Dark Knight Megathread

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

All tanks got massive mitigation upgrades to their primary mit buttons at lv.82 except for DRK.
- Warrior got Bloodwhetting and let's be honest, Raw Intuition was already bonkers and didn't need the extra -dt and a shield on top. Pair that with Equilibrium, Thrill of Battle, AND Shake it off and you will never die. Ever.
- Gunbreaker got Heart of Corundum: -30%/-15% for 4/8 seconds and a decent heal on top of it. Pair that with Aurora for some passive healing ticks.
- Paladin got Holy Sheltron: -30%/15% for 4/8 seconds topped off with a regen over time. All sorts of heals added everywhere at 84 that no longer require a dps loss like Clemency would.
- Dark Knight got a button bloat -10 dt. Not a single heal in sight, other than Abyssal Drain. Doesn't quite seem fair does it lol.

Replace Oblation with a job trait for TBN that applies Dread Spikes when it breaks at Lv.82. Dread Spikes applies a buff where each hit you receive grants a stack and heals after 5 seconds depending on how many stacks you built up. Some form of healing for dungeons would be nice and this is a way to give them a unique heal while sticking to their job aesthetic. It would be a nice callback to FFXI's DRK also!

Keep Oblation as is, add heal potency upon expiration. For more active HP recovery, broken TBN grants dark arts, which makes the next Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow trigger a heal (can do 100-150 potency per target on Flood of Shadow, otherwise make it and Edge of Shadow 400-500 heal potency).

Really, what is it with the suggestions to un-exist Oblation just because DRK is the only tank that received a new CD instead of upgrading TBN? The way I see it it is their equivalent of Equilibrium and Aurora and simply needs a bit more... stuff, not removal or folding it into a patchwork-affixed TBN.

[Oizen]

You could fix a lot of TBN's issues just by making it pop if you take any damage, and not requiring the shield to break completely.

There is so much content in this game where TBN is nonfunctional to a bis tank, and its hilarious to me that a DRK in normal content feels more sturdy with a 1 or 2 vuln stacks than it does without it due to TBN becoming usable.

[Supersnow845]

You could fix a lot of TBN's issues just by making it pop if you take any damage, and not requiring the shield to break completely.

There is so much content in this game where TBN is nonfunctional to a bis tank, and its hilarious to me that a DRK in normal content feels more sturdy with a 1 or 2 vuln stacks than it does without it due to TBN becoming usable.

That’s not a problem of TBN that’s a problem of how hilariously little damage this game does

If the game can’t crack a 25% HP shield in 7 seconds the tanks are both too tanky inheritantly and the game isn’t doing enough damage

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

That’s not a problem of TBN that’s a problem of how hilariously little damage this game does

If the game can’t crack a 25% HP shield in 7 seconds the tanks are both too tanky inheritantly and the game isn’t doing enough damage

It's sad how the main content that can pop TBN with regularity is basically Ultimate, later floor savages and essentially criterion.

Half of a remedy could be moving the duration to 10s analog to PvP TBN, however there will still be plenty of situations whete bosses simply stop attacking for extended periods of time and keep tank damage far too regulated to busters and auto attack phases.

We could really use more mechs like Delta Attack from O4S p2 or the spread + tank stack from Emerald Weapon EX.

[Oizen]

That’s not a problem of TBN that’s a problem of how hilariously little damage this game does

If the game can’t crack a 25% HP shield in 7 seconds the tanks are both too tanky inheritantly and the game isn’t doing enough damage

I really can't see them ever making the game harder though, and I feel like you know that as well.

[Supersnow845]

I really can't see them ever making the game harder though, and I feel like you know that as well.

Unfortunately it’s a consideration they will have to tackle eventually because even ignoring the tanks usurping the healer role the tanks are becoming internally unbalanced because they are way too overpowered relative to the other 2 roles

They are already functionally immortal, they take less damage than a caster when they have 7 vuln stacks, survive raidwides that oneshot the casters on 20% HP, and since TB’s are just kitchen sink or die the only way to split them in modern day is either on “how much can I can cuck the healer compared to you” or just constantly upping their damage, notice that tanks are unequivocally stronger than healers this expansion despite them having rough parity prior to this

People complain to the moon and back tanks are boring and homogenised but then never actually suggest anything that will actually differentiate them, instead just constantly asking for more more more to usurp each other, it’s strange the forums of the DPS never suggest this sort of thing, for example MCH is still pretty meh in damage but adding a second raidwide mitigation was a massive boom to them and they are happy with that, same as healer, tanks seem alone in always demanding that all 4 jobs just sit in an endless buff race that leaves the other 2 roles in the dust. Just look at every suggestion for DRK regarding their self sustain, it basically amounts to “give them dark bloodwhetting”

Either the game needs to be made harder or the tanks need to be nerfed, there is literally no other solution to this problem, because if TBN cracked by default that suddenly makes DRK much sturdier in all content because pressing TBN on CD becomes optimal, then suddenly PLD or GNB will complain about block not affecting x or parry not affecting y and then they get buffed and then WAR complains again and the circle goes round and round, eventually you have to accept nerfs to retain parity or otherwise make the game harder so you can’t cuck the other 2 roles and solo everything

[Oizen]

I think its more of the tank mitigations are balanced entirely around the highest end content out there. So they come off as overtuned in anything below that.
It kinda puts tank in this weird spot where its only as engaging/challenging as the content you're in is.

Theres also the issue that this game's combat system is so incredibly narrow in scope that there really isn't that much variety you can do in order to make a job good at something, like for lowering incoming damage you have shielding, regen and actual mit. We've already cornered ourselves by deciding that a job like WAR needs all 3 styles at once. There's really no where else to go with it, and I don't think its wrong for people to want Dark Knight to have its own equivalent for self sustain when formerly Shield Mitigation used to be Dark Knight exclusive until that was basically stolen off of it with Endwalker.


And I really can't see the Dev's ever nerfing one of their favorite jobs, because overall I'd describe FFXIV's balancing philosophy as "devs picked a favorite and that's gonna be the best option at everything", which expands to DPS and Healers as well.

[Absurdity]

It kinda puts tank in this weird spot where its only as engaging/challenging as the content you're in is.

Even then it's not particularly engaging in the content it's primarily designed for.
When was the last time you really needed to plan your mitigations just to survive? And I don't mean optimizing Vengeance to get some melee reflect damage out of it, I mean "Oh, for this buster happening at X minutes I have absolutely nothing ready.".
There isn't much thought involved in "solving" buster mitigation.

And since tank busters are pretty much the only remaining tank mechanic there is very little to do besides being a gimped DPS job.

[Oizen]

Even then it's not particularly engaging in the content it's primarily designed for.
When was the last time you really needed to plan your mitigations just to survive? And I don't mean optimizing Vengeance to get some melee reflect damage out of it, I mean "Oh, for this buster happening at X minutes I have absolutely nothing ready.".
There isn't much thought involved in "solving" buster mitigation.

And since tank busters are pretty much the only remaining tank mechanic there is very little to do besides being a gimped DPS job.

I only really find that sort of gameplay in optimizing TBN usage.

Every other tank is now Rampart + lv 82 button to survive anything, then follow it up with your other generic mit and your lv 82 button.

[Sazuzaki]

Well, at least the new combo looks cool bros... Has a nice heavy feel to it judging from the benchmark. They're finally adding more GCDs to DRK.