The official Dark Knight adjustment and suggestion topic.

[Rezeak]

I don't think DRK needs a pure DD type of magic we need magic that can augment our melee dmg there is already a few good examples of this...

Drain II ---> Souleater WS (pre abyssea)
It added some extra dmg but also made the hp it used not important unfortnatly now Drain II and souleater sux
Endark giving 50 attack
and Absorb-Tp

[Rayik]

DRK needs a complete overhaul at this point. I firmly believe SE doesn't know what they're doing with this job and are just tossing noodles at the wall, hoping something sticks. Between silly job traits like Tactical Parry(with our huge Parry skill), to getting 2 or 3 tp off of a spell that takes longer to cast than it takes to swing a scythe. Even our other job traits/abilities are like a poor man's dollar-store version of other jobs; Last Resort is like a neutered Berzerk, Diabolic Eye is a bad Aggressor clone, with the added bonus of costing merits and taking 15% of our HP away, etc. WTF is SE thinking?

The elemental spells we have serve no purpose, and the long casting times do more harm to us than good. It's pathetic. We have a higher skill rating in Elemental Magic than even RDM's, and they nuke circles around us. SE could up and remove all the elemental spells from the DRK spell list and I don't think anyone would miss them.

But, the biggest thing I see holding DRK back right now in the Abyssean Age, is that we bring nothing unique to the table. Anything DRK can do, some other job can do better. DRK can do good melee numbers, WAR does it better. DRK has a few debuffing spells, any other mage can do it better. Even Abyssea specific roles, other jobs do them better. WAR has more red procs. Mages have more yellow procs. BLU's at least have their own job-specific spell procs to offer. Maybe if Absorb spells became yellow procs?

Parties in Abyssea going after specific gear/atmas/etc don't want to settle for a dollar-store version of a jobthat can only proc a couple things, they only want the best job. My DRK only gets invites to xp parties just to fill up alliance space, my WAR gets invited to actually get stuff done. If DRK is ever going to shine again and be a worthwhile job, it needs something it can do that nobody else can. Given that the job was conceived as a hybrid of existing jobs, I don't see this happening.

Just give us a multi-hit, crit WS and call it a day.

[Kagato]

Just give us a multi-hit, crit WS and call it a day.

This would be nice but wouldn't solve any of the problems we, and even you, have listed.

Really, a great number of our problems can be fixed using 2 job abilities. Stances like Hasso and Seigan. One to fix all our Melee woes while nerfing magic, the other fixing all our magic woes while nerfing melee. Switch up when required.

After that, the rest is dependent on new Dark Magic spells. Curse, Plague, some sort of DD Dark Magic spell, new absorbs, ect. That will give us unique options that other jobs cant copy. Plague especially would be useful for NM fights. Samurai has it as a WS after effect, so why cant we have it as a Dark Magic spell? Curse would also be incredibly useful for faster kills and our own small form of Gravity for kiting if lowered HP and MP wouldn't work on NMs. However, pulling little monsters with Curse would make the fight go that much faster, letting us be more useful for exping.

Hell, even Zombie would be a good spell against enemies with Healing abilities to prevent them from healing themselves for a while. Perfect Dark Magic contender.

I don't see any other changes needed. Stances to fix what we currently have troubles with and new, unique spells to solidify our identity as Dark Knights and not Watered Down DD/Mage.

[Rayik]

This would be nice but wouldn't solve any of the problems we, and even you, have listed.

Really, a great number of our problems can be fixed using 2 job abilities. Stances like Hasso and Seigan. One to fix all our Melee woes while nerfing magic, the other fixing all our magic woes while nerfing melee. Switch up when required.

After that, the rest is dependent on new Dark Magic spells. Curse, Plague, some sort of DD Dark Magic spell, new absorbs, ect. That will give us unique options that other jobs cant copy. Plague especially would be useful for NM fights. Samurai has it as a WS after effect, so why cant we have it as a Dark Magic spell? Curse would also be incredibly useful for faster kills and our own small form of Gravity for kiting if lowered HP and MP wouldn't work on NMs. However, pulling little monsters with Curse would make the fight go that much faster, letting us be more useful for exping.

Hell, even Zombie would be a good spell against enemies with Healing abilities to prevent them from healing themselves for a while. Perfect Dark Magic contender.

I don't see any other changes needed. Stances to fix what we currently have troubles with and new, unique spells to solidify our identity as Dark Knights and not Watered Down DD/Mage.

I agree, I know just giving us a crit ws wouldn't "fix" the job, but at this point we're fooling ourselves if we think SE is going to go all out and give us the big list of new spells dealing Dark damage or whatnot. It'd be great if they did, and I really hope I'm wrong, but let's face it; DRK is not a new job. This job has been around for years, and SE has done more to F' it up than help it. I mean, really, was Absorb TP that powerful that it needed a nerf? Hell no. That was almost insulting.

I really like the idea of stances, like Hasso and Seigan. The rules of this game show you can't just toss nukes during melee, it just doesn't work. So maybe a stance that allows for near instant-casting of nukes, but maybe hits us with 15% Slow or something, I dunno, something like the polar opposite of Hasso.

[Ordoric]

Well being a magical class malee should only be HALF of our optimal dmg i like stances or give us and elemental/dark magic spesific fastcast, or dosomething with occult omen with cast time or something but lets not over power blm and sch <they have it to > i personaly like cast while fighting.

[JovialRat]

Hello fellow drks,

I like all the ideas you all are posting. Hopefully SE likes them too and impliments some of them.

I agree with we need tier two absorb spells, or just make the current ones more potent, no decay in numbers and shorter recast times.

I would like to have a native Refresh too, .... tbh all jobs that have mp should have it lol.,
also ( now this is gonna sound like i smoked something lol) how about giving drks native haste , say a 5% delay on Scythe or GS,

and of course make Guillotine or whichever WS critical ... its only fair most other ws has at least one.

[Cruentus]

GDI... i just typed a really long post just to have it erased cuz the site logged me out automatically... (i knew i shoulda copy-pasted first)

Anyways... here's my 2 cents:

1. I know people want to increase Last Resort's duration... but instead of going with with a mock Berserk... why not just add better job abilities/traits...going by it's name... it should be a LAST resort... not FIRST resort... and maybe if they DO buff it... make it stronger that Berserk... it IS the LAST resort after all... maybe add abilities something along the lines of buffing WS damage/crit rate/crit damage/haste/fast cast/recast reduction or some other stat that affects direct damage...

2. HP/MP/TP... DRK is known to be the job that specializes in sacrificing themselves to damage their foes... Going with that theme... why not take that to the next level... instead of just having Souleater... how about abilities that consume TP or MP to increase their damage (kinda like MP Attack in FFIX)... or maybe an ability to use HP/TP to cast spells... or an ability that consumes MP or HP to use/buff weapon skill... Also someone brought up the idea of having a trait that increases damage as HP goes down... Since most JA's tend to have a trade-off... DRK's trade off is health consumption... or maybe have some overpowered ability's side-effect to be a short weakened state...

3. After using up yourself and dealing all that damage...time for recovery... Since DRK also specializes in draining/absorbing as well... take that to the next level too... first of all... CHANGE THE 2 HOUR ABILITY!!!... DRG had its 2hr changed... why not DRK?... Blood weapon is powerful yes... but why not make the recast more readily available?... it'll be one the DRK's major arsenal as recovery from just ravaging that poor bluffalo with its HP consuming abilities... that being said... maybe the new 2hr should be something that makes your abilities (going from suggestion #2) not consume HP and be in the low-HP-high damage state without having HP be in that level... maybe also add more ways to drain/restore HP... not just with spells... or maybe some ability to restore HP with TP (kinda like Chivalry for HP... not so much a Curing Waltz)... also maybe have some ability that uses HP to recover MP (kind of like a self-use devotion not so much convert)... also... maybe also reduce enmity generation of these abilities... or maybe some ability that consumes HP/MP to reduce enmity... i just think its funny that other jobs get some defensive abilities... and DRK gets.. what... arcane circle?

4. Spells/Abilities... on top of the abilities suggested above... I agree with everyone about adding more absorb-stat spells and having no decay... What I don't agree with is being able to attack while casting... maybe... just reduce the casting times instead... 1 second or less... maybe along the lines of the length of a JA animation... i also agree about dark-type nukes maybe make them have some added effect as well (plague, virus, amnesia, def-down to arcana or some other non-elementally attached enfeeble) (always thought that Doomed-family ability "Abyss Blast" would be a good example for the dark spell)... dread spikes and endark are good ideas... maybe improve their effects a little... also maybe an ability that turns your weapon damage into dark elemental damage (ala formless strikes)...

5. Weapon skills... my idea would be some kind of AoE drain WS (kinda like blood drain... maybe magic damage based) instead/on top of the PAINFULLY DREADFUL infernal scythe... i mean... with all gear available to drk... it's still not gonna match other WS's in damage... might as well make it useful... Also, i agree with improving modifiers to WS... and maybe increase them at the 100 TP level... as far as a crit based WS... WS's shouldnt be a DRK's main source of high damage... HP-consuming abilities that improve every swing should be the focus IMO... strong enough that it the damage from every swing + WS damage would add up and be comparable to spike-damaged-RR-buffed-crit WS... example: maybe DRK can do 700-1k damage on a buffed critical hit :X... and maybe in brew mode... every DRK swing does 2k damage :X... i mean our main weapons isnt about fast hits... its about strong slow hits...

Gah... my mind is spent... im really pissed that the stuff i typed earlier got erased... now my train of thought is gone... and i might have missed some of the ideas i typed earlier... but hopefully these suggestions would pique ideas... im sure some would disagree.. but hey... this is my opinion...

I'd like to remind you that Last Resort's potency can exceed Berserk's starting with your first merit point upgrade into "Last Resort Effect." Thus, a longer duration's just fine.

Regarding your ideas on the Two-Hour Ability, how about we make this the new Two-Hour Ability, then give us Blood Weapon at level 30 or something, since it's really only good with Souleater?

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.

I think, regarding magic, we do need a second tier of Absorb spells. They should be at least twice as potent as our current ones, and without any decaying effect. Dread Spikes needs a major buff, too. Regarding weapon skills... Well, just giving the scythe and great sword a new weapon skill that can land critical hits would be just fine, especially if we earned it at a weapon skill level, rather than having to do a quest.

[Karuyag]

[QUOTE=Cruentus;69320]I'd like to remind you that Last Resort's potency can exceed Berserk's starting with your first merit point upgrade into "Last Resort Effect." Thus, a longer duration's just fine.

check wiki... LR's default is about 15%... merits add a total of 10% meaning it's pretty much equal to Berserk in effect ONLY after merits...

[Venrymel]

I'm not particularly dedicated to the development of DRK, but just in case, I thought I would post a link, to another useful thread on this very forum right here, in this very thread. It seemed the best choice.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...d-the-Dev-Team

おねがいします～＾＾

[Jar]

You guys do know that from a Melee damage standpoint DRK is one of the top DD in and outside of abyssea?

the only difference in damage between us and a war is WAR has better weaponskills (not empy) and they ONLY win inside abyssea with RR taking affect..

we dont need fukin berserk to cap PDIF.. and giving us super last resort would make us so overpowered....

If you want to keep up in abyssea on DRK you need to get one of the empy weaponskills.. just like to be a good WAR you need Ukko's and a good sam has Fudo.......... the WoE version even..

Stop askign for some crit weaponskill to be handed to you and go work and get a good weaponskill yourself..