DNC Analysis for 6.0/6.05

[ty_taurus]

I like the concept of Improvisation but the execution is just bad, really really bad. The time/risk vs reward just isn't there. I have to stand still for 12s just to give a minor regen and barrier to a small AoE area. Not going to happen in a fight.

Maybe if it gave the party a dps buff, maybe if it added Fourfold Feathers, maybe if it charged up Espirit. Maybe...but no, it does none of those things and is a really dead on arrival.

Tillana, I get it. It give you a nice 1 2 combo so I'm fine with that.

You can double weave Improvisation without halting your GCD and get the regen and a 5% max HP barrier. It's not a massive amount of utility, but that little extra could really come in handy in a tight situation, so the channel isn't required.

[Dyvid]

You can double weave Improvisation without halting your GCD and get the regen and a 5% max HP barrier. It's not a massive amount of utility, but that little extra could really come in handy in a tight situation, so the channel isn't required.

Yea, but the point of a channel ability is to balance risk with reward. It you gave this to say a BLM, the mage would standstill charging the spell for more potency at the risk of damage and requiring healer to keep him alive. The reward of that effort would be a powerful DPS spell. Along that grain DNC is a DPS so it's main focus is DPS, be it pure dps skills or a dps buff to other players.

Passively Improvisation should grant either Regen or Barrier in that AoE area to help other and help keep the DNC alive during charging. The charged Improve could be used to improve Devilment, add Featherfold, or charge epsirit.
On the flip side you could have the AoE zone grant players a Damage buff while DNC charges up Improve Regen/Barrier.

My point is it needs a better reward for the risk/time of standstill with none personal dps output. Basically DPS lose vs Healing benefit isn't going to work, at least in my opinion.

[NobleWinter]

You can double weave Improvisation without halting your GCD and get the regen and a 5% max HP barrier. It's not a massive amount of utility, but that little extra could really come in handy in a tight situation, so the channel isn't required.

It's this tiny amount of utility that's possible with double weaving that annoys me the most. The shield feels inconsequential and the heal unnoticeable but it's the optimal way to use the skill. It's really unsatisfying in practice even if logically I know it's the right thing to do. You need a long transition to get the full use of the skill but that makes the heal unnecessary because an actual healer could make use of the same downtime to heal more efficiently. Personally I wish Improv was something that needed to be weaved between weapon skills intentionally. Let it be like Continuation or the old Dark Arts to charge up the shield and release a small heal with each use.

[ty_taurus]

It's this tiny amount of utility that's possible with double weaving that annoys me the most. The shield feels inconsequential and the heal unnoticeable but it's the optimal way to use the skill. It's really unsatisfying in practice even if logically I know it's the right thing to do. You need a long transition to get the full use of the skill but that makes the heal unnecessary because an actual healer could make use of the same downtime to heal more efficiently. Personally I wish Improv was something that needed to be weaved between weapon skills intentionally. Let it be like Continuation or the old Dark Arts to charge up the shield and release a small heal with each use.

Correct. It's better than it was before, but it's still odd in regards to implementation. It was intended to be a downtime button, but DNC has never needed a downtime button. Phase changes are once a battle if even, and it's really unnecessary to dedicate an entire action to solely give DPS something to do during that time. The only counterargument in my opinion was Anatman before the Greased Lightning purge because it was such an easy buff to lose (though they could've also just made Formless Fist reset its cooldown similar to BLM's Transpose). Now, I really don't think Anatman, Improvisation, or Meditate are good ideas, nor why they're so committed to these buttons.

As it stands, I find the new Improvisation to be inoffensive, so not really something I felt was worth going into. It would be better if it was just an AoE regen that gave you a 30 second window to use Improvised Finish.

Personally, I think FD4 is fine as its own button, as it helps compartmentalize between the setup and push-all-the-buttons-now! parts of the burst. It also leaves space for future updates to maybe add more chances to use FD4 outside of Flourish.

Starfall though, could really just change the Devilment button. If not outright replace the ability itself so it grants the buff and does the damage in the same press. Being that Starfall auto direct crits, it shouldn't matter if the buff portion somehow lags and doesn't apply before the damage?

I agree, I was mainly just pointing out that, as it stands now, I don't really know why they're separate buttons when they don't have any kind of way to be used outside of Flourish or Devilment respectively. I do want them to eventually gain more functionality in the future though, like in some of the suggestions I brought up.