DRK rework Hopium (with ideas)

DRK :(
DRK needs to be reworked again. This version of the job feels so weak, I want to apologize to healers for making them heal me. Dealing the most damage of the tanks feels good, but getting torn to shreds by dungeon mobs doesn't.

Darkside:
This self buff is too easy to maintain. Much like Greased Lightning, Blood of the Dragon, and Enochian, this should become a trait with the same effect.

Dark Arts:
In Heavensward and Stormblood, this was an interesting ability that gave DRK a lot of options. It buffed damaging and defensive CDs, as well as weaponskills and spells. Now it splits your mana between offense and defense, and forces you to use TBN when it will break. I think this ability should be restored with it's original effect, and eventually upgrade into something stronger.

Blood Gauge
This only needs a minor change. Bloodspiller and Quietus should heal you. These should also receive Dark Arts effects like more potency or bonus healing.

*Right now its a bad copy of the Beast Gauge. I think DRK should also build BlackBlood by taking damage, like their old CD Blood Price.*


Dark Mind, TBN, Oblation
I was very surprised to see Oblation as a separate CD from TBN. Dark Mind only works against magic damage, so its usage is dependent on the content. This should be a weaker version of TBN that is available early. TBN's mana cost should be removed as well as the Dark Arts proc. Once you reach the appropriate levels, Dark Mind should upgrade into TBN and Oblation. As an additional effect, using Dark Arts abilities should reduce the cooldown of Dark Mind, TBN, and Oblation to add both self-sustain and kit synergy.

DRK spells
Abyssal Drain used to be a GCD spell that could be buffed by Dark Arts to heal you. It was also better to use Abyssal Drain over Unmned/Unleash because it had the effects of both. Abyssal Drain should be a GCD again, and an upgrade to Unmend. This would give DRKs more sustain for pinch situations. Similar to Unmend/Abyssal Drain, I think Unleash should upgrade to Stalwart Soul.

oGCDs
DRK is known for having a lot of abilities to weave between GCDs, namely oGCDs. By restoring Dark Arts in its original state, these can be condensed. Edge of Darkness should upgrade to Carve and Spit and Flood of Darkness should upgrade to Shadowbringer. Giving Edge and Flood a 1-min CD, as well as interaction with Dark Arts, would make the job flow at lower levels in a similar way to level 90 DRK.

Living Shadow
This ability feels like such a missed opportunity. My idea for this ability is to make it an upgrade to the Dark Arts itself. Instead of buffing an ability that Dark Arts would, Living Shadow would copy it. Instead of only copying 1 ability, Living Shadow could have 3 charges, so you could copy 3 abilities!

Blood Weapon/Living Dead
No cool ideas here, just read every other post about these two.

Let me know what you think!

The problems I have at least with current DRK could be summed up as fallows:
-> Blood weapon is not on charges.
-> TBN is tied to damage. Oblation doesn't share the "first 4 seconds" are stronger trait that all the other tanks get. It doesn't have to be overpowered but when I saw the "tank will be rewarded if they time their defenses well" I immediately thought of DRK.
-> Delirium is a worse Inner Release.
-> Living Dead is bad. Its advantages were the duration and the fact that it activates perfectly. The latter would be compensated on other jobs by player skill, and the former is now lost because all other invulnerabilities are now 10 secs.
-> It doesn't have its own thing. It shares Delirium and the gauge from Warrior, while it pretty much double weaves like GNB.

1. Darkside could be made harder to maintain by adding actions which use it in some way as a resource.
2. DarkArts was kind of the "unique" thing about the job. It doesn't have to be spammed but it should upgrade abilities. ( Sage: Eukrasia )
3. Good idea. Blood price would be cool to generate blood when hit. However it could be tied more as a passive that gives healing to bloodspiller?
4. Edge could combo into an upgraded Edge. Flood could combo into Shadowbringer?
5. About TBN, Oblation and Dark Mind. TBN is fine the way it is if it were not costing MP. Oblation needs slight adjustment to be reward good timing. Dark Mind could be Sole Survivor? Defeat or deal damage to marked enemy, gives back resources?
6. Living Shadow lore wise ( DRK quest line ) seems to be an action which takes "control" over you like Reaper's. Perhaps it would allow you to merge with it and use DarkArts upgraded actions?

Had I or someone else made this thread before the second EW fanfest, my version of DRK's rework would have involved a mechanic which looked quite a lot like RPR's Enshroud

:|

Reverting Dark Arts?!

Finally a Dark Knight rework with new and original ideas!

Someone notify Yoshi-P immediately.

Oh, wait, sorry. That's never going to happen.

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Originally Posted by Xiaoki

Reverting Dark Arts?!

Finally a Dark Knight rework with new and original ideas!

Someone notify Yoshi-P immediately.

Oh, wait, sorry. That's never going to happen.

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Sadly true, they're too prideful to admit they tried something with ShB and it didn't work. They should of just reverted it back and tone down the spamming (which is what the community actually wanted). I have no clue what they were also attempting with EW. It looks like a bunch of jumbled mess we have to somehow put coherence to.

I think the idea behind living dead isn't bad in itself, only the way how it was executed is. If it would have only half the healing threshold required to cleanse walking dead, as well as a means to cover for the healing on your own (like giving Blood Weapon a Lifesteal effect for example) it would be quite a decent Skill.

As for internal release (Delirium) , i think it would be best to straight up remove it and give DRK a updated Dark Arts Skill that upgrades specific Skills into a stronger Form (like turning Flood of Shadows into Shadowbringer).

Also, i wonder how many Posts it will take for all the TBN Evangelists to show up.

Dark Knight has always been a job that played around their HP in some way. Either by sacrificing HP to enhance their attacks, or draining it from enemies. With the exception of Abyssal Drain... that entire identity is missing from the current DRK. I'm sure that concept is hard to work into a tank but here are some ideas I had on how to fix that to not only make DRK more enjoyable and engaging to play, but also fix the squishy issue in dungeons.

New toggle Ability:
Drain/Aspir: A new action that augments certain weaponskills. In Aspir mode, weaponskills and effects that currently restore MP continue to do so. In Drain mode, however, those effects shift to a HP recovery effect instead. This plays into Dark Knights identity without really changing anything drastically. It also gives DRK sustain when it needs it in Drain mode, or more DPS in Aspir mode to regain mp for more weaving. This would effect Delirium, Bloodweapon, our AoE combo, and Abyssal Drain + Carve and Split. Capped on HP? You can use Abyssal Drain AND Carve and Split as MP recovery tools. Need HP? You can now use both as HP recovery options!

Keep Abyssal Drain and Carve and Split as a shared timer, but give them 2 charges. Abyssal Drain could be a massive MP recovery tool in Aspir mode to burn things down faster with extra Flood of Shadows.

The Blackest Knight: No MP cost or at least reduced MP cost to get a net profit on a fully broken shield.
Trait upgrade at lv.82 with additional Effect: Dread Spikes
Dread Spikes: Restores HP with a potency of 600 once the shield expires or breaks.

Dark Mind: Changed to -10% damage for party member. Upgraded to Dark Missionary at 76 -15% damage on target party member. Remove Oblation as it's just button bloat.

Blood weapon: 5 stacks on use, easy enough.
Enhanced Blood Weapon at lv.82: Restores both HP and MP while the effect is active. Increases damage of weaponskills while under the effect of Blood Weapon by 10%

Living Dead: Effect changed completely. Summons your simulacrum to cloak you, similar to Reaper's Enshroud, giving you a massive shield. Double down on the shield aspect that Dark Knight has currently with TBN to make it feel different enough as an invuln, while still filling what the ability needs to do. Paladin you are immune to pretty much everything, warrior you holmgang and heal yourself back up with raw intuition/bloodwhetting, gunbreaker you drop to 1 hp and you're good for 10 seconds, Dark Knight you put on a massive shield for yourself to survive on.

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Originally Posted by Brixy

New toggle Ability:
Drain/Aspir: A new action that augments certain weaponskills. In Aspir mode, weaponskills and effects that currently restore MP continue to do so. In Drain mode, however, those effects shift to a HP recovery effect instead. This plays into Dark Knights identity without really changing anything drastically. It also gives DRK sustain when it needs it in Drain mode, or more DPS in Aspir mode to regain mp for more weaving. This would effect Delirium, Bloodweapon, our AoE combo, and Abyssal Drain + Carve and Split. Capped on HP? You can use Abyssal Drain AND Carve and Split as MP recovery tools. Need HP? You can now use both as HP recovery options!

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Incredibly difficult to balance and it's timings could really suck for raid buff windows, drain mode would be terribly useless outside Dungeons.

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Originally Posted by Brixy

The Blackest Knight: No MP cost or at least reduced MP cost to get a net profit on a fully broken shield.
Trait upgrade at lv.82 with additional Effect: Dread Spikes
Dread Spikes: Restores HP with a potency of 600 once the shield expires or breaks.

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Healing is a waste after TBN break, Regens/Cures ignore barriers.

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Originally Posted by Brixy

Dark Mind: Changed to -10% damage for party member. Upgraded to Dark Missionary at 76 -15% damage on target party member. Remove Oblation as it's just button bloat.

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Why change Missionary? The ability is super good and balanced solid.

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Originally Posted by Brixy

Increases damage of weaponskills while under the effect of Blood Weapon by 10%

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The stacks, etc, are fine but this? Remove, Darkside is fine and adding more damage would break it's DPS.

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Originally Posted by Brixy

Living Dead: Effect changed completely. Summons your simulacrum to cloak you, similar to Reaper's Enshroud, giving you a massive shield. Double down on the shield aspect that Dark Knight has currently with TBN to make it feel different enough as an invuln, while still filling what the ability needs to do. Paladin you are immune to pretty much everything, warrior you holmgang and heal yourself back up with raw intuition/bloodwhetting, gunbreaker you drop to 1 hp and you're good for 10 seconds, Dark Knight you put on a massive shield for yourself to survive on.

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This doesn't make sense, the point of Invuln is to soak something the tank cannot survive on alone, or skip, some mechanics it's a 1-10M damage 1 shot, and Invuln stops this. Any case, Invulns should all go, scrap them, games getting too easy, and they're used for cheesing mechanics than surviving, "something".

An almost, kind of "Quick Fix" list I'd like to see implemented (or at least, in rough form / trajectory):

• Living Shadow duration reduced, but it now forms far more responsively and now copies your actions rather than just being irrespective DoT damage. While Living Shadow is active, your damage is reduced by 25%, but Living Shadow duplicates your actions at 50% effect. (This is a net 12.5% increase to damage, along with a 50% increase to MP and Blood generation while Living Shadow is active.)
• Living Dead no longer inflicts a Doom effect. Instead, Living Dead "Grants the effect of Living Dead, causing any instance of fatal damage over the next 10 seconds to instead heal you to 50% HP and inflict Walking Dead. Walking Dead effect: For the next 10 seconds, your HP cannot fall below 1 and damage and healing received are halved. Immediately thereafter, take damage equal to 50% of your HP. Any healing received during this time will reduce the damage to be taken at the effect's end instead of healing you, until that impending damage is fully nullified." (Walking Dead does not reduce the effectiveness of your self-heals.)
• Blood Weapon reduced back to a 40s cooldown. Duration increased to 12 seconds. Each hit generates 400 MP and increases your Attack Speed by 4%. (Let's you build up to going zing for a bit of modest side-fun and is purposely not just a 60s CD.)
• Blood Price re-added, on a 40s cooldown. Duration of 8 seconds. Each hit taken grants a small increase to Defense and Magic Defense and generates 200 MP, plus a further portion of MP based on damage taken (in %HP, including to barriers).
• Abyssal Drain returned to the GCD and decoupled from Carve and Spit. It costs 3000 MP and deals only 100 potency per enemy hit while healing for 300 potency from the first enemy and 150 from each thereafter.
• Oblation completely revised. It is now an upgrade of Blood Price, allowing it a second charge and additionally to be used on allies and to heal upon recast. It likewise has a cooldown of 40 seconds. It now marks self or target party member with Blood Price for 8 seconds (see above). Upon recast, Oblation then also heals the affected for 20% of damage received (including absorption by barriers) over the last 5 seconds. This effect is triggered automatically if the target dies and any would-be wasted healing (due to target death) is moved from the target ally to self or nearest wounded ally.
• Dark Missionary and Stalwart Soul acquired at earlier levels. Dark Passenger readded as a one-charge 30s CD that costs 3k MP. It later upgrades into Shadowbringer, which now likewise costs 3k MP.
• Dark Mind replaced with Shadowskin, which "increases dodge chance by 20% for 10 seconds. The damage from attacks which cannot be dodged are instead reduced by 20%."
• Bloodspiller and Quietus now afflict their target(s) with Requiem for 4 seconds, causing the Dark Knight's attacks against the targets to heal the Dark Knight for 25% of their damage dealt.
• Carve & Spit and Abyssal Drain's shared cooldown reduced to 45 seconds. Yes, this is intentionally desynced from 60-second intervals. Additionally, Abyssal Drain's potency has been increased to 200.
• Living Shadow cooldown reduced to 45 seconds, and duration reduced to 3 seconds, but Bloodspiller and Quietus each generate stacks of Shadow and Blood, extending the duration of your next Living Shadow by 1.5 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. (At these suggested values, one generates roughly 6.4 Bloodspillers per minute, meaning it'd take just over 90 seconds to fully charge Living Shadow. Yes, this intentionally desyncs it from the 60-second intervals and makes Living Shadow a good deal more bankable.)

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Originally Posted by Rhais

So would the Blood price defensive boost be cumulative or just a set amount that extends the duration of the buff per hit?

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The defensive boost would be cumulative (starts with none; it's generated only over each hit taken) but would not extend the duration. Blood Weapon and Blood Price would therefore both be strongest just before their durations end. It's a basic gimmick, but hopefully a fun enough one, if only on the basis that it's not going to fit perfectly into 60s windows. Ideally, I'd still revise Delirium, make Darkside an actual mechanic, and perhaps give Dark Arts a slightly bonus damage based on damage that hit while TBN was active (i.e., it can actually benefit from more damage than just what it absorbed) as to make it worth using more immediately (as befits a counter-attack), but I didn't want to push this too long.

So would the Blood price defensive boost be cumulative or just a set amount that extends the duration of the buff per hit? A defensive option that increases in effectiveness throughout the duration could be somewhat interesting.