Your top 5 DRK Adjustment Requests: Sister thread to the Official Adjustment Topic

[Kagato]

I've been seeing request after request for different ideas and suggestions made by many people here, but while there has been many cool ideas (and other not-so-cool ideas), it is becoming apparent that many of us feel mostly the same way about certain things.

I want to put my reserved post in the Dark Knight Suggestion topic to good use and have it contain the top 10 most-requested changes to Dark Knight. This way, not only do the developers see what we want, but they also see what we want the most. It wouldn't be fun if they assumed we wanted magic adjustments more than physical changes.

How this works: PLEASE ONLY POST A TOP LIST. LEAVE DISCUSSIONS TO OTHER POSTS. THIS IS A DATA COLLECTION TOPIC ONLY!

Place your requests IN ORDER from your least-requested to most requested. I will then physically categorize and pair requests together (if they are similar). I will then order the results in the form of "points." Request #5 gets 1 point and request #1 gets 5 points. For example:

John wants adjustments in this order:
5. Cast while still doing melee damage
4. Critical Damage Weaponskill
3. Shorter Dark Magic Cast Time
2. Longer Last Resort Duration
1. Better Parry Skill level

Jake wants adjustments in this order:
5. Shorter Dark Magic Casting
4. DRK-Specific Enfeebles
3. Longer Blood Weapon Duration
2. Critical Damage Weaponskill
1. Longer Last Resort Duration

The top requests would look like this:
1. Longer Last Resort Duration (9 Votes)
2. Critical Damage Weapon Skill (6 votes)
3. Batter Parry SKill (5 Votes)
4. ect ect.

You all get the point.

Again, remember, leave discussions to the Adjustment topic. Make this your top 5 requests. You may have less than 5. You can even only have 1 if you wish. Just do not exceed 5.

I will calculate and update the results daily. Hopefully the developers can make good use of this.

[Unctgtg]

Am I thinking last resort should be like Beserk timers?

[Kagato]

My top 5:

5. New, stronger Absorb Spells (Absorb-ATK, DEF, and *Speed)
4. Stronger Parry Skill no lower than B- (Would give Tactical Parry a reason to exist and strengthen our survival options)
3. Stronger Critical Damage Skill-based Weapon Skill
2. Potent Dark Magic Fast Cast for Dark Knights only
1. Longer Last Resort Duration (2 Minutes preferred)

*Note - Absorb-Speed would give Dark Knights a Haste Effect while giving the enemy a Slow effect.

[Cruentus]

1) Increase "Last Resort" duration to a minimum of two minutes.
2) Lower casting times on all "Absorb" spells to a maximum of two seconds, and add new ones, such as "Absorb-SPD."
3) Great two weapon skills, one for great sword and one for scythe, that deal critical damage, to be learned at skill level 450 or so, and have good stat modifiers (i.e., 45% STR and 45% INT or something).
4) Increase parrying skill to a minimum of B-, so that "Tactical Parry" is actually useful.
5) Give us at least two more tiers of "Occult Acumen", so that we get at least as much TP casting elemental magic as we would have swinging a scythe, taking "Store TP" from support job and equipment into account.

[vedder]

agree with both of the above, order doesnt matter so much but definately make dd the top to be fixed item via non-sucky ws

[Jar]

really just go and make a new thread <_< they are not going to take any suggestions you all think up anyway

[Kaeoni]

Give drk its own phase shift between a:
Fast Cast, MAB, MACC,
and an
Atk boost, Perma en-drk, 10% JAhaste
like hasso and seigan for a drk.

Put them both on a 1 minute JA timer, lasts 5mins or something.

Job fixed.

No critical WS? Stop crying, if you call yourself a Dark Knight enthusiast, grow up and get Torcleaver. If not go level Warrior.

[Jar]

Give drk its own phase shift between a:
Fast Cast, MAB, MACC,
and an
Atk boost, Perma en-drk, 10% JAhaste
like hasso and seigan for a drk.

Put them both on a 1 minute JA timer, lasts 5mins or something.

Job fixed.

No critical WS? Stop crying, if you call yourself a Dark Knight enthusiast, grow up and get Torcleaver. If not go level Warrior.

hell yeah logic tho id shoot for not having it effect endark because that spell is beastly on its own i dont want them to mess with it at all.

[Kagato]

Please stay on topic. Take discussions elsewhere.

[Armangetto]

1.) Increase last resort duration to 3 minutes (leave desprate blows at 5% ja haste per merit)
2.) Reworked / buffed current weapon skills and or new critical hit multi hit weapon skills (scythe, great sword).
3.) Blood weapon as a regular job ablitiy and or job trait with a the proc rate of a wars retalitation. (Dancers have our 2hour in the form of sambas, whats up with that?)
4.) Reworked absorb spells non decaying perferable or let them decay after 1 minute.
5.) New dark base spells, drain 3, impact, absorb speed, ect.

[Kagato]

I apologize everyone. Guess we can't stop that mess. If you find he's too rude, go to his profile and click on "ignore."

[Raelia]

5. Remove the decay effect on Absorbs and add new Absorbs including a magical-category Haste/Slow effect.
4. A natural-critting WS.
3. A trait that lowers casting time and increases potency/accuracy of all dark based magic (absorbs, drains, at least 20% fast cast and 30-50% potency at high levels, perhaps smaller tiers at lower levels)
2. Make Blood Weapon a ten minute JA, give DRK a new 2-hour that combines Blood Weapon with a Dread Spikes effect.
1. Increase Last Resort duration to three minutes. Reduce Desperate Blows to 3% haste per point.

[Xsilver]

1. Being able to cast while meleeing
2. longer last resort (2min)
3. drk specific spells/enfeebles i.e. drain III
4. drk magic fast cast/potency trait
5. two more tiers of acumen

misread format thought 5 was most important

[Returner]

Going from 1 to 5, 1 being the most needed IMO:

1) Make LR at least 3 mins, I don't mind if they nerf the haste per merit a bit, something that make DRK at least unique in a way that we can cap JA haste for an extend period of time with hasso. This should be our most powerful JA without a doubt.
2) Able to cast while still meleeing. No doubt this will solve all the magic side of problem, at least a big chunk of it. I was temped to put this as No.1 priority because it just makes so much sense, but I think LR will eventually help more to our overall effectiveness.
3) A new offensive JA or JT that aims at giving our WSs a boost. I would rather not have "a" critical hit WS as that will almost certainly force everyone to use that. And if you are relic or emp or mythic owners, you are forced to use something less powerful, I am sure no one likes that. A universal WS boosting JA or JT can go a long way.
4) Adjust souleater so it deals 10% of the HP but drains only 5%. And once the user is below 50% HP, it starts draining MP at the convertion rate of 4:1 and 20% MP at a time.
5) Adjust bloodweapon to 1 minute, and giving it sort of a added bonus to it like haste, DA, or critical hit during the duration. Most mobs either attack much faster or much harder during bloodweapon, we should get something similar to that.

I know getting all that will obviously make us overpowering. I was making them with the idea of only getting 1. So I hope I did keep it realistic.

[Arek]

5.DRK Enfeebles like Curse, Plague maybe Amnesia
4.Dark Magic Fast cast (or Quicken Cast)
3.Better Weaponskills (Critical or not but with STR+INT huge modifiers)
2.JA for MAB and MACC Elemental Magic (can boost Occult Acumen while under the JA)
1. New Spells : Drain III, Absorbs-Attk, Speed, maybe defense
and maybe "Ultima" a Magical Souleater using HP besides MPs to deal Darkness Elemental Damage

[Dart]

1. crit based ws for our main weapons, people are you just ignoring razed ruins and how it entirely changed the game from a dd standpoint?
2. longer duration for LR, again combined with Desperate blows (which can be nerfed to counteract this) would be a significant boost to our melee phase.
3. drastically shorten casting times for drk specific spells that we actually use (absorb tp to a degree, DREADSPIKES, aspir1 and 2)
4. a melee stance would be nice but I feel that it would overpower the job if we get 1-3.
5. honestly i Just want 1-3 the rest is just window dressing

[Xaveron]

5. Reduce casting times on Absorb spells while letting it decay from the mob instead of us.
4. Increase the duration of Last Resort to the equivelent of Berserk.
3. Give us Blood Weapon as a Job Ability that isnt our 2 hour and come up with a better 2 hour instead.
2. Please for the love of GOD give us better dark magic spells (while increasing our Dark Magic skill respectively) such as Doom, Death, Plague and so on. P.S. - We should have already had Bio III.
1. Stop giving us weapon skills that require MND instead of our native attributes. STR +60% modifier Critical hit weapon skill (3 hit prefferably) would be fantastic. Finally, change the weapon skills you have already given us to STR only modifiers.

By the way, these arent just suggestions but are what Drk needs to become balanced. As everyone will agree, Dark Knight is the most under performing job in the game and we are all sick of it. On that note, please take heed to what the Drk community is asking. WE ARE NOT ASKING TO BE THE BEST JOB IN THE GAME, BUT WE ARE TIRED OF BEING SEVERELY OVER-LOOKED. THANK YOU SE FOR HEARING US OUT!!!

[Dart]

they could just make guillotine crit based, they changed raging rush to crit based a long time ago, so it can be done easily, and most drk's I know/talk to like guillotine.

[Xaveron]

In honest truth I would be happy if they just fixed the higher tier weapon skills. Guillotine is the least of my concerns. Quietus is a joke just as much as Insurgency and Catastrophe are. I have literally no clue why Sqaure Enix chose to put MND as a weapon skill modifier for Drk weapon skills.

[Dart]

personally i had the crazy notion for fixing relics to give all relic ws a crit mod to go along with what they already have. lvl 90 apoc can push cata numbers up to 2500+ (for me personally i'm sure it can go higher) man if that could crit... then just give the occasionally deal double damage 30-50% like empy.

ANYWAY back to drk

The problem is how razed ruins completely changed the game. If your ws doesn't have a crit mod, its useless in abyssea compared to everyone else. You would need str+ something insane to get numbers close to crit based ws. A str/attack total that is pretty much unattainable, so crit based ws is the way to go. Drk needs one the end.

[Xaveron]

personally i had the crazy notion for fixing relics to give all relic ws a crit mod to go along with what they already have. lvl 90 apoc can push cata numbers up to 2500+ (for me personally i'm sure it can go higher) man if that could crit... then just give the occasionally deal double damage 30-50% like empy.

ANYWAY back to drk

The problem is how razed ruins completely changed the game. If your ws doesn't have a crit mod, its useless in abyssea compared to everyone else. You would need str+ something insane to get numbers close to crit based ws. A str/attack total that is pretty much unattainable, so crit based ws is the way to go. Drk needs one the end.

I agree entirely with you. I think that using a duel based modifier is worthless though. Tachi: Fudo uses a 60% STR based modifier and I personally have seen it hit for over 7k per ws and it's not a critical based weapon skill. I would like to see Quietus have a 50% STR modifier in a 3 hit weapon skill. It honestly angers me that Sqaure Enix is calling the game balanced when Tachi: Fudo does 7k a ws and Quietus does 2.5k. I remember @ lvl 75 Guillotine used to spank Sam's ws' and now it seems every job spanks all of Drk's ws'. :(

[Dart]

sam is in the same boat, even fudo can't compete, but the new dev team seems to actually listen to the playerbase. So i'm hopefully optimistic that things will be balanced. So i'm being patient and spamming ukko's fury until then lol

[Sedres]

1) Some form of Souleater that can't be exploited for zerging (It's our bread and butter, but outside of zerging we rarely get to use it without being scolded for all the enmity it generates along with the correlation of death due to HP down)
2) A native trait that works similar to the AF3 set, and the AF3 augment's this.
3) Sod improving Last Resort, I'd rather have something new to the job than just being a mock-WAR. Stances for melee/casting maybe, but the castign one shouldn't further hinder out DoT, instead simply work as a nice bonus when meleeing. Gives people the choice of using their magic or focus on melee
4) Again, forget a critical WS (Or maybe just give DRK Raging Rush) and becoming a Pseudo-WAR, something else just as good but different. A WS that "Augments" souleater, maybe. When used with it, it hinders the damage but gives less enmity/lowers recast significantly...
5) Changing Occult Acumen so TP gain is based on the time taken out of your DoT from meleeing (Casting time basically works as Weapon Delay when calculating TP). A bassive trait that gives quick cast for Dark Magic would help with this, and make Hasso/Seigan less annoying.

[Xsilver]

I made a nin edit on suggestions

[StingRay104]

top 5 suggestions that are incredibly thoughtless

1. Critcal hit ws, so lemme guess make it so everyone everywhere relies solely on RR, or perhaps we could have a ws that isn't crit based that can compete with these crit based ones so that when we do crit it does greater dmg, lets shot for makin drk the high dmg job it used to be.

2. Melee while casting. As annoyed as I am with the first one truth be told it would help, but this is ludicrus, and yes i mean the rapper this just sucks like he does, first off listen up, THIS WON'T EVER HAPPEN!!!!! plain and simple idk why all these ppl are askin for this, this has never been or never will be a good solution, and heres why, first our nukes are laughable and 2nd why are you wantin an obvious melee job who utilizes dark magic to hinder his opponents and improve his own capabilities. Also if your lucky enough you can move a lil and cancel the castin animation still get the spell and a hit in, so I know from experience this won't help balance drk.

3. Guillotine. No. No. No. Plz let old ws's die. If you increase guilotine you could ruin game balance at lower lvls, besides I went for 40 lvls on guillotine I'm tired of it gimme somethin better

4. Death spell. Remember how jacked up every mobs dark magic resist is? So how useful will this be, answer is not useful at all. Unfortunately this spell could go either way, it can be useless as in never lands no matter what, or it could be broken. Either situation I would rather them not waste time on this spell cuz it doesn't help us ultimately. Also for the person who posted they wanted impact naturally, the spell is drk capable as is, i have the cloak, i've casted it on drk, 666mp cost is tremendous, but the debuff is awesome, assuming it lasts long, which against most nms it doesn't

5. dark magic fast cast. Once again drk is about usin its limited spells to hinder opponents and increase our strength, so as much as I like the idea of lower recast times this won't magically fix drk, we need better spells first, and that brings conclusion of the bad ideas portion of my list


Now with the good

1. Last Resort time extended. Not enough yes in the world on this one. I for one say to hell with hasso gimme 25% haste with this for 2-3 mins and best of all it works well with what we drks already have.

2. Stances. I was the first person to post a thread dedicated to fixing drk and I introduced the stances that could fix the job, they focused on drks damage capabilities in both physical and magical capacities, and they could still stack with hasso, or god willing new LR and make the job shine as a dd again.

3. Spells. Again I mentioned this in my previous post Absorb att being our flagship spell, it would make us cap attack so easily and at the same time hinder our opponents to nothin. Absorb def also a good one and absorb spd well this could be great if it stacks with haste and slow respectedly which I say it does so another great spell, but we are forgetting en aspir en 2 spells, rdm is wastin them and they fit drk a lil better than t3 nukes also perhaps some nukes that hinder associated stats kinda like a less powerful impact, also abs spells need to lose the decay effect, increase the stat drain with drk skill and stack with abyssea buffs.

4. New traits. War is supposed to be a job that can use all weapons effectively and not be the best dd but a very effective dd with any weapon. Yet war has been given way too much love, when the ability restraint came out my first impression was, why does war get a drk ability, seriously, knockin out ones crit ability to increase ws dmg as you accumulate hits is textbook drk. Then they took off the crit limitations and made it slightly broken. On top of that war already has 2 tiers of crit damage boost and their full af gives more dmg to every double attack proc. OK SE ENOUGH TOYS FOR WAR NOW TIME TO SHARE. First of all drk should have a occ deals double damage native trait like war's double attack, 2nd our af3 set should increase its dmg like wars then we can at least enjoy something. Also we should get crit tiers higher than war and faster, we are supposed to be the Heavy dd's our hits were supposed to be slow but massive, and right now we are the laughing stock of the dd community.

5. JA. One of niches is we are good stunners with 2 native ways to stun. Unfortunately our recast timers for both are long, but I suggest we get stun 2 and weapon bash 2 to make up for this. Its ok to just give us one of these and personally i prefer ja stun to spell, but if we got one more natural stun we could almost be a one man stunning machine which would give us a purpose in endgame shells, that and increased dd capabilites, but shiny dmg gets old after awhile. Also I read some others wantin a new ja so i suggest Deathblow, you can make it a straight up high damage ability or you can make it a increases damage to next hit ability, personally i like the latter, make it automatic crit with increased crit damage, but give it a 1min to 1:30 min recast so thfs don't cry foul on it.

and theres my thoughts on the matter, I'm sure some of you are upset about my first part but plz remember I'm tryin to help fix drk and someone has to call out the stupid ideas.

[Xsilver]

So you are suggesting drk waste time casting spells while meleeing cutting its dmg? unless you are just starting the fight noone is gonna really use cast abs att and def, maybe spd pending on if it stacks with spells but they will prolly end up like just like en dark. Also considering we still have around 9 levels more before cap our att with a longer last resort, endark and food could cap it easily.

For the casting while meleeing, the reason I thought this was a good addition is with enough tiers of acumen a tier 3 thunder spell could give us enough tp for a 5 hit build

[Armangetto]

I agree with desprate blows being left at 25% ja haste, We woudlnt need hasso anymore, which could open up more subjobs for us. Also less increassed spell times from hasso, wich means more spell casting. I also suggested impact, I forgot it was 666mp to cast, so they should reduce it to how much it costs to cast dread spikes or 100 to 150ish mp.

[Quetzacoatl]

1. Last Resort Duration at 1-minute, Last Resort Recast at 4 minutes This makes it so Last Resort isn't so overpowered with Desperate Blows and Last Resort Recast Merits- I can live with re-using last resort every 2-3 minutes, unlike a lot of people who are forgetting that full-timing 25% Job Ability Haste would be pretty damn overpowering.

2. Overhaul in Stat Modifiers for Scythe-based Weapon Skills. I don't care if the secondary modifiers are DEX, VIT, INT, Crit-Hit or nothing but a bigger STR modifier at this point, as long as damage is consistent and viable enough to be consider the job to be a useful DD- DRK Cannot use MND for Weapon Skills effectively, god-dammit!

3. New DRK-related Stances. Zicdeh made the best ideas for this: One called "Malevolence" would be required standing in front of the mob to inhibit its Attack Speed, Casting Speed and Magic Evasion. The other, "Insidiousness," requires standing to the side of the mob outside "Breath Range" to ignore a mob's defense and evasion while gaining a boost to Weapon Skill Damage.

4. Magic-Related buffs being at least a Tier or two in Magic Attack Bonus and Fast Cast, as well as a big increase in TP Gain from Occult Acumen. As it stands, Occult Acumen is a worthless job trait thanks to its mechanics. How exactly is getting 12 TP from casting Thunder 3 after wasting 6 seconds of my time that could have been used meleeing beneficial? It's not. For every 600+ hit I could have done with my Twilight Scythe, I dealt a measly 300. I don't understand SE's logic, but this let me down when we first got a peek at it. First tier of Occult Acumen should start at 5%, improving up to 20% with Tier 4. I could then see this being a viable option to gain TP on mobs I shouldn't be TPing on, and once I've grabbed enough TP, I could run in and launch a Weapon Skill at it. Rinse and Repeat until MP is totaled.

5. I wouldn't mind some new Dark Magic, mainly Absorb-Attack, Absorb-Defense, Absorb-Evasion. We had a good start with Absorb-Accuracy, so why not these three as well?

[Returner]

I fail to see what's wrong with being able to melee while casting. You don't think it will help yet you are suggesting casting absorb attack, absorb def, absorb speed. You realize the biggest problem with DRK's magic side isn't about not having enough useful spells, drain drain 2 absorb tp dreadspike endark and in the future maybe absorb att absorb speed like you said, is that it takes "time" to cast, and in a high haste mob after mob situation where you won't be able to cast "before the mob reaches the camp", you are in some way hurting your melee output, reducing your tp gain, by casting the various spells. Enabling us to cast while still swinging not only encourage us to cast more, it also make our magic part an asset on top of our melee instead of an counter productive action during a fight.

It is obviously not going to be perfect since most of us use spellcast, and that our gear swap during casting might or might not destroy our hit build. But there is always way to wait til the last sec to swap to minimize the possibility of swinging in magic casting gears. But none the less it helps. Absorb tp is one of the most powerful spell "if" I don't have to worry about losing a swing during my cast in which I can gain tp and gain damage. Seriously, casting while meleeing opens up absorb tp in a way that you can cast it whenever it is up, making it a huge asset in our ability to gain tp.

In addition, like someone said it earlier, occult acumen could potentially be our 5th melee hit in our 5 hit build as long as spending time casting things like thunder III or blizzard III won't hurt our tp gain and melee damage. As of right now, spending 6 secs to cast something where I gain 15 tp isn't worth it when I can potentially net two swings getting 40 tp and more melee damage. If you can melee while casting however, that 15 tp and the tier III on top of my 40 tp and two swings are all icing on the cake. I lose nothing and gain potentially a hit (I assume occult acumen will have more tier, and I think alot of ppl who asked for more tier didn't know our occult acumen is already something like tier 4 as the JT starts at lvl 45. So it is not like we aren't getting more tp from our casting as the lvl cap goes up). Yes I will eventually need MP for all those casting, but if casting aspir and aspir II won't hurt my melee, then I can cast them all the time, which is also why meleeing while casting will be such a critical change for us. It just opens up so many possibilities especially if we gain more useful spells in the future.

If you think it is too overpowering then I can see why, but to say it is nonsense and won't change the way we play drk is just not knowing the job enough. I am a melee freak and I almost always neglect our magic side, not because not enough useful spells, not because not having elemental, enfeebling, or darkmagic gears, I have all that, but because I don't want to lose a swing or two cuz I spend time casting. I will stun, I will cast endark in between fights, but that's really about it. I don't even cast dread spike a whole lot because unless I am soloing, by the time I am done casting I don't have hate anymore. If i could melee during my cast, it will also encourage me to cast it more if not keeping it up whenever it is up.

[Ash]

1- increase last resort duration (2-3mins)
2- unnerf abs-tp
3- remove decay from asb spells
4- give a boost to scythe weaponskill modifiers
5- longer dread spike duration/lower delay

[Kagato]

Because of the changes to posts, I'll go through here once more and apply the new votes in the other topic.

I orginally had Job Abilities/Traits/Stances as one category, but with the popularity of Stances being it's own update, I'm going to split them into 2 different categories.

[Cruentus]

Thank you, Returner, for that inspiring post. I really hope Square Enix gives us a job trait that lets us swing a weapon while spellcasting. That would be amazing.

Kagato, this is just my opinion, but I think you should list suggestions as straight-up job traits, job abilities (this includes stances), and spells, because that's how things are in the game. We understand a samurai's Hasso and Seigan to be stances, even though they're technically job abilities, so there shouldn't be a reason to list any "stance-like" effect as anything other than a job ability. You could just say in its description that it's a "stance-like" effect, similar to things like Hasso and Seigan, or Yonin and Innin.

Which reminds me. The suggestions for a dark knight's "stance" job abilities need work. I don't think your position in relation to your attack target should matter one bit. Think about how a thief or ninja works; of course a stealth-based or sneaky job is going to fight differently from behind a monster than from in front of a monster, which is why things like Sneak Attack and Innin make sense to be position-based. This is not true for a dark knight. We fight differently based on whether or not we're tanking, and that's about it. Even then, right now, it's only a question of whether to cast Dread Spikes or not, since we have pretty much no other defensive capabilities. Here's what I recommend for "stance-like" job abilities.

Interimere
Dark Knight Level 91 Job Ability
Duration: 1:30
Recast: 3:00
Increases casting and recast timers for all magic and lowers defense, but improves critical hit rate (this includes weapon skills) and weapon skill damage.

Ferocio
Dark Knight Level 91 Job Ability
Duration: 1:30
Recast: 3:00
Impairs attack and critical hit rate, but lowers casting and recast timers for all magic, and increases their potency well enough to match an expert Red Mage. Also improves parrying rate and evasion.

I took the Latin words for "to deal the death blow to" and "defiance" for the names.

So we have one "stance-like" job ability that powers up our melee aspect, and another that powers up our magical prowess and physical defensive ability. I admit I'm no expert on the subject, but I really, really don't think the dark knight's position in relation to the attack target should matter one bit.

[StingRay104]

All right I've received a few comments on this so I'm gonna follow up on this statement. SE will never allow us to swing while we cast, first off to program that in would be problematic, remember how cures tend to stun us when they hit us especially when we get up from raise. Second, assuming the new team can accomendate this we have the biggest problem with this suggestion, BLU and RDM. If we can swing while casting why can't they? Their own players while continue to complain til they steal this from us and then NIN and PLD will be like hey wtf is up with that, soon it will be universal and won't be a benefit for us. Third as I mentioned if your lucky enough a slight move while casting allows you to swing while casting and not be interupted, I have done this on DRK and NIN extensively and many other jobs subbing NIN, and let me tell you it has very little benefits, so to put those on a larger scale is not gonna help this job overcome its current hinderance. As for the claiming that absorb att and absorb def not being so useful, well it is true that it depends on their strength but ultimately the increase lasts for an extended period of time thus increasing the drk's capabilities for that entire duration thus makin the drk much better, not to mention that absorb def makes the mob weaker to all who are attacking meaning that the drk has helped the entire alliance and therefore is looked at with renewed light. As for stances I have suggested my own versions in the thread "How to fix DRK" and they focus on increasing drks physical capabilities on one and magical on the other, which is what a drk should be about, we are the job of pure damage, war can tank, we can kill its how we are intended to be, to say hey I want to tank as well is a bit greedy, but I understand having spells like dreadspikes can help tank for short time, which is perfectly acceptable for a drks tanking capabilities (I'm not including sub skills because that ultimately can help define a jobs capabilities in its own regards I'm just speaking about drk only), but instead we need to focus on whats drk true calling is. Ultimately drk has to be the heaviest hitter, but with slower delay to maintain balance, but with usage of spells we should be able to increase our own performance and to hinder our opponents.

On another topic I forgot to mention in my previous post that Souleater needs to be addressed, first a drk should get a relaxed hp drain on it as he lvls to help make the ability more useful, second the HNMS need to have the gains resistance to souleater removed or massively degraded, its not fair to have a good ability like this stolen from us cuz we couldn't figure out how you wanted us to fight AV, which btw is now a near worthless HNM to fight. Finally MP attack my favorite ability from FF9, I love this ability so much and to give it to drk is perfect, it allows us to use our mp to increase our damage, but it needs to be done at a reasonable rate, after all breaking 666mp outside of abyssea is hard so draining to much would be a terrible mistake.

Finally, Scythe, scythe, scythe, scythe, scythe. Thats all I hear about, I know we havew an A+ in Scythe, but we also have the highest rating in Great Sword too, granted A- another change that needs to be made. Great Sword also needs increase in power as far as ws is concerned. I have been and always will be a GS drk, and I have stood strong against many strong scythe DRK's so before we get in the GS vs Scythe argument, stop, this is not what its about, GS has its strengths and so does scythe, either one can be very strong in a drks hand and thats how it should be, for instance despite my love of GS I haven't used anything cept my twilight scythe since i got it, why, cuz its hits work like formless strikes and thus it has high consistent damage at all times and can even bypass many forms of damage ignore and drain, also the death proc is fun, but the point is both of these weapons are drk's main weapons and therefore if Scythe needs boost so does GS.

[Selzak]

1) Increase Last Resort duration.
2) More stunning capabilities / battle control.
3) Stances to divide magic and melee.
4) Blood Weapon nerfed and reduced to 5 min. recast to stack with Souleater.
5) A serious critical-hit trait that begins early and scales with levels. DRK is a spike damage job- it should definitely specialize in critical hits, not lack them. (Would effect weaponskills)

[Returner]

The reason I think meleeing while casting spell should be an exclusive JT for drk is the fact that pld can block while casting spell, and on the other side of the spectrum, we should be able to have an unique trait that help us cast while not diminishing what we are designed to do, which is to kill. I wouldn't mind they make it darkmagic only, but there is really no reason for blu or rdm to cry since they are mainly casters hence the mage label. Ninja should probably get something of this sort I agree, but they do have stance JAs that help either their melee or casting/tanking, and their primary role is more enfeebling and tanking, less in damage dealing. At least that's what SE said, I know they do great damage.

Yes, there will be times where you can move a bit, get your swing off, and then get back to the spot and still able to get the spell off, but it is inconsistent. Whether SE can implement it or not is another issue, but I don't see how difficult it is. JPs are suggesting the same exact trait if you go to their forum. They are so concern about losing DoT during casting they even suggested getting a JT that will allow you to always get a bonus swing right after casting to compensate for any possible swing lose. I don't see how ppl want new spell etc etc without worrying about the very basic reason that we are not casting. I am the kind of person who is very specific about meleeing, even JA activation bothers me a bit with the 1 sec delay after every JA use, those messive casting time drives me crazy without a doubt.

[StingRay104]

Quick response, yes pld can block while casting, as can any other job with shield skill, and also any job with parry can also parry while casting, and any job with guard can also guard while casting, nothing about these skills is by any means pld exclusive and is initiated by the mob attacking, therefore the spell cast animation is interupted by the mob. By this thought here to make it so that Drk is the only one to get away with melee hits while casting will cause a massive out cry by the other magic melee jobs, and then SE will cave and then we will be on even grounds. I understand your frustration with delay but for a good example Utsusemi has a long cast time on it, don't you think nins will want to have melee swings during that, especially if they are tanking. The thing is your complaint is not realistic as you stated ja's also have a delay til next swing, and it can be annoying but it clearly demonstrates the problem with programing i mentioned, second why not do the sensable thing and just ask for faster cast times, like 1 sec cast times on our spell that we use IE our drains and spikes, aspirs, and god willing they fix them our absorbs. People are throwing to much stock into this when its nothin but a can of worms, just look at it objectively, what can we have that others can't, and this will be the next Zanshin/Sekkanoki/Convert/Refresh/Manifestion/Accession/Haste/who knows what else will be a once was unique to certain jobs but now belongs to all ability.

The reason I keep up with this is yes it would be nice to swing while casting, but unfortunately your asking for something that will eventually benefit everyone, and this is the drk thread, keep it to only ideas that benefit drk and stop trying to make this a drk only ability because you know, I know, everyone on this forum knows that if we get that then they are gonna complain til they get it as well.

And for the record the reason most the time drks don't cast is because 1.) Drains and Aspirs recast timers are too long and we gotta wait for them to come up again, also not every mob has mp and Undead obvious. 2.) Our other spells are either circumstancial or useless, example our nukes are super weak and have a large mp cost to our small pool of mp, which we need to save for our good spells. 3.) Mobs tend to have high resist rates to drk magic, SE doesn't like it when ppl cast sleep on mobs, they want mobs to be awake and kill people, thats why only brds and whms can sleep them most the time, course break isn't better on mobs, which btw i can see us gettin that next update. Hell only non drk magic spell i ever cast anymore is poison, why cuz i gotta pull with something, although ever once in awhile i get to hit a t3 trigger spell or Impact for fun.

Now that the nonsense is over back to the main point of this thread improving drk.

Only thing i got for this post is allow us to use our absorb spells with abyssea buffs and increase the duration of these buffs and none of the BS deteriorates over time, just straight buff/debuff for i'd say a minute isn't askin for to much or perhaps make it based of drk magic skill for duration, also the stats drained need to be higher, i was able to get 21 on my absorbs on mobs outside abyssea at lvl 90, it should be higher I think 50 at lvl 99 (Higher with skill merits and or new merits at 99) that way we can at least contend with other dd's by throwing on our own buffs to increase our ws multipliers, plus it would be nice to hit the enemy hard enough to make us look even more shiny to endgame ls's.

Oh i forgot any job with counter can also counter while casting, its hilarious, mnk/nin main tank and the mob says screw you buddy you can't have shadows, and i'm like the hell i can't bam.

[Kagato]

No matter what the request, I can't deny it and I will gather the votes and place it on the list. It's not my job to determine whether or not an idea is good or not. It's the developer's jobs. I just provide the feedback in one easy-to-access topic for them.

Thankfully the popular requests are ones that can be more manageable, such as the widely popular Last Resort Duration request.

[Xsilver]

a straight buff/debuff for absorb for 1 min isn't asking much because it is pretty worthless and no one will waste time casting worthless things in continuous fighting.

and pld has shield mastery where they don't get interrupted casting magic, but so does rdm and war now

Forgot to add I don't cast because it cuts into my DD

[Returner]

I don't see what's wrong with other jobs getting the trait tho. We both know that it will benefit drk the most. When SE fixed the shield blocking problem, they aimed at pld. Yes rdm and war get them, but hardly have any use. If this trait helps blu and ninja, so be it, but like I said, melee damage is our main damage source, interrupting our main source for magic is the biggest reason we don't cast. Blu will cast regardless, cuz their magic does more damage than their melee, they don't give a crap if it hurts their melee damage. Ninja will cast regardless, cuz their magic is their main source for tanking and enfeebling, so again, they have to cast to do what they do (and wouldn't you think that will help ninja keep hate better? bingo, another way to save another job that likely won't be as powerful once we are out of abyssea). Those jobs really don't have a choice not to cast yet for drk, magic is just a throw in and in many ways a counter productive throw in. And like I said, you don't have to worry about SE not able to implement this, if they want to, there will be a way, it is our job to suggest. I am all for faster cast similar to how blms got fastcast exclusively when casting elemental magic, I can see SE giving drk something similar to that while casting darkmagic. But to me, casting while meleeing, if they can implement it, will be the ultimate fix, even if that means it applies to all jobs. We are suggesting what will help drk, not what we are hoping to get exclusively. I don't see any other jobs suggesting this, cuz to them they don't care.

[Cruentus]

I hope Square Enix's developers don't have too much trouble reading all of this internet speak.

At any rate, when it comes to people complaining, isn't it better to know who the complainers are than try to "fix the game" repeatedly to satisfy everyone? It's a fact that dark knights need help, and there are many ways to prove that using facts alone. If we did get a job trait that let us swing a weapon while casting a spell, even if it's restricted to only our dark magic, I would say to let the paladins, red mages, and whomever else complain that they don't get something similar. They don't need such a job trait. Paladins get extra TP just for blocking with a shield. Who else can do that? Certainly not a warrior. Would they like to? Probably, but do they really need more tricks up their sleeves? No, they're fine as they are. Dark knights are not. When it comes right down to it, if paladins and whomever else complain that they don't get a job trait like dark knights might that would let them swing a weapon while casting a spell, they're really just running their mouths out of jealousy. Ultimately, yes, I do think reducing the casting times on most of a dark knight's dark magic spells would be the best fix, along with removing the decay on "Absorb" spells, but at the same time, such a job trait wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Basically, this is my point. If dark knights get a job trait that lets us swing a weapon while casting a spell, even if it's just for dark magic, and other jobs complain about it, I'd like to point out the fact that arguing using opinions is a waste of time. If a red mage can present solid, undeniable facts that support the argument that they should get a similar job trait, even if it's restricted to just their enfeebling magic, then by all means, grant them such a job trait, as long as it doesn't unbalance the jobs all over again. In fact, I honestly think that red mages should focus on enfeebling magic and their sword enhancement series of spells (i.e. "Enthunder") a whole lot more than healing or elemental magic, because that's what they should be doing best. Leave the elemental magic to black mages, and the healing magic to white mages.

So using the idea that people will complain about an "attack while you cast" job trait for dark knights as an argument against having it does not work. Personally, I think it's unfair that summoners got Odin, whose Zantetsuken Blood Pact deals Death in an area, got him before we dark knights got an instant-kill attack (see my idea for getting "Bonecrusher"), even if it does require Astral Flow. What if the summoner's an accomplished alchemist, and can make revitalizers like nobody's business? So much for waiting two hours once Astral Flow wears off. This is especially true in Abyssea, where a summoner could just synthesize a revitalizer, activate Astral Flow, summon Odin, have him use Zantetsuken and vanish, then use the revitalizer, and finally make a new one. Of course, I am assuming that Odin doesn't miss in this scenario, but still, that's kind of unfair to pretty much everybody else, especially the job that's known for doom and death-dealing just from the name.

[Rezeak]

1. New version of Last resort (basically longer version shared recast)
2. New version of Souleater (basically worth using and dmg brought up to par)
3. Absorb-Haste
4. Drain III
5. Ja to allow WS to crit (not forced crit just allow it to natrally crit)

[Tyraant]

1. better TP return for acult accumen. we are giving up at least an attack round for 3 TP???
2. Fix Catastrophe
3. longer Last resort effect
4. unique spells
5. a new usable WS

[Radio]

I don't mind the Dark Knight the way it is but I'm procrastinating right now and want to participate.

1. Last Resort duration increase- Give it a more severe defense penalty and lower the recast timer too.
2. Dark Magic Mastery- This should enhance the occult acumen, fast cast, and potency to all dark magic. Go ahead and throw in what others have posted about being able to swing while casting as well as enhancing the duration (and getting rid of the Absorb-XXX decaying over time) buffs. Also add more spells Drain III, Bio III, a unique type of blind or terror spell to our spell list.
3. Let's go ahead and give DRK an A+ in great sword and find something else to sacrifice Diabolic Eye for besides HP.
4. Mnk has Counterstance, War has retaliation, would be nice if there was some way to make Dread Spikes on the same level: shorter recast time (see Dark Magic Mastery) while not being able to cast any other dark magic while the spikes are up.
5. Give us blood weapon on a more reasonable timer (10 min) and give us a new two hour, the effect will be something like Zantesuken but not.

Sap
Instead of a tit for tat type of two hour the drk gets one swing with an insane mod on the strength of the attack that will "Sap" the target. Sap will drain all of the mobs stats (STR-CHR, TP, Accuracy, MP if applicable, maybe attack) while dealing damage. The damage dealt will be applied to the drk's hit points. The base amount of the stats drained should go up by level. There should be a small chance of defeating the mob (death). If this occurs the Drk gains a max HP bonus (from the mobs recently drained HP) but does not drain any other stats. Duration of effects last 2.5-3 minutes.

Yeah I need to get back to studying.

[Dart]

top 5 suggestions that are incredibly thoughtless

1. Critcal hit ws, so lemme guess make it so everyone everywhere relies solely on RR, or perhaps we could have a ws that isn't crit based that can compete with these crit based ones so that when we do crit it does greater dmg, lets shot for makin drk the high dmg job it used to be.

2. Melee while casting. As annoyed as I am with the first one truth be told it would help, but this is ludicrus, and yes i mean the rapper this just sucks like he does, first off listen up, THIS WON'T EVER HAPPEN!!!!! plain and simple idk why all these ppl are askin for this, this has never been or never will be a good solution, and heres why, first our nukes are laughable and 2nd why are you wantin an obvious melee job who utilizes dark magic to hinder his opponents and improve his own capabilities. Also if your lucky enough you can move a lil and cancel the castin animation still get the spell and a hit in, so I know from experience this won't help balance drk.

3. Guillotine. No. No. No. Plz let old ws's die. If you increase guilotine you could ruin game balance at lower lvls, besides I went for 40 lvls on guillotine I'm tired of it gimme somethin better

4. Death spell. Remember how jacked up every mobs dark magic resist is? So how useful will this be, answer is not useful at all. Unfortunately this spell could go either way, it can be useless as in never lands no matter what, or it could be broken. Either situation I would rather them not waste time on this spell cuz it doesn't help us ultimately. Also for the person who posted they wanted impact naturally, the spell is drk capable as is, i have the cloak, i've casted it on drk, 666mp cost is tremendous, but the debuff is awesome, assuming it lasts long, which against most nms it doesn't

5. dark magic fast cast. Once again drk is about usin its limited spells to hinder opponents and increase our strength, so as much as I like the idea of lower recast times this won't magically fix drk, we need better spells first, and that brings conclusion of the bad ideas portion of my list


Now with the good

1. Last Resort time extended. Not enough yes in the world on this one. I for one say to hell with hasso gimme 25% haste with this for 2-3 mins and best of all it works well with what we drks already have.

2. Stances. I was the first person to post a thread dedicated to fixing drk and I introduced the stances that could fix the job, they focused on drks damage capabilities in both physical and magical capacities, and they could still stack with hasso, or god willing new LR and make the job shine as a dd again.

3. Spells. Again I mentioned this in my previous post Absorb att being our flagship spell, it would make us cap attack so easily and at the same time hinder our opponents to nothin. Absorb def also a good one and absorb spd well this could be great if it stacks with haste and slow respectedly which I say it does so another great spell, but we are forgetting en aspir en 2 spells, rdm is wastin them and they fit drk a lil better than t3 nukes also perhaps some nukes that hinder associated stats kinda like a less powerful impact, also abs spells need to lose the decay effect, increase the stat drain with drk skill and stack with abyssea buffs.

4. New traits. War is supposed to be a job that can use all weapons effectively and not be the best dd but a very effective dd with any weapon. Yet war has been given way too much love, when the ability restraint came out my first impression was, why does war get a drk ability, seriously, knockin out ones crit ability to increase ws dmg as you accumulate hits is textbook drk. Then they took off the crit limitations and made it slightly broken. On top of that war already has 2 tiers of crit damage boost and their full af gives more dmg to every double attack proc. OK SE ENOUGH TOYS FOR WAR NOW TIME TO SHARE. First of all drk should have a occ deals double damage native trait like war's double attack, 2nd our af3 set should increase its dmg like wars then we can at least enjoy something. Also we should get crit tiers higher than war and faster, we are supposed to be the Heavy dd's our hits were supposed to be slow but massive, and right now we are the laughing stock of the dd community.

5. JA. One of niches is we are good stunners with 2 native ways to stun. Unfortunately our recast timers for both are long, but I suggest we get stun 2 and weapon bash 2 to make up for this. Its ok to just give us one of these and personally i prefer ja stun to spell, but if we got one more natural stun we could almost be a one man stunning machine which would give us a purpose in endgame shells, that and increased dd capabilites, but shiny dmg gets old after awhile. Also I read some others wantin a new ja so i suggest Deathblow, you can make it a straight up high damage ability or you can make it a increases damage to next hit ability, personally i like the latter, make it automatic crit with increased crit damage, but give it a 1min to 1:30 min recast so thfs don't cry foul on it.

and theres my thoughts on the matter, I'm sure some of you are upset about my first part but plz remember I'm tryin to help fix drk and someone has to call out the stupid ideas.

oh god, my brain....it hurts...

[Minikom]

1.- Fix Quietus
2.- Crit Hits ws
3.- Drain III
4.- more tp gained with Occult ment
5.- shorter recast and longer duration for dread spikes

[Karuyag]

wrong thread... moved post...
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/729-The-official-Dark-Knight-adjustment-and-suggestion-topic.?p=64235&viewfull=1#post64235

[Duzell]

1. Longer Last Resort Duration
2. Powerful Scythe WS along the lines of Drakesbane
3. Teir 4 Nukes
4. Dark based nukes along the line of banish and holy
5. Stop making every NM under the sun resistant to soul eater and blood weapon

[Urteil]

1. A real 2hr, Blood Weapon 2handed weapon only meritable down to 8 minute reuse.

2. Drain and Aspir Timers Identical. 60s Drain 1 75s Drain 2, etc etc with DRAIN III AND ASPIR III

3. Dark based nukes so Dark seal and occult acumen is worth a shit.

4. Plague and some other Debuffs Via Dark Magic spells.

5. Last Resort fixed, duration increased to 2-3 minutes, or made a stance to compliment a magical stance.

[Cruentus]

Fell Weapon
Dark Knight's Main Two-Hour Ability
Duration: 1 minute
Critical hit rate doubles, all changes to HP are nullified while in effect (meaning you can't be healed, but you also can't be hurt, nor do you take damage over time from effects like Poison or Dia), your current level of Haste is doubled, ignoring the current Haste caps (i.e., you had 26% Haste in equipment, this would double to 52% Haste), and your attacks never miss. When this effect wears off, you instantly drop to 1 HP.

There's a thread debating whether you should be able to access the Two-Hour Ability of your support job, and one suggestion I saw said all jobs should have two Two-Hour Abilities; one for use as main job, and one for use as support job. I posted my Fell Weapon idea there, too.

[Therin]

5. Adjustment: Extend "Blood Weapon" and "Last Resort" timers to 1:00 (to match Souleater).

4. Job Trait: Reduces the negative effect of "Souleater", causing it to drain only 5% of your HP while still dealing 10% damage. Also, increases critical hit rate by 10% while "Souleater" is active.

3. Job Trait: "Crippling Blow" - Occasionally doubles the damage of your next melee attack. (5-10% rate, can process on a missed hit, can process on weapon skills, but only on the first hit.)

2. Job Trait: Occasionally absorbs HP on successful melee attack. (Non-elemental, like Blood Weapon, cannot process on undead or on a weapon skill, 5-10% activation rate.)

1. Great Sword/Scythe Weapon Skills: Delivers a three-hit attack. Chance of critical hit varies with TP.


2. Fix Catastrophe

What's wrong with it? Mine works fine.

[vedder]

i like therins idea about an occ doubles damage trait/souleater taking only 5% while still dealing 10% (maybe scale SE up with tiers, think someone mentioned that too) and i'd like to see a multihit greatsword ws, but im rather reserved in that area, lots of content to come, we're bound to see new ws's and such and i'd be shocked if we didnt

the occ doubles dmg suits drk, and it would help keep pace with thfs Triple attack/wars double attack/ninjas duel wielding maddness/monks insane DoT/ an sam rapid tp gain. think it was a good idea

[Therin]

My idea with "Crippling Blow" was that it would process like a critical hit, like this:

First attack round:

Therin's attack deals a crippling blow!
The Forest Hare takes 200 points of damage.

Then, since the monster is "crippled", the very next attack from the same player would deal double damage. This would be a little more interesting that just straight up doubling the damage occasionally and would force more user input. For example, if you waited to weapon skill until after you saw the message, your WS would force double damage.

This would be a low activation rate, 5 or 10%, so it wouldn't be overly powerful I think.

I'd be happy with a straight up double damage trait too, of course, but I like the idea of making jobs more complex and engaging.

If you wanted to make DRK more party friendly you could even open it up to allow "Crippling Blow" to apply to other jobs. So, the DRK processes a "Crippling Blow" attack and then a SAM uses Tachi: Gekko immediately after, and his Gekko does double damage. This would make DRK more interesting and allow it to do more damage, both directly and indirectly (by allowing another job to deal more damage).

If they implemented this idea, we'd be seeing inevitable DRK gear with bonuses like "Crippling Blow"+5%, increasing its chance to activate.

[Xsilver]

Think he meant fix catastrophe's aftermath so that its useful again

[Therin]

The Drain is the most important part of the WS. I welcome the advent of more Haste gear. It gives me more options post-Catastrophe.

[Gradd]

One of the main reasons apoc is so bad right now is DRK can cap haste without the aftermath, sure you can stack somewhat better gear during AM, but its nowhere near as amazing as it was at 75.

My suggestion for Cata's AM is to change it to JA haste, that is the only way to Fix Apoc right now. With Hasso you'd have constant 20% JA haste which would make Apoc a very lethal weapon, and closer to what it used to be back when it was first released.

[Xsilver]

That would work, might be gimped if they extend last resort duration or drastically shorten the timers on it since ja haste caps at 25%

[Therin]

Do either of you have Apocalypse? I do, and I'm perfectly fine with Catastrophe's aftermath the way it is, I'd just rather I be able to do more damage with it.

[Xsilver]

Yes I do, and the reason I originally got it was because of the aftermath, not the ws dmg

[Gradd]

Do either of you have Apocalypse? I do, and I'm perfectly fine with Catastrophe's aftermath the way it is, I'd just rather I be able to do more damage with it.

Yes I do, and right now Catas AM is garbage. 10% JA haste would completely destroy w/e gear setup you could add into your Current AM build.

[Rezeak]

Doesn't Cata aftermath allow u to tp in full AF3+2 so u can get the 10% double dmg rate and caped haste ? (thats alot better than 5% Double dmg rate that i get with just 3 af3+2)

I don't have it but i'd say thats pretty good also most relic aftermath suck compared to DRKs at least it's not lol shockspikes like the Polearm

As for the DMG se said there buffing the dmg more still so just wait.

I really like that Crippling blow thing btw. (you should make a thread on it since SE is unlikly to read this entire thread)
We could also get a Terror spell that gives the effect for 5 secs
With those 2 things everyone would want a DRK in there party

[Therin]

I really like that Crippling blow thing btw. (you should make a thread on it since SE is unlikly to read this entire thread)

I still don't actually believe SE takes our meanderings to heart anyway. If I can come up with a good idea for the job, I'm sure the developers who are actually paid to do it can do the same. I'm just posting my suggestions here for the sake of my own boredom.

If someone else would like to make a thread with that idea, by all means go for it. I just don't care enough.

[vedder]

hell i dont have apoc but im with therin, its still quite possibly the most revolutionary weapon for any dd there is, making the haste AM gear haste sucked but hey what can you do? adjusting it to ja haste would be a super improvement but i really dont see it happening sadly, an this is coming from a drk that would blow the 169-172m on it if given a chance regardless

[Sayomi]

Fix my Apocalypse wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I agree the drain on Apoc is something wonderful esp if your rocking the level 90 version and occasionally popping 5k+ ws off. Honestly I dont care of it becomes the best again or doesnt the memories of obtaining it and that sensation you get when you use the ws for the first time, nothing replaces it, not even the emps, because the suspense isnt even a quater as long as a relic builders would be.