Intro
Black Mage
Bard
White Mage
Class Quests: 10/10 Fun to Play: 10/10 Complexity: 7/10 Depth: 4/10 Levelling: 6/10
TLDR: Dark knight is my personal recommendation for learning tank. Starting at 30 skips much of the awkwardness of early level tanking, and they also have the most reliable and clear AOE for keeping mobs on you, self healing, and a fairly low skill floor to play. They get a whole lot of buttons to press, but none of it is very complicated once you take the time to read what everything does. It’s also one of the strongest classes narratively, so if you enjoy the story of the game, make sure to pick this class up.
Introduction: Dark Knight is a dark magic themed tank that sets itself apart with use of mana as a resource before Paladin, the best tank AOE for pull consistency, and some cool defensive abilities not shared by other tanks. This isn't to say they do a ton different, but if you're at all concerned about starting tank, I would recommend starting here because the class is very easy and fun to learn.
Class quests: Dark knight 30-60: Dark knight has, in my honest opinion, the best class quests of any class in the game. Fray, Sid, and Reille are wonderfully flawed and interesting characters that go through genuine growth and feel like family to me. I am choosing to omit details here in the hopes of persuading you to check it out for yourself, but I will say the quests do a fantastic job of characterizing your player avatar, better than any other questline.
As I have finished the Stormblood quests as of this writing, I will note they are the best non MSQ quests in the game I have experienced thus far. Check out Dark Knight if you enjoy the storytelling of this game. My final comment is that all of the Heavensward classes deal with Ishgards philosophy and being an outsider and underdog overcoming years of tradition, which this class does second best, losing to Machinist in my opinion, but does everything else around that so well, and still manages to tell that piece effectively.
Fun to play: Overall, I think Dark Knight falls somewhere in fun on the spectrum with Gunbreaker and Paladin. It’s much less flashy than either of those two, but makes up for in with rock solid pulls, an incredibly easy to learn and comfy play style, and my favourite defensive cool down in the whole game, Abyssal Drain. Watching your health go from zero to full in huge pulls is just sweet. Unleash is always fun to spam, and their dark magic aesthetics make the abilities feel cool to use, with a much more caster themed tank than the other options. For my experience with the game, wall to wall pulls are the most fun way to experience dungeons, and as such, all tanks will score highly based on the fact that they can dictate the flow of the dungeon. You don’t have to ever wait for your tank if you’re the tank.
Complexity: Dark knight has a ton of buttons to press and it can all feel slightly overwhelming, not to mention that the level 30 start throws you in the deep end of some of them. However, the simplicity of their play style means despite that, the overall complexity is more just reading what your abilities do than it is execution complexity, and finding a way to put everything on the bar for it to be comfortable to hit your buttons.
My personal recommendation for setting up tank bars is to put your defensive cooldowns somewhere easy to access, and put your AOE on whatever your number 4 key equivalent is, after your single target rotation, as you’ll need it on every pull. I would also recommend your ranged attack go on control 1 or your equivalent, as you will use it a lot due to the increased emnity generation. That’s just what works for me, and has felt useful on every tank. Final note, arms length applies an attack speed slow for 15 seconds when monsters hit you, make sure to find a place for it.
Depth: Depth of play for Dark Knight is slightly higher than Warrior, with expending mana to use oGCDs mid combo for a damage buff and extra AOE or single target. Most of the depth score comes from the simple fact that you’re tanking, as dark knight itself is one of the simplest tanks. Tanking takes some skill to execute, but in my opinion is no where near as difficult as healer, at least not in standard dungeons. Because all of your defensive cool downs are off the GCD, you are essentially always DPSing, and just using your defensive cool downs when in danger. Your mana bar can be freely emptied, at least until you have access to later skills in Stormblood, so you don’t really have any resource to manage either, which is part of my recommendation to start with this class, as at 60 you can focus almost solely on tanking and nothing else. Something worth pointing out is that Dark Knight has the worst invulnerability skill in disorganized groups, making it risky to use. Keep it for emergencies, because it’s difficult to rely on.
Levelling: Tank levelling is, by its nature, a little bit RNG and a a little bit difficult. The gear from vendors is extremely weak, and the recommended gear system values strange things over armor, making it nearly useless if you have disciple of war gear laying around. If your healer is bad, doing large pulls can be nearly impossible at early levels, and often the early classes lack the AOE to make the most of bigger pulls. Dark Knight’s level 30 start mitigates some of these problems, but it still suffers from poor access to good gear which makes a huge difference at early levels.
Still, dark knight has no kit flaws that exacerbate these issues, unlike Paladin (Paladin AOE can feel extremely unreliable with its strange delay), and if anything it has the best early kit save for Gunbreaker. So, it’s still rough in spots, but I do think it’s the class best positioned for tank levelling, lacking Paladin and Marauders early AOE problems, or Gunbreaker information overload, and I would highly recommend starting here, especially if you can find a friend to heal for your first couple runs. Try to keep your gear up to date and confirm you aren’t using disciple of war gear for a smoother experience. For the sake of everyone in the community, once your gear is up to date, try pulling more than one pack at a time. You’ll have more fun tanking and your levelling will go much faster.
Conclusion: Dark Knight isn’t the best in any one area, but is easy to learn and very comfy to play. The class quests are phenomenal, and I think it’s dark magic caster style feels fairly different from the other tanks. The best AOE for pulls and a fast projectile attack make it a fantastic starting point, and it remains my favourite tank as of this writing. It has a good mix of self healing, damage, and defense that make it feel the most self sufficient pre 50, losing out to Paladin once they acquire Hallowed Ground. Abyssal drain is fantastic and really cool, something that simply isn’t emulated by any other tank. I highly recommend you join the edgy tank club today.
submitted by /u/SealMeetsClub
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...
Black Mage
Bard
White Mage
Class Quests: 10/10 Fun to Play: 10/10 Complexity: 7/10 Depth: 4/10 Levelling: 6/10
TLDR: Dark knight is my personal recommendation for learning tank. Starting at 30 skips much of the awkwardness of early level tanking, and they also have the most reliable and clear AOE for keeping mobs on you, self healing, and a fairly low skill floor to play. They get a whole lot of buttons to press, but none of it is very complicated once you take the time to read what everything does. It’s also one of the strongest classes narratively, so if you enjoy the story of the game, make sure to pick this class up.
Introduction: Dark Knight is a dark magic themed tank that sets itself apart with use of mana as a resource before Paladin, the best tank AOE for pull consistency, and some cool defensive abilities not shared by other tanks. This isn't to say they do a ton different, but if you're at all concerned about starting tank, I would recommend starting here because the class is very easy and fun to learn.
Class quests: Dark knight 30-60: Dark knight has, in my honest opinion, the best class quests of any class in the game. Fray, Sid, and Reille are wonderfully flawed and interesting characters that go through genuine growth and feel like family to me. I am choosing to omit details here in the hopes of persuading you to check it out for yourself, but I will say the quests do a fantastic job of characterizing your player avatar, better than any other questline.
As I have finished the Stormblood quests as of this writing, I will note they are the best non MSQ quests in the game I have experienced thus far. Check out Dark Knight if you enjoy the storytelling of this game. My final comment is that all of the Heavensward classes deal with Ishgards philosophy and being an outsider and underdog overcoming years of tradition, which this class does second best, losing to Machinist in my opinion, but does everything else around that so well, and still manages to tell that piece effectively.
Fun to play: Overall, I think Dark Knight falls somewhere in fun on the spectrum with Gunbreaker and Paladin. It’s much less flashy than either of those two, but makes up for in with rock solid pulls, an incredibly easy to learn and comfy play style, and my favourite defensive cool down in the whole game, Abyssal Drain. Watching your health go from zero to full in huge pulls is just sweet. Unleash is always fun to spam, and their dark magic aesthetics make the abilities feel cool to use, with a much more caster themed tank than the other options. For my experience with the game, wall to wall pulls are the most fun way to experience dungeons, and as such, all tanks will score highly based on the fact that they can dictate the flow of the dungeon. You don’t have to ever wait for your tank if you’re the tank.
Complexity: Dark knight has a ton of buttons to press and it can all feel slightly overwhelming, not to mention that the level 30 start throws you in the deep end of some of them. However, the simplicity of their play style means despite that, the overall complexity is more just reading what your abilities do than it is execution complexity, and finding a way to put everything on the bar for it to be comfortable to hit your buttons.
My personal recommendation for setting up tank bars is to put your defensive cooldowns somewhere easy to access, and put your AOE on whatever your number 4 key equivalent is, after your single target rotation, as you’ll need it on every pull. I would also recommend your ranged attack go on control 1 or your equivalent, as you will use it a lot due to the increased emnity generation. That’s just what works for me, and has felt useful on every tank. Final note, arms length applies an attack speed slow for 15 seconds when monsters hit you, make sure to find a place for it.
Depth: Depth of play for Dark Knight is slightly higher than Warrior, with expending mana to use oGCDs mid combo for a damage buff and extra AOE or single target. Most of the depth score comes from the simple fact that you’re tanking, as dark knight itself is one of the simplest tanks. Tanking takes some skill to execute, but in my opinion is no where near as difficult as healer, at least not in standard dungeons. Because all of your defensive cool downs are off the GCD, you are essentially always DPSing, and just using your defensive cool downs when in danger. Your mana bar can be freely emptied, at least until you have access to later skills in Stormblood, so you don’t really have any resource to manage either, which is part of my recommendation to start with this class, as at 60 you can focus almost solely on tanking and nothing else. Something worth pointing out is that Dark Knight has the worst invulnerability skill in disorganized groups, making it risky to use. Keep it for emergencies, because it’s difficult to rely on.
Levelling: Tank levelling is, by its nature, a little bit RNG and a a little bit difficult. The gear from vendors is extremely weak, and the recommended gear system values strange things over armor, making it nearly useless if you have disciple of war gear laying around. If your healer is bad, doing large pulls can be nearly impossible at early levels, and often the early classes lack the AOE to make the most of bigger pulls. Dark Knight’s level 30 start mitigates some of these problems, but it still suffers from poor access to good gear which makes a huge difference at early levels.
Still, dark knight has no kit flaws that exacerbate these issues, unlike Paladin (Paladin AOE can feel extremely unreliable with its strange delay), and if anything it has the best early kit save for Gunbreaker. So, it’s still rough in spots, but I do think it’s the class best positioned for tank levelling, lacking Paladin and Marauders early AOE problems, or Gunbreaker information overload, and I would highly recommend starting here, especially if you can find a friend to heal for your first couple runs. Try to keep your gear up to date and confirm you aren’t using disciple of war gear for a smoother experience. For the sake of everyone in the community, once your gear is up to date, try pulling more than one pack at a time. You’ll have more fun tanking and your levelling will go much faster.
Conclusion: Dark Knight isn’t the best in any one area, but is easy to learn and very comfy to play. The class quests are phenomenal, and I think it’s dark magic caster style feels fairly different from the other tanks. The best AOE for pulls and a fast projectile attack make it a fantastic starting point, and it remains my favourite tank as of this writing. It has a good mix of self healing, damage, and defense that make it feel the most self sufficient pre 50, losing out to Paladin once they acquire Hallowed Ground. Abyssal drain is fantastic and really cool, something that simply isn’t emulated by any other tank. I highly recommend you join the edgy tank club today.
submitted by /u/SealMeetsClub
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...