Dark Knight is broken.

[TouchandFeel]

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I don't really feel that the core of Dark Arts needs to change that much, that part is fine as is. The problem that I see with it is the way it synergizes with and affects other abilities. Like I said, +140 pot is just lame and a missed opportunity to do something cool with additional effects to abilites from Dark Arts usage.
I go into the kind of stuff that I would like to see or think would help with this in a rework thread I made a little while back.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...od-Dark-Knight

You do touch on an issue that has been bugging me more and more as time goes on. DRK has virtually no real burst window. To me this is a problem because it leaves DRK with no good way to take advantage of party buff windows like Trick Attack, or at least nowhere near the extent that WAR or PLD can. That just doesn't sit right with me. That and it also leaves the game-play of DRK a tad flat, like you're never really building up to or preparing for something. It's too consistent. Hopefully the devs will be able to figure out a way to give DRK a real burst window and cycle when they do a rework while maintaining a uniquely DRK feel to it.

Off the top of my head here is a little variation of an idea that I had before on how to do this.
Create a way to "store" Dark Arts usages where if you press the DA button again after activating it but not consuming it with an ability, it "stores" that usage as an "Abyssal Shard" (or whatever) that appears on the gauge UI sort of like WHM Lilies which could then boost the effect of the next DA that gets consumed by an ability, such as doubling the potency increase from the DA.

[Mahrze]

...

Well, the thing is is that DRK right now has more resources to use and less ways to optimally use them:

* DA can be used on 9 different actions/abilities for a 140* pot increase on 7** actions/abilities and 2 "defensive" boosts
* Blackblood can only be used on 3 abilities. And while we have 3 abilities to gain this resource, its gain is the only burst we got.

The crux here is not just the way an ability affects gameplay, but how that helps the identity of the class. The job has two resources that can easily overflow and like you mention: "The job is too consistent in what it does"; everything DRK does can probably be measured by a metronome and never miss a beat. And we agree with this, it's not that its bad, but it's not just boring, it's overall unsatisfying.

Saving dark art shards is really not that different than having DA as an effect for (x)s. Which puts us back to square one. DA (and Blood abilities) need to be satisfying and have a flow that makes the DRK as a job feel satisfying and have a flow. We both agree, they CAN work on a job mid expansion to fix its issues. But IMO, changing the way DA works and making the blood gauge more useful is at the crux of it all.

[TouchandFeel]

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I don't disagree with what you said and agree that more could be done to utilize the Blood Gauge.
However, I would say that the way a job/class plays in a game defines it's identity and vice versa. They are intrinsically linked. DRK has a thematic identity, that's not a problem, it's the fact that it doesn't have a well defined and implemented game-play identity.

I don't feel that making DA a trait or something rolled into Darkside really helps anything nor makes the job more interesting, it just strips away the jobs main identifying game-play gimmick and makes it a passive part of the job. That seems more boring and bland to me.

Making it so that Dark Arts is a short 10s buff may help with the problem of double-weaving but it again makes it more bland by removing more active control and decision making for essentially constant, rolling mini buff/burst windows. I don't feel that really fixes the overly flat and consistent feel to DRK right now, it just changes the flavor ever so slightly.

As I stated earlier, I strongly feel that Dark Arts could be good but it needs to do more than just add potency to a bunch of stuff. There needs to be more actual choice and decision making provided from Dark Arts, not many roads that all lead to the same destination.

The shards idea was just something off-the-cuff as an idea to be provide a way for a DRK player to have the choice to actively shift their damage cadence by spreading out the cost, but then shifting and grouping the effect so that they can have a form of controlled burst to make use of things like party buffs or to adjust to things like boss jumps and the like. That and it would add an extra layer of complexity, which DRK could really use imo. By no means do I think it is a perfect idea as was presented and it could use refinement, I'm sure, but I would much rather add something like that than essentially take away Dark Arts.

EDIT:

Another idea for something like the shards that just popped into my head but utilizes Blood instead of Dark Arts.
Rework Delerium so that it works as follows:

Delirium - Lvl.66 – Ability <-- shifted to lvl.66 while Quietus and Blood Spiller are shifted to 62 and 64.
Cast: Instant – Recast:80s – Cost: variable – Range: 0y – Radius: 0y
Restores MP.
Additional Effect: While active the Blood cost to use any abilities is removed and the Blood Gauge drains by 10 every second. The effect ends when the Blood Gauge is empty.

This is very similar to a mash-up of the old Inner Release and the new Inner Release, which imo is very fun, so it could definitely use some refinement or adjustment but eh ... just something that popped into my head as a Blood fueled alternative for providing DRK some burst.

Other abilities such as Blood Weapon and Blood Price would probably need some adjustment to make up for the loss of the current Delirium.

[Mahrze]

...

I'd like to preface by saying that I am 100% on the same side in terms of sentiment (And have been since the start of our exchange). DRK needs a lot of work to make the "lore" or thematic part of its ID into its game-play.

I agree that 10s of a burst usage is not as controlled as a stack, but if we're to be honest 99.9% of the player-base would just use all the stack in a DPS window (akin to how WAR and PLD use their own resources in the same manner) hence why I saw it on the same angle. And if I may be cynical, the way the other two tanks play at this point point to that.

We're both on the same page on how DRKs motif should be of being in control about how much and when should it use all of its power (a condition to the trait part was making actions/abilities more costly in exchange but I digress) and that the choices right now are bland and predictive. And that's just wrong.

edit:

That was another thing I thought of in regards to delirium but it would just be how much can you make DRK into WAR, and while I know its fun, it doesn't really feel like it'll fix the issue. Again, just me.