Dark Knight Megathread

[Ryaduera]

Just to check, this is consuming Dark Mind (or some fixed version thereof) and/with/via Oblation? I should have asked earlier, but would this work like Shake it Off in the sense that optimizing the interaction involves waiting until the last possible moment to consume it, since the benefit for consumption wouldn't scale at all with the duration wasted? I like the idea of "offering up" an ability, so long as for whatever reason we keep Oblation in (as a name and theme), but its behavior would depend greatly upon how that consumption is rewarded / what factors are included.

Yeah I'm thinking working like Shake it Off in that regard, but this was a morning thought so it can always be improved on. Not sure what you mean by keeping Oblation? It would consume oblation but it would not replace it, you'd still have it. BUt this would be a new ability, not a replacement/upgrade to Oblation/TBN. This would technically give DRK the most unique mitigations, but all of their uniques (TBN aside) are pretty weak, so I think it would stay balanced, especially since a "consuming" ability would make it harder to stack mitigations anyway.

Out of curiosity, do you here a mean a HoT specifically, or just in the sense that, say, a HoT can provide more throughput than it'd actually typically be balanced for since it gives up some control/responsiveness? Is this more an interest in just getting gear-based sustain up there whatever way we can without throwing more barrier at BarrierBoy or getting too heavily taxed for on-demand heals (since we're not Warrior and therefore don't get a free pass)? I'd just like to hear why you think DRK desparately needs a HoT in particular (or why a HoT would uniquely meet DRK's needs).

And, yeah, HoT-after-TBN would have comically bad anti-synergy, agreed.

DRK with a Hot in my opinion would be a great boon. Heals are only good if used with intent and calculation, healing is the hardest form of tankiness to use (albeit still easy). Healing at full HP does literally nothing, we all know this. The idea is you're taking damage and taking damage, losing HP between barriers, then consume defensives to mitigate more for longer and heal that damage back up. 200 potency as a HoT is the same as Aurora and Aurora is not exactly making GNB broken in sustain. It would also relive at least some stress in TLD situations (better option being fix TLD but I've accepted that won't happen).

The idea here is that it would reduce damage by less that Dark Mind so that DM is still stronger vs magic damage, but also add usability to the skill in situations where it is not useful. 10% reduction is a good place to sit. PLD gets 20% reduced from their shield and then 15% from raw reduction with a hot, War gets reduction, healing, AND a shield (but that's an outlier, they're just stoo strong), GNB gets 15% with 15% and a fat heal, so I think it's only fair that DRK would be able to get 10% from this skill, get a HoT from it, cast Oblation after casting this ability to stack them and get 10% + 10% with a HoT. Since TBN exists the percentage being lower is fair in the context of tank busters. Sustainability in HoT form is most impactful in dungeons, where DRK suffers the most. I know you don't agree, but the fact is the majority do agree DRK needs help in dungeons.

Sorry, I read into your idea more of the earlier contexts regarding Dark Mind than I should have, I think? To be clear, would the above idea of consumption be primarily aimed at dealing with varying damage intake or more of just giving you another way to use Dark Mind for when there's no magic damage to mitigate (a bit alike to the earlier ideas in which Dark Artskresia could toggle Dark Mind to something anti-physical instead)?

Yes and no? Hard to word this... So basically Dark Mind keeps its usability it currently has and can optionally be used to fuel another defensive ability, but only if a heal is desired. Dark Mind is in fact very good when it is useful, the problem is the rarity in which it is used. DRK is not the magic-damage-tank it's just the tank-that-can't-take-physical-damage-well.

But unless it's being slowly leeched from enemies (... I have some thoughts on Salted Earth now actually), I feel like a HoT simply isn't DRK's style or aesthetic, y'know? Especially not giving healing effects to other people, since that strays perhaps too closely to the aesthetic of the PLD that it exists in opposition to.

I strongly disagree because of the lore of Dark Knight in this particular version. The abyss empowers you to push on, the abyss is keeping your body alive, the abyss needs you alive to express its fury, and so the darkness within you empowers you to push on. If you want a tank that gets power from slaying, that's Warrior, the Dark Knight gets power by embracing the abyss within them. Their powers come from the inside, not the outside. DRK in lore is very similar to a PLD, always has been, but always the other side of the spectrum. PLD was the light, and the DRK was the shadow it cast.

Also to be clear, this would be a self-cast ability only.

That being said, as far as "consume Dark Mind to improve Dark Missionary"... I will advise we tread lightly, since if we're arguing for any kind of buff to Dark Missionary, we have to keep in mind that it occupies the same niche as GNB's Heart of Light, much as Shake It Off and Divine Veil do with each other.

GNB and DRK should not have identical party mitigations. Period. I don't care which one gets what, but the fact that they are literally the same thing infuriates me to no end, especially since DRK gets it so much later. They should be different. For this reason I hate both, even though they are a good ability.

EDIT: Again, this was a morning-coffee thought so I see now it may be read as a replacement for Dark Missionary. I am not against that idea but I'd go back to the drawing board for that. I can see how it would be interpreted like this from what I said.