Landsknecht => Dark Knight/ Mystic Knight idea

Another long a** class/job proposal. :D

(Side-note, Yes, I have heard about Yoshi saying something about Dark Knights coming from Gladiator but I think that's silly, the Dark Knight's image would fit Marauder much better. But this thread is about an original class so...)

NAME CHANGE: I changed Landskneckt to Soldier. :B

Weapon: Zweihander
Long swords that require two hands to wield.

Soldier (SLD)
Melee DPS Class
Limit Break: Melee
Armor: Light Armor
Adventurers who wield larger, two-handed swords that specialize in both cleaving and disarming enemies with status debufs. They also can change between attacking foes in a wide cleave, a frontal column, or single out one foe at a time via stances. They are TP based.

Cleaving vs Column vs Single-Targeting
Soldiers have developed a special form of fighting style that uses either broad, cleaving slashes or swinging over-head.
• Over-Head Stance: A Stance skill. Turns certain skills into 5 yalm long, frontal columns, decreasing their damage by 15%, increasing their TP cost by 50%, and increasing their cast-time by 10%. If Cleaving Stance is activated, this is deactivated.
• Cleaving Stance: A Stance skill. Turns certain skills into frontal, half-circle with a 3 yalm radius, decreasing their damage by 25%, doubling their TP cost, and increases their cast-time by 15%. If Over-Head Stance is activated, this is deactivated.

Moves Effected by Over-Head Stance and Cleaving Stance
- All Break Techniques
- Oil Blade
- Drenched Blade
- Hard Slash
- Sanguine Blade
- Spell Blade

Breaks Techniques Disarming techniques that lower the enemies' aptitude of certain stats. All breaks place a debuff that last for for 15 seconds. One enemy can only have one Break debuffs on them at a time, with no new Break debuff being placed until the current has disappeared.
• Power Break: Places a "Power Break" debuff on a target for 15 seconds. Power Break lowers the target's physical damage output by 10%.
• Magic Break: Places a "Magic Break" debuff on a target for 15 seconds. Magic Break lowers the target's magical damage output by 10%.
• Armor Break: Places a "Armor Break" debuff on a target for 15 seconds. Armor Break lowers the target's slashing resistance by 10%.
• Resolve Break: Places a "Resolve Break" DoT debuff on a target for 15 seconds.

Enfeebling Techniques
Over the years, Soldiers have learned various techniques to place special properties onto their blades to weaken foes.
• Oil Blade: Damages foe and places an "Oil" debuff on them for 10 seconds. Oil increases the damage done by Fire and/ or Thunder based skills by 10%. Removes Drenched debuff off of inflicted enemies. Earth-based. Has a potency of 80.
• Drenched Blade: Damages foe and places a "Drenched" debuff on them for 10 seconds. Drenched increases the damage done by Thunder and/or Ice based skills by 10%. Removes Oil debuff off of inflicted enemies. Water-based. Has a potency of 80.
• Delay Buster:: Damages a single foe and stuns them for 4 seconds. Wind-Based. Has a potency of 50.

Other Offensive Skills
Simple damaging skills.
• Hard Slash: Damages a target. Has a potency of 110.
• Power Slash: Deals damage in a column. Has a potency of 100.
Combo: Hard Slash => Power Slash for 150 potency.
• Shockwave: Damages all foes within a 3 yalm radius. Has a potency of 100.
Combo: Power Slash => Shockwave for 5 yalm damaging radius.
• Headbutt: The user hits the enemy with their most dangerous weapon, their hard head. Can only hit a foe who is up to 3 yalm away and can only be use after a physically-damaging skill. Has a potency of 80.
• Blind Rush: Deals damage to a single target. Has a potency of 120. Potency rises to 180 if HP is below 50%. Potency rises to 240 if HP is below 25%.

Other Skills:
• Restraint: Places a "Restraint" buff on the user for 20 seconds. Restraint decreases the TP cost of the user's skills by 25% but decreases their damage output by 15%.
• First Aid: Places a "First Aid" buff on the user for 10 seconds. First Aid gradually heals the target's HP. Can only be used if HP is under 75%.
• Acumen: Places "Acumen" buff on the user for 15 seconds. Acumen increases the user's Physical Accuracy and Strength by 10% each but decreases their action speed by 15%.

Skill Levels
1. Hard Slash
2. Power Slash
4. Power Break
6. Oil Blade
8. Drenched Blade
10. Headbutt
12. Magic Break
*Quest* 15. Cleaving Stance
18. Over-Head Stance
22. Resolve Break
26. Shockwave
*Quest* 30. Blind Rush
34. First Aid
38. Delay Buster
42. Acumen
46. Armor Break
50. Restraint

Traits
8. Enchanted Strength I
14. Inflicting Blades: Increases Oil Blade and Drench Blade's potency to 100.
16. Enchanted Strength II
20. Monkey Grip: Increases the user's movement speed by 10% when neither Over-Head Stance or Cleaving Stance are activated.
24. Enchanted Strength III
28. Resolve Render: Allows you to place Resolve Break debuff on a target regardless of if they have another Break debuff on them or not.
32. Strengthened Head: Headbutt's potency increases to 110.
36. Medic Increases First Aid's duration to 20 seconds.
40. Combining Swings: Whenever Over-Head Stance or Cleaving Stance is deactivated by the activation of the other, the user will receive a 10% action speed boost for 5 seconds.
44. Ingenuity: Changes Acumen's action speed decrease to 10%.
48. Tenacity: Grants the user a 30% action speed boost but also a 20% movement speed decrease when their HP falls under 15%.

Cross-Class
• First Aid
• Acumen
• Headbutt
• Shockwave

Dark Knight (DRK)
Melee, Burst Damage DPS Job
Limit Break: Melee
Armor: Light Armor and Heavy Armor
Unlock: 30 SLD/15 LNC
Cross-Class: Lancer and Pugilist
Knights who have learned forbidden techniques to damage all foes in sight and have forsaken health for power.

Skills
• 30. Darkness: Surrounds the user in a dark aura, that pulsated every 5 seconds, dealing a damage to enemies with in a 5 yalm radius for 25 seconds. The user receives a 30% physical damage increase and a 10% defense decrease until it ends. Has a potency of 50. Cost the user 10% of their HP per pulse. Damage is increased by 10% more if Blood Cost is activated.
• 35. Dark Flame: Damages all foes within a 5 yalm radius. Any foe with an Oil debuff will receive a 10% more damage, have the debuff removed, and replaced with a "Shadow Burn" DoT for 20 seconds. Any foe with a Drenched debuff will receive 10% more damage, have the debuff removed, and replaced with a "Shadow Tether" debuff for 10 seconds. Shadow Tether binds the target to were they were standing when inflicted. A target can only have either Shadow Burn OR Shadow Tether, no newly placed once can be placed until the current has dissipated. Has a potency of 130. Damage is increased by 10% more if Blood Cost is activated.
• 40. Dark Messenger: Damages a single target. Potency of 130. Damage is increased by 10% more if Blood Cost is activated.
Combo: Dark Messenger => Hard Slash to add a "Dark Messenger" DoT on the target for 10 seconds.
Combo: Dark Messenger => Shockwave to increase to 5 yalm radios and 110 potency.
Combo: Dark Messenger => Headbutt for 100 potency.
Combo: Blind Rush => Dark Messenger to push target backwards 5 yalms.

• 45. Sanguine Blade: Deals damage to a selected target. The user will restore a percentage of HP based off that damage (Damage x 0.01 = HP% restored). Is not effected by Blood Cost. Has a potency of 100.
• 50. Blood Cost: A Stance. Switches TP cost to HP (TP cost x 0.25 =HP% cost). Decreases the user's potency to be healed by 20%, increases the user's action time by 20%, and the user's damage output by 15%. Restraint, First Aid, Invigorate, Second Wind, and/or Mantra cannot be used while this is activated.

Mystic Knight (MTK)
Tank
Limit Break: Tank
Armor: Light Armor and Heavy Armor
Unlock: 30 SLD/15 GLD
Cross-Class: Gladiator and Marauder
Knights who have learned how to imbue their blades with magical properties.

Skills:
• 30: Mana Harmonize: When first used, places a "Mana: Incandescence" stack on the user. When used a second time, it changes to a " Mana: Glaze" stack. Both stacks increase the amount of enmity the user generates. Incandescences increases the user's physical defense by 5%, while Glaze increases their magical defense by 5%. When used repeatedly, the stacks alternate.

• 35: Spell Blade: Uses one Mana Harmonize stack to attack a targeted foe with a specific attack based on what stack was used. Both have a potency of 100.
- Mana: Incandescence: Flametongue: Damages a target with a Fire-based attack. When used on an enemy with the Oil debuff, it will do 50% more damage, remove the debuff, and replace it with an "Burnt" debuff for 10 seconds. Burnt increases the damage done by Ice, Thunder, Wind, and Water-based skills by 10%. If the Frostbite debuff is on the target, it is removed.
- Mana: Glaze: Icebrand: Damages a target with a Ice-based attack. When used on an enemy with the Drenched debuff, it will do 50% more damage, remove the debuff, and replace it with an "Frostbite" debuff for 10 seconds. Frostbite increases the damage done by Fire, Thunder, Wind, and Earth-based skills by 10%. If the Burnt debuff is on the target, it is removed.

• 40: Spinning Slash: Uses one Mana Harmonize stack to launch the user forward at a targeted foe, slashing, damaging and drawing enmity from any foe in between. Cannot go farther then 7 yalms and stops when it gets to its target. Has a potency of 20.
• 45: Resolution: Damages a targeted foe. Potency 100.
Combo: Resolution => Hard Slash for Potency of 150. Generates enmity.
Combo: Resolution => Spell Blade for increased enmity generating.

• 50: Warding Rune: Uses one Mana Harmonize stack and places a "Warding Rune" buff on the target based on what stack was used.
-Mana: Incandascence: Warding Rune: Phalanx: Decreases physical damage done onto the target by 10% but increases magical damage by 10%. If Warding Rune: Agema is activated, this is deactivated.
-Mana: Glaze: Warding Rune: Agema: Decreases magical damage done onto the target by 10% but increases physical damage by 10%. If Warding Rune: Phalanx is activated, this is deactivated.

I think it's been beaten to death already, however..

Until there are 10+ job skills per job, if you make both jobs the same type as the base class they'll play too similar to have much of a difference.

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Originally Posted by Exstal

Until there are 10+ job skills per job, if you make both jobs the same type as the base class they'll play too similar to have much of a difference.

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My problem was I couldn't really think of any other type of roles for them. >A>()
Healer is out of the question and I really couldn't think of a tank idea for two-handed swords that hadn't already been done by PLD (damage mitigation and high defense) or WAR (Good offense and HP) (other then like a Mage Tank, which I did with Geomancer in my Red Mage/Geomancer thread). I mean, I might be able to fudge Mystic Knight into something similar to XI's Rune Fencer, a tank that specializes in reducing magical and elemental damage, but because of how little elements play in this game and the lack of elemental weaknesses, I don't think it would be very effective.

Here's this post;;

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post1548155

Just read what he says and then go from there.

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Originally Posted by Exstal

Here's this post;;

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post1548155

Just read what he says and then go from there.

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Thanks for the read, it's very helpful. :D
I am actually starting to get some ideas for a Mystic Knight Tank.

Update:

Added all the skills. :D
I already now that I'm probably going to have to change Dark Knight's Catastrophe... :B

Updated:

Added potency, traits, and what level skills are gained.

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Originally Posted by Mimilu

IRL, Landsknecht were a type of German mercenary, with zweihanders being one of the weapons they used.

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It's not really a balance thing, but Landsknecht is a really specific term that doesn't actually fit in well with the overall theme/design of Eorzea. The name for a class should be something more societally generic like "Reaver", "Brute", etc.

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Cleaving vs Column vs Single-Targeting

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That's gonna be straight up broken as hell. You'd be turning them into monumental AoE powerhouses that put BLMs to shame since they'd be throwing out AoE damage equal to their ST DPS (in fact, with your stances as they are written, the class actually gets *penalized* for getting rid of their passive "everything is AoE" ability).

If you want to do something like this, their standard form should be single target and *just* single target. Providing them with their best AoE functionality as a passive function is just broken. The stances that then provide them with AoE capabilities should dramatically reduce the damage their attacks deal against a single target while simultaneously increasing their cost such that they are not sustainable. Overpower is a 120 potency attack that costs 130 TP. Ring of Thorns is 100 for 120 (150 if you combo, wherein it's 75 AoE + 85 ST potency for 95 each GCD) and Doom Spike is 160 for 160. The most efficient AoE that BRD gets is 110 for 140, and MNK gets a 130 for 120 that is, effectively, a t3 combo attack.

AoEs are expensive (basically twice the TP/GCD as ST attacks) and low damage (1/2 or less of the potency per target of an ST rotation). If you want stances that turn ST into AoE, you need to reflect that.

Also, you're describing combat techniques that would never be able to use the same animation. Hell, the "thrusting stance" of Langschwert (the style of combat the Landsknect used) actually involved grabbing the middle of the blade (i.e. the sharp bit) and using it like a spear rather than a sword (most people would find this monumentally perplexing and it doesn't actually look all that impressive, which is what the animations *should* look like); in fact, the purpose of the half sword (which is doing this was called) was to make it more effective in a close melee (e.g. close one-on-one combat) rather than going through people.

Furthermore, in Langschwert, "stances" were starting positions before you entered combat. As soon as you engaged, attacks flowed immediately into one another (and, in fact, Langschwert very much so followed the philosophy that every action should attack as well as defend such that you were *always* attacking).

If you really want to allow the class to use the wonky-but-effective grips that Langschwert used, don't treat them as stances: treat them as combos. Give them a starter attack for a half-sword combo (they drop into the grip and stab someone) that they then follow up with a couple other half sword attacks (double stab and then a flurry of stabs); for the wide strikes, give them a starter for that, and then give it a full t3 ST combo and have an AoE that combos off of either the starter or t2 attack (it should still be able to be used on its own for straight up AoE spam scenarios; this is how DRG handles Ring of Thorns).

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Breaks Techniques

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Power Break and Magic Break are both incredibly overpowered. WAR's Storm's Path is already pretty up there and it's a t3 combo for a *tank* (which are supposed to reduce incoming damage) that's only 10%. Also, since it's a separate effect, it would therefore stack. 15% is *way* too big.

Speed Break is basically worthless; just look at Feint (the effect you're described is exactly what is referred to as "slow"): it's 20% slow for 120 damage and no one uses it.

Armor Break and Mental Break should be reducing resistances, not defense. Afaik, enemies don't have "defense" or "magic defense" explicitly. They simply have resistances. Furthermore, being able to constantly reduce the target's resistance to all physical *and* all magical attacks is hugely overpowered (hell, constantly reducing resistance to all physical, on it's own, is overpowered).

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• Oil Blade: Damages all foes within the cleave and places an "Oil" debuff on them for 10 seconds. Oil increases the damage done by Fire and/ or Thunder based skills by 15%. Removes Drenched debuff off of inflicted enemies. Earth-based. Has a potency of 100.
• Drenched Blade: Damages all foes within the cleave and places a "Drenched" debuff on them for 10 seconds. Drenched increases the damage done by Thunder and/or Ice based skills by 15%. Removes Oil debuff off of inflicted enemies. Water-based. Has a potency of 100.

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This basically buffs BLM and no one else (it buffs SMN just a little bit and nothing else). Once again, it's *really* overpowered considering it can be applied constantly and is a buff of such a size.

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• Headbutt: The user hits the enemy with their most dangerous weapon, their hard head. Can only hit a foe who is up to 1 yalm away and can only be use after a physically-damaging skill. Has a potency of 120.

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1y range basically means that they have to be standing inside the target, and, if there is *any* kind of movement going on, it's entirely useless. The 3y range for melee is there for a reason: anything less than that is going to be effectively unusable.

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• First Aid: Removes a status debuff and heals a miniscule amount of HP from one, targeted party member. Has a healing potency of 150.

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No one but healers gets cleanses for a good reason: that's a healer specific mechanic. It's the same reason why DPS don't get provoke: some capabilities have to be explicit to certain roles to prevent some classes from simply being monumentally better than others (or straight up required) for fights.

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32. Foil: Increases the user's evasion rate by 10%.
40. En Garde: Reduces damage done to the user when they have Thrusting Stance Activated by 10%.

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I realize that you want them to also have tank capabilities, but, remember, you have the base class as a DPS. The traits should reflect this. These two are basically providing the benefit of a tank stance (slightly more in fact) as a passive benefit.

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48. Tenacity: Adds a 10% that the user will resist a status debuff from an enemy skill. Not all debuffs can be resisted. Neither the move that caused the debuff or the damage that comes from it are not resisted.

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Another case of being way too strong. The only debuffs that you would even care about avoiding are fight mechanics where avoiding them would be way too strong. Getting rid of debuffs is one of the reasons you have a healer. If there is a DPS (or tank) that can simply avoid them passively (even if it's just a chance), you're giving them a massive unfair advantage.

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Cross-Class
• First Aid
• Power Break *
• Armor Break *
• Shockwave

*Break Techniques are singe-target if used by any other class other then Marauders or Lancers. If used by Marauder's or Lancers, they become a normal cone-based attack.

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All of those are broken as class skills. Allowing them to be cross-classed is just nuts. Giving First Aid to other classes basically removes an entire function from healers (and turns it into yet another "required" cross class). Power Break and Armor Break would end up doing more than the explicit abilities that are native to the classes. Adding new cross class abilities should not require a complete and total reevaluation of the balance state of all classes involved, which is what you'd be doing here.

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• 30. Darkness: Surrounds the user in a dark aura, that pulsated every 5 seconds, dealing a damage to the user and enemies with in a 5 yalm radius for 25 seconds. The user receives a 15% physical damage increase and a 10% defense decrease until it ends. Has a potency of 50 (on both the user and enemy). Damage is increased by 10% more if Blood Cost is activated.

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If you're going to have hp costs, they need to be percent based, not flat damage based, else they scale improperly (damage increases at a different rate than survivability). Furthermore, you need to have explicit local offset for said costs (and, no, Sanguine Blade does not provide nearly enough, especially since it would only add appreciable amounts in AoE scenarios) so that you're not simply piling more work onto the healer all the time (BfB is a valid exchange because you're not guaranteed to take said increased damage; proper use of it occurs when you're *not* taking damage so that you do not strain the healers).

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• 35. Shadow Flare

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Shadowflare is already an ACN ability.

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• 45. Blood Cost: A Stance. Switches the TP cost of skills to HP and the cost is doubled., decreases the user's potency to be healed by 20%, increases the user's action time by 20%, and the user's damage output by 15%. Restraint cannot be used.

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Once again, hp costs need to be percent based, not flat damage. As you get better gear (and higher levels), you get more hp but your TP remains the same. When you get this ability, 200 damage is going to be a big deal (since you probably have 2k hp). When you hit i90, that 200 damage is going to be worth a helluva lot less. As ilvls continue to get higher, it will start meaning so little that you're effectively removing TP completely.

HP costs *must* be based upon percentage of maximum.

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• 50. Catastrophe

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I sincerely hope that you mean that it removes all class buffs (of which there aren't really any given that almost everything you do is a debuff) because, if it removes all buffs completely, that means forcing healers to recast protect, losing Echo, dropping your food buff, etc. Furthermore, this is an ability that you just turn on and then sit around waiting to turn it off. This is not an interesting ability. Players need to actually play their characters, not activate an ability and then watch their characters until such time that they need to turn it off.

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Mystic Knight (MTK)
Melee DPS Tank with some Magical Aptitude

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"Melee DPS tank" is not a role. You are either a DPS or a tank and all tanks are melee (ranged tanks are either unkillable because they can kite forever or not really "ranged" because they spend 99% of their time in melee since they cannot kite).

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Armor: Light Armor and Robes

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Tanks are in heavy armor for good reason: the higher defense on heavy armor means that tanks take roughly half of the damage from an attack compared to people in light armor. On top of this, light armor and caster armor (re: robes) follow entirely different defense schemes which means that, even if you want to account for the differences in defense with a multiplier, you're still going to have massive variation in performance such that you cannot reliably predict how much they will take from encounter to encounter.

Also, defense and magic defense on tank gear are both higher than they are anywhere else (better def than DRG scale armor, which has the absolute worst mDef, and better mDef than caster armor, which has the absolute worst def). Either you use tank armor or you specifically account for it somewhere else while restricting the gear available such that you can actually control equivalence (and by "account for it" I mean, apply the correct multiplier to bring it in line).

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Thaumaturge Spells
Versed in the art of the Thaumaturge, the Mystic Knight uses the most basic of black magic to attack foes and grant themselves strength.
Spells: Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder
Fire and Blizzard do keep their Astral buffs, they are used for several of the Mystic Knight's skills.

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Cross-class skills should *not* be required for a class to function. They can be an assumed capability (Provoke and Conv on a WAR; Protect and Cleric Stance on a SCH; Surecast on all casters), but you should *never* have anything for a class/job that is contingent upon the use of a cross class ability, even if said cross class ability is assumed to be present.

On top of this, casting spells as a melee is just inane. Those spells use your magic attack potency. DoW do not have useful amounts of magic attack potency so the damage will be a complete job. In addition, they are *spells* and must be *cast* while you, as a tank, are getting wailed on by your enemies, which means that they will be *interrupted*.

If you want to provide some kind of astral fire/umbral ice set up, do it with native job abilities that are designed to work with the class. Don't steal abilities that simply don't work with anything related to the job. Also, it's lazy design work to co-opt another job's mechanic for your own.

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• 30: Mana-Ward: Agema: A Stance. Decreases Magical Damage done onto the user by 25% and decrease Magical Damage done onto allies within a 3 yalm radius by 10%. If Mana-Ward: Phalanx is activated, this will deactivate.
• 30: Mana-Ward: Phalanx: A Stance. Decreases Physical Damage done onto the user by 25% and decrease Physical Damage done onto allies within a 3 yalm radius by 10%. If Mana-Ward: Rune is activated, this will deactivate.

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Broken is as broken does. A vast majority of enemies are either physical *or* magical damage dealers. For example, Levi's head and t2 are *all* magic damage while Levi's tail and t1 are all physical damage. Titan is almost entirely physical damage with the exception of Geocrush. Furthermore, extending protection to nearby allies makes them *way* too strong of a tank to such an extent that they would essentially be required (especially given that you also intend for them to have access to your various Break abilities).

Also, you have no enmity generation attached to these. You're making a tank that can't generate aggro until level 50.

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• 35: Spell Blade: Uses one Astral buff to attack a targeted foe with a specific attack based on what Astral buff was used. Both have a potency of 120 and use MP instead of TP.

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It's a tank job coming off of a DPS job. The abilities should be tanky, not "moar DPS!".

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• 40: Rampart: Places a Rampart buff on the caster and any party member with in 3 yalms. Rampart decreases damage done to the target by 15%.

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Rampart is already a PLD CD (it's their level 2 tank CD, in fact). Furthermore, another case of way too strong because it is spreading out to allies.

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• 45: Spinning Slash: The user launches forward at a targeted foe, slashing, damaging any foe in between. Cannot go farther then 7 yalms. Has a potency of 100.

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See Spell Blade.

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• 50: Animus: Uses one Astral buff tot he effect enmity of the caster, depending on the Astral Buff. Uses MP instead of TP.
- Astral Fire: Places a "Animus Augeo" buff. Animus Augeo increases the amount of enmity the caster gains. If the caster has the Animus Minuo buff on them, it is removed.
- Astral Ice: Places a "Animus Minuo" buff. Animus Minuo decreases the amount of enmity the caster gains. If the caster has the Animus Augeo buff on them, it is removed.

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Tanks should not need an enmity reduction ability. Tank "enmity reduction" is called "turning off tank stance" and/or "not using high enmity attacks" (given the number of attacks the base class gets, they're pretty much guaranteed to not have everything be high enmity). Delaying high enmity until 50 is just a bad idea (go to the tank forums and bring up how PLD has to wait til 40 to get ShO; deluge of people complaining about it and you're suggesting delaying it *ever further*).

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Originally Posted by Kitru

Snip

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Thank your for the critque, I love getting feedback. :D

To cover your points

Naming
- I thought the German sounded cool and it seemed like something a Japanese, fantasy RPG would do (even an MMO). >w>
- I also like how that it had the word Knecht in it, which sounded like "Knight" (and both being servant-roles), which I based the class on. I didn't want to name it Knight because knight implied some sort of allegiance to either some sort of nobility or county, which didn't seem to fit the adventurer lifestyle. I also thought that mercenary aspect would make sense in a guild environment and could add to the quest lines story.
- How about "Soldier" or "Legionnaire"?

Cleaving vs Column vs Single-Target
- I had designed the class to an Physical Debuffer, who spreads the debuffs with their cleaves and uses the stances to cover some of the problems that would bring. .A.()
- BUT what you're saying makes sense. I'll switch it to being single and have a cleave stance.

Break Techniques
- What if I got rid of the damage and made it so you can only place one debuff on at a time?
- I could also live without Speed Break.
- What if I changed Armor Break to be weak to a specific type of physical damage like Slash damage?

Oil Blade and Drench Blade
- I had partly designed these to work with BLM. I had also wanted these to add Conjurer/White Mage's elements to this as well but thought that would be a waste.
- I had mainly designed these to work with skills from the jobs, Spell Blade and Shadow Flare, mainly Spell Blade because I wanted that to be Mystic Knight's go to move.

Headbutt
- I'll change it to 3 yalms.

First Aid
-What if I turned it into a Regen-like ability? I don't want it to be just another TP-based healing move, we already have Second Wind.

Foil and En Garde
- I did party add these for tanking.
- For En Garde, I added it to help expand Thrusting Stance and differentiate it from Over-Head Stance some more.
- For Foil, I actually had Dark Knight in mind when I designed it. I was worried that with their constant HP cost and with the stances slowing its action time, it could be a sitting duck, so I wanted a way to make it less squishy.

Tenacity
- The fighting mechanic-based debuffs where the debuffs I mentioned in the description that couldn't be resisted.
- I had designed this more for debuffs that normal mobs would through at you, like Poison or Paralyze.

Cross-Class
- "Adding new cross class abilities should not require a complete and total reevaluation of the balance state of all classes involved, which is what you'd be doing here." But that sounds so cool! ; w ;

Darkness
- I'll add the HP percent costs.
- How about if it boosted your offense by 30% then?

Shadow Flare
- ...I should have known that, I MAIN ARCANIST FOR FRICK's SAKE! ; A ;
- I'll rename it to Dark Flame, I based off of Cecil from IV's Dissidea Dark Flame move.

Blood Cost
- Again, I'll add the HP Percent costs.

Catastrophe
- Looks like Catastrophe ended up being a Catastrophe. >w>
- I had such a hard time coming up with a final skill for them, I just rushed. D;
- I'll be changing this.

Mystic Knight, the DPS-Tank?!
- It's a tank.
- It was originally going to be a DPS... I just forgot to delete that from the title. >//w//>()

Mystic Knight Armor
- I had gotten the idea after reading your post that Exstal posted to help me. :D
- I thought it would be more appropriate for a magical swordsman to have lighter armor.
- I guess their class specific armor could just not look like giant, walking, metal walls. .w.

Thaumaturge Spells
- I just wanted a magical swordsman... .w.
- When I decided on adding the spells, I didn't view them as offensive skills but more as a way to gain stacks, like Aetherflow, they just happened to do damage as well and didn't waste the user's TP.
- I guess I could make something similar to Aetherflow to add stacks then and change them to another. >w>

Mana-Wards
- I was worried that if I didn't add more damage mitigation, this job couldn't function as a tank, what with not having heavy armor and coming from a DPS class and all. >w>()
- I was also worried that if I had them both together it would be broken.
- Should I get rid of both or keep one? ;A;

Spell Blade
- But Spell Blade is Mystic Knight's FF stable. It's what shaped most of this class. ;A;
- What if they added enmity?

Rampart
- ... Oh. o//w//o()
- I was so busy looking at other FFs for skill ideas that I didn't bother looking at XIV's skills.
- So if it didn't spread to spread to allies, it would be good?
- Then it would be Mana-Ward: Phalanx... >w>

Spinning Blade
- I had thought of this as Flash in gap closer form (if that makes sense).

Animus
- I added the enmity reduction buff for when you don't need two tanks or when tanks would need to swap out, to make the transition faster.
- I'll just keep Animus Augeo and move it down to level 30.

Ahh! This is dangerously close to my current project Knight > Samurai + Dark Knight :P

First little nit-pick is Shadow Flare is already in use. Nether Void and Black Sky are abilities used in the past you could rename/rework it to. Otherwise Kitru has good points on the HP being % based and on subclass abilities being an additional benefit/flavor to the main job but shouldn't bring their own mechanic to it. It should give the job a boon but shouldn't hinder gameplay without it.

Update:

-Major overhaul. Tried to cover every point Kitru and Matra covered and then some.

Massive Update:

"Soldier"
- Changed Landsknecht to Soldier
- Removed Thrusting-Stance and replaced it with Cleaving Stance.
- Cleaving Stance: A Stance skill. Turns certain skills into frontal, half-circle with a 3 yalm radius, decreasing their damage by 25%, doubling their TP cost, and increases their cast-time by 15%. If Over-Head Stance is activated, this is deactivated.
- Refined Over-Head Stance: A Stance skill. Turns certain skills into 5 yalm long, frontal columns, decreasing their damage by 15%, increasing their TP cost by 50%, and increasing their cast-time by 10%. If Cleaving Stance is activated, this is deactivated.
- Added Hard Slash to moves effected by Stances.
- Break Techniques no longer inflict damage and one enemy can only have one Break debuff at a time with no new Break debuff being able to be placed until the current has disappeared.
- Removed Speed Break and Mental Break.
- Refined Armor Break to now lower Slash resistance.
- Lowered the potency of Oil Blade and Drenched Blade to 80 and their damage increasing effects to 10%.
- Hard Slash now is a single target and has a potency of 110.
- Power Slash now has a potency of 100 and its Combo with Hard Slash changes it to 150.
- Shockwave now has a potency of 100.
- Added Blind Rush: Deals damage to a single target. Has a potency of 120. Potency rises to 180 if HP is below 50%. Potency rises to 240 if HP is below 25%.
- Headbutt is now has a 3 yalm reach.
- First Aid now gradually heals the user's HP for 10 seconds and can only be used if health is under 75%.
- Added Acumen: Places "Acumen" buff on the user for 15 seconds. Acumen increases the user's Physical Accuracy and Strength by 10% each but decreases their action speed by 15%.
- Altered what level you get skills and traits at.
- Removed Foil, En Garde, and Centripetal Force traits.
- Inflicting Blade now increases Oil Blade and Drenched Blade's potency to 100.
- Medic now increases the amount of time First Aid lasts to 20 seconds.
- Added Strengthened Head: Headbutt's potency increases to 110.
- Added Ingenuity: Changes Acumen's action speed decrease to 10%.
- Changed Tenacity: Grants the user a 30% action speed boost but also a 20% movement speed decrease when their HP falls under 15%.
- New Cross-Class abilities: First Aid, Acumen, Headbutt, and Shockwave.

Dark Knight
- Removed Catastrophe and Added Dark Messenger
- Dark Messenger: Damages a single target. Potency of 130. Damage is increased by 10% more if Blood Cost is activated.
Combo: Dark Messenger => Hard Slash to add a "Dark Messenger" DoT on the target for 10 seconds.
Combo: Dark Messenger => Shockwave to increase to 5 yalm radios and 110 potency.
Combo: Dark Messenger => Headbutt for 100 potency.
Combo: Blind Rush => Dark Messenger to push target backwards 5 yalms.
- Darkness now cost 10% of the user's HP per pulse and increases their Physical Damage by 30%
- Shadow Flare is now Dark Flame and has a potency of 130.
- Sanguine Blade now heals a percentage of HP based on the damage. Damage x 0.01= HP% healed.
- Blood Cost now cost a percentage of HP based on the TP cost ( TP cost x 0.25 = HP% cost). Restraint and/or First Aid cannot be used while this is activated.

Mystic Knight
- Now uses Light Armor and Heavy Armor
- Now needs 30 SLD/15 GLD to unlock
- New Cross Class: Gladiator and Pugilist
- Removed Thaumaturge spells.
- Removed Rampart and Animus.
- Added Mana Harmonize: When first used, places a "Mana: Incandescence" stack on the user. When used a second time, it changes to a " Mana: Glaze" stack. Both stacks increase the amount of enmity the user generates. Incandescences increases the user's physical defense by 5%, while Glaze increases their magical defense by 5%. When used repeatedly, the stacks alternate.
- Altered Spell Blade: Uses one Mana Harmonize stack to attack a targeted foe with a specific attack based on what stack was used. Both have a potency of 100.
• Mana: Incandescence: Flametongue: Damages foes within the cleave with a Fire-based attack. When used on an enemy with the Oil debuff, it will do 50% more damage, remove the debuff, and replace it with an "Burnt" debuff for 10 seconds. Burnt increases the damage done by Ice, Thunder, Wind, and Water-based skills by 10%. If the Frostbite debuff is on the target, it is removed.
• Mana: Glaze: Icebrand: Damages foes within the cleave with an Ice-based attack. When used on an enemy with the Drenched debuff, it will do 50% more damage, remove the debuff, and replace it with an "Frostbite" debuff for 10 seconds. Frostbite increases the damage done by Fire, Thunder, Wind, and Earth-based skills by 10%. If the Burnt debuff is on the target, it is removed.
- Altered Spinning Blade: Uses one Mana Harmonize stack to launch the user forward at a targeted foe, slashing, damaging and drawing enmity from any foe in between. Cannot go farther then 7 yalms and stops when it gets to its target. Has a potency of 20.
- Altered Mana-Ward: Agema and Mana-Ward Phalanx into Warding Rune: Uses one Mana Harmonize stack and places a "Warding Rune" buff on the target based on what stack was used.
• Mana: Incandascence: Warding Rune: Phalanx: Decreases physical damage done onto the target by 10% but increases magical damage by 10%. If Warding Rune: Agema is activated, this is deactivated.
• Mana: Glaze: Warding Rune: Agema: Decreases magical damage done onto the target by 10% but increases physical damage by 10%. If Warding Rune: Phalanx is activated, this is deactivated.
- Added Resolution: Damages a targeted foe. Potency 100.
Combo: Resolution => Hard Slash for Potency of 150. Generates enmity.
Combo: Resolution => Spell Blade for increased enmity generating.

Update

Dark Knight
- To unlock Dark Knight, it's now 30 SLD/ 15 LNC
- Cross Class is now Lancer and Pugilist
- Invigorate, Second Wind, and Mantra cannot be used while Blood Cost is activated

Mystic Knight
- Cross Class is now Gladiator and Marauder