Thread: Possible preview of the 3.25 Job/pvp changes?

Originally Posted by Rhode

DRK has Carnal Chill, which makes it unique. Being able to reduce a DPS's output by 20% for a fairly large amount of time (20 seconds) is a great asset. However this is literally the only thing DRK has, which is unfortunate considering the other two tanks have way more to work with. Tar Pit sounds useful because you can heavy the opposing DPS from chasing your healer as well, but it's only a 40% chance to work.
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That's more of a inverse of what paladin and warrior already has (testudo and thrill of war), and it's probably the lesser effective of the three since traited is only 20% (versus 25%)

Originally Posted by nickx

I think Dark Knights should be extremely grateful that they are receiving buffs to begin with, rather than having to wait until Season 2.

What? 3.22 essentially killed Dark Knight... The interrupt changes put a much greater emphasis on things like Stun and Silence, which Dark Knight simply does not provide in any meaningful manner (on top of much lower survivability, which means Dark Knight is also a greater burden on their own healer for absolutely no pay off, while Clemency/Thrill of War take some small burden off healers). All Dark Knight had prior to that was a greater aptitude for chasing and interrupting, because we could easily toss out ranged attacks to interrupt where as Shield Toss/etc. just eat away TP too quickly...

Am I grateful changes are coming? Absolutely. I'm still pissed they went ahead with an adjustment that might as well have removed the Job from PvP (or at least Feast) without having such changes ready, though... Whatever these changes are, they're long overdue... Tar Pit has been stupid since its inception, and Carnal Chill is unique but that's actually somewhat bad... It's a 180 potency ranged AoE attack... That's kind of amazing... At the same time though... If you're using that to deal damage and kill someone, you're not using it for that -20% damage dealt... Those two aspects of the skill do not have particularly good synergy, one detracts from the other... Seeing someone get away on 5% HP and thinking "If I had Carnal Chill, they'd be dead" is shitty... Killing someone but being able to provide zero utility while doing so is also shitty... Tar Pit is just straight up an attack, the Heavy is fairly meaningless (at least for Feast) and the less said about the drain effect the better (it's stupid, really really stupid)... Both skills seem to imply they were going for a DPS route for Dark Knight in PvP, yet Warrior has a flat out 20% lead on Dark Knight in terms of raw DPS... That's perfectly fine IMO though, considering Warrior has to earn that lead with Maim/Storm's Eye, all Dark Knight needs to do is manage MP, something perfectly doable with Blood Weapon.

I actually really like the concept behind Carnal Chill, having a skill that is either good for DPS or good utility is fine IMO, but there has to be some pay-off to such a thing... Right now I'd describe the three tanks as;

Paladin; Low DPS, High Utility, High Survivability.
Warrior; High DPS, Mid Utility, Mid Survivability.
Dark Knight; Mid DPS, Low Utility, Low Survivability.

The only thing Dark Knight really has going for it is the same (or similar) defensive cooldowns as Paladin while naturally being on the up in terms of DPS... Dark Knight has no analogy for Clemency or Thrill of War, Thrill of Battle, Second Wind, or Equilibrium, though... Dark Arts Abyssal Drain is worse than a Paladin casting Cure IMO (it was better in Frontlines since Abyssal Drain is designed with large groups in mind for PvE, 4v4 it is just worthless) and Grit Souleater has too many issues... The wind-up makes it useless for burst healing (which is arguably what you want in PvP) and the fact that you have to be in Grit? Ugh... Losing Blood Weapon just isn't worth it... Utility Dark Knight has one Stun, Carnal Chill, Delirium, and Dark Arts Dark Passenger for Blind (much more costly than Flash, much harder to aim, not possible to spam, but that synergy with Dark Arts Dark Dance is nice, just try to forget that for the same MP a Paladin could cast Clemency twice for 2400~3600 potency heal), though that suffers the same dilemma Carnal Chill has (it's more useful to snipe someone with a 250 potency ranged attack than it is to have a gimped version of Flash). I'm not counting Reprisal, though were I to list Paladins strengths I'd count Shield Swipe, because Dark Knight doesn't have Raw Intuition for some reason, while Paladin has Sheltron. Delirium, like Rage of Halone, I've never seen as much of a strength though... Paladin against a Ninja? Worthless. Dark Knight against a Bard? Same thing... Meanwhile, Warrior has Storm's Path, which is the same thing but not tied to a specific stat...

Originally Posted by RiceisNice

That's more of a inverse of what paladin and warrior already has (testudo and thrill of war), and it's probably the lesser effective of the three since traited is only 20% (versus 25%)

This is where things get iffy... Carnal Chill is a flat out damage reduction, you pop that on someone and they're dealing less damage, doesn't matter who they attack. Testudo you can get around by just attacking someone else, and Thrill of War doesn't actually mitigate anything, it's closer to Clemency at this point, an emergency heal. Testudo is powerful though, 50% reduction when buffed... Ideally, I land Carnal Chill on the enemy melee, ranged and tank, then that's three lots of -20% and my entire group is technically seeing -60% damage reduction... Paladin pops Testudo? One person is taking 50% damage, everyone else is still taking 100%... Carnal Chill also lasts longer...

I think the main issue with with that is the same issue with Abyssal Drain... It's very powerful, just only against large groups... In 4v4 it's easy to remain spread out so the returns are greatly diminished... That's probably one of Dark Knights problems... It's very AoE driven and that just doesn't translate well into Feast...

Originally Posted by nickx

I didn't say Dark Knight buffs weren't needed. I'm saying that it's good that SE recognized they're weak before starting Season 1. Otherwise, Dark Knights would have been in a bad place for the next few months in PvP.

Sure, I just have a hard time being grateful all things considered... Dark Knight was okay before 3.22, it needed some adjustments, but it was perfectly valid as a fairly aggressive interrupter... I really don't think they should have rolled out 3.22s changes without having something ready for any of the Jobs worst hit by it... I'm glad they have changes coming before the first season (though if I'm honest that's more to do with the shoddy rating/matchmaking system than anything else), but I'm certainly not going to be grateful considering the Job was essentially neutered for two weeks...

Changes to Dark Knight are long overdue, and I guess some would say the same thing about interrupts, but that doesn't make the current state of affairs any less hasty... Should they have left interrupts as they were? Probably not, but changing that while leaving Dark Knight as it was was not great... IMO all this could have been in 3.25, we'd have an interrupt adjustment and Dark Knight wouldn't be left in the dust... I honestly found Yoshida going "We're making things easier for casters, you'll have to change your approach to use Stuns and Silences to counter them now!" a tiny bit insulting, considering Dark Knights tool set...

From my perspective, the whole thing has just been shitty... The Live Letter didn't particularly help matters...

Originally Posted by Nalien

Carnal Chill is a flat out damage reduction, you pop that on someone and they're dealing less damage, doesn't matter who they attack. Testudo you can get around by just attacking someone else, and Thrill of War doesn't actually mitigate anything, it's closer to Clemency at this point, an emergency heal. Testudo is powerful though, 50% reduction when buffed... Ideally, I land Carnal Chill on the enemy melee, ranged and tank, then that's three lots of -20% and my entire group is technically seeing -60% damage reduction... Paladin pops Testudo? One person is taking 50% damage, everyone else is still taking 100%... Carnal Chill also lasts longer...

Testudo, when traited, is a25% reduction for the entire party in a 15 yalm radius for 20 seconds. Thrill of War is 25% hp max hp and healing for 25 seconds in a 15 yalm radius, which also spills over into the interrupt threshold. Carnal chill is 20 seconds for 20% reduction, requires you to hit the enemy in a 5 yalm radius (better hope they're grouped), and can be cleansed/purified.

Wherever you're getting your information on testudo is outdated, it's been a party-wide buff for a while now.