Dark Knight Megathread

[bundythenoob]

1. What issue with Dark Knight do you have since 5.0?

2. Is there a viable solution to your problem? If so, write it down.

3. What did you like about previous iterations of Dark Knight?

4. How did DRK capture your interest while playing FFXIV?

I'll drop my 2 cents in here, despite the fact that the devs all but confirmed our 2 cents mean nothing, no matter how many piles of cents are gathered.


1. many glaring issues exist that have all been stated ad nauseum here, but I believe the strongest issue is the lack of interplay between the resources in the kit, which is what leads to the complaint about butchered job identity. after all, can you really call DRK the """resource management tank with active decision making""" when it can no longer do either of those things beyond giving some TBN?

as for my biggest PERSONAL gripe, it has to be with the abysmal leveling kit. I might be in the minority here, but I do a TON of synced content with friends, and never did I once complain in the past because the job was FUN and FUNCTIONAL from lv 15 to lv 70. Nowadays, the disjointed leveling kit makes DRK feel like it has no gameplay identity or impactful contribution below lv 80.
lv 50 DRK absolutely uncontested snore tier due to missing basically everything that makes DRK a DRK. lv 60 DRK is only barely above snore tier due to salted and abyssal drain (both which need a return to glory), and lv 70 DRK missing Dark Missionary as well as Stalwart Soul being relegated to lv 72 is UNACCEPTABLE, for both players who run Ultimates, as well as players who just like to do dailies with the homies.

2. there are many viable solutions given the current build, all of which I've been decrying about for the last 2 years.
for one, if BW was put on a 30s cooldown and make it unlock at the same time as Flood, we would be able to generate much more resource, as well as being able to learn to spend resource AT THE SAME TIME.
if stalwart, TBN, and missionary were moved to earlier lvls (maybe something like SS lv40, TBN lv45, DM lv68 respectively) the kit would have much more engaging for the newer players. lastly, if potencies need to be """reworked""" so that """tanks don't do so much damage""" why did they bother with that number crunch, as opposed to giving us MORE ACCESS TO OUR TOOLS MORE OFTEN?

3. what I loved about previous DRK was the ever satisfying gameplay loop of spending resource to empower abilities via Dark Arts.
I will forever love the animation, sound design, and the empowering feeling I got from knowing that if i DA'd that Dark Mind then my healer wouldnt have to worry about healing me, especially when I could empower souleater to do more damage (which increased the healing potency) or I could choose to spend mana on Abyssal Drain so that my healer could focus on whatever rotation they used to have (RIP).
I loved how the old kit had so much interplay between spending mana to gain blood, spending blood to gain DPS, spending mana to gain DPS, and spending blood to gain mana. the entire loop was so satisfying that I was able to grind 2 different characters to max cap DRK without being bored.

4. DRK caught my interest because I played back in ARR during 2.1, and as a PLD player I liked tanking but did not really enjoy the simplicity of PLD nor the aesthetic of WAR (but I did LOVE how WAR had that THICCCCC HP pool back then, which was a cool way of mitigating damage that was different from PLD's base def modifier) so when DRK came out and I picked it up, i sucked ass with it but kept going because it was ENGAGING to a tee, and the gameplay loop of resource building and resource spending while maintaining aggro, keeping cooldowns cycling, dodging aoes, all while making sure teammates didnt kill themselves by giving them a powerful shield, made DRK my go to job for any content. hell its the whole reason this alt exists!

[Ignimortis]

3. what I loved about previous DRK was the ever satisfying gameplay loop of spending resource to empower abilities via Dark Arts.
I will forever love the animation, sound design, and the empowering feeling I got from knowing that if i DA'd that Dark Mind then my healer wouldnt have to worry about healing me, especially when I could empower souleater to do more damage (which increased the healing potency) or I could choose to spend mana on Abyssal Drain so that my healer could focus on whatever rotation they used to have (RIP).
I loved how the old kit had so much interplay between spending mana to gain blood, spending blood to gain DPS, spending mana to gain DPS, and spending blood to gain mana. the entire loop was so satisfying that I was able to grind 2 different characters to max cap DRK without being bored.

This. I loved the fast pace and juggling Blood into MP into Blood again. I can still remember even dungeons being fun simply because of it — I'd pull the whole hallway between 1st and 2nd boss in Scalla and just survive by rotating BP+DA+AD into TBN+Quietus, mashing cooldowns, running out of AoEs constantly, all that stuff. Blood Weapon+Delirium for single target, almost 20 seconds of getting a 2.2 GCD, Dark Arts every second ability to spend all that MP I'm getting, the APM was awesome.

Right now I'm stuck with a 2.37 GCD (the highest I can go before it becomes actually uncomfortable is 2.4), can't actually die in a dungeon unless the healer falls asleep, and it's less of my responsibility to survive, and more of theirs to keep me alive while I'm basically DPS with more HP. Enmity is non-existent, mitigation in non-Savage content feels barely necessary outside of tankbusters, etc.