Dark Knight Megathread

[ArianeEwah]

All aesthetic and design decisions aside, have you even seen the opener?

I've created a little picture to visualise it (order of oGCDs for optimal play might differ):


Your very first 9 GCDs are filled with oGCDs, there is no space to weave even 1 mitigation CD!... well, maybe 1 if you can use Delirium pre-pull, but that's it. If you thought GNB was loaded, that's a joke compared to this opener!

Salted Earth and Abyssal Drain - especially Abyssal Drain - deal too little fluff damage (on single target) to justify them taking that many slots. There has to be done something about it... and/or change how the new actions work.

Of course, I would prefer a full rework, DRK is a mess. And yes, even if DRK was always somewhat of a mess, this expansion is taking it way too far!

[OdinelStarrei]

All aesthetic and design decisions aside, have you even seen the opener?

I've created a little picture to visualise it (order of oGCDs for optimal play might differ):


Your very first 9 GCDs are filled with oGCDs, there is no space to weave even 1 mitigation CD!... well, maybe 1 if you can use Delirium pre-pull, but that's it. If you thought GNB was loaded, that's a joke compared to this opener!

Salted Earth and Abyssal Drain - especially Abyssal Drain - deal too little fluff damage (on single target) to justify them taking that many slots. There has to be done something about it... and/or change how the new actions work.

Of course, I would prefer a full rework, DRK is a mess. And yes, even if DRK was always somewhat of a mess, this expansion is taking it way too far!

To be honest, with the way things are currently set up, it's going to be even more cursed than that right now. -15 Pre-pull Delirium so you can save that weave slot, the standard pre-pull Blood Weapon to have Living Shadow fit all of the attacks within raidbuffs at 3rd GCD, (since CnS will just barely not make it if it's on 4th GCD), the usual pre-pull TBN for the DA proc, adding an additional edge to this. If there's mitigation or any movement that needs to be done after the first 3 GCDs, it's going to be rough.

Seriously, -15 Delirium is going to be weird in pugs. But you are absolutely going to gain a usage on some killtimes, for literally zero cost to the Dark Knight, unlike WAR, where pre-pull IR ruins Infuriate and Inner Chaos.

On the bright side, Shadowbringer and Abyssal Drain can be combined together for ranged oGCD weaving spots of movement, unlike GNB's forced melee Continuation. It's no PLD Req, but silver linings, I suppose.

[ArianeEwah]

And while we're at it, why do potions still take up 2 weave slots? That really shouldn't be a thing.

Oh I see the problem.
You've got a strength potion where your mitigation should go!

We should just remove potions altogether /s

snip

I agree. There might be some variation, such as pre-pull TBN+BW to open 1 or 2 slots. But looking at this, I doubt any DRK would want to actually pull the boss in EW which will put DRK into a forced OT position for at least the first 20s of a fight.

Shadowbringer should just have been a GCD as many (myself included) have expected it to be after seeing the job action trailer. Y'know, yellow vfx which indicates GCD usage instead of blue vfx for oGCD, yada yada.

An even bigger issue will be the "downtime" between your bursts. While the burst windows will become more hectic than ShB iteration, the more bland will be rotation between said windows. At least WAR and GNB have 30s CDs to make use off, and PLD has a longer "burst phase" than any other job. DRK however has none of it. Well, there is still Salted Earth - but considering how stressful your opener/re-opener gets, this feels odd and out of place.

[WhyAmIHere]

All aesthetic and design decisions aside, have you even seen the opener?

I've created a little picture to visualise it (order of oGCDs for optimal play might differ):


Your very first 9 GCDs are filled with oGCDs, there is no space to weave even 1 mitigation CD!... well, maybe 1 if you can use Delirium pre-pull, but that's it. If you thought GNB was loaded, that's a joke compared to this opener!

Salted Earth and Abyssal Drain - especially Abyssal Drain - deal too little fluff damage (on single target) to justify them taking that many slots. There has to be done something about it... and/or change how the new actions work.

Of course, I would prefer a full rework, DRK is a mess. And yes, even if DRK was always somewhat of a mess, this expansion is taking it way too far!

Oh I see the problem.
You've got a strength potion where your mitigation should go!

[Ryaduera]

All aesthetic and design decisions aside, have you even seen the opener?

I've created a little picture to visualise it (order of oGCDs for optimal play might differ):


Your very first 9 GCDs are filled with oGCDs, there is no space to weave even 1 mitigation CD!... well, maybe 1 if you can use Delirium pre-pull, but that's it. If you thought GNB was loaded, that's a joke compared to this opener!

Salted Earth and Abyssal Drain - especially Abyssal Drain - deal too little fluff damage (on single target) to justify them taking that many slots. There has to be done something about it... and/or change how the new actions work.

Of course, I would prefer a full rework, DRK is a mess. And yes, even if DRK was always somewhat of a mess, this expansion is taking it way too far!

This would be very easily fixed if we had an on global that consumed our Darkside time to deal damage. It would add a global that wouldn't take away from the burst time and give us reason to not use 5 of the same ogcd as soon as possible. But Squeenix is scared of giving us one more on global and actual resource management.

[ItMe]

All aesthetic and design decisions aside, have you even seen the opener?

I've created a little picture to visualise it (order of oGCDs for optimal play might differ):


Your very first 9 GCDs are filled with oGCDs, there is no space to weave even 1 mitigation CD!

Oh god...
This has big "healers adjust" energy.

[Absurdity]

Oh god...
This has big "healers adjust" energy.

Shadowbringer and Salt & Darkness are definitely an issue, because now you don't have a single weave slot available in your opener/reopener, whereas before you could swap a lot of those oGCDs around in case you needed mitigation.

And while you rarely ever get a tank buster in the first 30-40 seconds of a fight, this opener is not only a big problem for mitigation, it also makes it impossible to disengage the boss without losing damage.



And while we're at it, why do potions still take up 2 weave slots? That really shouldn't be a thing.

[RatCopter]

All aesthetic and design decisions aside, have you even seen the opener?

I've created a little picture to visualise it (order of oGCDs for optimal play might differ):


Your very first 9 GCDs are filled with oGCDs, there is no space to weave even 1 mitigation CD!... well, maybe 1 if you can use Delirium pre-pull, but that's it. If you thought GNB was loaded, that's a joke compared to this opener!

Impressive. Very nice.

Lets see the high ping opener

[WhyAmIHere]

Impressive. Very nice.

Lets see the high ping opener

"High ping DRK opener: job change to WAR."

[Fury_Wolf]

All aesthetic and design decisions aside, have you even seen the opener?

I've created a little picture to visualise it (order of oGCDs for optimal play might differ):


Your very first 9 GCDs are filled with oGCDs, there is no space to weave even 1 mitigation CD!... well, maybe 1 if you can use Delirium pre-pull, but that's it. If you thought GNB was loaded, that's a joke compared to this opener!

The problem of clogged oGCDs and too few GCDs really are the same problem, and can both be fixed by simply making the follow-up attacks GCD with a timer, like Blast Arrow.

Make Salt & Darkness a GCD, make Shadowbringer a follow up to Living Shadow and a GCD, with adjustments to potencies and maybe some mana or blood generation. Maybe Carve & Spit and Abyssal Drain could follow a similar pattern.

This would give us some new GCDs to break up Souleater and Bloodspiller, while also freeing up oGCD space for what we need as a tank: defensive skills. oGCD would still feel busy with Edge and Flood.

It would give DRK an identity as the "oGCD into GCD" tank, as others have mentioned. Especially if Delirium is changed to give 50 blood after each EoS or FoS, with 3 stacks.