Dark Knight Megathread

[Rosenstrauch]

The things I would like to see out of DRK, going forward...

1. Oblation is turned into a passive trait that modifies The Blackest Night, giving it 10% damage reduction for the full duration regardless of whether or not the shield breaks. Maybe also have it replace TBN's animation with Oblation's.
2. TBN loses its MP cost entirely, but also loses its Dark Arts proc and has its recast timer raised to 25 seconds.
3. Dark Arts procs are generated once every 30 seconds while Darkside is active. You can have up to two charges at a time.
-- This is literally Enochian, but unless they do away with Dark Arts entirely, it has to come from somewhere, and I'd prefer this to a button that does nothing but generate charges.

4. Living Dead's proc, Walking Dead, loses its healing requirement entirely. If this is somehow too powerful, then reduce the duration of Living Dead itself to compensate.
5. Dark Mind gets some small mitigation in addition to its magic resistance.
-- DRK used to have Dark Dance for that, iirc. Maybe they could bring back that effect and bake it into Dark Mind.
6. Dark Missionary is given at the same level as Heart of Light (64).
-- It is literally the same ability, so I don't see why this wasn't the case to begin with.

7. Blood Weapon grants five charges that are expended upon using any weaponskill or spell. The duration is raised to 30 seconds.
8. Shadowbringer replaces Edge/Flood of Shadow while you have a Dark Arts proc available, and consumes those procs in place of Edge/Flood of Shadow.
-- Note that this is technically a nerf. It's using up Dark Arts procs, which otherwise would have been used by Edge of Shadow. Assuming 2 Dark Arts procs per minute, that would mean going from 1600* every 60 seconds (Edge+Edge+Shadowbringer*) to 1200 every 60 seconds (Shadowbringer+Shadowbringer). To compensate, Shadowbringer's potency could be raised to 700 or 800.
*I've heard Edge of Shadow's potency will be lowered in Endwalker, but I'm only familiar with the current number.

9. Stalwart Soul is given at level 40, just like Mythril Tempest, Prominence, and Demon Slaughter. Traits are added at 64 and 72 that let it restore MP and generate Blood respectively.
10A. Abyssal Drain's base heal potency is raised to 800, with every additional target healing you for 200 potency.
10B: Alternatively, Abyssal Drain grants you five charges that cause your weaponskills and spells to heal you for 400 potency (ST) or 200 per target (AOE).

[Kalocin]

I saw someone on Reddit suggest that TBN gets a two shields, 15+10%, and if the first shield breaks you'll get your free flood/edge. Either that or it gives you a proc at 50%. It wouldn't require much changing but would make the ability more functional outside of straight tank busters. Probably a better idea with a similar concept but something like that would probably be a good QoL

[Shurrikhan]

I saw someone on Reddit suggest that TBN gets a two shields, 15+10%, and if the first shield breaks you'll get your free flood/edge. Either that or it gives you a proc at 50%. It wouldn't require much changing but would make the ability more functional outside of straight tank busters. Probably a better idea with a similar concept but something like that would probably be a good QoL

This would be better... but at the same time, it'd also remove the main point of the mechanic. Not that I'm a huge fan of that mechanic, so... /shrug?

(Alternatively, have it grant MP proportionate to barrier consumed?)

[Kalocin]

This would be better... but at the same time, it'd also remove the main point of the mechanic. Not that I'm a huge fan of that mechanic, so... /shrug?

(Alternatively, have it grant MP proportionate to barrier consumed?)

Like I said, probably a better idea with a similar concept. You'd lose the flashy bit with the skills but even just getting mana back would be a better execution. The all or nothing approach if it has to be tied to a dps ability is probably the larger issue at heart

[Shurrikhan]

Like I said, probably a better idea with a similar concept. You'd lose the flashy bit with the skills but even just getting mana back would be a better execution. The all or nothing approach if it has to be tied to a dps ability is probably the larger issue at heart

Agreed. I'm fine with max reward only coming from max consumption, but I hate getting nothing despite having consumed some 80+% of that barrier.

[Ryaduera]

Agreed. I'm fine with max reward only coming from max consumption, but I hate getting nothing despite having consumed some 80+% of that barrier.

There is also absolutely no cohesion with the kit. Increasing ally defenses is good and does make shields better... but if you didn't use Dark Passenger or Oblation there then maybe that 1% that was left would have broken? Well, PLD gets cover and also has no cohesion with their kit since they get a lot of self healing. It doesn't even work with HG. This seems backwards to me...

Dark Knight, thematically, was a knight who dropped his shield in order to make better use of his sword to defend as many people as possible, but always knows you cannot save them all. Instead, our main ability... is a shield. You either need to provide a reward even if it doesn't break, or you need to ensure ways for it to break after all. I still think an AoE cover effect would be really unique. Standing near the DRK redirects damage to it (Damage cap being a percentage of DRK HP to ensure it never outright kills him) so you can use TBN on yourself and ensure it breaks.

Hell, with an AoE cover, you can make it apply its damage as a dot that matches the duration of TBN. It would be like divine veil, but edgy. DoTs are easy to deal with since shields and regen effects both counteract it very well and throwing TBN on when you aren't at full health means regen effects will top you off while you wait for it to break your TBN.

[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.

[Calysto]

Not saying it's usefull, just that magic damage mitigation was runic point in XI that XIV drk inherited (along with using great swords).
I'm surprised physical/magical damage is still a thing; i'm pretty sure soon everthing will be "neutral damage".
(and for the healing, I was going with runic "absorb" theme ; just some random ideas)

[currentlemon]

3. Dark Arts procs are generated once every 30 seconds while Darkside is active. You can have up to two charges at a time.
-- This is literally Enochian, but unless they do away with Dark Arts entirely, it has to come from somewhere, and I'd prefer this to a button that does nothing but generate charges.

Oh my God, this is amazing! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Having Dark Arts tied to the Darkside timer is wonderful idea. Since the skill can only be used every 30 seconds, it alleviates the Dark Arts spam that plagued 4.0 DRK. And it also expands the use of the Darkside mechanic as well.

Seriously, why hasn't SE or anyone else here thought of this? Props to you Rosenstrauch. Oh, and your other suggestions are good too, but this Dark Arts rework is fantastic.