[DRK] Wanna know why Unleashed & Abyssal Drain are both needed?

[Phoenicia]

Looks like 23DPS lower to me, and over 350DPS higher than the second WAR. You’re right though. DRK is garbage only pulling 97.7% of the DPS an OT WAR pulled in an entire encounter.

Eh? Why does my point fly over everyone's head or the comparison is taken out of context?

Kleys claimed, and in absolute terms no less, that DRK is the best tank in A2S because it beats WAR in DPS giving an actual DPS number. I wanted to point out that it is a baseless claim by linking a video of a WAR, with a weaker weapon, doing more DPS. Even if it is 2, not 23, not 40, DPS more, it's with a weaker weapon.

So if DRK isn't doing "more" DPS than WAR, and its physical damage mitigation is far worse, in a heavy physical damage fight no less, how is it the best tank? Hence, my point. Numbers can be found in my other posts.

Let's not turn this into "my shlong is bigger than yours" because that's not my intention.

[Marveth]

What is the deal of this thread?
Is there an issue with these two skills that I don't know about?

I've been using both frequently and dont see any issues with any of them.
Unleash is amazing for snap aggro on newly spawned mobs or any mob you need aggro on that is close and you do not have target on.

Abyssal drain I use mostly once I got everything clumped together so the mp cost is no longer an issue. Then I spam it and weave in dark arts depending on my hp.

I use abyssal drain instead of unleash due to the extra damage and mp should not be of issue anyway. When mp starts to dwindle I have plenty of hate and can start to focus one mob at a time.

[Phoenicia]

What is the deal of this thread?
Is there an issue with these two skills that I don't know about?

I've been using both frequently and dont see any issues with any of them.
Unleash is amazing for snap aggro on newly spawned mobs or any mob you need aggro on that is close and you do not have target on.

Abyssal drain I use mostly once I got everything clumped together so the mp cost is no longer an issue. Then I spam it and weave in dark arts depending on my hp.

I use abyssal drain instead of unleash due to the extra damage and mp should not be of issue anyway. When mp starts to dwindle I have plenty of hate and can start to focus one mob at a time.

It is not that either spell is bad. It is just that they feel redundant. And if you lost one or the other it wouldn't matter as long as you had the other.

[Noira]

I honestly am not seeing the point of abyssal drain at this point in time except for an aoe type heal when im getting hit by 4 or more mobs.

It seems like it could be somewhat useful for big pulls as a self heal other than that I use it because hey it's there.

[Ditto]

Could you... learn to play before spouting such nonsense?

I'm really getting tired of all this bullshitting from DRKs that can't even manage their MP/TP.

DRK isn't even that hard to play.

And yeah, 1020 DPS as a DRK in A2S for my very first down, having done a lot of mistakes due to pressure and yolo'd last wave. I've yet to see a WAR doing more than this, while I could've gone for 1050 (without any DRG or NIN in party) if not more.

Maybe you should go play with good Warriors first? And while you're at it, learn how to play Drk yourself if you honestly cant see the usefulness in the two different abilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6cqbBWBhpA

Go ahead. Just watch his parse. And that's with an i190 weapon. This is all while bringing better mitigation than Drk brings.

[Firepower]

I'll give you two scenarios:

Three mobs spawn together. But you are currently tanking some enemies already Do you:

a. Unmend one by one to get aggro.
b. Run up to them and use unleash a few times
c. Use Abyssal Drain.

D) Unmend one enemy, Plunge, use FREE mp unleash from proc on unmend

Of course I understand you don't want to drag the DPS over to the new spawns and potentially ruin their combo's so I can see your point.

[Ditto]

D) Unmend one enemy, Plunge, use FREE mp unleash from proc on unmend

Of course I understand you don't want to drag the DPS over to the new spawns and potentially ruin their combo's so I can see your point.

Assuming Unmend procs the free Unleash.

That's relying on chance. And then as you already mentioned, moving around.

[Marxam]

Of course I understand you don't want to drag the DPS over to the new spawns and potentially ruin their combo's so I can see your point.

yes that was the point. Why move and have the melee dps drop a positional just so you save a few mp with Unmend when you can do the same thing with Abyssal Drain with far less effort?

Abyssal Drain is a ranged unleash and useful in situations where you have mobs spawn in groups. The self heal you get from DA is debatable as I never, if rarely use it unless I'm holding 5+ mobs like the opening trash in the vault to give the healer some time to dps. However I feel that this thread is getting to defensive for no reason so you all have a good day. /leave

[Ladon]

Target-less vs targeted is sort of a big deal as stated already. The fact that one radiates from you and the other from the target also makes them very mechanically different.

Remember that the radius might be 5y on both but the effective range of Unleash is 10y since you can position the diameter. I run into situations all the time where an Abyssal Drain will not hit everything where you can place yourself in the middle of the pack and an outer mob and hit everything with Unleashed.

This generally results in Unleashed being used to gather enemies and then moving to Abyssal Drain when everything has been grouped.

So I just don't see the redundancy at all when there are key mechanical differences of the two skills.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Unmend Procing Unleash is a waste of a trait in my opinion.