DRK openers and how to keep C&S on cooldown

[Ditto]

I feel like Drk doesn't really have a rotation. It depends on what is up, when, and whether it's worth using on that OGCD or not. It takes a lot of thought and practice (More complicated than other tanks), but you'll eventually get use to it.

For example, if you precharge a DA, don't Passenger on the next OGCD. A tip I can give though, is often I'll throw DA up, and use Delirium instead of Souleater. Follow that up with C&S immediately after. Kind of hard to give an exact rotation, because it can change every time with all of the OGCD's we have.

Just a few tips as well;

- You don't HAVE to use DA on a Souleater. If you have DA up, C&S up, and you're already halfway into your combo, use Delirium instead and then C&S during the GCD. It puts your potency usage as high as it will get.
- If you're wearing a lot of Fending, chances are you have low STR, thus the HP returned from Souleater is trivial. Having a 100% HP reutrn on one of our combo finishers is nice, but it isn't as good as it looks, nor what people make it out to be.
- Don't prioritize HP returns, it's just an added extra.
- Drk has a bad problem with GCD clipping with Blood Weapon. Until you get use to the flow, you may often run into times where your GCD will sit longer than it should. You don't want this to happen, ever. Never double up on OGCD's in 1 GCD unless it's something like Low Blow & Blood Weapon, which can be done within a single GCD.
- Don't be afraid to drop Grit to Blood Weapon. Just ensure you're far enough ahead in enmity before you do. FIghts like A1 for example, I'm only in Grit for 2 Power Slash GCD's. The rest of the fight I'm prioritizing damage, which on Faust I've held 1k without any slashing debuff.
- Both Plunge and Salted Earth are very risky OGCD's. Plunge has a long animation and recoup time, it can cause you to clip your GCD very easily. If you plan to weave it, which you should, it has to be fired off the INSTANT your GCD begins. Salted Earth, a lot of people are saying they'd rather have it planted around them instead of choosing where you want it. I don't agree with this at all, it just takes skill to get use to. It'll be harder on console definitely, but on PC, bind it to a key, hit the key and drop it immediately. You can do this within a GCD easily, hell I even click the skill and drop it within a GCD with Blood Weapon going.
- If C&S is counting down it's last couple of seconds, often I will Delirium instead of Souleater just to use that charged DA on C&S instead the instant it comes up. This can be risky however if you're not use to it, as DA doesn't have a very long duration.
- ALWAYS use C&S under DA unless you absolutely need the MP for whatever reason. For example in A2 I rarely DA a C&S simply because almost that entire fight my MP is running close to dry. It's not worth risking going out of MP, losing Darkside, and not being able to control AOE enmity just to do a quick 450 potency attack on 1 target.
- Delirium has a higher potency than Souleater without DA. Always use it as your DPS combo finisher unless you can DA a Souleater.

My opener is usually something like this..

DA -> Plunge -> Scourge -> Low Blow/Reprisal if it procs -> Heavy Slash -> C&S -> Spinning Slash -> Salted Earth -> Power Slash

If I know I have enmity for the entire fight after that, I drop grit, throw up Blood Weapon, and just go in hard. This usually leaves me in the high 800's in DPS by the time I drop Grit, so I start off strong, and go even stronger on fights like Faust where I've reached 1k without a slashing resist debuff, and with parsers not including Salted Earth at all.

If I think I have to, I'll do a second Power Slash combo with whatever OGCD's come up in between before I drop Grit.

OGCD prioritization is Reprisal = C&S > Low Blow > Salted Earth(If the target is going to sit in it long enough) > Plunge > Passenger(ONLY if you don't have Grit up. Never DA it. TO many peoples disbelief, it is worth using on single target if you can keep your MP floating with Blood Weapon)

It may not be perfect, but it works for me.