The Bottom Feeders: Moves You Never Use and Why.

[Februs]

You should never use C&S without DA unless AoEing on 4+ mobs. In fact, C&S should be your first priority to DA. This is the most mana efficient DA because you gain 350 potency for doing it while you gain 140 potency for a DA SE, and 100 potency per mob hit for a DA DP. You should never start with a full MP bar since you should DA before you Unmend + Plunge and spend this DA on C&S right after your first GCD (which should be Scourge).

I'm aware... but, more often than not, I prioritized DA-SE rather than DA-C&S because I'm just paranoid about mitigation.

I'm still far more accustomed to Pld tanking, so my biggest concern when switching over to Drk was ensuring that I was mitigating dmg effectively. For one, I'm not as accustomed to the CD's of Drk, and, whereas it was relatively simple to theorycraft which CD's work well together, I'm still not 100% comfortable with them in combat. I've been assured by my FC healer that I'm being overly paranoid, and that I tend to make healing dungeons "boring" by mitigating too much, but I can't help but feel a little squishier on Drk compared to my Pld... and, to be frank, I've seen enough selfish Dps-oriented tanks when leveling my Whm and Drg to know that I didn't want to be "that guy," so I have a bad habit of overcompensating by using as many Self-healing opportunities as possible (a habit I picked up from War).

You're definitely right about the most efficient uses for DA's though, and your starter rotation is solid. Given that I am starting to get more comfortable with Drk tanking, and I usually have more than enough MP to spare, its time I start taking my Drk out of the safety box and pushing its limits. Your responses have given me quite a few ideas for how to go about it. I'm still not 100% comfortable with my hotbar set up, but I'll definitely be giving this a try.

[Brannigan]

Paladin guide to drk cooldown:

Dark Rampart = Rampart
Dark Sentinel = Sentinel
Dark Holmgang = Hallowed Ground
Dark Dance = Fish for Reprisal when you want it; just make sure you use it
(DA)Dark Mind = "If I was a paladin I'd have to use Hallowed Ground here" Top priority move for magic stuff since it gives you ridiculous freedom with dark rampart and dark sentinel.
Everything else is crossclass. Don't forget to Blind/DADA when tanking dodge-able monsters (dungeon trash, A4S adds, probably A2S)

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Isn't it 10%? That can actually be pretty substantial. I know I make sure to get RoH up on Thordan before he stomps my face.

It is at 10% at base yes. Because of how mitigation stacks multiplicatively though instead of additive, it'll never be 10% mitigated unless you have absolutely no other mitigation up, including virus, eye for an eye, sacred soil, etc. Each round of mitigation makes the next mitigation applied less effective.

[MiniPrinny]

As a Dark Knight main who is the off-tank for her static and has a Monk in her party, I can, with great humor, say the ability I use the least is Delirium. Since I rarely need to apply it for intelligence down, I tend to use it only when I can't afford to use Souleater, which, isn't very often. Every other tool in my kit I use regularly and find a use for at least once a fight (even if I don't like to in the case of Living Dead).

[Jpec07]

Delirium is a godsend in some dungeons. DRK tanking World of Darkness is silly because of how much magic damage you can negate.

It is at 10% at base yes. Because of how mitigation stacks multiplicatively though instead of additive, it'll never be 10% mitigated unless you have absolutely no other mitigation up, including virus, eye for an eye, sacred soil, etc. Each round of mitigation makes the next mitigation applied less effective.

Except Awareness. It actually works with Dark Dance, Bulwark, and Raw Intuition in such a way that they greatly amplify one another, and the sum is substantially greater than the parts (I'm working on a spreadsheet examining its effects, and I'm incredibly surprised by how powerful it pairs with these abilities).

EDIT: Apparently I'm a bad DRK for almost never using DA-C&S. I much prefer its mana regen ability to the extra 50 potency I gain by using that instead of DA-SE.

[Brannigan]

wtf am I reading

[Freyyy]

wtf am I reading

The tank forums

[Kabooa]

Paladin guide to drk cooldown:

Dark Rampart = Rampart
Dark Sentinel = Sentinel
Dark Holmgang = Hallowed Ground
Dark Dance = Fish for Reprisal when you want it; just make sure you use it
(DA)Dark Mind = Dark Shelltron in any comparable situation that matters.
Everything else is crossclass. Don't forget to Blind/DADA when tanking dodge-able monsters (dungeon trash, A4S adds, probably A2S)

I somewhat edited that for you.

I'd say fixed, but physical tank busters are the comparable situation, since I don't think there's any uber-hard hitting magic damage boss where you'd use DA DM to take them auto attacks, or a large group of mobs which would invalidate shelltron if physical based, but if magic based would require DA DM to not get their !@#^ rekt.

[Freyyy]

EDIT: Apparently I'm a bad DRK for almost never using DA-C&S. I much prefer its mana regen ability to the extra 50 potency I gain by using that instead of DA-SE.

WTF. When you DA C&S you gain 350 potency (from 100 to 450), when you DA SE you gain 140 potency (from 260 to 400). C&S is oGCD. And honestly, you shouldn't have to choose between DA SE and DA C&S if you're playing properly. You should have enough MP to DA every time C&S is available while rotating DA SE and Delirium and using Dark Passenger on CD. C&S without DA becomes more efficient only during huge AoE pulls; when the extra 884MP you get + the 1768MP you didn't spend makes you able to use Abyssal Drain 2-3 more times.

[Iagainsti]

Truth be told, there's not a move that I do not use in the Warrior toolkit(yes, I even have Foresight macro'd to Bloodbath so I only have to double tap the controller button for both to take effect). Few things I've taken notice here in this thread;

"Unchained" is now the default opener when MT, OT saves for big damage phases where you want to switch to Defiance for Equilibrium/Thrill of Battle yet not lose too much DPS.
"Fracture" is easily thrown in when you have 5 stacks, and before you Heavy Swing>Fellcleave/Inner Beast(Especially when Berserk is up) without a dps loss.
If there is one Warrior action that falls under this list, it's Raw Intuition, not because it doesn't get used so much as it gets used as often as it's up for a Wrath Stack more so than the actual action's ability(pfft Parry xD)

Back on point
Blk Mage- Thunder II gets no love
-Freeze(outside of PVP and SA2/T5 to take care of wayward adds)
MCH- Suppressive Fire once you get Head Shot