DRK needs a revision

[aleph_null]

PLD got to be top Tank in 2.xx and now 4.xx

WAR was the king of 3.xx

Maybe our turn will be 5.xx

Though with our luck their will be a new tank in 5.xx to be top dog.

The only 3.x savage fight where drk isn't optimal is a9s faust though, since it's so short that war's berserk burst is so good, and there's no LB usage so the penalty of bringing 2 war is irrelevant.

[Lyth]

Viable in progression and optimal for speedruns are two different things. World first clears influence guides, which influence player perceptions of what's viable. In ARR, the general public felt that PLD was the only main tank capable of tanking T12 because that's what all the early groups did. Speedkills and 6-man clears at the end of the tier used a WAR MT because it was more efficient, but most people don't remember that.

A7S speedruns used DRK/WAR, skipped most of the phases, and experimented with things like burning Holmgang and Living Dead at the same time in order to stack both tanks for bombs. But that's probably not the average player's experience. For all of PLD's supposed weaknesses, its cooldown kit blows DRK's out of the water in that fight when you're learning it. Hallowed is ludicrously powerful, and DRK has always struggled with heavily physical fights.

If you look at the world first clears of the past three tiers, the MT has always swapped between PLD and DRK on a fight by fight basis. The only constant was WAR. Pure PLD and pure DRK was a luxury that few raiding tanks had (and probably required a certain amount of stubbornness). You generally mained both jobs, and pulled off a Cecil from Dissidia, switching between the two depending on the situation.