Pain Points of DRK

[CriminallyInane]

I’ve been leveling up all three tanks through the 60’s in tandem, and I have come to agree with the general consensus that DRK just doesn’t feel as good to use as PLD and WAR, so I wanted to throw my feedback out there. Rather than making suggestions for changes, I am going to focus on the pain points, not solutions, since I know nothing of game design.

Soul Eater is an awesome ability that feels miserable to use outside of Grit due to losing the drain, as is often necessary for DPS reasons. Also, I can definitely sense the difference in sustain compared to PLD and WAR as well, which primarily occurs when I’m either tanking a boss outside of tank stance, or just running around doing solo nonsense like FATEs. The latter is the bigger deal to me, as I feel substantially squishier as DRK compared to PLD and WAR when doing those basic things due to not wanting to trade off 20% of my ongoing DPS to get access to my main sustain tool, something unnecessary with the other tanks. (cont.)

[CriminallyInane]

Delirium being the first Blood spending ability feels bad. It’s on a long cooldown, so I’m constantly flooded with Blood and have no way of using it, which is a terrible introduction to the resource and makes Delirium feel like any other 80s cooldown. It doesn’t feel much different, even after getting Quietus, as it’s just not readily applicable to enough situations. Compared to PLD and WAR, PLD has access to the serviceable Sheltron early on for gauge throughput, and WAR has the fantastic Fell Cleave/Inner Beast.

Dark Passenger and Another Victim both seem to apply to very narrow and rare situations, and don’t feel like they have much payoff compared to the effort of working in such obscure abilities. As such, I barely ever use these abilities, and generally find it never feels rewarding when I do.

(cont.)

[CriminallyInane]

Blood Weapon feels great, and I want to use it all the time, but find it frustrating I can’t when I’m in Grit. In comparison, Blood Price feels anemic (no pun intended) and only ever feels worth it when I’m pulling large packs in dungeons. The net result is I find myself without an appreciable blood buff much of the time when I’m in Grit.

The Unmend proc that makes the next Unleash take no MP feels random, and I’ve never really noticed it or felt glad it was there. Maybe I’m doing something strange with my playstyle so I’m missing something, but I can’t make sense of how there’s meaningful synergy here, and the whole thing seems like insubstantial filler.

(cont.)

[CriminallyInane]

It feels necessary to use Dark Arts with Power Slash to build enmity, but it feels bad to burn a Dark Arts without getting a damage payoff. If I don’t use Dark Arts with Power Slash, I lose enmity much more quickly after switching to my DPS combo compared to PLD and WAR, which makes Power Slash seem like it requires a substantial resource investment to get the same benefit that WAR and PLD get for free. I recognize one piece of a kit like this doesn’t get balanced in a vacuum, but it’s not obvious to me where this is made up for in the rest of DRK’s kit. Again, I’m open to missing something here, but it makes Dark Arts feel like a crutch rather than a sweet buff.

I don’t want this to be taken as my thinking DRK is generally miserable, as I actually enjoy the quirk of using Dark Arts to lump my oGCD damage into my GCD’s for bigger numbers, and I find the aesthetic themes and job quests really enjoyable. It is, however, rough around the edges in ways that could really use some TLC.

[whiskeybravo]

For future reference you can simply edit your post to bypass the character limit. Goofy, but just so you know that's how it works.

[CriminallyInane]

My apologies, you are right, I didn't know that. This was my first time posting, and I greatly appreciate the tip, thank you!

[whiskeybravo]

No problem! You are certainly echoing a lot of the concerns DRK mains have had since SB release. Hopefully the more feedback people give the better the chances of getting the issues fixed.

[Lannybaby]

Does SE even look at NA forums? I've been seeing so many of these threads that make reasonable arguments for whatever a job class is lacking, and yet following patches either don't address these issues or apply a band aid fix such as a very minor potency increase in some attacks.

[whiskeybravo]

I doubt Yoshi-P is reading the forums, that's why they have "community managers", right? So perhaps a bit falls on them for either passing off feedback as rants, or just not getting the right posts to the right people. IDK and am not trying to place blame but that's certainly one of the reasons they exist - to take the communities feedback and give it to the devs.

But we also need people outside pushing for change. Like, well known players with established audiences interviewing other well known players with established audiences about why a job is so terrible.

[shao32]

dont forget pay 1800 mp on grit in combat in the case you have to for wathever reason.