DRK vs. WAR: how do they compare?

[Rayne6665]

All i can say about Warrior: they go brrrrr

[fulminating]

I mean if you're going to do a dick measuring contest here, there's really no tank that could take the title of "Dev's Favorite" other than WAR.

Everything you complained about with WAR happened to DRK as well except in this case, it wasn't actually replaced with anything. The class has been largely the same since Stormblood.
Man I wish DRK got cool things like Primal Rend.

And while I get that "fun" isn't exactly a design intent the developers has ever had in regards to tank jobs in this game, the fact they even changed overpower makes me very confused as it means they looked at their available data for tanks in dungeon content and actually came to the conclusion that WAR wasn't easy enough there.

I was also taken aback by looking at the tank kits in PVP, how WAR's the only one that even really feels complete while the others are just sorta...bad unless you're just taking into account PLD's ability to not die or cheese certain frontline maps.

I hate primal rend with a passion. It completely lacks synergy with the rest of the kit and is emblematic of the new obsession with removing all thought, but everyone gives it a pass because “monk flip” or “you can use a gcd gap closer while breaking tethera in this incredibly specific mechanic during p4sp2:finale that we’re absolutely going to be seeing more of and isn’t just a one off” would it really be so bad to just use tomahawk and onslaught and have an actually interesting button? Both warrior and dark knight have been pushed out of anything interesting since either the inner release changes in stormblood or the homogenisation of 5.0. The only tank the devs care for is paladin - even gunbreaker was damn near made in its image. Why on earth would a gunbreaker have dots if they’re not an otherwise inexplicable circle of scorn/comboless goring blade?

It really feels like they had a “placeholder tank” framework and never got around to actually fleshing either of them out, which is made all the more absurd by the established identities for both that were discarded.

Dark knight gets to have the traditional dark knight identity in pvp for better or worse. Regardless of execution, I like that they have it a go somewhere where it doesn’t really matter. If only the same could be said about summoner.

[Derio]

DRK vs WAR.

Basically almost carbon copy of eachother outside of defensive kit and DRK having more OGCDs to make it feel more fluid and dynamic.

Both are really good. However the biggest difference between the two is that WAR is significantly more self sustaining that DRK. At end game you can see WAR being favored simply due to the ability to cheese tank busters more frequently than the other tanks.

I love DRK but WAR seems to be the favored tank by the devs followed by PLD.

Play whichever one you have the most fun with.

[Moebious]

Dark Knight or Warrior.

If you got either one in their lvl 60s, then do HoH, their 70 kit, are pretty much their core playstyle, so how they feel to differ inside there, to you, will be expanded further upon, at 80 and 90 as well.

Dark Knight

has the most oGCDs attacks of all the tanks, but their kit aren't really advanced in any situations, I would even say they are the most straight forward tank, a simple dps disguised as a Tank. Dark knight has the best front loading burst dps though, and you will notice that in HoH compared to warrior. Their TBN is perhaps the only special ability where you always have to gauge the cost of it not breaking, compared to other tanks having similar core tankbuster mitigation ability(s) for free. If you like a busy opener job, first 15 seconds, then you'll likely favor the Dark Knight over Warrior. Dark Knight's ogcd attack, based on MP is also its 10% damage buff, which means as you engage, within the first gcd you'll have your damage buff up, and able to control it far easier, than Warrior's method of keeping their 10% damage buff up. dps rotation-wise outside of their burst window, Dark Knight is very simple. in a nut shell, heavy on ogcd attacks, making them busy in the opener but overall very straight forward, absolutely not the most complex or advanced Tank job at all. Death Knight used to suffer from the worst death save, of all the Tanks, but with the change of giving them self heal through attacks, while Walking Dead, it's a very decent death save, as long you got something to attack and heal back to 100% from. And finally had its 2nd rotation AoE attack changed from lvl 74 to 40-something, which is great, being able to get both blood(62) and MP from their aoe rotation early on!

The Tank that feels like a DPS, until its MP is spent.



Warrior,

it's pretty much the king of self sustain/heal, weaving them into your regular burst or rotation, as you please. Since Warrior's attack style is more slow and GCD heavy, means you won't have trouble weaving your defensives between your attacks. Also means it can feel rather slow between each IR burst phase, but each hit will have pretty huge impact, as per usual "Unga Bonga! Smash!" happy feels. Since the Bloodwhetting/Raw Intuition change, your playstyle often revolves around when to use it, and what to use of other defensives, while BW/RI is on cd. The problem with Warrior, or what you will realize, is that their 10% buff either require you to do a 3 GCD single target rotation or 2 GCD aoe rotation, before unleashing IR and go ham. Warrior still has the fastest gap closer of the tanks, and you got 3 charges, making it a rather very mobile tank, in a strange way. Also with IR buff you'll be immune to all knockbacks or binds, which arms length would also have negated, giving you numerous ways of ignoring even more mechanics than most other tanks. Has the shortest CD on their death save, with no drawbacks. At 70, warrior's aoe rotation does not grant them beast gauge, first at 74 does it grant beast gauge. So in essence the new Drk has a better complete aoe rotation early on now.

The Tank that refuses to die, where other tanks would have died.

In my opinion, both have their neat moments, and sometimes feel very much alike as well, Bloodspiller and Fell Cleave, and their 1 minute cds, with different flavors. In the End it's oGCD heavy with a bit more dps, vs a GCD heavy with a lot more self heals and defensives. Since you got a GNB already, its pretty much a mix between the two. So if you wanted a bit stronger defensive kit, its Warrior, if you want more ogcd attacks, its Dark Knight.

Since the Dark Knight QoL, its a very nice tank to play, in most cases. But Warrior is defo the best Dungeon Tank(raw intuition & up), and perhaps the strongest old content destroyer.

[Argyle_Darkheart]

[Primal Rend] completely lacks synergy with the rest of the kit and is emblematic of the new obsession with removing all thought, but everyone gives it a pass because “monk flip” or “you can use a gcd gap closer while breaking tethera in this incredibly specific mechanic during p4sp2:finale that we’re absolutely going to be seeing more of and isn’t just a one off”

It has synergy with Bloodwhetting/Nascent Flash, same as Inner Chaos/Chaotic Cyclone (especially if it cleaves), but feel free to completely ignore this as irrelevant if it suits your argument.

[fulminating]

It has synergy with Bloodwhetting/Nascent Flash, same as Inner Chaos/Chaotic Cyclone (especially if it cleaves), but feel free to completely ignore this as irrelevant if it suits your argument.

I wouldn’t call that particularly relevant but I can see the argument there. So: is that synergy or jank coding? Based on how inner release no longer forces critical heals I’m leaning toward the latter. Let’s also not pretend that you can’t fully heal from a handful of mobs using an uncomboed mythril tempest. The flat potency is far too generous in dungeons and the change also makes it less rewarding on single target, if significantly easier to get some hp back when heavier hitting attacks are on cd.

[Argyle_Darkheart]

Inner Release forced BW/NF crits during the Media Tour, which was changed for release. That indicates intention to me, even if the initial interaction was purely incidental. That is, SE decided to pick and choose what forced BW/NF crits.

Maybe I'm wrong—there could be some mechanical reason why Inner Release was changed to function differently from IC/CC/PR in this one specific way, though I can't imagine what that reason might be. Regardless, the synergy exists.

[Hierro]

DRK sucks! WAR's better!

[RatCopter]

WAR functions extremely well in all content (and absolutely dunks on P4S at several points during the fight with very minimal thought)
DRK functions like ass and makes me not want to play tank anymore. Playing it is frustrating. Even looking at the skills makes me mad. Flood of Shadow existing means Abyssal Drain has to be shit. TBN existing means Oblation has to be shit. E N H A N C E D U N M E N D.
At least they fixed Living Dead.

[Absimiliard]

Fixed is a, uh, very strong word to associate with Living Dead. More like they slapped a bandaid on it. It's less dumb than it was, but it really needs a full revamp whenever the devs finally get around to giving DRK a rework from the ground up like it needs.