Dark Knight Megathread

[Shin96]

It's incredible to believe that after 7 long years Dark Knight's issues have been resolved, to an extend.

Thanks for keeping this thread alive everyone. I'm not sure wether or not we made a difference or this thread in particular, but if we did, it's an amazing accomplishment in a game played by millions of players. Including you.

I know we can't go back to the old days but that doesn't mean things can't be better. I have been cynical in the past but I thank Yoshi P for taking the necessary steps to make this job enjoyable for all of us.

I will update the Megathread in the future. Soon I suspect. I will need a bit of help from you guys. I'm not an expert on all issues so help would be appreciated.

[Recon1o6]

It's incredible to believe that after 7 long years Dark Knight's issues have been resolved, to an extend.

Thanks for keeping this thread alive everyone. I'm not sure wether or not we made a difference or this thread in particular, but if we did, it's an amazing accomplishment in a game played by millions of players. Including you.

I know we can't go back to the old days but that doesn't mean things can't be better. I have been cynical in the past but I thank Yoshi P for taking the necessary steps to make this job enjoyable for all of us.

I will update the Megathread in the future. Soon I suspect. I will need a bit of help from you guys. I'm not an expert on all issues so help would be appreciated.

well, its invul is solved. Its still got the issue in that plays like warrior which is a fairly big issue
good to hear from you

[RyuDragnier]

Living Dead fix and Blood Weapon stacks are checked off the list.

Now we just need some more sustain and for Dark Mind and Oblation to be a bit better and we'll be good. The Dark Mind part just needs a 10% physical mitigation to go with the 20% magical mitigation and it'll be fine. Oblation...personally I'd push for a regen to be there so it'd also double as our "more sustain" and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

[YukiB]

Here's an idea I came up with in a fever dream, to rework Oblation and provide more sustain. Apologies if someone came up with this idea already, as I'm not going to read 288 pages of salt and darkness.

Level 82 trait, Dark Offering: The Blackest Night grants the effect Dark Offering, which reduces damage taken by 10% for 7 seconds. Action changes to Oblation while a Dark Offering is active.

Level 82 action, Oblation: Consumes any active Dark Offering and The Blackest Night effects. Restores HP to players affected equal to the shield remaining on The Blackest Night. If HP is restored by this action while in combat, grants Dark Arts.

Basically, my idea is to take Oblation's damage reduction and build it into TBN, just like every other tank got upgrades to their short CD mitigation. Oblation stays around as a way to consume the remaining shield of TBN. You can "eat" a shield that isn't going to break to force the Dark Arts proc, so now there's no downside to using TBN on cooldown. If you're going to use all of the shield, great! That's how the skill was intended to be used, and you'll still get the full benefit. If you're not going to use all of the shield, use the skill anyway and eat it for a free 25% HP sustain every 15 seconds. But be wary of eating it too early, as you'll lose the mitigation.

One potential downside is raiders will almost certainly prepull TBN and eat it early for the free Dark Arts, which could make the opener even more spammy.

[ItsUrBoi]

One potential downside is raiders will almost certainly prepull TBN and eat it early for the free Dark Arts, which could make the opener even more spammy.

"TBN can only be used while in combat" Pretty easy fix for not making the opener spammy, however the opener right now is done using TBN on yourself if you are main tank, or on the main tank if you are off tank.

I honestly just wish there'd be something more to DRK than just the Edge/Flood spam and a copy pasted Inner Release.

Perhaps another combo upon executing Delirium, which replaces your Souleater combo?
Maybe a trait that allows you to reduce the CD on Abyssal Drain/Carve and spit by completing the souleater/stalwart soul combos? So you can use abyssal drain every 30 seconds when doing AoE, and C&S as well when doing single target?
Delirium granting 3 stacks of Dark Arts changing/upgrading 3 abilities on your hotbar ( one for damage, one for sustain, one for defense, and if used on the defense one [ TBN ] you get the Dark Arts back? )
Living Shadow copying your abilities and granting you their effects?
Dark Missionary changed to be slightly different compared to Heart of Light? Both offer 10% damage reduction but one could grant an instant heal, the other a regen.
Dark Mind changed into a shield that lets you tank auto attacks better? Like a shield that has 3 stacks + 2 * number of enemies around you stacks, each stack granting a 400 potency shield, which when broken heals for 400 potency? You could also end it early to just heal yourself for the would be heals, similar to WHT's bell.
Playing around with the DarkSide timer, so that when it reaches 60 seconds, by using Edge/Flood you can go above for a bit, overcharging and you get another combo as your main burst?
Living Shadow to merge with you granting the above mentioned effect or perhaps changing all your abilties so you do a new rotation?

[ItsUrBoi]

I'd also like to mention that in PvP DRK is very underwhelming. Its damage while good in AoE doesn't really play well in a duel or in single target at all. You have to literally go below 50-60% HP to deal any significant amount of damage, and if you do that, you will just get CC locked and killed by jobs who can literally either 1 shoot you, or 1 shoot you when <50%. Warrior's Inner Release in PvP allows him to use fell cleaves on cooldown, while Bloodspiller is a 1 time activation.

Bloodspiller should do damage based on the enemies missing HP, not yours, or if the design idea which is cool that you do more damage the lower you get should be kept around, then make it be much better than a 12000 potency fell cleave, and the maximum damage reached when you are at around 35% HP at least. The 12k potency on bloodspiller is only achievable when you are at <20% HP, which is insane to think you will survive, and even if under Undead Rebirth, you only get 1 cast of Bloodspiller, and if focused ( which you will be when your HP drops to 1 ), you will not be able to chain shadowbringer -> Bloodspiller since you won't have the HP for it.

My ideas for PvP:
1.Make Bloodspiller a 6000 potency attack and you can use it as long as you have DarkSide available. It could keep its trait of the lower you are, the more damage it does. But it should inherently be much better than a Fell Cleave when you are low, since you risk dying soon. ( 16000 potency when at <20% HP, high risk, but high reward ) Or it could be based on the enemies missing HP to act as an execute.
2.Your TBN should also be stronger or have a 10 sec CD, since WAR's Bloodwhetting is straight up busted compared. ( TBN: 8k potency heal vs 20% max hp shield and healing for all damage done for 10 seconds )
3.Shadowbringer should either cost less HP, or deal more damage. 20% max HP for a 4k potency AoE and a bloodspiller which does a mere 4000 potency when you aren't low is counterproductive. Not worth using at all right now unless 3 people get hit by the shadowbringer.

Eventide seems impactful enough in some situations however combining "Bloodspiller does more damage the lower your HP is" and "Eventide does more damage the higher your HP is" is kind of wierd is it not?
Its 20K damage is decent, however when there's jobs that can instantly kill you at <50% HP (NIN), 1 shoot you ( MCN ), or kill your entire team ( SAM ), and do AoE damage much better ( DRG ), then perhaps this could be something like:
-> Deals 20K damage in front and behind of you, reaching 30K potency as the enemies HP reaches maximum/your HP reaches 20%. Also making yourself immune to damage should be a pretty good buff to, so you can still be stunned but at least you are somewhat dangerous due to your Bloodspiller's synergy with you having low HP, and you have much better control when to use Quietus to heal up.
Right now, it does some damage, and you are not that big of a danger compared to a WAR.

[Shin96]

I edited the top post. Let me know if there are any inconsistencies or possible improvements!

[Titoulakikoute]

Btw the DRK's lb from pvp is literally the wol attack in the shadowbringers trailer... and it should have been the shadowbringers animation imo

[ThorneDynasty]

Btw the DRK's lb from pvp is literally the wol attack in the shadowbringers trailer... and it should have been the shadowbringers animation imo

For real. It's a really pathetic recycled animation for an attack named after the best expansion.

[SylviaCrystal]

After playing DRK on PvP for a while, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do in Frontline. It seems balanced around pulling people in with Salted Earth and hoping for the rare occasion that your team will follow through (most times they don't).

I don't have any ranged options outside of Shadowbringer, which is only 10y. I don't have any actions that stun, so people just walk away from my SE after the 3s bind from Salt and Darkness. Previously I could pull people individually with Weapon Throw...

Most of the time I see myself stalling behind my team and waiting for my LB bar to fill up so I can use Eventide. If I dare to jump in with Plunge to use SE I just get stunlocked to death by 7 White Mages, even with Purify. I have no counter play and fishing people with Salted Earth isn't being much fun to me so far. It's not so bad in Crystaline Conflict tho.

I get the feeling that they made a bunch of cool stuff that would be awesome in PvE (Salted Earth with mitigation, Sole Survivor on Plunge, managing HP instead of MP) and put in on PvP, but in PvP it doesn't work because of infinite stunlock and CC.