DRK opener tips

Hey folks! Just recently got more into tanking with WAR and I love it and now that I got a seph weapon for DRK, I'm looking to play it more often but the amount of offensive cooldowns are something that need some getting use to.

Looking for advice on what would be considered the 'best' DRK opener for both MT and OT scenarios so I can start practicing it right.

Thanks a bunch. :D

Unmend and plunge? Amma go with Unmend and Plunge. Probably followed with three rounds of your threat combo before you feel safe enough to turn grit off and go HAM.

There's a bit of alteration you should do based on a few key factors.

1. Do you have a NIN/WAR in the party?
2. Is this a fight where you want to drop Grit after the opener?
3. Does the boss move on pull?

1 - you want to delay any and all of your non-magic attacks (plunge, low blow, DA+CAS, and your first DA+SE) to hit AFTER Dancing Edge/Storm's Eye has been applied, regardless how you start (MT or OT).
2 - If you're dropping Grit early, you don't want to use many (or any) ogcds before Grit falls off.
3 - This is all about Plunge. If you don't much care for min-maxing, you can Plunge to a stationary boss without making your Melee loathe you. If you DO care about min-maxing, /never/ Plunge to the boss unless your party lacks BOTH Warrior AND Ninja. You'll be crying with a lack of Slashing debuff anyway.

Generally (since the optimizations are generally not enough to make me care /that/ much) I'll lead with:
3s pre-pull - Dark Arts
Unmend [Plunge]
Scourge [Blood Weapon > Carve and Spit] (BW is BP if I'm in Grit)
Hard Slash [Dark Passenger > Low Blow]
Syphon Strike [Dark Arts > Salted Earth]
Souleater

And then fall into 4 total Souleaters between Scourge 1 and Scourge 2, generally, followed by another 2 before the first Delirium.

I also made this a while back:
http://i.imgur.com/LRXXCF0.png

I dump as much potency as I can so I can turn off grit more quickly.

Dark arts, salted earth, immediately unmend, plunge, scourge, carve and spit, dark passenger, hard slash, blood price, low blow, spinning slash, power slash. Then I do power slash again if I have over zealous DPS/heals. Then it's turn off grit until tank busters and alternate dark arts soul eater and delirium. Scourge runs out after 4 combos so reapply it always. Also, during my opener I usually get low blow and reprisal procs, so I use them as I get them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aurius

I dump as much potency as I can so I can turn off grit more quickly.

Dark arts, salted earth, immediately unmend, plunge, scourge, carve and spit, dark passenger, hard slash, blood price, low blow, spinning slash, power slash. Then I do power slash again if I have over zealous DPS/heals. Then it's turn off grit until tank busters and alternate dark arts soul eater and delirium. Scourge runs out after 4 combos so reapply it always. Also, during my opener I usually get low blow and reprisal procs, so I use them as I get them.

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In a Grit opener, if you check that link~ I tend to hold off on the ogcds until I drop grit. At the very least CaS - since it's a 60s cd.

Grit + Dark Arts + Plunge + CnS + Scourge + Threat Combo + SE. Works for me all the time. Nice heard start on aggro so I can switch to Blood Weapon and turn Grit off sooner.