After getting dark knight 60 and playing it for a while

[Hundred]

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Doesnt check out bud. Storm path and inner beast are both damage mitigation. Berserk affects all the self healing and bloodbath has higher uptime on a Warrior.

The difference is notable in practice on a Ifrit HM solo for instance. The healing potency difference which is certainly there even if you ignore the passive mitigation on Path/IB . Ifrit for example will be untargetable multiple times in the fight, soul eater/bloodbath/IB/Path is automatically discredited at these times where as Second Wind/Thrill/Equilibrium/Clemency are available or running out their clock during this Downtime. These advantages arent there. There isnt a self-healing advantage. You can post the Defiance vs Oath/Grit till one is blue is in the face it is not relevant here. Drks values remain visibly, practically and mathematically lower in self-healing.

Im not ignoring Grit. It is irrelevant here after IB, Storms Path, Berserk and the superior uptime of Bloodbath.

[Reynhart]

Ifrit for example will be untargetable multiple times in the fight, soul eater/bloodbath/IB/Path is automatically discredited at these times where as Second Wind/Thrill/Equilibrium/Clemency are available or running out their clock during this Downtime.

Again, not relevant in any real situation since you'll have a healer by your side who will keep eveybody up with a single spell.

It's exactly like the "Shield Oath/Grit is better than Defiance because the healing boost is only 20%". Yes, in theory, it's true, but in practice, both are the same.

And you also didn't take into account Abyssal Drain too, which is marvelous for fight with multiple targets.

[Hundred]

Again, not relevant in any real situation since you'll have a healer by your side who will keep eveybody up with a single spell.

It's exactly like the "Shield Oath/Grit is better than Defiance because the healing boost is only 20%". Yes, in theory, it's true, but in practice, both are the same.

And you also didn't take into account Abyssal Drain too, which is marvelous for fight with multiple targets.

Healing potency per second is only theorycraft from the start as you do not spam Self-heals in that fashion in the first place, it's straight looking at the raw data and saying DRK's "capability" is less because it objectively is, so it's erronous to put this as a Dark Niche because they can do it every 6s when they don't actually have the self-heal advantage. In an actual engagement tanks have more to do then just spam Soul eater/Storms Path from 100-0.

Abyssal Drains heal can be relevant in multi-target fights. Unfortunately most fights prioritize single-target relevancy where there self healing is less potent. Even still DA Abyssal Drain is 39% of your mana, so while it is a boon and Blood Price can extend your ability to utilize this, for general content its healing is often not capitalized on. You are certainly correct that Drk can be ahead for a moment with the skill but the useage is limited and if we're talking "relevant in any real situation since you'll have a healer by your side who will keep eveybody up with a single spell." It generally isn't relevant at all.

Players should really just consider it like this: Drk's 'strengths' are elsewhere

[Reynhart]

Abyssal Drains heal can be relevant in multi-target fights. Unfortunately most fights prioritize single-target relevancy where there self healing is less potent.

So far, almost all fights in HW (I haven't done Alexander 2-4, yet) give us multiple targets so that we can use Abyssal Drain or Sole Survivor even during boss fights.
For example, the 1st miniboss in Alex 1 is far easier with Blood Price+Dark Arts+Abyssal Drain.

[Hundred]

For example, the 1st miniboss in Alex 1 is far easier with Blood Price+Dark Arts+Abyssal Drain.

You talking about the little adds there during the burn encounter? I don't even waste my time.


A2 Is a couple of 2-3 mob groups that can be grouped up, given the entire fight is adds however Unless you end up tanking the eastern Jagd with the boomtype and the 2 gobs (Northside should be picking that Jagd up however) you're never taking enough damage to warrant it, and in the case of the double Jagd's Soul Eater would be far more relevant healing given its only two targets. There's only three times in A2 where I'm concerned with my health: When you do double boomtypes before the actual "boss" encounter, when the boomtype + Eastern Jagd spawns if the North tank doesn't pick up the eastern Jagd so I end up doing so, and double Jagds. If everything is going properly you're only doing a 3 mob and 2 mob pull where am I going to Abyssal Drain in this for health. I'd be better off if everything gets grouped doing it without Deadly Arts to get more casts out and pump more damage.


Its not relevant in A3. Arguably if you were Main tanking A3 you could try and theres little reason to use it in A4 either. Basically none of the main fights warrant it. The Pre-fights (there is no pre-fight on A4) sure not that it matters. Again unless Savage 4 is tuned that hard, DA Abyssal drain just doesn't put out the numbers to warrant dropping 39% of your mana.

Moving past Alex as well.

Curator? Nope.
Minotaur? Nope.
Watchamacallit with Rapid Sever? Nope.

Nevereap Snake thingy? Nope.
Totem dude? Nope.
Invisibird? Nope.
Bismark EX? Nope
Ravana EX? Nope.
The watchamacallit Trial after research facility? Nope.
Research Facility? Nope.

Basically all its use goes into some adds which are far too spaced out to be relevant in boss fights and generally don't hit hard at all outside of the boss fight to warrant it.
You could try and make use of it during a dungeon run or OT adds on Alex 1 and *maybe* 2, but having done the whole suite with Drk and War. DA Abyssal drain isn't worth the mana it costs.

[Reynhart]

Again unless Savage 4 is tuned that hard, DA Abyssal drain just doesn't put out the numbers to warrant dropping 39% of your mana.

Since I'm a a tank, using my mana to help healers keep me alive is pretty worth it.

Besides, unless you're trigger happy with Dark Arts, it's not that difficult to refill your MP since you use Syphon Strike pretty much all the time and you can Blood Price up for almost half the fights.

As for your list, almost all these fights have at least one add for Sole Survivor, which is very useful on its own.