What is the General Consensus?

[Derio]

All 3 tanks can clear content. But you have to look at all sides of the argument. And there is a reason why DRK is the least played tank in high end content. The evidence is there.

[reivaxe]

All three are capable of doing content effectively, even if one is grossly disadvantaged by simply having it's fault ignored repeatedly, they all three can perform their base function, that being to tank. Warrior and Paladin simply excel at it compared to Dark Knight. Warrior is seemingly based around the idea of doing more with less, Paladin has a cooldown and utility for almost every situation, and Dark Knight is the opposite of both and requires vastly more effort to achieve the the same results with no consideration or extra reward for the effort put in to doing so.

As someone who is a level 70 Pld and leveling both War and Drk (both up to 55 as of now) I agree completely with this.
Friend asked me how I like them and I told her that "War feels amazing and fun! Drk ... feels like I'm pushing 2.5 more buttons to still be a worse than the other 2 tanks"

[Aana]

I'd also posit that a major factor in there being as many DRK related threads as there are is the effect of issues and concerns being largely ignored by the developers over a long period of time.

I am not passing judgement that the number of drk threads is to damn high. Stating that there are lots of drk threads is not the same thing as saying there shouldn't BE drk threads. The knee jerk to defend and justify the volume of drk threads keeps blacking out my actual point. The number of threads/posts is simply a factoid that supports my point, not THE point.

Drk is the weakest tank, but if you were to read the forums to learn about the state of tanks, you could be mistake the volume of posts to be a measure of HOW weak drk is and have a distorted view. Volume of posts about a thing does not equate to the actual power of said thing. It is representative of how people FEEL about a thing (frustration, anger, etc at being ignored by devs in most cases).

I guess I'm the only one that gets Aana post lol. Go ahead label me another War fanboy

For reals tho, seems like an honest attempt to prevent the OP from getting the wrong idea just by glancing at the tank forums. There have been DRK threads for months, it's not untrue. I think it's entirely possible for an untrained forum-goer to get a bad impression of DRK

Holy crap there is hope. Somebody got the point instead of jumping all over the perceived attack.

[kashi11]

Or, you know, people could actually read some of the DRK posts instead of just saying 'wow there are a lot of posts about fixing DRK, it must be broken and unusable'. If you actually read the numerous threads you will see they they have a bunch of little issues that add up to them being last. Also being last in every measurable category is different then being the least played tank. If DRK were the best in just 1 category, DRK could still be the the least played tank. Right now there is literally no reason to roll a DRK over WAR or PLD other than the player wanting to play as a DRK. When running something like Shinryu EX I will always use my PLD over my DRK because PLD just excels in that fight where DRK can't.

[TouchandFeel]

Data:
Forum 'concensus':
War>>Pld>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Drk

This forum has been overflowing with Drk tears for months and that is not up for debate.

The point was that you should trust the reasonable judgement based on data, not the thousands of QQ posts littered throughout the fourms.

You say that you are not passing judgement on the number of DRK threads, but when you make statements like those above you are most definitely passing judgment both on the amount and content of the DRK posts. When you portray the forum feedback for DRK, which as I already went into is understandably and expectedly at a high volume, as "tears" and "QQing" and being "hyperbolic" you are intentionally describing them in a negative fashion which is an externalization of a negative judgement.

Let's take for example the following sentances:
"Aana is expressing their perspective of the DRK threads again."
"There Aana goes, bitching about the DRK threads again."

Technically it could be argued that they are making the same statement, however the very different language and the implications and connotations of the wording paint very different pictures, with the first being fairly neutral and the second being discernibly negative.

Using such wording to portray something in a negative light also has the effect, often intentionally, of detracting from the veracity and value of what is being spoken about. When concerns, complaints and feedback are labeled as just a bunch of "QQing" it devalues them and makes them easier to ignore or discredit under the pretense of them being emotional and biased overreactions that lack merit.
It also is an indirect insult to those that have engaged in the DRK feedback as it makes them out as essentially being babies, because what is the image that is immediately evoked of something that cries a lot? A baby.

Expressing that people should properly inform themselves and not just jump to conclusions, based on the amount of feedback and the manner in which it is sometimes given, that DRK is the worst thing since explosive diarrhea in a stuck elevator is great and people should always make properly informed decisions, however by using obviously loaded language that is not the message that you were putting out, whether intentional or not.

Anyways, I feel this back and forth has more than run its course and while I would hope that you see why the things you were saying resulted in backlash, I have my doubts as to whether any minds will be changed on the matter. I have said my piece and will leave it at that, simply hoping that people in general will be more mindful of not only what they say but how they say it as delivery can carry just as much or more meaning than the purported content.