Getting refused to EX groups as a DRK

[Agrieus]

I've never heard anything funner in my life.

Then by all means, go have some "fun" then! (It's fine, I knew what you really meant)

Jests aside, all I said was I feel like I've gotten comfortable with my Drk, I didn't say anything about being a "master". I also never said anything about going over the MP cap. The whole idea behind what I said was to basically go from low mp back up to near full in the time it takes for Dark Side to go through it's CD cycle and at no point will you ever be over your mp cap lol. Sure, you'll possibly loose a very small amount of dps, (because all you need to do to refill it back up to full is to do the power slash + syphon strike combo then back to power slash and another syphon and most of your mp is already back from that) but you'll recover mp quicker, which is the whole main idea about the method I use. It's a quick burst to refill MP and that's it.

I'm not going through full sets of rotations just to do this like you seem to think lol. You CAN leave Dark Side on while you're doing this, but it takes longer to refill your mp if you do. And all of this is assuming that blood price is on CD and, again, you just need a quick way to refill your mp.

P.S. If you you'd like to stay in blood weapon for a little longer once you've got your mp where you want it to be, then you can easily turn Dark Side back on and slam your target with a few Dark Art boosted abilities. You'll already be nearly topped off when Dark Side has been reset so there probably won't be any harm not to unless you need to conserve mp (and aside from that, you'll still be recovering some of the mp you're burning up from Dark Arts). Shadow Wall is also good to use while you're Grit is off in order to cover your lost defenses.

P.S.S I take what I said back about it being a dps loss....because by recharging your mp up quickly this way, you're more able to recover lost dps by using multiple casted Dark Arts buffed attacks. If you don't like the way I play my Drk then that's totally fine with me. It works and I don't have any MP issues and my dps is solid so I've got no complaints. It's a fun job.

[Faytte]

@ Faytte - Nah they are just squishier to sustained damage plain and simple, especially in Alex where there is a plethora of magic damage. And since Savage will most likely just be the same relative mechanics with boosted damage that discrepancy will grow even more.

What plethora of magic? Most everything has been physical?


First bosses attacks are all physical.
Second boss--things that hurt? All physical (dolls, gob walkers)
Third boss? All physical (hands, attacks in phase 3)
Fourth boss? This is the closest mix? Perpetual Ray is magic damage but a warrior can have an IB through each one. Once disonance stops casting, use IB--have -20% for the rest of the ability. Do that for the first one, then for the second do that and vengance. Third one, do that and thrill of battle, or equilibirum.

Not sure where you see lots of magic damage at, cause literally--its one thing, and I would much rather still have a warrior on it applying 10% - damage (missiles are physical damage, for instance).

[Faytte]

But well I mean even as a Drk, I got all 4 floors cleared only a few hours after the patch hit.

Well none of it was hard? It was easier than doing the EX's--basically just harder than a hard mode dungeon until you got to A4 (and even that isnt hard?). If they live up to making savage..you know... SAVAGE (harder than old coils supposedly) that will be a true test.

This was entirely too easy to really prove anything about classes. As you said, you can tank the majority of them without tank stances on. I did most of A4 in sword oath(turn to shield for running through orbs and tanking the last boss). Did A3 with sword oath until hand slaps/final phase and sword oath throughout a1.

[Agrieus]

A3 uses a lot of water magic attacks, does it not, Faytte? Particularly during the last phase? A1 has SOME attacks on the magic side (the laser beams, I believe)....but yeah, for the most part it's all primarily physical.

[Faytte]

A3's attack animations that hurt are are blockable (tested with bulkwark). Meaning that, anything the boss was doing that hurt as a tank, basically was mitigatable with block damage. There was some aoe damage, certainly? The charge attacks near the end (forget the name) hit everyone for water damage. Rather just top myself off with clemency with that or a party member--a cd for it isnt going to mean much, since that is raid wide damage. Warrior can just ib on it given the long cast time?

A1's lasers; as far as I can tell they wernt magic, but I'm not sure about that. I'll tank it after content with my dark friend and have him test it out. They arn't really busters though--just periodic attacks. You can pop a cd on them to help mitigate, but thats really no different than poping thrill to recover from one, or having IB up as a cd far more often if there IS some tell to pop it.

Anything that hurt, minus the laser was physical, and the laser is easy enough to tank with IB, but -is- a situation where dark mind is nice, i just dont think it makes up for the rest of the warriors kit.

We will need to see how savage pans out to be, but so far id rather have a paladin mt and a war ot in most instances. Which isnt DRK hate (im leveling one up to 60, cause why not? All three tanks is my plan) I just dont see the kit as being impressive defensively.

[wonka11]

My main tanking partner is a DRK, and he MTs when we work together.

Drk needs some adjustments, but its neither downright broken, or so far away from optimal that it shouldn't be incorporated into parties.

We've had Rav Ex on farm forever now, and have had Alex 1-4 on farm since day of release.

If you can't find groups that will take you as dark, find better players to play with, or look at improving your own game play.

[Faytte]

My main tanking partner is a DRK, and he MTs when we work together.

Drk needs some adjustments, but its neither downright broken, or so far away from optimal that it shouldn't be incorporated into parties.

We've had Rav Ex on farm forever now, and have had Alex 1-4 on farm since day of release.

If you can't find groups that will take you as dark, find better players to play with, or look at improving your own game play.

This. None of the current content really cares what tank you are. A Paladin will make things easier for healers (which healers like) but wont do the dps of a dark when both in tank stance.

Anyone being picky -now- is being silly. Things will be clearer in Savage.

[Kiteless]

I also never said anything about going over the MP cap. The whole idea behind what I said was to basically go from low mp back up to near full in the time it takes for Dark Side to go through it's CD cycle and at no point will you ever be over your mp cap lol. Sure, you'll possibly loose a very small amount of dps, (because all you need to do to refill it back up to full is to do the power slash + syphon strike combo then back to power slash and another syphon and most of your mp is already back from that) but you'll recover mp quicker, which is the whole main idea about the method I use. It's a quick burst to refill MP and that's it.

No, you don't just lose a "very small" amount of DPS, you lose an extremely large amount, and you won't even recover much MP while you're at it. The cost of reactivating Darkside will end up eating up any potential MP you could have regained through the regen you'd get from turning it off during combat (you might even actually go negative... I'd check it, but something like this is so pointless that it's not even worth verifying). And for negligible to potentially negative gains, you end up giving up 15% of all the damage you would be doing during that period. Weapon skills, auto attacks, and oGCDs, as well as wasting the buff from Blood Weapon. And if you end up withholding your oGCDs for when you have Darkside back up again, that's even further losses, as you're essentially dead weight for that entire period where you're doing your crappy MP regen rotation.

I'm not going through full sets of rotations just to do this like you seem to think lol. You CAN leave Dark Side on while you're doing this, but it takes longer to refill your mp if you do. And all of this is assuming that blood price is on CD and, again, you just need a quick way to refill your mp.

Or you could just learn to properly manage your MP like every other DRK.

P.S.S I take what I said back about it being a dps loss....because by recharging your mp up quickly this way, you're more able to recover lost dps by using multiple casted Dark Arts buffed attacks. If you don't like the way I play my Drk then that's totally fine with me. It works and I don't have any MP issues and my dps is solid so I've got no complaints. It's a fun job.

No, it is a loss, and a very potent one at that. Even if you come up slightly on the positive side of MP gains after the Darkside reactivation cost, you are trading 15% of all the damage you do over that period for 120 extra potency in a single hit. Over the course of 2 Delirium combos (most damage and fastest way to regen MP), that's approximately 251 potency lost. And that's not even including oGCDs that you might throw in, and the most efficient use of Blood Weapon involves using as many oGCD physical attacks as possible. If you end up weaving in Plunge, Reprisal, and Low Blow, that's an additional 75 potency wasted. Should you choose not to use them when they become available, you're not helping your situation any further; and let's just hope you're not using C&S or Salted Earth. At minimum, you're looking at around 325 lost potency with your rotation, which might questionably earn you 120 back. The way you play your DRK strictly worse than every DRK out there, and you absolutely should not be giving any advice about the class to other players.

[Xariann]

-WAR does not have better mitigation than a DRK.

I did some calculations some time ago, I found that WAR does indeed have better mitigation and it's also slightly better than DRK for magic damage reduction. But those calculations were purely based on theoretical tank busters (and yes I did make up a scenario with an hypothetical magic tank buster), so that doesn't take into account sustained damage instead of burst, or add tanking.

[SirTaint]

This. None of the current content really cares what tank you are. A Paladin will make things easier for healers (which healers like) but wont do the dps of a dark when both in tank stance.

Anyone being picky -now- is being silly. Things will be clearer in Savage.

^ This

People keep using faceroll content as a test to the jobs worthiness. Ravana EX is one of the easiest primals yet. (Garuda,Titan,Ramuh,Shiva,Moogle,Levi were all definitely harder upon release) He just stands there 50% of the fight.

Alexander Normal is just a mini Crystal Tower.

I'm glad they added the content but lets not pretend it proves anything about anyone.