Tanking with style

[select20]

Just kind of a fun question imo. I'm "new" to the game. I have 361 hours but still haven't finished the MSQ so I haven't gotten to see any end game tanking yet.

To my question, which tank has the best style and why do you think that?

For me, my favorite tank is the Drk. I love the big sword, I love all the animations and hey, its a Dark Knight which are my favorite classes in about any Lore I come across.

My 2nd favorite is the Paladin. When I play one it feels like a tank. I have always loved shields. Because I tend to love shields, I think they are also the best looking class. Also a very close 2nd favorite class across all Lore I have read.

Flashiest tank to me is the Gunbreaker and also the one I like watching the most. The seem fluid and graceful.

Warrior is probably my least favorite tank to watch, although I do enjoy playing my little warrior. They scream brute force and get out of the way of my axe. Nothing flashy about that or fun to watch.

[DRKoftheAzure]

Just kind of a fun question imo. I'm "new" to the game. I have 361 hours but still haven't finished the MSQ so I haven't gotten to see any end game tanking yet.

To my question, which tank has the best style and why do you think that?

For me, my favorite tank is the Drk. I love the big sword, I love all the animations and hey, its a Dark Knight which are my favorite classes in about any Lore I come across.

My 2nd favorite is the Paladin. When I play one it feels like a tank. I have always loved shields. Because I tend to love shields, I think they are also the best looking class. Also a very close 2nd favorite class across all Lore I have read.

Flashiest tank to me is the Gunbreaker and also the one I like watching the most. The seem fluid and graceful.

Warrior is probably my least favorite tank to watch, although I do enjoy playing my little warrior. They scream brute force and get out of the way of my axe. Nothing flashy about that or fun to watch.

Go with Gunbreaker because you missed ALL of the cooler Dark Knight Skill animation back when Heavensward/3.0 was still a thing, if you want to tank with style...

Paladin is also a good choice.

Warrior I could care less about...

TL;DR version on my thoughts on Dark Knight is I don't like how boring they made Dark Knight by turning it into a "Resource Dumping For Damage" class, which was not how Dark Knight was designed when Heavensward launched...

[Hierro]

When it comes to dungeons, I'd say WAR is perhaps the tank that does the job with the most flair, and that's for two reasons: burst damage and burst healing.

It's stylish as heck to go from 20% HP to full from nascent and using chaotic cyclone. It's stylish as heck to have a huge crit appear on screen with a notable drop in monster HP.

[Lyth]

WAR is the BLM of tanks. Ponderously slow, punctuated with explosions. Meat and potatoes. The antithesis of style. That's not a bad thing, but it's not what OP is looking for.

[DRKoftheAzure]

WAR is the BLM of tanks. Ponderously slow, punctuated with explosions. Meat and potatoes. The antithesis of style. That's not a bad thing, but it's not what OP is looking for.

Both WAR AND DRK are the BLMs of tanks. Slow, boring, oGCDs with long animations that last longer than the GCD but are interrupted by the GCD making the class look weak as well which already says a lot about WAR and DRK because they are slow and weak, other defensives become obsolete by the time the get a specific skill and are just resource dumping classes, though PLD is also a resource dumping class by the time it gets Holy Spirit but that's a whole other design issue.

GNB has some neat downtime optimization tricks with for when No Mercy burst is almost back up with Demon Slaughter combo and you need to be away from the boss but need to be ready to do your burst and is more of a resource management tank.

And on the topic of PLD being a resource dumping class via Requiescat means they need to make Clemency oGCD and not cost MP during Requiescat effect only.

[select20]

Go with Gunbreaker because you missed ALL of the cooler Dark Knight Skill animation back when Heavensward/3.0 was still a thing, if you want to tank with style...

Paladin is also a good choice.

Warrior I could care less about...

TL;DR version on my thoughts on Dark Knight is I don't like how boring they made Dark Knight by turning it into a "Resource Dumping For Damage" class, which was not how Dark Knight was designed when Heavensward launched...

I already like my DrK I think for my main. I like the playstle tbh. It is fun to see different thoughts though.

[Lyth]

...

?
DRK APM is only marginally behind GNB, even after the massive simplification of the past two expansions. It only feels relatively slow because the HW version had nearly double the APM of either of these.

WAR is genuinely slow. The wind-up big hits are an aesthetic choice.

[SnowVix]

I already like my DrK I think for my main. I like the playstle tbh. It is fun to see different thoughts though.

if you're looking at aesthetics, dark knight's weaponskills feel weighty. it's kind of nice, they feel like you're swinging a sword the size of a you around.

[Hierro]

WAR is the BLM of tanks. BLM uses flare. WAR has the most flair. Get it? GET IT?

you planned this all along, didn't you?

[DRKoftheAzure]

I already like my DrK I think for my main. I like the playstle tbh. It is fun to see different thoughts though.

DRK had a VERY DIFFERENT playstyle back in Heavensward that only one aspect of it's playstyle is only replicated on GNB...

The other playstyle was lost to Shadowbringers flood of simplification, which it kinda shared with WAR and PLD, though WAR was more designed around stance dancing and PLD the toggle that you see today with GNB.

Once you get GNB to 80 along with the other tanks, you will probably hate DRK more...

?
DRK APM is only marginally behind GNB, even after the massive simplification of the past two expansions. It only feels relatively slow because the HW version had nearly double the APM of either of these.

WAR is genuinely slow. The wind-up big hits are an aesthetic choice.

Doesn't excuse for how weak both actually are.

if you're looking at aesthetics, dark knight's weaponskills feel weighty. it's kind of nice, they feel like you're swinging a sword the size of a you around.

More like swinging around a longer PLD sword that has a little more weight to it until you get the bigger weapons, and the aesthetics of the weaponskills just clash with how big the sword an actually get yet the game still pretends you are swinging around your level 30 claymore... Spinning Slash felt like you were using enough force to get the job the with Power Slash having a bit more weight and flare to it(the dark energy blast after the downard slash really felt more DRK than current DRK), Dark Passenger was multiple energy blasts in a straight line(again way more DRK than current DRK) Scourge and Delirium weaponskill animation were pretty alright(not sure WHY they haven't brought those skills back and reworked the 2 into a full combo to be used after Hard Slash), Living Shadow is a waste of an actual burst window for DRK(Though I would change buff it's duration by 3 seconds for it use Dark Passenger after Plunge for what), much like DRKs current Discount Fell Cleave spam and discount Holy Spirit spam(if you can even get the MP and "Dark Arts" proc for such a feat) making Edge/Flood of Darkness/Shadow and Bloodspiller/Quietus be boring and making you wish you had a second combo to use as well as making you wish Dark Passenger came back on a 30 second recast timer, as well as wish Carve and Spit and Abyssal Drain came off cooldown faster or have a shorter recast timer because of how bored you are with the animations and you're only other combo is Unleash -> Stalwart Soul(you don't even get Stalwart Soul UNTIL LEVEL 72).