Every Dark Knight Skill from Every Expansion - FFXIV Job Retrospective

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[@TheAdventGamer]

I miss Power Slash. mostly I just miss the animation. Striking the enemy then gathering dark energy into the hand allowing it to explode outward at the enemy.

[@ich3730]

thats why mods are important, gives some power back to the community. You can still have that animation in game \o/

[@BranBal]

You're a mage player, right?

[@madsonmadgod]

Totally agree, was my favorite attack animation at the time.

[@jacobkern2060]

It's worth mentioning for LD: Before 6.1, if you got healed to full (or rather, got 100% of your HP back), your invuln buff was just gone.

[@Scerttle]

YUP, badly timed bene's could be a two-fold waste

[@Asako_Gaming]

I'm in the grave....

[@carbonide1290]

Abyssal drain spam in dungeons was so fucking fun man. Literally blood whetting before blood whetting but somehow even more satisfying.

[@gogogo123454321]

It"s still a thing, is it not?

[@carbonide1290]

@@gogogo123454321 not even close. Closest thing to old AD spam is bloodwhetting which is way more braindead

[@GayLPer]

@@gogogo123454321 Abyssal drain has a lengthy cooldown, where before it was a GCD.

[@hyliombi]

I actually wanted to point out as well that during Stormblood pre-UCOB, because of the general skill level of DRK players since it had a decently high skill-floor, they were often locked out of random PF groups. This was largely due to general community sentiment and lots of reddit/forum threads at the time saying DRK was bad and not meta. For example, at the time before I had started my savage experience, only 1/10 EX farm groups would let you join as a DRK. They were more often than not locked to WAR/PLD only. It was like this until the doomer community opinion on DRK started shifting once world first UCOB had a DRK in their lineup.

[@YUXKE]

Something I feel is overlooked too is that DRK back then had to learn how to handle 1st and 2nd tank responsibilities way more often than PLD and WAR just due to aggro generation up till dropping out of tank stance. This with War being the best per damage, DRK being in the middle with damage penalty, and PLD being worst for aggro and damage + better OT support tools. This added to the higher skill floor, and I felt this a lot when doing ultimates in SB having to be pair with PLD and WARs who only new OT and MT responsibilities respectively. So you had to be more flexible than the others more often and the OT vs MT responsibilities were more frequently distinct back then too. There was also the whole, lacking party wide defensive vs trivializing tank busters debate on what was valued more also being a sticking point for some players too.

[@idowhatiwant3557]

@@YUXKE If you are tanking you should always know OT and MT responsibilities, other wise don't play tank. Also DRK was very good at aggro management cause of Dark Arts / Power slash potency boost / emnity boost on top of dark side damage increase. Warrior was not able to Fell cleave in tank stance IIRC so DRK was the best at snap aggro if Warriors unchained was on cd. Also anyone that locks a class out of content either don't know how to play thus listen to reddit, or are looking to get carried. It is very rare in any MMO for a class to be so bad, it cannot do content.

[@rainermartin8260]

ah yes, our favorite tank: machinist

[@Valvadrix]

Sole Survivor was changed during the expansion. It started off as targeting a party member you expect to die and then was changed to targeting an enemy. I guess the former was a bit mean.

[@Hey-Kinch]

"Then Perish."

[@soldierorsomething]

Yeah imagine throwing that on some sprout that runs away with the stack marker: "WELCOME TO FF14" XD

[@PurpleAlzir]

I want Dark Arts back just more situational than it was in SB where it was used most GCDs. Eukrasia is basically the same thing but done more situational making it feel much better.

[@YUXKE]

Heavensward era was pretty much the fine balance with Dark Arts since it was basically the same frequency as current day edge / flood oGCDs. SB they kept adding it to more and more skills and abilities to buff the job that it became too cumbersome.

[@gravitycat6862]

As a Shadowbringers Newbie, I wish I could have gotten to use Dark Arts as it was. It seems very unique and a fun ability to use effectively.

[@PurpleAlzir]

@@YUXKEI wasn't sure if I was remembering right on HW being like that but good to know I was right on that.

[@IceboyMyName]

@@gravitycat6862 Like the guy commenting up there, its not that different from edge of shadow, only thing it do damage on itself, the skill buffed your next gcd, so you you're essentialy doing dark arts >gcd >dark arts > gcd >dark arts > gcd for a burst window etc etc.

[@Theinen84]

​@@IceboyMyNameno. That was Stormblood. In HW, it was a more decisive choice.

[@rahee9482]

Dark Arts is basically melee sage. And I loved it

[@shimp_]

Interesting how dark arts changed from "situational" to "flat potency" to "we took out the middle man, you just use mp to attack now." It does keep the philosophy kind of the same but more accessible. The only major things I hope they change are bringing back unique animations for role actions and TBN working more like corundum. I do miss the jank a bit but I don't know how they could bring it back for each job outside of stuff like large scale content. I think the next time we'll see gameplay like it is whenever private servers become a thing.

[@JJMomoida]

Apologies for the rant... Dark Knight was my main through both HW and SB. Personally, I feel like its peak was in HW. I do recognize that some of this is nostalgia but also... the job just felt like it had so much flavor back then. It was the first tank with a gap closer in plunge, Sole Survivor was a neat way of getting HP/MP back, Darkside had a drain MP effect to it and was basically a stance you had to maintain. It wasn't hard to do so, but it was definitely something to keep in mind as you went through your rotation. I think there's something to be said for having something that *negatively affects* your job (the MP drain) and that you just have to manage. Idk... it just felt so unique to me and added some flavor to the job. Nowadays I honestly can't say I have half as much fun with it when I do play DRK. I think TBN was an interesting idea when they introduced it in Stormblood, but that was kinda it. I feel like it hasn't really been iterated on in interesting ways. Leading up to the release of Shadowbringers, I was up there with people hyped at the idea of being able to summon Fray to fight alongside you... but then I figured it would be essentially a really pretty DoT and well, that's pretty much what it turned out to be. It's a nice ability, don't get me wrong, but it is much too *passive* for what I wanted out of DRK playstyle. You hit that button and forget. Funnily enough, ever since going through the job story, I had always envisioned a mechanic where you let Fray possess you, enhancing your abilities or changing how they work... I swear I cracked up when Reaper was revealed and this was essentially its main gimmick (although with a voidsent). Over the years I've become disillusioned with the job. It just doesn't feel satisfying to play for me. This is also completely separate from any talk about balance. I almost never look at that when I pick a job to play. If it doesn't resonate with me when I play it, I simply don't bother with it beyond just leveling it up... and I'm sad to say DRK has kinda gone that way.

[@rhysgarland9295]

This is verbatim my experience with DRK, funny that I've found someone type out exactly how I feel.

[@ChipoltleXD]

Man I really do miss how silly dark arts abyssal drain was.

[@ReaverBharash]

Low Blow procs were definitely a thing back in HW. I had a friend who made a Parry heavy DRK for the memes and ended up talking about LBpS lol. Low Blows per second. It reminded me of the ridiculous PLD build I had at the end of ARR, dark times lol

[@Sol_Invictus35]

One thing to point out about dark passenger in stormblood is what made it not useful outside for enmity is that it deals magic damage so if you had slash resistance down it’s did less damage then dark arts would normally give compared to its reduced cost in heavensward making it actually mp efficient lol

[@cosmosofinfinity]

They should bring back the old job specific actions that have now become role actions, but keep them as role actions (and even the same name if they must) so that we can get that cool job-specific flavor animations back (and probably the icon too)

[@RockR277]

That would be sweet.

[@WolfmanXD]

If I recall, and I could be wrong, dark arts also increased the enmity gain effect on the enmity combo. So if you wanted to, you could use a dark arts enmity combo on the pull, in grit, and get a HUGE amount of enmity.

[@linkavantasia94]

main DRK since HW, and yes i remember Low Blow resetting on a chance of a parry. At that time i remember saying that it was similar to Monk Evasion ability.

[@Pokemaniac88]

Whoever reminded Happy that DRK and AST hadn't gotten a video yet, thank you.

[@felixamari157]

I love this job restrospective series and really happy you didn't forget DRK. ^.^

[@hundset]

Glad I chose to remind him in a Q&A a little while back, although I did see another person ask more recently.

[@Coolguysup]

What timing. I spent an hour yesterday looking through older Job actions since i didn't play much before they started removing abilities left and right. It's nice to be able to explore and see what Jobs used to be like back in the day.

[@Zerokunz]

Dark knight was the god tank in dungeons. You'd pop your defense boosting abilities and use blood price to basically heal yourself like warrior does now for the whole duration of blood price. Then after that wears off you use dark arts dark dance followed with dark arts and dark passanger and you turned into a tank with MASSIVE evasion because you got the bonus evasion from dark dance and your enemies were blinded from dark passanger. One time I died because my healer had NO idea what was going on and didn't know that eventually these buffs would wear off and it was absolutely hilarious. I miss HW dark knight for this reason and this reason alone. It was the most unique tank of its time and I loved every second of it.

[@Frostbyte115]

I miss Storm Bloods Quietus and Abyssal drain spam. Literally immortal and fun while doing it. Build blood with price, Delirium to extend Price. Massive spam of fun in dungeons.

[@GoatOfWar]

As per War main tradition, every time a tank does something War doesn't already do better they cry until every tank can >.> I stopped tanking thanks to the endless streamlining and homogenisation that streamers have been crying for.

[@DacianGradaMusic]

I actually just checked for curiosity and Plunge is still at 54. LOL I sometimes wonder what are the reasons for some of the leveling skills placements, even Duty Support tanks have gap closers from the get-go, which shows how important of a skill is, especially for dungeon runs. Let's not forget the DRK AoE combo was very late until recently, it's now at 40 which is still kinda high but tolerable, definitely better than 62 or whatever it was before!

[@fakechannelname8235]

i mean you still get them at the rate they were introduced, so they pretty much just left them alone. drk got the first one when it was introduced in hw, then war got one in stormblood along with being involved in its new gauge, then pld got one in shb cause people were upset it was the only tank missing one

[@ryguy7932]

Plunge is still at 54 yes, but you still get a gap closer before PLD, WAR, and GNB (but only by 2 levels for GNB, which is inconsequential for them). Anyway, I agree it should be like 20 levels earlier for everyone

[@Scerttle]

It was super interesting doing Sastasha with duty support the first time and seeing the tank friggen gap close to engage lmfao They really should give tanks gap closers a lot sooner.

[@GayLPer]

Duty Support tanks having gap closers is because the tank will always be running behind the player. They need a way to get in front of the player quickly to hopefully pull aggro before the player does. Player tanks will hopefully be running ahead of the party, or if not quite, then the party should hopefully be prepared to drag mobs to the tank.

[@elsdodo]

Parry really reset Low Blow's cooldown, which made it interesting to use Dark Dance as kind of a damage cooldown. You could also dark arts Dark Dance for even more parries, which did find some usage in dungeons. Also Dark Arts only got busy during Stormblood, because there you regenerated so much MP that you had to get them off somehow. During Heavensward, I always felt like Dark Arts usage was reasonable. It was only during SB I came to despise the skill.

[@235192j3t8]

Funny thing that in trailer of ShB they use the sound of power slash for wol finish the sineater that was all ready gone that skill for drk in shb.. (so good that animation) I don't know if people notice that detail

[@YUXKE]

I noticed by the time we got the full trailer. “Rewinds”…..wait……was that Power Slash Sfx?!!

[@DeadEye935]

As someone that only started playing in shadowbringers, heavensward drk seems real interesting there's parts of its kit that are a little weird, but just interacting more with its MP is the precise thing I think the job needs right now

[@YUXKE]

The gripes with disjointed kit are often overstated. You just used the right tools for the right times and staggered, and they were VERY effective when used properly. You don’t see the same critique being thrown around with scholar’s dissipation being disjointed with other aspects of its kit for the same exact reason. But it definitely made DRK have a very high skill floor because of that

[@Xion_Stellar]

I miss you Heavensward Dark Knight

[@ssjgokuhan]

I liked OG dark arts at the time, but then they tried to tie even more skills to DA and it got to be too much. Funny that Sage got a version of DA that people approve of.

[@dootdootington386]

Glad they figured out it works better when it not on like three back to back skills.

[@HyouVizer]

Still miss original Dark Arts 😢

[@Zyvux.]

When they removed dark arts in 5.0 i went from a hardcore drk one-trick to flat out refusing to touch it ever again. spent shadowbringers brooding on monk for the most part, but when i saw sage in endwalker with eukrasia, that hole in my heart was somewhat filled and now i have been happily maining sage since, can't wait to continue playing it in dawntrail and hope they never ever dare touch eukrasia.

[@carbxncle]

I cannot imagine we would get fights like DSR and TOP if tanks were still this complicated to play and deal optimal DPS with.

[@spazzwazzle]

Man, old DRK sounds pretty cool. I don't think it was weird to have blind on a skill while also having blood weapon; I imagine the ideal pulling strategy would be to blind everything when engaging the trash pull, synergizing with your white mage if there was one in the party (i.e. either waiting for stun resistance to kick in, or delaying their holies until blind wears off), and then popping another mit and using blood weapon to give you enough MP to burst the mobs to death

[@Theinen84]

Oh it was. DRK could pretty much stun an entire group too. That Low Blow reset ticked a LOT.

[@Castersvarog]

Man the more I see if the old Dark Knight the more I wish the job would try to bring back and rework its old abilites. Sole Survivor, Shadowskin Power slash, Scourge and Dark Arts being an actual mechanic. Sure parts of it weren’t perfect, but it stood out more then ‘here’s Warrior but with more oGcds’

[@xierotron]

Still find it weird MrHappy uses wayback machine when the most reliable source for FFXIV info for the whole game is MrHappys own vids lol

[@AnotherDaysTruths]

Right mans been making videos since all we had were treaser sites for 2.0. Literally was making content before the game launched xD

[@Drsteinification]

Dark dance alone was kind of bad, but enhanced would also increase evasion, and when paired with a DA enhanced dark passenger in dungeons it had the side effect of applying blind, so mob group accuracy was dropped low enough to proc parry like crazy or straight up dodge damage. Under rated combo at the time.

[@EvanAdvent]

I remember having fun with Blood Price. Doing massive pulls in dungeons and just getting so much resource to just spam AoEs. I know I was one of the dudes who didn't worry about minimizing Grit uptime, so I had fun with all those skills.

[@Ritho26]

The fact he keeps referencing how you could blind and give yourself evasion would go against Blood price tells you he doesn't know what he's talking about. You just wouldn't use those at the same time. You would use Blood Price and Abyssal Drain spam during it and you were invincible in trash pulls. Just because the abilities don't synergize doesn't mean they're useless. It just means you use them separately. That's like saying Fight or Flight giving phys dmg up but your Requ spam phase doing magic damage doesn't make sense. It's just different parts of the utilization/rotation.

[@HyouVizer]

100% you get it ✨️🌟✨️

[@Xander0826]

I unlocked Dark Knight maybe a few months after Shadowbringers dropped so I never got to experience the older versions and while I won't say I want the old DRK back in terms of how it played/felt since idk what that was like, I watched a vid on all the removed animations and getting some of those back would be really nice. They just look so much cooler than what we have now. Seeing stuff like Power Slash, Dark Arts, and Dark Passenger's animations integrated into our new skills or maybe even some animation upgrades for our current skills would be real nice if we can never get the actual skills back. Like don't get me wrong, Shadowbringer is a cool Cecil reference but you can't even see the full effect of it most times (and Eventide's animation is better for a skill with that name imo)

[@MrAlphamazing]

Bring Power Slash Back! even if it is only the animation, it was my favorite and its gone now, Mybe a second finisher that applys the scourge DOT?

[@Dusk471]

I really missed the speed DRK use to have I don't really consider OGCD spam to be equivalent to how speedy the job was

[@GayLPer]

MNK is hard enough to play, I don't need a tank going plaid.

[@gjet35]

Ah, the Job that lost the most going through the transitions. I miss Power Slash, Dark Arts, Scourge...I miss a lot of the old animations, actually. And with how squishy DRK's are pre-Blackest Night having Dark Artsed Dark Passenger for the Blind was indispensable. Dark Dance too!...as little as that actually helped with the conflicting buffs it got from Dark Art's.

[@RockR277]

Every time time you release one of I'm reminded of how much I miss every job having their own stun and 20% mit animation. I know it's a small thing, but I miss that.

[@ich3730]

Just shows how priorities have changed... I remember when jobs unlocked their abilities IN LORE and the job quests made your new skills seem important and cool. Now you just unlock everything without any care. SMN learns to summon the twins grandpa and nobody in the story cares, MCH builds an autonomous robot ( probably the most important scientific advancement in eorzea, atleast worth an article in the limsa newspaper ) and nobody even talks about it. Just crazy man...

[@D-Havoc]

WAR didn't really have a 20% mit back then. That's why it got Rampart as a role action. The consequence was that DRK lost Shadowskin as a casualty.

[@RockR277]

@@D-Havoc They could've made foresight affect both magical and physical instead, which I would have preferred. Either way point still stands about low blow.

[@ARedRobot]

I only started playing DRK in Stormblood, and while I miss some aspects of it, I did not care for how many abilities had a DA boost to them. I really wish I could have played Heavensward DRK cause it seems better than what it became in Stormblood for the most part. However, I don't really mind current DRK too much, but I would like to see some overhauls in DT to maybe bridge the gap between HW and EW DRK, because DRK currently seems to be at its breaking point, where it has too many buttons to press during its opener & 2 minute burst to add new things

[@hundset]

I think something to spice up the downtime between burst windows would be nice, also I really wouldn't mind delirium being changed to something either more akin to enshroud or PLD's blade combo, where it gives you access to whole new abilities that don't have to take up any more hotkey space but instead replace other buttons for its duration.

[@barryward2128]

The one thing I hate about drk right now is the bloodspiller spam. If I wanted to do that I'd just play warrior

[@ShonenJump121]

Oh Dark Knight. You used to be my favorite tank. What has happened to you.

[@GoatOfWar]

Warrior'd

[@IceboyMyName]

funny thing about sole survivor: its still in the game, but only in pvp, when you plunge at someone, they get the dmg up buff and you'll get healed and mp back if that target is killed

[@Sergio-Echigo]

Dark dance was not so bad actually, the describtion missed the part where it could be buffed by dark arts which increases dark knights EVASION rate (i forgot the specific numbers), makes drk very tanky with huge pulls in dungeons

[@YUXKE]

Still miss HW and SB era way more than ShB onwards. Raided with it the whole time including ultimates back then, then barely raided with it after the major revamp. So much of what has been kept over from those days are so watered down for accessibility. Love it in PvP tho!

[@randompeo4521]

That’s a weird spelling for Dark Knight in the thumbnail

[@simusar]

Must be the French spelling

[@nosearches8340]

What was the spelling?

[@randompeo4521]

@@nosearches8340 It said machinist

[@nosearches8340]

@@randompeo4521 cool thanks

[@GameGod77]

I just got my DRK up to level 60 today and it's WILD to me that Stalwart Soul used to be an attack you learned at level 72! It's so nice having an AoE combo before level 50.

[@JoSan3]

Now we just need AST retrospective

[@karlklein2263]

People never understood. DA + DD combo'd with DA + DP was a god tuer mitigation tool.

[@MissyFuzz]

If there is one thing i honestly DON'T miss about the pre-ShB tanks, is enmity management. Way too many tanks back in the day basically had the mindset of "Aggro is literally everyone else's problem except mine because i'm NOT stepping out of DPS stance for anything in the world", which made it so if you had a high aggro opener like WHM then you were just going to have a bad time.

[@GayLPer]

I wonder how classic Dark Knight would feel to play in modern FF14 with Grit being just an enmity stance. I imagine all of the "Bonus effect while under Grit" effects would instead be linked to Darkside being turned off.

[@tuanang7889]

I really wish they would add 10% mitigation for DRK while standing inside Salted Earth, combine Oblation with TBN and some form of self-heal single target. Also some old cool animations.

[@ClydeJHatbird]

I want Sole Survivor back. Give it shorter cool down and a reduced heal effect so it can be spammed ever 30 seconds or so. Next, give a nerfed, self target version of TBN at 30 or 50 that then upgrades to the true version at 70. This'll give those lower levels a fun toy to mess around with. Lastly, for the love of god, remove the shared cool down between Abyssal and Carve or reduce the timer to 30 seconds. I want that "badass edge lord, culling the weak" vibe back in. I'd like to see it worked with more hard hitting damage and self sustainability skills upfront, that then evolve into party support versions and defensive skills on the back end. Let me start as the edge lord and then learn the power of friendship. At present, it just feels like the odd tank out without a real identity. PLD has magic, WAR has berserker fuy, GNB has mad combo skillz. I'd like DRK to feel more tactical and methodical, like someone who has a response for every enemy action, but can also resort to just whooping your ass. I also had an idea for TBN where it takes health instead of MP, to be a bit more reminiscent of OG dark knights. It takes, like, 20% of you max HP and when the shield breaks, you get 10% health back. If used on an ally, they get healed afterwards, but you don't. I played DRK through Heavensward, during 3.0 rules. Took GBN into Stormblood during 4.0, and then PLD in Shadowbringers during 5.0. I leveled WAR in the backround, since it was the first job I really clicked with, but didn't fit my character thematically at the time. After experiencing Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting WAR, and then going back to DRK, I found that I had to play DRK so much more conservatively. It was just...boring, slow and lacked technicality compared to the other tanks. Personally, I really like the idea of just upgrading old skills into new ones over just adding more skills. It saves on bloat and can build off of existing concepts instead of having to create brand new ones that then have to intermingle with every other mechanic at play.

[@Incensement]

In regards to WAR/DRK still being the go-to during Stormblood. It pretty quickly became WAR/PLD because Paladin was simply the better support tank with Passage and Veil for the party, Cover being free 20% mitigation (and shared knockback immunity through Tempered Will), some ranged capabilities through Holy Spirit, actually competitive dps on fights where they could keep high melee uptime and Shields not having a Block Strength/Rate cap yet so by the end of the expansion it provided a whopping ~35% mitigation for now both physical and magical damage. Dark Knight was still good after a few buffs but Paladin just provided so many safety nets on top of being easier to play.

[@WineRedEchos]

end of stormblood drk was my jam. I loved it so much.

[@HyouVizer]

SAME i think that was peak DRK honestly ShB onward ruined it, and EW just continued this.

[@aaronsound]

Thanks a lot, i main DRK so i always wondered what's up with peeps saying hw had better drk

[@jude2214]

While i do somewhat miss dark arts, i think a lot of peopel forget how much people complained about it, saying the job was either too busy or too reliant on the skill

[@aohdakibussubara8820]

Almost everyone complained about the spam but that wasn’t necessarily the fault of dark arts, it was because of the amount of abilities and weapon skills that required DA was absurd.

[@jude2214]

@@aohdakibussubara8820 problem is that removing them will make certain skills the objective best use for DA, turning it from a utility tool with Versatility based on the situation to something that needs to be balanced around and is just "the button you press before x"

[@aohdakibussubara8820]

@@jude2214 I guess it’s a balance. Sage literally has a dark arts that’s the class revolves around so if they do that but for Drk focusing mainly on defensive and a couple weapon skills to give drk the variety it needs I think that could be an easy improvement.

[@jude2214]

@@aohdakibussubara8820 exactly. Eukrasia works cause it affects the right amount of skills, just the right amount, and each effect is different but equally useful

[@aohdakibussubara8820]

@@jude2214 it could be the answer to the 123 combo boredom as well like if dark arts changed all of the weapon combos to different weapon skills like a forced draconian fire effect with dragoon that of which would have different effects to the original weapon combo buttons just as an example. It’s not like drk isn’t already a mash up of other classes and had things taken from it and I’m not talking about reprisal.

[@GayLPer]

I remember unlocking Dark Knight and getting it up to level 60 not too long before the Stormblood patch that let us take all 10 role actions. I'm sure part of it was my shitty computer that was playing at 10-15 FPS, my lack of experience with the game, my ADHD making it hard to remember which did what with Dark Arts, and just having trouble seeing patterns to higher DPS in the skills and abilities, but I *hated* Dark Arts. It was so difficult for me to double weave (and sometimes single weave) that I was constantly clipping my GCD. Which considering that two of the most useful things to use DA on were both oGCDs, meant I found actually using Dark Arts to be something of a detriment to my experience with the job, despite my absolute love of the lore and aesthetics of it (in fact it was the job that I wanted to play the most) The reason I enjoyed Edge and Flood more than Dark Arts is because they were just straight up damage + a buff to maintain. I could use them whenever I wanted to if I had the MP to spare, and I wouldn't end up wasting the MP on the wrong GCD or ability. I didn't actually get to make good use of the Blood Gauge before Shadowbringers came out, so I can't give my opinion on that change. It also didn't help that I didn't feel like Dark Arts was very interesting to begin with. Abyssal Drain was fantastic, but for everything else it was just "deal more damage". And yet, ironically, if I were able to somehow go back in time and replay Dark Knight as it was at that time, I have enough experience that I would be better at learning to use Dark Arts and double weaving and being able to pay attention to the battlefield all at the same time. And if I had done that... maybe my opinion on Dark Arts would've been much more positive. Ah well. Flood of Shadow lets me fire a beam of darkness out of my sword and that appeals to me.

[@user-qh6sg1dp1o]

I unironically miss Heavensward DK. It just felt different and had flavour. With how Eukrasia functions, they really could just bring it back since it feels way better to use than Dark Arts. Unfortunately, I think someone on the dev team just really hates DK.

[@cparle87]

Here's a drinking game. Take a shot whenever he says Dark Arts. You won't survive.

[@Cassapphic]

Thumbnail retrospective

[@gomaboto]

RIP dark knight 2015 - 2019

[@llToastyratll]

I always think its interesting how war took the lead on the “its just warrior”. In reality paladin did it first with requiscat, THEN warrior got the reworked inner release, then dark knight.

[@madsonmadgod]

RIP Dark Arts and Darkside, my loves

[@muhannabasalem574]

out of all the tanks currently, dark knight is the most that needs a bit of shake up in its design imo

[@AiroDusk]

I miss Sole Survivor. It died for Oblation.

[@Deuzen_FIN]

The fun thing to remember about Living Dead is that in its original form you needed to be healed TO 100% HP, not EQUAL TO 100% HP, making it even more difficult to survive than its better remembered version.

[@wohbot]

Machinist?

[@FreddoFoo]

Look at how they massacred my boy...

[@aoikuroyuri6536]

I would kill to get old DRK back ... At least it felt different

[@JohnSears1970]

Best change ever were the Living Dead changes. I may have despised EW's story for reasons I will not go into in a streamer's comment section, but they did do *some* gameplay aspects right.

[@theangriestpigeon4403]

God, looking back and thinking about how all this stuff would be used in ShB Savage or Ults, let alone EW Ults, makes me cringe. Whenever people talk about old class design, PLEASE keep current boss design in mind because...Holy heck would this not work.

[@SublimeEddy]

Low blow procs were absolutely a thing in pve back in HW

[@kesshingaia]

I legit dropped DRK because I couldn't take another expansion of soul eater combo for another 2 years and all the stuff they took away and DIDN'T REPLACE. I really hope they fix it next expansion...

[@Frostbyte115]

Funny thing... I wish that Dark would get something better... I don't like Edge spam, I almost wish it was blood gauge based and built around the blood gauge more. It'd be more fun to have to use blood for combos or other GCDs that would Regen mp.

[@christhagod]

As a former scholar main, lol it aint happening

[@kesshingaia]

@Frostbyte115 I just want to be hopeful that when we get the job action video that we see another 1-2-3 combo or whatever. We don't need no more defense buffs either, and if they do, they could at least make them a bit more unique maybe. I doubt we'll get dark arts back. I just want the class to be fun again, maybe a little less brain dead. I'm not smart enough to think of how to improve the class, and I doubt a rework is gonna happen. Just give me something. I'm starving here. (Also Shadowbringers as an action was a slap in the face ijs)

[@duskborn_]

posting obligatory "lol the thumbnail says machinist" comment before it gets changed

[@nezunskyfire292]

I miss HW DRK, was my most played job. After it got changed into a Walmart-brand Warrior, it was the hardest and easiest switch of a main job I've ever done.

[@noisyfireknight]

IT'S HEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!!!

[@schrodingersbeer4751]

Eukrasia is basically Dark Arts, bring it back.

[@GayLPer]

I don't remember Dark Arts having an infinite duration.

[@schrodingersbeer4751]

@@GayLPer That's kinda irrelevant to the basics of its function.

[@optimismx1048]

Just wanna say before I finish the video. God its a good reminder just how jank DRK used to be lmao. I remember running out of TP and MP frequently and whenever I needed to sprint for a mechanic oh boy. There goes all my TP. One thing that's been implemented into PvP but I would like to see in PvE is reword Sole Survivor. It got better in Stormblood near the end if I recall but now it's gone entirely. I think it could be added to plunge similar to how it is in PvP.

[@petrocktamer3241]

what gun glam is that?

[@scottclark4081]

I miss the old summoner with dots

[@TenebrisGladius]

Modern DRK and all of its CLEAR flaws are derived from such arbitrary removals....the class is a hollow husk of what it used to be.

[@TheBADProductions]

arm's length is still 2m today lol

[@Mocita]

I was wondering why you were taking so long to do Dark Knight and Astrologian. That makes sense that you forgot and thought you already did them.

[@Gryphon13]

Rip Scourge

[@apostatis]

No, low blow having a reset wasn't a PVP thing only

[@flamingosalad3541]

Your background music was kind of offensively loud in this video, otherwise good nostalgia trip.

[@trimack]

As someone who played Dark Knight since 3.0, I definitely have some *strong* feelings about how the kit has changed and how it basically had half of its skills ripped out, given to the other tanks as role actions only for them to be abandoned come 6.0

[@GoatOfWar]

It's what War players wanted.

[@lucalopez9604]

Only started playing in 6.0, but Dark Arts in StB just sounds awful. If it was to come back I would like to see there to be reasons to use the unbuffed version of the skills instead of just a required button press. That said, Darkside is what I would love to see back, that MP management sounds real interesting to me.

[@l0bster651]

so u telling me that dark knight was an actual dark knight back in the day and not a dark version of warrior

[@GayLPer]

How are you defining "an actual dark knight"?

[@RaddyC]

HW dark knight was the best iteration. I really hope they bring back stuff like sole survivor

[@Sentifray]

Wait I thought gunbreaker didn’t come out until Shadowbringers

[@Jay-mx5ky]

You're correct.

[@Ashgrom]

I love your content I truly do but that bg music is so loud, esp on the high notes, it distacts something awful and causes fatigue. Sorry for old man grump ears

[@aohdakibussubara8820]

When DRK was simplified it felt like the rug had been pulled from underneath the class. There are so many creative ways to give drk a class identity but that’s “too difficult”. I’d like the skill ceiling to be increased for all tanks and I don’t think that’s an unreasonable thing to ask for.

[@idowhatiwant3557]

That's a common complaint about most jobs now to be honest.

[@hippopotatomoose]

I remember DRK on release. It felt awful to play. It was probably equal in complexity to SMN and MNK. I also remember that leveling DRK sucked because they didn't have access to their tank stance until later than the other tanks. Running Hauke Manor, I believe that's the lowest dungeon at the time for leveling, was really hard to tank. DRK was such a niche tank during HW days.

[@RockR277]

It wasgreat. I wish there were still jobs of a complex nature for the niche of players that enjoy that style of job design. I think you're confusing DRK and PLD about the stance thing. I don't remember having that issue on DRK but I know PLDs didn't unlock shield oath until 40.

[@hippopotatomoose]

@@RockR277 maybe you're right. It's PLD. Oh! DRK didn't have it's AOE or second part, or something. I don't remember. It was a long time ago.

[@YUXKE]

@@hippopotatomooseDRK and WAR had tank stance by 30. PLD got theirs later and AFTER dps stance too. The levels were changed to be in line with the other tanks by SB. Also DRK held aggro per damage the best of the 3 in dungeons so long as you managed mp properly. PLD had no aoe weapon skills, just spamming flash which did no damage. DarK had unleash and spammable abyssal drain, which you alternated based on MP flow and Dark Arts consumption.

[@obamaorb7426]

This and summoner are easily the most butchered jobs

[@christhagod]

Back when tanking took actual skill

[@RockR277]

Honestly, I miss dark arts and MP management in general. Eh, oh well.

[@Paien75]

Man I wish they would bring back the OG version of DRK….it was very rewarding to play I found

[@lWreyl]

You don't like pressing 123 over and over with the occasional Edge of Darkness or Bloodspiller??? /s

[@Anedorivan]

The class is a mess now, it was way more fun to play in Heavensward and Stormblood.

[@CRXII]

🤣🤣it’s a joke drks are often seen as machinist for playing the class my cousin even calls me that cause I main drk

[@TriToneTiefling]

I mained Dark Knight since day 1. I fail to understand why people want Dark Arts and Scourge back. I do want Dark to have more of its own identity, but that ain't it. Flood and edge are a better version of Dark arts as they A. Shortcut to doing the same thing (more damage), B. Give you the option between more AoE or Single target damage, C. Look cool as hell. Ive heard some people say that Dark Arts was making a choice. But the ONLY time you can really argue that was Carve and Spit, where you either did more damage or got MP back. Every other time was not a choice. DRKs were basically expected to always be Dark Arts-ing otherwise their parses would go way down. It wasn't interesting, it wasn't fun (ESSPECIALLY in stormblood), and it created a massive gap between casual and high level players, which isn't healthy. What you miss about old dark knight was the cool animations and the illusion of options, you aren't missing how awful it felt to play before shadowbringers. Also why do people want DoT upkeep on every job? I can't stand that, I already have other systems to engage with and DoTs are the least interesting form of management. I am much happier with the groundwork Dark is working with now, but as I said before I want to see them make Dark Knight more its own thing, and less like warrior, or at least, make warrior less like it. Either or.

[@travisproo87]

I main the job now, and gawd is it boring