(04-08-2015, 11:15 AM)Warren Castille Wrote: Enh, you got me. I tended to not use DRK so I glanced over their skillset and filled in what I know from XI. Point: Lalafell!
Still, their philosophy as an opposite to paladin has sort of always been there: DRK hurts itself to damage others. Paladin hurts himself to protect others (i.e., Cover). It'll be interesting to see how DRK plays out lore-wise. I need to know where the darkness powers come into play.
Well, in FFXI, they COULD use some low-level Black Magic... but it's the only case in which they do. In fact, the Magic Knight in FFIII (renamed Dark Knight in the later re-release) could actually cast White Magic. I didn't actually know that bit until I looked at the wiki. They've also been the status effect guys in a game or two. Quite a wide spread of minor additional traits, I must say.
Still, the overarching theme to them (and FFXI still had this to a degree) was "sacrifice HP to do things." Said "things" include increased attack, increased defense, and being able to attack all enemies at once. Melkire really nails it with his elegantly succinct "at some cost" description that he posted while I was typing this up.
They are also known for usually either having the equipment for, or abilities that, drain HP/MP from enemies (the Blood equipment, Gaff Gafgarion's Dark and Night Sword attacks in FFT), which I'm honestly curious whether or not they'll get in FFXIV. If they're not paying their HP for stuff, it would still certainly be something nice to have but not nearly as required with Bloodbath and Mercy Stroke already in the game. Perhaps something for MP, given they'll apparently be more MP focused than the other two tanks? I would assume they'd need something greater than a Riot Blade analogue.
All the talk of darkness shrouds on enemies and such, though, AGAIN reminds me of DnD. There was an assassin class in... 3e/4e, I believe? Anyway, they could put shroud stacks on enemies and could "remove" them in order to boost their damage. I vaguely remember something about the shrouds also causing debuffs on the enemy? I'll have to re-read what has been provided thus far before I can make any substantial assumptions on how the mechanic might work.
But that really is just all mechanic stuff though, and not so much lore. Have even less on that than we do the mechanics, so it's definitely a "wait and see" situation here.
I'd have to refute them being "more powerful" than the other jobs, though. Because ALL the Jobs are forgotten or nearly-forgotten ancient arts (save Paladin and Dragoon) that are also exceedingly powerful. As powerful as DRK might be, lore-wise, you're also dealing with Shantotto's Black Magic, the Allagan's binding of primal essences to you will, and taking the might of dragons for one's own, to name a few. Not to mention that, while tapping into one's chakra or Inner Beast might not sound as impressive, but they're still equally as powerful given what people can do with it. Even the other new Jobs being brought to table already has one that, as has already been spoiled, can STOP TIME with their limit break - that's pretty powerful.
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