Dark Knight Megathread

[Grimfaust_BLM]

I strongly believe in the initial design philosophy behind this job and vehemently disagree with the direction it has been taken. That said, there are many elements about its current kit that I appreciate and while I would rather return to a more active 3.0-4.0-esque playstyle, my recommendations are based primarily on keeping the current iteration of the job mostly intact.

Dark Knight Issues

• Darkside as a mechanic has become superfluous
• The Blackest Night and Living Dead's fail-states require address
• DRK's mitigation suite sans TBN is inflexible
• Off-global ability bloat
• Blood Weapon's functionality requires address
• Living Shadow has no player interactivity
• Blood Weapon windows are restrictively congested while in-between "filler" phases are lacking in any degree of complexity.
• DRK lacks tools that all other tank classes have access to at lower levels
• Concerning all tank jobs: Gap closer skills having potency requires address

Proposed Skill Updates

• Darkside is now a passive trait acquired upon reaching level 30
• Blood Weapon duration extended to 30s, now grants 5 stacks which are consumed by each weaponskill or spell inside the duration, granting the effects of Blood Weapon.
• Stalwart Soul now learned at lv. 40
• Abyssal Drain removed
• Plunge, Onslaught, Intervene, Rough Divide damage component removed, Intervene and Onslaught acquisition at lv. 52
• Living Dead Duration reduced to 8s. Walking Dead duration increased to 12s, 20% increased healing received from all sources while under the effect.
• Dark Missionary now learned at lv. 66
• Sole Survivor trait, learned at lv. 76: Grants Sole Survivor for 20s when TBN effect ends without the barrier being completely absorbed. When the effect expires 10% max hp and 3000 mp is restored
• Enhanced Dark Mind learned at lv. 84: Dark Mind now also grants Dark Dance increasing parry rate to 100% for 8s
• Enhanced Blood Weapon learned at lv. 86: Adds a lifesteal effect to Blood Weapon granting a portion of damage dealt by spells or weaponskills as healing received. Additionally grants Malignance for 15s. If, while under the effect of Malignance 50% of maximum MP is spent, gain Malfeasance for 30s.
• Malfeasance: greatly enhances the potency of your next Blood Gauge spender while also removing its cost. Malfeasance status ends upon execution of either Bloodspiller or Quietus. Bloodspiller or Quietus executed while under the effect of Malfeasance do not consume a stack of Delirium.
• Dark Synergy trait, learned at lv. 90: Using Shadowbringer while Living Shadow is active extends its duration and grants your simulacrum an additional use of Shadowbringer up to two times.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

[Jakulo]

Enhanced blood weapon and dark synergy are very interesting ideas, but I don't think removing abyssal drain is a good thing. The sole survivor effect should be added to abyssal drain with a stronger effect, 15%-20%, since having it on TBN means it's a free 10% max hp heal on a 15s cd with no downside thanks to the refund so we never want it to break. Our gap closers can remain as is since having two stacks allows it to be both used for damage and movement if we plan ahead. They may as well make darkside a trait if it remains the way it is for the rest of expansions but I much rather they do something interesting with it than neglect it.

[ArthurATDayne]

I'm generally OK with the current Dark Knight gameplay since I find it a relaxing forgiving Tank to play compared to say a Paladin.

When I say forgiving I mean that I'm not bound by any strict combo rotation and can just use a high potency attack on demand because it isn't locked behind a combo to enable it I.E. screwed up combo by a key like press 1,2,3 instead of 1,2,4 means I have to go through those GCDs again to get my Atonement Stacks to use another Key "0" (my keybind for Atonement) during a boss fight or something.

100% agree with updating the 30 to 80 to 90 experience and introducing the skills more gradually in a smoother manner.

Blood Weapon is still an ongoing problem with its 10 seconds (more like 9ish seconds) awful skill that should be 5 charges or replaced with another skill like Shadowbringers to Restore Blood/Mana in a more satisfying manner.

Anyway, regarding the need for reliable On-Demand Healing for Dark Knight, why couldn't SquareEnix just modify the existing Abyssal Drain skill like instead of the stupid Cure Potency 200 for each enemy just make it a flat 1000-1200 whatever Potency Heal over Time 12 Seconds or something on 60 second Cooldown? Maybe make it 2 charges. Now it doesn't suck against 1 target like a boss and it is good enough to use against a huge mob for wall to wall pulls. Could even make it a level 82 or 84 Trait to upgrade Abyssal Drain so players feel like they getting something good leveling up.

And I'm still pushing for Oblation as a Quality of Life/Ease of Use Trait upgrade for The Blackest Night, after bubble pops or expires, 5 seconds of 10-15% reduced damage taken because Gee, What Am I Gonna Do With Oblation When TBN is on Cooldown and I'm getting whammed by the Enemy? HMMMM USE Mitigation Skill Now. 4 uses of TBN Per Minute, 20 seconds Uptime on Oblation per Minute.

I rather not have to use Salted Earth because it's a button bloat static drop AOE in a game where we are constantly avoiding Attacks and AOE markers on the ground and having to move around all the time with mobs and bosses. That 90 second cooldown is pretty bad too, like I'm not putting that on my main hotbar, it's going on the 2nd or 3rd hotbar, maybe the F8 Key or something if I care enough to use it... or not.

Why not remove that Salted Earth skill and instead Trait Upgrade Carve & Split to be AOE, increased potency to reflect additional damage per 60 seconds CD? Mobile and Don't have to change hotbars. SquareEnix should give it a cooler updated animation too.

P.S. I also saw a nice suggestion to incorporate Oblation into Dark Mind as an upgrade so instead of being just for reduced magic damage it gets some general purpose reduced damage capabilities so it doesn't feel completely useless against physical attacks. That's agreeable too and much better thought out than just a Lame 10% reduced damage taken 2 charge extra button bloat skill at level 82.

[Freezaen]

1. What issue with Dark Knight do you have since 5.0?

My 2 main gripes are, unsurprisingly, Blood Weapon and our magic mitigation (the DMs). I won't talk about Living Dead. TBN is fine in 5.0, but will suck in 6.0 compared to what the other tanks are getting, so I'll touch on that when I answer question 5 below.

2. Is there a viable solution to your problem? If so, write it down.

For Blood Weapon, because it's tied to resource generation, I would use the stack system that's applied to Delirium in the media tour build, which would eliminate the risk of not being able to fit 5 GCDs into the wonky 9.5s duration and solve the issue for both Weaponskills and Spells. With that said, in order to give us some variety, I would then remove said stack system from Delirium and give that a 6s duration instead, allowing for 3 Bloodspillers to be used comfortably at a 2.5s GCD as intended, while rewarding good DRK gameplay.

For Dark Mind and Dark Missionary, I would apply the Feint / Addle treatment. My solution is to give these abilities half-effectiveness against non-magical damage (10% and 5% respectively) and full current effectiveness against magical damage. We'd preserve some flavour, while still covering all our bases. Let's be honest, the vast majority of mitigatable damage in FFXIV is magical.

3. What did you like about previous iterations of Dark Knight?

I don't necessarily agree with what folk have been saying with regards to DRK having lost its identity. Thinking back on previous iterations of DRK, for me, 2-3 mechanical elements stand out: MP management, OGCD ability spam and to a lesser extent magic damage mitigation. As for visual identity, well, Dark Knights are anti-Paladins; we wield enormous swords in powerful sweeping motions and draw on our emotions to unleash dark magics. I think those elements are still present.

With that said, I miss some of the old animation, especially Scourge (the lightsaber-esque sound effect was K I L L E R), Power Slash, Delirium, Dark Passenger and SHADOWSKIN. I'd love for those to come back. Most of those could be used by our Living Shadow and Shadowskin could be our own version of Rampart like it used to be.

4. How did DRK capture your interest while playing FFXIV?

I think it looks great and I like that it's an altruistic hero in the lore, out there protecting innocents.

[Freezaen]

5. What would you change about the media tour build?

I'd seek to build upon what we already have in Shadowbringers by rewarding good gameplay and by improving our existing skills, as SE have done for other tanks.

(a) Realistically:

82 - Oblation is fine. It's our version of Aurora.

84 - Scrap Enhanced Unmend. We need our own upgraded mitigation, i.e. Enhanced TBN. Each other tank has an initial effect and a lingering effect on their personal and targetable mitigation abilities, but we don't want copies of their abilities, so I propose that TBN now have an initial 8s shield at 25% that grants Dark Arts when popped + a lingering 4s shield at 10% that doesn't. I also think we should be able to accumulate 2 Dark Arts for increased flexibility in deciding to use TBN versus Edge of Shadow. They seem to want to keep the risk and reward mana-based TBN gameplay, so I believe this would be a viable change.

86 - Salt and Darkness looks cool and deals damage. Boring? Maybe, but I like it.

88 - Extra damage on Living Shadow is welcome, I guess, but I think there's more that could be done with it. LS is really just a glorified DoT effect that looks like our dead friend, so I'd add some style to it by bringing back some of our old animations; Scourge, Power Slash, Delirium and Dark Passenger. It'd deal the same damage, but offer a clearer differentiation between us and Fray, as well as a nod to those old animations we so miss.

90 - Shadowbringer is the big one for this expansion and honestly it's disappointing. 2 charges means we'll probably be saving it for our 120s burst window and adding two OGCDs to our already busy rotation, but it'll deal less damage overall than Double Down if the media tour potencies hold true. I propose that they rethink the ability to make it stand out from the rest of our kit (another OGCD just won't cut it) and from those of the other tanks. Currently, good DRK gameplay consists of executing 5 Edges during our 60s burst window, so I suggest that every time we spend mana (either on TBN or on Edge), we receive a stack of "Twilight" or something to unlock and enhance Shadowbringer, which would deal its maximum at 5 stacks, a bit like Apex Arrow. I think it should be on the global cooldown to give us some breathing room and let the animation be properly displayed. I also think it should deal damage similar to that of Double Down. This would reward good gameplay and make for a more satisfying ability.

(b) Ideally:

90 - The current animation for Shadowbringer is a HUGE let-down, especially if it remains off the global cooldown when the expansion goes live. It's basically just a bigger badder Flood and I find that to be an awful addition to our visual identity; a missed opportunity. I don't expect SE to change the animation, BUT IF THEY WERE TO DO SO, I think it'd be absolutely amazing for them to draw inspiration from the Shadowbringers opening cinematic. Dear developers, please give us an animation where we raise our sword up high above our heads and perform a deadly vertical slash that sunders the sky with some nice purple particle effects. <3

[Beddict]

As for visual identity, well, it's the anti-PLD; it's a big sword, slow animations and dark magic. I think we've still got those elements.

See, this one baffles me and actually feels out of place. DRK was the fast Tank, and I feel like the animations were made with the intent of going fast, to have the attacks flow into each other quickly, keeping up the momentum of the large swings. That's why Blood Weapon was so much fun to me, it made me attack 10% faster, and it was on a low 40s cooldown giving it great uptime. Hell, Stormblood went even further with Delirium increasing the duration by 8s. The Job feels off to me without that speed, and I wish Darkside was just 10% Haste buff rather than a 10% damage buff.

[Shin96]

Here is how you fix DRK's identity issue:

Add Haste to Bloodweapon. That's it, literally. There is your fast, speedy and hectic tank.

Want better damage output? GNB does a better job. Want better self-sustain? We have Warrior. Want a mix of everything? Go with Paladin.

The job needs two DoT's. I want to put my mind to something. Focusing on your base 1-2-3 MP generation combo to use Bloodspiller non-stop isn't good enough. As for Delirium, I'd prefer GNB's continuation combo instead of WAR's IR. At least that's more fun. Additionally, I would take a look at the animations and sounds to enhance the experience.

To summarize: Living Dead needs to be fixed, and Blood Weapon should either integrate Haste or an HP mechanic to give self-sustain.

There is your identity. How frustrating is it when the solution is right infront of you but you refuse to do anything about it. That's the devs not knowing better.

[Ignimortis]

See, this one baffles me and actually feels out of place. DRK was the fast Tank, and I feel like the animations were made with the intent of going fast, to have the attacks flow into each other quickly, keeping up the momentum of the large swings. That's why Blood Weapon was so much fun to me, it made me attack 10% faster, and it was on a low 40s cooldown giving it great uptime. Hell, Stormblood went even further with Delirium increasing the duration by 8s. The Job feels off to me without that speed, and I wish Darkside was just 10% Haste buff rather than a 10% damage buff.

Just putting 10% haste on Darkside would make me go back to DRK at this point, I think. Disregarding the janky design and the lack of cohesion in the kit. I just want to go fast with a giant sword...

Also, putting haste onto BW at this point would be a humiliation move. BW used to last 15/23 seconds on a 40 seconds CD (Delirium was on a 80 seconds CD, so every second BW was buffed), so it had almost 50% uptime in StB. Right now, it has a 16.6% uptime since it's 10 seconds on a 60 seconds CD. Just go the full distance, and make it ~100% uptime.

[Baxcel]

How about for a living dead fix, remove the death unless full healed requirement and add in it'd place healing and damage from all sources is disabled but all damage done by the DRK has hp restored simular to soul eater but all damage sources and the hp stays where its at, at the end of the immunity.

[Dingodrole]

I was thinking about Abyssal Drain, and a potencial synergy it could get with Living Dead.

Abyssal Drain becoming an oGCD with a low recast time, such as FoS / EoS, costing 20 or 25 blood to use, and making your next GCD either have potency heal, or sustain.
Ideally, the blood cost would be DPS neutral with Bloodspiller / Quietus, so it doesn't become a frustrating skill to use because of the fact that you know you're loosing DPS using it ( even though, being an oGCD, would probably make that quite difficult i believe ? ).

To me the benefit are quite massive if a change like that would happen, and it would also be a realistic change to happen, rather than having to wait and pray for a massive rework of the job.

This way, if you plan ahead, you can stockpile Blood in order to deal with your own LD. Also, having an oGCD blood spender would also make the " rare " situation of having Delirium and Blood weapon active at the same time, not being clunky because you will be able to actually regulate your gauge, rather than being in that " Oh shit, i will overcap " situation.
It also gives a bit more interaction and planning with your blood gauge, instead of just not giving a damn about it.
While we lost our Haste effect tied to Blood Weapon, i believe a change like this would make us " artificially " feel faster.

A change like this would also give a QoL when it comes to MinMaxing dps.
In SB, we had TBN granting a free bloodspiller, giving us a tool to manage our GCD management, so we can end a rotation just before a boss' downtime.
By having the option to either do a bloodspiller for 50 blood, or let's say not doing so, but doing 2 abyssal drain ( that would ideally be DPS neutral ressource wise ), it would give us even more flexibility in that regard.

There are probably flaws in my idea, but i still felt like sharing.