[Opener/Tips/Advices] How to play Drk

[Syzygian]

We only really have 6 cross classes to choose from. I was responding to a post about which ones to choose.

Convo is strong, and should be taken. Provoke is mandatory on a lot of content.

The other 4 just aren't that strong. Definitely not as strong as Convo or Provoke. Of the remaining set, I prefer Foresight because I think it's the strongest. At ~8% reduction you are looking at a 1/3 strength cooldown. Awareness is specifically good for enemies that have high crit % phases. But that's not very many. Outisde of that, enemy crit is very low, I've heard it's around 5%. So the overall mitigation provided is very weak (2.5%). On its own, you're looking at something like a 1/8th strength cooldown. With DD in the same circumstance, you're only losing 5% of your parries to crits. If you had a base parry rate of 20% (which is high unless you've got parry on your gear), then DD brought it up to 50%, then you're only losing around 2.5% of your parries to crits. Since parries are only 20% reduction, it's still not a noteworthy difference.

Bloodbath, I think is probably weaker on DRK than on PLD or WAR. I wouldn't really consider bloodbath & DA+SE to stack "well". They both restore HP, but there's no multiplicative effect of one with the other. And Blood Weapon represents the weakest damage boost of the 3 jobs. Berserk at 50% and FoF at 30% are much stronger, and that directly multiplies the bloodbath heals. When you're looking at total portion of incoming damage, I think the % returned isn't going to be that high, and probably not all that effective, even when compared to something like Foresight.

It doesn't mean these cooldowns are useless, it's that they're all kind of meh. In my opinion, none of them really stand out (unless you're talking about awareness vs. a boss with a high crit phase) and I don't think (aside from Foresight) even measure up as 1/3CDs.

So, anyway, Convo & Provoke are mandatory. Pick 3 of the last four, they're all somewhat mediocre.

Mobs crit rate isn't the worry, its bosses. In A1S and A3S, during progression anyway (not overgearing) those boss' crits can 1-shot you or finish you off. And if you're in a dungeon tanking 11 mobs the chances of you eating a crit go up exponentially.

You're severely underselling Blood Weapon. First off, Berserk and FoF are 90s recasts, Blood Weapon is 40. Blood Weapon's attack speed increase is also only part of the DPS increase it grants. In its duration you can spam DA Souleater, and if you applied Delirium immediately prior, you'll only have that fall off for a few seconds due to the attack speed increase. The increased attack speed directly compliments healing from Bloodbath. And yes, if you're in Grit, rotating DA SE with Bloodbath up is good healing, so I'd say that yes, they do synergize. Its like saying Second Wind and ToB don't synergize. They do. If its a low damage phase with mostly auto-attacks you can recover several thousand HP between the two.

These are oGCD cooldowns... they cost you no DPS other than the .01% you can gain in the course of a fight with Mercy Stroke. Its not like folks are asking you to stack all vit and glue your face to your tank stance. Why not pop them if you have them? They DO have uses, USE them. Why discourage people from doing everything they can to mitigate damage?

I do not understand why tanks get on here and shit on cooldowns. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming they aren't the tanks that just don't pop cooldowns. Its not just the quoted poster, its everywhere on the tank forums. "Foresight is shit, Bloodbath is meh, Awareness is useless..." What is there to gain from constantly shit-canning untraited cross-class abilities other than trying to look like a badass that's too good for a cooldown that isn't a clear tank buster CD? People get on here and talk like they've got too much swag for Awareness/Bloodbath/etc. but if they are a decent tank they're still popping those cooldowns if nothing else is up or they're saving bigger CDs for bigger hits. The only thing this does is encourage new tanks to not push any cooldown that isn't fucking Sentinel or Shadow Wall and then wind up on the floor 10 seconds later.

[Freyyy]

I do not understand why tanks get on here and shit on cooldowns. [...]

You're overreacting here dude. Foresight is a shitty CD, Awareness too, and Bloodbath could be better. It's a fact. Does that mean that we shouldn't use them ? Of course not, they still do their job, and we are not sacrificing anything for popping them. So indeed, we use them, and they do help. It's still shitty cooldowns and we were just comparing their benefits because we have to sacrifice one anyway since we only have 5 cross-class slots. I just think that they could be a lot better for their recast timers, especially when you look at some DPS incredibly powerful cross-class abilities like Raging Strikes, Hawk's Eye, Invigorate and stuff. Tanks only get shitty stuff except for Convo, Voke and Bloodbath (and this one is 'meh' but still better than Awareness and Foresight IMO).

[Giantbane]

Mobs crit rate isn't the worry, its bosses. In A1S and A3S, during progression anyway (not overgearing) those boss' crits can 1-shot you or finish you off. And if you're in a dungeon tanking 11 mobs the chances of you eating a crit go up exponentially.

You're severely underselling Blood Weapon. First off, Berserk and FoF are 90s recasts, Blood Weapon is 40. Blood Weapon's attack speed increase is also only part of the DPS increase it grants. In its duration you can spam DA Souleater, and if you applied Delirium immediately prior, you'll only have that fall off for a few seconds due to the attack speed increase. The increased attack speed directly compliments healing from Bloodbath. And yes, if you're in Grit, rotating DA SE with Bloodbath up is good healing, so I'd say that yes, they do synergize. Its like saying Second Wind and ToB don't synergize. They do. If its a low damage phase with mostly auto-attacks you can recover several thousand HP between the two.

These are oGCD cooldowns... they cost you no DPS other than the .01% you can gain in the course of a fight with Mercy Stroke. Its not like folks are asking you to stack all vit and glue your face to your tank stance. Why not pop them if you have them? They DO have uses, USE them. Why discourage people from doing everything they can to mitigate damage?

I do not understand why tanks get on here and shit on cooldowns. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming they aren't the tanks that just don't pop cooldowns. Its not just the quoted poster, its everywhere on the tank forums. "Foresight is shit, Bloodbath is meh, Awareness is useless..." What is there to gain from constantly shit-canning untraited cross-class abilities other than trying to look like a badass that's too good for a cooldown that isn't a clear tank buster CD? People get on here and talk like they've got too much swag for Awareness/Bloodbath/etc. but if they are a decent tank they're still popping those cooldowns if nothing else is up or they're saving bigger CDs for bigger hits. The only thing this does is encourage new tanks to not push any cooldown that isn't fucking Sentinel or Shadow Wall and then wind up on the floor 10 seconds later.

You need some reading comprehension and bad.

We're talking STRICTLY about the cross class abilities, which ones are must have, which ones are optional. You don't take the cross class abilities and then let them sit there. Who the hell does that? It's just a choice of what to use. In the grand scheme of things, they're not that powerful, so if you want to trade off ONE of them for mercy stroke, it's not that big a deal. Mercy stroke is also weak, as you point out, so you're perfectly fine going the defensive route if that's your preference with very little lost.

Blood Weapon having a 40s cooldown is completely irrelevant to the discussion. I'm ONLY talking about blood bath here, and when you use blood weapon and blood bath at the same time, it's a lot weaker than blood bath and berserk or blood bath and FoF. Who cares if you can use it again in 40s? Can you use Blood bath again in 40s with it? no. Is it going to give you any more healing from Blood bath by using it 40s later? no. So it's pointless to mention.

Several thousand HP over a low damage phase? It's a low damage phase. Who cares? What are you trying to save your healer 1 GCD to throw regen on you? Is it useful? Sure, mildly. I use it when it's up, and try to pair it with Blood weapon whenever possible. Is there something wrong with using it? no. Is it a huge deal if you want mercy stroke instead? Honestly, it's probably not going to change healer behavior that much unless you're talking a dungeon run where you're over geared. Usually when you want healing, you want it right now. That's why Equilibrium is so good and part of why Clemency is not so amazing. Stretching this over 15s is not exceptional. Usable, of course, but if you want to swap it out, you'll probably be ok. Particularly when you consider the DRK has the weakest tools for boosting its effects.

And awareness is eliminating a 5% chance of what you're talking about for 15s over a 2 minute period. If you can somehow cope with crits for the other 105s of that duration, you're probably not really gaining all that much by using it. Of course you use it if you have it, and if you can use it in conjunction with a parry boost or block boost, then by all means do so and get the most out of it. But we went through the entirety of 2.x where warriors collectively shrugged their shoulders at it as a cross class choice. And that's with a lot of shared raiding experience across every warrior that didn't feel it was mandatory by any stretch of the imagination under normal circumstances.

[Syzygian]

You need some reading comprehension and bad.

We're talking STRICTLY about the cross class abilities, which ones are must have, which ones are optional. You don't take the cross class abilities and then let them sit there. Who the hell does that? It's just a choice of what to use. In the grand scheme of things, they're not that powerful, so if you want to trade off ONE of them for mercy stroke, it's not that big a deal. Mercy stroke is also weak, as you point out, so you're perfectly fine going the defensive route if that's your preference with very little lost.

Blood Weapon having a 40s cooldown is completely irrelevant to the discussion. I'm ONLY talking about blood bath here, and when you use blood weapon and blood bath at the same time, it's a lot weaker than blood bath and berserk or blood bath and FoF. Who cares if you can use it again in 40s? Can you use Blood bath again in 40s with it? no. Is it going to give you any more healing from Blood bath by using it 40s later? no. So it's pointless to mention.

Several thousand HP over a low damage phase? It's a low damage phase. Who cares? What are you trying to save your healer 1 GCD to throw regen on you? Is it useful? Sure, mildly. I use it when it's up, and try to pair it with Blood weapon whenever possible. Is there something wrong with using it? no. Is it a huge deal if you want mercy stroke instead? Honestly, it's probably not going to change healer behavior that much unless you're talking a dungeon run where you're over geared.

I feel I read and comprehended you just fine. And I'm sorry if I came off strong but I did specify that its not just you, I see this everywhere, and its just tiresome to see people calling buttons on their hotbar useless, especially in a thread started by someone asking for tips/advice, when you know damn well that they're still pushing them. It feels hypocritical.

Low damage phase is a relative term. Low damage phase in savage still means several thousand DTPS. And if you're doing huge speed run pulls in a piddly dungeon, its not far off from that either. I'm not thinking about saving healer GCDs, I'm thinking if something stupid happens, how long will I be able to survive without their intervention if they have to go tend to some dumbassery on the part of someone else in the party? Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one not living in this fantasy world that people seem to make their arguments based on, where every party is a farm party, DPS never fuck up/take unnecessary damage/die, and the healer is 100% focused on you.

I see people quote math on Foresight and Awareness all the time, but people just give Mercy Stroke the benefit of the doubt because "mah deepz, bruh" (not referring to any one particular person in particular here). What's the actual percentage increase on a DRK (who can't Zerk or IR it) for personal DPS assuming they get to hit Mercy Stroke twice in a boss fight? Not trying to be sassy, I'm genuinely curious, and Mercy Stroke seems to get a free pass because its deeps and we're in a dps focused meta. How much does it *actually* increase DPS?

I just feel like it deserves the same scrutiny, and it doesn't get it because its an offensive ability rather than defensive. We will take time out of our days to math a defensive cooldown to death for the sake of discounting/devaluing it but if its a DPS increase it could be .00000001% and we'd still take it. =/

[Giantbane]

What's the actual percentage increase on a DRK (who can't Zerk or IR it) for personal DPS assuming they get to hit Mercy Stroke twice in a boss fight? Not trying to be sassy, I'm genuinely curious, and Mercy Stroke seems to get a free pass because its deeps and we're in a dps focused meta. How much does it *actually* increase DPS?

I just feel like it deserves the same scrutiny, and it doesn't get it because its an offensive ability rather than defensive. We will take time out of our days to math a defensive cooldown to death for the sake of discounting/devaluing it but if its a DPS increase it could be .00000001% and we'd still take it. =/

Ok, but I never said useless in any of my posts. I think you could have covered your opinion much more concisely by just pointing out that Mercy Stroke is very weak as an offensive option, so you think it's better to go the defensive route and lay that out.