Core Issues With 4.x Dark Knight

[Crater]

I don't have time to really flesh this out at the moment, but a stray thought:

Instead of Dark Arts being a per-use ability, it could give you 3-5 'Stacks' of Dark Arts (stackable up to 10 so you can still burn excess MP on it), which are then automatically consumed one-by-one per weaponskill to add 30-50 potency to that weaponskill (like Machinist ammo in 3.x), and are also consumed by DA-compatible oGCDs like Dark Mind, Dark Passenger, and Carve and Spit.

Pros: less reliance on double-weaving, Plunge is usable between more weapon skills, gives DRK back its consistent high damage identity from 3.x rather than pseudo-burst, allows skills like Dark Mind to consume less potency than a full Dark Arts 'cast'.

Addendum: Delirium: Dark Arts increases weaponskill damage by 150 potency instead of 50 for 20 seconds.

[MauvaisOeil]

I don't have time to really flesh this out at the moment, but a stray thought:

Instead of Dark Arts being a per-use ability, it could give you 3-5 'Stacks' of Dark Arts (stackable up to 10 so you can still burn excess MP on it), which are then automatically consumed one-by-one per weaponskill to add 30-50 potency to that weaponskill (like Machinist ammo in 3.x), and are also consumed by DA-compatible oGCDs like Dark Mind, Dark Passenger, and Carve and Spit.

Pros: less reliance on double-weaving, Plunge is usable between more weapon skills, gives DRK back its consistent high damage identity from 3.x rather than pseudo-burst, allows skills like Dark Mind to consume less potency than a full Dark Arts 'cast'.

Addendum: Delirium: Dark Arts increases weaponskill damage by 150 potency instead of 50 for 20 seconds.

Ammunition unlocks the flow of gameplay for the MCH, this would sure be a bandaid fix, but it would really feel underwhelming to use...

Just make DM 30% baseline and consume a half or a third of a DA in MP to get rid of the too high cost, and double weave problem (Still present for DP/ C&S, but my guess is : oGCD consuming DA are the main problem, they could be simply tuned somehow else).

[Crater]

I'm not so sure that it would feel underwhelming, as long as it were in conjunction with some of the other ideas floating around. I kind of like the idea, if only as a "what if". I'll try to put up another thread a little later fleshing it out a bit.

[Shurrikhan]

Now that I think about it... Syphon having a DA effect can be seen as the outlet of a long string of f***ing AWFUL decisions on SE's part. Let me lay that out for you:

All I really want is to feel the trade-offs more clearly, and to be able to make my decisions therefrom more fluidly. For instance, if DP were returned to 140 potency, even if remaining at DA cost, it would mean that it's still just as viable as the other choices (except C&S), unless you're in Grit and really need the added self-healing from a DA-SE.

I'd rather have a choice, with each viable global, to avoid spending DA on our weaponskill, but even without that, we don't have so many oGCDs now that it's particularly punishing. It doesn't feel good, but it doesn't feel outright bad either.

Ideally, I'd simply like to see Grit bridged towards non-Grit in some other way than by buffing Syphon Strike returns to a full DA's worth. I'd be happy with BW's returns being nerfed somewhat as well, so long as there's some other way to still reach about the same mana generation per minute.

I mean... if I were permitted to change DRK as much as I please, I'd rework it mostly from scratch to try to truly perfect its distinction, identity, and cohesion, but short of that, there doesn't seem to be all that much to do for how it plays at cap. How it plays during the course of leveling, however. Well, I'd certainly not want to go through 51-65 again...

[Ekimmak]

I could tell there was something wrong with DRK as soon as I started levelling it. The Blood Gauge felt extremely pointless when unlocked, due to Delirium being the skill it's unlocked for, and that having a much longer cooldown than the time it took to reach 50 blood.

I can get it as far through savage content as I can my warrior, but it definitely feels crippled and unintuitive.

[Chrono_Rising]

I could tell there was something wrong with DRK as soon as I started levelling it. The Blood Gauge felt extremely pointless when unlocked, due to Delirium being the skill it's unlocked for, and that having a much longer cooldown than the time it took to reach 50 blood.

I can get it as far through savage content as I can my warrior, but it definitely feels crippled and unintuitive.

Yeah my initial feel was that my hot bar was barren. In particular losing all those free oGCD means we were left only with skills we would need to pay for in order to cause damage. We have to give up damage to do damage, and SE seems to have forgotten this a number of times when they tuned our skills.

[SyzzleSpark]

Made a thread highlighting a very specific flavor of problem with DRK http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...tional-Effects

Covers a lot of things, and DPS/Mitigation would be largely fixed if these points were addressed.

SE needs to realize that jumping through flaming hoops while rubbing our bellies/patting our heads and solving the Hellraiser puzzle every time we want to access beneficial effects on our mitigation/sustain and/or DPS cooldowns is not something we are going to enjoy if we are going to be the weakest tank in those regards even if we succeed at their little game.

[Chrono_Rising]

Made a thread highlighting a very specific flavor of problem with DRK http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...tional-Effects

Covers a lot of things, and DPS/Mitigation would be largely fixed if these points were addressed.

SE needs to realize that jumping through flaming hoops while rubbing our bellies/patting our heads and solving the Hellraiser puzzle every time we want to access beneficial effects on our mitigation/sustain and/or DPS cooldowns is not something we are going to enjoy if we are going to be the weakest tank in those regards even if we succeed and their little game.

I was literally on my way to post your thread here. Scary.