DRK skill: Living Dead

[AnotherPerson]

Living Dead doesn't really make sense from a Final Fantasy lore perspective, either. Vengeance, Justice, and Tenacity are themes, sure, but Undeath isn't. Dark Knights are not Death Knights, and if we were, we'd probably have the self-healing to support the ability (WAR can, we can't). Someone was staring a little too hard at Warcraft for ideas when they tried to rip off Purgatory.



The best ability designs are simple and intuitive. In the case of invulns, they also have to be dps neutral (MP draining or generating concepts don't work because you either avoid the ability or try to proc it on recast). Living Dead is just too convoluted. It needs to be scrapped and redesigned from the ground up.

I believe the lore behind Living Dead was somewhat related to vengeance and fighting past your limit to gain your sense of justice before finally dissipating into the abyss - the previous user (Frey) was hinted to be doing just that, getting skewered but still fighting on until after he dies completely. It was mentioned before you get your job crystal. Then again Dark Knights were also more edgy before and had to attune themselves to the Darkness with Dark Arts. A part of Dark Knight lore was the more damage they took ('more pain' they feel), the stronger their darkness gets and the stronger their abilities become.

Perhaps giving The Blackest Night having an added passive that removes the 'will completely die' effect of Walking Dead when used would be a good change - from both a storyline standpoint since it shows how we come to accept ourselves and the can embrace the darkest of the abyss while forging on.

[WhyAmIHere]

I believe the lore behind Living Dead was somewhat related to vengeance and fighting past your limit to gain your sense of justice before finally dissipating into the abyss - the previous user (Frey) was hinted to be doing just that, getting skewered but still fighting on until after he dies completely. It was mentioned before you get your job crystal. Then again Dark Knights were also more edgy before and had to attune themselves to the Darkness with Dark Arts. A part of Dark Knight lore was the more damage they took ('more pain' they feel), the stronger their darkness gets and the stronger their abilities become.

Perhaps giving The Blackest Night having an added passive that removes the 'will completely die' effect of Walking Dead when used would be a good change - from both a storyline standpoint since it shows how we come to accept ourselves and the can embrace the darkest of the abyss while forging on.

Yeah but then that just adds more unneeded complexity to the skill.
"If The Blackest Night is active while under the effects of Walking Dead, [x] instead of [y]." Plus i'm sure that'd be a nightmare and a half to figure out what to do, let alone code.
I'm all for just a redesign to something that isn't as punishing on the user for other players misplays.

[AnotherPerson]

Yeah but then that just adds more unneeded complexity to the skill.
"If The Blackest Night is active while under the effects of Walking Dead, [x] instead of [y]." Plus i'm sure that'd be a nightmare and a half to figure out what to do, let alone code.
I'm all for just a redesign to something that isn't as punishing on the user for other players misplays.

How is this change punishing the user for other players misplays? Giving The Blackest Night an extra effect to remove Walking Dead while giving the shield ability lets the user correct other player's mistakes by letting them survive with their own invulnerability skill properly without relying on others.

Skills that do [x] instead of [y] under buff [A] or buff [B] exists already - AST's collective unconscious is a prime example. We also have Monk's Dragon Kick and Bootshine being the best example here. Under the status effect of [Leaden Fist], Bootshine's effect gets a potency change. When under the effects of [Walking Dead], The Blackest Night's skill activation can simply be coded to remove Walking Dead's effect if it is active. The barrier is a separate buff from the skill itself.

This would be a Quality of Life change as you should still be dependent on healers to adjust and remove the walking dead buff since walking dead only stops your HP from dropping under 1 in group content.
However, in the event the healer dies or you're playing solo content, you can use your invuln with The Blackest Night without strictly requiring a healer to save you from the Living Dead's killing effect. The Blackest Night may remove Walking Dead from killing you and giving you an HP buffer with the shield, but it won't restore your HP - as is with all invulnerabilities.

The only problem here would then be if you somehow popped The Blackest Night 5 seconds before you turn on Living Dead (which makes no sense why you would shield before activating the invuln since the invuln loses its effectiveness) and then wouldn't have The Blackest Night available to remove your Walking Dead status.

That can more easily and effectively be achieved through a general job mechanic, though, rather than making one skill in particular convoluted af.

I'd agree with you here. The effect can be a trait tied to living dead that changes walking dead automatically at lv 70. Then again, you also have people who complain tanks play all the same and are carbon copies of each other. The invulnerabilities are at least somewhat unique with each job having their own caveats with their invulnerability so I proposed an idea to keep the skill's uniqueness rather than make them similar to the other but eh. I guess people also like the idea of going down the route of turning Living Dead into a better Holmgang/Superbolide with different animation effect.

[Shurrikhan]

I'd agree with you here. The effect can be a trait tied to living dead that changes walking dead automatically at lv 70.

I was thinking of, again, a job general mechanic, rather than necessarily removing the button-press from Living Dead.

For instance, if DRK had some worthwhile self-healing and that healing was increased with %HP missing (including whatever fatal damage is stored by Living Dead or its replacement), then DRK's core mechanic would have a great synergy with its invuln.

Yes, it wouldn't remove the excess/fatal damage entirely, as per Holmgang, but it'd at least offer something in turn. That'd make it technically the worst invuln, at least if not for its pre-stage, but that in turn allows you to place it on a lower CD despite DRK being able to use it to survive lesser cheeses even without a healer. Better yet, it sets a precedent that invulns needn't waste other mitigation CDs.

[RyuDragnier]

Perhaps giving The Blackest Night having an added passive that removes the 'will completely die' effect of Walking Dead when used would be a good change - from both a storyline standpoint since it shows how we come to accept ourselves and the can embrace the darkest of the abyss while forging on.

While a nice idea, the skill is already bloated and confusing as is. It definitely needs a complete rework somehow.