Dark knight, the past, the present and the future of the job.

[Nefimmyr]

"Souleater" being removed altogether I disagree with since it's functionally and conceptionally integral to what a Dark Knight does in Final Fantasy along with their dark magic. but giving it Power Slash's animation with replacing the energy blast and the energy absorption down in Souleater, I could definitely get on board with. Giving Dark Knight and alternate finisher combo I definitely agree with too. Be it an older action like Scourge (which they could use a better DoT) or lift another action Dark Knight had in FFXI, "Soul Enslavement".

[shao32]

Nobody say remove souleater alltogether otherwise DRK will become a 2 step combo with a ocasional bloodspiller with is bad for the poorly current desing but lets be honest, souleater don't offer anything special to the job anymore, outside of that i firmly belive that DRK needs desperately more GCD in the form of more combos or independent skills like scourge to contribute in the visual variety the jobs lacks basically most of the time, i really miss the HW combo system it use to have, was a lot of fun and unique.

[ADVSS]

Nobody say remove souleater alltogether otherwise DRK will become a 2 step combo with a ocasional bloodspiller with is bad for the poorly current desing but lets be honest, souleater don't offer anything special to the job anymore, outside of that i firmly belive that DRK needs desperately more GCD in the form of more combos or independent skills like scourge to contribute in the visual variety the jobs lacks basically most of the time, i really miss the HW combo system it use to have, was a lot of fun and unique.

Quite honestly if its about aesthetics, SoulEater animation should have been Edge/Floods from the beginning, since animation wise those are basically mimic throwbacks to the darkness attack cecil does. Give them HP drain, and damage up for 3 or 3,5k MP, now they can just focus on a new skill to replace combo button 3. Really they could get rid of edge and have flood give lowered damage after the first target(at edges current potency), and there wouldnt be a need to choose basically the aoe or single target depending on whats in front of you, though that makes the job more braindead(to some, to me a or b one time push is braindead already so), id hope the extra button was used for something. Maybe an enkindle for Living Shadow if thats the direction they really want to take DRK in.

[DRKoftheAzure]

I just wish DRK becomes just as if not more interesting than Heavensward DRK, but that requires too much money that could have gone to the people either actually working on the game or hiring people to actually work on the game.


I NEED to see Living Shadow to get deleted for a better AND more interesting DRK going into the next expansion, along with a re-work of Living Dead to where it DOESN'T SUCK ***, The Blackest Night not costing any MP.


BRING BACK DARKSIDE BUTTON, have Darkside be MANDATORY to keep on in order to use specific skills like in the past with a cost of slowly draining MP in combat but make it a 20-30 second re-cast with no MP cost on initial activation, bring back Dark Arts button but keep the idea of it being a resource to manage in tandem with Blood gauge and MP but still be more like how it worked in Heavensward/Strormblood.


Have 2 burst combos that focus heavily on Dark Arts effects(1 AoE and 1 single target combo) both with effects differing based on the combo used; and trying to make one better than the other will be to balance based on effects they have, but potency is just at matter of being DPS neutral on single target while still making both good in AoE AND single target based on effects would depend on ENTIRELY on a bunch of factors that even I can't factor in every single one and would mostly need to be designed for general use, which you can even apply to enmity combos, for the burst combos AoE has lifesteal built-in because White Mage Holy spam with 3-4 second 100% evasion rate buff with single target having a higher HP recovery effect in single target yet both would be very good for tankbusters(single target for recovering from the tankbuster and AoE for dodging the tankbuster but neither one are a great for tankswap mechanics or mechanic cheezing strats) but both combos consume MP and/or Blood gauge for their Dark Arts effects if you don't have Dark Arts stacks, or if you have no rescources for the effects you just get another 2 DPS neutral combos in single target/AoE.


Have a second AoE combo that is target AoE that just happens to be DPS neutral as the PBAoE combo(but buff PBAoE for DRK first and even add middle button before players get Stalwart Soul, PLEASE!) and have both combos focus on debuffs that you need to maintain.


Living Dead could easily be a full heal if timer ran out or get hit with a lethal attack activating Walking Dead which prevents you from taking damage from MOST attacks which would make end up making it better than Superbolide.


As for the whole enmity management thing... enmity should not be toggle + ranged attack with increased enmity + Provoke + Shirk as that is lazy design for those who actually want to fight for enmity(the sooner everyone comes to terms with this fact the better but this is just my opinion)... at least not for ALL TANKS. just make a new tank JUST FOR that design alone for new level 1 players who are playing the trial version of the game...

[shao32]

Quite honestly if its about aesthetics, SoulEater animation should have been Edge/Floods from the beginning, since animation wise those are basically mimic throwbacks to the darkness attack cecil does. Give them HP drain, and damage up for 3 or 3,5k MP, now they can just focus on a new skill to replace combo button 3. Really they could get rid of edge and have flood give lowered damage after the first target(at edges current potency), and there wouldnt be a need to choose basically the aoe or single target depending on whats in front of you, though that makes the job more braindead(to some, to me a or b one time push is braindead already so), id hope the extra button was used for something. Maybe an enkindle for Living Shadow if thats the direction they really want to take DRK in.

In my opinion souleater suffers the same problem bloodspiller have and it's since the job doesn't have any kind of proper GCD diversity and you are forced to watch the same 4 animations over and over again during long periods of time with no variety whatsoever, considering souleater and bloodspiller animations din't get really complains until SHB it's just a proof of that, sustitute souleater for powerslash or old delirium and eventually ppl will get the same complainsbcs is not fun to watch the same move over and over again.


For living shadow (DRKoftheazure) more than being deleted i belive it should get enchanced with more involved mechanics, the whole darkside and living shadow poor state seems for me like an effort of trying to making something meaningfull gameplay wise for the dedicated gauge this useless mechanics have but they seems to get half baked like everything DRK have now, still need to being looked at for sure and use they resources wisely to develop full stuff and not leaving like that for the entire expansion like nothing to see here, making the UI dev team waste time and resources to create the gauge and being totally useless is sad.

[ADVSS]

In my opinion souleater suffers the same problem bloodspiller have and it's since the job doesn't have any kind of proper GCD diversity and you are forced to watch the same 4 animations over and over again during long periods of time with no variety whatsoever, considering souleater and bloodspiller animations din't get really complains until SHB it's just a proof of that, sustitute souleater for powerslash or old delirium and eventually ppl will get the same complainsbcs is not fun to watch the same move over and over again.


For living shadow (DRKoftheazure) more than being deleted i belive it should get enchanced with more involved mechanics, the whole darkside and living shadow poor state seems for me like an effort of trying to making something meaningfull gameplay wise for the dedicated gauge this useless mechanics have but they seems to get half baked like everything DRK have now, still need to being looked at for sure and use they resources wisely to develop full stuff and not leaving like that for the entire expansion like nothing to see here, making the UI dev team waste time and resources to create the gauge and being totally useless is sad.

Deep down i fully agree with you, soul eater getting put in as a combo finisher would be a lot like DRG jump replacing Full Thrust, just being part of the combo without any ability to weave or use it otherwise. This is my personal gripe about it, besyond just the visuaks, It should have been like original bloodspiller the whole time. As fpr cprrecting the animation diversity a bit, i mean a branching combo, or throwing in something like atonement stacks would have helped heavilly i think. Third, about living shadow, i think i would have liked it better if they were going the egi route, that it would have simply been a trance state instead, giving us that cool effect that fray has, while giving us a nuke to end the trance phase in. A big chunk of DRK damage comes from Living Shadow, believe it or not, and its sort of lame its set it and forget it with no player interaction or agency.

[DRKoftheAzure]

In my opinion souleater suffers the same problem bloodspiller have and it's since the job doesn't have any kind of proper GCD diversity and you are forced to watch the same 4 animations over and over again during long periods of time with no variety whatsoever, considering souleater and bloodspiller animations din't get really complains until SHB it's just a proof of that, sustitute souleater for powerslash or old delirium and eventually ppl will get the same complainsbcs is not fun to watch the same move over and over again.


For living shadow (DRKoftheazure) more than being deleted i belive it should get enchanced with more involved mechanics, the whole darkside and living shadow poor state seems for me like an effort of trying to making something meaningfull gameplay wise for the dedicated gauge this useless mechanics have but they seems to get half baked like everything DRK have now, still need to being looked at for sure and use they resources wisely to develop full stuff and not leaving like that for the entire expansion like nothing to see here, making the UI dev team waste time and resources to create the gauge and being totally useless is sad.

Going to blow everyone's minds for saying this but, as a FORMER DRK main, I have ALWAYS HATED Living Shadow since the job action trail dropped and all of the media tour info dropped, and the media tour info was one of the main reasons why I decided to drop DRK as a result.


If Living Shadow stays than GCD diversity ends up being the same as it is now, and Darkside ends up becoming just a damage up trait, that does nothing to actually make DRK interesting (even though current Darkside already does nothing to make DRK interesting in the first place), The Blackest Night will continue to remain the only interesting thing about DRK which actually makes DRK more boring until you hit level 70, with Living Shadow being the OTHER interesting thing about DRK, which like The Blackest Night, only makes DRK more boring until you hit level 80.


Living Shadow will always be a boring pet mechanic that has no reason to exist on DRK, EVER! It only looks cool in the job action trailer, ONCE, and after that DRK become just as boring as SMN, BLM, AND WAR put together, which are the 3 most boring classes to even look at in the entire game, followed after PLD because of its ARR CURSE of BOREDOM...

[ADVSS]

Going to blow everyone's minds for saying this but, as a FORMER DRK main, I have ALWAYS HATED Living Shadow since the job action trail dropped and all of the media tour info dropped, and the media tour info was one of the main reasons why I decided to drop DRK as a result.


If Living Shadow stays than GCD diversity ends up being the same as it is now, and Darkside ends up becoming just a damage up trait, that does nothing to actually make DRK interesting (even though current Darkside already does nothing to make DRK interesting in the first place), The Blackest Night will continue to remain the only interesting thing about DRK which actually makes DRK more boring until you hit level 70, with Living Shadow being the OTHER interesting thing about DRK, which like The Blackest Night, only makes DRK more boring until you hit level 80. And the funniest part about all of that, is that PLD blows its mp for its big burst damage, unlike DRK who only uses it to upkeep blood of the dragon, or cast a defensive shield on itself.


Living Shadow will always be a boring pet mechanic that has no reason to exist on DRK, EVER! It only looks cool in the job action trailer, ONCE, and after that DRK become just as boring as SMN, BLM, AND WAR put together, which are the 3 most boring classes to even look at in the entire game, followed after PLD because of its ARR CURSE of BOREDOM...

You really need to look at PLD again, and forget about halone spam. PLD has everything DRK should have. It has aoe magic nukes, a branching dot combo, a 3 stacks of magic regen that have 50 less potency than bloodspiller, than can be tapped inbetween their normal combos, which are free after completing a single combo(imagine 3 stacks of Dark Arts after completing a Souleater combo), it has the ability to spend its mp to heal 2x its maximum hp if it wants to instead of casting holy aoe nukes that also has a finisher nuke(imagine bloodspiller phase had a finisher with 700 potency that ended delirium and was aoe)

[DRKoftheAzure]

You really need to look at PLD again, and forget about halone spam. PLD has everything DRK should have. It has aoe magic nukes, a branching dot combo, a 3 stacks of magic regen that have 50 less potency than bloodspiller, than can be tapped inbetween their normal combos, which are free after completing a single combo, it has the ability to spend its mp to heal 2x its maximum hp if it wants to instead of casting holy aoe nukes that also has a finisher nuke(imagine bloodspiller phase had a finisher with 700 potency that ended delirium and was aoe)

IF PLD got those BEFORE and/or at Level 50.


But the devs believe that each expansion should raise the tutorial past level 30-50 because new players don't understand or bad players don't understand.


I am all for bringing in new players, but not at the cost of the players that made the game successful in the first place... Yes, Shadowbringers story rivals Heavensward story, but that's it, Shadowbringers game balance and design is trying to compete with Stormblood, used to be a low bar until Shadowbringers happened... so now dev team needs to have 6.0 compete with Heavensward story AND game balance/design, which is a high bar on it's own.


Trying to make ARR content good in any capacity is a high bar on it's own, even WITHOUT the other expansion that we have now...

[ADVSS]

IF PLD got those BEFORE and/or at Level 50.


But the devs believe that each expansion should raise the tutorial past level 30-50 because new players don't understand or bad players don't understand.


I am all for bringing in new players, but not at the cost of the players that made the game successful in the first place... Yes, Shadowbringers story rivals Heavensward story, but that's it, Shadowbringers game balance and design is trying to compete with Stormblood, used to be a low bar until Shadowbringers happened... so now dev team needs to have 6.0 compete with Heavensward story AND game balance/design, which is a high bar on it's own.


Trying to make ARR content good in any capacity is a high bar on it's own, even WITHOUT the other expansion that we have now...

PLD has its second aoe combo hit at 50. Look I agree 100% with your sentiments, especially the early game for tanking, is very watered down, and worst yet DRK has gone through this twice back to back, as SB Drk didnt really get up to date till the last 10 levels also, and its terrible and feels bad absolutely. There is a semi active topic on this very thing about skill progression being atrocious as we speak, but in terms of DRK design, I'm just throwing out examples of things that seem to be falling on deaf ears with the way the job itself is currently designed, yet exist for other jobs.