DRK QOL changes for 5.4

[Lyth]

It's not our job to reach a consensus. I personally disliked the changes to DRK in Stormblood. The decision to make DRK more accessible by removing the Darkside MP drain was unnecessary. Dark Arts was not designed as an MP dump substitute, and the animation was too long for it to be weaved between every single GCD. For that matter, the general response was that a lot of other people disliked it as well and thus voted for it to be changed on the forums. That's even including people who now claim that they had loved it all along through their retrospectoscopes. Go back and check your upvotes. What we have is not too far off what we all requested. Either way, you can only speak for yourself and let others decide if they agree or not.

I also feel that the main problem this expansion isn't so much job specific issues as it is tanking and fight design as a whole. I would like to see Living Dead be addressed and reworked (I think most DRK players do), and I think, broadly speaking, there can be a lot more done to flesh out individual job identities in a way that's more interesting. GNB showed that you can do a burst window without following the standard pattern of Requiescat/HS spam, IR/FC Spam, or Delirium/BS spam. But the broader issue is in giving tanking more raid value. If you make it accessible to the point that anyone can do it or that the consequences of failure are minimised, then people aren't going to want to invest time focusing on it as their primary role in the long run.

[WhyAmIHere]

It's not our job to reach a consensus. I personally disliked the changes to DRK in Stormblood. The decision to make DRK more accessible by removing the Darkside MP drain was unnecessary. Dark Arts was not designed as an MP dump substitute, and the animation was too long for it to be weaved between every single GCD. For that matter, the general response was that a lot of other people disliked it as well and thus voted for it to be changed on the forums. That's even including people who now claim that they had loved it all along through their retrospectoscopes. Go back and check your upvotes. What we have is not too far off what we all requested. Either way, you can only speak for yourself and let others decide if they agree or not.

I also feel that the main problem this expansion isn't so much job specific issues as it is tanking and fight design as a whole. I would like to see Living Dead be addressed and reworked (I think most DRK players do), and I think, broadly speaking, there can be a lot more done to flesh out individual job identities in a way that's more interesting. GNB showed that you can do a burst window without following the standard pattern of Requiescat/HS spam, IR/FC Spam, or Delirium/BS spam. But the broader issue is in giving tanking more raid value. If you make it accessible to the point that anyone can do it or that the consequences of failure are minimised, then people aren't going to want to invest time focusing on it as their primary role in the long run.

calling it now.
6.0 Delirium will be reworked again and will replace DRK's 123 combo with another 123 combo with different effects, and we'll get scourge back with the sonic break treatment. An entirely new kit with a bunshin-treatment'd Blood Weapon, and LD will only afflict the DRK with an esuna cleanseable DoT if walking dead aint cleansed properly. shadowskin returns and gets upgraded to TBN at 70. DRK's 81-90 kit will be boring and unremarkable to mitigate another another redesign for the class with the capstone ability being meh overall. Salted earth removed due to being too hard to use. Abyssal being removed so it's "HP regeneration" can be backed elsewhere into the kit. Bloodspiller gets upgraded at level 86-ish with a move that has more potency than fell cleave, but to compensate it has the sonic break treatment done to it as well and is only useable every 30 seconds.

[Marxam]

I also feel that the main problem this expansion isn't so much job specific issues as it is tanking and fight design as a whole. I would like to see Living Dead be addressed and reworked (I think most DRK players do), and I think, broadly speaking, there can be a lot more done to flesh out individual job identities in a way that's more interesting. GNB showed that you can do a burst window without following the standard pattern of Requiescat/HS spam, IR/FC Spam, or Delirium/BS spam. But the broader issue is in giving tanking more raid value. If you make it accessible to the point that anyone can do it or that the consequences of failure are minimised, then people aren't going to want to invest time focusing on it as their primary role in the long run.

You do realize that from 72-80 there was only one* defensive cd among all four tanks, Dark Missionary, which should imply the theme of what tanks are supposed to be in 5.0. NF is more utility than defensive but NF was a skill that used to be for IB when in Defiance so I don't even regard it as a new skill but rather a crappier version of something we used to have though 5.3 did fix the ease of use so there's that. Ironically job identity lied in its tool kit which used to vary in previous expansion but was gutted in 5.0. Off tank stances were the biggest proponent of that making some jobs play differently even though they all did the same 123 rotation. DRK had MP to manage as well as buffing skills with DA and keeping Darkside up 100%. 4.0 WAR originally had a penalty to switching, was rectified in 4.2, with the same 3.0 game play that we all loved of maintaining buffs and burst windows self sustains. PLD still lacked originality but was now on par with the other tanks.

Some of the biggest complaints from 4.0 DRk was the DA spam, ironically we are still doing it but its called 'shadow' now. It could have easily been fixed if DA only buffed certain skills. Siphon strike didn't need to be buffed so idk why they let it despite not giving back extra MP if buffed. Dark Passenger could have just been a straight ogcd and Blood Price (which was garbage imo) needed to be a straight lucid dreaming MP regen WITH a possibility on proc'ing extra MP/blood on hit. They also needed to make all tank stances be ogcd. That should have been the first thing they did before deciding to gut it entirely.

I'm also inclined to note that the dev teams want to lower the skill ceiling but fail to proved new players with the tutorials needed for it. All you get is a new skill on lvl ups or job quest and then you are on your own. NN is garbage (at least on my server), Novice hall doesn't explain how each jobs vary and what skills they have vs others, and the tool tips are worded poorly at times. I feel that 5.0 was just them throwing their hands up and saying eff-it cuz I haven't seen a lazier rework since watching PLD's oath gauge in evolve from 3.0 to 5.0. Thank god the story and music is excellent cuz but 2/3 is just a 66% score and that's nothing to brag about.