DRK openers and how to keep C&S on cooldown

[Allyrion]

DA + PS is kinda meh. As I understand it, it just changes the PS multiplier from 5.5 to 6.5, not a huge boost for that much mp spent.



It's the most mp efficient thing we have that's off the GCD. Better than DA + C&S.

DA + CS is more efficient.
Dark Passenger is second.

Dark Passenger's mana is 884 for 150 potency.
884/150 = 5.893 mana per potency.

Dark Arts costs 1768 for C&S's 350 potency gain.
1768/350 = 5.051 mana per potency.

I know your reasoning is probably that if you don't use C&S with DA then you'll gain mana.
Hence using DA + C&S isn't as mana efficient if you take into account the mana you lost because you used Dark Arts.
That's true.

Still, in a rotation where you always use DA + C&S then you always spent less mana per potency than you would've for Dark Passenger.

Effectively each mana gen is roughly 1/3rd of a DA.

Are you talking about Syphon Strike?
It's exactly half of DA.
I get 884 mana back from Syphon Strike, 2 of them is exactly the cost of DA - 1768 mp.

While I agree -
if you're doing Savage and you're DPS aren't pulling from you without a double PS start, then you're probably not going to meet the dps checks (or their openers just aren't good).
Sometimes I can get away with just 1 PS, but it's risky with my DRG's burst. I do 2 (usually only one with DA though) and never touch it again most of the time.