Dark Knight rework

I felt like the previous design of DP, where the baseline ability had value in single target and the DA ability had value in AoE, made a lot more sense than it does now. If they wanted to tone down the potency, they should have removed the base cost.

It also doesn't help that they teased us with Spiral Hell as an upgraded Dark Passenger fireball. It's unfortunate that such an iconic ability has been made so niche.

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Originally Posted by Slybel

For DP: A 15s blind is far more useful than a 5s stun with how the game is right now. If they just make it so that blind is included into the base effect, I would actually use it. Blind is fantastic damage mitigation with how accuracy is right now.

For TBN: In all honesty, all I would do to change is increase the duration to 6s ~ 8s and increase the cool down to 20s ~ 30s which would balance it out more by making it unavailable for every tank buster. Have it spread to nearby allies would just out right brake what little balance the skill has.

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Actually the DADP blind was tested to be around a 5%~ or so accuracy reduction if i remember correctly, so basically useless. its also worth noting that both Blind and Stun have horrible synergy with the job due to it reducing the ammount of times you'll be hit = less mana from Blood Price.
Also how would increasing its cooldown to make in unavailable for every tank buster be balancing it? DRK is already the tank that has the least mitigation out of the 3 tanks and relies heavily on TBN to even be on par with the other two.

Anyway im going to throw my 2 cents in to how i would change DRK, keeping in mind that im super sleepy right now and i haven't put much thought in to this.

Dark Passenger:

Cost Changed to 1200 MP (half of DA)
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 130 to all enemies in a straight line before you.
Can only be executed when succumbing to the Darkside.
Dark Arts*potency: 250
Dark Arts Effect: 100% Chance that next TBN will cost no MP.
Dark Arts Effect: Blinding Darkness Debuff: Unable to use Dark Arts on Dark Passenger for 60 seconds
Dark Arts fades upon execution.

The reasoning behind the DA effect is so that if you spend a bit more MP than a TBN by itself then you'll get the damage aswell, and the inability to utilise this more than once per minute will increase the skill ceiling of the job while also not making the DA effect OP.

Blood Price:

Recast changed to 30 seconds.
Restores partial MP when damage is taken.
Duration:15s
Additional Effect: Increases Blood Gauge by 1 immediately and another 4 over time while in battle.
Additional Effect: Reduces damage taken by 10%.
Duration: 10s
Can only be used while under the effect of Grit.

Right now DRK has the lowest overall mitigation for non-tank busters. This is a problem and this change i think should help with that. The recast being changed is to allow higher uptime.

Blood Weapon:

Recast Changed to 30 seconds
Reduces weaponskill cast time and recast time, spell cast time and recast time, and auto-attack delay by 10% and converts physical damage dealt into MP, while reducing weaponskill TP cost by 20%. Also increases Blood Gauge by 3 each time a physical attack lands.
Duration: 15s
Additional effect: Auto attack potency is doubled for the duration of this ability.
Cannot be used while under the effect of Grit.

DRK needs slightly more damage imo.

Sole Survivor:

Changed recast to 90 seconds.
Marks target with the status Another Victim. If that target should be KO'd in battle, 20% of your maximum HP and MP will be restored.
Additional Effect: Increases chances of direct hit to be inflicted upon target by 5%
Duration: 12s

A lil more utility, similar to SCHs Chain Stratagem. making this ability actually useful on bosses and increasing the skill ceiling as you may need it for the MP/HP restore on an add but you might want to use it on the boss to help push a phase.

Shadow Wall:

Reduces damage taken by 30%.
Duration: 20s

Increased duration. Because lets me honest here right now its literally a weaker sentinel in EVERY way.

I do like a number of these ideas, but some could be changed. But let's go through each of the change ideas one by one.

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Grit cooldown changed to 10s

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Ehh, I would just say equalize the Darkside CD and the Grit CD to 5 seconds. So PLD has their Stances on the GCD, WAR has it at 10, DK would have both at 5 secs

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Blood Price:
Restores partial MP when damage is taken.
Duration:15s
Additonal Effect: Increases Blood Gauge by 1 immediately and another 4 over time while in battle.
Additional Effect: Halves the Blood Gauge cost of Quietus and Bloodspiller.
Duration: 15s
Can only be used while under the effect of Grit.

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Everything here sounds good, except for the halving the Quietus AND Bloodpiller, Quietus i would be fine with it halving. Even with the MP buff i don't see many DK's using it in Dungeons, and this would make it more ready. But the Bloodspiller halving, would be a little OP. ( to be continued in Part 2 of post :D)

(Continued from part 1 :D)

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Bloodspiller:
Delivers an attack with a potency of 400.
Additional effect: Execute next combo without meeting combo prerequisites.
Dark Arts*Potency:540
Grit*Potency:475
Dark Arts+Grit*Potency:650
Blood Gauge Cost: 50
Dark Arts fades upon execution.

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I am OK with the majority of this, but i do say put a debuff on the free combo finisher though, like 10-15 second CD on that part of this hypothetical BP
(to be continued in Part 3 :D)

(Continued from part 2 :D)

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Dark Passenger:
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100 to all enemies in a straight line before you.
Can only be executed when succumbing to the Darkside.
Additional Effect: Stun 5s
Dark Arts*potency: 240
Dark Arts Effect: Damage over time. Potency is reduced by 5% for the second enemy, 10% for the third, 15% for the fourth, and 25% for all remaining enemies.
Potency: 40
Duration: 15s
Dark Arts fades upon execution.

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I do like this, one thing i would change is making the Stun back to blind, but make it intrinsic, no DA needed.
(To be concluded in Part 4 :D)

(continued from part 3 :D)

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The Blackest Night:
Creates a barrier around self that absorbs damage totaling 20% of your maximum HP, or around a party member that absorbs damage totaling 10% of your maximum HP.
Duration:*15s
Dark Arts Effect:
Extends effect to nearby targets.
Increases Blood Gauge by 50 when full 20% (10%) is absorbed.

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K so here is where i disagree the most. TBA is a powerful ability, And i do agree it should get a DA affect, but just making it a raid-wide is too powerful without something to limit that, IF we kept that effect, DA+TBA should add a LONG CD on that capability. Like over a minute long Debuff preventing DA+TBA's effect triggering and just triggering the normal TBA affect.

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Originally Posted by Lyth

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Yeah, I see removing the base cost as the most straight forward approach. It's the AOE C&S if they do so (maybe make the Blind vanilla). If it has to be 60sec recast to justify, then okay. (45s?.... or leave recast alone..)

As for other potential buffs to DP, 4 blood gain + 1 per mob hit I would liked baked into the CD similar to what was done with Salted Earth (no trait necessary apparently).

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Originally Posted by Alovon13

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Only can speak for myself: I am not a fan of 50% MP consuming skill combinations like DA+DM+TBN and DA+DP, let alone adding more (DA+TBN).

And if people think adding DA to Siphon Strike was disruptive to DA weave order, adding a DA-consume to TBN gonna eff you up even worse.

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Originally Posted by VenKitsune

Actually the DADP blind was tested to be around a 5%~ or so accuracy reduction if i remember correctly, so basically useless. its also worth noting that both Blind and Stun have horrible synergy with the job due to it reducing the ammount of times you'll be hit = less mana from Blood Price..

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It feels significantly higher than 5%

BP isn't your only source of MP in large pulls.

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Originally Posted by Xenosan

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If anything, with Darkside being what it is now, MP costs need to be lower to give us more room to burst, perhaps in the form of a cooldown. Having something that halves MP costs for 15-20s would actually give us some semblance of this while also providing a rewarding window to hit, bring back some of that risk-reward playstyle.

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

It feels significantly higher than 5%

BP isn't your only source of MP in large pulls.

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He's not wrong though, especially now in 4.x.

In 3.x, BP could only ever last 15s giving you a 25s window to blind/boost evasion/etc. Your AoE cooldown rotation had a "hit me" phase and then a "don't hit me" phase. Now however BP's uptime is higher in dungeons with Delirium, and Quietus makes MP so plentiful you'll 100% get more eHP gains by simply DAing AD than even touching DP, DA or not.

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Originally Posted by SyzzleSpark

If anything, with Darkside being what it is now, MP costs need to be lower to give us more room to burst, perhaps in the form of a cooldown.

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I agree, I posted this in the DRK discussion thread on how I would like such a cooldown implemented, personally. It's a long-shot out there granted, but trying to kill a couple birds with one stone.

Essentially, Dark Mind as a Requiescat and Shadow Wall broken from the mold of Vengeance/Sentinel and becoming more a resource-intensive Ability instead of recast-centric. Not sure how wel lthat would work tho. Not sure how much it helps a xpot/TA burst window either, is more sustain following PLDs footsteps.

Dark Mind: 20s duration, 40/60s recast.
*cancels the effect of Blood Weapon, *cancels the effect of Blood Price. (ie: you can't stack this with price/weapon)
*Reduces MP cost by 25%, (would be fine if the MP cost reduction were just for Dark Arts, Dark Passenger, and TBN)
*Reduces Ability cooldowns by 30% (DRK Job Abilities only, only when Abilities are used under the effect of Dark Mind).

Delirium + Blood Weapon: Extend Weapon duration by 10 seconds, WS/Spell recast enhanced from 10% reduction to 15%.
Delirium + Blood Price: Extend Price by 20 seconds, heal DRK for 1200 potency, Delirium CD reduced to 60s
Delirium + Dark Mind: Extend Mind by 10 seconds, resets C&S, DP, Salted Earth, TBN, & Shadow Wall cooldowns, Delirium CD reduced to 90s

Shadow Wall: 60s recast, 10s duration.
*Restores partial MP when damage is taken
*Erects a barrier nullifying 30% damage of the next 3(?) incoming attacks.
*Dark Arts effects: duration extended to 20s(15?), the 3 attack limit is removed.