Dark Knight Megathread

[CKNovel]

Or put Living Shadow on a 120s CD with no blood gauge cost.
That's a terrible idea but SQEX could consider it.

IMO, "summons" like Automaton Queen and Living Shadow should just go and be replaced with a simple damage ability. Of course adjust the potency of the whole kit to keep the DPS.
LS is as interactive as one big cooldown like Hissatsu:Senei, the difference is that it's spread over a timer.

Think about it, if you replaced LS with a 120s CD, costing 50 blood gauge and inflicting a dot, it would be the exact same as Living Shadow, minus the flashyness of the skill.

[Crater]

Think about it, if you replaced LS with a 120s CD, costing 50 blood gauge and inflicting a dot, it would be the exact same as Living Shadow, minus the flashyness of the skill.

There's a couple important differences there. The first is that a DoT would be missing Living Shadow's AoE damage, which is still very considerable despite the 6.2 nerf. The second is that DoTs snapshot according to what buffs and debuffs are active when the DoT is applied, and Living Shadow actively gains and loses buffs as you do.

The AoE is pretty self-explanatory, but the snapshotting is also pretty important to consider. DRK's burst window is so busy that it's a specific upside to the current version of Living Shadow that you can use the skill before raid buffs go out; if it were a standard DoT then that would no longer be the case. It's good that DRK's burst window is as busy as it is - it's fun! - but it's also pretty much at-capacity, and you would definitely do harm to the class's design by adding extra things to it without a really good reason.

[CKNovel]

There's a couple important differences there. The first is that a DoT would be missing Living Shadow's AoE damage, which is still very considerable despite the 6.2 nerf. The second is that DoTs snapshot according to what buffs and debuffs are active when the DoT is applied, and Living Shadow actively gains and loses buffs as you do.

The AoE is pretty self-explanatory, but the snapshotting is also pretty important to consider. DRK's burst window is so busy that it's a specific upside to the current version of Living Shadow that you can use the skill before raid buffs go out; if it were a standard DoT then that would no longer be the case. It's good that DRK's burst window is as busy as it is - it's fun! - but it's also pretty much at-capacity, and you would definitely do harm to the class's design by adding extra things to it without a really good reason.

I understand the argument, yet...

For the AoE, you can simply shift the lost potency to other abilities such as Shadowbringer to not lose any aoe potency. To fully benefits from LS AoE, it requires a good positionning. Shifting the AoE potency from LS to player abilities would offer more flexibility and control over it.
As for the Snapshot, I don't think DRK would have much troubles weaving another ability. Even then, you can still keep the windup, as short debuff that release the attack when running out.

I understand your arguments, I think there are many ways to keep the benefits from current LS while changing its nature, giving more control and flexibility to the player.