Dark Knight Dilemma

[Nheir]

I just want to start off saying I'm super excited for Dark Knight.
It's gonna be a tanking job that uses dark magic and greatswords. This is good cause the game is desperately hurting for tanks, and a lot of players have been asking for a greatsword class.

Greatswords AND dark magic??? What's not to like???
Well....
There is...just one... itty bitty problem...

Now, I've never played FFXI and from what I've heard I wouldn't like it very much. BUT If there's one thing I do like just from appearances.. is the extreme diversity. There's SO many classes, 22 in fact! Personally I would love to see this feat repeated or even bested here in XIV. Obviously this'll take time. So I'm thinking way ahead in the future with this post.

So here it is, the dilemma with Dark Knight...

They use Greatswords

I love Greatswords, I do. BUT... I think Dark Knight has a weapon very much suited to them and not so much any other job...

[Nheir]

Sycthes

In FFXI their renowned for being the the shadowy armor clad warrior wielding a weapon best used for reaping souls. Now I don't want XIV to be like XI at all, but who else could better use the scythe as a weapon? in XI DRKs, WARs, BLMs, and Beastmasters could all use Scythes so if DRK uses Greatswords that leaves us with.... BMS..

My only gripe is that Greatswords could be used by SO MANY other jobs throughout FF lore, and Scythes are so limited. So if DRK uses Greatswords no one else will. And if we're aiming for the goal of a ton of classes/jobs, who other than DRK is best suited for Scythes?

[Nheir]

I get it. The game needs more tanks, and the fans want greatswords. but from my understanding the fans were thinking for DPS purposes. (myself included)
So why not give DRKs Scythes? Nothing wrong with a fat-bladed scythe for tanking. And give the DPS their greatsword in another job. There's plenty of options, and I don't think many people who are looking forward to DRK would be upset by the change. I know a lot of XI vets would be happy, and I'd be happy cause it means Greatsword can(and certainly would) still be used. Even if that means no greatsword this year, but more jobs in total once the game is done expanding.

Lastly, it's not that I desperately want to see DRK use Scythes or that I even want Scythes as a weapon in the game. I'm still super psyched for DRK. It's that I desperately love and want diversity. More races, classes, jobs, City-states.

So tell me what you think. Agree? Disagree?
Thoughts on DRK and how it'll affect the game in the near/far?

[Veerne]

To me, Dark Knight is all about swords. Scythe is just a silly FFXI thing. Also, its still possible to have a Greatsword wielding DPS class, or something similar (Samurai?). Scholar and Summoner both use books, you know.

[Reynhart]

Unless we fight wheat-elementals in the future, Scythe is not a suitable weapon for combat.

As for the 22 jobs in FFXI, it's indeed pretty impressive...except the balance was absolutely destroyed early on, and each patch's purpose was to ruin previously overpowered jobs while boosting useless ones.

Also, its still possible to have a Greatsword wielding DPS class, or something similar (Samurai?). Scholar and Summoner both use books, you know.

Especially when Katanas are far more different from swords than books are from...well, other books

[Nheir]

Good Point XI is really the only place we see Scythes.
However, SMN and SCH branch from the ACN class. And DRK will not have a Class. So if they follow that trend I don't think DRK will have a parallel like SMN & SCH. then again they don't have to follow that trend. The fact that DRK has no base class at all is proof enough lol.

[Nheir]

Unless we fight wheat-elementals in the future...

Never actually played XI so I never heard about the balancing issues. 22 jobs may have just been too many. :/ Hopefully if that's attempted again this dev team can handle it better.

[Hammerfist]

I've never played FFXI but the whole Dark Knight using scythes thing always sounded terrible to me... I mean, they are knights, not farmers lol.

Besides, in every other FF game Dark Knights have always used swords and, if you think about it, there aren't really any other classic FF jobs left who could use greatswords (red mage, blue mage and mystic knight maybe, but a 1-handed sword would fit them much better imho).

[Instrumentality]

Taking ideas from XI is like taking car parts from a ten year old Honda to replace parts in a brand new Ferrari (FFXIV). Let's not and say we did.

[BobbinT]

OP do has a point. Scythe in XI has weapon skill grade of A+ for DK.

On the contrary, the only job with weapon skill grade A+ for great sword are Rune Fencer, which is released on the latest expansion Adoulin, Such a shame GS became primary choice for DK, which might eliminate any possibility for having Rune Fencer job in XIV.



And btw, Rune Fencer are a tank job in XI, while DK kinda more into DD-related. But I guess different game means different style.