DRK: How to Play?

Alright, so long story short, I've been away since the launch of Heavensward. (I beat the MSQ of Heavensward, and then quit) I had WAR at 50 from vanilla, but ungeared, and DRK at 30. This time around I decided to tank instead of play as DD (considering that they added two new DD\\\\'s and I figured queue times would be horrendous now).

Now I started playing WAR and honestly, I feel like it\\\\'s just not fun. The Beast Gauge resource is neat except it stinks REALLY bad when I work to fill up the gauge and can only use Steel Cyclone twice..I can\\\\'t use Bloodbath to sustain anymore so STR builds seem less enticing.

I\\\\'ve moved on to DRK, and I know NOTHING about the class. Is there a good guide out there for DRK? There are some things that I struggle with slightly, for instance, why wouldn\\\\'t I just always leave Darkside on? Why can\\\\'t I use Dark Arts sometimes? Why doesn\\\\'t Abyssal Drain heal me while in Grit stance? I know I\\\\'m missing a mechanic somewhere..

Also, I was told that DRK is the self healing tank...How?

stormblood DRK

-you should never drop Dark Side, unless there is an extremelly long boss phase you do nothing.
- dark arts can only be used under Dark Side, as some other skills.
- dark arts consume 25% of your MP.
- abyssal drain only heal you when powered by dark arts.

And all of that shows in the tooltips for the skills.

edit: drk heals tru DA-abyssal drain and grit soul eater.

-While using Darkside, Dark Arts grays out, I was able to use Dark Arts before I did the class quest that unlocks Darkside.
-Abyssal Drain tooltip reads that it restores HP while GRIT is active, not while Dark Arts is active..and I can't use Dark Arts under the effect of Darkside.

So the self healing aspect should be Abyssal Drain and Soul Eater combo, and just make sure I have Darkside, Grit, and figure out how to get Dark Arts to work?

if you have 25% of your mp and dark Side is up, you can use dark arts, thats it.

I cant tell if you are trolling... you cant use dark arts before learning dark side, because you learn dark side at lvl 30 and dark arts at lvl 45 AND dark arts requires you to have darkside turned on.

Heres abyssal Drain tooltip:
Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 120 to target and enemies near it.
Additional Effect: Increased enmity
Dark Arts Effect: Absorbs 100% of damage dealt as HP Dark Arts fades upon execution.

ExLegen, I am not trolling, and I apologize. I was convinced that when I logged in I was getting ready to prove you wrong.

It's not Dark Arts that I can't use, its Blood Weapon. All this time, I thought Blood Weapon was Dark Arts. So I was reading Dark Arts, and using had Blood Weapon setup. I apologize for the mis-understanding ExLegen.

Still, I'm looking for a good rotation/setup. I also wanted to know if there's a way to set up macros like the PvP hotbars. I want one button that uses soul eater and one button that uses Power Slash.

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Originally Posted by Grafeit

ExLegen, I am not trolling, and I apologize. I was convinced that when I logged in I was getting ready to prove you wrong.

It's not Dark Arts that I can't use, its Blood Weapon. All this time, I thought Blood Weapon was Dark Arts. So I was reading Dark Arts, and using had Blood Weapon setup. I apologize for the mis-understanding ExLegen.

Still, I'm looking for a good rotation/setup. I also wanted to know if there's a way to set up macros like the PvP hotbars. I want one button that uses soul eater and one button that uses Power Slash.

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People are still trying to figure out the rotations for DRK with the new abilities. Though essentially this is DRK in a nutshell:

Darkside should pretty much ALWAYS be turned on period. It no longer drains your MP while its on so there really isn't much point to turning it off. If you are tanking then you should have both Grit and Darkside up until you feel comfortable with dropping grit. SE is really pushing for tanks to be in tank stance full time, hence, why you can no longer use blood price when grit is turned off.

The enmity generation on unleash was increased but the potency was nerfed into the ground. Abyssal Drain (AD) is your go to AoE threat builder. If you combine it with dark arts (DA) it will give you some extra healing. With the nerf to MP regen abilities its very difficult to sustain DA + AD for more than a few times. Because of this I usually just use it by itself.

On the initial pull I might use unleash to help gather the mobs, but after that I use AD to maintain threat.

Single target your combo is basically 1-2-3 just repeat soul eater combo. Use DA on SE it should be available every time while grit is active. Carve-&-Split (CS) is used with DA for me on ST. If I'm pulling large packs I will use CS for the extra MP for more AD.

Obviously there is more to it...but for now that will get you started and learning the basics. From there...until the theorycrafters figure out the best rotation just experiment and see what works best for you.

here's how you play DRK in a single target boss fight

start in grit, use power slash combo or two, turn grit off.

If there is a ninja/samurai/warrior, wait until they apply slashing debuff, then use DA C&S, otherwise, blow it right away. spam dark arts as much as you can, and keep blood weapon on cooldown. Use delirium whenever possible AND whenever blood weapon is active, otherwise use your blood gauge on bloodspiller. do not use dark passenger. Make sure to always use plunge and salted earth as soon as they are available.

Make sure your MP never gets full. If your MP is full, that means MP wasted that could've been used for more dark arts. Remember, it makes no real difference if you use dark arts in syphon strike or soul eater, so just use dark arts before your MP gets too high. Keep an eye on C&S and make sure you have enough MP before it comes off cooldown to use dark arts on it.

Trash pulls:

Unmend one of the mobs. Use Unleash once (especially if you get an Unmend proc) just to secure starting aggro. Pop Blood Price and use Dark Arts + Abyssal Drain on the group until you run out or get low on mp. Use Carve and Split or Syphon Strike to regain some MP, popping any cooldowns you might need in the process. Once the group thins out, you can switch to single targeting with Syphon Strike > Souleater combo.


The self heal skills you heard about are those: Abyssal Drain and Souleater. Luckily, they still return 100% damage dealt as HP, even though the tooltip was changed to say "a portion of" and datamining suggested it would only be 10%.

For single pulls, you just want to Power Slash combo and then Dark Arts the last one. Then you can pretty much perpetually Souleater combo, using DA on Souleater most of the time. You can even mix in DA on Syphon Strike or Carve and Split (though you can save C&S for emergency mp too if you want). Pop Rampart and Shadow Wall as necessary. I haven't gotten any of the 62+ abilities, so I can't speak from experience on those, but they seem pretty straightforward.

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Originally Posted by Hierro

Remember, it makes no real difference if you use dark arts in syphon strike or soul eater, so just use dark arts before your MP gets too high.

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The bump in potency increases the amount of lifesteal health you gain back using Souleater, so use it on that one preferentially. SS gains no benefit beyond potency.

but he was saying with grit off. you don't gain heal back from souleater without grit

A general cheatsheet for DRK-knighting

Building Threat:
Multiple targets: Use Abyssal Drain and/or Unleash
Single target: Unmend -> Hard slash combo.

Defensives
Magical tank buster?: Dark Arts + Dark Mind
Physical tank buster or under pressure?: Shadow Wall or Rampart
Lots of needling hits?: Anticipation
Really desperate and got MP to spare?: Dark Arts + Dark Passenger

General rotation:
Is carve and spit off cooldown?: Weave Dark Arts + Carve and Spit into rotation, be careful not to clip dark arts with syphon strike.
Do you have lots of MP?: Hard Strike -> Syphon Strike -> Dark Arts + Souleater
Otherwise: Souleater combo without dark arts.
Unless you gotta burn fast, MP be damned: Hard Strike -> Dark arts + Syphon Strike -> Dark Arts + Souleater

Heals plox!:
Lots of enemies near me: Dark Arts + Abyssal Drain
Just one?: Dark Arts + Souleater combo, like you should be doing anyway
Convalescence off cooldown?: Convalescence and pray to your healer to notice...

Darkside should always be active
Blood Price or Blood Weapon should be used on cooldown pretty much
Grit should be active when tanking, but disabled when helping DPS/burn phases
Crawling - Linkin park should always be playing in the background

Havn't got the 70 skills yet, at a guess though. you're going to use blood to boost duration of your buffs through delirium on cooldown, burn excess blood by weaving in quietus on LARGE groups, or bloodspiller the rest of the time, and use Blackest Night as an additional defensive cooldown)

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Originally Posted by Grafeit

I also wanted to know if there's a way to set up macros like the PvP hotbars. I want one button that uses soul eater and one button that uses Power Slash.

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There's no easy to viable way to properly macro a combo. Even if there was a simple way to set one up, it's highly inadvisable as skills in a macro can't be buffered.

I would love for there to be a way to further reduce button bloat by condensing combos into single buttons, but until then it's best to not use macros for your GCD skills.

I love this, buuut, Carve and Spit? I don't seem the have that one..

what is the effective way to use bloodspiller, gather 100 gauce and turn on grit which 600 mp and 1 GCD then use it 2 time or just use it whenever gauce hit 50 without grit? (i'm talking about when i'm OT)

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Originally Posted by ShariusTC

what is the effective way to use bloodspiller, gather 100 gauce and turn on grit which 600 mp and 1 GCD then use it 2 time or just use it whenever gauce hit 50 without grit? (i'm talking about when i'm OT)

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You are better off using Bloodspiller when it is up for the most part, turning on Grit loses you a GCD and 1800mana at lvl70.

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Originally Posted by Grafeit

I love this, buuut, Carve and Spit? I don't seem the have that one..

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You'll get Carve and Spit from the level 60 DRK job quest. It's an oGCD skill that does 100 potency damage and returns some MP. If used with Dark Arts, it does 450 potency but no MP return.

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Originally Posted by Pyitoechito

There's no easy to viable way to properly macro a combo. Even if there was a simple way to set one up, it's highly inadvisable as skills in a macro can't be buffered.

I would love for there to be a way to further reduce button bloat by condensing combos into single buttons, but until then it's best to not use macros for your GCD skills.

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They do exactly that for PvP. Your two combos are both condensed into a single button. After pressing it once, it changes to the next skill in the combo.