The Definitive Dark Knight Guide

[Falgern]

...

Grit is the only stance, Darkside is just a buff with no time limit. Stay in Grit and keep Darkside on as much as you can, it should be 100% or near 100%.


You should not use dark arts everytime it's up.

For single target you generally use dark arts for Carve & Spit, Souleater and Dark Mind. Depending what you need. I generally use dark arts every 2-3 Syphon Strikes.

AOE, just use unleash, if there are a lot and you are taking heavy damage i would do dark arts + dark passenger but this hurts your MP a lot. Only use if you pull one group too many
Abyssal drain looks cool but the MP cost doesn't make it that much better than Unleash, there is only one pull I use dark arts on abyssal drain, and it's mostly to see big healing numbers.
No real point in using dark arts for aoe. Just use weaponskills between every few unleashes. Don't use too much MP.

[Kaidam]

Thanks for the clarification. Much appreciated. Can't wait to try DK out. Now just need to clear 50 more quests...

[Xenosan]

I can't post my findings now, but keep in mind reapplying Darkside has an mp cost of roughly 12 seconds worth of uptime mp drain. Dropping dark side and reapplying it before 12 seconds is a loss of mp.

My testing:
Feedback welcomed, my results may be slightly different so either I'm missing something, character race/PIE levels are causing differences. idk.. done for now lol

IMO it's better to go by ticks than by seconds,

(185 Piety : 6930 MP)
----------------------------
In Combat Regen (Darkside turned off)
-265** + (138 per tick * 4 ticks) == +287 MP

287 - 442 (Cost of reapplying Darkside) == -155 MP

~ Net total of -155 MP for dropping DS for 4 ticks.

In Combat Degen (Darkside left on)
-127 per tick [12 seconds == 4 ticks] == -508 MP

~ Net total of -508 MP for leaving Darkside on for 4 ticks.

( -155 > -508 )

Don't get MP back turning Darkside off for 4 ticks, but did reduce MP depletion from -508 MP to -155.

Trying just 3 ticks:

-293 MP for turning DS off for 3 ticks before reapplying.

Darkside left on for 3 ticks: -381

-293 > -381

There's still a bonus of 88 MP in favor of toggling Darkside - even with just 3 ticks.

2 ticks tho is a loss (which makes sense. 2 ticks is practically turning it off, waiting for the CD recast & an extra third of a second server tick then turning it back on).

The recast on Darkside is 5 seconds, which is ~1.66 ticks. Another 1.33 ticks should be enough.

**I cannot identify the cause, nor replicate it consistently, but when deactivating DS, 265 MP is sometimes consumed as it's turned off, ticks non-withstanding. It's the same number whether in combat or not. And it doesn't always happen. It may be the Darkside's degen imitating an arbitrary server tick. IE: deactivating DS at 7 seconds is 2.33 server ticks, the game subtracts -265 for you being 33% into a third tick before applying the native, no Darkside regen at tick 3 (the 9 second mark, 2 seconds after).

[Atticon]

What's the run down on cross-class skills?

[Hundred]

If Im not mistaken.
Dark sides cost per tick is equal to 60% of Dark sides cost to put on.
Dark sides tick and the MP regain tick happen simultaneously. If you're attacking and then stop and just auto attacking, I believe you can "unsync" it so that you'll be losing MP and gaining MP at seperate intervals, this shows Darksides actual cost which to my knowledge is 60%.

For the sake of discussion, Piety increases your MP total & MP regeneration rate. As such if they're operating in sync, Piety directly decreases the cost of Darkside. Which also means in a Party with Piety bonus (scholar) your Darksides are costing slightly less. Darkside can't be affected by external MP of bards so the only way to decrease the effect of its Degen is Piety. This may mean that going with a Scholar will allow more Dark arts over an extensive period of time and possibly be a DPS/threat boost as a result. All of a Drks mp costs are static.

[Zyph]

What's the run down on cross-class skills?

Absolute Must: Provoke, Convalescence

Pretty much always: Foresight, Bloodbath

Hotly debated (set based on mechanics): Mercy Stroke, Awareness

Pls no: Fracture, Flash

Trash: Everything else.

[Falgern]

Absolute Must: Provoke, Convalescence

Pretty much always: Foresight, Bloodbath

Hotly debated (set based on mechanics): Mercy Stroke, Awareness

Pls no: Fracture, Flash

Trash: Everything else.

Mercy Stroke is generally prefered over Foresight. Foresight provides around 5% mitigation, mercy stroke is free dps.

[Able]

Player skill will always be the determining factor, but....

on paper WARs should be doing more. Deliverance is +5%, maim is +20, so (100 * 1.05) * 1.2 = 126% all the time. Season with Berserk as necessary. In Defiance, they only do 90% damage compared to our 92%

Agreed. I don't think DRKs would typically do as much DPS as a WAR if two equally skilled players are involved.

[Gardes]

I have reprisal and mercy stroke stacked in one macro. Plus plunge in there too. It works and I haven't seen any situational flaw with it...yet. Since they're all non gcd and can be weaved in during gcds...shouldn't be a problem. Anyone using something similar and discovered any situation where these actions shouldn't be used together (because sometimes the macro picks what's available to execute first randomly). In important fights mercy stroke is just extra dps 99% of the time so..

Actually kinda thinking of throwing dark passenger into it too..

[YshtoraHoly]

do you guys ever use Dark Mind and Dark Dance with Dark Arts buff? for me I just keep them on CD everytime it's up. Want to hear you guys opinion on this.

Also for DRK I prefer to have a WHM to back me up (Mostly becasue of their burst heal vs Living Dead).