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

[VargasVermillion]

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.

Because SE lack the faith required in the playerbase to do both, we know this from all the content nerfs.

[Shurrikhan]

Because SE lack the faith required in the playerbase to do both, we know this from all the content nerfs.

There's an alternate route to go about making the combination a more likely possibility:

- Smoothly increasing difficulty curve
- Greater player involvement/responsibility/need for awareness in earlier content
- Improved learning tools/support

Personally, between providing the means to empower the players and compacting skill ceilings, which do you think taps out more quickly?

I'd wager the latter, but I may yet assume, perhaps in error, that humans possess intelligence and that learning is an enjoyable part of games?

[VargasVermillion]

Personally, between providing the means to empower the players and compacting skill ceilings, which do you think taps out more quickly?

I'd wager the latter, but I may yet assume, perhaps in error, that humans possess intelligence and that learning is an enjoyable part of games?

I don't necessarily disagree but the playerbase proves time and time again that they don't really care, if anything even (god forbid) kills them or if someone doesn't know the ins and outs of a fight immediately and proves a huge inconvenience on the time they have because they pay a sub fee then they want it softened. Either because they don't want to learn how to play or they don't want to help other players learn how to play.

As far as difficulty curve is concerned I think 1-50 did a great job in terms of dungeons but around pharos and onward they just sort of level it out to be the same. My expectation for stormblood barring the class changes is that it'll largely be like heavensward, I also remember hearing world mobs will be nerfed to be like ARR so there's that too. The only exception I've seen was the response to people wanting the void ark series being nerfed, mainly WC when it came out which was refreshing to say the least.

[AlbaTheGrey]

Words cannot describe how disappointed I am by the changes made to DRK. It is hands down the most fun I've ever had tanking in an MMO and I've been a career tank since Lineage II: Chronicle 4. That's almost 12 years! It is literally the highest praise I can give a class in an MMO. Like you OP, I'll give it a shot but if DRK is as boring as it looks like it's going to be there will be 1 less tank in Stormblood because I'm not going back to PLD or WAR.

[Falar]

Words cannot describe how disappointed I am by the changes made to DRK. It is hands down the most fun I've ever had tanking in an MMO and I've been a career tank since Lineage II: Chronicle 4. That's almost 12 years! It is literally the highest praise I can give a class in an MMO. Like you OP, I'll give it a shot but if DRK is as boring as it looks like it's going to be there will be 1 less tank in Stormblood because I'm not going back to PLD or WAR.

Dark Knight was also the most fun I ever had tanking too. For the first time ever, I mained a tank.

[Donaria]

Yo op please come on bro you can do better than a half hearted ultimatum of "we shall see if its good or not" I feel you on the changes tho. Sometimes I feel we over react like children here in NA forums, these new changes make drk more viable in the OT roll, to just do raw dmg and still provide some utility if not currently tanking. DRK now gets what pld had in the form of stone skin but now it is a native skill. I'm a drg and a pld main we still need/want you all here, a white knight and a black knight theme is so fucking badass now with all these changes feel like that will be the best combo. So please look forward to it.

[Shurrikhan]

Dark Knight was also the most fun I ever had tanking too. For the first time ever, I mained a tank.

I've tanked in every MMO I've played for queue times and therefore kept one geared even if not necessarily maining it, and DRK was definitely the most fun I'd had apart from *maybe* very brief periods of WoW Prot Warrior tanking, but that may largely just be from being severely undergeared and on a class that scaled every well with incoming damage as to make things that should be impossible merely strenuously difficult, provided enough intelligence, awareness, and speed. As far as sheerly enjoyable button flow goes, though, DRK had even that beat.

[DRKoftheAzure]

Because SE lack the faith required in the playerbase to do both, we know this from all the content nerfs.

Sooo.... does that mean that SE is actually a primal manifested from all of the hate and backlash they're getting via Ascian magicks....?

[Jim_Berry]

I'm ok with it. I play my tanks "simple" anyway; never really cared for high dps.

[Nivarea]

I can agree with the sentiment.

While I'm still waiting to play DRK 4.0, and will probably still main it, I'm affraid that the dumbing down might be too much. I felt in love with the DRK playstyle, the fact that it's a busy job, harder to play at the beginning, very button mashy if you want to play it with optimization in mind. And I love greatswords, that's a plus I guess.

Losing one combo is a something (even if the potency of Souleater became the same of old Delirium), losing Scourge is heartbreaking, and losing oGCDs to weave makes me affraid that the button mashy playstyle I grew to love may disappear, the identity of DRK with it. Gating Blood Price behind Grit seems really punishing too for MP management. While I really love what they're going for with Blackest Night, I'm not sold yet on the remaining of the 4.0 toolset. The buffs on the Paladin seems really crazy too, he needed it, but it seems to be, maybe, a bit too much in consideration of DRK and WAR. But let's not be all gloom and doom, all the changes are not bad. Darkside not draining MP, just stopping their regeneration is good, and if japanese description of Sole Survivor is right, it will become a really good skill with utility for raid.

I will play the three tanks in Stormblood to see if my expectations and fears are real or not. Still salty (earth?) about losing scourge tho.