You've GOT to be kidding me... (FFXI)

[thistlechaser]

From today's announcement on job adjustments:

---

Dark Knight Adjustments

The casting time for Absorb spells will be reduced from 4 seconds to 2 seconds to increase their utility in battle.

---

That's it. That's the whole of what DRK gets. They gave us something that actually let us keep up with other melees, then nerfed it to hell and made it next to useless (outside of Besieged), but hey, we get to cast it a whole two seconds faster! No no, don't change the recast time which might make it a little better, do the casting time! Because hey, you know it's not like we have all that much time between swings!

Fuck you, SE. People may claim you dislike BLM or DRG, but you play with DRK like a cat plays with a mouse. "Okay, okay, we know people hate you guys! So here, have something good! Have a taste of what it's like to be useful and maybe even wanted some day! ...ha ha, fooled ya! *yoink!*"

Give us something useful (AND LET US KEEP IT!) or don't give us anything at all. Reduced casting time by 2 seconds is a bad joke.

Edit: For the many folks who probably aren't aware and think Absorb-TP works the way SE implies it does (you can get TP anytime the mob has TP, thus don't cast right after it WSs -- implying you can get a reasonable amount of TP), that's not the way it is. Outside of Besieged, if I cast the spell every time it cools in a party/farming that lasts for four hours, I will get more than 30 TP once. More than 50 TP? Outside of Besieged, I see that once every few weeks. More often than not, I get 0-10 TP, and the spell takes a up the time of a swing of my weapon, so I actually lose TP by using it. (My dark magic is capped.)

Comments

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

As I said in my journal, woop-de-doo. =p

My DRK is only 17 and 14 depending on the character, so not high enough for Absorb spells, but until Absorb-TP, I didn't see many DRKs using Absorb spells that often, and even now I think I only see them use Absorb-TP. I think SE is trying to make Absorb spells more appealing, but they're failing miserably at it.

[makoholic.livejournal.com]

Whiner...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

To make them more appealing, they would have to do a couple things:

1) Reduce the MP requirement by a heck of a lot, at least 50%. When I XPed DRK, I carried juices and drank them the whole time. Depending on your level, the spell takes a quarter to a sixth of your total MP. One spell! And how often do DRKs get refreshed? And you want us to sit? As slowly as we get TP?

2) Reduce the recast time, at least for absorb-TP. (Or hey, make it absorb twice as much, which would still be less than how it orignally was!)

Bah. So annoying.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Gay.

[makoholic.livejournal.com]

Democrat.

[niffy.livejournal.com]

Two seconds is a lot. o_o I'd kill for that kind of cast on cure spells. I don't think RDM Fast cast ever goes over 40%. It should be easier to spam it without sacrificing much normal damage now, at least. I wonder if it works on Aspir and Drain.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Since Absorb was capitalize, I'd guess it doesn't include Aspir and Drain, just Absorb-AGI, Absorb-INT, and the like.

And I agree, on something like a cure spell, reducing it to a 2 second cast time would rock. On an Absorb spell, it makes little difference.

[draymor.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

Make love! Not war! Let's do the happy prozac induced hippy dance! *swirls around humming*

[danikar.livejournal.com]

And how often do DRKs get refreshed?

that point is kind moot since drks would get refreshed if there was a good reason to do so.

so far... there isnt >_>

the rest of your argument holds :)

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't close the book on DRK adjustments yet ^^; Look at how many times PLD has been tweaked since TAU was introduced. One of the very first things they did was give PLD Auto-Refresh. They could've said "Look! We did something for PLD! /drop_subject", but didn't. PLD is being tweaked even more at this point. Considering how much they're doing job wise in this update (everything else looks pretty significant for the various jobs), I'd say this is just a first brushing of the DRK topic until they get to it later for further revision.

It could also be argued that they've given DRK a first tweak already by making SAM a very viable subjob for 2h weapon users. They've given you a new spell you love to bits that you should've had forever ago. You certainly got more from that update than some other jobs :)

There's also another angle to consider; DRK doesn't need further adjustment. I believe very firmly that's the case for MNK and generally dread the idea of them touching my job. I can think of things I'd like (+hhp job trait, for example), but in terms of being a functional job that I can achieve my in game goals with, MNK is just fine. PUP is a helluva lot worse off IMO ^^; At least your job isn't a fraction of what it could be if SE just gave you the things you should have (like more than 1 Martial Arts, some not-sucky weapons, some real armor, etc.) It took them a while to even give PUPs the higher level WSes :} How would you like to play DRK75 without a WS that could make Darkness or Light? That's how PUP was until they slipped in a minor tweak during their updating.

Be patient. You can start getting pissed off and scream when SE finally says, "Okay, we're done now, live with it!" Which would be the day they shut off the servers for good. Vana'diel has *always* been a work in progress and will always continue to be...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

It could also be argued that they've given DRK a first tweak already by making SAM a very viable subjob for 2h weapon users.

That's the only reason I'm not more upset. And yeah, PUP is a lot worse off, but it's also a very new job. (Not that I'm trying to defend SE in any way, I feel awful for anyone who loves PUP; SE really dropped the ball on balancing it.)

I do hope they're not finished adjusting it, but if they're not: Why such tiny steps? And backward steps? When a job like PLD (which has already gotten so much) is getting more? (Yay for PLDs, but can't they work on more than one job at a time? Otherwise it'll be 2030 before all jobs are where they should be.)