How to play drk tips on how to be really good at the job,

[bswpayton]

So I've played pali the most as a tank, in this game tbh I never have issues on bosses ,I just hate pulling adds as pali flash just doesn't do it for me. I have played warrior to, so I'm getting ready to enter hw to start working on my crafting mentor status and also to get the class I've been dreaming of when I saw it. So my question is its a ton of guides out around the net on drk rotation are just how to drk. I really feel like rotations are so situational , but some of the guides I've seen are old are bad. One even said put strength on drk and I know that's not the case. So if theirs any people that play the class a lot Id love your tips on rotations are pulling hate because this will def be my main tank job, I will prob stick with pali where I'm good at on bosses like extreme primals and stuff like that. So, can you give me tips on mp managing, aoe rotations, how to not be squishy which I heard could be an issue, hate openers, and single target or boss rotations.

[bswpayton]

ha tryin to delete this one but dono how ha ignore it hahaha

[Jpec07]

Why would you delete the one that's in the right place? O.o

Besides the fact that we can't delete our own threads (and need to rely on forum mods for it), the tanking forum is going to be a lot more helpful for this than general discussion.

The biggest difference from WAR (and really the defining aspect of DRK gameplay) is that you have to manage your MP, and you don't get any outside help (no Mage's Ballad, no Ethers(?), nothing). It can be a little tricky at first, especially once you get Dark Arts (which is kind of The Way that MP is made interesting), but can be quite fun.

This post by Lyth on another thread is a pretty good primer for how to play DRK. The acronyms can be a little bit confusing, but if you line them up with ability lists, they begin to make sense (that, and you can always reply to that thread with specific questions about that post).

Most of the guides out there aren't bad for an introduction to the job, they're just slightly outdated. If you look through the discussions on the threads attached, you'll be able to get a sense for how people are playing the job, and how that has evolved since 3.0.

Best of luck!

[ErdrickLoto]

The biggest difference from WAR (and really the defining aspect of DRK gameplay) is that you have to manage your MP, and you don't get any outside help (no Mage's Ballad, no Ethers(?), nothing). It can be a little tricky at first, especially once you get Dark Arts (which is kind of The Way that MP is made interesting), but can be quite fun.

Only Refresh-type statuses (Ewer, Mage's Ballad, etc.) are negated by Darkside. "Burst" MP regeneration (Syphon Strike, ethers, the Blood skills) still work.

Granted, I'd recommend sticking with Blood Price/Syphon Strike anyways - Max-Ethers have a 5m recast and don't give you enough for Dark Arts, and the latter is part of your DPS rotation (which you should start using as soon as you get a good hold on aggro).

[Martin_Arcainess]

Hey there \o

Ok so first thing first, is DRK is not squishy. Thats a old myth because back in the day alot of DPS ran on DRk so they had the STR acss and doing massive pulls whilst not using any midgation skills or just in general not playing the class right.

I played DRk on release and did big pulls and my wife who mains WHM didn't have any trouble what so ever and this was because I main PLD back in the day and had the right gear and know how Tanks work.

Now that we've got that cleared up onto DRk tanking.

Darkside
Ok So Darkside is your evil side coming out to play and is required for Dark Arts which in turn is required to properly play DRK. When it's switched on it increases your Damage by 15% whilst slowly draining your MP over time and next we'll talk about switching it on and off.

Ok So one thing you should know it drains your MP whilst in and out of battle. But that doesn't mean you should keep it on 100% of the time. Keep your Darkside (DS) on during the heat of battle, so like when you are actual fighting the mobs and doing stuff that gains MP back. There is a few times you should turn MP off.

1. During pulls.
Ok So when your doing a big pack pull, keep it off. As you are running from Mob to Mob grabing them all and doing all that runing, DS is draining your MP. There is no need to have it on during pulls since you'll be moving alot.

2. Downtime
So you know in some fights where the enemy jumps up and you've got 5 secs or so waiting around doing nothing. Turn DS off, if you can't do anything you can't get back MP thus drain away. But only do it if the enemy would be away for more then 5 secs or so. It's not much but every little helps. A primal example would be A12S where Alexander gives you 10 seconds to ready for his big hit attack.

Dark Arts

Is when DRk and MP managment becomes a big thing.
Dark Arts alters some actions I.E make them stronger or change effect when you do a Dark Arts DA then chosen skill. It's most commonly used with Soul Eater because it makes Soul Eater your most damaging combo.

Rotation
As a DRk you have 3 rotations.
Power Slash combo - Aggro Combo
Delirium Combo - Int down combo
Souleater combo - Restores 100% of damage to HP, can be most or least potent combo. If you use Dark Arts then SE then it becomes most potent if not least.

So first things firts, The power Slash combo is the combo you would use to keep aggro on the mobs, so it's your standard Butchers block/Rage of Halone combo.
But it is the LEAST damaging combo you can do.
Unless you do a SoulEater combo then that becomes the least damage one.

Delirium is your 2nd Highest Damage combo and inflicts int down but it can be overwritten by MNKs dragon kick and is used if you have enough aggro but not enough MP for a DASE. (Dark arts Souleater)

SoulEater on the other hand is what makes a good DRk or a bad DRK. SE on it's own is the lowest potency combo but combine it with Dark Arts it will become your highest out the other 2 and the damage you deal is restore to you as HP so it's also a great Midgation tool.

So in short:

Do I have Aggro?
Yes: Use DASE, not enough MP? DEL combo.
No: Use Aggro Combo.

MP management.

OK as many as mentioned DRK is all about managing that MP yo and as hard as some people make it out to be it's quite easy to do if you think about it.

1. Blood price.
Each hit you take you restore a set% of MP.
When to use this?
If your in a dungeon doing a mass pull, then don't pop BP straight away. Wait till all the mobs you can gather are in 1 place. The go batshit crazy on spaming those AOE moves. (which I'll talk about later on) Because if you have like 10 or more Mobs then you'll get more MP coming in the you do going out lol.

Also another thing is, as I mentioned you get MP back per hit you take. So if you know a multi hit is incoming during boss fights then pop it then. Like in Nidhogg LV60 trial version, Ark morh or in A10, when he readies his TB which is multi hit



2. Blood weapon
Restores MP with each physical damage hit you do but can only be used when Grit is off.

So for each hit you do you get MP back to you, so what I tend to do, if my Blood Weapon (BW) is full, is combine it with my OGCD, like Plunge, C&S, low blow etc so I can get more MP back per hit. So your BW last 15 seconds, but your Low blow only has 10 secs left, then Pop BW anyway, since you'll have BW active when Low blow becomes ready.

BUT say if BW is ready but you have 30 seconds left on Plunge then don't wait, pop BW anyway. Since waiting too long be worse.




Outside MP restore.

IS NOT allowed when you have Darkside on. But only if you have Dark Side on. If your BRD/MCH is doing there MP restore skill whilst there is down time you might as well turn off DS to get some of that MP goodness.

But yeah any help from anyone else for MP is negated as long as you have DS.

The only way for you to restore MP is by your own use, so Max Ether, Syphon strike, Blood price etc.

Still Use Max Ethers Anyway since it is a MP restore that you be silly to ignore unless you got a Max Vit pot wanting to be used.

[Sarcatica]

DRK needs to manage mana on top of having to do tank responsibilities. DRK does have it easier on offensive CDs because Darkside is 100% uptime VS PLD and WAR, however the job has more buttons to push. Tip: read your tooltips for skills, don't be like most people.

Tanking is as easy as it can get. The hard part of tanking is maintaining respectable damage output, positioning and knowing basically all the fights which you want to hard memorize. The hardest challenge in the game is pushing damage (ironic i know because DRK is a tank) while doing your normal tanking responsibilities, this involves knowing what defensive CDs to use at all time, normally planned ahead which mostly will enable you to be out of your Grit stance. Less Grit uptime = more DPS. You get mana from Blood Weapon, so you are rewarded with more mana to do more damage.

Single target DPS rotation for DRK has been covered by some players, including both general opener (can vary) and priority list for your skills. When doing AOEs, you pretty much have Unleashed and Abyssal Drain for that as main buttons with Dark Passenger as an addon. Darkside to be up all the time, except when you don't have any target to cycle mana. It will drain your mana fast in a fight with downtimes, i.e. turn off Darkside in between pulls to allow mana regen, when bosses jump and you have nothing hit and need to do mechanics.

[Jim_Berry]

Single target DPS rotation for DRK has been covered by some players, including both general opener (can vary) and priority list for your skills. When doing AOEs, you pretty much have Unleashed and Abyssal Drain for that as main buttons with Dark Passenger as an addon. Darkside to be up all the time, except when you don't have any target to cycle mana. It will drain your mana fast in a fight with downtimes, i.e. turn off Darkside in between pulls to allow mana regen, when bosses jump and you have nothing hit and need to do mechanics.

I would have to disagree with this. If it's a boss that does NOT reset hate when it jumps, a simple Siphon combo can get the MP back when the boss is targetable again. Because you are technically still in battle during this phase, MP is barely recovering. Dropping Darkside and putting back up may hurt you.

[Sarcatica]

I would have to disagree with this. If it's a boss that does NOT reset hate when it jumps, a simple Siphon combo can get the MP back when the boss is targetable again. Because you are technically still in battle during this phase, MP is barely recovering. Dropping Darkside and putting back up may hurt you.

Fights like a4s a5s a8s a11s a12s have phases where you absolutely have nothing to hit and some of those are pretty long, your mana is going to drain.

In drex dungeons, pulling all mobs is easy enough and usually downtime to pull sets of mobs is good enough to turn off darkside.

[Martin_Arcainess]

I would have to disagree with this. If it's a boss that does NOT reset hate when it jumps, a simple Siphon combo can get the MP back when the boss is targetable again. Because you are technically still in battle during this phase, MP is barely recovering. Dropping Darkside and putting back up may hurt you.

It's not just the MP recovery but your taking away the MP drain effect from DS when your having it off too.

[Kitfox]

I would have to disagree with this. If it's a boss that does NOT reset hate when it jumps, a simple Siphon combo can get the MP back when the boss is targetable again. Because you are technically still in battle during this phase, MP is barely recovering. Dropping Darkside and putting back up may hurt you.

If there's a break of 12 seconds or more, it's worth dropping Darkside in battle. Outside battle even a break of 6 seconds is worth it, iirc.