3.3 Dark Knight PvP

[Nalien]

Managing mp...? What are you power slashing? MP recovery is not even the problem with DRK.

No, I'm using Dark Arts, you know, that thing that costs ~1/4 of my total MP? Blood Weapon will maybe amount to a free Dark Arts, but my burst will still burn through half my MP.

I don't actually have great difficulty with my MP, but watching other Dark Knights I can tell they do... That's my point, MP management is a factor for Dark Knights. Blood Price is essentially worthless, and Blood Weapon is one Fluid Aura/Sleep/good kiting/etc. away from joining it. MP recovery in PvP is less effective than PvE, meanwhile Dark Arts is more important... Unless SE addresses that, most Dark Knights are still going to suck...

That's just burst too, if I really want to take advantage of defensive cooldowns, I'll ideally want to toss up Grit (1326MP). A Dark Arts Dark Dance Dark Arts Dark Passenger combo has always served me well if I get focused, but that's ~4,4k MP of my ~6,6k MP pool... With the lovely added effect of rendering Blood Price less effective, despite the fact that I'm actually being focused enough to warrant it and would just have spent enough MP to definitely want it... Meanwhile Grit renders Blood Weapon unusable, thus essentially damning Dark Knights MP, while Warrior can effectively just switch between Deliverance and Defiance with no real cost... Plus, if a Warrior is being focused, they not only have more HP, they essentially have four heals at their disposal (Second Wind, Equilibrium, Thrill of Battle, Thrill of War), while the only self heal Dark Knight has worth considering is oddly Tar Pit, the drain on Abyssal Drain and Grit Souleater simply aren't designed with PvP in mind. They're designed for large AoEs of trash and long drawn out fights respectively, not PvP bursts...

More steps to burst? OH you mean two GCDs to build soul eater while a warrior has to build stacks? lol.

Let me correct myself, more steps during its burst... With Infuriate, at least... Then Warrior essentially just becomes Fell Cleave > Infuriate > Fell Cleave. There's more to Warriors buildup, but I'd also say Abandon is more plentiful than MP and less in demand... Those stacks are essentially just for Fell Cleave, MP/Dark Arts is for more than just burst...

The problem is that it sits in a weird place between PLD utility and WAR damage.

Dark Knight sits between Paladin and Warrior in terms of utility and damage? I'm sorry, what?!

How does Dark Knight have more utility than Warrior? Storm's Eye, Storm's Path, Thrill of War, Brutal Swing, Mythril Tempest and Holmgang... Possibly Mantra as well unless you're using Provoke in PvP for some reason... I suppose we can drop Strom's Eye from that list, given the healing debuff is gone and it only really serves the Warrior at this point...

On paper, Dark Knight has Low Blow, Reprisal, Dark Arts Dark Passenger (Blind), Tar Pit (Heavy), Carnal Chill (-60% damage), Delirium, and now Sole Survivor. In reality, Delirium (and Rage of Halone for Paladin, although that'll always be good to drop on the opposing tank) is rendered moot depending on your opponents, Storm's Path is not. Reprisal rarely triggers at all, and the duration to use it is short enough that even if it does trigger (usually due to a Bard/Machinist) it can be entirely wasted... Blind is mostly meh, and that's before we consider the MP cost involved (~2,6k), plus it can actually be dodged... Heavy is likewise fairly lackluster, Tar Pits main utility is burst and/or healing... Carnal Chill and Sole Survivor are the only things with any real merit to them, but like I said, Carnal Chill requires a lot of skill to be used effectively and even then it can just be Purified... Arguably the same is true for Holmgang, but I'd like to see someone Purify Thrill of War...

If anything, Dark Knight sits between Paladin and Warrior in terms of mitigation and damage, though a fat lot of good that does in PvP... Even then, we shouldn't ignore Warriors self healing capabilities if we're making that comparison... Nor the potential difficulty Dark Knight can have with Grit...

a magic {Testudo} equivalen

I was thinking they could adjust Dark Mind to effectively do this, but meh... That still puts Dark Knight in a shitty place due to how SE balanced parties and roles... Every party will always have two physical Jobs, perhaps a third... The only magical Job we're guaranteed is the healer, which isn't offense... Going down the mage tank route is OK for PvE, but the game just doesn't have an even spread of physical and magical damage to make it worthwhile in PvP IMO...