A Certain Combo With DRK?

Hi. I'm wondering if there is a certain way, or combo, to play DRK. I have a level 70 drk and I do dungeons now and then to get some tomes. Sadly while doing level 60-70 dungeons I seem really squishy, and during trials people say I'm not tanking right.

Usually I keep grit on for a defense buff and I try to use rampart and shadow wall whenever I can, but even with these i seem to drop health really fast. Also, my equipment is up to level.

Any help will be appreciated.

If you find you are taking too much damage, one place to look is to see what you are mitigating. In trials, beyond just mitigating tank busters, you also want to look into periods of strong aoe damage going out paired with other damage sources such as auto attacks which together can hit you for a surprising amount of your hp.

In dungeons pre level 70 dark can feel squishy, as rampart and shadow wall are your only additional sources of damage reduction besides dark mind (besides tank stance which you already mentioned using). Unfortunately dark mind is only magical mitigation and dungeon damage is usually physical, but dark mind can really shine in 8 player content such as trials and raids.

However, equally important is your HP regeneration, and in dungeons dark knight can have decent self sustain which in someways can make up for missing a third physical mitigation. Think of it this way if you get hit for 15% of your HP and leech back 10% of your HP then healers only need to restore 5% of your hp. Dark Arts Abyssal Drain is a great way to leech back HP from multiple targets while also maintaining threat, and this tool becomes even more powerful as you gain tools like quietus and the blackest night. The Blackest night allows you to mitigate damage while also using quietus to refund yourself more mana depending on how many packs of enemies you picked up (6+ targets TBN quietus combo will generate more mana than it costs). Unfortunately for single targets dark doesn't have many option for self sustain other than the soul eater combo when in grit, though this might change slightly with the upcoming patch.

These are fairly loose and general tips, but for specific fights videos and other guides can often be useful. As with anything a good plan goes a long way.

Thanks. I'll put these to mind and use them later.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Almostward

Hi. I'm wondering if there is a certain way, or combo, to play DRK. I have a level 70 drk and I do dungeons now and then to get some tomes. Sadly while doing level 60-70 dungeons I seem really squishy, and during trials people say I'm not tanking right.

Usually I keep grit on for a defense buff and I try to use rampart and shadow wall whenever I can, but even with these i seem to drop health really fast. Also, my equipment is up to level.

Any help will be appreciated.

---

This is problem w/ DRK pre-70, really have no defensive cooldowns compared to other tanks. In 70 dungeons spam TBN to proc Quietus and spam Quietus/Abyssal Drain.

2 target=you do single target combos w/ DA Dark Passenger.

2+ targets, you Abyssal Drain spam, then Quietus, into Hardslash>SyphonStrike when out of mp. If it's less than about 5 or 6 targets, don't Dark Arts Abyssal Drain; it's a waste of MP and provides less effective HP than TBN (obviously if you would cap mp, then do it). If you would cap mp, Dark Arts Quietus. Always use TBN on CD, mitigation is only 1 part of it, tbn=blood=quietus=mp=damage. Also, still want to use DADarkPassenger on cooldown for AOE.

And BLOOD PRICE. It's negligible in some pulls, but huge in others, like Doma Castle 1st pull. More importantly, it builds blood for Quietus.

As for tanking trials, judging by how seldom I see Shirk, there's probably 90% chance they have no idea what they are talking about.