Dark Knight AOE rotation for faster pulls in Level 60 Dungeons

While leveling my 2nd job to 60 I have run into alot of Dark Knight as tanks and noticed one major thing which was confusing me.....why don't they use all their abilities while fighting 3 or more mobs? Confused.....allow me to explain:

Abyssal Drain is a 15 yalm ranged ability that damages all enemies that get hit while doing around 300 damage non-crit and non buffed from Dark Arts to all enemies. So that means that with just this ability alone you are doing 900 damage to all mobs that get hit comparable to a buffed 900 damage non-crit buffed soul eater. Mind you that this is only 3 targets.....the damage is more with 3 or greater! If you place your dots on every target, place down salted earth, turn on Blood Price when you run out of mana spamming Abyssal Drain.....do you have any idea how much damage you are doing to all mobs lowering all their HP to when your dps get to them they only have little to no hp left to burn them down and also making kills so much faster? But I rarely see this on Dark Knights level 56 or above.....why? Because more of these tanks play Dark like its a melee dps and not a tank......try this combo for 3+ mob pulls yourself and you be the judge.....and mind it, keep you mana up, do Syphon Strike combo, Carve and Spit everytime your short on mana using common sense to only say that it doesnt work.

Short answer: it is cheaper MP-wise and generates more overall threat, to spam Unleash. Abyss Drain with Dark Arts costs well over 2000 MP.

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Originally Posted by Hieral

Short answer: it is cheaper MP-wise and generates more overall threat, to spam Unleash. Abyss Drain with Dark Arts costs well over 2000 MP.

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But unlike Unleashed it can only only be used in a short radius around the Dark Knight while Abyssal Drain while not using it with Dark Arts can be used at range of 15 yards and can be buffed if needed to also heal. So that means instead of missing the mobs pulled with Unleashed avoiding AOES your Abyssal Drain will hit everything around your targeted enemy up to 15 yalms away....so again, Abyssal Drain is superior!

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Originally Posted by Madruck

But unlike Unleashed it can only only be used in a short radius around the Dark Knight while Abyssal Drain while not using it with Dark Arts can be used at range of 15 yards and can be buffed if needed to also heal. So that means instead of missing the mobs pulled with Unleashed avoiding AOES your Abyssal Drain will hit everything around your targeted enemy up to 15 yalms away....so again, Abyssal Drain is superior!

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Any decent player shouldn't have issues hitting with Unleash. Sorry but Abyssal Drain really is not superior, it's cost ineffective.

and it is currently broke because it only heals for one of those targets hit.

Man, I've been rockin' Abyssal Drain in group AoE fights since I got it. I love it. <.< I've had zero problem with threat, which seems to be the primary concern with it, and I get a little healing to boot. Using Blood Price at the same time gives me near infinite MP for the duration of Blood Price, so MP efficiency isn't really a concern. It's a bigger hit (120 potency vs. 100 for Unleash), can be buffed with Dark Arts, and generates enough hate to hold against a pair of Black Mages... I'd say it's worth it. o_O

Currently, Dark Arts is bugged, so you won't be seeing that combo at all till they fix it. :(

Abyssal Drain has one moment where it works phenomenally. If you're pulling a large group, but your healer is having some problems keeping up? Pop Blood Price, Dark Arts, Abyssal Drain and you'll regain a significant amount of HP back to help keep you alive longer and let your healer have a small reprieve.

However, Dark Arts is now bugged, so that combo doesn't work as it did when it was released. It was a great way to add an extra damage mitigation skill as a last resort.

As for comparing it to Unleash? Just spam Unleash.