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

[Lucy_Pyre]

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

While most of this is correct, the damage output should read as such;

GNB -> PLD -> WAR=DRK because outside of Hades EX, WAR and DRK are more or less identical in their damage outputs, often being within single or double digits of one another.

[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.

[Malmstrom]

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.

I hate this concept.

"The Blackest Night is only good if it breaks!"

Not breaking is considered bad, regardless of the amount of damage it lets you soak for some reason.

That's dumb.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

I hate this concept.

"The Blackest Night is only good if it breaks!"

Not breaking is considered bad, regardless of the amount of damage it lets you soak for some reason.

That's dumb.

Consider the following:

If in seven seconds you didn't lose 25% of your maxHP, would you truly need it at that moment?

All cooldowns can be wasted if used in a low damage timeframe, it is just that TBN has a very visible indicator of failing to optimize it. On the flipside it is incredibly flexible due to the short cooldown and its' MP refund mechanic.

If TBN didn't have this incentive, it would just be a rather bland cooldown