Which DRK was the best

[Tint]

Try to be constructive instead of fighting over which was better so we can have a set direction to push for, rather than getting stuck with the 5.0 mess.

This 5.0 mess is actually the logical consequence of what the community asked for.

Let's look at the history of DRK...

In 3.0 we had the automatic mana drain from Darkside and then we had Dark Arts to further spend our mana and give some skills additional effects.

Honestly that automatic mana drain didn't worked too well, I remember situations especially with many add waves, where you simply could not regenerate your mana properly. An in general it was a bit more difficult to play the job. So the Devs thought they should make DRK easier and more accesible. That was their idea for many jobs in SB anyway.

So in 4.0 they removed the automatic mana drain from Darkside and replaced it with a manual mana drain through Dark Arts.

But then the people complained that the job has too much Dark Arts spam and also that the additional effects of Power Slash and Dark Mind were a dps loss. So they removed the Dark Arts effects or gave it also the 140 potency boost.


What is now the logical way to expand on this?

Dark Arts is just a potency boost button now, so why not simly replace it with an actual off-GCD attack?

And the people don't want to spam Dark Arts a lot? Well, there is no way to go back to the automatic mana drain, so what else can they do? They have to reduce the mana gain, otherwise 5.0 DRK will be just the same button spam, just that the button is now called Edge of Shadow instead of Dark Arts.

Oh and Darkside is just a hit it once and then remove it from your hotbar skill? Why not add a timer, so you have to spend some mana once every 30 seconds to keep it up?


What I don't understand is the boring Inner Release copy. And the lack of selfheal. And that stupid magic mitigation only cooldown... and my person gripe are the magic AoE's, we have a giant sword, why can't we use it for AoE attacks?

But the underlying gameplay mechanic is a logical next step after SB. And catering to the people who quit DRK at the beginning of SB would be wrong in my eyes. They should cater to the people who actually play DRK now.

I will admit that HW DRK was a lot of fun and I liked the clear defined strenghts and weaknesses. And that he had physical only mechanics. They put as much care into designing his weakness as they did when they designed his strenght, it didn't felt like an afterthought.