Blood Weapon / other DRK suggestions:

[MagiusNecros]

Had a thought. Might seem a bit OP though. With Sole Survivor why not turn it into a 15 second self buff where you generate an AoE field around the DRK and anything that dies in it gives the DRK the HP/MP restore. Or just add that as a DA effect but decrease the time to kill enemies down to 5 seconds. SS is a 2 minute cooldown though.

The name Sole Survivor doesn't really make much sense if only one thing dies and you got other things still trying to beat you up. And the DRK naturally has a lot of AoE abilities.

[ArikDimas]

Yeah, it would probably be better if they changed the name of Sole Survivor to something like Marked for Death

[KrenianKandos]

4 AoEs actually.
You have that placeable bubble thingy and the Dark Passenger line AoE too (Blinding a huge pack is awesome).

Yep, you're right. I shouldn't post stuff before I've had a coffee. Yeesh. Albeit those two skills aren't used at will; only when off CD. So I guess I put them in the 'lesser' AoE attacks when I was thinking of that.

I'll also echo Soul Survivor as a skill that should be reviewed. That's one of those skills that's kinda...lackluster. It doesn't serve any real need other than simply topping you off once a mob is done. It just seems like an added skill, as if it was an afterthought:

"Hmm. Something is missing. Just something that needs to happen at the end of a mob...Oh! Let's do this!"

I think it's honestly more of a solo friendly skill in order to get mana/health back and have less downtime while you're not in Grit.

But very dull skill, for sure.

[JackFross]

Dark Mind w/o DA is so weak that you'd never use it anyway, so no big loss taking it off your bars and replacing it with a macro'd version.

15% is more than significant. In A5S when it was relevant, you could survive the first hit with DM+SS+SW without even needing to turn Grit on or using DA... safely. Like. No worries. DM+SS+Grit without DA is less mana and better mitigation to use for the second, and then DM+SS+SW can be used again for the third, again without Grit on.

Don't underestimate 15% - just use it intelligently. It's not weak, just weaker than DA-DM.

I think it's honestly more of a solo friendly skill in order to get mana/health back and have less downtime while you're not in Grit.

But very dull skill, for sure.

I disagree? Sole Survivor is incredibly useful in the vast majority of party content. Every single fight in Midas has adds that die and can proc SS regens. It's a straight dps gain and healer alleviation. It helps sustain mana between bosses in A6S - it helps you spam more DA during baby phases in A5S - it helps you maintain mana during heart phases in A7S - it helps maintain mana and health during phase 2 of A8S.

It's really not dull, because it's incredibly helpful for the DRK to self-sustain and to maintain Darkside. In A4S, you could SS the exploding dolls and keep Darkside, for example.

Does it need a rework? Maybe? But I personally don't think so. I think it's incredibly useful the way it is.

[KrenianKandos]

15% is more than significant. In A5S when it was relevant, you could survive the first hit with DM+SS+SW without even needing to turn Grit on or using DA... safely. Like. No worries. DM+SS+Grit without DA is less mana and better mitigation to use for the second, and then DM+SS+SW can be used again for the third, again without Grit on.

Don't underestimate 15% - just use it intelligently. It's not weak, just weaker than DA-DM.



I disagree? Sole Survivor is incredibly useful in the vast majority of party content. Every single fight in Midas has adds that die and can proc SS regens. It's a straight dps gain and healer alleviation. It helps sustain mana between bosses in A6S - it helps you spam more DA during baby phases in A5S - it helps you maintain mana during heart phases in A7S - it helps maintain mana and health during phase 2 of A8S.

It's really not dull, because it's incredibly helpful for the DRK to self-sustain and to maintain Darkside. In A4S, you could SS the exploding dolls and keep Darkside, for example.

Does it need a rework? Maybe? But I personally don't think so. I think it's incredibly useful the way it is.

While I honestly cannot speak for Savage modes (My experience at most is 4 man parties at this point; I'm not interested in the raiding part of things. Done enough of that in my lifetime.), I will take your word for it that it has a use. In 4 man stuff, it feels useless. Either way, just needs to be a bit more, in my opinion. It's a fire and forget with a decently long CD that may actually not go off right if you don't kill the mob in the allotted time. I just think they could rework it into something more interesting.

[Granyala]

I'll take your word for it JackFoss, as I do not raid savage, so thanks for the insight.

I never understood this obsession with deactivating the tanking stance.
Isn't it the job of a tank to take as little damage as possible? Why would I ever want to deactivate a flat -20% damange inc unless I was an offtank w/o having anything to do?

So counter intuitive.

[MagiusNecros]

Sole Survivor is useful but no matter how you butter it up it's still a situational skill that entirely relies on a single unit dying within 15 seconds from anything.

Helpful in FATE farms, excellent but limited in it's use in dungeon runs(enemy about to die then use it), and based on raid completion times and if an add is there to die you'll only use it about 5-7 times with that 2 minute cooldown. Maybe more if it lasts longer then 15 minutes.

SoSu is just really a power word to the party to kill the one enemy quickly to essentially give the DRK a mercy stroke buff. Meanwhile at 58 the PLD and WAR get rewarded with a bonus that is guaranteed and on lower cooldowns. PLD gets a lot of HP back or even on a party member and themselves, WAR can choose between HP/TP and DRK has to work for a possible HP+MP restore and fail to kill thing in 15 seconds you just wasted your 58 skill for nothing.

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You turn off Grit for more damage when you know/trust your healer can heal you through the damage only relying on your base defensive abilities. Or you can blind and Dark Dance mobs and not worry about taking that much damage at all. After all 100% of all damage is mitigated if something is dead or can't hit you.

[KrenianKandos]

I'll take your word for it JackFoss, as I do not raid savage, so thanks for the insight.

I never understood this obsession with deactivating the tanking stance.
Isn't it the job of a tank to take as little damage as possible? Why would I ever want to deactivate a flat -20% damange inc unless I was an offtank w/o having anything to do?

So counter intuitive.

It is counter-intuitive but it actually fits the Dark Knight lore: Taking damage and protecting someone through going on an all out offensive.

The idea is simple: If you have a high amount of HP where you honestly can do your best to increase your DPS by a decent amount and clear mobs, it is effectively more mitigating to kill something off quickly instead of using the 15% damage.

For example: After my first rotation of PS/DASE, I drop Grit (This is for boss content). Once this is done, I can effectively boost my DPS by nearly 100+ by being out of Grit and still maintain my damage lead by throwing PS rotations every third or fourth time and purely doing DASE rotations with full attack power. While it makes no sense for a Paladin, lore wise, to actually switch out because they are by far the stalwart defender, Warriors and Dark Knights both have under the idea of being offensive in their defense.

As such, it actually makes sense. On a technical level, why not? Especially when you outgear the content, and the healer can still keep you up and DPS themselves. On a Lore level, as highlighted above, it fits too.

[Yuni_Queen]

you generate an AoE field around the DRK and anything that dies in it gives the DRK the HP/MP restore.

Then i prefer Old good Sole Survivor lol. I wonder how many "Yuni... please..." i would hear if i have moved with boss to adds in A1S to get those MP/HP points xD

[Granyala]

On a technical level, why not? Especially when you outgear the content, and the healer can still keep you up and DPS themselves.

Question would be: who does more DPS, you or the healer when he can DPS 20% more?

It's not just a Dork Knight thing though. I see all tanks do it and imho it's weird that every healer/tank class has to do stance dancing.