Dark Knight Megathread

[Colt47]

Took DRK for a spin, and it kind of clicked what doesn't work at all with them.

1) TBN is strong. TBN is great when fighting in trials and end game raiding. TBN sucks when you are dealing with multiple angry midgets with hammers smacking your knee caps while double pulling packs of mobs in dungeons, which is why I feel like it basically doesn't have TBN during dungeon runs.
2) They got WAAAAAAAAAAAY too many OGCDs. There's no way a drk can spare enough OGCD slots to blow enough cooldowns to survive some scenarios while also using the same OGCD slots for half the stuff they got to throw out. You're either firing everything on full cylinders like a DPS or your trying to dump enough cooldowns to survive a major tank buster.

[baklava151]

2) They got WAAAAAAAAAAAY too many OGCDs. There's no way a drk can spare enough OGCD slots to blow enough cooldowns to survive some scenarios while also using the same OGCD slots for half the stuff they got to throw out. You're either firing everything on full cylinders like a DPS or your trying to dump enough cooldowns to survive a major tank buster.

The start of P3S is a nightmare for this reason between getting everything off under raid buffs + getting mits up for the first tankbuster.

[Undeadfire]

The start of P3S is a nightmare for this reason between getting everything off under raid buffs + getting mits up for the first tankbuster.

It's scuffed as hell yeah, got to ask GNB to HoC you, you can Rampart before the raid buffs begin.

[Shurrikhan]

...

If my memory serve me right, you can requiescat+Clemency but it still trigger a gcd...

That is correct. Even as an instant cast, Clemency is still a damage loss. It breaks combos and, more importantly, consumes a GCD in a very, very GCD-locked rotation.

While I agree with most of her post (linked above, and quoted by The_User), unless Lyth's proc would forcibly replace Clemency, a spell, with an ability by the same name, it'd still be a damage loss, so I don't Lyth proposed an instant-cast Clemency as an alternative means to providing free sustain.

Of course, just do that and, voila, it's fixed. It'd increase PLD's dependence on actively tanking to get full value from its kit, but frankly... we shouldn't shy away from that. Tanks should feel like they want to be tanking. (Yes, I will regret these words come the first Alliance Raid.)


On that note...

I'm not a fan of non-timeable heals like Holy Shock/Circle's (both basically just a 4-cast function of Requiescat for a rigidly timed 1600cp per minute) unless they purposely under-tax the user's budget (making them slightly OP if they can be fully exploited but functioning under the assumption that they typically won't). However, I don't see how "releasing holy light, healing myself as it passes through me" as necessarily "vampiric".

Being healed for a flat amount per a given action, even an offensive one, is not sufficient to create form that identity. Healing as a percent of damage? Yeah, that sounds either like vampirism or being enthralled by the thrill of the fight. Healing only from one's obviously Blood-themed attacks? Sure; that sounds vampiric. Also having that portion be designated specifically as bonus damage, such that you inflict and heal for that same, separate "drain" amount? Absolutely.

But when it's a flat heal from a holy spell, there are far more fitting ways of looking at that, thematically, than 'PLD is a vampire now'.

So long as there are multiple, at-least-slightly-differed procedures of self-healing from offensive actions, or they're clearly contained within different thematic grounds, I don't think we need to constrain them to just particular tanks. I would take the aforementioned "next Clemency becomes an instant-cast oGCD" proc over that for Paladin, but PLD, too, having a bit of constrained healing upon using certain offensive actions doesn't bug me.

[ItsUrBoi]

2) They got WAAAAAAAAAAAY too many OGCDs.

You forgot to mention how DRK needs to push 3 off GCDs to mitigate ( Dark Mind OR Rampart / Shadow Wall + TBN + Oblation ) to mitigate. While the other's use 2 buttons usually combining their short CD mitigation and the 30% or 20%.
Also the shield tank design is not bad, but what about more shields - rather than just one?

[MerlinCross]

You forgot to mention how DRK needs to push 3 off GCDs to mitigate ( Dark Mind OR Rampart / Shadow Wall + TBN + Oblation ) to mitigate. While the other's use 2 buttons usually combining their short CD mitigation and the 30% or 20%.
Also the shield tank design is not bad, but what about more shields - rather than just one?

Because the devs have seemingly had a dislike/hate relation with shields for the longest time but have dug themselves into this hole.

To wit; if we got more shield/barrier abilities, how does that work with SCH/AST?

[The_User]

Here is what you can do about it if you really want Clemency to be instant heal triggered by Holy Sheltron without losing damage.




Holy Sheltron
Type Ability
Reduce Damage taken and regen blah blah blah
Additional Effect : Grant Aegis Spirit upon execution. Duration 25s.



Clemency
Type : Spell. Cast : 1.5s. Recast 2.5s [gcd] Cost 2000 MP.
Heal!
Additional Effect : Action changes to Enhanced Clemency while under the effect of Aegis Spirit


Enhanced Clemency
Type : Ability. Cast : instant. Recast 1s. No Cost
Restores target's HP. Cure Potency: 1,000. Can only be executed while under the effect of Aegis Spirit. Effect fade upon execution. This action cannot be assign to a hotbar.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've had another direction I'd like to see Living Dead go -- one that allows DRK some hope of recovery and gives Barrier healers more breathing room, while keeping the identity of the skill in place.

Living Dead - Duration 10s
While under the effect of Living Dead, if an attack would reduce you to zero HP, instead your status changes to "Walking Dead" and you gain 4 stacks of "Beyond Death"

Walking Dead - Duration 10s
While under this status, most attacks will not reduce your HP below 1 (alternativly, full invunerability). When you are healed for 25% of your health, lose 1 stack of "Beyond Death". When the duration of Walking Dead ends, you take damage equal to 25% of your HP for every stack of "Beyond Death" you have remaining.


With this setup, healers and the Dark Knight can actually see how close they are to a full recovery by tracking how many stacks of Beyond Death remain. By shifting it from a guarenteed KO on expiration to variable damage, it also gives barrier healers and the DRK with TBN greater flexibility in surviving the subsequent hit. Furthermore, that damage can then be used to pop TBN and get some immediate payback against their enemies. And ultimately the skill would retain the risk/reward and self sacrificing nature that the ability is trying to achieve.

Now while we are at it, can anyone tell me what would happen if Dark Knight only get healed to 50% of their max hp and the "Walking Dead" duration ends?

[Oizen]

The problem with living dead to me has always been its hard reliance on another player entirely. So Any rework that keeps that aspect of it is honestly missing the point.

[The_User]

The life-steal/heal with attacks concept is far from unique to or the sole province of WAR, even among the tanks; for example PLD heals with Holy Spirit and Holy Circle.
Might as well say that WAR can't have Vengeance and DRK can't have Shadow Wall because PLD had been given Sentinel and so strong base % mitigation was their thing.

Besides the life-steal game-play niche wasn't originally "given to WAR", they just used to be able to cross-class Bloodbath, a lancer/melee dps ability.
So even historically it wasn't really just a "WAR thing"; and the precedence of Blood Weapon being the predominant life-steal ability in the series as a whole and it often being an ability found on the Dark Knight job is a strong enough reason to consider it having its classic effect in this game as well, especially considering the current player requests to give DRK more self-sustain.

Are you refer to these?
https://youtu.be/8HVDRu8_eOs?t=215


https://youtu.be/sVFYaHPcD1w?t=382

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...crossclassing/


https://ffxivguild.com/ff14-cross-class-skill-guide/

[AziraSyuren]

Turning Bloodbath from a WAR skill to a melee DPS cross role only skill was one of the most infuriating design decisions they made in Stormblood, too. It was baffling.