Another cry for help thread, but with a lot of junk to read!

[NeoLionheart]

Wow, SE has official forums now. And they get to hear all my suggestions for DRK.

Over the course of.....let's say a long period of time, I came up with some ideas for DRK that I think people might like. If not, they can discuss it I suppose. I mostly drew inspiration from other "Black Knight" type classes from other games and npc's from FFXI such as Zeid and Shadowlord.

I just cancelled my account recently and it will stay that way until DRK gets the niche and respect that it deserves. Go easy on me plz, I tried my best to keep things balanced. :cool:



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FFXI Dark Knight Re-Imagining By Leondimas (Lakshmi Server)


Final Fantasy XI Advanced Job Overview - Dark Knight (DRK)
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Available after completing the Quest: Blade of Darkness. Dark Knights (DRK) are powerful damage dealers who have the capability to further their damage by using select Black Magic spells.
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Job Abilities
Level Name

01 Blood Weapon - Causes all attacks to drain enemy's HP. Duration is increased to 45 seconds and 15% magical haste is granted.

15 Last Resort - Increases user's attack. Defense is not lowered and duration is extended to 1 minute.

20 Weapon Bash - Delivers an attack that can stun the target. Damage from attack increases in correlation to users level, STR, and weapon DMG.

40 Insidiousness: Reduces an enemy's attack speed, casting speed, and Magic defense when in front of target. Also grants access to Darkness: Submit. Effect scales at certain intervals as player levels up. Recast: 1 min. Duration: 10 min.
Original interpretation credit to Zicdeh from FFXIAH.com. Revisions by Leondimas.*

50 Call Bat Familiar - Calls a Giant Bat to fight by your side. Inflicts Drain Daze on current target. Uses all Giant Bat TP attacks. Recast: 20 min. Bat Familiar gains effects/job traits when traded vials of blood. Two trades per summon. E.g. Vial of Beastman Blood = Double Attack Trait.

60 Malevolence: Increases Critical Hit Rate, Weapon Skill Damage, and reduces casting and recast time of Dark Magic spells by 50% when striking target from behind. Also grants access to Darkness: Channel. Effect scales at certain intervals as player levels up. Recast: 1 min. Duration: 10 min. *Original interpretation credit to Zicdeh from FFXIAH.com. Revisions by Leondimas.*

85 Abyssal Strike - Delivers a ranged attack to target enemy. Additional effect: stun. Ranged weapon required. Recast: 1 min. Duration: 1 min. Instant.
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40 Darkness: Submit - Displays abilities and spells available when using Insidiousness.

Job Abilities
Level Name

40 Elemental Aftermath - Enhances your next Elemental Magic spell to inflict a negative status based on its elemental properties. Potency is increased based on level of tier. Duration: 1 min. Recast: 5 min.

E.g. Blizzard = Weak Paralyze Effect / Blizzard II = Moderate Paralyze Effect / Blizzard III = Strong Paralyze Effect.

Earth: Slow Water: Poison Aero: Silence Fire: Plague Blizzard: Paralyze Thunder: Stun

75 Doppelganger - Calls a shadow of your own self. Shadow engages/disengages current enemy in reponse to players actions. Shares the Dark Knight's stats. Is affected by equipment haste.
Is not affected by job abilities/friendly magic/bard songs/corsair rolls/atma. Duration: 1 min or until
shadow takes damage. Recast: 15 min.


Spell List
Level Name

52 Terra Absorption - Player Physical DMG taken- / Target Physical damage taken+. Spell element: Earth. Spell cost: 45 MP

58 Torrent Absorption - Player Magic Def. Bns.+ / Target Magic Def. Down. Spell element: Water. Spell cost: 45 MP

70 Cyclone Absorption - Player Movement speed+/ Target Weight effect. Spell element: Wind. Spell cost: 45 MP
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60 Darkness: Channel - Displays abilities and spells available when using Malevolence.

Job Abilities
Level Name

60 Deathblow - Deals critical damage on your next weaponskill. Duration: 1 min. Recast: 3 min.

80 Blood Magic - Causes your next Elemental Magic spell to drain enemy's HP. Effective on Undead. Duration: 1 min. Recast: 3 min.


Spell List
Level Name

64 Plasma Absorption - Player Increases attack speed / Target Reduces attack speed. Spell element: Lightning. Spell cost: 45 MP

76 Glacier Absorption - Player Magic Atk. Bns.+ / Target Magic Atk. Down. Spell element: Ice. Spell cost: 45 MP

82 Inferno Absorption - Player Physical DMG+ / Target Physical DMG-. Spell element: Fire. Spell cost: 45 MP

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Job Traits
Level Name
35 Magic Accuracy Bonus I - Grants a bonus of 10 magic accuracy.

55 Vicious Resolve - Grants a chance to intimidate aggressive enemy into skipping an attack
when current HP < 25%. Effect becomes nullified once HP recovers back to a certain level.

72 Magic Accuracy Bonus II - Grants an additional bonus of 10 magic accuracy.

99 Weapon Mastery - Melee attacks occur during spellcasting when engaged to an enemy.

Group 2 Merits
Level Name

Merit Desperate Blows - Delay reduction applies to one-handed and two-handed weapons.

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Combat Skill Ratings
Scythe A+
Great sword A-
Axe B+
Great Axe B-
Sword B+
Dagger C
Club C-
Marksmanship C
Evasion C
Shield B+
Parrying C-

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Spell List
Level Name
25 Endark (We get this spell way too late in the game)

50 Bleed - Gradually steals an enemies HP. Spell element: Dark. Spell cost: 28 MP. Recast: 1 min.

58 Restitution - Transfer a detrimental magical effect to target enemy. Spell element: Dark. Spell cost: 36 MP. Recast: 2 min

70 Dispel

75 Bio III

95 Break (DRK is supposed to get this next update actually)

[Gamiina]

we have an ongoing discussion about this in the thread "Unlike Cecil I'll forever be a Dark Knight~!"

However I really Love this idea: "Weapon Mastery - Melee attacks occur during spellcasting when engaged to an enemy"

and i really hate this one: "Call Bat Familiar - Calls a Giant Bat to fight by your side."

[NeoLionheart]

we have an ongoing discussion about this in the thread "Unlike Cecil I'll forever be a Dark Knight~!"

However I really Love this idea: "Weapon Mastery - Melee attacks occur during spellcasting when engaged to an enemy"

and i really hate this one: "Call Bat Familiar - Calls a Giant Bat to fight by your side." Thank you for the input. Honestly the bat idea came from the silly job emote. I also noticed that dark knight type classes typically summon minions, usually bats, zombies, skeletons, etc. My blood idea came from the tons of different vials of blood that are in the game, wanted to put them to use. Thought it fit with the job description too. :D

[SP1CE]

omg man up and lvl war.

[Seoha]

omg man up and lvl war.
OH NOES! QQ!

On a more serious note, we really shouldn't be summoning -anything-. Shadows, pets, whatever, we shouldn't.
The focus on DRK is cast dark magic and slay enemies pretty much.

By having pets of some sort we'll be a ghetto DRG, and that's not how it works whatsoever.

[Hys0k1nGu]

Some good and/or interesting ideas here .. But let's face it, it's not happening, any of that.

Watch SE laugh at us and nerf the job even more .. "Torcleaver was overpowered, we decided to adjust the damage" or something like that XD

[NeoLionheart]

Cleaned up my original post a bit for the suggestion thread.

[NeoLionheart]

On a more serious note, we really shouldn't be summoning -anything-. Shadows, pets, whatever, we shouldn't.
The focus on DRK is cast dark magic and slay enemies pretty much.
I can see why you're so against the pet idea, thought for a long while on that one myself. However, it was not my intention to transform drk into a ghetto drg. A lot of my ideas were based around the drk job concept "support your party through weakening the enemy while beating the crap out of it". You could change the bat into a evil weapon or something. At least it would fit with the job quest. I just thought a bat would be awesome. Now for the shadow summoning part, the effect is short and no where close to a wyvern pet. I got that idea from zeid and shadowlord because they can split themselves into annoying clones. It's most certainly related to the dark knight mythos within the FFXI world.

[Duelle]

On a more serious note, we really shouldn't be summoning -anything-. Shadows, pets, whatever, we shouldn't.
The focus on DRK is cast dark magic and slay enemies pretty much.I'd like to think we could become the lesser versions of a certain DRK that could summon shadow versions of himself to fight. The OP's summoning ideas aren't that farfetched when one takes that into account. The bat thing does sound a little funky, but I like the idea of giving all those vials of blood some actual use.

[Seoha]

I realize Zeid could do that, I'm not really poking fun of the OP or anything really (I'm sorry if it came out wrong).

Only couple of Dark Knights comes to mind when they could summon something like shadows, Zeid being one of them.
Other career Dark Knights in the FF universe couldn't though, to quote Cecil or Gafgarion for example.

While it's completely plausible the idea, DRK is a job that fits the role of "front damage dealer". It's iconic that they can cast dark magic and have all that dark aura around them.
When you put that into a MMO, you see, every job has a role. Some will fit the same role as a "front damage dealer", but there are things called "spotlight".

It's of Dragoon's, Summoner's and Beastmaters spotlight to get aid from a third-party. That was iconic, through out FF history. No exceptions on XI (maybe not DRG, I haven't seen a Lancer summoning a wyvern at all).

However for Dark Knight the emphasys is another: It's ... cast those spells and slay those mobs. Don't base yourself based on what one or two dark knights can do (btw, Ark Angel TT couldn't summon anything, same for the "necromancer" who's just a Dark Knight in the Drachen Armet fight if you've done it). There's a whole history behind all of those jobs. And through out such history, no Dark Knight was able to summon anything.

Dark knight summoning a companion is a "new thing" that only happened in XI.
I might be wrong, but I doubt SE would implement such thing.



However, it is a nice sugestion that I wouldn't mind being applied really.

[NeoLionheart]

I realize Zeid could do that, I'm not really poking fun of the OP or anything really (I'm sorry if it came out wrong).

Only couple of Dark Knights comes to mind when they could summon something like shadows, Zeid being one of them.
Other career Dark Knights in the FF universe couldn't though, to quote Cecil or Gafgarion for example.
I didn't take offense, no worries. :) At least your criticisim was intelligent and thought out. Unlike "go level war" lulz.

Your comparison to other drks in the ff universe is exactly the problem, there is none. DRKs from a game like FF:Tactics can be some of the most deadly units in the game. Either the dev team doesn't know what they are doing, ;), or drk doesn't translate well to an mmo.

Let's look at our job defining ability Souleater and compare it to a few other versions.

FFIII (DS version) - Damages all enemies at the cost of 20% HP.

Damage inflicted = weapon atk x 5 +job level x10 + current hp x 0.9

FFIV - In the DS Version, damages a single enemy at the cost of 10% HP. Attack power doubles and is considered a status that lasts 3 turns. Attacks are also considered dark element. The damage formula for Dark Wave in non-DS versions are as follows.

Damage = Attack multiplier * Attack Power * 1/2
Damage = Damage + ((Damage * random(100,150)/100) % 256)
HP loss = Current HP * 1/8

FFVIII - Damage will be tripled and the user will take damage equal to 1/10th of their max HP.

FFXI - Adds 10% (Or 12% with gear) of the player's HP to their next physical attack.

As you can see, as far as I'm aware, FFXI souleater is the ONLY one that bases your damage entirely on amount of HP you have. Bad idea if you ask me.

[Cruentus]

I posted some of my ideas here. (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/949-Dark-Knights-Elemental-Magic?p=5659#post5659) I'm tired of having all those spells and not having a decent use for them.

I'd like to see Bonecrusher added to our job abilities. It's from Final Fantasy XII's international version, on the Uhlan's license board (an Uhlan is basically a dark knight with a polearm). You sacrifice some of your HP to instantly kill an enemy.

[Seoha]

Yes, indeed Neolionheart (almost typed Neonlionheart lawlzy), DRK wasn't a job very present in a lot of FF.
It's a bit of a "maybe we'll include in this game maybe not". It's a bit generic on what it can do because different FF had different ideas for DRK (only one thing in common: Sacrifice <insert something here> to buff <insert startus here>).

Maybe that's kind of why I like FFXI in the end.
Corsair is a new job in the FF universe I think. There are based-in-RL-luck jobs like lolLady Luck in FFX-2.. but the whole idea of Corsair was a very nice add.

I do think that the FFXI's Dark Knight is a very unique DRK, and essentially a very well built (in paper) job too. Maybe poorly executed, but well built.
I guess that's kind of why I really want to see updates and tweaks. It's a shame to just kick the "fuck it" button to this job.

[Selzak]

I actually really like a lot of those suggestions. The bat thing is a bit much, but the two stances sound like they could be implemented very well. I also like the idea of getting access to more enfeebles through our (currently) useless elemental magic.

[NeoLionheart]

Thank you. Specify which ones please so it can possibly be added to the main suggestion thread.

[Selzak]

Well, here's an hour that I'll never get back! I went through the whole list and gave my opinions about each part. If I omitted something it's because I didn't think it would fit well.

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01 Doppelganger - Summons forth a shadow of the Dark Knight's darkened soul. Duration 1 min 30 seconds. Recast: 120 min.
[This would just be a shadow NPC named Darkened Soul (Player) that is equal to the player's current level.]

30 Blood Weapon - A portion of each of the user's attacks drains HP from the enemy. Duration 30 seconds. Recast: 5 min.
[This is just a 30 second, very powerful personal Drain Samba intended to stack with Souleater to make it more usable. Perhaps it would drain 10% of the attack.]

15 Last Resort - Increases user's attack while lowering defense.
Recast: 5 min. Duration 1 min 20 seconds.


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55 Insidiousness - Reduces an enemy's attack speed and casting speed while in front of the target. Spell interruption rate is greatly reduced. Grants the user a Refresh effect. Max HP is reduced.
Also grants access to Darkness: Submit. Recast: 2 min. Duration 5 min.
[This is a team survival and defense-oriented stance. It slows the enemy's actions, gives you access to the support-type Darkness spells, and grants a 3-4 MP/tic Refresh for the casting and support focus.]

70 Malevolence - Increases Critical Hit Rate, Weapon Skill Damage, and TP generation while striking the target from behind. Max MP is reduced.
Also grants access to Darkness: Channel. Recast: 2 min. Duration 5 min.
[This is a melee and offense-oriented stance. The Dark Knight becomes more malevolent; scoring more critical hits, producing impressive spike damage (this is where we should be able to call ourselves a top-tier DD. In this stance, a Dark Knight should be able to [I]spike the highest of any melee DD), and using weapon skills more frequently. Instead of messing with casting, toss in a 2-3 TP/tic regain.]
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55 Darkness: Submit - Displays abilities and spells available when using Insidiousness.

Job Abilities
Level Name

55 Elemental Aftermath - Enhances your next Elemental Magic spell to inflict a negative status based on its elemental properties. Status effect potency is increased based spell potency. Recast: 1 min 45 seconds. Duration 30 seconds.
[EX: Blizzard = Weak Paralyze Effect / Blizzard II = Moderate Paralyze Effect / Blizzard III = Strong Paralyze Effect. -Like it]

76 Impose - Drains the Dark Knight's TP while occasionally striking the enemy with fear. Recast: 5 min. Duration 2 min 30 seconds.
[Drains TP at something low like 1-2 TP/tic and may occasionally strike the enemy with a fear effect (terrorize) that scales steeply with level check. At level 76 this may last 4-5 seconds on a rabbit in W.Ron, 1-2 seconds on an EM-IT, and a split second on tougher foes. If all TP is consumed the ability remains in effect, but fear can only proc when TP is consumed.]

+ [Give us access to a few more support spells under this ability. Blind comes to mind. This would also be a good way to maintain balance with DRK's casting abilities: Break may only be made available in this mode. Same with Dread Spikes.]
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70 Darkness: Channel - Displays abilities and spells available when using Malevolence.

Job Abilities
Level Name

70 Deathblow - Guarantees a critical hit on your next weaponskill. Recast: 3 min. Duration 1 minute.

+ [As with the other stance, things may be readjusted for balance. Endark may be restricted to this mode, for example. Perhaps Abs-TP could be restored to its original power and placed here.]
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40 Abyssal Strike - Delivers a ranged attack to the target. Additional effect: stun. Recast: 2 min 30 seconds. Duration Instant.
[A Dark Knight "Chi Blast" that does crap damage but provides a moving ranged attack and stun. We've needed another stun to fit into our role (if we even have one now).]


Job Traits
Level Name

50 Magic Attack Bonus I - Grants a bonus of 10 magic attack.

85 Terrorist - Grants a chance to intimidate an aggressive enemy into skipping an attack when current HP is less than 25%.

80 Magic Attack Bonus II - Grants an additional bonus of 10 magic attack.


Combat Skills:
Great Sword A
Parrying C-
[I'd leave the rest of our skills alone.]


Spell List
Level Name

70 Endark [Could be restricted to offensive stance.]

80 Bleed - Gradually steals an enemies HP. Spell element: Dark. Spell cost: 34 MP. Recast: 2 min 30 seconds. Duration 1 min 15 seconds.

85 Restitution - Transfer a detrimental magical effect to target enemy. Spell element: Dark. Spell cost: 36 MP. Recast: 2 min

75 Bio III

95 Break [Yeah I think we're already getting this. Like I said further up, though- this could fit well in a specific spell list. Especially if it means the difference between being useless or actually situationally effective.]

[Zeroe]

Good work, thats alot of information to take in. Hope they consider a few of these.

[Cruentus]

I remember reading about a job ability to inflict Terror, and I liked that idea. My suggestion was Bonecrusher (sacrifice HP to kill an enemy instantly), which I posted on another thread. It makes sense, since we're dark knights, to get a job ability like this, especially when summoners got Odin.