DRK Questions

[Litegrace]

Snip

Cool, glad you learned something from the thread Thought it would be cool to have everyone give their opinions/playstyles for the job as maybe people could offer input/reasons for why they do things differently. I know my playstyle has changed because of it. There are some things I just didn't even consider doing differently.

[Violette]

So I used to main PLD pre-3.0 and switched over to DRK when Heavensward released. I'm really enjoying the job, but I just had a few questions (mostly to see how others play the job).

1). Same usage as a paladin basically, except for dark dance in A1S, which I use post tank buster so healers can dps more while I take less damage.

2). SE all the time. SE>DE unless I don't have mana for dark arts, then DE. Because efficiency is key.

3). All the time. The heal means my whm/sch/ast can dps a bit more.

4). As much as possible, unless I'm up struggle street without a blood price.

5). Only in large aoe mobs, such as A2S where that extra 100 pot really adds up.

[Syzygian]

Thanks everyone, I was just curious how other DRK's were playing. I figured that most of it was situational, but there were some good pointers in here. I have the tanking aspect down (pulling mobs, keeping aggro, staying alive), but mostly just needed some help with the job itself (maximizing dps and utilizing MP for the right abilities).

So essentially, I should always try to keep up a defensive buff whenever I am tanking a boss or multiple mobs correct? So basically just save shadowskin, shadow wall, and dark mind for big hits/magic damage?

As for dark passenger, I just feel like having the blind and extra dps on multiple mobs would make a big difference but I could be wrong. I guess I'm just so used to weaving in flashes between Paladin cooldowns that I have the mindset of blind being a good debuff to have up.

I also need to be less conservative with my MP, especially with blood price up (I get paranoid when I hit 50% or less).

Yeah this goes for any tank, always keep something up. Certain cooldowns like foresight and awareness are not designed to be popped on their own, you should stack these with something else even when just tanking trash. As I mentioned earlier there is no point in saving big mitigation CDs like Shadowskin/wall if there is no tankbuster in the encounter so feel free to work these into a CD rotation. You can practice popping your CDs in a fashion that enables you to have nearly 100% uptime some form of mitigation, especially on DRK where two of your major, job specific CDs have a recast of only 60 seconds. It can also be a good idea to save Convalescence for a tank buster if you realize that you are not going to have all of the mitigation CDs you need to survive it comfortably.

The added MP you save from not DAing passenger and added MP you gain from mobs being able to hit you stead of missing you repeatedly vastly helps your sustain. If your DPS are AoEing and you're wearing some pentamelds, abyssal drain spam will absolutely decimate large packs of trash. Speaking of AoEing, remember to multi-DoT. keep Salted Earth up, and put Scourge on as many mobs as you can; its a very cheap DoT for its potency, way better than fracture.

MP conservation while MTing is a fight-by-fight thing. Lots of bosses spend as much time fucking with the rest of your party (AoEs, unavoidable raid-wide casts, etc.) as they do hitting you, so you need to be aware of just how much the boss is gonna be hitting you, and adjust your MP usage accordingly. Frankly though, DA has such a high MP cost, that by the time you're in the danger zone you likely won't even have the MP to cast it. I generally start worrying about MP once I get under about 2500. Honestly, if Darkside falls off, its bad, try never to let it happen, but don't panic. Just hit a syphon strike and recast it, its off the GCD so its very easy to put it right back up if it ever drops. But yeah, don't be too conservative. If your MP is above 25-30%, it had better be dropping like a stone, or at least jumping up and down, or you're doin it wrong There's also little things you can do like putting Sole Survivor on any adds that spawn, and you should be used to doing that in dungeons anyway (I usually am able to use it every other trash pack).

One more thing - if there is ever a break in the fight (boss jumps, disappears, goes untargetable, whatever) TURN OFF DARKSIDE. There's literally no reason to have Darkside on while in combat if you're not hitting anything, if you're not dealing damage, it becomes nothing more than an MP bleed, it should go without saying, and likewise, if your party isn't able to hit anything, your BRD/MCH should be playing Ballad/MP turret, and with Darkside off, you will benefit from it. And unlike Grit, Darkside is off GCD and has a relatively cheap MP cost.

[Phoenicia]

One more thing - if there is ever a break in the fight (boss jumps, disappears, goes untargetable, whatever) TURN OFF DARKSIDE. There's literally no reason to have Darkside on while in combat if you're not hitting anything, if you're not dealing damage, it becomes nothing more than an MP bleed, it should go without saying, and likewise, if your party isn't able to hit anything, your BRD/MCH should be playing Ballad/MP turret, and with Darkside off, you will benefit from it. And unlike Grit, Darkside is off GCD and has a relatively cheap MP cost.

Depends on how long the jump is.　Darkside requires 442 MP to activate, which is slightly more than 2 ticks (6 seconds). So if the jump is NOT 6 seconds or longer, do not bother turning off Darkside.