Confused about DRK complaints

[Lorielle]

Stuff that made no sense and was not relevant to previous posts.

You said bad Dark Knights drop darkside, and then you go out the way to support the MP Recovery as a viable option? You can't even use Blood Weapon without dropping Grit. So what the heck are you talking about? What are you doing exactly?

[Ladon]

Yeah...dropping Darkside ever is a terrible plan. It's a 100 DPS loss every second it is down and that's not including the loss of dark arts.

And dropping Grit just to use Blood Weapon is such a bad idea. You'll get about 2000 mana out of its duration only to have to spend another 1300 to put Grit back up.

I don't think some people really have an understanding of the net gains we are talking here with some of these suggestions.

[Kiteless]

End of the day, when you get low, the only viable option is to spam Syphon Strike->Delirium until Blood Price comes off of cooldown or you get back to appreciable levels. Cycling Grit/Blood Weapon gives dubious returns, and Carve and Spit's gains outside of darkside are an awful waste. If your MP gets low, you just have to live with it.

[bettomendes]

Anybody know if they fixed Darkside mp drain bug? Fights like A2 can be problematic if your mp run dry.

...it does seem to feel off for some reason I just can't figure out why...

Me neither. I don't agree with people saying DRKs are shit, but don't agree either with those saying that it's fine. If you can't do what other tanks can without problem, there's something wrong and it's not the healer.

[Bustaperizm]

I don't agree with people saying DRKs are shit, but don't agree either with those saying that it's fine. If you can't do what other tanks can without problem, there's something wrong and it's not the healer.

You're going to have to be specific with "what other tanks can without problem". If it's clear content then there isn't an issue. I've seen a DRK solo tank A2 and Ravex. What I don't want for final fantasy is every class just being a rework or copy/paste of the other classes. And it seems that's what folks are crying for. I don't want my version of shieldtron or innerbeast. I want my own unique thing. (which i feel DRK doesn't have) Maybe that's the true issue people are having.

A couple weeks of play isn't enough to make any sweeping changes to the class. That's what their internal testing was for. And be realistic. These forums hardly reflect the consensus of all the DRKs.

[bettomendes]

You're going to have to be specific with "what other tanks can without problem".

You can see my previous post about that, page 4.

[Aeliott]

Am I playing the same job here? :S I mean, talking MP / threat management.

Even if I don't DA Power Slash I can hold hate for days afterwards. It'll get to like a minute later and I'll think "oh, hm, haven't used an enmity move in a while". These occasions are when the other tank is busy with something else, and if they're having a lot of OT uptime I'll use PS more, but all the same DRK seems to have the most "inate-hate". For single target I open with DA -> Unmend -> Hard Slash -> C&S (DA boost) -> Spinning Slash -> Salted Earth -> Power Slash -> Low Blow / Reprisal -> Scourge. Big initial spike of hate thanks to boosted C&S. Speaking of which, they desperately need to buff the non-DA version.

From there MP isn't that bad...most of the time using DA with Souleater, my go-to combo if I can afford the MP, if not Delirium (even if you have a MNK or the enemy doesn't use magic it's a more damaging combo than PS and unbuffed Souleater). Almost never use unbuffed Souleater, doesn't seem as worth it. Usually I'll try and buff C&S too as its MP return is pathetic - weaving it into a Delirium / Power combo. Sometimes single targets can be a pain as Blood Price isn't as effective (especially if they use cast bars a lot) but as long as you save enough MP for one emergency move (DA+DD/DM? AD?) I don't feel that crippled. If it really gets that bad which it rarely does, I'll just disable Darkside for a short while.

Some skills do need an MP rethink (passenger, returns on C&S), but I really don't see how management is as horrific as some are making it sound, at all.

Also, I realised earlier I can tank the entirety of Alex-1 without Grit on, and not take any more severe damage at all. Just use a CD if you get prey and it's easy. Granted this isn't the best example as the bosses spend a lot of time turning around projecting aoes and such, nor do they have big tank hits, but I wonder how many other fights we could get away with it on.

[Aerya]

Anybody know if they fixed Darkside mp drain bug? Fights like A2 can be problematic if your mp run dry.

The devs said on the french forum that they are working on it, but it is "only a MP display bug. Rest assured, the MP consumption is calculated correctly." So the bug is only "a feeling that more MP are consumed when you receive heals or DoT".

It won't affect the mp drain apparently.

[Reynhart]

Anyone have experience with big pulls like these as a Dark Knight? Am I missing something, it's a balance problem or it's just how the job is supposed to be?

I think I know where the confusion comes from.
WAR and PLD were designed with a lvl 50 cap, so, they basically have all the tools they need at that level. DRK is designed for lvl60 content.
For example, if your party was equally overgeard for Neverreap, you could have pulled every mob at each step and stayed at almost full HP with some several ark Arts + Abyssal Drain while they kill everything.

So, yes, maybe it's not as effective to speedrun lvl50 content as DRK since they're "incomplete", but I don't think it really matters.

The devs said on the french forum that they are working on it, but it is "only a MP display bug. Rest assured, the MP consumption is calculated correctly."

Well, I'm pretty sure that when my MP gauge "displays" 0, Darkside fall off for real

[Bustaperizm]

You said bad Dark Knights drop darkside, and then you go out the way to support the MP Recovery as a viable option? You can't even use Blood Weapon without dropping Grit. So what the heck are you talking about? What are you doing exactly?

Its easy to be confused when youre not interested in the discussion. I was weighing dropping darkside against dropping grit. If youre not going to try and understand another person. Then forums aren't your thing.