Can we remove the Dark Arts Treadmill?

[Tint]

dark arts as dps stance thanks

we actually had that once, it was called Darkside... bring back the constant mana drain maybe :O it was less button mashing and more engaging at the same time.

[TanukiSoba]

DRK need Dark Arts Before Login

[HyperiusUltima]

we actually had that once, it was called Darkside... bring back the constant mana drain maybe :O it was less button mashing and more engaging at the same time.

We don’t need the drain back. DRK has it hard as is trying to MP manage all its weaponskills and oGCDs on DA. If anything, if they want us to double-weave more effectively and want to force us to, they need to consider removing a bit of the animation lock on DA so as not to make it clunky like it is now.

The worst thing they did for 4.3 is Add DA Plunge, which makes it worse despite them reducing the animation lock to be like Onslaught.

[Tanathya]

DRK need Dark Arts Before Login

If you Dark Arts before you Login, this makes your Login have +140 potency.

[Khalithar]

One thought I've had consistently is changing the way Dark Arts works. If we absolutely must have it (and I'm not convinced Drk wouldn't be better off without the mechanic or having it changed to a dps cooldown) then one thing I've kicked around is:

What if Dark Arts had the same MP cost and the same cooldown/duration, but instead of a Dark Arts move consuming the buff, Dark Arts boosts all of the attacks while the buff is active? Maybe when it's active we could have that old black fire graphic effect that they got rid of and it shows when the Drk is in that powered up state. I think it would be cool!

[Shurrikhan]

One thought I've had consistently is changing the way Dark Arts works. If we absolutely must have it (and I'm not convinced Drk wouldn't be better off without the mechanic or having it changed to a dps cooldown) then one thing I've kicked around is:

What if Dark Arts had the same MP cost and the same cooldown/duration, but instead of a Dark Arts move consuming the buff, Dark Arts boosts all of the attacks while the buff is active? Maybe when it's active we could have that old black fire graphic effect that they got rid of and it shows when the Drk is in that powered up state. I think it would be cool!

I feel like optimal use would require just as rapid a toggle frequency as our activation now.

(Honestly, I thought they were saving its re-implementation for Blackblood, as to give a visual indicator to allies as you charge up the gauge. But alas...)

[Satarn]

Yeah, change Dark Arts to a 10 second buff that makes all Blood actions free or just make it boost all damage for the duration, that would give Dark Knight it's unique playstyle! /s

Really, since they added new ways to spend mp, they should just remove DA bonus from Syphon Strike and move more towards using it for ogcds with unique effects on top of the 140 potency boost. Could perhaps replace Soul Eater's grit requirement for hp leech, with a DA effect in either stance. That way we'd actually have to choose between things like aggro and healing depending on situation, without loosing any damage. Another thing could be changing the blind on Dark Passenger to an evasion or parry buff as a DA-based defensive cd, although with the 4.3 adjustments DRK doesn't really need more survivability.

[Ekimmak]

My thought that I had while skimming over the thread:

*Remove Dark Arts effects from all abilities. Yes, even Carve & Spit.
*Dark Arts is applied to all weaponskills, increasing their potency by a flat amount.
*When Dark Arts is consumed by a weaponskill, it grants a 5 second duration buff called Shadow Flow or something like that.
*This is what's consumed by abilities to get their bonus effects.

I don't particularly like this idea, and feel it would need a hell of a lot of tweaking, but I like the double-weaving I have to deal with even less.

[Shurrikhan]

We don’t need the drain back. DRK has it hard as is trying to MP manage all its weaponskills and oGCDs on DA. If anything, if they want us to double-weave more effectively and want to force us to, they need to consider removing a bit of the animation lock on DA so as not to make it clunky like it is now.

The worst thing they did for 4.3 is Add DA Plunge, which makes it worse despite them reducing the animation lock to be like Onslaught.

The drain is what allowed us to exchange frequency of DA for additional power per DA (or reduced dependence on DA, with the rest of the toolkit buffed to compensate), effectively speaking.

In that sense, it does at least help with the frequency of double-weaves, even if, ultimately, we'd be better off moving the madness incarnate animation of DA to Delirium, while making some sort of mini-oGCD (as per a Mudra) out of DA itself.

[Starkbeaumont]

Every oGCD attack can and should be used with Dark Arts.

Thus, unless you have just completed a combo, you must double-weave in order to use any oGCD attack efficiently. (Unless you need the extra healing when in Grit, every oGCD will have higher rDPS contribution from DA than SE, and SS is always your worst DA consumer.)

the only ogcd that needs to be used with DA is C&S. After the patch you could use it with plunge but you'll get the same +140 pot like on almost all other attacks. so unless you need that new enmity bonus there is no point in double weaving for plunge.