Some DRK rework hopium

I posted a while back but it got swallowed, I've had some time to think about what else I think would be potentially good or fun. Much of this may seem similar or familiar if you read my old post.

I tried thinking of ways to make the Blood Gauge more involved with DRK's kit than just a washed Beast Gauge, that being:

-You get Blood Gauge sooner, more on that later

- Move Abyssal Drain to the Blood Gauge and is an upgrade to Quietus

-Quietus gets a passive 200mp generation upon use

- Abyssal Drain would remain the same as it is now just without the cooldown and cost gauge

- As Bloodspiller stands I find it underwhelming, especially considering it is not much stronger than edge of darkness/shadow. I would say to upgrade Bloodspiller, it passively gives 200MP and a 100 Potency heal upon use. Adjust damage potency if needed for balance.

Both would cost 50 gauge, but we would need to build it easier than just Blood Weapon I think, so for that we would bring back Blood Price.
- It would function the same as it did before, but we can put it on ourselves or another party member. Also instead of it generating MP it would give us 5 Blackblood for each time we, or the party member we passed it to, get hit.

Living Dead: I honestly couldnt come up with a better idea than just remove the death penalty, but maybe with the sustain I spitballed above, it would actually be survivable and not outright garbage.

Delirium: Old DeliriumReplaces Souleater but keeps the same effect as Souleater. Souleater by name and animation get removed.

Dark Arts: We bring this back, and it costs 10/15 Darkside to use. It works how the evolution of DA does, Eukrasia. Upon using it, we have 3 options, Delirium becomes Scourge, Bloodspiller becomes Power Slash, Flood of Shadow becomes Shadowbringer

Scourge: More or less the same as it was in Heavensward. Obviously the jobs overall potencies would be adjusted for balance.

Power Slash: Has more potency than Bloodspiller and Shadowbringer, but it does not keep the mp and hp generation.

Shadowbringer: Keeps the high initial potency with substantial fall off.

TBN: Remove the mana cost, but keep the proc upon breaking, this gives you a free use of Dark Arts.

Dark Mind: 15% mitigation from both sources.

Blood Weapon: 5 stacks. Blood weapon gets a trait that lets bloodspiller give 10/15 blackblood.

Living Shadow: With Scourge added, I would move this from being a glorified DoT and into something new. When you use this you instead combine with your darkside and a Black Aura manifests around you, adding roughly 20-50 potency to every attack you perform.

Oblation: I'm probably among the few that like how oblation is now, but understandably is underwhelming given the current state of DRK. With my current rework ideas, i think it can remain as is, or possibly even nerfed to one use on a 60s cooldown.

I'm not entirely sure what more to do with the MP, maybe we can bring back Tar Pit and it costs mp? We'd keep edge and flood, hopefully with animations that have more oomph.

I'm not exactly sure how I'd lay it out the actions with the levels but heres a general idea:

1: hard slash
2: syphon strike
6: unleash
10: grit
15: unmend
20: Stalwart Soul
26: Delirium
30: Flood of Darkness and Dark Mind
35: Blood Weapon
40: Shadow Wall
45: Dark Arts and Scourge
50: Living Dead
52: Salted Earth
54: Plunge
56: Quietus
58: Blood Spiller
60: Carve and Spit
62: Power Slash and Blood Spiller Upgrade (mp and hp gen effect added)
64: Dark Missionary
70: The Blackest Night
74: Flood and Edge of Shadow
76: Blood Price
78: Abyssal Drain
80: Shadowbringer
82: Oblation and Bloodspiller trait that gives 10/15 Blackblood upon use with Blood Weapon
86: Salt and Darkness
90: Living Shadow

Traits:

1: Tank Mastery
56: Blackblood (there is no blackblood II, it starts as it would be with Blackblood II)
62: Enhanced Bloodspiller
68: Dark Arts Mastery
74: Enhanced Plunge and Darkside Mastery
78: Dark Arts Mastery II
80: Dark Arts Mastery III
82: Enhanced Bloodspiller II
there is no living shadow Trait, its level 90 and is ok as they make it, enchanced unmend is removed

My feedback on skill changes in the current system.

Living Dead
Level: 50
Instant
300 seconds
N/A
0
0
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 KO'd.
Walking Dead Duration: 10s

Salted Earth
Level: 52
Instant
45 seconds
N/A
0
5
Creates a patch of salted earth at your feet, dealing unaspected damage with a potency of 50 to any enemies who enter.
Duration: 15s

Abyssal Drain
Level: 56
Ability
1.5 sec channel
Charge: 20 max 3 stacks
Mana: N/A
Range: 20 yalms
Radius: 0 yalms
Deals life draining damage with a potency of 250.
Additional Effect: Restores own HP
Cure Potency: 200
Additional Effect: Restores MP
Mana Restoration: 1200
Combo Action: Living Dead
Combo Effect: Reverse Drain
Combo Bonus: Restores own HPS
Combo Cure Potency: 1200
Combo additional effect: Restores MP
Mana Restoration: 200
Combo Action: Salted Earth
Combo Effect: Abyssal Drain is now AoE
Combo Potency: 150
Combo Mana Restoration: 300 per target

TBN
Level: 70
Instant
15 seconds
3000
30 yalms
0
Creates a barrier around target that absorbs damage totaling 25% of target's maximum HP.
Duration: 7s
Grants Dark Arts when barrier is completely absorbed.
Dark Arts Effect: Consume Dark Arts instead of MP to execute Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow
Bonus Effect: Lingering Shadow
Lingering Shadow: Heals for 200 HPS over 21 secs

Oblation
Level: 82
Instant
60 seconds
N/A
30 yalms
0 yalms
Erects a magicked barrier around self or target party member that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 400 potency.
Additional Effect: Grants 5 stacks of
Oblation
Duration: 15s
When the barrier is completely absorbed, a stack of Oblation is consumed and a new barrier is applied.
When the effect duration expires, a Abyssal drain effect is then applied.
Abyssal Drain Heal Potency: 200 per remaining stack of Oblation
Abyssal Drain Mana Potency: 600 per remaining stack of Oblation


Salt and Darkness
Level 86
Ability
20 seconds
N/A
0 yalms
0 yalms

All enemies standing in the corrupted patch of Salted Earth take additional unaspected damage with a potency of 250 for the first enemy, and 50% less for all remaining enemies.

※This action cannot be assigned to a hotbar.

Trait
Enhanced TBN
Level 84

When consumed, TBN now grants Lingering Shadow Effect.
When not consumed, TBN returns 50% of the casting cost.

Probably been said already but at this point just remove MP from all the tanks because there's no world where MP being tied to DRK's damage buttons or mitigation makes it more fun nor does it give it any flavor. Likewise remove it from PLD's skills because no PLD is using spells outside of requiescat windows anyways, where the MP is already topped off from the physical phase anyways.

MP does not belong in tanking. As well as if MP is removed from the equation we can finally make Blood Weapon do something ACTUALLY useful, like maybe some form of sustain similar to Bloodwhetting/Nascent Flash.

Oh and remove Oblation from the game and add the bonuses to TBN and let TBN be a 2 stack 0 MP move that heals on pop instead of giving darkside, or make darkside give you an immediate, stronger edge of darkness and make edge of darkness a skill with an actual cooldown like No Mercy/FoF.

At this point if DRK is going to continue to play like a flavor-shifted WAR then it might as well have all of the same QoL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by iiTzSeb

Probably been said already but at this point just remove MP from all the tanks because there's no world where MP being tied to DRK's damage buttons or mitigation makes it more fun nor does it give it any flavor. Likewise remove it from PLD's skills because no PLD is using spells outside of requiescat windows anyways, where the MP is already topped off from the physical phase anyways.

MP does not belong in tanking. As well as if MP is removed from the equation we can finally make Blood Weapon do something ACTUALLY useful, like maybe some form of sustain similar to Bloodwhetting/Nascent Flash.

Oh and remove Oblation from the game and add the bonuses to TBN and let TBN be a 2 stack 0 MP move that heals on pop instead of giving darkside, or make darkside give you an immediate, stronger edge of darkness and make edge of darkness a skill with an actual cooldown like No Mercy/FoF.

At this point if DRK is going to continue to play like a flavor-shifted WAR then it might as well have all of the same QoL

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I honestly don't even know why PLD abilities USE mana. I mean, I get it from a lore standpoint, but never at any point in time while playing PLD have I had to worry about running out of mana. Not even close. However, with DRK it's a constant worry.

The issue is the HUD and resource management at the higher levels.

1) It would definitely help a ton if the damage buff was displayed like the warriors own Storms Eye buff (and it would probably help if the storms eye buff was on an icon as well for the warrior...).

2) Capping mana is really easy on them since typically melee isn't dealing with that sort of an issue. Casters always manage MP through skills, but there are passive ways that also signal when a skill needs to get used, such as not being able to use said skill due to lack of MP. Dark knight wants to use the flood of darkness type skills all the time, but they always want to have enough to use TBN.

I think making TBN free but with a cooldown would put it in line with other tanks. But doing that would mean figuring out how to balance flood of darkness. Not to mention redoing Blood weapon most likely in the process.

DRK is probably topping DPS charts due to the wonky nature of the mana based skills. If the Flood of darkness skills were 5k mana a piece, and then the TBN was a free shield on a CD, that would heavily normalize the rotation a ton.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Colt47

I think making TBN free but with a cooldown would put it in line with other tanks. But doing that would mean figuring out how to balance flood of darkness. Not to mention redoing Blood weapon most likely in the process.

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Blood weapon could simply be turned into a sustain defensive cooldown where it makes all of your attacks leech life and could temporarily overheal you or alternatively grants blood gauge on every GCD.

Though my idea for TBN would be silly, make it a passive skill with an internal cooldown before it comes back up and put a new skill where you can spend blood gauge to forcefully reset your TBN. This would make DRK a bit more unique compared to the other tanks.

Though I would love Dark Mind to get reworked out of its exclusively anti-magic role. Maybe also make it also grant 50% parry rate? Something to make leveling DRK feel better cause being sub 70 I feel like I am made of paper.

I would do the following:

Abyssal Drain: Either remove this ability all together or make it the upgraded version of quietus with higher potency.

Living Dead: Would change to 25% of damage from incoming attacks heal you for 10 seconds and your health cannot go below 1hp. Would simply remove walking dead timer and penalty.

Blood weapon: Would change this to a 5 charge system

TBN: remove the mana cost. Increase duration to 10s and recast to 20s. If devs unable to remove the mana cost refund half the mana cost if the shield does not break.

Dark Mind: Would change this to 15% Magical and 10% physical damage mitigation. If 15% is to strong would make it a flat 10&10

Salted Earth: Would remove this and place with Scourage which would be a conal AOE dot for the same duration of current salted earth and would then change Salt n Darkness to Dark Passenger which would have salt n darkness current potencies.

Oblation: Would add a HoT with a reasonable cure potency for its 10s duration.

Blood gauge added trait: 10% of the damage done with blood gauge abilites are restored as health

Hopium? Aight, I'll bite.

Living Dead: Completely reworked. Now applies a DoT that consumes 100% of the DRK's current HP at the moment of execution over 10 sec, but provides immunity to most other sources of damage until the DoT ends.
Keeps the original DRK flavor of "power at the cost of HP" with a bit of risk-reward on it: the lower your HP when you use it, the easier the damage effect is to heal off for the whole duration.
Tempted to bump it up to 125% to add a sense of urgency to healing it, but, meh.

Salt & Darkness: Now heals the DRK for as much damage as it deals when activated.

Blood Weapon: Now on a 5 charge system, duration extended to 15 sec.

Carve & Spit: Potency reduced back to 450, but now heals the DRK for 500 potency.
To ensure Abyssal Drain edges it out at 3 targets, while also giving value to the pair sharing a CD by making it the single-target version in all other respects.

Enhanced Unmend: Removed and replaced with --
Enhanced Blackblood II: Reduces the recast time of Carve and Spit and Abyssal Drain by 2.5 sec when using Bloodspiller or Quietus.
If they need to make it DPS neutral, drop Bloodspiller to 480p. I'm not fishing for damage buffs on the highest DPS tank, just survivability.

Dark Mind: Also increases potency of all healing effects received by 15% while active.
Because Halone knows it could use a reason to actually see use outside of a handful of encounters.

Oblation: Now a trait given at 82 -- Extends the duration of The Blackest Night to 8 seconds, and gives it the effects of [Effect 1] and [Effect 2].

• [Effect 1]: Restores HP to the target equal to the damage absorbed by The Blackest Night while active
  Duration: 4 sec
• [Effect 2]: Reduces damage taken by the target by 15% when the barrier given by The Blackest Night is completely absorbed
  Duration: The time remaining on the original effect

Very carefully chosen as not to create anti-synergy with the original barrier. Too lazy to name them and don't care what they're called. If 15%'s too high, 10% is reasonable for the potential uptime.

... Just a fairly conservative amount they could probably cram into a 6.X patch. Not that I expect it of course.
I'd go much more in depth for stuff I'd want out of 7.0, but I'll wait and see if we get anything before then that might change my opinions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Archwizard

Hopium? Aight, I'll bite.

Living Dead: Completely reworked. Now applies a DoT that consumes 100% of the DRK's current HP at the moment of execution over 10 sec, but provides immunity to most other sources of damage until the DoT ends.
Keeps the original DRK flavor of "power at the cost of HP" with a bit of risk-reward on it: the lower your HP when you use it, the easier the damage effect is to heal off for the whole duration.

Salt & Darkness: Now heals the DRK for as much damage as it deals when activated.

Blood Weapon: Now on a 5 charge system, duration extended to 15 sec.

Carve & Spit: Potency reduced back to 450, but now heals the DRK for as much damage as it deals to the target.

Enhanced Unmend: Removed and replaced with --
Enhanced Blackblood II: Reduces the recast time of Carve and Spit and Abyssal Drain by 2.5 sec when using Bloodspiller or Quietus.

Dark Mind: Also increases potency of all healing effects received by 20% while active.
Because Halone knows it could use a reason to actually see use outside of a handful of encounters.

Oblation: Now a trait given at 82 -- Extends the duration of The Blackest Night to 8 seconds, and gives it the effects of [Effect 1] and [Effect 2].

• [Effect 1]: Restores HP to the target equal to the damage absorbed by The Blackest Night while active
  Duration: 4 sec
• [Effect 2]: Reduces damage taken by the target by 15% when the barrier given by The Blackest Night is completely absorbed
  Duration: The time remaining on the original effect

Very carefully chosen as not to create anti-synergy with the original barrier. Too lazy to name them and don't care what they're called.

... Just a fairly conservative amount they could probably cram into a 6.X patch. Not that I expect it of course.
I'd go much more in depth for stuff I'd want out of 7.0, but I'll wait and see if we get anything before then that might change my opinions.

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Gods, I'd like these changes a lot. I hope they do something along the lines of these ideas for 6.1 or down the road but I'm going in with little to no expectations