How would YOU make DRK work ?

[Lawson_Grey]

(continued)
My main concern, though, is on the two debuffs that War/Pld provide. Although you CAN do content with two Plds or two Wars, it's nice to get one of each for the debuff stacking.

So I hope DRK has an ability that provides which ever tank debuff is currently not on the boss. That'd be an easy way to make sure it can fit in raid teams who want both debuffs.

Other than that, I hope it can hold it's own with Pld in terms of mitigation. I'd like to see them ditch the HP for Dmg that the class has traditionally had as it's now a tank role and not a dps role.

[TouchandFeel]

As far as defensive vs. offensive, I feel it will sit somewhere between PLD and WAR so as to not overshadow either in their preferred play-style.

As far as how their tanking will work, that is a tough one.
My guess is it will pull a little from both and then have its own thing on top of that.
It will probably have both some drains like WAR and will have a slight emphasis on Parry sort of like a PLD and block.

It would be pretty neat if they used self-shields sort of like insta-cast stoneskins to mitigate damage, going with a "cloaked in darkness" defense method.

[Lunar-Templar]

Dark Knights have always been a risk/reward type of class. Sacrifice HP to do obscene amounts of damage. This is the theme I hope they stick to.

If I had say over how it was though.

DPS focused tank.
Most attacks would burn HP to do more damage. (and probably some kinda self buff to make all your attacks burn HP for more damage)
Higher over all defense but a much lower HP pool then the other tanks.
Status effects would lower defense ratings and accuracy.

[KikoriL]

Risk / reward for a tank sounds tricky because you're not just risking your own neck, you're risking everyone who you're protecting. As much as I like the idea of a high adrenaline tank who needs to live on the edge, I think a safety net still needs to be in place where a low enough threshold of HP means a higher buff for... damage, defense, healing received? Something.
Considering the size of the weapon, I certainly hope they've got more AoE potential than PLD.

[Zaft]

The only way I see a risk/reward system working is if it were specifically their DPS stance, such as Sword Oath for PLD, that uses it. Using it while a tank would be awful.

[Dyne_Fellpool]

Balance should be the #1 concern, but they need to "feel" different from the other 2 tanks too.
How would I make them work?

-I'd give DRK the same eHP as PLD/WAR in tank stance. (This is important. DRK must be able to tank every encounter in the game but not be any better at it than the other tanks.)

-I'd have DRK's dps stance involve sacrificing HP for dps, but DRK would sacrifice slightly less mitigation than the other 2 tanks do in their dps stance.
Somewhat like how WAR has a unique resource just while tanking (Wrath), DRK would use HP as a resource just when DPSing. I don't think using this kind of thing while in defensive/tank stance is a good design idea. (Balance is important here -- DRK needs to sacrifice enough HP so that they can't tank in dps stance any more often than the other 2 tanks can, but they need to not sacrifice so much HP that they must constantly be babysat by healers.)

-I would NOT give them self-healing abilities since both tanks already kind of have this. Also self-healing would counteract the HP-sacrificing mechanic in an undesirable way.

-I'd have DRK's dps be slightly higher than PLD & WAR while in dps stance (compared to the other 2's dps stances)

-I'd have DRK's dps be in between PLD & WAR while in tanking stance (compared to the other 2's tank stances)

-I'd have DRK's mitigation tools be slightly stronger than WAR but weaker than PLD. However I'd give them longer CD's on their mitigation tools than what WAR has with IB. (kind of like how PLD has more mitigation tools but cannot be used as consistently as IB)

-I'd give DRK an AoE that is weaker than Overpower but can be used more (more sustainable, but not infinitely) that builds Enmity about equally to OP spam or Flash spam.

-DRK would be more complicated than PLD while tanking, but less so than WAR. While DPSing, DRK would be the most complex of the 3 tanks with a unique dps rotation different from the tanking rotation and a HP-sacrificing mechanic.

-DRK would use the power of darkness, NOT the power of evil. Final Fantasy is not (and imo should not be) a franchise where you play a badguy. Kind of like how BLM's use destruction for good and Ninja's use the shadows, but neither are evil.

To summarize:

eHP: PLD = WAR = DRK
overall mitigation: PLD >= DRK = WAR
dealing with longer periods of sustained high damage or unpredictable damage: PLD > DRK > WAR
dealing with frequent, predictable burst damage: WAR > DRK > PLD

MT dps: WAR > DRK > PLD
OT dps: DRK > PLD > WAR

sustainable AoE dps: DRK > WAR >> PLD
burst AoE dps: WAR > DRK >> PLD
AoE Enmity generation: PLD = WAR = DRK

[Mykll]

Well obviously you can only attack the DRK'ness with Magic Missile. Immune to all other attacks.

[Shurrikhan]

- Will have the most use for mana among the three tanks.
- Uses unique blinding debuffs, increasing the effects of the DK's evasive effects against affected targets.
- Can consume health to raise defense (creating a bleeding-edge sort of playstyle that can run healers dry for bonus dps but can also do quite well at keeping a constant stream of healing needs).
- Decent leeching, but damage as healing effects are less bursty than Warrior; some restoration via magic effects are as bursty as even old-Warrior (300% healing on IB era), but are less straightforward.
- Has some passive suppression (offensive mitigation) of nearby enemies based on damage dealt. --> Useful for some soft AoE threat automatically and for magic AoE dps/utility.
- Places some manner of stacks on self and enemies, and can transfer these between self and enemies for different situations/priorities.
- May swap places with (stack-)affected enemies during certain abilities.
- One of your magic single-target abilities that consumes stacks will also finish off enemies (vaporizing them into a puff of blue-black flame, for instance) if they drop below a certain threshold, transferring some of its stacks to you and rewarding bonus stacks.
- Decent snap-hate CD ranged attacks that can also act supportively (causing blindness, vulnerability, and/or reduced evasion).

[Synestr]

Risk / reward sounds like FFXI DRK. This DRK is not a DPS, it's a tank (sadly-but will do). I like the absorb ideas. Sponging up DEX/STR will be nice for the parry DRK will supposedly use. ABS VIT will be nice for HP boosts. So many possibilities with absorbs. Acc/Eva/Int...etc. These absorb spells would definitely generate threat. I can also see DRK using enfeeblements to assist in threat gen and their specialized tanking. The way WS are set up now, perform an action that has X effect, I can see this working. Spells, if DRK has any at all, will probably be like mudra's. Castable in between WS.

WS might have added effect of weight, acc down, blind, etc. The casting, if mudra like, cold be absorb spells, enfeebs, etc.

All I know is I can't wait to unlock that shiz and lvl it up.

[Dererk]

Dark Knight will probably have a continues buff that will drain hp from what their hitting will also have cleave weapon skills to fit a big weapon like the great sword.

I heard some one say that miasma II would also be a good use for hate control on drk.