Changes I would like to see to Improve Dark Knight.

These are rather simple compared to my other suggestions:

Blood Weapon should function differently when using Grit rather then not being able to be used, and Darkside should receive a few changes as well. The reason, number one is that MP refreshing statuses should work with darkside. Why? Its not really a penalty to the Dark Knight, all it does is make me not want to group with bards and machinists. It punishes them way more then us because we can just not group with them and pick an ally with more DPS. Thusly, it shouldn't affect that. All it does is punish support characters.

Darkside:
No longer has an aura.
MP is slowly drained while increasing damage dealt by 15%. Effect ends upon reuse.

Dark Arts:
Gained the aura Darkside had, with the black flame effect.

Blood Weapon:
Without Grit - Increases attack speed by 10% and converts physical damage dealt into MP. Duration: 20s

With Grit - Increases attack speed by 10% and converts physical damage dealt into HP. Duration: 20s

Reprisal
Delivers an attack with a potency of 210.
Additional Effect: Lowers target's damage dealt by 10% for 20s.
Additional Effect: Resets cool-down when a target near you dies.

Enhanced Unmend
Change to: Enhanced Reprisal
Lowers the reuse of Reprisal by 10 seconds. Making it 20 second reuse.

I hope SE never removes our Darkside aura.

p.s putting it on Dark Arts is the biggest waste I have ever seen.

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Originally Posted by Ditto

I hope SE never removes our Darkside aura.

p.s putting it on Dark Arts is the biggest waste I have ever seen.

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Its a burst of power, which makes sense to have an Aura with. At the most Dark Arts should have a black flame around our "weapons" only.

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Originally Posted by Nektulos-Tuor

Its a burst of power, which makes sense to have an Aura with. At the most Dark Arts should have a black flame around our "weapons" only.

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A burst of power that gets used within literally seconds, if even.

It doesn't make any sense to have an aura on something you continously enable, and then consume almost every rotation.

People gotta stop being wimps and just stop trying to eye out Drk's auras just to annoy themselves by looking at it. It's the most retarded complaint I have ever seen.

All they need to do is to make it look as advertised, as in the trailer with the black flames.

If they want to comply to popular demand then they should also reduce the size of the actual aura a bit since it feels a but everywhere and overshadows other players.

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Originally Posted by Marveth

All they need to do is to make it look as advertised, as in the trailer with the black flames.

If they want to comply to popular demand then they should also reduce the size of the actual aura a bit since it feels a but everywhere and overshadows other players.

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This^

Give us our black flames with it, and if anything, just make it wrap more with the character instead of having it try to touch others. Condense it.

But if they don't, then oh well? Stop looking at Dark Knights when you don't need to, or go take a break if looking at an incredibly faint aura is 'straining' your eyes.

Also, the extra effect of Reprisal you have there isn't going to do anything for how unreliable it is when you need it the most.

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Originally Posted by Nektulos-Tuor

These are rather simple compared to my other suggestions:

Blood Weapon should function differently when using Grit rather then not being able to be used, and Darkside should receive a few changes as well. The reason, number one is that MP refreshing statuses should work with darkside. Why? Its not really a penalty to the Dark Knight, all it does is make me not want to group with bards and machinists. It punishes them way more then us because we can just not group with them and pick an ally with more DPS. Thusly, it shouldn't affect that. All it does is punish support characters.

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You do realize there are other reasons to have a BRD in the party, right? WARs never neglected the value of BRDs because they didn't use MP at all. Just because it doesn't affect you directly does not mean it's without value; those BRDs give valuable MP regen to the healers that keep you upright and functional.

As for your newest suggestions, not as ridiculous as some of your older ones. You could just do away with the Darkside aura entirely at that point. Dark Arts doesn't last very long on any competent DRK anyway, and it already has one of the best skill animations in the game.
Blood Weapon's effect is decent and useful, but with no extra method of TP management, I'm not too sure I like it.

I would have originally been for nerfing Reprisal's damage output to remove its silly activation requirement, but with the removal of Double Dark Arts, DRK needs as much help with its damage output as it can get now, so I'm okay with this.

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Originally Posted by Kiteless

Yes I do. I don't disagree with you either, bards can help healers a lot. Except they take up a valuable spot, why have one when you can replace them with a faster more efficient way that doesn't penalize the group members?

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I would rather have a pure DPS then a bard with less dps and an ability that only helps one character. The DPS you lose from it isn't worth it if it doesn't affect the entire group. You could kill it faster, saving your healer valuable mana in time.

Now, if Bard and for example: Ninja had the same DPS. I would not disagree, however with DPS classes doing X% more damage, that saves the healers mana by killing it faster or destroying an add making you take less damage which requires less mana usage and healing. They are two ways of doing the exact same thing.

Personally, I'd just be happy if they swapped the Low Blows trait with Reprisal.
As cool as it is to kick mobs in the face/junk, I don't really need or want the stun reset when I parry.

Put that on Reprisal and I'll be a happy little edgelord.

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Originally Posted by Nektulos-Tuor

Its a burst of power, which makes sense to have an Aura with. At the most Dark Arts should have a black flame around our "weapons" only.

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Ahem from a lore standpoint it makes sense for darkside to actually have an aura considering the context of the quests we did 30-50, now the current animation is bugged we are supposed to have a smaller red glow along with black flames and it its an accepted bug which is being investigated. The problem is that it SHOULD obey the graphic rules of not being displayed when not grouped with a dark knight.

Which I think square is going to do once they fix it.

^^^
I really hope this is the case and that they are working on fixing it

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Originally Posted by Valonir

Personally, I'd just be happy if they swapped the Low Blows trait with Reprisal.
As cool as it is to kick mobs in the face/junk, I don't really need or want the stun reset when I parry.

Put that on Reprisal and I'll be a happy little edgelord.

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Speak for yourself Drks have the highest stun cooldown of everyone 25 long freaking seconds.
If they just took off the low blows passive I'd be mad as hell because its the only thing that even "somewhat, kinda, just a bit" justifies such a long flipping cooldown. I remember 2.0 War getting nothing BUT flack when our stun took longer, because PLD's would catch all the Eruptions for ifrit and we looked like shit.

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Originally Posted by Ditto

A burst of power that gets used within literally seconds, if even.

It doesn't make any sense to have an aura on something you continously enable, and then consume almost every rotation.

People gotta stop being wimps and just stop trying to eye out Drk's auras just to annoy themselves by looking at it. It's the most retarded complaint I have ever seen.

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Calling people wimps doesn't make up for the piss poor artistic quality of the effect itself. It's literally the worst looking effect in the game. The fact that it's big, wobbly, always on (have to manually turn it off, doesn't time out like wrath or greased lightning), and it still shows up no matter what your display setting isn't helping things.

The FX department should have more pride in their own work as opposed to leaving it as is. The rest of the game's effects are top notch, this does not live up to the standard that SE has set for themselves.

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Originally Posted by Giantbane

Calling people wimps doesn't make up for the piss poor artistic quality of the effect itself. It's literally the worst looking effect in the game. The fact that it's big, wobbly, always on (have to manually turn it off, doesn't time out like wrath or greased lightning), and it still shows up no matter what your display setting isn't helping things.

The FX department should have more pride in their own work as opposed to leaving it as is. The rest of the game's effects are top notch, this does not live up to the standard that SE has set for themselves.

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Its already been confirmed the current effect is a bug and it supposed to look different, I highly suspect that once they change it they will make it obey the effect settings the reason why there is a persistent aura is because well the whole draining of mp and the managing of mp with the dark side mechanic so it would be nice to have an effect to show its clearly on.

http://i.imgur.com/tMg2OxX.jpg?1

This was not a good idea. I can see nothing but red.

How many death knights do you see?

I don't want increased attack speed on Blood Weapon.

I want TP returns. So much sks. :(

allow blood weapon while in grit. make it give tp back outside of grit only.

half dark arts manacost. this is totally insane.

massivly reduce manacost of triggering grit. totally crazy currently.

thats my grain of salt imo.

I don't have any issues with TP with DRK, then again I was a warrior before this where I would have to always manage my TP.

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Originally Posted by Nektulos-Tuor

I don't have any issues with TP with DRK, then again I was a warrior before this where I would have to always manage my TP.

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I run out in 2:15 when I'm not main tanking.

Blood Weapon is insanely draining on TP esp since Asuran gear is stacked to the gills with sks. 568 sks in the set I'm wearing, and the only way to drop it is to drop 20 ilvls per piece of gear.

I know that this was mentioned at least once in a thread but I am going to reiterate it because the more I think about it, the more I feel it is a necessary change.

Make it so that Dark Arts can be used on Delirium to apply a "takes X% more magic damage" debuff. That alone would help DRK spit and carve itself a raid tank niche as a debuff tank since it would have more debuffs available than the other tanks.

I still feel that Darkside was missed as a very capable off tanking stance instead of a buff to stack on top of Grit. I feel Grit to be just plain lacking in originality. It's literally just a copy and past of the Paladin tanking stance. This job misses out on just so many different possibilities with its skills. Just to name a few that I honestly feel were utter failures...

Blood Price: Returning MP when damaged. Should have instead absorbed 10% of all incoming damage as MP. Provides a small defensive cooldown that can benefit from things like tank busters to give a huge chunk of MP back while reducing the damage taken by 10%. Should have also been limited to usage while only under Grit.

Blood Weapon: Return MP on physical damage and increases attack speed by 10% and unable to be used with Grit. First, how may of DRK's attacks are magical damage? The synergy here is completely missing. Second, it could have been a great combination with an off tanking stance like Darkside. What it should have been: Increase damage output by 10% and absorb that 10% increased damage as MP, only able to be used while under Darkside.

Both of these skills along with Darkside being turned into an off tank stance that can't be used with Grit instead of an MP drain would fix a lot of issues. There would be better MP absorbtion and better defensive capabilities. MP would be easier to be used with Dark Arts too in this way, instead of it constantly being drained by Darkside. I've mentioned before of different things that could be added to the skills that use Dark Arts, but I was also told that the things I mentioned were OP. They probably were, but did I honestly think they would ALL be considered? No, not really, but better to ask Santa for a Lambroghini and be happy that he at least brought you a Toyota Corolla, than ask for a Toyota Corolla and he bring you a Fisher Price pedal mobile.

Edit: One more change I think should also be considered is on Dark Arts. Since it already drains a substantial amount of MP. I believe (to address DRK's TP issues) it should also negate the TP cost of skills that require TP to use is used while under Dark Arts. Also, many of the effects that Dark Arts grants to skills, should have been on them in the first place and unlinked to Dark Arts. If I'm using a cooldown to make sure that I make full use a cooldown, that's an extremely limiting factor that will greatly hinder a tank. IMO, Dark Arts should be been used for exactly what I mentioned, a TP alleviation.

So skills like Dark Mind, Spit and Carve, and Dark Passenger should have just had their Dark Arts effects be stock. Also, WTH is with Abyssal Drain? Did we really need another AOE enmity skill on top of Unmend? Range skill, fine, HP drain, that should be stock considering the skill's name, but do we really need the enmity? So, here's my suggestion for changes, to list them...

Darkside - Not useable while under Grit, no MP drain (for god's sake, remove the damned aura animation) add a GCD to it like Grit.
Blood Price - Reduce damage taken by 10%, absorb the reduced damage as MP, can only be used while under Grit.
Blood Weapon - Increase damage done by 10%, absorb the increased damage as MP, can only be used while under Darkside.
Dark Arts - Adds effects to certain skills. Nullifies the TP requirements of effected skills.
Carve and Spit - 3 hits in a row with a potency of 150 each. Restores MP for each hit. (AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN)
Abyssal Drain - Ranged AOE around a target. 120 Potency. Absorbs 100% of damage as HP.
Dark Mind - Magic Vulnerability down 30%. (Increase the CD if you must)
Dark Passenger - 250 potency linear AOE + Blind

As long as the MP returned doesn't vary with the DMG output blood weapon is as it should be with skill speed. It also makes the DOT more potent, but it creates a rather glaringly obvious TP issue that shouldn't have been overlooked.

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Originally Posted by PerihVashai

As long as the MP returned doesn't vary with the DMG output blood weapon is as it should be with skill speed. It also makes the DOT more potent, but it creates a rather glaringly obvious TP issue that shouldn't have been overlooked.

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That's my thing, damage output would already be increased due to Darkside being an off tank stance, and Blood Weapon would be only able to be used while under Darkside. You would boost your MP recovery in this way then. Further, making it a flat MP based on level lowers the diversity of it. A tank who would do a lot of damage with strength trinkets would be able to benefit more in this way.

To also clarify, I suggest that Dark Arts be able to be used without requiring a stance. For its steep MP cost, there's little reason to limit it to just one stance.

People want more complex and more diverse skills and tanks, but whenever suggestions are made that would diversify and make skills more complex are suggested, people always feel that they would make the class too difficult. This kind of Blood Weapon would essentially be no different than something like Bloodbath, only with a lower potency, a lower CD, and restoring MP instead of HP.

Delirium should "slow" the target by 10%.

Problem with that is that not only am I not certain whether Slow would be a reliable CC for most bosses, especially higher end ones, but even if it did work on them, that just ends up slowing their attacks on you, making Blood Price even less reliable, and reducing your opportunities to use Low Blow and Reprisal. It's another case of one of DRK's abilities weakening its others.

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Originally Posted by Kiteless

Problem with that is that not only am I not certain whether Slow would be a reliable CC for most bosses, especially higher end ones, but even if it did work on them, that just ends up slowing their attacks on you, making Blood Price even less reliable, and reducing your opportunities to use Low Blow and Reprisal. It's another case of one of DRK's abilities weakening its others.

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I really think DRK's should be able to Parry Spells/Abilities.

I'd like to see abyssal drain get an increase as well....considering at lvl 57 it costs around half my mp to use but only gives me around 1k hp back when it's not actually bugged. The other problem with it is that you won't always have multiple enemies to use it on. As for the enmity generation does it honestly even NEED it? I don't know how useful it is at level 60 since I'm not there yet but as it stands at 57 it's hardly worth even using outside of the cool animation. If it's potency was boosted up to 400 then it would be useful, imo.

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Originally Posted by Agrieus

I'd like to see abyssal drain get an increase as well....considering at lvl 57 it costs around half my mp to use but only gives me around 1k hp back when it's not actually bugged. The other problem with it is that you won't always have multiple enemies to use it on. As for the enmity generation does it honestly even NEED it? I don't know how useful it is at level 60 since I'm not there yet but as it stands at 57 it's hardly worth even using outside of the cool animation. If it's potency was boosted up to 400 then it would be useful, imo.

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There's no need to use Abyssal Drain outside of a situation with a large amount of mobs as it's on GCD. It's very potent with the boost it provides with Dark Arts if you have 4+ targets that are constantly re-filling your mp via Blood Price.

Still pretty risky to do that since in order to use Blood Price you'd have to drop out of Grit.....and I've noticed that healers don't really like it when you do that and I can understand why. And for some reason I can't seem to hit more than a few enemies with the drain even though they're within range of the blast. Another bug, possibly...idk. Could just have a 5 target limit

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Originally Posted by Agrieus

Still pretty risky to do that since in order to use Blood Price you'd have to drop out of Grit.....and I've noticed that healers don't really like it when you do that and I can understand why. And for some reason I can't seem to hit more than a few enemies with the drain even though they're within range of the blast. Another bug, possibly...idk. Could just have a 5 target limit

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Sacrificing your life is WAY less risky then taking more damage.

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Originally Posted by Agrieus

Still pretty risky to do that since in order to use Blood Price you'd have to drop out of Grit.....and I've noticed that healers don't really like it when you do that and I can understand why. And for some reason I can't seem to hit more than a few enemies with the drain even though they're within range of the blast. Another bug, possibly...idk. Could just have a 5 target limit

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Er, what? Did I miss a ninja change to Blood Price?

In all the dungeons I did today it functioned normally; that is, it works in Grit. I use Blood Price on like every pull.