DRK being compared to past FF games.

[Mirron]

I point at Dimensions as a counter example. Pretty recent, and it has Provoke. It's also a very classic FF feeling. Yes, it has Darkness/Soul Eater (multiple levels of it in fact), but it still feels tanky. Just the way it feels is a tank that draws enmity by doing lots of damage.

And I honestly feel like the Darkness thing gets focused on too much. It may be the iconic ability of them, but it's not the only thing they do, and it's too risky to really use it consistently. If you have another tank Dark Knight is fine just laying on the damage, but when it's just the Dark Knight and a bunch of mages, it still works to keep them safe, like Cecil in IV.

[Grey_Cain]

Personally, I'm betting that DRK in XIV will have a constant Drain Life/higher enmity buff (DRK version of Shield Oath), and a second buff that reduces its max HP for increased damage (DRK version of Sword Oath). Anything that cuts a chunk of its life for a high-damage attack is probably going to be a situational CD ability, rather than a GCD/combo attack that you're expected to use all the time.

And I honestly feel like the Darkness thing gets focused on too much. It may be the iconic ability of them, but it's not the only thing they do, and it's too risky to really use it consistently. If you have another tank Dark Knight is fine just laying on the damage, but when it's just the Dark Knight and a bunch of mages, it still works to keep them safe, like Cecil in IV.

Darkness isn't even that risky as in most games it only takes away 25-30% of your life and you're expected to have some way of generating consistent mass heals to recover it all every single round along with enough defenses to last through a few hits before those heals come along. Bravely Default has had the riskiest abilities by far with one Rage ability that uses the single-target 20% life loss attack 5 times in a row or until you're down to 1 HP, or just braving the 30% life loss for group-wide attack 3-4 times, but even that could be circumvented just by having the sword magic Drain on to recover all the damage as it's dealt.