Dark Knight: 5.0x Feedback Thread

[Kabooa]

Not having Dark Passenger at level 40 feels really bad especially when leveling and you get a level 40-50 dungeon...

You literally get Flood of Darkness at level 30. It's the same skill.

[Absimiliard]

I've been doing a tremendous amount of experimenting with the various tanks at all tiers of play; different level brackets (via level sync), all raid content (current and former), every trial at all available levels, etc. My results, while not entirely surprising to me, do leave me to wonder if it isn't intentional on some level. DRK got one or two tiers in Heavensward where it got to be good, and it's ranged from mediocre to outright inferior in virtually all other circumstances.

Needing to sacrifice DPS for increased mitigation (looking at you, TBN) is problematic to say the least, especially with the heavy focus on damage output tanks are expected to maintain throughout their careers. This is worsened by DRK's seeming complete lack of utility outside of an option that blows an unreasonable amount of MP (again, TBN) and Dark Missionary. Granted, Dark Missionary is pretty good, but Gunbreaker gets the same cooldown significantly earlier. These issues - lack of utility, need to sacrifice damage for mitigation, slow gameplay, overall mediocre defenses, and generally poor DPS compared to the other tanks - make DRK a generally poor choice in all tiers of content. While viable, playing it is a disservice to your team when you could be bringing much more to the table as a GNB or PLD--or WAR, for that matter.

tl;dr: DRK doesn't do anywhere near enough damage to justify its lack of utility and average defensive ability.

[DRKoftheAzure]

My 1st personal most hated ability;


Living Shadow, it's basically pet that does it's own thing with each hit being 400 and it has it's own rotation(yes the it's Abyssal Drain, Quietus, and Flood of Shadow do work as AoEs) which leads into my 2nd personal most hated ability;


Delirium, MP regen on it sucks for single target if using Bloodspiller but okay if using Quietus in single target, which leads into my 3rd personal most hated ability;


Blood Weapon, it just feels bad to use since all it does is barely give you MP back and is used for Living Shadow.


Now for the personal "meh" abilities; Edge/Flood of Darkness/Shadow, on paper these okay skills but because Darkside is now tied to these skills, it's very "meh" honestly, Bloodspiller and Quietus were nice in Stormblood but have outlived their novelty and are just Fell Cleave/Decimate clones basically, Carve and Spit animation is way too long for it too be oGCD but it looks so cool and I do wish it's potency was at least 200 higher...


And now my suggestions on how to fix DRK in 5.2-5.3 if DRK doesn't get anything for 5.1;


Shadowskin is put back into the game for DRK at level 4, but only provides a 10% HP shield and is GCD, which upgrades into The Blackest Night at level 70 .


Blood Weapon is obtained at level 18, and at level 35 they get Blood Price as a trait which restores HP on hit for Blood weapon and creates a barrier which nullifies damage equaling HP restored for both Blood Weapon and Souleater.


Edge/Flood of Darkness remain as they are but Darkside is its own separate button again and you also get Edge/Flood of Shadow at the same level along with Quietus, Abyssal Drain, Bloodspiller, and Carve and Spit, although Edge/Flood of Darkness becomes Shadow when you have 50 blood gauge and you can use Bloodspiller/Quietus if you used Edge/Flood of Shadow, and can only use Carve and Spit/Abyssal Drain if you used Bloodspiller/Quietus.


Dark Arts is its own separate button again but sits on a 60 second cooldown which for 10 seconds boosts the potency of all weaponskills/spells by 140, which then upgrades into Delirium, increasing the duration to 20 seconds and removing Blood gauge costs during those 20 seconds, which upgrades into Living Shadow(can still have the pet thing) and changes the potency increase from 140 to 400 and increases duration to 25 seconds.


Living Dead gets the trait Sole Survivor, where if Living Dead fades naturally or "Walking Dead" condition that requires 100% HP to be fully restored fulfilled, it applies "Another Victim" status which prevents you HP from dropping below 1HP for 15 seconds and fully restores HP once it fades(recast timer will need to be bumped to 420 seconds for this to be balanced).


And Dark Passenger is brought back as level 40 ability.


EDIT: Reviving this thread because I believe that there is a better way to fix DRK as well as address a compromise to certain skills that I have disdain for(I hope I'm using the word "disdain" right).

For clarification see the following threads:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...oing-to-be-fun...


http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...llow-up-thread

[Cabalabob]

Just picked DRK up since the expansion so I’m still only 70, but looking at the skill list nothing much actually changes other than potencies, another charge on plunge and getting living shadow which is essentially just another cooldown.

And I have to say it feels awful.

Edge of shadow is just brain dead, dark arts wasn’t great but this isn’t better.
Nothing feels like it restores enough mp. Particularly in AoE where we used to be able to blood price and quietus for huge amounts of mp, now we get 500mp from 1 target in the entire pack...
There’s really nothing else outside of that. All we do is spam souleater. Extremely boring.
And of course mitigation is still the worst of all the tanks because of living dead, dark mind and the blackest night.

I feel like DRK could really do with a mechanic it has to maintain. Something like greased lightning or blood of the dragon. I think it would be a lot more interesting if they made blood weapon into a mechanic like that, make DRK into the MNK of tanks, give it back the haste buff and make it so the DRK has to do something to stop it falling off, like a second combo finisher maybe? (hard slash > syphon strike > scourge?). The long cooldown and short duration on current blood weapon makes it feel really weak when an mp drain feels like it should be a central mechanic to a job dedicated to spending mp.

Another thing I feel could be changed would be just fusing salted earth into abyssal drain. 60sec cooldown 200 potency drain that leaves a puddle of salted earth that drains another 200 potency for 15 seconds (total drain 1200). Make the hp drain only effect 1 target like current blood weapon so it basically lines up with the other tank’s heals.

Mitigation needs an overhaul, cooldowns should only benefit you, not punish you. Especially when half the time it’s out of your control if you get punished (Living dead healing requirement that you can’t heal yourself).

It could probably use more changes but I feel if they did something along those lines it would at least feel less mind numbing to play.

[Starkbeaumont]

oh another drk topic

the job is fine.
if you don't like the way it works play a different tank
also i see lot's of "wrong" opinions cause they are based on wrong information. please understand the class first before you judge it.

with that out of the way: yes, even i wouldn't mind a change of living dead

[Absimiliard]

oh another drk topic

the job is fine.
if you don't like the way it works play a different tank
also i see lot's of "wrong" opinions cause they are based on wrong information. please understand the class first before you judge it.

with that out of the way: yes, even i wouldn't mind a change of living dead

And what of the skilled players that also believe DRK needs some tweaks? Not everyone giving negative feedback is inexperienced or unlearned.

[shao32]

oh another drk topic

the job is fine.
if you don't like the way it works play a different tank
also i see lot's of "wrong" opinions cause they are based on wrong information. please understand the class first before you judge it.

with that out of the way: yes, even i wouldn't mind a change of living dead

nobody should be forced to leave the job they love bcs SE decide to R.I.P his gameplay and identity instead of do what they should, improve it.

[Deceptus]

And Dark Passenger is brought back as level 40 ability.

The absolute last thing DRK needs is MORE aoe damage abilities. They have 7 as it is now (too many IMHO)

[RyuDragnier]

nobody should be forced to leave the job they love bcs SE decide to R.I.P his gameplay and identity instead of do what they should, improve it.

They did that in SB when they forced a bunch of HW DRKs off the class due to DA spam, the loss of its identity, skills, and combos, and clunkiness. They've brought it back to a smooth feel. All we need is a few QoL changes and one skill change (Delirium), and we're perfect.

[shao32]

They did that in SB when they forced a bunch of HW DRKs off the class due to DA spam, the loss of its identity, skills, and combos, and clunkiness. They've brought it back to a smooth feel. All we need is a few QoL changes and one skill change (Delirium), and we're perfect.

at least in SB DRK keep most of his original mechanics, i granted for some SE take the resource management to a bit extreme and make a poor choice making dark passenger a non viable option to spend MP single target but the job was more close to HW that this WAR-SAM frankestein.

i will argue DRK need at minimun blood weapon and delirium changes to recover some identy and become for say something much better.