DRK Invulnerability Ability replacement/fix

Blood Debt

Creates a barrier around self that absorbs damage totaling 100% of own maximum HP. If the barrier is not completely absorbed by the end of its duration, the amount remaining is absorbed as damage.

Lv. 50
Cast: Instant
Duration: 10 seconds
Recast: 300 seconds

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To me this ability:
Simplifies the clunkiness of Living Dead.
Maintains its core concept of death if mishandled.
Fits the identity and aesthetic of the job's established abilities (LD/TBN).
Seems to fit safely between other tanks invulns while maintaining independence.
Can be mitigated to some degree with TBN/Souleater/Abyssal Drain (similar to GNB's Superbolide when used in combination with Aurora/Heart of Corundum.)

What do you think?

Lots of invuln deal way more than your full HP so it wouldn't be usable in those fights while possibly being too strong in other situations.
Plus we already got a fix to LD recently, lets take a few years to appreciate that first.

Every single invul prevents, death except to certain attacks, this does not, this makes it instantly worse than all of the others.

Like the other two already said, this would basically only be useful in dungeons and maybe alliance raids where everything hits like a wet noodle. When a tank buster hits you for 3x your health however it instantly becomes useless and actually worse than old Living Dead.


In a world without invulns where we have to deal with tank busters the way they were intended to be dealt with this would be a very strong ability, but right now that is not the case.

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Originally Posted by Absurdity

Like the other two already said, this would basically only be useful in dungeons and maybe alliance raids where everything hits like a wet noodle. When a tank buster hits you for 3x your health however it instantly becomes useless and actually worse than old Living Dead.


In a world without invulns where we have to deal with tank busters the way they were intended to be dealt with this would be a very strong ability, but right now that is not the case.

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Easy fix, give it an invuln period if the shield is used up entirely. Fits with the theme of risk/reward if you use it wrong you take damage, but if you use it right you become invincible for a time, potentially being the most powerful invuln.

That said, the new living dead is great, it may not fit DRKs kit, but let’s face it, DRKs kit is all over the place anyway. So unless DRK gets a full rework to it’s defensive kit to actually fit some kind of theme the current version of LD is fine with me.

The current Living Dead is fine though?

Are you just not able to land gcds?

I don't think Living Dead is fine the way it is. No ability should have a text box that long and require 3 different buffs.
Also, if you don't get 4 gcds in for whatever reason (stuns, boss untargetable, etc.) it will still kill you unlike any other tank invuln.

I wouldn't want to change it too much though. Maybe instead of the healing being on GCD, they have it work this way.

Living Dead - 10s If you fall below 1 HP grants Walking Dead

Walking Dead - 10s, Your HP cannot fall below 0. Grants healing over time effect to self. Cure Potency 25% max HP (or whatever number makes this heal 100% over 10s)

Living Dead is among the best Invulns as of today.

Second shortest cooldown and provides a heal equal to your max HP over 5 GCDs.
Holmgang remains the king as it synergize perfectly with WAR very short CDs and strong healing.

The only weakness with those are continuous damage and lack of immunity to damage down.
But it's niche and not worth the extra minutes on Bolide and Hallowed ground. HG being a 7 minutes cooldown and its terrible synergy with PLD's kit makes it the worst Invuln.
IMO Bolide and HG should at least see their cds reduced by 60s. Living Dead would still be stronger but Bolide could compete in some niches.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CKNovel

The only weakness with those are continuous damage and lack of immunity to damage down.

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This doesn't work anymore, SE thought ahead of this.

Busters striking twice in Abyssos will still deal 200-300k dots if it's taken by HG/Bolide, Damage Down still goes through. SEs raid developers are developing ways to avoid Invuln cheesing.

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Originally Posted by Undeadfire

This doesn't work anymore, SE thought ahead of this.

Busters striking twice in Abyssos will still deal 200-300k dots if it's taken by HG/Bolide, Damage Down still goes through. SEs raid developers are developing ways to avoid Invuln cheesing.

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Not sure how to feel about this. Sure invuln cheesing could be annoying but these changes defeat the entire purpose of a true invuln, might as well give every tank Holmgang then.

I already wasn't a fan of the trend they have followed since the last Eden raid tier where they made every mechanic give you damage down, probably because they didn't like how we cheesed their terrible ball mechanic in E6S.

I believe it's more of the case with Asphodelos, just Invuln and ignore the busters, P4S specially just Invuln them all and call it a day.

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Originally Posted by Undeadfire

I believe it's more of the case with Asphodelos, just Invuln and ignore the busters, P4S specially just Invuln them all and call it a day.

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I was mostly talking about negative effects from standing in mechanics. All the way up to E9S you would often get a vuln stack for standing in mechanics, which allowed things like full tank melee uptime in E6S by just getting hit by 1 or 2 mechanics (and some well-timed movement during Vacuum Slice for example) that were entirely survivable. But since the last Eden tier they made almost all of those mechanics give you a damage down instead, making any kind of optimization in exchange for taking slightly more damage impossible.


Maybe it is cheesy but I quite liked being able to resolve mechanics in a way that SE may not have intended, which in exchange allowed you to squeeze even the tiniest bit of extra damage out of your job.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Undeadfire

This doesn't work anymore, SE thought ahead of this.

Busters striking twice in Abyssos will still deal 200-300k dots if it's taken by HG/Bolide, Damage Down still goes through. SEs raid developers are developing ways to avoid Invuln cheesing.

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It's not for every busters thought.
P5S and P8SP1 are the only busters that applies the super dot.

You can still Invuln a double TB on P6S and P7S. I haven't checked if DD goes through invuln, I know it was possible on P2S but that's it.

Since most busters applies a meaty dot, Bolide has some extra values as you won't take dot/auto attack damage during the invuln duration but DRK self healing is kinda negated by it.
Hallowed Ground takes no damage at all but that's not worth the 7 minutes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CKNovel

You can still Invuln a double TB on P6S and P7S. I haven't checked if DD goes through invuln, I know it was possible on P2S but that's it.

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True, in worst cases buster dots do not calculate the Invulns damage taken, P6S will shove around a 26k dot soloing the shared, around there for P7S.

Can easily manipulate it in P6S. Invuln the 1st, take it back once bleed dropped off, tank swap as normal. The 3rd buster or further will be a shared. 1st is guaranteed to be Shared, 2nd always spread.