Dark Knight Megathread

[Kalaam]

Earlier I was in the 2nd dungeon with a PLD, as a reaper, and during the boss the healer fell and died at the beginning of the 2nd phase, followed by the other DPS.
We cleared it nonetheless. The PLD had no issue staying alive while keeping me up and running (arcane crest kind of helped a bit).
A DRK definitely couldn't have done that.

[Ignimortis]

Earlier I was in the 2nd dungeon with a PLD, as a reaper, and during the boss the healer fell and died at the beginning of the 2nd phase, followed by the other DPS.
We cleared it nonetheless. The PLD had no issue staying alive while keeping me up and running (arcane crest kind of helped a bit).
A DRK definitely couldn't have done that.

That's not a bad thing by itself, really. Class diversity is necessary, even if it creates some weak spots in your kit. The issue is that for every weakspot, there's supposed to be payoff. My theorycrafting friends say that DRK apparently has the highest DPS among tanks at the moment (by a significant margin, so much that they can outdamage DPS classes during the opener, and keep ahead of other tanks during the downtime), but that's about it.

[Lyth]

I seem to remember that prior to Shadowbringers, tank damage output was the single most important factor that players looked at, and being able to mitigate was less relevant outside of being able to generate more LB.

What would be nice, however, is if they bring out the person who designed Reaper, and just gave them the instructions to design a tank job based around the same principles. I think a lot of players would pick up a job and play it without having any specific advantages, so long as it was simply joyful to play.

I also think that with the recent more revelations on how magic works, it makes a lot of sense for DRK to work off of two resources, be it Aether (MP) and... well, let's call it 'Blood'. Burning through your supply of one should help attune you to the other. I strongly think that the devs should stop designing timer focused jobs and instead put out more genuinely resource-management focused jobs.

[Kalaam]

Honestly reaper feels like a dark knight if they gave up defense entirely (and just kept TBN)
So this wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe

[Isutowaru]

Can we talk about Dark Knight's damage at the moment? I'm really feeling happy with the damage output of Dark Knight at the moment, 4.4k averagely with nearly hitting the 10k opener barrier already, ilevel 570 right now with extreme trial weapon and accessories. Still using Job gear left side. I'm personally quite happy with Dark Knight's personal output right now but I don't know how Gunbreaker/Paladin/Warrior compare to our current version of Dark Knight.

[Kalaam]

Damage can be changed from one patch to the other, it's honestly not that good of a metric.
DRK could have only 1 2 3 combo, but all hitting for 1000+ potency it wouldn't mean the job is in a good state. That it has at least that going for it is...fine.
But honestly, damage isn't even that relevant to a job's mechanics. Especially a tank.

[Niyuka]

Damage is among the most important aspects when differentiating between tanks. If DRK has DPS as its "special niche" that outweighs the other tanks better defensive capabilities, it will be in EVERY DAMN RAID STATIC for the only content that matters in FFXIV: Savage and Ultimate.

[Shurrikhan]

Damage is among the most important aspects when differentiating between tanks. If DRK has DPS as its "special niche" that outweighs the other tanks better defensive capabilities, it will be in EVERY DAMN RAID STATIC for the only content that matters in FFXIV: Savage and Ultimate.

And, thereafter, will lead to the accelerated burnout of many of our tanks since they're obliged to play a job they do not enjoy...

[Kalaam]

Damage is among the most important aspects when differentiating between tanks. If DRK has DPS as its "special niche" that outweighs the other tanks better defensive capabilities, it will be in EVERY DAMN RAID STATIC for the only content that matters in FFXIV: Savage and Ultimate.

And will it make it fun to play ? For some maybe, but what if you don't care about big deeps ?
It also speaks to a larger issue, in that tanks are becoming more and more like a new category of DPS. Just like ranged are "support DPS", tanks are starting to become "doesn't get one shot DPS".
I know that everyone has to do DPS, obviously. But tanks only need to use CDs on tankbusters and that's it. No need to move bosses around, to split aggro of adds, and so on. That's a real shame. Of course this is part a job design issue, and an encounter design issue.

And as I said, if DRK is too prevalent in high end raid because it has too much DPS, it is going to get nerfed. DPS is an unreliable metric of functionnality. It is only numbers that can be changed. You could make Hard Slash deall 9999 potency. DRK would then have the best DPS of all the tanks, absolutely insane. Must pick for savage raid.
Doesn't mean it's fun. Well, it can be, if you like to see big numbers, yeah absolutely. But it is only a tiny fraction of what makes a job fun, and the easiest to adjust between patches.
It's easier to enjoy a job that has satisfying mechanics, but low DPS, than a job with high DPS and unsatisfying mechanics.

[CKNovel]

Damage is among the most important aspects when differentiating between tanks. If DRK has DPS as its "special niche" that outweighs the other tanks better defensive capabilities, it will be in EVERY DAMN RAID STATIC for the only content that matters in FFXIV: Savage and Ultimate.

1000% wrong.

Repeat after me everyone! People play the job they enjoy!
DRK was a Dark Art comedy in SB yet it was in UCOB world first. The argument? "I like Dark knight"
BRD remained insanely popular in ShB despite its low damage. Why? Same reason as above. MCH dealt more damage than BRD and DNC, within world first player hands, would've been a valuable asset.
GNB was highest damage but I only raided one tier with a GNB in my party, same happened with other raider friends.

Many raiding comp were double melee when SMN/BLM were the highest DPS.

I can keep this up all day long.
XIV jobs are balanced enough so no one cares about damages. Hell, in ShB i've heard of double ranged comp.

If damage was among the most important thing to care about, why many played with a RDM or a DRK during ShB? Why BLM was the least played job despite it being top damage?
And for your information, damage are even less important in Ultimate since the DPS check is, so far, much more lenient that Savage DPS check.