What about creating an ACTUAL Dark Knight?

[battleshadow66]

You know, these "high-risk high-reward" tanky jobs that sacrifices their own HP to protect themselves or deliver strong blows?
That literally steals vitality from their foes to survive?
Makes shield out of their foes' blood?
That do ACTUAL DARK STUFF.

Does is speaks to anybody?
Or is that just me? '^'

That version of Dark Knight has never existed. The job was literally a melee heavy hitter that could use an ability called "Darkness" to use its own HP to hit all enemies.

[ADVSS]

A minus strike like a reverse spirits within, would be cool, if there was a combo between the original Blood for blood(now called lance charge) and bloodbath+convalesence, where lowered defense was offset by higher hp gains from healing(and life taps) i dont really see that making them "awfuller" at tanking in some regards. Perhaps the idea of using hp is off limits as a tank, but they could do more lifetapping/and even lower defense for a short time for more damage. But im pretty sure the route they want tanks to be at, less of the self heals/lifetaps, and more reliance on healers. I dont really like that route but im sure lots of people prefer it, probably healers

IMO, the Dark Knight as a solo-type role has always been about trading HP for DMG and then having some ways of stealing that HP back again. However as a multi-player type role, the Dark Knight seems better suited to being a debuffer class. Just my thoughts.

If they were hellbent on this magic tank idea, DRK should have been given a dot spell that drains hp/tick(tarpit for pve?), Theres so many things they could have thematically given them, that would def draw a distinct line between the tanks, this current iteration though, is the byproduct of what once was a really unique tank, that offered so much what the others didnt, despite it being slightly clunky and out of place, then they just took everything off their kit and divvied it around to the other tanks. Since we got nothing left, they could now just give it its own flavor. And get rid of the term "delirium" that skill is cursed. I love berserk, but come on-that was the hw inspiration, this thing we got now resembles nothing of that job.

[HumanNinjaToo]

And then get hit by an AOE and die, making the healer ress you. Next!

And that's where the high-risk/high-reward part comes into play. If you are good at the job and aware of the mechanics at play in the moment, you survive the AOE by getting out of the way. People are already making poor decisions and getting killed by AOE and needing healer to ress them, so...

If they were hellbent on this magic tank idea, DRK should have been given a dot spell that drains hp/tick(tarpit for pve?), Theres so many things they could have thematically given them, that would def draw a distinct line between the tanks, this current iteration though, is the byproduct of what once was a really unique tank, that offered so much what the others didnt, despite it being slightly clunky and out of place, then they just took everything off their kit and divvied it around to the other tanks. Since we got nothing left, they could now just give it its own flavor. And get rid of the term "delirium" that skill is cursed. I love berserk, but come on-that was the hw inspiration, this thing we got now resembles nothing of that job.

Unfortunately, I never got to see the older versions of DRK in action. I first got this game when HW came out, but only played for a month. I hear a lot of people saying the job was more unique earlier on. Dark Knight has always been a class/role that's held my fascination in every game I play in which it makes an appearance. I am so close to having the job unlocked now. I really don't know what to expect with it at this point though. Some people are saying that 5.1 may bring changes to DRK, I guess we'll see.

[Aluja89]

And that's where the high-risk/high-reward part comes into play. If you are good at the job and aware of the mechanics at play in the moment, you survive the AOE by getting out of the way. People are already making poor decisions and getting killed by AOE and needing healer to ress them, so...

Would this kind of DRK have a self sustain? If not then it's just going to bother the healer since the tank is always the primary focus, which is why it could potentially work.