Is it me, or is DRK really isn't that super great, nor super bad.

[Fendred]

From the overview of the class and what I've played of it so far, darkside goes down regularly and is supposed to go down regularly. We have abilities that consume darkside, and its in those moments that we'd want to get our MP back with siphon strike. Blood weapon is only useful during tank swaps, which is when the dark knight will have the opportunity to deactivate grit. The game is built around the WoW model for combat, and I can say from years of playing across games using this model that you'd never put down your tank stance when faced with a boss. Damage reduction cooldowns are supposed to be used to stop instant death from massive boss attacks, not extend the benefits of "grit" so you can regain MP off a single cooldown. Remember, you'd have to keep grit off for a full 15 seconds because grit dispels the effect of blood weapon when you reactivate it.

[Timat]

From the overview of the class and what I've played of it so far, darkside goes down regularly and is supposed to go down regularly. We have abilities that consume darkside, and its in those moments that we'd want to get our MP back with siphon strike. Blood weapon is only useful during tank swaps, which is when the dark knight will have the opportunity to deactivate grit. The game is built around the WoW model for combat, and I can say from years of playing across games using this model that you'd never put down your tank stance when faced with a boss. Damage reduction cooldowns are supposed to be used to stop instant death from massive boss attacks, not extend the benefits of "grit" so you can regain MP off a single cooldown. Remember, you'd have to keep grit off for a full 15 seconds because grit dispels the effect of blood weapon when you reactivate it.

You are not supposed ot have darkside fall off

The idea is to manage your MP and keep it rolling

furthermore, abilities dont consume darkside, they require it active to use.

[Fendred]

You are not supposed ot have darkside fall off

The idea is to manage your MP and keep it rolling

furthermore, abilities dont consume darkside, they require it active to use.

Woops, I was confusing dark arts with darkside. My bad.

Regardless, I do flip it off in between encounters to let my MP go back up, and I don't see any dark knight keeping darkside up if they are in a situation that requires heavy AoE.

[Avalon_Albrook]

Woops, I was confusing dark arts with darkside. My bad.

Regardless, I do flip it off in between encounters to let my MP go back up, and I don't see any dark knight keeping darkside up if they are in a situation that requires heavy AoE.

This is, at early levels, a little more tricky to manage, as Blood Price should never be on cooldown, but when you pop it needs to be strategic. You obviously shouldn't pop it when there's one mob left at half health and you'll get maybe 2 attacks worth of mp regen from it before the mob is dead. As you go and you get the feel for things, the mp management is way more comfortable. The more mobs there are, the more effective Blood Price is, and the more freedom you have with aoes, especially later. Like in the Vault last night, just for kicks, I did nothing but dark arts Abyssal Drain on a group of about 8 mobs while Blood Price was up. By the time dark arts was back up again for another Abyssal Drain, my mp was full.

Darkside should never be off if you're actively in combat. Never ever ever. Not while tanking, not while OTing, not while running around a map doing quests -- never ever ever off. If it falls off, turn it back on the second you have the mana for it. If you turn it off for better mana regen in between pulls, that's fine, but when in combat, if Darkside is off, something is wrong.