Possible DRK changes, HW onward used as a basis

[Zairava]

Yeah, among countless and countless of threads we have yet another DRK one. I just hope that they will look at this one and maybe consider it. This will be pretty in depth. There will be a second part to this in the replies because there isn't enough room for all of it in one post

With that said, I haven't been happy with the job since 5.0 dropped. While I think just busier WAR was a fine template for the time being absolutely nothing with it has changed with that aside of the lackluster additions in Endwalker.

If they intend on keeping TBN in the game there needs to be something to help DRK feel less squishy before level 70. I have two things in mind.

1) They could put oblation down to a lower level with one charge, and buff it to 15% damage reduction instead of 10%, and for 6-8 seconds instead of 10. They could make it either replace Dark Mind, or place it at lvl 58 it has an empty slot
2) They could tap it on at lvl 58 since that interval has an empty slot with no changes, and add the charge later at 82.

With that said, now I can get to the general changes.

Assuming they end up putting oblation to the lower level, I'd like to list how my two options could branch out respectively.

1a) They upgrade Oblation to The Blackest Night(TBN). TBN no longer requires mana and also no longer grants Dark Arts(DA) and is an in general 25% damage reduction for 6 seconds on a 25s cooldown.
-At level 82, TBN upgrades into "Dance of the Dead" or some other better name. The damage reduction remains the same, however instead of no longer granting DA, at the end of it's duration we get get a Sole Survivor Ready proc. Upon using this we get to use Sole Survivor, it is an aoe instead of a single target, with a unique and new animation. Upon landing landing any attack on the enemies with it's effect grants a 200 potency heal, this effect would last 6 seconds. Making this 200 instead of 400 would ensure that the self-sustain isn't broken with DRK's already powerful mitigation (also Abyssal Drain being in itself 200 potency per enemy hit).

1b)Oblation gets the second charge. TBN gets the upgrade listed above, still remaining as a barrier rather than straight damage reduction.

2) Living dead. Seriously, the only change it needs is so that it doesn't kill us at the end, but if the change to TBN is made above, it shouldn't be of much concern anymore so long as it's timed right.

[Zairava]

3) The only changes Blood Weapon needs is a stack system instead of a 10s duration. It would be nice to have the haste return to help our spells aoe's come faster since they're stuck feeling very slow.

4a) Bring back old Dark Arts, if they don't want to tie it to defensives/sustain anymore, I have ideas in mind. Considering Eukrasia on Sage is quite literally what Dark Arts once did, I don't see this too far-fetched of an idea. I've seen someone post this idea in a much similar fashion. Dark Arts would cost 10/15 seconds off of the Darkside gauge

4b) It changes offensive actions.
-First, lets get one thing down, replace Souleater with Power slash but keep the effect, modify the healing visual effect as needed Souleater is a very underwhelming ability by comparison visually. DA would upgrade Power Slash/Souleater(if they keep it) to Scourge. Scourge has the same effect as it did in HW, make it whatever potency or whatever is needed for balance, and a DoT.
-Next, DA would upgrade stalwart soul into Tar Pit, it would be whatever potency they deem fit and the heal potency would be 100 per enemy hit.

4)Bring back Blood Price, and it returns 200MP for every time you get hit by an enemy.

5) Delirium should not be worse inner release, leave that gimmick to Warrior. A couple effects I have in mind are to either bring it's MP gen back, or make it refresh the cooldown on carve and spit/Abyssal Drain

6) Living Shadow, given that they bring Scourge back, would need it's potency nerfed for balance.

7) enhanced unmend should honestly be left in the dust, it isn't that good of a trait.

That all said, lets move on to the animations.

I've already listed a couple in some of the text above, but the majority feel incredibly underwhelming and weightless. The impact and oomph isn't there like it used to be. Edge and flood should have new animation I feel, and I'm not really fond of the big purple attacks that came into play, when it really feels like they should be black and red. Power Slash would be much better than Souleater. Just power slash, Scourge, Tar Pit, and Sole Survivor alone would make the class at least feel more impactful upon landing hits, with more weight behind it.

Shadowbringer feels and looks like just Flood 2.0, The ability on it's own is okay with how it functions, but it could be better visually. I'd rather the animation of Dark Passenger took its place.

I used to main this job, and I loved it, but it honestly hasn't felt the same, let alone like it's own thing, since Shadowbringers launched. Again, I hope this is looked at, because I really do feel like these changes would actually benefit the job overall.

[Hierro]

Let's use SB as the basis instead, kthxbai

[Undeadfire]

3) The only changes Blood Weapon needs is a stack system instead of a 10s duration. It would be nice to have the haste return to help our spells aoe's come faster since they're stuck feeling very slow.

Stacks are fine but the increase speed would require potency cuts on their GCDs.

Scourge has the same effect as it did in HW, make it whatever potency or whatever is needed for balance, and a DoT.

DOTs are really powerful on their potency level and current stats, I would generally be careful with this.

4)Bring back Blood Price, and it returns 200MP for every time you get hit by an enemy.

This is banned from tanks since Shadowbringers, it's never coming back, ever, cooldowns based on this only generates tank favouring for more DPS, and can really screw raid balancing.

5) Delirium should not be worse inner release, leave that gimmick to Warrior. A couple effects I have in mind are to either bring it's MP gen back, or make it refresh the cooldown on carve and spit/Abyssal Drain

Potency changes.

[Sazuzaki]

This is banned from tanks since Shadowbringers, it's never coming back, ever, cooldowns based on this only generates tank favouring for more DPS, and can really screw raid balancing.

Blood Price would be fine as long as we can put it on other tanks. Would love to see Blood Price be slapped on Dark Mind or Oblation as I mentioned before, would give DRK that "avenge/revenge" theme. Ofc might need to adjust potencies but it would be very flavorful for DRK and wouldn't need a ton of balancing.

We still have things like vengeance, which is a very very slight DPS gain for WAR if taking physical damage, but still a dps gain for MTing nonetheless.

[Undeadfire]

Blood Price would be fine as long as we can put it on other tanks. Would love to see Blood Price be slapped on Dark Mind or Oblation as I mentioned before, would give DRK that "avenge/revenge" theme. Ofc might need to adjust potencies but it would be very flavorful for DRK and wouldn't need a ton of balancing.

We still have things like vengeance, which is a very very slight DPS gain for WAR if taking physical damage, but still a dps gain for MTing nonetheless.

Doesn't matter if you put it on all tanks, giving them resources for taking any attack is precisely why it's banned, they gave a pack of DPS just taking damage. Vengeance only gives a very tiny amount potency less than auto attacks, and requires boss actually physically hitting you which isn't much.

Paladin gained DPS shield blocking using Shield Swipe in SB.
Dark Knight gained DPS by MP feed and Low Blow in HW.

This can be extremely exploited in raids to pad a certain tank with a stronger burst, and leave the other out.

[Sazuzaki]

This can be extremely exploited in raids to pad a certain tank with a stronger burst, and leave the other out.

I don't see how this can be extremely exploited in raids. During adds phase where the DRK is tanking 2 adds? Maybe. But I don't see how it would improve the burst that much. If 200 MP per hit is really a problem, lower it to 100 MP. Getting 100 MP per hit on you or the other tank wouldn't be an extreme DPS gain. Now if it scaled on damage, THAT would be super broken, but in this example it isn't.

I'd argue it'd be much more busted in dungeons, but we already have Blood Whetting. Even before that, we had Nascent Flash which was only a little worse.

[Undeadfire]

I'll explain better.

If one of these tanks obtained.

Blood price on Drk, get more MP: More DPS number total, groups will always make the Drk main tank in every circumstance.
Shield Swipe on Pld, Shield Block damage: More DPS number total, groups will always make the Pld main tank in every circumstance.
War/Gnb the same if they obtained one.

Now for all tanks.

Whichever tank has the largest DPS will always put fourth front to MT and in comps, including Pld/Gnb can enhance the damage with their cooldown.
Many raid groups will purposely keep tank swapping for more DPS, including risk of higher danger for the extra DPS.
Depending on tool kits, Drk gaining MP can be a huge gain over other tanks straight potency response.

This is extremely difficult to balance out, you don't want this, nor does SE... High/Top tier raid groups will pad the certain tank whichever has the better value, sucked into bottomless hole trying to balance it out.

[Sazuzaki]

I'll explain better.

If one of these tanks obtained.

Blood price on Drk, get more MP: More DPS number total, groups will always make the Drk main tank in every circumstance.
Shield Swipe on Pld, Shield Block damage: More DPS number total, groups will always make the Pld main tank in every circumstance.
War/Gnb the same if they obtained one.

Now for all tanks.

Whichever tank has the largest DPS will always put fourth front to MT and in comps, including Pld/Gnb can enhance the damage with their cooldown.
Many raid groups will purposely keep tank swapping for more DPS, including risk of higher danger for the extra DPS.
Depending on tool kits, Drk gaining MP can be a huge gain over other tanks straight potency response.

This is extremely difficult to balance out, you don't want this, nor does SE... High/Top tier raid groups will pad the certain tank whichever has the better value, sucked into bottomless hole trying to balance it out.

I see what you're trying to say, but I did mention being able to apply it to other tanks like TBN or Oblation. It would fix the whole 'DRK must MT' issue, cause you would still be able to get full uptime with Blood Price if you could target it onto the current MT. I agree DPS gains for MTing is bad tank design, but most could've been (mostly) fixed if we could just get procs from applying said effect to whoever is currently main tanking. Ex: Proc Shield Swipe from putting Intervention onto the MT. Sorry if this isn't explained well, trying my best LOL

As for DPS, it wouldn't be much of a DPS gain if it was only around 100-150 MP per hit. It would basically just be a little Extra MP regen for 10 seconds, while on say a 60 second CD.

[Weetzlo]

I'll explain better.

If one of these tanks obtained.

Blood price on Drk, get more MP: More DPS number total, groups will always make the Drk main tank in every circumstance.
Shield Swipe on Pld, Shield Block damage: More DPS number total, groups will always make the Pld main tank in every circumstance.
War/Gnb the same if they obtained one.

Now for all tanks.

Whichever tank has the largest DPS will always put fourth front to MT and in comps, including Pld/Gnb can enhance the damage with their cooldown.
Many raid groups will purposely keep tank swapping for more DPS, including risk of higher danger for the extra DPS.
Depending on tool kits, Drk gaining MP can be a huge gain over other tanks straight potency response.

This is extremely difficult to balance out, you don't want this, nor does SE... High/Top tier raid groups will pad the certain tank whichever has the better value, sucked into bottomless hole trying to balance it out.

They don't need to balance around this though. High tier groups/people looking for best parse are already comfortable eating vuln stacks to greed melee uptime, but they didn't balance around that idea. Like if the top tier groups want to do some wild strat to shave some seconds off their kill, what does that harm anything as long as its doable without the extra swaps?