Dark Knight Megathread

[Kalaam]

They mention there's only so much they can allocate to the UI atm. I wonder how much it would cost to have a little icon next to damage text and cast bars - Yellow for Physical, Purple for Magical.

Not a bad idea, for now we can only assume based on the visual and the type of ennemy, and the attacks name.

[Mostly_Raxus]

I want my sea anemone attack back

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

Since it did work back then, I would see no reason why to not...
Dark Knight could have the Abyssal Drain action made back into a GCD AoE with no self-heal, and again have the Dark Arts bonus of a self-heal, that is a actual worth it self-heal, rather than the weak Cure Potency: 200 of the in all ways inferior current Abyssal Drain.

As for the AoE combo, it could be set up with Unleash as the 1, while Abyssal Drain and Stalwart Soul would be the two 2s, that the Dark Knight can choose which to combo off of Unleash.
The idea would be that Unleash is the base, while Stalwart Soul is lower-damage with MP restore and BlackBlood gain, and Abyssal Drain is the higher pure-damage, but there would be the option of to use Dark Arts, to add a strong HP restore to Abyssal Drain... I would prefer it, but I doubt that, the devs would convert Abbysal Drain back to the absorb-damage-as-HP effect, though.. so I think that the self-heal would be some thing like Cure Potency: 300 or 400, and still per-target, not single target.

On that note, for the sake of "Balance", the slight higher potency of Abyssal Drain, would be equal to the potency of a Quietus from three Stalwart Soul,
so that the combo options are a choice, rather than the Dark Knight "need to" use which ever 2 of the AoE combo would be "better".

[Erit]

How to improve the Dark Knight player experience and veteran morale:

1. Stop taking things away from it.
2. Give some of the things that were taken away from it back.
3. Don't take those things away again.
4. Expand on the resultant framework.

Scourge, old Delirium giving the pretense of a meaningful combo game and making the rotation not feel like 2.X Paladin, the Blood Price and self-healing tricks making Dark Knights hilariously effective at taking out trash while incidentally really jiving with the aesthetic of the job as the Warrior of Light indulging in unhinged and self-destructive behavior. Living Dead's a trash cooldown but it's thematically on-point with the job being about the Warrior of Light being completely done with acting responsible for anything up to and including their own well-being.

Put that back into the job. Notice the playstyle that re-emerges. Now take that foundation, because it's a pretty unique foundation compared to the other tanks on offer, and build a madhouse on it.

Dark Knight is about us coming unwound and fraying at the edges, crumbling under the burden of expectations which have only gotten even heavier over time. Shadowbringers is the closest we've come to losing in a very long time. It's about time we reclaimed some of that traumatized, despair-tinged, almost nihilistic fervor.

That means having more substance to the job than a single three-step combo sequence and some stuff to weave in with it. It means that it should, in fact, at times feel like you're winging things and flying by the seat of your pants even after the egg-heads have calculated the mathematically perfect rotation for striking dummies.

I fell in love with Dark Knight on launch because it felt like there was some moment-to-moment decision making to do after I had spent fifty levels and hundreds of quests building up to Rage of Halone until I was falling asleep in Snowcloak from the noise. I took a hiatus and came back to Shadowbringers, and I don't like that the damn cancer infected the job I broke Nidhogg's face with.

Because it's not Dark Knight anymore. It's something that killed Dark Knight and is wearing its skin like a poorly-fitted, grotesque suit; like the alien from the old Men in Black movie.

Make me have to think again when I'm holding aggro, for God's sake.

-snip-

So turn the AoE rotation into something like the single-target one used to be; consistent damage with MP gain, then putting that MP into bigger damage with self-healing. I can see it working.

[Larirawiel]

How to improve the Dark Knight player experience and veteran morale:

1. Stop taking things away from it.
2. Give some of the things that were taken away from it back.
3. Don't take those things away again.

And here are some people complaining about ability bloat:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ut-more-skills.


SE is now in a difficult situation. Taking away some ability is wrong. But when they keep them, then it is also not right.


Cheers

[Erit]

And here are some people complaining about ability bloat:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ut-more-skills.


SE is now in a difficult situation. Taking away some ability is wrong. But when they keep them, then it is also not right.


Cheers

You solve button bloat with more elegant design, not by taking a hacksaw to mechanics. Complaints about "button bloat" are complaints about complexity addressed imprecisely, which could be resolved through simple UI redesign that other studios have already hit upon. People who are, in fact, complaining about jobs being more involving to play are almost assuredly trolling.

... Or Scholar mains, but that's a distinction without difference. (I jest, of course.)

[Kalaam]

Being a Dark Knight is having a mix of a savior complex and a death wish.
Just like Batman.
Except the "non-killing" part.

I aggree that DRK feeling more...frantic? chaotic? Would be good. Maybe having a combo system closer to the Monk's could work ?

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

Being a Dark Knight is having a mix of a savior complex and a death wish.

for me, what made me first play Dark Knight, and was proven wrong later, is that I thought Dark Knight would be the escape, the means to get away from the nameless/voiceless no-real-identity PosterBoard hero WoL BS. to me, to be a Dark Knight was just to be a rebel, to turn against the BS light supremacy Eorzean mentality, and to stop being a pawn of the light.

I aggree that DRK feeling more...frantic? chaotic? Would be good. Maybe having a combo system closer to the Monk's could work?

Half in page 2 and half in page 3 of this thread, there was a chat between me and Shurrikhan about a theoretical open combo system...
If you have a idea of your own, feel free to share it.

[Kalaam]

for me, what made me first play Dark Knight, and was proven wrong later, is that I thought Dark Knight would be the escape, the means to get away from the nameless/voiceless no-real-identity PosterBoard hero WoL BS. to me, to be a Dark Knight was just to be a rebel, to turn against the BS light supremacy Eorzean mentality, and to stop being a pawn of the light.


Half in page 2 and half in page 3 of this thread, there was a chat between me and Shurrikhan about a theoretical open combo system...
If you have a idea of your own, feel free to share it.

Oh no, I'm not knowledgeable enough for that.

[Shurrikhan]

DRK feeling more...frantic? chaotic? Would be good.

This, imo. So long as it still has some opportunities for good, decently complex setup and payoff (ideally, to the extent worthy of a villainous chuckle, or at least a good, dark smirk from behind one's helm).

theoretical open combo system....

Shoot, I remember now that I completely forgot to get back to you with a sample. Got about a third of the way through one based on the spitball frame from before, but quickly noticed it better fit Samurai, and haven't had a chance to complete a revamp. Well, that and I forgot.