DRK's train left the station: Dark Passenger is in or out?

[Jpec07]

Be cool and say more.

More.

Does that make me a cool kid? Please tell me it makes me a cool kid.

In all seriousness, I'd think it's something you'd weave into your rotation when you know there isn't heavy damage coming for a few GCDs, where you know you'll have enough MP in time. Even if you don't DA it, it represents some extra potency, which is always nice - just make sure you'll have enough MP left over to DA the next cooldown you need to DA. I don't think I'd personally use it after the opener while I was still learning the fight, but I'd try to figure out where to weave it in for phases we'd gotten down, and once a fight is on farm.

[JackFross]

In all seriousness, I'd think it's something you'd weave into your rotation when you know there isn't heavy damage coming for a few GCDs, where you know you'll have enough MP in time. Even if you don't DA it, it represents some extra potency, which is always nice - just make sure you'll have enough MP left over to DA the next cooldown you need to DA. I don't think I'd personally use it after the opener while I was still learning the fight, but I'd try to figure out where to weave it in for phases we'd gotten down, and once a fight is on farm.

It should be used on cooldown in all situations always You should be skipping DA+SE if you're skipping any mana expense. I keep saying this and people keep saying things like this instead and it's frustrating, to say the least. You should never DA+DP in single-target, but you should be using DP literally whenever it's available. Fullstop. There's no ifs or buts in there - always means always.

On another note - you should rarely (if ever) be using DA for defense in the current content. DA+DM was excellent in Gordias (though still completely unnecessary in the majority of circumstances) for stuff like Hypercompressed Plasma, Drainage, and Hydrothermal Missile. In Midas, magic damage is primarily of the raid-damage sort - and the magic damage is few and far between (Single/Double Buster/green orbs). Very -very- rarely should you be holding Mana to burn on defense. It's almost never useful and absolutely never necessary outside of that rare situation where you would die without it - a situation that should literally never happen if the healers are on their game. Nothing hits hard enough if mechanics are handled properly.

[Lyth]

Here's your list of oGCDs by potency:

Salted Earth: 780n pot/min
DA DP: 500n pot/min
DA C+S: 450 pot/min
Reprisal: 420 pot/min*
Plunge: 400 pot/min
DP: 300n pot/min
LB: 240 pot/min*

*These two skills are parry dependent. The listed values show the maximum value for reprisal and the minimum for low blow. Low Blow may have a higher priority under the effect of DD.

Factoring in the MP costs is simpler. You always have the option of choosing Del over DASE on a given combo, so long as you're not about to max out on MP. As you get closer to the end, of course, you will want to make your MP expenditure tighter with DASE so as to not have unused MP when you finish.

DASE gives you 120 potency for one DA. As long as your potency gain/DA of a given oGCD exceeds that of DASE, it's a dps gain to use the skill. Both DP and DA C+S are always a dps gain for their MP cost. DA DP only starts to become a dps gain for its MP cost at 2 mobs or more. Removing DA DP from the list (as well as reprisal, because your parry rate is 0 on the dummy), your priority list in single target by potency becomes:

Salted Earth: 780 pot/min
DA C+S: 450 pot/min
Plunge: 400 pot/min
DP: 300 pot/min
LB: 240 pot/min

Once you've established that an oGCD is a dps gain for its cost over DASE, it doesn't matter how MP efficient it is relative to the others. Your relative priority is based on the potency per minute. If you see C+S coming off CD, you should float up your MP with Del combos. You can always reinvest the extra MP at a later point with more DA SE combos, but you only have one shot per minute to have DA ready as soon as C+S comes off CD.

Digression: MP expenditure/gains, and why the above principles don't necessarily apply to AoE tanking.

SS: +0.5 DA
C+S: +0.5 DA

DA DP: -1.5 DA
DA C+S: -1 DA
DP: -0.5 DA
DASE: -1 DA

Grit: -1.5 DA
Darkside: -0.5 DA

Although I said that MP efficiency doesn't really matter, outside of BP and BW, you only get +4.5 DA worth of MP per minute (24 gcds = 8 SS + 1 C+S). Some of this has to go into maintaining Darkside.

In single target, you're only using DA on C+S, so you're only obliged to effectively spend 2.5 DA per minute. In multiple target situations, however, if you want to use DA on both C+S and DP, it costs you a whopping 4.5 DA per minute. This forces you to maintain your Darkside upkeep with only BP and BW. When you add other expenditures (AD, inability to use BP in tank stance, etc.) you can see how it is impractical to use DA on both.

Although DA DP is a dps gain at 2+ mobs, a single use is only 57% and 86% the potency of DA C+S for the same cost (1.5 DA) at 2 and 3 mobs respectively. Fight-specific considerations aside, you should not use DA DP at the expense of DA C+S when attacking 2-3 mobs. At 4+ mobs, the potency of a single use DA DP exceeds that of DA C+S, and the skill actually becomes efficient. At this point you can use a regular C+S, returning your obligatory MP costs down to 3.5 DA per minute (same as single target).

A lot of the single target rotation comes down to anticipating how much MP you'll need when a given oGCD comes off CD, and making sure that you refresh Scourge appropriately. If you just focus on troubleshooting those two things, it should be straightforward at this point to clear the SSS dummy for A8S without pots or food.

[JackFross]

snip

A lot of what you said it spot-on, but you're neglecting something everyone always neglects. DA+CnS has a cost of 1.5 DA, not 1.

When comparing Mana efficiency and potency gains, you need to compare Mana-Cost-Skill against Alternative-Skill - that is, compare the skill you would spend Mana on to what you would otherwise do, were you to NOT spend that Mana there.

I'll normalize my Mana on a basis of 1 Syphon Strike. 1 DA = 2 SS.

This is why we compare DA+SE to Delirium, and not to Souleater. If you don't Dark Arts your Souleater, you should be using Delirium - hence +120 potency for 2 SS.
If you don't cast Dark Passenger, you would instead do nothing, hence +150 potency for 1 SS.
If you don't Dark Arts your Carve and Spit, you would instead use Carve and Spit without DA, hence +350 potency for 3 SS.

Averaging these out as Potency per Syphon Strike:
DA+SE = 120/2 = 60
DP = 150/1 = 150
DA+CaS = 350/3 = 116.7

Ergo, the priority is /always/ DP > DA+CnS > DA+SE.

You should prioritize keeping DP on cooldown.

[Lyth]

Averaging these out as Potency per Syphon Strike:
DA+SE = 120/2 = 60
DP = 150/1 = 150
DA+CaS = 350/3 = 116.7

Ergo, the priority is /always/ DP > DA+CnS > DA+SE.

Actually, although I list the cost of DA C+S at 1 DA, I do factor it in as 1.5 DA when making comparisons with DP and DA DP (because C+S is listed as +0.5 DA).

Comparing oGCD skills is a bit different than comparing GCD skills. You're not trying maximize MP efficiency. You're trying to maximize your DPS. Once you've established that an oGCD is more MP efficient in a situation than DA SE, the potency per unit time takes precedence. It doesn't matter that DP is more MP efficient than DA C+S. DA C+S does more potency per unit time than DP in single target.

To illustrate this further, let's do a comparison between two skills in potency per syphon strike (pot/ss):
DP = 150n/1 = 150n pot/ss
DA DP = 250n/3 = 83n pot/ss

DP will always be more MP efficient than DA DP, irrespective of the number of mobs present. Based on your reasoning, we would never use DA DP. So why is this not the case?

Let's look at this a bit more closely. When we spend DA on DP, we're spending 1 DA to gain 100n potency. In other words, the cost is 50n pot/ss. With just one mob, this is less MP efficient than DASE (60 pot/ss). With two or more mobs, this becomes more efficient. This is why we can DA DP in multi-target situations.

tl;dr: When comparing two oGCDs, compare their potency/minute. When comparing an oGCD to DASE, compare their MP efficiencies. As long as an oGCD is more MP efficient than DASE, using it gives a dps gain. Once you've established that using an oGCD gives a dps gain, the one with the highest potency/minute takes priority, just like every other job/class in the game.

[Jukebox12]

I'll normalize my Mana on a basis of 1 Syphon Strike. 1 DA = 2 SS.

This is why we compare DA+SE to Delirium, and not to Souleater. If you don't Dark Arts your Souleater, you should be using Delirium - hence +120 potency for 2 SS.
If you don't cast Dark Passenger, you would instead do nothing, hence +150 potency for 1 SS.
If you don't Dark Arts your Carve and Spit, you would instead use Carve and Spit without DA, hence +350 potency for 3 SS.

Averaging these out as Potency per Syphon Strike:
DA+SE = 120/2 = 60
DP = 150/1 = 150
DA+CaS = 350/3 = 116.7

Ergo, the priority is /always/ DP > DA+CnS > DA+SE.

You should prioritize keeping DP on cooldown.

is it worth using delirium if you have a monk in your group or no
what do you do if you have a monk in the group