Drk opener as mt

[Lyth]

Although this thread is more focused on a general-purpose opener for DRK, sometimes it helps to think of it as more of a set of priorities and tailor your decisions to each fight.

I looked at the top three DRKs for The Cuff of the Son: all MTs, all use Dark Passenger on the pull. Number one & three in Quickthinks Allthoughts: MTs, Dark Passenger on the pull. This and other trends followed throughout the data.

This is interesting. However, to get a sense of an individual tank's priority system in the opener, we have to watch how they approach a few different fights. Let's take a look at one of the cases you mentioned. I've omitted reprisal and LB procs for consistency.

A5S:
Fausts: DA BP > Unmend Salted > HS DP > SpS DD LB > PS DA > Grit off > Scourge (Faust 1) BW > Scourge (Faust 2) C+S > DASE > Scourge
Note: This is tanked with each tank on a different add. Grit is turned off at 10s.

Ratfinks: DA > Unmend Plunge > HS C+S DP > SpS LB > PS Salted DD > DASE Combo
Grit is turned off at 35s.

A6S: DD > Unmend DP LB > HS > SpS Conv > PS Pot > Grit off > Scourge BW > HS DA C+S > DASE Combo
Grit is turned off at 10s. Salted is used after about 18s.

A7S: Unmend DP LB > HS > SpS Conv Salted > PS Pot > Grit off > Scourge BW > HS DA C+S > DASE Combo
Grit is turned off at 10s.

A8S was an OT opener, so I've excluded it.

General Notes:
This group is using a NIN, so the DRK has access to Shadewalker, allowing for a single PS opener. A pot is usually used after PS and Grit is then dropped. DA C+S is typically held until Grit is dropped to get more potency out of it. This gets followed up by Scourge and a DA SE combo. Plunge typically happens quite late, at around 20s in, sometime after the first DA SE combo goes out. I'm not entirely sure what the rationale is.

A5S Team Faust: This is tanked with two tanks for the initial Fausts. The pre-pull DA is applied to DP. If this were a single target situation, DA DP would give you only 100 extra potency, and would be better spent on a DA SE later on for 140 extra potency. Because there are two targets (200 potency), we're past the minimum break even point. This only really becomes efficient at 4 adds (DA DP gives you 57% the potency gain of DA C+S at 2 mobs, 86% at 3 mobs, and 114% at 4 adds), but you only see this happen in the opener.

If you were solo-tanking this (which tends to be the standard PUG approach), you would probably open with AD instead of Unmend. This would prevent you from using a pre-pull DA, so you would probably end up delaying DA DP if you wanted to use it.

Salted Earth gets applied earlier than usual, again because this is multi-target. Hummel lands at 38s for this group, which is another factor in favour for using it earlier. The pot is held for Hummel.

One point on Scourge. It's 500 potency over 30s. Each hit of your Del combo is 226 potency on average, and each hit of your DASE combo is 267 potency on average. Scourge reaches about 260 potency after 12 seconds, so you generally don't want to apply it unless it's going to be ticking for at least 15 seconds. In this scenario, the two Fausts get a Scourge each at around 17s, and Hummel lands at 38s. As clear times become shorter, Scourge will probably get dropped from this opener.

A5S Ratfinks: This is the odd one out. The first thing that you should notice is that Grit stays on until 35s. This is due to the increased incoming damage from the headache stacks. Concussion ends at 32s. Because Grit is kept on, there's no point in holding DA C+S. The pot is held because the boss takes less damage when he is large.

This opener starts with Unmend > Plunge. The boss is animation locked at the start of the fight due to his transformation, so you do save travel time in this case by using Plunge as a gap closer. This wasn't the case in the other fights we're looking at, where the mob will move towards you on pull.

A6S/A67: The A6S and A7S openers are similar, and are probably more representative of a standard pull. The difference is that the A6S opener starts with DD pre-pull, to soften the damage around when the first Brute Force comes in at 7s. Salted gets delayed until about 18 s, probably to allow for repositioning after the mines which come out at 16 s.

So, should you copy this? Well, it depends. If you don't have access to a NIN's Shadewalker, you may need to do two PS combos. This will delay you from turning off Grit. If that's the case, you may not want to delay C+S, which would lead you to opening with DA pre-pull. If you do, DP should come after C+S if it's a single target fight. And each fight should ideally be treated on a case by case basis.

As a general rule of thumb, you don't want to hold on to a cooldown for longer than its recast time. oGCDs with higher potencies and shorter recasts take priority. Proc based oGCDs should be used sooner rather than later on a boss with physical autos, especially if you're going to put up DD early.