DRK magic, what do we really want?

[Finuve]

ok so a lot gets tossed back and forth about DRKs and magic, and I see so many people outside of DRK players saying things that seem utterly retarded, like trying to increase DRKs magic burst damage for elemental magic

so what do DRK players want? Heres my ideas:

ignore DRK elemental magic completely

give DRK a darkness based nuke that is also based off of dark magic skill, moderate MP cost low casting time (The oft referenced Darkness/Darkness II)

Give DRK a trait that removes the decay on absorb spells and makes them last longer

Increase the amount of stat drained by absorb spells

Dark Magic Fast Cast

Increase quietus Damage (had to toss that in here...)

[Taint2]

Stun II

Bio 3

Beyond that, speed up the casting time of all absorbs,dread spikes, endark.

Lower the recast of Drain 2. Increase the skill cap of Drain and Drain 2.

Eliminate the Hasso casting/recast effect.

[ManaKing]

Eliminate the Hasso casting/recast effect.

I have 5/5 Desperate Blows. I usually use Seigan unless I'm WSing constantly. Hasso and Seigan recasts and casts could have just applied to Ninjitsu only, since that was all they were really targeting. It really is a hindrance to DRK since you are going to go /SAM to almost everything since it is pretty much broken good.

An ability to make next dark magic spell quickcast. A drk magic based nuke that costs 250mp.

Make elemental absorb spells.
Fire absorb : drains strength, weakens enemy to fire, gives fire att bonus.
Blizz abs: drains int, weakens enemy to blizz, gives bilzz att bonus.

These spells would give our elemental magic a little boost and if you make em stack with regular absorbs we could be looking at pretty nice stat boosts.

Yeah so Absorb-MDB, 1 spell. Got it. Sounds like a winner.

I don't really want more elemental magic emphasis because it isn't optimized for AO. Anything that DRK gets, spell-wise should provide utility or be catered to AO. It's not like the job is lacking in damage.

Darkness I/II. High MP, Quick Casting Time. Make it happen and DRKs will cast so long as the damage is decent. It makes for a very convenient way to jump your TP up to the next WS. Absorb-TP is more for TP suppression, which is fine if you can find a DRK or /DRK willing to cycle it in.

[Muras]

For new additions, I'd like more enfeeblement type absorbs, much like Absorb-ACC which is a pseudo blind. I honestly dunno why we haven't gotten more... Absorb-ACC just seems so random compared to the other absorbs. I always felt it was the start of the second tier of absorbs, where we'd get Absorb-ATK, Absorb-DEF and so on.

I'd be happy with a variety of new absorbs, such as:

Absorb-SPD
Absorb-M.DEF
Absorb-PHYS (Gives Physical Damage-% to DRK, Physical Damage+% to mob)
Absorb-ATK
Absorb-DEF
Absorb-M.ACC
Absorb-M.EVA
Absorb-EVA
Absorb-M.ATK

As I said in some post ages ago, Absorb-SPD should have a new unique boost/down effect that's independant of Slow/Haste. It would inflict Speed Down and give the DRK Speed Boost. This way it doesn't hinder other jobs roles. If you're really worried about balance and having mobs attacking too slow, put it in the same spot as Elegy as Elegy isn't as commonly used as Slow due to PTs not always having a BRD. And Absorb-PHYS would just be great to have not just for offensive purposes, but for defensive as well. And other melee would love DRKs for it. Even if it's only -/+ 5% (But 10% would be nice...).

Any of these would be useful in party situations because they boost not only the DRK, but other jobs in the group, and would give DRK that unique edge it needs, instead of being "just another DD". I'd like to point out to the devs that BLU has many of these enfeeblements as additional effects on their spells, so it's not like it'd break the game if DRK got absorbs at least equal to those (Acrid Stream is MDEF-10, Frightful Roar is DEF-15%, for example). Acrid Stream's MDEF down seems to land with high reliability from what I've seen on my BLU, even on tougher mobs, and if our previous absorbs are any indication, we'd a harder time dealing with resists than a BLU would. So why can't we have 'em?

Changes to current spells that I'd like to see would be reductions in recasts for Drain II and Dread Spikes...

Drain II should be 1 min 30 seconds. It's not even that much stronger than Drain itself and the HP boost lasts for such a short time that it's not gonna make or break anything. Also keep in mind that Drain (Both of 'em) always seem to get resisted a lot on the tougher mobs, so being able to use Drain II twice as much isn't gonna break the game.

Dread Spikes should be changed to 1 min 30 sec recast, and at very least it's duration (If not taking hits) should be increased to 3 mins like any other spikes spell so that it can be kept up ahead of pulling hate. I'd personally like to see it absorb only 50% of damage taken too so it lasts twice as long while taking hits as well, but that's just me. I think it wearing off after absorbing 50% of maximum HP is still ok.

I also recall SE saying DRK was getting the equivalent of Elemental Celerity for Dark Magic spells, and that they were abolishing the decay on absorbs. It currently feels like these have been forgotten, but perhaps Camate can reconfirm this for us?

Also, as other have mentioned, Darkness/Darkness II nukes would be fantastic. BLU also has a full line of Darkness nukes (Death Ray, Eyes on Me, Everyone's Grudge, Dark Orb), and we're not even asking for stuff that's equally powerful, just something useful. Make them as strong as Thunder II and Thunder III, but maybe give them naturally high magic accuracy. After all, the darkness element in FF11 is often related to the Magic Accuracy stat, especially as shown by the magian trial weapons, so why not?

[mattkoko]

i hate to be the one to put a damper on anyone's hopes but there have been multiple threads talking about dark magic boosts and new dark magic spells for drk. they said they would look into it months ago. and as we saw for recent adjustments, all they gave was decreased recast for weapon bash. and in contrast, they gave drg just about everything they want and more. sorry i do not mean to squash everyones hopes. but facts are facts. a few threads later on this subject and nothing is being done about it.

[Quetzacoatl]

i hate to be the one to put a damper on anyone's hopes but there have been multiple threads talking about dark magic boosts and new dark magic spells for drk. they said they would look into it months ago. and as we saw for recent adjustments, all they gave was decreased recast for weapon bash. and in contrast, they gave drg just about everything they want and more. sorry i do not mean to squash everyones hopes. but facts are facts. a few threads later on this subject and nothing is being done about it.

Did you also see the post in the SMN Thread where Camate told us the devs have a bunch of ideas, theirs and ours, on the table, but they have to go through a process before announcig and implementing them? I suggest you do before telling us to abandon all hope. I'll start doing that when the devs make something highly disappointing official, thank you.

Edit: it's this one

[mattkoko]

i posted this before i saw that. and i never said abandon all hope. it is true that most of the adjustments, if not all are just them adjusting current job abilities and spells which are easier then adding i am sure. so i do apologize about getting a little jumpy. i also posted this just after i saw our adjustments for drk/pld after i saw drg and cor. maybe there is some hope. maybe not. at this point, i have no clue lol. i just hope i dont have to tell you that i told ya so.

[mattkoko]

so i kind of have an idea. not really sure how it works and not sure how far it would go lol. but here it is. how about a spell and/or ability that you cast on a mob in which when the mob tps or casts magic, it hurts itself. again i havent completely thought it out. if its a spell, the effect would obviously depend on int/magic attack and if it is an ability, maybe it could have a type of modifier or something to enhance the effect. or maybe ability would hurt it on a tp move and the spell will hurt it on a magic move.

so a quick run down again. you cast what ever the spell is called (yep, i havent even thought of a name), and the effect stays on the mob until it tries to cast a magic spell, and when it starts to cast, it takes damage or maybe a certain amount of hp depletion during the entire cast so longer casts will hurt it more. and as far as the ability, you use the ability and maybe the animation could be in the way of a step animation where you swing the weapon, so the next tp move it tries to use, it hurts itself. and my thought is the spell would have int modifier (as stated above). and the ability would have a str modifier (only reason i think the ability and spell should have modifiers on it because it just gives you more control over how much dmg the mob will take when the mob tps or casts magic). only other way they could control it more is make them meritable. but with everything costing merits now (even quests now a days) i figured people are tired of the whole merit grind lol

sorry i know i am kinda all over the place. its one of those ideas where i think it could be good maybe with a little fixing up. anyone have any suggestions on it?

[mattkoko]

so i kind of have an idea. not really sure how it works and not sure how far it would go lol. but here it is. how about a spell and/or ability that you cast on a mob in which when the mob tps or casts magic, it hurts itself. again i havent completely thought it out. if its a spell, the effect would obviously depend on int/magic attack and if it is an ability, maybe it could have a type of modifier or something to enhance the effect. or maybe ability would hurt it on a tp move and the spell will hurt it on a magic move.

so a quick run down again. you cast what ever the spell is called (yep, i havent even thought of a name), and the effect stays on the mob until it tries to cast a magic spell, and when it starts to cast, it takes damage or maybe a certain amount of hp depletion during the entire cast so longer casts will hurt it more. and as far as the ability, you use the ability and maybe the animation could be in the way of a step animation where you swing the weapon, so the next tp move it tries to use, it hurts itself. and my thought is the spell would have int modifier (as stated above). and the ability would have a str modifier (only reason i think the ability and spell should have modifiers on it because it just gives you more control over how much dmg the mob will take when the mob tps or casts magic). only other way they could control it more is make them meritable. but with everything costing merits now (even quests now a days) i figured people are tired of the whole merit grind lol

sorry i know i am kinda all over the place. its one of those ideas where i think it could be good maybe with a little fixing up. anyone have any suggestions on it?

actually, now that i think about it. just make both of them abilities lol. and have them only work with 2handed weapons and give the same animation as steps. i am not going to bother explaining modifiers again since they are kinda obvious. and make it so the mob still takes dmg from casting a spell or tp move, even if it is stunned. in fact, make it so the mob takes even more dmg if the tp move is stunned. damn too many ideas lol

[Geabrielle]

I shall begin with 'ignore elemental magic' ; I'm going to say simply NO. A Dark Knight's very first baby spell is Stone, just like a BLM. In fact a Dark's spell progression with a few tossed in dark magic spells is similar but rightly discrepant as Dark's are supposed to be black magic specialists. If we have to be burdened with Elemental magic, then I would ask for native magic attack bonus - Not a lot, even one or two tiers would be nice to reflect the similar training a DRK undertakes to balance their combative skills with magical harassment.

Secondly, Darkness/Darkness 2 ... if they don't suck like everything else dark based I'll be down with that. But as a nuke without native MAB to give it any punch, you are wasting time and MP.

Bio 3 - Hell no, DRK is not a RDM and no one gives a flying apkallu butt about reducing a mob's attack outside of a solo situation, especially with a DRK's paltry enfeeble C skill. Would it be fun for solo .. maaaybe but no.

Epic thumbs up on reducing the decay on Absorb spells and increasing the duration. It would give more reason to cast them, actual utility. YES, please.

Decrease the recast timer on ALL dark magic for Dark Knight ONLY.

They said something about giving Darks a fast cast trait for dark magic but good re-iteration. Dark Celerity, yes yes yes yes!!

As for the Hasso thing ... eh it's possible to make use of your magic with it up. But considering most DRKs can't understand why they have an MP pool it's been a non issue in my experience unless your healer sucks.