What tank and version of said tank is your favorite

[Seku]

Making this thread to perhaps help SE to see what the user base wants in their tanks.

Please leave what is your favorite tank, which version (ARR, Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers) and why.

What mechanics did you like, what you didn't like. Ect.

If possible, please do not go into arguments over current meta and ect, as I'd rather this be something more akin to constructive feedback.

Thank you,
Seku.

[DRKoftheAzure]

Heavesnward Dark Knight will always be best Dark Knight.

[Falar]

Heavesnward Dark Knight will always be best Dark Knight.

You couldn't be any more right.

I hated Stormblood DRK which is why I didn't stick around for much of the expansion. I've been gone for over a year and just came back and I'd say that so far I like this version better than Stormblood but that's not saying much. And there is plenty I don't like.

[DRKoftheAzure]

You couldn't be any more right.

I hated Stormblood DRK which is why I didn't stick around for much of the expansion. I've been gone for over a year and just came back and I'd say that so far I like this version better than Stormblood but that's not saying much. And there is plenty I don't like.

I at least managed to get some fun out of Stormblood DRK, despite certain gripes...

[shao32]

Heavensward DRK will be always the best DRK.

The entire job work around control you darkness with the darkside mechanic granting you tools to enhance you aptitudes like dark arts, dark mind, ect.
It use to have more unique combos that work based on a priority system around the amount of MP you have to spend and at the same time based on a secondary MP priority system making the job being tactical and dinamic in every aspect.

It use to have more MP uses and his aoe rotation was godly and a lot of fun only surpassed by SB aoe rotation and the only flaw the job have was his parry/evasion mechanics don't working with you MP generation.

And it use to have scourge and shadow skin.

Compared to the brain-dead DRK of SHB with his soul eater spam, bloodspiller spam and non existed sinergy old DRK was 100% enjoyable compared to now is only TBN and living shadow carrying the entire kit/fun.

[Awful]

HW DRK was the best tank had so many options and ways to adapt to the current situation with choices, combined with management, as well as DA management + CDs interaction. DA + Dark Mind was a thing that you could prep before hand and went hand in hand with fight knowledge not to mention Blood Weapon was a lot more fluid, fast, fun, and responsive back in HW vs How tight Blood Weapon is now at the mercy of server ticks.

They also brought an INT down with 3 combos which is another thing I miss having more than 1 combo, and Abyssal Drain was more fun to use back then vs now since you could have Blood Price + Blood Weapon and spam Abyssal Drain and become a god, also having Scourge a 30 sec DoT which is basically our Bloodspiller now I miss since I hate Salted Earth but that's only because it has ground targeted mechanics which, well suck least for me so thank god for macros.

I do miss HW DRK but I am loving ShB DRK a lot and continue to play DRK despite some negativity.

[Alaeacus]

Part 2:

3. Forget endgame content with FCs and Statics for just a few minutes. Remove it COMPLETELY from your mind. The vast majority of content most of us personally play is roulettes and leveling content, if we're all being honest. I am a solo player, have a solo FC, and PUG almost 100% of my game. I don't know about you, but Healers in general are NOT created equally. Lots are good, lots are learning, and lots are on auto-pilot while watching Netflix, lots afk through the whole instance.

I die FAR more often as a DRK than I do with PLD for one simple reason: Clemency. Clemency is god. I pray to the church of Clemency. Clemency keeps me alive as I solo finish 4-man content. Clemency keeps me alive as my entire team wipes on Thunder God Cid while other alliances try to rez my healers. Clemency keeps me alive with high health in the biggest of trash group pulls. DRK has one heal on a 1 minute timer, and a very VERY crappy heal locked behind a single-target 3-skill combo. You should not be single-target attacking in a group pull, period. DRK self-heal, in my personal opinion, is garbage. Where are the historical DRK leech-life mechanics? I feel like this class can barely be considered a Dark Knight in FF canon.

The trade-off is supposed to be TBN (which requires MP to use) on a 15s cooldown which you're basically spamming in a trash pull, oh but don't forget to make sure your Dark gauge is active, but honestly why should I even bother with all that? In contrast PLD pulls trash, click a buff, spam aoe combos, Requieset + Clemency fills my entire health bar if I get into trouble then I just keep spamming aoe combos.

4. Living Dead. Ugh! I don't trust PUG healers to give me basic heals half the time as they are paying more attention to the newbie Bard who permanently hits the floor every boss aoe. Why, for the love of God, should I trust them to save me from Living Dead's auto-KO mechanic? Hallowed Ground has ZERO downsides other than being on a slightly long cooldown. You can argue that TBN is the default tank buster defense but that's just not true on the worst tank busters. Living Dead is essentially permanently unused on my hotbar.

Those are my main thoughts. I just don't see any benefit to playing DRK that outweighs the drawbacks. At least not ENOUGH benefit that would warrant me choosing it over PLD. The aesthetic is cool, but not at the expense of gimping myself (and sometimes, it feels like that's exactly what I am doing by choosing DRK...gimping myself). These are just my opinions.

"But LOL, Git Gud, good DRKs don't die or have any of these problems scrub." Sure buddy. Please introduce me to this magical world you live in where all PUG healers are pro gamers. I would love to live there too.

[Alaeacus]

Crap, there is a character limit in this forum. I have to do this in two posts:

I have mained PLD for a long time and only recently got the itch to get DRK to 80 (almost there). If I'm going to be completely honest, I'm not impressed. My thoughts:

1. The DRK story is decent, but a bit overrated. I see people on forums and reddit talk about it as if it should win some reward for "amazing" writing or something. It's not really that amazing. It's a bit shallow, and makes very shallow allusions to the WoL's state of mind, but BARELY develops on it.
I felt almost zero attachment to Sidurgu's kid and that arc bored me a little bit. I felt even less attachment to the spirit kid and that arc MEGA-bored me. It was still: go here, fight this, go there, fight this, go here, fight this. The tired old quest formula hasn't changed. The conclusion of the Level 70 quest wasn't that exciting, pretty hackneyed. Why is the entire DRK questline a babysitting adventure? Why are kids involved at all? This whole quest line could have been about the hypocrisy of the city-states, the hypocrisy of so-called crusaders for "good", and the WoL's internal morality struggle. I thought they were going there with the first few quests, but then it quickly changed into a rendition of Little Orphan Annie. DRKs the babysitter service.

2. DRK rotation seems like a lot of extra unnecessary busy-work, only to receive a pay-off that MIGHT be SLIGHTLY better than PLD, whose rotation is far more clear-cut and linear. Busy-work can be fun but after a while, you wonder why you are even doing it when the other classes you wouldn't have to. In low-end content it doesn't matter, in high-end content when you are just trying to clear difficult areas, why honestly should I have to add an unnecessary layer of difficulty other than for epeen bragging points? For DRK I am looking at my hotbar FAR more often, which takes me out of the "feel" of the fight. I've got to manage a Dark gauge, while also managing a Blood gauge, simultaneously watching cooldown timers (especially Delirium), but oh yeah, make sure you watch boss mechanics too.

[Canadane]

Crap, there is a character limit in this forum. I have to do this in two posts:

Edit an existing post and there’s no (reasonably attainable) limit to your text.

[Malmstrom]

Karate-chop

Clearly you did not read the quest journal when you were doing the DRK quests.

The quest journal makes the quests go from decent to amazing.