"Dark Knight: Tanking On The Edge"

[Cynric]

snip.

Ah I see what you're saying.My personal preference for using grit with 4+ mobs is a little different but mileage may vary depending on gear vs content, but if I know I'm comfy with pulling a ton of mobs I'll keep grit up for a couple of AD's then I'll turn it off and try to focus on AoE DPS cycling my CD's. Though it really depends on the healer and party composition. I mark something with sole survivor when HP gets low, if we get to the point of 2-3 mobs left I'll pop blood weapon to regen some extra MP for the next pull, unless it's a boss then I probably have enough MP for it. I don't need to pull less mobs to have grit off though, I pull the same amount either way, as much as possible.

I do have a question though, this is something I'm not really sure about but it involves speed runs and I wonder what your thoughts are. I found that when grabbing mobs for quite a while it seems more beneficial to be grit on/ darkside off for my mana management , then when I stop I turn darkside on. Do you feel like it's better to be darkside off while gathering mobs or on? I just can't stand the MP drain while i'm still pulling things and not being able to regen it or do any real damage yet personally.

[Syzygian]

I do have a question though, this is something I'm not really sure about but it involves speed runs and I wonder what your thoughts are. I found that when grabbing mobs for quite a while it seems more beneficial to be grit on/ darkside off for my mana management , then when I stop I turn darkside on. Do you feel like it's better to be darkside off while gathering mobs or on? I just can't stand the MP drain while i'm still pulling things and not being able to regen it or do any real damage yet personally.

Nah, I never turn Darkside off until the last mob dies. I let it regen on the way to the next pack, reactivate it, then pull. I minimize my mana consumption while pulling as much as possible.

There's a lot of techniques I've found invaluable for this:

1. Unleash procs. If you get one, use it.
2. For individual mobs I won't always use Unmend, sometimes I'll Plunge to them, other times I'll put Scourge on them and Low Blow them as I run by. With Grit these are enough to hold hate. The DoT ticks will keep them on me and the stun will keep them from hitting me for a second so the healer stress isn't so bad. Tagging things with Scourge+LB is actually a favorite MP-saving technique of mine, I utilize it often.
3. If the first mob is part of a pack I won't bother with Unmend, I'll just run through them and Unleash.
4. If you only hit one mob out of a large pack or series of packs, the remaining mobs tied to it of course are pulled and pile up around your location. If you run through them, they stop and turn around and start to chase you. If there's several packs in succession, or more than I could hit with a single Unleash, I'll just hit the first one with Scourge or Plunge or something, and then let the remaining 5-6 mobs pile up as I run by, and then I'll toss an Abyssal Drain behind me. This way I can tag and get aggro on a huge pile-up of trash with a single spell. Can sometimes scare the rest of the party but generally it works.
5. Speaking of generally, Abyssal Drain is an amazing tool, because its the only tank AoE that can reach behind you. This is the only reason #4 is even possible. If WAR or PLD misses something they have to run back to get it off whomever, or worse if they missed more than one. With DRK, sometimes you can just yoloswagfacepull half a dozen mobs and run past them, and as they pile up behind you tag them all at once. This of course implies there's nothing dumb going on like a regen ticking on you or the like. But even so, once you get the timing down its easy to get a bunch of mobs piled up as you run past them, and then AD them while they are clumped up turning around to chase you.

Sometimes once I reach my destination I'm "low" on MP (2-3K) but this is frankly enough. I generally don't start REALLY AoEing hard until I see that first wall of AAs hit me, then I unleash the Sea Urchins. At this point, BP is up, SK or SW is up, Salted Earth is down in front of me, and I'm ready to get busy. With big enough pulls it can be REALLY hard to make your MP dip below 5K, even with repeated AD spam, DAing every other one. My MP rockets up so fast my head spins, and then its just DA every other AD and its not too hard for the healer to keep up, and generally I've got enough MP left after BP falls to DADD and DADP (sometimes I need a DE combo in there, and of course I weave in un-DAed C&S once my MP actually starts taking a legitimate dip during AoEing). I get my MP back up to where I'm comfortable, put Scourge on things until BP comes off cooldown, then pop another defensive CD and rinse/repeat.

[Cynric]

snip.

The AD stuff might help. I do it sometimes but maybe not often enough. I think I pull more with unmend/unleash than I try to run through and AD them afterwards. That might help. It's probably because I went from PLD > DRK so I'm used to doing the typical Lob/Flash style things and I translated that style of pulling to my DRK.

I also never really thought scourge enmity would be enough but i'll try that out as well. Thanks for the tips.