How Bad is DRK now in PvP?

[DendrielConcade]

I barely touched DRK and barely touched Frontline in this patch of 7.3, but with DRK being the character that actively is harming itself to push out higher DPS or sitting and waiting for Barrier to pop for a free one, how bad is it with Purify taking up some of their Healing? Its already an uphill battle with them unless they're steamrolling with their party hopping around with Plunge but without that they feel actually awful.

Mind you, I am not talking about Frontline, hopping in and just pulling a bunch of people, I'm talking full-kit here and if its functionally fine and I'm missing something.

[Valence]

I'm not a DRK expert so I wouldn't be able to tell, but one thing that goes in favor of DRK however, is that they seem to have mostly finally fixed Disesteem and improved its usability I think?

[OliviaLugria]

Gun-breaker pretty much does everything dark wants to do but better.

Since stuff generally dies faster it’s a buff for plunge, but salt is still to slow, damage isn’t there, tbn gets outpaced by other tank cds and you just don’t have any sustain to stay on point or pressure anyone there with you.

[MayuAmakura]

For Crystaline Conflict;

- Low elo: DRK is absolute garbage due to bad interaction with your team and people at that elo don't know what to do. This is where GNB shines and beats the devil out of everyone.
- High elo: This is where DRK shines good and actually starts to feel fun whereas GNB falls off hard here due to players knowing what to do against it.

DRK alone is good when you coordinate with your team and give orders. Your plunge is used to reduce healing of focused target + it will heal you for 20% if that target dies in 12 seconds. Very nice ability.
Salt is still feeling way too slow but that can also work in your favor. You bind targets and you stay in salt to get dmg reduction + heals.
Your shields now are 2x so you can throw them more. Although 8k potency seems far too low. Still its nice that you can now cover multiple targets and not just use on yourself. Free shadowbringer is nice but its just 6k unless you are low on HP. Your empowered basic attack is okay.

LB is best used when on full health for max damage and make sure you do all combos. Plus your LB additional ability goes through barrier (it was bugged so they should fix it by now I think?).

Overall, DRK is an OK tank when you utilize barrier correctly and know how to respond. Its main issue is constantly having to look at your HP because this job favors from low HP.

As for the poster above, let me tell you one thing. DRK is one of the classes that can have the biggest damage at the end of CC match even more than GNB and others combined.

[Valence]

The main advantage of DRK that no other class has is that they can burst at will whenever they want because nothing is attached to recasts at the base level.

[TofuLove]

For frontlines DRK is in a weird spot.

On one hand, salted earth is still a game defining button. It can create plays that just didn't exist literally out of thin air. Plunge is still an amazing skill. Everything else is terrible.
Some may say that "oh, phlegma sage is good also, and can act as kind-of salted". It's not even in the same league.

On the other it has similar damage reduction to red mage (38% for RDM and 40% for DRK (lol)). It has the longest charging LB out of all the classes. And actually does less than paladin lb with more charge time. It's got by far the least damage out of all tanks.
You are everyones priority target. After years of DRK premade abuse, every casual player still thinks that DRK is the Number 1 target. It unironically needs a buff.

BUT

If you play in an organised group or with a decent team, your weaknesses are compensated by your teammates (pocket bravery phys. ranged or paladin) and you can push as hard as you were able to in endwalker, and it's still insanely good.

p.s.
Not to mention when compared to other tanks, salted earth IS your mitigation and is on a longer cooldown than any other tank (HoC - 20s, Sheltron - 18s, orogeny/bloodwhetting - 20s, salted - 28s). Yes it's 20%, but it's location specific, which makes knockbacks even more painful to endure as you lose your footing. And you will get every knockback possible for sure.

[MayuAmakura]

DRK is the most skill ceiling tank job and thus most fail with it. You have to constantly check your HP and make sure that salted earth is placed properly or to utilize it properly. There are a few people that are playing this job constantly and they are the ones that will make you hate this job once you realize how unkillable it can become with a proper team. Not to mention that you can be top dps with this class as I mentioned before. Many post game stats in crystal and now omega / ultima have DRK as top dps with 120k and more. This just shows when a good player uses it, it will be great.

I really don't think this job requires any buffs because we can all remember how annoying it was during season 9 (together with Monk). It was one of the most played tank jobs until they reworked GNB and made it a super easy job for starters.
It got hit a bit by purify changes but that's about it. GNB was nerfed and is somewhat okay now in higher elo. You will struggle with it against good players. Warr is the best one right now. Paladin is still okay and on good spot but definitely cannot do cover anymore without using guard. It's impossible or you die instantly.

[SushiDog]

Square has already told us they don't care to balance around FL's so I'm ignoring that entirely.

There's no rank where I would ever want to see a DRK on my team instead of a GNB or a PLD.

PLD is the better tank at high ranks where people can more rapidly identify and abuse cover, or who can more rapidly shift to targets tagged by Smite. GNB is the better tank at sticking to, killing people, stat-checking and staying alive. WAR is the better tank at CC dumping (despite this not being a rewarding play-pattern). DRK offers nothing that the other tanks don't offer, better, or while having other benefits.

DRK is likely always going to be at the bottom of the pack so long as Plunge exists in its current form. The ability to reset, heal, and gain mana on a heal reduction gapcloser is "too strong", so the rest of its kit needs to be lackluster to compensate.

[MayuAmakura]

Square has already told us they don't care to balance around FL's so I'm ignoring that entirely.

There's no rank where I would ever want to see a DRK on my team instead of a GNB or a PLD.

PLD is the better tank at high ranks where people can more rapidly identify and abuse cover, or who can more rapidly shift to targets tagged by Smite. GNB is the better tank at sticking to, killing people, stat-checking and staying alive. WAR is the better tank at CC dumping (despite this not being a rewarding play-pattern). DRK offers nothing that the other tanks don't offer, better, or while having other benefits.

DRK is likely always going to be at the bottom of the pack so long as Plunge exists in its current form. The ability to reset, heal, and gain mana on a heal reduction gapcloser is "too strong", so the rest of its kit needs to be lackluster to compensate.

Hey DRK got buffed and guess what happened? Now everybody spams DRK in CC matches. People will just play what is meta and abuse that for easy wins. Don't get me wrong, DRK really didn't need buffs. These buffs also made an incentive for people to play it instead of other tanks. Now we see them more and more in our games. I don't like it.

[Elephantality]

Also don't be me and make shallow dives, that was why I was not getting anyone in my salt. (I realized it was due to my /targetenemy macros, so I need to re-think that) So it is tough to use, doesn't feel great and not my desired playstyle but I'll come back to it when I try out other classes and hopefully get better and can appreciate it more.