[XeroKill]

EDIT: Added a poll to get a census of who thinks our Defensive stance should NOT rely on our DC being maxed in order to be the same as the other tanks.

Ok, we all knew some one was going to bring this up and I feel it might as well be me.

I feel that we are getting the shaft with our defensive stances early on in the game. For those that don't know this is how it currently works.

Warrior = 15% Mitigation (W/ buffs to raise it higher, if I am not mistaken)
Paladin = 15% Mitigation (W/ buffs to raise it higher)
Dread Knight = 10% +1%/DC level (W/ Resistable debuffs to lower enemy damage)

Now consider these things about how we are set up against our tanking brethren. We cannot even max out our own defensive stance until into our 40s because in order to reach the 15% that all the other tanks get at level 10, we need 5 levels of Dreadful Countenance against our foe. We don't have the ability to use all 5 levels of DC at level 10 so we can get a max of 12% mitigation from defensive stance when we get it. And even that is only after 30sec or more in a fight with a creature to build up our DC.

We can't even match them shot for shot until mid 40s and even then we can only do it after we have been in a fight for a good amount of time. Once the fight is over we are back at 10% for the start of the next fight.

Also consider the Warrior and the Paladin have ways of directly buffing their own mitigation, while we have debuffs that, although they are nice, are resistable. Considering the fact that it is a lot more common to fight higher level enemies, it can take 5 or more casts to get it to stick. Even when it does stick, if you stack the buffs of the Warrior/Paladin to their defense, our lack of defense, and the fact that a debuffed mob will do less damage to ANY ONE IT SWINGS AT, we are definitely sucking hind tit in this department.

Warriors will still end up on the top of the pile because they have their own mitigation buffs, that stack with the Paladin mitigation buffs, that stack with the Dread Knight debuffs, and the fact that at the start of ANY fight we are at a 5% mitigation disadvantage, we will be last choice for tanks hands down.

I had sincerely hoped that we would not end up being the Shadow Knights of EQ or EQ2, because any one that hung out at SK.org can remember what a sad bunch of whining that was.... but I see a trend when it comes to this class, and unfortunately I see it happening again here.

Thoughts? Corrections? Bitches, moans, complaints?