Dark Knight Initial Feedback on Job Actions

[Chrono_Rising]

Based on the trailer Dark Knight looks much more flashy and I am excited to experience some of these gameplay elements. However, there are two things that I am concerned about.

1. Removal of Dark Arts. While I hope that Dark Arts spam has be replaced, I hope the job has not taken a cast per minute hit in doing so. Dark Arts itself was not the issue, the issue was the frequency. The Dark Knight opener had nearly half of its oGCD spaces filled with dark arts. While I like the idea of Dark arts being a powerful wind up and self buff, I can also understand the desire to not spam it. But I’m certain there was a middle ground between spam and not having it. I also wonder what will become of all of the effects where could be tacked on to abilities with dark arts like the HP drain on Abyssal.

2. The Summoning of a Shadow Self. This looks cool, very cool. But I am also apprehensive about what I saw. In the trailer it appeared to stop the dark knight from taking action by about 3 seconds, which is longer than the typical GCD length. In addition, it appeared that the shadow was animation locked for a full 6 seconds of the cooldown duration of 24 seconds. If this functions in the way I think it will, I think that dark knights will likely want to boost their skill speed, but that is going to have a lot of anti-synergy with something that has that long of an animation lock. I realize it is early to give this kind of feedback, but I hope that the Shadow Self is not actually animation locked for 25% of its cooldown duration and hope that gets addressed.

Please keep Dark Knight a higher cpm class. The changes look great visually but I hope the game play will continue to be seamless and fast paced.

[TouchandFeel]

Below is a breakdown of the DRK part of the ability trailer that I posted in another thread.

We currently can't tell how or even if MP will still play a role in DRK's gameplay since that was not shown in the video, but the following is what I could extrapolate.

13:22 - Grit.

13:24 - New AoE ability. Sure looks a lot like an AoE TBN.

13:26 - Plunge and then Unleash.

13:30 - New AoE attack that is a gauge builder. Provided 20 Blood in the video.

13:32 - New single target or line AoE attack (maybe a reworked Dark Passenger?) that triggers the countdown on the "helmet" part of the gauge, starting at 30 and ticking down 1 per second.

13:34 - Blood Weapon is still around and still provides Blood per hit, 10 blood per hit during the Soul Eater combo.

13:44 - New "magical burst" looking ability. It adds an additional 30s to the gauge timer. Animation/effects sort of reminds me of Power Slash (since no enmity combos anymore) so maybe it is a reworked Power Slash that has become a non-combo ability. Also if it is a reworked Power Slash, the animation actually has you slash with the sword.

13:48 - You summon your "inner shadow" to fight with you. Costs 50 Blood and starts an additional timer to display how long the shadow lasts, 25s. Based on the Blood cost, I kind of suspect this to be DRK's "burst period" ability and it could replace Delirium. No idea if the abilities the shadow uses is prescripted or if you have some control over it.

Other abilities that make an appearance while fighting with your shadow: Abyssal Drain, Quietus (still costs 50 Blood), Blood Spiller (didn't cost any Blood), Carve and Spit. Also of note is something that looks like Blood Price (14:00) but it is hard to see since it is visually blocked by the ability your shadow uses.

[Chrono_Rising]

The move you are seeing at 14:00 is Delirium.

[Kabooa]

I realize it is early to give this kind of feedback, but I hope that the Shadow Self is not actually animation locked for 25% of its cooldown duration and hope that gets addressed.

Please keep Dark Knight a higher cpm class. The changes look great visually but I hope the game play will continue to be seamless and fast paced.

The "Summon lock out" is more likely them just showcasing the animation, unless you also think inner Release loses 1.5 seconds of duration on activation.

[Chrono_Rising]

The "Summon lock out" is more likely them just showcasing the animation, unless you also think inner Release loses 1.5 seconds of duration on activation.

Have to actually play to know which is why I said it is early. This is not answerable atm and I hope that the personal lock out is not 3 seconds.

The Shadow Self summoning does seem to take place over 6 seconds and that is still an issue imo.

This also had precedence with TBN originally not counting the first second of activation while the shield was applied.

[guardin]

its almost perfect. But we need dark arts or that dark flames around our character. That red stink line has got to go.

[TouchandFeel]

The move you are seeing at 14:00 is Delirium.

I believe that you are right.
With that in mind, that makes me wonder if Delerium got reworked, which was a fairly common request, and that is why Bloodspiller wasn't using up gauge in the trailer.

The Shadow Self summoning does seem to take place over 6 seconds and that is still an issue imo.
This also had precedence with TBN originally not counting the first second of activation while the shield was applied.

There is indeed a discernible delay of ~5-7s from when the shadow is summoned and the counter starts ticking down to when it starts to attack. Maybe the duration is the somewhat odd length of 25s to compensate for the long animation and period of inactivity.

[Chrono_Rising]

There is indeed a discernible delay of ~5-7s from when the shadow is summoned and the counter starts ticking down to when it starts to attack. Maybe the duration is the somewhat odd length of 25s to compensate for the long animation and period of inactivity.

I think this will only end up looking like wasted space. Summon the clone and start the cooldown at what you would want it to be, if they want it to be 18 seconds have it summon and start the counter once active at 18 seconds.

[TouchandFeel]

I think this will only end up looking like wasted space. Summon the clone and start the cooldown at what you would want it to be, if they want it to be 18 seconds have it summon and start the counter once active at 18 seconds.

I agree that if they are factoring in the animation and inactivity into the duration that it would be better to just have the counter wait and start ticking down once the shadow becomes active. As it is in the trailer it does come off like a bunch of the duration is being wasted by an animation which could be frustrating or confusing for players.

I also think they should trigger the shadow spawning as soon as you start your animation instead of waiting for you to pretty much finish your animation before the shadow spawns. If they synced them up and had both play in tandem, it would shorten the overall delay by at least a couple of seconds and imo would look better.

[TouchandFeel]

I also just noticed that you can faintly see the Darkside aura effect on the DRK. It seems to first appear when that first gauge timer appears, so maybe that is representative of a new and reworked Darkside that isn't a passive "always on" buff and requires active upkeep.

Additionally, the DRK uses the new gauge building AoE ability after Unleash and the WAR uses its new gauge building AoE ability after Overpower, so that could mean that those abilities combo.