DRK suggestions from a non-DRK

[whiskeybravo]

Rather than have 'maintenance' and 'spammers' you instead apply more situational boosts to an individual combo line, granting a more immediate boon instead of a rotational requirement. .

This is more along of the lines of what I was trying to consider. Bring back the 3rd combo (so DRK at last has 2 for when they don't need aggro) and have a little variety between them instead of just flat potency boost. Have some interaction with the rest of DRK's kit so it has more synergy with itself. Someone said it sounded like WAR, but it's been discussed on here that WAR has the best synergy with it's kit out of all the tanks, so I tried to apply similar logic to how the abilities feed off each other.

And I'll admit, I need to play DRK more often.. I Just.. There's no wow factor in it for me. As simple as WAR is, there are just moments when it's really enjoyable. Like, when someone says to go ahead and LB3 the boss and I say "Oh, you mean Inner Release? Here you go". Back to running experts in Deliverance with my static healer "it's pretty bad when the tank is top DPS". That's a WOW factor. Is it OP? Yea probably, but that's what the other tanks need too (not that my suggestions necessarily accomplished that, still). There's gotta be something more they can do!

[Kabooa]

I agree, I severely hope 5.0 is the tank and healer expansion. They need more diversity in their kit and flow. Stormblood DPS is a good foundation and transitional period and I foresee few issues in terms of aesthetic and flow moving into Not-Garlemald. Black Mage isn't like Machnist isn't like Monk isn't like Dragoon isn't like Summoner isn't like Samurai isn't like Red Mage.

They need to cement a mechanical theme for each the tanks, as the aesthetic theme is fine. They play too identically to each other, and that's partially why Inner Release, in every iteration thus far, has been so notable. For that window, Warrior breaks apart from the 123 123 123 and just goes HAM. No matter how effective it is, it has as you mentioned the 'Wow factor'. Meme Cleave aside, that feels good, and as a foundation ability, it opens up the opportunity for Warrior to have stupid interactions down the road, and that's good. In this regard, warrior is pretty much set. A calm period before a window of furious button mashing.

In my opinion, moving forward, Paladin and Dark Knight need a similar central mechanical theme, along with any other tank that gets introduced.

[TouchandFeel]

Just an off-the-cuff 5.0 rework musing ...

What if they completely revamped the DRK resource mechanics by taking it more in a RDM direction where you have MP like now but it only fuels Dark Arts and maybe Unleashed, although I would not be opposed to Unleashed being completely replaced with DRK only having Abyssal Drain.

Then, somewhat akin to RDM, they give you two additional resources to use, Shadow and Blood.
Most of the old abilities that cost MP are now given Shadow costs instead of MP and all existing Blood abilities continue costing Blood.

In addition the resource gain from combo abilities is redone to accommodate the new resource mechanics. So for example Syphon still gives MP since that is still used for DA but it also gives a little Shadow and a little Blood. Then the two combo-enders that come off that, Soul Eater and a new one that we get, give a larger chunk of one of the two resources with Soul Eater giving Blood like it does and the other giving Shadow. DAing either of these boosts the amount of the resource it gives while DAing Syphon gives a bit more of both.

Lastly they implement greater interaction between the abilities for each resource where some Shadow abilities will give you Blood and vice-versa and then, again like RDM, there are some timer-locked OGCDs that require certain levels of either resource to be able to be used with the most powerful requiring a high level in both.

Oh, and of course new Blood based abilities would be added to flesh-out that aspect of the kit and to provide counter-points and interactions with the Shadow abilities.

Anyways, like I said just a quick off-the-cuff spark of an idea that would definitely need refinement and fleshing out but could be interesting if done well. I just feel that the way the current resource mechanics are implemented with DRK, with too much overlapping and competing abilities and mechanics far too tethered to MP makes it inherently awkward and clunky and that it would potentially work much better and provide for a more defined play-style if the resources were isolated and encapsulated a bit better to simplify the resource pool part, freeing up more interesting ways to implement resource exchanges and interactions.

Probably too drastic of a change but eh ... I can dream.