Yet again no promised DRK rework

[Sorriow]

It is already two patches late.
So much for "it's definitely coming on the next major patch". It's not industry standard to mean 5.0 with that.

When are we stop getting lied and tricked to? The list is growing.

[ArianeEwah]

Actually, they said in their previous interview about DRK (a few month ago, I will look this up, once I am at home and link it here) that they would not change anything about the job until the next expac. IIRC the reason was that a design/overhaul change would be too great and sudden for the design and balance team.

It saddens me too that DRK (and other jobs) are left unpolished. And while I think that at the end of an expac there should be no issue with balance, I would rather play a fun DRK just like in HW than a "balanced", but boring/annoying one.

They also didn't solve the tank accessories issue either, so we'll see in 5.0 what disaster they are creating next.

edit: Translated Patch 4.3 info from the game watch,dengeki,famitsu and gamer interviews.

[Tanks]

• [Dark knight]
  To reach 100% safisfaction for what players demand, a huge adjustment will be needed (note: e.g such as players wanting devs to remove dark arts spam from DRK), and those changes won't be possible in a regular patch, so they decided to prioritize the clear and understandable feed back and adjusted as much as they could with the available time. The changes to Dark knight will be basically improvements to usibility (this term is used a lot in Japanese) and buffs to both their DPS and defensive capabilities.

• As for warrior, all they can say is "they are on a rampage".

[Deceptus]

Actually, they said in their previous interview about DRK (a few month ago, I will look this up, once I am at home and link it here) that they would not change anything about the job until the next expac. IIRC the reason was that a design/overhaul change would be too great and sudden for the design and balance team.

It saddens me too that DRK (and other jobs) are left unpolished. And while I think that at the end of an expac there should be no issue with balance, I would rather play a fun DRK just like in HW than a "balanced", but boring/annoying one.

They also didn't solve the tank accessories issue either, so we'll see in 5.0 what disaster they are creating next.

edit: Translated Patch 4.3 info from the game watch,dengeki,famitsu and gamer interviews.

We didn't get a tank or healer in SB because they wanted to balance what they already had and screwed that up badly.

Please forgive me if I don't give SE the benefit of the doubt anymore.

[Aana]

We didn't get a tank or healer in SB because they wanted to balance what they already had and screwed that up badly.

Please forgive me if I don't give SE the benefit of the doubt anymore.

'Screwing up balance' (even though all 3 tanks are the closest in overall performance at this very moment than they have EVER been since Drk was released, but hey, lets be angry!) isnt breaking a promise. SE stated they would not make fundmental/big changes until 5.0 and instead toss out smaller changes in the mean time. What did we get? TBN timer extension, Enmity buffs on multiple skills (PS, Plunge, passenger), shadowwall timer reduction, dark mind mega buff, Plunge animation reduction, salted effect delay removed, a swath of potency buffs on multiple occasions.

Wow. It's almost like they have been doing EXACTLY what they said they would. There have been a menagerie of 'small' changes that, when combined, have really moved the needle on Drk's performance accross the board on damage, enmity, mitigation, and QoL. The 'broken-ness' of drk is now focused on being 'clunky' and 'not fun' from not so long ago 'unplayable trash' job.

You dont have to like the changes, or how drk plays. But give credit where credit is due. SE has done exactly what they stated they would (make small changes in the meantime till 5.0) and what they have done (in little pieces over many patches) has dramatically improved Drk's function as a tank. Is it perfect? Nope. But its a helluva lot better than where it started. Each little patch of potency here, QoL there, mitigation buff there doesnt seem like much, but when you put all those little nibbles together SE took a big bite out of the crap pile drk was stuck in.

[shao32]

no buff to be in line in terms of dps and utility, really its a bit insulting, i dint expect a rework but balance numbers, in the end SE dont care about tanks, acc still not fixed like ariane say, poor management during all the expansion, i preffer they dont say what is they balance logic if they dont have intention of implement it.

[Zephanoa]

They said they weren't going to be able to do much with it before the next expansion. Any expectations of any rework before 5.0 is mostly laughable at this point. The amount of resources they are going to be placing on the expansion is probably going to take priority. Historically they have never reworked a job in it's entirety during patch cycles. If you'd like an example, both times that Bard was reworked it was on an expansion release.

[Jonnycbad]

They aren't going to overhaul a tank deep into an expansion right as last raid tier is relased. What if the new drastic changes make DRK extremely overpowered? And that allows for a quick/easy world first clear? Or what if the changes are so bad that DRK is even worse than before? You can't predict how powerful buffs/nerfs will be with JUST in-house beta/play testers. You need to monitor it after it goes live and adjust up or down from there. The DRK overhaul will likely come in 5.0.

[TouchandFeel]

No we aren't being "lied to" or "tricked".

As others have pointed out, what they are doing with DRK is pretty much exactly in line with what they have said they would do, look into it and make a few small "usability" tweaks to it for now while considering ,not promising, more drastic changes with the expansion.

However I will express my disappointment that there weren't more tweaks that I would consider small and easier to implement that could have a decidedly big impact on how DRK feels to play, such as providing some level of passive health regain while out of Grit by doing something like providing a weaker heal to out of Grit Soul Eater or a life-steal effect on Blood Weapon or any other number of potential solutions to this problem that have been repeatedly brought up for a very long time now.

[Liam_Harper]

Could we at the very least get Soul Eater heal outside Grit. Would it really be that bonkers?

DRK could do with a class identity and self-heal seems to fit the bill quite well.

[TaiyoShikasu]

Could we at the very least get Soul Eater heal outside Grit. Would it really be that bonkers?

DRK could do with a class identity and self-heal seems to fit the bill quite well.

Considering how they changed Shake It Off from one effect to an entirely new one early in the expansion, you'd think making Souleater like Syphon Strike would be doable. They even radically changed how Sole Survivor works, so legit no reason why they couldn't.