Dark Knight Megathread

[Lyth]

That version of Abyssal Drain still exists in the game. It's called Holy Circle now. Because holy magic specializes in lifesteal, naturally.

[Baxcel]

That version of Abyssal Drain still exists in the game. It's called Holy Circle now. Because holy magic specializes in lifesteal, naturally.

Indeed and Warriors are the lifesteal/regen tank like they should be.. /s

I said it before they deleted the posts from the leaks.. Bloodwhetting should of been a DRK skill..

[ArthurATDayne]

That version of Abyssal Drain still exists in the game. It's called Holy Circle now. Because holy magic specializes in lifesteal, naturally.

Sorry, I can't resist but... Holy Sheltron! The PLD Endwalker update of Holy Circle is awesome. I really can't wait to gap close into a big mob group and take my time spamming Holy Circle 4 times for my 1600 Potency heal before Confiteor Nuking, took a scratch? Holy Circle, another scratch, Holy Circle etc

Com'on SquareEnix, just throw the DRK a Sustain bone at least and give Abyssal Drain a decent Minimum Heal Potency when used on 1 target. Even Minimum of 800 Heal Potency on 1 Target with a max of 1200ish Potency on a mob group would be welcomed.

[Deathshiro]

Sorry, I can't resist but... Holy Sheltron! The PLD Endwalker update of Holy Circle is awesome. I really can't wait to gap close into a big mob group and take my time spamming Holy Circle 4 times for my 1600 Potency heal before Confiteor Nuking, took a scratch? Holy Circle, another scratch, Holy Circle etc

Com'on SquareEnix, just throw the DRK a Sustain bone at least and give Abyssal Drain a decent Minimum Heal Potency when used on 1 target. Even Minimum of 800 Heal Potency on 1 Target with a max of 1200ish Potency on a mob group would be welcomed.

That actually gets me thinking... Why don't they just add to delirium that every Quietus/Bloodspiller executed during Delirium gives 400~ pot worth of healing to mirror Holy spirit/circle. That way its not stronger than plds healing, while also fixing some of the sustain issues (also giving a healing pot buff to abyssal drain that doesn't stack with targets would be nice, or hell even a regen effect on use)

[ArthurATDayne]

That actually gets me thinking... Why don't they just add to delirium that every Quietus/Bloodspiller executed during Delirium gives 400~ pot worth of healing to mirror Holy spirit/circle. That way its not stronger than plds healing, while also fixing some of the sustain issues (also giving a healing pot buff to abyssal drain that doesn't stack with targets would be nice, or hell even a regen effect on use)

This is a very good suggestion, Endwalker Delirium is 3 stacks 30s duration anyway and at 400 Potency Heal per Weapon Skill will max out at 1200 Potency, Once Per Minute. Hardly Game Breaking or OP. And it will make Delirium different enough on its own from Inner Release and not look like a Discount Bin Knock Off version of it.

I love this idea. Can totally imagine players not mindlessly blowing all 3 stacks in a hurry because they have 30s Duration to use them while taking damage, take a scratch, use a Delirium Stack, take a scratch, use a Delirium Stack, etc

It would even encourage players not to just use Delirium and mash Bloodspiller/Quietus off CD without any thought, like better utility if you save it for after taking damage from Tankbuster or Mechanic to replenish HP, or when TBN is on CD, you're taking damage and you have very low Mana. Would make Delirium more satisfying to use and DRK more fun for sure.

And the Dev who loves Abyssal Drain as a fluff skill and doesn't want to change that can save face, pride, ego, whatever and keep that crap in the game as it is. Win-Win.

[Shurrikhan]

That actually gets me thinking... Why don't they just add to delirium that every Quietus/Bloodspiller executed during Delirium gives 400~ pot worth of healing to mirror Holy spirit/circle. That way its not stronger than plds healing, while also fixing some of the sustain issues (also giving a healing pot buff to abyssal drain that doesn't stack with targets would be nice, or hell even a regen effect on use)

DRK has only some two-thirds of sustain it ought have, yes, but it also deserves more control over when that self-healing is done. Consider, for instance, if Souleater dropped its self-heal but Bloodspiller healed for its damage dealt (and perhaps Quietus caused your attacks against those select targets to heal you for X% of your damage dealt for a few seconds). Boom, a two-charge Delirium actually makes some damn sense, since it can be worth sacrificing offensive bonus potency (from alignment with raid windows) to self-heal for an extra, whopping 1800 potency over 3 GCDs in a dangerous window. (Of course, I'd also recommend having TBN allow for a freecast, then, of Bloodspiller or Quietus, rather than Edge or Flood.)

Alternatively, while the result may be a bit close to (a longer, stronger) Nascent, I'd rather they just drop all weaponskill-specific healing outright, drop or repurpose Delirium, perhaps slightly reduce Blood Gauge costs (e.g., to 40 per cast), and attach a self-heal percentage to GCD attacks (or just weaponskills) during Blood Weapon. Give BW a second charge, so it actually has timing flexibility, and return its Attack Speed bonus such that (short of extreme SkS) we're very clearly going to get in X number of hits, even with over a second's worth of uptime loss -- and no more than X hits (as not to feel obliged towards maximizing every fifth or so of a second). It has naturally less benefit from being used within raid windows (and therefore loss for being used outside them) than does the Bloodspiller spam, but does create self-heal windows of its own to maximize.

Why not stacks? I think that needing mostly continuous uptime over the duration better suits DRK, so long as there's a charge system involved to allow for that necessary bit of flexibility.

While we're at it, so long as spells themselves can't directly benefit from that Blood Weapon's life-steal (only the added Attack Speed), give Blood Weapon back Blood generation per enemy hit, rather than per weaponskill performed, allowing Quietus to refund itself over large mob counts during Blood Weapon. It makes for a more interesting/varied burst phase, in its difference from the usual preparatory Unleash -> Stalwart Soul, and brings us back to the "go big or die" theme among weaker dungeon mobs from Stormblood's BW-Quietus and DA-AD spam.

[Shurrikhan]

That version of Abyssal Drain still exists in the game. It's called Holy Circle now. Because holy magic specializes in lifesteal, naturally.

I most hate that not only does slapping the cure potency onto Holy Circle and Holy Shock not fit Paladin in any way, but it also

1. devalues Clemency,
2. siphons budget towards a basically non-timeable heal,
3. is thematically and (mostly) functionally redundant (with Clemency and Holy Shelltron), and
4. by emphasizing small, mostly untimeable heals, deemphasizes sharply timed mitigation and recovery.

There's just... virtually nothing good about this design. It's just yet more uncreative slap-on-further-ease-of-tanking-at-expense-to-tanking-gameplay.

[Calysto]

Comming from XI ; reaper is now dark knight, so maybe XIV drk should embrace it's runic roots (with already having a magic def focus) ?
For self healing ; have tbn/oblation grant some "absorbed damage" stacks on break that can be used on some self-heal when needed ?
Maybe turn living dead into straight absorb ? (kinda OP but not really ? at most you get a full heal. they deserve it for having to unlive with with current version for so long anyway)

[Shurrikhan]

(with already having a magic def focus) ?

If every fight has balanced magic and physical damage, this simply pigeonholes DRK into MTing certain parts of the fight, more so than standard tank-swaps; if such forces them into or to remain MT when a tank could otherwise rotate a defensive, it becomes wasteful and people would rather not have DRK.

If not every fight has balanced magic and physical damage, this simply forces DRK in on some fight (to the vitriol of all other tanks) and out on others (to their scorn).

In a game as generally homogeneous (and mostly empty of highly-variable-value utility) as XIV, defining a job's identity off of mere damage type is a very bad idea.



Apart from that, though, these ideas seem fine. TBN and LD aren't the best places to put that self-healing, imo, but DRK is quite literally undertuned in that regard and soon to have no (even theoretically) compensating capacity to balance that out, so we can afford to straight up buff its self-sustain.

[WlyemR]

I most hate that not only does slapping the cure potency onto Holy Circle and Holy Shock not fit Paladin in any way, but it also

1. devalues Clemency,
2. siphons budget towards a basically non-timeable heal,
3. is thematically and (mostly) functionally redundant (with Clemency and Holy Shelltron), and
4. by emphasizing small, mostly untimeable heals, deemphasizes sharply timed mitigation and recovery.

There's just... virtually nothing good about this design. It's just yet more uncreative slap-on-further-ease-of-tanking-at-expense-to-tanking-gameplay.

1. Clemency retains its utility regardless of other self healing sources specifically because of its trait that gives you healing in return.
2. You would be using your magical burst rotation regardless of whether or not it had a heal or not.
3. Since most PLD's agree that Clemency is always a DPS loss in any situation and you can only use Holy Shelltron every 25 seconds or so, the healing gained from the new trait is a fine addition to a strong kit.
4. The small amount of healing you gain from Holy Spirit, Holy Circle, and Holy Shelltron will never be enough to offset the damage of most encounters, only slow it down. You will always need sharp mitigation and recovery as the encounter demands.