Dark Knight Buffing Ideas

IMO the recent Berserk change is already a very significant buff. It's not a huge change numerically, but it's massive upgrade for QoL. It's much easier to access your primary 4th job ability in boss fights because you can slightly over-pot with barely any DPM loss, and for soft-hitting places like 7F we get a solid damage boost. Not to mention the pot cost changes are also an indirect buff to DK because now Sushi is less overpriced compared to other pots than before the patch.

That being said, the Defense rework is something that's coming Soon(tm). If DrK survivability increases from the defense changes, then they'll be so good that they'll probably overcrowd Hero's niche in the game. So, I don't think DK needs more buffs right now - especially not of the magnitude you're suggesting.

 

A lot of these seem overcompensated. DrK could probably use some small boosts, but not anything to this level.

1: Standing away is only relevant where Bishops are actively involved. Zak is doable, just an annoyance in terms of All-Cure consumption, and your Bishop should be away from you in HT regardless unless you are the sed target. Otherwise, the class plays normally. Even adjusting HP post-Heal is not that difficult if it does happen.

2: HB is plenty useful as a party buff, even moreso than Rage and especially Threaten.

3: Giving Physical % reduction on top of passive Element and general damage reduction is a lot: it would have to be at a really small scale considering Achilles is pretty impactful as it is.

4: Crit already scales so strongly with Zerk that giving DrK base crit damage would be a ridiculous boost. I don’t see anything wrong with nostalgic skills being bad or useless: it can kill you before you add Achilles and is outclassed even by max Hex later in 4th.

The damage impact of new Zerk remains to be seen, but survivability remains the biggest hurdle at the true endgame. Make HB allow DrKs to go above the 30k cap in certain content (PB, Auf, etc, and possibly capped or off in other bosses and the general overworld) if it’s possible to code that into the game: plenty of DrKs have reached well above the 18.75k threshold since you basically are required to have that by 135 to do any semblance of comfortable bossing.

 

giv power

 

Zerking is trivial at most bosses in the game, with manual potting to take you out of surefire kill ranges. There are certain bosses where you don't have this margin, but most bosses are not an issue and are routinely done through constant facetanking.

30k HP is not a norm currently even for the highest end bossing groups: many people washed their characters to the baseline margins and ML is not currently at a place where HB is obsolete. Perhaps it trends that way, but even that will take a bit of time.

I personally think extra % damage reduction is strictly luxury and not actually necessary. Achilles paired with Elemental Resistance is totally enough and further babying the class takes away the risk-reward nature of the class.

The issue with adding any sort of Crit to the class is that Zerk already rewards SE multiplicatively instead of additively. Adding base crit and crit damage just shoots the SE boost to the moon. DrK damage isn't great, but not to where they need something so drastic like crit. Dragon Blood will kill you if you get hit by a 1/1 skill when it procs the HP cost at the same time, which is why I would just recommend never having it active in the first place.

The reason you should play classes is because you enjoy playing them. If you don't like the risk-reward nature of the class, then that's fine: I think the balance is still a bit too heavily skewed towards the risk end over the reward, but I don't think overbuffing the class to almost baby them is the way to go. Some minor survivability adjustments and possibly a small tick up in Crusher line damage might be enough, but each one of these is overdoing it to me.

 

Buffing DK is hard because DK is literally Hero but worst:

-Crusher is Brandish but with a bit less vertical reach
-Berzerk is Combo but badly designed, I get the risk-reward that people talk about but what for? to still be weaker than many classes including Hero? What is the point on making a skill with a risk when jobs that can play with a paperweight do far more dmg, more reliably, and with less risk?. Yes I know that in very specific circumstances DK can outdmg Hero but Hero gets his damage more safely and with far more tanking options.
-DK has barely any defensive skills. You have Achilles which is ok and 500HP heals from Beholder wich are not much unless you are just AFK or just farming mobs that do low damage. Hero and Paladin have Power Guard wich reduces damage take from physical damage (the highest damage often coem from this source) by 40%, 20% if is a boss. They can be full HP. Shadower if you wash them (Do, this is how you play ML) and then you just don't get hit, and if you do you take half damage. Even NL the supposed squishy job takes damage much better than you (Washing meta).

But all that is compensated because you have HB, wich in the current meta of ML translates to: bad class, good mule. DK was my second main and now is a HB mule at PB.

Yes play the class if you like it, that is totally fine, having fun is what counts in the end. But if we want DK to be what is suposed to do, remove all support and pump up the damage a lot so they can be a glass cannon rather than just a pile of glass. The berzerk buff may have slightly increased the DPS of DK on certain bosses but the endgame is only meta as a mule. All the changes that DK needs could be considered not nostalgic so perhaps there is no fix to the class (GMS DKs no longer have Berserk for a reason).

 

You can do the endgame bosses but you will have a hard time, most DK I've seen die so easily and burn some resurrects, mules don't die as often. Pink Bean does a lot of damage, touch is 24k dmg (20,4k with Achiles) he does with magic 18k (17.15 k with Achiles), you can keep him looking left and if you are on the back you only take 1/1, still the thing turns around and you either pot fast or die and we all know how manual potting works, especially with 30 ppl around you, also now it likes to sed a lot and lets be honest, the thing turns around even mid Snatch so keeping it looking to the left is a bit hard at times.
NT part 1 is a piece of cake, Nameless may be a bit expensive cos you wanna take touch all the time and now pots are more expensive. NT part 2 is a mixed bag: Dunas 2 is easy and you can pin for your team, Core just get the seduces from the first part down, and on the second be ready to pot if you get kb into the core, Aufheaven is a pain in the ass, deals 19-20k touch (less than 17k with Achiles), and the tings moves a lot so you are gonna eat touch very often, the Buccaneer often takes care of the pin and you can cleave the summons but when is time to damage the boss you are not gonna have a good time.
If anything DK is still good for HT,Zak,Toad but screw Zerking there, and the rest. Just outclassed by Hero that does what you do without having to be at half HP and in PB Paladin is the way to go when comes to warriors.
This is why Berserk doesn't work, in certain bosses you can't do it or when you do is very inefficient risking death, if you don't Zerk your damage is terrible and if you Zerk you still do less dmg than the rest.

 

Simply: increase the max HP cap. Whether or not this is doable is a different thing. Give Drks the ability to earn survivability. Yes other classes have to wash, but with enough washing they dont have to worry about their survivability. Drks are unfortunately always going to be capped when the HP cap is 30k. (This is increasing scaling survivability for those who are willing to pay for it/earn it)

Alternatively: increase the boost of Iron Will. If it were possible to make it scale or some sort throughout the game so that when you reach certain milestones iron will provides significant boosts. Perhaps add a lvl 21 and 22 to Iron Will, unlocked if you have certain gear (like Timeless/Reverse) and lvl 21 and 22 will add like couple hundred more to defense (if possible). (This is increased scaling survivability if you have end game gear)

If not Iron Will, why not Hex of the Beholder? Maybe the stacking buffs for defense, avoidability every whatever seconds should be dramatically increased. (This is increased scaling survivability the longer beholder is standing, mostly applicable to high lvl Drks with the skills to invest in Hex)

Dragon Blood: change this from a bonus attack buff to a bonus strength buff. (This is just a straight up damage boost)

End game equipment: just dramatically increase the defense values of timeless/reverse gear. These gear are lvl 150 after all. (This is increased surviivability for those with end game gear, buffs to all warriors).

-Weapon defense stat on Spear for Att 10% or 30% scrolls, if possible why not dramatically increase the defense bonus of having a well-scrolled weapon?

-Reverse/Timeless spear level ups- I believe it is possible to add a stat that can be leveled up with item level ups. How about adding a good weapon/magic defense bonus when the items level up? Somethingg like a range from +100 to +300 per level? Maybe add a defense value to reverse/timeless spears/PAs?

This server has already done a nonGMS thing in locking reverse/TL items to lvl 150. This allows for a lot more leeway for various stat customizations on the basis that end game equipment can do more things than just make you do more damage

 

Some thoughts as dk main (not endgame tho):

Imo i dont like suggestions like increasing defense or the hp cap at all, those take away from the risk-reward that is like the whole point of this class.

The dragon blood suggestion on the other hand seems pretty good, especially giving crit, that feels right. Its also not completely un-gms like since dark knight did in fact have a skill that gave crit in a slightly newer version (something like 92?).

 

There's a difference between a risk-reward system and straight up turning from Dark Knight into Dragon Knight because a boss does so much damage and you can do nothing about it.

 

The only thing Drk has going for them in regards to Defensive utility is Hyper Body, everything else seems to point to them being an Offensive Berserker class. I honestly think Hyper Body needs to be removed from them to improve their gameplay but balancing Drk will always be a difficult task when trying to maintain Nostalgia (tank buffer vs squishy dmg dealer), keeping in line with v62 Maplestory gameplay, and keeping HP washing on the table (which invalidates the class later on). The only option is to just make Drk a slightly~moderately better Hero offensively to maintain Nostalgia/Balance purposes (Risk/reward) and relegating Hero to a more easy mode Jack of all trade position.