Wishing for Dark Knight

[Reynhart]

Hello everyone,

I've seen this topic spawn a lot, since Yoshi-P was "teasing" the DRK as an example for quite some time ago.

Here are my thought of what could be an interesting Dark Knight, evolving from Gladiator, since the closest thing we have from a DRK weapon is still the sword and shield.

A lot of people have said that it's impossible to turn a Tank into a DPS job, and I really think it's false. After all, Scholar proves you can turn a DPS into a competent healer.

I've imagined 5 skills that could, IMO, make DRK a competent DPS and a good asset to any party.

lvl30 : Souleater
Convert some of your max HP into damage bonus and suppress enmity bonuses.
Does not affect auto attack.
Effect ends upon reuse.
MP cost: Depending on level

This would be the basic stance of Dark Knight and what changes it from a tank to a DPS. I'd say 5% of max HP wouldn't be too powerful, but still risky when spamming combos.
The "suppress enmity bonuses" would allow the Dark Knight to use the Rage Of Halone combo to DPS without stealing hate all the time. Enmity from pure damage would still be applied normally.
As for the cost, something similat than Shield and Sword Oath for PLD

lvl35 : Drain
Inflicts magic damage and heals you for the same amount
Potency 100
Cast : 2,5s
MP cost: Depending on level

A litte spell to do some magic damage, but more importantly, something that helps you replenish some of your HP to keep souleater on. Usefull when the healer is busy healing someone else.
For the MP cost, I'd think something close to Raise. The high mp cost is to prevent Drain spamming, so the DRK will have to use Riot Blade several times if he want to cast Drain again.

lvl40: Vorpal Blade
Delivers an attack with a potency of 100
Combo : Riot Blade
Combo Potency : 250
Combo Bonus : Decreases target's magic resistance by 10%

The awaited 3rd part of the Riot Blade combo ! Less powerful than Rage Of Halone, but the added effect would be very interesting for casters. Well, maybe 10% is a bit much...

lvl45 : Dark Flame
Delivers an attack with a potency of 120 to all enemies in a cone before you.
TP Cost 130.

Think Owerpower without the enmity bonus. It'll give the DRK some AoE dmg potential

lvl50: Lifebreak
Delivers an attack to the target.
Potency varies according to the amount of HP lost.
Recast 180s

Themost powerful attack of the Dark Knight, but comes at a great price. I think something along 25% of HP lost converted into damage would'nt be too much while still useful

Basically, the whole idea behind this is "How can I manage my HP to deal a lot of damage ?" DRK would benefit from the high vitality of the Gladiator since its damage bonus would be based on max HP. And all the damage reduction skill from the GLA ? Still useful to lessen the HP lost from monsters since you'll already a lot of them from your skills.

That's a Dark Knight I'd love to see and I've thought far too much about it to not at least getting some feedback from other people. And, who knows, maybe the devs would see something interestin here

[gornotck]

Why not... start a new class? Call it Ravager, make it two-hand swords, and go from there?

[GoodApolloIV]

I think it's going to come off of marauder, sub lancer or BLM.
Wrath stacks will be changed to "Soul-Eater" stacks. Every five stacks you can expend all five stacks for a health drain and buffs/weaponskills.

[Caselia]

I believe Dark Knight would branch from a new class that uses a Greatsword or Scythe or go back to the traditional sword and branch from Gladiator; and Dark Knight would be a tank not dps.

[Bloodclaw]

Yeah. I just hope DRK is going to be a DPS job. If not, then we are looking at another Summoner incident. A class that is functional, but does not match the flavor it is supposed to have.

I already have this on-going thread here: Dark Knight

[Delsus]

I believe Dark Knight would branch from a new class that uses a Greatsword or Scythe or go back to the traditional sword and branch from Gladiator; and Dark Knight would be a tank not dps.

I couldn't see DRK being a tank, as traditionally is shows no tank attributes, they normally have low native DEF, but they could add some very interesting mechanics to the job as a dps.

Also if they added the job as a tank, then say goodbye to the traditional effects of Souleater.

[Bloodclaw]

Why not... start a new class? Call it Ravager, make it two-hand swords, and go from there?

Yoshi P said he wanted to make playing a Dark Knight and a Paladin at the same time impossible. Now he probably wont do that, but he will probably make it so that you can't play both well. The one way to do that is make them based on the same class. So you will have 1 based on Vitality with Dark Knight based on strength.

That is just my logical conclusion.

[Mordermi]

I think it's going to come off of marauder, sub lancer or BLM.
Wrath stacks will be changed to "Soul-Eater" stacks. Every five stacks you can expend all five stacks for a health drain and buffs/weaponskills.

I think it makes a lot more sense for berserker to come from marauder. Berserker used axes in the past, MRD has a berserk ability, and the wrath stacks would make sense for a berserker.

[Reynhart]

Why not... start a new class? Call it Ravager, make it two-hand swords, and go from there?

Because only one class offers two jobs. We can explore a lot of new mechanics by doing the same to all the existing classes before creating new ones, unless they are really different.
Dark Knight was frequently a Sword/Shield job, I don't think it's necessary to create a class for it.

I believe Dark Knight would branch from a new class that uses a Greatsword or Scythe or go back to the traditional sword and branch from Gladiator; and Dark Knight would be a tank not dps.

I think it's not very useful to give GLA a second tank job. If you wanna tank with a sword and shield, just go for PLD.
A third tank would be far more interesting coming from a class that isn't a tank.

And if something is pretty much standard in the whole FF history, it's that Dark Knight is a damage dealer, whatever weapon you give to him.

Yoshi P said he wanted to make playing a Dark Knight and a Paladin at the same time impossible.

Actually, I'd love to see that, cause I think this game really lacks important choices when building your character. It would be interesting, lorewise, that you have to reject your Paladin duty to be a Dark Knight.
Problem is, all the time spent collecting stuff for your PLD would be for naught, and the backlash would be terrible.

[Caselia]

Because only one class offers two jobs. We can explore a lot of new mechanics by doing the same to all the existing class before creating new ones, unless they are really different. Dark Knight was frequently a Sword/Shield job, I don't think it's necessary to create a class for it.


I think it's not very useful to give it a second tank job. If you wanna tank with a sword and shield, just go for PLD.
A third tank would be far more interesting coming from a class that isn't a tank.

And of something is pretty much standard in the whole FF history, it's that Dark Knight is a damage dealer, whatever weapon you give to him.

Tradition died when Yoshida gave Bard a bow and it came from Archer. I can see Dark Knight being a tank or hybrid of tank/dps. Seems pointless to me to make it pure dps, as we can see from the recent Arcanist Yoshida is aiming to make new classes/jobs hybrid.