Dark Knight Megathread

[Archwizard]

Now you know that's hyperbole, nothing will ever be stronger than Equilibrium seeing as it's in total a 2,200 cure potency heal (no other heal in the game matches it in cure potency).

"Nothing will ever be stronger than Equilibrium", huh?

2200 potency is about 45-50% of your HP, true. Except that what he described is 100% of all damage sustained while it's active, including barrier and mitigation effects. 75% of which is given instantly, compared to Equilibrium's 55%.

If you take more than half your health in raw damage in a 10 sec period, it's overall a greater heal with upward scaling -- and between tankbusters, Savage autoattacks, W2W, and the raw 25% of your HP you're given by TBN already, that's not hard to do. Hell, how many bosses have "set HP to 1" mechanics?

As it currently stands, we have Living Dead making it impossible to reduce us below 1HP. With "Sole Survivor" as described, you could pop it and get potentially another instant 100% heal with a HoT after. All of which is immune to Healing Potency reduction, all on a 1 min CD.

And you're saying that will never be stronger than Equilibrium.

[Marxam]

Just want to remind ppl that Oblation and AST Exaltation have the exact same 60 sec recast timer, same 10% dmg reduction but the latter gets a 500 potency cure at the end of its duration. Seems like an easy copy and paste fix for Oblation.

At least when you compare WAR's ToB to SCH's Protraction, there's an obvious advantages to each version. One being stronger but on a longer cd and one being weaker but on a shorter cd. Oblation and Exaltation is literally the same but the added benefit of a cure at the end is usually better. You can't even stack two oblations on each other for a stronger effect (but still weaker than rampart since its multiplicative).

They just need to lower the cd of TBN to 10-12 secs and see what happens. Don't even need to change the MP cost. Just lower the recast timer and I'm sure that will fix some of DRK's problems.

[Archwizard]

They just need to lower the cd of TBN to 10-12 secs and see what happens. Don't even need to change the MP cost. Just lower the recast timer and I'm sure that will fix some of DRK's problems.

Really wouldn't. The MP cost is the primary limiter on TBN's cooldown, which is why the CD can afford to be so low for DRK compared to other tanks -- we won't have it every 15 seconds, unless we're conserving MP at a damage loss to our opener.

[Lyth]

Riddle of Earth (Lv. 64, Melee DPS): Grants 3 stacks of Riddle of Earth, each stack reducing damage taken by 20%. Duration: 10s/Recast: 30s. Maximum Charges: 3.
Arcane Crest (Lv. 30, Melee DPS): Grants Crest of Time Borrowed to self, creating a barrier that nullifies damage totaling up to 10% of maximum HP. Gradually restores HP (50 potency/tick for 15 s) to self and nearby party members when barrier completely absorbed. Duration: 5s/Recast: 30s.
Third Eye (Lv. 6, Melee DPS): Reduces the amount of damage taken by the next attack by 10%. Increases Kenki Gauge by 10 when hit. Duration: 4s/Recast: 15s.

Oblation (Lv. 82): Reduces damage taken by a party member or self by 10%. Duration: 10s/Recast: 60s Maximum Charges: 2.

I understand that you have to take mitigation actions in the context of the larger toolkit, but this is why Oblation is underwhelming. If it's meant to just be a TBN upgrade, make it a TBN upgrade. Otherwise, at least let it outshine a Lv. 6 melee dps ability.

[Crater]

Really wouldn't. The MP cost is the primary limiter on TBN's cooldown, which is why the CD can afford to be so low for DRK compared to other tanks -- we won't have it every 15 seconds, unless we're conserving MP at a damage loss to our opener.

In singletarget, DRK produces almost exactly 12000 MP per minute, just barely enough to hypothetically hit TBN on cooldown (if it were ever useful to hit TBN on cooldown).
In AoE, DRK produces just shy of 15000 MP per minute, which (assuming you started the encounter with a decent amount of MP to slowly draw down) would be enough to hit TBN every 12 seconds or so effectively indefinitely.

That change would leapfrog DRK from being roughly on par with GNB and somewhat behind PLD for mitigation+healing in dungeon pulls to being ahead of PLD by a similar margin. I honestly think it would kind of be overkill.

[Marxam]

Riddle of Earth (Lv. 64, Melee DPS): Grants 3 stacks of Riddle of Earth, each stack reducing damage taken by 20%. Duration: 10s/Recast: 30s. Maximum Charges: 3.
Arcane Crest (Lv. 30, Melee DPS): Grants Crest of Time Borrowed to self, creating a barrier that nullifies damage totaling up to 10% of maximum HP. Gradually restores HP (50 potency/tick for 15 s) to self and nearby party members when barrier completely absorbed. Duration: 5s/Recast: 30s.
Third Eye (Lv. 6, Melee DPS): Reduces the amount of damage taken by the next attack by 10%. Increases Kenki Gauge by 10 when hit. Duration: 4s/Recast: 15s.

Oblation (Lv. 82): Reduces damage taken by a party member or self by 10%. Duration: 10s/Recast: 60s Maximum Charges: 2.

I understand that you have to take mitigation actions in the context of the larger toolkit, but this is why Oblation is underwhelming. If it's meant to just be a TBN upgrade, make it a TBN upgrade. Otherwise, at least let it outshine a Lv. 6 melee dps ability.

My point exactly. If TBN just got an oblation like upgrade it wouldn't be an issue. I think the problem is they are expecting the utility of oblation to be the selling point when in reality you have other ogcds to take care of. Maybe on PC its doable but on controller it does become extremely difficult to target a party member with oblation, let alone two, while taking care of keeping my ogcds rolling. The created utility for it in a game which rarely needs it if at all. Oblation just gives me 4.0 SiO vibes. Yes it is technically a good effect and useful in niche circumstances but ultimately redundant when TBN just does it all.

Im also not a fan of how back loaded DRK's mitigation is. Excluding role skills, they only get shadow wall as your true defensive in dungeon pulls till you get TBN at 70. Dark Mind doesn't even matter. Even GNB a job that was introduced at 70 gets camo, nebula and HoS before 70. It just makes leveling DRK more miserable than it needs to be.

[Derio]

Actuall making AD cost mp would fix alot of the self sustain issues in dungeons. The real thing is the self sustain in regular content and single target situations. Its clear as day that healers have to babysit the DRK more than any other tank when it comes to simply auto attacks.

TBN needs to either have the MP refunded if it doesnt break or automatically grant dark arts at the end of its duration.

Simply just grant a small regen to oblation would make it a little better but not sure it would fix its issues.

Are we expecting DRK changes in 6.2

I dont expect any changes given they just fixed alot of stuff for us and are basically like be quiet until 7.0

[Archwizard]

Im also not a fan of how back loaded DRK's mitigation is. Excluding role skills, they only get shadow wall as your true defensive in dungeon pulls till you get TBN at 70. Dark Mind doesn't even matter. [...] It just makes leveling DRK more miserable than it needs to be.

Actuall making AD cost mp would fix alot of the self sustain issues in dungeons. The real thing is the self sustain in regular content and single target situations. Its clear as day that healers have to babysit the DRK more than any other tank when it comes to simply auto attacks.

Replace Flood of Darkness/Shadow with Abyssal Drain on an MP cost.
It's the bare minimum of what DRK needs, honestly. You wouldn't even need to change AD's potency.

It separates AD from C&S, it addresses our sustainability in multi-target scenarios and dungeons, it shores up our survival at an early level before we gain TBN.
Not to mention that it makes strategizing our MP usage more important in dungeons, since before TBN we just burst it all as soon as we have it, which makes the behavior encouraged by TBN itself jarring early on; this would more naturally transition into that behavior, while adding onto what we already have.

The fact that DRK has such limited survival tools at low levels probably stems from the removal of Dark Passenger and the recastable Abyssal Drain with old Dark Arts, and the complete lack of replacements to make up for them.

And now we've got Shadowbringer for the "sword wave" visual, so Flood's not exactly sticking around on the grounds of being iconic. Even if it was, you could just swap Flood into the "AoE C&S" slot (just bump the potency by 10), or better yet, bring back Dark Passenger for that (especially since a Blind would be useless on bosses anyway but extremely useful in AoE so I doubt anyone will complain about not having both).

[baklava151]

Replace Flood of Darkness/Shadow with Abyssal Drain on an MP cost.
It's the bare minimum of what DRK needs, honestly. You wouldn't even need to change AD's potency.

It separates AD from C&S, it addresses our sustainability in multi-target scenarios and dungeons, it shores up our survival at an early level before we gain TBN.
Not to mention that it makes strategizing our MP usage more important in dungeons, since before TBN we just burst it all as soon as we have it, which makes the behavior encouraged by TBN itself jarring early on; this would more naturally transition into that behavior, while adding onto what we already have.

The fact that DRK has such limited survival tools at low levels probably stems from the removal of Dark Passenger and the recastable Abyssal Drain with old Dark Arts, and the complete lack of replacements to make up for them.

And now we've got Shadowbringer for the "sword wave" visual, so Flood's not exactly sticking around on the grounds of being iconic. Even if it was, you could just swap Flood into the "AoE C&S" slot (just bump the potency by 10), or better yet, bring back Dark Passenger for that (especially since a Blind would be useless on bosses anyway but extremely useful in AoE so I doubt anyone will complain about not having both).

Honestly yeah, I don't think I'd miss Flood if they were to go that route.

[Vatom]

And now we've got Shadowbringer for the "sword wave" visual, so Flood's not exactly sticking around on the grounds of being iconic. Even if it was, you could just swap Flood into the "AoE C&S" slot (just bump the potency by 10), or better yet, bring back Dark Passenger for that (especially since a Blind would be useless on bosses anyway but extremely useful in AoE so I doubt anyone will complain about not having both).

Ha funny I had that same problem idea in my head weeks ago glad I wasn’t the only one who thought this