Should Dark Arts Come Back in 6.0? If so, What Should the Skill Do?

[currentlemon]

6.0 is coming this fall and I want to get this discussion going for DRK players new and old.

Should Dark Arts make a comeback in the next expansion?

I never had the chance to play HW or SB DRK. Only Shb. But man, from what I keep hearing, I missed out. On a lot. But regardless on the state of the job in older expansions, I firmly believe that Dark Arts SHOULD make a come back and replace Inner Release... I mean, Delirium as the job's staple skill.

But what should the new Dark Arts skill do though? Players, casual and hardcore, didn't really like spamming the skill over and over again. So perhaps something can be done to appease the masses? Perhaps have it cost blood gauge instead of MP? Maybe allow Dark Arts be used to open new combo routes for the job?

I'd love the skill to make a grand comeback in 6.0, but what can be done so that Dark Arts can appease everyone and prevent the massive "spam" backlash that occurred in Stormblood?

Edit: Here is what we have gathered regarding Dark Arts should it ever return to the game. Hopefully, SE will read this and bring back the popular skill that most DRK players want back. Special thanks to Rosenstrauch, Shao and Anahlise for the help.
Edit 2: More suggested changes!
Edit 3: Suggested changes after feedback from other players.

The skill Dark Arts is obtained at level 40 alongside Edge of Darkness. This will introduce new players to the Dark Arts mechanic.

Dark Arts will play along with the Darkside timer. The timer will slowly fill up the DRK's Blood Gauge (will explain later). If the Darkside timer is up for at least 30secs, the DRK will gain a charge called, "Blood Rune". These "Blood Runes" work similar to Black Mages Enochain and Polyglot system. As long as the DRK's Darkside timer is up, DRK will eventually receive these "Blood Runes" which they can use to cast Dark Arts.

What will Dark Arts do?

• It's an oGCD.
• Applies a self-buff that lasts for 15secs.
• While DA is active, it will "alter" DRK's GCD combo.
• While DA is active, a handful (but not a lot) of oGCDs will receive DA bonuses.
• Applies a Haste buff on the DRK

What of the traits?

• Level 50: Obtain Dark Arts Practitioner - Upon entering an instance activity, DRK will have one "Blood Rune" ready for use.
• Level 60: Obtain Dark Arts Practitioner II - Receive a second "Blood Rune" charge.
• Level 70: Obtain Dark Arts Mastery - Upon entering an instance activity, DRK will have two "Blood Rune" ready for use.
• Level 90: Obtain Dark Arts Mastery II - Receive a third "Blood Rune" charge.

Upon activating Dark Arts will grant a new GCD combo. They won't be new skills you add to the hotbar; but rather, these skills will temporarily replace the GCD skills that DRK currently has while DA is up. These skills are:

• Soul Eater becomes Power Slash.
• Syphon Strike becomes Scourge.
• Hard Slash becomes old 3.0 Delirium skill renamed, Spinning Slash.

Will you get these skills right away?
No. You earn them by levelling.
At level 50, Soul Eater can become Power Slash if Dark Arts is used. If Soul Eater has 400 Potency when using the GCD combo, then Power Slash will have a potency of 450. Basically, at early levels, you'll be spamming Power Slash for 15secs while DA is up until you receive the next GCD ability.

At level 58, DRK receives Scourge.
At level 66, DRK receives Spinning Slash

What are the tool tips for these new GCD skills?
Power Slash delivers an attack with a potency higher than hard slash.
Scourge is a DoT ability.
The old 3.0 Delirium skill delivers a high potency attack with a 3% magic vulnerability down debuff on the enemy.

The new GCD combo will be this: Power Slash > Scourge > Spinning Slash (3, 2, 1)

As for the oGCDs affected by Dark Arts
Dark Mind receives a 20% mitigation bonus for Physical Attacks
Dark Missionary receives a 10% mitigation bonus for Physical Attacks
Carve and Split will recovers HP
Abyssal Drain will recover MP

Other Changes.

I mentioned the Blood Gauge earlier in my post. Simply put, I do not like the Blood Gauge mechanic. In my opinion, it really doesn't do anything for DRK aside from using Bloodspiller, Quietus, and Living Shadow. I think the Blood Gauge and Darkside timer should MERGE into one mechanic. That way, DRK won't be so similar to WAR.

As for the skills that rely on Blood Gauge? Here are the changes I recommend.
Living Shadow will simply be an 90sec oGCD skill
Bloodspiller and Quietus are simply GCDs that can be comboed into.

Let's take Bloodspiller for example. I'd like to see Bloodspiller as a 4th GCD skill that can be used after Soul Eater and Spinning Slash.

The new GCD combo for single target will be like this:
Hard Slash > Syphon Strike > Soul Eater > Bloodspiller (1, 2, 3, 4)
Power Slash > Scourge > Spinning Slash > Bloodspiller (3, 2, 1, 4)

Bloodspiller will do a high potency damage if used in a combo. For example, if Bloodspiller alone does 500 potency, then if the player does the GCD combo, the potency will be increased to 700.

Won't this affect the current Delirium skill?
No, not really. The current Delirium will remain the same, only this time the "stacks" you receive from the skill will allow the DRK to use Bloodspiller with the bonus potency damage without doing the GCD combo.

What about DRK's AoE?
I... haven't really thought about that yet. Need more time to think that one through.

TBN needs to be brought up since it's losing Dark Arts as a trait.

Suggested Change:
- If TBN breaks, DRK will gain the trait Dark Rune
- Dark Rune reduces damage taken by 15% for a duration of 12secs
- Restores the DRK's HP with a Cure Potency of 500.
- Costs no MP.