DRK Adjustments [Community Forum]

Details from the official forum:

*** YEAH FAST CAST FOR DARK MAGIC

While mostly good news, I still think DRK should get:
1. A Job Ability that ignores cRatio.
2. Dark Magic Nukes (Demi, Demi 2, Demi 3, and "Scathe") to go along with the Banish/Holy line of spells.

Still don't know why they don't give drk terror or a ws that causes it(Duskraven's Warden of Terror <3).

Also, lolt3magic.

This is great to hear devs say

"Ok, some of your ideas are horrible and here is why".

Some good ideas, some bad.
But one idea I had many years ago which I would love to see implemented somehow was a trait or ability that eliminates the stacked delay between casting a spell and your next melee hit.
In other words, casting will not add additional delay between attacks.

Another thing my friend suggested is something that comes from Dragon Age, where a specialization is "Arcane Warrior" which gives a passive trait that allows your melee skills to be as proficient as your already impressive magic by reversing the attributes that apply to your attacks. So rather than needing strength or attack, your melee is based on your magic power since that is what is being enhanced to begin with.

Something like that (in reverse) for DRK would be pretty nifty.

... uhhhh, drain samba?

ETA: also, didn't we already find a Stun II animation in last month's .dats?

Probably a BLU spell, updated animation or not stun at all.

Could be a stunga?

Aspir Samba does not work on mobs without MP, and neither works on undead.

Enternius put the whole "absorb MP without having MP" thing into good perspective.
Magical presence/properties is a sort of omnipresent aura of tangible utility. So even though certain classes aren't aware or able to put it to function, doesn't mean it isn't there to begin with.
I can understand undead resisting absorbation effects of any kind, but I think with the right angle or direction SE can totally get away with the whole Aspir non MP jobs thing.

Drain Samba drains HP, and doesn't work on Undead. Aspir Samba doesn't work on anything that doesn't have MP, or Undead, just like the spell doesn't.

Drain Samba DOESN'T actually drain HP, though. It just heals you for an amount based on your weapon delay. No extra damage is caused to the monster, and it's not an elementally-aligned magic effect of any sort. It doesn't work on undead for... well, who knows what reason, probably just lazily copy-pasted code from Blood Weapon.

It's true that Aspir Samba DOES actually drain MP, but my point was just that there's already precedent for a "drain" that doesn't actually drain anything.

In that respect, DRK should have something along the lines of direct MP recovery without needing varying conditions. Especially since a DRK's magic is essential not only for their DD utility, but survival as well. However, SE seems intent on making DRK the king of "sacrifice".

Always kinda wanted to see an ability along the lines of Cecil's Dark ability from the original FF4, a high damage "nuke" type of attack that comes at the cost of HP rather than MP.

Isn't that what Souleater is supposed to do?

Sort of. But my idea is more of a direct transfer, say an immediate drain of half your hp converted into damage on the spot.

Anyone like my ideas? <3

Give drk a Str modded multi hit crit based scythe ws, Drk problem solved

The point is both still abide by the rules of their magical counterparts. You can't absorb something that isn't there. Whether or not Drain Samba actually drains HP from a monster is irrelevant, because there's at least HP there to drain.

The easiest solution I see is to introduce a spell that converts HP drained into MP.

Personally I dont see drk being or needing to be a caster in the respect of nuking, leave that to the jobs that specialize in that field of damage. Imo I would rather see Drk get job specific/theme spells that enhanced its performance, actually contributed in some aspect and unique to its job imo.

Stun, drain,drain II,dread spikes and absorb TP are great spells for dark. Absorb stat spells fail though, imo they should raise the amount being drained, duration and perhaps make it party related? Who wouldnt want a dark to absorb 15-30 dex to everyone in non abyssea areas? or str? some day attack?

Spells shouldnt be limited to direct damage ie nukes, but indirect aswell like a spell that grants you crit %, extra ws damage, maybe an aura spell? Instead of nuking with elements, let dark cast aura spells that damage the enemy while they are next to them, making like a high damaging DoT spell over time it does w/e elemental damage the aura is or come up with non-elemental ones aswell. Just things that would keep DRK from being turned into a stale War job because thats how must of us play it right now. Im sure when simplied it will still be like any DD engage --> attack --> ws , but atleast it will add a little more variety to that mix which would be somewhat "Dark" orientated.

While casting w/o delay would be tedious to do, Drks are horrible nukers w/o proper gear and support and even then cant justify doing that for drk and not fixing the who damage part. And theres also the majority mentality or I guess the higher end mentality, but its basically this, why have fun and gimp yourself on this job doing something that another job is more effictive on. If they fix it so that that job is now actually good at it, think about a DD fighter with blm nuking power, no one will want to be a blm no more(outside of triggers), But hito thats not true! Check out any sam, drk thread, anytime ppl ask about that job, you always get the "why are you on that job, war or mnk, youre gimping yourself etc etc"

I personally dont think drk should be fixed to be a better nuker, but fixed to be a better caster. It needs better effective spells.

Other ideas I'd like to see implemented, how about a wider variety of spike spells. Likely candidates are spikes that absorb mp or tp, and my more imaginative side says, how about fear spikes?

Another idea, I think everyone here had fun with the twilight scythe at one point or another, how's about a JA that adds that same chance of inflicting death into our regular attacks? I'm not talking an enspell, just the same basic effect as twilight scythe that we can use with our weapon of choice?

@Hito: the problem is that the dev team actually want dark knights to cast elemental magic. Without realizing that
- tier3 nukes are crap
- drk doesn't have even a single tier of mab
- no one is gonna sub rdm instead of sam just to use nukes

Drk on elemental magic is completely off imho, they should focus on their dark magic making it more effective.

Make Torcleaver multi-hit crit.*

(Hate scythe. Always have.)

I'd honestly be happy with them just changing Torcleaver to a str mod. Most emp weapons got mods that make sense, Torcleaver's vit mod seems like it was designed with pld in mind.

I'm not sure adding a "Next mob dies" JA would be all that balanced... I don't have a Twilight Scythe yet, but I think the random nature of it procc'ing (and it not working on NM's) is what keeps it in check.

Drk should have insta cast on dark-magic spells. It wouldnt exactly be too "broken" because of there limited mp pool.

Also:

"Increase our parry skill so that we can receive a larger benefit from Tactical Parry.

Add Fast Cast specific for Dark Magic.

Revamp the MP cost and recast time on Dread Spikes."



Woooooot

Never did say next mob dies. What I said was the same effect. Random nature and all

Making DRK more elemental magic based is the stupidest idea I've heard in awhile since DRK has the lowest tier of elemental spells available.

I'd be happy for a crit based weaponskill and some way of increasing damage for scythe users.

I'd also be happy if they lifted the haste cap.

And if the mob is souleater resistant, the user shouldn't be penalized for sacrificing HP for nothing.

Maybe an ability to regenerate hp. Endrain?