Dark Knight Megathread

[Lyth]

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The problem with Shadowbringer/Salt and Darkness is that they're just damage oGCDs, which we already have plenty of. There's nothing there that really changes gameplay or makes the job play differently. It's quite easy for them to just add in new animations and leave the job the same for minimal effort.

The question to ask is what is the biggest gameplay improvement we can achieve by adding in a single action? We've identified that the relative lack of GCDs (4 single target/3 AoE) is an issue. You could expand on the existing combo system, but then how do you do that? You could branch a combo off of Syphon, or use two out of your three actions to branch a combo off of Hard Slash. But most of these possibilities are just going to be damage combo vs. maintenance combo that we get on so many jobs. You could also use a fixed recast GCD like we've described for Sonic Break/Goring Blade, or the various MCH tools. Scourge would fit into this category, and yes, I'd suggest that it incorporate a DoT effect that does lifesteal over time (and gives you burst healing if the target dies).

Yet another option is to add on a second step to follow Bloodspiller. What makes this interesting is that you not only have a resource-gated second combo, but it also changes up your GCD sequence during Delirium as well, because it transforms it into a 6 step sequence. Bonus points if Delirium grants blood moves a 1.5s GCD, in honor of the old Blood Weapon, leading into a finisher. And again, while you can re-use plenty of animations from the past (including Power Slash), I'd rather that they actually invest the effort into making fresh animations. Do you remember the Shadowbringers benchmark that they released? During the introductory sequence, the Warrior of Darkness performs a series of empowered sword slashes that we never see again. If they can do it for a single cutscene that isn't even in the base game, then I expect to see them put in the effort into the update. Not just Power Slash 2 with more sparkles.

I dislike Dark Missionary for the fact that it has the single silliest name out of any action in the game, for the fact that it's exactly identical to Heart of Light, and for the fact that both are consistently inferior to the options that PLD and WAR have despite being on the same recast.

[Zairava]

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I actually agree with shadowbringer, I feel like if the animation was slowed down a smidge and it was moved to being a GCD it would feel better. (and if they keep the darkside timer. make it cost 15s or so)

I'm still unsure how to feel about Salt and Darkness, it feels like a missed opportunity to make Salted Earth something more than just, as you said, for damage and really nothing else.

If we're going to give Delirium the haste effect that old Blood Weapon had, why not merge Delirium with Blood Weapon, or vice versa? Blood weapon would be more than just enough mana for another edge/flood and Blood Gauge generation, and Delirium would be something more than just use the same thing three times.

Though, with "using the same thing three times" being the core issue with that ability in the first place, implementing that series of empowered sword slashes from the Shadowbringers benchmark with a 1.5 GCD sounds pretty enticing.