Thread: Incorporating old systems and better leveling experience for dark knight

Another rework idea, the numbers and potency are probably all over the place but hopefully the changes make some sense.

Goals of this rework:

A more cohesive playstyle that combines the new and the old as well as creating a more smooth leveling experience.

Adding back dark arts and combining it with edge/flood felt natural since the two abilities were meant to be it’s replacement. Tying dark arts to edge/flood also means we can’t mindlessly spam it or we waste damage by overriding dark arts.

Adding scourge in this form so spending mp does not always extend darkside so we actually have to manage our mp use. The devs gave Shadow of Death to reaper and Hurajin to ninja so I’m sure this is possible.

A slight increase to our mp generation through buffing siphon strike and haste so we have a little extra mp to use in between our burst windows.

Combining delirium and living shadow so our kit feels more complete by lvl 70 and to free up button space. Also the animation for the two is sort of similar(putting something into your chest and pulling something out) which is why I felt like merging them.

Removing mp cost from TBN and adding a lower level counterpart to round out our mitigation as well as keeping the counter attack aspect that's present throughout all versions of dark knight in the form of retaliation and last resort. (I wasn’t sure if removing the cost was the right move but with everything else it might be better to disconnect it from our main damage source.)

Merging oblation and dark mind. Freeing up space and buffing both abilities’ usability.

Changing abyssal drain back to a spell and functions similarly to how it was pre 5.0. You won’t be invincible as you will run out of mp eventually but it should be good sustain for dungeons.

Job Mechanics:

Darkside - A buff gained and maintained through the weaponskill, scourge. Increase damage dealt by the dark knight by 10% and reduce the recast time of all weaponskills and spells by 5%.

Dark arts - A buff gained through your flood and edge abilities. It modifies certain skills and is consumed when those skills are used. Can only be gained when darkside is active.

Blackblood - A resource gained through certain skills. Used to execute more powerful abilities.

Actions:

Lv. 1 Hard slash
Lv. 2 siphon strike - Restores 800mp.
Lv. 6 Unleash - Restores 200mp.
Lv. 10 Grit
Lv. 15 Unmend
Lv. 20 Scourge - Weaponskill, cost 1500mp. 150 potency, grants 30s of darkside and extends it by 30s up to 60s.
Lv. 26 Souleater - 340 potency, 300 cure potency, and grants 10 blackblood. Action changes to power slash when under dark arts.
Lv. 30 Flood of Darkness - 2500mp 120 potency, grants dark arts and 10 blackblood.
Lv. 30 Edge of Darkness - 2500mp 240 potency, grants dark arts and 10 blackblood.
Lv. 30 Power slash - 440 potency, 300 cure potency, and grants 10 blackblood.
Lv. 35 Blood Weapon - 60s recast, 5 stacks of blood weapon for 20s. Restores 600mp and grants 10 blackblood when landing weaponskills or spells.
Lv. 38 Shadow Wall
Lv. 40 Shadowskin - 20s recast. 15% max hp shield for 8s and grants retaliation when the shield takes damage.
Lv. 45 Dark Mind - 60s recast, 15% magic damage reduction and grants blood price for 10s.
Blood price effect: Heal for 100 potency when attacked.
Lv. 50 Living Dead - 300s recast. Grants living dead for 10s, if you fall below 1 hp, you are healed for the same amount of hp you had at the time of activating living dead. Cannot receive damage or healing for 10s. Can receive shields.
Lv. 52 Abyssal Drain - 100 potency spell. When under dark arts, potency increases to 150, 100 cure potency, grants 10 blackblood, and extends darkside by 20s. Only usable when darkside is active.
Lv. 54 Plunge
Lv. 56 Salted Earth - 45s recast, 15s 50 potency ground dot. Cost 15s of darkside.
Lv. 58 Last resort (Sole survivor animation) - 90s recast, 150 potency targeted aoe. Reduce damage dealt by all targets by 5% for 15s. Only usable when you have retaliation.
Lv. 60 Carve and Spit - 60s recast, 510 potency and restores 800mp. Guaranteed critical hit when under dark arts.
Lv. 62 Bloodspiller - 50 blackblood 500 potency, Restores 200mp and 250 cure potency. 600 potency when under dark arts.
Lv. 64 Quietus - 50 blackblood 200 potency, Restores 400mp and 150 cure potency. 230 potency when under dark arts.
Lv. 68 Delirium- 50 blackblood 120s recast. Increase haste buff granted by darkside to 10% for 15s. Grants 5 stacks of delirium, increasing the potency of your next 5 gcds by 120 and 60 potency for aoes.
Lv. 70 The Blackest Night - 20s recast, 20% max hp shield for 8s and 150 potency HoT when broken for 12s. Grants Retaliation when the shield takes damage.
Lv. 72 Stalwart soul - Restores 400mp and 10 blackblood.
Lv. 74 Flood of Shadows - 2500mp 160 potency, grants dark arts and 10 blackblood. Action changes to shadowbringer when you have stacks of shadowbringer.
Lv. 74 Edge of Shadows - 2500mp 300 potency, grants dark arts and 10 blackblood.
Lv. 76 Dark Missionary - 90s recast, reduce magic vulnerability of all nearby party members by 10% for 15s and heal for 100 potency when taking damage.
Lv. 80 Living Shadow - 50 blackblood 21s duration, Increase the haste buff granted by darkside to 10% when esteem is summoned. Grants 2 stacks of shadowbringer for 30s. Only usable when darkside is active.
Lv. 82 Oblation - 60s recharge 2 charges. 15% damage reduction to target for 10s and additional 15% magic damage reduction to self for 10s. Grants blood price for 10s.
Lv. 86 Salt and Darkness - 250 potency aoe inside salted earth. Only usable when under dark arts.
Lv. 90 Shadowbringer - 1500mp cost, 450 potency line aoe and grants 10 black blood. Only usable when you have stacks of shadowbringer.

Traits:

Lv. 1 Tank Mastery
Lv. 62 Blackblood - Allows the accumulation of blackblood during blood weapon and when executing souleater and stalwart soul.
Lv. 66 Enhanced blackblood - Allows for the accumulation of blackblood when executing flood and edge.
Lv. 70 Darkest night - upgrades shadowskin to the blackest night.
Lv. 74 Darkside Mastery
Lv. 78 Enhanced Plunge
Lv. 80 Delirium mastery - Upgrades delirium to living shadow.
Lv. 82 Dark mind mastery - Upgrades dark mind to oblation and allows for a second charge.
Lv. 84 Melee Mastery
Lv. 88 blackest blood - Added cure potency to bloodspiller and quietus.
Lv. 90 Enhanced living shadow - Grants 2 stacks of shadowbringer when living shadow is summoned. Flood of shadow changes to shadowbringer when you have stacks of shadowbringer and Esteem will also execute shadowbringer.

They do need to make the lower levels for Dark Knight a lot better. It feels terrible to play below level 70.

They should bring the skill progression more in line with Paladin and Warrior (and Warrior and Gunbreaker more in line with Paladin). Yeah, people would complain about "homogenization" but whatever.

So, I would re-arrange all skills between level 30 and level 70 then use Traits to bring up to their current forms.

Like Stalwart Soul should not be level 72. It should be level 40 with a Trait at level 72 to add the Blood and MP gain.

I had a difficult time deciding whether or not to move stalwart soul to level 40 mainly because I'm reverting abyssal drain back to how it was before the rework and added a little mp gain to unleash so our aoe would feel complete even without stalwart soul and moving it down would mean either a blank spot at level 72 or pushing other skills later. Abyssal drain was basically the second part of our aoe back then so I think this can work and stalwart soul at level 72 just makes it's usage more frequent.

Originally Posted by Jakulo

I had a difficult time deciding whether or not to move stalwart soul to level 40 mainly because I'm reverting abyssal drain back to how it was before the rework and added a little mp gain to unleash so our aoe would feel complete even without stalwart soul and moving it down would mean either a blank spot at level 72 or pushing other skills later. Abyssal drain was basically the second part of our aoe back then so I think this can work and stalwart soul at level 72 just makes it's usage more frequent.

Stalwart Soul is the second part of the AoE combo, the other 3 tanks get theirs at level 40.

You don't really need Abyssal Drain that early if you a have low level version of TBN as the early dungeons are not difficult enough to require both.