What's going to be the strength of Dark Knights now?

[Lyth]

I think a lot of the worry over DRK comes from the fact that there are implied changes to the job's overall direction, but we have little information on what they actually are.

As an example, DRK was originally designed to benefit from parry procs. With the removal of parry as a scaling stat, it doesn't really make sense to keep it as a gameplay mechanic. So moves that benefit from parry procs, such as Low Blow and Reprisal were unlikely to remain in their present form. It's also worth noting that Anticipation has a very similar icon to Dark Dance. I wouldn't be surprised to see it also go, or at least be integrated into another action, such as Blood Price. You have to give up five to gain five.

We actually don't know what the status of the debuffs for PLD and DRK are at the moment. There are probably changes present, in that WAR has had the slashing debuff moved to Maim, and has lost the Path debuff. Likewise, Dragon Kick on MNK has a new debuff icon, which may indicate that they've lost INT down. With so many changes, it's hard to say what debuffs PLD and DRK have access to and which they don't. It doesn't really matter too much either way, as long as every comp can access the same debuffs.

The changes to PLD and WAR's offensive buffs are worth noting as well. Berserk looks like it will have better synergy with both infuriate and raid dps buffs, while PLD's Requiescat looks to be an additional buff on top of Fight or Flight.

DRK doesn't have a damage multiplier in its toolkit at the moment. We make up for it by DoTs, a shorter GCD through Blood Weapon, and lots of oGCDs (at least two of which we've lost). It'll be interesting to see where the difference comes from. Blood Weapon looks like it now also builds Blackblood, but will it provide a damage buff as well? Will Sole Survivor pick up its PvP trait and function as a sort of Trick Attack? Alternatively, will the damage from the two new sword moves compensate with raw potency? I can't guess which direction the devs have taken it.

DRK's gameplay hinges on your ability to gain MP, because MP is potency. Even when levelling, the difficulty depends on how many MP gaining tools you've gained compared to MP spending tools. We've gained two new blackblood ablities which seem to use Dark Arts, but we don't really know where the extra MP comes from. A lot of this depends on what the MP costs look like at lvl 70, as well.

With all the focus on PLD and magic damage, it's easy to forget that DRK is often in a similar if not worse situation in physical damage fights. With the removal of Foresight (which was never really designed for mitigating physical tankbusters on its own), we're just left with cross-role Rampart, and two base cooldowns in Shadow Wall and Living Dead, both of which are weaker than their counterparts on other tanks.

That being said, it looks like we're moving away from the concept of "damage types" for tanks. Sheltron has gone from a short recast physical mitigation move to resource-based mitigation, similar to the old Inner Beast. Likewise, WAR's Raw Intuition now costs 20 units of the new Beast gauge. Dark Mind may have been re-purposed to fill the same niche, if they gave it the ability to mitigate physical damage.

Another point worth noting is that the new defensive move looks like it mitigates physical damage, at the very least, and can be applied to yourself as well as an ally. It also reminds me visually of Celes' Runic Blade from FF6, both in terms of the aloft sword and the sparkle, as well as it's function as a sort of cover. If so, it might even give us back some MP as well. It's a pretty iconic FF ability, and it's one I've wanted to see on DRK for a while.

(The only other thing that I'm still hoping for on DRK is that we manage to get Save the Queen as a greatsword someday, as it's one of the few iconic greatsword names left. PLDs can keep Defender and Excalibur.)

On the whole, it's the sort of preview that leaves you with more questions than you have answers. But that's probably a good thing. I'm looking forward to it.

[Mnemosynia]

The net difference in DPS when OTing and net difference in mitigation when MTing should be close to 0, but how the tanks arrive at their MT mitigation or OT damage should differ in playstyle. None of this "DRK is best at mitigating magic" and "WAR is best OT". That makes party setups stringent and exclusionary.

And this is bad how? Only on the forums will some one say min/maxing is bad because other people can't play? No one is stoping any of you people from forming your own groups with your own set up why do you care what the hardcore people are doing if your a casual anyways?

On from what info we see so far prognosis is bad for DRKs. I doubt we will have unique mitigation powers anymore, we will prolly continue to take the most damage as well on the tanking side reprisal nolonger unique for some reason.. and on the DPS side we basically know nothing so.

Overall net negative for now till release.

[bswpayton]

I think a lot of the worry over DRK comes from the fact that there are implied changes to the job's overall direction, but we have little information on what they actually are.

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I wouldnt be surprised of drk doesnt have to manage their mp anymore, Id actually be surprised if they did the way things are looking. Just speculation of course but if blood weapon builds gauge I highly doubt that it would also build mp as well. Which poses the question if drks didnt have to manage mp would that turn people off from the job.

[Duelle]

Differing playstyles such as...?

I'll outline some general tank gameplay, so I don't have enough time to do a full write up of several classes.

Tank 1: Passive mitigation via a defensive stance. General-use cooldowns that mitigate damage.
Tank 2: Active mitigation tank. Has to manage resource recovery and generation in order to mitigate hits on set intervals, with abilities that can be used to survive tank-busters. Mathematically is the same as tank 1, but has to press more buttons and keep an eye on resources to be competitive.
Tank 3: Upkeep tank. Relies on secondary effects from attacks in order to achieve mitigation (certain attacks grant Defense Up, Evasion Up, Parry Up and so on). Mathematically the same as tank 1, but is much more reliant on their physical attacks to also allow them to reach the intended levels of mitigation.

Tank 1 is perfect for someone like me, who likes simple and straightforward gameplay. Tank 2 is more for the risk/reward type of player. Tank 3 is for the player that likes to constantly press abilities.

[whiteblade89]

I wouldnt be surprised of drk doesnt have to manage their mp anymore, Id actually be surprised if they did the way things are looking. Just speculation of course but if blood weapon builds gauge I highly doubt that it would also build mp as well. Which poses the question if drks didnt have to manage mp would that turn people off from the job.

You bring up an interesting point about mp management, albeit it's a little on the pessimistic side lol but it's worrisome if SE took away mp management from drk. That's pretty much that last unique factor of the job without reprisal and low blow. I would hope that SE wouldn't do that. I'm speculating that Blackblood might be gained by abilities outside of Grit with just a few that build it while still in Grit. Like I said, this is just speculation. But if they take mp management away from us, I might have to put my greatsword down for good

[Veritas-Ancora]

My MAJOR concern is Darkside.

https://youtu.be/fSdfPXFGuw0?t=111

Watch the video, when darkside is activated, nothing is shown on the UI. Obviously it's needed still if we're starting with it, but why isn't that shown as being active anywhere on that UI?

If Darkside remains the same ability, it absolutely needs to be on that UI in some fashion.

[SpookyGhost]

If Darkside remains the same ability, it absolutely needs to be on that UI in some fashion.

If it remains the same then it'll have a buff icon and use MP, both of which are visible on your screen normally. That said, I think they're changing how Darkside works, but 99% of the DRK panic is coming from them showing extremely little of what new stuff DRK is getting and what they actually changed so we're doing a whole lot of guesswork. I think it's best just to wait until we get all the info since we basically have none of it right now.

[Veritas-Ancora]

I think it's best just to wait until we get all the info since we basically have none of it right now.

Which, to me, is f@#$ing terrible.

In the Live Letter, Yoshi P said he was going to look to the forums on suggestions and thoughts from the community on these UIs.

But then he provides little to nothing about Dark Knight, so we have nothing to discuss. We can't provide feedback if we have no information. And there's been plenty of times where our feedback helped the expansions, because Yoshi P has said so himself.

Every DRK is looking at this like WTH happened to our job, why is the UI so bad (the 2 other tanks have huge images to indicate the stance), what changes are coming to these abilities? Why didn't they provide any time at all in a 3 hour broadcast to it?

We'll wait because we have to wait, but if DRK goes bad they're killing 1/3 of their tanks, and I know several DPS who moved to tank just because of DRK.

[rjspencer4]

It seems Grit halts the black blood gauge from increasing which would justify the need for it to appear on the UI, but if Darkside doesn't affect the black blood gauge at all then that might explain why it's not represented on the UI.

[TheCount]

It seems Grit halts the black blood gauge from increasing which would justify the need for it to appear on the UI, but if Darkside doesn't affect the black blood gauge at all then that might explain why it's not represented on the UI.

It's unlikely that it will stop the blood gauge from increasing, the current guess is that like with all tank stances it will instead increase it based on damage you are receiving. Because they were fighting a dummy however that obviously didn't happen because they don't attack you