Dark Knight Mini-Rework (5.0 as a base)

With the forums ablaze with everyone providing feedback on the current state of DRK, I wanted to add my own feedback and conceptual changes that could hopefully improve the quality of our beloved job. But before I begin, I'd like to take a moment to thank and appreciate the FFXIV team at Square Enix for all the love and dedication they pour into a game I have grown to love so much. <3

As mentioned in the title, my suggestions will use the 5.0 rework as a base, so please keep that fact in mind if you wish to drop a reply in the comments below. One of my goals was to provide feedback that could be feasibly added to DRK sometime during 6.0, so most suggestions are QoL adjustments that aren't overly grand or sweeping. Sadly, this means the 3.0 mechanic of Dark Arts won't be included, as reincorporating it would absolutely require a full-rework. Potency and durations are obviously conceptual and are not intended to be perfectly balanced, and I try to add as little new abilities as possible to prevent button-bloat.

Legacy Revisions

Blood Weapon. QoL buff for general play, especially for low-ping players.

Blood Weapon (Ability)
Grants 5 stacks of Blood Weapon.
Blood Weapon Effect: Increases Blood Gauge by 10 and restores MP upon landing weaponskills or spells.
Effect does not stack when hitting multiple targets with a single attack.
Duration: 30s

Dark Mind. Removed completely. Dark Mind is instead replaced with the ability Shadowskin (90s recast) at level 45. Performs best as an anti-magic mitigation tool like its predecessor, but has a slight physical reduction baked in to help deal with physical only dungeon/trash packs. It bears mentioning that Dark Mind doesn't necessarily need a complete name/icon change, as simply altering its current effects could easily suffice. The change would more or less exist to prevent returning players from glossing over Dark Mind and its changes due to remembering its old functionality.

Shadowskin (Ability)
Reduces magic vulnerability by 20% and physical damage taken by 10%.
Duration: 10s

Living Dead. Reworked into having a less punishing fail-state. I tried to respect the original lore and thematics as best as possible, replacing the "if 100% HP is not restored you will Ko'D" effect with the less detrimental effect of the Weakness debuff.

Living Dead (Ability)
Grants the effect of Living Dead. When HP is reduced to 0 while under the effect of Living Dead, instead of becoming KO'd, your status will change to Walking Dead.
Living Dead Duration: 10s
While under the effect of Walking Dead, most attacks will not lower your HP below 1. If, before the Walking Dead timer runs out, HP is 100% restored, the effect will fade. If 100% is not restored, you will be afflicted with the weakness debuff.
Walking Dead Duration: 10s
Weakness Duration: 60s

Salted Earth. Compared to the other tanks, DRK is VERY squishy until they have access to TBN at level 70. To help bolster DRK's survivability during the 52-69 level range, I thought adding a small healing effect to Salted Earth would be a welcome boost to reduce healer stress and smooth out the pacing of dungeon pulls. Like Abyssal Drain, its cure potency will scale for every enemy damaged during each tick of Salted Earth.

Salted Earth (Ability)
Creates a patch of salted earth at your feet, dealing unaspected damage with a potency of 50 to any enemies who enter.
Additional Effect: Restores own HP
Cure Potency: 50
Duration: 15s

※Action changes to Salt and Darkness upon execution.

Delirium. Time for the first substantial change! Delirium is a point of contention for many DRK players due to its similarity to WAR's Inner Release, and hopefully my following suggestion imparts a bit more uniqueness and identity to DRK, along with a new, flashy GCD to spice up DRK's monotonous "123 spam". The intent was to convert Delirium into a GCD on a 60s timer that provides a substantial resource boost reminiscent of the 4.0 iteration of the skill, pivoting DRK back into a resource-heavy playstyle during 60s and 120s burst windows. Please remember balancing is more preliminary and not final. This version of Delirium will likely need extensive testing to ensure the frontload damage is not to too high in ST or AoE situations considering 3GCD's were rolled into 1 button instead of being spaced out.

Delirium (Weaponskill)
Deals unaspected damage to all enemies in a cone before you with a potency of 550 for the first enemy, and 50% less for all remaining enemies.
Additional Effect: Increases Blood Gauge by 50 and restores MP (3000).

Dark Missionary. Lower the level of acquisition. Instead of unlocking at level 76, it becomes available at level 66 instead. This change will hopefully prevent DRK from being potentially excluded from minimum ilevel activities at the level 70 tier due to not having access to a party-wide mitigation skill.

6.0 Revisions

Oblation. Oblation is considerbly weaker than equivalent level 82 tank defensives. I understand TBN likely played a part in this decision, but TBN's strengths (absorbing a considerable amount of damage from a powerful, singular hit) don't transition well into dungeon scenarios where the shield can be absorbed after a few autos from enemy trash packs. My intent for redesigning Oblation was to give DRK a unique 82 defensive that shores up and compliments the weaknesses of TBN by providing more sustain during AoE trash packs and multi-hit tankbusters. When paired with TBN, TBN's barrier takes priority.

Oblation
Reduces damage taken by a party member or self by 10%.
Duration: 10s
Additional Effect: Grants Penitent Soul to target, nullifying damage equivalent to a heal of 800 potency. Grants Blood Communion upon effect expiration.
Duration: 8s
Blood Communion Effect: Restores HP every time damage is suffered.
Cure Potency: 200
Duration: 10s
Maximum Charges: 2

7.0 Ideas

This is mostly for fun, as I enjoy speculating on what additions DRK could possibly get in future expansions. Take the following with a hefty grain of salt! I tried not to overload the kit with new buttons, as Yoshi P says he wants to keep the current amount of skills/keybinds roughly the same as 6.0 going forward.

Level 92
Enhanced Blood Weapon (Trait)
Adds a healing effect to Blood Weapon.
Cure Potency: 400

A simple, thematic trait to help DRK's non-shield sustain.

Level 94
Soul Eater Mastery (Trait)
Upgrades Soul Eater to Soul Devourer

Soul Devourer (Weaponskill)
Delivers an attack with a potency of 140.
Combo Action: Syphon Strike
Combo Potency: 390
Combo Bonus: Restores own HP
Cure Potency: 300
Combo Bonus: Increases Blood Gauge by 20 and restores MP (200).

This change was more or less a person pet-peeve. Soul Eater is supposed to DRK's signature FF skill, but it lacks a visceral and visual impact. To remedy this, I thought it would be neat if all the tank's primary combo finisher's recieved a visual update and were slightly buffed. Soul Eater's unique addition would be a small MP increase if combo'd, allowing DRK players to pool enough MP for an Edge/Flood use after 4 combo chains as opposed to 5.

Level 96
Darkness (Ability)
Deals unaspected damage to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 500 for the first enemy, and 50% less for all remaining enemies.
Darkside Gauge Cost: 60

Enhanced Darkside (Trait)
Extend's Darkside's duration to a maximum of 90s

This ability came about after hearing people bemoan that Darkside is basically a non-existent resource; a timer that is more or less constantly capped and impossible to fail as a mechanic. Darkness would be an exploratory ability that tries to make Darkside more meaningful and important to our rotation rather than a buff we apply and forget about. The trait to increase Darkside to 90s exists to allow some leeway into when Darkness is used to prevent Darkside from overcapping or being prematurely lost during hectic bursts. However, this is a highly experimental ability that could very well overcomplicate DRK rather than become a welcome addition to the kit.

Level 98
Enhanced Dark Missionary (Trait)
Adds a barrier effect to Dark Missionary that nullifies magic damage equal to a heal of 400 potency.

Like Soul Devourer, I imagine all tanks could possibly get a small bonus to their AoE mitigation. Is it needed? Not really. It's more or less a filler trait to enhance party survivability.

Level 100
Scarlet Delirium (Weaponskill) Upgrades from Delirium
Deals unaspected damage to all enemies in a cone before you with a potency of 650 for the first enemy, and 50% less for all remaining enemies.
Additional Effect: Increases Blood Gauge by 50, restores MP (3000), and grants Dark Arts.
Dark Arts Effect: Consume Dark Arts instead of MP to execute Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow.

Enhanced Darkside II (Trait)
Allows for a consecutive charge of Dark Arts.
Maximum Charges: 2

Like Darkness above, this is also somewhat experimental. While mostly being a buff to my revised Delirium, having a second charge of Dark Arts would make DRK's opener and 120s bursts INCREDIBLY hectic, briefly returning to the old APM playstyle it was known for during the Stormblood era. This has the potential to see DRK becoming the undisputed oGCD tank once more, with the drawback of possibly creating problems when positioning bosses or dealing with tank-specific mechanics. The second charge of Dark Arts more or less exists to prevent wasting a stored charge from absorbing TBN's barrier.

I realized I left a few commonly voiced concerns out (A return of Dark Arts, Living Shadow functioning as a DoT, sks not affecting spells, ect), but I was trying to be temper my fantasies and ground myself into suggesting additions that would be both feasible and enjoyable to me personally. I tried to account for button-bloat, and I am sure many of you will disagree with placing more emphasis on Delirium, Darkness and Dark Arts increasing the frequency of oGCD spam within already busy burst windows. But yeah, thanks to anyone who takes the trouble to read through my massive wall of text to comment, and additional thanks to anyone devs who happen to come across this post to read my ramblings! <3