DRK and Blood gauge

Hey all,

Being a newbie in FFXIV and maining a DRK, I wanted to know how experienced DRKers feel about the blood gauge and how to use it efficiently.

In general I think capping resources are bad but I find myself not using the gauge often. What is actually the use of the blood gauge currently?

I mainly use the gauge for delirium to extend blood weapon, but thats only once every 2 minutes, in between I feel like I have too much blood that has nowhere to go. Quietus only fits into the mass pull dungeon situation so its useless 90% of the time and I'm not sure if Bloodspiller provides enough gain when you need to use half your MP to make it good (TBN+DABS).

With the way DA can be used MP will always be in shortage even with BW because you can DA for C&S and SS, should I still be using DABS when I have 100 blood?

I find it very clunky to try to not cap on blood (100) but still make sure I save enough blood to use Delirium and at the same not to make sure if TBN pops I will have less than 50 Blood so that it doesn't go to waste.

Any tips will be appreciated thanks!

It is very situational, you are right that delirium extending blood weapon/price usually trumps all. In general, naturally gained blood is a dps increase and should be used frequently provided no buff windows are coming up. You are also right about trying to avoid capping your resource.

In grit bloodspiller is always a potency gain over any other attack even if you use TBN to get the blood, the only exception to this is saving DA for carve and spit. Of course with multiple enemies quietus becomes better somewhere in the range of 5 to 6 enemies. Using DAAD until quietus is ready then getting an mp bump from quietus and repeating usually works well.

Out of grit against a single target, you will break even"ish" every three tbns you pop for bloodspiller. Naturally gained blood should just be spent as needed as it is always a dps gain.

Of course if you know you have trick attack or other windows coming up you may want to hold these attacks for this.

Thanks for the response, if BS is always good when used with the naturally generated blood, should I always save MP to DA it? or just use it raw if MP is an issue (maybe need TBN for TB or need to Grit soon)

In grit only carve and spit has a higher DA priority than bloodspiller. In Grit DA + bloodspiller is 175 potency gained, most everything else is 140 potency or lower.

Out of grit it turns out it doesn't matter, everything you dark arts is 140 potency with the exception of carve and spit which your highest priority DA. So our priority is to DA C&S and DA any move you can when you have spare mana. TBN is mainly for your healer when out of grit and may be right around the same potency (on average) as when you DA. In seems weird because you won't hit huge numbers when you DA siphon over say bloodspiller, but it works out to us causing about the same amount of damage overall its just more spread out than you would expect.

The above is only from a dps perspective of course. If you need mana for a TB (for grit or mitigation from TBN) that is the highest priority. Once you know the fight and when you will need the mitigation then the mp issues may go away. Once fight knowledge is mastered you can work out what you can and cannot get away with during the fight.

Why not just spam Dark Arts Bloodspiller as a priority after Delirium, Carve and Spit and The Blackest Night procs?

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Originally Posted by Mithron

Why not just spam Dark Arts Bloodspiller as a priority after Delirium, Carve and Spit and The Blackest Night procs?

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In grit this is what you want to do since DA + Bloodspiller is 35 more potency than and other GCD thing you can DA.

Out of grit, your overall potency for dark arts on most moves is 140 potency, the exceptions already listed. No matter where you dark arts something you add 140 potency to your rotation overall. Now, if you enjoy seeing really high single numbers go up then bloodspiller is the way to go, but at the end of the day your rotation will have the same overall potency no matter what you dark arts. You might think critical attacks might change the priority, but it turns out it doesn't you can math it out to prove it. Basically the reason for why is that if you DA a move that does not crit over an alternative which crits then the only potency is lost on not critting on the dark arts, which is losing 56 potency.

Okay so if Dark Arts Bloodspiller isn't better than Dark Arts Souleater outside of Grit, then they need to buff Bloodspiller's potency out of Grit with Dark Arts.

Overall, I would like to see them either buff bloodspiller or lower the resource cost of TBN so that TBN has priority over Dark Arts in most all situations and not just when in grit.

Never cap on blood. Bloodspiller is still very powerful without dark arts. As for Delirium, when you use BW and are on the enemy with 100% uptime, you will ALWAYS get at leaat 50 blood. The autos plus the gcds, souleater guarantee it. I have never not got enough blood for Delirium and I pop it after or before hard slash at the start. So if you have even 60 Blood, use Bloodspiller, unless you're mid blood weapon.

Do NOT use TBN to just gain 50 blood, that is not worth it outside grit. It is a slight dps loss, however you can use it freely if you actually need it for difficult content, large trash pulls or a tankbuster, but overall it is a loss to trade TBN for BS. But....using Bloodspiller at all is actually only a small gain anyway, like 100 dps tops. But you still should use it.

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Originally Posted by RLofOBFL

Do NOT use TBN to just gain 50 blood, that is not worth it outside grit. It is a slight dps loss, however you can use it freely if you actually need it for difficult content, large trash pulls or a tankbuster, but overall it is a loss to trade TBN for BS. But....using Bloodspiller at all is actually only a small gain anyway, like 100 dps tops. But you still should use it.

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Unless you have the skill to DA 3 Bloodspillers back to back which requires less DA for Carve and Spit which would be considered a loss, and Dark Passenger, but not really a loss then you save MP for Bloodspiller and Carve and Spit which also means no DA for Souleaer and Syphon Strike... but at this point they should just make DRK DPS instead...

You...don't...need...to...spend...your...MP...to...use...Bloodspiller.

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Originally Posted by Reynhart

You...don't...need...to...spend...your...MP...to...use...Bloodspiller.

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It's priority to da bloodspiller after carve and spit. You should always be trying to da as many bloodspillers as possible, while still leaving mp to dac&s as it comes up, or use tbn before a buster.

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Originally Posted by Hruodig

It's priority to da bloodspiller after carve and spit.

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You misunderstood me. I wasn't talking about spending your MP to enhance Bloodspiller.
This...

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Originally Posted by SleepyNeko

I'm not sure if Bloodspiller provides enough gain when you need to use half your MP to make it good (TBN+DABS).

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...false idea needs to die. It plagues the forum since the launch of Stormblood. And especially on this topic where the OP complained to have "too much blood".

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Originally Posted by Hruodig

It's priority to da bloodspiller after carve and spit. You should always be trying to da as many bloodspillers as possible, while still leaving mp to dac&s as it comes up, or use tbn before a buster.

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It's only true when you're in Grit. Outside of it, the potency gain from DA is the same on Bloodspiller, Souleater and Syphon Strike. Whether you DA one or another doesn't matter at all. 140 potency is 140 potency, whether it's part of a 390 potency attack or a 640 one. It's still the same +140 potency.

TBN is mainly used for opener for that Delirium/BW burst period, outside of that is just syncing with the tank busters and buffs/debuffs. So you should have no issue spending your gauge because TBN is the only tool to spike your gauge for that short of a period, unless if in O4S Neo if you are doing the "overall" MT duty where you are using more TBN for mitigation.

Priority on DA outside of TA/Litany/Hypercharge/etc (you just spam DA on most of the things in your burst period) is still CnS>BS>SE>PS. If you wonder why PS is listed here is mostly because DAPS is the no.1 priority on opener, all top DRKs already pull without Grit. Obviously NIN's shade and 'double' Shirks shenanigans included if you are pulling without Grit, which otherwise is ignored once you don't need any additional enmity. Ideally you still want to prioritize DABS but for the most part is just to make sure you don't cap on gauge and mana. The harder details on maximizing dps comes mainly from lining up with the buffs like TA/Hypercharge etc where you should count how much mana you can "save" on the incoming burst periods which I haven't bothered doing as of yet, maybe soon.

Thank you for the response, so it is the best practice to dump excess blood on BS, and DA it if you have spare MP, and this is inside grit and outside grit.

I'm not a DRK main (I play my tanks equally), but it depends on the situation. In most cases, especially in dungeons, I'm almost always spamming my gauge.

In dungeons, you'll see me using Quietus often, as well as Bloodspiller on the bosses.