Xenosys Vex's tank analysis. (Video)

[LegolasT]

For me, it's a wash between the still-dull Warrior and increasedly dull Dark Knight for which tank I'll level last...

Had such high hopes for DRK this expansion, too...

Question have you even played the new DRK and WAR ??? How do you know they are dull? Maybe I should ask you how shadorbringers ends?

[jetfire117]

Question have you even played the new DRK and WAR ??? How do you know they are dull? Maybe I should ask you how shadorbringers ends?

Man that's what I been wondering. Everyone played the entire expansion already. I'm sitting here questioning why I didn't get an invite? :^(

[Freyyy]

Man that's what I been wondering. Everyone played the entire expansion already. I'm sitting here questioning why I didn't get an invite? :^(

You don't need to play it to read all of the tooltips and make a rotation out of it. It's called theorycrafting. DRK might perform well, and if that's enough for you to be satisfied then good for you. I personally want the job to feel great, fast-paced and engaging like it used to be in HW, and I know for a fact that I'm not alone on this one. That's what made us main DRK back in HW in the first place. And we don't need more than reading tooltips and watching videos to know that the job will still have one single combo, and will have a slower-more-potent Dark Arts replacement that doesn't involve any more brain cells than its current iteration. It literally has nothing more to offer except an Inner Release copy pasta and a cool looking clone that just acts as a DoT with massive startup time. It's like a very beautiful box, but completely empty.

[Kabooa]

Question have you even played the new DRK and WAR ??? How do you know they are dull? Maybe I should ask you how shadorbringers ends?

I mean Warrior hasn't really changed. In fact the one part that could have given it an interesting thing to work around (Nascent Chaos) is completely invalidated because Infuriate was given a charge system.

Any potential priority conflict that Warrior could have had was already curtailed, thus ensuring the only difference between Shadowbringer Warrior and Stormblood Warrior is don't use Infuriate during Inner Release.

If you think Warrior is dull now, the odds of that changing in the expansion are not high.

As far as Dark Knight goes, I'm less certain about.

I don't think the resource management is going to be compelling because Darkside will basically only ever drop if you mess up The Blackest Night. The resource ping pong is currently the only compelling part of current Dark Knight, and that's gone. Everything is much more measured in what we're shown, and while the change of pace isn't bad, the lack of weight with what we're shown is cause for concern.

Living Shadow -needs- interaction. It badly needs it. It's a cool flashy ability but the fact that you and it have no incentive to work together is the biggest missed opportunity of this expansion.

Delirium being a lesser IR is also just the most disheartening thing about it.

[Otorinth]

One of the bigger things rubbing me the wrong way is Delirium becoming a faux-Inner Release. As usual, I'm going to hold my judgement on DRK until I play it,thoroughly. I'm actually looking forwards to going back to older, lower level dungeons and getting to use a 150 potency Unleashed and mess around with Flood of Shadow as well as seeing how much damage I can pump out during 8-mans at 80 during burst windows (still not sure on when TA is going to come because Ninja is looking crazy, atm).

Resource management is almost non-existent in Stormblood as is, and I didn't expect it to change. Seeing that you`re way more likely to over-cap a little than bottom-out makes it to where you`re never hurting for MP and Blood. As for Living Shadow, I expected THAT to simply be a really cool looking DOT. Dark Missionary was...a bit disappointing. Due to it being magic-only, you won't be able to pair it with TBN for a greedy physical tank buster cooldown. Living Dead still existing in it's current form sucks even more due to the loss of Convalescence and Soul Survivor.

Weather it ends up being a good or bad rework; new toys are new. The question is, how long will they entertain me before they start to become grating as the expansion goes on?

[NyneSwordz]

I mean Warrior hasn't really changed. In fact the one part that could have given it an interesting thing to work around (Nascent Chaos) is completely invalidated because Infuriate was given a charge system.
Any potential priority conflict that Warrior could have had was already curtailed, thus ensuring the only difference between Shadowbringer Warrior and Stormblood Warrior is don't use Infuriate during Inner Release.

If you think Warrior is dull now, the odds of that changing in the expansion are not high.

As far as Dark Knight goes, I'm less certain about.

I don't think the resource management is going to be compelling because Darkside will basically only ever drop if you mess up The Blackest Night. The resource ping pong is currently the only compelling part of current Dark Knight, and that's gone. Everything is much more measured in what we're shown, and while the change of pace isn't bad, the lack of weight with what we're shown is cause for concern.

Living Shadow -needs- interaction. It badly needs it. It's a cool flashy ability but the fact that you and it have no incentive to work together is the biggest missed opportunity of this expansion.

Delirium being a lesser IR is also just the most disheartening thing about it.

I've been thinking of how Infuriate being on a charge system curtails priority conflicts. I think this was intentional especially with regards to Onslaught. I don't think we're gonna have to worry much about using Onslaught as a gauge dump to prevent overcapping - I could be wrong - but I figure with the removal of bonus crit from pooling gauge, Infuriate having 2 charges, Infuriate triggering Nascent Chaos, Wars are gonna be dumping rage into FC and probably on average won't get anywhere close to overcapping rage.

They also reduced Onslaught cooldown to 10 secs, no doubt to make it so that Onslaught is always available for use within Inner Release - even if you messed up and used it like 2 seconds before Inner Release it'll be available again within the Inner Release window no matter what. Again, less conflict/decision making.

If this is the case, why can't they just put Onslaught on a charge system same as other tanks? There appears to be no need for it as a rage dump, therefore, no need for it to cost rage. And even with a 10 sec cooldown, it's never going to be used anywhere close to that cooldown - I estimate it's usage frequency is gonna EVEN LESS than other tanks gap closers. That is, other tanks, because their gap closer is on a charge system, they're gonna be dumping it every 30 secs for dps, and saving 1 charge for when it's actually needed as a gap closer.

Warriors? Probably once every 90 seconds during Inner Release, and here and there when it's actually needed as a gap closer - which I don't think is gonna be every 10 seconds, I would be surprised if it's anything more than a 2 or 3 times an entire fight if even that given that Arms Length exists.

I hope they take another look at Onslaught..

.