The Definitive Dark Knight Guide

[Miyuyu]

I find my biggest threat is that I will run out of TP before I run out of mana if there aren't any bards\ mchs around.

I dunno. Just some muddled thoughts that I gathered while tanking today. Hope this helps.

[HidingYoshis]

Copied from my other post:

You didn't add Carve and Spit, which is your most powerful ability.

Your lack of a proper 60 opener is depressing --

You open with Salted Earth > Unmend > Plunge. That's simply inefficient.

For one, you are not able to keep the boss where it should be by opening with Unmend. By opening with Salted Earth "in front of them", you also lose ticks.

My strongest opener right now is as follows*:

Plunge > Scourge > Dark Arts > Hard Slash > Carve and Spit > Syphon Strike > Dark Arts > Soul Eater > Salted Earth.

This is insane DPS and threat, and beyond this point I haven't 100% decided on the order of which I'm using my other off GCDs.

I usually follow up with Hard Slash > Low Blow > Spinning Slash > Dark Passenger > Power Slash and this cements threat for the rest of the fight. But your opener is not only inefficient, it's trying too hard to do the Unmend > Plunge "combo" when the animations do not allow it.

[Miyuyu]

Is there any wait time between the first and second dark arts in your opener? (IE: do you have to hold Syphon Strike)

Servers are down so I can't really check myself, hadn't considered moving Dark Arts up that early. The other concern I have with using dark arts twice in one combo is mostly just mana. You'd probably put yourself in a hole faster than you need to (but with BP that might be irrelevant)

I also don't know if I agree with using a Soul Eater combo out of the gate. I run with some pretty strong DPS and not starting with a Power Slash combo means the boss is gonna be all over the world. I do agree with putting salted earth down last in the rotation (or before you even pull, really. Just depends.)

(Also, honestly, Unmend --> Plunge isn't bad, and you doesn't necessarily need to "open" with plunge. A lot of times I'll unmend for snap threat and immediately scourge before going into PS combo followed by full on DPS while weaving plunge in elsewhere)

[AIex]

Copied from my other post:
My strongest opener right now is as follows*:

Plunge > Scourge > Dark Arts > Hard Slash > Carve and Spit > Syphon Strike > Dark Arts > Soul Eater > Salted Earth.

I agree with this opener for the most part! Might I suggest shifting Dark Arts at the start if you're not already in combat to regen a little bit of mp back before the pull? It would look like this:

Dark Arts [5-6 seconds for 2 mp tics]> Plunge > Scourge > Carve and Spit > Hard Slash > Low Blow (+Dark Passenger if you can avoid clipping GCD) > Syphon Strike > Dark Arts > Souleater > Salted Earth

This would get out your oGCD's on cooldown a little faster. I'd hold off on unmend and save that MP for more DA'd Soul Eater's tbh. If opener aggro is an issue with your DPS, maybe swap some fending for slaying accessories? I run full slaying to make my "main combo" (souleater) give me back more HP.

Also small pet peeve, the skill is Souleater.... Soul Eater is an anime

[Beoth]

I find my biggest threat is that I will run out of TP before I run out of mana if there aren't any bards\ mchs around.

I dunno. Just some muddled thoughts that I gathered while tanking today. Hope this helps.

True enough. We have not really any TP management mechanics as others tanks have since our only not-TP using skills are Unmend Unleash and Abyssal Drain.
PLD have Shield Swipe, Warriors have Inner Beast/Steel Cyclone. I found myself spamming unmend (on mono) with Blood Price to be able to regen a bit on long fights (first 60 trial for instance)

[Ashaeya]

Some of my thoughts copied over from the reddit thread:

I use the following for MTing:

Dark Arts Pre-pull (wait 6) > Unmend > Plunge + Carve and Spit (450) > Hard Slash > Salted Earth + Blood Price > Spinning Slash > Dark Arts + Low Blow > Power Slash > Dark Passanger (optional) > Scourge

If unleash procs from unmend I use it instead of Hard Slash and just move it up 1 GCD, but the oGCDs stay the same.

For AOE pulls I kind of just wing it. If I had to come up with a decent opener though I'd probably go with something like...

Assuming 5 mobs at least:

Unmend > Plunge + Dark Passanger > Unleash > Salted Earth + Blood Price > Unleash > Defensive CD + Dart Arts > Abyssal Drain > Unleash > oGCD + Dark Arts > Abyssal Drain > Kind of repeat till you think your mana can no longer support it.

[Jahaudant]

Some of my thoughts copied over from the reddit thread:

I use the following for MTing:


If unleash procs from unmend I use it instead of Hard Slash and just move it up 1 GCD, but the oGCDs stay the same.

For AOE pulls I kind of just wing it. If I had to come up with a decent opener though I'd probably go with something like...

Assuming 5 mobs at least:

Using Dark Arts on Abyssal Drain is almost certainly a bad idea unless you really need that emergency heal or you have enough incoming damage that you must just burn MP as not to waste it. Dark Arts is far more expensive than Abyssal Drain and only doubles the HP drained.

You can use less MP on two Abyssal Drains, deal more total damage, and absorb the same amount of HP.

[Ashaeya]

Using Dark Arts on Abyssal Drain is almost certainly a bad idea unless you really need that emergency heal or you have enough incoming damage that you must just burn MP as not to waste it. Dark Arts is far more expensive than Abyssal Drain and only doubles the HP drained.

You can use less MP on two Abyssal Drains, deal more total damage, and absorb the same amount of HP.

Dark Arts enables the healing function of the spell. It does no healing otherwise.

Also, it's not about emergency healing, it's just helping the healer in general. returning 1500-2000 health on a combo is worth using at least 2-3 times during the initial pull. I've never had mana issues during the pull or after when using this method and I certainly heal for more and more frequently this way.

[Xenosan]

For aoe you should be establishing hate lead with you opener, (looks like you are)

Dart Arts > Abyssal Drain > Unleash > oGCD + Dark Arts > Abyssal Drain >

Sounds like over kill. If DA buffed AD's potency then sure, but tbh.. healers are dropping Cure IIs on you whether you absorb or no.

I like green text flying across my screen as much as anyone, but if those DAs and ADs are going to keep you from using Dark Passenger as it comes off CD it's a dps loss

[Jahaudant]

Dark Arts enables the healing function of the spell. It does no healing otherwise.

Also, it's not about emergency healing, it's just helping the healer in general. returning 1500-2000 health on a combo is worth using at least 2-3 times during the initial pull. I've never had mana issues during the pull or after when using this method and I certainly heal for more and more frequently this way.

You're right. Quitting DRK.