Getting refused to EX groups as a DRK

[Kiteless]

Hmmm, Darkside, maybe ?

Darkside isn't really a cooldown. You should always have it turned on unless you're bad. It's closer to a weaker, MP draining Shield Oath in that comparison, even if you can keep it on during Grit (at the cost of losing Blood Weapon, which evens things out with Keen Flurry).

Yup. Dark Arts as well. And Drk has also has quite a few OGC attacks to use even while in it's tanking stance. It's got a lot to do with why Drk dps is higher than War dps while the two are in their respective tanking stances.

DRK does have quite a few oGCD attacks, but that does not mean that they'll do more damage than WAR. Considering their major offensive buffs, DRK will generally be dealing 92% damage (Darkside at all times), WAR 90% (Maim at all times), and PLD 88% (Keen flurry a third of the time) while in their tanking stances. Then you factor in things like Unchained, Eye of the Storm and Berserk, and WAR's damage starts to soar. Furthermore, WAR has the ability to stance dance freely. Even if DRK can manage to outDPS WAR in Defiance, that doesn't really matter, since good WARs should be freely switching throughout the fight, outputting massive damage with Deliverance, and then switching to Defiance to use Inner Beast and eat any big hits.

Because of the massive MP cost and GCD attached to Grit, DRK doesn't really have this luxury. WAR has changed quite a bit with 3.0, and you're not giving it the credit it deserves.

Kiteless...you also forgot to mention that all attacks that hit the War from the side or rear will be crits while Raw Intuition is up, which is kind of a big deal....especially when tanking two large enemies or many small to mid sized enemies because some of them WILL be flanking you so you've got to be careful when using raw intuition. You CAN combo it with awareness to help with the crit thing but having to pop another CD to counter the negatives of another could be considered a disadvantage. This is also assuming that the two can be used at the same time, which I'm sure they can be.

Okay, bad WARs will be hurt by Raw intuition. But we don't care about bad WARs. And yes, Raw Intuition can be used with Awareness, and that's not a disadvantage.

@Adventica6

First, it's been said to death, the Darkside MP bug is not an actual bug it's just a graphical glitch, you gain the MP back in the next ticks, but yes if you don't manage your MP and let yourself get low enough where the glitch drains you to zero before the next tick, Darkside falls off, but that's just bad DRKing.

Um... no. Any MP you don't spend is wasted output or mitigation. Managing your MP is all about letting it get as low as possible without actually reaching zero. If you're not letting your MP get low enough to the point where you're being affected by the MP bug, then you're not playing DRK efficiently enough. But if you have MP randomly dropping for no reason, there's nothing you can do about that except lower your own efficiency.