What is the General Consensus?

[Chrono_Rising]

Call it what you will, defensive/support/whatever utilities do not get anywhere near the same value as direct offensive utilities in shaping the meta and never have. Trick attack (when used properly) creates a large boost to damage, and I still maintain that damage defines the meta. War using Shake it off 3-4x a fight can in a roundabout way create healer damage. If it saves 1 aoe GCD per use and its used say, 5x in a fight, a healer gained 4 gcds of damage. That is a pitiful amount of damage compared to a 60 sec trick attack on damage used 7-8x a fight. Mantra might save a healer a gcd (as rarely outside of bleeding edge progression do any of these shields cause a wipe). Whats 1 healer GCD compared to a direct damage buff like 20% raid crit rate for 20 seconds on Drg?

The sun is very bright. I still turn on a light when its dark despite my lightbulbs much lower output.

You are comparing direct damage utilities to defensive utilities, I don't think it takes alot of investigation that dps utilities have a greater weight. The dps difference among tanks is lower than that on dps, and the utilities we are comparing are comparatively lower. If we are talking meta, then you also have a shield saved from paladin, maybe another 4 healer GCD's, and cover maybe saves another 3, so now we have gained 12 GCDs at 200+ potency each. Suppose that also saved a dps from losing up time and they gained a GCD. It adds up to a non-trivial amount of dps. I agree this pales in comparison to trick attack, but there is no reason to compare to trick attack because tanks don't offer a skill which is comparable. This is only made worse by then recognizing that dark knight brings less dps than the alternatives as well as losing party wide GCDs. Warrior has only 1 utility that might save a group GCDs and brings much more dps to compensate. We should apply the same logic to dark knight.

It actually does matter on non dps fronts as well. For groups that just want to clear and don't care about pushing mechanics may also appreciate more defensive options on tanks. But again, even there dark knights cannot find a home because the tanks bringing more dps are bringing better utilities.

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I agree 100%