Future Of DRK

While this is all nice analysis, you need to bare in mind that you are comparing Guillotine with KJ.

Thats DRK's strongest WS with WAR's weaker/situational WS.

A 'real' comparison would be Guillotine vs RR (although crits maths is hard) or Insurgency vs KJ.

the update had come and gone . all you DRK have had enough time to play with your new toy . was hopin to get some input , maybe let you guys gloat about being right .
First i'd like say DRK got some pimp *** . Tier 3 (possibly Tier 4 by 99) Aspir 2 , Occult Acumen . This JT is some serious Pimp . Not only that but Tier3 now makes all that Relic GEar worth a damn , especially with Abyssea EXP burns (killing blow by Magic ). Get some good TP and Deal decent DMG with out swinging . cant beat that . I'm hopin that with all this good stuff i start seeing more DRKs /SCH or /RDM in EXP and endgame .
Occult Acumen seems to be an amazing addition and i am kind of surprise it hasnt gotten more attention . While it doesnt offer a bonus large enough to make DRK a dedicated Nooker , it does offer DRK the ability to Enhance Meditate or be a WS Only Spamer , never having to go in to AoE unless performing a WS on mobs that tend to spam nasty AoE ( AV , Odin , ect) decreasing overall DMG taken and Death risk in this types of battle . Meditate is what like 60 TP then pop off a few Tier2 and 3 , boom 100TP . Run in , WS , get out . Sublimate , spam some nooks , rebuild TP , repeat .
Over all , very nice .

I'm looking forward to using Sekkanoki with /sam in parties, and especially looking to go /rdm for soloing, with convert to help mp management; I frequently find myself running low on mp, even with book refresh, Plastron, and Parade Gorget...

I can truly say, that Nether Void + Drain2 is the BOMB!

DRK is still doing decently. I think Occult Acumen is useless... Nether Void is pretty nice though and Sekkanoki is incredibly fun!

When you say pop "a few" nukes, you mean a LOT since they give like 5 TP back tops? DRK MP pool is not very high!

My DRK is 37 and im a Pro at the job.

DRK/SCH Gooooooooooooooooooooo!

Joking of course~ 95% of situations casting spells on DRK is still useless and only hurting overall DPS.

Without using Elemental staves and a proper build, even with T3s DRK nukes are still a joke~

Stick to what were good at Melee Damage and Zergs~

Occult Acumen is still ridiculously useless. Stone III gives me 6 TP and it takes forever to cast.

Personally I think if SE allowed a mechanism where DRKs gain TP equivalent to (10-25%) of magic bursted damage, it would encourage DRKs to use more tools in their arsenal, as well as help them maintain parse numbers to keep up with WARs SAMs and MNKs.

It would provide a fun dynamic to a job that has been seemingly neglected over the years.

The likelihood SE would ever implement such a change is lower than worm turds but it's wishful thinking.

A few changes that would be nice for DRK:
*Higher MP pool (RDM's mp pool was increased so it could best DRK's and PLD's, so why not?)
*A "MAB" trait that enhances Dark Magic's damage.
More spells that actually do damage. Stuff like:
*Dark Flare: Base damage similar to a Tier3 nuke, 3 seconds to cast, 5 seconds recast, and 69 MP.
*Doomsday: Base damage similar to a Tier4 nuke, 5 seconds to cast, 10 seconds recast, 120 mp.
And, like it was mentioned already:
Absorb-SPD, Absorb-ATK and Absorb-DEF
As well as a fix to Occult Acumen so DRKs gain tp equivalent to 15% of magic damage dealt.
Oh, and a WS better than Guillotine that doesn't have that crappy acc penalty.

Guillotine has an ACC penalty?

This is news to me o.O

Pretty sure it doesn't lol

They briefly introduced one but removed it monthsss ago.

How broke would it be if Absorb TP was never fully resisted but worked like this:

Plague on the opponent, Regain on the DRK who cast it.

Time it lasted depended on how much it was resisted, base of 5 seconds I guess?

OR

Resists changed the amount of TP gained per tick.

They always find some way to *** over DRK. I do enjoy Nether Void with Souleater WS though.

DRK needs so much help idt it will ever receive to keep up with WAR and SAM. It makes me a sad panda

I dunno, once again I don't think DRK is bad at all. A lot of people seem to disagree with me on this though :(

I agree with you Raen, I've never seen DRK's do as bad as people make out. Same goes for every DD (Apart from DRG, I hate DRG for some reason)

DRK isn't a bad DD, with apoc its incredibly efficient but to argue that it has the same dmg potential as WAR or SAM is silly :p

My friends guillo's average 1000-1200 and spinning slash 900-1300 (iirc)

so I honestly don't see the problem lol.

Thats not bad but does that come close to SAM or WAR? I love my DRK but the simple fact is my WAR is a better DD. Now if healers are low I'll hop on DRK. imo what makes DRK so good is its versatility with the ability to stun not its ability to win parsers. In a perfect enviorment DRK vs. WAR/SAM WAR/SAM will win almost every time by a fair margin, its sad :(

I love my DRG :( I would like to make you love it too! Dragoon is wonderful.

Well, I'm not just arguing my point because I like DRK. Due to Attack capping irrelevant of level difference (instead only Defence matters), Berserk is not as significant as once though assuming you have good buffs. Last Resort's 30s of rape is an incredible amount of damage compressed into a short amount of time, and DRK's gear continues to get improved to get closer to WAR's Haidate in particular. Additionally, with the easily accessible Plaga Scythe out, the strength of the average DRK increases quite significantly. Magian Scythes are absolutely amazing for DRK whereas they are only small upgrades or sidegrades to WAR (and SAM on the whole).

Polearm SAM is steadily becoming more outdated since the weapons are dying off and GKT SAM is like Gswrd DRK vs Scythe DRK: shouldn't be able to compare if the DRK is getting good buffs.

I don't think the difference between them on the DD front is honestly that much.

There is a difference though, thats the point. DRK will never have the same potential as WAR or SAM unless they give DRK a trait maybe equal to DA. If you argue the fact WAR and DRK w/ same haste/food/buffs will parse equally you would be wrong by a good 6%, the fact WAR gets DA and much better weaponskills easily trumps LS 30 second phase

It's sensitive to a lot of things really. Raging Rush is weaker on average than Guillotine but I dunno how much in general the crits would improve the average - very target-specific.

That said, I do believe WAR/SAM is the top 2handed DD in the game. I just think that DRK is better than WAR/NIN and certainly competitive with SAM which is not a bad position to be in, in my opinion.

Are you High?

Nope, any reason why I should be?!

RR is 3.0 fTP and Guillo is 3.875 fTP, meaning Guillotine is 29.2% stronger by virtue of fTP (assuming all hits land). DRK and WAR WS gear is incredibly similar, so it really is criticals vs a stronger base WS.

If you mean the WAR/NIN vs DRK point, Hasso is really overpowered. If you mean SAM vs DRK, it's complex but they're definitely both very strong.

RR is certainly stronger then Guillotine, has better mobs, ability to crit.. Guillotine is only used because its DRKs best option, it isn't a amazing WS on its own. WAR/SAM is probably the top 2handed DD in the game since polearm SAM is losing its luster but SAM/DRG Amano/OAT GKT will certainly trump any DRK set up you can muster outside of Apoc in pristine conditions ( consistent flow of mobs x2 march/haste/haste samba ) so that you can throw in a guillotine during a DA phase

Raging Rush has WSC of STR_35 and Guillotine has WSCs of STR_25 and MND_25. Barely any different.

I'll have to think about SAM/DRG OaT GKT, haven't really thought about that one before. Would imagine OaT/5hit build Scythe would be competitive though.

SAM would have much higher haste by a good 5%, 6% with optimal gear would for sure pull it ahead. I am not saying DRK is a bad DD by any means, but in no way in pristine and optimal conditions is it on par as SAM and WAR.

Perle x5 => 14%
V Belt => 20%
Blitz Ring => 21%

Or, using post-update Haste items

Turban 5%
Timarli Hands 4%
Blitz Ring 1%
V Belt 6%
Ace's Hose 4%
Homam 3%

= 23% Haste. Can even macro in 2% Haste body during Last Resort if you need it!

You're going to have significantly less acc than a WAR in that set due to the acc penalty on Ace's Hose. If attack is capped regardless it's a wash, but that 20 acc difference in the leg slot alone goes a decent ways towards using meat instead of pizza. Suppose there's an argument for dropping the COR (if you have one) at that point.

24% with Bullwhip btw.

Will 100% trump that with 2% more haste with capped acc prepizza could go 3% more haste but Uni+1 is gimp :( and the arguement was SAM/DRG which can easily hit 26% w/ capped acc pre-pizza as well

That back is hot. Have we found it yet?

EDIT: You need WTath as well for 6-hit at 482 delay.