[Dev 1042] Lv. 99! Dark Knight's Slam your Fists into your Faces!

[Concerned4FFxi]

I have both blu and drk, the last time i played drk was dec 2010, when i got my twilight scythe. By feb 2011, i stoped playing it after leveling warrior to proc in abyssea and discovered a job that wasn't broken.

I love my drk, but honestly it's a slap in the face to all drk that they don't get (and the only job to get) drain III. Aspir III IDK about and , because with just apir and aspir two and twilight mail my drk doesn't run out of mp. Maybe because it doesn't have any nuking spells worth casting, and let's face it the occ absorb attribute/ability/tp and dreadspikes isn't going to break the bank with an occ aspir/II throw in.

I like the job trait of occ draining on hits, like a mini bloodweapon drain job trait that would be fantastic.

As far as spells, drk needs to be totally redone, it's down right stupid. Blu gets plague, death, stun, stun, stun, stun, stun, drk should at least get drain III, plague, doom, break (player version sucks anyway so really not gonna break the game with break and doom), and a dark based holy spell and dark based holy spell II, en-drain (equal to tier II or III of dnc), maybe en-plague? It needs something to use it's mp for other than the absorb spells.

[Cljader1]

Ama is right drk should have most of those spells, (drain III, and Stun II at the least) SE should take a hard look at the elemental magic spells for drk its laughable really.

[Brolic]

So your basically saying that you expect all drks to have a apoc?? Yeah this is a smart post

why not? don't you expect your plds to have an ochain or aegis and an almace? DD's are pretty much exchangeable these days, if one hopes to fill an ally slot he better have the best weapon available, else come whm or thf.

[Taint2]

why not? don't you expect your plds to have an ochain or aegis and an almace? DD's are pretty much exchangeable these days, if one hopes to fill an ally slot he better have the best weapon available, else come whm or thf.

Some truth to this, most pick up VW parties only take people with Emps/Relics/Mythics if they are tank or DD. Even emp-1s are better then nothing for the heavy DD jobs.

[Economizer]

Blah blah blah, duh there is more content comming for Dark Knight and all other jobs, this isn't the end, blah blah, SE Quote:

I just wanted to make an appearance to let you know, if you didn't assume already of course, that there are more version update notes coming.

This is not the end!

Anyways, with that out of the way (and ignoring DRK QQ, especially from people who think the job posted on your profile means jack about wanted to see better things for jobs), this is pretty much a suggestion/discussion thread now, right?

The main thing I see (and I totally agree with) is a general want for more magic usage that isn't a waste of time. And this is hard, especially since the magic has to win or at least help the melee aspect, considering how good melee is compared to casting tier 3 nukes with no native magic attack bonus.

Suggestions from the OP:

Dark Based Nuke that takes advantage of the poorly executed Occult Acumen
Making Absorb-Stat spells useful / not decay.
Lowering Casting Time / Recast on Dark Magic
Drain III/ Aspir III
Stun II (Blue Mage has over 4 stuns, and Dancer can Stun every 20 seconds!)

I don't know how likely Absorb stat spells are to get a boost, but considering SE said spell space is limited, a formula rework would be nicer to see then a non-broken tier II in my opinion, even if it was something silly like "Dark Magic Skill above 400 = not broken!"

On lowering cast times, I believe one of the Relic+2 pieces is slated to get a direct reduction to Dark Magic cast times, which could help a little. Some more fast cast options built like this would be nice to see too however (or even spell adjustments if need be!).

A new Stun tier sounds like a good idea.

On a new Drain tier, and on something that is a good idea for Occult Acumen, I have an idea that might work. It wouldn't be Drain III, but a new spell that does get health back. Admittedly, it is more of an ideal (measured with an eye to balance) then something SE would likely give to Dark Knight.

It would be called Absorb, and have a fairly long recast of around three to five minutes (I'd prefer three, but considering the desire to spam this, it would probably end up with five, especially since spells are affected by haste, unlike job abilities like Konzen-ittai). It would take about one second to cast, and would do somewhere in the neighborhood of 400~1500+ damage (the important part would be that on a partial resist it would reliably get at least 300~400 damage, the upper numbers would probably require solid gear combinations on slightly weaker mobs). This would then be added to both HP and a portion to MP (Not subtracted from the HP amount, but a fraction of it. Ideally if the spell does less damage, it returns a larger fraction, but if it does more damage, it returns more MP, but a smaller fraction of the damage). The spell would cost 400 MP. If SE was feeling really generous it would also debuff the mob's defense for a very short time too.

The idea behind this is primarily a spell to exploit Occult Acumen as much as possible while still retaining a sizable chunk of the MP used to cast it and even doing something extra Dark Knighty. Ideally the spell would return at least 200 of the MP used, and in ideal situations even grant MP back to the Dark Knight. This would be ideal when used in skillchains, and my only regret looking at it is that you wouldn't be able to burst it on the self-skillchain you'd make possible by using it. It would even cause risk with this (a DRK ideal!) by causing a lot of spike damage for careless Dark Knights.

As a side note, I'm happy to say the last pick up VW group I was in wasn't so selective and was still very successful.

[Urteil]

Blah blah blah, duh there is more content comming for Dark Knight and all other jobs, this isn't the end, blah blah, SE Quote:



Anyways, with that out of the way (and ignoring DRK QQ, especially from people who think the job posted on your profile means jack about wanted to see better things for jobs), this is pretty much a suggestion/discussion thread now, right?

The main thing I see (and I totally agree with) is a general want for more magic usage that isn't a waste of time. And this is hard, especially since the magic has to win or at least help the melee aspect, considering how good melee is compared to casting tier 3 nukes with no native magic attack bonus.

Suggestions from the OP:



I don't know how likely Absorb stat spells are to get a boost, but considering SE said spell space is limited, a formula rework would be nicer to see then a non-broken tier II in my opinion, even if it was something silly like "Dark Magic Skill above 400 = not broken!"

On lowering cast times, I believe one of the Relic+2 pieces is slated to get a direct reduction to Dark Magic cast times, which could help a little. Some more fast cast options built like this would be nice to see too however (or even spell adjustments if need be!).

A new Stun tier sounds like a good idea.

On a new Drain tier, and on something that is a good idea for Occult Acumen, I have an idea that might work. It wouldn't be Drain III, but a new spell that does get health back. Admittedly, it is more of an ideal (measured with an eye to balance) then something SE would likely give to Dark Knight.

It would be called Absorb, and have a fairly long recast of around three to five minutes (I'd prefer three, but considering the desire to spam this, it would probably end up with five, especially since spells are affected by haste, unlike job abilities like Konzen-ittai). It would take about one second to cast, and would do somewhere in the neighborhood of 400~1500+ damage (the important part would be that on a partial resist it would reliably get at least 300~400 damage, the upper numbers would probably require solid gear combinations on slightly weaker mobs). This would then be added to both HP and a portion to MP (Not subtracted from the HP amount, but a fraction of it. Ideally if the spell does less damage, it returns a larger fraction, but if it does more damage, it returns more MP, but a smaller fraction of the damage). The spell would cost 400 MP. If SE was feeling really generous it would also debuff the mob's defense for a very short time too.

The idea behind this is primarily a spell to exploit Occult Acumen as much as possible while still retaining a sizable chunk of the MP used to cast it and even doing something extra Dark Knighty. Ideally the spell would return at least 200 of the MP used, and in ideal situations even grant MP back to the Dark Knight. This would be ideal when used in skillchains, and my only regret looking at it is that you wouldn't be able to burst it on the self-skillchain you'd make possible by using it. It would even cause risk with this (a DRK ideal!) by causing a lot of spike damage for careless Dark Knights.

As a side note, I'm happy to say the last pick up VW group I was in wasn't so selective and was still very successful.

I just hate the path of Lowering recast with gear, especially when SE, the retards that they are put the casting time reduction on the head slot, when we already have a +5 fastcast piece for the slot and things like Appetence crown etc. for the actual + dark magic skill.

They put the reduction on the WORST POSSIBLE SLOT. The only slot that is nearly indispensable/has better options. Fixing the job through gear is silly, just give us fast cast for DM and make dark magic skill above 300 (like you said) mean something..

Yes folks, above 300 Dark Magic skill the potency of drain and aspir is not affected only accuracy. What a load of BS.


Drain Recast timers need to be:

Drain 1 60s
Drain II 75s

Aspir 1 60s
Aspir II 75s.


This three minute/five minute nonsense is ridiculous with things like Konzen-ittai floating around, it would still get resisted and be 100x less reliable as a defensive than Seigan/Third Eye, a gimped version of a JA from our sub that completely goes against the inherent nature of our job.

It would be useless on Undead, Dark based mobs, and anything with decent magical resistance. Even if its great it still wouldn't be 25% as good as many of the job abilities/spells/things other jobs get at level 30-60.

[Urteil]

why not? don't you expect your plds to have an ochain or aegis and an almace? DD's are pretty much exchangeable these days, if one hopes to fill an ally slot he better have the best weapon available, else come whm or thf.

No, balancing jobs around weapons the epitome of idiocy.

[Tohihroyu]

What "most" are saying is that if you are a drk you MUST have Caladbolg and/or Apocalypse, if you don't then you suck & should go level something "useful" e_e

I am working (slowly) towards Apoc myself but...not having an easy time finding crafters for Rainbow Obi (I know you elitists are going lolololololololo ur a gimp nub get it NOW level bst & solo dynamis & get it NOW)

[Economizer]

If you are going to quote my entire post just after I post, please split it up, or better yet, only quote the parts you are replying to.

Anyways, to reply:

I just hate the path of Lowering recast with gear, especially when SE, the retards that they are put the casting time reduction on the head slot, when we already have a +5 fastcast piece for the slot and things like Appetence crown etc. for the actual + dark magic skill.

This sucks, and yes, I can see why a change in the cast of the spell itself is important. I originally had written my comment to catch this, but it got cut for various reasons on progressive proofing.

Yes folks, above 300 Dark Magic skill the potency of drain and aspir is not affected only accuracy. What a load of BS.

Stuff like this is almost as bad as the scaling on the elemental enfeebles. Maybe we'll see a change since SE is working on hopefully fixing cures to scale better with level.

This three minute/five minute nonsense is ridiculous with things like Konzen-ittai floating around, it would still get resisted and be 100x less reliable as a defensive than Seigan/Third Eye, a gimped version of a JA from our sub that completely goes against the inherent nature of our job.

It would be useless on Undead, Dark based mobs, and anything with decent magical resistance. Even if its great it still wouldn't be 25% as good as many of the job abilities/spells/things other jobs get at level 30-60.

Unless you are going against mobs that would totally resist it, you will be getting the TP, even if it does one damage. The ideal would of course be a spell that does the damage, then bases an HP and MP return on that damage number, but being weak vs. undead is basically something DRK has been hit with since day one.

Spells have downsides, but they also have upsides. On the ideal three minute timer, you'd effectively be able to bring that down to every minute and thirty seconds. The spell is designed to do a good amount of damage, but most importantly it would not do zero damage unless going against something that is straight up immune to dark based elements.

Aside from being able to reliably be brought down to about two minutes even by a barely competently geared Dark Knight, the spell would reliably give 100 TP in an instant, something even Konzen-ittai can't do. It would have more utility while still being something that is in the realm of a realistic spell Dark Knight would get.

I'm not even saying it is the solution to everything, just a method to exploit Occult Acumen to its fullest (many of the other suggestions help fill out the other utility gaps) and make offensive spellcasting for Dark Knight more impressive. Maybe it isn't even the most impressive solution, but it is still a more realistic and better one to many of few alternatives that have been proposed for the offensive spellcasting / Occult Acumen void that many feel exists.

There are solid suggestions for other things like Stun II or fixing absorb spells, I'm just trying to help shore up OA for when SE pokes around for suggestions.

[Dart]

worrying about OA when there are other things that need to be fixed, which are much more important, seems like such a waste of time. I bet that taint will agree with me <_<