Dark Knight Megathread

[Ryaduera]

Ah, but you can shuffle damage around a lot. In fact, you can just...reduce potencies on the oGCDs but make them used more often. CnS down to 30 seconds and half potency, EoS/FoS down to 1k and one third potency/1.5k MP and half potency. No button bloat, no difficulty managing them, really. If you rework Delirium into something that works on its' own, maybe even increasing potency for your next 3 non-GCDs instead of just letting you use Bloodspiller x3, that reinforces the playstyle even more. And no tank uses the GCD haste aspect of the game, despite a lot of DPS getting +10-15% WS haste. DRK used to do that, but now it doesn't - why not bring that back?

Always having something to do isn't "needlessly difficult to manage". Especially if that "something" is just weaving oGCDs every few seconds.

If you are doing the same thing, but more often, then it doesn't change anything about DRK other than bloating up the plastyle that people aren't enjoying. DRK is already very noisy with oGCD's because of Edge of Darkness. The word "noisy" here doesn't mean busy, as it is certainly not busy. Noisy refers to doing something just because it's available. If the only reason you're using an ability is "because it's up" that's just noise in the grand scheme of things. Even GNB oGCD's line up withNo Mercy for the burst windows. DRK literally just uses Edge of Darkness, Salted Earth, Carve and Spit, Abyssal Drain, Plunge, and soon Shadowbringer for no reason other than it's literally just available. There's no ryme or reason to use the abilities, there's no damage buff to line up with the cooldown timers. GNB is a rythm. Each oGCD cooldown is either even with No Mercy, or half, which means you want the oGCD's to line up with No Mercy, and then the few oGCD's that are up before the next No Mercy are just filler that don't get buffed. Noise doesn't come from having a lot to do, noise comes from doing just because it's there and you can literally turn your brain off and do the same thing. Noise is the lack of rythm.

Why should DRK have lost the playstyle that attracted the players to it initially and GNB be the replacement? I liked 3.0 and 4.0 DRK, I like GNB aesthetics much less, but somehow it's me who has to change my main job? I find that a very strange decision. I have already mained DRK for the entirety of 5.0 solely due to aesthetics, but in 6.0, I'm not gonna do that again.

There are two beginner-friendly tanks in the game already, which start at level 1 and ease players into tanking over time. They have distinct playstyles and aesthetics too, so it's not like there's no actual choice for newcomers.

I am not asking for DRK to have the whole 3.0 playstyle. But I also don't want it to be the 5.0 playstyle of "very busy opener/burst phase, absolutely nothing to do in-between". I like the idea of having to be consistent all the time instead of spikes and lows. Old DRK kit did that, and I would like to have that back. I won't even mind if that puts the maximum possible DPS for DRK lower than all the other tanks (though that, SE manage to avoid easily).

Old DRK kit was very fun, but objectively once it was "solved" it was very bad. You did the same thing all encounter, but it felt more fun because it was busy. This wasn't "noise" because there was a rhyme and reason to do it. I had Dark Arts bound onto my E key back then and it felt good to use because I would be feeling the rythm of my skills on my number keys with my E key. What they've done is took the rhyme and reason away and gave us filler. That's why I've proposed making Darkside a resource that actually has to be managed. You no longer open emptying your mana into Darkside because that results in overcap, but you do want to funnel that mana into damage until you're out, then build into Delirium which builds mana up, which funnels into damage, which goes into blood weapon, which is the only downtime you get (assuming no change to BW then 10s of downtime in minutes worth of consistent DPS), because that funnels into more use of your new spell which brings Delirium back up which funnels into MP which funn-- you get the idea. Because of this playstyle you would be constantly alternating uses of your Edge of Darkness but not in the spammy way of "It's up so I guess I press that button now". You'd have to calculate it, just like you had to calculate the old Dark Arts to keep your Darkside ticking away at your MP for damage.

And nobody is saying you have to switch. That's actually why we're having this discussion, people like DRK and want it fun again. Using myself as an example isn't me saying "Well I did it so so should you." It was just me explaining why I didn't even bother with DRK at all once I got to 60. It's not fun. It's boring. My proposed solution may not be THE solution, but I have to say bloating the class with more of the exact thing that makes it a problem is probably not the way to go.

I guess what I'm trying to say is if you put the rythm back in DRK it feels like it used to.