Thread: Paladin and Dark Knight

Originally Posted by Nyghtmarerobu

Just play a real tank, and become a warrior!! (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist..)

WAR ROE fist!!!

It really comes down to what you want out of the tank you play. I've played both rather extensively at 60, and I personally prefer Paladin.

Paladin:
> Simple, rigid rotation without much flexibility. [GB>RA>RA]
> Very few off-gcd attacks which weave in easily to the rotation.
> Powerful defensive toolkit makes you a rather substantial defensive tank.
> Easy stance dancing - your Mana is essentially worthless, so changing stance is completely free.
> Most powerful offensive cooldown in the game in Fight or Flight.
> Slow gameplay allows you to take stock of the field and pay attention to things other than your hotbars.
> Hallowed Ground needs no explanation.


Dark Knight
> Simple, easy-to-execute rotation with a few fun quirks to it. [S>SS Combo x4]
> Very large amount of off-gcd attacks that can be difficult (yet fun!) to weave efficiently into the rotation.
> Moderately powerful defensive toolkit affords nice mitigation, but not really comparable with Paladin aside from magic damage.
> Stance dancing is costly. Grit costs 75% of one Dark Arts to turn on, making it a significant cost in terms of your dps output.
> The most fluid and dynamic cooldown in the game in Dark Arts - tricky to master, but satisfying when done well.
> Fast-paced gameplay allows you to play a tank and never feel bored because of how static it is.
> Living Dead will more often than not cause you to die in DF if it actually procs, because 90% of DF healers aren't gonna look for that shit or act on it.

I honestly like playing Drk most because of it's high skill ceiling it just has so many more fun options than Pld, and as stated above it's more busy with high pay offs if played really well and has the highest main tank dmg currently. Warrior is the big ol beef wagon that has the highest OT DPS as well as a DPS stance with the highest potency skill in the game, Fell Cleave 500 potency. I find that Pld is pretty straightforward and is generally the tank that people play when they first want to tank that doesn't punish the player as much as Drk or War.

Drk and war are more complex and require more finesse to pull off, as for pld you don't have to but your supportive spells to use in tandem with your healers can be pretty tricky. Play what you want to play only you yourself know what you prefer all tanks are similar but have different pay offs to how you play them.