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Cruentus
03-09-2011, 03:43 PM
So, dark knights recently got Fire III in the latest big update, and the pattern in learning spells would indicate we'll be getting Blizzard III and Thunder III as well. But what use do we have for them? I mean, I can understand Occult Acumen being added to our job traits to get TP for casting elemental magic, but I'm afraid that's just not good enough to warrant using elemental magic efficiently. Why should we waste our gil on magic scrolls we'll never use, save once in a Watersday moon? In the time it takes for your average dark knight to cast, say, Stone III, he or she could have swung his or her scythe at least twice, and gotten a lot more TP for even one hit. Then we take things like Double Attack from equipment, Zanshin from a samurai support job, and other such things into account, and elemental magic on a dark knight becomes a joke. In addition, that Stone III spell would probably do about 40 damage, while one swing from the scythe would deal about 200. Why bother?

Here's what I propose. Let's give dark knights two or three tiers of the Fast Cast job trait, so that our elemental magic becomes more viable due to being cast more quickly. We could probably also stand to gain a tier or two of Magic Attack Bonus. My last idea is an experimental one, and that is to give dark knights a job trait that lets us instant-cast elemental magic in the case of a skillchain, so we can magic burst it. With any of these put into effect, we'd still not be as good at casting elemental magic as red mages or black mages, but at least it would be worth the time and MP to do so in some situations, and not just when we're horsing around.

My basic point is this. Dark knights have access to elemental magic, but no real use for it. If you want us to use our elemental magic, you have to give us a good reason to. If any job has access to some kind of magic spell, it should be worth a darn in some serious situations.

Malacite
03-09-2011, 04:42 PM
No, just no. Fast Cast is not going to come even remotely close to fixing DRK's problem.

They need to change Occult Acumen so that it's based on damage dealt rather than the MP cost for starters. Secondly, DRK needs some native MAB traits already, and maybe some decent Scythes & Greatswords that enhance nukes either by MAB or Affinity. There's really no harm in giving DRK some affinity bonuses since they'll still be limited to Thunder 3 by 99 and a much smaller MP pool compared to other casters.

Basically, make nuking just viable enough for an extra spike of damage and TP gain, say just after a skillchain for an MB.

Rezeak
03-10-2011, 12:46 AM
I'd say scrap the elemental magic part of DRK all together then just make occult acumen based on casting time(so we get good tp returns from drains) and work with absorb spells as well as drain and such.

Selzak
03-10-2011, 01:32 AM
DRK is in desperate need of adjustment, but I don't think anything to do with Elemental Magic is going to fix the problem.

Also, people are using this forum the wrong way:


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Cruentus
03-10-2011, 02:07 AM
DRK is in desperate need of adjustment, but I don't think anything to do with Elemental Magic is going to fix the problem.

Also, people are using this forum the wrong way:

Yeah, I kicked myself for that after posting this thread. It would be worth it to give us a reason to use our other spells, though.

Malacite
03-10-2011, 04:40 AM
I don't see why they shouldn't make Elemental Magic at least worth casting for DRK, but I agree that it won't really fix what's wrong with DRK anyway.

Some more unique or improved Dark Magic would be cool, like Tier 2 Absorbs or Curse. Maybe a job trait that allows DRK to continue to swing while casting?

And perhaps most importantly, change either Guillotine (or more preferably Insurgency) to a crit WS.