Dark Knight TBN

[Shurrikhan]

Repost of a related wishlist:

*VERY rough. TBN likely overpowered. If other tanks were to get some sustain nerfs, this would likewise need some nerfs.*

• Plunge returned. Enhanced Unmend now grants 20 seconds of recharge time to Plunge. (DRK APM within 2-minute bursts has been reduced in other ways, spread across the lulls between bursts.)
• Animation lock following Plunge and all other movement skills has been greatly reduced, allowing them to more quickly be interrupted by other actions.
• Skill Speed and Spell Speed merged into Speed.
  
  
• Dark Missionary now increases own and allies' maximum health by 10% and healing received by 20%.
• Dark Mind now also reduces physical damage by 10%, but its duration has been reduced to 8 seconds.
• Oblation's recast time has been decreased to 40 seconds, but its duration is decreased to 8 seconds. It now reduces all incoming damage by 20% for the first 4 seconds, and then 10% for 4 seconds more.
  
  
• The Blackest Night revised slightly. It now also reduces incoming damage by a % while the barrier is active, allowing it to scale slightly better with very large hits, but the %HP provided is now reduced to maintain roughly the same eHP generated. Recharge time reduced to 8 seconds but The Blackest Night no longer recharges until after the barrier's health or duration has been depleted.
• Dark Arts no longer grants a free use of Edge/Flood, but instead nullifies future MP costs for anything but TBN at an amount equal to TBN's cost when cast (see below for why this matters). Dark Arts is shown as a shaded portion, akin to a barrier, for your MP bar, and it and your actual MP together have a maximum of 14000 MP. Dark Arts is considered part of your current MP for purposes of variable MP costs (see below), but is only consumed per its portion of total current MP, better allowing it to be banked for future low-MP uses.

In this way, you still cannot chain-barrier your party, but the primary limitation to the Blackest Night is now MP.

• All actions which consume MP now consume 40% of current MP, to a minimum of 2000 MP. Their effect is proportionately increased the more MP they consume:

• The Black Night now shields for 15% to 25% of the target's maximum health while reducing their damage taken by 15 to 25% while the barrier is active. (This consequently means its worth 17.6 to 33.3% of target eHP, but with MP being a potentially much larger constraint.)
• Edge of Darkness hits for 200 to 400 potency.
• Edge of Shadow hits for 300 to 600 potency.
• Flood of Darkness hits for 70 to 140 potency.
• Flood of Shadow hits for 110 to 220 potency.
• Shadowbringer deals 600 to 1200 potency.

This has two major gameplay effects. First, one can reduce their MP to generate smaller barriers from The Blackest Night, making them easier to burst if need be, or use TBN at higher MP in order to provide rather massive barriers. Between those two ends, the revised Dark Arts and increased and more bankable means of MP generation (see below) allow one to indirectly tailor the barrier's size to minimize waste. Second, one is enticed to reach as near as possible to maximum MP without overcapping just before using Shadowbringer and, to a lesser extent, Carve and Spit (see below). This in turn requires some play around TBN but can see some aid from the revised Dark Arts. Both add a bit more agency and interplay with and around MP.

• The increased MP costs above, including that which has been newly attached to Shadowbringer (enticing players to hit max MP just as Shadowbringer comes off cooldown), are compensated for elsewhere:

• Carve and Spit now generates 600 MP per strike, and Bloodspiller, Quietus, Scarlet Delirium, Comeuppance, Torcleaver, and Impalement now generate 600 MP per use regardless of Delirium.
• Darkside has been rehauled. It is now a passive trait giving you a chance based on missing %MP to double your MP generated from the action or MP tick. This has the net effect of increasing your APM despite the increased expenses as caused above.

• Shadowskin added at level 40 as a lesser version of The Blackest Night, which generates a barrier equal to 10% to 15% of your maximum health and reduces damage taken by 10% to 15% while that barrier is active. Consumes 2000 to 4000 MP. Barrier lasts 8 seconds. Recharges over 16 seconds, beginning after consumption. Grants Dark Arts if the barrier is fully consumed.
  
  
• Carve and Spit and Abyssal Drain now share a second charge and their recast time has been reduced to 40 seconds. However, each has an individual internal cooldown of 4 seconds.
• Carve and Spit now generates 600 MP per attack. For 4 seconds after using Carve and Spit, the Dark Knight may use the action again to spend 2000 to 4000 MP to strike again with Divided Psyche for 67 to 133% of the original damage but no MP generation.
• Abyssal Drain now heals for damage dealt and strikes its primary target twice. Additionally, for 4 seconds after using Abyssal Drain, the Dark Knight may use the action again to spend 2000 to 4000 MP to repeat the attack at 67 to 133% of the original damage but no MP or healing generated. Doing so inflicts its enemies initially struck with Pull of the Abyss, pulling the victims towards towards the primary target on application and causing them to heal the Dark Knight for 40% of its damage dealt against them while the effect is active. Lasts 4 to 8 seconds, based on MP spent.
  
  
• Bloodspiller and Quietus Blood costs reduced from 50 to 40.
• Bloodspiller now heals for damage dealt.
• Quietus now inflicts enemies with Grave Sending for 8 seconds, causing them to grant the Dark Knight 20% of its maximum HP and MP if they die. (This effect is reduced by 60% for 8 seconds after the first instance triggered, reset if Quietus is used again.)

[BabyYoda]

There should be no offensive passive to defensive utility..

Weather it will be too op or it will be too useless and make no sense to calculate

[Lyth]

The Blackest Night (3000 MP): Creates a barrier around target that absorbs damage totaling 15% of target's maximum HP. Grants Dark Arts when the effect expires. Duration: 10s.

• Dark Arts Effect: Consume Dark Arts instead of MP to execute Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow.
• Additional Effect: In Your Darkest Hour
• In Your Darkest Hour Effect: After 6s have elapsed, grants a barrier around target that absorbs damage totaling 10% of target's maximum HP. Grants Blood Price when barrier is completely absorbed. Duration: 4s.
• Blood Price Effect: Your next Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow gains the effect 'Restores own HP'.

[Shurrikhan]

There should be no offensive passive to defensive utility..

Weather it will be too op or it will be too useless and make no sense to calculate

Retrieving the offensive opportunity cost of a defensive is not an "offensive passive" beyond its ability to shuffle a single spender from out of raidbuff window into the raidbuff window.

The Blackest Night (3000 MP): Creates a barrier around target that absorbs damage totaling 15% of target's maximum HP. Grants Dark Arts when the effect expires. Duration: 10s.

• Dark Arts Effect: Consume Dark Arts instead of MP to execute Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow.
• Additional Effect: In Your Darkest Hour
• In Your Darkest Hour Effect: After 6s have elapsed, grants a barrier around target that absorbs damage totaling 10% of target's maximum HP. Grants Blood Price when barrier is completely absorbed. Duration: 4s.
• Blood Price Effect: Your next Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow gains the effect 'Restores own HP'.

Wouldn't this be a pretty significant loss to max eHP increase and thereby to your ability to save others against one-shots, since you've now split the barrier 60/40?

[WeakestZenosEnjoyer]

The Blackest Night (3000 MP): Creates a barrier around target that absorbs damage totaling 15% of target's maximum HP. Grants Dark Arts when the effect expires. Duration: 10s.

• Dark Arts Effect: Consume Dark Arts instead of MP to execute Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow.
• Additional Effect: In Your Darkest Hour
• In Your Darkest Hour Effect: After 6s have elapsed, grants a barrier around target that absorbs damage totaling 10% of target's maximum HP. Grants Blood Price when barrier is completely absorbed. Duration: 4s.
• Blood Price Effect: Your next Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow gains the effect 'Restores own HP'.

Tooltip buff vomit is one of the worst things they've come up with, please don't drag DRK into it too.

Short mits shouldn't recover HP in the first place, instead of turning it into pseudo bloodwhetting just let the shield be the same size as before and you definitely shouldn't defile the corpse of Blood Price to do it.

I'm not even sure what "In Your Darkest Hour" is supposed to achieve, the name is too long and tone deaf for a short mit. If it has to exist call it something like "Shadowed Night."

[Lyth]

Wouldn't this be a pretty significant loss to max eHP increase and thereby to your ability to save others against one-shots, since you've now split the barrier 60/40?

It actually doesn't change the total mitigation at all, because flat shields are additive. What I've done is separate the 25% HP shield into two parts that overlap between 6-10 seconds to introduce a bit of timing to the effect so that you aim to get big hits (like tankbusters) in that 6-10 second window. I've always thought it strange that they frontloaded mitigation on actions like HoC/HS, where you really want it backloaded if you want to test your timing. Granted, it probably would work a bit better with a paired %DR and a flat shield so that you don't lose shield to chip autos when you precast it.

I also removed the requirement of the shield break for Dark Arts, and added a healing proc off of breaking the 10% shield instead.

"In Your Darkest Hour"

Lore reference, for those in the know:

'In your darkest hour, in the blackest night... think of me... and I will be with you. Always. For where else could I go? Who else could I love but you?' - Myste, Our Compromise, Lv. 70.

That's where the action name 'The Blackest Night' comes from. And now you know.

[WeakestZenosEnjoyer]

It actually doesn't change the total mitigation at all, because flat shields are additive. What I've done is separate the 25% HP shield into two parts that overlap between 6-10 seconds to introduce a bit of timing to the effect. I've always thought it strange that they frontloaded mitigation, where you really want it backloaded if you want to test your timing. Granted, it probably would work a bit better with a paired %DR and a flat shield so that you don't lose shield to chip autos when you precast it.

The consequence of these overly bloated tooltips is being harder to tell what's even going on, I genuinely just didn't catch that.

I'm neutral on having layered defenses to "reward timing" but I honestly think TBN should continue to refund MP for a pop (having it be immediate instead of the stupid "5 edges in burst" proc might be an improvement though, have to do something about chaining it though) and the tooltip is just too long. With the layers, actually popping it expecially in dungeon bosses and the like becomes less of a problem in the first place.

Lore reference, for those in the know:

'In your darkest hour, in the blackest night... think of me... and I will be with you. Always. For where else could I go? Who else could I love but you?' - Myste, Our Compromise, Lv. 70.

That's where the action name comes from. And now you know.

That's very cool as a quote and utterly out of place on a short CD mitigation. Would fit far better as the Shadowed Vigil excog and is a smaller tooltip where the long name is less of a problem. Is your darkest hour" really roughly every 30s?

[Lyth]

...

The tooltip complexity that you see on these defensives is probably a reflection of how buffs are coded in this game. For example, you don't see dynamically changing buff effects. It either needs to expire and get replaced by a new buff, or you create the buff in two parts each with different timers. That's why they're all listed in parts. With that in mind, I'm not even sure if 'delayed buffs' can be done directly, strictly speaking. Chances are, you'd have to create a dummy countdown buff that counts down and expires, before being replaced by a second buff that provides the mitigation.

I think timing skill checks are sorely lacking in current mitigation. I remember fights like God Kefka where you would pre-pop Rampart 18 seconds in advance of a tankbuster so that you could reduce the effective cooldown and get it back in time for a later tankbuster, or Sword Oath Sheltron timings on A3S Fluid Swings without telegraphs. Even the original IB forced you to think about how tankbuster casts aligned with your GCD. Invulns are probably a big part of the problem, but there are smaller ways that we can introduce some of that timing element back into gameplay.

At the current rate of MP generation, I think you could probably even reduce the recast on TBN. One thing that nobody really mentions is that Holy Sheltron has a 5 second recast, lets you store enough resources for two charges, and doesn't penalize you for using it. TBN isn't even the shortest recast out of all of them. If there's going to be a proc benefit from breaking, a healing effect makes the most sense. That's how Arcane Crest works, for example. Always damage neutral, you don't get penalized for using it, but if it breaks, you get an extra heal out of it.

The name doesn't really matter. I just needed a place-holder for a multi-part timed buff.

[Shurrikhan]

It actually doesn't change the total mitigation at all, because flat shields are additive.

Yes, but your tooltip states that last 40% of the shield is given only after 6 seconds. That means you'd need to place the buff 6+ seconds in advance to prevent a would-be finishing blow of 16-25% of the ally's HP, reducing the responsiveness and one of the largest components of TBN's unique capacities / use cases and thereby flavor.

Given that you are removing the requirement of TBN to break to grant Dark Arts, I just don't see the point.

I'd far rather be able to save responsively an ally at 23% HP by preventing damage equal to 24% of their maximum health (barely too little to break) than need to know what mistake they're going to make 6s in advance in exchange for having zero chance of wasting an attack.

[Lyth]

That's fine. 15% shield from 0-3 seconds, 25% shield from 3-7 seconds. This is not a fast game. If you still think that's too tough, then it's a you issue.