Dark Knight Idea thread: Suggestions

[Nektulos-Tuor]

These are suggestions I would make to change the Dark Knight class, these are not something I would ask to change all at once, but these are to make the class more fun altogether and more practical compared to other tanks. Right now I believe they are unpowered compared to both Paladin and Warrior for plainly obvious reasons.

I stayed with the life-tap theme, however I also added some penalties to the abilities. Giving them a more unique flavor altogether.

Darkside:
Remove the Aura effect altogether and replace it to something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGw_fqmzfgA&t=0m25s
Give it a health cost instead of MP cost.

Reprisal:
Lower cooldown to 15 seconds.
Lower potency to 160.

Blood Price:
Sacrifice 15% of your life over time for its duration.
Restore 50% of your mana over time for its duration.
Instant Cast, 40 second cool-down.

Blood Weapon:
Sacrifice 15% of your life over time for its duration.
Increases attack speed by 15% and converts physical damage dealt into MP.
Can now be used with Grit.
Instant Cast, 40 second cool-down.

Dark Arts:
Additionally removes the damage penalty of Grit for the ability your using "Dark Arts" with.

Shadow Wall:
Reduces damage taken by 30% and restore own HP with a potency of 50 every time you suffer physical damage for 15s.
Instant Cast, 120 second cool-down.

Salted Earth:
Creates a patch of salted earth at your feet, dealing unaspected damage with a potency of 100 to any enemies who enter and restore own HP with a potency of 75 for each foe hit.

Dark Mind:
Gain the ability to block.
Modifies Block Rate by 4*level: 240 at level 60.
Modifies Block Strength by 10*level: 600 at level 60.
Dark Arts +:Additionally gain a dark shield which prevents damage.
Duration: 15 seconds.
Instant Cast, 60 second cool-down.

Living Dead
Duration: Forever.
Yes, it is now a death prevent. =)
Ofc, you still die if your not healed fully.

Souleater
Delivers an attack with a potency of 100.
Combo Action: Syphon Strike, Combo Potency: 260
Dark Arts Potency: 240
Dark Arts Combo Potency: 400
Grit Effect: Absorbs 100%(200%) of damage dealt as HP.
Dark Arts fades upon execution.

Power Slash
Delivers an attack with a potency of 100.
Additional Effect: Increased enmity
Combo Action: Spinning Slash
Combo Potency: 300
Dark Arts Combo Potency: 400
Dark Arts Additional Effect: Forces target to target you for 3 seconds.

Carve and Spit
Reduced cool-down to 16 seconds from 60.
Delivers a threefold attack with a potency of 75. Also restores MP if used while not under the effect of Dark Arts.
Dark Arts Potency: 250
Dark Arts fades upon execution.

Sole Survivor:
Guards the target while it remains within 20y. While active, the target takes 5% less damage and generates less enmity and you gain 10% base parry when you are near the guarded target. Requires Grit. Cannot be used on players using Grit Stance, Shield Oath, or Defiance.
Cool-down: 120 seconds.
Duration: Forever.
Cast Time: Instant.

If the target dies you gain a buff called "Vengeance" which increases damage done substantially whilst also increasing enmity gain.
Duration: 10 seconds.

[slml320]

i love drk.. only thing I'm having trouble with which is not un common is it makes it really hard to hold agro when your getting dps attacking diff things ps4 is a pain to number and target some times… being every thing based on mp with and the mp drain with dark side i find my self spending a lot of time trying to recoup mp in case i loose agro and then for the next mob if any thing its a little excessive to have us drain so much mp..

I know a lot will say manage your mp … I DO and i can run through any of the new dungeons very well and I've got a good rotation that keeps me set up for the next mob etc and dark side active the whole run BUT one to many dps attack diff things etc or the odd mistake even if a enemy dies to quick and its all to shit

so just a little less mp drain would be perfect to just make it not so unforgiving if dps decide to attack diff things or i make a mistake here and there.. other wise loving the class my alt account character is all classes to 50.. never really tanked much just now and then.. this expan 59 nearly 60 drk

not sure if its under powered but i do spend most time using skills to regen health and mp rather than just pure attack!!

and lets be honest how many times do ppl want to take a run slow …

[Ragnorak]

That Aura is even more obnoxious then what you currently have...

[Nektulos-Tuor]

That Aura is even more obnoxious then what you currently have...

Huh? I meant the animation. Not the Aura part, I don't want the weapon effect, just the animation. =P

[Ceodore]

These are suggestions I would make to change the Dark Knight class, these are not something I would ask to change all at once, but these are to make the class more fun altogether and more practical compared to other tanks. Right now I believe they are unpowered compared to both Paladin and Warrior for plainly obvious reasons.

Darkside:
Remove the Aura effect altogether and replace it to something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGw_fqmzfgA&t=0m25s
Give it a health cost instead of MP cost.

Counter intuitive for tanking to cost health instead of MP, especially if the skill is allowed to be used with Grit. Perhaps if it was turned into an off tank toggle, unable to be used with Grit, no cost of hp or mp, since an HP cost, no matter how you spin it, is not very smart on a tank, OT or MT

Reprisal:
Lower cooldown to 15 seconds.
Lower potency to 160.

Hmm... perhaps. Not a bad suggestion. Same cooldown as Bloodletter, and it would be easier to refresh the debuff when tanking.

Blood Price:
Sacrifice 15% of your life over time for its duration.
Restore 50% of your mana over time for its duration.
Instant Cast, 40 second cool-down.

Again, draining your HP for MP is counter intuitive for any tank. I'd suggest changing the skill to instead reduce damage received by 10% during the duration, convert the damage that was reduced into MP. This gives it a higher tactical skill, while also helping with damage reduction on things like tank busters when MT. Not as strong as Inner Beast with a longer effective cooldown, so it wouldn't be over powered. Can only be used while under Grit.

Blood Weapon:
Sacrifice 15% of your life over time for its duration.
Increases attack speed by 15% and converts physical damage dealt into MP.
Can now be used with Grit.
Instant Cast, 40 second cool-down.

Again, counter intuitive for any tank to sacrifice HP. The current skill is quite alright as it is, however, for the sake of consistency with my comments on Dark Side, here's my suggestion. Reduce cooldown to 40 second, duration is 15 seconds like Blood Price. Can only be used while under the effect of Dark Side. Converts 10% of damage done into MP. Essentially a DPS equivalent to Blood Price.

Dark Arts:
Additionally removes the damage penalty of Grit for the ability your using "Dark Arts" with.

In crease cooldown to 30 seconds, and eliminate the MP cost of the skill. Allows the unleash of certain special aspects of certain skills, depending on your current stance.

Power Slash:
Grit: Increased Enmity
Dark Side: Lowers target's magical resistances by 5%, stacks with Foe Requiem, lasts 15 seconds

Soul Eater:
Grit: Lose the potency boost, absorb 200% of damage as healing instead of 100%
Dark Side: Potency boost to 400, recover 200 TP

Dark Passenger:
Grit: Blind targets hit for 15 seconds
Dark Side: Poison for 15 seconds, potency of 50

Dark Mind:
Grit: Increases potency to 30%
Dark Side: Increases the magic defense of surrounding allies by 15% for 10 seconds, 5 yalm radius

Abyssal Drain:
Grit: Absorb 100% of damage done
Dark Arts: +20% slow on all enemies hit, 20 second duration

Carve and Spit:
Grit: Restore MP
Dark Side: Potency increase to 450

Shadow Wall:
Reduces damage taken by 30% and restore own HP with a potency of 50 every time you suffer physical damage for 15s.
Instant Cast, 120 second cool-down.

I like this... but I would keep the 10 second duration, for balancing purposes. Healing is not the same as damage.

Salted Earth:
Creates a patch of salted earth at your feet, dealing unaspected damage with a potency of 75 to any enemies who enter and restore own HP with a potency of 75 for each foe hit.

Too much self healing now. This is nearly equivalent to the WHM's new buff. If you need it at your feet, fine, remove the healing though. The skill that it was was fine honestly for someone who uses a third party macro system to activate and place with one button.

Dark Mind:
Completely absorb the next magical hit and instead heal fully for its damage.
Duration: 30 seconds, removed when hit with a magical attack.
Dark Arts +: Gain a dark shield when used with Dark Arts.
Instant Cast, 60 second cool-down.

Ummm... I see this being abused with skills like Raven's Accent, or Ahk Morn. Refer to my suggestion above.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Well, the thing is you are right. However you also said: "To much self healing" yet you don't add my skills that kill you with those skills. Yes, you kill yourself, but you also heal yourself.

I agree 100x, but you have to see where i'm trying to drag this.

Its not counter intuitive for a tank to sacrifice HP, Shadow Knights were very successful tanks in the Everquest Series, one and two. Necromancer pets with a similar (yet less of) the mechanic were also successful. You just can't use the abilities at the wrong times, you use them when your topped off.

Its ok to sacrifice health as long as your getting something like mana which can be used for defense. The more mana you have the more abilities you can use to help you survive.

You should not need a third party program to fix an ability or play the game, IMO.

[Ditto]

Too many times have I seen people, tanks especially, live by just a sliver of HP left after taking a bit hit, or multiple of them.

Now imagine a Drk having to use that HP just to use a certain skill.

It may work for a DPS, but it wont work for a Tank. Not in a game like this.

[rogandiamond]

Blood Price, in its current form is really only a a useful mp return if you are pulling 3+ mobs in dungeons. Maybe this is me misunderstanding the game, who knows. At that, this whole class is a misunderstanding with its current mechanics.

[rogandiamond]

MP was the correct choice in "draining resources" that said though, there are too many mp "drains" so to speak. Why should DRKs have to monitor MP + mechanics + all the other things PLD/WAR do to do "okay"?

[Ceodore]

One last addition... Living Dead... Changes depending on Dark Arts or Grit.

Grit: Living - Death refuses your corrupted soul. If you should fall to 1 hp because of damage from most skills (No wipe mechanics) during the duration (10 seconds) of the Living Buff, you will be restored to 100% HP.
Dark Arts: Dead - Resurrect one party member from the grave to 50% hp. Should they accept this raise, they will be applied with the Living Dead buff for 10 seconds. If they are healed to full, they will remain alive. If their HP drops entirely during the buff's duration, or if they are not healed to full, they return to the dead state. No resurrection sickness will be applied if raised in this method.

Increase cool down to 420 seconds.