Dark arts in HW was excellent, the problem was dark had too little mp restoration if it got killed by for example living dead. The debuff heavy playstyle and resource management was what a lot of longtime drk players love.

SB as detailed earlier felt more spammy despite its cost increasing to just above 1/3 of the mp bar because there were no other spenders worth using it on. SB drk did gain some excellent actions, noteworthy ones being another victim and TBN which personally to this day is the best unique skill drk ever got. Nevertheless some people liked it because it had a haste effect.