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  1. #1
    Player
    PangTong's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Posts
    247
    Character
    Reginald Thorne
    World
    Ultros
    Main Class
    Monk Lv 100

    (Another) Fan DRK Rework

    Disclaimer that these changes are just one of many possible options and not a list of demands. Also I haven't done any kind of numbers tuning, so potency figures and cooldowns are just to illustrate the intended design and can be changed for balance.

    This rework attempts to address all the problems I (and many others) have with DRK including:
    • Overly linear rotation with little decision making and long stretches of "dead air" where you only press 1-2-3.
    • Uninteresting DPS cooldowns with few considerations beyond pressing them on cooldown.
    • Overly situational and/or clunky defensive cooldowns. (Living Dead, TBN, Dark Mind).
    • Lack of self-healing (regardless of how you feel about tanks being able to heal themselves DRK is clearly behind the others in this regard.)
    • Other general lack of QoL.

    The basic concept of this rework is changing DRK's fundamental resource mechanics. Having MP, Blood AND Darkside is redundant, particularly since Darkside is kind of a non-system as there's essentially no way for it to ever expire unless you're not even pressing your buttons.

    Thus, in this rework the Blood Gauge is removed. Instead, the Darkside gauge is changed to be a primary resource, while still functioning as a timer. You wish to spend Darkside on attacks, but do not want the timer to expire lest the damage buff fall off. This is somewhat reminiscent of how Darkside worked in Heavensward and Stormblood, just less clunky and punishing since it's not reliant on server ticks, and is separated from MP.

    Main Rotation Changes:
    • Blood Gauge is removed.
    • Darkside Gauge maximum increased to 100.
    • Edge of Shadow and Flood of Shadow now extend the Darkside Gauge by 10 seconds (down from 30).
    • Instead of generating Blood, Souleater now extends the Darkside Gauge by 30 seconds.
    • Bloodspiller now combos off Syphon Strike, and drains 20 seconds from the Darkside Gauge. If used while Darkside Gauge is <20 seconds, potency is halved.
    [The basic rotation now is using Souleater and Edge/Flood to build Darkside, then spending it on Bloodspiller. Since Bloodspiller is a combo action now, there is some decision making about whether you should go for Souleater or Bloodspiller on your next combo. This also ties into changes to Delirium.]
    • Stalwart Soul now extends the Darkside Gauge by 20 seconds.
    • Abyssal Drain is now a GCD spell, which combos off Unleash. Drains 20 Darkside Gauge. Potency increased to 200. Healing potency reduced to 150. If used while Darkside Gauge is <20 seconds, potency is halved and healing effect does not apply.
    • Quietus is removed.
    [Equivalent changes to the AoE rotation. Abyssal Drain is back to being a GCD but usage is restricted by Darkside and combo timing. There's no real space left for Quietus in this design, but its animation is repurposed in another way.]
    • Blood Weapon cooldown reduced to 40s. It now also works on a stack system, affecting the next 5 GCDs with a 20s max duration.
    • Delirium revamped. It now allows your next 5 GCDs to waive combo requirements while also reducing their recast time by 15%. 60s cooldown, 20s duration.
    • The remaining recharge time of Shadowbringer is now reduced by 5 seconds every time you use Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow. Shadowbringer is now also a GCD weaponskill, but retains its 60s base cooldown and 2 charges.
    • Carve & Spit is removed, to cut down on oGCD/button bloat. (Alternatively, it upgrades with a
      trait to a new version that gains AoE falloff damage in a cone, using the old Scourge animation).
    [These changes serve the dual function of reducing oGCD bloat (making the GCD rotation more interesting by including Shadowbringer) and also making DRK's cooldowns more interesting. Delirium now sort of mimics the original attack speed boost from the original Blood Weapon, while also letting you alternate your combo finishers to quickly build and spend Darkside as desired.

    Blood Weapon's cooldown is reduced to 40s, both to make up for lost MP as a result of the Delirium change, but also so you have a cooldown that doesn't always line up at 60s (otherwise the effect may as well just be rolled into Delirium). More to do during downtime.

    Shadowbringer also now has the additional consideration of having its cooldown reduced by your other skills, not only letting you use it more often but also making it a skill that you have to pay more attention to.]

    • Living Shadow now costs 3000 MP instead of 50 Blood.
    • New Trait: Enhanced Living Shadow - Each attack that Living Shadow lands grants reduces the remaining recharge time of Shadowbringer by 10 seconds.
    [This gives Living Shadow some interactivity with the rotation instead of being purely a fire-and-forget effect. It's not much, but I didn't want to do anything too complicated such as having it mimic your own attacks, as this could potentially make it very painful to optimize and cause issues with pet behaviour.]
    • New Ability: Inner Darkness - Pauses the Darkside timer, stopping it from ticking down for up to 30 seconds. This effect is cancelled upon using any damage-dealing action. 60s cooldown.
    • Unmend now extends the Darkside timer by 5 seconds.
    [These are simply downtime tools, allowing the user to minimize DPS loss caused by forced downtime or boss disconnects.]


    QoL Changes
    • Flood of Shadow is now a circle AoE instead of a straight line, using the Quietus animation.
    • Shadowbringer is now a cone AoE instead of a straight line.
    • Stalwart Soul is moved down to be learned at level 40-50.
    [Line AoEs on a tank are just annoying. Mobs do not politely queue up in front of you, and a tank does not have the luxury of moving around to get the perfect line that hits every enemy like a DPS does. The mobs follow you and crowd around you, excessive movement accomplishes nothing except annoying the rest of your party.]
    • The Blackest Night no longer costs MP to use, nor does breaking the shield grant a free use of Edge/Flood. Instead, breaking the shield applies a 200 potency regen effect to the target for 12 seconds. Cooldown is increased to 25s.
    [TBN no longer has DPS implications on the rotation and can be used freely. There is no MP cost and the reward for breaking the shield is instead the self-sustain the job is lacking. Since this represents a pretty significant overall buff to DRK's survivability, the cooldown is increased to be in line with the other tanks.]
    • In addition to mitigation, Oblation also heals the target with a potency of 700.
    • Dark Mind is changed to be 10% reduction to all damage, plus an additional 10% reduction to magic damage.
    [Dark Mind is an overly binary skill which is either very useful or completely useless depending on whether there's heavy magic damage in the fight. The vast majority of damage from dungeon mobs is physical, so Dark Mind is basically useless in trash pulls and DRK is practically down a cooldown vs the other tanks. This change keeps the magic mitigation speciality while not being completely useless in other situations.]
    • Living Dead is revamped. The healing requirement and automatic KO is removed. Cooldown reduced to 240 seconds.
    • When Walking Dead expires, the DRK receives damage equal to 10% of their max HP.
    • If Living Dead expires without triggering Walking Dead, the remaining cooldown of Living Dead is reduced by 120 seconds.
    [I like the job fantasy of "continuing to fight after death" but the current design of Living Dead is unworkable. This is my compromise, you will still die if you receive no healing but it's fairly easy to survive. Since even this version has virtually no advantages over Holmgang except perfect activation while having the damage drawback, I've lowered its cooldown to be equal to Holmgang and added the cooldown reduction if the invuln doesn't activate. It's not a perfectly satisfying design but it's better than what it is now imo]
    (4)
    Last edited by PangTong; 01-25-2022 at 05:19 PM.