PLD vs DRK on Thordan Ex

[albertopin]

I've been dealing with Thordan Ex as Tank these days, mainly by DF and occassionaly by PF. Well, I main PLD and I have a good rotation of Cooldowns to deal with Heavenly heel Holy BattleDance, and etc... Also,i can use stoneskin in some emergencies.

Happens, that I leveled my DRK almost with the same equipment as my PLD. And by mistake entered to Thordan Ex with my DRK.
I was able to handle the first heavenly Heel, but then I had a lot of trouble with Holy Battledance ( I died once).
After Thordan's Limit Break I felt i didnt have enough tools to deal with him. I was't eager to use Dark Dance. But It makes so much difference?

With my pld even Bulwark was useful and had stoneskin as I said, and Sheltron helps. I really felt that Drk was in a disadvantage with PLD.

I want to know your opinions, maybe I need to improve my style with DRK or the healer was the problem.

[SpookyGhost]

It's a physical fight, so PLD has an easier time mitigation-wise. It's entirely doable as a DRK and has been since the fight came out, just make sure you time your Reprisals and rotate your big CDs (Shadowskin, Shadow Wall, and Living Dead). Living Dead is especially useful if you get the sword buffed knight, and if you don't it can be used for a Heavenly Heel later in the fight.

Just as a side note, if you don't feel comfortable tanking it as DRK, WAR can also tank it just fine so don't feel forced into the MT role.

[Freyyy]

DRK is at a disadvantage against Thordan EX mitigation-wise but it's not THAT bad, you just have to plan your CDs more carefully since you don't have Sheltron and RoH. As Spooky said, Living Dead really comes in handy for Holy Bladedance if you have the Sword Oath knight and allows you to stay out of Grit to dish out as much DPS as possible to burn him down before they switch Oath. If you have the Shield Oath knight, you don't need any CD to survive the Bladedance and there is no real point in going out of Grit since your damage are harshly reduced. So you shouldn't use any of your mitigation CDs for this phase, allowing you to have everything available afterwards. Also keep in mind that when this fight came out, it was tanked with 16.5k/17.5k HP with the STR meta, and now we easily have over 27k, so the lack in physical mitigation shouldn't cause any problems for DRK anyway. Don't forget to use Dark Dance to proc Reprisal at key moments, like for example there will be atleast 2 Heavenly Heels where you'll only have Shadowskin available, if you can get a Reprisal up while having Dark Dance still in effect, it adds up and you'll survive nicely, especially if you get a parry from Dark Dance (but don't rely on that alone, NEVER). It won't be like Sheltron + RoH + Rampart, but it won't kill you, and that's all that matters. If the WAR puts SP on for the Heels it will help too. Cross-classing Foresight for this fight also helps even tho it's quite low mitigation, it adds up when used in conjunction with other weaker CDs.

[Lambdafish]

PLD is better on Thordan because physical, but my static runs PLD/DRK (shock horror no WAR) and both do just fine.

I always laugh when I block/parry holiest of holy

[deastr]

Recently we ran Thordan afew times and I just used Awarness+Convalescence for Holy Bladedance.

i236.

[Lambdafish]

Recently we ran Thordan afew times and I just used Awarness+Convalescence for Holy Bladedance.

i236.

I did the same -

Me (to my healer): "omg I forgot to buff, and I'm still alive"

My healer: "I noticed, I actually had to heal you for once"

Selene was main healer of that run

[Inuk9]

My first clear in this fight was with a DRK as MT. You can do just fine with both.

[alimdia]

DRK off the top of my head
assuming reprisal and dark dance for all
first phase: shadowskin or wall (whatever you're not using for bladedance shield)
bladedance sword: LD
bladedance shield: shadowskin or wall
heavenly heel 1: shadowskin
heel 2: shadowskin shadowwall
heel 3: LD