How bad are the issues with DRK?

[Nivarea]

DRK issues are here, but not to the point of making the job bad or unplayable by all means. The real problem (shared with WAR) is that PLD is flat out better at everything right now, making the two other tanks a bit underwhelming to play compared to it.
The second problem with SB DRK is that in 50 and 60 content it feels so gutted and lacking that it's not feeling good to play. Heck, it don't feels good to play until level 66-68, when you can really begin to play with the blood gage. That's why I'm avoiding playing under 66 content with my DRK right now, and that's a big issue I think. But for endgame, no prob.

Still, 70 DRK is fun to play, but a different kind of fun than the HW 60 one (which I still prefer). There still is the button mashy feeling of the job, but now it's centered more around mashing Dark Arts than multiple oGCD.

[TouchandFeel]

DRK definitely needs some adjustments and fixes, but it isn't as horrendous as many on the forums portray it to be.

I personally feel a lot of the hate, particularly the "it's braindead" rallying cry, is due to the changes altering and in some instances getting rid of certain strategies and play-styles and pushing the job in a slightly different direction.

DRK will definitely feel incomplete though until you get Bloodspiller (lvl68) and The Blackest Night (lvl70) as the kit seems to be designed around the usage of those two abilities and will feel lacking without them.

If you like the style and feel of the class, play it and enjoy yourself. While it may have some issues and may not currently perform as well as PLD, remember these two things: balance is fluid and things change, and that those who browbeat a player for choosing a supposedly "inferior" job are often bad players themselves who want to be paired with the "op" job so they can put in less effort.

In the end, a good player of a slightly less powerful job that tries their best will always be better than a bad player of the job du jour who expects the job to make up for their shortcomings and lack of effort.

Play what you enjoy and enjoy playing it to its fullest.

[TheCount]

DRK definitely needs some adjustments and fixes, but it isn't as horrendous as many on the forums portray it to be.

I personally feel a lot of the hate, particularly the "it's braindead" rallying cry, is due to the changes altering and in some instances getting rid of certain strategies and play-styles and pushing the job in a slightly different direction.

DRK will definitely feel incomplete though until you get Bloodspiller (lvl68) and The Blackest Night (lvl70) as the kit seems to be designed around the usage of those two abilities and will feel lacking without them.

That's a big problem in and of itself no? The fact that it feels incomplete and lacking at anything but the max level because that's the only point where your rotation becomes just a little bit more interesting than 1-2-3 and dark artsing everything. That to me is very bad design where a tank will feel bad to play for the majority of its levels

[TouchandFeel]

That's a big problem in and of itself no? The fact that it feels incomplete and lacking at anything but the max level because that's the only point where your rotation becomes just a little bit more interesting than 1-2-3 and dark artsing everything. That to me is very bad design where a tank will feel bad to play for the majority of its levels

It is an issue, but how big of one depends.

To those of us who leveled and played DRK during Heavensward, I feel it will be more glaring of a problem since we got used to a very active job that then got pared down and doesn't really regain much of that more active feel until 70. For those that are coming in fresh, it may still feel off but most likely less so because they don't have a preconceived notion of the way DRK feels, or should feel, when played.

I agree that the skills could have been given in a better order that would feel like a smoother progression of power, but I don't think it's a huge deal since it doesn't really crop up until the Blood Gauge is introduced which is post 60 and you can level 60 to 70 so fast that by the time it starts to bug you, you're already dinging 70.

[Dizzy_Derp]

Snip

I wanna know what fantasy land your living in, that place sounds great. I have given it a chance with all three jobs and warrior is in a shit spot no matter what whay you spin it. This has nothing to do withe learning, practice, patience or any fear of change. i am one of the highest ranked wars in the game. I feel like i have come very close to the maximum possible damage of the class and im telling you, there are problems. Big ones. I have also played the other two, one of my alts is a lvl 70 drk and i have pld on my main and another Alt. They difference is mindblowing. You pretty much cant possibly do bad damage on drk even if u try and tbn is amazing. Pld is just over the top. War has nothing, low possible damage, complex and punishimg rotation and no raid utility whatsoever. Its in the worst spot of any tank or healer period. The only class in the game in a worse spot in mch.

[Dregenfox]

The FF logs are placing warrior DPS as ~7-8% ahead of paladin and a bit more over Drk. War also has one of the best defensive cooldown sets in the game. Certainly it's a fault of the game that defensive ability is useless, but warrior does have merits and is in nowhere near a bad a shape as you imply.

Warrior just needs some QOL changes and a slight buff to damage and everything will be fine.

[Shinkyo]

The FF logs are placing warrior DPS as ~7-8% ahead of paladin and a bit more over Drk.

I don't know where you see that in fflog because the top 10 parse (excluding balance) on Susano EX for each tanks are :
- WAR: 2,767.5- 2,914.5
- PLD: 2,900.2 - 3,161.9
- DRK: 2,692.2 - 2,800.7

The entire PLD Top 10 is above WAR/DRK parses...
I will take Susano EX as more representative as both tanks have fairly split responsibilities tanking.

But I agree that WAR isn't thaaaat bad... there's only a few tweaks and it can be easily brought to a good state.
It's just that PLD is sooooo good right now. if WAR was OP in 3.x, 4.0 PLD is another class of OP altogether.

[aqskerorokero]

ppl just can't decide what type of tank pld war drk they want to play. A fun one? Easy one? Balanced one? reliable or viable?

hw war was "fun", a lot of "skill" to manage 3 fell cleave in zerk window: where I was be able to do at second try....

now I find a little difficult to bake 5 holy spirit in requiescat window, and I feel great when I can do that, it's not simple, if you click requeiscat too early a 5th one will miss the buff. And ppl still says pld's playstyle is "braindead"

I played a lot of drk during 3.2-3.5 but considered pld as my main since ARR, you don't change your main every goddamn patch, your main is the first job you gear up and do its relic weapon!!

So stick with most preferred job if it sucks! and bring every bit of it out during your play.

[Awful]

So stick with most preferred job if it sucks! and bring every bit of it out during your play.

Except why would people wanna do that? I know i'm moving farther and farther away from tanking as a Drk because it's just not fun anymore, I find it a chore to play it because of how boring and uninspired everything is. The class, when I get sync'd I lose TBN and Bloodspiller, outside of that it's just "meh" I'd rather play other classes and I do level and play other classes, not to mention all their right side accessories and utility and how the class plays now VS 3.0 is just not as engaging.

Drk and War need tweaks, Pld is leaps and bounds better than both due to how the class plays, utility, damage, # of CDs + Hallowed, They're just so much better and it's not balanced. I find no joy in joining the Pld hype train I have no issue with them but I wanted to raid as a Drk but now I find myself struggling to log on to even do my weekly stuff because it's just not interesting anymore, the tank balance is way out of whack, if you can't see this because you're having fun with Pld then i'd say you're pretty blind.

Look at 3.0 Plds, do you want that to happen again? Was that not horribly imbalanced? No one wanted a Pld and now they're good if SE just buffed War and Drk to Plds levels i'd be okay with tanking as well as making Tenacity good and fixing tank accessories that's a step in the right direction the core class changes I doubt they have enough time to even try to fix so close to Omega Savage.

[SpookyGhost]

it's not simple, if you click requeiscat too early a 5th one will miss the buff. And ppl still says pld's playstyle is "braindead"

How is pressing a button at a specific time difficult? That's like saying Berserk is hard because if you press it way early you won't fit in all your FCs.

Anyway, DRK isn't in a bad place in terms of being viable for everything - if you enjoy DRK then there's no reason for you not to play it. The only place where balance matters is early prog of the current hardest raids, so unless you plan on doing that then it's really irrelevant. That said, a lot of people who enjoyed DRK in 3.0 don't anymore in 4.0 simply due to the change in playstyle - if you like the current DRK then, like I said, no reason not to stick with it.