Let's talk Dark Knights

[RyuDragnier]

Seems they should re-arrange when to get them as it felt so off compared to Warrior in these early levels.

Which is part of my complaint for Oblation (10% damage mitigation with 2 charges) being level 82. If it was level 48, it'd help out a lot while we don't have TBN. But level 82...after we've gotten all our mitigation tools already? Kinda pointless.

[Duskane]

might as well just remove Dark mind and put Oblation in its place

[TheMightyMollusk]

To be fair, most jobs could stand to get some skills earlier. DRK's hardly alone.

[RyuDragnier]

To be fair, most jobs could stand to get some skills earlier. DRK's hardly alone.

While true, DRK is sadly the tank that suffers the most from this though. Our biggest mitigation tool isn't until level 70, our party mitigation isn't until level 76, and we essentially have 1 less mitigation tool in general unless the enemies are using magic.

[ArthurATDayne]

While true, DRK is sadly the tank that suffers the most from this though. Our biggest mitigation tool isn't until level 70, our party mitigation isn't until level 76, and we essentially have 1 less mitigation tool in general unless the enemies are using magic.

Yeah 1-69 our personal mitigation is mostly 1-2-3 Souleater Combo spam & Rampart and Shadow Wall CDs. Abyssal Drain on large packs Once every 60s for measly 200 Potency heal per Target, useless on Single Target fights.

Dark Mind is Magic Only, super niched and most threats aside from very tiny few specific encounters 1-69 that actually pose a real threat are Non-Magic anyway. And DRK Players wanting to maximize Dark Mind utility have to do Extra Work Google Searching, researching, figuring out from texts, logs what specific targets and their specific attacks are magical vs physical.

[Alacran]

Can't help but laugh when i see the whole "I am Dark Knight, so i am evil edgy boy!" thing roll around.

Dark Knights are not Death Knights.

Theme, weapon options, & dark armor are about all they have in common, & once you get further, you'll see what lights the flame for a Dark Knight to take up the mantel.

Spoilers: Dark Knight Job quest 50+

As i have always seen it,(& later proven correct by those damn moogles) A Dark Knight is all about sacrifice & conviction. Love is what makes a Dark Knight do what others fear to do, love is what guides us to the darker, more brutal, & sometimes questionable power we use to protect others.

Few Dark Knights will grow old, fewer still will ever die peacefully in bed surrounded family & friends sharing stories of glory & comradery. However glory was never the reason why we do what we do when it needed to be done. There is no guild for Dark Knights, no order or brotherhood, just the vow, the vow that there is someone who needs to be protected no matter the cost to our reputation, body, or life.

It never means we don't feel the guilt of our actions, if anything we carry the burden willingly, after all, it weighs as it should, but to keep those we care for safe, reaching through the dark flames is a thing we do smiling, burning the whole way, knowing the guilt will follow, holding the burden as we should.

I'll never be able to see a Death Knight who gains power from another's suffering is anything like a Dark Knight who sacrifices themselves for power to save their cherished ones the same.

After all, one needs only remember: "Serve...Save...Slave...Slay..." Fray Myste.

Always remember what the Dark Knight soul stone is. It maybe be jagged & have abit of scars, but in the end it's still there.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Justice demands no less.

[Hysorn]

I think Adam Driver is right. Too bad dork night's invuln is so rarely useful in any content, unlike hallowed which I sometimes use just for giggles.


Still the best tank tank class in the game, though.

Crap, you ruined my character, I can't stop seeing that whiny Sith wannabe Kylo Ren now.

[Tanis_Ebonhart]

Yeah... I don't like Dark Mind. It seems so situational and bad compared to what the other Tanks get.

[Dracosavarian]

Got my Dark Knight to 50.

I like the but... Warrior feels so much better - especially in ohshiz situations when the Healer is having trouble.

Yeah, cannot help but agree with this. Warrior is by far much easier on healers.

Dark Knight unfortunately does not start to feel complete until about level 72, when it gets Stalwart Soul. Until then, you unfortunately won’t have a full glimpse into what the job is capable of. Usually about level 74 is when it all starts to flow together for folks.

But yes, the job feels clunky until then. Disjointed, and incomplete. It’s a bit frustrating.

I’m an old school Dark Knight player. Back in FFXI and now FFXIV. In Heavensward, Dark Knight very much felt like a tank that willingly endured insufferable amounts of pain and gave back that pain in equal measures. Dark Dance, Blood Price, Reprisal, Dark Arts, and other skills gave Dark Knight this sense of being a tank that just grew relentlessly full of fury and hatred and would use the pain delivered to it to strike back in equal measure. Reprisal being triggered upon a successful parry for example, or Dark Price fueling your mana for every painful hit you took.

The job was glorious back then, and was a sheer joy to play.


Then came Stormblood, and now Shadowbringers. I didn’t mind ShB Dark Knight so much. Stormblood, I detested, the dark arts spam drove me insane, yet still I endured.


But with Endwalker, and seeing what the other tanks got, and knowing what our identity once was, that of a tank fueled by pain that would mete out equal or even greater punishment as it’s identity long since being gone, disheartens me.

I will wait to see what final patch notes bring. But Drk needs a ground up rework, IMO, and if the job is not corrected by end of 6.0, I likely will hang up tanking altogether and move on to Reaper, which will feel more like FFXI Dark Knight to me I feel, than our current iteration in this game.