Quick Fix To Make Dark Knight more viable

[mattwalt]

I love Dark Knight's playstyle, and I don't think that many things need to be changed to make it stand out enough to not feel gimped choosing it in a raid. I could actually pick one thing that would greatly improve qol without making the job OP: give it LNC cross-class abilitied instead of MRD. From MRD we take foresight, bloodbath, and mercy stroke; none of which seem truly necessay. Switching to LNC would give us access to invigorate to help with our TP issues, keen flurry to add to our parrying ability, and blood for blood which would give us an offensive cooldown to give us something like fight or flight/berserk. While increasing damage taken may not be preferred in a main tanking role, it goes along with the lore of Dark Knights in the series and makes them different from the other tanks. Any input or discussion is most welcome.
Tl;dr give DRK LNC cross-class abilities to make it more viable/balanced with the other tanks.

[Ashelia_Ferron]

Uh, since when did DRK have to be more viable? Based on most opinions, it's PLDs that are struggling damage wise. Most statics I've seen use DRK over PLD

[Arkanethered]

Lnc actually makes a lot more sense than mrd... Not only in playstyle / job synergy but lore.

[mattwalt]

It's not necessarily that it can't perform well enough: all tanks can perform well enough and all are viable. It's about improving the job in a way that sets it apart from the others more without changing any of it's main skills. As a 60 DRK and WAR, I always feel like WAR is the far superior tank to bring despite enjoying the DRK playstule more. WAR is in a great place right now, obviously...but I don't think it needs a nerf. This was just a suggestion to give Dark Knight more useful tools and a more unique approach to tanking.

[Kathyz]

blood for blood which would give us an offensive cooldown to give us something like fight or flight/berserk.

Really?... isn't Darkside and blood weapon enough?

Uh, since when did DRK have to be more viable? Based on most opinions, it's PLDs that are struggling damage wise. Most statics I've seen use DRK over PLD

Yeah this.... since when its the DRK no viable? xD, PLD its the one wich need help right now xD.

[mattwalt]

In my opinion, no, these are not enough. Blood for Blood isn't the only skill that Dark Knight could benefit from. I'd be more excited about invigorate and keen flurry, myself. Warrior get Equilibrium on a minute cooldown for TP, has maim which is extremely easy to keep up 100% of the time, the ability to keep slashing resistance down 100% of the time, and Berserk. I'm not upset about these things and don't think WAR needs a nerf. If you only had maim and the slashing down, would you be satisfied? My suggestion was to make DRK more viable to take because as it stands, WAR is the undisputed king. PLD wasn't a part of this discussion, but I believe there are already plans to address PLD in 3.1.

[Isius]

No. In no way or form Drk is "gimped" in raiding. Current raid is built around Drk. Currently Drk has the highest mt dps out of all the tanks, and currently is the best mt for doing Alexander Savage, and they can also produce high ot dps that is very close to Warriors.

It seems to me you are trying to give Drk skills similar to what War has with Invigorate. But also want to do more dmg then a War can with Blood for Blood...but the skill is counter productive cd for tanks, increase dmg dealt while increasing dmg taken. People will still try to use Blood for Blood while mting, so if you say it is a skill meant to be used when oting, that will be false since people will do whatever they can to do abuse game mechanics. But just giving Drks Blood for Blood would only make it where Drks will do more dps then Warriors in any situation. Keen Flurry would be nice though for Drk as a def cd, and also another skill to help proc Reprisal. But Drk is a tank, not a dps class so Drk being cross classed with MRD makes more since then with LNC in this game. Having LNC as a cross class for Drk would only make Drk more powerful then War.

Drk is NOT in a bad place as a tank. It may not be the best DPS tank while oting, or out of tank stance, and even with me saying that Drk dps is very close, and sometimes comparable to Wars. Why should Drk get everything? Otherwords what would be the point to play the other tank classes if Drk becomes better then them with this LNC cross class change? While you have other other tanks that bring less to a raid...

Currently the only tank that is "gimped" in current raid content, and needs a buff is Paladin. Requiring any group with a Paladin to be a higher ilvl versus a group that brings a Drk/War to beat the current raid content. So coming on the forums asking to buff Drk over the tanks into the number one tank spot is going to seen poorly by others in the tank forums, especially when SE said Drk is the magic mitigation tank, Pld is the physical mitigation tank, and War is the dps tank.

If Drk does need a buff it will come in 3.2 if they have problems in those raids, but right now none.

[mattwalt]

I'm not saying DRK needs a buff, I'm saying it would help. Keen flurry, and otherwise never used CD, would synergize well with DRK abilities. Invigorate would help with the TP issues DRK has. Blood for blood would increase dmg while keeping with the lore of the DRK but this still wouldn't put it above the WAR IMO as a 60 DRK and WAR. My point wasn't that DRK was in a bad place right now, it was that this would be something that could give it a more distinctly different identity while keeping with the lore of the job and synergizing with current abilities.
Much of this probably comes from my tanking partner, who is a Paladin. When he is MTing on PLD, I feel that if I come as DRK when I have WAR already leveled and geared it is a mistake. WAR brings great dps and utility to the OT role. Giving DRK b4b and invig to use as an OT especially would not place them above WAR because of WAR's utility and triple fell cleave burst dps, it would simply help to mitigate some of the issues DRK face.

[Ashelia_Ferron]

You shouldn't really be doing PLD/DRK anyway.

WAR brings too much to the table to not be brought. DRK doesn't have a Storm's Path equivalent (Reprisal doesn't count since it can't have 100% uptime and requires a parry which as an OT you can't really expect to happen). You also don't get Storm's Eye for slashing debuff which boosts both tracks DPS and any NIN you might bring

[Dererk]

I never had any tp problems as a DRK. And I saw the adjustment to blood weapon as pointless because it seemed to be people tanking out of tank stance was the problem because their not using siphon strike combo because they need to keep their enmity up with their hate generation combo because their not in tank stance there by sacrificeing more enmity.

Short answer.

Blood weapon tp adjustment= pointless adjustment.

they should just make Scourge dot be a slashing debuff.