Coming back to DRK

[pikster]

So... I picked up DRK on HW's launch and took it straight to 60. Loved it all the way there, until I hit 60, I did a couple of dungeons and hit some real walls on MP management.

The advice people were giving at the time was spam AOE, pretty much it, I know that has somewhat evolved now ofc. But the problem I found myself having was going into the next pull with pretty much no MP, or and most commonly in Aetherochemical dungeon not having MP to pick up the seemingly endless adds as they have come in mid fight.

Now, admittedly, I dont think I gave DRK enough time for me to get better, but I want too. I WAR'd all the way through 1.0 and ARR but DRK just has that flash that I wanted WAR to have.

Does anyone have any pointers on specifically how to ensure you have MP left after a decent size dungeon pull? A bonus would be a general idea of how many times you find you have to AOE to keep hate and go into syphoning at the start of a pull?

[Violette]

1. Don't ever turn darkside off.

2. Use blood price.

3. Unleash/Ab drain 2 times. A third l8r if losing enmity.

3. See step 1 and slap yourself if you fail.

[Misha_Tameshigiri]

Don't spam your AOEs unless you don't like having mana.
Keep it to less than 5 per pull unless your DPS seriously outgears you. Ideally you'd just do 3.

A good benchmark is to keep your MP above 50% by the end of the pull.
You should almost never be using powerslash during trash pulls, by the way. If you have to use the power slash combo more than once.. either your DPS outgears you or you didn't use your AOEs enough. Also skip using Dark Arts during pulls, too. It's mana you can't really spare.
Don't use Abyssal drain unless you're pulling 6+ enemies and can afford to Dark Arts it. The MP cost is not worth the small increase in damage.

[Dererk]

Mp management can be easy on trash pulls.

Using blood price on big pulls means more mp regained cause of the damage your taking but still use a defensive cd.

Save Carve and Spit for mp regain on trash pulls don't darkarts combo it.

Sole survivor good to use when either on the last mob of a pull or anything close and I mean very close to dying I mean like it has 10% left. Not bosses ofcorse.

If you really get desperate for mp take of grit for a bit for blood weapon. I only advise this on boss fights and only till mp is full then put grit back on right away.


I also use darkarts Dark passenger combo on every pull to lower the mobs acc but only do that once you get comfterble with your mp management.

Also if your running to next trash pack its ok to turn Darkside off for a few seconds to get mp bk faster but put it back on on the next pull.

[Freyyy]

Use Blood Price on cooldown. The more mobs hit you, the more MP you get from it, and you can most of the time basically spam Abyssal Drain during the whole duration of Blood Price and still being almost at full MP after that. When Blood Price is falling off, use Dark Arts + Dark Passenger then Dark Arts + Dark Dance, drop Grit, use Blood Weapon, and start single-targetting. You'll often find yourself that you sustain more MP than necessary, in that case use extra Abyssal Drains to make your next Syphons worth it. Use Sole Survivor on mobs that are about to die. Use Carve & Spit without Dark Arts in AoE, it permits you to do 2 to 3 extra Abyssal Drains compared to if you DA it, it's worth-it damage wise. Don't ever Dark Arts your Abyssal Drains unless your healer really sucks at the point where you need to self-heal like crazy. Don't forget to use Salted Earth, Plunge, Low Blow, Reprisal and Dark Passenger when available.

As for single target, you basically just need to do 1-2 Power Slash combos at the beginning of the fight and you can spend the rest of the fight only using your Syphon Strike combos. Use Power Slash combo only if someone's aggro is getting high. Refresh Scourge as your number 1 priority. Refresh Delirium on magic-hitting enemies if you have no MNK in your party. Do as much DA + Souleater as possible. Always have the MP to DA Carve & Spit when it's available, never use Carve & Spit for MP unless you're AoEing. Use Salted Earth on cooldown. Use Dark Passenger on cooldown. Use Reprisal when possible. Use Plunge on cooldown. Use Low Blow everytime it procs. Use Blood Price on cooldown. If you're feeling good enough to tank out of Grit, use Blood Weapon on cooldown too. Never stay at full MP otherwise you'll happen to waste precious Syphon Strikes. Never get too low on MP either otherwise Darkside will fall off.

AoE threat generation is really high for DRK, but keep spamming Abyssal Drain as much as you can for damage.

[pikster]

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for that. Much better than the 3.0 advice I got of,if you don't AOE about 6 times you will fail.

Dark Arts was something I was curious of so im glad you touched on that. Its not worth Arts + Passenger at all on trash pulls? Or just on really large ones?

[Freyyy]

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for that. Much better than the 3.0 advice I got of,if you don't AOE about 6 times you will fail.

Dark Arts was something I was curious of so im glad you touched on that. Its not worth Arts + Passenger at all on trash pulls? Or just on really large ones?

DA + Dark Passenger is worth it with 3 or more mobs. Don't Dark Arts it on single target or just 2 mobs.

[Misha_Tameshigiri]

On large pulls it really doesn't matter what you do.
Once you start tanking 6+ enemies it's nearly impossible to run out of mana.

[pikster]

mmmmmk, thanks for all that everyone. Much appreciated I shall give it a go tonight and see if I can get back in the swing of it.

[Syzygian]

Your ability to manage mana in dungeons is largely gated by the size of your pulls. I never pull fewer than 4 mobs which means i can aoe until BP falls (6-7 abyssal drains roughly). If you only pull 2 mobs then yeah, you won't be able to aoe to the job's full potential.