DK Needed Buffs

ArcVelarian

Dragonknights have never been in a worse place than Update 30. DK's class design has been gutted and discarded, DK passive abilities are weak and outdated, DK survivability (especially in regards to tanking) is completely outshined by nearly every other class, DK healing is a bad joke, DK stamina DPS is at the bottom of the barrel in PvE and Magicka isn't fairing much better, and DK's sustain is the worst of all classes in the game...

This is a laundry list of buffs needed to bring DK back up to par:

1. Lava Whip (and both morphs) need to scale off of highest offensive stats.
2. Molten Whip's Seething Fury effect should be triggered by activating any other Dragonknight class ability as opposed to just Ardent Flame abilities.
   
3. Inferno (and both morphs) should really be activating every 1 or 2 seconds as opposed to 5 seconds.
4. Combustion needs to be providing Magicka and Stamina resource restoration per Class DoT tick in addition to some flat regeneration.
5. Warmth should be activated by both DoT Damage and Direct Damage.
6. Inhale needs a significant damage buff and a Stamina Morph.
7. Iron Skin needs to be doubled (to 20%), if not tripled (to 30%).
8. Burning Heart should increase healing received by 15% or 20% while a Draconic Power ability is active.
9. Draconic Power abilities need to have their costs reduced by between 15% and 20%.
10. Scaled Armor needs to provide 3300 Physical Resistance in addition to 3300 Spell Resistance. (It's silly this isn't already the case.)
11. Stone Giant's damage needs to be buffed by at least 20% and have its cast time removed.
12. Ash Cloud (and both morphs) needs to have its radius increased to 8 meters and Cinder Storm needs heal for significantly more.
13. Mountain's Blessing should generate 6 Ultimate every 3 seconds.

Reasoning:
1. This is the no brainer compromise to the Stamina whip morph that Stam Dks have been asking for since Stamina Ability Morphs became a thing.
2. More flexibility means more reason to slot a class ability over some weapon or guild ability.
3. This would make the ability more powerful and more reliable.
4. Combustion's current state is abysmal. Dks should be rewarded for maintaining class DoTs on targets, especially considering that they are purge-able in PvP.
5. Warmth in it's current state is pointless. This would be more effective and better compensate for DK's lack of mobility.
6. Inhale has been in a weak state since before Morrowind. The idea is to bring it up to par with abilities like Scorch and its morphs.
7. Considering the recent nerfs to blocking this would bring it back up to par. Blocking is fairly expensive at this point and is Active Damage Mitigation, so dialing up the effectiveness for DKs doesn't negatively affect overall PvP balance.
8. This just appropriately rewards DKs for slotting class abilities.
9. Magicka DKs have been asking for this for quite some time now. The justifications have all been laid out in other threads.
10. This brings it up to par with other damage mitigating passive abilities.
11. This would make it more appealing than Weapon Abilities. Due to Stone Giant's wonky functionality a damage buff at least 20% would not be an issue in PvP.
12. Ash Cloud (and morphs) are absolutely useless in their current form.
13. Again, this is for DK's abysmal resource regeneration, and mediocre DPS, and failing survivability. Faster ultimate generation paired with Battle Roar helps all 3 problems.

gamma71

I see most dk's running away not very knightish I made a dk to be a upfront brawler not a tower *** or a rock hugger. The class is a joke now.

I guess every mmo needs one class to be the punching bag of the rest.

Jameson18

I do rather fine with my DKs. Both mag and stam. /shrug

gamma71

Jameson18 wrote: »

I do rather fine with my DKs. Both mag and stam. /shrug

Do u 1vs1 sorcs nb necros wardens fine that have a clue what there doing?

Veg

Just copy/paste this in every thread relating to class mechanics/balance...

Vevvev

You know it's bad when DKs find themselves not even using their class equivalent skills, but going outside it or even equipping a proc set to fill that hole in their kit. They have some things going for them, but when I have an easier time replacing whip with Blood for Blood, using mistform instead of wings, and using Swarming Scion instead of Magma Shell something is wrong.

I'm getting better performance being a vampire, a skill line that removes health recovery (which DK passives boost) and makes all non-vampire stuff cost more, than using my normal Dragonknight abilities and tools. Add in the fact a lot of our damage is locked away in damage over time abilities and all it takes is someone running a Purge ability to just completely counter you in PVP.

Urzigurumash

Double Leap's damage and we're good forever

Jameson18

gamma71 wrote: »

Jameson18 wrote: »

I do rather fine with my DKs. Both mag and stam. /shrug

Do u 1vs1 sorcs nb necros wardens fine that have a clue what there doing?

1v1, 1v2, 1v3, etc. etc. etc.

Jameson18

Jameson18 wrote: »

gamma71 wrote: »

Jameson18 wrote: »

I do rather fine with my DKs. Both mag and stam. /shrug

Do u 1vs1 sorcs nb necros wardens fine that have a clue what there doing?

1v1, 1v2, 1v3, etc. etc. etc.

In fact, I don't think I have a toon that can't. And that's considering I have a stam and mag of each class.

Urzigurumash

Jameson18 wrote: »

Jameson18 wrote: »

gamma71 wrote: »

Jameson18 wrote: »

I do rather fine with my DKs. Both mag and stam. /shrug

Do u 1vs1 sorcs nb necros wardens fine that have a clue what there doing?

1v1, 1v2, 1v3, etc. etc. etc.

In fact, I don't think I have a toon that can't. And that's considering I have a stam and mag of each class.

That's awesome man but if everybody shot like Steph Curry the 3 point line would be moved back to halfcourt. If everybody slammed as hard as Vince Carter the rim would be raised to 15'.

If you're 1v6ing experienced StamDens on a MagDK you're giving Vivec a run for his money in your godliness.

gamma71

Jameson18 wrote: »

gamma71 wrote: »

Jameson18 wrote: »

I do rather fine with my DKs. Both mag and stam. /shrug

Do u 1vs1 sorcs nb necros wardens fine that have a clue what there doing?

1v1, 1v2, 1v3, etc. etc. etc.

What sets are u running and rotation?

Xvorg

Veg wrote: »

Just copy/paste this in every thread relating to class mechanics/balance...

The heal + interrupt + off balance + stun increase the cost. IMHO the stun and interrupt have nothing to do there. I'd be OK if they keep the cost, but add a buff instead of the interrupt (like minor vitality) or a debuff (like major defile) (while keeping the off balance)

LightYagami

I copied from another thread...

DK has been usually voted as one of the worst class in similar polls like those I quoted below.

There are absolutely something wrong with the class if different polling all show one particular class is one of the worst. Developers have to take a look at the votes and their own class performance database.

I'm not emphasizing my own opinion or opinions from a few people performing conditionally extremely good or extremely bad, but ZOS should look at the collective opinions of the player population, and their database.

Hi Gina, could you please communicate with the teams? @ZOS_GinaBruno

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/563198/what-class-do-you-find-the-most-difficult-to-fight-in-cyrodiil-no-proc-test-edition#latest

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/558808/what-class-do-you-find-the-most-difficult-to-fight/p1

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/561164/help-me-pick-a-stamina-class-for-alliance-pvp#latest

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/429504/which-class-is-weakest-healing-class-pve-and-pvp

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/563487/pve-what-class-got-the-worst-sustain/p1

ThePlacidHatter

My biggest problem with DK is no passive health sustain. Sorc has crit surge, Templar has a very powerful, AOE spammable which heals, Nightblade also has a pretty powerful spammable which heals.

DK just has to use healing skills.

Ippokrates

I have both: MDK & SDK. And I really like them.

The only things I would change to make them useful for vet content to casual players (Xynode have DK and he is amazing with it, so yeah, you can do it but imho it requires little bit more work than other classes) is:

1. Give MDK a decent shield. Seriously, if sorcerer have so OP shield, why not a DK fighting in a melee (unlike Sorcerer). Templar is somewhat similar class and blazing shield is quite good as both: shield & melee aoe but DK already have close range aoe, so rework obsidian shield for pure shielding. And ok, I know DK have amazing Ultimates for defence but... You cannot expect from everyone to use builds makes around ultimates. Give us regular skills (not mentioning LA penalties).

2. Give SDK a decent direct ST spammable, cause rocks... Looks good on paper but imho do not work really well with weapon weaving. Stam morph of Lava whip would be great. Other skills are fine, although empowering chain could be change to stamina morph (the same thing with templar charge - sure you can use weapon skill gc but not everyone appreciate hidden daggers ).

3. Passives... As it was mentioned above, they seems outdated. With all those changes to status effects in last few patches (adding sundering, reforging bleeding, etc.) maybe it would be wise to extend passive bonuses from poison only? And to add some additional flavour to it.

If DK is a class based on three factors: melee fights, DOTs/Status effects & hitting hard (heavy attacks + brutality) make it valid with all those new options.

the1andonlyskwex

ThePlacidHatter wrote: »

My biggest problem with DK is no passive health sustain. Sorc has crit surge, Templar has a very powerful, AOE spammable which heals, Nightblade also has a pretty powerful spammable which heals.

DK just has to use healing skills.

I don't agree with this at all. If you really want passive healing, all you have to do is pick the right morphs (Flame Lash, Burning Embers, Hardened Armor, Draw Essence, Ferocious Leap). DKs also have the Burning Heart, Elder Dragon, and Battle Roar passives, all of which provide even more passive healing. Sure, it's not all built into a single ability, but it's absolutely available (in abundance even, compared to most classes).

The main problems with DK are awful sustain and lack of (non-ultimate) burst damage.

Edit: It's also worth noting that most of this thread consists of people asking to trade the passive healing on Deep Breath for lower cost and more burst damage.

Urzigurumash

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Elder Dragon

I've got some bad news

the1andonlyskwex

Urzigurumash wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Elder Dragon

I've got some bad news

Health recovery is still health recovery, even if it's nerfed by battle spirit (which is what I assume you're referring to). My point still stands even without Elder Dragon though.

Urzigurumash

Well Burning Heart isn't passive healing, it does nothing unless a Heal is cast

If Battle Roar is good healing then it's also good sustain, it restores the exact same amount of everything

But I agree HPS isn't our biggest issue, it is like you say Sustain and Burst - and also the lack of Purge Protection, which wasn't an issue when it was only MagPlars purging with regularity. Now it's all 4 of the strongest specs, plus MagPlar

Also all of those healing skills you listed scale off Spell Damage, so they don't pertain to StamDK. Of course we have Vigor, Rally, Blood Craze, Draining Shot, etc., but so does everyone else - but yes, we do have Burning Heart, and of course Major Mending and Minor Vitality if you have those two skills slotted. If Cauterize also gave Major Savagery - that would be really, really nice for sDK.

Jameson18

gamma71 wrote: »

Jameson18 wrote: »

gamma71 wrote: »

Jameson18 wrote: »

I do rather fine with my DKs. Both mag and stam. /shrug

Do u 1vs1 sorcs nb necros wardens fine that have a clue what there doing?

1v1, 1v2, 1v3, etc. etc. etc.

What sets are u running and rotation?

Many don't utilize Cauterize.

Fragmented shield is clutch.

Use forward momentum for the wep buff. Not rally. Not molten.

I use titanborn as primary front bar. You can use sprig or nma as well I imagine. 2h Sword, sharpened. Nirn can work as well I suppose.

Back bar I use naga shaman for the 2 piece. Powered/Sturdy

Other set, I like to change up here and there between eternal vigor and champion of the hist. Now that EV has no HP on it, Hist has been a solid performer and my stats are quite nice. Warrior's fury is quite decent as well but the other 2 yield more sustain. You can never have too many dunks.

I prefer wood elf. Most races work fine. I've cycled through most. I just liked the wood elf the most. I made him tiny. It makes me giggle.

Warrior, Lover, Serpent, all those mundus's work. Kind of depends on race.

Arteum takeaway broth was best food so far.

Keep your buffs up. Cauterize running, make sure noxious is on your targets as much as possible. Leap isn't just an offensive tool. Corrosive armor is severely, severely, severely, underrated.

Don't stand in stupid. Use terrain.

Otherwise, barring small details or things of preference, stam dk is all about weapon damage. Yes, you want your stats to be "decent", like resists and hp and resource etc., of course. But the best synergistic approach revolves around weapon damage.

Urzigurumash

Jameson I think we were mostly talking about No Procrodiil. I mostly wore Hunding's and Agility - like you say, Weapon Damage above all else.

I'll never be as good on another class as I am on StamDK, at least it would take me years, but I definitely think we're solid A tier in BGs this last patch, at least on our server, but StamDens are easily S+ tier, don't you think?

Thing is - should players like you, who can play every class as good as anybody, or me, who's played StamDK and really only StamDK every patch of this game, be looked at for whether the class is balanced? Our cases are extreme

I agree with you about Corrosive. I use it for probably 1 out of every 3 Ults. Never ever taken it off my bars.

I honestly thought your answer as to what sets and rotation was going to be Coldfire Ballistas

Urzigurumash

Oh and yeah, Hist Champ. I agree very much. Most solid 5 piece out there for sDK. Maybe my favorite set - simple, reliable, effective. I've used it off and on since it came out, but every time I put it back on, I wonder why I took it off. If HP Regen wasn't nerfed, I'd definitely be eyeing Bog Raider.

OG_Kaveman

Veg wrote: »

Just copy/paste this in every thread relating to class mechanics/balance...

if we are just looking at the damage part of that, you have to take into consideration the magic damage part of that, which adds sdamge to it. no idea where you are getting the damage numbers themselves there, on this, http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoSkills, with the default stat numbers. the damage looks like this-

Stir a group of shalk that attack after 3 seconds, dealing 5905 Magic Damage to enemies in front of you.

Summon a flaming skeleton from the ground after 2.5 seconds. The skeleton runs after the target and explodes when it gets close to them, dealing 6560 Flame Damage to all enemies nearby.Summon a flaming skeleton from the ground after 2.5 seconds.

Channel draconic energy to suck in the air around you, dealing 1587 Magic Damage to nearby enemies and healing you for 100% of the damage caused.

Any enemy hit that is casting is interrupted, set Off Balance, and stunned for 2 seconds.

After 2.5 seconds, you exhale fire, dealing 4099 Flame Damage to nearby enemies.

1587 + 4099 = 5686 which is almost the same as Deep Fissure(though you get the second hit, effectively doubling the damage from one cast) and only 15% lower then blastbones, which can be CCed and so on.

i believe this 15% is because the healing you get from the magic damage part, as has been said. healing skill always cost more then damage skills too, this is what make the magic cost so much higher.

Jameson18

Urzigurumash wrote: »

Jameson I think we were mostly talking about No Procrodiil. I mostly wore Hunding's and Agility - like you say, Weapon Damage above all else.

I'll never be as good on another class as I am on StamDK, at least it would take me years, but I definitely think we're solid A tier in BGs this last patch, at least on our server, but StamDens are easily S+ tier, don't you think?

Thing is - should players like you, who can play every class as good as anybody, or me, who's played StamDK and really only StamDK every patch of this game, be looked at for whether the class is balanced? Our cases are extreme

I agree with you about Corrosive. I use it for probably 1 out of every 3 Ults. Never ever taken it off my bars.

I honestly thought your answer as to what sets and rotation was going to be Coldfire Ballistas

Ah, for no proc I just used hunding and beekeeper. Fortified brass worked well also, but beekeeper lent more to my play style. With the recovery nerf, obviously that would change but procs are back anyway.

I’ve admitted in the past that I’ve parked my wardens and necros for a while because they genuinely seemed easy mode. However, spending so much time since doing so on the other classes, it’s all pretty much leveled out now for me.

So in that regard, I would say yes, stamden would seem S Tier. But now, at least to me, not so much. It is easier to get to a seemingly above average point on a stamden or stamcro more quickly, but my opinion over these last months has shifted to them all being relatively close and having their key points and things they are “best at”, as it should be.

However, it shouldn’t take that kind of work to reach that point either.

Veg

OG_Kaveman wrote: »

Veg wrote: »

Just copy/paste this in every thread relating to class mechanics/balance...

if we are just looking at the damage part of that, you have to take into consideration the magic damage part of that, which adds sdamge to it. no idea where you are getting the damage numbers themselves there, on this, http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoSkills, with the default stat numbers. the damage looks like this-

Stir a group of shalk that attack after 3 seconds, dealing 5905 Magic Damage to enemies in front of you.

Summon a flaming skeleton from the ground after 2.5 seconds. The skeleton runs after the target and explodes when it gets close to them, dealing 6560 Flame Damage to all enemies nearby.Summon a flaming skeleton from the ground after 2.5 seconds.

Channel draconic energy to suck in the air around you, dealing 1587 Magic Damage to nearby enemies and healing you for 100% of the damage caused.

Any enemy hit that is casting is interrupted, set Off Balance, and stunned for 2 seconds.

After 2.5 seconds, you exhale fire, dealing 4099 Flame Damage to nearby enemies.

1587 + 4099 = 5686 which is almost the same as Deep Fissure(though you get the second hit, effectively doubling the damage from one cast) and only 15% lower then blastbones, which can be CCed and so on.

i believe this 15% is because the healing you get from the magic damage part, as has been said. healing skill always cost more then damage skills too, this is what make the magic cost so much higher.

Those are the base damage values. Without anything increasing them.

As for your claim that you can just add the initial hit damage to the the secondary... That make no sense. In PvP you need to deal all your damage in one go. The little damage at the initial hit is completely irrelevant after the 2.5s. Just compare actual damage done between the 3 skills in PvP. Deep Breath will top out at 5-6k on a glass canon build while Deep Fisher and Blast Bones are ranging between 9-13k on the same kind of build.

That's just the damage, Deep Breath also costs twice as much as the other skills and will do nothing if the initial cast does not have a target. It obviously needs to be buffed.

We're all asking for 4 things to be done to Deep Breath

• Further increase secondary hit base damage by 50-60% (this will match it with fissure and blast bones)
• Remove target requirement for activating the ability (no more wasting 4k magic)
• Remove the heal and initial magic damage
• Decrease cost down to 2500-300 magic

Urzigurumash

Jameson18 wrote: »

Urzigurumash wrote: »

Jameson I think we were mostly talking about No Procrodiil. I mostly wore Hunding's and Agility - like you say, Weapon Damage above all else.

I'll never be as good on another class as I am on StamDK, at least it would take me years, but I definitely think we're solid A tier in BGs this last patch, at least on our server, but StamDens are easily S+ tier, don't you think?

Thing is - should players like you, who can play every class as good as anybody, or me, who's played StamDK and really only StamDK every patch of this game, be looked at for whether the class is balanced? Our cases are extreme

I agree with you about Corrosive. I use it for probably 1 out of every 3 Ults. Never ever taken it off my bars.

I honestly thought your answer as to what sets and rotation was going to be Coldfire Ballistas

Ah, for no proc I just used hunding and beekeeper. Fortified brass worked well also, but beekeeper lent more to my play style. With the recovery nerf, obviously that would change but procs are back anyway.

I’ve admitted in the past that I’ve parked my wardens and necros for a while because they genuinely seemed easy mode. However, spending so much time since doing so on the other classes, it’s all pretty much leveled out now for me.

So in that regard, I would say yes, stamden would seem S Tier. But now, at least to me, not so much. It is easier to get to a seemingly above average point on a stamden or stamcro more quickly, but my opinion over these last months has shifted to them all being relatively close and having their key points and things they are “best at”, as it should be.

However, it shouldn’t take that kind of work to reach that point either.

Yeah I wore BK some too, somewhat out of nostalgia, I have fond memories of farming this set when it came out during the first Witches' Festival in 16. Into the reliquary it now goes.

Really I think if Netch lost its purge and Leap had its newish cast-time removed but Dawny didn't - the gap between StamDK and StamDen would be substantially diminished. That cast-time on Leap is disastrous.

ResidentContrarian

Oh no, not another player pretending a list of "small" changes won't do much in the way of buffing the class and that they're all reasonable. I will spare the block of text and say: no.

If they make those changes to DK, the class will be nerfed hard in the patch after it.

DK needs buffs, yea. But it doesn't need to be godmode.

Urzigurumash

ResidentContrarian wrote: »

But it doesn't need to be godmode.

Debatable

Ragnarock41

Historically Dk's viability, at least for Stam, was almost always tied to outside elements such as sets, weapon/armor skills and passives but very rarely the Dk class tools themselves. I almost always argued that DK is a class carried by outside factors and without all the powerful set synergies it would end up as a really bare and boring class. Which was exactly how it was perceived by majority during the no-proc tests. There were exceptions to this rule, such as pre-morrowind obsidian shield which had both a big shield and a long duration of major mending, and the old wings that made a lot of fun, aggressive sDK builds possible. It was DK's ''pseudo-purge'' aswell because you simply wouldn't get any negative effects from reflected projectiles, like you currently do from mitigated projectiles. Ah, it gives me an aneurysm whenever I remember all the hypocrites that talked about how much of a buff new wings change was. Dk would attract the hate of really, really petty people because they were simply expecting their super-mobile low risk high reward builds should be able to engage a wing spamming magDk and win. What can I say, they certainly got their wish over wings. Its mostly a dueling toy now.

Another aspect that is fallen out of competitiveness is obviously DK dots, gutted with every other dot, yet it was all the more special to DK class so the pain was felt a lot more. Back then the argument about Dk dots was ''But Dk received buffs while every other dot is gutted.'' Which is the wrong way of looking at things because Dk dots were objectively still worse than before the dot buffs. Unlike other classes, Dk had no choice but to rely on those dots for pressure. This was a major oversight by developers.

The Dk dots now:

1. Cost more than before
2. Do their damage over a much longer duration, making them less potent than the tooltip may let you to believe.
3. Do not synergize with corrosive armor's penetration anymore
4. Venomous claws no longer has its half-spammable aspect that made it deal a good chunk of damage instantly. (This was removed because it was used as a sDK spammable in PvE, but it was a cool thing and looking back at it, venomous claws would have made for a fantastic spammable with that cool animation. I was a fool for complaining about it and asking for a stam whip. I was blinded by wishful thinking.)
5. Far more weaker against purge as a result of doing damage over a much longer period of time and costing more, and purge effects being much more common aswell. Venomous claws is especially victim to this in PvP where it takes longer time to ramp up than some builds can kill their targets. The older low cost dots were less of a strain to Dk sustain while effectively dealing more damage. This hurts squishier Dk builds far more than tanky ones.

Moving away from state of DoT effects, we can look at HoT effects for a moment. Cauterize at the moment still does not have major savagery despite scaling from stamina. As for Green Dragon Blood, its a heal that scales off of missing HP, making it objectively bad for anything other than PvE tanks with a ton of HP. But with obsidian shield's HP scaling nerfed, I don't really see the point of max HP tanks.

That now leaves us with stonefist, which somehow manages to feel worse than cutting dive. I thought developers would eventually admit they didn't do a good job with this design and rework it again, but I was unfortunately wrong in my assumption. I believe this skill suffers from an identity crisis currently. It tries to do a lot of things at the same time and fails at every single thing it tries to do. I believe it needs to be more specific and perhaps it needs to fit with the current identity of the class aswell. Ranged stamDK builds can already use lethal arrow at a big discount. This ability should have been ZOS's love letter to stamDk's, yet I only see lazyness and confusion when looking at its design, very disappointing. This is the kind of stuff that makes one lose hope for a game. stam spammable for Dk has been asked for so many years, yet how did it go so wrong...

Edit: Lastly, forgot to mention molten armaments/igneous weapons. These abilities strangely have AoE components and one morph lasts longer while other gives a very unique %50 heavy attack damage buff. Both of them give the major sorcery/brutality buffs to allies, yet there is no light attack boost or poison or fire damage synergy. I consider this a missed opportunity and I also consider its cost to be too extreme at 4320 magicka. This ability has a very cool effect, yet it will never see any use because its underperforming compared to other abilities that also bring major sorcery/brutality.

There is also a separate thread complaining about deep breath and its morphs, which I will link down here:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/575816/about-that-skill-deep-breath

Allright, I can't believe I came back to the forums to repeat mostly what I've said years ago, I'm really disappointed to find that nothing changed over all these years, but at the same time I feel like I did a good job at explaining why you don't typically see Dks using their unique class abilities. So if you wonder why DKs seem so generic despite having so many unique looking abilities, now you have a better understanding as to why that is.

Ragnarock41

ArcVelarian wrote: »

Dragonknights have never been in a worse place than Update 30. DK's class design has been gutted and discarded, DK passive abilities are weak and outdated, DK survivability (especially in regards to tanking) is completely outshined by nearly every other class, DK healing is a bad joke, DK stamina DPS is at the bottom of the barrel in PvE and Magicka isn't fairing much better, and DK's sustain is the worst of all classes in the game...

This is the laundry list of buffs needed to bring DK back up to par:

1. Lava Whip (and both morphs) need to scale off of highest offensive stats.
2. Molten Whip's Seething Fury effect should be triggered by activating any other Dragonknight class ability as opposed to just Ardent Flame abilities.
   
3. Inferno (and both morphs) should really be activating every 1 or 2 seconds as opposed to 5 seconds.
4. Combustion needs to be providing Magicka and Stamina resource restoration per DoT tick in addition to some flat regeneration.
5. Warmth should be activated by both DoT Damage and Direct Damage.
6. Inhale needs a significant damage buff and a Stamina Morph.
7. Iron Skin needs to be doubled (to 20%) if not tripled (to 30%).
8. Burning Heart should increase healing received by 20% while a Draconic Power ability is active.
9. Draconic Power abilities need to have their costs reduced by between 15% and 20%.
10. Scaled Armor needs to provide 3300 Physical Resistance in addition to 3300 Spell Resistance. (It's silly this isn't already the case.)
11. Stone Giant's damage needs to be buffed by at least 20% and have its cast time removed.
12. Ash Cloud (and both morphs) needs to have its radius increased to 8 meters and Cinder Storm needs heal for significantly more.
13. Mountain's Blessing should generate 6 Ultimate every 3 seconds.

Reasoning:
1. This is the no brainer compromise to the Stamina whip morph that Stam Dks have been asking for since Stamina Ability Morphs became a thing.
2. More flexibility means more reason to slot a class ability over some weapon or guild ability.
3. This would make the ability more powerful and more reliable.
4. Combustion's current state is abysmal. Dks should be rewarded for maintaining class DoTs on targets, especially considering that they are purge-able in PvP.
5. Warmth in it's current state is pointless. This would be more effective and better compensate for DK's lack of mobility.
6. Inhale has been in a weak state since before Morrowind. The idea is to bring it up to par with abilities like Scorch and its morphs.
7. Considering the recent nerfs to blocking and that Templar's own version of this passive ability is twice as powerful as DK's current iteration of Iron Skin, this would bring it back up to par. Blocking is fairly expensive at this point and is Active Damage Mitigation, so dialing up the effectiveness for DKs doesn't negatively affect overall PvP balance.
8. This just appropriately rewards DKs for slotting class abilities.
9. Magicka DKs have been asking for this for quite some time now. The justifications have all been laid out in other threads.
10. This brings it up to par with other damage mitigating passive abilities.
11. This would make it more appealing than Weapon Abilities. Due to Stone Giant's wonky functionality a damage buff at least 20% would not be an issue in PvP.
12. Ash Cloud (and morphs) are absolutely useless in their current form.
13. Again, this is for DK's abysmal resource regeneration, and mediocre DPS, and failing survivability. Faster ultimate generation paired with Battle Roar helps all 3 problems.

Also on an unrelated note to my other post, I've read your list of proposed buffs and they are a little too much, I don't think buffing Dk mitigation makes up for healthy gameplay, especially your suggestion for buffing Iron skin to %30 is just... Not a great suggestion, to put it politely.

Yes DK needs some buffs, but no it does not need to be unkillable. Its been there before a few times, and its not good gameplay for anyone involved. As for stonefist I think literallly everything BUT the tooltip is the problem with this ability. I don't see the point in giving it more damage when the ability feels clunky and disconnected from the rest of the class kit.

ArcVelarian

Ragnarock41 wrote: »

Also on an unrelated note to my other post, I've read your list of proposed buffs and they are a little too much, I don't think buffing Dk mitigation makes up for healthy gameplay, especially your suggestion for buffing Iron skin to %30 is just... Not a great suggestion, to put it politely.

Yes DK needs some buffs, but no it does not need to be unkillable. Its been there before a few times, and its not good gameplay for anyone involved. As for stonefist I think literallly everything BUT the tooltip is the problem with this ability. I don't see the point in giving it more damage when the ability feels clunky and disconnected from the rest of the class kit.

At this point ZOS is simply not going to un-cluck DK DoT DPS. Dialing up Stonefist's damage, removing its cast time, and buffing our other direct damage abilities is as good as we're gonna get unless ZOS replaces Brian Wheeler. Not to mention most PvPers would lose their marbles if DK DoTs were returned to Elsweyr levels.

As for the Iron Skin buff, 20% would put it back to where blocking for DKs was before the recent blocking mitigation nerf. 30% would make it better than it was before the nerf.

The 12% increased healing from Burning Heart isn't quite cutting it at the moment. Whether it's increasing that number to 15% or 20% (as a ceiling), or adding some other appropriate effect (increased healing to other players?), the idea here is to give DKs more reasons to slot their own class abilities.