Quote Originally Posted by Recon1o6 View Post
Dark knight is in an unfortunate position as it stands being the weakest damage dealer of the tanks, being too close to Warrior in terms of playstyle for many, very poor AOE damage, living dead requiring a healer and having a monotonous rotation of 1-2-3
While it is true that Dark Knight happens to be the weakest damage dealer of the tanks and is essentially identical to Warrior in weaponskill rotation, the rDPS and aDPS difference is negligible as DRK is very close to the other three tanks, only GNB actually having a slightly better lead. Each tank has strong and weak points - DRK having less rDPS is mitigated by the fact that its mitigation for busters and fluff damage is arguably the best for most situations discounting the invulnerability ability, making it one of the best progression tanks and a viable speedrun tank.

DRK's AOE is actually very powerful - having an oGCD MP spender of 300p/target and Stalwart Soul combo generating MP + Blood (+ converting it directly into potency) is efficient at two targets already. Living Shadow has three attacks that are also AOE (hitting for I think 300-400 potency per hit), further adding to DRK's AOE damage, especially in bursts, being very strong. For three targets and beyond you also have access to Quietus.

Here is average DPS data on 95th %tile range:

All in all, the difference is very small when comparing tanks on equal playing fields and gear, so I fail to see the need to boost DRK's dps.

Also since apparently this is being beaten like a dead horse - it is disingenuous to say that DRK is the only tank whose invuln requires Healer intervention. Warrior's Holmgang can be healed up via its own toolkit, but for most fights you essentially burst through most of your HP tools very fast instead of utilizing Healer oGCDs / efficient GCD heals and spreading the use of it more evenly to make Healer weaving more practical for them. Gunbreaker's Superbolide essentially does what Warrior's Holmgang does but in reverse - you dont need actual healing for about 8s, but after that period you need heals regardless as you just postponed the need for immediate healing. Paladin is the only tank with a true invulnerability but it pays with generally weaker / less practical self-mitigation and an overlap of block effects within the kit. Living Dead requiring healing intervention is true, but you can minimize the need for Living Dead to absurdly low amounts due to its core mitigation kit and TBN interactions, making DRK require less heals outside of Living Dead.

Going over the changes regardless since some of it contains gameplay changes, some I tend to like even. Will skip over mere potency changes unless it interacts with new combos.

Shadowskin - signed, gladly and anytime, I also want Foresight to be the "Rampart" of Warrior and for the stuns to be unique again (which means we could make the currently useless Shieldbash into the PLD's stun ogcd.

Bloodspiller + Quietus - I assume the potency change comes from the Delirium rework, so I guess thats alright, thought I am not super math savvy so I'm not exactly accurate in my assessment.

Living Dead - I "guess" this is a way we could do it? I mean there is a penalty for not healing enough, but at least it isn't an instadeath for failing the heal check. Though I think either reducing the heal check or reducing the penalty is enough for most.

Power Slash Combo - idea of dot combo is alright, but dropping two dots on combo starter + transitioner doesn't increase the thought process. Essentially you created Goring Blade -> Royal -> Royal / Atonement cycle from PLD on DRK. But the idea of having dots or even multiple dot combos with different dot durations has potential, so I like the idea.

Sole Survivor - idea is cool, but I would limit it to weaponskills / spells only - if you'd get 300 heal potency per ability as well, you'd have an unholy HP burst in those 15s, potentially putting WAR to shame since DRK's Edge burst is like every minute, so every 2nd minute you essentially need no heals, which is overkill on top of TBN.

Not too hot on accessibility changes - making Edge of Darkness upgrade into Edge of Shadow aleady at 68 isn't exactly needed since its just a raw potency boost. Based on Lv70 ultimates, this DRK is already pretty solid, so I fail to see the need.

Stalwart Soul being accessible at low level is only justified if you trait the Blood and MP gain to later levels - Lv62 adding Blood gain via Blackblood trait and Lv72 to add the MP generation component.

In fact, DRK's AOE is more than capable before Lv72:
- Flood of Darkness, Salted Earth and Abyssal Drain are OGCD damage abilities, increasing AOE damage / burst potential
- passive MP regeneration is 200MP/3s, giving an additional Flood of Darkness every 45 seconds without MP generators
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Post is generally constructive, so props regardless.