Dear DRK Mains

[Mycow8me]

I don't know if the drk topics bleeding into the general forums is a good thing or a bad thing but i guess as they say even bad publicity is still good publicity.

[DaulBan]

Probably a bad thing because the tank subthread is already filled with people talking about DRK and if the devs were going to notice the complaints/feedback it would be there where it has been a topic for weeks.

[akaneakki]

and u think 4.0 pld is that much better? 123 then requiescat and holy spirit? :P

So you don't do dots? okay cool.

[Joe777]

First of all, the thread title fails at everything.
Second of all, DRK may not be my main job in general but it is my main Tank job. Therefore, in my honest opinion, despite PLD and WAR overall having more utility... No. I honestly do not believe DRK is underperforming. It would be awesome if it had the same beefy HP WAR does though...

[Bourne_Endeavor]

First of all, the thread title fails at everything.
Second of all, DRK may not be my main job in general but it is my main Tank job. Therefore, in my honest opinion, despite PLD and WAR overall having more utility... No. I honestly do not believe DRK is underperforming. It would be awesome if it had the same beefy HP WAR does though...

Relative to its counterparts, Dark Knight is underperforming. It's objectively worse at every aspect save large dungeon pulls. Now that doesn't mean it isn't viable, but the same could be said of Heavensward Monk or Paladin. Neither brought enough tools to truly offset their counterparts. Samurai, Black Mage and, to some degree, Monk still suffer from that issue, though less so than in Heavensward.

[SenorPatty]

Out of the three, DRK lags behind both PLD and WAR. The mitigation tools just aren't up enough to snuff and the dps is questionable.

I mean, its good...its just that it could be better. Much better.

[Rosalynd]

As a DRK main, is DRK viable? yes.

Is it as good as the other 2 tanks? No, not in any way whatsoever outside mass dungeon pulls (which is lol worthy anyways). And i'm sorry, but having your single niche be "aoe dungeon puller" is just outright gorram bad design.

From what i have seen as well, taking a DRK to Ultimate Bahamut is signing your group up to never clear the fight. They simply lack the required tools you need to clear the encounter, such as raid wide shields.

[Joe777]

Relative to its counterparts, Dark Knight is underperforming. It's objectively worse at every aspect save large dungeon pulls. Now that doesn't mean it isn't viable, but the same could be said of Heavensward Monk or Paladin. Neither brought enough tools to truly offset their counterparts. Samurai, Black Mage and, to some degree, Monk still suffer from that issue, though less so than in Heavensward.

Yes so long as DRK has nothing to offer to put it a cut above or on par with its peers it will comparatively underperform. I was speaking in general is all lol

[Awful]

Relative to its counterparts, Dark Knight is underperforming. It's objectively worse at every aspect save large dungeon pulls. Now that doesn't mean it isn't viable, but the same could be said of Heavensward Monk or Paladin. Neither brought enough tools to truly offset their counterparts. Samurai, Black Mage and, to some degree, Monk still suffer from that issue, though less so than in Heavensward.

^ This right here Drk is under performing why take a Drk when you can bring a Pld and War who bring more utility, damage, and party wide mitigation? Yes every tank can pull everything in dungeons but that's dungeons, you can run anything in any dungeon and it's perfectly fine but when you get into the bleeding edge of raid content and pushing numbers, Drk is vastly outdone by War and Pld.

A lot of Drk mains have either played another class, or just quit tanking and rightfully so they have the choice, I myself rerolled warrior but i'm not having the satisfaction as when I play Drk, the fact that this is bleeding from the tank forums to the general discussion tells you something about tank balance and class balance for that matter.

Not to mention with Ultimate Coil of Bahamut you are a literal liability to your raid group as you cannot provide the tools that a War or Pld does Drk only wishes it could even have those tools but sadly here we are twiddling our thumbs while we wait for SE to acknowledge Drks lack of presence in the raid scene.

[Aster_E]

As a Drk-by-choice, I concur that it needs fixing. Blood Price drops off in MP gained after level 60, but hey, at least we get a nice aoe attack that costs 50 points from the blood gauge. Dark Arts is expensive and the boost it gives to Syphon Strike basically only cancels itself out. DPS could be a smidge better (I'm not asking for a lot on this one). YoshiP said his team was going to evaluate and do something about the least used abilities, but then the DRK's dot got taken away . . . because reasons (much like BRD's Flaming Arrow).

As stated a couple times already in this thread by other people, the job is still viable, but it's not entirely comparable to WAR and PLD.


My own recommendation for helping Drk catch up to War and Pld is this:
- Bring back our dot, Scourge, and take it off of global cooldown, so that we can weave it into our single target rotations. If you elect to keep it on GCD then that could be fine as long as the dps gain from the ability remains worthwhile. This alone can address the DPS and help us feel less like 2.0 Paladins when fighting bosses.
- Improve the MP regen via Blood Price post level 60. This does not need to be a lot. All it needs to be is a suitable accompaniment to Quietus during trash pulls, as well as toward the Syphon and Souleater part of the single target rotations. Right now, it feels like, past level 60, Blood Price does nothing for the MP at all, even though it does add a little here and there, but this improvement would make things so much better.
- Discount the cost of Dark Arts without cutting its bonus to anything. DA + Syphon? Greater MP gain instead of the same overall. DA + Dark Passenger? Powerful attack on cooldown that can be recovered quickly enough. DA + Abyssal Drain? Health recovery during trash pulls without sacrificing our MP bars.

Do all three things without weakening anything else a DRK can do, and I promise you that Dark Knights will either be on the same level as Pld and War right now, or else be much, much closer. Again, right now, DRK is viable, but the comparison feels a little sluggish and needs as much help. I am of the opinion that the aforementioned suggestions would fit the bill.