Thoughts on PLD/GNB/DRK

[Aegis_Harvey]

> Living Dead is indefensible on DRK. There is no use case where it isn't flat-out worse than the comparable cooldowns, Holmgang and Superbolide (imo, Hallowed Ground belongs in a separate category).
In order for these three cooldowns to have any benefit, they must be used within a window where you are certain your HP will drop below 1, otherwise LD and Holm do nothing, and Bolide will vary somewhere between slight penalty to slight benefit, averaging out to doing nothing (contrast with Hallowed Ground, which will always have a benefit). These are emergency situations, to which LD's very generous 10 second window is a paradox - if you need that big a window for emergency use, it isn't an emergency use.
Assuming, then, that you pop your cooldown within 1 second of needing it, Bolide and Holm effectively grant 9 seconds of life-saving time and LD grants 10 seconds.
In that 9 seconds with no external healing or crits, my GNB can heal itself to around 20k HP with Aurora and Corundum (roughly 28% HP), my PLD could heal itself for 56k HP with just Clemency, WAR can probably fully heal itself, even a lvl 30 MRD could heal at least 20% HP with Thrill of Battle. My DRK can heal itself for 7k HP, only having time for abyssal drain and one syphon strike, 11k HP if combos line up for two syphon strikes (somewhere between 10% and 15% HP). To put that into perspective, a lvl 42 WAR is better prepared to go from saved by Holmgang to stopping a boss from killing them with the next tank buster - with one button - than a lvl 90 DRK is to go from saved by LD to stopping themselves from killing them, by a wide margin. In my example Abyssal Drain heals a 72k HP DRK for 2750, so the only way for a DRK to actually save themselves from their own ability is to be actively tanking 25 targets. This is how absurd LD currently is.
As such, the LD mechanic would make sense on a tank that focuses on self healing, but instead is placed on the only tank that is ostensibly focused on self shielding (arguably, WAR is also better at shielding than DRK). My suggestion, thus, forks out into two possibilities.

Either:
Remove Living Dead and replace it with a copy of Hallowed Ground. Call it Dispersion, make it turn you into the Living Shadow jet-black shader effect. It can maybe take away some of your HP or deal AoE damage on activation to give it some flavor but functionally it's the same as Hallowed Ground. Yes it's boring, but at least it works.

Or, Keep Living Dead, but when it activates it gives you two buffs: Walking Dead for 2 seconds that gives you a Holmgang-type "can't drop below 1HP" effect just so you don't get gimped by lag; and Rigor Mortis, a shield for 100% Max HP that lasts 10 seconds. You'll still need to be healed, but at least it's no longer actively working against the tools DRK has.