FF14 Dark Knight is currently my favourite tank in the game, based on the whole of ARR content and early dungeon tanking.
I haven’t reached the end-game and haven’t tried GNB yet, but based on the same level and content comparison against PLD and WAR, the DRK is definitely ahead in terms of job efficiency and enjoyment for me personally.
Gunbreaker job is looking interesting too, and I’ll definitely check the Dark Knight vs GNB when the time comes, but right now DRK toolkit seems much easier and more fun to use when comparing it to FFXIV Paladin or Warrior jobs.
📑 Table of Contents
00:00 – Intro
02:45 – Why I like DRK
07:00 – vs WoW DK
08:00 – Final thoughts
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If you think that WAR is bloated by abilities, wait for lvl 60+ DRK. DRK is way more bloated (alot of OGDC) than WAR. DRK and GNB are the two most busy tank jobs
DRK is my personal favorite tank, about tied with WAR. I enjoy WAR for the obscene amount of self-healing they can do but I adore DRK for how insanely active it can get. When you're in a big group pull with all your CD's available you end up being really busy and you feel like an absolute fiend throwing out sweeping sword attacks and dark magic all over hell and creation.
Anyway, in response to some of your questions:
DRK vs. the other tanks – it's not nearly as big of a difference as it can be in WoW or elsewhere as all of the tanks are very tightly balanced. Having said that, DRK is the "tankiest" of them all once they unlock their level 70 ability, The Blackest Night, which is a powerful shield (25% of targets max hp) that can be placed on anyone in your party, be that yourself, your co-tank or a dps that's about to die. It's a clutch skill in so many ways and it cultivates a different approach to other tanks. Each tank has a "helper" ability; a short CD defensive tool that can be placed on a party member to mitigate incoming damage somehow. DRK's is the most powerful by far, as instead of being a damage% reduction it's just a bunch of HP.
Of course this comes with a cost; TBN takes 3000 MP to use, the same as your Flood and Edge of Darkness/Shadow. So by using TBN you're cutting into your own damage UNLESS the TBN shield breaks from the incoming damage, at which point the DRK receives the Dark Arts buff which allows for a free usage of Flood or Edge. This is where DRK really differs from the other tanks, as a DRK is rewarded for using their TBN in such a way that it both mitigates damage and breaks from the damage that it mitigates. Proper use of it saves healing on the part of the healer, either from a GCD or a cooldown, and ultimately comes out being a dps-positive for the raid. You, as the DRK, spend MP to protect someone and then you are rewarded with a free use of one of your MP-spending oGCD attacks as compensation. Failure to use TBN correctly means you lose out on that MP of course, but when you know a fight well enough you find yourself throwing out clutch shields to save lives in a way that none of the other tanks can do (save PLD, kinda, with Cover, but that's a far longer cooldown). Speaking of cooldown, the cherry on top for TBN is that it's a 7s duration shield with a mere 15s cooldown. Combined with a few cooldowns and skills you've yet to receive, DRK becomes a monster in an aoe situation, easily throwing out more damage than the other tanks by a good margin thanks to the plethora of oGCD attacks it has.
As for the story, yes, DRK is widely regarded as the best of the job quest lines. The lady who wrote it was the lead writer for Shadowbringers, so if you're enjoying DRK now then you're in for a treat come 5.0. This same woman also wrote the Rogue quest line, so if you'd like to enjoy more of her work in the mean time I highly recommend checking out ROG. As a side note I also highly recommend reading your quest journal (default J) for the DRK quests. While most journal entries throughout the game are basically summaries of what's happened so far and what you should do next in regards to any given quest, the DRK journal entries take on a….different tone. Absolutely worth reading.
Happy to see you made it to Ishgard! Any plans for doing a post-ARR content video to sum up your thoughts?
DRK is a super fun job, it is in a much better place now in Shadowbringers than it was before.
As it stands now it is an excellent main tank and off tank because of the shield The Blackest Night, which is probably one of the best defensive abilities in the game. Since when the shield breaks you get a good amount of resources to use for offensive abilities.
Its playstyle does more closely match Warriors, with the general simplicity of the rotation and gauge management/buff uptime, and a move to use gauge moves at zero cost for a few seconds.
So if you like War, you will enjoy Drk.
It's biggest advantage to leveling is that it comes out of the gate a bit more feature complete than the ARR jobs, Drk, Ast, and Mch play like a pretty complete class from the get go, with many of their core mechanics available right away. The only thing that may seem a bit strange is the magic damage mitigation it gets, which you may think is a bit too situational, but most very heavy damaging moves in the end game are magic based.
The other thing to keep in mind is that Drk is pretty dependent on a healer being present in comparison to the other tanks, same with Gnb. Where as War and Pld both have very good self sustain, War can clear dungeons and bosses with minimal or no healing with well timed self heals and life steal, and Pld can serve as the tank and healer in an emergency with Clemency.
But all in all, Drk is my 2nd favorite tanking job, good damage, excellent party utility both as Mt and Ot, and good damage potential to boot. Also, it looks awesome (which is the most important part).