Thought experiment: DRK MP and Blood Separation

This is a rework that gets rid of the 'sacrifice damage for mitigation' that exists mostly (or only) for DRK. Blood becomes the defensive resource, MP is offensive.

This will require changes to abilities:

Delirium: Blood cost gone, effect stays the same (more or less the DRK IR so to speak, just a cooldown)

Bloodspiller: Now is a combo from Syphon Strike, and costs no blood. Adds 30 Blood, Potency change so it now has a damage + 30s DOT component which overall potency is greater than Souleater, but requires the DOT to run its course to do so. Dark Arts only adds 140 potency to the frontload, does nothing to the DOT.

The Blackest Night: Cost 25 Blood, shields for 20% of health, 3s cooldown. Casting it when up extends the duration and increases the shield, but only by 10% of your health. Can only cast on self.

Dark Mind: 60s cooldown, costs 25 blood. 10% magic shield for you and party members within 15y.

Sole Survivor replacement: 120s cooldown, cost 50 blood, 10s duration. Target gets 10% less INT/MND/STR/DEX. Party members that hit it during this time gain some lifesteal.

Most MP abilities stay the same.

Anything I've missed? Or does anyone have any other ways of implementing it?

This way round (MP for damage, blood for mitigation), I think is easier to do. What would you do to swap it the other way around?

Personally, I don't think it would change much.

Your optimal DPS rotation would generate Blood at a fixed rate, so you won't really chose how you build it.
Any time you clip Bloodspiller to gain more Blood than with SoulEater, you're weighting less DPS for more Blood, which is already the problem of TBN, especially if Blood now only affect defensive skills.

You forgot Quietus. If the proposed changes were made and Quietus was left the way it was it would completely break the necessary synergy of TBN -> Blood gain -> Quietus -> MP gain -> rinse/repeat, which would make our AoE tanking terrible to non-existent.

We wouldn't even be entertaining this idea were it not for the way that Delirium and TBN are designed. For example, look at one of the only other abilities in the game that works like this:
Hagakure.

If you don't play SAM, here is how it works: Converts Setsu, Getsu, and Ka into Kenki. Each Sen converted increases your Kenki Gauge by 20. Can only be executed if under the effect of at least one of the three statuses. Recast 40s.

An ability that converts one resource into another is already a big source of intricacy and mechanic-based decision making in a job's design, and there is no reason to entangle it with additional DPS or mitigation gains, or to make the conversion one way on a 15s cooldown while the conversion the other way is on a 120s cooldown.

I like that TBN converts MP into Blood, and that Delirium converts Blood into MP. Its a neat mechanic. What isn't neat is that one of them is tied to an ability that we depend on for survival (robbing us of the choice of whether or not we actually WANT to convert that mana into Blood gauge) and the other is on a 120s recast for an effect that basically equalizes to a piddly +8s on Blood Weapon. They could simply make TBN free, and remove its Blood Gauge return, and give its effect to Dark Passenger instead (100 potency, +50 BG, costs 2400 mana) which would actually make it worth the resource cost, and then put Delirium on like a 60s recast, and reduce the effect slightly (BW up to 20s instead of 23, BP up to 25s instead of 31). This would go a long way towards solving our DPS and mitigation issues without touching the potency of any of our abilities.

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Originally Posted by TouchandFeel

You forgot Quietus. If the proposed changes were made and Quietus was left the way it was it would completely break the necessary synergy of TBN -> Blood gain -> Quietus -> MP gain -> rinse/repeat, which would make our AoE tanking terrible to non-existent.

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I forgot Quietus. Not sure exactly what I'd do with it, but I would probably got the Blood-spiller direction in making it the blood gainer, which for this experiment reverses the roles. It grants some blood per hit (maybe 5, which sounds about right), increasing the more enemies it hits, allowing for more TBN. Damage isn't as high as AD, unless paired with DA, where it is. To further separate AD, AD now always provides lifesteal and DA/AD interaction is removed.

Or how about just taking Bloodspiller off the GCD?

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Originally Posted by Derio

Or how about just taking Bloodspiller off the GCD?

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That would require making it around 140 potency..

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Originally Posted by Reynhart

Any time you clip Bloodspiller to gain more Blood than with SoulEater, you're weighting less DPS for more Blood, which is already the problem of TBN, especially if Blood now only affect defensive skills.

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Yes, it is so it's not truly completely separate. But this way it is not tied to an essential part of the kit with TBN, so is a very different way of sacrificing damage for mitigation.

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Originally Posted by Eyvhokan

Yes, it is so it's not truly completely separate. But this way it is not tied to an essential part of the kit with TBN, so is a very different way of sacrificing damage for mitigation.

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The problem is not really how you do it, but if the content is designed to require and/or reward you for doing so.

Right now, it's not. Even with speedrunning out of the equation, the enrage timers and somehow weak mitigation skills (Sorry, but 25% increase in damage taken for being in DPS stance is too low, especially considering how powerful healers are) means that, by focusing on mitigation, it will actually be harder to clear the significant content.

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Originally Posted by Derio

Or how about just taking Bloodspiller off the GCD?

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We already deal with enough double weaving problems at the best of times (let alone when under blood weapon), do we really need more OGCD to mess with our GCD flow?