Quote Originally Posted by Cljader1 View Post
Drains are not what you make them out to be there are our signature spells but the are a boatload of mobs resistance to dark magic bats, antica and antlion just to name a few, and im not doing to even get started on the mob that are immuned or its ineffective against. Mp efficiency of drain is not a benefit when you have a 60 sec and 3 min recast time. Drains are some of drk's best spells but the recast timers are ridiculous, drain II has 3 times the recast timer as raise 3, and 4 times the recast timer of any blm's 4k-5k nuke...you dont see a problem with that.
You can find tons of testing/rants I did on Alla DRK forums if you look. I know the weaknesses of Drains/absorbs, I know there are over 20 mob types that casting dark magics on are pretty much a waste of time.

The calculation of Drain's Damage is based mainly, possibly solely, on Skill and the target's resistance to Dark Element, unlike normal nukes. A mob with a weakness to dark element will take more from drain than a mob with a neutral dark resistance, unlike nuking where resistance only affects a mob's chance to resist. This would be unusual but drain is already different in that its damage isn't static, but it has some sort of pDIF effect.

This was tested years ago in ballista with dark resist gear and carol. When the target had his dark resistance raised, Drain would consistently do less damage when unresisted. I didn't do testing for a cap, but there seems to be a soft cap at around 300+ skill.

I was able to break 500 damage on a Skoffin and a Sea Puk at mamool North Camp at 75 with a full Dark Magic Skill build/merits and Enhances Drain/Aspir pieces, day, and a dark threnody. I never said it was consistently over 500, I said it was possible to do over 500.

And yes MP efficiency is a benefit when you're a job that can't rest and has a relatively small hp pool. Also, your DRK must be geared awfully to have to wait the full recast. Drain has Drain was about 10 times more efficient than the best nuke for the longest time, and that's without considering HP return.

The reason Drain II has a longer recast time is because it used to be a gigantic boost to max HP.