Quick Fix To Make Dark Knight more viable

[mattwalt]

My point exactly, which is why I suggest the adjustments. I enjoy DRK more than WAR, but WAR is mandatory right now. These adjustments would help by making it a little more doable to bring a DRK instead of always being on WAR. Again, I tank with a PLD, which may influence my desire for these adjustments more. I want to be able to bring my DRK in to a raid without feeling like I should have brought WAR instead. These adjustments wouldn't put DRK over WAR...WAR still has unmatched utility. What they would do is help the DRK contribute in a different way that also makes it feel different compare to the other tanks.

[Ashelia_Ferron]

Well no, you're really just increasing damage.

What they should do is change some skills so that they're actually useful utility wise when not MT.

Either way though, it will still be better to bring a WAR

[mattwalt]

Which again, its the problem that I wish would be remedied. All tanks should be able to come in feeling like they bring something substantial in either role.

[Isius]

Okay I hear you.

I agree, and I think several people on these forums agree that drk, and also pld lack useful raid utilities to give them a favorable "OT SLOT". Currently drk/pld are pigeoned holed into mainly mt roles just from the make up of thier classes drk with it's parry procs in Reprisal, and Blood Price to regen mp so you can smack boss face more, or whatever, and pld with it's shields needs to mt to take advantage of the way thier class is built.

Currently drk only has Delirium Blade as a ot, but pld has several cover, clemancy, divine veil, rage of halone, and stone skin as skills they can use as a ot, but a lot of these are situational, and lose favor just because the way current raids are design being dps checks, and magic dmg. It seems to me SE tried to make it where Pld can mt and ot but it fell short because of the current raid design.

But if you want it where Warrior is not always foreseen as a must tank in a raid group, then drk/pld comp needs to become just as viable as a drk/war comp in dps, and also bring different viable forms of raid utility.

If you boost drk dps more all you do is cement the drk/war comp, making warrior always a needed choice ot with the new LNC crossed classed skilled drk, and nothing would have change. but making the drk/war comp even stronger.

Edit:

Also currently my raid group has a drk/pld tank comp with me being the pld. Normally we change up who is mt during different encounters based on what we think is most beneficial at the time for the group, like I mostly tank everything solo in A2S, most the drk does is bring mobs to me for me to tank or tanks couple mobs during the whole encounter, or on A3S I let our drk start the pull to build up aggro, since pld aggro generation sucks compared to the other tanks, so we both can be in dps stance for the rest of the fight faster, and longer. I still do around 650dps turtling in shield oath or 1000dps in sword oath. Since drk/pld is not the normal comp you will have to make up your own tactics as a group as you go. If people say you need to play warrior because of reasons then maybe find a better more open minded group.

[fm_fenrir]

Reminder: Untraited B4B is +25% damage taken, for +10% damage dealt. You're erasing your tank stance bonus while it's up, and forget if you drop Grit to boost your DPS--your healers will just quit and heal the WAR instead. I would love to see keen flurry on DRK, but I don't need it badly enough to trade mercy stroke (which rules and stacks with Sole Survivor) or bloodbath (which also rules).

[Lazka]

nothin gonna fix.. its just as the same as now...
b4b for drk? u wanna take extra damage when tankin? 20% damage reduce vs 25% extra damage receive just for 10% damage up? really? is this fix?
and keen furry for buff mitigation... and ppl in here already say parry is useless... and u wanna really on it? for reprisal ok.. but we already have dark dance.. and its already ok.. cause reprisal have cd..
so the point for having cross-class LNC is??

[Jpec07]

The biggest problem I've had with DRK is that Blood Price doesn't interact well with some of the other DA abilities. At that point, anything that would cause your opponents to not hit you becomes detrimental to the point of the ability (which itself is counterproductive to the goals of tanking).

In general, I've enjoyed DRK (57, hopefully +1 tonight on my alt), and the mana management that is so central to the class is more intriguing than just about anything else I've done (and certainly requires more focus), but that small quirk just feels a little off-putting. That and I wish Dark Mind had a shorter cooldown.

[Delta041]

The only problem I had with DRK was the lack of synergy between Grit and pretty much the rest of DRK's kit

It costs a global cooldown to reapply
Reapplying it costs nearly as much MP as Dark Arts
You can't use Blood Weapon with it, forcing you to either depend entire on Blood Price and syphon to manage MP or having to drop it, eating up a GCD and potentially a Dark Arts cast when you need to reapply it

Something I'd like to see is Grit being an off global that still costs MP (like Dark Passenger) or Grit decreasing the cost of Dark Arts so you don't tank your MP as quickly while using it.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

The only problem I had with DRK was the lack of synergy between Grit and pretty much the rest of DRK's kit

It costs a global cooldown to reapply
Reapplying it costs nearly as much MP as Dark Arts
You can't use Blood Weapon with it, forcing you to either depend entire on Blood Price and syphon to manage MP or having to drop it, eating up a GCD and potentially a Dark Arts cast when you need to reapply it

Something I'd like to see is Grit being an off global that still costs MP (like Dark Passenger) or Grit decreasing the cost of Dark Arts so you don't tank your MP as quickly while using it.

I'd rather Blood Weapon not be tied to not having Grit and Darkside buffed to 18.75% when in Grit. Its a stupid penalty.

Why dark side buffed to 18.75% in grit? Its simple. It says it increases damage by 15%. So it would increase it to 1.15, however in Grit its buff is reduced. So to make it 15% in grit you would need to buff it to 18.75%. That would make DRK damage 0.95 in grit.

New Trait:
Hasty Reprisal Removed: Seriously, you get this trait only a few levels right after you get reprisal.

Deflection: [Dark Knight (Lv: 28)]
Adds an additional effect to reprisal.
Additional Effect: Increases damage reduction of the Dark Knight by 10% for 20s.

Blood Weapon
Remove Grit Penalty
Converts physical damage dealt into HP instead of MP whilst in Grit.

Darkside:
Buff to 18.75% whilst in Grit.
(So its 15%.)

Reprisal
Delivers an attack with a potency of 210.
Can only be used immediately after parrying an attack.
Additional Effect: Increases target's chance to be critically hit by 8% for 20s.
Lower CD to 30 seconds from 60.

Grit:
No longer on GCD, but costs health to cast instead of mana.
(Increasing CD on the ability to 10 seconds however.)

[Jpec07]

The only problem I had with DRK was the lack of synergy between Grit and pretty much the rest of DRK's kit

It costs a global cooldown to reapply
Reapplying it costs nearly as much MP as Dark Arts
You can't use Blood Weapon with it, forcing you to either depend entire on Blood Price and syphon to manage MP or having to drop it, eating up a GCD and potentially a Dark Arts cast when you need to reapply it

Something I'd like to see is Grit being an off global that still costs MP (like Dark Passenger) or Grit decreasing the cost of Dark Arts so you don't tank your MP as quickly while using it.

See, here I disagree. Grit is the tanking "stance," and so mana regen is slower there, and you have to be more careful with Dark Arts. I find the gameplay change between Grit and non-Grit to be compelling, because it makes you carefully consider how you use your mana (rather than just going crazy with it). You still have your Souleater combo to regen mana with, and in a pinch you can just cut Souleater out and just repeat the first two steps until you have enough mana.

The guides say you want to not let yourself dip below 30% mana, but I've found myself much more comfortable with keeping ~50%-60% mana. And it goes in phases: below 50%, I hold back and rely on cooldowns for mitigation, and only use DA if absolutely necessary, but above 50-60%, I let myself be a little more liberal (DA-AD is beast for AoE enmity).