Pain Points of DRK

[Phileas]

DRK in general is unrewarding to play. We manage two resources closely (mp and blood) and dont have the self sustain/cooldown/utility or dps of the other two tanks. Sure DRK is still ‘usable’ but its not fun anymore and there is little satisfaction or pay off for playing optimally.

[Shinkyo]

Aside from some wonky skill progression as you mentioned, DRK biggest pain is its lack identity.
It doesn’t excel at anything nor does it have any notable strengths.

I keep advocating that the best way to fix the class is to give it a magic resistance debuff (like war slashing debuff) as that build synergy with caster/healer dps and allow caster oriented comps to be competitive with the current meta comp.
Put that magic debuff on dark passenger and you fix sooooo many issues in the current job design...

[Valdegarde]

I'm sorry, I do agree with a lot of what's being said in this thread, but a part of me wishes "Pain Points" was a Dark Knight skill.

[Awful]

I keep advocating that the best way to fix the class is to give it a magic resistance debuff (like war slashing debuff) as that build synergy with caster/healer dps and allow caster oriented comps to be competitive with the current meta comp.
Put that magic debuff on dark passenger and you fix sooooo many issues in the current job design...

I agree this was my way of making Drk having an identity too right now melee comps are just too valuable and I wish there was a magic tank to kind of solidify and bring in some utility I mean War brings slashing why can't Drk bring magic vulen? Who knows what kind of direction SE wants to take Drk it's clear they have no idea how to balance the tanks at all when they said that was gonna be their top priority.

[Nedkel]

Leveling DRK was the most painful process in my gaming career, but 70 lvl DRK feels just so much right with TBN.
It was definitely worth it, that low cooldown shield is something i do like, will it be using it on myself or on the second tank or a healer.

Aside from some wonky skill progression as you mentioned, DRK biggest pain is its lack identity.
It doesn’t excel at anything nor does it have any notable strengths.

I keep advocating that the best way to fix the class is to give it a magic resistance debuff (like war slashing debuff) as that build synergy with caster/healer dps and allow caster oriented comps to be competitive with the current meta comp.
Put that magic debuff on dark passenger and you fix sooooo many issues in the current job design...

Drk has the biggest aoe dps out of all tanks, its just doesnt seem any useful outside of clearing trash mobs.
And the 20% hp shield for 7 sec and 15 cooldown is also good.

They could simply "fix" the DRK with two steps, taking away Dark passenger mp cost and letting us use blood prince and blood weapon in whatever stance.

[347SPECTRE]

@Nedkel To add to that, also allowing SE HP regen outside of grit.

[Shinkyo]

Snip.

I would argue that WAR aoe dps is better than DRK.
IR steel cyclone/decimate and Unchained+overpower spam is ridiculous as both sustained and burst aoe dps (and vengeance damage reflect is icing on the cake).

I agree that DRK operates well as-is but they still don’t have a feature that makes them attractive. They are jacks of all trade and yet fall short to WAR/PLD in every aspects.
DRK imo is the only class in the game where you can’t say “I bring <JOB> because of their <Feature>”

[Mahrze]

I would argue that WAR aoe dps is better than DRK.
IR steel cyclone/decimate and Unchained+overpower spam is ridiculous as both sustained and burst aoe dps (and vengeance damage reflect is icing on the cake).

I agree that DRK operates well as-is but they still don’t have a feature that makes them attractive. They are jacks of all trade and yet fall short to WAR/PLD in every aspects.
DRK imo is the only class in the game where you can’t say “I bring <JOB> because of their <Feature>”

This is exactly it. WAR at this point has been so "fine tuned" that they added more stuff than they realized they did. DRK is now just a half-measured attempt at a job with zero identity, even-though it has the best job story quests.

sarcasm: Which SE will likely do the same in 5.0 when WAR also gets a story that is better than DRK because why not? /s

[Claire_Pendragon]

I would argue that WAR aoe dps is better than DRK.
IR steel cyclone/decimate and Unchained+overpower spam is ridiculous as both sustained and burst aoe dps (and vengeance damage reflect is icing on the cake).

I agree that DRK operates well as-is but they still don’t have a feature that makes them attractive. They are jacks of all trade and yet fall short to WAR/PLD in every aspects.
DRK imo is the only class in the game where you can’t say “I bring <JOB> because of their <Feature>”

This is "mostly" true, but as we've come to notice recently, that when it comes to magical TB fights, DRK does take a bit less dmg on TBs, and PLD takes the least on auto attack dmg. (looking at O6S, where PLDs and DRKs in the OT role, PLD take less, and PLD/DRK in the MT role take semi similar amounts of dmg, as PLD reduces fluff dmg, and DRK almost makes up for it, with the TB mitigation.)
And of course then theres WAR mitigating almost equally as much of both.
But its such a small thing, it really isnt worth saying its DRKs specialty, but it is technically the truth.

[Kowen]

Agreed on all points! I think just lowering or removing the MP cost on Dark Passenger would make it way more useful.

Sole Survivor should restore a lot more MP, have a much lower cooldown, or be just given a new effect. The fact that it doesn't even restore enough MP for a single Dark Arts, on a 2 minute cooldown, is pretty laughable...

As for making DRK less boring at low levels, one suggestion I really like is to make Bloodspiller a level 50 ability, and Quietus level 60. That way we would get our gauge much earlier, and playing 50 and 60 capped content would be a less of a slog.