Changes/Abilities you'd like to see for 4.0 tanks.

[Lyth]

snip

The 3.2 tank gear changes had some unusual effects on gear choices. In particular, having two primary attributes with a lower individual contribution to attack power (0.45 instead of 1) resulted in a much higher weighting of secondary attributes on tank gear than on other roles. This, when coupled with stats like accuracy and parry which have little to no contribution, results in many situations in which lower ilvl gear ends up being stronger than higher ilvl gear. If the goal is to make gearing choices more obvious in the expansion so that players can concentrate instead on gameplay, this is worth some consideration.

%DR and %Evasion stats in MMOs can easily get out of control if not kept on a tight leash. DEF/MDEF's %DR are ilvl dependent, so devs can easily place limitations on its scaling. Block's %DR is similar, in that it's an off-hand property.

The problem with Parry's %DR was that it was exclusively tied to STR. With the introduction of %100 Parry and Block moves (RI and Sheltron), STR based scaling meant that these moves could have been functioning in the 30+% DR range, instead of the 20% range, which would have put them at least on par with Vengeance and Shadow Wall, if not better.

The idea of having scaled %DR on parry is not off the table, though:

Q: Is there any way to add a noticeable utility to the parry stat on tank equipment?

A: As of Patch 3.2 it's possible to meld materia into the new equipment sets, and we're aware that many tank players are not choosing parry when they are considering which materia to meld into their equipment, focusing on determination or critical hit rate instead. I’ve been discussing this with the development team, and they said that the parry calculation is based on a gradual curve, so even if players were to focus on parry, it wouldn’t have any noticeable effect because the rate at which enemy damage is mitigated would not necessarily increase. However, this is tied to large-scale system changes, and while I can't give an official comment just yet, we are looking into whether we can make adjustments in Patch 3.4, when the item level is increased, or around Patch 4.0.

If this happens, though, I would expect to either see %DR on parry and block vary over a relatively narrow range, or to see changes to the way RI and Sheltron are implemented to give them a more consistent (i.e. fixed, physical) %DR. The latter would allow for more variation in gear (i.e more variety in shield types, rather than standardising them just to keep Sheltron in check).

Flat DR (typically seen on healer shielding) is an odd one, in that it can either be weaker (i.e. against large hits) or a lot stronger (i.e. against lots of small hits) than %DR. You could potentially find yourself in AoE tanking situations in which you can completely nullify damage from a lot of little mobs, depending on how it scales.

Regarding whether people would gear for proc-based defensive stats: it depends. I would like to see both DADD and Bulwark revised so that they give a chance to reset recasts of Reprisal and Shield Swipe, respectively, during their active duration. The simplest solution is to make Parry and Block weapon/off-hand properties and let people not bother about them, however.

The accuracy issue again ties into the problem of higher ilvl parry/acc pieces providing less of a performance benefit than lower level gear with crit/det/sks on it. It's more of a healer issue, though. There was a Famitsu interview translated in Reddit about 2 months ago which discussed the following:

Q:Sub stats like Critical hit rates and determination tend to be hard to notice the difference even if you add 100 points to that stat. Also, since the parameters on gear is getting higher and higher, there are cases where you have too much accuracy or don't have enough accuracy to refresh your gear. Tell us about you policy on this matter.

A: We already have the players skill gap between players and if we add stat builds to that, i think the hurdle will be too high, so we don't have intentions to add any factors to widen the gap, but we'll be touching the sub stats with less influence when 4.0 comes out. Regarding accuracy and the need for it is a hot topic we are still debating over. The answer to your question is, we would like to keep it as simple as possible so players can focus on the content itself.

Again, the goal seems to be to simplify gear choices so that we can concentrate on gameplay.

[Jim_Berry]

DRK - Soul Survivor:
Once the mob is hit with this ability, allow it to give a small amount of HP or MP on the attacker as long as the ability is active on the target.

DRK - Dark Dance:
Allow the Parry rate from Dark Dance trigger a counter for each attack parried when the target is under the "Reprisal" effect.

DRK - Dark Arts + Dark Dance:
Increase the Evasion to 100%. Right now, the 20% is still good because many enemies auto attacks would miss when the 20% procs, but 100% would be love.

PLD - Rage of Halone:
Allow this enmity to be instantly applied at the beginning of this weaponskill after being combo'd. What I mean is, after Savage Blade, the first hit of Rage of Halone should give the enmity instead of the end of the attack.

PLD - Sword Oath + Bulwark:
Each Blocked attack can have a small amount of the blocked damage reflected to the attacker.

[F_Maximillian]

PLD-
1)Make a skill similar to blood price but restoring HP instead of MP, PLD is supposed to be the tankiest while least offensive branch of tanks we have so buffing their survival like this would be nice.
2)Make magic attacks blockable either all the time or during sheltron/bulwark.
3)Put a DoT on Flash (Since I don't think they'll outright give us damage for some reason).
4)Extend the reach of cover and make it also cover magical damage. It's a magic string already so there's no reason we can't make the magic string longer or work on magical attacks.
5)Add a reflect damage skill on successful blocks.
6)Make clemency restore a small amount of TP in sword oath instead of regaining part of the healing done (50-100 TP per cast).
7)More OGCDs in general, paladin has some of the least out of all classes.

[Xenosan]

I don't expect the battle system adjustments to be any different than 3.0s. The level cap is being increased, FFXIV stat growth system is not very progressive, so they have to force correct for the next level cap and iLVL spike just like they had to before. Not too hopeful on many creative adjustments, which is disapointing.

but new abilities!!

Dark Knight

DREAD SPIKES / DOOM SPIKES

Dread Spikes______60sec recast, 20sec duration
- Can Parry magic
- Parry Rate +
--- Additional effect: Dark Arts has 30% chance to reset Salted Earth Cooldown
--- Additional effect in Grit: Parried attacks trigger self-heals of 50 potency.
- Parries generate stacks of Dread Spikes, at 4 stacks Dread Spikes become Doom Spikes
Doom Spikes:
-(same as Dread) and in addition:
-can Parry from the flanks (not rear)
-Parried attacks trigger 50 potency magical counter attack

*Combo finishers and Dark Arts buffed Abysmal Drain add 18 seconds to Dread/Doom

GUILLOTINE / DIABOLICAL EYE

Guillotine _________ (5 second recast)
* Requires Dread Spikes to use (but only Dread, cannot be used under the effect of Doom Spikes), consumes 10 seconds of buff duration
- Delivers magic attack with potency of 280, OGCD
--- Additional effect in Darkside: Grants a Dark Arts
--- Additional effect in Grit: Self-heals with potency of 1,200

Diabolical Eye ________ (shares recast with Guillotine),
* Requires Dread Spikes or Doom Spikes, consumes 10 seconds of Dread/Doom duration
- buff to self & nearby allies, all gain Diabolical Eye buff: they're next Weaponskill absorbs 100% of damage dealt, 10 second duration
- also debuffs target with diabolical eye. Enemy suffers increased vulnerability to magical Critical Hits (bonus modifier to the damage dealt of magical crits) & they cannot evade attacks (voids accuracy cap). 60sec duration

The jist of it being a 'Blood of the Dragon + Geirskogul'-esque mechanic for DRK that works parallel with native gameplay. Instead of Geirskogul DRK has a choice between utility or self-heal (but both are +DPS either personal or party), and the utility shouldn't be too hard to keep at full uptime.

The Dread Spikes converting to Doom Spikes via a stack generating lockout is a quid pro quo mechanic. But this plays into a mechanic to diverge DRK in MT or OT. If tanking, Guillotine gets locked out and the Dread Spikes Ability has to be re-used to re-open a short window within to use Guillotine (pseudo 60 second recast for 1,200 self heal, but with more gates to handle)

this utility option is my bid for the "Healer's love DRK most" trophy.

I started doing my WAR dreams too but woah where did the time go,

[Saeno]

Pretty interesting ideas all around. From what I gathered, the dread/doom spikes ability is like blood of the dragon for DRK except the geirskogul- like abilities have some pretty insane affects. One thing I wanted to comment on was the split between grit and darkside in some of the abilities listed. You can have both effects on at the same time, was it intentional that you can benefit from both additional affects with some of these abilities?

Also, your idea reminded me that DRK technically does not have a DPS stance like PLD and WAR does. Maybe those Grit/Darkside abilities can be split with an addition of a DPS stance?

[Katana190]

Pretty interesting ideas all around. From what I gathered, the dread/doom spikes ability is like blood of the dragon for DRK except the geirskogul- like abilities have some pretty insane affects. One thing I wanted to comment on was the split between grit and darkside in some of the abilities listed. You can have both effects on at the same time, was it intentional that you can benefit from both additional affects with some of these abilities?

Also, your idea reminded me that DRK technically does not have a DPS stance like PLD and WAR does. Maybe those Grit/Darkside abilities can be split with an addition of a DPS stance?

In an old thread of mine, someone made a good suggestion about Blood Weapon while in Grit. Rather then restoring MP, it would restore HP whilst in Grit, which I think would be pretty fantastic.

I'd kinda like to see a DPS stance, as Darkside is more akin to Maim then a DPS stance. At the same time it would have to be balanced as DRK is only a little bit behind WAR on damage, and swapping between Grit and DPS Stance would be very MP consuming, providing how much MP is consumed when popping Grit.

[Khalithar]

Ditch the accuracy stat, ditch the parry stat, combine skill speed/spell speed in to one stat. Just leave det/crit/condensed speed as the new secondaries.

[shao32]

DRK - Dark Arts + Dark Dance:
Increase the Evasion to 100%. Right now, the 20% is still good because many enemies auto attacks would miss when the 20% procs, but 100% would be love.

wait what? a 20 seconds every minute of full perfect dodge skill? fuck hallowed ground DRK the new op tank of 4.0, now for real thats very op, or you made dark dance have a loooooooong recast to compensate that or its become the new best defensive skill of the game, a DRK only getting damage 40 seconds betwen 20 of pure invencibility.

and about darkside, is like a pseudo dps stance, the bonus give us is pretty high, and grit is pretty expensive, DRK and PLD are not made for tank stance like WAR, handle grit is pretty hard, i dont want add tank stance pld level to drk too (bcs yeah grit is on global coundown but is more easy to turn off that vs PLD getting on sword), is pretty fine like is now for me.

[Jim_Berry]

WAR has everything to be a great MT right now. The reason we end up as OT is because the other jobs are not as great in the OT role.

Yeah, my WAR comes from 2.0 where I would be MT but never dropping Defiance. Now that we have Deliverance and other stuff (Fell Cleave), it's expected for me to do damage even as an MT. Problem is, I can't, so I just stuck with PLD and DRK for MT purposes.

[Brian_]

WAR has everything to be a great MT right now. The reason we end up as OT is because the other jobs are not as great in the OT role.

They also MT because they're better MTs than WAR.