DRK changes from Prelim notes

[auren_23]

For what is worth i really like the changes, makes DRK almost even with WAR in personal toolkit and whether or not to bring a DRK to a fight is now a totally valid question

[NewAgeDoom]

I haven't really leveled any of my tanks yet, but these do seem like welcome changes from the people I talk to in my FC that play DRK.

[Tint]

nice changes, but it doesn't look like they do much for our dps at all.

to the people who are crying here "more dark arts spam" and "double weave plunge" - just because you have more dark arts effects doesn't mean you will have more mana to spam dark arts. the only reason to ever user dark arts plunge is for pulling an enemy from distance. otherwise just fire dark passenger on it.

but that's also the problem here: all those dark arts effects will increase (or decrase for the most people here i guess ^^; ) our QoL, but not our dps. okay, powerslash and more mana from sole survivor, and the fact that we can pull now with DA plunge and fire off dark passenger for bonus enmity, so maybe no enmity combo needed anymore... but i doubt that DRK will be inbetween PLD and WAR dps wise, he will more likely stay on PLD lvl - wich is actually a good thing balancing wise.

but i am excited for the shadow wall change, self heal from sole survivor and off-gcd enmity tools, especially dark arts plunge for pulling! ^O^
...too bad they didn't increased the range of plunge...

[TouchandFeel]

It's a start and there were some much needed changes included here but more definitely still needs to be done.

The first thing they should work on next which could likely be implemented in only half a patch cycle (4.35) or less, is improving DRK's self-healing ability which is sorely lacking especially when compared to WAR.
My suggestions for this are:
- Soul Eater heal is no longer locked behind Grit (seriously this should be added in with THIS patch).
- Add a self-heal to the DA effect of Bloodspiller. This one can be locked behind Grit.
- Add a potency boost with the DA effect on Abyssal Drain (more damage = bigger heal).

As for the DA addition to Plunge ... yeah I agree it was not really necessary. It's not good, it's not bad, it's somewhere in between. It has some good usage scenarios such as initial pull, when re-engaging an enemy and pre-prepping a DA for a knock-back and then using Plunge, so it definitely has some pros to it. However adding a DA effect to an OGCD ability adds to the problem of double-weaving that DRK has. Honestly I would have preferred if they would have just added the additional enmity effect to the base ability so you can cycle between Plunge and Dark Passenger for passive enmity generation, and then boosted the enmity multiplier for the DA version sort of like PS and DA-PS.
Overall though I feel they need to move away from and dial back having DA effects on OGCD abilities to prevent annoying double-weaving and while this change definitely has some beneficial uses to it, it also muddies the water involving the double-weaving problem.

[Xenosan]

Glad to see they put potency++ on DA-Power Slash - now do the same for DA-Abyssal Drain!

Since DA+OGCDs appear here to stay, If they have more changes coming in the months to follow, I may hope that it is to the Dark Arts action itself. (Faster animation & stacks).

[Liam_Harper]

No Dark Arts on Dark Mind, sweet!

...Lol jk, Dark Arts on Plunge.

...Oh :c

Seriously though, from a tank point of view they're some great changes. Solid magic defence reduction, better cd on shadow wall, Soul Survivor does something, better emnity generation. From a dps point of view it adds very little though.
I also really wish we had got a "Souleater heals outside of Grit" change. It was the one change I was hoping on. I don't understand why the Dark magic weilding 2 hander no-shield class that absorbs enemy life force has the niche of being worst at self heal. Surely they got that mixed up?

[Tex_Mex]

When I first read through the changes, I was pretty disappointed. There is some great QoL stuff in there, but the clunky DA spam is here to stay and our DPS was barely modified.

After reading through the changes again, there are a couple of really great things though:

1) Having increased enmity on plunge gives us an threat tool that is actually part of our normal DPS rotation outside of grit, so we should be able to generate a bit more aggro without needing a PS combo. Having to double weave DA on another oGCD it is just plain annoying, but at least it functions.
2) The Shadow Wall change is what I consider to be the biggest buff out of this bunch. DRK was sorely lacking in the damage reduction CD department (especially pre-70) and this goes a long way towards helping that. The DM change should have been done a long time ago, and I still think that they should make damage types much easier to identify so that you know if DM will be useful or not.
3) Sole Survivor just became a very minor DPS CD, which is at least a step up from hardly ever being used.
4) Dark Passenger is now basically the same as just using DA on a single target (slightly less if you consider slashing debuff) and has enmity increase, so now it will be a normal part of my DPS rotation. More threat increases while outside of Grit are definitely welcome.

So all in all, the core playstyle of the class is still clunky as hell, but at least more of it makes sense now. I wish our DPS would've seen a little bit more of a buff, considering how much harder DRK is to play optimally than the other 2 tanks, but it certainly could've been worse.

This glass half full mentality is exhausting...... lol

[Eliroth-Kaminari]

i think DRK dps didnt increase much,

But Def cd managment whent easyer for busters.
i think i can use sole survivor to benefit heal and mp if timed right to expire 1-2s after buster.

DA-Plunge i see it merit in start so we can generate fast aggro on start but i see issue later that i useto use Plunge whit Bloodspiller DA wave and now Plundge will steal that DA .....

[Fourbestintoner]

Souleater still not working outside of grit.
Blood price still not working outside of grit.
Plunge range still too short.
Dark passenger still useless singe target, they should have removed the mp cost on it this patch, I don't care it would be too similar to circle of scorn.

Dark Arts Plunge

What

[Daeriion_Aeradiir]

Well, now, you can't precast Dark Arts, Plunge, then use Carve And Spit at pull...who knows, maybe the next step is to bump Carve and Spit to 310 native potency and still 450 with DA...

Assuming you have a NIN in the party that knows TA timings, you should be delaying your first C&S till first TA at GCD 4-5 so that it's also aligned with TA & slashing debuff is up, so this change doesn't change much regarding DRK opener, just gives a ton of extra enmity on the opener if you're pulling.

The shadow wall and DM changes are pretty great steps forward though. DRK can effectively delete TB damage in magic fights, and has a better time in physical fights like 07S now. Most of the changes are quite welcome steps forward, but they still need some ironing out.