DRK's Niche as a tank?

[Sylvina]

So if Paladin has the best mitigation and possibly utility and Warrior has the best damage,
what does DRK do best? or is it halfway between the 2?

I want to know since I'm leveling DRK bit by bit.

[Mekhana]

MDEF technically and self-healing but not enough to make it worth it over the other two atm. We got the most style though and we got enough edge for people to just die by accidentally bumping into one of us.

Oh... also we got good AoE threat generation, I guess.

Also being called a mallgoth by your healer:

https://imgur.com/wHCkAcG

[Azerhan]

Even if I feel the three tanks are not equivalent, the DRK is the one who has the perfect spell for Tank Buster, it's called TBN.
And since he can put this TBN on him, or on any player in the party, it makes it better than the WAR to protect the team, even if the WAR can make more dmgs.
However, it's really the only thing I see that worth taking a DRK instead of a WAR...
Btw, I've found on Reddit a month ago a table of all tanks enmity's capacity and how many they each give in enmity, and that was the DRK who has the worst enmity, in all points.
If someone has it...

[Tint]

Btw, I've found on Reddit a month ago a table of all tanks enmity's capacity and how many they each give in enmity, and that was the DRK who has the worst enmity, in all points.
If someone has it...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/wiki/enmity

but don't forget that we can use dark arts on the enmity combo, especially with the huge amount of mana we have now since 4.0, wich makes the enmity combo better and that we can better spam our aoe's than everyone else.

[Claire_Pendragon]

Magic Defense isnt really above the rest.
Where DRK has magic defense, the other tanks have magic defense as well now. Mainly just that its 30% if used with DA.

TBN is just another varriation of Inner Beast. (and what would have been sheltron if it wasnt semi nerfed, despite its magic defense buff)

WARs not only higher DPS, but the better tank to just holmgang through many mechanics.
and PLDs cover is great for helping with various mechanics as the OT.

The only thing that makes DRK stand out, is TBN.
Its not as much of a DPS loss as inner beast is. (as its barely a DPS loss, and shouldnt even really be thought as such)
But its not as good as cover.
If it lasted longer, had less mp cost, and gave allies the 20% hp, while only needing 10% removed to gain the blood, then it would be a real contender for Cover, despite cover being used for completely different reasons.

But if you dont want to double stack PLDs, and you want to stack cover and TBN, you can.
DRK is also the easiest to DPS on, as mistakes can happen easily, but they hardly put a dent into your DPS if you dont perform perfectly.

I think in time, TBN will become the DRKs main stand out feature.
In the mean time, DRK will just be a sort of middle ground.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/wiki/enmity

but don't forget that we can use dark arts on the enmity combo, especially with the huge amount of mana we have now since 4.0, wich makes the enmity combo better and that we can better spam our aoe's than everyone else.

If you're CnS is off CD, then that DA will give you more enmity if spent on CnS, and help you do more dps.
And for the sake of valuing DPS vs enmity, and the need to drop DPS rotations for enmity rotations, ur still going to get more bang for ur buck not DA+power slash.

[Shinkyo]

Currently, there's no good reason to take DRK over PLD/WAR.
At the same time, there's no big downside for taking a DRK in the group either. They marginally have lower DPS but are still 100% effective in raid. They're just not better than PLD nor WAR.

[Sarcatica]

1 thing to note is that DRK was widely used by the top progression teams to clear o4s. WAR does overtake DRK for 'MT slot' in dps at the highest play. I would assume that DRK should be used again for progressions but will later be switched to WAR for speedkilling.

[Pence]

1 thing to note is that DRK was widely used by the top progression teams to clear o4s. WAR does overtake DRK for 'MT slot' in dps at the highest play. I would assume that DRK should be used again for progressions but will later be switched to WAR for speedkilling.

5 in the top 10 groups for Neo use a DRK, all use a PLD. And 10 in the top 20.

[Clouse_Cleyra]

5 in the top 10 groups for Neo use a DRK, all use a PLD. And 10 in the top 20.

So everyone used PLD and half use WAR and the other half PLD

[Jonnycbad]

Even if I feel the three tanks are not equivalent, the DRK is the one who has the perfect spell for Tank Buster, it's called TBN.
And since he can put this TBN on him, or on any player in the party, it makes it better than the WAR to protect the team, even if the WAR can make more dmgs.

Intervention/Sheltron are the same thing, arguably better. Sheltron is approx ~24% damage down on PLD (compare to TBN's -20% on DRK), and Intervention is -10~40% on a party member (compare to TBN's 10%).