What could DRK have learned from FFXI?

[Cabalabob]

Since it’s implementation DRK has suffered from an identity crisis. It doesn’t know what kind of tank it wants to be. The parry tank? The magic tank? The mp tank?

And the main reason I feel for this is, DRK isn’t a tank. PLD has always been the classic shield job, WAR has a history of being a defender who draws attention and counters attacks.

But throughout the FF series DRK has been a dps, it consumes its own hp to boost its damage dealt. That is DRK’s identity and obviously that doesn’t translate to a tank very well.

Now, while I’d have been totally on board with DRK being a dps (maybe like a reverse RDM that consumes its own hp to deal extra physical damage then has a casting phase where it drains hp back), it doesn’t mean I was entirely against the idea of DRK as a tank and the reason for that was it’s iteration in FFXI.

Now, even in FFXI DRK was a dps. BUT it had the ability to tank because of a few factors, however it pretty much gave up its identity as a DRK to perform the tank role. But it was still nevertheless a DRK tank. So I thought, if they take the things that made DRK a good tank in FFXI and played those features up it could work.

Well, DRK came out and they took exactly none of the things that made DRK a good tank in FFXI. So I thought we could take a look at FFXI’s DRK and see how FFXIV’s DRK could have been made to fit with its toolkit.

As a dark KNIGHT, DRK had access to heavy armour, this meant it could equip all the stuff PLD could equip, letting it wear gear with increased defence, reduced damage taken basically all the tanky gear.

In FFXI DRK had a range of black magic spells that let it debuff the enemy while buffing itself.

First off was bio, a DoT that also lowered the enemies attack power, of course bio is taken in FFXIV but there are other spells this could have been like umbra.

Next was the absorb line of spells. DRK had access to an exclusive set of black magic spells that let it absorb the enemies stats to enhance its own, for example it had absorb VIT which let it steal the enemy defence while raising its own and absorb STR which let it lower the enemies attack while raising its own.

And of course, DRK had access to drain and aspir allowing it to steal enemy hp and mp self healing and keeping its mp up to fuel it’s other spells.

Finally DRK had access to a very powerful spell called dread spikes, a spell that put a shield up on the DRK that when struck absorbed the damage dealt as hp, if the enemy hit the DRK for 500hp the dread spikes absorbed 500hp essentially working as an invulnerability.

DRK also had access to an ability called blood weapon. Now, in FFXI blood weapon was a much more powerful tool than the version in FFXIV that let DRK really shine as a tank while still utilising all its iconic abilities. What it did was drain 100% of damage dealt as hp, meaning the DRK could use its abilities like souleater and last resort increasing its damage dealt at the cost of hp and defence without worry because the increased damage was refunding the costs through blood weapon. For example souleater cost 10% hp to increase damage dealt by the amount of hp consumed, but thanks to blood weapon it meant that the hp being consumed was being directly refunded through the damage.

A lot of the tanking applications of these moves are pretty obvious, so it really baffles me how none of them made it into FFXIV. Would a dark magic tank that absorbs enemy power to increase its own not fit a million times better than what we ended up with? Could they not have given DRK a unique kit where it absorbs enemy strength or hp as mitigation through spells instead of traditional cooldowns? How did we get living dead as an invulnerability when dread spikes was there begging to be put in? Could blood weapon and souleater not have been worked in as some kind of dynamic burst phase?

I’m not saying nothing about DRK works. Repurposing souleater as a hp drain is fitting as an example. I just feel like there was a lot more potential to work with that went unused and DRK ended up feeling more like a rune knight than a dark knight.

[RyuSaarva]

dark knight was a tank in FF IV.

[Starkbeaumont]

not this again. really.

[Steelbreeze]

DRK could have learned that this isnt FFXI.

[Reynhart]

FFXI inspiration

The main problem is that several DRK related skills in FFXI had already been given to other jobs before DRK even existed.
Reflect damage back ? Vengeance
Absorb damage as HP ? Bloodbath
Putting you at risk to do more damage ? Blood for Blood
etc...

That's probably why it's hard to keep the iconic identity of DRK.

On a sidenote, back when tank stance existed, I always thought that Dread Spikes should be the stance of DRK, absorbing and reflecting 20% of damage taken, probably at a higher personal damage penatly.

DRK could have learned that this isnt FFXI.

Instead of that, we learned that we are only DRK in name and have nothing of their identity...

[Absimiliard]

dark knight was a tank in FF IV.

Except for the part where it wasn't.

I'm not going to agree or disagree with the OP of this thread here, but I just couldn't ignore this particular little tidbit of misinformation.

[Razard]

What could I have learned from FFXI?

That's it's that way ---------------------------------------->

[Anienai]

You guys are tough.

[Derio]

But FFXIV isnt FFXI and the inspiration for DRK in FFXIV did not come from XI

[Ultimatecalibur]

Except for the part where it wasn't.

I'm not going to agree or disagree with the OP of this thread here, but I just couldn't ignore this particular little tidbit of misinformation.

Yeah, you are right. The term Heavy Armor Frontliner is a better term for what jobs like Fighter/Warrior, Knight/Paladin, Dark Knight, Samurai, Mystic Knight/Rune Fencer, Dragoon and Bererker were in pre-FF7 Final Fantasies, but many of the duties Heavy Armor Frontliners had were the same as or similar to many of the duties now performed by Tanks.