The Ultimate DRK Rework

[Lyth]

The problem that I have with most rework suggestions is that they're too detail orientated. Should the potency of New Awesome Skill X be 350 or 375? Should the duration be 10 seconds or should it be 10.1 seconds? I certainly don't know, and I'm sure that you don't either. I really don't want to or need to read your back-of-the-envelope calculations if you have them, either. Keep it simple.

The big picture is important. What's wrong, in broad strokes? What abilities need to be reworked, in general terms?

DRK's present problem is the lack of a central, thematic concept that unifies everything. What direction do we push in? Lifesteal? Counterattacks? Pick a direction and commit to it. And make it exclusive. If everyone else has a copycat skill, it's not really an identity.

[Seraphor]

The problem that I have with most rework suggestions is that they're too detail orientated. Should the potency of New Awesome Skill X be 350 or 375? Should the duration be 10 seconds or should it be 10.1 seconds? I certainly don't know, and I'm sure that you don't either. I really don't want to or need to read your back-of-the-envelope calculations if you have them, either. Keep it simple.

The big picture is important. What's wrong, in broad strokes? What abilities need to be reworked, in general terms?

DRK's present problem is the lack of a central, thematic concept that unifies everything. What direction do we push in? Lifesteal? Counterattacks? Pick a direction and commit to it. And make it exclusive. If everyone else has a copycat skill, it's not really an identity.

I've posted 'big picture' job ideas in the past with example potencies merely to illustrate functionality of the skills, and been met with:
"Ackshully, 300 potency wouldn't be enough to compete with the existing jobs in this role so your entire concept fails."

[Lyth]

I wouldn't even post example potencies. It's completely meaningless. The devs are the ones with the gameplay formulas and gameplay testing teams. How are you supposed to figure out what the correct potency should be? All the potencies changed this expansion. They're entirely relative numbers set by the devs.

And like you said, you always run the risk of running into that person who did a first year math course in college that one time and feels the need to flex their introductory math skills. They might even own a graphing calculator that they don't entirely know how to use properly and be part of a theorycrafting circle. That road leads to a long, boring conversation with lots of quotation boxes that have nothing to do with your original post. Please don't do it, for all of our sakes. Just leave out the potencies and talk in general terms. You're a consumer. What do you like, what don't you like? What is your subjective opinion? If it's a long list, do it as a bullet problem/solution list so that people with shorter attention spans can make it to the bottom.

[cactuarzzzz]

I wouldn't even post example potencies. It's completely meaningless. The devs are the ones with the gameplay formulas and gameplay testing teams. How are you supposed to figure out what the correct potency should be? All the potencies changed this expansion. They're entirely relative numbers set by the devs.

And like you said, you always run the risk of running into that person who did a first year math course in college that one time and feels the need to flex their introductory math skills. They might even own a graphing calculator that they don't entirely know how to use properly and be part of a theorycrafting circle. That road leads to a long, boring conversation with lots of quotation boxes that have nothing to do with your original post. Please don't do it, for all of our sakes. Just leave out the potencies and talk in general terms. You're a consumer. What do you like, what don't you like? What is your subjective opinion? If it's a long list, do it as a bullet problem/solution list so that people with shorter attention spans can make it to the bottom.

Might not be relevant but 5.0 show how dev didn't know how to do the math,. It make us wonder did they really have a gameplay formulas and gameplay testing teams? because I sure feel like I'm a guinea pig, a beta tester instead of being a consumer.

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

Might not be relevant but 5.0 show how dev didn't know how to do the math,. It make us wonder did they really have a gameplay formulas and gameplay testing teams? because I sure feel like I'm a guinea pig, a beta tester instead of being a consumer.

I mean players are always gonna be some form of tester no matter what game you play, regardless of what stage the game is at, that's how developers learn to improve, change, double down or nerf jobs or other aspects of games. In regards to the devs maths, they are actually better overall this expac in terms of potency, where the gap has been the closest it's ever been, at least in terms of balance among the tank role. What is lacking, is content that pushes tanks to make full or creative use of their toolkits.

[cactuarzzzz]

I mean players are always gonna be some form of tester no matter what game you play, regardless of what stage the game is at, that's how developers learn to improve, change, double down or nerf jobs or other aspects of games. In regards to the devs maths, they are actually better overall this expac in terms of potency, where the gap has been the closest it's ever been, at least in terms of balance among the tank role. What is lacking, is content that pushes tanks to make full or creative use of their toolkits.

Please,You aren't the one who have to deal with LD and being locked out of savage party that have no WHM. You also aren't the one who have to deal with blood weapon weird tick. BLM Player don't always gonna have to be the tester because they got Mr.producer who main that job to make sure it's perfect before release unlike some other job and I didn't just make a baseless argument many people including the mentor of balance discord noticed this.

Other tank main who's now in a good place sure love to quote "All tank is balance right now" and before you thinking about convince me you better read this thread>https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ut-Living-Dead

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

Please,You aren't the one who have to deal with LD and being locked out of savage party that have no WHM. You also aren't the one who have to deal with blood weapon weird tick. BLM Player don't always gonna have to be the tester because they got Mr.producer who main that job to make sure it's perfect before release unlike some other job and I didn't just make a baseless argument many people including the mentor of balance discord noticed this.

Other tank main who's now in a good place sure love to quote "All tank is balance right now" and before you thinking about convince me you better read this thread>https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ut-Living-Dead

I never once mentioned LD, but okay, LD performs well when it is used as a planned cooldown, not so much when used in a panic/ emergency situation. DRK are not locked out of any savage parties, regardless of WHM present or not, that's simply you talking out of your a**. Mentors in DRK balance recommend more Sks if you are missing the last GCD under blood weapon, might be that your gear is inadequate or you're pressing BW too early.

So what if Yoshida plays BLM, doesn't mean the devs aren't gonna not look at the job and see how players play it and then check for a means to balance if there is imbalance or if player find issues within the job or role. If BLM was so perfect, there wouldn't have been as many QoL adjustments made in the past for BLM after an expac launch. Example of players being testers is SB launch, when the players found a better rotation for NIN than what the devs were using, NIN got nerfed, it happens, can't say any job will be perfect at launch.

Also like Starkbeaumont, I ain't reading some random dude making yet another qq LD is bad post for the 1,000th time on the forums. For you to claim LD makes DRK lesser to the other tanks, even though the skill has not changed once since it has been introduced, and thus disregard the rest of the job's toolkit, is so pathetic. So you actually have to use the thing between your ears before using the skill. But that is very much DRK for the last two expacs, risk versus reward, TBN and LD are both risk versus reward. All tanks are accepted in PFs, all tanks are capable of clearing any content without a single issue, and all tanks are in close proximity of DPS in all fights, that's as balanced as you are gonna get in performance.

[Starkbeaumont]

just want to say I'm happy with drk right now. better than stormblood.
the only thing I can agree with is that tanks need to feel different from each other. right now only pld achieves this. and even here you could argue that magic phase isn't much different from inner release/delirium phase. gnb is different too but just a dps in disguise.

[cactuarzzzz]

just want to say I'm happy with drk right now. better than stormblood.
the only thing I can agree with is that tanks need to feel different from each other. right now only pld achieves this. and even here you could argue that magic phase isn't much different from inner release/delirium phase. gnb is different too but just a dps in disguise.

You missed the party? here's the warp portal>https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ut-Living-Dead.

[bundythenoob]

just want to say I'm happy with drk right now. better than stormblood.
the only thing I can agree with is that tanks need to feel different from each other. right now only pld achieves this. and even here you could argue that magic phase isn't much different from inner release/delirium phase. gnb is different too but just a dps in disguise.

I'm glad you're enjoying SHB DRK, but don't you think even this iteration could use some tweaks to bring back some of its old gameplay identity?

why not make abyss drain a mana spender for some variety? with a bit of number tweaks it can be balanced for single target and multi combat efficiency.
why not make dark arts proc affect more skills than just 2? it could easily have solved the problem of dark arts spam, since its effectively now on a 15s+ timer. it could have easily brought back the HW level of decision making to empower our kit.
why not move stalwart soul to lv 40 to fix the jobs lack of mana generation? and make its rotation feel much better than just unleash till lv 66 when u get to hit quietus every now and then?

PLD achieved the ability to become accessible while retaining its identity, so why should DRK players settle for a WAR remake that only serves to lessen WARs identity as well?