Dark Knight under review: Feedback to the Developers and Community Team

[Rollout]

I'm going to flesh out my idea from the other day a bit more.

I feel that each tank should have an identity of its own. To me, a Paladin is the standard defender; they're capable of protecting themselves but also prioritize protecting others. Warriors, meanwhile, are selfish, aiming to push themselves as long as possible and keep their foes focused on only them, so they can keep fighting, without regarding the safety of others.

So, where does that leave Dark Knight? To me, I don't see Dark Knight as actively protecting others, as in putting themselves in harm's way. They're more likely to butcher the thing that's attacking someone they're protecting, rather than shield them with their body. They will kill the attacker before it kills them or their charge. I feel that that should be the Dark Knight's identity. They should be the powerhouse tank, sacrificing ample mitigation and party utility in exchange for sheer, raw damage.

In order to do this, however, I feel that Dark Knights should have a LOT of its mechanics addressed, and I will begin with...

Dark Arts

Dark Arts is just... not fun. It's not interesting or entertaining to use this move every time you want to increase the power of some of your moves. Classes with lots of oGCDs are fun, but it's not fun when it's spamming the same thing over and over just to get extra potency on attacks. However, I do feel that Dark Knights empowering their abilities with Darkness is a signature of the class. So, I suggest that Dark Arts be removed and we instead focus on...

Darkside & Black Blood

Darkside, as it is, is something that you turn on and leave on. There's no reason NOT to use it, to the point where it's boring. And Black Blood is something that is introduced so late that it feels almost as if it were tacked on to the class so that it'd have a Job Gauge like the rest of the classes.

In order to make both of these more interesting, I suggest that Darkside be fueled by Black Blood, introducing the resource as soon as you get Darkside from your level 30 job quest. Activating Darkside will begin draining Black Blood and grant you the additional 20% damage increase. But, to reward you for managing your Blood, it will also have the effect of giving all of your weaponskills, spells and abilities the increased potency and additional effects as if they were under the effects of Dark Arts.

This way, Dark Knights learn to manage Black Blood for powerful burst phases that show off their sheer damage they are capable of inflicting to those that would harm others. But, since Black Blood is going to be used as a resource for fueling Darkside, I feel that other abilities need to be addressed...

Quietus and Bloodspiller

As these abilities use Black Blood currently, under my proposed new system, they would cause you to drain Black Blood very rapidly. I suggest, instead, that the Blood cost of these abilities be removed and their usages shifted.

Quietus, I feel, should have its potency increased to make it comparable to Warrior's Decimate. As MP management would be less of an issue for Dark Knights with the focus being on Black Blood, the MP gained can be removed. But in order to prevent it from being totally unbalanced, I suggest it be turned into an oGCD and given a moderate cooldown, so it cannot be spammed.

Bloodspiller, meanwhile, I feel should be the Dark Knight's endgame identity. It is an extremely powerful attack and one that should be used frequently to dole out justice to those that would harm those weaker than themselves. I suggest that it be turned into a weaponskill combo that branches off Syphon Strike, in contrast to Soul Eater. Allow it to maintain its high damage and I would even suggest it outright ignore the damage penalty from Grit. The trade off would then be between using Souleater to generate Black Blood for your burst phases or use Bloodspiller to dish out damage.

The changes might seem overpowered, but I feel that it would help separate Dark Knights from Paladins and Warriors. But, there are other abilities that interact with Black Blood that I feel should also be tweaked.

Blood Weapon, Blood Price and Delirium

Due to the introduction of Black Blood as soon as you get Darkside, I feel that Blood Weapon and Blood Price should generate Black Blood immediately. However, in order to prevent Blood Weapon from being too powerful from the start, I feel that the amount of Black Blood you generate should be reduced from three Blood per hit, to one Blood per hit. Blood Price should remain the same, as it can be used to generate your Blood during a dungeon which you can then use for your burst phase at the start of the next boss fight.

But, in order to keep both of these abilities relevant at the end game, I suggest that the level 66 trait, Enhanced Black Blood, instead be turned into Enhanced Blood Weapon & Blood Price.
This trait would restore the Black Blood generated from Blood Weapon from one to three. While Blood Price will carry the effect of reducing the cooldown on Quietus every time you are struck,
perhaps with a brief cooldown on how frequently this can happen to prevent Quietus from being too powerful.

Delirium, meanwhile, I feel is a perfectly fine ability, but due to the fact that Black Blood is introduced alongside Darkside, I suggest that you learn this ability much sooner. Since Dark Arts would be removed under my proposed system, I feel that it should take the place of your reward for your level 45 quest. And since you'll be wanting to use Delirium to help you generate Black Blood for your burst phases, I suggest removing the cost.

Since you're getting Delirium as soon as you hit level 45, rather than 62, I suggest that you gain a trait at level 62 that lets Delirium grant you Black Blood, so that it can be used early in a boss fight to reach your burst phase sooner.

Now, all of these tweaks and changes would, hopefully, result in a massive increase in damage output from Dark Knights, which is my intention with these suggestions. However, as I believe that Dark Knights should be more focused on butchering their foes, rather than defending themselves or others from them, I feel that their defensive capabilities should be... balanced.

Grit

As it stands, Grit is just a worse Shield Oath. It's simply a 20% damage mitigation and 20% damage dealt penalty. To set it apart from Shield Oath, and in order to keep with the theme of Dark Knight's being the powerhouse and slaughterers, I suggest that Dark Knights have their damage resistance and damage dealt penalty on Grit reduced to 10%, while also giving it an additional effect of having a chance of dealing a low potency attack to enemies when they are struck.

This would make Dark Knights squishier than the other tanks, but hardiness shouldn't be their identity;
that belongs to Warriors. Rather than being able to survive incredible amounts of punishment,
Dark Knights should be focused on killing everything before they can take that much damage.

I don't doubt that these suggestions might be incredibly unbalanced. And they could very well be a damage nerf, rather than gain, like I think it is. But I imagine a seasoned team of developers would be able to balance it much better. My main intention with these suggestions is to give Dark Knight an identity that really sets it apart from the other two tanks.

Paladins are the defenders.
Warriors are the survivors.
Dark Knights are the slayers.