DRK understanding

I won't get into a whole backstory of myself but I started leveling DRK again after quitting during early access of EW. I'm almost 91 and after playing at 100 since early access of DT as a GNB main I think o finally understand.

I feel the people who love DRK and have mained it forever like me are upset not because it needs a job rework, but because it needs simple tweaks. It's so evident at lvl 90 compared to GNB it's crazy let alone 100. So I think I'm understanding the anger here because it's like watching someone refuse to do their job which effects the whole crew then says tough luck. Here are my thoughts as I'm getting to 100.

- make oblation 15% and combine it with dark mind. Get rid of dark mind as a button.
- remove the combined cooldown of CaS and AD and if you want to keep the CD the same then CaS needs a massive potency boost.
- and lastly there's no reason why TBN has to be completely gear dependent. This will make or break you severely especially if you are on a new realm with leveling bonuses. Stupid.
- CDs need to be more reasonable. The CDs on most DRK abilities like AD are ridiculous when compared to other tanks and on that note AD should just act like aurora.

You talk about understanding how we feel, when "we" is a wide variety of DRK players from different time periods to begin with.

• Heavensward DRKs will forever lament the loss of parry gameplay and more methodical Dark Arts usage for defensives
• Stormblood DRKs (I'm in this) want nothing more than the fast-paced playstyle with lots of MP generation + spending and GCD haste back, as well as resource interplay (MP + Blood synergy)
• Shadowbringers DRKs were at least content because to a degree, the other tanks had clear downsides or needed to work a bit for their sustain
• Endwalker DRKs are the closest to what we have now, but also feel the loss of Plunge and having at least the superiority in damage to make up for the downsides

So please be mindful, there are many reasons DRK players are upset.

As for the suggestions, allow me to give my opinion on this.

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make oblation 15% and combine it with dark mind. Get rid of dark mind as a button.

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This is a disproportionally harsh nerf to DRK's ability to mitigate magic damage when you can stack both cooldowns right now (amounting to 28% magic mitigation) for a minor gain of 5% on Oblation against physical damage. Aside that, Oblation's greatest strength is giving it to teammates independently of The Blackest Night. Depending on other factors such as being able to hand it to others still, the 2x 60s recharge vs 1min @ 1 charge only has a huge impact on what the skill can do.

EDIT 07:29 AM BST: After rereading this I am alternatively speculating by "merging" you meant boosting the Oblation defensive to 15% while retaining the 20% from Dark Mind, simply as one button. This would be a slight increase in Oblation reduction, but comes at an unnecessary cost of flexibility where you are forced to use Oblation's mitigation when you'd not need it because you are currently mitigating magic damage (i.e. overkill mitigation) and would prefer if you had it for something physical later down the line, or vice versa. Flexibility really is the keyword here.

Dark Mind is a great cooldown in magic-heavy fights due to the short 60s CD and is incredibly valuable usually in ultimates and fights with magic damage. All Dark Mind needs is a 10% physical reduction along the 20% magical reduction - this keeps the magic mitigation niche stronger while not making it completely useless against physical damage.

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remove the combined cooldown of CaS and AD and if you want to keep the CD the same then CaS needs a massive potency boost.

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The 1st one is a common request and I want that too, but there is no justification for Carve and Spit to receive a massive potency boost regardless of the outcome.

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and lastly there's no reason why TBN has to be completely gear dependent. This will make or break you severely especially if you are on a new realm with leveling bonuses. Stupid.

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Fun fact, Thrill of Battle functions nearly identical to TBN in terms of defensive property (increase in max HP / effective HP). If your defensive stats (HP, DEF) are too low due to being undergeared, both will be equally affected.

If you mean TBN struggling to break when you get better gear, that is a skill for the DRK to learn - measuring when it is worth to use TBN defensively. General rule of thumb, if you can't break TBN in 7s, you either mistimed it, overmitigated or the damage output of the enemy is so low that in 15s you'd not even fall below 50% of your HP. At that point you were never in danger and you'd not even have needed to press Rampart, realistically. (also Souleater heal potency goes a long way here as well).

TL;DR: TBN is a get-good skill, so learn to time it better or know when you can actually break it. Don't ruin it by making it another fire-and-forget mitigation like the other 25s CDs.

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CDs need to be more reasonable. The CDs on most DRK abilities like AD are ridiculous when compared to other tanks and on that note AD should just act like aurora.

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Aurora and Abyssal Drain have the same cooldown. Aurora simply has two charges. There are many things that could be done though, like a split-off Abyssal Drain on 2x 30s Charges - if you kept the MP on that this would also help with the lost MP from Dawntrail's Bloodweapon + Delirium merge.