The Current state of DRK

[Zimmerson]

I'm sorry that this is going to be several posts back-to-back, but I'm unable to post 15,000 characters in one post...

I made this forum post to hopefully spread awareness to the Developers about the current shortcomings of DRK and to hopefully suggest some ideas that could breathe life into the class. I'm a little anxious as this is my first proper forum post, but I do hope that it helps the Developers understand what DRK needs to entice new and old players to pick the class up again.

This will be my personal take. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that's perfectly OK. You may think I’m delusional or that my opinions are awful, but I think most of us can agree that DRK is not performing in certain sectors as stated below.

Potency
Self Sustain (Healing)
Mitigation
Class Identity / How it feels to play

I've played DRK since Shadowbringers. I've cleared every single savage tier and I've cleared TEA, DSR and TOP as DRK and have progged through UWU and UCOB in my spare time.

DRK overall has been on the slow decline throughout the expacs. I can't comment on how DRK was in Stormblood or Heavensward, but I can certainly give my take on DRK from Shadowbringers onwards.
What are the core problems with DRK?

To start off - Potency.
Currently, DRK has a less than stellar two minute burst. With the removal of Plunge and the reduction of blood weapon stacks from 5 to 3, we lose 1200 mana every single 1 and 2 minute burst. Over the course of a 10 minute fight, or an ultimate which would be (for the sake of rounding 20 minutes (I am aware that most ultimates do not last this long, they’re generally around 16 minutes)), DRK would lose 24,000 mana. This equates to 8 Edge of Shadows or 8 TBNs, which is a hefty amount of shielding/DPS lost throughout the course of a fight.

EW DRK Mana Generation every burst
GCD: Hard Slash: 600MP
GCD: Siphon Strike: 600MP + 600MP
GCD: Soul Eater: 600MP
GCD: Blood Spiller 1: 600MP + 200MP
OGCD: Carve and Spit: 600 MP
GCD: Blood Spiller 2: 600MP + 200MP
GCD: Blood Spiller 3: 200MP
Total MP Generation: 4800

DT DRK Mana Generation every burst
GCD: Siphon Strike: 600MP + 600MP
GCD: Soul Eater: 600MP
GCD: Scarlet Delirium: 600MP + 200MP
OGCD: Carve and Spit: 600 MP
GCD: Comeuppance: 200MP
GCD: Torcleaver: 200MP
Total MP Generation: 3600

This potency and shielding loss isn’t the only thing DRK has lost. It also lost plunge, which was 150 potency per. (Yes, you can argue Plunge wasn’t really needed), but it was still something for us to press during our 1 and 2 minutes. Nothing has replaced the gapcloser DPS wise and now our 1 minute burst is pretty much empty and our 2 minute burst is left lacking.

[Zimmerson]

Another problem -
We don’t have GNBs continuation combo or Burst strike -> Hypervelocity
We don’t have PLDs Requicast combo or 3 Atonement stacks to use
We don’t have WARs combo into Storm’s Eye or Primal Ruination every minute

My suggestion would be to bring something like Dark Arts back but change it in a way that would breathe life and identity into DRK (somthing like enshroud perhaps?). Right now it’s a 1 2 3 machine with a weaker 1 - 2 minute burst. I’m not a job designer so I can’t say what the right choice would be, but I genuinely feel we need something that revitalises the class between the burst windows. Another suggestion would be to unhook Abyssal Drain and Carve & Spit so both can be used at different times. This could fill the gap plunge made.

[Zimmerson]

Self Sustain
(The Item Level used on all my tanks is 707) - The healing numbers recorded are all flat non-crits, minus bloodwhetting with Fell Cleave/Inner Chaos
Legend:
Instant = Instant Healing
Active = Heal over Time (HoT)
Note: Healing numbers may differ depending on gear and whether you crit or not.

DRK right now woefully underperforms in the healing sector. At level 100, DRK has:
- Soul Eater Combo - Instant (10k healing) Hard Slash -> Siphon Strike -> Soul Eater - 7.5s
- Abyssal Drain - Instant (7k healing) - 60s recast
- Shadowed Vigil - Instant (43k healing) - 120s recast
- Living Dead - Cure Potency 1500 (Equates to roughly 40k - 45k per weaponskill) - Instant - recast 300s

Compare this to:
WAR
- Blood Whetting - Active 8s (22k Crit Heal on average with its heavy hitting attacks) - recast 25s
- Thrill of Battle - Instant (35k heal) + 20% healing buff for 20s - recast 90s
- Equilibrium with Thrill of Battle - Instant (50k) - recast 60s
- Equilibrium without Thrill of Battle - Instant (35k) - recast 60s
GNB
- Aurora x2 stacks - Active 18s (initial 10k heal and a 7k healing tick every 3 seconds equalling 42k healing for a grand total of 52k healing) 60s charge time
- Great Nebula - Instant (35k) - 120s recast
- Heart of Corundum - Instant ((30k) If your HP is under 50% else healing on expiration) - 25s recast
- Brutal Shell - Instant (7k) - 5s if Keen Edge -> Brutal Shell
PLD
- note: Intervention isn’t in the list as it can only be used on other players
- Holy Sheltron x2 - Active (9k healing tick every 3 seconds equalling 36k healing over the 12 seconds) - 5s recast
- Confiteor, Blade of Faith, Blade of Truth and Blade of Valor - Instant (9k per) - 60s recast
- Clemency - Instant (22k) - 2.5s recast (as long as you have mana)
- Divine Veil - Instant (10k) - 90s recast

My suggestion - Give DRK something to combo off of that could give some type of instant potency healing, or another idea would be to give Bloodspiller some type of potency heal. We’d be able to sustain ourselves somewhat more during our 1 and 2 minute burst. Maybe make Salted Earth be a HoT or give Salt and Darkness a healing proc based off of the amount of enemies within the DoT when used.

[Zimmerson]

Mitigation
Living Dead - After many years of dying if we got healed too early or if we weren’t healed enough or given a benediction by the WHM, we finally got a buff to Living Dead where we can heal ourselves if we play our cards right with our weaponskills. However - if we are still unable to heal ourselves, we still die after 10 seconds. Sure, people can claim “skill issue” but other tanks do not have the issue of dying if something unfortunate happens in solo content or if there’s downtime in a mechanic and there’s no healer to heal them.

Dark Mind - This mitigation is a relic of Heavensward to be blunt. I understand that back in the day there was a need for Magic resistant tanks as thats what DRK originally was, but with this push for homogenization, Dark Mind needs to be reviewed.

TBN - I have some heated opinions on this that not everyone will agree with. TBN in Shadowbringers and Stormblood was insanely good. The benefit far outweighed the negatives, ie the possible loss of 3000 MP, but over time, with release of new expacs, other tanks have gotten insanely good mitigation, ie Holy Sheltron, Bloodwhetting and Heart of Corundum. These massively outclass TBN. They give massive short bursts of Mitigation before trailing off to a lower percentage, eg: Heart of Corundum (15% Mitigation for 8s + 15% for Clarity of Corundum for 4s). All TBN gets is a 25% of max HP shield which is always used with Oblation or some other form of mitigation.

Dark Missionary - Make this unlockable at level 70

Oblation - It’s hard to figure out where this sits. Oblation on it’s own does not have that much of an impact. Yes you can give other people some spot mitigation in the worst case scenario, but it’s most likely not going to amount to much without TBN, which then runs the risk of not breaking and being worth due to the loss of MP..

My suggestion:
Living Dead - Keep it how it is but remove the ability to actually die if you’ve not been healed for the maximum total HP. (Yes, I know it’s in the name but DRK does not feel good to play in solo content with this invuln)
For those who need convincing - Picture fighting an enemy solo. You use Living Dead and it procs. You then end up killing the enemy before you can finish healing, leaving you in a situation where there’s nothing around you to kill. Then Walking Dead timer ticks down to 0 with you having nothing to attack, ending in your death. Try this as any other tank and you will live.

Dark Mind - Make this a general mitigation instead of a magic only. This would allow us to make better use of this mitigation in more than one current raid tier fight (M4S). To balance this, lower the %mitigation down to 15% from 20%.

cont.

[Zimmerson]

TBN - Give TBN some form of mit. Possibly merge Oblation into TBN as lets be honest - you’ll always end up using this with TBN.
Heal based off of the % left of the shield on expiration
If TBN is consumed fully - heal for a % of max HP missing
- Give TBN a 12s HoT
- Give TBN 10% - 20% mitigation
- Make TBN cost 0 mana - To Balance this, make TBN recast 25s so you can bring it inline with the rest of the tanks 25s mitigation.
Note: These are merely suggestions

Dark Missionary - Simply make this unlockable at level 70 so it can be used in earlier ultimates/dungeons/content.

Oblation - Either merge Oblation into TBN OR give Oblation a simple HoT.

Lastly - Class Identity / How it feels to play.

DRK for me personally aesthetically is probably one of the coolest looking designs for a class, but I do admit I feel the class lacks the power in its attacks. For example, comparing Bloodspiller to Inner Chaos, Fell Cleave, Atonement Combo or even the Continuation combo, it doesn’t have the flare or weight the other classes have. Blood spiller just feels incredibly light and doesn’t have the impact the other weaponskills have.

With class Identity - I’ve been left trying to understand the decision to give DRK the trait: “Enhanced Unmend”. I really cannot begin to understand why this is even a thing. At a stretch, I could understand having it back in Endwalker as we could get some extra usages of plunge outside of savage/ultimates. It serves some purpose in dungeons and just killing trash mobs out in the open, but I find it utterly useless in Savage and Ultimate raids.

In the nicest and politest way - Please look to change this. An idea would be to change “Enhanced Unmend” into “Enhanced Bloodspiller”. As mentioned in the self-sustain section, the idea would be to give DRKs Bloodspiller and “Enhanced Delirium” trait a healing effect with a cure potency of 400, just like PLDs “Divine Magic Mastery II”. Every tank has a trait worth something, but DRKs “Enhanced Unmend” just doesn’t fit. I cannot stress enough that this needs to be addressed.

DRK was fun because of the amount of buttons we had to press. Yes, it wasn’t for everyone, but I feel the job has been stripped bare of what made it fun to play. We also need to think about what the classes identity is.

[Zimmerson]

What IS DRKs identity?

GNB is the gunblade class that uses cartridges and is all about the continuation burst window, which is topped off by having the impressive Lionheart combo.The visual fidelity for GNB is fantastic and has good design. We look at the mitigation and it’s a class that has a few regens and really good mitigation (Heart of Corundum, Great Nebula)

WAR is the class that slams it’s hammer into the ground and makes big explosions that are both satisfying to use and see. Just look at Inner Chaos, Primal Rend or Primal Ruination. The class also has excellent audio design. WAR has really good mitigation too (Bloodwhetting/Nascent Flash, Damnation, Thrill of Battle) that makes fighting as WAR whether in dungeons or in raids really helpful.

PLD is the classic sword and board. Its got a pretty decent combo with its atonement stacks and the impressive Confiteor combo. The mitigation is really nice for itself and the group (Passage of Arms, Holy Sheltron, Guardian).

What does DRK have?
I feel this point goes unaddressed by most people who talk about the DRK changes - The animations for DRK are nice, but the audio for some of the attacks, ie bloodspiller and Disesteem do not feel like they have impact. They’re pretty, but bloodspiller feels light and Disesteem looks flashy, but doesn’t really have any impact audibly. Mitigation for DRK (TBN, Oblation, Dark Mind) need to be reworked or removed.

Closing thoughts:
DRK is my favourite class. I’ve played it for over 4 years, spanning over 10k hours. For me, I generally stayed quiet over the years because I was mostly OK with the changes. I didn’t agree with some of the changes - Merging the recast timer of Carve & Spit and Abyssal Drain being one of them. But I feel the direction DRK is going in is not the right path and this constant mistreatment of the class has spurred me to act.

In the end, I fell in love with DRK when I got to Heavensward and never looked back. So I apologise to everyone who reads this, I’ve stayed quiet with my opinion for too long. I genuinely want DRK to be a class that feels as good to play as the other classes. I’m aware not everyone will agree with my ideas, so I turn to you to perhaps suggest some ideas yourself if you find yourself disagreeing.

[Zimmerson]

TL;DR - if you want the summary for each section, here it is:

Potency
The Positives:
- Disesteem is a nice addition to the class
- Scarlet Delirium, Comeuppance and Torcleaver feel good to use and have some weight behind their attacks
- The Negatives:
- Blood Weapon Stacks reduced from 5 to 3 resulting in 1200 less mana generation meaning less DPS and less TBNs. This also means we get 1 less Edge of Shadow every minute due to us needing to hold for our 2 minute burst
- The removal of Plunge frees up our bursts - but that potency wasn’t moved to another/new weaponskill/ability, making our bursts feel woefully empty.
- Pressing 1 2 3 constantly for 45 seconds per every burst gets old.
Changes:
- Bring back 5 Blood Weapon stacks
- Bring back Dark Arts (possibly mimic how Reaper has its enshroud phase which would give DRK some new abilities/weaponskills to press)
- Possibly grant something similar to Atonement/Continuation that fills out the woefully empty 1 2 3 phase between bursts
- Maybe bring back plunge, or as stated above, bring back Dark Arts to fill what has been lost and revitalise the class.
- Bring back Haste on Blood Weapon
- Unhook Abyssal Drain from Carve & Spit so we can use them at the same time/different times

Self-Sustain:
Changes
- Give DRK something that procs from the 1 2 3 that could give a burst of healing
- Add Abyssal healing potency per hit to Salt and Darkness
- Make Salted Earth a HoT for the tank
- Give Bloodspiller and the “Enhanced Delirium” trait a 400 potency heal per successful weaponskill

Mitigation:
Changes
- Living Dead - Remove the dying part so that Living Dead can be used more safely in solo content.
- Dark Mind - Change this from being magic mitigation only to just mitigating damage - change mitigation from 20% to 15%
- TBN - Total rework:
- Heal based off of the % left of the shield on expiration
- If TBN is consumed fully - heal for a % of max HP missing
- Give TBN a 12s HoT
- Give TBN 10% - 20% mitigation
- Make TBN cost 0 MP - To Balance this, make TBN recast 25s so you can bring it inline with the rest of the tanks 25s mitigation.
- Dark Missionary - Simply make this unlockable at level 70 so it can be used in earlier ultimates/dungeons/content.
- Oblation - Either merge Oblation into TBN OR give Oblation a simple HoT.

Lastly - Class Identity / How it feels to play.
Changes
- Change the audio for Disesteem and Bloodspiller to have more weight behind them as currently they either slap like wet fish or basically have no power behind the attacks at all.
- Change “Enhanced Unmend”/Remove it and add “Enhanced Bloodspiller” - a healing effect with a cure potency of 400
- Replace Souleater Animation with Power Slash Animation
- Replace Hard Slash animation with Scourge Animation

[SwadTheFrog]

God, I miss HW DRK. Dark Arts was such a fun thing to work around.

[Zimmerson]

I apologise for this being in so many parts - I just feel very strongly about the class and wanted to get this all off my chest as it feels as if the class isn't getting any love/attention from the Developers.

Thank you to those who read it all, whether the TL;DR or the whole post. I hope you have a wonderful morning/afternoon/evening/night, wherever you are.

[GrizzlyTank]

The issue with plunge was resolved by merging Blood Weapon into Delirium.

Already by that change the rotation was less cluttered.

#BringBackPlunge