Im gonna be blunt today, DRK have a severe problem of gameplay identity that not only affect the job himself but WAR too, combined with questionable designs and the lack properly designed mechanics the job right now stand in a limbo where don't have a own path and it's just to simple to offer anything interesting outside of TBN, so i have decided to recopilate a list of current DRK problems and analyze one by one the different aspects of the job gameplay in order to give proper feedback, lets beging:
- DRK gameplay problems:
- 1.X Darkside, MP economy and the pacing of the job.
1.1 The MP economy and the pacing of the job
DRK has been historically in this game a job that constantly manage his resources making his gameplay a constant use of oGCD by result of that, granting him a fast paced gameplay where the player was constantly doing something in a fair rate on Heavensward and in a bit overwelming rate in Stormblood.
In Shadowbrings DRK no longer manage his resources the way the did before, the nerfs on MP generation and the excesive cost on all his MP skills has transformed his fluid MP economy in to a load and shoot that have raised the problem of the 45-50s of downtime without any kind of oGCD (not counting mitigation skills) with the exception of Salted earth during that period transforming the sustained gameplay of DRK in to a burst one for no reason removing almost complety that facet of the job forever combined with the nerfs on Bloodweapon making the skill unrewarding and frustating to use wheny ou dont fit 5 GCD on it make this aspect of the job severely dull, a shame consider that the TBN proc changes will serve as a excepcional QoL for a sustained HW/SB MP economy gameplay.
Other problem of the current MP system is the lack of MP options in both single target and aoe situations being Edge of shadow the only real option in ST and Flood of shadow for AOE.
1.2 Darkside and his gauge
Darkside is a mess right now, the entire mechanic offer nothing to the player gameplay wise and the addition of his gauge is complety unnecesary, the mechanic himself stay on auto mode and the player don't have to worry about it at all outside of the first hit raising the question ¿why wasn't made a trait instead?.
The related skills to this mechanic Edge/Flood of shadow could have been a nice addition to the job if the mechanic has been properly designed adding the deep the job desperately needs, but right now all this has been a waste of resources and dev time for having in the end a trait and a gauge we complety ignore.
1.3 sugestions
In order to restore DRK gameplay identity here i will make a few sugestion that will add deep and complexity without raising much the dificult of the job.
- Goals of this changes
By removing the Darkside from Edge of shadow we instantly add variety in the MP usage making the player use Flood of shadow to add Darkside time to the job, combined with a reactivation of the MP economy and granting a constant supply of MP to use all over the rotation the Darkside will have a meaning gameplay wise making the player use Flood when they need Darkside time and Edge of shadow when they don't, combined with reduced cost to make it more accesible to manage it will restore the MP management identity of the job, re-adding Dark arts could add more deep here back.(Please note this changes aim to have a HW related MP generation and usage of the MP skills, not to make another dark arts spam meme on every GCD).
-2.X Blackblood system, Living shadow and the burst of the job.
2.1 Blackblood system and related skills.
Im gonna be very blunt here, Blackblood is a cheeky copy of Rage system from WAR hurting a lot not only DRK gameplay identity but WAR's one too for no reason, it's simple and unrewarding and at contrary that WAR Rage system Blackblood is complety disconected from the rest of the kit adding no deep and complexity whatsoever and acting more like a filler that anything else and this part of DRK gameplay needs to be revised and reconsiderated extensively.
In SB despite still having the same base Blackblood have pretty much diferent usages and control of the resource generation, mostly thanks to Delirum and the resource exchange it use to have with TBN, right now Delirium is a copy of Inner release without crits, Bloodspiller is Fell cleave and Quietus is Decimate, the only unique skill DRK have here living shadow doesn't add anything gameplay to make an impact in differentiate DRK from WAR here when it should.
2.2 Living shadow and his section on Darkside gauge
Living shadow it's a chance loss, could have being something more than a dot (damage over time)that can change targets, his addition to the kit it's complety lazy and his representation on the Darkside gauge complety unneeded, and adds nothing gameplay wise to the job contributing further on how useless Darkside gauge is right now, the skill needs his contribution to the gameplay re-evaluted.
2.3 the burst of the job
The dps part of the job has been historicaly sustained but is true in SB due the interpretation of certain ranking web the comunity asked for more burst damage to the job, now the conception of having burst damage has been erased a lot due again changes on certain ranking web im not going to argue about removing the busrt from the job.
What im going to say is the burst has been poorly implemented to the job hurting a lot his gameplay identity, not only it cost him his resource management identity when they nerfed the MP economy and make the job trow all his oGCD under raid buffs, it cost him the changes on Blackblood making it a WAR copy there for no reason.
A wasted oportunity, the burst of the job could have been properly placed under Living shadow at the same time they add some interactivity on a skill that currently you can't do anything when you use it, i want to recomend the dev team to reconsiderate where the burst of the job needs to be and removing the 2 burst we have now in our MP economy and Blackblood system.
2.4 sugestions
In order to diferenciate DRK from WAR and preserve WAR identity here i will recomend sever changes on this section of the job.
-goals of this changes
Complety separate DRK gameplay from WAR, increase the ineractivity and complexity of blackblood and related skills with the rest of the kit and properly place the burst of the job while the rest of the identity remains inctact.
-3.X AOE rotation, leveling process and living dead
3.1 AOE rotation and leveling process
DRK like the rest of the tanks suffer from don't having his aoe rotation prior lvl 72-75, DRK specially pass most of the time spaming unleach until lvl72, Quietus feels unrewarding to use and looks like more a filler and like in his single target MP they use only Flood of shadow.
on leveling DRK suffer from learning certain skills to late like Dark missionary and TBN (granted this one has been mitigated with the buff on the role mitigation skills) and learning his aoe to late so the dev team should reconsider the learning order to acomodate a smoothly leveling process.
3.2 Living dead
It's not a secret that Living dead has been target of several criticism across the years due how this skill become a healing check for AST and SCH and not allowing them to dealt with it with the same comfort of Holmgang and Superbolide and how DRK is the only tank that can't really do anything to survive by hilmself after his use and this need to being looking at in some way.
3.3 sugestions
In order to make DRK acomodate the preview changes to his AOE and leveling process i will make a few sugestions.
4.4 future skills and comunity comunication
New expansion new skills, i wanna add here that DRK need more GCD on his main rotation, spaming soul eater combo and a ocasional Bloodspiller become dull pretty quick and while the sugested changes can apease that feeling it would be nice if next expansion DRK don't stay all day with soul eater again.
Im sorry now if i sound blunt but i consider the dev team and the comunity managers are interacting to little with us, i want you to reconsider your politics when interacting with us since from a long time this hasn't been enough, as a player and a fan of your game i feel really frustated when have been takes months and ever entire expansion cycles to get a response of our issues, i understand you can't always offer any real answer to our concerns but an acknoledgement of our issues with certain jobs or content should be at least mentioned if it gets enough support so we don't have a constant feeling you are ignoring us or don't care about us at all, constant comunication with the playerbase leads to more acurate and more organizated feedback specially if you don't really understand what we are asking for, so i will ask you again raise your efforts to comunicate with us as a tank and a healer sympathizer who have been feeling really frustated with the lack of answer fo you guys.
-Final words
Thanks everyone for the reading i know this is a long post, i maybe edite the post sometimes due my limitations with english and i will apreciated if something isn't clear tell me to try to fix it, this thread aim to restore HW DRK identity while retain the new stuff and build a new DRK everyone could love, feel free to participate and raise your problems with the job gameplay and how can be solved, thank you all for you understanding amd have a nice day.
Continue reading...
- DRK gameplay problems:
- Lack of gameplay identity, the job it's way to similar to others in the same role (WAR and some degree PLD).
- Lack of skill variety in both single target and AOE situations, the job work repeating the same combo and the same MP skill over and over again combined with same skill spam windows every 90s.
- Lack of interactivity betwen skills/mechanics making the job don't having any deep whatsoever.
- Blood weapon lacking impact and presenting problems to land 5 hits under his duration
- Entire mechanics literally copied from other jobs (blackblood system and Delirium).
- Meaningless mechanics that offer nothing gameplay wise (Darkside, living shadow and they gauge).
- Excesive amounts of downtime betwen use all your oGCD windows causing pacing problems and slow gameplay feeling.
- Questionable learning procces of several skills making the leveling process dull reducing some aspects of the job gameplay to be a mere spam 1 buttom to almost level 70.
- 1.X Darkside, MP economy and the pacing of the job.
1.1 The MP economy and the pacing of the job
DRK has been historically in this game a job that constantly manage his resources making his gameplay a constant use of oGCD by result of that, granting him a fast paced gameplay where the player was constantly doing something in a fair rate on Heavensward and in a bit overwelming rate in Stormblood.
In Shadowbrings DRK no longer manage his resources the way the did before, the nerfs on MP generation and the excesive cost on all his MP skills has transformed his fluid MP economy in to a load and shoot that have raised the problem of the 45-50s of downtime without any kind of oGCD (not counting mitigation skills) with the exception of Salted earth during that period transforming the sustained gameplay of DRK in to a burst one for no reason removing almost complety that facet of the job forever combined with the nerfs on Bloodweapon making the skill unrewarding and frustating to use wheny ou dont fit 5 GCD on it make this aspect of the job severely dull, a shame consider that the TBN proc changes will serve as a excepcional QoL for a sustained HW/SB MP economy gameplay.
Other problem of the current MP system is the lack of MP options in both single target and aoe situations being Edge of shadow the only real option in ST and Flood of shadow for AOE.
1.2 Darkside and his gauge
Darkside is a mess right now, the entire mechanic offer nothing to the player gameplay wise and the addition of his gauge is complety unnecesary, the mechanic himself stay on auto mode and the player don't have to worry about it at all outside of the first hit raising the question ¿why wasn't made a trait instead?.
The related skills to this mechanic Edge/Flood of shadow could have been a nice addition to the job if the mechanic has been properly designed adding the deep the job desperately needs, but right now all this has been a waste of resources and dev time for having in the end a trait and a gauge we complety ignore.
1.3 sugestions
In order to restore DRK gameplay identity here i will make a few sugestion that will add deep and complexity without raising much the dificult of the job.
- Reactivate the MP economy, revert all Blood weapon changes, increase the amount of MP generated in both numbers and sources across the kit in order to restore the resource management identity of the job.
- Reduce the MP cost of all MP skill to 2000 (instead of 3000) minimun to allow a comfortable management of the MP and prevent it to become to hard to manage and ajust the potency to acomodate such changes.
- Remove the "Additional Effect: Grants Darkside, increasing damage dealt by 10%,Duration: 30s, Extends Darkside duration by 30s to a maximum of 60s." from Edge of shadow (explained in "goals of this changes" below).
- consider readding dark arts to add variety on MP usage
- Goals of this changes
By removing the Darkside from Edge of shadow we instantly add variety in the MP usage making the player use Flood of shadow to add Darkside time to the job, combined with a reactivation of the MP economy and granting a constant supply of MP to use all over the rotation the Darkside will have a meaning gameplay wise making the player use Flood when they need Darkside time and Edge of shadow when they don't, combined with reduced cost to make it more accesible to manage it will restore the MP management identity of the job, re-adding Dark arts could add more deep here back.(Please note this changes aim to have a HW related MP generation and usage of the MP skills, not to make another dark arts spam meme on every GCD).
-2.X Blackblood system, Living shadow and the burst of the job.
2.1 Blackblood system and related skills.
Im gonna be very blunt here, Blackblood is a cheeky copy of Rage system from WAR hurting a lot not only DRK gameplay identity but WAR's one too for no reason, it's simple and unrewarding and at contrary that WAR Rage system Blackblood is complety disconected from the rest of the kit adding no deep and complexity whatsoever and acting more like a filler that anything else and this part of DRK gameplay needs to be revised and reconsiderated extensively.
In SB despite still having the same base Blackblood have pretty much diferent usages and control of the resource generation, mostly thanks to Delirum and the resource exchange it use to have with TBN, right now Delirium is a copy of Inner release without crits, Bloodspiller is Fell cleave and Quietus is Decimate, the only unique skill DRK have here living shadow doesn't add anything gameplay to make an impact in differentiate DRK from WAR here when it should.
2.2 Living shadow and his section on Darkside gauge
Living shadow it's a chance loss, could have being something more than a dot (damage over time)that can change targets, his addition to the kit it's complety lazy and his representation on the Darkside gauge complety unneeded, and adds nothing gameplay wise to the job contributing further on how useless Darkside gauge is right now, the skill needs his contribution to the gameplay re-evaluted.
2.3 the burst of the job
The dps part of the job has been historicaly sustained but is true in SB due the interpretation of certain ranking web the comunity asked for more burst damage to the job, now the conception of having burst damage has been erased a lot due again changes on certain ranking web im not going to argue about removing the busrt from the job.
What im going to say is the burst has been poorly implemented to the job hurting a lot his gameplay identity, not only it cost him his resource management identity when they nerfed the MP economy and make the job trow all his oGCD under raid buffs, it cost him the changes on Blackblood making it a WAR copy there for no reason.
A wasted oportunity, the burst of the job could have been properly placed under Living shadow at the same time they add some interactivity on a skill that currently you can't do anything when you use it, i want to recomend the dev team to reconsiderate where the burst of the job needs to be and removing the 2 burst we have now in our MP economy and Blackblood system.
2.4 sugestions
In order to diferenciate DRK from WAR and preserve WAR identity here i will recomend sever changes on this section of the job.
- Rework Delirium complety or remove it from the game, the spam the same skill 5 times in a row should being removed from the job asap.
- Reconsiderate the contribution of Bloodspiller and Quietus to the rest of the kit by adding interactivity with other skills or contributing to the MP economy.
- Repurpose the contribution of Living shadow to the rest of the kit and make it the burst of the job, add some purpose to his duration like all GCD get a buff of X potency under his duration or allow the execution of upgraded skills, anything that make his Darkside gauge have a meaning and integrate the skill with the rest of the kit.
-goals of this changes
Complety separate DRK gameplay from WAR, increase the ineractivity and complexity of blackblood and related skills with the rest of the kit and properly place the burst of the job while the rest of the identity remains inctact.
-3.X AOE rotation, leveling process and living dead
3.1 AOE rotation and leveling process
DRK like the rest of the tanks suffer from don't having his aoe rotation prior lvl 72-75, DRK specially pass most of the time spaming unleach until lvl72, Quietus feels unrewarding to use and looks like more a filler and like in his single target MP they use only Flood of shadow.
on leveling DRK suffer from learning certain skills to late like Dark missionary and TBN (granted this one has been mitigated with the buff on the role mitigation skills) and learning his aoe to late so the dev team should reconsider the learning order to acomodate a smoothly leveling process.
3.2 Living dead
It's not a secret that Living dead has been target of several criticism across the years due how this skill become a healing check for AST and SCH and not allowing them to dealt with it with the same comfort of Holmgang and Superbolide and how DRK is the only tank that can't really do anything to survive by hilmself after his use and this need to being looking at in some way.
3.3 sugestions
In order to make DRK acomodate the preview changes to his AOE and leveling process i will make a few sugestions.
- -Make Abyssal drain cost MP again but remain being an oGCD so combined wich Flood they will have the same dinamic Flood and Edge have in the 1.3 sugestions but in AOE situations.
- Consider learning Dark missionary and a weaker version of TBN early to be on line with the other tanks on early levels.
- Consider add some kind of selfhealing to DRK or any kind of ajustment that help the job to dealt with Living shadow and make it more comfy to AST and SCH to dealt with it.
4.4 future skills and comunity comunication
New expansion new skills, i wanna add here that DRK need more GCD on his main rotation, spaming soul eater combo and a ocasional Bloodspiller become dull pretty quick and while the sugested changes can apease that feeling it would be nice if next expansion DRK don't stay all day with soul eater again.
Im sorry now if i sound blunt but i consider the dev team and the comunity managers are interacting to little with us, i want you to reconsider your politics when interacting with us since from a long time this hasn't been enough, as a player and a fan of your game i feel really frustated when have been takes months and ever entire expansion cycles to get a response of our issues, i understand you can't always offer any real answer to our concerns but an acknoledgement of our issues with certain jobs or content should be at least mentioned if it gets enough support so we don't have a constant feeling you are ignoring us or don't care about us at all, constant comunication with the playerbase leads to more acurate and more organizated feedback specially if you don't really understand what we are asking for, so i will ask you again raise your efforts to comunicate with us as a tank and a healer sympathizer who have been feeling really frustated with the lack of answer fo you guys.
-Final words
Thanks everyone for the reading i know this is a long post, i maybe edite the post sometimes due my limitations with english and i will apreciated if something isn't clear tell me to try to fix it, this thread aim to restore HW DRK identity while retain the new stuff and build a new DRK everyone could love, feel free to participate and raise your problems with the job gameplay and how can be solved, thank you all for you understanding amd have a nice day.
Continue reading...