The Point of DRKness

[Nyghtmarerobu]

Thing is content is naturally more physical heavy than magical.

Just abut every major tank buster in the game uses a mixed type of dmg mod, wheres its both phys and magic, save for the purely magical ones in some fights that you listed. Personally I see both tanks being just fine. Obviously certain classes excel at certain fights, but really, it comes down to team comp. Its silly to have a drk and a mnk in the same party, when you can change your mnk to a nin or change your drk to a pld.

[MiniPrinny]

Which honestly has little to do with the "Abyss" and was full "bodyguard duty" and discover "love and friendship" with "Moogles".

30-50 arc was amazing. And then they backpedaled massively 50-60.

Heh, heh, right? 30-50: "The truly strong stand alone. The weak masses cry for succor, and whether or not we choose to assist them depends on how much we can tolerate their desperate clinging. We'll stay on the side of the angels for now, but there's no guarantees for tomorrow. Now lets go kill something to shut these idiots up."

50-60: "This Loli has taught me the power of friendship and love. Let's go play with some moogles! Awwwwww."

And yet, at the end, and actually throughout, the first half of the Dark Knight storyline, we are actively fighting that ideal. Fray gets frustrated with us because we refuse to give into that ideal, Fray takes action because Fray sees us as weak for choosing to, despite Fray's best intentions, selfless. In the end, we remain merciful, we remain strong, we remain collected and calm, even in our darkest moments.

Because, when it comes down to it, a Dark Knight is simply a knight, a Paladin, who has chosen to sully their hands to uphold what they believe in. The Warrior of Light as a Dark Knight isn't so different, and Dark Knights as a whole are defined as having a strong moral code as well as the willpower to uphold that code at any cost, even their standing in society.

As for Sidurgu and the Abyss, in Sidurgu's case, the story stops being about us. Sidurgu is the one who needs to learn the lesson that we learned in the 30-50 storyline, the lesson being that regardless of how we feel, regardless of what we think, society needs us to be strong. At the start of the 50-60 storyline, Sidurgu is driven by hatred and revenge, we spend that questline not learning things ourselves, but helping him accept what has happened and move on. That's why in the end he shows mercy, and then regret at the actions he was given permission to do. Sidurgu isn't proud of slaying that woman like he would have been when we first met him, he is devastated by it.

And the Abyss, the Abyss is simply where we draw our powers from. Sidurgu and Fray both explain that Dark Knights draw power from the Abyss and that our emotions are the conduit. What the moogles teach us is that it isn't just our negative emotions that can act as a conduit, but our positive ones as well, chief among them being love, be it for country, friends, family, or just a single, special person. And that, as the moogles explained, a Dark Knight who fights for love is unstoppable. The quest afterwards, you fight off a small garrison's worth of knights. I'm not sure if you kept count, but you fight over thirty knights in the level 60 quest. And if we consider Sidurgu as taking on at least half, that's at least fifteen knights for the both of you. Sidurgu proves his love for Rielle as an adoptive father in that moment, while you, as usual for the Warrior of Light, prove your love for the whole realm once again. And it's that same affection that drives you to become such an overwhelming force in that moment.

[MagiusNecros]

Eh as a Dark Knight I'd rather learn more of the Abyss then be go on on a mini crusade of protecting useless thing with Sidurgu. And in my headcanon the WoL has little love for Eorzea. Whose denizens have proven themselves to be quite pathetic on multiple accounts.

[lawlHT]

Eh as a Dark Knight I'd rather learn more of the Abyss then be go on on a mini crusade of protecting useless thing with Sidurgu. And in my headcanon the WoL has little love for Eorzea. Whose denizens have proven themselves to be quite pathetic on multiple accounts.

Careful there. I just cut myself on how edgy this post is

[Galgarion]

Careful there. I just cut myself on how edgy this post is

My favorite character in all of Final Fantasy full stop, is Gaffgarion from FFT. He's the ideal Dark Knight for me, not Cecil. A professional, somewhat greedy fighter who doesn't blanch at the hard decisions. Not an edgelord, just a guy who knows he's a bastard and doesn't care.

[MagiusNecros]

My favorite character in all of Final Fantasy full stop, is Gaffgarion from FFT. He's the ideal Dark Knight for me, not Cecil. A professional, somewhat greedy fighter who doesn't blanch at the hard decisions. Not an edgelord, just a guy who knows he's a bastard and doesn't care.

A true Dark Knight. Fights for coin and for himself above all. Laws mean nothing. Fights for his ideals alone. In XIV all we amount to is killing Corrupt Templars who believe in a false faith all to protect a little Ishgardian female. Which IMO is a Paladin's job. Not a Dark Knight's. Now 30-50 was a really good opener for the Dark Knight and I really enjoyed it. It's just a disappointment that they went from that...to what we got in 50-60. The Dark Knight has always had a tragic story, the ending never a good one and they generally remain alone. And often die that way.

[Lyth]

PLD was about being a bodyguard for a corrupt institution (run by lalafells) designed to oppress the people. DRK is about liberating yourself from society's shackles and standing up for the weak and defenseless. It's about channelling your anger against injustice to protect your loved ones, but not giving into it. The roles are switched from FFVI.

The greatsword is the weapon of the protagonist. Our endings are generally good ones. And when we die... it is generally... surrounded by moogles?

[Martin_Arcainess]

A true Dark Knight. Fights for coin and for himself above all. Laws mean nothing. Fights for his ideals alone. In XIV all we amount to is killing Corrupt Templars who believe in a false faith all to protect a little Ishgardian female. Which IMO is a Paladin's job. Not a Dark Knight's. Now 30-50 was a really good opener for the Dark Knight and I really enjoyed it. It's just a disappointment that they went from that...to what we got in 50-60. The Dark Knight has always had a tragic story, the ending never a good one and they generally remain alone. And often die that way.

That is more your idea of a Dark knight but doesn't mean all Dark Knights should follow that. Depends on how base you want to be, base of all bases a Dark Knight is someone who uses the Power of Darkness and wields a great sword but what he dose with that is more down to the person himself. Is he Greedy, defending the weak, do they choose to abide by there own code? that more a personnel thing rather then what the job is.

It's like thinking all PLDs should uphold the law and all that but I can safely say I've met some dodgy PLD's in my time.

[Cabalabob]

I remember in ffxi when my friend unlocked DRK his first thing he said to me was "I hate that I always have to do the good thing, why is there no moral choice system?". But being a dark knight doesn't make you evil. If anything in ffxiv the story shows that it's about suppressing your evil desires and bringing them under your control to harness as power.

That said I do agree the 30-50 story was amazing while the 50-60 story felt very cliche.

Only thing that baffles me is why they call it Dark Knight instead of Blackguard. The class just feels like a Dark version of Paladin that just specializes in MP management and mitigating magical damage as it's main gimmick.

I think this is intentional design, since PLD embodies light and is a physical heavy tank they wanted DRK, as the embodiment of darkness, to be like the flip side of the coin and be a magical heavy tank. When they first discussed DRK they were actually originally going to make great swords a 2 handed gladiators arm and have it branch off of gladiator, so if you think DRK and PLD are similar now... Imagine that!

[Draciella]

In the end, War/War will probably remain the best tanking duo. And as its the only tank class that scales with gear, it will only get better the more "on par" your gear is to content. If your concerned about slow LB, have a War open with holmgang and let them drop. The healers contribution to the LB is highest after healing a tank from critically low hp.