DRK redesign details explained

[Esp]

I am with most here that alot of what I have seen so far look...questionable. Gonna start with some obvious changes:

Lack of Self Heal..again. Does the Dev Team really think Souleater's heal potency is that much? Cause it isn't. It wasn't enough in HW, or SB, and damn sure won't be in ShB.

Seriously, stop with that. It is great that it is no longer attached to Grit, something we wanted, but it isn't THAT great. Just a QoL change we should have had since HW, nothing more.

Why...WHY is Living Dead still not changed? Even healers (Who you should really be listening to right now btw with no new healing class this expansion) hate how it works, and is annoying to use for DRKs as well since it still kills you AND...I need to make this known to them once again:

WE HAVE A LACK OF A SELF HEAL TO AT LEAST HELP THEM OUT! We can't even help ourselves not die out in the overworld should we ever need to use it. (Not that anything out in the overworld is that strong, but point still stands!)

Dark Missionary is more magic protection nonsense. Gunbreaker can get all damage reduction but nope, not DRK, we're the magic tank..even though every freaking tank is now a magic tank. And since I am on the subject, why nerf Dark Mind when it was just fine before? A very odd change.

TBN shield breaking gives us Dark Arts, but what happens towards the end of the expansion when HP values and defense don't break the shield..like now in some content. Not the biggest gripe, but a gripe nontheless.

As for the single combo, meh. Power Slash was really only used once in most fights, and was a ultimate DPS loss with it being lower damage and giving no blood, so while the aesthetics and something else to use is gone, not much really changes about that in the long run. Wish we did have more though.

And my biggest complaint. Abysmal Drain...R.I.P. My favorite ability since they removed Scourge. I am speechless.

It just sucks now, it's such a waste. So now we no longer have any kind of a self sustain even in AoE situations, mostly dungeons only, but I am sure other tanks will be just fine..

There are quite a few changes I do like, but again it just seems DRK just can't win, even on the things it should be doing well. I will level it to 80 as usual, but if it turns out like it seems it will be...

I am done with it. I won't take another 2 years of this crap. Hopefully GBR will be more interesting, or I will just go back to PLD.

[whiskeybravo]

And since I am on the subject, why nerf Dark Mind when it was just fine before? A very odd change.

I got the feeling they nerfed it due to increasing TBN shield. Wasn't that kind of a meme after the increased it to 30%? "Just DM+TBN everything". But I don't know, just my initial thought.

[Esp]

I got the feeling they nerfed it due to increasing TBN shield. Wasn't that kind of a meme after the increased it to 30%? "Just DM+TBN everything". But I don't know, just my initial thought.

I suppose you could be right on that, least on magical busters anyhow. I never knew about the meme though, but if you think about it, it'll just continue, since you usually X+TBN anything right now currently.

[Tint]

After looking again on the tooltips... it's looks like all the tanks lose their defense.

Everyone will have Rampart, Their 30% damage reduction like Shadow Wall and their on demand defensive skill like TBN. The DRK will have Dark Mind on top of that (WAR has a Convalescence effect and GNB 50% parry + 10% damage recution), wich means DRK will actually be the best at mitigation as long as the damage is magical, right? And I hope we can expect a lot of magical tank busters in the raids.

The magical aoe shield vs the all type of damage aoe shield of the GNB is a non issue, since aoe damage tends to be magical anyway (the HP and defense stats of the DDs are balanced around magical aoe damage, casters would not survive physical ones).

Still no idea how i am supposed to tank dungeons and the aoe combo looks boring, but I now think the DRK isn't looking too bad.

[ZaleraPraxis]

It was something I did notice on that, since Darkside was the only thing holding you natural MP regeneration at bay, but with it's removal, it could be possible that not only will we be getting natural MP again, but we will also benefit from any party wide refreshes.

However, this is just speculation. I have not paid attention to MP bars in the videos yet, just the MP values we get with certain MP restore abilities/weaponskills.

We do get natural MP regen. 200 per tick, so 4000 every minute.

[Esp]

We do get natural MP regen. 200 per tick, so 4000 every minute.

Oh, that's good to know. Thank you.

[Dragonkat]

Utterly disappointing is how i feel about this.

Let's break it down. My usual rotation at 70 which has served me well.

* Pop TBN as mass pull begins
* Get 50 gauge from the barrier break as i start the 1-2-3. Getting back my spent MP to ready for the next part
* Pop blood price to keep mp up and more gauge
* Pop DA and Abyssal drain to get back the HP off the pack around me
* Pop Quietus from the gauge to restore back all the consumed mp and have plenty for the next TBN and next rotation of this.

And there it went come 5.0 wrecking it.

So now I get a free hit from one of these new attacks from TBN? But more dps isn't gonna do much if i've just lost my main ability combo to stay alive.

And you've nerfed blood gauge buildup even with the blood weapon changes.

(edited) And you left salted earth more of a joke with a doubled cooldown.

And unless it's heal is significantly buffed to be used as say an emergency heal on bosses and a single target 60 sec AD is a useless novelty you get every couple pulls. From it's mainstay as a DRK sustain tool.

You've nerfed one of the main MP regen tools in quietus so no sustain on the other side.

And let's be honest the point of delirium now is just the DPS burst, what are we going to actually be spending this sudden MP infusion on exactly with dark passenger gone, TBN giving free hits and at best you get one between it and deliriums cooldown, and no need to juggle spending DA for bonuses with other abilities. Combo it with the new DRK attacks by going mp regen hit, flood of darkness, mp regen hit? At least it's not five bloodspillers in a row?

On a side note yes DA was spammy but I have very mixed feelings about it's removal, as combined with other changes it feels like we're on the road to homogenization.

Honestly though and this may sound silly what kills me isn't even the mechanic changes so much as how it does seem to run utterly contrary to the entire lore they've laid out for DRK that's in game personified by the blood gauge among other things. It feels like they gutted what made the class the class by removing the mainstay abilities and combos that encouraged seeing just how many things you could take on (or as i called it, hurt me more snake!) and utilizing the fact from the mechanic standpoint of the more things around the more effective your skills were in the case of blood price abyssal and old quietus.

A gimmick shadow clone and a couple extra attacks really don't make up for it. Unless that 72 combo really does give enough MP regen to make the new attacks more than once a fight uses.

Either way I'm glad DRK is my secondary class, I'm looking forward to the BLM changes a lot more, the tank changes so far do not leave a good feeling.

[Otorinth]

And you moved hp regen to salted earth but doubled it's cooldown while leaving it's damage a joke.

Salted Earth doesn't heal.

[blaen]

So we endured 2 years of "we'll fix it later / in 5.0" and this is what we get? I know it's not finalized but this is some hot garbage compared to the other tanks.

[guardin]

the best tank job....but the ultimate fail is removing the dark arts. felt so satisfying powering up and landing a powerful hit... is that dog on red stink line gone and what happened to the cool black flames?