DRK balance

[Voltyblast]

I agree with Magius here, plus I find the MP drain gimmick very annoying. It's not hard or even interesting at all, it feels more like they wanted to make them different by giving them a silly gimmick. I would've preferred if they made DRK consume mana instead of TP for their skills: now THAT would have been a nice gimmick to have. Or at least less annoying to have.

Plus, they were supposed to be anti-magic tanks but they have "A" magic resistance skill (and only lasts 10 seconds) and basically have nothing that makes them different than a PLD. Except their long sword and a lot more of OGCD skills I guess.

I really hope they're going to work on them because as of now I really don't think I'll move away from my warrior or paladin: If I want damage I go the former, and if I want tankiness I got the latter.

[Belhi]

A healer who knows their business should know how to handle Living Dead.

Being able to stance swap outside the GCD is one of WAR's thing and probably a feature of it being the Damage dealing tank. PLDs stance swap requires a GCD too.

If Dark Arts cost less they would have to nerf its effects. Its balanced around not being able to spam it easily. One of the core mechanics of the class is supposed to be MP management.

The main issue I see with DRK is the overarching issue with Parry. Hopefully when they revisit the stat they will find a way to make it more workable.

All tanks have things they are better at. DRK sits around the middle between WAR and PLD with more in the way of defensive CDs and higher dps than paladins while having solid self healing abilities and stronger magical mitigation than either due to their CDs. They are certainly in no way the 'weak' tank Job.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

A healer who knows their business should know how to handle Living Dead.

Being able to stance swap outside the GCD is one of WAR's thing and probably a feature of it being the Damage dealing tank. PLDs stance swap requires a GCD too.

If Dark Arts cost less they would have to nerf its effects. Its balanced around not being able to spam it easily. One of the core mechanics of the class is supposed to be MP management.

The main issue I see with DRK is the overarching issue with Parry. Hopefully when they revisit the stat they will find a way to make it more workable.

All tanks have things they are better at. DRK sits around the middle between WAR and PLD with more in the way of defensive CDs and higher dps than paladins while having solid self healing abilities and stronger magical mitigation than either due to their CDs. They are certainly in no way the 'weak' tank Job.

Living Dead and Soul Survivor have no effect, so in an actually fight without voice communication you will not be able to tell your party easily what to do. Actually I would argue Warriors having stronger magical mitigation due to being able to -20% every time a big hit comes as well as their other temps, warriors also have much better on demand lifetaps.

[Ashkendor]

Living Dead and Soul Survivor have no effect, so in an actually fight without voice communication you will not be able to tell your party easily what to do. Actually I would argue Warriors having stronger magical mitigation due to being able to -20% every time a big hit comes as well as their other temps, warriors also have much better on demand lifetaps.

You can't have -20% "every time a big hit comes" if they come more often than 8 GCD's (unless you're planning to burn other cooldowns for stacks) or if you're using your stacks for anything but Inner Beast. Stack management is the core concept of Warrior just like mana management is for Dark Knight. I'm not really sure what you mean by Living Dead having "no effect" though; if you mean that it has no buff icon, you're completely wrong. Both Living Dead and Walking Dead have easily recognizable icons. Sole Survivor also leaves a debuff icon on the mob that you use it on. You just need to communicate with your party more.

[MagiusNecros]

If the healer is dead what use does LD have other then prolonging that wipe?

[Quor]

If the healer is dead what use does LD have other then prolonging that wipe?

It'll still last a total of 4-14 seconds "longer" than Holmgang would.

Holmgang has the exact same problem, only instead of being reduced to 1 hp and then living for 10s before we die, we're reduced to 1 hp and then die when Holmgang wears off in another 2-4 seconds.

LD is objectively better as a tank "oh sh*t" CD, since Walking Dead lasts almost twice as long as Holmgang does. Yes, you need healer coordination, but that's rather easily solved with a macro (make it separate from hitting LD if you're worried about macro lag).

[Voltyblast]

LD is objectively better as a tank "oh sh*t" CD, since Walking Dead lasts almost twice as long as Holmgang does. Yes, you need healer coordination, but that's rather easily solved with a macro (make it separate from hitting LD if you're worried about macro lag).

If you're a WHM with Benediction ready, yes it is better. If not then you're going to struggle, especially nowadays where tanks are going full vit. Before at least they had less hp due to the strength gear they had to get, meaning less hp to recovery. But now? It's insanely high for one thing and they will "start" from 1 hp, meaning that you have to heal 20k hp (more or less) in less than 10 seconds AND while the boss is still attacking, most likely negating one of your heals if the boss can hit for more than 5k damage (and I can even name a few).

And sure, while my AST can heal 5k with benefic 2, I have to do that within 10 seconds which means I have to cast it 4 times in a row: miss one and the tank is dead at 80-90%

Sure it can be fixed with a macro, but why not fix the skill itself? Maybe increase the healing taken by 100% during Walking Dead or lower the hp required to 50% instead, because it's highly unreliable as of now. Holmgang at least doesn't kill you while at 99% of hp!

[Quor]

If you're a WHM with Benediction ready, yes it is better. If not then you're going to struggle, especially nowadays where tanks are going full vit. Before at least they had less hp due to the strength gear they had to get, meaning less hp to recovery. But now? It's insanely high for one thing and they will "start" from 1 hp, meaning that you have to heal 20k hp (more or less) in less than 10 seconds AND while the boss is still attacking, most likely negating one of your heals if the boss can hit for more than 5k damage (and I can even name a few).

And sure, while my AST can heal 5k with benefic 2, I have to do that within 10 seconds which means I have to cast it 4 times in a row: miss one and the tank is dead at 80-90%

Sure it can be fixed with a macro, but why not fix the skill itself? Maybe increase the healing taken by 100% during Walking Dead or lower the hp required to 50% instead, because it's highly unreliable as of now. Holmgang at least doesn't kill you while at 99% of hp!

All true. But also important is that Holmgang has 4s lower duration, on a tank with no natural damage reduction in tank stance. So part of the execution in Walking Dead is to get the OT to step up long enough to get the DRK back to stability.

The same, of course, can be said for Holmgang. But you still have to account for an extra 4s of "hah hah you can't kill me" that LD grants. While it does suck to lose an LD DRK at 99%, there are just as many downsides to Holmgang as there are to WD/LD.

WD/LD also doesn't root you in place, preventing any movement (including turning). Most people have no idea how annoying that is. I'd really like if WAR got an actual "oh sh*t" ability instead of the band-aid that was applied to Holmgang nearly two years ago.

[Kaze3434]

If you're a WHM with Benediction ready, yes it is better. If not then you're going to struggle, especially nowadays where tanks are going full vit. Before at least they had less hp due to the strength gear they had to get, meaning less hp to recovery. But now? It's insanely high for one thing and they will "start" from 1 hp, meaning that you have to heal 20k hp (more or less) in less than 10 seconds AND while the boss is still attacking, most likely negating one of your heals if the boss can hit for more than 5k damage (and I can even name a few).

And sure, while my AST can heal 5k with benefic 2, I have to do that within 10 seconds which means I have to cast it 4 times in a row: miss one and the tank is dead at 80-90%

Sure it can be fixed with a macro, but why not fix the skill itself? Maybe increase the healing taken by 100% during Walking Dead or lower the hp required to 50% instead, because it's highly unreliable as of now. Holmgang at least doesn't kill you while at 99% of hp!

the bolded shows you dont know how it works at all. drk doesnt need to be healed to full, they need to be healed for their max hp. case in point, back when it was first brought in, bene actually didnt get rid of it, because they would be healed for max minus the 1 hp they had. any dmg they take does not affect when LD would come off. any regens on them also eases the heals needed to keep them alive.
two things about your ast i am wondering. how are your heals about 6-800 less then mine when just about everyone should be at 210 now? mine is only 211. as ast, you have the second strongest single target heal in the game. ED would most likely take the required heals down to one. even if it was on cd, your other cool downs would help you keep them alive. really the only thing needed in regards to living dead is paying attention.

edit, thinking about it, the only bosses that would even hit that hard, you wouldnt be healing it by yourself.

[Voltyblast]

Snip

Well duh, I'm not a healer main: my healer is only 197, so of course it won't heal for 6k or more: this is just my experience on the field, not just a super complex calculation i did in the mind. Infact all what I just said in that post takes in consideration the best case scenario.

Let me put this way: as an AST (which is 197 so mind that) whenever a DRK goes into Walking Dead Status it simply means I have to heal to their Max hp. I said 20k but in reality it can be even 25k, so one more heal with -my- gear. Sure I have regens and all that but it's yet again the best case scenario: what if he or she has a healing debuff? What about damage increase debuffs? Those have to be counted as well and only hinder your tank's survival whenever that happens.

Sure I admit it, I'm bad with AST but it still doesn't change the fact that LD and WD are the most unreliable tanking saves in the game so far, because it adds busy work to a relatively simple mechanic: surviving a deadly blow. Oh it sure saves you from that blow but is your tank at 99% hp after 10 seconds? Oops it's dead, gotta heal faster! Is it my fault if my AST is weak and can't heal them to max hp? Alright then why PLD and WAR can survive just fine with my gear? Their CDs won't kill them after 10 or 5 seconds of not full health, but it will kill them if I don't recovery them a certain amount of hp. Keyword here being "A certain", not "100% hp"

And yes, ED is a strong heal, but it's no Benediction: it can scale up to 1000 potency ((according to Reddit), but it doesn't beat 100% hp recovery!

PS: Calcabrina can hit for about 8k, and the bosses in the arboretum can hit for about 5k unmitigated on a DRK/PLD. So yes, there are some dungeon bosses who can do that high amount of damage. And yes I can tell that because I'm a tank main. Ironically not a DRK though.