Lil Drk Help/Advice?

Should I use the emnity generation combo? I find myself using more MP then I can generate with that one, but folks rip argo more often if I DONT use it.

Its kinda annoying, especially switching hotbars in the middle of a fight when I gotta dance around enemy aoes and crap.

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Originally Posted by StormDisciple

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While leveling you should be able to hold aggro with your AoEs just fine. There is almost no occasion whatsoever to need Power Slash against trash. On bosses as long as you keep Grit on and deal at least so-so DPS you should only need 1 or 2 Power Slashes unless you are severely undergeared. I wouldn't go Gritless while leveling in dungeons unless you're extremely confident in your DPS rotation and are well geared. Suffice it to say Darkside should always be on.

Power Slash is a DPS loss to DA Souleater and a MP loss to Delirium. It costs the same net-MP loss of DA Souleater for 10 less potency than Delirium. So basically, its only use is aggro, nothing else. One part of playing DRK well is using Power Slash as little as possible.

You will see quite a bit of disagreements from people on how to play DRK, due to some of its abilities countering themselves.

My main example is Dark Arts being used to boost Dark Dance.
The amount you actually dodge solely from doing this is kinda lack luster for the MP cost. It's not so bad, its unjustifiable, but its marginally worse than other alternatives, since it hinders your ability to do more dmg, and gain more MP for other options. (Such as Abyssal Drain, an offensive/enmity/healing option rolled into one)

You will also run with people who will mess up any plans you have, such as WHMs with Holy.
You'll start a fight with blood price, only to find yourself with no MP being returned, until the last second before it wears off.
You'll then adjust waiting for the holy... only to find out the WHm decided to hold off on it this fight, or wait 10-20 more seconds before they started up their holy chain.

In the end, its better to be MP conservative when dealing with groups of mobs, or situations where multiple mobs will keep spawning.
Otherwise, just try to keep below max MP, and if you really want to push for some more DPS in a DPS check, keep near half MP. (Though surprise adds in fights ur not used to will destroy your MP, until you know what to expect better next time)
And when a boss is about dead, burst your dmg out, and go through MP. Dont forget Sole Survivor, and you'll be fine before you start back up on the next pack of mobs.
(if you over gear content, dont be afraid to drop grit on bosses)

Personally, i feel the use of DA boosting dark dance and dark passenger are better suited for when out of grit, and you're not really tanking. as emergency mitigations, where new adds show up, and some start hitting u, when your jobs is to just DPS instead of MT. This way u rely on blood weapon for the MP gain, rather than blood price. (and sole survivor to some extent, though its long cool down prevent you from using it every fight. Dark Passenger is cleary good AoE dmg when boosted by DA, but you really need to be out of grit to maintain the MP lost by DA when using dark dance, as blood price wont be reliable.)

Laslty, Carve and Split has 2 effects, one if for AoE, and one is for bosses.
Always use it for MP on trash pulls, as the MP gain will always lead to more DPS.
Always use it with DA on bosses, as it will generate more threat than the additional enmity on DA/Power Slash. (Better spent MP)

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Originally Posted by StormDisciple

Should I use the emnity generation combo? I find myself using more MP then I can generate with that one, but folks rip argo more often if I DONT use it.

Its kinda annoying, especially switching hotbars in the middle of a fight when I gotta dance around enemy aoes and crap.

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I cant speak for PLD, since I havnt touched it in a dungeon in forever, but as DRK and WAR, on a boss fight, I never need my threat combos, as long as I'm in tank stance.
(Example, as WAR i can spam the Storms Path combo on a boss, lowest dmg, no threat added, and i will still hold perfect hate. Id only need to start a fight with berserk only if my DPS are racing me in threat. Of course Id do it anways, but just saying)

As a DRK for bosses, until you're over geared, just stay in grit, do 1-2 rounds of power slash for threat, and then you "should" be fine with delirum for the rest of the fight (even if u never used DA+soul eater)
(For trash mobs, spam AoEs, and when half way out of MP, work in your delirum combo between unleashes/bloodprice/sole survivor/crave&split etc. Always pick the mob with the lowest HP, as chances are, soem DPS has a lot of threat built up on it.)
Only exception ive seen to this, was when I came back to the game, with mainly i200 gear, tanking for i230-240 players, who all could start putting large amounts of materia on their gear at i220.
I had to use power slash roughly every 3 combo, to keep hate on boss fights. where MNks and BLMs were a hair width away from pulling hate even then.
Then I got i220 gear, and it was still just as bad.
Then I put STR/det/crit matera into all those slots, and I never had to use power slash again. (on the same gear)

Some ranges people will out gear you so much, it completely changes how you play.

Just dungeons exclusive, usage for Dark Arts + Dark Passenger on mobs mainly. For every pull, you get 1 Blood Price or 2 if DPS are horrible. That will be your main mana generation. Use Unleash more if you don't want to top up aggro for too much on AOE pulls. Start with Unmend to bait proc for free mana Unleash. Mana shouldn't be an issue if you can establish aggro early. It's generally not as important to push for Dark Arts + Souleater for mobs, this is where Delirium is used more if you don't need that extra HP from Souleater with Grit up.

For bosses fights, if you are confident to tank without Grit after establishing aggro, you have access to Blood Weapon which enables you to spam Dark Arts + Souleater.

If you are still struggling to maintain mana, you can take off Darkside to recover mana during pull. Remember that Darkside will drain your mana quickly if you don't have enemies to cycle your mana.

on trash pulls:
once you collect everything, pop a defensive and spam unleash until your MP dips really low, then activate blood price. this takes into account any regen set up and holy spam that might occur with your healer. With a 3-5 seconds on BP left, activate dark arts dark passenger, and ark arts dark dance in succession. this gives you extra mitigation.

on boss fights:
Use an opener in grit that includes power slash combo, maybe two at max. Afterwards, turn off grit and alternate between activating blood price and blood weapon. use one when the other is down, but don't clip. During this, you'll have lots and lots of MP, so spam dark arts soul eater as much as you can until you dip to around 15-20% mp, then use a delirium combo, and repeat. Make sure to keep scourge up at all times, and always keep dark passenger, low blow, reprisal, plunge, and salted earth on cooldown. It helps a ton to use plunge, scourge, and dark passenger together, for scourge lasts 30 seconds, and dp and plunge have a 30 sec CD. As long as you do what I suggested, you'll be doing lots of dps and should be able to keep aggro until a boss dies, but do keep in mind the other dps will eventually catch up and rip aggro if the boss doesn't die fast enough.