Lets change Sole Survivor

I don't need to say what's been said a million times; Dark knight has too few skills and too many repeats, yada yada yada. Unlike what others say about it, Abyssal drain is at the very least a tool that can be used effectively in more situations than Sole Survivor. Sole Survivor is best used when there is no healer or you've MESSED UP and even then there's no guarantee you'll survive anyway. If you can kill the target, 20% hp healed isn't much compared to clemency spam or alot of warrior's kit. 20% mp restored isn't that much considering how much Dark Knight can generate already.

So, how can we effectively change Sole Survivor to be a proper tool for survivability while keeping it unique? Why not instead change it to a buff to the Dark Knight?

EX: For 15s every time an enemy on your enmity list is KO'd, be healed for 5% of your HP and MP

This helps keep hp up with big pulls, as well as keeping mp higher than normal near the end of a big pull. Of course this doesn't work well with smaller groups and still doesn't matter in raids.This could be fixed with a simple little bit at the end tacked on.

EX: For 15s every time an enemy on your enmity list is KO'd, be healed for 5% of your HP and MP. If the duration expires without a single enemy being KO'd, damage all nearby enemies by 10% of your current hp.

OR

EX: For 15s every time an enemy on your enmity list is KO'd, be healed for 5% of your HP and MP. If the duration expires without a single enemy being KO'd, for the next 5s 25% of damage dealt restores hp and mp.

I've only just gotten Dark Knight to 60, so I'm not sure if these seem super tantalizing by the people who main the class. However, Sole Survivor is currently very unappealing unless you're in a very specific situation so it's in dire need of a change.

I do like your idea to change Sole Survivor. I think that skill is pretty weak and very unrewarding. It also doesnt help that you can mistime it and lose the debuff entirely because you used it while the server registered the enemy as dead, so Sole Survivor applied after its death. However, I feel like your change to Sole Survivor has a few fundamental flaws. Firstly, it focuses on things in an aoe pack dying for its effect to be used. This would be good except the time where you do want MP and HP is WHILE the mobs are still alive, not dead/dying.

When I think of the word "Sole Survivor" I think of a cornered wolf bearing its fangs ready to take on whatever comes at it, despite its current condition. So with that, if I had to change Sole survivor, I would make it so that it is a self buff that has a reflect damage and Hp steal effect, so that it scales amazingly with more targets hitting you, and perhaps increasing your damage/MP by a little so that you're more than ready to give whatever is hitting you an uphill battle.

I like what you are thinking. But I have to agree with Saeno. This is what I was thinking.

Sole Survivor

• The effect “ 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” has been changed to “ Marks target with the status Another Victim, converting a portion of damage dealt to target as HP and MP. Weaponskills enhanced by Dark Arts inflict 10% more damage to the affected target. Only effects weaponskills used by you.”

Note: ~ +1.83 PPS

You can view more of my ideas HERE

Also, I really really like saeno's idea. Their sole survivor sounds like a HP version of Blood Price, with damage reflect, and some % buff to all our skills.

Essentially :
Restores partial HP and delivers an attack with a potency of 50 every time damage is taken. Restores 10% maximum health upon effect duration expiration.
Duration: 20s
Additional Effect: Increases damage dealt and reduces vulnerability by 10%.
Duration: 4s

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Saeno

I do like your idea to change Sole Survivor. I think that skill is pretty weak and very unrewarding. It also doesnt help that you can mistime it and lose the debuff entirely because you used it while the server registered the enemy as dead, so Sole Survivor applied after its death. However, I feel like your change to Sole Survivor has a few fundamental flaws. Firstly, it focuses on things in an aoe pack dying for its effect to be used. This would be good except the time where you do want MP and HP is WHILE the mobs are still alive, not dead/dying.

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Gotta agree there, having hp recovered while the monsters are still alive is the best time to have hp..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Saeno

So with that, if I had to change Sole survivor, I would make it so that it is a self buff that has a reflect damage and Hp steal effect

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Except this makes Sole Survivor become Warrior's Vengeance when they still had Bloodbath, and it's without the defense boost. My idea here was to try and make it still feel unique to Dark Knight

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kashi11

converting a portion of damage dealt to target as HP and MP. Weaponskills enhanced by Dark Arts inflict 10% more damage to the affected target. Only effects weaponskills used by you.

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I'm not sure I agree with this much. This basically makes it so you never ever don't pop it, even if you don't need either the mp or the hp. It's less of a tool and more of a dps increasing bloodbath. Not to mention the fact that Blood Weapon already gives mp back when dealing damage, and increases dps to boot.


Other than applying a buff to get the effect of Sole Survivor's current heal and mp regen(thereby guaranteeing the health gain and allowing a possible heal if you don't kill them in time), the only thing I could come up with is so gimmicky and situational it'd basically become unusable.

Imagine if Sole Survivor was an attack, with the same cooldown it has now if not higher. Its base potency would be garbage, but the damage dealt increases based on how low the enemy's health is and how many party members are KO'd. You would be healed by the amount of damage dealt, and at the point of being the sole survivor (7/8 party members are KO'd) it'd end up being at least a full heal if the boss is 3/4ths dead.

Yes, this renders the skill pointless outside of a raid. Yes, the skill is nigh unusable unless you've basically lost or won already. I just can't help but feel like this would make so many STORIES, and bringing a Dark Knight would mean a possible win in a clinch.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dhaid

Except this makes Sole Survivor become Warrior's Vengeance when they still had Bloodbath, and it's without the defense boost. My idea here was to try and make it still feel unique to Dark Knight

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Ah, if it's a unique ability that you want then I can understand it. I personally wanted Sole survivor to be better, and when I mean better I mean usable and not so frustrating when it fails to activate from mistiming it. I don't really have any ideas that are unique, mostly because I'm too accustomed to what tanks are good at and what tanks want, which typically means higher mitigation, higher damage, some sort of survivability. Anything straying from that would make the skill feel weird and out of place (like most of DRK's skills).

Sole survivor:
Marks target with another victim status, any attacks against the target will restore partial HP and MP.
Cooldown is reset if target is killed.
120s cooldown.
15s duration.
Dark Knight party heal over time effect that works through relentless attacking. IMHO very thematic.

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I personally think a damage reflect effect would be better on Blood Price.
50 potency attack is generated whenever you take damage, this attack restores some MP and generates a small amount of blood.
In effect, enemies pay the blood price for attacking you.
Plus blood price kind of sucks at the moment unless you've got literally a dozen plus mobs on you.