DRK needs re-tuning/buffing.

[SyzzleSpark]

At this rate WAR and PLD are instalocked on high uptime instances.

I see a lot of people arguing that it is DRK and PLD that are instalocked, but I tend to agree that unless a group is giving TBN more credit than it honestly deserves, most will take WAR.

[Janhyua]

I see a lot of people arguing that it is DRK and PLD that are instalocked, but I tend to agree that unless a group is giving TBN more credit than it honestly deserves, most will take WAR.

TBN is a skill base ability you got your time it to get gauge back to become your dps which is highly rewarding

[TheCount]

TBN is a skill base ability you got your time it to get gauge back to become your dps which is highly rewarding

Yet you only get it at the very max level and Dark Knight still does less damage than the rest, even assuming you use your TBN perfectly, so it's not all that rewarding

[Deathshiro]

TBN is a skill base ability you got your time it to get gauge back to become your dps which is highly rewarding

As someone who parses pretty high in susano/lak... this ability feels like garbage to use. For the most part, to me it's a "well I don't have a defensive and I got a lil mana to spare" button. I rarely use Bloodspiller without DA unless I'm about to cap on blood during blood weapon.
The 400 potency is just a lil better than DA syphon strike and worse than a DA Souleater for the same mana cost essentially. Not only this, it further delays my mana regen from Syphon strike which makes it feel like even more of an ass ability to press. Maybe giving it another effect or more damage and I'd feel like it's worth losing the 140 potency potency of Syphon strike?

Other than that TBN is fine, it's single target and aoe blood usages are lackluster and boring to press.

[RaidPanties]

As someone who parses pretty high in susano/lak... this ability feels like garbage to use. For the most part, to me it's a "well I don't have a defensive and I got a lil mana to spare" button. I rarely use Bloodspiller without DA unless I'm about to cap on blood during blood weapon.
The 400 potency is just a lil better than DA syphon strike and worse than a DA Souleater for the same mana cost essentially. Not only this, it further delays my mana regen from Syphon strike which makes it feel like even more of an ass ability to press. Maybe giving it another effect or more damage and I'd feel like it's worth losing the 140 potency potency of Syphon strike?

Other than that TBN is fine, it's single target and aoe blood usages are lackluster and boring to press.

You're severely undervaluing TBN, and your mana management may need a little work, based on limited context clues. You should never have "a little mana to spare sometimes", rather, you should always have the mana to spare a DA or TBN, considering 4800 is the sweet spot for DRKs where you're still doing overall max DPS and are able to respond to C&S coming off CD or baiting a TBN, and not overflow when Delirium comes up for BW.

That said, TBN is a flat DPS positive since Bloodspiller's potency was increased, especially since you can hold the blood you've bought until you can comfortably churn out a DA for it so long as you properly plan ahead to resource dump before TBN'ing, say, Susano's Stormsplitter. If you're using Bloodspiller raw, then sure, it's a loss - but you shouldn't be, unless you severely messed up your gameplay and need to dump blood fast, as wasting blood is even worse.

tl;dr TBN is a great defensive and offensive boon to overall DRK DPS when used and planned around correctly.

[Deathshiro]

Snip

Doubt I'm undervaluing it, I'm giving it how it is. Judging from what I've seen, experienced and played, you use it as I do... literally. For the most part it's used for tank busters and nowhere else really. I don't even find myself in a position of "Oooooo I got 2400 mana, time to use TBN!". On your point of mana management, unless CS will be up shortly unused mana is wasted mana. Whenever I'm trying in susano TBN See's about 3-4 uses total over an 8min fight in susano, including the beginning for the easy pop delirium, after that most of my blood gen is through natural blood weapons/soul eaters.


Even then sure, TBN is a "great" defensive in comparison to the rest of our kit, our kit being garbage. Sheltron gives better defensive ability than TBN, while yes a paladin doesn't have any offensive use for their gauge... clearly they don't need it with holy spirit and requiscat.

Again, in my opinion the ability is extremely BORING to press, it's not a "hey I'm going to do some smart planning and use this right here! Effectively boosting my dps and making me a better player!" It's more of a "if I don't use this in combination with rampart or shadow wall... I'm dead" during a tank buster. Either give me more of a reason to use TBN outside of tank busters to idk... help people and feel rewarded? Or just buff Shadow Wall or some other defensive so it doesn't feel so needed to use 2400 mana every single tank buster.

To me, I'm not a fan of it being a cost heavy replacement of Reprisal/Low blow.

[SyzzleSpark]

TBN is a skill base ability you got your time it to get gauge back to become your dps which is highly rewarding

snip

My wording was misconstrued, I mean that you'll use both for Stormsplitters but not at the same time i.e. Rampart/TBN - > SW/TBN - > Rampart/TBN. I've found this to be enough to survive with a 4:1 STR:VIT accessory setup, and HQ level 60 food which is what I usually default to in pugs. (this usually nets just over 40K HP)

A lot of people have said that it sounds like the devs designed this job all the way up to level 69 and then realized the job had its mitigation utterly eviscerated and then decided rushedly to cram all of what it was missing into one ability (TBN). I think a lot of people would prefer a longer cooldown on TBN in exchange for more of our defensive power redistributed elsewhere. I still think Blood Price could use a small defensive effect (-10% damage taken) or something similar, in exchange for TBN being on a 20-30s recast instead.

On an additional unrelated note, someone in another thread mentioned that DAC&S pretty much mandates double-weaving since there is only one GCD in our rotation across which you can weave it (Hard Slash). I can see this being really annoying for players with less than perfect ping. Now, double weaving has been a staple of DRK rotations since its inception, but to have an ability that is practically locked behind the technique feels... idk. Clunky.