Dark Knight Improvement Idea

[Celtazar]

I would like to start this by saying that I like the design and feel of 5.0 DRK. Ever since I picked up DRK as my first tank job since starting this game, I have grown to really enjoy the flow of the job.
I have read the many, many complaints about the job. Most of these haven't really concerned me. Living Dead can be frustrating, I agree, but when I'm paired with the healers in my static, we never have an issue.
There is one subject that I would like to discuss here, which is self-healing. Out of all the tanks, DRK lacks in the area of self-healing. Abyssal Drain, while fantastic for double pulls in dungeons, is completely useless during a single-target boss fight, and depending on crits, will do less healing than my regular 1-2-3 combo. However, while I want DRK to receive a self-heal ability, I would prefer it match DRK's identity. Each of the other tank's have a healing ability which matches their identity: WAR enjoying the thrill of battle and nascent flash, PLD casting self healing spells, and GNB having essentially a field medicine kit on hand through Aurora.
Here is my idea for a DRK self-heal:

1) Remove "Living Shadow" from the Blood Gauge and place it on a 2 minute cooldown. If a condition must be met, let it be under the effect of "dark side"

2) In place of "Living Shadow," add an off-global self-heal ability to blood gauge. This can cost 50 blood gauge as the other abilities do, and for a bonus, it can be named "Blood Price," the lv. 35 DRK ability from Heavensward. This change accomplishes two things:

DRK is unique in that it uses two different gauges in its rotation: MP and Blood Gauge. Of the MP abilities, DRK has a single target attack (Edge of Shadow), an AoE attack (Flood of Shadow), and a mitigation (The Blackest Night). On the Blood Gauge side, we have a single target attack (Bloodspiller), an AoE attack (Quietus), but no mitigation. As a result, "Living Shadow" feels out of place on the Blood Gauge because it doesn't match the pattern set by MP.

By placing a self-heal ability tied that uses 50 Blood Gauge, this makes DRK require more strategy in a fight. A single use of "Blood Weapon" can charge at least one use of Blood Gauge for emergencies. Otherwise, this adds an extra dimension to Savage fight planning. A DRK can charge a full Blood Gauge in advance for intense healing mechanics, or for use during Walking Dead to help healers with resolving the "Walking Dead" debuff. So I as a DRK have an extra thing to think about: do I want to use my Blood Gauge for DPS or for self-healing? It makes DRK more flexible in both dungeon and boss fights.

I think the above changes will satisfy some dissatisfactions in the community. Personally, I will continue to main DRK into 6.0 and Savage Prog, and I'm looking forward to the Delirium changes giving a DRK a more active rotation which is in sync with all its off-globals. Thank you!

[LaughingOctopus]

I would like to add on DRK mana consumption/restoration:

I would like some sort of ability that restore MP from Healing. Like 10% or 20% of HP restored to MP. This MP from healing can be put as additional passive to existing abilities like blood weapon or even living dead. also, please remove MP cost on The Blackest Night

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Firstly, I generally recommend posting ideas about DRK in their Mega Thread, as the FFXIV dev team explained they will more likely skim through large postcount over finding individual posts. ( https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ght-Megathread )

To your idea - taking Living Shadow off the Blood Gauge wont make it worse, just less interesting for Blood Gauge management and by extension more boring, as you just further reduce decisionmaking for the offense kit.

The problem with your iteration of Blood Price is that you tie it to the Blood Gauge without refunding the cost in terms of damage. Spending 50 Blood on Bloodspiller is on average a 300 potenvy gain, so it needs at very leaat refund 300 potency worth of damage to be actually used.

The Blackest Night gets away with this as correct usage directly returns your 3000MP spent and the only downsides are that with extensive usage you simply don't pool the maximum amount of Edge of Shadows and that incorrect usage as in not breaking it obviously makes you waste 3000MP.

I could go on a massive explanation of why TBN not being a 0 cost 25s CD like the other tanks is what keeps me from losing my final braincells playing DRK since I need to remember damage values of bosses to make efficient use and I also get to mitigate damage in a way othe tanks can't, I know I'm in the minority, especially since I am not chasing top level damage with DRK, which is what ironically most players seem to be focused on, regardless of their own skill level. But I digress.

I am not against changes on DRK, but the payout needs to be sufficient.