4.1 Dark Knight Feedback and fixes

[TouchandFeel]

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For sure, I get where you are coming from as well, especially in regards to being a tad fed up with the level of hyperbole on these, and really any forum.

I agree with your assessment that Dark Mind is great and quite powerful for busters, especially if you pair it with TBN, so no problems there. But as you also alluded to, it is terrible for fluff damage since it probably just won't work on it. While busters are going to be the more impactful attacks that a tank will have to deal with since it is a much more black and white situation of you survive or you die, the fluff shouldn't necessarily be discounted. While not a hard skill check, it is still a steady resource drain (tank hp and healer mp) that needs to be managed, not to mention the less fluff that the healer has to compensate for frees them up for assisting more with dps.

So a big part of the issue with DM being magic only is the fact that it strips it of the flexibility to be used for busters or for fluff, which is a constraint that really none of the other job specific defensive abilities have asides from Raw Intuition, to which I feel parry should just be made to mitigate magic damage too. This is just compounded by DRK feeling like it is just missing a level of low end more consistent damage mitigation compared to the other tanks. So in a ways a bit of a double whammy in this one place that often gets overlooked since it is deemed "not important" by many, especially those that don't have to deal with the issue and therefore don't really see it.

As for me, I just really want defensive abilities to not be tied to magic or physical damage only. I want this because I feel it would free up the content team from these self-inflicted constraints of having to have busters and raid-wides be magic damage, and then in turn that would allow them to start to push away from the formulaic implementation that we have as to what a buster is and how to implement defense and heal checks. For example why does a buster have to be this big telegraphed single attack? Why can't you create a similar situation by having the boss summon a bunch of small adds whose "fluff damage" would add up to a lot of damage? Heck, make it even more interesting where different players get a target marker on them and then different groups of these adds go after them. Do you have the mt and ot split the adds to split the damage, making it easier to potentially heal through but then splitting dps between the two groups? Do you try to stack all adds on one tank and hope you can heal through? Do you pop an invulnerability cd to solo tank them? What if the adds gained a stacking buff based on how many other adds where close to them? Etc.
I just feel that removing things that reinforce artificial constraints on what things "have to be" in boss and raid encounters will allow designers to be a bit more crazy and creative when coming up with content.

Honestly, I kind of feel that DM was originally intended to be the DRk answer to having a designated buster-focused defensive ability akin to IB or Shelltron. However with TBN being added and usurping that spot, it then begs the question "well, what is DM there for now?".

[Aana]

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Lol woah there nelly! Entire tank/boss redesign! While I cant say I agree with the overall homogenization of damage, its interesting. Theres an odd line between removing the illusion of choice/bloat/needlessly complex mechanics and homogenization. Did Drk really 'need' a 3rd combo? Or scourge? Nah. But now that the 'bloat' is gone, a lot of people seem to want it back. Same with any number of streamlining based changes. Homogenizing damage would be easier to balance for obvious reasons. But is that artificial constraint a + or negative to the game? If every ability is just "I take less damage" it takes out some of the nuance in tanking. Whats the difference between rampart and raw intuition at that point? Theres no longer a choice in what to use, even if it that choice is currently artificially created. At a certain level, that creates engaging gameplay. To much and its clunky. To little and its to simple/dumbed down. (EG: No more sub stats. Everyone has 'ilvl' stat. etc).

TLDR: at a certain point 'streamlining' becomes boring. Maybe im just not creative enough, but I cant see a lot of mechanic things that become available just because CDs become more straightforward/similar. Any of the examples you used could be done with the current system as far as I can tell.