To Mr.Yoshida and dev. [DRK 5.2 Request]

[Nedkel]

A bunch of random ideas that i find wont make drk any different.
Drk does not have a problem with sustain, this one small heal will be barely ever noteciable.
Both magic mitigation def cds affecting only magic dmg is fine because its a balance measure. Drk is one of the tankiest jobs in the game currently, along with war which has his nascent flash and raw intuition compromised for a reason.
Blood weapon change is good and i am behind it, but hitting it 5 times its not impossible you need at least 2.38 sec on gcd to do it without problem which is easy to achive. The problem are our gcd aoe spells which should be weapon skills because they dont bendfit from sks.

[Esmoire]

1."Living Dead"

Problem : Without the Healer, this ability is basically a suicide button.

Request : Please remove healing requirement and K.O punishment effect from Living Dead.

I'd rather Living Dead just be made into a trait that automatically activates when your HP hits 0. It's a way a lot of RPGs handle death-cheating abilities. Usually with a condition like it can only happen once every x minutes, or once-per-battle, etc. Could trigger when the HP of the DRK would hit 0, set HP to 1, and give the DRK the Living Dead state preventing HP from falling below 1 for X seconds. Just like it is now, but without the debuff creating a requirement to heal them back up.

I'd like if they focused more on ways to make the individual tank abilities uniquely awesome, as the cost of increased homogenization makes things easier to compare, which makes the decisions feel less exciting and worse exacerbates the community perception of imbalance as apples more closely resemble oranges.

[SleepyNeko]

I'd rather Living Dead just be made into a trait that automatically activates when your HP hits 0. It's a way a lot of RPGs handle death-cheating abilities. Usually with a condition like it can only happen once every x minutes, or once-per-battle, etc. Could trigger when the HP of the DRK would hit 0, set HP to 1, and give the DRK the Living Dead state preventing HP from falling below 1 for X seconds. Just like it is now, but without the debuff creating a requirement to heal them back up.

I'd like if they focused more on ways to make the individual tank abilities uniquely awesome, as the cost of increased homogenization makes things easier to compare, which makes the decisions feel less exciting and worse exacerbates the community perception of imbalance as apples more closely resemble oranges.

Something like this will be awesome but probably would be overpowered, similar to WoW's WotLK Pally Ardent defender (which was nerfed next expansion).

I just think the current issue with the skill is that Healing potency are as high as previously (SB) so you have trouble removing Walking Dead without benediction. If we add a 10~20% increase healing received to the Walking Dead status then I think the issue will be solved with Living Dead.

[Esmoire]

Something like this will be awesome but probably would be overpowered, similar to WoW's WotLK Pally Ardent defender (which was nerfed next expansion).

I mean, even with my suggested implementation, a lot of people would still say a trait like that isn't as awesome as having Hollowed Ground. xP Can always go the route of giving tanks more awesome stuff exclusive to them, like 40% Sentinel or Holmgang knockback immunity. Stuff like the latter runs the risk of giving tanks encounter-specific advantages, though we kind of already have that with full invulnerabilities which is kind of inevitable with creative freedom.

[SleepyNeko]

I mean, even with my suggested implementation, a lot of people would still say a trait like that isn't as awesome as having Hollowed Ground. xP Can always go the route of giving tanks more awesome stuff exclusive to them, like 40% Sentinel or Holmgang knockback immunity. Stuff like the latter runs the risk of giving tanks encounter-specific advantages, though we kind of already have that with full invulnerabilities which is kind of inevitable with creative freedom.

I just think that suggestion will be totally awesome for Pug dungeon runs and just pushes back alot of the healing stress because you always have a safety net. Even in high end content if the tank is not required to use Invuln it can be there to let healers push dps without worrying about the tank suddenly dropping.

[Esmoire]

I just think that suggestion will be totally awesome for Pug dungeon runs and just pushes back alot of the healing stress because you always have a safety net. Even in high end content if the tank is not required to use Invuln it can be there to let healers push dps without worrying about the tank suddenly dropping.

Definitely! Anything that could avoid this game's horrible buff delay the better.

[DRKoftheAzure]

Today I learned that metrics are not a viable way to discuss the game.

I initially started typing up a response to this, but I figured that would be a waste of time, actions speak louder then words. Here's a video of me, on DRK, soloing Akademia Anyder's last dungeon boss, from 100% to 0%. It wasn't planned well, I kinda just threw up a PF asking for help getting there with no plan/no cd map/no idea what I would do and did it. So there are mistakes I would change in another "attempt".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nGUDB9dSmE


Considering the only defensive I acquire above 70 is Dark Missionary, I think I'm fine. I choose Quetzacoatl because he gets damage up stacks, I knew I wouldn't be able to grab all the orbs, and he has many unavoidable raidwides, so he'd probably do more damage than Twinning/Grand Cosmos' boss, both who also sit around casting things all day that I can negate with a CD+TBN.

I am a PUG DRK. I have gone all of ShB without a static. I am an above average player based on metrics. I do not just "feel" things. I try to find facts I can support using a combination of my own experience and numbers, try to eliminate biases/assumptions if possible, and rely on that as a basis for my arguments. My thoughts are not validated simply because I have them. There is nothing wrong with anecdotes, I use them frequently, just look at my first post in this thread. But they are supporting elements, not the primary spearhead of a discussion, and they need to be made out of more than just tissue paper (my feelings) if you plan on using them to bulk up your statements.

A shaky foundation makes a poor house.

Have you tried other level 80 dungeons?

Because just looking at how the fight works, you would need a lot of healing potions just to try to solo everything else because of how powerful the damage up stacks are for Souleater and Abyssal Drain(if Cure potency scales with damage ups).

I'm also surprised that you didn't forgo skill speed just for more Direct Hit Rate for your gear build...

[OdinelStarrei]

Have you tried other level 80 dungeons?

Because just looking at how the fight works, you would need a lot of healing potions just to try to solo everything else because of how powerful the damage up stacks are for Souleater and Abyssal Drain(if Cure potency scales with damage ups).

I'm also surprised that you didn't forgo skill speed just for more Direct Hit Rate for your gear build...

Hello, thank you for your inquiry and for the opportunity for me to elaborate and conduct further testing.

Since you asked, I went and attempted Tycoon as well for an entire lockout, and that went SIGNIFICANTLY worse. I got him down to 60% at around 6 minutes, and could not go any farther than that.
I tried multiple approaches. Standard, like how I did with Akademia, by following my rotation and just killing it. That did not work, infact he stomped me into the ground.
I tried TBNing on CD, and found myself mana-starved from the lack of TBN breaks due to frequent casts, and also TBN being off CD at crucial moments, such as RAIL CANNON(25% HP for sure).
I tried axing Delirium from my rotation entirely to fill it with more Souleaters for more HP. Didn't work.
Then I completely removed Bloodspiller from my rotation, doing only Souleaters for the maximum amount of healing, specifically started using TBNs and cooldowns on a priority system based on the fight timeline and I got a 60% after 6 minutes.

However, it was NOT because DRK doesn't have enough sustain, it's because Tycoon is WAY WAY stronger than I expected. His auto attacks do 12K, which ALMOST equalizes my Souleater healing with proper TBNing. For example, whenever he casted his Sacraments, sorry, Array moves and casted for an extended period of time, I was able to TBN at the end of the castbar to absorb the next three auto attacks, break it and I got enough GCDs in to last for longer than I thought was possible. But I was always running at an overall HP deficient, which is a massive problem that I will detail in a second. To be 100% honest with you, until next tier, I don't think ANY tank can solo him, except for maybe PLD, but PLD would have SEVERE mana issues without the ability to negate Rail Cannons and you would be prolonging an already long encounter by forcing GCD clemecies. But I would love to be proved wrong by someone! Maybe I should've brought HQ Super Potions, they ARE 6K HP every minute and change, but at that point, I think I've gone off the rails, and I don't think an extra 30K HP would've saved me, just prolonged my death.

What really did me in every attempt was the back to back raidwide damage, combined with his auto attacks. Once I got him down to around 70%, there would be a combination of both array moves, possibly requiring me to reposition, losing GCDs, therefore losing health. There was then a magicrystal aoe would inflict 20K HP+ if not TBN'd. But I couldn't TBN that, because he would immediately follow it up with a Rail Cannon and a Mega-Holy soon after, auto-attacking me almost the entire time. This quickfire combination of high, unavoidable damage decimated my CDs, and even TBN was not enough to keep me alive, especially after the war of attrition I had to fight to even reach that point in the first place. Your margin of error is incredibly small. It's this extended, frequent battering that I'm fairly sure would also kill a PLD, unless you had unrealistically godly block rate. If he was lacking even one of those guaranteed AoE moves, it'd be a lot more manageable. I am confident I could solo him 30% and under after these tests, but he will not go quietly. But I had a lot of fun, I recommend giving it a shot yourself! I'm 1 win and 1 loss, maybe I SHOULD give Grand Cosmos a try.

Regarding the Souleater healing, I did a few experiments about the self-healing and discovered a few things. For one, despite SE having Cure Potency, it is not affected by the Healing Magic Potency stat or the Mind attribute. Instead, it seems to be tied to some strange combination of Weapon Damage and Strength instead. Or maybe even average ilvl? (doubtful) On a dummy, I was getting SE heals at 7K or slightly under it. In parties, I would consistently get at 7K or slightly over it. Natural FFXIV Skill Potency variation aside, I can also attribute some of the "randomness" of SE healing to the increase in STR I acquire while participating in a duty with a party. I think Darkside does buff the healing by a small amount, but that could be just more coincidental variance, my sample size might have been too small.

For reference, I used a 122 WD i475 Edengrace Greatsword for ~7K heals, as displayed in the footage. I then equipped a Great Shin-Zantetsuken (One of the few Level 1 DRK Greatswords) with a WD of 6 and was now healing for a paltry 1.5K, despite my HP dropping by only 15K. I've included other tested greatswords below for each expansion of FFXIV. Keep in mind, these were on a dummy, with the rest of my gear being at i470. Expect around a 100ish HP differential in either direction when using these numbers.

i130 Augmented Ironworks Greatsword at 57 WD : ~3.5K HP restored (I imagine Dreadwyrm Claymore at ~3.6K)
i275 Cronus Lux at 85 WD: ~4.8K HP restored
i405 Xiphias Eureka at 109 WD: ~6.1K HP restored.

But, I can confirm that getting Damage Up stacks from the boss did NOT impact my Weapon Damage, Strength, or Attack Power stats. Or any other stats for that matter. Based on this, I do not think the Cure Potency of Souleater is increased by the Damage Up stacks. This suggests that the Damage Up system (at least in that fight in particular) does not increase a character's attributes, but instead may be adding a small multiplier to the potency value of your skills while under it's effect, with a higher stack increasing the multiplier. This is complete conjecture of course, but it makes sense, considering potency is the only other thing the buff can change if it is not increasing the stats of a character.

Regarding my Skill Speed(1451 at 2.39 SkS on DRK). I've intentionally assigned that value for multiple reasons.
1. Using Popoto Salad, I increase my SKS to 1544, which is just enough SkS to push my GCD to 2.38 on DRK. 2.38 is my preferred GCD for WAR and DRK because they offer the most amount of wiggle room for the IR/Delirium Bloodcleave window. Fast enough to make Blood Weapon's awful, awful design somewhat manageable if I don't have to disengage. But it's also slow enough to comfortably double weave everything under a burst. My WAR does use tome chest and raid helm though for more critical hit, and I use different food for that job.

2. This exact build is also my build for GNB, minus the SkS melds on the weapon. This puts my GCD at 2.40. This is the base rotation speed for GNB to ensure I have 2 cartridges for every No Mercy window in a fight, while also reducing the amount of drifting that will occur from No Mercy that I will naturally accumulate over the duration of a long encounter. Aletin Ves’ser and Sierra Lindfeldt from Tonberry explain this better than I possibly can, so I'm just going to quote them from their excellent GNB guide.
(Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...VNGvyJ0k/edit#)

2.40s GCD is not a rigid requirement - rather, it is simply an encouraged Skill Speed tier for gearing to hit, and it is up to your own comfort level to decide whether 2.40s GCD is right for you. Where a 25-GCD rotation of 2.40s GCD lines up perfectly with the 60 second mark, 2.39s GCD and 2.38s GCD would serve a similar purpose to 2.40s, however these will not line up within your rotation as well due to GCD Desync.

Consider that 25 repetitions of a 2.40s GCD would total 60.00s in their entirety.
Likewise, 25 repetitions of a 2.38s GCD would total 59.50s in their entirety.
Of course, 25 repetitions of a 2.42s GCD would total 60.50s in their entirety.

With an offset of only 0.02s in your GCD either way, a 60-second rotation would have a drift of 0.50s either way, and after only 5 minutes it would cause a desync of an entire GCD from the hard 60s cooldown of No Mercy, our most important buff. Over a long enough period this can pose a problem, where No Mercy would not cover the entirety of a burst window, and therefore it is only recommended that differing Skill Speed tiers be used only to mitigate the effect of latency on your own GCD drift.

So there you have it, bless their souls. Because it shares gear with DRK, it also means I don't need to remeld anytime I switch to my secondary tank, very convenient.

3. I'm 99% sure that if I don't meld to 2.38 SkS I can't get off the last Delirium Bloodspiller/finish my Souleater combo in E4S Phase 1 before he jumps if we get car second, since I don't do any of the uptime strategies designed for that fight in PUGs.

Hopefully one day I can do the 2.32 SkS build without looking like a huge dummy, I really love going fast.

[ArianeEwah]

I think Darkside does buff the healing by a small amount, but that could be just more coincidental variance, my sample size might have been too small.

Edge/Flood of Darkness/Shadow tooltip - Darkside part - says it only increases your damage, but not your attack power or healing power/potency.
Well, just to be save, I tested this on a dummy, and had the same result as you had: ~7k with Souleater, with and without Darkside. You'd really notice 10% increase on 7k.

Regarding weapon damage affecting cure potency: According to theoryjerks the healing formula is:
H = ⌊ f(ptc) × f(wd) × f(hmp) × f(det) × f(tnc) ⌋ × traits ⌋ × f(chr) ⌋ × rand[ 0.97, 1.03 ] ⌋ × buff1 ⌋ × buff… ⌋

So, ofc weapon damage affects healing... yet, I wonder how you still did 1.5k healing with an almost broken weapon. Maybe something 'additive'?! I dunno.

Interessting point here is that healing doesn't have +-5% randomization, but +-3%.

By the way, Infusions increase your healing power as long as this healing potency is affected by your main attribute. (SMN physick e.g. is affected by MND, yet its main attribute is INT.)

PS: I remember during HW some abilities had some tooltips with the sentence 'The healing power is affected by your attack power.' Your common 'dmg buff' ability back then actually increased your attack power, and thus your healing power.
Nowadays healing potency is not affected by this anymore, because all 'dmg buffs' are just what they are - damage buffs.

[DRKoftheAzure]

@OdinelStarrei

I figured Tycoon would give you more trouble but I wasn't sure about Grand Cosmos final boss or Therion from Amaurot(though I assume Therion has an enrage timer)...