Warrior is the necromancer/vampire tank that they want DRK to be. Literally slap a necromancer/void knight vfx mod on WAR and its literally what DRK was supposed to be. They leech health from enemies and all their mitigation is designed around healing health rather than shielding and it works really well. I think that is their problem. The job design teams dont coordinate with one another and now we're at a point where they either make DRK the same as WAR but with different VFX for the vampire theme or they redesign both jobs and give DRK the health leeching theme.
My issue with Dark Knight is that they had a great way to fix it and make it unique... Which they instead used to make a new class, Reaper. Enshroud could have been Darkside, activating with 50 Black Blood gauge. Which then just gives you faster, stronger GCDs for five hits.
I think there's still space to give DRK it's own transformation! My guess is they probably considered this and then went with Living Shadow instead, and the idea got repurposed into Reaper.
Here's what I got : -Basic combo alternates between souleater and powerslash. -Powerslash doubles souleater heal, generates 10 gauge and allows you to use abyssal drain in the next 15s. Abyssal drain gives 10 gauge. -Dark mind and Dark Missionary get half their value on physical damage. - TBN on a 25s cd (if you want a cd that you can use in quick succession, sheltron is the way to do it). No longer tied to your dps. Keep the reward aspect but make it about defense not offense, and make it less punishing if you don't get the full value. When the shield dissipates, it gives you a heal on hit for the next 3 GCDs. When it breaks, its a heal on hit for the next 6 GCDs instead. - Salted Earth on a 60s cooldown, 90s cooldowns are awful in the 2m burst meta. Salt and Darkness gives you 3000mp (or a free Edge/Flood, to avoid overcap). - Living Shadow no longer spawns a clone (right now at best you just press it and forget it exists, at worse it's distracting for you and your team). Instead, the shadow spawn right behind you and copies your action for a % of your damage, think Bunshin without the delay. - Running animation changed. You are a Dark Knight, not a curling player.
@@Jay-mx5ky I know, and that's exactly what I'm talking about (kenki is a sam ressource btw)! I'm talking about copying your actions *visually*. Bunshin has an after image of you copying your attacks. Mechanically, it empowers your GCDS. That's what I want for Living Shadow, except instead of having an after-image of yourself copying what you did with a slight delay, it'd be living shadow doing it in sync with you
I saw firsthand how squishy DRK can be: In the L97 dungeon after the first boss there’s this pull of five birds that do an absurd amount of damage. In one run on that dungeon a DRK forgot to press LD when we got to that pack and the poor tank melted in like seconds. I have that moment clipped if you want to see it.
Did they not use mits? If I had a buck for everytime a tank tried a large pull but didn't use any mits, I could BUY Square Enix. . . What you described is not a "Dark Knight" thing. . . it's a "Bad Tank" thing.
@hockey1973 You can be the best DRK in the world, if a multi-target fight drags on long enough, you will simply just run out of resources and cooldowns to hit. Especially coming straight out of a boss where you've probably hit some of those skills already and are sitting on half of a kit.
Something I always thought would be good is have darkness atk buff be a passive and have darkness be that the lower your health, the more mitigation you get up to 50% mit at 50% health. The lore is the more you hurt the stronger you get, so this would be both lore fitting and not entirely balance breaking, as even with that mit you wouldn't wanna sit that low hp for long. And would make barrier healers more desirable as they don't heal hp as fast, making those barriers, including tbn, more effective for a DRK. Also make TBN have no MP cost but be like 20sec cooldown.
A a dark knight main who is playing paladin this expansion here is my take. 1. A second combo that adds a larger regen on souleater is awesome but it should also boost the mana regen for the syphon strike or restore mana itself (paladin does this and uses WAY less mana) 2. Dark mind should just be flat reduction though a 20/10 split isn't bad 3. TBN, should lean into the dmg imo. The mana cost should be the same, but the shield duration should be 15 seconds and be 30% of your hp. If it disappers get an excogitation for 25% and a use of darkside with a potency buff. If it BREAKS, all of the save effects but instead of darkside use it's Shadowbringer. 4. Dark missionary should be a raidwide TBN except no damage buff except when your shield breaks. 5. Mana cost for all abilities should be 2000 not 3000 (save for tbn). Mana regen for all abilities should be 600-1000 (if you reduce cost of abilities then regen should stay the same.) 6. Give drk a transformation that increases his hp through basic combo abilities, gives him damage reduction and no cost to darkside abilities. Call it Dark Arts. 7. Separate c&s from abyssal drain and give life gain upon use of each and reduce to 30 seconds with 1000 mana regen. 8. Finally, Abyssal Drain should heal more. Like you said and be more spamable 9. Salted Earth should give regen and mitigation and move with you.
TBN breaking into Shadowbringer would create more problems, You'll find people using TBN WAY more frequently to keep getting SHB procs making TBN a Damage cooldown rather than a defensive. Having a "Defensive" Cooldown also be a Huge DPS buff is too much. I would be happy with the rest of the list tho.
@@ExodistPR Yeah, I think they either need to go all the way on TBN being an offensive ability or all the way in on it being defensive. Having this weird conditional formatting on it where its half-baked on either just doesn't work.
Your idea of salted earth was close to mine. I suggested giving Salted Earth a regen in the puddle and when you activated Salt and Darkness, the pulsating damage from it would act like Abyssal Drain siphoning life force from all enemies in it.
Yeah, I think having it restore health or give a life steal effect while in it would also work well, but both at the same time may be a bit strong. Having the immediate heal tied to Salt and Darkness and a regen/increased heal on Salted Earth feels like a good balance.
TBN should also have no more connection with your dps. MP, no matter how we look at it in FF14, just isn't a finite depleting resource for everything magic. In a game where a healer is especially present at all times and dps checks in the hardest content can be tight, sacrificing dps for survivability does not feel good as any non-healer. Even for SGE, their reward for a broken shield (which lasts 30s) is a dps neutral movement tool. It's probably just a better idea to remove MP cost from TBN. Additionally, it is weaker than the other tank cooldowns by a significant margin. At full hp with no other defensives, its 25% shield is functionally a 20% mitigation with its effect duration ending when it breaks. On the other hand, Holy Sheltron and HoC both have a whopping 38% mitigation for 4s and another 15% mitigation for 4s after, and they will always have full duration, meaning they have good synergy with healing because the mitigation applies to restored hp. They'll also apply to any shields. And of course, they have healing that will be triggered no matter what and any wasteful usage will not punish you with lost dps.
Absolutely. TBN could use a rework for sure, but I have a feeling it won't get it. It sucks that DRK is the only tank that is actively punished for not getting full value out of its main mitigation. It's a cool way for players to express their skill on the job, but like I described in the video, sometimes you just get a situation where it's literally impossible to get full value and you just get bent over instead and lose an entire Flood/Edge. It sucks.
The idea with Salted Earth and Salt and Darkness isn't great because when given a choice of more damage or utility, players are going to default to more damage (and balancing has to adjust for that). Standing in Salted Earth for an effect can be great. Better idea is to have activation of Salt and Darkness do a heal per enemy hit, so the Dark Knight is in control when that happens. Idea for Living Dead just makes it so the only tank that isn't truly invulnerable is Warrior, and LD would most likely need a longer cooldown to make up for that. Living Dead on activation could prevent and store any healing received as their health chunks down to 1, then that healing + self healing is whats used to prevent actual death.
@@sharlayanforum ya i agree, im more of a support tank in most mmos i play, speccing into dps as a tank is usually a minmax thing for endgame clears, i love making life easier for my party or having more control of a fight, cc/tank and partybuff/tank are usually my gotos
Something I'd like to see for DRK is more than just alternating combos... we have enough of that with MNK and VPR. I would appreciate it if there was something we get offensively after performing both combos and a reason that both combos exist. For example, if one combo restored mp and the other increased blood. It would also be awesome if we actually had to think about darkside - the combos should be used to maintain darkside, and our mp spenders should consume the timer, in my opinion.
Maybe! I think if we had a combo that generated blood we'd have problems with balancing though. What's more likely is a combo that generates a lot of MP and one that Heals for a lot.
@sharlayanforum I just think it'd fall into the same fate as the enmity combo, or worse, because who would take more healing when you can do more damage? Idk, it depends on how they balance the potency I suppose.
You could make that argument for one generating Blood though. Why would I choose the Heal combo when i can get extra bloodspillers by just always hitting this other button. That's why i think having two finishers that grant benefits to eachother is almost always the right move, it reduces the chances that something will be labeled as "the worse option" because they both have intrinsic benefits that either keep you alive (which helps you deal damage) or deal additional damage but grants the keep-you-alive-combo some extra benefits. This is basically the method that Storms Eye and Storms path follow, and I don't see many people complaining about that setup.
Just gonna put my thoughts on Dark Knights here real quick: 1. TBN should be an upgrade from Dark Arts; switch out the useless Enhanced Unmend Trait with Enhanced Dark Arts Trait instead at LvL 70. Base Dark Arts would increase potency, but only for DRK's 123 and AoE combos for 10s; 50 damage potency(or cure potency, but damage potency feels more consistent). New effect while Dark Arts is active: Dark Soul - Gain a stack of Dark Soul after executing a 123/AoE combo, to a maximum of 2-3 stacks that restore 10% of maximum MP per stack after Dark Arts expires. Once upgraded to TBN, Dark Arts duration increases to 20s-25s and stacks of Dark Soul increase to 4-6. DRK changes their battle stance, which alters their 123 and AoE combo with new animations; increase damage potency applied to these skills from 50 to 100, once upgraded. Remove the requirement of breaking the TBN shield to activate Dark Arts; Dark Arts activates in tandem with TBN, even if you put the shield on an ally. New debuff effect when Dark Arts upgrades to TBN: Unwilling Succor - DRK siphons life energy from enemies, healing for X potency over time(X duration). Applies after successful 123/AoE combo; can be applied on multiple enemies after execution of AoE combo. Can be refreshed while under the duration of Dark Arts, but won't expire after Dark Arts expires. This will NOT be a DoT debuff. TBN shield duration should be increased from 7 seconds to 10 seconds. As for the MP cost, I'd rather they removed it. But if they kept it, the MP loss is mitigated by the huge MP gain after Dark Arts expires. Increase the recast timer to 25 seconds to match other Tanks. 2. Oblation and Dark Missionary should have resource requirements. Oblation should make use of the Blood Gauge and provide health regeneration in tandem with its damage reduction. Dark Missionary should make use of MP and give MP regeneration to allies, in tandem with its magic damage reduction. Just make these two defensive skills do something else besides just being "damage reduction". An alternative thought for Dark Missionary: Could be a shield that blocks magic damage(or just overall damage) and provides MP regeneration if broken, for allies. 3. Abyssal Drain should be combined with Salted Earth and use the Blood Gauge. It first starts out as Salted Earth; but instead of a static AoE, it should be a mobile AoE underneath the Dark Knight in a small radius, leaving behind a trail that fades over a few seconds. Then, when it upgrades to Salt and Darkness, it spawns the spiky ball(Abyssal Drain) - up to 3 max - and can be fired as at 3 targets. Now, it could function(both the AoE and ranged attack) similarly to Abyssal Drain and heal the DRK, or apply a damage debuff: Dark/Black Blood - Reduce an enemy's damage by 15% for X seconds. Oh, and make sure it's not tied with Carve and Spit in recast time(seriously, why is this even a thing?). 3.5. Regarding Carve and Spit, alternatively, instead of DRK's 123/AoE combo changing to different animations when TBN/Dark Arts activates, CnS becomes a new combo when TBN/Dark Arts is activated. This new combo is MP regen, while the Delirium combo converts into a heal combo with alteration to Blood Weapon effect. 4. At lvl 88, Enhanced Living Shadow should be changed from damage potency to faster action input - your shadow directly imitates any of your skill inputs. Instead of the slow summon animation, Esteem instead uses Shadowstride to appear next to you, ready to follow you in combat. Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Some good ideas in here! I don't agree with all of them, but I think the fact that people are willing to think about it this much means that this job desperately needs some attention
Darkknight should have a passive the increases damage with loss of life making it a high gamble tank. Since TBN is shield and not extra health that synergizes well, since the extra bar you get is NOT health, hence you don't lower your damage when using it. Since DRK uses Dark aether (active and changing) the use of emotions and pain to charge and strenghten themselves using their own desperation, anger and fear fits with the lore. That would make DRK a more unique tank away from the Pure dps tank (GNB), the heal/endure tank (War) and the party/support tank (PLD). Just my idea. What do you guys think about it?
Lower health = higher damage doesn't really work in pve in this game. Yeah it's in pvp, but you are very in control of your health bar at all times in that mode, where in pve you aren't, and the people spending resources on you to keep you alive would not like to play with a mediocre or worse drk always killing themselves, or the stress that a good drk would put on a mediocre healer trying to keep them alive. Basically, it'd be a nightmare for pug.
I would also suggest upgrading Carve and Split into a new aoe skill since Abyssal Drain would no longer share its cooldown. Give it two charges and reduce its cooldown to forty seconds. Personally I would also love to see Blood Price make a return in some form. My thought would be to have it as an added effect to Oblation. If the target of Oblation takes damage the Dark Knight would gain the effect Payment in Blood, increasing natural MP regeneration for a few seconds. (Stacking in duration.)
I'd love to see some kind of version of Soul Survivor come back. It was such a cool mechanic that has just never been utilized in any way shape or form after it was cut.
So, if DRK gets a regen or self heal, i think that would invalidate the need to increase the heal of Living Dead. WAR basically has to drop all the way down and use Bloodwhetting or equilibrium or both. I personally just use Shadowed Vigil if available. If TBN duration is increased to 10s with a heal and no MP cost, the recast should be 25s to keep in line with Bloodwhetting. Carve and spit should be separate from Abyssal Drain and either Abyssal drain should be tacked on as the finisher of the aoe combo so it can be used frequently or carve and spit gets a heal that is equivalent to Abyssal drain cure potency times 5 or make it 1200. Dark Mind and Dark Missionary need some type of physical mitigation because they don't help in fights like M3S that has a lot of logical damage. Lastly, i would bring back soul survivor, but rework it or call it soul bind or soul tether that heals upon landing a hit on the target. Between current Living Dead and Shadowed Vigil, DRK has the tools. Now all it needs is for two abilities to become mini versions of those skills. Whether it's TBN becomes a mini Shadowed Vigil where you get a 500-600 potency heal or turning a skill into a regen upon hit like Living Dead.
I like a lot of this! I think my biggest issues with TBN is the fact that it's the only tank mitigation ability in the game tied directly into DPS, and it's possible for you to not get maximum value out of it as an outcome of random chance, which are both bad design in my opinion. It needs to either be a defensive cooldown or an offensive cooldown, and they need to figure out which one they want it to be. Soul Survivor coming back in some way would be super fun, I'd love to see it as a debuff you can place on something that grants a small heal and mp restore on hit and then a larger heal and MP restore if the target dies with the debuff on. Would be good utility for single target passive regen and great in dungeons for burst maintenance on trash pulls. Thanks for the comment!
@@sharlayanforum Another thing I want to mention about TBN is that a lot of people like the idea of there being a reward for using it correctly or rather using it as intended where you want it to break. 1) No MP cost so it's not tied to damage in the initial sense. Duration of 10s. 25s recast 2) If the shield breaks, you get a free flood of shadow like normal as the reward aspect 3) Whether or not the shield breaks, there will be an excog with its own timer if hp is below 50% or a duration timer runs out Since Bloodwhetting does everything
I recently began leveling Dark Knight and after two dungeon roulettes where I got Endwalker dungeons (worst case scenario now), I made the decision to exclusively level via Alliance Raid and MSQ roulettes. Its just so damn brutal for no reason because of how squishy Dark Knight is and how awful the damage is now. I did a Tower of Zot like two weeks ago and it was painfully slow, got to a point where I said "dear god, commend everybody else but me, y'all deserve it more." They still commended me but I felt awful after seeing that. It seems like the class is having an identity crisis where they don't know what they want to do with it but the solution is there, they just gotta take into account player feedback and act upon it. The coolest idea I saw was someone recommending a type of transformation skill like Reaper (except in this case, imagine the Berserker Armor from Berserk) where your attacks get more quick, you passively regen health, and you become more tanky for a set amount of time. Not only will it be cool, but it'll stand out from the other tanks by giving us a transformation (obviously don't copy the Berserker Armor, but maybe have us become the shadow clone we summon or something).
Yeah, I really think that the 8.0 identity work for jobs is going to be a make or break moment for Dark Knight. It needs big changes, and if they don't do something drastic by then it's going to be a real problem.
@@sharlayanforum god its so sad to search "drk is bad" on google and you see posts years ago saying the same shit ppl are now, i hope SE fixes it at some point, i noticed most the ppl who want to keep it bad in lvl scaling are ppl playing dps as their mains lol
some good suggestions. Did a run of Vanguard with a DRK and t was rough, although I don't think they were playing very optimally, even at a casual level
Job identity be damned. All 4 of the tanks should just have identical "Oh Shit" buttons. At this point, its stupid that they are different. I don't care if they keep their name and animation or get changed to a tank role action, but they should just all have Hallowed Ground's effect. Push button. Be invincible. Profit.
That would certainly be the easy solution. I would frankly not be upset if a standard invuln was just a role action and all the tanks got a big, longer cooldown mitigation spell to compensate.
That mindset, to standardize roles action traits across the board, is what leads to videos like this. Not every class should play the same. They all need to have something they suck at and moments where they shine.
@redmecka304 I think that some things in the game should be standardized across the board, while other things are left as unique expression. Something as important and varied as a invulnerability skill isn't the place for a job to be worse at something than another, because it just leads to situations like we have now, where LD is a joke compared to the other Invulns, even HG which has a cooldown that is asinine compared to the others, and is the only invulnerable that someone can literally just troll you out of value on and force you to die anyway
I wish they kept their tank stances being different minus the dmg debuff. War gave more HP and heal action buff. Drk only tank could have both tank stance and dps stance on same time. PLD sadly it's stances sucked, just shield oath basic dmg reduction while it's sword oath buffed only auto-attack dmg meh lol.
@@sharlayanforum kinda disagree with this take about the invulns personally. The invulns having varying levels of effectiveness based on their mechs being different is simply a way to get across the personality of a class. Much in the same way as how classes unique mechanics, mobility tools, support tools and such do so. Invulns are extremely important for a tank job yes, but likewise having big damage in some form is important for a dps job. Are we to then argue that dps jobs should all have skills that are the same so theres better balance between dps? (the answer here is a resounding "no" by the way, for reasons which I think are obvious). Personally I'd prefer classes were unbalanced such that a meta arose for high end raiding (as long as all classes can clear), but classes at least kept their individuality and the core tools that made them fun to play for different reasons. Top end raiders will top end raid, and no matter how much homogeonization you do, there will be a "meta" comp and they will insist people bring those classes. The reality is that outside savage raids and beyond, which make up such a small portion of the game, things like how much dps a class is capable of putting out or how good a tanks invuln is isn't that important, it's certainly not making or breaking dungeons in the way that failing mechanics can make or break them. But no, we will continue to get people who will run ahead of tanks and pull camps back to tanks if their pace isn't to the individuals liking, or people complaining that a dungeon takes 30 minutes instead of 20 (heaven forbid!). And because of these people, square will get the message that super high optimisation is all people care about. So we shall get homogeoniaed classes, extremely scripted fights, dps checks that propagate this extreme dps obsession, every class shall be the same, and we shall all have to be content with this. Nevermind the fact that astros old card mechanics were more enjoyable, or dark knights old mechanics were more enjoyable, or nevermind that we lost a unique permanent pet class in the form of summoner when some people like that, or... (you get the idea, I could go on and on and on about all the good things we've had over the years get axed, because at some point balance out-prioritised having fun).
We're unfortunately at a point in the game where because the other 3 tanks work similarly and have relatively similar abilities, the content is primarily designed around their capabilities. Dark knight can be a good tank, but the game isn't designed to let their abilities really shine anymore which means it needs to be changed. Making matters worse are the people constantly shouting to not change dark knight's kit because TBN being a shield with a 15 second cooldown and Dark Mind only mitigating magic damage makes the class "unique", not realizing that unique doesn't mean good. Someone with an extremely rare heart disease that makes them bed-ridden for the rest of their life could also be considered "unique" but I think they'd much rather be just like everyone else if the option existed. I personally still don't understand why dark knight is the class that spends MP for mitigation and damage. If any of them should be classified as a 'magic tank', you'd think it would be paladin since they already have spell abilities. Dark knight's identity always seemed like a class that gets stronger as it gets closer to death, which I feel like could potentially work mechanically. Imagine if it had a passive that increased your base mitigation based on missing health, capping at around 50% of your max HP. TBN, instead of costing 3000 MP, costs 25% of your current HP and gives you a shield for the same amount. Because you have less HP your mitigation increases from the passive so the shield lasts longer than regular health, and if the shield breaks it returns the health to you but it gives you a 15% mitigation and a regen as a bonus for a bit. The only thing I'm not sure on is how to make this work for use on another party member. At best it would have to cost your own HP, which gives you bonus mitigation, but they'd have the shield for the hit. If the shield breaks you get HP back but they'd have the bonus regen and mitigation from it breaking. That's the best way I see that concept working out.
I think utilizing HP as a resource could be really cool, but I feel like they would struggle to make the balance exist where it would reliably tank content and deal with those mechanics simultaneously. If DRK was a DPS however, that would be a super fun gimmick to explore.
@@sharlayanforum Oh for sure it would be a nightmare to balance and I wouldn't want to be a part of the team trying to do it. It's more of long shot idea to both create some changes on the class to make it fun and functional while still appeasing those who want to maintain its uniqueness from other tanks and overall job identity.
Okay fine. I'll be that guy. Drk is fine the way it is. I can wall to wall pull. Early dungeons pre TBN is rough. Apart from that, if the healer does their job, I have had no issues. Plus I love the challenge. Sometimes I go into soul eater combo to have some sustain. Only time I have issues with drk, is solo content. Where other tanks have no issues getting through, drk falls behind. But it's rare that I do those. I mean I would even love the HW. I don't care. I mained the Drk stove it's release, and I'll main it still regardless where it stands.
That's fine if you feel that way, and I'm sure you're not alone! Just know the majority of people disagree with you and think that DRK needs some changes.
@@sharlayanforum I don't think you understand. I've been playing FFXIV since 1.0. I've watched the game get turned into what it is due to cry babies who can't put in effort. Is this job too hard? Please make it simple! Is there too many buttons? Please simplify! Is this not to your liking? Please change! I'm getting sick of it. If you like Warrior's kits, Paladin's kits, Gun Breaker's kits... Then go play those damn jobs. There are dark knights who stuck with the job through thick and thin, we don't want to be like other tanks. In fact, the shittier Drk is, the more it'll weed out garbage tanks. Go play the easier tanks. There is so much catering to the masses, that game is turning into a joke. It kinda already has, if you played DT. What a shitty MSQ. Look I'll meet you half way. Some skills can be reworked. But I don't want Drk to be like other tanks. This homogenization crap they are focusing on is making the game boring AF.
@aksh7811 what you don't understand is, current DRK literally has nothing going for it. You have to try even harder than other tanks to stay alive at the mercy of dogshit healers. If other tanks have a bad healer, they use their OP self heal on short CD. DRK's version doesn't heal, just a paper thin shield for dungeon mobs that cost dmg resource of their MP for no reason. TBN contradicts itself, refund free dark dmg ability if shield breaks but use too strong of mitigation ability and it doesn't. You've played since 1.0, have you forgot how good 3.x and especially 4.x DRK was? Salted Earth use to give Blood Gauge per tick, Abyssal Drain was a GCD with dark Arts would heal more then current warrior, Sole Survivor on a killed enemy would heal your HP/MP, being hit with Blood Price would restore MP, you actually had to manage your MP as darkside dps stance drained. Unlike now, just save 3k MP for TBN, burn the rest. 5.x onward ruined DRK removing all those unique skills. its been basic glass cannon brain dead lesser warrior beatstick since 2019.
@aksh7811 I get it. I've played since ARR Early Access. I've seen the changes and seen things come and go too, man. What I think you don't understand is that if FFXIV was designed now, in 2024, like it was in 2014, the game would be dead. The design of old jobs was needlessly obtuse and friction filled because they were working with things that they had from 1.0, which was basically "How annoying can we make this" the game. If content was designed like 2.0 or 3.0 today, people would not do it. If jobs were designed like 2.0 or 3.0 today, people would not play them. What is good for you, as an individual players enjoyment, is often not going to be in line with what is good for the games health as an entirety. We either accept that fact, and find ways to enjoy the game, or we move on to a different game. FF is more successful now than it has ever been, and I can guarantee you that isn't because people are clamoring for Tank and DPS stance dancing again.
@@sharlayanforum I admit that the game is more popular now than it has ever been. And yeah the game is better than the trash that was 1.0. I just believe that quantity does not equal quality. FFXI is prime example of quality. It was never really mainstream. In fact it was never "popular." It was a hidden gem. But I guess you're correct. More people play FFXIV and the developers try to cater to everyone. Sadly people like me are not on that list. FFXI met the same fate. To attract new players, or to please the casual players, a lot of QoL mechanics were introduced. The game has become a single player game for the most part. These are no longer MMOs. How much do you converse with anyone in the game. I bet barely. It's either "hi" or "o/". Discord killed any other interaction. And if there is any, it's degenerate garbage that I can't relate to. Perhaps I'm too old for a theme park MMO like FFXIV. Don't get me wrong... I still like the game. And maybe some day, they'll remake FFXI like it used to be in its prime. I'm not calling you wrong. I understand your point of view. I just don't like it. Anyways. Good talk.
IMO all they have to give DRK is pretty simple: -Give Bloodspiller mana regen same with Siphon strike -reduce Carve and Spit cd to 30sec (same like circle of scorn, expiacion, blasting zone, Gnashing combo, Upheaval, Infuriate cleaves) -Combine Oblation and TBN. If TBN does not break have it turn into dark arts when shield expires. -make Abyssal drain a separate skill from Carve, it just doesnt make sense why it shares the same CD. -give salted earth healing effects like a HoT when DRK stands on it and gain blood points for Salt and Darkness i dont know why they are lazy on some class changes or adjustments but even MCH is lacking some despite being a selfish DPS, its getting behind a BRD and DNC.
I have always loved dark Knight it was my main tank gunbreaker was my second. But then this expansion they decided to fuck us and take away our gap closers. Find that with the buff from to replace them with homogenized disgusting animation trash that deals no damage for no reason whatsoever. And I don't want to hear the arguments that people are using it for DPS when they shouldn't be so what how does my using it for that affect you not that I was. And if you don't want it to do DPS why do the other two tanks do DPS on their tank Gap closers and why did you change the animation just take the DPS off.
current DRK literally has nothing going for it. You have to try even harder than other tanks to stay alive at the mercy of dogshit healers. If other tanks have a bad healer, they use their OP self heal on short CD. DRK's version doesn't heal, just a paper thin shield for dungeon mobs that cost dmg resource of their MP for no reason. TBN contradicts itself, refund free dark dmg ability if shield breaks but use too strong of mitigation ability and it doesn't so, then its a dmg lose. I actually like Dark Mind, it makes you remember which enemy mob or tankbusters actually deal magic dmg, i just want the duration to be 15s instead of 10, thats all. It feels like a 2nd Rampart in a way. Obligation tho, make 15% dmg reduction, gives a regen after duration ends, and applied after TBN breaks no matter what as a later level trait. Another contraction, Living Dead, dont heal them before auto-rezzing smh. But yes stopping outsourced heals prior yess ive wanted that for a while, im about to have it trigger and get healed literally last second wasting it ugh. 4.x DRK was peak to me. Salted Earth use to give Blood Gauge per tick, Abyssal Drain was a GCD with dark Arts would heal more then current warrior, Sole Survivor on a killed enemy would heal your HP/MP, Delirium was a GCD of 3rd hit combo applying INT debuff on enemies, being hit with Blood Price would restore MP, you actually had to manage your MP as darkside dps stance always drained it in combat. Unlike now, just save 3k MP for TBN, burn the rest. I miss other combo to use under the arm Power Slash attack yes. 5.x onward ruined DRK removing all those unique skills and mechanics it had. Since 2019, its been basic glass cannon brain dead beatstick lesser version of warrior offense wise.
@sharlayanforum YES exactly And Abyssal Drain radius is so unique, especially back then, ranged aoe GCD on a tank. Well now PLD burst window, ranged aoe giant magic sword combo is exactly that lol.
Warrior is the necromancer/vampire tank that they want DRK to be.
Literally slap a necromancer/void knight vfx mod on WAR and its literally what DRK was supposed to be. They leech health from enemies and all their mitigation is designed around healing health rather than shielding and it works really well.
I think that is their problem. The job design teams dont coordinate with one another and now we're at a point where they either make DRK the same as WAR but with different VFX for the vampire theme or they redesign both jobs and give DRK the health leeching theme.
Never know what'll happen with the sweep in 8.0 I guess
My issue with Dark Knight is that they had a great way to fix it and make it unique...
Which they instead used to make a new class, Reaper.
Enshroud could have been Darkside, activating with 50 Black Blood gauge. Which then just gives you faster, stronger GCDs for five hits.
I think there's still space to give DRK it's own transformation! My guess is they probably considered this and then went with Living Shadow instead, and the idea got repurposed into Reaper.
9:10 drk shield out-prioritizes sage shield. if tbn is not breaking, its because of too much mit, but the actual barrier is irrelevant.
Yeah, that was more of an example than an actual hard set scenario.
The point is that same.
Here's what I got :
-Basic combo alternates between souleater and powerslash.
-Powerslash doubles souleater heal, generates 10 gauge and allows you to use abyssal drain in the next 15s. Abyssal drain gives 10 gauge.
-Dark mind and Dark Missionary get half their value on physical damage.
- TBN on a 25s cd (if you want a cd that you can use in quick succession, sheltron is the way to do it). No longer tied to your dps. Keep the reward aspect but make it about defense not offense, and make it less punishing if you don't get the full value. When the shield dissipates, it gives you a heal on hit for the next 3 GCDs. When it breaks, its a heal on hit for the next 6 GCDs instead.
- Salted Earth on a 60s cooldown, 90s cooldowns are awful in the 2m burst meta. Salt and Darkness gives you 3000mp (or a free Edge/Flood, to avoid overcap).
- Living Shadow no longer spawns a clone (right now at best you just press it and forget it exists, at worse it's distracting for you and your team). Instead, the shadow spawn right behind you and copies your action for a % of your damage, think Bunshin without the delay.
- Running animation changed. You are a Dark Knight, not a curling player.
A very good list!
Bunshin doesn't copy your actions, it just adds a set potency to every action you do and adds kenki.
@@Jay-mx5ky I know, and that's exactly what I'm talking about (kenki is a sam ressource btw)!
I'm talking about copying your actions *visually*. Bunshin has an after image of you copying your attacks. Mechanically, it empowers your GCDS. That's what I want for Living Shadow, except instead of having an after-image of yourself copying what you did with a slight delay, it'd be living shadow doing it in sync with you
@@TajinQ Yeah mybad, I meant ninki, not kenki.
I saw firsthand how squishy DRK can be: In the L97 dungeon after the first boss there’s this pull of five birds that do an absurd amount of damage. In one run on that dungeon a DRK forgot to press LD when we got to that pack and the poor tank melted in like seconds.
I have that moment clipped if you want to see it.
I've been the guy in that clip before, lol. It can be extremely brutal.
Did they not use mits? If I had a buck for everytime a tank tried a large pull but didn't use any mits, I could BUY Square Enix. . .
What you described is not a "Dark Knight" thing. . . it's a "Bad Tank" thing.
@hockey1973 You can be the best DRK in the world, if a multi-target fight drags on long enough, you will simply just run out of resources and cooldowns to hit. Especially coming straight out of a boss where you've probably hit some of those skills already and are sitting on half of a kit.
Did that as PLD, its not any less brutal. Those birds are just evil
those birds do magic damage, so they probably didn't use dark mind.
Something I always thought would be good is have darkness atk buff be a passive and have darkness be that the lower your health, the more mitigation you get up to 50% mit at 50% health. The lore is the more you hurt the stronger you get, so this would be both lore fitting and not entirely balance breaking, as even with that mit you wouldn't wanna sit that low hp for long. And would make barrier healers more desirable as they don't heal hp as fast, making those barriers, including tbn, more effective for a DRK. Also make TBN have no MP cost but be like 20sec cooldown.
It would be super fun to play a sort of "blood tank" version of Dark Knight for sure!
A a dark knight main who is playing paladin this expansion here is my take.
1. A second combo that adds a larger regen on souleater is awesome but it should also boost the mana regen for the syphon strike or restore mana itself (paladin does this and uses WAY less mana)
2. Dark mind should just be flat reduction though a 20/10 split isn't bad
3. TBN, should lean into the dmg imo. The mana cost should be the same, but the shield duration should be 15 seconds and be 30% of your hp. If it disappers get an excogitation for 25% and a use of darkside with a potency buff. If it BREAKS, all of the save effects but instead of darkside use it's Shadowbringer.
4. Dark missionary should be a raidwide TBN except no damage buff except when your shield breaks.
5. Mana cost for all abilities should be 2000 not 3000 (save for tbn). Mana regen for all abilities should be 600-1000 (if you reduce cost of abilities then regen should stay the same.)
6. Give drk a transformation that increases his hp through basic combo abilities, gives him damage reduction and no cost to darkside abilities. Call it Dark Arts.
7. Separate c&s from abyssal drain and give life gain upon use of each and reduce to 30 seconds with 1000 mana regen.
8. Finally, Abyssal Drain should heal more. Like you said and be more spamable
9. Salted Earth should give regen and mitigation and move with you.
Glad to see I wasn't too far off from a list of someone who plays it way more than I do!
TBN breaking into Shadowbringer would create more problems, You'll find people using TBN WAY more frequently to keep getting SHB procs making TBN a Damage cooldown rather than a defensive. Having a "Defensive" Cooldown also be a Huge DPS buff is too much. I would be happy with the rest of the list tho.
@@ExodistPR Yeah, I think they either need to go all the way on TBN being an offensive ability or all the way in on it being defensive. Having this weird conditional formatting on it where its half-baked on either just doesn't work.
Your idea of salted earth was close to mine. I suggested giving Salted Earth a regen in the puddle and when you activated Salt and Darkness, the pulsating damage from it would act like Abyssal Drain siphoning life force from all enemies in it.
Yeah, I think having it restore health or give a life steal effect while in it would also work well, but both at the same time may be a bit strong. Having the immediate heal tied to Salt and Darkness and a regen/increased heal on Salted Earth feels like a good balance.
I vote we give Dark Knight's that umbrella you were sporting in the video. Even an edgy boi needs some brightness and happiness from time to time. . .
lmaooooo True!
TBN should also have no more connection with your dps. MP, no matter how we look at it in FF14, just isn't a finite depleting resource for everything magic. In a game where a healer is especially present at all times and dps checks in the hardest content can be tight, sacrificing dps for survivability does not feel good as any non-healer. Even for SGE, their reward for a broken shield (which lasts 30s) is a dps neutral movement tool. It's probably just a better idea to remove MP cost from TBN. Additionally, it is weaker than the other tank cooldowns by a significant margin. At full hp with no other defensives, its 25% shield is functionally a 20% mitigation with its effect duration ending when it breaks. On the other hand, Holy Sheltron and HoC both have a whopping 38% mitigation for 4s and another 15% mitigation for 4s after, and they will always have full duration, meaning they have good synergy with healing because the mitigation applies to restored hp. They'll also apply to any shields. And of course, they have healing that will be triggered no matter what and any wasteful usage will not punish you with lost dps.
Absolutely. TBN could use a rework for sure, but I have a feeling it won't get it. It sucks that DRK is the only tank that is actively punished for not getting full value out of its main mitigation. It's a cool way for players to express their skill on the job, but like I described in the video, sometimes you just get a situation where it's literally impossible to get full value and you just get bent over instead and lose an entire Flood/Edge. It sucks.
The idea with Salted Earth and Salt and Darkness isn't great because when given a choice of more damage or utility, players are going to default to more damage (and balancing has to adjust for that).
Standing in Salted Earth for an effect can be great.
Better idea is to have activation of Salt and Darkness do a heal per enemy hit, so the Dark Knight is in control when that happens.
Idea for Living Dead just makes it so the only tank that isn't truly invulnerable is Warrior, and LD would most likely need a longer cooldown to make up for that.
Living Dead on activation could prevent and store any healing received as their health chunks down to 1, then that healing + self healing is whats used to prevent actual death.
Choice is good!
@@sharlayanforum ya i agree, im more of a support tank in most mmos i play, speccing into dps as a tank is usually a minmax thing for endgame clears, i love making life easier for my party or having more control of a fight, cc/tank and partybuff/tank are usually my gotos
I want the dark arts proc of TBN to grant the next Edge of Shadow/Flood lifesteal.
That'd be neat!
Something I'd like to see for DRK is more than just alternating combos... we have enough of that with MNK and VPR. I would appreciate it if there was something we get offensively after performing both combos and a reason that both combos exist. For example, if one combo restored mp and the other increased blood.
It would also be awesome if we actually had to think about darkside - the combos should be used to maintain darkside, and our mp spenders should consume the timer, in my opinion.
Maybe! I think if we had a combo that generated blood we'd have problems with balancing though. What's more likely is a combo that generates a lot of MP and one that Heals for a lot.
@sharlayanforum I just think it'd fall into the same fate as the enmity combo, or worse, because who would take more healing when you can do more damage? Idk, it depends on how they balance the potency I suppose.
You could make that argument for one generating Blood though. Why would I choose the Heal combo when i can get extra bloodspillers by just always hitting this other button.
That's why i think having two finishers that grant benefits to eachother is almost always the right move, it reduces the chances that something will be labeled as "the worse option" because they both have intrinsic benefits that either keep you alive (which helps you deal damage) or deal additional damage but grants the keep-you-alive-combo some extra benefits.
This is basically the method that Storms Eye and Storms path follow, and I don't see many people complaining about that setup.
Just gonna put my thoughts on Dark Knights here real quick:
1. TBN should be an upgrade from Dark Arts; switch out the useless Enhanced Unmend Trait with Enhanced Dark Arts Trait instead at LvL 70. Base Dark Arts would increase potency, but only for DRK's 123 and AoE combos for 10s; 50 damage potency(or cure potency, but damage potency feels more consistent).
New effect while Dark Arts is active: Dark Soul - Gain a stack of Dark Soul after executing a 123/AoE combo, to a maximum of 2-3 stacks that restore 10% of maximum MP per stack after Dark Arts expires.
Once upgraded to TBN, Dark Arts duration increases to 20s-25s and stacks of Dark Soul increase to 4-6. DRK changes their battle stance, which alters their 123 and AoE combo with new animations; increase damage potency applied to these skills from 50 to 100, once upgraded. Remove the requirement of breaking the TBN shield to activate Dark Arts; Dark Arts activates in tandem with TBN, even if you put the shield on an ally.
New debuff effect when Dark Arts upgrades to TBN: Unwilling Succor - DRK siphons life energy from enemies, healing for X potency over time(X duration). Applies after successful 123/AoE combo; can be applied on multiple enemies after execution of AoE combo. Can be refreshed while under the duration of Dark Arts, but won't expire after Dark Arts expires. This will NOT be a DoT debuff.
TBN shield duration should be increased from 7 seconds to 10 seconds. As for the MP cost, I'd rather they removed it. But if they kept it, the MP loss is mitigated by the huge MP gain after Dark Arts expires. Increase the recast timer to 25 seconds to match other Tanks.
2. Oblation and Dark Missionary should have resource requirements. Oblation should make use of the Blood Gauge and provide health regeneration in tandem with its damage reduction. Dark Missionary should make use of MP and give MP regeneration to allies, in tandem with its magic damage reduction. Just make these two defensive skills do something else besides just being "damage reduction". An alternative thought for Dark Missionary: Could be a shield that blocks magic damage(or just overall damage) and provides MP regeneration if broken, for allies.
3. Abyssal Drain should be combined with Salted Earth and use the Blood Gauge. It first starts out as Salted Earth; but instead of a static AoE, it should be a mobile AoE underneath the Dark Knight in a small radius, leaving behind a trail that fades over a few seconds. Then, when it upgrades to Salt and Darkness, it spawns the spiky ball(Abyssal Drain) - up to 3 max - and can be fired as at 3 targets. Now, it could function(both the AoE and ranged attack) similarly to Abyssal Drain and heal the DRK, or apply a damage debuff: Dark/Black Blood - Reduce an enemy's damage by 15% for X seconds. Oh, and make sure it's not tied with Carve and Spit in recast time(seriously, why is this even a thing?).
3.5. Regarding Carve and Spit, alternatively, instead of DRK's 123/AoE combo changing to different animations when TBN/Dark Arts activates, CnS becomes a new combo when TBN/Dark Arts is activated. This new combo is MP regen, while the Delirium combo converts into a heal combo with alteration to Blood Weapon effect.
4. At lvl 88, Enhanced Living Shadow should be changed from damage potency to faster action input - your shadow directly imitates any of your skill inputs. Instead of the slow summon animation, Esteem instead uses Shadowstride to appear next to you, ready to follow you in combat.
Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Some good ideas in here! I don't agree with all of them, but I think the fact that people are willing to think about it this much means that this job desperately needs some attention
Darkknight should have a passive the increases damage with loss of life making it a high gamble tank. Since TBN is shield and not extra health that synergizes well, since the extra bar you get is NOT health, hence you don't lower your damage when using it.
Since DRK uses Dark aether (active and changing) the use of emotions and pain to charge and strenghten themselves using their own desperation, anger and fear fits with the lore. That would make DRK a more unique tank away from the Pure dps tank (GNB), the heal/endure tank (War) and the party/support tank (PLD).
Just my idea. What do you guys think about it?
Definitely more unique! I think it would struggle in balance, but it definitely could work.
Lower health = higher damage doesn't really work in pve in this game. Yeah it's in pvp, but you are very in control of your health bar at all times in that mode, where in pve you aren't, and the people spending resources on you to keep you alive would not like to play with a mediocre or worse drk always killing themselves, or the stress that a good drk would put on a mediocre healer trying to keep them alive. Basically, it'd be a nightmare for pug.
I would also suggest upgrading Carve and Split into a new aoe skill since Abyssal Drain would no longer share its cooldown. Give it two charges and reduce its cooldown to forty seconds.
Personally I would also love to see Blood Price make a return in some form. My thought would be to have it as an added effect to Oblation. If the target of Oblation takes damage the Dark Knight would gain the effect Payment in Blood, increasing natural MP regeneration for a few seconds. (Stacking in duration.)
I'd love to see some kind of version of Soul Survivor come back. It was such a cool mechanic that has just never been utilized in any way shape or form after it was cut.
So, if DRK gets a regen or self heal, i think that would invalidate the need to increase the heal of Living Dead. WAR basically has to drop all the way down and use Bloodwhetting or equilibrium or both. I personally just use Shadowed Vigil if available.
If TBN duration is increased to 10s with a heal and no MP cost, the recast should be 25s to keep in line with Bloodwhetting.
Carve and spit should be separate from Abyssal Drain and either Abyssal drain should be tacked on as the finisher of the aoe combo so it can be used frequently or carve and spit gets a heal that is equivalent to Abyssal drain cure potency times 5 or make it 1200.
Dark Mind and Dark Missionary need some type of physical mitigation because they don't help in fights like M3S that has a lot of logical damage.
Lastly, i would bring back soul survivor, but rework it or call it soul bind or soul tether that heals upon landing a hit on the target.
Between current Living Dead and Shadowed Vigil, DRK has the tools. Now all it needs is for two abilities to become mini versions of those skills. Whether it's TBN becomes a mini Shadowed Vigil where you get a 500-600 potency heal or turning a skill into a regen upon hit like Living Dead.
I like a lot of this! I think my biggest issues with TBN is the fact that it's the only tank mitigation ability in the game tied directly into DPS, and it's possible for you to not get maximum value out of it as an outcome of random chance, which are both bad design in my opinion. It needs to either be a defensive cooldown or an offensive cooldown, and they need to figure out which one they want it to be.
Soul Survivor coming back in some way would be super fun, I'd love to see it as a debuff you can place on something that grants a small heal and mp restore on hit and then a larger heal and MP restore if the target dies with the debuff on. Would be good utility for single target passive regen and great in dungeons for burst maintenance on trash pulls.
Thanks for the comment!
@@sharlayanforum Another thing I want to mention about TBN is that a lot of people like the idea of there being a reward for using it correctly or rather using it as intended where you want it to break.
1) No MP cost so it's not tied to damage in the initial sense. Duration of 10s. 25s recast
2) If the shield breaks, you get a free flood of shadow like normal as the reward aspect
3) Whether or not the shield breaks, there will be an excog with its own timer if hp is below 50% or a duration timer runs out
Since Bloodwhetting does everything
I recently began leveling Dark Knight and after two dungeon roulettes where I got Endwalker dungeons (worst case scenario now), I made the decision to exclusively level via Alliance Raid and MSQ roulettes. Its just so damn brutal for no reason because of how squishy Dark Knight is and how awful the damage is now. I did a Tower of Zot like two weeks ago and it was painfully slow, got to a point where I said "dear god, commend everybody else but me, y'all deserve it more." They still commended me but I felt awful after seeing that.
It seems like the class is having an identity crisis where they don't know what they want to do with it but the solution is there, they just gotta take into account player feedback and act upon it. The coolest idea I saw was someone recommending a type of transformation skill like Reaper (except in this case, imagine the Berserker Armor from Berserk) where your attacks get more quick, you passively regen health, and you become more tanky for a set amount of time. Not only will it be cool, but it'll stand out from the other tanks by giving us a transformation (obviously don't copy the Berserker Armor, but maybe have us become the shadow clone we summon or something).
Yeah, I really think that the 8.0 identity work for jobs is going to be a make or break moment for Dark Knight. It needs big changes, and if they don't do something drastic by then it's going to be a real problem.
@@sharlayanforum god its so sad to search "drk is bad" on google and you see posts years ago saying the same shit ppl are now, i hope SE fixes it at some point, i noticed most the ppl who want to keep it bad in lvl scaling are ppl playing dps as their mains lol
some good suggestions. Did a run of Vanguard with a DRK and t was rough, although I don't think they were playing very optimally, even at a casual level
Could've been me lmao
this video changed my life
Job identity be damned. All 4 of the tanks should just have identical "Oh Shit" buttons. At this point, its stupid that they are different.
I don't care if they keep their name and animation or get changed to a tank role action, but they should just all have Hallowed Ground's effect. Push button. Be invincible. Profit.
That would certainly be the easy solution. I would frankly not be upset if a standard invuln was just a role action and all the tanks got a big, longer cooldown mitigation spell to compensate.
That mindset, to standardize roles action traits across the board, is what leads to videos like this. Not every class should play the same. They all need to have something they suck at and moments where they shine.
@redmecka304 I think that some things in the game should be standardized across the board, while other things are left as unique expression. Something as important and varied as a invulnerability skill isn't the place for a job to be worse at something than another, because it just leads to situations like we have now, where LD is a joke compared to the other Invulns, even HG which has a cooldown that is asinine compared to the others, and is the only invulnerable that someone can literally just troll you out of value on and force you to die anyway
I wish they kept their tank stances being different minus the dmg debuff. War gave more HP and heal action buff. Drk only tank could have both tank stance and dps stance on same time. PLD sadly it's stances sucked, just shield oath basic dmg reduction while it's sword oath buffed only auto-attack dmg meh lol.
@@sharlayanforum kinda disagree with this take about the invulns personally.
The invulns having varying levels of effectiveness based on their mechs being different is simply a way to get across the personality of a class. Much in the same way as how classes unique mechanics, mobility tools, support tools and such do so. Invulns are extremely important for a tank job yes, but likewise having big damage in some form is important for a dps job. Are we to then argue that dps jobs should all have skills that are the same so theres better balance between dps? (the answer here is a resounding "no" by the way, for reasons which I think are obvious).
Personally I'd prefer classes were unbalanced such that a meta arose for high end raiding (as long as all classes can clear), but classes at least kept their individuality and the core tools that made them fun to play for different reasons. Top end raiders will top end raid, and no matter how much homogeonization you do, there will be a "meta" comp and they will insist people bring those classes. The reality is that outside savage raids and beyond, which make up such a small portion of the game, things like how much dps a class is capable of putting out or how good a tanks invuln is isn't that important, it's certainly not making or breaking dungeons in the way that failing mechanics can make or break them. But no, we will continue to get people who will run ahead of tanks and pull camps back to tanks if their pace isn't to the individuals liking, or people complaining that a dungeon takes 30 minutes instead of 20 (heaven forbid!). And because of these people, square will get the message that super high optimisation is all people care about. So we shall get homogeoniaed classes, extremely scripted fights, dps checks that propagate this extreme dps obsession, every class shall be the same, and we shall all have to be content with this. Nevermind the fact that astros old card mechanics were more enjoyable, or dark knights old mechanics were more enjoyable, or nevermind that we lost a unique permanent pet class in the form of summoner when some people like that, or... (you get the idea, I could go on and on and on about all the good things we've had over the years get axed, because at some point balance out-prioritised having fun).
The clone should be permanent and tbn should not require mp but recover mp if it breaks.
TBN rework would be good. Clone being permanent make it sort of meaningless though.
Still love dark knight tbh it’s super fun
And that's okay! I enjoy a lot of things that I think could also be better.
We're unfortunately at a point in the game where because the other 3 tanks work similarly and have relatively similar abilities, the content is primarily designed around their capabilities. Dark knight can be a good tank, but the game isn't designed to let their abilities really shine anymore which means it needs to be changed. Making matters worse are the people constantly shouting to not change dark knight's kit because TBN being a shield with a 15 second cooldown and Dark Mind only mitigating magic damage makes the class "unique", not realizing that unique doesn't mean good. Someone with an extremely rare heart disease that makes them bed-ridden for the rest of their life could also be considered "unique" but I think they'd much rather be just like everyone else if the option existed.
I personally still don't understand why dark knight is the class that spends MP for mitigation and damage. If any of them should be classified as a 'magic tank', you'd think it would be paladin since they already have spell abilities. Dark knight's identity always seemed like a class that gets stronger as it gets closer to death, which I feel like could potentially work mechanically. Imagine if it had a passive that increased your base mitigation based on missing health, capping at around 50% of your max HP. TBN, instead of costing 3000 MP, costs 25% of your current HP and gives you a shield for the same amount. Because you have less HP your mitigation increases from the passive so the shield lasts longer than regular health, and if the shield breaks it returns the health to you but it gives you a 15% mitigation and a regen as a bonus for a bit. The only thing I'm not sure on is how to make this work for use on another party member. At best it would have to cost your own HP, which gives you bonus mitigation, but they'd have the shield for the hit. If the shield breaks you get HP back but they'd have the bonus regen and mitigation from it breaking. That's the best way I see that concept working out.
I think utilizing HP as a resource could be really cool, but I feel like they would struggle to make the balance exist where it would reliably tank content and deal with those mechanics simultaneously.
If DRK was a DPS however, that would be a super fun gimmick to explore.
@@sharlayanforum Oh for sure it would be a nightmare to balance and I wouldn't want to be a part of the team trying to do it. It's more of long shot idea to both create some changes on the class to make it fun and functional while still appeasing those who want to maintain its uniqueness from other tanks and overall job identity.
The guauge should fill faster Idk why they cut blood weapon
Okay fine. I'll be that guy. Drk is fine the way it is. I can wall to wall pull. Early dungeons pre TBN is rough. Apart from that, if the healer does their job, I have had no issues. Plus I love the challenge. Sometimes I go into soul eater combo to have some sustain. Only time I have issues with drk, is solo content. Where other tanks have no issues getting through, drk falls behind. But it's rare that I do those. I mean I would even love the HW. I don't care. I mained the Drk stove it's release, and I'll main it still regardless where it stands.
That's fine if you feel that way, and I'm sure you're not alone! Just know the majority of people disagree with you and think that DRK needs some changes.
@@sharlayanforum I don't think you understand. I've been playing FFXIV since 1.0. I've watched the game get turned into what it is due to cry babies who can't put in effort.
Is this job too hard? Please make it simple!
Is there too many buttons? Please simplify!
Is this not to your liking? Please change!
I'm getting sick of it. If you like Warrior's kits, Paladin's kits, Gun Breaker's kits... Then go play those damn jobs.
There are dark knights who stuck with the job through thick and thin, we don't want to be like other tanks. In fact, the shittier Drk is, the more it'll weed out garbage tanks. Go play the easier tanks.
There is so much catering to the masses, that game is turning into a joke. It kinda already has, if you played DT. What a shitty MSQ.
Look I'll meet you half way. Some skills can be reworked. But I don't want Drk to be like other tanks. This homogenization crap they are focusing on is making the game boring AF.
@aksh7811 what you don't understand is, current DRK literally has nothing going for it. You have to try even harder than other tanks to stay alive at the mercy of dogshit healers. If other tanks have a bad healer, they use their OP self heal on short CD. DRK's version doesn't heal, just a paper thin shield for dungeon mobs that cost dmg resource of their MP for no reason. TBN contradicts itself, refund free dark dmg ability if shield breaks but use too strong of mitigation ability and it doesn't.
You've played since 1.0, have you forgot how good 3.x and especially 4.x DRK was? Salted Earth use to give Blood Gauge per tick, Abyssal Drain was a GCD with dark Arts would heal more then current warrior, Sole Survivor on a killed enemy would heal your HP/MP, being hit with Blood Price would restore MP, you actually had to manage your MP as darkside dps stance drained. Unlike now, just save 3k MP for TBN, burn the rest. 5.x onward ruined DRK removing all those unique skills. its been basic glass cannon brain dead lesser warrior beatstick since 2019.
@aksh7811 I get it. I've played since ARR Early Access. I've seen the changes and seen things come and go too, man.
What I think you don't understand is that if FFXIV was designed now, in 2024, like it was in 2014, the game would be dead. The design of old jobs was needlessly obtuse and friction filled because they were working with things that they had from 1.0, which was basically "How annoying can we make this" the game.
If content was designed like 2.0 or 3.0 today, people would not do it.
If jobs were designed like 2.0 or 3.0 today, people would not play them.
What is good for you, as an individual players enjoyment, is often not going to be in line with what is good for the games health as an entirety.
We either accept that fact, and find ways to enjoy the game, or we move on to a different game. FF is more successful now than it has ever been, and I can guarantee you that isn't because people are clamoring for Tank and DPS stance dancing again.
@@sharlayanforum I admit that the game is more popular now than it has ever been. And yeah the game is better than the trash that was 1.0.
I just believe that quantity does not equal quality. FFXI is prime example of quality. It was never really mainstream. In fact it was never "popular." It was a hidden gem.
But I guess you're correct. More people play FFXIV and the developers try to cater to everyone. Sadly people like me are not on that list. FFXI met the same fate. To attract new players, or to please the casual players, a lot of QoL mechanics were introduced. The game has become a single player game for the most part.
These are no longer MMOs. How much do you converse with anyone in the game. I bet barely. It's either "hi" or "o/". Discord killed any other interaction. And if there is any, it's degenerate garbage that I can't relate to. Perhaps I'm too old for a theme park MMO like FFXIV.
Don't get me wrong... I still like the game. And maybe some day, they'll remake FFXI like it used to be in its prime.
I'm not calling you wrong. I understand your point of view. I just don't like it. Anyways. Good talk.
IMO all they have to give DRK is pretty simple:
-Give Bloodspiller mana regen same with Siphon strike
-reduce Carve and Spit cd to 30sec (same like circle of scorn, expiacion, blasting zone, Gnashing combo, Upheaval, Infuriate cleaves)
-Combine Oblation and TBN. If TBN does not break have it turn into dark arts when shield expires.
-make Abyssal drain a separate skill from Carve, it just doesnt make sense why it shares the same CD.
-give salted earth healing effects like a HoT when DRK stands on it and gain blood points for Salt and Darkness
i dont know why they are lazy on some class changes or adjustments but even MCH is lacking some despite being a selfish DPS, its getting behind a BRD and DNC.
Yeah, I feel like *overall* most of the jobs are in a good spot, but there's a couple that leave me scratching my head
It was in Stormblood but.. oh well!
Stormblood was peak job design tbh
@@sharlayanforum Wait… a person who agrees with me? Ive been called nostalgia nerd or something. This is a good day, thank you!
I have always loved dark Knight it was my main tank gunbreaker was my second. But then this expansion they decided to fuck us and take away our gap closers. Find that with the buff from to replace them with homogenized disgusting animation trash that deals no damage for no reason whatsoever. And I don't want to hear the arguments that people are using it for DPS when they shouldn't be so what how does my using it for that affect you not that I was. And if you don't want it to do DPS why do the other two tanks do DPS on their tank Gap closers and why did you change the animation just take the DPS off.
Eh I think of all the hills to die on for DRK lunge is a pretty small one. Gap closers just shouldn't have potency period
Dark knight is to tanks what dark souls 2 is to souls borne
A bold statement. Brave even.
current DRK literally has nothing going for it. You have to try even harder than other tanks to stay alive at the mercy of dogshit healers. If other tanks have a bad healer, they use their OP self heal on short CD. DRK's version doesn't heal, just a paper thin shield for dungeon mobs that cost dmg resource of their MP for no reason. TBN contradicts itself, refund free dark dmg ability if shield breaks but use too strong of mitigation ability and it doesn't so, then its a dmg lose.
I actually like Dark Mind, it makes you remember which enemy mob or tankbusters actually deal magic dmg, i just want the duration to be 15s instead of 10, thats all. It feels like a 2nd Rampart in a way. Obligation tho, make 15% dmg reduction, gives a regen after duration ends, and applied after TBN breaks no matter what as a later level trait.
Another contraction, Living Dead, dont heal them before auto-rezzing smh. But yes stopping outsourced heals prior yess ive wanted that for a while, im about to have it trigger and get healed literally last second wasting it ugh.
4.x DRK was peak to me. Salted Earth use to give Blood Gauge per tick, Abyssal Drain was a GCD with dark Arts would heal more then current warrior, Sole Survivor on a killed enemy would heal your HP/MP, Delirium was a GCD of 3rd hit combo applying INT debuff on enemies, being hit with Blood Price would restore MP, you actually had to manage your MP as darkside dps stance always drained it in combat. Unlike now, just save 3k MP for TBN, burn the rest.
I miss other combo to use under the arm Power Slash attack yes. 5.x onward ruined DRK removing all those unique skills and mechanics it had. Since 2019, its been basic glass cannon brain dead beatstick lesser version of warrior offense wise.
Yeah, I played a lot of DRK when it came out in 3.0, so I have fond memories of being able to Dark Art an Abyssal Drain and get stupid value from it.
@sharlayanforum YES exactly
And Abyssal Drain radius is so unique, especially back then, ranged aoe GCD on a tank. Well now PLD burst window, ranged aoe giant magic sword combo is exactly that lol.