I’ve mained DRK for all of Stormblood and it is still thematically my favorite tank. My beef with the job is that it suffers from severe resource starvation during the leveling process and some mechanical clunk at endgame. Some of these can be addressed by making minor changes while others will require a deeper class rework; I will focus on the former.
MP Spenders: Edge of Darkness, Flood of Darkness, The Blackest Night. Reduce MP cost to 2500.
Reducing MP consumption will help resolve the MP starvation issues at low levels and also indirectly increase survivability by reducing the needed MP threshold for activation of TBN.
Spells: Unmend, Unleash, Stalwart Soul. Scale recast timer based on SKS like weaponskills.
This is a QOL change to improve consistency, especially in AOE pulls.
Dark Mind: Reduce damage taken by 10%. Reduce magic damage taken by an additional 10%.
This is a QOL change to improve utility outside niche magic buster use.
Stalwart Soul: Move to level 40. Deal unaspected damage of potency 100 (160 combo) to all enemies within 5y and restore 600MP.
Moving Stalwart Soul down to level 40 helps resolve the MP starvation issue at low levels and brings DRK’s AOE combo into parity with the other tanks. Generation of Blackblood can be added in Stormblood level brackets via the Blackblood trait at level 62.
Living Dead: Cooldown 300s. Gain the effects of Living Dead for 10s, nullifying all incoming damage. Afterwards, gain the effects of Walking Dead for 10s. While Walking Dead is active, take damage over time up to 30% of your maximum HP. This effect cannot be cleansed.
Living Dead is a difficult skill to play around because it provides very little feedback on whether you are immune or vulnerable. It also gives no value if Walking Dead is not triggered by incoming damage. This change aims to improve consistency by giving DRKs a true immunity period while still giving a flavorful but not crippling downside. Living Dead will give the same immunity period as Hallowed Ground with a shorter cooldown in exchange for inflicting unavoidable damage after immunity expires. Capping the damage over time allows healers to prepare and use appropriate cooldowns to compensate.
Continued >
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MP Spenders: Edge of Darkness, Flood of Darkness, The Blackest Night. Reduce MP cost to 2500.
Reducing MP consumption will help resolve the MP starvation issues at low levels and also indirectly increase survivability by reducing the needed MP threshold for activation of TBN.
Spells: Unmend, Unleash, Stalwart Soul. Scale recast timer based on SKS like weaponskills.
This is a QOL change to improve consistency, especially in AOE pulls.
Dark Mind: Reduce damage taken by 10%. Reduce magic damage taken by an additional 10%.
This is a QOL change to improve utility outside niche magic buster use.
Stalwart Soul: Move to level 40. Deal unaspected damage of potency 100 (160 combo) to all enemies within 5y and restore 600MP.
Moving Stalwart Soul down to level 40 helps resolve the MP starvation issue at low levels and brings DRK’s AOE combo into parity with the other tanks. Generation of Blackblood can be added in Stormblood level brackets via the Blackblood trait at level 62.
Living Dead: Cooldown 300s. Gain the effects of Living Dead for 10s, nullifying all incoming damage. Afterwards, gain the effects of Walking Dead for 10s. While Walking Dead is active, take damage over time up to 30% of your maximum HP. This effect cannot be cleansed.
Living Dead is a difficult skill to play around because it provides very little feedback on whether you are immune or vulnerable. It also gives no value if Walking Dead is not triggered by incoming damage. This change aims to improve consistency by giving DRKs a true immunity period while still giving a flavorful but not crippling downside. Living Dead will give the same immunity period as Hallowed Ground with a shorter cooldown in exchange for inflicting unavoidable damage after immunity expires. Capping the damage over time allows healers to prepare and use appropriate cooldowns to compensate.
Continued >
Continue reading...