Dark Knight Megathread

[MagiusNecros]

Making a new DRK would make DRK better. They aren't doing that though.

DRK tidbit from the recent LL does state:

The recast of Delirium will be changed to 60 seconds and roughly three weaponskills can be executed during its duration. Additionally, the range of Plunge will be increased by 5 yalms, and a new single-target defensive buff separate from The Blackest Night will be added.

Which what concerns me is the bolded. Which means outside of GNB having their full Renzokuken combo all Tanks are getting their burst phases nerfed from 5 attacks to 3.

In addition the only real thing DRK's are getting is a Salted Earth attack, a new AoE darkside attack and TBN for a party member separate from TBN itself. And big concerns like Living Dead are promptly ignored.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/443994

[Benn]

The recast of Delirium will be changed to 60 seconds and roughly three weaponskills can be executed during its duration. Additionally, the range of Plunge will be increased by 5 yalms, and a new single-target defensive buff separate from The Blackest Night will be added.

I dont' think that is a nerf. It's a quality of life change, becasue Delirium will also now have from what I heard 3 charges, not duration. So instead of having 5 skill spam combo on 90s cooldown you will have 2x 3 skill combo on 60s cooldown. Also If I understood LL correctly we will get a Finisher move (that big Purple Slash) to that. I think it's so that Delirium is no longer a "MUST SQEEZE 5 SKILLS IN 10s WINDOW OR I AM BAD!" and isntead will be "ok, I have 3 charges now so 1...2...ok, dodge taht AOE, ok, now 3 and finisher".

Thats how I see it.

[ArianeEwah]

I dont' think that is a nerf. It's a quality of life change, becasue Delirium will also now have from what I heard 3 charges, not duration. So instead of having 5 skill spam combo on 90s cooldown you will have 2x 3 skill combo on 60s cooldown. Also If I understood LL correctly we will get a Finisher move (that big Purple Slash) to that. I think it's so that Delirium is no longer a "MUST SQEEZE 5 SKILLS IN 10s WINDOW OR I AM BAD!" and isntead will be "ok, I have 3 charges now so 1...2...ok, dodge taht AOE, ok, now 3 and finisher".

Thats how I see it.

You just described Warrior! WAR gets a finisher move after Inner Release, DRK does not. DRK "finisher" oder follow-up move is probably triggered by Edge, but that's not yet confirmed.

[Axxion]

I dont' think that is a nerf. It's a quality of life change, becasue Delirium will also now have from what I heard 3 charges, not duration. So instead of having 5 skill spam combo on 90s cooldown you will have 2x 3 skill combo on 60s cooldown. Also If I understood LL correctly we will get a Finisher move (that big Purple Slash) to that. I think it's so that Delirium is no longer a "MUST SQEEZE 5 SKILLS IN 10s WINDOW OR I AM BAD!" and isntead will be "ok, I have 3 charges now so 1...2...ok, dodge taht AOE, ok, now 3 and finisher".

Thats how I see it.

Per the translation

Additionally, the recast of Inner Release will be changed to 60 seconds. Because this increases how often it can be used, it will also be changed so that roughly three weaponskills can be executed during its duration.

That will same thing minus the crit and direct hit im afraid. From what it seems to me skill speed may not be needed for war and drk if this is the case( assuming here)

[HyperiusUltima]

At this point, I think they don't know what to do with Living Dead or how to differentiate the Invuln from the other tanks. Since it's been regurgitated and eaten since HW, we might as well leave it out for now and focus on what changes we can make to decouple DRK from being WAR lite. Our current actions are ok, but we need to restructure DRK.

For one, I think they might've designed themselves into a corner with DRK. The way they fixed the gauge in Shadowbringers was namely "Just add some WAR", but this makes it difficult to address since it stems directly from the Gauge. A thought came to mind as I was writing this: How can we make it engaging if we remove the Gauge itself for a moment? Somebody mentioned gauge being used as magic when I was asking about how to decouple DRK from WAR - and this means we'll need actions that add some of the things we missed. But first, decoupling from WAR.

1) Make Bloodspiller and Quietus share a 30s CD. Potencies stay the same and does not require Blood Gauge to execute. This keeps the flow smooth instead of having to feel like the gauge is holding you back the whole time like WAR.

2) Revert Delirium to a Combo Action. Same Potency as Souleater. Restores 1000 MP. Adds 10 to Blood Gauge.

Now we have to think about this. Where does that last 600 Potency go? It goes into this action:

Dark Scourge - Lv 78 Unlock, GCD. Deals 400 potency upfront, DoT for 45s. Potency 40. CD 60s. Does not break combo.

It brings back the action from HW - one of the cooler animations imo. But even though it's nostalgia, this would give DRK a slight edge while also giving it something that can help it stand out a bit more. Now as for the 1000 MP on this Delirium, I feel like adding a choice between Blood and MP to set up for Burst phases(whether you need it quickly or you don't) can help give DRK more choices rather than just be 1-2-3. It may make Delirium more useful since it's restoring two things albeit one gives less Blood, but I think that can be left to figure out at high-end which would be best from a development standpoint.

With that out of the way, we need to consider Blood Gauge spending. We have Living Shadow only for this since we took off the requirement for Bloodspiller and Quietus usage. As far as Abyssal Drain goes, it doesn't feel that great and only restores a small amount of HP, even on big groups due to damage output from packs. Removing the CD from Abyssal Drain and replacing it with 20 Blood Gauge requirement could make AoE feel better as well as help DRK give the feel of self-sustain that it used to on damaging actions.

Then there's the new move in the Job Trailer we saw - the one that makes a huge wave of darkness. I'm not sure how much it'd do, but I'd make it tie to the Blood Gauge with the changes made here. One problem I thought about was whether this would make the job too much of the same thing or something. Extra input on this would help me understand flaws and the like.

Edit: Looking back on it and also reading some of the post at the top of this page, it made me think back and realize that having the second combo makes it similar to WAR - but for different reasons given DRK has two resources it needs to keep up(MP and Blood Gauge), not one.