New DRK is awful. Here’s why and what could be done about it.

[KatsuraJun]

Dark Missionary is fine. Raidwide damage is usually magic and it's a minor trade off all things considered.
Think of it as the price paid by TBN being straight up better than all of its counterparts while simultaneously being lower in cd.

[Freyyy]

I always mained all the tanks and I've raided with all of them in multiple raid tiers from ARR to SB but since HW's release my favourite has been DRK (in ARR I was a huge WAR fanboy, PLD was really fucking boring back then). I had no problem switching to other tanks if needed but whenever I had the choice I always chose DRK. I just loved its fast-paced and chaotic resource-based playstyle. Sadly in ShB my favourite tank will probably switch to being GNB or PLD if DRK ends up being the one we've seen in the media tour without any changes (and I'm not talking about mere potency tweaks which won't ever fix the gameplay issues of the job). I'll still play all of them in case I need to switch for whatever reason, but I know for a fact that I'll never enjoy this media tour iteration. I'll surely still like the aesthetics but this is not enough to make me keep playing a job in the long run.

[ADVSS]

Have Fray die instead of the DRK if Walking Dead is proc'd and you happen to pop LS during that time

[Kaedan]

Stopped reading at "blatant homogenization". People need to stop misusing this term.

Also, MP management is still very much a thing with new DRK. And it's got a very unique identity.

[ForteNightshade]

Stopped reading at "blatant homogenization". People need to stop misusing this term.

Also, MP management is still very much a thing with new DRK. And it's got a very unique identity.

While that term does get overused a bit too much. You picked arguably the worst example seeing new, new Delirium is literally Inner Release, but worse.

[Freyyy]

Also, MP management is still very much a thing with new DRK. And it's got a very unique identity.

Right now there's still a lot of people claiming that we should wait for Shadowbringers' release before asking for anything because the footage from media tour is "not final" and "subject to change". Some people like you are also claiming that the job will still feel unique. I say wait and see then. I'm pretty sure that we'll see a lot of threads like this one once the expac will be released.

The only things that are "not final" and "subject to change" are potencies and other numbers like recast timers. The gameplay isn't. The DRK we're going to have will be the DRK from the media tour, with maybe some slight number changes. We might still not have played the job but we're reading tooltips and analyzing footage, theorycrafting accurate rotations out of these informations. And DRK is going to look very flashy but feel absolutely terrible.

I see where you're coming from though. When I first saw the live letter and the job actions trailer, I was hyped for DRK. I was like "no more Dark Arts spam ! New flashy abilities ! Darkside extension mechanic ! Living Shadow ! COUNT ME IN BOIS", then the media tour embargo lifted and I saw : Still only Souleater combo. New flashy abilities are actually Dark Arts in disguise with higher potency. Way slower MP regen so that we don't spam it. No more haste on Blood Weapon and higher CD. Living Shadow is actually just a flashy DoT with a huge delay at the start. Delirium is Inner Release without direct crits. Darkside extension is actually not a mechanic. It's just there to make you believe that you have an extra job mechanic.
Then I saw the theorycrafted rotations and it just got even worse. Because of this slow MP regen, new Delirium and Darkside being a total non-issue, we're going to save as much MP as possible without overcapping (which will be very easy because of this slow MP regen) for raid burst windows. This is hardly what we call "MP management". Outside of these raid burst windows our rotation is basically just going to be composed of Souleaters and occasionnal Bloodspillers. Very few oGCDs left. It's going to be slow and boring with only big oGCD EoS weaving during 10sec burst windows once per minute. No more "real" resource management. It'll just feel like a WAR with just one combo and oGCD MP spenders. This isn't a rework in the slightest. This is just SB DRK but slowed down with new animations to make it look reworked. It's really lame when you take into account that they told us to wait for the next expansion for a full rework because they "didn't have the time" to do it within Stormblood. It's a real shame.

[Hierro]

I am actually perfectly fine with the decision to reduce DM's mitigation to 20% down from 30%. This is due to the fact that TBN's buff actually hampers the impact of the nerf, and the fact that every single tank will be able to use some form of "intervention" to aid in tank busters.

But seriously, I want the speed and feeling of engagement.

[Big-Isaac]

Fray mode could be the basis for the entire friggin job, not just a glorified DoT.
Have it consume a small amount of Bloodgauge on use, and a slowly increasing amount every second. While it's up, Fray mimics your weaponskills, increasing both their damage and doubling their bonus effects (twice as much MP from Syphon Strike, twice as much HP drained from Souleater, etc)

Alternatively, have it consume all of your Bloodgauge on use and make it last X number of seconds per Y Bloodgauge consumed. Then keep the same damage and effect doubling property of the above. You could then have skills like Bloodspiller extend the duration by X seconds, while Quietus could extend it by Y seconds per enemy hit. Etc etc

[Tint]

Fray mode could be the basis for the entire friggin job, not just a glorified DoT.

I am imaging an ultimate CD where you summon your shadow and when you die you get reborn inside your shadow.

Also that simply your Shadow takes the enmity lead and you sacrifice him instead of yourself (Living Dead, lol). Could also be usefull to park him on the boss while you are picking up adds...

Of course the first option would be more edgy.

[Freyyy]

I am imaging an ultimate CD where you summon your shadow and when you die you get reborn inside your shadow.

[...]

Of course the first option would be more edgy.

I like this amount of edge. We need more of that. Like what if this song started playing for everyone in the party whenever we're entering the Walking Dead state ? Would be a really cool way to tell healers that we need healing.

Jokes aside, Living Shadow is indeed a huge missed opportunity and could've even been used as a replacement for Living Dead in multiple different ways.