When would you take DRK over PLD or WAR?

[Tila]

I've been trying to find an answer to this. Simply put, if you had two people, both have all three tanks at 60 with equal gear. You know they're both good players. For what reasons would you want a setup other than PLD MT and WAR OT? What is it that DRK brings that would make you want it over either of the other two?

[Daega]

Not much really. DRK has no utility. WAR can burst damage and heal. WAR takes hits roughly the same as DRK but with the Defiance hp boost it is sturdier. DRK has TP/MP issues as well. PLD is the king of tanks due to defense/cooldowns/utility like cover, sheltron, and clemency? the heal, and still can do decent dps.
Right now there's not and high end game content until Alex and then it'll become apparent how much DRK needs love.

This is coming from a 60 DRK who has seen all content to now. When you're in a grp with a PLD or WAR you can see the difference.

[Rbstr]

Reprisal stacking with Storm's Path is very strong. Parry procs often enough that it's up very nearly on cooldown just about every time in my experience. Used with Dance you can pretty much force a proc when you know you'll want it. That has the potential to really help with low-HP dps in progression.
Thinking to 50 stuff, since that's all the "raid" content we have to look at (where we remember that 50+ skills don't apply). Before nerfs/echo:
Fights with magic tankbusters, obviously. T12's revelations would be very easy.
DRK/WAR would have made a pretty good pair in t13. DRK would swap in as MT where they would do the exact same rampart/sentinel rotation as PLD on flattens. Plus Reprisal. Then Akh Morns are super easy with buffed Dark Mind.
In turn 4 the AOE damage might be nice over PLD.
That's really the case with any level-50 content. The "reliable" CDs match up with Paladin's plus they get the extra magic CD. Pretty easily plug and play for whatever.

I wouldn't care for them in T5, where chain-stun PLD is great and WAR MT is the best choice anyway. Leviathan EX's chain stun comes to mind as well.

WAR takes hits roughly the same as DRK but with the Defiance hp boost it is sturdier.

This is just wrong. If you plop them into the same gear DRK has a minor defensive advantage (2-5%ish) from Grit compared to Defiance. War gets varying parry buff they burn all the time?
It's funny how people used to claim Shield Oath was significantly better than Defiance, but now where Shield Oath is renamed to Grit, it has become the opposite.

[Tila]

snip

You bringing up flare kinda solidifies my point. If you dont have a reprisal up and ready to use, your advantage goes right out the window. And many bosses dont give you much room to get, hold on to, and use reprisal for the big hits. It doesnt mean much if you use it and mitigate a bunch of smaller AoE attacks. What matters if having it for those clutch moments where everyone needs healing fast because a big move hit.

[Hundred]

Dark MT/PLD OT, Ninja DPS.
Magical tank busters or aoe to the party
Drop reprisal, Throw int down, Ninja increases DPS, PLD goes sword oath and hits Divine Veil as needed for the extra prot, Int down and Str down covered.

Dark MT/ WAR OT, throw in Ninja/Dragoon.
War provides slashing buff and 10%, Drk provides another 10% down from reprisal with just under 66% uptime. Boss is doing 20% or 19% less damage, to everyone about 66% of the time, not including Int down.

Add phases that need to be held. Dark handles adds quite well between Dark dance ,Abyssal drain (when not bugged), Dark passenger (when not bugged), Unleash, Salted Earth and Sole survivor

[stoxastic]

Only time when DRK can be better than PLD as MT is when boss damage is pretty much all magic, Ramuh Ex for example. If there is no physical damage, PLD Blocking, Bulwark, and Sheltron are rendered useless. In this case it might be better to bring DRK.

DRK/WAR can be good in non-mnk comps against a raid boss that uses only magical tank busters.

[Gangaloo]

Only time when DRK can be better than PLD as MT is when boss damage is pretty much all magic, Ramuh Ex for example. If there is no physical damage, PLD Blocking, Bulwark, and Sheltron are rendered useless. In this case it might be better to bring DRK.

DRK/WAR can be good in non-mnk comps against a raid boss that uses only magical tank busters.

DRK also can't use Reprisal. You can't parry on Ramuh EX.

I think people seem to keep forgetting this every time DRK is brought up as a magic based tank.

[Ipkonfig]

Storm's Path + Reprisal since they stack is a pretty nice reason to DRK MT/WAR OT. If you don't have a MNK in a fight that has magical mechanics, Ravana Ex has a few. There was a poll thread on Reddit where healers rated which tanks they like healing the most, obviously PLD got first, but DRK actually came in second. Most comments sited that so many Warriors try and spend all their time in Deliverance and take gobs of damage making healing tougher. I personally do stance dance, but only if I know I'm not gonna take big hits.

For a WAR to keep up with a DRKs mitigation they need to use Inner Beast for every 5 stacks instead of Fel Cleave, which drops their tank DPS. DRK's rotation doesn't have to change.

Honestly, take whatever two tanks you have and go, I've tanked all current content as an i174 DRK and had zero complaints. There was talk of DRK not being able to solo tank Ravana Ex, but there's already videos of that too. I run with a static so I'll always have a second tank since he only like tanking, just like me!

I'll be playing DRK/WAR in Alex, actually bought my law axe and upgraded it instead of finishing my law jewelry hahaha. I was just really excited to get WAR to 60, only 5 more!

[Tila]

snip

I have wondered. If DRK had an easier time with mana, that is to say, if they could use dark arts constantly with a normal rotation rather than relying on grit/blood weapon swapping, would they be considered fine? I understand that people like the mana resource mechanic, but is it hindering them rather than helping? In a similar vein, if all their abilities that could be dark arted, were by default, where would they stand as tanks?

snip

Would WAR/WAR be preferable? The DRK magic mitigation isn't that much higher on those fights, and remember, a fight that's very heavily magic focused, means little to no reprisal usage. Don't forget that heavy magic means parry is rendered useless.

[shinros]

Inb4 Alexander has loads of magic bosses.