The Definitive Dark Knight Guide

[Xenosan]

What are the best CC abilities to use? I have Provoke, Blood Bath, Foresight, Convalesce and Flash because it has a low MP usage. I could replace Flash for Awareness?

Replace Flash with anything, it's redundant. (Unless no damage enmity building is necessary)

I prefer mercy stroke to awareness, but it up to taste

[Fendred]

A useful piece of advice: While it can seem like a good idea to keep darkside up at all times, most trash mobs provide small breaks in between packs where darkside can be dropped temporarily to regain mana. The space between trash mobs is designed to give characters enough time to recover resources in between pulls, so it is to any dark knight's benefit to drop darkside after a battle if his mana is not topped off.

[Divine_Intervention]

Hey guys. Just started playing dark knight. Literally, only lvl 32 on it, but enjoying so far.

Question about Darkarts. Should I be keeping this up all the time? At the moment i'm in grit, building enemity, then switching to blood weapon + dark arts, continuing till blood cd is done and switching back to grit and switching off Dark arts.

I'm probably just misunderstanding things, but as i say, early days.

[Sephiren]

Awesome guide. Helps a lot, thanks!

[Xenosan]

Hey guys. Just started playing dark knight. Literally, only lvl 32 on it, but enjoying so far.

Question about Darkarts. Should I be keeping this up all the time? At the moment i'm in grit, building enemity, then switching to blood weapon + dark arts, continuing till blood cd is done and switching back to grit and switching off Dark arts.

I'm probably just misunderstanding things, but as i say, early days.

I think you mean Darkside. And yea, for now, the de facto rule is to maintain Darkside at all times.

..
@everyone

For the MT role though, I can see 1 possibility where this could change:

From my testing, dropping Darkside for the 3 ticks of MP regen is enough to compensate for the cost of Darkside's degen & re-activation cost, and by doing so you're actually placing yourself a little bit ahead in regard to MP degeneration than the alternative of having just left Darkside on.

Coincidentally enough, the time it takes to do a Power Slash combo allows close to 3 server ticks.

I haven't tested much yet, but theorycrafting wise - if Power Slash is part of your rotation - dropping Darkside for it's 3 GCDs, and re-activating it before the next Hard Slash or Syphon Slash (depending on where your DS disabling lands between server ticks) - of the following combo may, over time, result in a DPS increase.

This is because, over time, the DRK toggling DS would have the resources for more Dark Passenger & Dark Arts that a DRK with the identical rotation (but no DS toggling) would not.

Dark Arts potency: (+100 (or +150/250 if no DP at all), +240, +350) is higher than Power Slash combo's +80 potency when left in Darkside. Blood Price is the wild card (if MP isn't needed to max oGCD use and Dark Arts buffs, toggling would serve no purpose, and be a straight -80 potency per PS combo).

Again haven't tested this yet, but if Power Slash is part of your rotation, eventually the MP-conservation of dropping DS for that combo would open up better potency increases through the oGCDs & DAs. Also consider: since Spinning Slash has no MP recovery, our Power Slash combo technically cost MP whilst DS is up - even without the Dark Arts buff for PS. The DS degen is ticking 2-4 times whilst performing a PS combo, but unlike Delirium/Souleater, there's no Syphon to counter-act that degen.

Of course straight Syphon combos and 100% Darkside uptime is absolutely better. And even with good DPS groups, as MT it's rare to have situations where a Power Slash combo is even necessary or at all that frequent.

So it's a long shot that such a rotation method is viable - let alone better.

Could use some testing,

[Daerthalus]

My theorcrafting has shown that.

Assuming: 2.5s GCD, Dark Side Costs 2.5% MP / 3s

DA+SE Combo costs: 18.75% MP
Delirium Combo recovers: 6.25% MP
No Delirum Combo recovers: 8.33% MP

So the idea that 2 (Heavy Slash+Syphon Strikes+Delirium) = 1 DA+SE, is false.

It actually takes 3, since Dark Side keeps draining your MP during the time.

At 2.5s GCD you lose 2.083% MP every GCD.
A Scourge actually costs you 2.083% MP.

Dark Side basically adds a 2.5% MP * GCD time /3 cost to every single action you take.
The faster your GCD the less expensive a non syphon strike combo action becomes, and the more mana you regenerate from any comboes involving Syphon Strike.

At 2.0s GCD:
a DA+SE Combo now costs only: 17.5% MP
a Delirium Combo recovers: 7.5% MP
a No-Delirum Combo recovers: 9.167% MP

[Zyph]

My theorcrafting has shown that.

Assuming: 2.5s GCD, Dark Side Costs 2.5% MP / 3s

DA+SE Combo costs: 18.75% MP
Delirium Combo recovers: 6.25% MP
No Delirum Combo recovers: 8.33% MP

So the idea that 2 (Heavy Slash+Syphon Strikes+Delirium) = 1 DA+SE, is false.

It actually takes 3, since Dark Side keeps draining your MP during the time.

At 2.5s GCD you lose 2.083% MP every GCD.
A Scourge actually costs you 2.083% MP.

Dark Side basically adds a 2.5% MP * GCD time /3 cost to every single action you take.
The faster your GCD the less expensive a non syphon strike combo action becomes, and the more mana you regenerate from any comboes involving Syphon Strike.

At 2.0s GCD:
a DA+SE Combo now costs only: 17.5% MP
a Delirium Combo recovers: 7.5% MP
a No-Delirum Combo recovers: 9.167% MP

So you're saying that we'd benefit from stacking skill speed if our TP issues weren't shit?

[Docfiord_Fowling]

...

Assuming Rav Weap + fully upgraded tome gear (All VIT acc, 1 STR ring)

Natural MP depletion in Darkside is 265 MP per tick, natural regen is 138 MP, subtract the difference, you tick at a 127 MP loss (1.83%)
Dark Arts (1768) - Syphon Strike Recovery (884 : 12.76%) : 1768 - 884 = 884 MP spent DA + SE Combo (-12.76%)
3 GCDs @ 2.42 SS = 7.26s (2 Ticks) (2 * 127 MP loss = 254 MP : -3.66%)

1138 MP for a DA + SE Combo (-16.43%)
Syphon +884 MP - Darkside ticks (-254) = 630 MP (+9.09%)
Power Slash combo = -254 MP = (-3.66%)

Increasing skillspeed does not increase the potencies of your moves. Your're trying to outrace the depletion ticks to fit moves in before a tick. If we had a cap to meet like Berserk, it would be viable, but we have ways to replenish, so the cost becomes minor. And since DRK has no TP replenishment options, SS at the moment is the devil.

[Daerthalus]

....

Thank you for the correction. I forgot about the natural MP regen that we still recieve.

As for Skill Speed I was not suggesting it was a useful stat. I was simply saying that every tick you are losing MP, so the slower you swing the worse the overall MP drain is. Obviously if you optimize MP regen via Skill Speed you run into worse TP drain issues.

**3 GCDs @ 2.42 SS = 7.26s (2 Ticks) (2 * 127 MP loss = 254 MP : -3.66%)**

I disagree with your math here.

I believe 1 TICK is 3s, so 6s would be 2 ticks. At 7.26s per 3 Hit Combo, the 1.26s adds up to more MP loss than you state.

@2.42s GCD, cost is 1.4762% MP per GCD.
3 GCDs @ 2.42s = 4.4286%

Dark Arts (1768) - Syphon Strike Recovery (884 : 12.76%) : 1768 - 884 = 884 MP spent DA + SE Combo (-12.76%)
3 GCDs @ 2.42 SS = -4.43%
DA + SE Combo = 17.19% MP

3 Hit Syphon Strike (w/ Delirium or SE) = +8.33% MP
2 Hit Syphone Strike = +9,81%
Power Slash Combo = -4.43%

[Docfiord_Fowling]

@2.42s GCD, cost is 1.4762% MP per GCD.
3 GCDs @ 2.42s = 4.4286%

Yeah, I should have divided it down to a per-second unit.

1 Tick (3sec) = 127 MP
(127/3) x 7.26 = 307.34 MP per 3 GCDs (-4.4375%)

Dark Arts Souleater : (-1768 + 884) - 307.34 = -1191.34 MP (-17.201%)
3 Hit Syphon Combo : 884 - 307.34 = +576.66 MP (+8.32%)
2 Hit Syphon Combo : 884 - 84.66 = +799.34 MP (+11.541%)
Power Slash Combo = -307.34 MP (-4.4375%)