Dark Knight Feedback on ONLY Dark Mind

[Jeeqbit]

Dark Knight is still the magic tank. Its attacks will still be spells and Dark Mind still mitigates magic. Dark Mind has always been inferior to other cooldowns which can mitigate both, but fortunately most bosses you'd need it for deal magic damage and some mob packs spam magic casts.

Sheltron should always have blocked magic because the Heavensward trailer depicted the Warrior of Light blocking fire (a type of magic damage) with their shield, proving it is realistic to block magic with shields in FFXIV lore. For whatever reason, blocking was not actually adjusted to be able to do that in Heavensward.

Paladin has always had an element of casting spells simply because it used to cast Cure, Stoneskin and Protect in ARR. In HW it got its own versions of these in Clemency and Divine Veil and evolved from there.

I don't think any of the tanks will have a problem with Rampart, their 30% and their Sheltron/TBN/Inner Beast/Heart of Stone, so it's better to view Dark Mind and Camouflage as bonus cooldowns.

[Derio]

They should have added Sole Survivor effect on it so at the end of the duration it gives 1000 mp and 10% of your health back. Otherwise it will be one of those useless skills.

There has to be a considerable amount of magic damage in this expansion for it to be considered useful. Otherwise it is just adding to the skill bloat.

[Tint]

Dark Mind sadly is a one trick pony.

I have no doubt that it will be a powerfull mitigation tool in savage raids. They always add enough magic tankbusters to cater to this skill.

But outside of savage this skill is pretty much useless.


I would say add Dark Dance / Anticipation into the skill, make it more like a copy of Camouflage.

20 seconds duration, 60 seconds cooldown, 20% magic mitigation, 20% parry buff.

the longer duration is useless regarding the magic damage mitigation, since magic fluff damage happens rarely, and a 60 seconds recast for a 20% parry buff is what Anticipation already has. And remember, it used to be a DRK skill anyway.

This will make the skill more usefull outside of savage and gives DRK a fluff mitigation tool.

Camouflage and Thrill of Battle have more than one effect too, these skills also are both usefull against busters AND fluff damage (okay, they are not that good against busters, but at least they are working on all of them).

I would also be okay with an unchanged Dark Mind, when Dark Dance is added back into the game as an additional cooldown, when a parry buff on Dark Mind is out of question because of the name and lore or whatever. Let them share their recast-timer, I don't mind. I mean it's button bloat, but I would be okay with it :O


Oh and SE, when you keep this physiscal / magical damage stuff, please add a visual indicator for magic busters, like a castbar in a different color, thanks.

[Messiah601]

Although I agree with some who are saying it is a "bonus cooldown," and in some ways homogenization is a slippery slope, but really the amount of identity gained versus the actual mitigation lost (when compared to other tank CDs) just isnt a good ratio. I know magic mitigation has some place but seriously when you stack up all the tank CDs right now (shoutout to Xeno for his work here) DRK is the only one with this special type of damage mitigation and it feels bad. Flat 20% damage is not going to break the game or ruin the identity imo.

[KatsuraJun]

Although I agree with some who are saying it is a "bonus cooldown," and in some ways homogenization is a slippery slope, but really the amount of identity gained versus the actual mitigation lost (when compared to other tank CDs) just isnt a good ratio. I know magic mitigation has some place but seriously when you stack up all the tank CDs right now (shoutout to Xeno for his work here) DRK is the only one with this special type of damage mitigation and it feels bad. Flat 20% damage is not going to break the game or ruin the identity imo.

Well here's the thing, consider that each of the other "bonus cooldowns" have their own downsides:
1. Thrill - At first glance, clearly the strongest of the bunch when used selfishly. But the fact that it's needed to enhance the normally-weakest Shake it Off means that it can't exclusively be used selfishly, on top of its higher cd.
2. Passage of Arms - In a vacuum as an overall defensive effect, it seems to be the greatest, adding a second raid damage mitigation ability as well as serving as personal damage mitigation by guaranteeing blocks. However, the clunkiness of usage as well as being unable to attack for the duration means effective usage is going to come at a price of multiple GCDs for the PLD. It also has the highest CD.
3. Camoflauge - A great skill for taking autos, but the worst of the bunch at taking tankbusters as it's unreliable, and also has a higher cd equal to thrill's.

Really, in terms of balance, the greater worry is the fact that Holmgang is still the best invul skill. But that's something that the other 3 tanks all have to suffer on.

[Hierro]

Here's the thing most of you guys are NOT factoring in: How a permanent 20% in mitigation from tank stance mastery is going to mess with ALL damage reduction CDs. We're in a game where this causes diminishing returns. That said, a 20% CD is more like 16%. Maybe it's not being factored in discussion to keep things constant, after all, this also means that sentinel clones are effectively only 24% mitigation as opposed to 30%.

That said, the gap between the power of different CDs is closer than before. Because of this, CDs that increase our HP by a certain amount are EVEN MORE crucial than ever before. The fact that we are getting an on-demand shield that provides 25% of our max HP, with a 15 second cooldown, that alone should tell you our capability to receive magical tank busters is better than before.

But even then, even if you're trying to ignore our passive 20% damage reduction, then you're mistakenly looking at Dark Mind with the DRK in a vacuum. However, that won't be the case. Every tank buster we receive is practically guaranteed to have the aid of our co-tank, no matter what job that co-tank is. Even if we assume a piddly 10% from nascent glint, we're getting 28% in Damage reduction. "That's still not equal to 30% pre-nerf DM," you may be thinking, but we get a 25% TBN as opposed to a 20% TBN. Do the math, and you see we get stronger mitigation than before, not weaker.

tl;dr- Dark Mind's fine even with the nerf cause 25% TBN and co-tank help.

[Kabooa]

Here's the thing most of you guys are NOT factoring in: How a permanent 20% in mitigation from tank stance mastery is going to mess with ALL damage reduction CDs. We're in a game where this causes diminishing returns. That said, a 20% CD is more like 16%. Maybe it's not being factored in discussion to keep things constant, after all, this also means that sentinel clones are effectively only 24% mitigation as opposed to 30%.

Mathematically speaking you're getting the same EHP boost.

This gets repeated a lot and it's frankly wrong.

It is worth mentioning that you are correct in your statement, just wrong in your reasoning.

25% TBN is undoubtedly the strongest short mitigation. It affords Dark Knight the 25% EHP based on max health. The other shorts are all based on Current health, so no matter what, you always get the expected value from TBN.

[Hierro]

Mathematically speaking you're getting the same EHP boost.

This gets repeated a lot and it's frankly wrong.

Tell me something, does this math change the validity of my conclusion?

oops, my bad!

[Kabooa]

Tell me something, does this math change the validity of my conclusion?

No, but even broken clocks are right twice a day.

Knowing this moving forward means you are less likely to be wrong.

[Tint]

That said, the gap between the power of different CDs is closer than before. Because of this, CDs that increase our HP by a certain amount are EVEN MORE crucial than ever before. The fact that we are getting an on-demand shield that provides 25% of our max HP, with a 15 second cooldown, that alone should tell you our capability to receive magical tank busters is better than before.

You mean, Thrill of Battle is actually better than I thought? And I thought a 20% life increase, 20% selfheal and 20% healbuff was already a good skill.

Well okay, maybe the Dark Mind nerf wasn't really a nerf... buuut the skill still can do only one thing: Mitigating tankbusters in savage. What does this skill do for me in the other 90+% of the game?

And when the co-tank helps with mitigating busters, what is an additional anti-tankbuster skill actually worth?