Dark Arts overhaul

i have the feeling that SE backed themself into a corner with the dark arts change in 4.0.
you can clearly see that they wanted to remove the auto-mana drain from dark side and changed it into a manual-mana drain, to make playing the class easier.
the problem is now dark arts is basically locked onto skills wich give you a 140 potency buff. back then with the dark side auto drain we had a constant loss of mana, wich gave us our "basic" damage, and every point of mana extra was either extra damage or extra mitigation.

now we don't have extra mana for extra damage or extra mitigation - we use our mana for the basic damage and everytime we use it on mitigation we fall behind that basic damage, there is no extra mana anymore.

also dark side became rather useless, gameplay wise, with the changes in 4.0. it's just a press it one time and then forget that it exists skill. also in pvp dark side doesn't even exists anymore and nobody seems to miss it... i guess the only point we still have that skill is because of the ugly aura effect ^^

however.

since dark arts is basically locked onto skills wich give you 140 extra potency - why not simply change dark arts into a 140 potency attack itself? wich also grants you the dark arts effect, to buff your skills with extra effects, instead of extra damage? on souleater it increases the selfheal, on dark mind still the mitigation effect, on shadow wall it shortens the cooldown, on syphon strike... i have no idea xD

but that's only the more simple idea. what if dark arts buffs dark side for a short duration / the next attack (excluding auto hits)? so you use dark arts and dark side gets increased to 25% or 30% or... i have no idea about balancing numbers... this would result in a situation that not every skill is buffed with the same 140 potency, wich could make the gameplay more complicated / engaging (however you want to call it), but it also will give dark side a little reason to exist. and you will get the extra damage in any case, even when you use the dark arts effect on a mitigation skill.

I try to imagine this system more fluid, but not replacing it too much.. I like the pump-action shotgun feel of 4.x Dark Arts..

I think letting DRK hold multiple DAs at once for fast 50% MP draining when we in opener or DEL is approaching.. Removing the 'just one' DA at a time could free up weaving constraint. But also they have to fix the old DA-effects that have no place in 4.x. DA-AD should add +50 potency in addition to absorbing health, and DA-PS should do +140 potency in addition to the aggro multiplier. Dark Mind update where it doesn't take a DA period. I think the future requires no Dark Arts for any mitigation skill. We have TBN now for those needs. Dark Arts is our zerk/fof/req/ir, applied on a GCD basis. That should be it's singular, exclusive purpose.

I've thought about this ad nauseum and tbh to save us from DA every other GCD, we could change DA to a set of 5 stacks or use a Gauge that's up for a bit and allows us to strengthen our abilities. Just a brainstorm but let's us try to think ahead at least

Honestly it is sad because I dont even think DRK will get touched in 4.3 or 4.25

I think the WAR changes were probably planned after the 4.0 backlash and just took this long to implement.

However I do hope they fix DRK to where we can finally have some tank balance.

I don't understand why people like this reload action that is dark arts I like OPs idea...

Turning Dark Arts into a cooldown buff could cause more harm than good. I don't think Dark Arts is a problem personally, it actually makes the job unique to PLD and WAR in fact, who don't have such a thing to juggle to make them actually think about things.

The constant dark arts weaving annoys me. I'd rather it was more like Berserk or Req and simply existed as a dps window. Maybe it could have a group utility if used when grit is up?

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Originally Posted by Derio

Honestly it is sad because I dont even think DRK will get touched in 4.3 or 4.25

I think the WAR changes were probably planned after the 4.0 backlash and just took this long to implement.

However I do hope they fix DRK to where we can finally have some tank balance.

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What's truly sad is, DRK got Nolan Ryan'd because people wanted tanks to be weak. No DRK asked for this mess. The way it was setup before was just fine, with Darkside being the perfect limiter.

I'd rather Dark Arts just last the duration and you have 10 seconds to use Dark Arts enhanced skills. Meaning one DA enhanced skill doesn't end the effect. The timer does. You have a lot more MP this way and you can spend it on skills more often. Even Dark Passenger.

Or if it seems too OP just make Dark Arts cost more or increase the recast time.

I would just remove the mana costs from other abilities all together and keep it on dark arts.

Just give unleash, unmend, and abyssal drain a TP cost and make dark passenger no cost.

Lvling to 70 with drk is pure drama, you are literally useless below 60 lvl.

Frankly, with the current Darkside, I think the two skills could be fused. First, you'd remove the 20% damage on Darkside and apply it to all base potencies, and remove the lock behind Darkside for skills like Dark Passenger, Dark Mind, etc...
And then, when Darkside is active, all skills that are currently enhanced by Dark Arts would receive the same buffs and the mana cost.

Thus, you wouldn't have to mash Dark Arts if you want to do a bunch of DA skills, you just keep Darkside up. And if you want to save some MP, you just just deactivate Darkside.

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Originally Posted by Reynhart

Frankly, with the current Darkside, I think the two skills could be fused. First, you'd remove the 20% damage on Darkside and apply it to all base potencies, and remove the lock behind Darkside for skills like Dark Passenger, Dark Mind, etc...
And then, when Darkside is active, all skills that are currently enhanced by Dark Arts would receive the same buffs and the mana cost.

Thus, you wouldn't have to mash Dark Arts if you want to do a bunch of DA skills, you just keep Darkside up. And if you want to save some MP, you just just deactivate Darkside.

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This actually isn't half bad just put it on the dps stance I like it lol..

Currently I believe DA is hold DARK back no matter what anyone says, no other tank has to keep spamming a move that eats up a third of their resource, I still believe MP is a mess but that's a whole different topic but spamming DA just isn't fun to me at all and I love this class

This sounds good too.

I think DA needs a complete overhaul, in which it does not provide pur extra dmg, but rather change the way abilities work, or provide extra healing/mitigation.

As long as "DA=dmg" is a thing, our mana bar will be nothing more than something we wanna smack on the enemys head as fast and stupidly as possible. And every ocd ability that costs mana, will be forced to compete against DA...

"Does is more dmg per mana than DA?"
"Yes." -> "Spam it."
"It's not spamable." -> "Hold in on cd."
"It does not more dmg per mana than DA."->"Why are you wasting my time, scrub?!"

DRK's dmg should come from their main rotation and well timed abilities, not from insta bursting on a button, once we have 2400 mana left...


DA effects should be something you think about when and on what abilities you use it. Like increasing the healing of SE, or turning an single target into an aoe attack.
Effects like DP, AD and DM are great and they would be used more often, if they wouldn't be a 140potency loss every time...

I like the idea of having DA last for 7s with a cooldown of 5-10s without fading with just one attack. This would give DRKs a window in which they can use skills buffed by DA without burningexcessive resources. Of course, I think it would also have to have its MP cost increased a bit (3000?). It would be cool ciol to have SOME skills to end the window early though like if Bloodspiller still made it fade upon execution to give it a sense of strategy.

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Originally Posted by MagiusNecros

I'd rather Dark Arts just last the duration and you have 10 seconds to use Dark Arts enhanced skills. Meaning one DA enhanced skill doesn't end the effect. The timer does. You have a lot more MP this way and you can spend it on skills more often. Even Dark Passenger.

Or if it seems too OP just make Dark Arts cost more or increase the recast time.

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I was just thinking this.

I don't know numbers or anything, but what is essentially a 10 second damage buff seems all right.

There are dozens of things they could do but I think the biggest thing they need to change is not make DA just +potency
Each DA should be a big deal and change things not just +140 potency
For instance DA+soul eater changes it to double health recovery. Drain should heal a % by default and then DA doubles it.
Things like that so we don't lose DPS for using TBN or drain.
The class needs a rework from the ground up.
It was clear from the start of 4.0 that DRK was not given much thought.
WAR has gotten changes and overhaul complete with new skills and traits. It's DRK's turn now.
I just hope they don't wait til 4.3 because the 4.2 changes were a middle finger to every DRK.