Tank Classes Off Tank DPS

[Hachiko]

I'm wondering if the default modus operandi should be to have Warriors off tank with Defiance inactive. While Paladin's obviously use shield oath and just be the Oh shit tank / pick up adds. But yah that's surprising when putting them both on level playing field it's so close.

You can also take into account Storm's path would also benefit DPS of the main Paladin tank and perhaps Dragoons??? If it benefits Dragoons I also wonder if that can stack with Heavy Thrust. Or is Dragoon's dmg Piercing or something?

Dragoon damage is peircing, but the Storm's path buff does help the tank. And theoretically it could have another upside of the tank not having to run storm's path if it was a WAR, which would mean a little more heals from Storm's Eye, though not much to write home about.

Another thread that was mentioning the WAR ability to DPS was saying that as a MRD it parses higher then as a WAR. Have you had a chance to look at this yet?

That's because MRD none of the WAR class skills increases a WAR's damage output. What WAR gets is: Inner Beast, Steel Cyclone, Unchained, Infuriate and Defiance. They all share something in common: They all require Defiance up to be used.

So the main difference is that with a PAL they get Sword Oath and Spirits Within from being a PAL, and both of these increase their damage outside of Shield Oath stance.

A WAR actually would gain an appreciable (though small) amount of damage staying as an MRD. They would get access to Blood for Blood and Raging Strikes. I haven't checked how much STR they lose though. There's also a chance that the STR difference from just being a WAR would be enough to offset Blood for Blood and Raging Strikes. Those 2 skills give ~7-8% damage boost averaged out though so it's unlikely that the STR loss from the change would nullify that big of a gain.

Aside from that though, you would lose access to Bravura (and +1) and even the ilvl 80 one would probably make up for the difference from the MRD cooldowns. Also, IIRC the Relic armor is also pretty significant. So if you have access to the best end game items, a WAR will probably outparse a MRD by quite a bit.