"Dark Knight: Tanking On The Edge"

[Jpec07]

Good guide!

Rotations are a little hard to follow because of the heavy abbreviation usage, but I can't fault you for it (just about every guide for every job/class/spec in every MMO ever does this).

I'll disagree with Grit being "essentially a defensive cooldown," because in my experience, in 90% of cases, you'll want to leave it on - it's a toggle-switch, which suggests as much. Especially given that Souleater doesn't restore HP without Grit, I've found that it's almost always more beneficial to leave it on.

The only thing I'd suggest is regarding Awareness: its effectiveness as a cooldown scales directly with an enemy's critical strike rating/chance, and also makes the Parry stat more effective over its duration. Not accounting for parry, the mitigation provided by Awareness is going to be half of the opponent's critical strike rating (5% Crit = 2.5% Awareness Mitigation; 15% Crit = 7.5% Awareness Mitigation, etc. - I'll provide maths later if needed). So against trash who probably have lower Crit ratings, it's not as useful, but against bosses (whose Crit ratings I suspect can go to 15%-25%), it becomes much more substantial. A note on it, though: to maximize its effectiveness, you don't want to pair it with anything that increases your ability to dodge an attack, since dodge is rolled before Crit. So DA-DD (+dodge) and DA-DP (blind on opponents) will actually work against Awareness. It does have excellent parity with other abilities, and can actually enhance their effects--especially non-DA-DD in a high physical damage situation (because Crit is rolled before parry, not being able to be Crit also means more hits coming in that can be parried).

[Syzygian]

I'll disagree with Grit being "essentially a defensive cooldown," because in my experience, in 90% of cases, you'll want to leave it on - it's a toggle-switch, which suggests as much. Especially given that Souleater doesn't restore HP without Grit, it's almost always more beneficial to leave it on.

At several points I state that having Grit off as much as I suggest is not mandatory. But in terms of maximizing your performance, using it like WAR's Inner Beast is more appropriate. Having Grit off increases DPS, simplifies MP management, and saves TP. It is up to the individual player, their party/static, and the encounter to determine when it is best to leave it on. This guide suggests resorting to cooldowns first, and when those are exhausted or insufficient, then activating Grit. As far as enmity goes, DRK's enmity generation is sufficient that a PS opener with perhaps a bit of help from a NIN is usually enough to turn Grit off afterwards. It is by no means incorrect or improper play to use Grit minimally and it is a level of play that I recommend DRKs strive for.

[Syzygian]

I will give you credit for being the first guide I've seen to suggest dropping Grit for MP management. But I'm not going to argue this very much, because it will very quickly devolve into the Str/Vit debate, which is one that I am quite frankly very tired of. I just wanted to comment that your note about it not having any mechanical impact is technically incorrect, because SE won't restore HP without it.

Also, while it is not improper to play with Grit "as a cooldown" (provided you can hold hate and juggle your cooldowns effectively enough to make up for the lost mitigation), I will also posit that it is neither incorrect to play with Grit "as a stance." It may complicate mana management, but the extra mitigation provided in raw reduction and self-heals is roughly equal to what you get from turning it off to DPS faster.

I did not neglect to mention that SE's healing component is tied to Grit anywhere in the guide, to my knowledge. This is a very very small mechanic however and one that requires you to be taking very little spike damage of any kind for healers to take notice, as (with Grit on and full STR gear) you're only recovering about 1.8-1.9K every 3 GCDs, and that's if you're spamming it and neglecting SC and DE. Its not like WAR losing Inner Beast, for instance. DRK's mechanics are tied to being hit, not to having tank stance on. I also didn't discuss stat weights for any reason or mention any kind of STR/VIT debate, nor did I say that having Grit on is bad play. It depends on the situation. In a fight like Thordan for instance, TBs are frequent enough that I'm only able to spend about 40-50% of the fight out of Grit. In A3S you can spend 90% of the fight out of Grit. In A1S you don't need it at all (unless you're solo-tanking Faust). It really depends on the encounter.

Most newer tanks will hang on to their tank stance for dear life, I wanted to advertise using it minimally in this guide as it is generally more efficient once you and your group are comfortable with it. The general message I want to convey is that you should do what you and your group are comfortable with, but you can maximize efficiency in many ways by finding opportunities to turn it off.

Great write up, I will be referring future DRK's here. One thing I would like to state is that the DRK MT/ WAR OT combo does not awkwardly include the Enmity combo. Any Warrior worth his Loincloth will be using the SE combo, despite the loss of 20 potency, SE grants more DPS overtime them alternating SE/BB. Even when MT, War's will only BB when the aggro gets low or as the second combo of their opener. I raid with DRK MT and we never have this issue.

I believe that is a DPS loss iirc? If Maim and SE are maintained BB combo is a DPS gain, so most WARs will alternate them unless SP is needed for an upcoming TB/raid-wide hit, as I understand it. If you spam SE you're losing 20 potency to refresh Maim/SE well before they're in danger of falling, are you not?

[Iagainsti]

I believe that is a DPS loss iirc? If Maim and SE are maintained BB combo is a DPS gain, so most WARs will alternate them unless SP is needed for an upcoming TB/raid-wide hit, as I understand it. If you spam SE you're losing 20 potency to refresh Maim/SE well before they're in danger of falling, are you not?

Yes, when fighting a standstill enemy, like a dummy, it is a dps loss of 20 potency. Most true fights where dps numbers matter, Im not talking roulette duties for sure, where mechanics can and will interrupt combos, the loss of Se and/or maim is more detrimental to your dps than that extra 20 potency. Also constantly being inside an SE combo allows you the opportunity to drop an quick SP when needed. I can't speak for the whole community, but I know my playstyle and watching many Warrior POV vids showcase that the majority of end game Warriors will drop the BB combo only to maintain aggro. Even the 20 drop in potency is divided by a 10 point drop on Maim and a 10 point drop on SE compared to SS and BB, so with the proper amount of Crit rating, you see the same numbers anyways.