Just buff Bloodspiller.

[Valdegarde]

Unfortunately the skill can't be 100% free, otherwise you would use it as often as possible as long as you had it for tank busters.

That's what Dark Knights are expected to do currently anyway, otherwise they're even more gimped as a class. At least as the main tank.

[Starkbeaumont]

if it should stay dps neutral it should at least provide the same benefit as souleater. absorb hp. maybe mp as well but that would mean more damage in the end.

bloodspiller gained the normal way (not through broken tbn) feels quite underwhelming atm.

[Jandor]

I would quite like:
Bloodspiller - additional effect: mimics the additional effect of the last used combo weaponskill.

So depending on whether you used Syphon Strike, Soul eater or Power slash before Bloodspiller you'd either restore some MP, restore some HP and get 10 blood, or generate additional enmity.

[SummerScorcher]

I would quite like:
Bloodspiller - additional effect: mimics the additional effect of the last used combo weaponskill.

So depending on whether you used Syphon Strike, Soul eater or Power slash before Bloodspiller you'd either restore some MP, restore some HP and get 10 blood, or generate additional enmity.

I like this idea, but wouldn't you always want to use Bloodspiller after Syphon Strike if this were the case? And, what if you were to use two Bloodspillers back to back? Would it just mimic the previous Bloodspiller's effect, or not do anything at all? This'd also bring back the DPS-neutral dillema, to which I would suggest to only have the additional effect apply on naturally generated Bloodspillers (though I admit, not sure exactly how they would do this).

[Eyvhokan]

Or when TBN breaks it grants you Dark Arts

I like this, but I would make it a separate buff that is consumed for the Dark Arts effect as to avoid double stacking it with manual activation (as the server may decide to give it at an unfortunate time).

[Jandor]

I like this idea, but wouldn't you always want to use Bloodspiller after Syphon Strike if this were the case? And, what if you were to use two Bloodspillers back to back? Would it just mimic the previous Bloodspiller's effect, or not do anything at all? This'd also bring back the DPS-neutral dillema, to which I would suggest to only have the additional effect apply on naturally generated Bloodspillers (though I admit, not sure exactly how they would do this)

Thinking about it, maybe BS as a combo 'replacer' would be better.

Additional effect: can replace combo action Syphon Strike, Souleater or Power Slash, duplicates the replaced actions additional effect(s).

So if you have 50+ blood, you can go Hard Slash - Bloodspiller - Souleater, BS in this case would restore MP.
Hard Slash - Syphon Strike - Bloodspiller would see BS generate 10 blood (and in Grit restore HP.)
Hard Slash - BS - BS would restore MP, then generate 10 blood and (in grit) restore HP.
Hard Slash itself can't be replaced, if you're not mid-combo Bloodspiller just works same as it does now.

IIRC Bloodspiller works out as a slight DPS decrease over a long enough fight because it delays MP restore and blood generation from your 1-2-3 combo. Letting it slot itself in there and keep the combo moving along would in theory "fix" this.

You're probably right that if it duplicated last additional effect everyone would just hold it for use after syphon, this way it doesn't generate anything extra, it just doesn't slow anything down either.

[Steinar]

Are you all serious? DRK is a bloody mess right now, worse than the other two in every possible way and all you ask for is a buff for blood spiller? What about the clunkyness of the class? The messy dark arts spam? The nonsensical animation lock on plunge?

No wonder only war gets decent buffs, they ask for strong buffs, while the DrK playerbase asks for breadcrumbs.

DRKs are too afraid to ask for buffs that would actually make them strong, after all, WARs have to be the alpha dps tanks, even if they already have better mitigation, enmity, and braindead easy rotation.

Oh well, i can already taste the tears that will come when drk gets a 5 pontecy buff to something and se calls it even

DRK -- Forever betamax because their playerbase are too afraid to ask for more.

[Hierro]

DRK -- Forever betamax because their playerbase are too afraid to ask for more.

Or maybe it's because the REAL playerbase, the guys who KNOW how to play the darn class, know it's position isn't far behind the other tanks. Like it or not, there will always be a tank in third place, and it so happens that's where DRK lies. QoL changes are all it needs, at best.

[Chrono_Rising]

Or maybe it's because the REAL playerbase, the guys who KNOW how to play the darn class, know it's position isn't far behind the other tanks. Like it or not, there will always be a tank in third place, and it so happens that's where DRK lies. QoL changes are all it needs, at best.

Less then 14% of the population seems to clear on dark knight and 3/5 fights don't even have a dark knight in the top 100 for tanks, that drops to less than 13% for the later turns. We are also looking at a close to 9% difference in damage now between top dark and top warrior, a gap which continues to rise as the expansion ages and is beyond the natural variation of the game. I also know that a number of those who did raid on dark knight have switched to warrior after prog for speed running. None of these things point to the class being fine. I'm sure there are class fans who want to insist dark knight is fine, but just insisting something "is" doesn't make it reality.

Positing a silent majority of players that "know what they are doing" is nothing more than trying to make people feel bad for requesting their class be looked at and adjusted. It would be nice to actually post some evidence of this "silent elite class".

Based on the number of those players who have been banned from the forums I'm more likely to believe they just cannot say anything.

Are you all serious? DRK is a bloody mess right now, worse than the other two in every possible way and all you ask for is a buff for blood spiller? What about the clunkyness of the class? The messy dark arts spam? The nonsensical animation lock on plunge?

No wonder only war gets decent buffs, they ask for strong buffs, while the DrK playerbase asks for breadcrumbs.

DRKs are too afraid to ask for buffs that would actually make them strong, after all, WARs have to be the alpha dps tanks, even if they already have better mitigation, enmity, and braindead easy rotation.

Oh well, i can already taste the tears that will come when drk gets a 5 pontecy buff to something and se calls it even

DRK -- Forever betamax because their playerbase are too afraid to ask for more.

I think I saw posted somewhere on the balance discord that making delirium a trait rather than a cooldown would go a long way to fixing things, i.e 23 seconds of blood weapon, or 31 seconds of blood price, all the time. As well as the QoL buffs like lowering animation locks on plunge and dark arts to make them more double weave friendly. Its still tame, but its something I guess lol. Adding the old foresight back on dark knight as a physical analog to dark mind at a low level would also be a nice addition for the dark knight leveling experience to make it a little less squishy before we get TBN. Take off grit lock from Soul Eater hp restore.

One more time with some more clarity:
(1) Trait Delirium to upgrade blood weapon and blood price automatically.
(2) Lower Animation locks on plunge and dark arts
(3) Add back a physical analog of dark mind for reducing physical damage
(4) Allow for soul eater to replenish hp out of tank stance, but maybe at a reduced rate

[Steinar]

Or maybe it's because the REAL playerbase, the guys who KNOW how to play the darn class, know it's position isn't far behind the other tanks. Like it or not, there will always be a tank in third place, and it so happens that's where DRK lies. QoL changes are all it needs, at best.

By the way, i have cleared all savage content up to date ( 5s to 7s only as DRK, because no one likes DRK on 8s ). So i guess i know what i'm talking about— better than you do, at least, since the only fight you did as DRK is 6s and you're barely 50%.

It's not "DRK is just third place", it's: DRK is garbage when compared to WAR and PLD, because he brings ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the table, no dps, no utility, no buffs nor debuffs, has less defensive CDs and thus worse mitigation. Is it viable? Yes, it is. Is it optimal? No it is not, in fact, it sucks.

Take for instance 7s fight, where DRK is utter garbage in any role, much lower dps than war as MT and as OT you lose PLD's cover and give a lot more work to your heales when handling prey.

Oh well, i forgot that DRK playerbase has a lot of people like you— who just defend a broken class because they don't want to feel inferior— when in fact they are.

Keep lying to yourself, but the numbers don't lie, and almost no one brings DRK to endgame content nowadays, it's less than half the number of PLDs or WARs.



And @Chrono_Rising, here, have my like.