Dark Knight Megathread

[MagiusNecros]

I think the devs got confused when players said they wanted a fast and fluid DRK from HW back. And they thought oh they want 15 oGCDS that don't synergize with each other.

Oh well at least Living Dead got a half baked improvement after 6 years.

[Kalaam]

Honestly the thing that disturbs me the most with DRK as it is now, is that all of its GCDs feel like slow but supposedly heavy hitting abilities. And its burst is full of oGCD clipped in cancelling animations and such. It's kind of contradictory and if the animations worked better within each other, it wouldn't be much of an issue and I think it would make the job more enjoyable. Because as it is now, the GCDs feel too weak (in animations), the weapon seems unwielding but weightless in the strikes it is so weird. Reaper has GCDs that feel like they are actual hits, so do Warrior or Gunbreaker within the tanks. (I guess it's the presence or not of hitstops and slight screenshakes, and sound design)

I know this is the result of Dark Knight using animations dating from a 3.0 design, so not thought for the current version of the job.

[Marxam]

It's literally like comparing Berserk 1997 to 2016. 3.0-4.0 was slow deliberate and a bit jank like the 97' anime but there was weight and feel to it. 5.0+ is like 2016 with all the flipping and dipping with questionable animations. I was drawn to DRK in 3.0 for the Guts fantasy but fell out of it after it turned into Kirito.

It's ironic that WAR used to have this problem with Berserk/IR. Before, you clipped it to fit everything in the window but since they changed it to stacks you pop IR after a gcd so most times you see the full animation of IR which is a really cool effect imo. It's like going ultra instinct before sonic light dashing on the enemy.

[Archwizard]

Some irony I find with DRK, and apologies if I ramble a bit:

The kit uses both spells and MP, because it's intended to be a magic-wielding tank.
None of its MP is used on spells anymore though (fine, whatever), and its MP is only used for one spell-like effect, a barrier.

Meanwhile its MP-consuming offensive abilities are all glorified weapon blows with no innate magical effects. Maybe you can argue you're enchanting the weapon like RDM does, but then there's no practical reason you can tell me why Edge of Shadow is somehow considered magical, but Bloodspiller (which uses similar visual effects) or Souleater (which actually has a supernatural effect) shouldn't be equally so, so that's not really consistent.
In fact, of its offensive spells and spell-like abilities -- Unmend, Unleash, Stalwart Soul, Abyssal Drain and Salted Earth -- you would only bother with one of them in single-target when weaponskills (or Carve & Spit) are available.

I'm not saying we need to have any kind of cast-times in the rotation, but it's just bizarre to me that for a job so associated with "mixing magic and weaponry", you hardly do any spell-slinging in your rotation.

[Kalaam]

To be fair Edge/Flood swing a pretty massive amount of magic within the strike, so it doing magic damage makes sense.

[Archwizard]

To be fair Edge/Flood swing a pretty massive amount of magic within the strike, so it doing magic damage makes sense.

Yeah, but like I was saying, Bloodspiller has an explosion of dark energy on impact, and still isn't considered a magical hit any more than SAM's Yukikaze is. (Sure, SAM has a practical reason to keep the latter physical thanks to Bloodbath, but DRK is not affected by any such divisions since Embolden and Brotherhood became general damage buffs. And even then, frankly Bloodbath could stand to change for NIN's sake.)

At any rate, my issue is more just the reduction in spell-work for the job in general. I get the devs not wanting DRK to be too close to PLD, but they could still have the MP spenders manifest as magical blasts from your offhand or curses or explosive projectiles so we can actually do some quick spellcasting, rather than just quick swings. If anything it might feel more natural, and make room to have the actual physical swings feel more impactful.

[baklava151]

Yeah, but like I was saying, Bloodspiller has an explosion of dark energy on impact, and still isn't considered a magical hit any more than SAM's Yukikaze is. (Sure, SAM has a practical reason to keep the latter physical thanks to Bloodbath, but DRK is not affected by any such divisions since Embolden and Brotherhood became general damage buffs. And even then, frankly Bloodbath could stand to change for NIN's sake.)

At any rate, my issue is more just the reduction in spell-work for the job in general. I get the devs not wanting DRK to be too close to PLD, but they could still have the MP spenders manifest as magical blasts from your offhand or curses or explosive projectiles so we can actually do some quick spellcasting, rather than just quick swings. If anything it might feel more natural, and make room to have the actual physical swings feel more impactful.

Now you put the idea in my head of replacing Edge's animation with the part of the Power Slash animation where he shoots energy from his hand, that would be sick.

Overall I see what you mean, not necessarily just animation wise but also with how few MP spenders there are in the kit.

[Archwizard]

Overall I see what you mean, not necessarily just animation wise but also with how few MP spenders there are in the kit.

MP spenders I can sort of understand. We had that period where you would have a utilitarian spender versus damage spenders, and the damage spenders would be prioritized.

If they were going to add more MP spenders at any point, they would have to have other values and limitations. For instance, a higher damage spender on a lengthy cooldown (even Shadowbringer could have worked for this), or a utility spender with such a high raid value that you would be shooting yourself in the foot to ignore it regardless of damage loss (I've previously suggested a PoA-like effect for this that returns MP if it actually reduces party damage).

[Kalaam]

Honestly if darkside was used as a ressource it'd be neat.

[RyuDragnier]

Honestly if darkside was used as a ressource it'd be neat.

Have a bit of the duration of Darkside lost whenever we use a Blood move, and then suddenly we have DRK go from somewhat braindead to having to manage and avoid overcapping Darkside while still using it for attacks in the heat of battle.