Suggestions change DRK a bit

[Fateborn]

>A bit I said.
>A bit he said.
DRK Changelog

Dark Arts removed.
Blood Weapon available to Grit
Dark Dance and Dark Mind no longer require Darkside
Darkside mana consumption per second tripled while activated.

Darkside now enhances some abilities while activated.
Includes: Power Slash, Souleater, Carve and Spit, Abyssal Drain, Dark Passenger, Dark Dance, Dark Mind
New enhancement: Scourge - Increase damage taken by 10%, Delirium - Inflict Silence for 5s.
Enhancement shift: Power Slash - Increased Enmity removed for +100 Potency for a total of 400 combo potency

Skill shift: Dark Dance - When Parrying, counterattacks the parried damages.
Buff: Salted Earth - Inflicts Heavy on foes inside.


Thought?

[MagiusNecros]

I don't think it'll ever happen I'm afraid. Especially since they want DA to be DRK's gimmick.

[ZhaneX]

Sounds boring.

[ADVSS]

no DA? how does cns work after this fix? im cool with abysall drain always giving hp back though. My other thoughts is that drk dps would skyrocket due to everything being da-boosted without the 30% mp used, With bw usable in grit, with bp avvessible youd probably never run oomp. but offtanking? maybe.

[Kiteless]

For all the problems with its design that DRK has, Dark Arts really isn't one of them.

What I would kill for, however, is Salted Earth being a PBAoE. Having to actually place it is an infuriating and sloppy process, especially since you'll almost always end up just dropping it in front of you in the first place.

[whiteblade89]

For all the problems with its design that DRK has, Dark Arts really isn't one of them.

What I would kill for, however, is Salted Earth being a PBAoE. Having to actually place it is an infuriating and sloppy process, especially since you'll almost always end up just dropping it in front of you in the first place.

There is macro you can make to where it puts it down right on the mob you're currently targeting. I'm at work so I don't have it on me, but you can Google it. That's where I found the one I use.

On topic, DA is fine imo, but I wouldn't mind Dark Mind being a flat 30% buff instead of wasting a DA on it. Delirium I think could use a tweak. The silence is a good idea, but I'd almost prefer it to be a DoT.

[Sarynth]

Just want to say that while yes salted earth can be macroed, not all enemies are valid targets. (Ie. The knight/dps check in thordan ex that doesn't move causes an error with the macro).

[SyzzleSpark]

Dark Arts removed.

Why? Dark Arts is part of what gives the job its pacing, all the MP costs and returns are designed around it. Every Dark Arts ability has an occasion where you would or would not want to DA it.
-Souleater: While leveling, alternating between DA and non-DA Souleater is your best MP-to-DPS efficient rotation once aggro has been established before getting Delirium.
-Dark Dance: DA on trash w/o Blood Price, non-DA on bosses.
-Dark Mind: DA during progression, non-DA to save MP once attacks are survivable without it.
-Dark Passenger: see Dark Dance
-Carve and Spit: DA on single target, non-DA during AoE.

Blood Weapon available to Grit

If people take the time to understand DRK's design instead of mindlessly parroting back Xeno's mogtalk soundbites, its clear that Blood Weapon is our OT stance in cooldown form. Allowing it in Grit is akin to allowing Deliverance and Defiance, or SwO/ShO to be used simultaneously.

Dark Dance and Dark Mind no longer require Darkside

This along with other changes you have both reduces the penalty and skill ceiling for DRK's playing poorly and encourages enabling/disabling Darkside which should be on 100% of the time that you are in combat.

Darkside mana consumption per second tripled while activated.

Terrible design choice IMO, although I see that you're trying to balance this around not having DA anymore. It just makes the job easy and boring.

Darkside now enhances some abilities while activated.
Includes: Power Slash, Souleater, Carve and Spit, Abyssal Drain, Dark Passenger, Dark Dance, Dark Mind

This again implies toggling Darkside off and on when it should be on pretty much all the time.

New enhancement: Scourge - Increase damage taken by 10%, Delirium - Inflict Silence for 5s.

@Scourge - RIP any tank comp without a DRK w/ a 100% uptime Trick Attack.
@Delirium - DRK does not need a Silence. Its very difficult to have a party comp that doesn't have at least one silence.

Enhancement shift: Power Slash - Increased Enmity removed for +100 Potency for a total of 400 combo potency

All this does is make the decision between Delirium and Power Slash harder, when it doesn't need to be. Its also still 100% inferior to DA Souleater.

Skill shift: Dark Dance - When Parrying, counterattacks the parried damages.

Needless, and a huge boost to DRK MT DPS, further locking us into MTing.

Buff: Salted Earth - Inflicts Heavy on foes inside.

There's a reason they don't give tanks PvE heavy effects, because it screws with positioning. So "no" to this.

[Rhaja]

I don't think these are any issues that need to be addressed. Dark Arts helps DRK actually stand out from the other tanks, and feels good. If your MP management is good you get to go edgelord and power up something.

Your idea for Scourge kind of already exist, but SE decided to lock it behind PVP. Allowing Sole Survivor to make the target weaker would make it not only more useful but more deserving of its CD.
Salted Earth doesn't need heavy; its the strongest ground placed AoE in the game. I wouldn't mind if unleash had its PVP effect as well, but since its out main aoe enmity spell I doubt we'd see its use in pve content.
Your idea for Parry needs to be universal. Dark Dance is honestly good as it is. It really shines in dungeon content with Dark Passenger for a ton of dodging. We just need Parry to actually scale better and have more use. That 20 percent should be what pushes DRK to a near perfect parry rate if we prioritize parry.

I personally believe the biggest and most important change DRK could get is on Grit. Grit holds this class back so much. Without it we lose out meager sustain, with it we lose our TP and damage increase abilities. It needs to get rid of those gates.

The only other small change I would love is to get rid of the "outside sources cannot replenish MP while under Darkside".

[Kiteless]

If people take the time to understand DRK's design instead of mindlessly parroting back Xeno's mogtalk soundbites, its clear that Blood Weapon is our OT stance in cooldown form. Allowing it in Grit is akin to allowing Deliverance and Defiance, or SwO/ShO to be used simultaneously.

I wouldn't mind seeing Blood Weapon gain an alternative function while using Grit. I don't like the idea of having dead skills on my bar (it works for WAR since its stances both come with analogous skills that can be easily macro'd to switch, but DRK just ends up with dead space), and I've no doubt that there's room to do something with it.

Additionally, I'd like to see Grit and the PLD stances come off the GCD. Stance-dancing is a pretty fun mechanic with WAR, and while the other tanks can do it decently, tying the stances to the GCD ends up really hurting the sense of pacing in a fight. It just doesn't feel right.