Should Dark Arts Come Back in 6.0? If so, What Should the Skill Do?

[OdinelStarrei]

Well, technically, Dark Arts still exists, both in name and in execution. The TBN break glowy thing on the job gauge is called Dark Arts. And Edge/Flood are just old Dark Arts without the altering skills bit and more expensive to use. You can't bring back Dark Arts or change Edge to have the same amount casts per minute (high 30s low 40s) because people are just going to complain again, whether they understand how DRK works or not. Skill floor being too high is a big no no. I do not think "buffing" Dark Arts can ever return without a massive blowback, despite HW's version existing. Popular opinion tends to twist things in difficult ways. That being said, I'd love it if it just came back as it's HW version, only on Souleater and Bloodspiller, but also if it drained Darkside instead of MP.

Anyway, ShB DA is a bit bland though as only a TBN refund, a lot of people only see it as a "free" Edge cast, but I really think there should be more to it than that. Then again, I look at how many times I use TBN and save that Dark Arts for the next Tech Step or Trick Attack, so maybe it's not all bad. It's the last echo of HW DRK with it's Low Blow/Reprisal Parry procs, and as such, I wonder if it'll ever get expanded on at all. I know people floated around the idea of having Edge/Flood via Dark Arts always Critical Hit, but I doubt SE would do something that incentivizes getting hit outside of WAR's Vengeance. Low Blow and Reprisal got changed, and Blood Price and Shield Swipe got outright deleted. Can you imagine just TBNing healers on every raidwide for 100% free crits? Probably way too strong, it'd be madness, AND optimal. Maybe just a flat potency increase instead? I'd personally be a fan of it if Edge's potency was nerfed a little to compensate or we just weren't Bloodspillering out of our minds all the time. Maybe you can have multiple stacks of Dark Arts rather than just the one? Having trouble thinking of ways to expand on this implementation, not gonna lie.

What you "missed out on" isn't Dark Arts itself, but rather the speed of the job I wager. But you do realize that Delirium is partly responsible. Delirium being changed has a big part of slowing the job down to what it is right now. They can literally do anything with the skill and it will be better than what it is right now. Reduce the cost of Edge of Shadow for a set duration/usages, give buff that reduces GCD recast like Hypercharge, keep Bloodspillers free but reduce the amount given, and give more MP instead, go back to SB Delirium and have it extend Blood Weapon again, take it off the 90 sec CD so it's not just IR-lite, have Delirium just reset all your cooldowns (this is busted actually don't do this one), change it back to a GCD combo action that consumes Darkside for higher damage, so you have a trade off option vs spamming 123 forever, make it do something with Living Shadow. New combo routes is not a bad idea, but it's similar to GNB's Continuation, and I don't want to be like any other tank, even GNB. What's crippling DRK is Blood Weapon and Delirium, not Dark Arts being replaced by Edge/Flood and the term repurposed for TBN breaks.

Just saying "BRING BACK DA" is simplifying a much larger problem of lack of engagement, absence of job kit synergy, clunky job mechanics, and unnecessary homogenization, in my opinion.

Honestly, you should be glad you never played HW or SB DRK. This is the worst the job has ever been, but for you, the job has always played like this, so it's not as painful. It gives you a much less biased perspective. Imagine playing a job you now hate like an idiot, but refuse to drop out of spite. Outside of literally not being able to equip the job stone on launch and being unplayable, I struggle to think how DRK's design can get worse in 6.0, it's only up from here.