How I'd like to see DRK's Living Shadow (Fray) change

[Aurelius2625]

Being able to have the shadow dance, when we dance, and have it look like a silhouette of our character in the lvl 80 gear.

[Valic]

I'd prefer to treat it as a (highly reactive) pet, but one whose duration is excessive to its attack limit, giving a few seconds' of flexibility for movement over its time out, and uses Plunge only for mobility until the end of its duration. Actual attacks. Starts at 80+ Blood. Decent AI. (So, not typical XIV AI; better.)

The first button press would summon the Shadow. It would start off automatically attacking whomever you attack.
The next press with an enemy targeted would force it to attack (or stick to) the target enemy.
Pressing the button on a new target (on whom no attack order has yet been set) will then force your Shadow to attack that target instead.
A further button press on the same target (on whom an attack order has already been set) would return to automatically attacking whomever you attack.

There is no animation (and therefore no animation lock or potential uptime cost) to these further commands. They can be used even in the middle of another skill's animation.



Why? You have a pet (well, DoT). You have a button that you already expend on summoning it (applying it). So why not allow for that level of control when it costs literally nothing to do so?

Sure, increase its movement speed a bit with some nice shadow effects, but it's unlikely you're going to move it more than once per fight without falling under the same uptime loss yourself, and Plunge is perfectly sufficient for that.

Just give it a maximum of X strikes, despite having a duration a bit longer than what is necessary for that even at the lowest possible Attack Speed.

Or, heck, just use the damn thing like you would a floating sword duplicating each of your attacks. But there should be some increased import for optimization during its summon period, rather than it just being a DoT. We should be seeing varied damage numbers there, something to give the indication that it is anything like what it appears to be.

Because tbh, this skill is not the identity of the DRK, it shouldn't have a ton of functionality revolving around controlling it, it should just be a pop it and hey free extra damage. DRK isn't a pet manager, it manages MP, that much more to do goes against their concept of simplifying jobs as is. i'm not arguing that it doesn't need some adjustments, it clearly does... but turning DRK into what we have in Squadron missions with buttons directing NPC's is already a chore and not fun, I'd rather not force that on a job who's originality came from being a counter tank. As for movement, I meant the summoning animation taking 5 seconds off the clock for that epic introduction it spends all it's time doing. If we're to have any control over it, it needs to revolve around what a DRK already does, not just add a bunch of pretty new buttons to it and say "IT WORKS RIGHT?" that's a bandage to the real issue.

[Shurrikhan]

Because tbh, this skill is not the identity of the DRK, it shouldn't have a ton of functionality revolving around controlling it, it should just be a pop it and hey free extra damage. DRK isn't a pet manager, it manages MP, that much more to do goes against their concept of simplifying jobs as is. i'm not arguing that it doesn't need some adjustments, it clearly does... but turning DRK into what we have in Squadron missions with buttons directing NPC's is already a chore and not fun, I'd rather not force that on a job who's originality came from being a counter tank. As for movement, I meant the summoning animation taking 5 seconds off the clock for that epic introduction it spends all it's time doing. If we're to have any control over it, it needs to revolve around what a DRK already does, not just add a bunch of pretty new buttons to it and say "IT WORKS RIGHT?" that's a bandage to the real issue.

It is going to be balanced around its functional duration regardless. If it attacked immediately, then the duration or the damage dealt per tick would just have to be reduced to compensate. Having it attack immediately just make it that much harder to fit into a TA scheduled raid burst window when you could otherwise preempt it.

But okay, enjoy your Scourge on a multi-minute cooldown.

[Valic]

It is going to be balanced around its functional duration regardless. If it attacked immediately, then the duration or the damage dealt per tick would just have to be reduced to compensate. Having it attack immediately just make it that much harder to fit into a TA scheduled raid burst window when you could otherwise preempt it.

But okay, enjoy your Scourge on a multi-minute cooldown.

I don't raid tho so /shrug. I just want our job to have an identity, idc about TA's timing, just gimme a fun job that makes sense.