Why is Quietus so weak?

[Saeno]

Comparing unbuffed Quietus to its "rival" Decimate, it's 160 potency vs. 280 potency.

Decimate also crit+direct hits 5 times in a row under Inner release. Decimate is a lot stronger than quietus because of WAR's kit, not just decimate on it's own so I think it's a little unfair to compare them unbuffed. I don't think DRK's aoe needs to be buffed to be comparible to a tank that can deal higher aoe damage than almost all other DPS jobs. I think this is one of the few cases where one job's aoe kit is so above and beyond that it's unreasonable for DRK to be buffed accordingly unless every job in the game gets buffed so hard that 5x inner release decimates seems average.

Going on a tangent, but DRK's aoe kit is also way above and beyond PLD's kit. If Holy spirit is like Fell cleave and bloodspiller, then PLD's do not even have anything similar to Decimate or Quietus. Total eclipse is weaker than overpower and Abyssal and those aren't even the strongest skills on those jobs. Sword oath also does not help aoe damage output unlike Storms eye and Darkside. Sword oath is entirely single target. The difference between PLD's kit to DRK's kit is about as bad as WAR's kit to DRK's kit. I agree that the balance between aoe damage across the tanks is very weak but im sure SE is aware of that.

[Lyth]

...

I think all of PLD's AoE issues would be solved by:
1) Convert Total Eclipse to being an enmity move
2) Replace Flash with a magical damage AoE (without enmity)

At present, Total Eclipse is roughly on par with Abyssal/Overpower at baseline and shoots far ahead when you apply Fight or Flight. Circle of Scorn does about 30 potency less than DA Dark Passenger while being free (vs. costing half your MP bar) and being on half the recast (nearly double the potency per minute). The only thing holding PLD's AoE kit back is Flash. If you could only just take advantage of Requiescat with a proper magic damage AoE, PLD would do more than break even; they would easily pull ahead.

[Ekimmak]

I think all of PLD's AoE issues would be solved by:
1) Convert Total Eclipse to being an enmity move
2) Replace Flash with a magical damage AoE (without enmity)

At present, Total Eclipse is roughly on par with Abyssal/Overpower at baseline and shoots far ahead when you apply Fight or Flight. Circle of Scorn does about 30 potency less than DA Dark Passenger while being free (vs. costing half your MP bar) and being on half the recast (nearly double the potency per minute). The only thing holding PLD's AoE kit back is Flash. If you could only just take advantage of Requiescat with a proper magic damage AoE, PLD would do more than break even; they would easily pull ahead.

Are you actively trying to screw over levelling Gladiator/Paladins/Paladins in levelling roulette, or do you people just post how trash flash is without even stopping to think about the order your skills are gained?

[SummerScorcher]

Are you actively trying to screw over levelling Gladiator/Paladins/Paladins in levelling roulette, or do you people just post how trash flash is without even stopping to think about the order your skills are gained?

If they were to go through with a decision like this, I'm sure they would have Total Eclipse be gained at lv6 instead of Flash, and have that new magic damage AoE somewhere between 60-80.

[Lyth]

...

Yep, it's definitely a conspiracy. (Or, just assign whatever ends up being the main AoE enmity action to level 6.)

Here's the previous discussion on the subject:
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2

I personally don't see why PLD can't have both an enmity AoE that does damage as well as a non-enmity dps AoE, like both of the other tanks. I feel like it's an artificial penalty. Unless you're campaigning for Overpower to do no damage as well, of course.

[Hierro]

Yep, it's definitely a conspiracy. (Or, just assign whatever ends up being the main AoE enmity action to level 6.)

Here's the previous discussion on the subject:
1
2

I personally don't see why PLD can't have both an enmity AoE that does damage as well as a non-enmity dps AoE, like both of the other tanks. I feel like it's an artificial penalty. Unless you're campaigning for Overpower to do no damage as well, of course.

Yeaaaaah buddy, let's make SB's most overpowered tank EVEN MORE OVERPOWERED! AoE was perhaps the only thing holding them back from ABSOLUTE PERFECTION! No, we can't have PLD settle for anything less!

[FeliAiko]

Are you actively trying to screw over levelling Gladiator/Paladins/Paladins in levelling roulette, or do you people just post how trash flash is without even stopping to think about the order your skills are gained?

You could make the suggested Flash idea an upgraded trait (like how IR is an upgrade of Zerk now), so it retains its old function at lower levels (enmity) and gets the damage trait later on.

[Eloah]

Hey based on what has been said Blood Weapon and Blood pice could be swapped like other skills, like the WAR skills.

[Hierro]

I think that the 4.2 change to internal release is the main reason why quietus might feel underwhelming to some. Consider that before, there was no disputing that DRK was the best in dungeons. However, even now DRK AoE dps is still pretty darn good. It's not as good as WAR, but only because nothing can compete with the raw power of direct crits that heal you for full, no matter the pack size.

Still, what quietus does is provide a means to AoE forever!

[Crater]

Quietus is weak because it was originally designed assuming a pre-SB-release version of Blood Price that still restored 480 MP on every incoming hit, and also 5 Blood for every incoming hit.

Had Blood Price made it to Stormblood's launch without getting nerfed into the ground, Quietus would have been usable every GCD or every second GCD while Blood Price was up, and your MP generation would have been so great that you would need to use Dark Arts on it, even though DA only adds 50 potency, just to keep from capping out, in between throwing about DAADs. The "weak" nature of the skill would have been counteracted by how often you actually got to use it.

Unfortunately, they didn't really go back to take a second look at Quietus after deciding to nerf Blood Price, and so what we have now is this weird, semi-undertuned situational skill where the potency doesn't really make sense, the Dark Arts effect really doesn't make sense, and there's this weird MP restore that's been tacked on in a post-release rush job that tries somewhat successfully to pull double duty and make up for its own shortcomings as well as Blood Price's.