Favourite Tank Incarnation?

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

3.0 DRK — I miss having to keep darkside up and the old quietus combo.

AoE in HeavensWard, as far as I know, was the original on-GCD Abyssal Drain, original Unleash, and Dark Passenger.

Quietus, and the BlackBlood Gauge, showed up in 4.0, as the new toys at StormBlood release.

In HW DRK didn't have Quietus, you mean Delirium combo perhaps? ^^

and yeh, assuming that Quietus was a different kind of typo, perhaps they meant the old GCD combos and original Delirium, rather than AoE... /think

The image I have of a tank is a heavy armor with a sword and a shield, so the PLD. Except that it sucks at ShB by its gameplay.

Don't like the GNB style that only speaks to Squall Leonhart fan, FFVIII is my favorite FF, but a guy in a furry jacket and a T-Shirt, that doesn't make a tank. And its gameplay with ammo doesn't make me think of a tank : Wait I reload and then I start again.
Even though, blah, blah, blah. Mostly, I don't like his gameplay.

WAR is a berserker in armor, a berserker historically is a guy in leather armor, often represented shirtless. And it's more of a 'glass cannon' than a tank.
For the gameplay, it seems slow to me and the axe as a weapon does not speak to me.

So my next tank after PLD is by default a DRK, not because it's too dark.

It would be nice to have a tank with a shield and a spear, too.

So... You prefer Paladin's aesthetic, but do not like its game-play, and disapprove of the aesthetics of GunBreaker and Warrior, so you play Dark Knight
just as the last option? I would hope that what ever happens to Paladin in 6.0 will please you, then...
Dark Knight may end up being a lost cause, always a trash tank with no personal identity from now on, with only its aesthetic still intact, unless 6.0
just happens to be redemption that will clean up the 4.x and 5.x on-going mess...

[Xenosan]

3.0 DRK before the dark arts double-tap bug was fixed. When done like so (ie: DA -> C&s -> Souleater) It was basically a Life Surge and Power Surge in one.. ..Didnt feel like a bug.. felt like a rotation/cd/resource optimization white rabbit.. Wish they stuck with it in some form

People complained it was unfair to those with bad ping, because of the required double-weave. I think.

Then storm blood dark knight happened, ha

[Falar]

3.xx Dark Knight

[Seraphor]

Late SB DRK was a beast, loved the infinite AoE carnage you could combo to absorb HP and MP as you dealt damage, via Blood Weapon and spamming Abyssal Drain.

[Kalaam]

I have to say that, save for the overuse of Dark Arts, the crazy sustain you could have was hilarious.
Even in 3.x, spamming Abyssal Drain was always super fun and satisfying.

[Falar]

I have to say that, save for the overuse of Dark Arts, the crazy sustain you could have was hilarious.
Even in 3.x, spamming Abyssal Drain was always super fun and satisfying.

Yeah, wall to wall pulling in even new dungeons was so fun. With Blood Price on your MP was free---DA-AD and heal away. When Blood Price ended, DA-DD and watch the evades come riding in. DA-DP to blind your enemies and then you still had Shadow Wall and Shadow Skin.

It was nice having other Combo Finishers too, aesthetically Delirium was my favorite. Power Slash and Spinning Slash looked ok and were not optimal to use but at least we had more than just a simple 1-2-3 combo like L50 PLD did.

[Kalaam]

Also being somewhat of an "evade" tank was very satisfying, just blind the enemies and give yourself additional evade. This was fun.

[Brandedblade]

I remember enjoying 3.0 DRK because it was the only tank I was comfortable doing large pulls with because of Blood Price+DA+Abyssal Drain.
I was also very fond of 2.0 WAR when, as a noob who was always in tank stance, was very fond of how war felt like the "active mitigation" tank with trying to time Inner Beast (when it used to give 20% DR for 6 seconds after use)