DRK .. now slightly more engaging than PLD 2.x

[Shiwayari]

This is not about how good or not good DRK is going to be.
This is about how fun or not fun it is going to be. So..

We get a second bar to manage. Awesome, more things to do! DRK was always a very active job and thats why it was so fun.

However, taking a closer look..



- Delirium combo removed. Hmmmm, ok, I guess I will only Soul Eater now, but at least I still have the occasional Scourge to change it up a litt... wait..

- WHERE IS SOURGE. Overlooking the fact that Scourge was probably the best animation in the game.. cool, DRKs main occupation is now to literally spam 1 2 3 for the whole fight. Hello? Was that not precisely the reason that PLD got a branching combo with Heavensward, because 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 is fucking boring? And no, using the just-as-bad-as-before Power Slash twice a fight does not contribute anything.

Staying positive, at least we got the blood gauge, using those skills must be interesting right? Let's take a look at the tooltips:

Bloodspiller - single target - potency gained with DA: 140 - bonus in Grit > Math/Tldr: no potency lost in Grit, ummm.. cool, so its just some gcd i hit when its up without having to mind if I'm in Grit or not. Not very engaging.
But it can be Dark Arts'd, that's gotta be fun, right? Taking a look at Syphon Strike and Soul Eater:
Syphon Strike - potency gained with DA: 140
Soul Eater - potency gained with DA: 140

. . . so all these gain the same potency from DA. I.e. I don't have to think the slightest about planning ahead to have enough mana ready to use Bloodspiller. Adds absolutely nothing to the jobs engagement. To be blunt, Bloodspiller is almost just Low Blow renamed. Minus the ability to proc. Minus the stun. Is it up (you have 50 blood)? > use it. Done.

And just to spice it up, since this all makes the job SO FUN, we also now can't use Blood Price outside of Grit anymore. Whats this? Even LESS managing of MP since you gain less = spend less?

Simplified so much it is now PLD 2.x with a few more ogcds. Very disappointed. And sad. I will try it, but it doesn't look as fun as it was. Maybe I will try new PLD/WAR. Hopefully it won't be boring enough to quit the game.

One thing SE could do - change the potency gained from DA Bloodspiller so you have to think at least a little more than spam when its up.



Disclaimer: DRK really did not need such a huge dumb down. Raiding was already made easier, players who didn't play very well didn't have a very hard time clearing if they cared. And being very decent at it was never hard, if one actually cared. You just took away half the jobs fun for everyone who cared, and made it so easy now everyone who didn't care can do just as well.
Hint: Chances are noone who didnt care would have cared any less if it wasn't dumbed down so much.
And whoever didn't care about raiding surely did not need gameplay to be even less punishing *cough* in "challenging" dungeons.

[VargasVermillion]

I think I can accept 'dumbing down' for the sake of convenience if they in turn make mechanics within instances in general more interesting, including 4 man instances and especially for tanks as sometimes you can go through a dungeon with no real 'tank check' but still have healer and dps checks.

[Falar]

I liked Scourge and Delirium's visuals.

The 10pot nerf to DA-DP and the Unleash nerf are headscratchers too.

[Adventica6]

Every class got dumbed down, the game was just too difficult for people.

I actually like the changes, dark had way too many global cd's to deal with in their normal rotation.

I know its fashionable to bash a game you pay a sub for, but give it a rest.

[Sweetgrass]

This is the average kneejerk reaction to a class getting actually meaningful mechanics, in exchange for losing some brainless "keep this on CD" damage buttons.

Was pressing Low Blow every time it lit up, very cerebral? Did pressing Scourge any time the timer on it dropped to around 3 seconds, really shine a light in your life? Was seeing the icon for Mercy Stroke glow, like a little glimpse of paradise?

I'll take skills that eat MP for a Blood-restoring shield, a Blood-fueled hit that's unaffected by our tank stance, and an MP restoring, effect extending, Blood-consuming cooldown that gives us almost infinite Blood/MP for the duration, instead of off GCD mashing any day, speaking as one of the top 50 DRKs pre-echo on my main and alt, thank you.

[Zojha]

This is the average kneejerk reaction to a class getting actually meaningful mechanics, in exchange for losing some brainless "keep this on CD" damage buttons.

Thereby implying the new mechanics will not be just as brainless.

To me, it looks like Quietus and Bloodspiller are brainless blood gauge dumps (AoE/Single target respectively) and blackest night another OGCD you want to use whenever you can to build gauge for the dumps. And instead of keeping track of Delirium, you just use it every third blood price/weapon now.

I don't see any meaningful mechanics from the tooltips provided truth be told. I just see a simplified rotation and a mindless additional resource system on top.

[Decederes]

One combo isn't dumbing it down. It's making it completely boring. DRK is literally going to be 1>2>3 with either BW or BP mixed in depending on stance, tossing a BN when you're going to take enough dmg to break it for 50 blood, and spamming DA>C&S and BS when available and what....plunge?. That's the entire job. It's brain dead easy. And now that individual potency and rotation potency have been calculated...it's not going to be an impressive job either. DRK didn't have that many things to handle honestly...Removing Low Blow and Reprisal was plenty enough to drop. It didn't need to lose a DoT, and a combo on top of it.

[sonatahi]

If Spinning Slash/Power Slash was changed to be more useful than just gaining emnity, DRK would be less of a mainly single combo job without having to re-add a third combo. Otherwise, Spinning Slash and Power Slash is very underutilized, especially with the addition of emnity controlling cross class roles, and almost useless when taking on a role of an off-tank.

[Shurrikhan]

I think I can accept 'dumbing down' for the sake of convenience if they in turn make mechanics within instances in general more interesting, including 4 man instances and especially for tanks as sometimes you can go through a dungeon with no real 'tank check' but still have healer and dps checks.

Why the ultimatum? We could have both.

Those who've generally been capable of doing complex mechanics at all rarely lose much if any dps due to rotational slippage. Desync from downtime, and thereby the timing of phase pushes, seems to determine far more about DPS potential among the players who'd actually perform these mechanics than the complexity of the rotations themselves.

[Decederes]

If Spinning Slash/Power Slash was changed to be more useful than just gaining emnity, DRK would be less of a mainly single combo job without having to re-add a third combo. Otherwise, Spinning Slash and Power Slash is very underutilized, especially with the addition of emnity controlling cross class roles, and almost useless when taking on a role of an off-tank.

Exactly. Two years to take note that DRK's in raid groups using NIN -never- use Power Slash. It may as well had been off my bar for the last two years. Now you add NIN hate control to tanks, and change nothing on Power Slash combo at all? it's a one combo job then. Give me a small, mini Scourge DoT on it to force me to mix it up every 2-3 rotations. We're stuck with one combo. Two years to get it right... and they dropped the ball with quite a few jobs. I expected better, honestly.