Dark Arts overhaul

[Tint]

i have the feeling that SE backed themself into a corner with the dark arts change in 4.0.
you can clearly see that they wanted to remove the auto-mana drain from dark side and changed it into a manual-mana drain, to make playing the class easier.
the problem is now dark arts is basically locked onto skills wich give you a 140 potency buff. back then with the dark side auto drain we had a constant loss of mana, wich gave us our "basic" damage, and every point of mana extra was either extra damage or extra mitigation.

now we don't have extra mana for extra damage or extra mitigation - we use our mana for the basic damage and everytime we use it on mitigation we fall behind that basic damage, there is no extra mana anymore.

also dark side became rather useless, gameplay wise, with the changes in 4.0. it's just a press it one time and then forget that it exists skill. also in pvp dark side doesn't even exists anymore and nobody seems to miss it... i guess the only point we still have that skill is because of the ugly aura effect ^^

however.

since dark arts is basically locked onto skills wich give you 140 extra potency - why not simply change dark arts into a 140 potency attack itself? wich also grants you the dark arts effect, to buff your skills with extra effects, instead of extra damage? on souleater it increases the selfheal, on dark mind still the mitigation effect, on shadow wall it shortens the cooldown, on syphon strike... i have no idea xD

but that's only the more simple idea. what if dark arts buffs dark side for a short duration / the next attack (excluding auto hits)? so you use dark arts and dark side gets increased to 25% or 30% or... i have no idea about balancing numbers... this would result in a situation that not every skill is buffed with the same 140 potency, wich could make the gameplay more complicated / engaging (however you want to call it), but it also will give dark side a little reason to exist. and you will get the extra damage in any case, even when you use the dark arts effect on a mitigation skill.

[Xenosan]

I try to imagine this system more fluid, but not replacing it too much.. I like the pump-action shotgun feel of 4.x Dark Arts..

I think letting DRK hold multiple DAs at once for fast 50% MP draining when we in opener or DEL is approaching.. Removing the 'just one' DA at a time could free up weaving constraint. But also they have to fix the old DA-effects that have no place in 4.x. DA-AD should add +50 potency in addition to absorbing health, and DA-PS should do +140 potency in addition to the aggro multiplier. Dark Mind update where it doesn't take a DA period. I think the future requires no Dark Arts for any mitigation skill. We have TBN now for those needs. Dark Arts is our zerk/fof/req/ir, applied on a GCD basis. That should be it's singular, exclusive purpose.

[GoneEnigma]

I've thought about this ad nauseum and tbh to save us from DA every other GCD, we could change DA to a set of 5 stacks or use a Gauge that's up for a bit and allows us to strengthen our abilities. Just a brainstorm but let's us try to think ahead at least

[Derio]

Honestly it is sad because I dont even think DRK will get touched in 4.3 or 4.25

I think the WAR changes were probably planned after the 4.0 backlash and just took this long to implement.

However I do hope they fix DRK to where we can finally have some tank balance.

[Aomine1992]

I don't understand why people like this reload action that is dark arts I like OPs idea...

[Joe777]

Turning Dark Arts into a cooldown buff could cause more harm than good. I don't think Dark Arts is a problem personally, it actually makes the job unique to PLD and WAR in fact, who don't have such a thing to juggle to make them actually think about things.

[Galgarion]

The constant dark arts weaving annoys me. I'd rather it was more like Berserk or Req and simply existed as a dps window. Maybe it could have a group utility if used when grit is up?

[Rasikko]

Honestly it is sad because I dont even think DRK will get touched in 4.3 or 4.25

I think the WAR changes were probably planned after the 4.0 backlash and just took this long to implement.

However I do hope they fix DRK to where we can finally have some tank balance.

What's truly sad is, DRK got Nolan Ryan'd because people wanted tanks to be weak. No DRK asked for this mess. The way it was setup before was just fine, with Darkside being the perfect limiter.

[MagiusNecros]

I'd rather Dark Arts just last the duration and you have 10 seconds to use Dark Arts enhanced skills. Meaning one DA enhanced skill doesn't end the effect. The timer does. You have a lot more MP this way and you can spend it on skills more often. Even Dark Passenger.

Or if it seems too OP just make Dark Arts cost more or increase the recast time.

[Nedkel]

I would just remove the mana costs from other abilities all together and keep it on dark arts.

Just give unleash, unmend, and abyssal drain a TP cost and make dark passenger no cost.

Lvling to 70 with drk is pure drama, you are literally useless below 60 lvl.