Dark Knight Megathread

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

i honestly think that they should combine dark mind with tbn

No, for the same reason Oblation should not be merged with TBN, Dark Mind should also not be merged with TBN. You'd essentially kill the flexibility between those cooldowns.

There are scenarios where you don't want to pop Dark Mind along with TBN because you already happen to have Shadowed Vigil running for example, so Dark Mind would be overkill mitigation and better used for auto-attacks or a buster later. Likewise there are moments you'd want to Dark Mind, but not want to have the TBN effect up because you might not get actual value from it.

The keyword here is "flexibility", which you'd dearly sacrifice with a change like that. Even the additional sustain suggestion would not make up for that as you suggested and would make it less viable in content where it matters a lot more.

Dark Mind needs to be addressed, but it should not be done with heavy-handed changes like this - instead the usability against physical attacks should be implemented in the first place, so like a half-power physical mitigation (10%) tacked onto it or a general rework like making it a generic mit with additional HP shields that could change in value under certain conditions.

Do not increase or decrease the available cooldowns. Merging cooldowns in most cases lead to really bad gameplay feel and a gigantic loss in flexibility.

[excelsiorjones]

What if:

• DRK gets a new gauge that replaces Dark Arts. Let's call it Dark-MP (DMP). It does not regen over time like MP. If DRK has any DMP stored, they preferentially spend it over MP. So if you have 2k DMP and 10k MP, using TBN or Edge of Shadow (3k MP cost) will eat the DMP and leave you with 9k MP left.
• TBN now gives you DMP upon expiring based on the % of the shield that was consumed. If it's completely consumed, you get 3k DMP. If it's 90% consumed, you get 2700 DMP, etc.

This still lets you use TBN as a way to generate an extra Edge and still incentivizes correctly managing incoming damage, but isn't as binary and punishing if the shield doesn't pop.

[Shurrikhan]

Seen this idea since Shadowbringers and I'm not against it per se (I've even suggested it myself often enough) but it does reduce the engagement possible from TBN even while better securing it against the problems of excess ilvl.

Hmmm...

Another I've considered is to have the barrier be variable with MP available (spending 30% of current MP), greatly amp bankable MP generating actions, and maybe both have DMP (from damage absorbed, usable on MP-spending attacks or temporarily adding to attack power) and, say, VMP (from MP spending attacks, usable on drain actions or to generate Attack Speed), so that you can slim or beef up your TBNs. Still working on a mock-up for that though.

[ThorinG]

.CnS: 30 sec CD
.AbyssalD: 60 sec CD on 2 charges
.Syphon Strike: also grants 10 blood gauge
.Edge of shdw: on 5 sec CD, but grants a buff that transforms SoulEater to Power Slash
.ShadowBringer: no longer has a CD but requires 2 stacks to use, each blood gauge action & delirium combo action grants 1 stack (almost similar to SAM Shoha)
.TBN: grants DA regardless, but grants a HoT effect if shield is broken

[Derio]

Honestly I dont expect any changes to happen until 8.0

Next raid tier they will probably make most of the tankbusters magical so that they dont have to address DRK.

However if in 7.1 the ultimate raid has all physical tankbusters and raidwides. Then you will see a big call to change DRK

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Honestly I dont expect any changes to happen until 8.0

Next raid tier they will probably make most of the tankbusters magical so that they dont have to address DRK.

However if in 7.1 the ultimate raid has all physical tankbusters and raidwides. Then you will see a big call to change DRK

...you'd think that they may have learned their stupid lesson with Paladin back in Heavensward and the inability to block magic damage, only to fix that the expansion afterward...

...and yet here we are, Dark Mind mechanically unchanged since basically 3.0, with the only tweaks being the strength or how the strength was achieved. They learned nothing.

[Keagian]

Job design devs have already proven they don't know how to do proper balancing or solve job issues. They just look at a problem and instead of fixing it they just remove it and don't replace it with something comparable.

Its like if a doctor discovered something was wrong with a patients liver and instead of finding out what is wrong and how to fix it, they just cut out the liver and say they did a good job.

I don't expect they will fix DRK at all and with 8.0 possibly introducing a new tank, DRK would be lucky not to lose more abilities just so they can throw it on the new tank.

It took them 10+ years to put a band aid on Living Dead, its gonna take them another decade to give something to DRK that they took away.

[AaronSound]

I dropped DRK in this dlc, please rework.

[Kirinza]

job changes wishlist:

Abyssal drain & Carve on seperate recast timer.

Dark Mind: Additional Effect: Converts Physical Damage received into Magic Damage for its duration.

Passive/Ability: When MP is spent, restores a portion of HP. (Or When MP is recovered, restore a portion of HP)

OR Passive/Ability: A Portion of Physical Damage is received as Magic Damage.

OR When MP is spent gain Buff for 6 seconds. Buff effect: Gain Shield based on health loss. (converts damage taken into temporary health)

[Shurrikhan]

Abyssal drain & Carve on separate recast timer.

Sure, though you will thereby be increasing DRK's DPS by 240 potency per minute.

Dark Mind: Additional Effect: Converts Physical Damage received into Magic Damage for its duration.

This is an unnecessary coding hurdle for the exact same result as just making it 20% mitigation generally (i.e., a half-duration Rampart on a two-thirds CD, still generally better per use than Thrill only if taking more damage than would have made up 100% of your HP in those 10s and getting no significant healing over that time).

Passive/Ability: When MP is spent, restores a portion of HP. (Or When MP is recovered, restore a portion of HP)

The first is fine in that Req healing is "fine", frequently wasteful since you want to use the affected skills only during raidbuffs instead of when needing heals, but able enough to spare other healing prior to raidbuffs to prevent overhealing during those skills' use.

The second turns Syphon Strike into another Soul Eater while causing the same issue as above for your Delirium combo.

OR Passive/Ability: A Portion of Physical Damage is received as Magic Damage.

Unless we get something from receiving magic damage beyond just DMind/DMiss mitigation, this feels wasted compared to just generalizing DMind/DMiss.

OR When MP is spent gain Buff for 6 seconds. Buff effect: Gain Shield based on health loss. (converts damage taken into temporary health)

This sounds really interesting, but likely both OP if the portion of missing HP turned into temporary HP were at all significant... and yet also needlessly weak against singular TBs or pre-jump hits. Without a % multiplier to nerf it, you'd essentially be able to drop low and just get 100% mitigation at the cost of any MP spending, which would then be maintainable for huge uptime. If TBN still breaks before this new shield, you'd use it only in that you get two instances of duration for every 3k MP so long as TBN pops, but the chances of being able to get full use out of the combination of the two... Idk. Again, interesting concept, though.