Abuse me: The Dark Knight Revamped

[Shurrikhan]

Running Thoughts:

I. A Few Assumptions

Thank you for including these.

'Dark Arts' as a button no longer exists, and now is simply the subset of abilities powered by the Dark Knights magic, such as Unleash, Dark Mind, Unmend, etc.

*Feelings of reluctance*

Lunge [Level 4]
Weaponskill
Effect: Requires a parry. Take advantage of an opening in the opponents guard to deal a heavy strike against them. 200 Potency. Does not break combo actions. Lunge morphs into Helmbreaker should enough Blood be present.

Reprisal animation? If an actual lunge, that doesn't seem to make much sense for a greatsword. (Then again, they turned the "helicopter strike" into a Zorro signature for RDM, so it wouldn't be out of keeping with XIV sense.)

Halt the Advance[Level 25]
Weaponskill
Effect: Slam the weapon down, acting both as a bludgeoning club and a shield. Increases parry rate. 150 Potency.

This doesn't seem to make much sense to me. Why would a single strike, meant to act in a simultaneously defensive manner in itself, increase parry rate for a duration? Wouldn't it make more sense to simply sap equal damage from the target's next strike against you, etc.?

Delirium [Level 62]
Ability
Duration: 15
Recast: 120
Effect: Gain the benefit of Blood Weapon and Blood Price.

Why have them be separate in the first place if doing this to them later? Feels... off.

Quietus [Level 64]
Weaponskill
Cost: Blood
Effect: Requires a parry. Strike all enemies within 5y, inflicting them with a 30% Slow for 10 seconds and a 20% Vulnerability for 6 seconds. Quietus counts as the second step in any Combo line. 160 Potency.

Combo swap functionality is interesting, but:
- 30% Slow is huge, especially in a world without any player sources of Slow beyond 5%.
- 20% Vuln. Need I say more?
- AoE dependence. Why attach such interesting effects to something that can only be used in AoE? Give it some breakpoint of situational equilibrium with other reactionary skills, including ST ones like Lunge, by giving it a diminishing potency value over target count so that it's overpowered in neither situation against its alternatives in each.

Bloodspiller [Level 68]
Weaponskill
Effect: Bloodspiller may follow any thirdstep weaponskill in a combo line. 360 Potency. Taking total damage equal to 100% of your health allows you to use Bloodspiller once at any time without interrupting your combo.

Strange, and probably nearly impossible for most players to track the bonus of, but interesting.

Cow the Guilty
Weaponskill
Effect: Strike paralyzing fear into the heart of the enemy. Greatly increased Enmity. Reduces enemy damage by 20% on their next attack. 280 potency.

There will be memes.

Overall:
- It feels overly MT dependent and more a Swordsman than a Dark Knight outside of AoE.

Bloodspiller: You'd get a highlight of some sort. The Blood Gauge will have room for it.

I had meant predicatively. Sure, you'll know when it's available -- it won't be greyed out despite not yet having finished a combo -- but how can one see progress towards it and would they have any meaningful way to plan around that? Unless it doesn't break combos even when using it in between them and uses are available for a brief window rather than only for the next cast (or meeting regular conditions causes it not to consume the opportunity), I imagine you'd have to plan around it as not to soon be shouting in frustration at missed opportunities.

Excluding them normally sets the mindset of what you're aiming for with each. One, greater focus on offensive weaponskills. The other, greater focus on Dark Arts and reactionary weaponskills. Two somewhat opposing themes, suddenly clashed together into one. A slight Franken-steining of the two standard definitions of the word.

"mental disturbance characterized by confused thinking and disrupted attention" + "frenzied excitement"

I mean, if you put it that way it sounds fitting. It just doesn't sound like the DRK we've known nor a version much hinted therefrom. Still probably quite fun, though.