Low developer effort rework for the DRK Job

[C0ATL]

Maybe this will turn out to be an unpopular opinion, but here is what I think about dark knight:

It's way too similar to warrior in cooldowns and attacks, but without the self heal. In other words, it does not have a personality of its own. Another downside to it is that in EW it feels like you need an extra hand to be able to play it effectively, weaving the absurd amount of OGCDs into your globals. Example: for tankbusters in ShB, TBN was good enough. Now you need TBN and Oblation. Delirium change was the best DRK received, but it also means you have another gcd to press 50% more often than in ShB, or else you are not getting the most you can from it. Salted earth is another great example, where before it wasn't the end of the world if u missed it for a gcd or two because u were weaving more important skills, but now you have that 500 potency attack baked into it, creating a sense of urgency to mash it whenever its on cooldown and also giving you 2 mandatory extra buttons to press.

All that being said, the following are some changes that would give DRK his own personality and make some of those OGCDs worth pressing. It is what I call the Clutch Knight.

- TBN cd is increased to 25 sec but mana cost is removed. (still requires a skill check to use at full potential, because it needs to break for proccing dark arts. cd increased to compensate not requiring MP)
- Dark Missionary duration decreased from 15 sec to 4 and magic damage reduction increased from 10 to 20% (time it right and u get to be a hero. time it wrong.. you wasted the cooldown)
- Oblation duration decreased from 10 sec to 4 and damage reduction increased increased from 10 to 25%. (save that greedy dps from himself with a quick intervention, then let the healers deal with him. again, you need to time it right or else it's a wasted cd)
- Dark Mind duration reduced from 10 sec to 4 and magic damage reduction increased from 20 to 25% (simple change. potency increased to compensate for low duration)
- Salted Earth triggers the 500 potency attack from the new trait automatically and instantly when you cast it, leaving the aoe dot behind. (potency can be lowered from 500 to 350 to balance the fact that its less effort to use)
- Enhanced Unmend is removed and replaced with Assault Mastery (better name pending), reducing Carve and Spit and Abyssal Drain cooldown by 15 seconds.

[C0ATL]

- Enhanced Living Shadow II is removed (lets be honest... that should be baked into the ability, the moment you get the Shadowbringer ability. This feels even more useless as a trait than Enhanced Unmend and that says a lot)
- With Enhanced Living Shadow II removed, it leaves space for another trait: Enhanced Blood Spiller/Quietus: While under the effect of Delirium, your Bloodspiller potency is increased from 500 to 600 and Quietus potency is increased from 200 to 230. (as the tank with the lowest self-sustain, currently, I believe DRK should be able to top the tank dps meters due to this shortcoming, and this suggested trait could help with that)
- I'm not even gonna open the can of worms that is Living Dead....

Exept the trait reworks mentioned, I think these changes would represent a low effort rework for the DRK, while also giving it its own personality, and letting the class stand out with its own style of play. Keep in mind that I'm a relative newbie to FF, so the numbers posted might be way off their mark in terms of balance, but the overall idea of a clutch tank might hold merit. It also follows the lore, as DRK are supposed to come in and do their protecting when you least expect it or when hope is lost. A citizen of Ishgard is mugged in an alley and the corrupt guards wont do anything about it because they will receive a cut... BOOM! a DRK comes in, deals with the threat, no fucks given about consequences. A Black Mage got too greedy in his leylines the healer doesn't have rescue off cooldown. He knows his sprint wont be enough to get him out of the aoe so he prepares for the inevitable deletion of his health bar. BOOM! Oblation! The effect lasts only long enough till the smoke clears but its enough ..the BLM escapes with a sliver of his life and gets topped off by the healers, and on the other side of the arena, a DRK grunts, annoyed - we know it was greed, but we'll save your ass anyway, because despite being edge lords, you're part of the team and we care.

The role of this post is to show that a simple shifting of the numbers and values for some abilities can have a huge impact on how the job can be played. In my opinion it's a rework that can be done with relatively low effort from the dev team... not that I hope it will ever be read by them, but without at least trying, nothing is achieved.

[NyneSwordz]

I'd suggest not making posts like these. One, it's too long. And two, sometimes they ban people for making mean posts criticizing the devs in a rude way. Becareful and mindful of how you word things. Be nice.

[C0ATL]

I'd suggest not making posts like these. One, it's too long. And two, sometimes they ban people for making mean posts criticizing the devs in a rude way. Becareful and mindful of how you word things. Be nice.

Hey, thanks for the reply ^_^
I genuinely do not understand how it is considered rude... If you mean the last paragraph, I meant it from a purely realistic standpoint. I am fully aware they browse the forums, but from the amount of posts , I do not expect for them to stumble onto mine, of all things. I was not implying that the devs are not reading the forums or being in touch with the community.
As for the length, I don't think a class rework suggestion can be summarized in 3k characters, especially if the person suggesting it also wants to explain the reasoning behind the changes.

[Kalaam]

The title "low effort" can easily imply that the devs are lazy. That is likely what would be considered rude.
Anything that implies that the fix is "easy" "quick" etc implies either/or: the devs are incompetent, you know more than them, the devs are lazy.
Wording is important, especially when criticizing someone else's work.

[Xrison]

People on this forum get offended WAY too easily. I understood that "low effort" refers to the ease of OP's suggestions to implement. Not that the devs put low effort into the current DRK build.

[Aluja89]

Eh don't listen to these sycophants, I call them biased unprofessional inept hacks all the time and I'm still here, I don't see the reason to sugarcoat things when it's the truth.

[Kalaam]

It's not the truth, it's just you being rude because you think it makes you sound smart.
That's your opinion, not the truth.

[Aluja89]

It's not the truth, it's just you being rude because you think it makes you sound smart.
That's your opinion, not the truth.

The truth is developers should design things they also want to play, but they're not. Because they're biased unprofessional inept hacks.

That's my truth, in all these years I've played MMOs I've never seen such a disregard towards tanks and healers.

I pay for the game and I'll judge it as I see fit, get out of here with your rude crap.

[shao32]

I criticized the Devs many times trying to not be rude, but has human beings they are we cannot deny they have opinions like everyone else and are not being totally impartial with some jobs and that's make it really hard not starting to be rude with his constant roulette of totally questionable design choices.
They love design certain jobs and they absolutely don't love design other jobs and DRK is a job they don't love to desing at all, there is nothing wrong on being mad at it, it has been a constant struggle since the job has been added and it lost his original designer, if they are so sturborn on defend his, at this date the intentionally worst designed job of the game, the comunity are only going to be more harsh on them bcs of it and personally i independent of how much good they did to the game they deserve it for this particular case.