The way I want SE to make DRK.

[Vitalus]

Hello everyone,

So after looking at the forums and playing DRK since mid HW, I wanted to make a wishlist for changes to DRK in 4.1. I say 4.1 because I'm sure my list would be impossible to add in 4.05.

1.) The addition of Dead Spikes as our "Oh S***" Button. After reading the comments in various threads, I like the concept a lot. Living Dead feels like a bland version of HG and the penalty towards the healer is scary for both parties. I think the best change would be; "When attacked, all damage is converted into health. If health meter is full, you gain a 10% shield."

This to me sounds very DRK, in terms of fantasy and makes it unique. Other than how it works, I can't see any other changes I would make, this being cooldown, animation lock, etc.

2.) Scourge to become a third combo. One thing that bothered me about the changes from HW to SB, we have less to do. Managing DOTs has always been a pain for me, but if it was flashing in my face, it would be nice. Above my own problems tho, this would break the monotony of Soul Eater spam. Yes, it would be like PLD but it's better to be a copy of 3.X/4.X Pally, than boring 2.X Pally. I would also like for it to attain old Delirium's animation. I like it better than Scourge's, but that's just me.

Hard Slash > Syphon Strike > Scourge. Just to clarify as to what I want the combo to look like.

3.)Abyssal Drain to take the place of Unleash. Unleash is, animation wise, appealing but not necessary. Besides tagging mobs, its usefulness goes out the window, even more so with the nerf to its potency. If Scourge is to come back, I think it would be best to make that the level 56 skill, and AD made into the level 6 skill. I would like for AD to have Unleash's mp cost but I think I might just be crazy.

I maybe alone on this wish, but it is something that has been touched on in a few forum posts.

4.) Blood Weapon and Blood Price to share a button slot. Since the change to BP not being able to be used out of Grit, I feel the button is just taking up space. Just like WAR's FC and IB, it would make everything easier for not only vet DRKs but also new players. Just a quality of life type deal.

5.) Bloodspiller and Quietus off the global cooldown. This is personal preference and not anything to do with gameplay. I've seen some people who want these to stay on the GCD but at least one of them off would be nice. If it's changed, I'll be happy. If not, oh well.

6.) Anticipation, Low Blow and Reprisal to have the old DRK abilities added back. At the moment, DRK is only offering The Blackest Night as a great cooldown, but the old effects on reprisal, lb and ant were just more appealing. Dark Arts into Dark Dance, incoming reprisal and lb resets. It was a dream come true. For Reprisal, I would love to get the potency and original duration back. The feel of sticking your sword into the enemy, and no damage is done, makes me feel sad. Same with low blow, because nothing felt better than kicking someone in the face multiple times. (I could say the same thing for DRG, since Leg sweep was a nice weave spell and damage increase.)

What I'm basically rambling is for the role actions, reprisal and low blow to get their potency back. I don't mind if they are 100 each, as long as I can feel that these moves are doing something. As for Anticipation, I want something unique for DRK, like its old Dark Dance predecessor. Maybe 20% additional parry? Perhaps a healing factor? Or even it's old 30% evasion.

I'll leave that to SE but I feel that these role actions should have special attributes when it comes to DRK, since they did belong to them in HW.

7.) Shadow Wall cooldown lowered. It makes sense, and everyone is saying it. 90s would be amazing but if that's crazy talk, then I understand. I can see a 120 second cooldown.

8.) An ability that reflects magic damage. DRK was promised to be the kings at blocking magic, but we only have one ability for that, Dark Mind. Dark Mind is a great skill and everything, but PLD is doing it better with Sheltron. So how about DRK gets a brand new ability that reflects incoming magic damage, and sends about 10% of that damage back to the enemy?

Example: Whiplash: Redirects 10% of incoming magic damage back to the target. CD: 60s.

This gives more flavor to DRK and sets it apart from pally. Also, gives them utility that they seem to lack. WAR makes sense considering it is a straight DPS style tank. PLD having a lot of utility makes sense considering they are a vanguard style. This places DRK in the middle. Good damage and decent utility. Very even, very nice.

So far, that is it for my list. I would love to hear feedback because I'm sure there is more that people want to see. If my ideas seem outlandish, feel free to tell me so haha.

More DRK feedback can be found here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...eedback-Thread
Most of my paraphrasing came from this thread.

Thanks for reading.

[Aletin]

Okay, let's get started

1) First of all, the notion of anything being an "Oh S***" button is wrong as should be avoided. All skills should have its use planned and doing this bypasses the "unresponsiveness" of Hallowed, Living Dead and Holmgang. Secondly, I completely understand the sentiment of LD feeling bland and underpowered, but the reality is, in ORGANISED content, it is one of the best tank immunity skills, upwards of 20s of healing not required, for the price of a healer cooldown which would have to be used for Holmgang also (having a 6s window max). With the "Dead Spikes" skill you propose, that is more powerful than Hallowed, so therefore would need a longer cooldown or a shorter duration (6s Duration with 7m cooldown or 10s Duration with 8-10m cooldown)

2) I agree with you when it comes to keeping up Scourge, I would always forget myself, and yes it would do good to break up the monotony of the SE spam. However, scourge would need to get a significant nerf (from 500pot down to about 350-400 at most) and then other skills would have to be nerfed also so DRK doesn't become overpowered in DPS.

3) Abyssal Drain and Unleash share different purposes. Character centered, Circular AoE's are the best for hitting mobs, while tanking especially, as you don't have to worry about the mob's size (targeted AoE's expand from the center of the enemy) and it's much easier to position. And idk about you, but I always find that Abyssal Drain is lacking when it comes to hitting all mobs when initiating with the trash packs because they can be too spread out, while unleash you just run to middle and it's done.

4) Agreed on this point.

5) Doing this would make more Dark Arts double weaving with skills unless the DA effects were removed. And these skills would have to be nerfed in potency also, the only reason they are as high as they are is because they are GCD locked.

6) While yes, I agree DRK needs more CD's, this is the wrong way to do it. Role skills are meant to be equal for all in the role, so one class doesn't have more/less utility than the others, and the lack of damage is meant to make you think of where to use them and not just use them on cooldown for the damage.

7) 90s is INSANE, have you seen rampart? an already good skill? But I will agree it needs the CD lowered to either 120s or 150s

8) The proposed skill is too strong. 10% mitigation on 60s CD is pretty good itself (hence why Dark Mind and Sheltron are absolutely busted). But reflecting 10% of the damage is unreasonable. It would have to work more like Vengeance, hitting back with a set potency rather than 10% of the damage. So something like

Whiplash: Reduces damage by magic attacks by 10%. Additional Effect: Launches magic attack of 50 potency back to target. Duration 10s. Cooldown 60s.

But I myself would rather Dark Mind becoming all damage and not just magic. 10% base and 20% on DA.
Having tanks specialize on one type of damage was an idiotic decision on SE's part, you saw what happened to PLD in Gordias, which they corrected with blocking magic and physical damage. To fix DRK's lack of cooldowns and also fixing the magic separation, the Dark Mind change proposed would likely be best.

[DWolfwood]

4.) Blood Weapon and Blood Price to share a button slot. Since the change to BP not being able to be used out of Grit, I feel the button is just taking up space. Just like WAR's FC and IB, it would make everything easier for not only vet DRKs but also new players. Just a quality of life type deal.

You got quite a bit that's OP as far as your exact numbers, but I can agree with most of it at least in terms that there should be change.

That said, if you make Blood Weapon and Blood Price on same ability, you basically give us the problem that every WAR has right now with Infuriate/Unchained being the same button. Blood Price will become a waste of a button. As of now, it's better the way it is by far.

It's not like we're drowning in buttons anyways, unlike PLD. cough cough

...upwards of 20s of healing not required...

Okay, first of all you're using "upwards" wrong. Saying "upwards" means more than 20 seconds, which brings me to my next point...

It's ridiculous that people try to say this CD allows a Healer to ignore a tank for 20s. Living Dead doesn't magically grant mitigation and it's not like Walking Dead magically waits for you until Living Dead finishes counting down. You better hope it actually does kick in, because if it doesn't, have fun with that. Furthermore, the chances of it actually making use of that full 20s is near impossible to begin with when you consider latency and server ticks.

It's no different than if you ignored a WAR for 10s and they used Holmgang at the last second, giving them 6s and you Bene them last second. Same for Hallowed Ground. What they've done is make an ability easier to use and penalized us for it since it's obviously harder to do this on Holmgang and Hallowed Ground.

I don't want this benefit since I'm perfectly capable of doing good Holmgang and Hallowed Ground timings on my own, so I would rather not have the ridiculous penalty.

I'd be fine honestly with a better CD than Hallowed with a properly balanced timer, or something equal to it. DRK gets screwed on this ability just like Shadow Wall in that it has the same value of pros and cons as Holmgang but on a longer CD than it.

[Vitalus]

All very good points and I appreciate the feedback.

For the first suggestion, the "Oh S***" button is something that my FC and friends like to toss around. Perhaps I was overzealous with the 10% shield and would change it to just a healing factor. That being said, your point makes more sense than what I had written.

For point number eight, I was just spit-balling the idea. I do like your take on it much better.

[Nayrr]

Okay, let's get started

1) First of all, the notion of anything being an "Oh S***" button is wrong as should be avoided. All skills should have its use planned and doing this bypasses the "unresponsiveness" of Hallowed, Living Dead and Holmgang. Secondly, I completely understand the sentiment of LD feeling bland and underpowered, but the reality is, in ORGANISED content, it is one of the best tank immunity skills, upwards of 20s of healing not required, for the price of a healer cooldown which would have to be used for Holmgang also (having a 6s window max). With the "Dead Spikes" skill you propose, that is more powerful than Hallowed, so therefore would need a longer cooldown or a shorter duration (6s Duration with 7m cooldown or 10s Duration with 8-10m cooldown)

I'm sorry, Living Dead is really awful when compared to Hallowed Ground or Holmgang. How would it having a dread spikes effect make it more powerful than Hallowed Ground? You still take the chance of dying when you use Living Dead and it would be very unlikely that you'll take enough damage in 10 seconds to get full HP back and still need healer assistance, whereas with Hallowed Ground you don't need to worry at all about dying for 10 seconds, and you almost never get the full 10 second invulnerability from Living Dead. It still would be worse than Hallowed Ground, but by far more manageable. Other than that, I agree with you and the OP.

[Vitalus]

You got quite a bit that's OP as far as your exact numbers, but I can agree with most of it at least in terms that there should be change.

That said, if you make Blood Weapon and Blood Price on same ability, you basically give us the problem that every WAR has right now with Infuriate/Unchained being the same button. Blood Price will become a waste of a button. As of now, it's better the way it is by far.

It's not like we're drowning in buttons anyways, unlike PLD. cough cough

I was thinking more like FC and IB because that's how it basically works anyways. You use BW, then switch on Grit, if you need to MT, and are able to use BP with no penalty. SE designed it that way, I just want them to share a button lol.

[DWolfwood]

I was thinking more like FC and IB because that's how it basically works anyways. You use BW, then switch on Grit, if you need to MT, and are able to use BP with no penalty. SE designed it that way, I just want them to share a button lol.

The problem with this is that they would also share a cooldown timer.

[Vitalus]

The problem with this is that they would also share a cooldown timer.

Would it? I'm not entirely sure, not a coder. I do feel like that is something SE designed for WAR and not because it had too. I guess it's all in the coding, so perhaps you are right.

[KDSilver]

I'm sorry, Living Dead is really awful when compared to Hallowed Ground or Holmgang. How would it having a dread spikes effect make it more powerful than Hallowed Ground? You still take the chance of dying when you use Living Dead and it would be very unlikely that you'll take enough damage in 10 seconds to get full HP back and still need healer assistance, whereas with Hallowed Ground you don't need to worry at all about dying for 10 seconds, and you almost never get the full 10 second invulnerability from Living Dead. It still would be worse than Hallowed Ground, but by far more manageable. Other than that, I agree with you and the OP.

When you have a WHM in your party, you can simply ignore all the drawbacks of Living dead. You can pop it, letting the tank loose all it's hp, and wait for the timer to be around 2s to pop benediction. And it's done.
But it only works very well with a whm however.

[Reynhart]

Personally, I'd change several things in DRK's design to make it far more unique when compared to the other tanks.

• Tank stance :
  Grit is just a copy-paste of Shield Oath, and it makes it a little bland. Even if the effect is very close, Defiance still have its own flavor. This is where I think Dread Spike should come.
  Not as a CD, not as an "Oh, sh***" button, but as a stance.
  Dread Spike :
  - Reduce damage dealt by 50%
  - Reflects back 20% of the damage you suffers.
  - Heals you for the amount of reflected damage.
  - Cannot heal you for more than 20% of your max HP in one hit.
  - Allow usage of Dark Arts
  - Cannot be used with Darkside
  Yes, a 50% penatly and mutually exclusive with Darkside. The reason behind it is because the reflected damage would be a huge damage increase when you're MTing so you need to balance it otherwise.
  The downside on this stance would be that you need to survive the initial hit for the reflect to proc, so you should plan your CD and coordinate with you healers to stay relativly high on HP. And having higher max HP would also increase the cap on how much you can reflect.

• Job Gauge :
  The blood gauge is, for me, not very inspired. Fill the gauge, spend the gauge, fill the gauge, spend the gauge, it's the same as the other two tanks.
  So, I'd change it to the Dark Gauge. This gauge would fill overtime as long as you're in combat. The higher the gauge, the stronger you hit, but if the gauge reaches 100, it will explode (doing some AoE damage) but will leave you knocked down for a few seconds (Basically like the debuff from one of the first DRK quest).
  The only way to reduce the Dark Gauge is to use Dark Skills. Dark Arts would spend a little gauge, Dark Passenger a little more, etc...and I think Quietus and Bloodspiller should spend it too as oGCD.
  The idea would be to keep track of your oGCD to make sure the gauge never reaches 100 at a wrong time, but, if you know the boss will become untargetable, then you'll let the gauge explode for a DPS boost.
  Blood Weapon and Blood Price effect should be changed to stop the gauge from increasing, allowing you to keep it safely at a relatively high level.

• Living Dead :
  For now, Living Dead is very convoluted for what it offers. I think it could be more convoluted...but more rewarding, and synergize better with DRK's toolkit.
  Living Dead :
  - Cooldown : 420s.
  - Creates a zombie target on you for 20s.
  - As long as the zombie is alive, most attack cannot reduce your HP below 1
  - If the zombie is not killed before it expires, you die.
  - If Sole Survivor activates on the zombie, Living Dead cooldown is halved
  This way, the burden of Living Dead is not put solely on the healers, and it would make Sole Survivor useful when you're facing a single boss. And pairing it with Dread Spikes would allow for burst damage, since you'll still reflect part of the damage you'll take even at 1HP.