DRK Living Dead is healer's nightmare.

[Miziliti]

This is the main reason I call DRK the worst tank. While DRK has all other problems that make it less fun to play with. Living dead is the reason DRK fail as a tank. It is a pain for healer to deal with correctly. First I need to make sure DRK lose all hp to trigger walking dead and then within 10s I need to make sure his hp is heal back 100% or he dies. In a perfect world where I have all the available oGCD heals this is no problem. How about during tight situation? For example in Shinryu ex, dancing between aoes and that super tank buster ahk morn and tera slash while all I have left is the GCD heal. All I have is frustration thinking why couldn't you be like HG or HmG where I actually have time to heal tank to a stable amount of hp because it actually mitigates the damage, then move on to heal rest of the party instead of praying you to not be dead while spamming the heal button. Whenever I see the macro "Living Dead is on" I just focus heal the hell out the DRK to not let walking dead happen because I simply don't want to deal with it even in 4-man dungeons.

The different between DRK and the other two is hell and heaven. While DRK here screaming heal me please, WAR and PLD over there simply says, "yo I got this, healers" with a confident simile.

In contents where tanks actually need to manage mitigation, I simply hate DRK.

[Megguido]

In 8-man content you're supposed to have a cohealer, so you're not the only one healing back the DRK to full health. Also, Living Dead isn't an "OH SHIT" button, it is something you plan for an actual mechanic (like Akh Morn in your example), so just make sure you have an oGCD heal available by the time the mechanic lands (Benediction, Essential Dignity and Lustrate should help a lot).

In the same scenario, if you blew up all your oGCD heals and your WAR Holmgangs, you still have less than 6 seconds to heal him back to a respectable amount with only GCD heals. It's the same with DRK, except you have a little more time, and you have to heal a little bit more. Let's say your DRK has 60k HP, you just need a Cure II + Tetra, and your cohealer a Benefic II + Essential, which takes like 3s.

[Shurrikhan]

Living Dead -- 10 seconds at a 300-second cooldown. (30 seconds cooling per second of duration.)
Holmgang ----- 6 seconds at a 180-second cooldown. (30 seconds cooling per second of duration.)

Do we really need any negative effect attached to Living Dead for it to see balance against Holmgang, if not also Hallowed Ground?

Why not just have it prevent HP from falling beneath 1 HP for 10 seconds -- no more, no less?

[Megguido]

Except WAR's 6 seconds start when they press the button.
DRK's 10 seconds start when they actually drop to 1 HP.

[Shurrikhan]

Except WAR's 6 seconds start when they press the button.
DRK's 10 seconds start when they actually drop to 1 HP.

For now, but if you removed Walking Dead, then they'd only have the 10 seconds of Living Dead itself.

The question is simply whether it's worth trading a small technical advantage (preparatory leniency) that could give up to 19 seconds of hands-free heals if you have a Bene at the ready, for a quality of life change that reduces WHM dependence.

Personally, I could go either way, as I haven't particularly had issues with it except with laggy tanks dying just after having been healed from 1 to full and then a bit more after another GCD's damage taken and healing recieved.

[Launched]

Do we really need any negative effect attached to Living Dead for it to see balance against Holmgang, if not also Hallowed Ground?

Why not just have it prevent HP from falling beneath 1 HP for 10 seconds -- no more, no less?

Living Dead does need extra negative effects to be balanced. The extra 4s duration means it can be used on things that Holmgang can't, and it's less restrictive than Holmgang's root/target requirement. The healing requirement also justifies the 2m shorter cooldown than Hallowed. Remove that and it pretty much just becomes Hallowed on a shorter cooldown, because healing someone from 1hp to a decent amount just isn't difficult with skills like Benediction/Tetra/Essential Dignity/Earthly Star/Excogitation/Lustrate.

[ManuelBravo]

In contents where tanks actually need to manage mitigation, I simply hate DRK.

Personally I think their are a lot of people who play DRK and think they know the job, I agree with you to an extend. However, as a healer you can always ask them to remember their cool downs if they are giving you hard time, basic healing 101. With that being said Living Dead is only a problem when the HP falls to 0, you don't need to let drop you can still heal them. It's just a safety net otherwise for a few extra seconds of not losing enmity and giving a healer a chance to focus more on them. Sure it can be a pain for most healers who get stuck with a poor DRK that does not know simple tanking 101, but hey unless you form a party need to learn how to deal with those fake DRks. Now if they are using their CD, well geared, and not over pulling then that is a healer issue. Kind of why tanks hate healers who don't know not to cast actions or regen during pulls I hate those with a passion.

[Nedkel]

Walking death should make him a ghost after death for 20 seconds in which he could use all abilities without any cost, still able to get hits and aggro on the enemy but not taking any damage, and healer be able to cast revive spell on him during it. Accepting revive should put him alive at 30% hp without losing aggro or time to spawn.

That would be awesome and give him unique gameplay to other tanks.

[Rathael]

So holmgang is basically a Living Dead without the debuff?
Hallowed ground not only does not have the debuff, but also negates all damage completely.

Seriously. I swear DRK development is some sort of running joke this expansion. Yet another action that is basically a terrible version of the other two classes' equivalents.

[Risvertasashi]

so just make sure you have an oGCD heal available by the time the mechanic lands (Benediction, Essential Dignity and Lustrate should help a lot).

benediction is a nice way to deal with it in a 'perfect world' scenario. But a fight like Shinryu EX, holding it can often mean someone dies because there's a lot to mess up and they messed something up. And even if they don't, it really helps with the heal adds.

I've had a bit more success with it in a static, but even then, now and then someone eats something, Tetra is on CD or simply not powerful enough, and so it becomes... "Do I save their life with bene or do I save it for DRK's LD?"

Asking for it to be up for LD in pug content like Shin EX is definitely a burden.