Am I missing something about DRK?

[Allyrion]

But you have an AMAZING dark dance--yes its rng, yes its not perfect, but its up time to downtime is leagues ahead of anything a paladin has

It's 20s with a 60s recast, so it can literally have a 33% uptime.
I love Dark Dance. It's RNG is compensated by that uptime.

[Faytte]

It's 20s with a 60s recast, so it can literally have a 33% uptime.
I love Dark Dance. It's RNG is compensated by that uptime.

This guy gets it. Your defensives on Drk are quite...QUITE good. There was a bad impression of the class cause honestly when it came out:
1) new class. Never performs at its best like ones people have been doing forever.
2) many darks were x dps. Never have tanked before. Leads into #1 but eh
3) It's not a simple class to play.

[Yorumi]

2) many darks were x dps. Never have tanked before. Leads into #1 but eh

I think this is the big one, too many people playing drk because it's drk, not because they wanted to tank. Sch was my first to 60 and the whole time it was so painful healing drks. I thought there was something way wrong with the class until I looked up it's skills and said "what the hell it's a pld, how are they screwing up mitigation so bad." It's gotten better now as I think most of them have washed out now.

[Habien]

But you have an AMAZING dark dance--yes its rng, yes its not perfect, but its up time to downtime is leagues ahead of anything a paladin has

You know, if you hit dark dance every possible minute you can, you will parry, on average, as much as a paladin blocks+parries? It isn't "leagues ahead", it is their version of block.

[Alahra]

Yes, Dark Dance is great. In dungeons, you can usually use it about every pull. I tend to open with Blood Price and liberal use of Unleash, and then when Blood Price is down, I'll pop Dark Dance (with Dark Arts for larger pulls). Other CDs are used as necessary. Our mitigation isn't as stable as PLD's, but it should be more than enough.

[Sennema]

I am a DRG main, but really love playing DRK. It's a lot of fun (I also play PLD, for comparison). I enjoy that there's the MP management aspect to it, on top of everything else. I played WAR, too, but never went past 35 so I'm not fully emersed. I'm only at level 44 for DRK, but the only times I've run out of MP were from my own mis-management of it (ie: not paying attention, turning off grit when I shouldn't have and having to turn back on at high cost, etc.). The TP thing I get -- I've run low here and there; but isn't that more indicative of DPS under-performing? I only run out on the lower-level bosses when the fight drags on forever (like DPS dying to Chimera in Cutter's Cry). Again, limited experience but I don't see what the complaining is about? Am I in for a shock post-50?

[Jayjohn]

Never use Dark Dance as an oh shit cooldown same with Foresight you should be using them whenever they are up.

The opening I use currently MT'ing is DA >Dive > C&S > DA+PS combo > DP > Syphon combo > Delirium combo > DA+Syphon Combo from here its all about maintaining and seeing how much mana you got. Dropping in oGCD's when ever they are up and either switching between DA+Syphon > Delirium Combo or DA+Syphon x2 depending if I got enough mana. Also when I start saving up mana to make sure I can use a DA+C&S. I am pulling around 750 dps currently just MT'ing. Now I could possibly pull higher numbers if I drop out of Grit more and I wasn't running out of TP so fast.

Your mileage may vary, since I actually raid with a static that's been together for almost 2 years, we can do pretty funky things. Like not healing me for 1:30 secs on A1 Savage and then going balls deep for DPS.

As of right now, I will say some of the DRK abilities are carbon copies of earlier abilities which is pretty stupid and needs to be either fixed or replace with something worthwhile to be used.

[Meow9000]

I haven't really had too many problems managing my MP as a DRK, I've learn to effectively stance dance to get more dps out and get a blood weapon or two in so I can keep hitting those DA Soul Eater. I personally prefer to hit as many DA soul eater off as possible before I am running too low on Mp and just go into Delirium until Im back to a comfortable mp level, Then right back to it. Blood price helps MP management so much, even though the return isn't that great during boss fights.