AMA Setsu-AMA

[Diamond 97]

Pineapple on pizza, yes or no?

 

[Setsuna]

Pineapple on pizza, yes or no?

I think it's definitely one of those arguments where people talk about it just to have something to argue about. That's not a bad thing, it's just funny to me and it means I can't really see the whole debate as something other than this running joke on the internet. As for me though, I honestly really enjoy it. I like sweet things and having things like salty or spicy toppings on a pizza makes it even better. With foods like pizza my thinking is usually "the more toppings the better" and I both enjoy good pineapple and think it works well on pizza. It might be a little strange for people to get used to, though, because pineapple with tomato sauce sounds strange.

 

[Yellow Bommen]

What are your favorite Pokemon, Setsuna? ^^

 

[Setsuna]

What are your favorite Pokemon, Setsuna? ^^

If I had to decide on one as of now, it'd be Iron Valiant. Gardevoir and Gallade have both been favourites of mine for a long time so something that basically combines the two together while also looking really cool on its own is really special to me. Some other favourites include Banette, Mawile (especially the mega), Primarina, and Tinkaton. Darkrai, Yveltal, and Gardevoir also are very special to me because of the TCG as well. Turbo Darkrai EX, Darkrai/Yveltal and Gardevoir GX were some of my favourite decks to play while they were new. Since it's relevant to the topic I'll also say my favourite type is Ghost, my favourite starter is Primarina, and my favourite region is Sinnoh.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

What first made you interested in checking out Love Live? :p

 

[Setsuna]

What first made you interested in checking out Love Live? :p

This is a question I've answered before, this was my previous answer:

Spoiler:

Long story short, I got into Bandori somewhere around late 2018, and I wanted to use my interest in that game as a jumping-off point to meet new people and form a new group of friends. I went to Instagram, and most of the time if people were into Bandori they were also into Love Live, and it was something I got to hear more about. By Summer 2019 my boyfriend and I started dating, and he introduced me to Love Live, and we watched SIP and Sunshine together. I have a ton of fond memories of what was happening with Love Live around that time. Things like the Sunshine movie, Mitaiken Horizon, and Love Live's 9th anniversary were happening around then, so I consider all of those things to be what got me into the series and made me interested and excited in it. Mitaiken Horizon is especially important to me.
I had a point where my interest in it sorta... maybe "died off" isn't the right way to put it, but the way the series was going forward made it difficult to keep up and I lost a lot of interest. When that happened, trying to play SIFAS daily and really sticking with it and remembering what I love about the game was really important to me, as it got me excited to be a Love Live fan again and rekindled a lot of that lost flame.

But I also want to add that Love Live was something I'd known about for years and years vaguely through some old friends I used to have. I didn't really ever watch anime at that time and had only ever heard the name Love Live mentioned before, I didn't know anything about it. As I started to get into Bandori and saw a lot more people talk about Love Live with how often you'd see people talk about both, it was the kind of thing where I knew I'd be into it, but didn't really have the interest or motivation to actually get into it myself. It's funny to think about how I went from being more hesitant to take the plunge to that phase lots of people get into when they first enter Idol Hell where it's all "I swear I'm not obsessed" yet it's all I'd think and talk about. I think watching SIP and Sunshine over such a short period really helped me get invested, even if it meant there was a lot I missed my first time around and tend to pick up on different rewatches.
I think despite the amount of years it took me to get into Love Live, I wouldn't have nearly the same kind of outlook on it right now if I had just immediately gone into it years ago. The fact that the Sunshine Movie, the 9th anniversary, and Mitaiken Horizon were new around that time and boosted my interest in the series means I'm a lot more attached to those specific pieces of LL history than I would have been otherwise. I can't imagine having the same emotional attachment to µ's as I do to Nijigasaki.
I also can't understate how much playing SIFAS kept me interested in the series, both when it was new and I was incredibly excited, and when I felt like I was starting to lose interest and wanted to fall back in love again. Like, to the level of "I made a spreadsheet for every single card in a gacha game, what gacha they were part of, and updated the spreadsheet every time I pulled any new cards to keep track of my collection and have a database for anytime a friend ever needed clarification". I still have this spreadsheet to this day, and it has since been updated to contain every card the game has ever had.
anyways thanks for the bump lol

If anyone is reading this in the future and wants to hear more about what it was like for me to get into Love Live at the time I did or what things were like at the time, here's an article I wrote on the topic. It continues to be one of my favourite things I've ever written.

 

[Palamon]

What other franchises do you follow?

 

[Setsuna]

What other franchises do you follow?

That is a... surprisingly tough question for me to answer! I'll walk you through my thought process on this one.
I like to think I'm into a good variety of different franchises and the way I think about them is more like, how invested I am in them? Like I could place them on a tier list fairly easily based on how closely I follow them or how much I interact with them. With things like Love Live and Pokemon I try to have my finger on their pulse every single day, I like being caught up on what news has been announced the day (or even the minute) it's announced because I've just been so invested in them for years already. I'm obviously not going to know every single possible thing or always have my facts straight, but I follow several accounts on social media for Love Live news and I'll watch and be aware of any upcoming Pokemon directs, things like that. Those two are easily at the top of my list.

There's so much media out in the world just in general so I can't really make a big post of me just listing every single thing I'm into in hopes that someone will recognize anything there. But I will interpret "following a franchise" to mean something I'm excited enough about to want to follow news if something gets announced in the future. Therefore, to keep things brief, here's a list of the just games and anime I'm interested in that I think are still relevant today (or haven't been formally ended) that would make me very excited if any sequels would be announced by the time I wake up tomorrow morning:

• Ace Attorney
• Bocchi the Rock!
• Final Fantasy (probably as a whole, but specifically FFXIV is something I'd include along with Pokemon and Love Live as something I'm constantly on top of)
• Girls Band Cry
• Kirby
• Machikado Mazoku
• Mega Man
• Metroid
• Monster Hunter
• Nekopara
• Pikmin
• Persona
• Shantae
• Super Mario (just like, as a whole? kart, party, 2d, 3d, doesn't really matter)
• Yuru Camp
• Zelda
• Zombieland Saga

I've also got smaller passing interests in Bandori (I've pretty much fallen out of it ever since the anime's second season, and haven't been following recent content like MyGO), Demon Slayer (which I am keeping up with weekly, it's just not personally my kind of thing so I'm not as invested), and Project Sekai (which I've spent a decent time playing but haven't read any stories or really gotten into in the first place).

Thanks for your question! Hopefully this is a reasonable answer.

 

[Arcaneum]

There is a desert island nearby. You can swim there, but you can only take one bag with you that can fit 4 things in. What 4 things do you put in the bag?

 

[Setsuna]

There is a desert island nearby. You can swim there, but you can only take one bag with you that can fit 4 things in. What 4 things do you put in the bag?

I... feel like saying "oh that's a hard question to answer" will make it sound like I'm just terminally online? The deserted island situation isn't one I've thought about in years so it's tough to think about it again now? I think my priorities would be to make sure I have food/water and then inform people of my situation and be able to stay in contact with them. I feel like saying "I want a survival guide and infinite food as two of my items" is cheating, though. I'd also assume saying I can just bring my own food with me to the island is also cheating.
I think I would have to say an axe light enough to hold and swing with one hand, a stationary set, a bird trained to carry letters to and from me, and either a camping cookware set, knife, or fishing rod, I can't quite decide.

Now if we're talking a purely casual scenario where I'm choosing to go to this island and am completely confident I will be completely safe and can leave whenever I wish, (Setsuna you're overthinking this it was a simple question) I'd bring my cellphone, a lovely extremely high quality camera, definitely a camping cookware set, and a notebook with a pen or three. Thanks for your question!

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

I've also got smaller passing interests in Bandori (I've pretty much fallen out of it ever since the anime's second season, and haven't been following recent content like MyGO),

Uh why does your experience with Bandori almost mirror mine? I literally went from "ARISA AND RIMI ARE BEST GIRLS" to "Eh, after slogging through second season, do I really want to watch another one?"

(for me it was way too many new bands for me to keep track of, and only being interested in half of them.)

So, for my actual question: You wake up, stumble out of your hotel room still half-asleep, down the elevator and into the continental breakfast room. What do you put on your plate for breakfast? And what do you have to drink with it? (Assume this is a full hot breakfast buffet with eggs, sausage, and bacon available as well as the usual cereal, fruit, bagels, donuts, biscuits, waffles, toast, yogurt, etc.)

 

[Setsuna]

Uh why does your experience with Bandori almost mirror mine? I literally went from "ARISA AND RIMI ARE BEST GIRLS" to "Eh, after slogging through second season, do I really want to watch another one?"

(for me it was way too many new bands for me to keep track of, and only being interested in half of them.)

Bandori means a lot to me because it's basically how everything got started for me! I really never listened to music until Bandori got me into listening to (and being honest to myself about enjoying) J-Pop and it's what eventually got me into Love Live and having a group of friends I still love and talk to constantly. Even if I don't think some of the earlier songs have aged well (especially something like Black Shout for example) I still either think of those songs every so often, or listen to some "newer" stuff occasionally (if you consider songs like R, Passionate Anthem, Tsunagu Soramoyou, Easy Come Easy Go, or Mou Ichido Luminous new).
You saying there are too many new bands and you were only interested in half is incredibly valid. Cause it's just... god, Bandori's big problem for me was that it was immediately apparent that there was a very clear favourite bias for certain bands. To my knowledge, Afterglow, Pastel Palettes, and Hello Happy World never got actual lives and the closest we ever got were their vocalist's seiyuus on stage with a backing band for specific songs. If you weren't a fan of Poppin Party or Roselia (which, let's be real, Roselia was the fan favourite anyways) you were just getting less content especially if you were more interested in the multimedia aspects, things like seiyuu events or Bandori TV. When RAS was introduced, it almost felt like they completely took over the franchise as a whole. Season 2 was supposed to fully feature all the different bands since we didn't get that in the first season, and then it became almost entirely about RAS. CHU2's "I want you to hand Tae Hanazono over to me" line is something friends and I were joking about for weeks. Morfonica being introduced sorta seemed to double down on that because now there was this newer band and all the spotlight was gonna be on them, and it became very clear as an Afterglow fan that this series I was pouring my attention into didn't want to return what I personally wanted out of it. I've heard they wanted to end the stories of the original bands with how they were graduating high school and going off to their universities and they wanted MyGO to kinda be the new reboot for them but... I was already lost at that point unfortunately. I stopped playing when RAS was added to the game, and stopped watching the anime an episode or two into season 3.
Though I do want to say, even if I don't care for their bands I'm very happy for both the RAS seiyuu and the Morfonica seiyuu (especially Ayasa, who reminds me a lot of Kinchan!), I don't harbour any bad feelings towards the series, and I'll still see people talking about it to this day and enjoy what I see.

Arisa and Rimi though? Good taste! Arisa's always been my favourite PoPiPa, though personally, Himari continues to be one of my favourite characters of all time.
Okay, ramble over, time to answer your question.

So, for my actual question: You wake up, stumble out of your hotel room still half-asleep, down the elevator and into the continental breakfast room. What do you put on your plate for breakfast? And what do you have to drink with it? (Assume this is a full hot breakfast buffet with eggs, sausage, and bacon available as well as the usual cereal, fruit, bagels, donuts, biscuits, waffles, toast, yogurt, etc.)

I like this question! These hypothetical scenarios I'm being put in make for entertaining stuff to answer.
I adore breakfast food, like in a "I'll eat it any hour of the day several days in a row" kinda way. If we're assuming everything is available, my ideal breakfast is probably french toast, ham, bacon, maple syrup, eggs, and strawberries.
My breakfast will usually either include those exact things or I might just have regular buttered toast, or I'll put everything on a bagel and eat it like that, or yogurt and fruit is really nice if I just want something different every few months. If we're talking continental breakfasts specifically, I stay away from waffles because I had a bad experience with them before. The real answer I can give is that 95% of the time it's gonna be that ideal breakfast I listed, and the 5% is something like "today she wanted a bagel instead of toast" or something. As for drinks, it'll usually be apple or peach juice if possible, but considering I'm still half asleep in this scenario, it's definitely gonna be a cup or two of coffee, with cream and even more sugar.
And can I just say that that's a really comfy scenario to think about? I haven't stayed overnight in a hotel and had continental breakfast in years and years, but just the thought of slowly waking up to a pre-made breakfast while I'm on vacation or something? Oh my god that sounds heavenly, and I need it right this second.
Thank you for your question!

 

[Arcaneum]

Top 5 games of all time?
Have you played any Final Fantasy games outside of FFXIV? If so, any you liked/disliked in particular?
Due to catastrophic events, you can only save three LL characters. Who and why? (no copping out and saying you can't choose!)
Do you have any hobbies currently?
Any plans for 2025?
Best rice pun you can think of?

 

[Setsuna]

Top 5 games of all time?

I've always answered "what's your favourite game" with Pokemon Platinum and... yeah, I'd still like to say that hasn't changed! Ordering the rest of them is tough but I'd probably have to say:

1. Pokemon Platinum
2. Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars
3. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
4. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
5. The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess

You could probably re-order 2-4 in different ways, like currently I'm just super duper into SIFAS so I'll put it above Bloodstained. I've mentioned in this thread how SIFAS is the thing that got me back into Love Live when I was starting to lose interest in it but it's also given me so much enjoyment in basically every aspect of it. I love getting more interactions between the characters, the big collection of different cards and costumes and cosmetics to obtain, I loved playing in every single event, playing it with friends during specific events and talking about the game every day even when we weren't playing, sharing ideas and strategies for teambuilding and how they helped me improve, it feels like one of those things that's less like a video game and more like something that helped define my life and I have a ton of memories of it.
But I love the metroidvania-era Castlevania games and Bloodstained kinda stands as that shining example people still love them and I love what it stands for and what it accomplished. Final Fantasy XIV is something I'm so invested in that it's the kind of thing I'm pretty much playing or thinking about daily and constantly finding new things to do or enjoy. I only mention Shadowbringers because even after Dawntrail it's my favourite expansion, especially considering the extra content like the raids. Purely in terms of the concept for the fights and how they feel to play, I think the Shadowbringers raids are the strongest set of raids the game has had. Twilight Princess is simply something I grew up on and always loved. It's got a certain atmosphere no other Zelda game has, being kinda creepy and dark without being as deep into it as Majora's Mask, and something about the art style and the act of riding around Hyrule is incredibly comforting to me. Its music is fantastic too.

Have you played any Final Fantasy games outside of FFXIV? If so, any you liked/disliked in particular?

I have! I like being able to say I'm more of a Final Fantasy fan than just someone who's played and enjoyed XIV specifically now. XIV was my first, and I grew up thinking Final Fantasy was something I never wanted to get into, it's a long story, but I'm glad I've been able to enjoy several. So far I've played 1, 3, 4 (as well as Interlude, but haven't finished the After Years), 5, the entire 13 trilogy, every expansion of 14, and 15. My thoughts are as follows:

• I enjoyed Final Fantasy 1 more than I thought I would!
• I agree with the idea that 3 is just an unrefined version of FF5. Jobs weren't as good as they could've been.
• I think that Final Fantasy 4 is overrated and wasn't as good as I expected (especially the story, I don't like Cain, I'm sorry)
• I think 5 is incredibly underappreciated and is absolutely fantastic, the job system feels incredible and makes me really glad the Bravely games exist because that's just more FF5 and I adore them.
• I think 13 was slow and boring with a great battle system, I think 13-2 is absolutely fantastic and was an incredible glow-up, and Lightning Returns took everything good about 13-2 and ruined it to be a completely separate game that genuinely pissed me off at the end.
• I think 15 was great and the highlight is not only the interactions between the main cast and their brothership but I loved the fishing minigame as well. Noctis saying "Talk about backseat fishing" lives in my head rent-free.

I've seen bits and pieces of 16 from my bf playing it, but I'm not sure it's the kind of game I'd be able to stick through for an entire playthrough if I played it myself.

Due to catastrophic events, you can only save three LL characters. Who and why? (no copping out and saying you can't choose!)

How dare you break my heart like this!!!!

It's hard to think about this because the idea of just picking my favourites is tough. I wouldn't want to bring Ayumu and separate her from Yuu, or bring Dia and separate her from Ruby because I think that'd destroy both of them.
As unfortunate to say as it is, I think I'd like to pick Chika because I feel like while a situation like that would be hard for anyone, I think she'd both be able to take it better than most, and to be able to move forward. The story of Love Live Sunshine puts her through a lot and a big part of her character is learning to embrace and accept the best parts of herself despite all that happens to her. It's heavily implied that Aqours goes on to inspire future generations of school idols in the same way she was inspired by them in the past, and losing the beating heart of Aqours would be awful.
I wouldn't want to bring Ayumu if I separated her from Yuu, so honestly I think I would want to pick both of them. Ayumu is my favourite character in all of Love Live and she became an idol to chase her dream with Yuu, and Yuu is so passionate about school idols, enough to organize several school idol festivals, that I think given enough time and support from Ayumu more school idols could become inspired and they wouldn't be the only ones left anymore. It'd be a bright future and I think it's not only a forward-thinking move but one that also still preserves my favourite character and both my favourite parts about her and the character she's closest with.

I hate this question, thank you.

Do you have any hobbies currently?

Outside of video games and anime I'd say my hobbies include writing for my blog, photography, and the Pokemon TCG, but the second and third are ones I don't really get many opportunities to indulge in. They're more just nice things I get to do when I travel or visit home rather than things I'll decide to spend time on by myself. Writing is probably the big one, but my thoughts are so scattered that it takes a while to really put something together that I'm proud of, and I rely on a lot of people for it! I'm incredibly thankful to my beta readers and friends for their support and assistance on it because even as a casual hobby that I don't really get anything tangible out of, it still takes a lot of work with my clumsy little lack of a writing process. It's incredibly rewarding though, I always feel incredibly proud of what I make.
I've wondered if I wanted to pick up a new hobby sometime this year, and I'm still kind of unsure about that.

Any plans for 2025?

Yeah, a lot of stuff actually. I'm planning to move back home and try to attend college, live there for a couple years, and try and see if I can make things work and if I can find any opportunities for me in that direction. Life hasn't treated me the best with what I've been doing and trying to do, and it's been hard accepting things should change and that I have to try going down a different path. I'm fully expecting 2025 and 2026 to both be extremely hard years for me, so I'm kind of in the calm before the storm right now, enjoying as much as I can without trying to think about how crushing things are going to get. I don't know what the future holds for me, but there are both things I'm excited about and things I'm absolutely terrified about. It's been really heavy, honestly. I'm hoping to make the most out of it, because there's a lot I've been yearning for.

Best rice pun you can think of?

I'll be honest, I've got nothing currently. "Rice to the occasion" was the only thing I could really come up with. I hope it suffices. Suff...rices? I dunno. I tried.

Thanks for your questions!

 

[Yellow Bommen]

What are your favorite villagers besides Molly?

And what are your favorite Kirby games besides Planet Robobot?

Thank you, Setsu. ^^

 

[Setsuna]

What are your favorite villagers besides Molly?

So I'm not super into Animal Crossing, it's just that the way conversation went tonight had me think of it and I wanted to ask people their favourite villagers. Besides Molly who's easily my absolute favourite, I think Poppy's adorable, Vesta is sweet, and Cherry and Eugene were pretty cool, I like their style. Marshall is also a name I'll always recognize, and while I wouldn't call him a favourite, he brings up memories of an old friend because he was her favourite.

And what are your favorite Kirby games besides Planet Robobot?

I will always, always have a special place in my heart for Super Star Ultra. It's the first game I ever owned myself and I've got a lot of great memories with it from when I was younger. It's a game I know incredibly well and could just pick it up to replay it whenever I feel like it. The original Super Star is great too, I've got good memories of getting my boyfriend to play it with me and showing him a lot of stuff I know about, it's just that I think Ultra feels better to play and has more content in it.
Robobot is my favourite game in the entire series, but the entire Return to Dreamland trilogy(?) is absolutely fantastic. Return to Dreamland took years to make and it really shows because it's just incredibly solid to play and I absolutely adore the art style (of the original Wii release, that is), if someone had absolutely no interest in Super Star or any other older Kirby game, Return to Dreamland is what I'd suggest to them, it almost feels like the perfect Kirby game in a way. It also introduced Whip, which is probably my favourite copy ability of them all. The Switch release is great too, I just have my complaints about some small visual changes and wasn't too interested in Magoland but the epilogue was fun and Mecha and Sand are cool additions, if not unnecessary. Triple Deluxe is great as well, but I think it's easily in the territory of "It's good, but not interesting" because I think they just wanted to carry Return to Dreamland's formula for success onto a handheld, and it does fine enough.
Amazing Mirror is the one I used to say was my favourite because it's just got such a phenomenal concept. A Kirby game based around being multiplayer, built like a Metroidvania and giving you the option to team up or call your friends to your location? That absolutely rules. It's my go-to answer for a game that was too good for its time though, because not only was trying to play it using link cables and four copies of the game just clunky, the hardware can't handle the extra weight, constantly stopping and pausing whenever anyone goes through a door or gets a new copy ability. If it was made for a current console like the Switch and had stable online play, it would genuinely be fantastic.

Thank you, Setsu. ^^

I don't know what I'm being thanked for but... you're welcome?

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

If you could fix a single mistake from anytime in your life, but it could only be a very small one, what would it be? (like me with this typo edit lol)

What are your thoughts on penguins? (not a joke)

Who is your least favorite Love Live girl?

 

[Setsuna]

If you could fixa single mistake from anytime in your life, but it could only be a very small one, what would it be?

I like this question, because this is something I still think about to this day. It's... easy to answer.
It was a long time ago, but I had a friend in elementary school who I spent a lot of time with. We'd go over to each other's houses almost every day after school, we'd do all our group projects together, we'd spend all our time on breaks together, things like that. There was another kid who he really didn't like, who was sorta like the popular kid, I guess. Popular kid seemed to like me for some reason, and in a disgusting attempt to try and get them to like me or whatever, I said something at one point that made my friend cry. It wasn't worth it, popular kid was kinda just an asshole that I wanted to get rid of for years anyways, and I've spent years feeling bad about it ever since.
Ultimately, I don't think it would change much in my life if I had the chance to have never said that thing to my friend. His family had to move and thus we stopped going to the same school maybe a year or two after, I apologized and he forgave me for some reason and we continued being friends, and I don't think many things in my life would have played out differently had I not done that. It's just... I don't want that to be a memory someone has of me, I don't want to treat people that way and it's absolutely disgusting that I did that. I've hoped for a long time (and still continue to hope) that it's something he's forgotten about because I'd absolutely hate for that to be a memory stuck in his head like it is in mine. He didn't deserve that.

What are your thoughts on penguins? (not a joke)

I like them! Strangely enough I don't really associate them with being birds due to the whole flightless and living in cold climates thing. I feel like every so often I'll see a cute story about them and go "Oh yeah, penguins! They're cute!", but outside of the couple moments with Mari in Love Live Sunshine related to penguins, they aren't often on my mind.

Who is your least favorite Love Live girl?

It isn't fair to answer with a character I'm not familiar with, like anyone in Hasunosora, for example. So I gotta give a genuine answer here.
...Alright. Someone's gonna get me in trouble for this but... it's Umi. And pretty easily, too.

Now, before I get shot! I don't dislike any of them. But Umi has always been... just okay, I guess.
I've never been interested in her like I have with my favourites, I've never really seen or understood what makes her character appealing in the way the people who love her describe, and honestly, I just don't really get the love. I've got basically no ideas for who I'd ship her with, I've never really thought or considered people's arguments for how they ship her, I don't really think about my favourite outfits or UR cards for her, I don't really think about her solos or her center songs or any particular part of any performance with her specifically. And that's not because she doesn't have anything interesting going on! The µ's second-years have a great group dynamic that Umi brings a lot to, the idea of her being pulled along by Honoka and then genuinely finding she has a love for being an idol is great, and it's unfair to say she's boring both when her character type reminds me of someone like Dia or even Sayo Hikawa from Bandori (Interest in archery included). She's a character where I'd just say "I guess I like her", and leave it at that. And she feels like the only character in Love Live where I feel that way. Everybody else has felt special to me.
Oomer seems to be at least somewhat popular so it feels tough to tell people "oh she's my least favourite", especially when my argument is usually "I think she's too serious and she's not really the kind of character I'm into" when those exact arguments could be made for Dia, who I adore. Though I both adore Dia's dynamic between the Aqours third-years and the ways her relationship with Ruby both exist and change throughout the beginning, middle, and end of Sunshine so y'know it's not really the same...
I have notoriously been the one Umi non-enjoyer with my friend group for years. But I gotta be honest.

Thanks for your questions!

 

[Fleurdelis]

What are your thoughts of the state of Dark Knight in Dawntrail? (as iirc it is your favorite job in the game)

 

[Setsuna]

What are your thoughts of the state of Dark Knight in Dawntrail? (as iirc it is your favorite job in the game)

I'm giving you an essay for this one, because yes, Dark Knight is my favourite job in FFXIV, and I've had a lot of thoughts about this one for a while.

So this is interesting. If you asked me this a few weeks ago I would've said I was disappointed. I recently did Dawntrail's extreme trials with my group over the past few weeks and I was wondering if I even wanted to play Dark Knight for them because it just seemed... underwhelming? The damage charts and especially the damage buffs we got for Paladin in 7.05 did NOT help the fact that we had Plunge removed and our damage was suffering. Comparing Torcleaver to Lionheart is ridiculous. I've joked with friends that I need a 2000 potency buff on Disesteem but over time that's gone from less of a joke to more of a genuine "I wish Dark Knight was at the top of the damage charts again". It doesn't have things like consistent self-sustain that the other tanks have, and therefore should have high damage to compensate, I've always believed this.

The thing is, then I decided to actually play Dark Knight for those extremes. I've always had the opinion that Dark Mind is a great skill that people hate on just because they don't know how to use it, and I strongly stand by that opinion, it gives you so much flexibility with the amount of magical tankbusters they throw at you. Defensively, it feels great as a main tank because it essentially has two 20% mits for tankbusters that the other tanks just don't, and The Blackest Night continues to be great for protecting your team in particular if they get things like bleeds. That being said, people seem to be talking about how TBN needs a rework to be brought in line with the other tanks short mitigations (Holy Sheltron/Bloodwhetting/Heart of Corundum) and I do agree, because getting Oblation at 82 just doesn't seem to cut it. People say TBN should have an Excogitation effect on it but I don't know if I agree with that. It'd just be Heart of Corundum at that point.

Offensively though, while combining Blood Weapon and Delirium makes it feel a lot smoother to understand the rotation and spending your gauge, it's still really hard to not feel like we were robbed of MP especially when it's so important for things like TBN or having an extra Edge or two. It feels like a massive oversight to turn Blood Weapon into 5 stacks of 600MP (3000 total) into 3 stacks of 600MP (1800 total) instead of 3 stacks of 1000MP instead. Easier to understand, you don't lose any MP with the change to 3 stacks, and you still keep it in line with Delirium.
Salted Earth kinda feels like garbage to use too, especially in fights like M3 or M4 where you really need the boss to stand still to take full effect of it, but their mechanics either have them move or you move them into safe spots. Salt and Darkness should just have the effect Liturgy of the Bell does where you can just hit the button to spend the entire potency of the DoT you would have in case the boss is gonna move.
Enhanced Unmend also does almost nothing for you besides give you mobility in something like dungeon pulls or moments where you're forced out of melee range (where you likely already have two stacks of Shadowstride) and was kind of a lame idea that was just kept in from Endwalker without any consideration of what it is and what it supplies you.
I also mentioned this before but Torcleaver does not stack up against stuff like Blade of Truth or Lionheart as a combo finisher in the Lv90-100 range. Disesteem is cool but Torcleaver should have a higher potency than Lionheart (or at least Wicked Talon + Eye Gouge? Oh my god you use that thing every 30 seconds instead of Torcleaver's 60 and it's still stronger) to keep Dark Knight at the top of the DPS charts and Disesteem should be a useful tool if you can't stay in melee range just like Paladin's Blades, because I've heard that's a super cool optimization people are using for M4S and I think giving tanks very limited options for out of range attacks that isn't just your basic ranged attack would be really cool. Disesteem is a step in the right direction for that, I think it and Flood are really all DRK needs in terms of ranged options.

And see, all of this is fine. Tanks are all pretty close to each other both in terms of damage charts and mitigation options for every fight, so while things like Dark Mind give specific advantages to Dark Knight in some fights over others, it's also pretty niche and some fights just won't have magic busters at all. And that rocks!
It's just... the cracks really show when you're level synced down. Stalwart Soul being unlocked at Lv72 originally was actually disgusting and it was a healthy change to have it moved to Lv40... except we still don't have Dark Missionary for Lv70 content. Which would be whatever, if Paladin, Warrior, and Gunbreaker didn't all have Divine Veil, Shake it Off, and Heart of Light by Lv68.
If you're playing anything at Lv60 or below you will not have Blood gauge and therefore you will not have Delirium. This means that your Blood Weapon has been nerfed to only give 3 stacks of 600MP for essentially no reason. You're robbed of 1200MP every 60 seconds with nothing to compensate for it at the level where Dark Knight's job identity is literally "I empty my MP gauge like a Capri Sun for extra damage" because again, Lv60 is before you have TBN as well. And no, Carve and Spit (or Abyssal Drain) giving you 600MP every 60 seconds does not make up for it. Couple this with things like Paladin getting Sheltron at Lv30 compared to Dark Knight's Oblation at Lv82 or TBN at Lv70 or Warrior's Raw Intuition at Lv54 compared to one of Dark Knight's only big sustain options being Shadowed Vigil at Lv92? Final Fantasy XIV has a disgusting problem with not considering job design below the current max level. You tried playing Sage before you unlock Eukrasia at Lv30? You cannot heal your tank or cast spells while they're running. Viper is a slice of milk toast at anything below Lv70. And Dark Knight was robbed, and yes, I will be upset about it.
Black Mage getting Umbral Soul moved down to Lv35 is genuinely huge though, and I hope things like that are considered heavily for other jobs because oh my god they need it.

To sum it up:

• I was hesitant to play DRK for the Lv100 EXs, did it anyways, and loved it.
• Dark Mind is still good and people need to recognize that. I agree that TBN could benefit from a re-work but I don't think slapping Excog on it is the right answer. I want Dark Arts to mean something more.
• Blood Weapon should give 1000MP per stack instead of 600MP because we're at a loss now. Carve and Spit/Abyssal Drain does not make it better.
  • The entire Scarlet Delirium combo should be buffed, and consider buffing Disesteem (which is a really cool ranged option), because Dark Knight should be the highest DPS tank if it's not gonna have as many OGCDs to weave as it did in Endwalker or as good of defensive options as other tanks.
• Salt and Darkness should have Liturgy of the Bell's insta-proc, Enhanced Unmend is stupid now that we've lost Plunge, and Dark Missionary should be available by Lv70.
• Dark Knight sucks to play while level synced down, and the entire game has a disgusting problem with not considering any content below the current max level.

Thanks for your question!