Dark Knight Megathread

[WhyAmIHere]

So
DRK and GNB's "new" gap closer... rip to one of the best animations on DRK.
But does anyone else think it looks kinda slow compared to Atherial Manip / Icarus / whatever the MNK skill's called?

[Absurdity]

But does anyone else think it looks kinda slow compared to Atherial Manip / Icarus / whatever the MNK skill's called?

They actually are slower, certainly slower than Monk's Thunderclap. Dark Knight's gap closer isn't too bad but Gunbreaker's is especially lethargic from what I've seen.

[GoatOfWar]

They actually are slower, certainly slower than Monk's Thunderclap. Dark Knight's gap closer isn't too bad but Gunbreaker's is especially lethargic from what I've seen.

Don't they literally use the exact same animation?
Esteem uses it too and it *massively* delays his attacks.
Either way, you won't be using it more than once per encounter on average anyways.
Unironically button bloat.

[WhyAmIHere]

Iuno.
I get the devs reasoning for wanting to cull rough divide and plunge, but... I think it's a stupid decision. Like, I get wanting to reduce the number of double weaves on tanks, but removing the damaging gap closers from the two most oGCD heavy tanks, and just giving them a pure-utility one whilst the other two tanks get theirs unadjusted feels... wrong.
Enhanced Unmend is even more of a "lmao really" trait.
Have they just... not listened to any of the DRK feedback throughout the years? Shame.

[GoatOfWar]

Iuno.
I get the devs reasoning for wanting to cull rough divide and plunge, but... I think it's a stupid decision. Like, I get wanting to reduce the number of double weaves on tanks, but removing the damaging gap closers from the two most oGCD heavy tanks, and just giving them a pure-utility one whilst the other two tanks get theirs unadjusted feels... wrong.
Enhanced Unmend is even more of a "lmao really" trait.
Have they just... not listened to any of the DRK feedback throughout the years? Shame.

Yeah they have. They listened to the feedback of people who don't play Dark knight.
That's why they remove ogcd's and gave us heals.

[Eorzean_username]

I guess I'll just throw-in my exhausted feedback for 7.0 Dark Knight, here.

DRK was my favorite Tank by-far in Heavensward, and even though I disliked the Stormblood changes to the original HW design, DRK was still my favorite Tank in Stormblood-era, and "The Blackest Night" was an absolutely-great idea, and a great addition to the DRK Job's overall "play-feel".

...Then, Shadowbringers basically ruined Dark Knight for me — the removal of Dark Arts, and replacing it with yet another generic "Shinten-clone" attack-spam OGCD, completely-killed the feel of what made DRK feel unique and interesting to me, rotationally.

And turning Darkside into a completely-mindless clone of WAR's "Storm's Eye" only made the 5.0 changes even worse-feeling to me.

Add-in the change of Delirium to a boring "Inner Release" clone, and so much of what I liked about DRK was removed in a single Patch.

On top of that, the capstone skill being a glorified DOT with annoying animations was... "disappointing".

In Endwalker, rather than improving any of these issues, the designers apparently thought that it would be funny to add "Enhanced Unmend", "Salt and Darkness" as a... lame joke about the "Salt and Light" Hunt-mark? ...and, mechanically, a pointless follow-up to Salted Earth... and a cheezy "title drop" action called "Shadowbringer" as the L90 capstone, which was functionally just an extra 2 Edge of Shadows crammed into 2m burst windows, and which I would have considered satire if I had been informed of it before seeing the actual EW Media Tour tooltips.

...so I just gave-up and didn't even bother using DRK in EW, it's just not fun for me to play any more, and hasn't been for a long time, even though it's the Tank that I "want" to play, in terms of concept and aesthetics (not because of the cringe-y edge-lord stuff, but because I just think Darkness / Shadow powers are cool in RPGs, and enjoy the "Shadow Knight" theme and aesthetic).

And then... in 7.0 ?

...Even more of the same, with once-again none of the fundamental issues being addressed.

On top of deleting Plunge, yet another of the animations / ideas that initially made Dark Knight feel so memorable and cool to me when I first played it in Heavensward.

And just piling-on more of the "Vomiting incoherent red-and-black smears all over the place" visual "theme" that has increasingly-predominated since Stormblood, replacing the original HW presentation as more of a "Heavy physical Greatsword-swinging fighter / dirty-fighting and dishonourable anti-Paladin, who empowered her swings with bursts of Darkness". (compare Bloodspiller vs. HW Power Slash, Edge of Shadow vs. HW Reprisal/Low Blow, etc.)

Except now with cheezy 1990s Hot Topic Black-plastic Angel Wings, too... and as the L100 capstone, no less.

So yeah, non-sarcastically happy for anyone still enjoying it, because I want to like Dark Knight, so I'm glad someone can have fun with this, still.

But yeah, personally, I'm just... tired, and done.

Maybe I'll like the changes in 2027.

[DRKoftheAzure]

I have to get a new Dark Knight wishlist ready because my previous one became obsolete and I don't know to put a line through the words that I typed...

[wildvenonat]

The single worst part of DRK is that TBN is a job quest skill, meaning you cannot swing a bat without finding a DRK in Holminster Switch who literally has not unlocked it. It is cursed.

[SeriousPan]

No clue, Reaper got the way better deal here, I kind of wish it was DRK instead that got a "dark transformation" then again looking at scholars new skill its likely for the best...

Nothing would make me more sad than to see DRK's identity get fumbled as badly as SCH's but it's clearly on the way there.

[OdinelStarrei]

One of the biggest complaints I have about Dark Knight is the fact that the Darkside gauge, and by extension, the Living Shadow timer are essentially non-factors. This did not change in DT, which is a shame.

The thing is, I think there was an opportunity that was missed with Disesteem. Yes, I know that "2 min followup" skills in DT are...not the most liked thing. However, the way I've always seen SE promote Living Shadow is synced attacks with Esteem. You see it in the Shadowbringers and Endwalker job action trailers, because it's cool. I agree with this, there are times where if the Blood gauge syncs up just right, I'll do a double Bloodspiller with Esteem and that does proc some kind of positive feeling inside my dead heart.

What I was thinking, why not lean into that with Disesteem? Give us the Scorn buff when summoning, fine fine, but match the buff duration (20 secs) with Living Shadow's timer. Why not have the potency of the skill scale inversely with the amount of time left on the Living Shadow timer? Disesteem is the last skill that it uses, and with the ease of pre-summoning and no blood gauge cost, it can act as an effective "end point" or "cap" to the burst phase by sending off a combined attack. Like, the two of you are doing different things, you'd be doing the Scarlet Delirium combo with EoS weaved in, Esteem would be using an actual useful Abyssal Drain, and no cost gauge spenders, until you sync at the end, together as one, blah blah blah.

I'm not even saying make it a major difference. Either make it a linear scale with the buff itself, kinda like how Eventide's damage scales inversely with HP in PVP, or have Esteem give you stacks of Scorn overtime that cap out at 4 (it's Bloodspiller being the final stack) to prep your Disesteem to do the highest amount of damage. Maybe a small gain in 50 potency per attack that Esteem does before Disesteem. Therefore, it would be optimal to use Disesteem when Living Shadow is at 5 seconds or less of it's timer. With many buffs now being 15-20 seconds anyway, and pots still staying at 30 seconds, it still conforms to the current design while adding a bit of flavor.

Of course, this would be optional. You could use it anytime in Living Shadow as long as there's a target. But I would actually might look at my Living Shadow gauge if something like this was implemented.