Baby DRK, Story + Any Tips?

It's been a long time since I've started a thread on lodestone, but I had a really nice experience with other players recently and want to share the love.

I'm a pretty simple DPS main. Specifically, black mage so I'm very much in that selfish caster class and whatnot. I'd wanted to try dark knight years ago because of all the cool stuff I'd heard about the job quests, but FFXIV is my first MMO in-general. So... I had zero experience in understanding what it meant to be a tank or healer comparatively. My first try (again, years back--I was full sprout) I went to Haukke Manor and had no idea what I was doing. Told my party I was new but I botched it pretty hard due to having no idea at all how the job moved, what strategies I should adapt, etc. Although initially patient, I got the definite sense that by the end of the run my fellow players had gotten frustrated and left without saying a word when they'd initially been chatty.

I felt pretty terrible, and wound up afraid to touch tanks at all for months afterward.

Eventually though, I gave it another shot. Tried looking up instructions a few times online, watched how other tanks behaved, asked around, stuff like that. Allowed myself a level skip, read through all the skills so I'd know exactly what everything did, and mapped my hotbars out so everything was organized according to what the move did. I practiced soloing dungeons a few times along with practicing as DPS so I could use other tanks as examples, I got into PVP, and I killed a horrific amount of wildlife across Hydaelyn.

Today I finally tried working with other players again, but instead of going for a low level dungeon I went with Skalla and Ghimlyt Dark since I know those pretty well. I admitted to being a new tank when I went in, and while I don't know formal rotations at this stage--I made sure I was directing mobs away from the rest of the party, keeping effects up tied to damage given and received, refresh provoke or grit if needed, using single target and multi-target attacks sensibly, etc.


I definitely wasn't perfect. I'm used to following tanks around and at one point somehow got turned around in Ghimlyt and was essentially running in circles surrounded by fire and battle animations because my camera hit a weird angle. But I didn't mess up the mechs of the fights themselves. Second run on Ghimlyt I asked if there was anything I could do better, and was told I needed to make sure enemies didn't slip past me but was otherwise doing a great job. Made a point to work on that and wound up with three commends.

I still don't know if I've got the rotation down, but it seriously meant a lot that not only was I able to largely keep up in more advanced dungeons--the other players were really encouraging. I wasn't sure if I'd be getting side-eye for that level skip, but it helped me organize moves better and use them properly. There were even a couple of bosses where I was one of two players still alive and got through!

(Once with a dragoon, once with a healer, and one time wound up short a DPS whose connection failed. First case happened because of players failing to avoid the drill in Ghimlyt while the other seemed like normal difficulties with those Garlean twins.)

Basically, this experience really reminded me of how much I love the FFXIV community and gave me much more confidence in a role I'm still getting used to. If anyone has any tips for rotation or things to watch out for, I'd definitely love some advice! There are still bits where I'm not sure on lingo even after this long lol, I know tanks gotta pop cooldowns and that popping cooldowns has to do with effects and the time between uses... but I'm not sure whether I'm technically doing it already or not.

Well first im glad you are having a good start with the tank role and slolwy get in to it.

So some tips, well DRK is no longer the job you have tried year ago, it's oversimplified and even a monkey can play it properly now when you understand how simple it is, my tips for you are:

-dont look at the darkside gauge (the one of the DRK sideface) currently it's useless and serve no real purpose for the job more than waste UI space.

-when you understand that DRK is now about trow all your oGCD (carve and spit, edge of shadow, plunge, abysal drain and living shadow) under/around blood weapon windows (of course between GCD as usual) every time, you will find you stay around 45-50s doing nothing but you soul eater combo and a ocasional bloodspiller/delirium spam after that.

-keep blood weapon and delirium buffs separated, use bloodweapon first and delirium after, there is absolutely no reason so mix then up.

-don't care about your MP so much, when you throw all the edge you can under bloodweapon windows you MP will get to max under the downtime since there is no management at all anymore, so just save 3k for TBN and keep rolling without overflowing it something that can't happen easily and a single edge solve that problem.

-do you aoe rotation with 2 and more targets always and mitigate using rampant or shadow wall or dark mind always combined with TBN.

-keep in mind reprisal is an aoe debuff to your enemies helpfull in big pulls and Arm's Length put a slow on your enemies when they hit you making then hit you slower so less damage.


thats all, DRK is the most braindead job of the game right now so keep going and you will be a master DRK before you leave the novice hall.

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Originally Posted by shao32

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Thanks shao! Honestly, DRK having easier mechs might not be so bad in my case just because the tanking anxiety is real haha. I have been trying to learn other tank jobs too (been liking WAR), but like I mentioned hitting dungeons with a party is something I've been working myself up to. Tanks leading the charge, directing aggro, and basically being meat shields to prevent squishier roles from getting hit as much as possible are things I'm still getting used to. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, just don't want to mess things up for other players. I'll definitely bring the points you mentioned into my gameplay!

Don't save all your oGCd's for blood weapon windows, there's literally no reason to do that and you're losing out on damage if you do. Generally use them on cooldown. There are niche situations where you dont want to (e.g saving a plunge because you know a boss will move away, dont use Living Shadow at the end of a pull) but they are not all too often in non raid content.

Do look at the darkside gauge. If it's not lit up, you don't have your damage buff activated. Activate it with Edge/Flood of shadow. Edge for single target. Flood for AOE. If you don't like the look of it and think it's a waste of space you can change it to simplified.

For 2 enemies, AOE combo is a damage gain, but use blood gauge on Bloodspiller. For 3+ enemies, use blood gauge on Quietus.

In dungeon pulls start off with your strongest mitigation - Blackest Night and Shadow Wall. Then Rampart and Arms length, then Reprisal and Blackest Night. Dark Mind is a bit more niche as it's only magic damage, 90% of add packs tend to be physical. Dark Mind tends to be better against bosses when you know they are using a magic attack, which unfortunately will take some time to learn knowing which is which. Avoid using Arms Length with Blackest Night, as you want to be getting hit to break the shield. (Breaking the shield gives you a free use of Edge/Flood.

For MP, try not to go above 9k. You don't want to accidentally overcap. Blackest Night costs 3k, and it's a skill knowing in single target when to use it. You only want to use it when you are sure it's going to break, otherwise you will lose damage, which means knowing the rotation of every boss and every fight, and how much damage they are gonna do. This will take time and a lot of trial and error, but it's satisfying when a boss uses a big tankbuster and you take 0 damage.

Always use Delirium on cooldown, followed by 5 x Bloodspillers in single target, and 5 x Quietus in AOE.

Blood weapon and Delirium might overlap sometimes, and there's no reason not to use them together, just make sure you have less than about 40 blood when you use blood weapon.

DRK is a really fun job. Whilst relatively simple to learn at a basic level like all jobs in the game, it has the highest amount of optimisation amongst tanks (along with WAR) at higher levels of play due to the fluidity of MP and the Blood gauge, and the versatility in the rotation by having the damage buff constantly up. (Jobs like PLD and GNB have their damage buff as a short window, offering little/no versatility if you want max damage).

Oh and Living Dead (the invuln) is poo. You need a WHM to make it work, and even then they need to be paying close attention or you will die. There are situations in savage fights where you can argue that living dead is the best of the 4, but it's rare.

not for opposing you Quah but all oGCD (except salted earth that have the same recast as delirium 90s) are under the 60s recast mark, carve and spit, abysal drain recast time 60s, plunge 30s mark wich is 60s mark if you save both stacks and living shadow is under the 120s mark wich mean each bloodweapon have it, all of then alling perfectly with blood weapon mark 60s recast so they are not a waste of dps whatsoever, it's simplification of the rotation since DRK want to use all his oGCD under 60s mark of raid buff windows and is easy to don't miss anything under that rule apart of being the most optimal rotation, oh boy it's blood weapon? everything will be ready, easy peaky time to use you arsenal.

looking a the darkside gauge is useless, a DRK have 60s to use any single edge before it rouns out, and you can use 3-4 edges before expire so it's basically a waste look at that gauge, if you follow the simple rotation you will over generate darkside timer thanks to the poor desing of the mechanic, when you land the first edge it's over unless you are delivery overflowing you MP for a really long time for no reason.

it's hard to say DRK is the most complex in optimisation when everything, the MP generation until max, the oGCD except 1 and bloodweapon falls under the 60s mark and then you have only delirium and salted earth on the 45-50s downtime wich is just smash bloodspiller but anyone with his own story.

Jaywalker

im glad it help you, keep in mind as long you have grit on (tank stance) and you do aoes on 2 and more eneimes agro will never being a problem so don't worry much about that, this expansion make sure agro is as easy as keeping your tank stance on and hit your eneimes with your attacks.

for the rest it's just practice, you will lose you anxiety when you get more into, you will find tanks right now are the most easy role of the game but take your time to get use to it, remember TBN it's your breath and butter in terms of mitigation.

have fun and se ya around.

Yes they do line up on timers, but you aren't pressing every single one of them at the same time at the start of a fight. Boss downtime, having to disengage etc.. is all going to make these drift away from blood weapon in some way, and you can't avoid that. I understand that you are experienced but for new players, they may read what you said and take it at face value, have experienced the drift I mentioned, and then hold those cooldowns for maybe 40-45 seconds until the next BW window. BW doesn't boost there damage in any way so you don't have to hit them under it.

Plus if you are doing the opener properly, you don't use carve and spit, abyssal drain or plunge during BW. BW is 5 GCD, you use those between gcd 6-9

https://i.imgur.com/a6M6k3i.png

With regards to complexity of optimisation. If you want to maximise party dps, then there optimisation of party buff windows that can be done with DRK, that are much less flexible with other jobs that have strict damage windows.

I understand you don't like the new DRK, that's fair enough, I don't like PLD and that's the most popular tank. But I think sometimes, your predjudice to towards DRK is blinding you to some of the more interesting nuances of the job.

I didn't suggest to use all of them at the same time and boss downtime and disengage are comon stuff shared by all jobs, i just asumed the OP know that basic knowledge since he didn't ask for that.

After the opener BW act as a indicator of when you MP bar it's almost ready and the recast of several skills plus perfect indicator of raid buffs such as trick attack,chain stratagem and others, it's way more easy to understand the job that way since in the end bloodweapon always indicates the begining of the use of all your oGCD. i didn't suggest delay anything for that, but even if the OP just jump to savage with DRK well in savage boss downtime are always around 1 min so everything line up again easily.

Regards the last part all raid buffs are under the 60s mark, DRK doesn't optimice anything since everything lines up perfectly as good as PLD and GNB rigid rotations, they even have it more easy since they don't need to prepare anything before that, just keep everything on recast and throw all your edges on the excesive long raid buff windows, the only thing is TBN and it's pretty easy if you are experienced.

you are free to have that opinion about me but what you call interesting nuances i just saw lazy implementation, i base my experience with the job since heavensward and right now i just see a job that have no sinergy, no complexity and half of the mechanics are halfbaked implementations with no real gameplay impact or are copy pasted from WAR while the rest being oversimplified to the oblivion.

I don't like PLD either since ever and despite i don't like it doesn't mean i can see the mechanics and the interesting nuances of the job gameplay despite not being for my taste, same happens with WAR, it's not a question of being blind about the job, it's a question i see to much and just saw emptines on a job that lost his soul and depends of other jobs identities to work right now.

And since i respect your opinion to like this version of DRK allow me to disagree when you say both DRK and WAR are the most complex tanks right now when they are a joke in terms of gameplay.

But whilst BW and Trick Attack both share a 60s timer they do not line up. So telling someone to use all their oGCDs and MP in BW is losing damage from the TA buff. You literally did say use them all at the same time, under BW. It's just wrong. I even linked the DRK opener showing that.

I don't know how you can say it's a joke in gameplay, when you don't even understand the basics of it, and are giving out bad and incorrect information.

With all respect are you serious? I say throw all you oGCD under BW not throw all your oGCD under BW at the same time, I consider it's pretty clear that you should use all your oGCD between GCD as usual but all of them are going to be concentrate in that part of the rotation, since you did have problems to understand what I mean there I will edit that part to make it more clear.

Incorrect information? DRK focus all his oGCD on raid buffs aka around BW usage and spend the rest of the time smashing his souleater combo and a occasional bloodspiller/delirium spam, on casual gameplay where you can't rely on ppl using raid buffs properly it doesn't matter if the oGCD are placed under/around BW, that's the basics and the advanced gameplay there is nothing more, it believe you over estimate the non-existen complexity of DRK by a large margin, I called it a joke it's bcs it's a joke compared to the rest of the jobs and his older versions by a mile, they don't even have a optimization channel on balance discord like WAR due how easy both are.