Am I missing something, or are Dark Knights just terrible?

[Goji1639]

I'm leveling a Dark Knight at the moment and yikes. Squishy, barely any CD's, terrible damage, virtually no self healing.

I'm thinking back to leveling my Paladin and he had extra armor from the shield and blocking, so way less squishy, plus Sheltron and Clemency just to make extra sure it was nearly impossible to die.

I remember many runs where the healer died early on my Paladin and I'd literally just play tank and heal the whole group with clemency. EZPZ. Had that happen on my DRK today; couldn't have possibly been more helpless. Had my 3 CDs to buy me maybe an extra 15 seconds, and a pathetic 600hp self heal going off every 3 GCDs (wow). The Support DPS were able to keep themselves alive more effectively than me after I died; they could actually self heal.

I know it probably gets better later on and everything is balanced for 80, but exactly HOW much better does it get? To say this is disappointing would be an understatement.

[Sawamura]

Yes drk is terrible from 30-72lvl. Once you hit 70 drk and get TBN will be better. You may want to use CD one by one.
Reprisal AoE -10 damage 10s, Arm's Lengt 20% slow 15s, low blow 5s and interject castbar use those as much as possible.

[Kleeya]

It gets way better once you have TBN at lvl 70 to negate a lot of damages, and even some debuffs. But when synched below that, it is true that you feel naked XD

[Goji1639]

How does DRK stack up with other tanks at level 80? I mean like self-healing; damage output; mitigation; self-sufficiency; is there anything the DRK excels at compared to other tanks, or is DRK just a more viable version of last place at 80?

I mean, I like the DRK aesthetic and I think Living Shadow looks like a lot of fun, but I'm not sure if that's worth committing to the worst tank class in the game; if that's the case.

[Sawamura]

Well for me is like
Self healing rank
PLD> WAR> GNB> DRK

Damage output
GNB> PLD> WAR > DRK

Mitigation Support
DRK > PLD> WAR=GNB

self-sufficiency
Thanks to SE all tank is almost same with few dps button different

Well drk best weapon is TBN and drk is best tank for dungeon cause of TBN

[Goji1639]

Hmm, well best mitigation is something at least. Worst damage output is definitely disappointing; I'm guessing that means that DRK is the worst progression tank.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Hmm, well best mitigation is something at least. Worst damage output is definitely disappointing; I'm guessing that means that DRK is the worst progression tank.

Don't let that fool you, max damage between tanks varies up to 3 or 4% from highest to lowest. Damage isn't a critical factor when picking DRK.

DRK is actually solid as a progression tank due to TBN. Dont know what happens next? TBN and see. You do know and it deals damage to you or co-tank? TBN anyways, chances are it's worthwhile anyways as long as it breaks.

[Hierro]

DRK at 80 is superior to both PLD and GNB at dungeons. Their AoE damage is absolutely monsterous. if you allocate your CDs properly along with keeping TBN on cooldown, you will see that the self-healing you get from Abyssal Drain is more than suffice because the amount of damage you negate from having a 25% HP bubble every 15 seconds is insane.Your healers will hardly need to cast a GCD on you if ever! This all sounds like an exaggeration, but just stick with it and you'll see what's up.

But yes, to acknowledge, DRK sucks pre-70.

[Tranquilmelody7]

I think at ARR levels DRK is one of the best tanks, Soul Eater can actually sustain you quite a bit when tank tools are very limited at that point.

HW and SB pre-70 are where it really starts to feel miserable compared to other tanks.

I just wish The Living Dead wasn't so horribly designed.
The only tank invulnerability that is always useless during solo play, and also useless during SHB content due to HP totals being so high.

I know it has the best duration of the invulnerability skills and can be utilized during high-end content because of that, but the skill is just a liability during PUGS and is NEVER satisfying to use due to having no way to manage the debuff on your own.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

I think at ARR levels DRK is one of the best tanks, Soul Eater can actually sustain you quite a bit when tank tools are very limited at that point.

HW and SB pre-70 are where it really starts to feel miserable compared to other tanks.

I just wish The Living Dead wasn't so horribly designed.
The only tank invulnerability that is always useless during solo play, and also useless during SHB content due to HP totals being so high.

I know it has the best duration of the invulnerability skills and can be utilized during high-end content because of that, but the skill is just a liability during PUGS and is NEVER satisfying to use due to having no way to manage the debuff on your own.

I think LD being bad is a fair trade for TBN being god-tier for literally everything else...