So as I stated, while I overall like the rework, I in no way think it is beyond reproach and am not blind to its shortcomings.
So here is my list of things that I would like to see changed and in general order of priority of needing to be changed going from most to least needed.
Living Dead healing and death mechanics
Living Dead has been left unchanged and is still the most cumbersome of the invulnerability abilities of the tanks, yes even moreso than Superbolide since with that the tank still has most of the control on how and when to use the ability and how to avoid its drawback.
Yoshi-P has been directly told of this by people at media events, so we know that this has been made known to the upper echelons.
The core of the problem is that the DRK needs to be able to have some amount of control over canceling the Walking Dead effect themselves so that they don’t die.
Since the development team seems quite set on keeping the “identity” of the ability, here is the smallest adjustment to the ability that I can come up with that places the control into the DRK’s hands by allowing the DRK to cancel the Walking Dead state at a button press, forcing the DRK to gamble trying to get the most time out of it at the risk of killing themselves, similar to waiting until you are really low on HP before popping Holmgang or Superbolide to minimize HP loss and maximize gain.
You can even argue this is more in-line with the thematic elements presented in the DRK storyline where you are warned that exposing yourself to the darkness too much can result in the darkness consuming you. If the black flames aura shown for Darkside in the pre-Heavensward launch ability teaser were added to the Walking Dead state, it would then really help sell that idea of being engulfed in darkness that is sustaining you which if left too long will kill you.
Living Dead proposed solution
- Remove the healing requirement aspect entirely.
- When the Walking Dead state is activated, change Living Dead on hotbar to Walking Dead and have it light up like other procs/combos/etc.
- Upon pressing Walking Dead, the Walking Dead state is removed from the DRK.
- If Walking Dead is not removed from the DRK before its duration expires, the DRK is KOed.
- Apply black flame (or other cool/visible) aura to Walking Dead state. Another option could be triggering the old Dark Arts animation when the Walking Dead state is entered. Maybe both. Not mechanically needed, but would be good for "feel" and to make the state change more visible and obvious.
TBN duration
It's a great ability and I absolutely love it, but as predicted with it's boost to 25%, getting it to reliably break is harder than it should be. Even when running dungeons at iLvl, getting it to reliably pop is already inconsistent. Outside of boss tank busters and doing wall to wall pulls, I rarely can get TBN to break. If it is already having this trouble breaking while running leveling dungeons at iLvl, it's going to be a huge pain to get it to pop once we are out-gearing content by even a little bit.
I think this is likely also a reason I am seeing people say that "DRK has poor personal mitigation", because people are holding on to TBN for only specific scenarios instead of pushing for frequent use, leaving them feeling like they are missing some mitigation since Dark Mind has niche uses already and holding TBN just exacerbates the situation instead of the alleviation that being able to fill those gaps with TBN provides.
Now you could argue that TBN should be saved to only use in scenarios where you know for sure it will break, but that greatly limits its usability and pretty much nullifies its short recast. None of the other tank frequent use abilities have costs or limitations that would require you to have to hold onto it for only specific scenarios and can be used regularly to mitigate both fluff and busters with no discernible loss like DRK suffers if TBN does not pop.
TBN should have the same flexibility of use as the other frequent use defensive abilities and this could be easily remedied by just simply doing what they devs did before when this exact same issue happened previously, by increasing its duration by a couple of seconds. The increased duration won't make TBN any more powerful since the strength is determined by the amount of HP in the shield and not necessarily how many hits are taken like a % mitigation ability would, and therefore a couple extra seconds would only help TBN break like it should.
An added bonus to having TBN break more consistently is that it provides two actions for the price of one, which means more frequent ability weaving and less oGCD "downtime", which helps with the complaints of DRK now feeling "slow".
***UPDATE*** The more I use TBN, the more it feels like the weird delay between activation, the first part of the animation and when the shield effect goes active is back. I could have sworn that this was considered a bug in SB and was fixed but now it appears to have been reintroduced.
***UPDATE 2***
I was thinking about the issue of TBN strength vs. duration, the loss from the shield not breaking and the inevitable issue of stat/gear scaling. As stated, we are already seeing issues of the shield not breaking easily in content and it is early in the gearing-up cycle. While only a "sometimes" issue now, it is likely to become much more common as we gear up through-out the expansion.
Because of the moving target that gear/stat progression creates this makes the issue of having TBN break at the right frequency a tad more complicated. Do you just increase the duration, as I initially suggested, and shift it towards TBN always breaking which arguably removes some element of skillful use to the ability, or do you leave it mostly as is and just accept that you just won't be able to use TBN in some content and some instances?
That led me to thinking that maybe the solution that would cover both of those angles would be to allow the DRK to essentially break TBN prematurely guaranteeing the Dark Arts proc. TBN would still break normally like it does now if enough damage is taken, in addition it would light up TBN on the hotbar while the shield is active and if the DRK presses it again while the shield is up, the shield is dispelled and the DRK get the DA proc as if it were broken naturally, basically giving up any additional HP the shield had left in exchange for not losing the free Edge/Flood. This pretty much takes care of the scaling issue since you now have a method to always guarantee that TBN breaks, it maintains TBN having an element of skillful use to it since you will have to gamble breaking the shield early to get the DA proc or letting it ride to the end in hopes that the enemies break it, and as an added bonus it gives you a safe-guard where you use TBN and suddenly the boss goes into a phase-transition or something like that where you are now stuck with a wasted shield.
I think doing something like this with TBN could potentially alleviate the scaling issues that TBN has always had while adding in an element of complexity to it's defensive game-play which a good number of players have felt has been in decline in the game and would like to see come back.
TBN proposed solution
- Simply up the duration from 7s to 9s.
- ***UPDATE*** Look into the activation delay of the ability and if it is back, fix it so that the shield is applied sooner and not delayed so much.
- ***UPDATE 2 *** Alternate solution: instead of increasing the duration like suggested above or maybe in addition to a tiny duration bump if necessary(8s?), make it so that when TBN is used, it lights up on the hotbar and pressing it again while the shield is still active removes the shield and provides Dark Arts as if the shield was broken. If this solution was done, TBN would likely need to be only useable in combat so you can't precache a Dark Arts before starting a fight. Honestly, the best solution is probably a combination of both where the duration is bumped up a couple seconds and you have the ability to break it early yourself.
***UPDATE*** Dark Mind being magic damage only
Dark Mind being magic damage only is a problem. It makes it virtually useless in dungeons and even some higher end content because of it requiring the content to utilize magic damage enough to make this ability valuable, which is not always the case. Also this issue is compounded with the issue of TBN's scaling making it not useful for fluff damage, leaving DRK with fewer defensive abilities to deal with fluff damage. Even GNB's Camouflage ability has a 10% all damage reduced element to offset the physical damage only parry element. Dark Mind should have a layered approach like this as well, splitting the damage reduction between all damage and magic damage, making it relatively the same for magic damage tank busters but also enabling it to also have some use for fluff damage or instances where there are physical damage busters.
Dark Mind proposed solution
- Change Dark Mind from reducing magic vulnerability by 20% to reducing magic vulnerability by 10% and also reducing incoming damage by 10%.
***UPDATE*** Blood Weapon duration often not fitting 5 GCDs
Blood Weapon is having a problem with fitting 5 GCDs into its 10s duration like other similar abilities, such as Delirium and Inner Release. There are a number of theories as to why this may be happening, excessive delay from animation-lock when the ability is used, when the ability registers that a hit has gone through, just simply not giving the full 10s for some reason. Whatever the cause, it should be looked at and rectified. Additionally, because DRK's AoE combo abilities are spells and not weaponskills, their GCD recast doesn't match with their other single-target GCDs because tanks don't get spellspeed. DRK is the only tank that is affected by this and it results in those abilities not working as well with Blood Weapon and this needs to be taken into consideration and adjusted for.
Blood Weapon proposed solution
- Investigate if there is some form of delayed response for this ability and fix the issue.
- Increase the duration to 11s or 12s to allow the 5th GCD to more comfortably fit within the duration and to compensate for Unleash and Stalwart Soul being spells and not weaponskills. I would even be supportive of the duration being increased to 15s, allowing for 6-7 GCDs to be able to be fit into its duration for a slight boost in MP generation for DRK.
Abyssal Drain heal in single-target vs. packs and frequency of use
Currently Abyssal Drain's heal is heavily skewed towards packs, providing a 200 potency cure per enemy hit, which is awesome when you are facing large packs of six or more, but is extremely lacking in most difficult content which is primarily single-target. Even wall to wall dungeon pulls tend to hover around 6-7 enemies which makes Abyssal Drain's heal pretty much break even with the healing from Equilibrium and Aurora in the place where it should really shine since it is lackluster in single-target.
I feel that this division between single-target and pack usage needs to be reigned in, improving its strength in single-target situations while still keeping it slightly skewed towards being better in packs. The way that I propose doing this is by rolling the DoT aspect from Salted Earth into it and applying a singular HoT on the player on ability usage.
In addition I would like to see Abyssal Drain available more often simply because I would like to be able to weave oGCD abilities just a little bit more and reducing it's recast from 60s to 30s while adding the DoT and HoT effects to it would make it sort of like the DRK version of Circle of Scorn but it heals you as well. This would be nice because as stated earlier, DRK does now feel quite similar to WAR and I feel that pulling in aspects from DRK's thematic opposition, PLD, would help give DRK more of its own unique feel and help solidify the connection to PLD.
This would result in a slight damage buff, but I feel that it would be fairly negligible overall.
Abyssal Drain proposed solutions.
- Recast reduced to 30s instead of 60s.
- Damage potency reduced to 100 from 200.
- Cure potency reduced to 100 from 200.
- Abyssal Drain now also applies a damage over time effect to enemies for 40 potency for 15s (200 potency total per enemy).
- Abyssal Drain now also applies a healing over time effect to self for 40 potency for 15s (200 potency total)(applied on ability use and not per enemy hit).
- *UPDATE* Potentially lower Soul Eater cure potency to 250.
- *Update 2* Allow Abyssal Drain to hold 2 charges like Plunge.
* In single-target this would equate to 600 potency of damage and cures every 60s vs. the 400pot damage and 200pot cure of current AD + Salted. At 2 enemies it would be 1200pot damage and 800pot healing vs. 800pot damage and 400pot healing. 3 enemies, 1800pot damage and 1000pot healing vs. 1200pot damage and 600pot heal. Basically being a consistent 50% damage and 400 cure potency boost, no matter the # of enemies compared to the current AD and Salted, which tbh are a tad underwhelming as they are and make up very little of DRK's overall dps.
***UPDATE*** If the above suggestion is seen as providing too much self-healing for DRK in single-target situations, if you factor in the strong heal from Soul Eater, I would suggest potentially reducing the heal on Soul Eater to compensate which would shift DRK's self-healing to be a bit more bursty, allowing them to direct when they get that healing a bit more. If Soul Eater's heal were reduced to 250 cure potency, that would even out the 400 cure potency gain from the above suggestion. This would put DRK at ~2600 cure potency every 60s versus WAR at ~2700 in single target, which is where it is now just shifting the heals from being spread out in the combo to more concentrated into small bursts from AD.
***UPDATE 2*** I feel that Abyssal Drain with it's newly proposed 30s recast should be able to hold 2 charges like Plunge does, providing greater differentiation in the way DRK's self-heal kit works as well as providing more flexibility in condensing two AD's close together for better burst healing.
Salted Earth now feeling pointless and awkward
With Salted Earth now only doing 300 potency of damage every 90 seconds, it just feels fairly pointless considering how weak it is. The somewhat awkward aspect of being a ground target AoE is just exasperated by the greatly diminished gains it now provides and by how much smoother the job feels as a whole. This awkwardness was more excusable when the job as a whole felt more awkward and it provided greater gains, but not so much now. I feel that the ability should just be removed and to have its effects rolled into Abyssal Drain as I outlined above in Abyssal Drain. This will help reinforce the smoother feel to the job that was established with the rework and open an ability slot for something else like a new ability or trait.
Salted Earth proposed solutions.
- Remove it and roll the DoT effect into changes made to Abyssal Drain.
- Move Stalwart Soul to lvl.52, bringing it more in-line with the lvl.40 of the other tanks.
Carve and Spit frequency
This is just a part of wanting more oGCDs to weave. Basically just halving the recast, the MP gain and approximately the potency with just a little boost. This also makes it a little more like Spirits Within due to frequency of use and makes it feel a little less like Infuriate, leaving it sort of like a mixture of the two which makes sense for DRK.
Carve and Spit proposed solution
- Recast reduced from 60s to 30s. (Twice as frequent)
- MP gain reduced from 600MP to 300MP. (Still 600MP over 60s)
- Potency reduced from 450 to 240. (Now 480pot over 60s, a 30pot gain)
Making Delirium more unique with a Confiteor-like ability
Right now there are a lot of complaints or at least comments that Delirium is a lot like Inner Release, perhaps too much, and it is undeniably true that they are very similar.
As I stated earlier, I would like to see some of the elements that PLD now has applied to DRK to create more of a WAR and PLD mix in order to make DRK feel more like its own thing and less like WAR overall. So I figured that with the newly opened up ability slot at lvl.72 from the removal of Salted Earth and the shifting of Stalwart Soul to lvl.52, that is a perfect opportunity to add in a new ability that alters the way Delirium will play by giving DRK an ability similar to Confiteor, that can only be used under Delirium and ends Delirium when it is used. The name and potency aren't that important to me and are just there to have something, it's the concept that is the main point.
Delirium proposed solution
- New Ability: Nightfall
- Gained at lvl.72 (Weaponskill / Instant / 2.5s / 10y range / 5y radius)
- Deals 900 potency of damage to target and enemies nearby it.
- Restores MP on use (restores 500MP, basically just making it the same as Spiller or Quietus under Delirium)*See Update Below.
- Can only be used under the effect of Delirium and ends the effect upon execution.
***UPDATE*** The MP gain from Bloodspillers/Quietuses under Delirium feels too low at 200MP compared to the 500MP we were shown before. If the above solution were implemented, I would additionally like to see it restore a larger amount of MP to compensate for the low amount from Bloodspiller/Quietus, creating a burst of MP as you end Delirium. If it were to restore 1800MP on usage, that would provide a total of 3200MP during Delirium (1800MP from ability+800MP from 4xBS/QT+600MP from natural regain) which seems like a good amount. If this solution is not implemented, the MP gain under Delirium still needs to be increased and should return 500MP per Bloodspiller and/or Quietus.
***UPDATE 2***
I ended up changing the name from Malediction to Nightfall because I was thinking of the visual aspects of the ability and what sort of homage it could be and I liked the idea of the ability being visually representative of Cloud's Meteorain Limit Break, replacing the meteors with large orbs of dark energy. That made the name Malediction not make as much sense so I tried to think of a "Dark Knighty" translation of Meteorain, so meteors getting replaced with darkness and rain as in falling so Nightfall. * I just realized that Nightfall is actually a move for the Dark Knight form of Cecil in Dissidia, so there we go it's already a thing and has precedence to be added here.
***UPDATE*** Allow for the holding of 2 Dark Arts uses
While not super high priority, I feel that allowing DRK to be able to obtain and hold 2 uses of Dark Arts as opposed to the 1 use that we currently have would add a little extra layer of depth and strategy to playing the job. Similar to how Infuriate has 2 charges that allow you to basically pool a resource that translates into increased damage on use, allowing the pooling of 2 Dark Arts uses would allow for greater wiggle room as well as more pooling of damage to be used at strategic times like during burst windows. This would also promote more and better use of TBN to get those 2 stacks of Dark Arts set up before your burst period so that you can potentially fit more Edges into your burst, making it not only your main defensive ability but also a way to strategically cache damage. Lastly, there being 2 uses of Dark Arts opens up the potential in future expansions of abilities that could use both uses of Dark Arts, potentially doing more damage than 2 Edges but not adding to Darkside's duration or whatever variance in game-play and balance that would add to the job.
This could be fit into the leveling progression for DRK by removing the Enhanced Plunge trait that is gained at lvl.78 and just having the gap closer come with the charges like every other tank. This then frees up the last pre-80 trait slot to instead give a new trait that increases the number of Dark Arts that can be held to 2.
Dark Arts proposed solution
- New Trait: Enhanced Dark Arts
- Gained at lvl.78
- Increases the number of Dark Arts uses that can be held to 2
Overall I think the above changes would address things that I have found lacking in the ShB rework of DRK and assuage many of the concerns raised by other players, all while avoiding drastic overhauls like some others have called for and keeping or reinforcing the mechanics and theme that now seem to be established for DRK.
UPDATE:
Out of curiosity, I tabulated the potency increase that the above suggested changes would provide and converted it into what it would approximately equate to as DPS as of patch 5.01.
Using the assumption that 1 DPS is approximately 3 Potency per minute ...
200 pot/min from AD changes + 30 pot/min from CnS change + 200pot/min from Nightfall damage + ~178 pot/min from additional MP from Nightfall = 608 pot/min = approximately 203 DPS which would put DRK about neck and neck with PLD in most instances with maybe a tiny lead of around 20 DPS. That would put DRK in a much more sensible place on the DPS hierarchy and would help bring tank DPS even closer than ever to being balanced.
Originally Posted by Arsthan
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