Dark Knight TBN

Having a 10s duration would definitely help with absorbing autos in-between mechanics, and I don't really see any downsides (for busters you can already TBN as soon as the cast begins without any worry, and on big pulls in dungeons you can TBN on cooldown and it always breaks anyway). A shield you have to use proactively is by default more difficult to use than retroactive self-healing used to recover from being hit whenever.

Having to time TBN correctly so the duration doesn't overlap with the boss casting but also some random animations during which no attacks happen can be fun part of skill expression, but it can also be extremely frustrating when you're trying to optimize things only to find out a new weird quirk of the boss, e.g.: learned the hard way that on EX1 after casting Triscourge just before a volcano goes off there is like a 2 second animation during which the boss does nothing, so if you pop TBN right after the cast finishes you won't get hit enough and the shield won't break.

Edit: also can normal raid and dungeon tank busters do more damage? I've lost count how many times I've had TBN + Shadowed Vigil result in TBN not breaking.

Regardless of the proposed changes, TBN has not been updated much at all and it is beginning to feel stale. The other tanks have a version that does multiple things making them more interesting and fun to use. TBN needs an update one way or another.

TBN could be combined with Oblation, it could have a HoT / flat heal, it could even offer a slight speed boost while active thus tempting you to use it on yourself or a party member if there is a mechanic that's causing you trouble. If you can't avoid the mechanic, you can at least be shielded for some of it thus giving it a dual purpose in some scenarios.

It could be also increase healing on the DRK once it pops but if placed on a party member / pops maybe it would offer increased healing to anyone standing near the party member when it popped.

All this to say, if we continue to offer suggestions on possible solutions maybe we can stumble upon something great together or give the devs an inspiration to think of something else.

For real. There is an endless number of ideas floating around here and on reddit.. it would be nice to hear from the devs and get an acknowledgement of our struggles

yea, all of the other tanks got insane buffs to their defensive abilities in the 80-90 range. DRK is getting shafted hard

Well I gave my option, I'd like to use it as many times as I have MP to allow it. I feel like the Dark Knight needs... something and it seems most people in the forum agrees. Don't really care what it is as long as it doesn't cause the healer to have a mild panic attack to see a Dark Knight in the group.

Since the devs seem completely adamant in not removing the magic only mits or giving drk any meaningful sustain, the best remaining option would be a Haima effect on TBN, break the 25% barrier and get a smaller, maybe 10% max hp for 4 more seconds, barrier after... it wouldn't change anything major on how the job works as you still break a 25% barrier to get Dark Arts procs and get only the initial amount of barrier for single busters, but greatly improving survivability during continuous incoming damage like dungeons pull and multi hit busters where drks currently struggle a lot.

Part of the "extra" that the other tanks got with the upgrade to their frequent use defensive abilities was actually meant to be provided to DRK with Oblation.
With that it appears they decided to split it off as a separate ability to prevent it from potentially causing problems with TBN not breaking when you didn't need the extra mitigation from Oblation, allowing you to choose to use it when you could take advantage of that extra mitigation or to hold onto it if you were worried TBN might not break.
Personally, I think that part was a good decision.

There are however a few problems around this where TBN still isn't quite as similar or equitable to the other tank frequent use defensives as it really should be.
First is that while Oblation acts as that extra layer of % mitigation that the others get, the other defensives upgrades also include some sort of "on ending/completion" effect such as a heal, regen or shield. TBN doesn't have an equivalent extra 3rd effect like that and so the requests to add an additional effect to when the TBN shield breaks like a regen or burst heal seems pretty reasonable to me.
Second is that Oblation is on a 60s recast which makes it available less than half as often as the other tanks' upgraded frequent use defensives. Getting to take advantage of that extra upgraded mitigation every 25s or so versus every 60s seems unequal to me. Based on this, I really feel like Oblation should instead be on 30s recast.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TouchandFeel

Oblation should instead be on 30s recast.

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since we get 2 uses, wouldnt 50seconds be more reasonable?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Claire_Pendragon

since we get 2 uses, wouldnt 50seconds be more reasonable?

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We only get 2 uses cached initially. The recast is still 60s and so a use/charge is still only restored every 60s.
Once you use that extra charge that you get to start with, the frequency of availability is still only every 60s just with the added flexibility of being able to tuck one away if you don't use it.
I feel 30s is fairly reasonable considering that it is still 5 seconds more than the 25s frequency of the other tanks and the additional secondary layer of mitigation provided on the other upgraded defensives is 10% on the low end for WAR up to 15% on GNB and PLD.
Honestly, the biggest potential imbalance with increasing the frequency of Oblation and equating that to the extra level of percent mitigation the upgraded frequent use defensives get is actually the much longer duration of 10s vs their 4s. In most cases where it really matters, those extra seconds in the duration aren't going to have that much of an impact. They only really make somewhat of a difference in periods of extended high-incoming damage, so mostly dungeon wall to wall pulls. I feel like Oblation was also meant to compensate for Dark Mind being useless in those exact kind of situation where the longer duration of Oblation would matter, so in a ways Oblation kind of plays double duty of being the physical damage solution to Dark Mind's magic only damage in content like dungeons and also trying to be the equivalent to the upgrade the other tank frequent use defensives get. So because of those things, I feel like the 10s duration is pretty much fine.
Lastly, since Oblation is meant to essentially go along with TBN, that 30s recast works well with the 15s recast of TBN as it lines up as being able to use an Oblation every other TBN. Deviating from a recast that is cleanly divisible by TBN's recast can potentially throw them out of sync in terms of being able to pair them up in instances where you may be wanting to regularly cycle them together as frequently as possible. Not something that will happen much outside of dungeon wall to wall pulls, but it's still a consideration.

TBN needs an update. It is old and tired compared to the other tank's similar abilities. Hell, it doesn't hold a candle to WAR's blood whetting. GNB gets an entire Excog even. DRK still has the same ol shield with nothing else going on with it. Worse, it is still connected to mp despite every single other tank just being tied to a CD, not CD + mp.

Because I don't really feel like we need to be able to TBN 3 people in a row and a 4th in just 3 GCDs more (during Delirium, with CnS), I don't feel like removing the CD entirely is the greatest idea...

But I wouldn't mind reducing it to a 8-second cooldown that starts upon being broken or its duration ending. That would better let its output scale with incoming damage (though still in a way very different from %DR), with at most the cooldown we have now.