Hello everyone, I’m Sky Tells Lies and I have been a PvPer on and off for well over five years now. For the almost the entirity of this time, I have been dedicated to playing only Awakening Dark Knight and want to share some concerns I have with the current state of the class in PvP. As of currently, Awk DK has not seen many real changes since 2021 reworks besides for some inconsequential changes such as removing stamina from Unveiled Dagger and lowering the cooldown of Spirit Legacy (a situational skill in PvP, making CD almost meaningless). To put things into perspective, during the last season of AOS there was not a single Awakening player in the top 20 Dark Knights NA. This is a trend which has been consistent across all seasons with the exception of occasional players at the very bottom with hundreds of games played (Durash). Outside of AOS she performs reasonably well in nodewars and guild league but is easily outperformed by meta classes who accomplish the same thing while being further ranged, higher damage and more protected.

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Class Identity

There are an infinite number of things you can do to buff a class so I would like to start by highlighting what I believe to be the identity of the class in terms of gameplan and strengths/weaknesses so we can establish what is problematic and what is an acceptable weakness. Awk DK is a midrange skirmisher who utilizes I-frames and spaced-out frontal guards to remain safe while chipping away at her opponent’s life. She specializes in backwards movement (kiting) and does not like an opponent who can outrange her or teleport behind her vulnerable frontal guards. This identity comes from her core skills, Shattering Darkness, Seed of Catastrophe, and Cluster of Despair. In a team setting she operates solely as a glass cannon DPS, lacking any form of utility, Grabs, or followup CC. She has the potential to be incredibly evasive and rarely struggles with stamina. This makes her excellent at staying on the outskirts of a fight, ready to follow up with damage as needed.

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Weaknesses        

With my theory of the class laid out, I would now like to discuss what I have observed as her major weaknesses. Keep in mind that not all these weaknesses are necessarily bad, and classes should have inherent flaws as a part of their identity.

1. Lack of useful skills / Abundance of useless outdated skills
2. Inconsistent damage due to class modifiers and lack of skills
3. Only 1 reliable catch with no safe/reliable way to apply meaningful secondary CC
4. Slightly slower movement than the average class (Acceptable weakness)
5. No grab or significant utility (Acceptable weakness)
6. Reliant on frontal guards and prone to gaps in protection (Good weakness)
7. Remarkably low defensive stats (Good weakness)
   
   

Though DK’s gameplan revolves around killing through gradual chip, this gameplan is extremely inconsistent due to the large damage disparity caused by varying class damage ratios and her small selection of skills that deal significant damage. Namely these damaging skills include Shattering Darkness (FG), Spirit Legacy (FG), Dark Nebula (FG), and Cluster of Despair (SA). This means that to fulfill her role as a DPS in a team setting, she must put herself at an abnormal amount of risk by entering FG which becomes certain death when fighting classes such as Kunoichi or Maegu who are capable of instantly getting behind you. While locking optimal DPS behind semi-risky moves is good design, most meta classes lack this restriction entirely while also providing CC and/or utility, something Awk DK completely lacks. Due to all her CC being present in her grossly outdated mainhand kit, that leaves her only initial CC option as Seed of Catastrophe. She is also forced to enter an extremely slow, uncancellable melee skill such as Wheel of Fortune, Lunacy of Vedir, or Kamasylvia Slash in order to get a secondary CC (significant due to her low defensive stats).

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Proposed Changes

Adjusting PvP Class Damage Ratios

https://www.naeu.playblackdesert.com/en-us/Wiki?wikiNo=225#Dark_Knight

As shown by the official chart of class damage ratios, Dark Knight has an unusually large range of ratios between classes, making her damage wildly inconsistent. In fact, she actually has the widest range of any class, varying between 105.53% - 77.93% (range of 27.6%) excluding only Shai (a class specifically designed to not do damage in PvP). As proof I will provide an ordered list of all class damage ratio ranges.

1. Dark Knight: 105.53% - 77.93% (range = 27.6%)
2. Witch: 105.53% - 81.17% (range = 24.36%)
3. Ranger: 105.53% - 86.04% (range = 19.49%)
4. Maegu: 107.96% - 89.45% (range = 18.51%)
5. Guardian: 108.77% - 92.54% (range = 16.23%)
6. Hashashin: 113.64% - 97.41% (range = 16.23%)
7. Drakania: 108.77% - 92.54% (range = 16.23%)
8. Wizard: 81.17% - 97.16% (range = 15.99%)
9. Sorceress: 110.4% - 97.4% (range = 13%)
10. Tamer: 116.89% - 103.9% (range = 12.99%)
11. Kunoichi: 92.54% - 105.53% (range = 12.99%)
12. Ninja: 108.77% - 95.78% (range = 12.99%)
13. Sage: 110.4% - 97.41% (range = 12.99%)
14. Berserker: 118.51% - 105.53 (range = 12.98%)
15. Archer: 105.53% – 93.35% (range = 12.18%)
16. Valkyrie: 105.53% – 94.16% (range = 11.37%)
17. Mystic: 112.02% - 100.66% (range = 11.36%)
18. Striker: 112.02% - 101.47% (range = 10.55%)
19. Maehwa: 109.58% - 99.84 (range = 9.74%)
20. Lahn: 109.58% - 99.84% (range = 9.74%)
21. Dosa: 108.77% - 99.03% (range = 9.74%)
22. Musa: 108.77% - 99.84% (range = 8.93%)
23. Corsair: 108.77% - 100.25% (range = 8.52%)
24. Woosa: 107.15% - 98.71% (range = 8.44%)
25. Scholar: 105.53% - 97.41% (range = 8.12%)
26. Warrior: 105.53% - 97.42% (range = 8.11%)
27. Nova: 107.15% - 100.66% (range = 6.49%)

Adjusting the lower end of the values is essential for improving Dark Knights damage while not feeling too oppressive for classes that already feel pressured by her damage. Dark Knight's lowest ratios are against Mystic, Striker, Nova, Valkyrie, Valkyrie, Scholar, Warrior, and Berserker—all classes who are also equipped with some of the highest defensive stats in the game, rendering them virtually invincible to Awk DK.

Grip of Grudge

Change: Add super armor and make the skill crit rate apply to PvP

Reasoning: This skill lacks any use case in PvP due to its lack of protection and low damage output. If these issues did not exist, this skill would be perfect for giving DK a safe option for dealing damage in situations where forward guards are too risky. Having an extra usable skill would also increase her uptime on dealing damage and fix her reliance on a small amount of cooldowns. I would also like to highlight the importance of making sure that the BSR version of the skill is also adjusted so that it also has the SA and 100% crit properties while also being sped up so that it is usable. DK’s BSR skills seem very neglected as they all appear to do less damage than their regular counterparts while also having painfully slow animations.

Seed of Catastrophe + Flow: Seed of Catastrophe

Change: Decrease the PvP damage reduction of Seed of Catastrophe and its Flow. Allow Flow: Seed of Catastrophe to be casted independently while Seed of Catastrophe is on cooldown.

Explanation: This skill is incredibly important to Awk DKs kit due to it being her only reliable CC, farthest range poke, and only viable Core skill to choose from. Despite its importance, it suffers from doing a completely negligible amount of damage. This lack of damage also makes Flow: Seed of Catastrophe useless. Against grab classes, the fact that you can only use Flow: Seed after the first Seed means that you are forced to remain almost stationary for an extended period for a skill that only does enough damage to negate their next health potion.

Soul Snatch

Change: Add PvP stiff and slightly speed up animation startup.
Reasoning: One of DKs biggest problem is her over reliance on Seed of Catastrophe to apply CC to opponents. Once Seed has been used, opponents are able to recklessly chase after her without fear of being punished for the next 7 seconds. Soul Snatch is yet another useless PvP skill that would be perfect for sniping unsuspecting opponents when Seed of Catastrophe is not available.

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BUFF FLOATY SWORD ELF!!!

buff lahn

+1, take DK out of the stone age