Dark Knight Megathread

[Tex_Mex]

Here is my 2 cents for DRK changes I feel would fix most of the glaring issues with the class. these are listed in order of most to least important:

1) Blood Weapon is super annoying because of the tight timing window. Just make it 5 charges instead of the 10 second timer.
2) It is really dumb that TBN is tied to your damage. I like the idea that TBN should have a reward for proper use, but that reward should not be offensive in nature. I would make TBN have 0 mana cost, a 25 second CD, and last 8 seconds. If it is absorbed completely, it should grant a 250 potency HoT for 12 seconds. this will bring it in line with other similar tank cooldowns (Holy Shelltron, etc.)
3) Unmend, Unleash, and Stalwart Soul need to be changed from spells into weapon skills. The fact that they are spells means they are unaffected by skill speed, which is really dumb. This also adds to the issues with Blood Weapon's timing if you like to use Unmend in your opener for pulls.
4) While I would love to see Living Dead completely reworked, this is not likely. Instead I would leave it as is, except add 50-100% lifesteal to all weaponskills made while Walking Dead is active. This will greatly reduce the burden on healers, and result in a simpler and more effective Cooldown. If this seems too powerful, just increase the CD on it to balance it out.

While there are some other changes I'd love to see with Endwalker, the 4 listed above would result in a class that I would greatly enjoy playing. As it is, I'll play PLD instead.

[ArthurATDayne]

The Blackest Night is an awesome skill currently for the most part and I rather it stay on a short 15s Cooldown and cost 3000 Mana than have it nerfed to 25s CD while the rest of the Dark Knight kit is not entirely updated to compensate.

If it gets nerfed to 25s CD Dark Knight better damn well get another All Damage Type Personal Mitigation 15-20% Minimum on a 60-90s CD at least and/or Big On Demand Heal Effect because we Really Lack HP Sustain. And It Better be accessible at level 70 at the latest, earlier would be preferable to make 1-69 experience better.

The Blackest Night in its current form: To help keep it DPS neutral & not encourage intentional bad play I think it needs more opportunities for the 25% Max HP Bubble to pop so bumping the duration from 7s to 8-10s would give it more time to eat damage. This should be our new Trait instead of Enhanced Unmend, sounds a lot more appealing that's for sure.

What Dark Knight kit really lacks currently is a reliable on demand large HP restore that works in both multi-target AND single target situations, Abyssal Drain is only viable when used on a group of targets because of its 200 potency per Target & 60s CD. We need at least 5 Targets to get a decent 1000 potency self heal every 60s and on boss fights that 1 Target is just 200 potency heal every 60s. I think it deserves a minimum healing potency floor like 800 potency at least to make it viable on 1 Target & a decent max like 1200-1600 if used on a large 6-8 Target Mob.

And yeah, I'd also appreciate it if Blood Weapon went to 5 stacks 30s duration and Mana Restore values for DRK kit gets improved.

[Deathshiro]

Back again to throw my 2 cents in, yet again.

DRK DRASTICALLY NEEDS some form of single target sustain, as they are the only tank in the game lacking it (literally every other tank has some form of 1200+ potency self healing ON TOP of short 25s mitigation, whilst DRK only has the latter).

Create either a HoT on one of our abilities (abyssal drain, 200 pot hot over 18s akin to aurora) or add healing to Delirium stacks (think Holy Circle/Spirits new change, except only during delirium). The former will give you a choice to either burn Abyssal earlier for damage & sustain during MTING, or to use later during a heavy damage tank buster/auto phase (like taking 2 bosses, or getting hit by multi-hit tank busters). Delirium having a 400 heal pot on each stack(not stacking per enemy hit) would give sustain during burst, and always be useful regardless of situation (especially if you have aggro at the time). Even if NOTHING ELSE CHANGED (Obviously we want Blood weapon charges because a 9.9s buff is ridiculous, something done to Living Dead, etc) This would at LEAST be a decent band-aid that would take maybe an hour of development time.

I know Community Managers are reading this and communicating constructive feedback to the team (best they can anyway) so please at least share the DRK communities desire to be put on the same level as the other tanks in terms of self sustain. Doubt my little rant will do anything, but I feel I've posted this as constructive as possible.

[Lyth]

I don't think that self-sustain is an essential part of tanking. It's nice for soloing content, sure. But you're really meant to have a healer backing you up anyways when you do content.

I think that if Living Dead is reworked in a meaningful way with the understanding that DRK really can't burst heal their way out of it, then we're fine. At bare minimum, it should provide a more powerful effect than Holmgang, given the discrepancy in their recasts and the penalty. I personally feel that the best solution would be to make it so you can't receive healing after you hit 1 HP, with incoming damage instead healing you back up as a 'Dread Spikes' effect.

I'd be fine if they instead doubled down on the barrier theme and just reward you for pre-empting incoming damage with well timed shields. Oblation and Dark Missionary should be barriers. Shadow Wall should be a barrier. Let us focus on nullifying damage rather than healing it back up.

[ArthurATDayne]

Back again to throw my 2 cents in, yet again.

DRK DRASTICALLY NEEDS some form of single target sustain, as they are the only tank in the game lacking it (literally every other tank has some form of 1200+ potency self healing ON TOP of short 25s mitigation, whilst DRK only has the latter).

Create either a HoT on one of our abilities (abyssal drain, 200 pot hot over 18s akin to aurora) or add healing to Delirium stacks (think Holy Circle/Spirits new change, except only during delirium). The former will give you a choice to either burn Abyssal earlier for damage & sustain during MTING, or to use later during a heavy damage tank buster/auto phase (like taking 2 bosses, or getting hit by multi-hit tank busters). Delirium having a 400 heal pot on each stack(not stacking per enemy hit) would give sustain during burst, and always be useful regardless of situation (especially if you have aggro at the time). Even if NOTHING ELSE CHANGED (Obviously we want Blood weapon charges because a 9.9s buff is ridiculous, something done to Living Dead, etc) This would at LEAST be a decent band-aid that would take maybe an hour of development time.

I know Community Managers are reading this and communicating constructive feedback to the team (best they can anyway) so please at least share the DRK communities desire to be put on the same level as the other tanks in terms of self sustain. Doubt my little rant will do anything, but I feel I've posted this as constructive as possible.

I love your idea earlier in thread to make Delirium's 3 stacks give Healing Effect each use of Bloodspiller/Quietus around 400 Potency Heal per Weaponskill which maxes out at 1200 Potency.

It's only usable every 60s because Endwalker Delirium is 60s CD so hardly unbalancing and DRK players will have incentive to be more thoughtful in timing Delirium besides a mindless DPS button mash whenever it's off CD to maximize utility. It will be more than just a DPS burst skill, it's a tool to directly aid in survival.

Screw Enhanced Unmend, Screw Salted Earth, this Delirium Trait suggestion is a Real Winner in gameplay department and beautifully addresses Dark Knight's lack of HP sustain.

If there was just 1 major change to Dark Knight before Endwalker goes live, I'd wholeheartedly back this one. I don't care about Enhanced Unmend and Salted Earth, those are fluff skills and Salted Earth in particular seems to get more use in Limsa Lominsa RP fashion shows and musical events than actual combat. I'd also back the Blood Weapon to 5 Stack System change too but I don't want to smoke too much Copium.

I wouldn't mind trading Enhanced Unmend and Salted Earth for your Delirium Trait suggestion, it integrates way better and smoother for actual longterm play.

[Tex_Mex]

As long as TBN gets the mana cost removed, I really don't care how else they change it. I just think it is really REALLY dumb that it interferes with our damage potential. The best part of TBN is the 15 second CD, but as it stands, you are penalized for using it that often. It's probably also time for Dark Mind to get updated as well. PLD was changed to be able to block magic damage a while back. It's time to add a 10% physical reduction to Dark Mind or something similar.

[Kalaam]

I fear that putting that healing trait on delirium would not be that helpful. We would still need to go into delirium for burst phase in the rotation so while that would be a helpful heal, it would likely happen at a "fixed" time.
Now if we had a dark art buff that gives some abilities a healing effect, we'd get some control over *when* to get that heal. DA Abyssal drain applying a Hot/DoT (pseudo draining the target's HP) so it becomes a useful skill against bosses for example.

[ArthurATDayne]

I fear that putting that healing trait on delirium would not be that helpful. We would still need to go into delirium for burst phase in the rotation so while that would be a helpful heal, it would likely happen at a "fixed" time.
Now if we had a dark art buff that gives some abilities a healing effect, we'd get some control over *when* to get that heal. DA Abyssal drain applying a Hot/DoT (pseudo draining the target's HP) so it becomes a useful skill against bosses for example.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love for a button that specifically grants an On Demand Heal whether in a damage burst phase or Not i.e. GNB's Aurora or WAR Equilibrium but baking in a Weakness/Con/Drawback of some sort like with Delirium being mostly used in Rotation anyway & requiring melee range landing Weaponskills on a boss/mobs seems easier to sell to SquareEnix than just a direct oGCD Self Heal Button without any drawbacks or conditions.

I'd also like for Dark Mind & Oblation to just be 1 60s CD skill that can be used for reduce All Damage types or even an HP Bubble shield too. There's a certain combination of intended gameplay, logic and neglect from SquareEnix on how Dark Knight should be played, I'm trying to understand why they did things the way they did and hopefully push the right buttons too.

Who knows, maybe after reading all this there will be a new quickie patch a few months after Endwalker Release:

"After reviewing all Feedback we have decided to replace Enhanced Unmend with Enhanced Living Dead: While under the Effect of Walking Dead, Restores Health 1200 Potency. You still need to be healed 100% of your HP though while under effects of Walking Dead or you DIE. We hope this will address HP Sustain requests, Thank You, Love & Kisses SquareEnix"

[shao32]

Im seeing a few request to remove MP cost from TBN lately and i have to say that's not easy to do, first of all bcs TBN is tied to the Dark arts proc wich have a gauge tied to it (useless gauge all being said) so thats means rework the whole proc mechanic or delete it but at the same time they can't bcs thet need to keep Dark arts name somehow on the jobs bcs is a signature skill on the job identity across the various FF games at the same time they will delete the literally only mechanic the job has and rework it means they have to actually put some brain cells on design the job even for that thing and i doubt they are going to get in to that at all, in other word it's a corner im pretty sure they aren't willing to work on it.

For self healing bring back Sole survivor, during his duration (10s) DRK get a heal of idk, 100p per GCD hit and heal the job with a cure of 700p when sole survivor fades off, 100p x5 + 700p when the effect fades off 1200p selfhealing every 60s aviable when you want, meh idk why i even think on it when i know it's never going to happen, boring evening don't mind me.

[ArthurATDayne]

Im seeing a few request to remove MP cost from TBN lately and i have to say that's not easy to do, first of all bcs TBN is tied to the Dark arts proc wich have a gauge tied to it (useless gauge all being said) so thats means rework the whole proc mechanic or delete it but at the same time they can't bcs thet need to keep Dark arts name somehow on the jobs bcs is a signature skill on the job identity across the various FF games at the same time they will delete the literally only mechanic the job has and rework it means they have to actually put some brain cells on design the job even for that thing and i doubt they are going to get in to that at all, in other word it's a corner im pretty sure they aren't willing to work on it.

For self healing bring back Sole survivor, during his duration (10s) DRK get a heal of idk, 100p per GCD hit and heal the job with a cure of 700p when sole survivor fades off, 100p x5 + 700p when the effect fades off 1200p selfhealing every 60s aviable when you want, meh idk why i even think on it when i know it's never going to happen, boring evening don't mind me.

Something something from the Dark Knight Job Quest about Love making all the suffering and pain bearable and fueling the willingness to fight against the injustice of it all. Something something about Light born out of the Darkness.

Or maybe it's the Copium Dark Knight players all having a puff of. We can hope and cope.