Quote Originally Posted by Archaell View Post
Pld might not need so much mana, but clemency and stances do cost mana
The real cost to clemency is cast time. The real cost of stance swapping is the GCD activation. These translate into a dps losses. You pay for the ability to use these skills with dps.

Quote Originally Posted by Kitfox View Post
Whatever the reason is, it's not good enough to warrant PLD doing such utterly bad AoE dps compared to other tanks. It's not like you'll die instantly if you run out of mana for a GCD or two on DRK. Think of this way, losing your Darkside for a few seconds (usually you don't unless you're bad) is still much less of a loss than any and every Flash a PLD is forced to use (can't avoid them, even if you're not bad).

Hell, PLD could use the "free dps" since they bottom out on TP way faster than DRK anyway, and DRK has plenty of "free dps" from their mp even with better TP management.
PLD does need to have its AoE toolkit expanded. TP is a resource that actually matters to PLD. Having a GCD AoE dps move tied to a TP cost (like it does on WAR) is one possibility. Giving PLD a new resource to manage, either through block procs or some other mechanic, is another. But tying a dps move on PLD to MP alone makes little sense, unless you want to turn it into a simplified version of DRK.

Also, losing Darkside when there are active mobs, even for a few seconds, is just like losing uptime on Maim or Heavy Thrust. It's a serious enough error that you should prioritise fixing that first before trying to troubleshoot any other weaknesses in your rotation. Even aside from dps, it locks you out of a significant portion of your toolkit, mitigation moves included.

Quote Originally Posted by Dzian View Post
divine viel wont save you from a failed dps check for example. and if you pass the dps check you take take no damage at all so divine viel doesn't make a difference.
DV is one of the most powerful raid mitigation abilities in the game. It's also one of the factors that you consider when deciding to use PLD in a raid comp. Mitigation advantages can always be converted into dps gains.