Dark Knight Megathread

[Zedrin]

RE: Living Dead

I dont know why they don't just make LD function like super/holm. Reduce HP to 1, for 10s your HP cannot be reduced lower than 1. No death penalty, and it wouldn't be a mirror copy of either other invuln/immunity skill. Plus it'd still fit in with one aspect of DRK's flavour: paying [HP] (or in this case for 14 as a tank, resource) to use [action].

Wouldn't that just be making it a clone of Holm, though? I guess the HP sacrifice would make it very slightly different and maybe justify a slightly shorter cooldown, but it feels like it'd be super similar.

Though tbh as is it kinda already is like a frame-perfect holm if properly coordinated, it just has some added unnecessary stipulations.

I just proposed the changes as a means to make it feel thematically similar to how it is now, while also removing the clunkiness. If you have a DoT on you instead of the 'Doom'-like effect, healers will more readily notice the missing HP. Plus, it's not instant death for not being brought up to full--and becomes something barriers can actually deal with it, unlike with the current LD.

[WhyAmIHere]

Wouldn't that just be making it a clone of Holm, though? I guess the HP sacrifice would make it very slightly different and maybe justify a slightly shorter cooldown, but it feels like it'd be super similar.

Though tbh as is it kinda already is like a frame-perfect holm if properly coordinated, it just has some added unnecessary stipulations.

I just proposed the changes as a means to make it feel thematically similar to how it is now, while also removing the clunkiness. If you have a DoT on you instead of the 'Doom'-like effect, healers will more readily notice the missing HP. Plus, it's not instant death for not being brought up to full--and becomes something barriers can actually deal with it, unlike with the current LD.

Living/Walking Dead and Holmgang already are similar, in that they both prevent your HP from being reduced below 1. It's just that now all but LD last a full 10 seconds, whereas LD is up to 10(-ish) seconds.

I'm still a sucker for a Bravely Default (as it's my most recent memory) style iteration of Dark Knight. Heavy Damage, but with a cost. Which was kinda what DRK used to be, albeit in 14's own unique way. Since as a tank, and in an MMO, having to expend HP as a resource to perform abilities is a flat out bad idea, MP was used in lieu. If I could draft up a DRK job to my own liking, I'd still lean in to that ethos, but take what already exists in the game to do so.

Blackblood would have more interaction with MP, and MP would have interactions with Blackblood. There'd be skills that allow a conversion of one to the other, and mass expenditures of one (or both cuz I'd still love to see a capstone skill in Minus Strike) for a massive payoff. TBN would have to be included because of how baked in to the job quests/class lore it is. So, let's lean in to that aspect some more. Introduce a weaker shield earlier on, and have it evolve into TBN at 70; or have TBN evolve somewhere in the 72-90 range. Bring back Scourge. IDK.

It just feels like, seems like, or comes off as, that SE is flat out afraid of DRK design. HW was a fun mess IMO, and rewarded skillful play. SB tried to shake things up and make it easier to play, but they went overboard and made it too annoying to play to the community at large. (DA spam memes.) ShB was in response to that, and DRK was just even further gutted (which, btw, every expansion except for EW seems to have just gutted more and more from DRK's kit) to the point where it became a knockoff Great Value Discounted version of WAR. EW they didn't even really make any attempts to address any of the feedback from the community, because as I'll wager by and large folks were okay with what ShB did. It was more accessible to play, less punishing to new players, and straightforward enough that there wasn't too much complexity to make it intimidating to people. And frankly, I'm kind of okay with that mentality. Change isn't inherently good or bad, I just disagree with the direction ShB took with the class, but I suck it up and moved on to a more enjoyable to me tank, GNB. I like complexity, I enjoy a frenetic pace of play, I prefer resource management instead of timer loops.

But whether it's due to negligence or disinterest, or ignorance or vaingloriousness, that's not up to me to declare. All I know is that DRK was okay enough in ShB, and it was okay because the silent majority were okay with it. Now in EW, and due to all the changes they've made to it leading up to EW, and in response to those changes and lack thereof, now DRK is lagging behind the other tanks in all but one area, the metric that ""mAtTeRs MoSt,"" it does a lotta damage. But hey! If that's all someone cares about? More power to them, I'm not gonna tell someone how to enjoy themselves, or that they're enjoying something wrong / enjoying the wrong thing. That's callous as all hell. But I also won't be satisfied with stagnancy due to developer apprehension or disinterest, or a lack of understanding in what the community, specifically tanks, are asking for. There's obviously a clear break in the communication due to the language barriers inherent in this game, but there's also a disconnect from the developers and the players by and large. (E.G. Ninja having one rotation set out by the developers, and the community making a better one; Xeno's interview with YoshiP and him bringing up Living Dead straight to Yoshida's face; presently MNK and the community finding a way to fit Blitz into a 2 minute burst window consistently, despite the developers stating that they didn't want that to happen.)

I didn't mean for this reply to go on like this, but it is what it is.