The Good and the Bad of DRK

Good things:

Dps seems closer in line with that of the group damage dealers

Able to regain aggro control of groups even when mana is at 0 and blood price is on cd which was virtually impossible in HW or a least very difficult

Gets a new shield that absorbs 20% health so HP scaling is a variable here

The change to how darkside worked is overall a good thing. Less stressful gameplay

Self Healing is objectively stronger and scales with damage. Spamming Dark Arts on the Soul Eater Combo now grants 4k+ hp

Still the kings of aoe. In the long term spamming both Abyssal Drain and Quietus seems a lot more consistent than HW maybe even more in total

Bad Things

We lost 4 OGCD skills and gained 2

Dark passenger: Useless for the cost

Rip Blood Price: It should still be used at all times it's up

Our defensive cds were significantly gimped. We have to be the weakest defensively by far

More planning involved in use of gauges/mana

What I think is the most significant:
Syphon strike giving more mana in grit is a very nice change, no way about it, it's a great addition.
The Blackest Night is great when you know the damage is coming, really allows for skillful play.
Darkside's mana changes, even without the damage increase, is absolutely amazing.

My bad:
Dark passenger. Why? Just.. Why?
Defensive cooldowns outside of TBN makes me a sad panda.
Enmity and the well known VIT > STR issues.
Bloodspiller kind of sucks due to GCD and no extra utility from damage. Carve and Spit is better.
No more parry low blows.

The neutral:
I actually don't mind the blood price changes because of the changes to dark side. You'll usually be fine for enmity after throwing out 4-6 abyssal drains and probably a quietus. Getting a syphon strike or two in there isn't too bad, the change allows more control. I do prefer the old BP by a long shot of course.

I disagree with your 6th line because of your 9th: with the Blood Price gimp, I found the old AoE without quietus and more AD more consistent. Stopping to use SS to regain MP sucks.

Dark Passenger is just bad. BAD BAD BAD now. All because they did not want people using it as a ST oGCD.

And Unleash: Why? This makes L50 sync dungeons PAINFUL.

Yeah but stopping for SS gives us 1-2 more drains each time which is powerful IMO. That makes it hard for us to lose aggro. Which is why I think our aoe is more consistent because we're able to refresh it so easily. Whereas before we were at the mercy of blood price and a much weaker siphon soul + the mana tax from darkside

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nova_Leon

Yeah but stopping for SS gives us 1-2 more drains each time which is powerful IMO. That makes it hard for us to lose aggro. Which is why I think our aoe is more consistent because we're able to refresh it so easily. Whereas before we were at the mercy of blood price and a much weaker siphon soul + the mana tax from darkside

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Just a small tidbit to note: 2 AD = more MP than SS can restore. But 1 AD + 1 unleash = the same MP that SS can restore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kalocin

What I think is the most significant:
Syphon strike giving more mana in grit is a very nice change, no way about it, it's a great addition.
The Blackest Night is great when you know the damage is coming, really allows for skillful play.
Darkside's mana changes, even without the damage increase, is absolutely amazing.

My bad:
Dark passenger. Why? Just.. Why?
Defensive cooldowns outside of TBN makes me a sad panda.
Enmity and the well known VIT > STR issues.
Bloodspiller kind of sucks due to GCD and no extra utility from damage. Carve and Spit is better.
No more parry low blows.

The neutral:
I actually don't mind the blood price changes because of the changes to dark side. You'll usually be fine for enmity after throwing out 4-6 abyssal drains and probably a quietus. Getting a syphon strike or two in there isn't too bad, the change allows more control. I do prefer the old BP by a long shot of course.

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You missed out the no more parry reprisal too :(

When should I use Dark passenger now? do i just use it whenever now or just ignore it for single targets?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VargasVermillion

When should I use Dark passenger now? do i just use it whenever now or just ignore it for single targets?

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Huge pulls. The cost is excessive, but given that everything seems to hit much harder comparatively and us having less CDs to deal with that, the Blind is a life saver.
The doubled cost and lowered damage makes it worthless in pretty much any other situation.

Even used in a big pull, that will be a DPS loss. DA-DP is 240 and cost the same mp as 4 AD (480 potency).

Without DA, it is 100 potency and cost as much as 2 AD.

Since it is oGCD I only use it if it looks like the boss/mob will die before I run out of mp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VargasVermillion

When should I use Dark passenger now? do i just use it whenever now or just ignore it for single targets?

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If you're at nearly 100 percent mana I would weave it in between two abyssal drains. Otherwise it's better to stick to using abyssal drain because that gets more value for the mana cost. Dark Passenger in it's current condition is quite poor and I don't think anyone would blame you if you took it off the skill hot bar.