Dark Knight Megathread

[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.