Quote Originally Posted by Chrono_Rising View Post
And as Aana said, these conversations always seem to revolve around TBN, but fixing this one skill is hardly the fix dark knight needs.
I respectfully disagree, I do believe Dark Knight has other pressing issues still remaining, but I feel that TBN as it exists in its current form still creates quite a bit of contention among the playerbase and would benefit Dark Knight tremendously for being looked at. For example, with people who'd otherwise choose to main Dark Knight and possibly pick an alternate tank instead to not deal with Dark Knight's strange nuance in some of its skills such as Living Dead, TBN, Bloodspiller potencies, etc.

I'm not going to be ashamed to admit anymore, that I still find TBN very hard to use. Using it with tank busters is fine, but on auto attacks, I still miss it quite often since almost every fight is radically different and I don't always know when to gauge strings of 2-3 auto attacks to break it. And when it doesn't...boy, I feel like a failure as a tank, sitting there wasting MP and defense and especially offense. And for such a reactive skill, it seems to suffer heavily from server ticks, I cannot count how many times that a bosses' attack comes out seconds after I use TBN, hits me normally, TBN soaks the next hit (or doesn't) and there goes 50 blood and the healers have to watch me like a hawk.

Yet I feel very pressured to use TBN this way because it's what tanks are supposed to do, correct? Utilize their defensive capabilities to the utmost? TBN just on tank busters or easily predictable attacks seems like a waste, as many have mentioned already in this thread. And I think that's a bad thing. I do think I dislike this skill more than most, with how it's stripped away a lot of Dark Knight's other capabilities for a niche thing (think Red Mage and verraise, that's how I feel about Dark Knight and TBN), but I admit it's a really cool concept and I like when I can pull it off or have perfect TBN uptime in a fight. I just think there's still some major frustration involved with its current implementation and making it more reactive and less punishing wouldn't ruin Dark Knight's playstyle any more than it already has been.

If I'm going to talk about Dark Knight complaints, it's this feeling for me. TBN existing and having to sacrifice all of Heavensward Dark Knight for it, for a skill that feels like a sacrifice each time I use it, just sort of contributes to this tinge of Dark Knight being this rewardless-feeling playstyle that the other tanks don't suffer from. It's so cool to be able to Divine Veil early enough and have your Fight or Flight in sync for Goring Blade then Requiescat and a full string of Holy Spirits on Paladin, or a perfectly timed Inner Release that you're able to Thrill + Upheaval and Onslaught all during like a Trick Attack or something. Dark Knight, while I love it to pieces and still prefer it to the other tanks despite all this, feels like "do everything all the time, don't overflow MP or blood, Salted Earth 100% uptime and don't f#%@ TBN up or you just lost your relevance as a tank in this party"

I apologize for such a rant, but I had to get it all out. Judge me if you want, but I hope some other hopeful Dark Knight players can relate with these frustrations.