by 25%.
Increases Parry's Potency by 40%. (Raises the damage reduction from parry from 20% to 60%.)
Increasing enmity gained.

[SpookyGhost]

Grit Stance:
Increases Parry Chance by 25%.
Increases Parry's Potency by 40%. (Raises the damage reduction from parry from 20% to 60%.)
Increasing enmity gained.

Please, for all that is good, consider the ramifications of having an RNG chance to mitigate something tied to a tanking stance. Just... give it some thought.

[Giantbane]

WAR/WAR
- no int debuff(lack of monk will bite you here), as a main tank in a similar situation to ramuh has more effective mitigation than a WAR WAR, yes this including if every shockstrike gets inner beasted because the DRK will be sitting on 40-50% mitigation on all of them. Raw intuition gets rendered useless and thrill of battle as a defensive GCD is laughable, it's just a free cure in the grand scheme of things. While thrill of battle can give you the HP to survive an attack it doesn't help with effective mitigation and became worse with lustrate not getting a cure boost from it anymore.

Storm's path is stronger than both the PLD Str debuff and the DRK/MNK int debuff, and it decreases both physical & magic damage. I'm actually very surprised they haven't brought this debuff to other classes as it's so strong for progression fights. Pretty much guarantees that you should bring a WAR in any situation where boss damage is a concern.

Thrill of battle is excellent, use it with convalescence and it functions almost exactly as Rampart/Shadowskin does.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Please, for all that is good, consider the ramifications of having an RNG chance to mitigate something tied to a tanking stance. Just... give it some thought.

As long as we got temp buffs with lower cool-downs and damage reduction it would be fine. Just need to focus on a rotation.


Like Dark Dance being damage reduction instead of parry.
Like Dark Mind being damage reduction instead.
Shadow Wall being 120s CD, maybe a healing component on it.

It can work. You just use your DR when you need to absorb damage.

[Wisekuma]

...they didn't have block...

They had something similar called deflect.

[MrSmiley]

so instead of proposing fixes for tanking you feel is an issue, you want to be yet another dps instead and keep just 2 tanks, changing its role entirely.

[Reynhart]

Grit Stance:
Increases Parry Chance by 25%.
Increases Parry's Potency by 40%. (Raises the damage reduction from parry from 20% to 60%.)
Increasing enmity gained.

I'd like to see Grit changed (but, let's be honest, I don't see that happen) to be more unique and fit DRK lore.
After all "Shield Oath" is pretty logic. Paladins focus on their shield to reduce damage. "Defiance" ? Sheer HP, pretty much the thing of WAR too.
Why should "Grit" reduce damage taken ?
For me Grit should be closer to "Dread Spikes". Yes, I know this is not FFXI, I'm frequently one to remind others of this fact, but look at our skills. Leech HP this, leech MP that, etc...
So a Dread Spikes effect that would retaliate 20% of damage taken and heal you for that amount. Basically, as long as you're not one shotted, you only suffer 80% of the damage. Roughly the same as other tanks, but with a unique feel to it.

With that, DRK's potency should be lowered. Yes, you read that right, decreasing DRK's potency. Why ? Because retaliating 20% will allow him to "burst" on every tankbuster. Seeing recent numbers, keep in mind that any tank can do hits that surpass 20% of their HP every minute or so. Of course, mitigating damage will reduce damage taken (duh) thus reducing retaliation.

This would bring a unique meta to DRK : "Ok, I'm full HP, I have Stoneskin and Adloquium, I can take this hit without a cooldown"
Or "I'm passed the HP threshold, should I pack more vitality to need less mitigation and retaliate more, or should I pack strength to do more damage by myself ?"