Dark Knigh needs some changes

[Diabolika]

Step one: stop taking things away from Dark Knight.
Step two: give some of the things that have been taken away from it back.
Step three: don't take those things away again.
Step four: reinforce the gameplay loop that emerges.

I have a pet conspiracy theory that whoever has been in charge of designing the job for the last few expansions has deeply personal issues with either the job itself or someone who plays it, because sheer incompetence is not sufficient excuse with a trend this consistent; even a stopped clock is right twice per day, and even a total fool would have gotten something or other correct with the design across three expansions—or four, depending on who you ask. Why this has been allowed to continue escapes my conception, but this has gotten beyond the point of being merely silly and instead outright disconcerting.

"Butbutbut DPS and pick rates and clear speeds" to which I bid the Ninja mains be silent. It's a tank. It's not supposed to be a glass cannon, it's supposed to be a tank. Warrior manages both tankiness and damage, and Gunbreaker is very clearly supposed to be your speedy meat-mincer option while still being more defensively competent. This is clearly a solvable problem—in fact, it was a problem that had previously been solved and simply needed refinement of the solution, until Shadowbringers decided it was necessary to fix what wasn't broken and break was wasn't fixed.

At this point I'm starting to think that whoever is responsible for DRK must be religious and thinks DRK is "satanic", "evil" or something, so they've been actively screwing up the job as much as they can get away with for the last years lol (And DRK having high dps in EW was an accident)

[Claire_Pendragon]

idk why it cant just cost 3000 MP as a spamable oGCD replacement to adding darkside. it wouldnt be as abusable in boss fights, so it wouldnt really be much of an issue.
(Would prefer GCD, like another person suggested)

[Hanayumi]

Mentioned this in another thread but had a somewhat similar idea...
"Carve and Spit/Abyssal Drain, reduce CD to 30, give 2 charges adjust potency accordingly, C&S increase mp restored, AD remove mp restored & increase hp restored"
Basically a lil more to play around with while restoring mp or hp

[Terhix]

Mentioned this in another thread but had a somewhat similar idea...
"Carve and Spit/Abyssal Drain, reduce CD to 30, give 2 charges adjust potency accordingly, C&S increase mp restored, AD remove mp restored & increase hp restored"
Basically a lil more to play around with while restoring mp or hp

Instead of removing MP from AD, just slap a 600 potency cure on C&S so that they actually are ST/AoE variants of each other. I haven't run the numbers, but my educated guess is that extra 1200p cure per minute would still be less than PLD overall (to say nothing of WAR) but more than enough to catch up to GNB.

[Ramiee]

BUT at the risk of making it too homogenous with paladin, I wondered if it might not better be suited to being a third move in their AOE rotation? It may need adjustments to work, but giving dark knight a self heal on every third move of their AOE combo would help with self sustain and bring it more in line with the other three tanks for dungeon runs.

No that's pointless, just turn it into a spell or keep it as an ability with no CD but does little damage and is mainly there to heal you in AoE. Tanks shouldn't have 30 second sacrificeless heals every heal below a 90 second CD should make you lose out on damage.

[wereotter]

No that's pointless, just turn it into a spell or keep it as an ability with no CD but does little damage and is mainly there to heal you in AoE. Tanks shouldn't have 30 second sacrificeless heals every heal below a 90 second CD should make you lose out on damage.

I take your point, but as a reminder, Holy Circle is exactly this. Heals the paladin and is the third move in their AOE combo, and I already said the skill may need to be adjusted (which includes potency changes)

Not to mention that Souleater, Brutal Shell, and Storm's Path on single target also are all third combo moves that heal the tank when they use them, and Paladin has Holy Spirit as a potential fourth move in their combo that does the same.

[Zairava]

I take your point, but as a reminder, Holy Circle is exactly this. Heals the paladin and is the third move in their AOE combo, and I already said the skill may need to be adjusted (which includes potency changes)

I don't see how merely reverting Abyssal Drain back to a spell makes it the exact same as Holy Circle...They would be functioning entirely different.

[Ramiee]

I take your point, but as a reminder, Holy Circle is exactly this. Heals the paladin and is the third move in their AOE combo, and I already said the skill may need to be adjusted (which includes potency changes)

Not really holy circle is a damage loss if you use it as a spell, it's designed to be a combo action while abyssal drain as a spell would be designed for sustain. It's also just really really boring, having active planning self sustain would actually make DRK unique and fun. At most I would say you can use a delirium action to make it an instant cast.

[Claire_Pendragon]

holy circle is a damage loss if you use it as a spell

I think this is why i personally like the idea of abyssal drain being both a separate spell and have combo action.
Need to spam it for surival and not for DPS? need more DPS?
Id actually make it DPS neutral in the combo, so it serves no real purpose other than for the increased healing from being apart of a combo. (But technically a DPS loss due to costing MP)
So if spammed, its effective healing would be at 70%. if used after unleash, its combos to 80% efficiency. and only after Stalwart Soul would it be at its current 100% effectiveness. (If combos after unleash, it wont combo after the following Stalwart Soul)
so you ideally use it based on how desperately u need the heal, and how effective you want to be with the MP. (Could also alter MP consumption instead of healing potency)
EDIT: (to even go further with this, Id almost wanna have it possibly combo off quietus or blood spiller, with 2 different effects, and even a 0MP cost. It wouldnt require the rest of the combo either, so u can use it in delirium, and have increased dmg (not enough to replace quietus/bloodspiller)

[Wolf_Necros]

A solid heal would be nice but I guess that's probably asking for too much.