SE! DRK Needs a Raise [Summarized suggestions]

[SummerScorcher]

Hello, do I have your attention? GOOD! Because it's time to summarize all decent ideas that were given for DRK in this forum in the past few months. (I know that's subjective, but hey!) If you agree, or think another way about a suggestion I've pasted here, discuss!
Ill refer to any threads that I can still find with each change.

So let's get straight to it!


Sole Survivor:
Add an MP/HP drain (for the whole party?) effect to this skill.

Dark Passenger:
Lower MP cost, or make the DA version baseline.

Shadow Wall:
Change baseline recast 150s, but every time Dark Arts is used, recast drops by 3s.

Plunge:
2 points:
- Add 5 more yards to make it on-par with other gap closers in the game.
- Reduce animation lock, making it much more versatile to double weave (Dark Arts + Plunge) between GCDs.

The Blackest Night:
Make the duration last 1-2 seconds longer.

Grit:
5 seconds oGCD (and lower MP cost?)
- Unlock Blood Price to be usable without Grit.

+ 3.xx Reprisal:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...nswardReprisal
Reimplement DRK's Reprisal from 3.x, but instead of making it only proc on a succesful parry, make it proc on a parry and when TBN breaks. This helps solve numerous issues DRK has atm.

+ Magic vulnerability debuff:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ability-debuff
Reimplement 3.x Delirium as a combo ender, but instead of making it reduce intelligence on target, it increases target's magic vulnerability. Other option would be to add this to Dark Passenger.
To synergize, all Dark Arts enhanced actions (DA + (Bloodspiller, Syphon, Carve & Spit, etc)) should become unaspected magic damage. This would give casters a competetive spot in speedruns and a nice boost to personal DPS.

Blood Weapon:
In light of the previously mentioned addition, Blood Weapon should be adjusted to give MP and blood on the impact of a weaponskill or action, instead of physical attacks only to prevent Dart Arts'ed weaponskills not giving you MP.
Change the cooldown to 30s, to better align the skill with raid-buffs and to prevent resource starvation.

+ (Not completely for DRK only; ) Some kind of customisation for Rampart.
Themed Rampart would be really nice. You would have the option to change it's animation/icon to another (like Summoners can glamour their Egi to Carbuncles, I suppose) so we can have Shadowskin back! I guess Warrior would be able to change it to Foresight?

Please consider any and/or all of these changes, just drop 'em by your balance team... actually, scratch that, please forcibly shove them into your dev team's face and I'm sure they'll figure something out

[Crater]

Good thread. I have just one small comment/addition:

Plunge:
Add 5 more yards to make it on-par with other gap closers in the game. Small QoL buff.

The extra 5y on Plunge is really important to actually give it value as a gap-closer (it currently basically moves you about as far as you could run in a GCD anyway), but an equally important change to it is just to make the animation much, much faster. It should go off as quickly as Onslaught.

Dark Knight already has more frequently-used oGCD skills than any other tank in the game - any other class in the game, for that matter, if you exclude Ninja mudras - and being able to use Plunge and Dark Arts on the same GCD without clipping would make a huge difference to how the class feels to play.

[SummerScorcher]

Good thread. I have just one small comment/addition:



The extra 5y on Plunge is really important to actually give it value as a gap-closer (it currently basically moves you about as far as you could run in a GCD anyway), but an equally important change to it is just to make the animation much, much faster. It should go off as quickly as Onslaught.

Dark Knight already has more frequently-used oGCD skills than any other tank in the game - any other class in the game, for that matter, if you exclude Ninja mudras - and being able to use Plunge and Dark Arts on the same GCD without clipping would make a huge difference to how the class feels to play.

Good points, now that you mention it I especially agree with the animation lock needing some tweaking. Edited the main post

[Claire_Pendragon]

Good thread. I have just one small comment/addition:



The extra 5y on Plunge is really important to actually give it value as a gap-closer (it currently basically moves you about as far as you could run in a GCD anyway), but an equally important change to it is just to make the animation much, much faster. It should go off as quickly as Onslaught.

Dark Knight already has more frequently-used oGCD skills than any other tank in the game - any other class in the game, for that matter, if you exclude Ninja mudras - and being able to use Plunge and Dark Arts on the same GCD without clipping would make a huge difference to how the class feels to play.

If i had to pick between the 2, changing the distance is more important than quickening the animation. (Obviously i want both)

Main reason being Ex-Death (savage).
Since they probably test this game with less than 30 ping...
On any other job, if I press my gap closer at the end of the cast bar, mid swing animation, it will go off/show the animation of the gap closer as im being thrown back. and eat the CD.
Same with DRK.
But if you press it the moment u see the animation of ur character moving backward (technically i get a bit trigger happy, and press like 0.3 second sooner than even that) all other jobs will leap back to the boss.
DRK will instead, show the gap close animation start, then cancel, and say you're not in range, and ur still being pushed back as it does this. the push back isnt even finished moving u yet.

The distance on it is ridiculous, and needs fixed.
We shouldnt be sprinting back to the boss, when we have a supposed gap closer.
(It could be argued the reason we fail to gapclose might be the animation is too long, and not the range, but id thinkt he distance is more important than the current animation lock. And of course, i still want the animation lock to be at LEAST 33% shorter.)

[InfiniDragon]

Great list. Things I would add:

- Make all Dark Arts versions of attacks do unaspected magic damage, not just combo finishers. Exactly like RDM enhanced melee. Make them benefit more from the proposed magic vuln up and less dependent on WAR/NIN/SAM as less of their attacks would be slashing under DA.

- Make Dark Arts versions of certain attacks get new animations like MCH heated shots to reflect the magical boost. Specifically, the base combos that can be DA'd (Syphon, Souleater and Power Slash).

- Buff our enmity modifiers to the same level as the other two tanks, also.

[Mycow8me]

All this talk of magic damage and regaining of an old skill reprisal, why not just combine all those ideas again. Reprisal gives a magic damage vuln up for drk having better synergy with casters. The role skill's name could be changed to something else or the drks old skill could be renamed to something else. Don't know really, just throwing out ideas now but I would like synergy with casters cause that just seems fitting to what dark is.

[SyzzleSpark]

I know its totally subjective and biased but I generally cast my vote against jobs with gigantic 2-handed weapons having lower personal DPS whilst boosting raid DPS. If any tank should have gotten this treatment it would have been PLD, imo.

[Atreides]

Actually I think having "Raise" as DRK would be pretty sweet. :O

[SummerScorcher]

Great list. Things I would add:

- Make all Dark Arts versions of attacks do unaspected magic damage, not just combo finishers. Exactly like RDM enhanced melee. Make them benefit more from the proposed magic vuln up and less dependent on WAR/NIN/SAM as less of their attacks would be slashing under DA.

Ah, that's a mistake on my wording; I meant all DA enhanced weaponskills as you said. Fixing that!

All this talk of magic damage and regaining of an old skill reprisal, why not just combine all those ideas again. Reprisal gives a magic damage vuln up for drk having better synergy with casters. The role skill's name could be changed to something else or the drks old skill could be renamed to something else. Don't know really, just throwing out ideas now but I would like synergy with casters cause that just seems fitting to what dark is.

The idea of this skill would be to have a 100% uptime debuff like Warrior has Slashing vulnerability-up. This would mean a whole new level of synergy between DRK and Casters which as you describe is pretty appealing- The idea for Reprisal however is a way to mitigate fluff damage while also using TBN for something other than big attacks and adding an extra layer of party utility, on top of a buff to our DPS which are all part of what we lack atm.

I know its totally subjective and biased but I generally cast my vote against jobs with gigantic 2-handed weapons having lower personal DPS whilst boosting raid DPS. If any tank should have gotten this treatment it would have been PLD, imo.

Well, itd boost DRKs DPS alongside the raid DPS. Warrior also has a raid DPS-boost and wields a 2-handed weapon.
Delirium also had the magic enfeeblement theme to it already back in 3.x, itd fit pretty well I think.

Actually I think having "Raise" as DRK would be pretty sweet. :O

I thought of this before, but not sure if it would entirely fit with DRKs theme. Itd be awesome to use Sole Survivor on a dead target/party member and just rez them/receive 20% hp/mp though, the name/cooldown allows it!
Edit: the joke flew entirely above my head. I am a smart individual! Still though!

[SyzzleSpark]

The idea of this skill would be to have a 100% uptime debuff like Warrior has Slashing vulnerability-up. This would mean a whole new level of synergy between DRK and Casters which as you describe is pretty appealing-

The problem with that is that DRK would be the only job to provide such a debuff and therefore would be required for any group with casters. In much the same fashion as tanks and NINs functioned in groups with a WAR back in 3.x, so would casters (and healers, for that matter) function in a group without DRK. Believe me, it leaves the taste of bile in my mouth to say that any buff to DRK right now would be overpowered, but as someone who did HC/MC raiding back in HW full time, its pretty clear to me why this would be a bit much.

Although with that being said, if this was the only thing they did to DRK in the way of a fix, it would still leave the job very weak in a lot of areas, and you'd probably only bring it grudgingly. IDK I guess I wouldn't complain. A lot of other people would though. But still.

...buttttt.... idk maybe this is what we need since casters are kind of in the gutter now too? idk. I can't decide how I would feel about this. Its not a buff I would just slap on though, there's some big implications, I can say that for sure.

Well, itd boost DRKs DPS alongside the raid DPS. Warrior also has a raid DPS-boost and wields a 2-handed weapon.

It wouldn't though, because if I'm understanding correctly this is a magic vuln+ and (as of 4.x anyway) nothing in DRK's ST rotation is magic damage. The comparison to WAR doesn't work anymore, because WAR already has the highest personal DPS and can easily tie with PLD even without slashing in effect, and it also is no longer the sole proprietor of said debuff.