The Case for Early Oblation

Long time no see fellow DRK enjoyers! Feels good to be back in Eorzea. Endwalker was loads of fun, and the job feels better than ever to play!
Moving Stalwart Soul and Dark Missionary to earlier levels has been nothing short of a godsend for the everyday gameplay of the job,
and with 7.3 on the horizon, I was wondering if anyone else shares my sentiments regarding Oblation...

There is absolutely NO question that "bubbling" with The Blackest Night is the core of the job's defencive kit,
and when we asked for an early weaker TBN we were instead given Oblation.
As it stands, the skill is an EXTREMELY flexible alternative mitigation tool!
However... the actual shield's buff is very weak, and given to the player at WAY too high of a level to make any impact.

I actually believe this skill has AMAZING potential if it had 2 simple changes made to it:
move Oblation to level 35 with 2 charges (will help DRK protect their teammates at lower levels)
give it a "Vigilant" effect (will help with sustain and giving teammates support)

These simple changes serve to fix DRK's weaker sustain in higher level content and to allow lower level DRK players to bubble their teammates, an important aspect of the job's core gameplay.
If the dev team truly wishes to make future content harder, than we should expect future DRK players to become accustomed to bubbling party members much sooner!

I know the current DRK kit is nowhere near what it once was, and that our blood/mana economy has problems,
but if there's one straightforward change I would like to see made, it would be an Early Oblation.

Wouldnt it make more sense to give it a weaker version of TBN at the same level WAR and PLD get their short cooldowns? They could even reuse the old animation of shadowskin to save assets.

With the changes to AD, DRK is in a much better shape. However the job still struggles more than any other tank in casual content prior to level 70

I personally feel like DRK has enough mitigation and sustain, but looks bad because the other tanks have much more mitigation/sustain than the need and also tools that are more obvious about how to use.

Before getting TBN, we can use Reprisal, Dark Mind, and Abyssal Drain during every dungeon pull. Shadow Wall and Arm’s Length can be used on every other pull. Rampart and Dark Missionary can be used every other pull, but if the pulls are taking longer then they can be used at the start of one pull and the later on the next one as they come back up. If there’s no WHM then we can make use of Low Blow once or twice per pull. Then after we get TBN it can get pressed 2-3 times per pull.

But in comparison the other tanks already have a short cooldown mitigation/heal (Rampart, Raw Intuition, Heart of Stone) and it’s more obvious that these can be used every pull. And the other heals they have (Equilibrium, Aurora, Clemency) aren’t attacks so people are more likely to actually use them for healing. But honestly I don’t feel like they even need Rampart/Raw/HoS for dungeons, if I use my other buttons properly and the healer is awake then I imagine it would be ok without them because DRK feels fine to me when it doesn’t have a short cooldown mit yet.

I’m also unsure about why more sustain is needed at higher level casual content, as I’m finding that many times Shadow Vigil’s heal doesn’t even happen in dungeons, especially if I press TBN a lot. We’ve also recently gotten Dark Mind and Dark Missionary able to mitigate physical damage as well.

But the only casual content I do is msq, duty roulette, and society dailies so maybe other content has more concerns.

I suppose I should've been more specific.
The biggest reason I want Oblation to be moved/buffed is for leveling content reasons.
I think these changes will allow DRKs to help both themselves and their teammates at lower levels, and having a Vigilant effect would also help in that regard at later levels.
Giving a teammate a bubble shield plays into the current DRK fantasy, and it feels good to give a teammate a support buff in case they need it. the whole reason I play tanks is to support my friends!
Having ZERO team utility until lv 70 felt so bad during ShB, and the Dark Missionary change helped a lot in letting us feel like a proper tank (bless Early Stalwart too).
I simply wish for Oblation to be given the chance to prove itself as a substitute for TBN in casual content (the majority of what players experience anyway)

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Originally Posted by Voryn

I personally feel like DRK has enough mitigation and sustain, but looks bad because the other tanks have much more mitigation/sustain than the need and also tools that are more obvious about how to use.

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Yeah. Like healers not using 90% of their kit because so little damage comes in and hence needs so little healing, tanks only really need a small portion of their sustain kit because of the low incoming damage outside of specific mechanics that deal a "burst" of damage. This also extends into how TBN, in-theory the strongest short-CD skill in raids, actually comes out quite weak because you cannot reliably use it pre-emptively or reactively except in those specific situations. All 3 other tanks have secondary mechanics on their short-CD skills that give a benefit even outside of the main damage avoidance (though Pally is quite weak, granted), but if we just had a lot more damage coming in this would just not be a problem.

I'm gonna be honest i don't really like oblation as a ability its very bland wish it did something more or different.

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Originally Posted by Rithy255

I'm gonna be honest i don't really like oblation as a ability its very bland wish it did something more or different.

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Yeah it is. It should not exist, and instead either:

* TBN causes a 10% DR effect for a few seconds after ending (no matter how).
* Dark Mind gets shorter CD, a second charge, and can be used on others.

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Originally Posted by Carighan

Yeah it is. It should not exist, and instead either:

* TBN causes a 10% DR effect for a few seconds after ending (no matter how).
* Dark Mind gets shorter CD, a second charge, and can be used on others.

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Probably the latter.
You rarely have a tank buster nowadays that is multi-hit but doesn't come with a vuln that forces a tank swap anyway, and auto attacks are basically a joke, so getting mitigation after TBN pops would be mostly useless.

But I'm not sure Dark Mind would even need a 2nd charge or be usable on allies. If you raised the physical mitigation on Dark Mind to 20% as well it would already be incredible with it's 60 second cooldown.
It would also probably free up TBN to be mostly used on allies.

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Originally Posted by Derio

Wouldnt it make more sense to give it a weaker version of TBN at the same level WAR and PLD get their short cooldowns? They could even reuse the old animation of shadowskin to save assets.

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I've always said that Shadowskin -> TBN should be done via the criminally underused Traits system, but I would also argue for KEEPING Oblation and buffing it.

% damage reduction AND no mana (read DPS) cost are essentially the other half of TBN's extra HP and DPS cost
with Oblation receiving the right buffs, I know it can bring strong enough party utility to make up for the fact that TBN will NEVER get changed

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Originally Posted by Voryn

I’m also unsure about why more sustain is needed at higher level casual content, as I’m finding that many times Shadow Vigil’s heal doesn’t even happen in dungeons, especially if I press TBN a lot. We’ve also recently gotten Dark Mind and Dark Missionary able to mitigate physical damage as well.

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The primary reason that I want a Vigilant effect is for buffing Oblation's flexibility as a defencive tool.
I quite like that you can use Oblation for personal sustain, for your friend who messes up the mechanics, or for the party member that gets glomped by adds.
protecting our team with early Dark Missionary feels good, and that's why I want an early Oblation.
Adding a Vigilant effect on top just feels right. DRK has always used Sigils like Sole Survivor, and I would LOVE to see that aspect of the "delayed magical sigil" expressed more in our gameplay kits!

I haven't really struggled with anything since 7.1's buffs to DRKs overall kit and Dark Mind finally becoming a real button in all content.

If anything I'd say TBN is the thing that should get the low level version, something on par with Sheltron, Raw Intuition and Heart of Stone

thanks for the feedback guys! I've been trying to think of a quick solution to the otherwise relatively unmentioned problem of DRKs leveling kit in comparison to the other tanks, and moving Oblation plus giving it a healing effect feels like the fastest way to fix said problem with few resources. Going by the fact that the devs said there will be big changes in 8.0, we can at least hope that they will bring back Shadowskin as a low lvl TBN and other older abilities too.

They could go the sole survivor route which already exists in PVP. Just reintroduce the PVE version but improved from its HW version. That would help prior to lvl 70 depending on the cooldown.