So...DRK kinda sucks now.

[Melichoir]

It's been on my mind for a bit now, and at the end of the day Im pretty dissatisfied with DRK in ShB. Enough to the point that part of me actually thinks SB DRK with DA spam was better.

At the end of the day, it boils down to DRK just feeling uninspired. I know its a bit of a meme to say Delirium is essentially a reskinned IR, but its kinda true. It feels like that. I dont feel rewarded for spamming 5 BS in a row. Not to rag on Warriors, but if I wanted to do that, Id play warrior. EoS and FoS are just oGCDs that eat up spare mana and its pretty much use it until you have 3k mana OR if you have a nin, just spam it in your TA window. It feels brain dead frankly. Even with SB DRK, you had to manage your Blood, mana, and CDs a bit more, along with managing DA with your other oGCD so you could double weave correctly without clipping and getting as many DAs into BW window. Yeah it was a ton of spam. Yeah at times it was annoying, but current DRK has become so uninspired. bland, and what not that Im just not enjoying it.

Ill say that it could be just fatigue. Ive been playing DRK pretty much since HW and havent focused on any other class or Role (outside of dabbling with monk or bard), but that just highlights how lackluster DRK feels. When I play monk, it feels more rewarding to do things. It feels more complicated and I feel like "Hey, Im actually getting some bang for my buck here." I dont get that with DRK. It's disappointing cause Im a sucker for big swords and that edgy knight. I like the aesthetics of DRK, just it's playstyle is IMO a huge failure for this xpac. It feels like devs phoned this in rather than came up with something thats fun and interesting to play.

It's probably my greatest criticism thus far for the xpac.

Since weve been at this for 2 months, anyone else have this feeling about their class now that weve had time to play it?

TLDR: DRK Rework for ShB feels unrewarding and uninspired. It is functional, but not fun to play. Anyone else have this experience with DRK or another one of their classes?

[TheGrimace]

I like Dark Knight in Shadowbringers, but I do miss being able to spam Dark Arts with Abyssal Drain on larger pulls. There was an urgency and sense of fulfillment provided by stealing so much HP from enemies so frequently that felt wonderful.

My main job is Ninja, and so most people reading this can imagine my disappointed thoughts on the job since Shadowbringers. I'm eager to see the potency updates in 5.08, and also very uneasy over how the adjustments in 5.1 will be received. I like how busy Ninja is and has always been and only wish for its output to match the amount of effort the job requires to play. Major changes could benefit the job as a whole, but if the changes are poorly implemented, they could completely change how the job is perceived, not unlike how Wanderer's Minuet changed Bard in Heavensward.

We have time before we can find out if these fears will be realistic or unfounded, for better or worse.

[SenorPatty]

My problem with drk pre-shb was the DA spam, not DA itself. Turning delirium into IR was not the solution either but for some reason, rather than micro-tweak abilities so they become less cumbersome and keep a sense of job aesthetic identity, SE decides to employ scorched earth revisions. I would've rather had DA being this 10 sec buff duration, allowing you to execute some DA boosted moves than seeing it gone and being replaced with...nothing.

The funny thing is that, upon hearing healers were gonna have to "heal more", so to speak, I almost expected drk to go through hp sacrifice movesets, especially when we learned mp/tp was gone. Outside savage/ex, the only thing that threatens tanks are mass pulls so it would've made sense to me if hp costs were now a thing for drk but skills would've been added to compensate for that hp loss.

Alas, simplicity just seems to be SE's mantra for the game and drk is not the only job paying the price for it.

[shao32]

it's basically my biggest negative point of this expansion too, removing all the DRK mechanics that make it unique and bring IR and a pseudo infuriate was the worst move ever made, old blood weapon and delirium was fine and was much more fun and unique to play, i don't understand the urge to make every tank have the same spam you fell cleave window, it's kills diversity, if you want to add more burst impact to DRK just remove the cost of delirium and return the old usage of DA have in HW with more combos as we asked not remove it and bring a MP based shinten.

[Fynlar]

I actually quite like DRK overall, but I do admit Delirium just feels really boring after experiencing Inner Release on WAR.

[Hazama999]

On the point of BS spam, I will say this: I can't get hyped for that kind of "you can do X ability Y number of times in a row! WOWE ZOWIE!" thing anymore... and I feel like it may have to do at least in part with the animation.

For me, warrior more or less gets a way with it cause Fell Cleave's animation is just really good. It has good momentum and you "feel" the sort of resistance your axe meets as you... well, cleave the target. Dark knight's BS animation doesn't do it for me for some reason. You spin your greatsword and slam it on the ground, lifting your body a bit to convey just how hard the attack is... and then there's some kinda darkness beam thing. Y'know, maybe it's the lazor itself. Fell Cleave's graphical effects assist in conveying the sensation that you're cleaving hard whereas Bloodspiller's beam is... just a beam.

Anyways, sorry for the mini-rant on animation. I feel a bit better about DRK in ShB than I did in SB but that isn't saying much. The Blackest Night was an awesome addition in SB. Everything else? meh. In retrospect, I think the point I enjoyed DRK the most was in HW... I actually kinda miss having to manage the MP drain and Darkside dropping if you let it hit 0.

[Hazmick]

I'm very much enjoying ShB DRK. I like the way it feels right now and I really hope they don't try and tweak it too much.

I like the delirium rework well enough, sure it's basically copied from WAR but it works well in this context too so I don't think that's a huge deal.

[Zeonx]

As I said before they should of never made it a tank.

I noticed changes I haven't tried it but every time we have a dark knight tank it is on the verge of dying quick.
in every game I have ever played that had a dark knight it has always been a damage dealer.

It doesn't even make sense to me why it is a tank because the main dude in final fantasy was a dark knight then changed into a paladin?

I would of thought he was a DPS then chose the role as tank after, not tank and then tank.

Gunbreaker is what dark knight should have been from the start and now Dark knight is like the odd man out.

I'm very much enjoying ShB DRK. I like the way it feels right now and I really hope they don't try and tweak it too much.

I like the delirium rework well enough, sure it's basically copied from WAR but it works well in this context too so I don't think that's a huge deal.

though dark knight is a stress on healers.
like I said before on top they have issues when pulling huge some will say no but its true i cant count how many times I died in a group when a dark knight has been in party I guess you'll say they must not know how to use it.

that might be the case I don't know but watching their health get ripped up quick compared to other tanks is crazy.

[Fynlar]

On the point of BS spam, I will say this: I can't get hyped for that kind of "you can do X ability Y number of times in a row! WOWE ZOWIE!" thing anymore... and I feel like it may have to do at least in part with the animation.

For me, warrior more or less gets a way with it cause Fell Cleave's animation is just really good. It has good momentum and you "feel" the sort of resistance your axe meets as you... well, cleave the target. Dark knight's BS animation doesn't do it for me for some reason. You spin your greatsword and slam it on the ground, lifting your body a bit to convey just how hard the attack is... and then there's some kinda darkness beam thing. Y'know, maybe it's the lazor itself. Fell Cleave's graphical effects assist in conveying the sensation that you're cleaving hard whereas Bloodspiller's beam is... just a beam.

While I do get your point on the animation, I am pretty sure I wouldn't care about the animation if Delirium caused some auto dcrits (or even just crits tbh) like IR does. It doesn't pack the same punch as Fell Cleave spam both in animation and in actual effect on the target.

[SturmChurro]

Once I leveled my GNB to 80, I completely dumped DRK. GNB, and PAL are just superior tanks (and more fun). I did prefer DRK in Stormblood, I thought it had more dynamic play. Now it's a little boring admittedly.