Are Dark Knights really that bad right now?

[Hierro]

Do some research. Even within a post linked here about people suggesting DRK changes, there's plenty of people going "no that'd be OP / that'd break DRK / that'd make PLD/WAR inferior / etc etc."

So far the only change that hasn't been shunned by and large that I can recall is removing the grit-requirement for the HP gain on souleater. Any time LD is brought up it's "yeah it's kinda bad, but don't compare it to Holmgang/HG" like that's a valid reason for dismissing any attempts to put forth ideas to make LD better.

It's a running joke at this point in my eyes. "Yeah DRK is bad, but it's not that bad because >UCoB / UwU WORLD FIRST!" and "Dark Mind is OP!" and as soon as the mention of "DPS -v- Utility should mean DRK does damage comparable to WAR" comes up, you see WAR mains come out and say "nah."

I think removing the grit requirements on a heal would be OP. Currently, DRK has no issue healing for 5k per DASE combo while in grit. Imagine tacking on an extra 20% in healing. That would push healing to practically 10% of our HP every combo. For context, WAR's Storm's Path combos heals for about 2k for each path combo, and that's not spammed repeatedly. This proposed DRK heal would be nearly half of what a Clemency can do, and PLD has to use an entire GCD and resources that set back its DPS for it.

DRK just isn't bad. It's not the highest DPS, and doesn't offer two AoE shields, but it doesn't need to either when it's come as far as it has, and especially during a time when tank DPS has never been so close together as before. I'm sorry you don't like objective evidence when it comes to evaluating a class.

I miss getting substantial mp on blood price. With big pulls it was freaking infinite while price is ticking

Have you ever tried a big pull with quietus and blood weapon? Yep, now there's infinite MP right there, and it's a hell of a lot stronger than HW's days of spamming AD. I think you're missing the point about blood price, when its purpose has been refitted to give primarily blood to be used for the stronger Quietus, and refunds more MP that way too.