Dark Arts Adjustment

[Shurrikhan]

Any thoughts on this? How do think this will effect Drk's playstyle? Do you think this means we'll be seeing additional changes to Drk's kit (especially in regards to Mp replenishment), or will we have to simply exercise more restraint when using DA?

I imagine it'd make what few possible mess-ups we could make even more difficult to make or negligible when made. For those who weren't accidentally delaying their DA-CS by accidentally popping DA before a consumer (frequently DP), it just means we can use DA on every AD with a faint delay rather than every other, when being BP mana gluttons with relatively little outside healing received. In either case, I doubt I'd care or really notice.

To be honest, I don't see how its likely to help with Feast either. Even with its oGCDs, DRK isn't much of a killer. And even when attempting to burn someone down, the only offensive option worth using is DA-CS and DA-SE, which takes 3 GCDs to re-prep anyways. A mana cost reduction in PVP would have gone a lot further to help DRK's situation.

Honestly, even in PvE I think DRK could do with a slight reduction to certain mana costs, particularly Grit and Dark Arts. The latter is for obvious reasons; if we're spending a GCD on it, it shouldn't be killing a fifth of our pool, most of our gains from a Blood Weapon swap, just to return to tank stance. The second is to devalue Syphon Strike slightly and increase potential burst. My only hopes for recast times are that both Dark Arts and Darkside are changed to scale with one's GCD (a hope I similarly have for Meditation, Geirskogul, Gauss Barrel, Wanderer's Minuet, Cleric Stance, Transpose, Fester/Painflare/Bane, and others that could otherwise slightly bottleneck rotations or devalue attack rate).

[Februs]

To be honest, I don't see how its likely to help with Feast either. Even with its oGCDs, DRK isn't much of a killer. And even when attempting to burn someone down, the only offensive option worth using is DA-CS and DA-SE, which takes 3 GCDs to re-prep anyways. A mana cost reduction in PVP would have gone a lot further to help DRK's situation.

This wasn't the only change made to Dark Knight that Yoshi announced. The full list for Drk is as such:

Dark Knight

We received a great deal of feedback from players who felt that dark knight was lacking in both offensive and defensive capabilities when compared to paladin and warrior, and to address these concerns we will be making the following changes.

• Dark Arts
  Recast Time: 5s → 3s (PvP and PvE)
  
  
• Tar Pit
  Potency: 200 → 250 (Enhanced Tar Pit II: 240 → 300)
  Recast Time: 150s → 120s (Enhanced Tar Pit: 120s → 90s)
  HP Absorption: 20% → 150% (Enhanced Tar Pit III: 40% → 200%)
  
  
• Carnal Chill
  Recast Time: 120s → 90s (Enhanced Carnal Chill: 90s → 60s)
  Damage Penalty: 10% → 40% (Enhanced Carnal Chill III: 20% → 60%)
  Duration: 20s → 6s

Tar Pit should now function as a self-preservation technique, and Carnal Chill as a way to quickly lower the damage dealing capabilities of opponents. Also, while Carnal Chill’s duration has been shortened, recast times for these abilities have been reduced, which should enable players to employ them more effectively. These changes are intended to make dark knight function as a tank that can protect himself and his allies through debuffs and health absorption.

That's also just a drop in the bucket to the mass amounts of other changes being implemented. You can read the rest here, if you're interested.

Drk was made far more viable with several of these additions. Further, in PvP, burst potential is everything. With a shorter Dark Arts cast timer it is possible for Drk to extend their total burst for a longer duration with a higher potency at the expense of going completely broke on Mp. That sounds utterly ludicrous from PvE standpoint, of course, but in PvP it's a viable option and tactic when that extra bit of dps can make all the difference. It kind of puts Drk's in the same position as Pld, in that they'll have to make a conscious decision as to if the burst is worth the sacrifice. Another thing to remember is that Darkside already has a dramatically reduced mana drain effect in PvP settings (effect is reduced by 1/3 in PvP), so their Mp is already much more sustainable in the arena. I totally understood where these decisions came from for PvP ... It was the PvE part that seems a bit odd to me.

From what I can tell, it really does seem more like a QoL adjustment than anything else. I mean, IF SE implemented a stronger mana regen, or just flat out reduced the cost of Grit and Dark Arts, then I could kind of see this making a difference to our overall dps, but without those additional changes it just seems more like an ease of use kind of thing. That said, I really don't know if any additional changes are coming to Drk in that patch. The post was PvP specific. No further job adjustments were detailed outside of PvP announcements. I really don't think they're changing anything else (I figure they would have said something by now if they were), but that's not to say they never will (a man can hope).

[Shurrikhan]

That's also just a drop in the bucket to the mass amounts of other changes being implemented. You can read the rest here, if you're interested.

Oh wow, that's... some serious buffing. I definitely prefer the shorter, snappier Carnal Chill for one. For some reason I thought people were still talking about the last set of DRK PvP buffs; I missed this set completely. Agreed that the DA change component is purely QoL. It's nice that it'll no longer ever stick out past the 2nd GCD, even if that change isn't exactly significant either.

I really don't think they're changing anything else (I figure they would have said something by now if they were), but that's not to say they never will (a man can hope).

I'll just stand by my hopes for a significant Grit mana cost reduction and a slightly Dark Arts cost reduction. That and maybe some small buff to DD, DM, and SS (preferably in a way that eases access to otherwise MT-locked skills from OT position or from afar, perhaps with an ally-targetable support element).

Side-note though: That Aetherflow buff seems overkill, just like the SMN overall damage nerf before (as deserved as the burst nerf may have been when combined with their very nice general output). Would really rather it be reduced to 1 stack lost per hit, but One-Ilm Punch able to strip two debuffs on crit, making it a bit more useful on average, even if no longer THE arcanist hard-counter. If ammo is currently removable, then it should get the same treatment.

[Februs]

Oh wow, that's... some serious buffing. I definitely prefer the shorter, snappier Carnal Chill for one. For some reason I thought people were still talking about the last set of DRK PvP buffs; I missed this set completely. Agreed that the DA change component is purely QoL. It's nice that it'll no longer ever stick out past the 2nd GCD, even if that change isn't exactly significant either.

I'm not surprised you missed it. It was only posted yesterday morning. I caught it because I frequent the PvP forums. I actually made that thread, so I feel like I should check up on it from time to time, especially now that Feast is out. Back in the day, SE ignored PvP so hard that it might as well not have existed, but since Feast's release they've (seemingly) taken a much stronger interest in listening to the PvP community and acting on the feedback we've been giving them. It's not often that I see a PvE related change, though; so, I figured that I should share it here for the sake of awareness.

Side-note though: That Aetherflow buff seems overkill, just like the SMN overall damage nerf before (as deserved as the burst nerf may have been when combined with their very nice general output). Would really rather it be reduced to 1 stack lost per hit, but One-Ilm Punch able to strip two debuffs on crit, making it a bit more useful on average, even if no longer THE arcanist hard-counter. If ammo is currently removable, then it should get the same treatment.

I'm not 100% positive about this, since I don't play Sch or Mnk, but I think the primary issue with Aetherflow was that the CD on One-Ilm Punch is too fast for a Sch's to counter, should the Mnk know what they're doing. The timing ensures that a Mnk can easily dis-spell a Sch's aetherflow stacks and have a second One-Ilm punch at the ready as soon as that the Sch builds those stacks back up. In casual 8 vs 8, this is not such a big problem. There's another healer, and the fights are so cluttered that tactics tend to go right out the window. In ranked solo-queue and 4 vs 4, however, it made sch almost unplayable.

Before the changes to the casting interruption threshold, seeing a Sch in your team was almost synonymous with an automatic loss. After they changed the interruption threshold Sch became viable again, but they can still be decimated by an experienced Mnk. They also lack the CC utility to defend themselves against such an attack, unlike Whm's or Astro's who can paper tank or halt enemy advances (hence the nerfs to sleep's duration). A coordinated team can effectively neutralize and eliminate a Sch in under a minute flat. I've actually been in a match recently where I saw it first hand. We had an experienced Mnk in the party who pretty much solo'd the Sch the entire time while the rest of us mopped up the dps. Between that and me throwing up a stun on their pet, the Sch was next to helpless to defend themselves, and their team hardly got any heals at all. It was one of the fastest fights I've ever been in, including the original WD, and it kinda felt dirty ... But a win's a win, right?