Dark Knight Adjustments (that were) Scheduled for October

[Byrth]

Against difficult enemies, Tactical Parry doesn't matter for any job because they all use AoE attacks that you can't Parry these days. Against easier enemies, Tactical Parry doesn't really matter for any 2H job because it doesn't save you a swing. It may slightly increase your WS damage, though. Against high level enemies that don't multi-attack, even 1H jobs have a floored proc rate on Parrying. This means that DRK with their E skill is no different from NIN or COR in the proc rate during the only times that really matter, so crappy skill ranking isn't really a good reason to not want the trait.

Adding Fast Cast and/or reducing casting times for dark magic is somewhat misguided, though it would certainly help a little. Every time you cast a magic spell, there's a minimum of a 3 seconds delay in your swinging. At high Haste (which is pretty much the only way you use DRK), that's two attack rounds, half a WS, etc. They need to reduce magic casting delay before it will really be viable to cast spells while you're DDing. That's just how it is.

[Urteil]

Already do fine DDing, don't want to play WAR with MP.


Magic please, DD is fine, reduce it even, Stun II, Stunga, Curse, Absorbs that matter, Dark Nukes for OA, {Yes please.}

[Tennotsukai]

Already do fine DDing, don't want to play WAR with MP.


Magic please, DD is fine, reduce it even, Stun II, Stunga, Curse, Absorbs that matter, Dark Nukes for OA, {Yes please.}

yes, maybe another version of dread spikesfor AoEs?

[Glamdring]

scrap the elemental magic line for drk, and replace it with more creative dark magic like

Spells:
Bleed - gradually drains hp from the mob and gradually gives it to the drk
Absorb speed - steal a portion of the mobs attack speed and adds it to the drk
Darkness I-V - dark elemental nuke similiar to banish
Absorb Defense - absorbs mobs defense and adds it to the drk
Drain III - steal a mobs hp and add it to the drk
Drainga - steal hp from mobs in an area of effect and add it to the drk
Soul Spikes - Steals TP from enemies that hits you
Terror - paralyzes enemies for attacking based on the drk dark magic skill
Blood Weapon - add a 5% chance that the HP of a physical attack is 100% absorbed
Dark Sacrifice - drk sacrifice entire mp bar to fill up the drk or a party member's tp bar
Arcane Curse - takes a bad status ailment and transfer it to the mob
Arcane Shield - gives one shadow that completely absorbs a magical attack and then turns it into Hp, ineffective agianst aga's
Absorb Str/Vit/dex/chr/agi/mnd/int II - stronger and stackable with tier I

I can think of tons of dark magic spells that could be implemented instead of elemental magic, I wish SE would consider adding new dark magic to drk and fix our existing magic spells.

I do like your ideas. However, about elemental magic, I read VERY early in the game the primary reason for those was so Drk could MB skillchains. Not saying it worked well (frankly I don't think I've ever seen it happen), and SCs are largely a thing of the past (as is the tank, healer, buffer/enfeeb, 3 DD party that used it), but iirc that was the reasoning for it. Still, Dark magic nukes are fitting and dark is the logical job to get most of them, at LEAST on a comparable tier with pld for light nukes if not better. I also think drk should have Dispel-the drk magic version as it's in keeping, but absorb Attri-if it actually worked-is actually better. I'd also like Absorb-TP to have a bit more utility, because considering the rate mobs gain and spam TP you're lucky if there is any TP there to absorb when the cast finishes.

[Urteil]

I'd take Terror, should be a JA that scales in regards to the target's level vs yours.

Wouldn't mind if NM's are flat out immune either.


Also, curse.

[Urteil]

I dont know when the last post here was but, the new release of info i believe stated drk was too powerful (even though it barely beats out sam and war), yet the sacrifices to the job to get that barely better dd are astonishing. Drk sacrifice a ton just to get a bread crumbs worth of an edge...

My point being Drk is being left out just like Rdm.

One the way to 99. RDM got Saboteur, Spont. Addle more Fast Cast and serves a function in the alliances I use for the events my shell does, and level V of its resistance trait.

On the way to 99 DRK got two levels of tactical Parry and Scarlet Delirium, with a kind nod to Nether Void and Endark.



RDM is fine, it is a job that serves many functions adequately. Some far better than it should for having access to all that it does.

[Byrth]

At the 75 uncapping, DRK also got Stalwart Soul and Occult Acumen traits added. On the way to 99 they also gained Attack Bonus V/VI.

DRK is one of the most desired DDs in the game right now. The fact that it doesn't play as a caster/DD hybrid (which is how you interpret SE wants the job to be played) is SE's fault, but mostly not for the reasons that you've named. Even if they reduced Absorb spells to the casting time of Stun, it would still be a substantial DPS drop to cast them in high Haste situations, just as it's a substantial DPS drop to use Steps on DNC in high Haste situations, Boost on MNK, etc. This is due to fixed delays that SE has built into the game. What you need to do is ask SE to change the fixed delays.

Also, for those of you coming up with 20 awesome alternative spells they could add to make DRK casting more relevant, hooray for you. Realistically, though, SE isn't going to add that many unique spells. Count the number of unique spells that DRK has. You're essentially asking them to double it on a whim. What you should do is ask for the potency of Absorb spells to scale with Dark magic, Dread Spikes to affect AoE attacks/magic after certain Dark Magic thresholds, etc. This is actually less work than implementing an entirely new spell and has the same effect. Feel free to continue to think up names for changes that you want to see made to level 99 DRK, but proposing them in an "adjustment" instead of "novel idea" format is more likely to resonate with your target audience (overworked Devs).

[Demon6324236]

One the way to 99. RDM got Saboteur, Spont. Addle more Fast Cast and serves a function in the alliances I use for the events my shell does, and level V of its resistance trait.

On the way to 99 DRK got two levels of tactical Parry and Scarlet Delirium, with a kind nod to Nether Void and Endark.



RDM is fine, it is a job that serves many functions adequately. Some far better than it should for having access to all that it does.

I just want to say you make it sound like RDM got much more than it really did...

Sabo is nice, there is no doubt about that, however with enfeebling in its current stat it doesn't really do a ton to make RDM amazing. Spont is really only good for spells with long recasts, the main thing that comes to mind is raise and stun, other than raise, there are not many spells with long recasts you would need to cast 2 times back to back. Addle is something WHM has as well, its a bit unfair to really count that when its not unique, especially when few people would take a RDM for something a WHM can do almost as well. Fast Cast is good, but its a trait, and you left out the traits that DRK gets, so also seems a bit unfair to count it too.

I agree DRK's magic side is ignored and needs adjusting so it can be used effectively, but the same could be said for basically anything on the entire black magic side. Nuking has become second rate next to melee damage in a way that you do not bring BLMs to basically anything anymore for actual damage. DRK has a few spells to itself on the black magic side but they suffer from the fact its a melee job getting hit with that delay effect, which removes the point in using it in high haste situations as Byrth said.

One thing that might change that is a combo between the proposed Elemental Magic changes and OA, which if you can stack enough STP with the OA gear(at least the +2 feet, not sure how effective the belt is), you should be able to get roughly 35~40TP from a Thunder IV, which with proper gearing should cast in about 3 seconds or less. So in low haste situations it would be good to use them possibly. I have never looked into DRK gear for such a thing, but if it works then that would be beneficial for DRK's magic side.

[Economizer]

One thing that might change that is a combo between the proposed Elemental Magic changes and OA, which if you can stack enough STP with the OA gear(at least the +2 feet, not sure how effective the belt is), you should be able to get roughly 35~40TP from a Thunder IV, which with proper gearing should cast in about 3 seconds or less. So in low haste situations it would be good to use them possibly. I have never looked into DRK gear for such a thing, but if it works then that would be beneficial for DRK's magic side.

Doing some research and math (all math below was done with a delay calculator using the value 866 to simulate a well geared Dark Knight, so real values may slightly differ), I believe you can get up to 46TP from a Thunder III (DRK doesn't get Thunder IV) under ideal conditions (DRK + SAM + COR + XXX/SCH), or if you are really pushing it you could /SCH yourself and Light Arts and even get 55 TP). Of course, this setup, while completely stupid, will only get better after the spell changes take course, which will leave Thunder III costing 129 instead of 128, and more significantly, roughly half the cast time. Throw in a Blizzard III with Thunder III under that setup and you can have two terrible nukes feed a weapon skill every six or more seconds without any haste (getting 36.3 TP / 100 MP makes this possible).

More likely though you'll be under less favorable conditions, being able to only get a maximum of 27.3 TP, or perhaps only in the same party as a COR (34.1 TP), or maybe a COR and a SAM but no /SCH around (36.0 TP). More likely then all this is that you'll have a good chunk of the gear if you're gearing for all this but be short some of the high value TP pieces and only get 20~25TP per 100 MP (or perhaps missing a large portion of the gear but have a COR around for that Samurai Roll).

If you can roll with just 25TP/100MP, a Thunder III, Blizzard III, Fire III, and Fire II should put you over enough to WS for just 405 MP.

Even if you can only get 20TP/100MP (an easy feat), a Thunder III will get you a bit over 25TP for a three second cast, easily putting you a forth of the way to a weapon skill. This is more into the realm of what Occult Acumen can do for players too. With that 27.3TP/100MP perfect gear set you'll find a Stun speed Thunder I spell getting you about 10.1 TP of course, but with the no excuses 20TP/100MP set you can still get a respectable 7.4 TP, and an Aero II casting at a slower 1.5 seconds can still net you 10.2 TP with your 20TP/100MP set.

I think Dark Knights will find that having an Occult Acumen set is actually fairly important even if it might be for the short time without Last Resort up, or some other niche situation. The real question will be how far Dark Knights are willing to go for certain situational pieces (inventory space being the primary enemy of having a set naturally).

This is all a long way from dropping an Impact from a Twilight Cloak for opening a fight with 100 TP since your MP is useless.

For whatever reason I totally neglected to calculate /SAM into this whole "what-if" so far (probably Hasso's anticasting effects) but for an interesting number, with the previous best setup, throwing on /SAM, and going into Campaign Battle you could get a grand total of 41.6TP/100MP, although this won't perform much better then previously mentioned sets since you'll still have to toss out a Blizzard III and Thunder III to get a weapon skill. Since Store TP has diminishing returns with high values this is to be expected however.

[Demon6324236]

I did mean Thunder III, had a derp moment, sorry, but thank you for running some of the numbers. I was simply trying to point out that it could potentially have a good use, I just personally have never looked into DRK's Fast Cast gear for speeding it up, and its possible gear for the cast to get the most TP from it. But it looks as though after the elemental magic changes DRK may get more magic use afterall.