Dark Knight Megathread

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Originally Posted by ItsUrBoi

To be honest, I would wish to see Dark Arts become a more central part of the job's kit

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I honestly believe that with Dark Arts, the devs should have made it more like Hissatsu: Kaiten(before they deleted it from the game) where it boosted the damage of your next weaponskill or ability by 50% during Stormblood, but that will never happen now since they need to have it tied to a gauge that might as well not even exist as it is UI bloat, and I honestly think that is worse than hotbar/button bloat, especially if said UI bloat caused hotbar/button bloat to begin with...

And a lot of job gauges also fall under this category, specifically the ones that scale from 0 to 100, because you might as well have TP bar still and the job gauge mechanics might as well cost TP instead, resources like current Dark Arts that almost impossible to generate due to poor balancing to begin with, and timer job gauges that you cannot extend the duration on, and all of that compounded into level sync show that the devs never really tested any of these things in ARR content to begin with, because why would they when they are taking 2 years to make these "balance adjustments" for the next expansion and the latest content for that expansion...

I really miss the old dark arts. I prefer dark passenger over flood of shadow. I prefer dark dance over oblation and miss the old abyssal drain.

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Originally Posted by DRKoftheAzure

I honestly believe that with Dark Arts, the devs should have made it more like Hissatsu: Kaiten(before they deleted it from the game) where it boosted the damage of your next weaponskill or ability by 50% during Stormblood, but that will never happen now since they need to have it tied to a gauge that might as well not even exist as it is UI bloat, and I honestly think that is worse than hotbar/button bloat, especially if said UI bloat caused hotbar/button bloat to begin with...

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??? Dark Arts isn't tied to Darkside, though. Its indicator is tied to the Blood Gauge, and only for visual convenience. It also has no button; it's purely a TBN secondary frequency-constraining mechanic.

Moreover, if you made a percentile bonus like Hissatsu: Kaiten, then it'd have to be tuned as to only be useful around our most damaging weaponskills, Bloodspiller/Quietus, which means it'd see use only...
[A] as a brainless bundle (always hit DA before Bloodspiller), and
[B] very infrequently outside of the likes of a Delirium-based Bloodspiller-spam. (The natural frequency of Bloodspiller is just 2 in 17 GCDs.)

I like what Dark Arts currently is, as a way to cast MP skills without spending the MP.
We just need more MP skills, and more ways to get Dark Arts Stacks.

I think the system has a lot of potential and I hope they do something more with it instead of it being the Edge/Flood spam tool

It would be interesting, although possibly weird to balance, if dark arts kept the free spell aspect but could be used on things that cost more than tbn. Put abyssal drain at 5k for example or a single target attack to effectively be a janky netcode parry.

Personally I would like to see dark arts go back to a more toggled version with dark arts on we constantly drain mana our moves add effects or we press it and it halves darksides timer to add special effects to the next move for example; damage reductions on some moves, blind again, barriers on others. It would need some balance checking but it would be a much better way of addressing the Drks lack of self sustain without just giving us self heal and turning us more into warriors. ALSO BRING POWERSLASH ANIMATION BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't care where we have it I just want that animation back it was the most badass animation we had and they yeeted it for no reason

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Originally Posted by Oizen

I like what Dark Arts currently is, as a way to cast MP skills without spending the MP.
We just need more MP skills, and more ways to get Dark Arts Stacks.

I think the system has a lot of potential and I hope they do something more with it instead of it being the Edge/Flood spam tool

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Read this at work and had a bit of a brain blast.

What if...we brought back Dark Arts as an actual ability, but kept its current form of giving free mp costs?

It would have no mp cost, and can hold up to 2-3 charges. This could be a GCD to prevent clipping (especially in an already oGCD heavy burst) with a short recast (think mudras from Ninja, or Eukrasia). It would function exactly as it does now: as a method of letting you use one offensive mp spender for free [per charge]

TBN would still cost mp, and the shield breaking is what grants charges of Dark Arts, exactly as it does now.

To simplify it this in an outline:

• Dark Arts returns as an ability, costs no mp, requires Dark Arts stacks (granted from TBN or otherwise) to use
• Dark Arts provides the same effect it does now. It lets you use an offensive ability that costs mp for free
• TBN functions identically to how it does now

These modifications would preserve the cost-reward of possibly not gaining a free usage, but also allows you to optimize when and where you wish to use Dark Arts for free expenditure instead of forcing it on the next edge/flood use, ultimately preventing a method of accidental mp overcap when preparing your burst while simultaneously providing player agency on when to use Dark Arts stacks. This, I feel, also could potentially create a unique design or playstyle no other job has. preserving Effective MP (eMP) for maximum potential output.
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On a separate note, I'm not entirely sure how to make another method of granting Dark Arts charges. As a spitball, they could give us a new mp spender on a 30s CD that grants it, but I feel like there's better ways. Maybe a revamped Sole Survivor..?


Also yes, please make Abyssal Drain an mp spender for aoe sustain or just merge it with Carve and Spit. The former is much preferred.

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Originally Posted by Malthir

ALSO BRING POWERSLASH ANIMATION BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't care where we have it I just want that animation back it was the most badass animation we had and they yeeted it for no reason

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+1, also bring the Scourge animation back too please

No to TBN breaking giving Dark Arts. That has been the problem with TBN for the longest (it's a DPS loss if it doesn't break). DA is better off as its own button press.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

No to TBN breaking giving Dark Arts. That has been the problem with TBN for the longest (it's a DPS loss if it doesn't break). DA is better off as its own button press.

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My issue with removing this aspect of TBN, then TBN basically just becomes a better version of Thrill of Battle, with the only notable upsides being its cooldown and the niche benefits of shield hp blanking certain mechanics/debuffs.
It would also make it a use on CD skill if the MP cost was also removed from it, and honestly might even be a bit overpowered with a 15s CD giving DRK the ability to eat normal attacks almost indefinitely.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

No to TBN breaking giving Dark Arts. That has been the problem with TBN for the longest (it's a DPS loss if it doesn't break). DA is better off as its own button press.

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Ultimately, this is what I actually want. I can brew up ideas on how to keep it's current form for days, but Dark Arts could and should come back as its own standalone ability, and at this point, TBN being on a 15s CD be damned.

If they are insistent on TBN staying on a 15s CD for cost-"reward", then simply refund as much mp as Dark Arts costs when the shield breaks (provided that DA has an mp cost)