Filthy Casual looking for DRK advice

[Chubby13]

DRK has the weakest aggro generation because our DPS combos use no enmity moves unlike WAR and PLD.

Power Slash has the highest potency of the three DRK combos, with Delirium 2nd and Souleater 3rd (unless you Dark Arts + Souleater), so 2 Power Slash combos, 1 Delirium combo, or 1 Power Slash, 1 DA+SE combo, 1 Delirium combo, still won't make you lose aggro.

[Lyth]

PS: (150+220+300) = 670
Del: (150+250+280) = 680
SE: (150+220+240) = 640
DASE: (150+250+400) = 800

Power Slash is lower potency combo than Del and DASE. It also generates no MP, while you gain half a DA usage with the other two. Although PS has the highest enmity potency out of enmity combos of the three tanks (150+770+1650=2570 enmity potency), DRK is penalised the most for using it. Your goal is to minimise PS use, which is why we run much narrower enmity margins than a PLD or WAR.

WARs have the most consistent enmity generation, as BB is both their highest potency and enmity combo. PLDs are somewhere in the middle, as SB is incorporated into both their enmity combo (RoH) and their dps combo (RA) and has an enmity multiplier attached to it. Once you establish and secure aggro on DRK, in contrast, you're essentially holding it through raw dps alone.

[Jim_Berry]

I'd also like to point out an important factor:

I would see some DRKs spam Dark Arts + Souleater, using Dark Arts just before Souleater. While I'm no veteran DRK, I can get a good return on my MP and combos by using Dark Arts just before Soul Siphon.

[DestroyerOfLargePlanets]

Sounds like your friend didn't experiment with clerics enough at low levels, or at least the big pulls might have discouraged stance dancing from the get-go. Stance dancing is hard for a newbie! As a tank who is guiding a budding healer, it's your job to pull just the right amount -- enough to put a significant dent in your hp but not enough to kill you downright. That'll provide your healer friend with the perfect environment to practice and master stance dancing while also training them to ramp up their HPS (healing per second). It's also good to surprise them once in a while with a random huge pull just so that they get practice with their emergency skills and so that they can familiarize themselves with their personal HPS ceiling.

As for your performance on a DRK, you can't forget about reprisal, low blow, bloodbath, foresight, convalescence, and especially living dead. Reprisal, low blow (Stun), bloodbath, foresight, and convalescence are very strong when paired up (ie: Conva + foresight). There are many pulls in this game which are only possible with a top-tier tank AND healer -- not to mention you probably would want to be fully capped on your gear for certain pulls in certain dungeons.

I'm geared to the teeth, but nevertheless, this is what I do:
1) Pop sprint (just for kicks and because you don't actually need much TP for huge trash pulls! That's one great thing about DRK -- makes speed runs really quick.)
2) Aggro groups with unleash/abyssal drain
3) Clump up the mobs while cycling Shadowskin and Shadow Wall
4) Drop grit/stay in grit depending on how much damage I'm taking
5) Pop Blood Price and spam Abyssal Drain or DA > Abyssal Drain (Abyssal Drain spam EVEN out of grit still generates huge amounts of aggro!)
6) Once Shadowskin and Shadow Wall are used up, I then resort to the little cooldowns (ie: Foresight + Convalescence ; Foresight + Dark Dance ; Dark Dance + Awareness ; etc etc)
7) You can cast Sole Survivor at any point so long as it's on a dying monster so that once it dies, you get a nice heal + mp regen.
8) If things get dire, always remember you have living dead and you can always get back into grit for that extra 20% mitigation if you're not already in it.

If you're already doing this, then you should be fine. It's not the be-all end-all way to do things, but it's the way that works for me and with sprint, I can speedrun the latest dungeons so fast. DRK master race! Because it's always a race!

[Lyth]

I'd also like to point out an important factor:

I would see some DRKs spam Dark Arts + Souleater, using Dark Arts just before Souleater. While I'm no veteran DRK, I can get a good return on my MP and combos by using Dark Arts just before Soul Siphon.

It depends on what oGCD recasts are just finishing and the timing of your defensive moves, which can potentially consume DA as well. If weaving DA earlier allows you to avoid a double weave that could potentially clip, then you should, provided that you aren't planning on weaving in another DA move that could consume it prematurely before DASE.

This is where most of the complexity of the job comes out, in understanding priorities and which combinations of oGCDs can safely fit in the spaces between GCDs without clipping. There are times in which the decision to DASE or Del will also vary not just on your MP, but also on whether you need DA to proc on something following your third combo hit.

[Fluffernuff]

I appreciate the input thus far, but I would also like to mention, though I am asking for general input on how to better myself, I do have a basic understanding of how to play DRK in my own right. I'm mostly after a means to better myself further and was originally asking for ways I could use my tools to better allow for my friend to get more use out of Cleric stance.
So while alot of this advice is sound, most of it is, sadly, things I have a firm grasp on.

I was also curious, because of some mitigation tools DRK has and it's ease of aggro in a dungeon pull scenario if it would be a good idea to drop grit to help melt down the mobs. And if so, when would be a proper time.

While the latter was pretty much dressed, I feel the former did not gain much traction. Again, I appreciate the input, and none of it is really wrong, but I feel my initial request might have been too poorly worded. I did not feel it was appropriate to clog up a post with every nuance I do on every pull, and I feel the lack of it's inclusion left the impression I was fresh to DRK as a whole. I am simply not at raiding level and wished for further information on how to be better than that of "average" and, in turn, allow my friend to improve as well.

EDIT: Ah, after the initial post, I forgot to add an update! silly me.
I've started pumping out DA+ADs more, but now my MP management has gone a bit out the window than I'm used to... is there an average rule of thumb of how many DA+ADs i can/should be able to fit into a BP before I dump a DA/DP+DA/DD? I've noticed getting too trigger happy drains me too much to afford my dodge combo

[Jim_Berry]

It depends on what oGCD recasts are just finishing and the timing of your defensive moves, which can potentially consume DA as well. If weaving DA earlier allows you to avoid a double weave that could potentially clip, then you should, provided that you aren't planning on weaving in another DA move that could consume it prematurely before DASE.

This is where most of the complexity of the job comes out, in understanding priorities and which combinations of oGCDs can safely fit in the spaces between GCDs without clipping. There are times in which the decision to DASE or Del will also vary not just on your MP, but also on whether you need DA to proc on something following your third combo hit.

I was speaking from a DPS perspective, especially since I just finally got into the 1k dps since I starting using DA just before Siphon.

[SpookyGhost]

I've started pumping out DA+ADs more, but now my MP management has gone a bit out the window than I'm used to... is there an average rule of thumb of how many DA+ADs i can/should be able to fit into a BP before I dump a DA/DP+DA/DD? I've noticed getting too trigger happy drains me too much to afford my dodge combo

You should be using normal AD until you actually need the heal, spamming it will just drain your mana and give you a ton of overheal. It's important to remember that DA costs more mana than Abyssal Drain, so every time you DA after BP stops you're cutting off 1~2 ADs - generally you should only be using DA+DP or DA+DD if you need the extra mitigation and your healer is going crazy on the DPS, and most of the time it's better to just DA the Abyssal Drain and use normal DP/DD.

[Lyth]

I was speaking from a DPS perspective, especially since I just finally got into the 1k dps since I starting using DA just before Siphon.

I was too. If you DA before SS, but then DP comes off just as you hit SS, you're now in a situation where you have to delay DP for a GCD (you don't want DA to activate on DP by mistake here, as single target DADP gives you 100 potency for one DA, DASE gives you 120 over Del). There's no hurry to burn off MP in DASE unless you're in danger of capping, so you should always be predicting what's coming off CD over the next 3-6 GCDs in order to plan out where you're going to slot DA. Likewise, you probably can't double weave Plunge with DA without clipping into your GCD, so if Plunge comes off CD just after HS, then you should probably push DA forward unless you're saving Plunge for something else.

It's a good idea to activate DA earlier if you can, but you can't do it blindly.