Dark Knight Megathread

[RyuDragnier]

I don't see the problem with Oblation. It seems like a pretty good tool for double tank busters. It's basically DRK's Aurora, it's fine.

It's not DRK's Aurora. You can't cast it on yourself in downtime and get health back. You can't combine it with your tank invuln and help get health back. You can't throw it on the main tank and help them get health back. You just get a lousy 10% mitigation which is peanuts in the grand scheme of things. Tell me where 10% mitigation IN A MULTIPLICATIVE SYSTEM is going to help? If it was additive, it'd be powerful, yes. But it's not, it's multiplicative.

[AlucaDragonheart]

I don't see the problem with Oblation. It seems like a pretty good tool for double tank busters. It's basically DRK's Aurora, it's fine.

It's nowhere near the same as Aurora lol

[MagiusNecros]

It's weaker then Rampart. It's dogshit. I'd take 2 charges of Shadowskin over it.

[Axxion]

know something funny reaper gets a shield but it also has a regen on it. Oblation does not

Drk still need someone way to gain more ways to heal them selfs

[Jakulo]

I'm just gonna post this and hope the devs take notice.

Actions

Lv. 1 Hard slash
Lv. 2 siphon strike - Restores 800mp
Lv. 6 Unleash
Lv. 10 Grit
Lv. 15 Unmend
Lv. 20 Shadowskin - 15% damage reduction for 10s, 30s recharge 2 charges.
Lv. 26 Souleater - 300 cure potency, grants 20 blackblood.
Lv. 30 Flood of Darkness - 2500mp 150 potency, grants 30s darkside and extends it by 15s. Darkside increases all damage dealt by 10%. Cost 0 mp under dark arts.
Lv. 30 Edge of Darkness - 2500mp 250 potency, grants 30s darkside and extends it by 15s. Darkside increases all damage dealt by 10%. Cost 0 mp under dark arts.
Lv. 35 Blood Weapon - 60s recast, 10% reduction to weaponskill and spell recast time for 10s. Restores 600mp and grants 10 blackblood when landing weaponskills or spells.
Lv. 38 Shadow Wall
Lv. 40 Stalwart Soul
Lv. 43 scourge - 18s dot weaponskill. 160 initial potency and 40 potency over time, reduces darkside by 15s only usable under darkside.
Lv. 45 Dark Passenger - 25s recast line aoe 400 potency, reduces darkside by 30s only usable under darkside. Does not drain the darkside under dark arts.
Lv. 48 Dark Mind - 60s recast, 25% magic damage reduction.
Lv. 50 Living Dead - 300s recast. Grants living dead for 10s, if you fall below 1 hp, you are healed for the same amount of hp you had at the time of activating living dead. Cannot receive damage or healing for 10s. Can receive shields.
Lv. 52 Salted Earth - 15s ground dot 90s recast. 50 potency and increase passive mana regeneration rate for the duration.
Lv. 54 Plunge
Lv. 56 Abyssal Drain - 1000mp 45s recast. 200 potency aoe damage and 200 cure potency, the main target will be afflicted with a 10s debuff. If they died during the 10s, restore 25% max hp and 15% if not.
Lv. 60 Carve and Spit - 60s recast and extend darkside by 15s, 250 potency and restores 800mp.
Lv. 62 Bloodspiller - 50 blackblood 500 potency, Restores 400mp and 350 cure potency.
Lv. 64 Quietus - 50 blackblood 220 potency, Restores 400mp and 350 cure potency.
Lv. 68 Delirium- 2000mp 30s recast, grants dark arts. Dark arts negate the cost of certain abilities and is consumed upon their execution.
Lv. 70 The Blackest Night - 2500mp 20% max hp shield, 7s duration 15s recast. Grants dark arts when broken and if the effect ends before that restore 1000mp.
Lv. 72 Flood of Shadows - 2500mp 250 potency, grants 30s darkside and extends it by 20s. Darkside increases all damage dealt by 10%. Cost no mp under dark arts.
Lv. 72 Edge of Shadows - 2500mp 350 potency, grants 30s darkside and extends it by 20s. Darkside increases all damage dealt by 10%. Cost no mp under dark arts.
Lv. 74 Dark Missionary
Lv. 76 Power Slash - 24s dot weaponskill. 200 initial potency and 40 potency over time. Reduces darkside by 15s. Only usable under darkside.
Lv. 80 Living Shadow - 50 blackblood 24s duration, halts the countdown of darkside. You also gain the effect of every attack done by esteem.


Continues...

[Jakulo]

Lv. 82 Oblation - 15% damage reduction for 10s, 30s recharge 2 charges. Targetable and heal for 5% of dark knight’s max hp when hit.
Lv. 86 Salt and Darkness - 350 potency aoe inside salted earth, grants 20 blood. Only usable under darkside.
Lv. 90 Shadowbringer - 500 potency 25s recharge line aoe 2 charges, reduces darkside by 30s. Only usable under darkside. Does not drain the darkside under dark arts.

Traits

Lv. 1 Tank Mastery
Lv. 62 Blackblood - Allows the accumulation of blackblood when executing souleater and stalwart soul.
Lv. 66 Enhanced Blackblood - Allows the accumulation of blackblood during blood weapon.
Lv. 72 Darkside Mastery
Lv. 76 Scourge Mastery - Upgrades scourge to power slash.
Lv. 78 Enhanced Plunge
Lv. 82 Enhanced Unmend
Lv. 82 Shadowskin Mastery - Upgrades shadowskin to oblation.
Lv. 84 Melee Mastery
Lv. 88 Dark Arts Mastery - Reduces the recast time of Carve and Spit by 10s each time dark arts is consumed and grants 10 blackblood.
Lv. 90 One Brings Shadow - Upgrades dark passenger to shadowbringer and esteem will cast shadowbringer instead of flood of shadows.

[DaiTenshu]

Hello I made a thread here but someone suggested putting this on the main thread. I’d like to start with that I’m a huge fan of the FFXIV Job Balance team, as there is no other MMO that comes close to the balance and performance between each job and role it is in. As well as the fact that despite the lack of impact Endwalker Dark Knight seems to have over tanks, I am overall still excited to play it when Endwalker drops as it is my favorite job to play and I love the way it plays now. I wanted to add some adjustments to the job tooltip kit to make it stand out more from (or be more aligned with) the other tanks, as many people I know believe Dark Knight is a bit on the more bland side of things lately, especially with the supposed new toys the other tanks got. I personally love the way it plays in Shadowbringers, yet I hope the adjustments I propose are fair and worth taking into consideration as at least half of what I’m about to say are mainly QoL changes. I won’t add potency numbers save for cure potencies, as I am by no means an expert on calculations and the cure potencies are there to give somewhat a comparison of Dark Knight’s self sustain versus other tanks. I will first propose what my adjustments are, and then give an explanation of each change at the bottom.
PLEASE NOTE I am not removing anything from Dark Knight’s kit as I believe it works fine now, save for one skill that upgrades to another. Of Course all of this is done with the assumption of the Current Endwalker Dark Knight tooltip kit. Here are my adjustments and additions. Continues...

[DaiTenshu]

Level 35 Blood Weapon: Grants 5 stacks of Blood Weapon. Each stack allows weapon skills or spells to restore mana and give 10 blood gauge Duration: 15 seconds.

Level 45 Dark Mind: Change 20% magic reduction to 15% damage reduction. Duration: 10s 2 charges. Allows to cast on Self or Party Member

Level 50 Stalwart Soul: (Without the Blood Gauge Increase)

Level 50 Living Dead: Living Dead Duration and Walking Dead Duration increased to 12s

Level 62 Bloodspiller: Additional effect: Restores own HP. Cure potency: 400

Level 64 Quietus: Additional effect: Restores own HP. Cure potency: 300 (multi-approved)

Level 68 Delirium: Grants 3 stacks. Each Stack allows the execution of Bloodspiller and Quietus, Restoring MP AND increasing HP restored when landing either weapon skill.

Level 70 The Blackest Night: Increase Duration from 7s to 8s. If Barrier isn’t completely absorbed, restore a small portion of its mana cost. (600 MP or 1200 MP)

(New) Level 70 Trait - Dark Arts: When The Blackest Night Barrier is fully absorbed, or using certain actions, gain Dark Arts. Casting Flood of Darkness/Shadow or Edge of Darkness/Shadow under Dark Arts costs no mana and restores HP. Cure Potency 200/400.

Level 72 Trait - Master Our Soul: Allows Stalwart Soul to increase the Blood Gauge by 20.

Level 80 Living Shadow: The last Weapon skill your simulacrum casts grants Dark Arts.

(New) Level 80 Trait - Enhanced Dark Arts: Allows for 2 charges of Dark Arts for storing.

(New) Level 82 Trait - Dark Mind Mastery: Upgrades Dark Mind to Oblation allowing additional benefits.

Level 82 Oblation: Damage Reduction 15%. Additional Effect Sole Survivor: HP restored or barriers given to target are increased by 20% duration 10s. Additional Effect Vigilante’s Tenacity: reduce damage taken by 10% Duration: 6s. 2 charges can cast on self or party.

(New) Level 84 Trait - Enhanced Dark Arts II: Casting Flood of Shadow or Edge of Shadow under Dark Arts guarantees a critical hit.

Level 86 Salt and Darkness: Increase Blood Gauge by 30.

Level 90 Shadowbringer: Additional Effect: Grants Dark Arts

(New) Level 90 Trait - One Brings Shadow: Reduces Shadowbringer recast time by 5 seconds when landing Flood of Shadow or Edge of Shadow. Reduces Shadowbringer recast time by 5 seconds when The Blackest Night Barrier is fully absorbed.

As you can tell, my adjustments range from simple QoL changes to some more substantial/controversial takes.I have an explanation for each adjustment I made and of course all of this is fan stuff from a guy who simply wants the job to shine in its own way. If you want to give critique or other changes, let me know. First, Allow me to explain.
Continues.

[DaiTenshu]

Blood Weapon: we’ve seen a stack system added for Delirium/Inner Release/Manafication. So I fail to see why this wasn’t done for Blood Weapon. This adjustment is for ping and AoE issues such as Unleash and Stalwart Soul, as for some reason they have a different recast timer than weapon skills and so it's harder to get 5 uses of current Blood Weapon. Giving Blood Weapon a stack system should alleviate the AoE issue and help those with unstable ping.

Dark Mind: Outside of raidwide damage, I believe specific single damage mitigation is archaic. and severely limits a job. While Camouflage exists and parry rate only affects physical damage, the 10% damage reduction still has uses for magical damage. Dark Mind being locked to only magic damage severely limits its uses and unlike Camouflage, it has little to no use in dungeon pulls. Changing Dark Mind to 15% general damage reduction and having 2 charges helps Dark Knight’s lacking defense pre 70 and helps leveling the job.
.
Stalwart Soul: Since Paladins get Circle of Scorn at level 50, I believe Dark Knight should get Stalwart Soul at level 50. Although Dark Knight has a spammable AoE before other tanks, not gaining it’s AoE finisher until level 72 makes the level progression for Dark Knight a little unsatisfying and unfun. Getting Stalwart Soul earlier (Without the Blood Gauge Increase) would make leveling more bearable.

Living Dead: A somewhat controversial change. Living Dead is one of two invulnerabilities that come with a risk, the other being Superbolide. The difference however is that while Superbolide only just reduces Gunbreaker’s HP to 1, the Risk for Dark Knight is literal death. So when Superbolide and Holmgang got buffed in duration, it just made Living Dead even worse to use. The Simplest change I can see without changing the whole theme of Living Dead is increasing the duration to 12 seconds. If it's the Invulnerability with a huge risk, then it should be in a way stronger than the others.
Continues..

[DaiTenshu]

Bloodspiller and Quietus: A more literal fan change/adjustment but it's not without logic.While Dark Knights in previous games have signature attacks that drained their HP, they also had signature attacks that helped them gain HP. Bloodspiller and Quietus would feel more rewarding spending the blood gauge on them if it helped Dark Knight’s self sustain and not just for damage.

Delirium: Not a necessity and more of a luxury, and with the assumption that Holding Inner Release helps Warrior’s damage increase immeasurably, then I say it would be fair to have healing potencies on Bloodspiller and Quietus increased as Dark Knights have no abilities that are solely for sustain. (The Blackest Night does not count).

The Blackest Night: Imo, many people overhype this ability. From a thematic standpoint and its power, I too love and adore it, but it is not without fault. It is the only Defensive Cooldown that uses a damage resource (Mana) and if used incorrectly hampers Dark Knight’s damage considerably. (Sheltron does not count as gauge is made specifically for it or Intervention). While I wouldn’t say I’m an amazing player, I count myself at least better than average, and have almost always timed The Blackest Night well. However there would be cases that I would have wished my Blackest Night would last AT LEAST 1 second longer to fully be absorbed. So I don’t think increasing its duration to 8 seconds is a huge upgrade but a necessary one nonetheless. However, since there will be times where Blackest Night inevitably fails to be fully absorbed, having a small portion of mana (at least 600 mp) would alleviate the punishment.

Continues.