DA+C@S

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Originally Posted by Litegrace

So let's assume that you are using souleater as your main combo (for the purpose of this example). You apply dark arts to souleater, adding 140 potency to the combo (400 instead of 260) and using carve and spit to gain around 900 mp (about half of using dark arts once). Your total potency is 900, while gaining 900 mp as well.

Instead, you decide to use dark arts on carve and spit during your combo. You add 350 potency to carve and spit (450 instead of 100), but lose the mp gain. Add to that your souleater combo, and you get a total potency of 1,110 and no mp gain.

So it all comes down to either getting 210 extra potency in your combo or 900 mp. Now, using dark arts on souleater gives you 140 bonus potency. You only gain half of a dark arts from using a standard carve and spit, meaning that 900 mp only adds up to a possible 70 potency (assuming you could half apply a dark arts to souleater). So the theoretical net gain of using dark arts on carve and spit is essentially 140 potency for every time that it is up.

In conclusion, you have a net loss of potency using carve and spit without dark arts, and this should really only be done when you are about to drop out of darkside (as the bonus 140 potency won't mean anything after you lose your 15% damage buff, even for just a few seconds).

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It's even worse than this for C&S because you can replace any theoretically lost DA SE with a Delirium combo, taking the bonus potency down to 120.

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Originally Posted by Sleigh

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Exactly, I was just trying to keep the example as simply and homogenized as possible in this case. 9 times out of 10 it's better to use dark arts with carve and spit, but I have been in situations where using C&S without DA has saved me from falling out of darkside, so it does have its uses from time to time. That's what I like so much about DRK, there is no single way to play. There are always situations in which playing differently can benefit you, but of course the situations requiring change don't appear too often it seems.

MP has never been an issue for me, If I'm low on MP I just do the DEL combo.

So I suppose use DA+CaS for when you have tons of MP but as the fight goes on just using CaS once MP starts to get low?

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Originally Posted by Martin_Arcainess

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Like I said, it's all situational and ultimately up to you during the fight. But as a general rule of thumb, I would say to always use DA+C&S unless you are in danger of falling out of Darkside (very low on mp), in which case you should use C&S without DA (but this should be rare).

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Originally Posted by Litegrace

Like I said, it's all situational and ultimately up to you during the fight. But as a general rule of thumb, I would say to always use DA+C&S unless you are in danger of falling out of Darkside (very low on mp), in which case you should use C&S without DA (but this should be rare).

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Yeah I rarely if ever fall out of it, the guideline I follow is if I don't have enough MP for DA when I'm about to use my Syphon Slash then it's DEL combo, which is about 2K MP.

I didn't appreciate your rude response to me. The reason why you were salty is becuase you misunderstood what I was saying, which is not my fault.

I didn't say the skill was free. I said you're losing out on FREE potency.

Using Carve and Spit without Dark Arts means you miss out on 350 potency to gain HALF of a dark arts back in Mana. If a Dark Arts Souleater is 400 over the base of 240, that means Dark Arts there is worth 160 potency. It's actually worth 140 since you'd use Delierum before you used Souleater plain.

So for HALF of a Dark Arts on Souleater you're gaining 70 potency.

That means DA Carve and Spit = 350 gained potency. Carve and spit = 70 gained potency (via the mana restore giving you half a Dark Arts Souleater)

In the future just reread a comment before replying and getting it wrong and being rude in the process.

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Originally Posted by Lawson_Grey

I didn't appreciate your rude response to me. The reason why you were salty is becuase you misunderstood what I was saying, which is not my fault.

I didn't say the skill was free. I said you're losing out on FREE potency.

Using Carve and Spit without Dark Arts means you miss out on 350 potency to gain HALF of a dark arts back in Mana. If a Dark Arts Souleater is 400 over the base of 240, that means Dark Arts there is worth 160 potency. It's actually worth 140 since you'd use Delierum before you used Souleater plain.

So for HALF of a Dark Arts on Souleater you're gaining 70 potency.

That means DA Carve and Spit = 350 gained potency. Carve and spit = 70 gained potency (via the mana restore giving you half a Dark Arts Souleater)

In the future just reread a comment before replying and getting it wrong and being rude in the process.

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Well my apologies if I offended you or if I seem off rude but you could have put a reason why behind your comment "Why is not getting back HALF a DA SE a deal breaker for you? You're just losing free potency for no reason!" and you don't have to put stuff in caps for me to read as some people might take that the wrong way like I did.

Annnd not to mention you didn't really add anything constructive to this thread just that comment. If you put what you put just then I would find it better.

Just want to reiterate that if you're not in grit, the rotation is NOT situational. You have a set order to your abilities for max dps and debuff/dot uptime as an OT.