There seems to be a lot of confusion over why I call DRK the highest dmg tank despite it not being the point of the video so I will pin this here to explain: aDPS is the metric tanks care about in 99% of cases because tanks do not bring a raid buff of their own. Your job as a tank is to deal as much dmg as possible during raid buffs, so to ignore raid buffs when determining the highest dmg tank would not make much sense. rDPS ignores dmg from raid buffs so it is only relevant for the singular party comp in the game that does not bring party buffs: ex. WHM, SGE, SAM, VPR, MCH, BLM TLDR: aDPS is the metric that is used to determine tank dmg. The less raid buffs you bring to the raid, the less powerful burst jobs like DRK become and the closer tank dmg will resemble rDPS. My point was to show the disparity that even with DRK being the highest aDPS job at the time of recording, there is a very low player count for DRK showing that there are underlying issues with the job making players choose other tanks over the dmg benefits.
It's fine if you don't agree, but this is twice now that you've made no actual argument of your own, and now you're switching to insults because you have nothing of actual value to say. I'd love to hear who these "top tier raiders" are lol
Dude I had a M2S reclear party from last week that hit 0.1% enrage with only one death, and 0 stacks on the boss. I looked through the logs and everyone potted twice. How the fuck is the dmg this low in PF, what the actual hell.
@@sneakychopstick Probably Alarm Pheremones 1. Depending on the jobs/people focusing on not being hit, you have a solid like 20-30 seconds where people are just throwing ranged attacks and not bothering to spellcast/risk dying.
15:33 I’m really glad you think that way about TBN. Imo the best way to improve it while keeping true to form is to allow DRK to recycle TBN when popped. No mana and no CD so you can really come in clutch when there’s potentially lethal damage everywhere
I was thinking something similar both for TBN and the opposite for LD to make it feel a bit better in dungeons. If LD doesn't get triggered give it half cooldown. Doesn't matter much for raids as if you're using LD in a raid its typically for a cheese or a buster that you're using no other mit on but it will make it feel better in dungeons being able to use it as a safety net when a WHM is planning on using beni but didn't tell you. Now for TBN, Make the "dark arts" buff it gives work for another TBN rather then Edge/Flood and allow it to chain into multiple dark arts. A good DRK who uses their mit well will only ever pay 3000 mana for a fight an entire fight.
I mained DRK since HW on a pretty casual level. I did lots of dungeon content, extremes, and dipped in and out of a few raid tiers. it was my favorite job aesthetically, lore wise, and gameplay. It's still to this day my most played job and I've completed every relic without fail for DRK. Even got a bunch of fanart of my character made using DRK weapons. I LOVED this job. I was one of the few DRKs that disappointed by the Shadowbringers rework. I understand that it was a balancing/design nightmare in HW (everything was). Stormblood went a little too ham on the Dark Arts spam, but it was still DRK at it's core. I would argue SB's DRK was peak for dungeon content, if you played well, you were a god and was unique in that regard, and was still a very solid pick for raiding. There were some changes I was pretty okay with for the ShB rework, but it feels like it's been the same job for five years now with barely anything new, or is lacking a "HOLY SHIT THAT WAS COOL" moment like pretty much every other job in the game. The new 1-2-3 Delirium combo is decent, but it's nothing even close to WAR pulling out a bigass axe from the ground and crushing it's foes, or Unlimited Blade Works+ for PLD (I'd also argue PLD's new Atonement Combo looks cooler than the Delirium combo), and the Lionhart combo is just PEAK GNB. DRK to me personally feels like a Dollar General brand WAR as of EW. We basically got nothing interesting for the job at all, and DT didn't come close to making the job fun for me anymore. Take some of the skills as an example. Got your three fel clea... "bloodspiller" hits. Got yourself a tasty HP shield that also gives you a buff heals on enem... oh wait that's WAR. You got a targeted mit skill that gives 10% DR, but if you time it, you get extra.. oh wait, WAR again. It honestly feels like the devs just don't know what to do with DRK. RPR is pretty much peak DRK without the sword. Lots of oGCDs? Check. An alter ego? Check. Fast paced burst window? Not anymore lmao. Edgy aesthetic that screams Linking Park's Hybrid Theory? Check. Whatever they do in 8.0, I hope DRK gets the TLC I think it deserve, and not to be left in the dust like MNK had been. Until then, this is the first expac I can sadly say that I'm no longer a DRK main.
I honestly cannot understand why they changed Blood Weapon to only be 3 stacks, but then didn't just change the MP given from 600 to 1000 so you still got 3k? Like with their reasoning that's the change that would make sense! Same thing with removing the potency from the gapcloser... But then not redistributing it elsewhere until WAY LATER level
They keep having that issue, the same thing happened with AST with their new draws, you would think it would be obvious that reducing the number of draws would mean they need to increase the amount of mana they give and yet /shrug
@@NotRealAkira There is always the issues that they overlook. From Misery not being compensated in potency in EW til 6.1. Also making dia a downgrade from aero 2 for a little bit, Not buffing macrocosmos ptency til 7.01, Not knowing the issues with light speed for the entirely of EW, them not buffing mnk aoe when they got rid of the twin snakes buff for a bit, the changes to paradox to where you couldn't use it in umbral ice anymore. not thinking about the new changes to blm mp to where it was awful before you could get umbral soul, it's all the little things here and there that seeps through the cracks.
I wish they balanced the game for more than just week 1 savage specifically. I think its a disservice to this game how hard they're neglecting old content for balance. It shouldn't even be that hard seeing as Level Sync exists.
I hope they fix level sync. Remove skill and ability rewards in job quest. Make all jobs get their skills at every ten levels, make everyone gets a consistent skill set in between levels, maybe except after lv 90.
Man this video hits so close to home. I started really playing at the very tail end of ShB and fell in love hard with Dark Knight's story. I loved DRK's super busy burst and learning 5/3 edge alignment was how I initially began to understand the concept of the two minute window. DRK was with me from MSQ all the way to my first EX and Savage clears. I had to leave this tier for greener pastures (GNB) because I just cannot handle how sluggish and slow it feels now. The fact that DRK's average APM is now lower than WAR's was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I just don't understand why they would nerf the only positive aspect of our short CD and then also take away a defining reason a lot of people gravitated towards the class.Plunge being gone is fine, but the fact that it leaves us two fewer weaves, minus the one already lost from BW+Delirium merge, and minus the third edge, the already barren earth of our 1 minute burst has been salted beyond repair. Fact of the matter is, they either made the blood weapon nerf on purpose or on accident and NEITHER option inspires much confidence in the design of the class as a whole. DRK always had problems in EW, but it had enough going for it for people to stick it out until DT when surely they'll add something to shore up how terrible the 1 min is. And instead, they just took stuff away, leaving a gaping hole with nothing to fill it. DRK at this point feels like it's being actively punished for being a 2m-dependent class when GNB just became a 2m class and is being actively rewarded for it (despite already having a more fun 30s and 1m burst). I think the worst part is how any number of small fixes would tide me over until a full rework but we're really just going to have to sit here and wait until 8.0 for them to remember that Dark Knight even exists. Give us our 1200mp/min back. Make CnS/AD a 30s, 2-stack CD (which would incidentally do a lot to patch DRK's shaky dungeon survivability). Make TBN cost 0 MP and change Dark Arts to not be tied to damage. IDK, anything. I beg.
Tanks during filler rotation: -Warr had fel cleaves and infuriate cleaves with guaranteed crit -PLD has 3 attonement combo for every 3rd gcd combo + insta cast holyspirit -GNB had Gnashing combo + blasting zone every 30s -DRK has blood spiller for every 2nd souleater and one extra Edge of Shadow before 1min. Now if they add mana syphon on Bloodspiller like Syphon strike, then we'd get an extra EoS. A minor addition that i feel like could make some difference, coz mana has always been an issue for playing DRK.
Since they took away the blood cost on Shadow, they should make it like Vergil's doppleganger where it actually copies your moves and you are entirely responsible for its damage. Imagine planning the timing of your burst around when your Shadow's up so you get all your big buttons twice, that'd be sick. Honestly I've always had a problem with DRK's biggest button being "summon the guy and let him do your damage for you," so this change would let you have a lot more impact on that. To combat only 3 stacks of Blood Weapon, I'd love to see Salt give you increased mana regen while you stand in it, to give it a reason for being a ground aoe besides just "spicy dot." Maybe change the CD and make Salt activate move it to you like BLM ley-lines, that'd be sick. I honestly feel like they should decrease the potency of Edge and Flood, but increase DRK's overall mana gain a lot, so you're able to use TBN more often and less strictly. Also idk why they didn't give you the new Scarlet Delirium combo as soon as you unlock Delirium. PLD got its new Atonement combo at lower levels, so why shouldn't DRK? The job just feels like dogshit and is objectively worse than it was in EW at 90, it's really sad playing it in old content right now. They took away a bunch of stuff and gave it nothing in return. Even the DT version feels a bit like that honestly. I'm curious to see how Squenix responds to all our complaints, and if we could actually see a DRK rework in DT. If not, and the job will be like this for the whole expansion, it's gonna be a sad three years.
Don't forget if the boss moves while Living Shadow is out, Esteem will Shadowstride to the target now instead of plunging like before, so the Shadowstride change also tanked Living Shadow's potency. Great takes though, was refreshing to not see a drk main screaming about this phys heavy raid tier.
If you do any content lower than 68 when you get delirium, you notice the mana problem immediately. Sure theres no meaningful content at that level, but why does a 1 minute not even give enough for 1 extra edge of shadow per minute? When they reduced stacks from 5 to 3, they should have just made the gain 1000 per bw stack and maybe make bloodspiller also give 1000. If would wind up being more busy in the burst windows - especially the 2 minute, but it would make mana management and not overcapping a bit more thoughtful while actually buffing dps and raising the skill cap. I think all 4 invulns need a rework so I won't touch that one, but for defensives, combine oblation with either tbn or preferably dark mind. It would wind up making dark mind really op on tbs in some fights, but as you said, a lot of damage this tier is physical, so it would wind up evening out.
For a random (uneducated) opinion on DRK, I would like to see a mini Carve and Spit MP Restore added to Bloodspiller and a mini Abyssal Drain added to Quietus to make DRK a little more sustainable/claw back MP loss. I doubt the timer or the shared cool down on Carve/Abyssal is going to change any time soon, so that feels to me like a healthy change until a rework occurs. It'd also be nice to see a mini shield on Oblation. I find myself (as OT) throwing Oblation and TBN around a lot on party members when they look a little low so it'd be nice to see a 10% shield accompanying it.
I liked DRK in EW because of how bursty and spammy it felt during its 2 minutes and just how TBN felt like a skill expressive tank mit... This expansion though I think WAR or PLD is just going to be my go to tank.
I think another thing about TBN is that someone did math on it and if we were to get its equivalent mit/heal per minute, tbn is still the worst despite the shorter cooldown cause the other tank's mit just has so much more in it that greatly makes up the longer cooldown. And I really like DRK but I just wish we don't have to struggle so much just to stay alive. And I feel like people really love TBN because it feels like it's the only reliable thing we have in our kit to stave off death.
Blood weapon managed to make low level dungeons even more dull. Qarn normal happened once and you can't aoe combo. So not only do I not have an aoe mp generation but Blood Weapon only restores 3 hits, not 5...
Fellow DRK Main, ty for having a discussion and bringing more attention to this. It's truly a shame that over the years SE has taken away from drk and returned almost nothing, and this includes the games skill expression as a whole, but thats a different topic entirely. I like how dark knight operates and I think keeping the core design is ESSENTIAL to avoid further job homogenization as making drk like other tanks isn't a solution, it's a bandaid over a gaping wound. Personal suggestions of mine to hopefully spark some ideas in the community. Carve and Spit - 30s CD and heal 400 cure potency on use, this will return some apm to the job and make it's minute intervals stronger aswell as fix the 1200 mp loss from the combination of BW DELI TBN - still 3k mp, 33%hp Shield(12 seconds) and 15% mit for 8 seconds(lasts even after the shield breaks) and if the shield breaks, be given 600 cure potency after 3 seconds and a dark arts proc. If it DOESN'T break, apply a regen to (target) and allow the next tbn to be casted for free The Larger shield % is to make it more valuable during leveling Change Oblation to be like Intervention where you instead give a large potency shield to a target. Add a Trait that returns spent mana back to the player as HP ex. 400 hp cure per 3k mana Living Dead: no longer able to die, prevent HP loss once triggered. Blood Gauge- increase generation of Blood Gauge through normal filler, make bloodspillers restore health. New Skill - Sacrifice (ogcd with 60s cd) Basically you trade 30% of your hp for 30% mp(3k mana)
I'm a fresh DRK (but already a long term raider) and I have to say that apart from the mitigation (no sustain compared to other tanks, TBN consuming MP) I really like this class in the form it has now. I find it very enjoyable to play with it, although I know that most don't like how this class looks in DT.
It's wild to me that DRK has lower self sustain than other tanks. It should be the highest self sustain. The job is thematically the one that drains HP from it's enemies (as it has been in other FFs, FFXI DRK main of 15 years here). Draining hp and being better at mitigating magic were the main identities of the job, yet for some reason WAR gets all the "heals while doing dmg" abilities. Coming from other FF games, this DRK has always felt lackluster to me because it feels like the neutered the Drain aspect for "balance" (yet in every endgame cycle I've played in, DRK has been the weakest tank). If they do rework it, I'd love to see them lean more into the drain and sacrificing resources aspect of things.
White Mage suffers from a lot of what you are saying about dark knight at 70 as well. No mit (ast has a 60s mit) no healing on move (ast has lightspeed and star). They took stuff away on SHB release that made them useless. They made adjustments at 90 that turbo buffed level 80 whm, but they offer nothing at 70, on top of double shield just being better in 90% of content in the first place.
I wont ever stop playing DRK. Not ever. Theres no state they can put it in to ever make me change. And i 100% agree with everything said. of course. I want my job to be better.
Shadowstride having no damage is fine, but the problem with it right now is it works completely different than Plunge did in 6.x and earlier. Shadowstrike draws a packs attention first, moves you, then updates your position. This makes enemies run behind you for a moment and it feels awful. Before, Plunge would move you, update your position, then draw attention. If they revert it back to how it used to be drawing attention wise, it'll be perfect.
Same problem exists with GNB. This seems more like an oversight than intended. An easy fix would be to make the provoke effect happen _after_ the animation stall instead of before, like how it works with the gap closers that do damage.
ex DRK main: i took a mostly break from EW raiding. But wanted to come back to DRK, the changes felt kinda underwhelming, and outside of burst it felt super boring minus managing your mana/edges. Ended swapping to GNB as its the only other "fast" tank, while still having super solid party mits, its less of a hassle, and is more enjoyable outside of your burst thanks to the gnashing combo. Overall a similar feeling as it's fast while still having really powerfull mits that can safe people in corundum
Absolutely spot on on about everything. I have been maining DRK since HW, dipping into GNB sometimes, but mostly DRK. This tier, I chosed to prog on GNB (currently on M4S transition). What made me chose GNB over DRK is the lack of oGCD, born from the removal of plunge damage (I'm fine with it, I do like non-damaging gap closers), the merging of BW and Delirium and the loss of the one edge every odd minute window. For me, DRK is about being busy (in all its prior iterations, from HW to EW), pressing many buttons, and DT DRK doesn't feel like I'm pressing enough to feel busy. I do like the news skills, like you, Disesteem is amazing, but it doesn't make up for what we've lost. GNB felt better, and since I do like GNB, even if I generally prefer DRK, I switched. I think I might play DRK for FRU tho, not sure for now, but DRK has always felt really good in ult. If the do adress at least the MP issue, it would solidfy my pick. Great video, you've shared what's not working for DT DRK with calm and precision.
Just add a selfheal to the “edge of shadow” that you “cast” from the TBN procc. Since that “stack” never runs out, it would be great to keep for situational use as long as you don’t overcap MP . Make it heal more when TBN was used on a target other than yourself. Or, let it scale flexible, the higher the hit that ultimately breaks your TBN the higher the heal. So it’s less “self sustain” in dungeons were it breaks from low hits taken, but can safe your ass if used after a heavy hitting TB
17:40 So fun fact: Dark Missionary USED TO BE a level 60-something skill back in Stormblood. And for some goddamn reason they moved it out of reach of Stormblood when ShB came out.
@@spreadartifact1517 What the hell!? I thought you were gaslighting me for a sec and I checked Gamer Escape… That… that can’t be right. I distinctly remember DRK having a party mit in Stormblood that wasn’t Reprisal, especially back when I was raiding O9S and O10S. What the hell!?
What if they just doubled the MP regained from blood weapon? I don't play DRK so I don't know if that would push into overcap range but it would be a very simple solution to fix the Blood Weapon change. As an aside, my proposed TBN change would be: Combine with Oblation, 25s, no mana. Normal TBN shield, normal Oblation mit. If the shield breaks, CD -10s. If it expires without the shield breaking, heal for the same amount of remaining shields.
What I love about this video is that all your criticisms feel like they come from someone who really understands what makes DRK fun to play. A lot of the loud voices in the community (from what I notice) come from people who dont really care if DRK keeps what makes it fun or not. Their criticism more so "solves" balance issues. "Give DRK more gcd combos" "Remove damage from TBN" "Dark Missionary/Dark Mind should mit all damage" blah blah blah. DRK doesnt need to be another WAR or GNB or PLD. I just want it to soar with every aspect that makes it fun. (Giving TBN a regen would be pretty sick though ngl)
I think a lot of the problems with DRK/GNB were it being busy during moments when you had to mitigate or loose uptime similar to the issues all tanks kinda have but worse. Now DRK functions like a slightly more button WAR. I think currently all tanks are quite balanced atm with damage, maybe DRK could get a little buff but I really dont think the issues with tanks atm are nearly as bad as PLD or WAR in the second tier of EW or how DRK was when EW launched. But I do not really see anything different now since DRK has always had with meh mits and TBN should have had a heal or maybe combine it with oblation an expac ago, the excog on the 40% is great tho. I have to also note the irony when pld or war were shit barely anyone cared they were the "easy tanks" no one even noticed sheltron not working on dots now whenever gnb or drk get messed with the complaints arise. I think I nearly agree with you on every part about low lvl drk and I think pld shares similar issues, I still really hate how intervene is 74 -sad tank main.
Up until now, I'd never seen a video of someone talking about DRK with the same view as me. No need for screaming at the camera and making a huge deal. I think the 'survivability complaints' must mainly be coming from people who struggle in dungeons? I've never understood that point. I'm glad that you appreciate oblation and tbn for they are - supporting tools :) That's a big part of why we play tanks after all
i came back to this game after a year , got burned out from eureka and i found out something is missing as i am pressing things on muscle memory and something felt off later i saw bluod weapon missing and plunge doesnt work. Also it suck because its the only class i played that i was confident on and now i cant even survive somehow (also capped at lvl 70 because ftp)
DRK was the tank I played when I tanked even though I didn't decide to main tank until Dawntrail. I still like dark knight. Took it through story without much issue. I do see the problem of DRK not having enough self-sustain. I was under the impression from the way DRK played in the past that it was a edgy/broody mana-using warrior. I kinda wish they went more in that direction. bring back dark arts, but make it a buff that works like bloodwhetting on warrior where you heal yourself with weapon skill use. Honestly, self-sustain and moving skills to earlier levels to make lower level content feel better is all they have to do imo. I enjoy the job pretty much as is, just wish I had self-sustain
It seems it's a bit overlooked but at lv100 we're down not 1200 but 600MP/minute since the Torcleaver combo generates 200MP per hit on top of 600MP from Blood Weapon. I think folks (myself included) looked at the tooltips and went "oh they just added the MP gen from Blood Weapon in the tooltip", but it's in fact a different effect. Now just put CnS and AD on 30s cooldown, give Carve a 600p cure on top of MP and we're good.
Honestly, my breaking point was after clearing DSR. I wasn't having much fun with jobs, and even less with raids. After clearing it 3 times, I retired from raiding altogether after playing a tank since ARR. I've been tempted to raid this tier, but not having to worry about job designs, odd changes, schedules has been a breath of fresh air. It does still make me a little sad hearing some of these issues persist.
I love how drk plays though I agree on where it sits overall. Everything makes sense in terms of flowing together. The problem is the results just don't match up. To have the lack of sustain and inability to pass tbn around like before we'd need to have a bigger damage advantage than the current 1-2%. This said decouple carve and spit and abyssal drain, or combine them. That and one out of a small dps increase (another 2-3%), upgrade the mdmg% cd to be more frequently useful in someway (perhaps a regen or mp restoration for damage they take while active? hard to tune), increase mp restoration, or another reliable self sustain. Even without the change just one of those would be a big help if done right.
I know you say the DRK is the "highest dps", but as you said yourself its contingent on the buffs. In my experience I'm seeing a surge in WAR since Dawntrail because alot of players are attracted to the sustain and (higher) DPS bursts in solo or small group content than DRK. I know WAR has always been a go-to, and people complain about it being OP during different patches - but they have only buffed it more since DT if anything! Alot of these people prefer WAR more now thanks to the buffs we got around that time and the massive burst DPS of Inner Release, Primal Rend and Primal Ruination rotation - and there is a sense of better 'well rounded-ness' than even before. There is a general sense these days that DRK is a victim of SE constant tinkering, and so you are seeing alot of people switch from GNB and DRK to WAR again for Dawntrail solo content, small group stuff and even raids. Like or not. Ofcourse this can change at anytime, but I think this was hammered home more when WAR was sparred the lose of it's gap closer a few weeks back during the update, when DRK and GNB were stripped of each of their fan favorite 'gap closer' skill. There are a lot of jobs right now that feel either broken or unbalanced that people are complaining about. Dedicated role players are the first to notice these things too and be discerning. But if you give it time, things always swing in a different direction and upset 'other' people. It wouldn't be a mmo (even FFXIV) without the meta changing and upsetting someone.
I definitely agree with giving the final rotations earlier, it would make low level so much more interesting like why tf does Paladin have a single aoe button until level 40? I'm a big proponent of giving the rotation early to keep the job busy for the vast majority of the leveling process but then just give us traits that up the potency at whatever breakpoints. This allows people to effectively test the job without deciding if they want to spend days of their life leveling a class they ultimately don't like the feeling of
Agree with pretty much everything you said! Great structure and very well spoken, and the ADPS comparison is A+ and not something I feel like I see in videos like these often. I played pretty much exclusively DRK all through Endwalker in Savage/Ultimate, and what eventually pushed me off the job in favor of Gunbreaker for this tier was honesty mostly frustration. It felt like the job lost more than it gained (particularly the 1200 MP) while other tanks got additions to already solid kits. Were the DRK changes egregious? No. Is the job still perfectly playable? Yes. But the feeling that Square just did not understand what made the job appealing to players, or how to address some of DRK's fundamental issues, or even just how to keep the job *interesting* all the time was plain frustrating. It's got stuff like the Disesteem tech you mentioned, but the barren 1min is inexcusable IMO. I'm a firm believer that class fantasy and a job just being fun can go a long way in earning leniency from players on balancing struggles; you described that misery of the bad balance patches for DRK really well, and if the class still had sufficient identity and/or was fun enough to play, those patches where numbers are a bit wacky would feel much, much less miserable, and players like me would be much less tempted to drop it. So it's kind of a double whammy for me: Square showed that they didn't quite get how to get the job to a better place, arguably making it worse in the process, while also making the job less fun. Why would I want to play it anymore? 😠 JK I'll probably be back on DRK for speeds/parsing lol. Great video man, and would love for you to make another video after Ultimate--hopefully with more positive changes from Square to discuss!
I mained DRK for Asphodelos and Abyssos and I really dislike a lot of the changes they made to it for DT. My main issue is that most of its kit doesnt interact with anything and it just feels like you faceroll your keyboard every two minutes, at least on WAR you have to choose when to renew Storm's Eye but on DRK it's not something you need to think about or how Shadowbringer is a glorified two minute along with the removal of blood cost to the shadow, it just feels totally mindless now. I also remember having to use way more mit in EW to deal with busters compared to the other tanks bevause of the changes they made to the personal mits and it felt awful.
I don't understand why they can't improve dark missionary. 90 second cooldown for 10% magic mitigation is really lacking compared to other tanks 90 second, with the exception of gunbreaker I think (not sure, I don't play gunbreaker). either add in 10% phys as well, turn it into a group wide TBN, or put a regen component on it as well, something.
I dont really know much about the nitty gritty of tanks and stuff, but alls I know is that you put all these bad feelings I've been getting into words and I feel extremely validated for having those feelings.
Have actually been playing the game starting from old content and working my way up, and the thing that turned me away from DRK at higher levels was the button sprawl (Which is actually better now, but I refused to play it in EW level content) and I really, really, really, hate Oblation and TBN being separate buttons. Needing to double weave and target my co-tank for a buster, for example, just feels mechanically awkward. Maybe it's different with a mouse, but to quickly weave you'd have to change your primary focus to the party member, from the boss, or you have to double tap the select between weaves, making it a lot of buttons very quickly. Whereas, if you play any other tank, you have no TBN (Which sucks, TBN is the bestest), but it's literally just a single press to select my subtarget [down on dpad], and then the actual ability). Double target selecting + double weaving to mit someone else gets a thumbs down. Had really, really, hoped they'd just add oblation to TBN, for that reason, but I've not heard anyone else echo that annoyance, so seems fair like that's only a me thing.
I think that more blood gauge interaction would be cool, like getting some blood back after breaking TBN or using oblation. If they ever rework abyssal drain then there could be an opportunity for more usage. With living shadow not costing anything I agree that managing blood just doesn't mean shit now but maybe it can be saved as well as making down time a little more interesting.
Despite everything this expansion, nothing will deter me from playing DRK. It still functions as it used to and it's been my favorite tank in every aspect since SB. I will wholeheartedly agree that it does feel hollow now and feels like the job can simply play itself. The class has it's lowest of lows and it's highest of highs, being the time between bursts and the actual bursts respectively. Theres nothing to manage anymore and prepare anymore to make for good filler between bursts so like... what do i do now? just chill i guess. for the survivability I can share the sentiment about Dark Mind/Missionary on how it feels AMAZING to be able to use especially on tankbusters or raidwides, but most of the times it feels like I'm just frantically and desperately trying to reprisal every chance i get to feel like i'm any sort of use. As for dungeons it is not hard to stay alive with the cooldowns given to us during big pulls (make more enemies do magic though so i can use dark mind for pulls). But.... from the standpoint of the healers, DRK definitely requires more attention than most of the others just because of the many sources of healing a lot of the other tanks have on their cooldowns. Shadowed Vigil is cool but you'd get that healing for one pull before each boss. If anything I'd like either a bit of lifesteal from something else, could be Dark Mind to give it more usage in dungeons, could be when TBN pops and next flood of shadow does lifesteal. A little bit of something to make more niche stuff useful or to make other cooldowns feel rewarding in dungeons than just "I take less damage." Overall, really good video and I do hope someone on the development side does take a look at this video, hell even the comments and can take something away from it.
if they made TBN a 25 second cooldown they would *have* to remove the MP cost. the reason it's on a shorter cooldown because it has a cost to use, which should definitionally make it more powerful than the other short cd mits
I pretty much never touched drk before because I enjoy doing call outs and watching other people to help them during prog and drk felt way to busy for that. So I have a different opinion and I really enjoy how much more simple it is now. I do think they could benefit from like one or two more button presses during 1 min. Maybe not more keybinds but making salted a 60 second or something instead of just adding more button bloat. I def agree that it tbn needs to not be tied to mana or they need to give you more mana to dump outside of windows so you don't feel as punished for using it.
Paladin main here, but I play every tank on the side. I really enjoy how 2 mins have been reduced in terms of weaving just because I felt it got in the way of actually fulfilling your role (mainly just taking busters because that was literally our entire role in EW), and I think its a perfect amount of weaves to be comfortable now. However, I feel that 1 min windows are just like…there is nothing going on at all. You literally only have 2 buttons you actually need to press in that window, being CnS and Delirium, and you don’t even actually need to put your edges in that window. It just feels so empty compared to even Warrior. Job feels fine but it doesn’t have anything going for it except damage right now, and Paladin is kinda broken so I have no real reason to hop off it.
Sometimes the tbn spam is amazing like for example when the boss breaks the arena in m1s you can spam like 3-5 tbns in that phase but that's not something that happens all the time
hang in there fellow DRK, to live is to suffer!. I miss plunge and miss having more mana. Feel like im running with restrains when playing it. I just hope SE hears the criticism of people who actually plays the job this time and fix it.
I initially wanted to play gnb this tier due to being massive ff8 fan so it was my default blue to play but after trying drk again after dt release it felt so much better to play especially now since we saw how much downtime there is this tier (have fun with catridge gain and melding sks lole). The opener drk had in endwalker I really hated. I'm very glad to see the damage on gapcloser go, I want it for utility not be forced to spend it under buffs or to not overcap. I can still save people no problem with tbn though some points were tight with exactly 3k mp on me, and it feels good to be MT on m4s - I can deal with those autos really well. Give drk some more mp and some sort of self heal on one of the other abilities then I will be super happy.
For me, I made the switch to gnb/war simply because being MT drk that is more in pf than a static with less healer help I just get bashed even with liberal use of defensive tbns (mostly just the heavy auto phases). Having to use many of these, occasionally fuck up the timing so one doesn’t break (skill issue, that other tanks don’t have) I still have less health than the other 3, no mit to use to save someone else because it’s on myself (where the others can throw out their short mit while their third mit can compensate) drk cannot compete with the effectiveness of the other three. This opinion comes from a main tank role perspective as that’s where i am 95% of the time. As ST, this issues are far less significant. Can it be done? Definitely it can. Does it feel good though? Nah, it really doesn’t. I’ll always be a drk main and I will complete the tier in both positions eventually but in the early weeks in party finder, it’s hell as main tank.
When I saw delirium and BW were combined but only 3 stacks I was like "oh so it will give you 1000 mp per stack right? To match old blood weapons total mp gain... Right? "
I didn't really start playing DRK a lot til Endwalker, so obviously no experience with changes before then, but like Dank, I still play the job and enjoy being the edgy boy with the bigass sword. I'm prolly the last to give good advice changing jobs but maybe having delirium give us a free edge would help?
Hello Mr. Dark Knight Main. I am but a humble healer coming in with my suggestion. Since you think DRK is getting a rework in 8.0, I think any change made to DRK throughout DT should be small and easy to implement. It seems the main concerns are: 1) The lack of mana generated due to the BW change. 2) Less damage in burst and less weaving in both one minute and two minute with the loss of BW and Plunge 3) Self sustain, especially in fights with physical autos and raidwides. My solution to this is simple: Delete Abyssal Drain from the game. Add 500 cure potency to Carve and Spit, lower the cooldown to 30 seconds, and give it two charges. This way you have the option of holding them for 1m and 2m bursts (or space them for healing before a 1 minute) it gives you mana back you were previously missing, and gives sustain that you are lacking. 1000p of healing per minute is nothing compared to WAR's equilibrium, but this is a relatively minor adjustment which addresses most concerns you have. I would love to hear your feedback.
I like these changes a lot. Getting a 30s CD with two charges effectively replaces what we lost from plunge getting removed in the 1 min window. The button already restores mana and it really SHOULD heal you considering it shares a CD with abyssal. With how iconic abyssal drain is for the job, I'm sure they can bring it back in future expansions in a more interesting form. Solid and easy to implement changes.
I started raiding in XIV as a DRK in StB and while I started maining GNB more in ShB when it first came out, I’ll always have a soft spot for DRK despite how down people tended to be on the job. That said yeah, it’s never been as fun to me as it was playing in StB, and while I thought EW was a step in the right direction it still wasn’t quite right to me, and DT made it even worse. I absolutely agree with the fact that Disesteem feels good to use when you can use it intelligently, though it being one of the only things you can use at range aside from Unmend and oGCDs like Shadowbringers feels a bit weird to me sometimes. If Abyssal Drain were decoupled from C&S, it would add yet another hit to use at range and improve the 1m window. I think if TBN continues to be punishing to use the way it is now for not as much defensive utility, I think perhaps it’s finally time for them to make it a damage gain to use it properly. Doesn’t have to be much, just needs to feel more worth it to go for it during autos and such. Hell, make the Dark Arts oroc heal on hit when you consume the proc. TBN feels stronger when stacked with other cooldowns, so maybe a boost to Oblation would help too, perhaps give it a small boost within a window of Oblation’s duration like how some other tanks’ on-demands have more potent mit early in the duration. Blood Weapon perhaps needs to grant more mp on hit, but I really miss the days when it had the sks steroid on it. Wishful thinking, but it would be nice if it did that again. In general, I would prefer some sort of dynamism to the rotation that the old BW sks steroid provided. Everyone loved to shit on DRK only doing a Soul Eater combo in StB, but I felt like it was evened out by how DRK’s burst windows were literally faster and more frantic. Hell they could give us back power slash and make it a combo with a different recast length to spice things up a bit. And Like you said, if I was asked about what DRK needed to make it more engaging, I would’ve added another blood spender on top if Bloodspiller and Living Shadow, not removing costs
For me the breaking point really was just all the little things that added up, like the mp issues and plunge removal with nothing to make up for that dps and drk just not getting anything anywhere near as interesting as say gnb or war, but dont get me wrong disesteem is AWESOME creatively and i wish drk just had more it could be creative with
Dark knight is not fine in dungeons. Please stop simping for the current iteration of TBN and do not even try to crutch on Living Dead. Healers will, without fail, always cuck you out of proccing walking dead, and then you are sitting there with nothing left to get any extra time alive to finish the wall to wall pull because the healer isn't doing damage and the only time they heal is to grief your invul. Dark knight will not be fine in dungeons until it gets some self healing, preferably before level 70.
I really like DRK not my main GNB and WAR are, but i play all tanks often. I agree with most of what you say here, the only thing is dark mind the other tanks deal with magic buster aftermath better, while dark mind only defends against magic, the other tank using just there 25sec CD will not only deal with magic but autos after do to most autos are physical, or if timed right help with other damage coming out, and they have healing on there 25sec CD. It dose however fell nice when you push it for that moment wich is what really matters. As far as TBN and mana i agree either give us back 5 bloodweapn or take it off the mana and remove it from being tied to you're damage. TBN not popping is the worst feeling, and now with lack of mana drags me into a spiraling depression. As for the self heal bring back sole survivor and tie it to oblations, if you kill the targets you get healed and get mana back if not get half heal and mp. DRK getting its burst less busy is shit GNB has to weave ogcds after everything plus blasting zone and bow shock. So there's no reason to nerf the burst. The lvl 100 skill isn't very good either GNB has 2 skill that deal 1200 potency 1 every 60 in double down and lionheart every 2 minutes. Also the lionheart combo is the 3rd single target combo they have( its also an AOE combo with drop off ) so DRK should have more OGCD options. I hope this get addressed DRK has been getting the short end ever since stormblood gutted everything.
Make TBN give its proc "at end of effect" and that fixes its big problem without making it op. Separate Carve and Spit with Abyssal Drain's recast timer, it's dumb they're combined, i agree that salted darkness should be a controllable heal, and yeah, a tiny HoT or something on Oblation if they don't just combine it with TBN. I agree with the Dark Missionary level should be lowered. Also, ALL TANKS should be getting their damned gap closer at level 30.
I love TBN, it feels like a counter attack, when used adequately as a defensive tool it feels goated, at the other hand, I dont want it to become another long Cooldown ability, maybe add more benefits to knowing when to use TBN.... (and also, yea, please more MP for damage)
My hope is that Jobs like Viper kind of open up the potential for more interesting combo systems with fewer buttons. Vipers main combo might only be 2 buttons, but that combo can be 1-1-1, 2-2-2, 1-1-2, 1-2-2, 2-1-1, 2-1-2. Having six possible combo routes, changes a job that otherwise mightve just been 1-2-3 into something more interesting, and with 1 less button. I think for Tanks especially, this is a big deal, since a lot of retail space for Tanks is reversed for defensives and utility, they simply dont have the room for 5-6 button combo strings like Dragoon, and even then on Dragoon, its getting a bit much You could make something for DRK or WAR, where you're swapping between 2 combo routes, that are both on a single button but you pick the combo ender based on what you need or what your gauge is at, but then proc'ing a 3rd combo thats a 1.5GCD, thats a just a 3-4 hit barrage. For WAR you can imagine Monster Hunters Hammer, and its Big Bang combo, where you're just hitting back to back swings. Or for DRK, maybe you're summoning Esteem briefly to do a quick doppleganger combo. The design flaw FFXIV has just barely started to fix, is the old rigid design of combos, and combo actions. Stuff like Viper, Gnashing Fang, PLDs Atonement combo, those are starting to open up the potential, but they need to go all out and i think DRK and WAR definitely need it more than anyone else.
The reason I dropped DRK in DT can best be described as "Death by a thousand cuts". One of the things that drew me to DRK back in ShB were the ever-changing burst phases. 60s (Bloodweapon, Abyssal Drain, Carve and Spit) was different from 90s (Delirium, Salted Earth), was different from 120 (60s + Living Shadow) was different from 180 (60s + 9s) was different from 360 (Full hot reopener). And you would pool your resources for whatever Raidbuffs you had in your party and go ham in this burst window. I obviously also loved the busyness of trying to weave everything including mits. In Endwalker the Job was very much simplified to only have 2 Burst phases, the small 60s and long 120s. I feel the 2-minute Meta hurt DRKs Job Design more than most other Jobs. But it was still fun, it was still busy, and I still had to keep things like Living Shadow in mind. But now DRK feels empty and mindless. I lost about 6-7 oGCDs every 2 min (4 Plunges, 2x Bloodweapon ~1 Edge of Shadow) and it got replaced with nothing. I don't mind non-damaging gap closers, but give me something else. DRK is less busy than PLD and WAR now, that simply isn't what I came to the job for. I also don't like that Living Shadow is free now. Having no failure states makes the Job more boring imo. Yes, Disesteem and Shadow Vigil are nice, but they don't hold a candle to all the critiques you mentioned. Which I fully agree with. Ironically DRK feels like a shadow of it's former self. But I guess that's just in line with DRK's Job Identity: Suffering.
Im with you brother, totally biased as well, but generally speaking the job needs to feel some love tbh. Ive leveled WAR and GNB to 100 and the gap in utility and self sustaining its bigger than ever, but anyway… DRK always 🥲
The way they kept Enhanced Unmend while gutting other skills tells me they don't know what to do with the job. In the meantime I've switched to VPR (enjoying it despite 7.05 happened) and will just wait until 8.0 to return to DRK.
It would be cool if TBN heals by the leftover shield if it expires by timer. And what annoys me about DRK is that we lost Dark Arts + GCD Abyssal Drain, and then the same thing essentially exists in WAR.
9:28 the problem with this line of thinking is that drg is a DPS, not a tank. DRGs aren't occasionally going to have to weave extra mitigation in during their burst windows. That was the problem that needed solving, not just that drk was busy. They succeeded in this goal, but it introduced new issues.
It also had it's complete rework canceled because they thought the additions and changes they made fixed EW DRG. They mentioned it in the action LL before DT. Either way, he is right about DRK needing some love. It doesn't feel as good as the other tanks imo.
I'd suggest you to look into the job's description and read it out loud If it was for the party to have an extra melee dps it would be easier if the group had a samurai tanking than to have a DRK
DRK in normal dungeon pulls I have to try to make sure I dont die. Every other tank wall to wall pulls while watching a movie, 1 handed eating pizza, and a cat chewing on their headset and they shrug the damage off as if it is nothing. That level of disparity makes it feel like I am griefing my healer every time I want the play the best looking tank...
Exactly Dungeons for DRK's require you to actually focus on the game, every other tank wall to wall pulls while barely needing to do anything. Great example I wall to wall as PLD I literlaly only need to press Rampart and then Holy Sheltron or just normal Sheltron and I'm A-okay. DRK TBN ---> Rampart ----> Oblation ---> Abyssal Drain ----> TBN ----> Shadowed Vigil ---> Oblation again. ----> TBN (If you get a pull where the DPS are lacking.) This highlights a major issue that Dark Mind in particular serves zero fucking purpose in Dungeons that you'll forget it exists unless you do Savage or Ultimate. (You'll most of the time forget it exists in Extremes as well.) You will then go into the next wall to wall with Shadowed Vigil fuckoffed on a 120s cooldown (The same as a Invuln what the actual fuck?) so your options are either skin by and hope your healer is paying attention to everytime TBN breaks and immediately heals you or you pop Living Dead and hope the healer is paying attention to the fact you did and doesn't heal you. Dungeons aren't meant to be challenging content that's been made clear and DRK can easily clear them but the fact I need to put even double the effort of any other Tank to clear one is fucking ridiculous either NERF the other Tanks Mits (aka something that'll never happen) or put DRK at the very least on the same level with their Mits.
i think dungeons really show that disparity(its not quite as noticeable in raid i feel like) , while drk may have the highest dmg, warrior just gives so much dmg uptime to your healers that it easily outperforms drk in basically every situation. feel like u always want warrior and then u just pick paladin for more party support or gnb for dmg, bringing drk always feels like a burden. Even when drk is mathematically a decent choice, it still feels bad due to execution, the dmg rotation may be easy but your average drk just does nothing special with tbn or oblation
As someone that spends a lot of time running healers through content, I always sigh when I get a DRK. Even a good DRK can only do so much with their kit at any given level, and variance in the amount of damage a given pull can output just isn't very compatible with DRK. They don't really have any backups to lean on if their normal survival setup won't actually keep them alive, and it can get legitimately stressful to heal as I get stuck scanning my hot bar to see if I have literally anything left to use that isn't a GCD heal during more troublesome pulls. Don't even get me started on how trash Living Dead actually is as an invulnerability move. It's great in say ex content where the boss has a brutal multi hit tank buster that healers just can't get you through on their own. You survive and pull yourself back up. Good for all involved. In dungeons though, Living Dead is more of a knee jerk reaction like any tank invulnerability move, and a lot of expectation is being put on the healer in that moment to both notice that LD is active and to completely stop all healing action (which gets especially annoying with Sage for example where the damage mit move also adds a regen). It's activation fundamentally restricting potent AoE heals can also be really inconvenient because can't let those touch the DRK with LD active. It's just a bunch of issues I don't have with any other tanks. Literally the worst thing any of the other tanks do to me is when a GNB smacks superbolide five frames after I pop Benediction on them, where at least there I still have some time to get their health back up without issue or restriction.
@@Zoeila Thanks for your valueable insight god gamer. Pray tell this lowly autistic player with mental health issues how to not need heals or living dead in my dungeon pulls when all the other tanks feel nothing.
Speaking as someone who played dark knight in a lot of different scenarios in Endwalker -- speed killing, parsing, hardcore prog, ultimate, etc. -- but has never mained it, I'm probably a bit biased when I say that Endwalker dark knight was constantly teetering on the edge of needing a rework anyway, and the changes they made in 7.0 shoved it off that edge. Dawntrail dark knight is easier and more simple than Endwalker warrior, and Endwalker warrior was REALLY easy and simple. In my mind, the problems have always been there, but a lot of people didn't see them until 7.0 for one reason or the other. TBN was good in Stormblood and Shadowbringers mainly because Sheltron, Raw Intuition, and Heart of Stone were/are kind of shit. But when the other three tanks got big upgrades in 6.0 -- and Holy Sheltron got further upgraded in 6.3 -- and dark knight got nothing, it made TBN look pretty bad in comparison. While I agree that Dark Mind is good when it's actually useful, it really only puts dark knight on equal footing with the other tanks in those scenarios because it lacks their self-sustain. Oblation is, frankly, just kind of shit in general. It should never have been a unique cooldown and instead have been part of TBN or something else. Shadowed Vigil is cool, but again, it's a day late and a dollar short compared to the other three tanks. I will absolutely echo your sentiment about level 70 dark knight, as well. It is just complete cancer at that level and brings literally no value to play compared to the other tanks to the point that you're almost griefing parties when you play it in UCOB and UWU. The recent change to Umbral Soul does give me some hope that they'll lower the level you get Dark Missionary, though, as that was a very similar complaint that black mage mains have had for years now and they just got around to fixing it. Edit: I also think it's worth saying that dark knight being as high in aDPS as it was -- and still technically is -- starting in Endwalker wasn't an intentional design decision. Paladin and gunbreaker were the two highest DPS tanks by the end of Shadowbringers, but dark knight and paladin switched places in 6.0 because of the changes to raid buff timing, which also ultimately led to paladin's rework in 6.3. A job being good incidentally is not good for its long-term health in the game, and we're really starting to see that fruit come to bear in Dawntrail.
The best case scenario is that the DT changes damaged DRK's representation in the game so badly that SE is forced to do an emergency rework, similar to what they did with PLD and MCH, otherwise it looks fairly grim for the class through all of DT.
@@shizachan8421I don't think they'll will do a rework like they did with pld because pld just didn't work for the 2 min meta while drk works in DT it's just has a lot of fun related issues
@@shizachan8421 I really hope the rework comes in at 7.3 and not 8.0, because with the changes I'm really not excited to play Dark Knight. I want to feel excited to play it again
@@justaman4887 They do revamps not only based on balancing issues but also due to player reception and go by which class is underplayed according to metrics. Thats why they never touched WHM despite it often being wastly underpowered compared to AST and instead focussed on an AST & DRG revamp which they initially wanted to release in EW, because those were underrepresented in the games metrics. So my hope is that DRK's current performance leads to a sufficent drop inside SE's metrics that they introduce an emergency revamp.
I think one of the reasons I got disheartened over DRK was how often it feels like I have to work much harder to output as much damage as I can and still end up doing less damage than my friend that mains PLD/WAR. This combined with how the mp felt worse after the delirium change made me pull the trigger on swapping to GNB for this tier. The rotation feels just as mechanically demanding, but it feels like I actually have strong mitigation options that don’t have an unnecessary drawback
Warrior is just broken every patch. They clearly favor it and don’t want any other tank to outclass it. Might as well just switch to warrior and get it over with I guess
Now look at lvl 60 drk in palace of the dead and the infamous 180 behemoth enrage push. That 300 potency lost on plunge basicly pushes it into crit luck territory xd
My personal hope is they do something subtle like... "When TBN breaks or ends, you gain lifesteal on the next 10 weaponskills." That would keep to the theme of DRK while giving it some potential sustain. It obviously needs way more love, but I think that's a strong example of how they can keep a unique identity to the job while giving it the reworks it needs.
Maybe a tbn pop could grant "abyssal drain ready"? Maybe even "carve and spit" ready" too. Slap a decent heal on c and s to keep single target utility. Give the abilities a reason to be tied. Concievably broken with a c and s every 15 seconds... but you get what i mean lol
@@Zoeila - How about we recognize that, without self-sustain of some fashion, tanks become worthless in current game design. Three tanks have it. DRK is the only one without it. DRK is the least popular and least viable tank. You really think that's a coincidence?
@@Zoeila - Obviously. Because tanks only have some self-sustain. Just enough that they can give the healers breathing room so that the healers aren't CONSTANTLY on edge and blowing every resource imaginable. It's fun to joke that most tanks can solo dungeon bosses and say that it means healers don't matter. But that doesn't work in raids. Dungeon bosses are just undertuned for our job kits and too damn easy because the unskilled masses who are just here for the vibes don't know what the orange color on the ground means. And on top of that, it takes FOREVER to do it that way unless the boss was almost dead anyways. (I've soloed a boss from 50% to kill as GNB - it's not fun, it's tedious) When I queue for roulettes as healer, there's one tank and one tank ONLY that makes me sweat, and it's Dark Knight. I never enjoy having to heal them, no matter what level their gear is at.
I got nothing against simplicity, many people don't. The way DRK plays now is less busy for sure but alot of folks are pretty happy with that. I think the universally agreed problems come with the lack of effective mitigation compared to other tanks for sure
You know what they could do instead to help with the mana regen issue? Make it so that Blood Weapon stacks restore more MP to make up for the loss in 2 BW stacks. If they bumped it up to like 1000 MP instead you’d get the same amount of MP back and still have 3 stacks.
Completing the dungeons as DRK is obviously not the issue. The issue is how comically easy it is with a WAR. Dungeons are not designed to be hard in 14, which is sad, but reducing the CD on Abyssal Drain to 30s would be pretty great on its own. There's no real reason why DRK shouldn't be improved in dungeons. They're content in the game, whether or not they're hard.
StB DRK in dungeons was the most satisfying feeling ever. DA Abyssal Drain to heal yourself to full in 1-2 casts and BW Quietus to get a lot of MP back. It was the current WAR before that became a thing. Current Drain is so underwhelming in comparison.
I don't think I'm ever dropping DRK, the class fantasy is way too strong for me to give up, but at least at level 70 I'll be picking up Gunbreaker or Paladin. Honestly, I like the class fantasy of being a tank who gives up their sustain for damage, doing everything they can to do damage, but the lack of buttons makes it feel like I'm not doing as much as I really am.
I wish they would change living shadow, without it costing blood it is literally just a glorified 12 second dot on a 2 minute cooldown LOL. I honestly think they should make it function more similar to ninjas bunshin or something, that way you could be rewarded for pooling resources when it comes up
It should be like Ice Climbers and have it mimic our weapon skills/spells. Including the non damaging effects. Don’t need heals when double TBN is in effect.
@@HowlingDoom Yeah, would be double TBN for whichever target you're casting it on. Mostly that would be to serve as an answer to the low sustain by having access to beefy shields. Honestly though, I think a rework where Fray takes a larger role in DK's kit would be great. Instead of only being able to summon him every 2 minutes we would be able to weave him in and out to double cast some of our of abilities.
@@StofenThe1st the idea of fray being more involved with the DRKs kit is something I'd be really down with, especially since RN without the blood cost he kinda is just there as a weird 12 second pet that you do every 2 minutes. Even it being made more similar to Automaton Queen would be neat because at least MCG get to use that more often.
DRK , in my opinion, suffers from needlessly and consistently overbalanced & obsolete design: TBN has *no reason* to only last 7 seconds and not heal you and/or your targeted ally when the shield goes away. Dark Mind is a hyper situational tool that you literally don't use 99% of the time. Its total garbage. Abyssal Drain still sharing a cooldown with Carve and Split is so stupid. A lot of these issues aren't new either. They're just magnified cause the Job has been hollowed out nearly to the bone. Salted Earth has no reason to just be identical to its PvP version. The issue with Living Shadow STILL not doing anything for the first ~5 seconds of its duration, technically making it actually usefull for 15 seconds of its full 20 second duration, is insane to me.
- Yes. Why the fuck is it still 7 seconds when everything else is 8 ALSO WHY DOES IT STILL COST 3000 MP IT SUCKS - Also yes. BRING BACK DARK DANCE PLEASE - Yep. Honestly I'd love for them to bring back something similar to how it was back in the day, just make it a spell that costs MP and heals you with damage. This has absolutely no reason to share a button with a single target ability that does a fundamentally different thing. - Yeah. - It isn't? I actually didn't know what the pvp version of Salted Earth was but I looked it up and it's not even close to the same. 1/3 the cooldown, draw in effect, way higher damage, restores HP, 20% mit - Also yeah. I mean, like, a 15s duration thing is still not bad, but it's weird that it's advertised as being a 20s duration when it's animation locked for the first 5 seconds.
@@Jorvalt PVP Salted Earth has higher damage because potency is calculated differently in those modes, but yeah, that version of the ability is so much more fun to use. I'm fine with them having the weird 5s animation lock on LS, but it feels weird that summoning Esteem does literally nothing. Pressing LS could do a splash of damage, like summoner primals, at least. And yeah, 7s on TBN feels awful--doubly-so when taking how the game interacts with shield applications into account. My ping's not super high, but I still see last-second TBNs show up visually and not actually shield people fairly commonly.
@@JorvaltLiving Shadow should either be reworded to where it more accurately represents how it plays out or the countdown should *only start counting down once the clone actually starts doing damage, or at least when its summon animation ends*
Im sorry but drk is shit since its rework in shadowbringers the only upside it had was dmg, now, with 95th percentile in fflogs drk is only SLIGHTLY better by few numbers from gnb in aDPS this job is a pieace of shit, lets face it without coping, the sooner we talk about it openly they sooner we get changes from SE
I miss it with GCD abyssal drain, seeing green numbers flood the screen. Some forget DRK was the original self heal tank long before Warrior. Shadowbringers ruined DRK, been meh ever since (Lore based Fray dot and LD lifeleech I admit good additions, but still).
There was no good reason to nerf all the gameplay of the game at all, yet they still did it for the dumbfuck, and with how easy ff16 is, i know its yoshida's fault
I wish there was atleast a bigger focus on the barrier theme atleast. I said this in one of azurites videos but, in keeping theme with dark knight and blood usage, perhaps consuming hp for more barrier effects or adding buffs that convert mp usage into a bunch of smaller potency heals or consuming hp for potency buffs. I just think it would be a cool class fantasy idea and maybe living dead could combine based on the barriers you use or buff you have. Something out there that other tanks arent doing and increasing the ceiling and damage potential with a riskier more in theme playstyle with the class. Edit: I'm only thinking of rework ideas and anything that doesnt just make it identical to the other tanks. I still love the base dark knight class and its the only tank i really ever want to play even if the game "pushes" me to play the others.
As a DRK main and enjoyer, my big gripe with the Job that wasn't mentioned is that there's no inherent job identity for DRK in terms of game play. It feels too much like a diet WAR Fell Cleave but w/o the healing or auto crit/dh. Like, it uses mana? Idk, WAR is the drain tank, PLD leans towards a barrier/shield tank and GNB is like the dps/apm tank, I just feel really bland playing DRK in egc DT. Semi-related to above, but I'm playing both DRK and now GNB in the current tier, mostly cause I'm in a new static and my old OT used to be a strict GNB main, and also cause I wanna get better at GNB as it's the tank I have the least time investment into. But I'm ngl, there are times where I swap to GNB just cause it's a lot more fun to play, imo. Hoping for something before 8.0, but at least I know there is a glimmer of hope later down the line.
Coming here from Xeno's reaction, very long time Dark Knight player that swapped off the job and even the role when Endwalker launched. A lot of the things I loved about Dark Knight were absolutely gutted in EW and it's continued since then. DRK used to have the best 2 target (which felt so good in TEA) and it losing that niche really did rub me the wrong way back then. On top of this, the devs saying they didn't know Blood Weapon was a problem when it was on a timer (they did fix that in EW after saying that). Having to choose between damage and saving someone always felt bad when the other tanks really didnt have to, especially when EW released and essentially HoC, Resolve, and Bloodwhetting could all 'sort of' do what TBN could do without sacrificing damage. Adding all these things up with the fact slowly over the years DRK became more and more about facerolling the entire keyboard for your ogcd in any order you want, effectively dealing the same damage I realized the job direction was not really what I wanted anymore. It had other minor issues that were never addressed, such as skill speed not affecting your spells (I know paladin has this issue too), its very low recovery despite being the job that is thematically known for sacrificing but gaining a ton of hp, and I eventually fell off so hard I put the entire role down for difficult content. No hate to anyone that loves this job in any way now but for me at least compared to the other tanks, it's entirely lost all of the niche that I loved about the job, the biggest being best 2 target damage and helping with recovery for the party when something goes wrong in a meaningful way.
@@jackjohnson8305 ALL of 14 feels very hollow in so many regards, but DRK just got shot. Being a poster class is a fucking curse and DRK proved that more then any other job.
@@inekd oh thats actually good to know. Never even tried to take all 3 homing lasers. I really meant in other content aside from damage. Dark Mind isn't doing much in this first raid tier, but who knows for the others. My group doesn't particular need single target mits either as my healers are cracked. So I just have Missionary to bring. I get it though, but I still feel like I'm griefing.
O12S MINE is the only time I’ve had to switch jobs in this game. We simply couldn’t survive the phase 1 eyeball cannon with me on DRK cuz I have no raid mit. Had to go PLD. Feelsbadman
I'm very happy you brought up the discussion of Lv70 Dark Knight because I think that a lot of jobs in the game (especially the newer jobs starting from EW) are designed to function at Lv80 and higher and the rest be damned. Reaper is miserable to play under Lv80, Viper and Picto's Lv70 kits feel barebones and Sage unlock its dot 20+ levels after every other healers (which stays the weakest dot tied with Scholar's until Lv72). I really understand why the devs are not designing their jobs with the idea of teaching the players what you would need to ideally do in raids/trials. Why not turn some capstone abilities into weaker versions of themselves at lower levels (TBN is just a shield before Lv70 for exemple) ? Why not put abilities earlier than they are to teach the player their importance (Reaper gets Arcane Circle at 72 ? Why not put it around 50 ?) ? This is an issue that seeps into other facets of the game : you've already brought the importance of your point in Ultimates and similar levels Savage but what about Deep Dungeons ? People are just gonna play unfinished/barebones kits up to Lv60 and 70 in PotD and HoH respectively ? I'm gonna use my Viper in Eureka but my cool Lv90 ability is just not available in this mode at all. And what about someone buying a level skip because they wanted to try or use this cool Reaper job throughout the MSQ for roleplay purposes ? Nice 25$ spent for a kit that starts being enjoyable past Lv80 my guy, you're sure gonna keep playing the MSQ learning that you have essentially 200 hours of story to go through to finally reach the content where your job feels good to play... Obviously, I'm not a dev, I don't know coding and I'm just a guy passionate about his favorite game so I'm unsure if adding new abilities or downgrades to older kits or upgrades will fuck up the game code somewhere or the space available for it needs to be optimized with each release but seeing the amount of abilities lock to other games modes (Lost Actions, Pomanders, old abilities still present in the game to possibly come back like Wide Volley), there has to be a way to make those job kits more concised and semented even at lower levels, isn't there ?
Man until the job gets a full rework I'd love if they cut delirium to 30 seconds and put living shadow at 1 min, lower potencies and what not just let me click more buttons.
