Confused about DRK complaints

[OliviaBadger]

snip.

Darkside should be up 100% of the time. There isn't any good reason not to have it up. Not to mention the fact that several of your skills can't even be used when not in darkside, you're just doing less damage and less aggro. Dark Arts can be used on a lot of things, both for more damage and more mitigation.

Examples :
Dark Arts with Dark Dance - adds 20% evasion to the 30% extra parry - great mitigation in big packs
Dark Arts with Souleater - 400 potency instead of 260, bigger self heal, more damage
Dark Arts with Dark Passenger - adds blind effect - enemies more likely to miss - more mitigation
Dark Arts with Abyssal Drain - absorbs AOE damage as HP

Several CDs and Dark Arts cannot be used when not in Darkside.

Sure, you can play DRK by never using Dark Arts and not having Darkside on, but youre missing out on 50% of its potential

[Zolentus]

Dark Arts with Dark Dance - adds 20% evasion to the 30% extra parry - great mitigation in big packs
Dark Arts with Souleater - 400 potency instead of 260, bigger self heal, more damage
Dark Arts with Dark Passenger - adds blind effect - enemies more likely to miss - more mitigation
Dark Arts with Abyssal Drain - absorbs AOE damage as HP

Don't forget:

Dark Arts with Dark Mind = Increase from 15% to 30% damage reduction against magical attacks.

This particular combination turns the Tankbuster (a series of rays following the move Discord) in the final phase of Alexander - Burden of the Father from a horrific juggling match for healers into a manageable speed bump. And its 60 second cooldown fits in perfectly with the rotation for this move, so it's up every time. There's a few other fights where it finds use, but here's where it presently shines. It also emphasizes the importance of MP management and combat awareness for Dark Knights.