What about creating an ACTUAL Dark Knight?

[ADVSS]

In 2.0, WAR had literally one "mitigation" skill with Thrill Of Battle. The increase in healing received wasn't even tied to Defiance but to rage, which forced them to not use Inner Beast. PLD would have been a nightmare to heal too if it only had rampart and Shield Oath didn't reduced damage by itself.

Youre absolutely right, but pre fix the hp fluctuated so chaotically at times, it was like watching a good HW or SB DRK's mp gauge during a big pull, and was crazy. At times you didnt know when to heal, or not(youd def heal because you dint want them to die at all) but then this idea, paired along with yours:

Sacrifice HP. Gain defense. Now the HoT placed on you is no longer overhealing and the following tankbuster won't one-shot you, so long as you're topped off before it.

How does that "make no sense whatsoever" for a tank action? You're literally smoothing out damage intake, exploiting lulls in damage to prevent spikes.

Paired with a now streamlined defensive kit, would definately work. The question now would be all about tuning it - pretty possible I think.

Oh man Cecil Harvey, FF4... I could go on and on about that one. For instance how its stats were deliberately halted around level 50 or so, max hp around 5k at 99, etc. The fact that every character was put in as a drkcecil if you recruited them before their time (dummy/placeholder char/ stats too). Even more hillarious is that PLD cecil and DRK cecil seem to be most likely 2 different characters entirely(you cannot beat zeromus without having PLD cecil in your party. Its a wipe, and game over during the crystal of light part) Ah man, to be fair to add to this, i wouldnt rely too much about the drk cecil stats, they very deliberatedly made it worse on purpose. Most definately the 1 will stat the entirity of its levelling, which was magic defense, i think? (magic tank my :kupo