Leveling Kit tweaks for Tank Jobs

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Generally I agree that moving certain skills down the pipe is generally not a bad idea like they did with Sheltron with Shadowbringers, however I don't quite agree with all of them. I'll go over it in detail and explain why it is actually not ok / healthy for the levelling process and experience. Power budget matters for levelling too.

PLD: while it does not need many changes, there are a few things that can be done to make it feel smoother and adding a bit of fun.

sheltron- lv 35. this should have a base duration of 8 seconds imo, with a trait around the 60-70 range that lowers its gauge cost to 30. these changes would make PLD feel sturdier without adding button bloat.

Intervene- lv 52. introducing PLDs gap closer at an earlier level will help newer tanks with being more efficient in their movement between mobs, and can also be helpful with efficiently moving to bosses after an aoe. besides, it's a fun skill, and most tanks get their gap closers by lv 60, so PLD shouldn't be left out. at lv 74 it gets the trait to add a second charge

I can get behind the Sheltron changes and I for one would love Sheltron get some love after they took away Bulwark from them in favor of the meme that we currently have, but honestly baseline 8s is a bit powerful. Making it baseline 6s and traiting it up to 8s with the Lv74 Trait does sound alright though.

Lowering gauge cost is effectively a cooldown reduction. While I am receptive of this change, it still has two fundamental issues:
- you still have to generate the resource with auto attacks (NIN had this replaced)
- you shift the power budget a fair bit around within the kit, assuming you keep Intervention at 50 gauge. Not bad per se, but would require careful tuning.

Personally, make Sheltron a 25s / 30s cooldown with two charges and share resources with Intervention. Upside, you have Sheltron from the get go and dont have to farm it and dont get punished if you lose uptime for any reason from a boss, making PLD sturdier as a maintank. Downside, potentially less Sheltron over the course of a fight (22s charge time right now with 2.2s auto attack interval) after a certain breakpoint, assuming you use Sheltron without ever overcapping.

Intervene, honestly no. PLD has their niche for Lv60 being the only tank with their 2nd AOE mitigation (bar reprisal), for Lv70 they have a ranged attack window and even more AOE mitigation. Having Intervene be the Lv74 gapclosers will make it a big "FINALLY" for when players eventually reach it, rather than have it handed down "just because others have it". Great skill, but there should be joy in learning skills after reaching a higher point in the game - Intervene does a good job on that.

DRK: while its not STB DRK, the current build has potential to be fun for both new players and veterans, and it definitely needs some tweaks to achieve that.

Blood weapon- lv 30. this would help new DRK players learn about building and spending mana from the getgo, while at the same time easing the difficulty of haukke and brayflox for those who are leveling.

Edge of Darkness- lv 35. moving this back would make a few of the middle dungeons such as sunken temple and cutters cry a little more bearable, and would make room for the next skill to be moved in its place

Literally just "I want this a bit earlier", but overall for the levelling or dungeon experience it hardly matters and you will learn it in time by Lv50, assuming you don't POTD.

Stalwart Soul- lv 40. this skill is extremely nice for DRK to have at a lower level. it's not too strong, and helps round out the aoe rotation of DRK, but it is unlocked way too late for a 160 potency skill. the other 3 tanks have their aoe rotations at this level, and I feel DRK would benefit from this change a lot. mana generation is already extremely limited in this class, and getting stalwart earlier would be the perfect tool to ease that problem for both older content as well as helping newer DRKs get accustomed to mana management at an earlier level. at lv 62 it can generate the 20 blood just like it does now

Unless it has restrictions and is traited up, hard no. Let me explain.

At Lv40+, every tank has access to at least two AOEs, including DRK. What sets DRK apart is that their's is oGCD and at a rather high potency, only restricted by MP cost. It also is their way of entering Darkside, buffing their general damage output. PLD's AOE in comparison is fairly alright at 120-220, WAR has 150-200 but refreshes Storm's Eye if applied and GNB generates cartridges for Burst Strike.

If you gave DRK Stalwart Soul at lv40, you'd need to remove or heavily reduce MP generation until a later point, otherwise the AOE dps of DRK at lv40-60 would be absolutely bonkers. What you could do for example is introduce it at Lv40, let it generate blood at lv62 (blood gauge acquired) and generate (more) MP [200/300 -> 600] and even Blood [10 -> 20].

The other tanks have a similar scheme there. WAR doesnt generate Beast Gauge until Lv74 with their AOE combo, PLD doesnt have use for MP until they learn Holy Circle for AOE and same applies for GNB's Fated Circle.

In a nutshell, current Stalwart Soul is too strong for anything below Lv72. In SHB, the AOE combo is viable at two targets already due to the resource generation being applied over two GCDs rather than 3, only losing out when it comes to utilizing Blood Weapon due to their 2.50s GCD recast.

Abyssal Drain- lv 56. if you wont make it a mana spender, give it 2 charges you cowards!

Honestly, fat YES from me. Having that second charge to allow me to manage it better for pack healing would be fantastic. Though similar with Plunge trait, likely a trait at a later point, but I'd be ok with it.

Dark Missionary- lv 58. the hole in DRKs kit (rip soul survivor) at this level could be filled with DM. there is a lot of magical raidwide damage in HW, STB and SHB, and bringing this skill to an earlier level would allow newer DRKs to get used to using it for raidwide damage much sooner, an important skill in the long run. this would also help fill DRKs lack of raidwide mitigation for savage and ultimate content as well.

I'll admit that having Dark Missionary earlier than Lv76 (at least for Stormblood content) would be desirable even from me, given what they did with GNB and how it affected Ultimates (UCOB + UWU) with their kit being pretty much "complete" with Lv70. For HW content, idk man. Seems overkill to me, would leave PLD as the sole tank having their AOE mitigation for that period honestly.[/QUOTE]

the hole left at lv 72 could introduce traits that enhance stalwart and CnS mana generation. perhaps making them each generate 1200 mana to help DRks lower DPS in the lv 80 content.
the hole at lv 76 could be used for anything else the devs might want to tweak for DRKs performance, but I cannot think of anything other than a trait that makes BW 15 seconds, but i dont know how much help that would be, or if its even wanted/needed.

Lv72: Carve and Spit, no, Stalwart Soul, yes if you apply what I wrote above. Important to remember that you can translate MP to potency for OGCD spenders, meaning +600MP would mean +100 potency at Lv80 (assuming Edge of Shadow use only).

Lv76: Abyssal Drain trait as I wrote above maybe?

BW trait would just further excarbate the issue that current Blood Weapon has, which is that each BW represents +500 potency in MP and +200/300/400 potency in GCD depending what you replace for Bloodspiller and it generally is rather annoying to deal with even with really good ping due to potential jitter in your connection. More ticks = more pressure on making sure to land all GCDs under it. Also lul more MP generation.

Anyways, that is just my take on how I see the kits and as you may notice, I am less interested in the "fun" and rather in the appropriate design of kits / game design, so feel free to disagree and take things with a grain of salt.