"Dark Knight: Tanking On The Edge"

[Syzygian]

"Dark Knight: Tanking on The Edge"

Contents:

1. Introduction

1a.Key
1b.Toolkit

2. Playstyle Summary

2a.Unique Mechanics
2b.My Body Is Ready, What Must I Do?
2c.***PATCH 3.2***

3. Pulling/Opening/Enmity

3a.Bosses
3b.Trash

4. Mitigation/Cooldown Usage

4a. Native Cooldowns
4b. Cross-Class Abilities
4c. Synergy/Cooldown Combinations

5. Combos/Rotations/DPS

5a. Rotational Potencies
5b. DPS/Mana Priority
5c. Rotations/Bursts
5d. oGCDs

6. Mana/TP Management

6a. MP
6b. TP

7. Job Synergy

8. FAQ

9. Conclusion

CHANGELOG:
01/17/16-Added a quote explaining multiplicative mitigation.
01/23/16-Added a quote explaining a high SkS opener.
02/04/16-Added some pretty pictures and a section about enmity.
02/15/16-Added a quote on oGCD weaving and animation locks.
02/20/16-Updated Souleater/Delirium/Hard Slash TP costs and information regarding Grit and VIT/STR in accordance with patch 3.2.
02/29/16-Updated with informational section 2c on patch 3.2, and references the changes elsewhere in the guide. Discussed Power Slash usage in depth in the DPS section.
03/07/16-Updated 4a with an aside on Reprisal, and 6b with TP flooring times updated as of patch 3.2.

------------

[Syzygian]

1. Introduction:

Dark Knight is the new tank we got in 3.0. As a new tank and therefore a proud member of the one job type so many people seem scared to play, there is still a lot of misinformation and questions abound about how to play the job properly in multiple contexts, and a confusion about how to properly synergize its abilities and rotations. While pretty maligned at launch, a few of us have figured out how to really milk this job for all its worth and the results can be impressive. It has seized the throne of highest MT DPS and thanks to the DPS-heavy meta, has almost completely usurped PLD as the de-facto raid MT. In spite of some apparent discrepancies in synergy in its toolkit, many have started to connect the dots and learned how to master the job and utilize its abilities optimally and in conjunction with each other. This guide will reference some other resources and aim to be as exhaustive as possible, to help people understand and maximize their experience and performance on this incredibly fun job.

1a. Key:

STR - Strength
VIT - Vitality
CRIT - Critical Hit Rate
DET - Determination
SkS - Skill Speed
PAR - Parry
ACC - Accuracy
AA - Auto Attack
TB - Tank Buster
CC - Cross-Class
DoT – Damage over Time
HoT – Heal over Time
PROC - Programmed Random Occurrence.
Potency - function of damage dealt. 100 potency is roughly equivalent to the damage of your auto-attack.
GCD - Global Cooldown - Must be used on the global cooldown, and in most cases, triggers this global cooldown as well.
WS - Weaponskill - All are on the global cooldown and will interrupt combos if used out of order. All deal physical damage and scale with Vitality and Strength.
SP - Spell - All are on the global cooldown and with a single exception, will interrupt combos. All deal magical damage and scale with Vitality and Strength.
oGCD - Off Global Cooldown - These sit on their own recast timer that is not shared with any other ability. None of them interrupt combos. Damaging oGCDs that "deliver an attack" are physical and those that "deal unaspected damage" are magical. All scale off Vitality and Strength.
AB - Ability - All abilities are off GCD and include offensive and defensive cooldowns.

Stat priority will not be discussed in this guide; with 3.2 on the horizon it is likely that a lot of that information may be dated soon with the changes coming to DRK and tanks in general. Thus, I'll be trying to keep this guide limited to things that are highly unlikely to change in the next patch.

1b. Toolkit

HS - Hard Slash
-1 : Delivers an attack with a potency of 150.
----WS/GCD/60TP/3y Range
SK - Shadowskin
-2 : Reduces damage taken by 20% for 20s.
----AB/oGCD/90s Recast
SpS - Spinning Slash
-4 : Delivers an attack with a potency of 100/Additional Effect Enmity=Potency*3/Combo Action Hard Slash/Combo Potency 220.
----WS/GCD/60TP/3y Range
SC - Scourge
-6 : Delivers an attack with a potency of 100/Additional Effect DoT potency of 40 per 3s for 30s (500 total).
----WS/GCD/60TP/3y Range
UL - Unleash
-8 : Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100 in a PBAoE/Addional Effect Enmity=Potency*6.
----SP/GCD/792MP/5y Radius *
LB - Low Blow
-10: Delivers an attack with a potency of 100/Additional Effect Stun 5s/Additional Effect 30% chance of recast reset upon Parry.
----AB/oGCD/25s Recast/3y Range
SyS - Syphon Strike
-12: Delivers an attack with a potency of 100/Combo Action Hard Slash/Combo Potency 250/Combo Bonus Restores MP (884@60).
----WS/GCD/60TP/3y Range
UM - Unmend
-15: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 150/Additional Effect Enmity=Potency*3/Additional Effect 30% chance of 0 MP-cost on next Unleash.
----SP/GCD/353MP/15y Range
BW - Blood Weapon
-18: Increases attack speed by 10%, reduces TP cost by 20%, and converts physical damage dealt into MP (238 per hit @60) for 15s/Cannot be used with Grit.
----AB/oGCD/40s Recast
RE - Reprisal
-22: Delivers an attack with a potency of 210/Can only be used immediately after Parrying/Additonal Effect Loweres target's damage dealt by 10% for 20s.
----WS/oGCD/30s Recast/3y Range
PS - Power Slash
-26: Delivers an attack with a potency of 100/Additional Effect Enmity=Potency*5.5/Combo Action Spinning Slash/Combo Potency 300/Dark Arts Combo Effect Enmity=Potency*6.5.
----WS/GCD/60TP/3y Range
Grit - Grit
-30: Reduces damage received by 20%, while lowering damage dealt by 20% and increasing enmity by 2.3x/Increases chance to hit by 5%/Effect ends on reuse.
----SP/GCD/1326MP **
DS - Darkside
-30: Increases damage dealt by 15% while draining MP/Negates MP refreshing status/Effect ends on reuse.
----AB/oGCD/442MP/5s Recast ***
DD - Dark Dance
-34: Increases parry rate by 30% for 20s/Can only be used with Darkside/Dark Arts Effect Evasion increased by 20%.
----AB/oGCD/60s Recast
BP - Blood Price
-35: Restores MP when damage is taken for 15s (353 per hit @60).
----AB/oGCD/40s Recast ****
SE - Souleater
-38: Delivers an attack with a potency of 100/Combo Action Syphon Strike/Combo Potency 260/Dark Arts Potency 240/Dark Arts Combo Potency 400/Grit Effect Absorbs 100% of damage dealt as HP.
----WS/GCD/50TP/3y Range
DP - Dark Passenger
-40: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 150 in a frontal line AoE/Can only be used with Darkside/Dark Arts Potency 250/Dark Arts Effect Blind for 15s.
----AB/oGCD/884MP/10y Range/30s Recast
DM - Dark Mind
-42: Reduces magic vulnerability by 15% for 10s/Can only be used with Darkside/Dark Arts Effect Reduces magic vulnerability by 30%.
----AB/oGCD/60s Recast
DA - Dark Arts
-45: Increases the potency/modifies additional effects of Power Slash, Souleater, Dark Dance, Dark Mind, Dark Passenger, Abyssal Drain, and Carve and Spit for 10s/Can only be used with Darkside.
----AB/oGCD/5s Recast *****
SW - Shadow Wall
-46: Reduces damage taken by 30% for 10s.
----AB/oGCD/180s Recast
DE - Delirium
-50: Delivers an attack with a potency of 100/Combo Action Syphon Strike/Combo Potency 280/Combo Bonus Reduces target's INT by 10% for 20s.
----WS/GCD/50TP/3y Range ******
LD - Living Dead
-50: If HP falls to 0 within 10s activation, effect fades and is replaced with Walking Dead/Walking Dead Effect HP cannot be lowered below 1 for 10s/Heals totalling your maximum HP must be restored before Walking Dead's expiration, or the user is KO'd/Effect fades upon total HP restoration in the duration=maximum HP.
----AB/oGCD/300s Recast *******
SaE - Salted Earth
-52: Deals unaspected DoT with a potency of 75 per 3s for 21s (525 total) in a placed (ground-targeted) AoE.
----AB/oGCD/15y Range/45s Recast
PL – Plunge
-54: Delivers a gap-closing attack with a potency of 200/Cannot be executed while bound.
----AB/oGCD/15y Range/30s Recast
AD - Abyssal Drain
-56: Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 120 in a targeted PBAoE/Additional Effect Enmity=Potency*5/Dark Arts Effect Absorbs 100% of damage dealt as HP from all targets hit.
----SP/GCD/972MP/15y Range/5y Radius
AV - Sole Survivor (Another Victim)
-58: Places Another Victim Status on target for 15s/Restores 20% of HP&MP if target is KO'd within the duration.
----AB/oGCD/25y Range/120s Recast
C&S - Carve and Spit
-60: Delivers an attack with a potency of 100/Restores MP (884@60) if used outside of Dark Arts/Dark Arts Potency 450.
----AB/oGCD/3y Range/60s Recast

*Unleash and Grit are the only GCD SPs that do not interrupt a combo chain.
**Activation is on the GCD and triggers the GCD/Deactivation is on the GCD but does NOT trigger the GCD. Does not interrupt combos. All cooldowns are multiplicative:

To put it into an example:

If you take a DRK and a WAR with a base hp of 15k.

The DRK activates Grit and Shadow Wall, which reduces incoming damage by 44% total.
The total damage he can take (his eHP): 15,000 / 0.8 / 0.7 ≈ 26,756

The WAR activates Defiance (which increases his HP to 18.75k) and Vengeance (30% DR).
eHP = 18,750 / 0.7 ≈ 26,756

***Out-of-Combat Non-DS regen:415MP In-Combat Non-DS regen:138MP Out-of-Combat DS regen:150MP In-Combat DS regen:-127MP Base DS MP loss-per-tick:265MP
****MP restoration does not scale with damage taken; any blow that successfully lands on the DRK regardless of mitigation will result in MP restored.
*****Triggering a Dark Arts effect on an ability/spell/weaponskill will cause the effect to fade.
******Effect does not stack with and is cancelled by Dragon Kick.
*******Self-heals and regen effects count towards the total healing requirement.

Enmity Modifiers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...=2&pli=1#gid=0
3.0 Launch Guide by Docfiord Fowling http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...k-Knight-Guide

------------

[Syzygian]

2. Playstyle Summary:

Dark Knight is an extremely active tank. Compared to PLD and WAR it is decidedly button-mashy and fast paced, with a lot of short-recast oGCDs and buffs. On top of this, its main mechanic is mana-management. Your rotation revolves around this resource and maintaining it somewhat steadily, while creating windows for burst expenditure. You do not want too much or too little mana at any given time. Because of these traits combined with the rigors and responsibilities of tanking in general, DRK is definitely the more advanced tank. This was stated by the developers in conjunction with the other 3.0 jobs, that these jobs were heavily designed with players that already had a high level of expertise in other jobs of their respective role. The fast paced nature of its DPS, its active mana management, and the injection of proc systems into a tanking job make DRK a whole different animal. It is also the only melee job that does not necessarily follow a strict rotational playstyle. Rotational means you have, well, a rotation, that can be plotted out to the 1000th GCD, for the most part. The converse of this is a priority system. The best example in the game of this right now is SMN. Priority system in terms of your rotation means that you have to follow a basic “if x, then y” formula as far as what you used next. These conditions include your MP, your buffs, and debuffs on the target, among other things. DRK is a rotational/priority hybrid. You can get away with following a set rotation in certain scenarios, but high level advanced play will require you to deviate from this under certain circumstances.

2a. Unique Mechanics (For a tank, that is):

Mana Management - No brainer. Your mana is your DPS, your mitigation, your enmity, everything. A manafloored DRK is essentially neutered of a large percentage of their toolkit and potential. You must actively maintain this resource and make it second nature. Fear not, as the job is designed to make second nature mana management well within the realms of possibility for a motivated player. Learning when to chew through your MP or not to, and for what purpose, is key. Knowledge of fights is extremely beneficial.

oGCD Management and Weaving - DRK has more than double the offensive oGCD abilities from the other two tanks. Learning to weave and double-weave these inbetween your GCDs is paramount to maximizing damage, enmity, utility, and even mitigation. Former Melee DPS players will not find any issue with this, but former PLD/WAR mains may struggle at first. DRK has few offensive buffs, much of its high DPS comes from these extra damaging abilities instead.

Tank Stance Usage - Unlike PLD, for whom Sword Oath and Shield Oath are well and truly "stances" in their usage, and WAR, who is constantly dancing between the two, DRK has only Grit, similar to 2.x WAR, and Grit is treated more as a defensive cooldown than a stance in many cases. There is no mechanic specifically tied to being in or out of Grit, which has led to this trend. Grit is decidedly of more situational usage than the PLD and WAR equivalents.

Parry PROC Mechanics - RE and LB procs add unpredictability to the job's rotation that must be accounted for. These abilities are both DPS and mitigation gains. Compared to the other tanks, DRK gains the most from any stray Parry that they are forced to have on their gear. Being able to get some extra benefit from this much maligned stat when one is saddled with it is a nice perk.

Quality of Life Bells & Whistles - DRK has a lot of neat doohickeys that the other tanks don't that can be unfamiliar territory for some. A placed AoE, a gap closer, and a targeted ranged AoE are unique tools that take some practice and forethought for a new player to milk the most from.

2b. My Body Is Ready. What Must I Do?

"I used to play PLD. Now I wanna play DRK!"
Coming from PLD to DRK is a bit of a jump in difficulty. However, several things are common to the two jobs and thus will feel familiar. Their cooldown structure is (mostly) similar. Your DPS rotation also does not include your enmity combo. The main things that will immediately jump out as being different are the fact that the job's rotation is a hybrid priority/rotational system instead of purely rotational, based on resource management, aggro generation is much easier, and the amount of oGCDs including repeated and constant Dark Arts usage means you'll be pushing a lot more buttons. DRK has a Rampart/Sentinel/Bulwark equivalent, but instead of Sheltron, you have Dark Mind, which is somewhat akin to a magic version of Sheltron. AoE DPS is a big part of the job and you'll be expected to AoE where appropriate as that is part of what the job brings to the table. Stance dancing is also entirely different. With PLD, Shield Oath and Sword Oath have their uses, but with DRK, your "default" should be no-Grit. You'll turn it on for pulling and when you run out of CDs and/or when you need the additional mitigation for a really big hit, and outside of that, on boss fights anyway, you should be looking for every opportunity to drop Grit, and using it more as a cooldown than a true stance.

"I used to play WAR. Now I wanna play DRK!"
WAR plays very differently from DRK. But again, there are some similarities. Resource management is no stranger to you, and neither is the ease of aggro generation or the high DPS/AoE. The pacing of WAR is very different, with slow, on-GCD big hits and few things to weave in between, focusing more on lining up cooldowns. Their cooldown stucture is also very different (WAR's CD structure is pretty unique all around). DRK has self-healing similar to WAR, but it is only available in Grit, similar to Equilibrium in Defiance. Souleater is more of a HoT type effect though, giving you a 400 potency heal every 3-7 GCDs. DA Abyssal Drain works in a very similar fashion to Bloodbath Overpower. One big difference is in combo priority - DRK would rather use its debuff combo than its enmity combo, while the reverse is true for WAR. Switching to DRK you will inherit many of the same responsibilities of WAR - people will expect high DPS in both single target and AoE, good enmity generation, and intelligient usage of debuffs to provide raid-wide mitigation. The biggest difference is DPS pacing; perhaps the best way to describe it is WAR=wrecking ball and DRK=machine gun.

"I used to play DPS. Now I wanna play DRK!"
DRK feels very much like playing a melee DPS, with tanking duties tacked on. NIN/MNK/DRG are all very fast paced and busy jobs, and DRK has much of this same feeling. A lot of the muscle memory inherent in playing a melee DPS will carry over. If you have any experience tanking on the other two tanks on the side, DRK will come naturally to you as long as you understand the basics of tanking, as a large portion of the complexity of the job is in its melee-dps-like pacing and resource management. As for other jobs, obviously there aren't many similarities. MCH and AST however, have a similar skill-cap. And if you like Bloodletter procs on BRD, Low Blow procs will feel extremely familiar.

DRK does not feel like any other job in the game, as its playstyle is such a mishmash of so many other things. Tanking, melee DPS, mana management, procs, and a rotational-priority hybrid system make it feel pretty alien to people that don’t have experience with these ingredients on other jobs.

2c. ***PATCH 3.2*** <--- READ THIS vvv

Patch 3.2: Assessing The Damage

A lot of stuff happened in Patch 3.2 and it definitely has a large effect on the writings of this guide.

This guide was formulated in a time where DPS tanking was at its all-time high. I myself personally am a more defensive-minded tank, but more than defensive or offensive tanks must adapt and that is what a lot of us did, we adapted.

Now that playstyle has been turned *almost* completely on its head.

The number one change?

Attack Power before scaled at a 1:1 ratio with the STR stat.
Attack Power now scales at a 0.45:1 ratio with both STR *and* VIT.

The number two change?

Enmity modifiers of tank stances were boosted from 2.3x to 2.7x.

This did a number of things which I will list neatly here for the record.

1. Tank DPS was nerfed. We now do out of tank stance about the same damage that we were doing in tank stance pre-3.2. A roughly 20% loss across the board from STR gear, but about a 5-10% increase from fending gear.

2. As a direct result of this, every tank's self-healing capability also suffered by the same margin. Again, full VIT tanks from pre-3.2 are likely seeing this as a buff.

3. HP pools are significantly larger now. At the time of this writing DRKs with 22K HP are cropping up as new i220+ gear is being gathered.

4. While DPS suffered, the boost to tank stance enmity almost perfectly matches this (2.3*1.2 (20%) = just above 2.7). Keeping aggro in tank stance is mostly unaffected, and may actually be easier, again, for tanks that were employing VIT builds prior.

5. However, with tank DPS so much lower now in proportion to actual DPS jobs (on average a difference of about 400 DPS assuming equal gear/skill) we can no longer count on our DPS-stance output to maintain enmity against DPS (or healers, for that matter). A significant lead in enmity must be built first and then maintenanced throughout an encounter.

6. Following the above, stance dancing has become a more evenhanded and conservative affair. Fights are taking full advantage of our large HP pools now and dishing out fitting amounts of damage. So before jumping into DPS stance as a tank, you must now not only assess incoming damage, but also your party's enmity. Gone are the days of dropping tank stance indefinitely save only for your opener and/or tank busters.

What does this mean for DRK?

1. MP is not as easy to manage while MTing. You can't just drop Grit any time you want Blood Weapon. So you must now more than ever make the most of Blood Price and attempt to rotate it in such a way as to get the most MP out of it.

2. A single Power Slash at the start of the fight is not enough. You'll probably now want to open with two, and throw 1 out at the start of each new phase of a fight, as a rule of thumb (healers gain a LOT of hate on you in those add phases and other similar interruptions).

3. Souleater heals can be meaningful now. While they're gonna be considerably smaller, you'll see more of them just by virtue of being in Grit more.

So... enjoy your big HP pool, learn to play nice with Grit, watch your hate, find windows for stance dancing, and remember that you are much more dependent on your tank stance now because at ~DPS lower than bonafide DPS jobs now your damage alone will not carry your aggro for extended periods.

When accuracy caps are known, I'll be posting a couple of BiS lists here for progression and farm builds, etc.

Things DRK brings to a raid group:

1. Extremely high uptime raid mitigation with no cost to the DRK's personal DPS. You'll never have to ask or wonder if Delirium or Reprisal is gonna be put up because you can guarantee a DRK will be maintaining the former (unless a MNK is doing it for them) and putting the latter up at every soonest opportunity.
2. Ranged AoE snap aggro. Abyssal Drain makes DRK the only tank that can pick up multiple adds at range. Abyssal Drain is also the highest enmity tank skill of its range in the game, generating 600 potency of hate from 15y away.
3. A gap closer. This sounds like not much, but having this on a tank means that a knockback will never hinder positioning if an MT DRK is paying attention. This is a boon for raid DPS uptime.
4. A powerful and varied AoE toolkit. DRK brings a PBAoE, a ranged AoE, a line AoE, and a placed AoE DoT, with the latter two being oGCD and a part of DRK's single target rotation.
5. Very high MT DPS.
6. In fights were Reprisal is not possible due to low physical damage input and high incoming magic damage, DRK shines from the other direction with its extremely potent magic mitigation tools, and is perhaps the most durable tank in these situations.
7. High DoT damage. If the DRK ever needs to leave melee range, these 500-525 potency DoTs keep right on ticking, and then Plunge puts DRK right back where it was.

Flaws/Things DRK lacks:

1. A slashing debuff. It is dependent on a WAR or NIN to hit its DPS ceiling.
2. Its enmity combo is perhaps the single biggest opportunity cost of a combo in the game, bringing no utility, not regenerating MP, doing less DPS, and putting enmity generation in conflict with almost every other aspect of the job's playstyle.
3. The job is a bit dicey on physical mitigation. In fights with frequent, powerful physical tank busters, once SK and SW are spent, DRK has to get fancy (pre-pop DD, hit Reprisal, pop Foresight and Convalescence, and hope for a parry on top of that).
4. Its self-healing capabilities are locked behind certain mechanics and lack burst. DRK's self-heals are more of an over-time affair and can be easily overlooked/ignored by healers.
5. DRK's DPS is very good, consistently, but it lacks notable burst over a significant period. There are few substantial peaks and troughs.

------------

[Syzygian]

3. Pulling/Opening/Enmity -

3a. Bosses

Pulling on DRK is a bit more complex than the other tanks. Unlike PLD/WAR where there is a build-up to a burst, DRK's burst happens pretty much immediately.

(DA)/(SaE) UM (PL) SC (C&S)/(DP) HS (BP)/(LB) SpS - PS
http://ffxivrotations.com/1zk

-From here, your rotation branches depending on whether or not you want to turn Grit off and whether or not DE must be applied.

-Some notes about this opener:

1. If SaE ticks as it is applied it will pull the target. UM must be hit IMMEDIATELY after. The purpose is of this is simple: most fights' first phases last 1+minutes, which means you can get another full-duration SaE in if you cast it early. It also frontloads your DPS and enmity. UM is 30 potency higher than other ranged tank openers, and with PL on the same GCD, you have room to do more (like SC) before actually getting to your hate combo.

2. PL is woven in immdiately after UM to close the gap and position the boss optimally.

3. SC is applied immediately. Between the burst of SaE/UM/PL you have a bunch of hate already. WAR/PLD simply have their ranged tool and that's it, you have a bunch of damage happening in that very first GCD. Put SC up asap.

4. Weave C&S and DP in immediately after. This is a huge burst of damage almost as soon as the fight starts with little buildup.

5. PS combo after this hammers the nails in the enmity coffin. If you don't plan on dropping Grit, you may be able to forgo PS entirely, but if you are planning to drop Grit, you need to frontload this enmity because your DPS and healers' enmity generation relative to yours will more than double after disabling it.

6. With a NIN applying Shadewalker to you and Smokescreen to whomever is generating the most hate, you can pull out of Grit with this opener and not lose the boss.

7. If you plan on dropping Grit, and the first phase of a fight lasts over 90s, you can save C&S for after dropping Grit and still be able to use it twice before a transition.

8. While not included in the listed rotation of the opener, unless you literally have 354 parry (the minimum possible at 60) it is extremely likely that during this opener and whatever combo follows it that you will get an RE and/or LB proc if the boss has a reasonably consistent physical auto-attack. Be ready for these.

9. PATCH 3.2: Power Slash usage is going to increase from here on. While its impossible to account for every situation, I've currently found that 2 PS combos at the start of the fight and an additional single PS combo at the start of each new phase is a good starting point with minimal loss to DPS.

3b. Trash

For trash, you have several tools, particularly in the style of speed runs.

1. UM on the first target.

2. If a group immediately follows or the first target is part of a group, UL.

3. Alternatively, simply run through this first group and UL, or use AD as you approach. However, use of UM can help proc free ULs which can prove very useful in 4-man content.

4. Plot your path. Use AD whenever there are 2+ targets you want to pull clumped closely together but out of range of UL.

5. Use PL at least once on a lone target. It maintains your momentum and helps you gain ground on your party. The more ground you gain the faster the pull goes, and the longer it will take for your DPS to catch up, which means when you’ve gotten in position you will have ample time to get an iron grip on enmity, leaving your DPS free to burst away.

6. While speed running you will encounter situations where your GCD finishes ticking as you pass lone targets. UM would be a waste as they are in melee range. Use SC. It generates sufficient enmity in Grit and the DoT ticks hard enough to keep them on you as you continue with the pull.

7. Put down SaE on the spot where you are going to stop and tank all this mess.

8. Immediately pop a big CD, along with BP, and commence sea urchin (AD) spam. Watch your MP as you AD. If you picked up enough trash, you will have to REALLY try (DA every other AD) to even start to make a dent in your MP. If this is the case, keep ADing all the way until BP ends. If not, stop ADing about 3-4s or so before BP ends. This way you’ll still be at or close to full MP and have plenty to spend on DADD and DADP as long as you weave them in between a few DE combos.

IMPORTANT ENMITY MODIFIERS:

SpS - 220*3 = 660
PS - 300*5.5 = 1650
DAPS - 300*6.5 = 1950
UM - 150*3 = 450
UL - 100*6 = 600(AoE)
AD - 120*5 = 600(AoE)
Grit - X*2.7*** - DS AND GRIT DPS REDUCTION NOT FACTORED IN. Grit's actual enmity (since you should always have DS up, right?) should be (2.3*0.8*1.15) or potency*2.116. However, in taking into account damage dealt, the number that appears already factors in Grit and DS damage calculations so one can assume that enmity generated will always be that number*2.3 (not accounting for other modifiers).

***Modifier is 2.7x as of Patch 3.2.

I.E Grit DS DAPS (150+(220*3)+(300*6.5))*(2.3*0.8*1.15) = 5840.2 hate potency.

------------

[Syzygian]

4. Mitigation/Cooldown Usage

4a. Native Cooldowns:

1. Shadowskin -
-This is your basic cooldown not dissimilar from Rampart on PLD. Its good mitigation on a moderate recast and works equally well on big trash packs as on tank busters and bosses.

2. Shadow Wall -
-Again, a basic cooldown not unlike Sentinel or Vengeance. It has a long recast and slightly less mitigation than Sentinel however. But it still serves the same purpose, and in general, you rarely need to stack this with anything to achieve adequate mitigation. As for why it is weaker, there are strengths elsewhere in the toolkit that go some distance towards making up for this.

3. Dark Mind –
-So when you need to save SW, or its on cooldown from something else, you can Dark Arts Dark Mind and achieve the same effect, but for magic only. Its very short recast makes it excellent for any form of high magic damage that occurs many times in an encounter.

4. Dark Dance/Reprisal/Dark Passenger -
-I mention these together because of the synergy between them.
Dark Dance+Reprisal - The synergy between these is obvious. DD's utility in helping proc Reprisal in invaluable, and boosting your parry rate while nerfing raid-wide damage for 20s is a lot of good mitigation.
Dark Arts Dark Dance+Dark Arts Dark Passenger - This combination is for trash. Blinding a huge pack while boosting both your parry and dodge rates is an incredible mitigation tool (not to mention the 250 potency AoE).
-Using Dark Dance in combination with these abilities intelligently will help you save your beefier cooldowns for situations where the RNG inherent in these abilities won't be as permissible. When used in the proper situations they mitigate a terrific amount of damage.

*****Aside about Reprisal
-This ability comes under a lot of scrutiny for its inability to maintain 100% uptime and the random nature of its application. Do not be fooled by this; in practice, you WILL get 2 Reprisals per minute, with some deviation, in any fight with consistent physical AAs. Reprisal is a key part of DRK's single target mitigation toolkit. The fact that you are expected to apply it every time it procs, and it costs you nothing to do so, means that the average DRK MT is taking 10% less damage 50-60% of the time, at ZERO cost to DPS. This is a big balancing act with PLD's shield and to some extent WAR's Wrath stacks and self-heals. This debuff is not combo locked and it is off GCD. It may not be up ALL the time, but when it is, its your ace in the hole - the thing that DRK has that the other two tanks do not - taking 10% less damage for 20s, twice a minute (without touching your "core" defensive CDs - DD, DM, SK, SW). DD ensures that you will get a proc in the first 20s of a given minute, and the odds of not getting a single parry in the 40s that remain are extremely slim. Reprisal is the key to DRK not being "squishy" and from a design perspective is probably why DRK was touted as the "parry tank" by SE.

5. Living Dead -
-Living Dead is an ability that suffers in disorganized groups, as it requires healing input to reach its full potential. In organized content however, it can allow even more healer DPS uptime than Hallowed Ground. LD benefits from all healing, including HoTs and self-heals. Convalescence can also synergize very well with it. In planned content with proper timing and communication, it can provide 17-18 seconds of invulnerability.

4b. Cross-Class abitlies: Convalescence, Foresight, Bloodbath, Awareness, Mercy Stroke, Provoke

6. Convalescence
-This excellent ability is useful for all tanks, and DRK is no different. While it doesn't directly mitigate any damage, all your other cooldowns typically do, and thus it pairs well with almost anything to add ease of healing to any existing mitigation.

7. Foresight
-This somewhat different cooldown is decidedly weak, generally mitigating less than 10% of physical damage only. However, unlike cooldowns such as Shadowskin which scale off of damage you take, Foresight scales off your actual Defense stat. Thus during progress on an encounter as you get higher iLVL gear it will actually mitigate more damage as your Defense stat increases, whereas other cooldowns will only ever mitigate a given percentage of the final calculation of damage received. That being said, never pop this by itself. It synergizes very well with DD and SK however (against a physical tank buster, Shadowskin+Foresight will achieve similar mitigation to Shadow Wall, for instance).

8. Bloodbath
-Of important note is the fact that this ability only heals you based on physical damage dealt, and thus will not work any of DRK's ranged/AoE tools, which all deal magical damage in spite of scaling off STR/Attack Power. That being said, because DRK has a lot of physical oGCDs (C&S, LB, RE, PL, etc.) as well as an attack speed CD, it is possible to line these up with Bloodbath for some good healing. It also supplements Grit SE nicely.

9. Awareness
-Avoiding crits can prevent untimely deaths and thus this CD can be very useful. It is almost useless by itself, but pairs particularly well with DD, Foresight, and SK. DD in particular will see increased returns when crits cannot overwrite a parry proc. Provoke is mandatory for tank swaps and securing enmity on a target you have lost or that has pre-accumulated enmity on another teammate (usually a healer), and can also rarely be useful for its increased range. It is a critical tool for any tank. Mercy Stroke may be taken in fights where crits are highly unlikely or where DPS is preferred, over Awareness. It is a very small DPS increase however.

4c. Synergy/CD Combinations: (listed by *rough* eHP mitigation, by which Convalescence was mathed out to be roughly 16% and Foresight 8%. DD is considered 0-20%. I fully expect some of this math to be wrong so if you know this to be the case and can plot it out correctly for me I will edit it in).

Big Pulls-
1.SK+DD - ~20-36%
2.SK+Convalescence ~33%
3.SK+BP+DAAD spam 20% + 120 potency self-heal*# of targets every 5s maximum
4.DADD+DADP - ~0-20-100%
5.(DA)DD/DP+Foresight - ~8-28-100%
6.(DA)DD/DP+Awareness - ~0-20-100% + 0% chance of critical damage taken
7.Foresight+Awareness - ~8% + 0% chance of critical damage taken

Magic TBs-
1. DADM+Convalescence - ~43%
2. DADM+SK - ~44%
3. DADM+SW - ~51%
4. SW+Convalesence - ~41%

Physical TBs-
1. Foresight+SW/SK - ~28-38%
2. DD+SW/SK - ~20-30-36-44%
3. DD+Foresight+Convalescence - ~28%-42%
4. DD+RE+Convalescence - ~25-40%

As stated, these numbers are rough estimates and by no means exact, but should be accurate at least in relation to eachother. Bloodbath can be added to any of these or replace another CC ability to take the edge off of some of the incoming damage through self-heals, best paired with BW to maximize returns.

------------

[Syzygian]

5. Combos/Rotations/DPS

5a. Rotational Potencies

PS Combo - 150+220+300 = 670
Enmity and your weakest combo. A common misconception is that this is stronger than DE due to PS's large 300 potency finisher. Use this once or twice at the start of the fight and you should never have to use it again, even if you spend most of the time out of Grit (you may need help from a NIN and your party members need to not be lazy about their aggro dumps, however). If you find that enmity is getting away from you over the course of a long fight, perhaps due to an add phase a la T9 or A3 where the boss is still on the map but untargetable, you may need to open the next phase with a single Grit PS combo to maintenance your enmity, but no more than that. 1 should be all you need.

DAPS Combo - 150+220+300 = 670
Lots of hate. Good for getting credit on hunts. Don't use on bosses unless for some reason you lose hate and Voke is on cooldown or something. Generally a waste of MP.

***POWER SLASH IS A HORRIBLE COMBO, PERHAPS THE WORST IN THE GAME***

Now that 3.2 is out, some DRKs are finding that they need to use PS a bit more than previously.

Let me explain in a brief aside why PS is so bad.

1. Its weaker than all of your other combos in base potency alone and unlike PLD's Rage of Halone, offers no raid utility.
2. It doesn't restore MP. You actually theoretically lose 884 MP every time you use it instead of DE, and if you use it instead of DASE (which has the same overall cost as it restores 884 MP and uses 1768, thus costing 884 MP overall) you're costing yourself the same MP for a 130 potency loss.
3. That 884 MP, as we're going to outline below, equates to a minimum of 140 potency (the MP : DPS gain of a DASE combo).
4. The DA effect is incredibly misleading. Going from a 5.5x to 6.5x multiplier is a pitiable increase, literally only gaining you 300 potency of enmity for a net loss of 2652 MP. A DAPS combo will not make a significant difference on enmity, and at best, in a worst case scenario that is, will only delay your loss of enmity by a few raid-wide GCDs.

SYZ'S GOLDEN POWERSLASH RULE OF DON'T-EVER-DO-IT: Never use Power Slash out of Grit.
"But Syz, why?" I hear you ask.

Here's the thing. If you dropped Grit and are going ham with the BW and DASE party, and you need to abruptly stop, prematurely, because someone is about to rip off you, you need to reassess your Grit-dropping-timing. If you had preemptively tossed out an extra PS combo before dropping Grit, this would not have happened. This comes down to simple math: Your Gritless DPS is more important and precious than your Grit DPS. If you need to sacrifice a DE or DASE before dropping Grit to use a PS combo so that you can DASE and DE uninterrupted while out of Grit, until mechanics or damage force you to reactivate it, that is a worthwhile sacrifice and one that you should adjust your play to compensate for in a given encounter.

Power Slash costs you MP, and that is a commodity, and so it follows that Power Slash is a commodity, and you need to ration these out to-the-combo in every encounter. "How many PS Combos am I going to need to keep hate on this boss? Can I get away with less? How?" are questions you must now ask in the new Post-3.2 Age. Remember, its not just a potency loss, its an MP loss. It completely throws a wrench in the job's rotation and resource management, and its so bad for a good DRK to be using it will practically give your greatsword cavities.

DE combo - 150+250+280 = 680
Good DPS, MP regen, and raid-wide magic mitgation. Your highest DPS when low on MP. Due to the nature of this combo, and RE, raid mitigation is almost never a DPS sacrifice for DRK, unlike the other two tanks.

SE combo - 150+250+260 = 660
Your weakest DPS. Almost never used unless by accident.

DASE combo - 150+250+400 = 800
The beast combo that is the calling card of DRK's damage. SyS and DASE's high potencies combined account for almost 20% of your DPS.

Scourge - 100+(40x10) = 500
Scourge is an amazing DoT for many reasons. It is not combo locked, and has cheap TP cost. You'll find that DRK has a lot of DoT DPS potential. MultiDoT whenever you can and never let this fall off your primary target.

AoE DPS Efficiency VS. DASE

The DASE combo is roughly 266.66 potency per GCD.
UL = 100 per target
AD = 120 per target
-On 3 targets or more, AoEing is more DPS efficient than executing any combo. However, more targets is desired for increased MP efficiency through BP. Distribute SC as much as possible.

5b. DPS/Mana Priority Lists

oGCD priority, MP/DA Efficiency Breakdown -
This will demonstrate the direct DPS gains and priority system on what oGCDs you prioritize and what the best DA bang for your buck is at any given moment.

Single Target oGCD DPS Priority - Dark Arts is treated as an oGCD for the purpose of Souleater

1. Salted Earth - 525
2. Dark Arts Carve and Spit - 450
3. Reprisal - 210
4. Plunge - 200
5. Dark Passenger - 150
6. Pre-Souleater Dark Arts - 140
7. Low Blow - 100

AoE oGCD DPS Priority (4 targets assumed) - Dark Arts is treated as an oGCD for the purpose of Souleater

1. Salted Earth - 525x4= 2100
2. Dark Arts Dark Passenger - 250x4= 1000
3. Dark Passenger - 150x4= 600
4. Dark Arts Carve and Spit - 450
5. Reprisal - 210
6. Plunge - 200
7. Pre-Souleater Dark Arts - 140
8. Low Blow - 100

Single Target Dark Arts Priority - potency gained from Dark Arts alone

1. Carve and Spit - +350
2. Souleater - +140
3. Dark Passenger - +100

AoE Dark Arts Priority (4 targets assumed) - potency gained from Dark Arts alone

1. Dark Passenger - +400
2. Carve and Spit - +350
3. Souleater - +140

MP Priority

1. Dark Passenger 4 target 884/600 - ~1.5 MP per potency
2. Dark Arts Dark Passenger 4 target 2652/1000 - ~2.6 MP per potency
3. Dark Arts Carve and Spit 1768/350 - ~5.0 MP per potency
4. Dark Passenger single target 884/150 - ~5.9 MP per potency
5. Pre-Souleater Dark Arts 884/140 - ~6.3 MP per potency *MP from SyS factored in
6. Dark Arts Dark Passenger single target 2652/250 - ~10.6 MP per potency

5c. Rotations/Bursts

Basic safe rotation: Scourge - DASE/DE x4 - repeat
The most basic of DRK rotations is basically Scourge followed by 2 rotations of DE and DASE, i.e. SC - DASE combo - DE combo - DASE combo - DE combo - repeat. With this, DE and SC never fall off the target and you maintain enough MP to DA every SE, every C&S, use DP on recast, not ever getting in danger of manaflooring until well after your TP floor. The only time this rotation will not work is if one keeps Grit longer than is desired (thus denying access to BW), usually in conjunction with a boss whose ability rotation does not provide sufficient BP returns. The latter issue is a big part of why knowledge of an encounter before the fact is so vital to DRK. In a fight with higher than normal Grit uptime being required, you may need to use DE more than once, consecutively, to maintain good MP levels. Future content may not be as DPS focused, so it is important to realize that double and even triple DASEs may not always be a thing. While DE should be kept up as much as possible, in situations where it is not contributing any raid mitigation and MP is being adequately sustained, certain burst rotations can be worked in:

Time remaining on SC<Time remaining on DE + BW coming off Recast -
Scourge - HS - SyS – DE (BW) - HS - SyS (DA) SE - HS - SyS (DA) SE - HS - SyS - DE - Scourge
-Allows two DA Souleaters without losing Delirium or Scourge.
http://ffxivrotations.com/1mo

BW on cooldown + DE not needed -
Scourge - HS - SyS - DE (DA) HS - SyS – SE (DA) HS (C&S) SyS (DA) SE
-Allows two back-to-back DA Souleaters without losing Scourge, weaves a DA C&S in with no interruption. Delirium falls for just under 2 seconds. Not usable with BW, as your GCD will be too short and DAing the second SE will delay your GCD.
http://ffxivrotations.com/1mp

-The above rotation can be very difficult to work into a sustained rotation as it is very rare that CS comes off cooldown in such a way that both DE and SC have been recently applied and BW is on CD. It is best used as a standalone burst against an add or some other DPS check.

***Any time SC's application comes immediately after SE (which will happen if you are DAing double SE's in the duration of BW making your application of SC alternate which combo it follows) and C&S is coming off cooldown, try to work in the above rotation. Reapply SC immediately after, followed by Delirium.

***It is important to note that as an OT, your first combo should be DE. Using DASE at this point is a DPS loss, as there are possible buffs that may not be applied yet, such as Trick Attack, Storm's Eye/Dancing Edge, Battle Litany, Balance, and Rook Hypercharge, and you want every DASE to benefit from those buffs as much as possible. As an MT, your first combo will usually be PS, so it fulfills that spot.

Sample AoE Burst/Mitigation
(SK/SW) (DA) AD (BP) AD (DA) AD (SaE) AD (DA) AD (C&S) AD (DA) AD (LB) HS (DA) SyS (DD) DE - HS (DA) SyS (DP) DE - HS - SyS - DE - Scourge x #targets (BP) - repeat
-Proper use of Dark Arts Abyssal Drain/Dark Passenger/Dark Dance in conjunction with Blood Price + multidotting. In a dungeon setting there is little reason why almost every pull can’t go like this; pull everything you want, pop the biggest defensive cooldown you have available, and start the AD/DAAD spam with BP up, weaving oGCDs in between. When BP falls, stop AoEing, work in some SyS-DE combos with DADD/DADP woven in. Pop Awareness or Foresight here if you’re still taking a lot of damage in spite of the parry/evasion boosts. Put SC up on some stuff and by then BP should be back off recast, then its rinse and repeat.
http://ffxivrotations.com/1mq



You should make it so that every tour of the duty finder with you looks like the above image at least 50% of the time.

In a standard SC-DASE-DE-DASE-DE- repeat rotation, BW usage will cause you clip SC by a tick our two.
This isn’t too hard to math out; it is better to clip. At the most, you’ll lose 80 potency of SC’s total 500, or 420, greater than the 250 SyS and 400 DASE.

SC-DASE-DE-DASE-DE-
SC-DASE-DE-DASE-DE-
SC-DASE-DE-DASE-DE-
SC-DASE-DE-DASE-DE- 13840 potency -120s

SC-DASE-DASE-DE-DASE-DE
SC-DASE-DASE-DE-DASE-DE
SC-DASE-DASE-DE-DASE-DE -12780 potency -120s

Important to bear in mind here is SC’s potency. SC only has to tick for half of its duration before it has pulled more DPS than any other GCD (at 15s SC has ticked for 300 potency including the initial hit) with the sole exception of DASE. For this reason, never let SC fall if you can help it.

DRK is a unique case among tank DPS ceilings in that it is impossible to hit the job's DPS ceiling as an OT. For instance, DRK is indisputably behind WAR in DPS while strictly OTing. DRK has specific DPS benefits to OTing, namely, BW and the increase DA usage it provides. However it also has specific DPS benefits to MTing, such as LB and RE procs, and additional MP from BP. Because there is no mechanic tied to Grit, Gritless MTing has become the "correct" way to play the job. This differs significantly from 2.x WAR, for whom the main mechanic of the job was lost upon dropping Defiance. While DRK has only one stance and has no "Deliverance equivalent" per se, it does not have this issue because literally only the generic benefits of a tank stance and some self-healing are lost outside of Grit, and the job plays almost exactly the same. In this sense, BW can be considered an OT stance in cooldown form. Grit-less MTing allows you to rotate BP and BW for incredible MP sustain and enhanced DA usage/DPS, as well as benefit from LB and RE, with the only mechanic being lost is SE's healing component.

For this reason, Grit has 4 tenets of usage:

1. Big pulls. Pull a bunch so you can get a lot of MP and do a lot of AoEing/self-healing and enough so that having Grit on is required to mitigate all the incoming trash damage. If you're not pulling enough in 4-man content to make Grit mandatory, pull more. I leave Grit on throughout dungeon trash sections because I fully expect to be pulling enough that without it I’ll be dead.

2. Turn it off entirely on dungeon bosses unless your DPS outgear you, and leave it off.

3. Turn it on to pull raid bosses, get a solid enmity lead.

4. In 8-man content, after pulling, leave it off and rely on cooldowns to mitigate damage, and reactivate it only if something bad happens (someone dies and the healers need extra leeway, things like that), or if you need to create space in your CD rotation. Grit's usage is similar to Inner Beast, it just costs a lot of MP, does no damage, and lasts indefinitely.

An additional 5th tenet is leveling; learning the job and playing cautiously to your skill level will save you a lot of pain on the journey from 1 to at least 50.

Pot usage - With Pots, to get the maximum buffs to your abilities, it may be best to delay normal oGCD usage.
-(Enmity opener w/o PL or SaE if MTing)- ...PS - HS - SyS (DA) DE (Pot) SC (BW/SaE) HS (CS/DP) SyS (DA) SE (PL) HS (DA) SyS (LB) SE
http://ffxivrotations.com/1zl -This gets off a DE and two DASEs with ALL of our oGCDs and SC buffed by a potion. Starting with Delirium is necessary to use CS in the midst of the two DASEs as DA's cooldown will delay your GCD with BW up.

Here is an alternate OT opener w/pot for a high SkS build:

Potion Duration : 15 seconds

Unmend(Potion)->Scourge(2.38s)(BW(15s)+SaE)->HS(4.52s)(C&S+DA)->SyS(6.66s)(PL)->SE(8.80s)(LB+DP)->HS(10.94s)->SyS(13.08s)->SE(15.22s) -> Pot End -> Blood weapon ends next GCD

5d. oGCD Damaging Abilities

Low Blow -
-LB is a slightly shorter, slightly longer recast stun than WAR's, due to the fact that the reset proc exists. Should be used on cooldown wherever possible as you can proc a nice bit of extra DPS from this. However, the muscle memory you build from this can be detrimental at times where the stun must be saved for a mechanic. Another reason why foreknowledge of an encounter is so important.

Dark Passenger - *
-The blind and high potency of DAing this makes it extremely effective on 2-3 or more targets. The MP cost of normal usage is small enough that you can use it in a single target rotation on cooldown. Has one of the shortest animation locks of DRK's oGCDs, should almost always be double-weaved where applicable.

Plunge -
-Another large chunk of DPS that you should use on cooldown, however it can be very useful as a gap closer, and can easily cancel the effects of a knockback with proper usage. DRK's mobility is a utility it brings, particularly with the benefits it provides to a tank, where optimal positioning is a key element of
proper play. Save it if you need to. Do NOT use this to pull. It does not have an enmity modifier and you can lose hate very easily. Because it is oGCD, there is no reason to not weave it instead after Unmend. Note that this has a pretty long animation lock and cannot be double-weaved without delaying your GCD. Gap-closing on pull helps the boss to not overshoot you due to a split-second aggro generation from a party member.

Salted Earth -
-SaE is actually the most powerful ability on DRK's arsenal as a 525 potency AoE, oGCD. The fact that you can position it to damage other targets is also extremely effective. While you should not precast this in front of the boss before pulling, if you can get close enough, you can cast it on top of the boss *immediately* before UM-PL to frontload your damage. PL will keep the boss from overshooting you. Between this and SC, DRK's DPS is notably more DoT based than the other tanks (to show that I’m not blowing smoke, a full tick-down of SaE+SC (1025 potency) is more potent than a full tick-down of Bio+Miasma+Bio II (890 potency)). If you're looking for ways to increase your DPS output, always look for ways to have your DoTs on other targets, even those you are not tanking. DoT up your OT’s target, etc. If a target will be alive/targetable long enough for the DoT to tick down, SaE and SC are never DPS losses.

Reprisal -
-Obviously you want to use this every single time you possibly can. Its damage, oGCD, and mitigation for the entire raid. Its cooldown is short enough that you can use DD to force proc it in advance of a large raid-wide nuke. Always look for opportunities to use this even in fights where it seems difficult. If a boss is all magical but adds are physical, pop DD and pull one of the adds, proc, and tab back to put RE on the boss. Its less than 100% uptime is a balancing act with DE, but in practice, this ability should easily have 50% uptime throughout a fight. …Reprisal also has one of the most delicious and satisfying sound effects in the game.

Carve and Spit-*
-Should be used with Dark Arts on cooldown. DAC&S is your hardest single hit, and also the best use of DA in terms of MP-to-DPS. Also has a very short animation lock and is easily double-weaved. Using it without DA is only appropriate while AoEing, where the single 450 potency hit will be outdone by your AoE options, and the MP return on the unbuffed use will allow you to AoE a bit longer as well.

*Recommend always using CS and DP double-weaved back to back in a rotation for two reasons:
1. Their CDs line up. CS is 60s and DP is exactly half of that.
2. They are your biggest source of oGCD MP consumption. By frontloading that MP consumption on CS recast (DACS+DP = 2652MP) you are free to more liberally use MP afterwards, in the course of CS’s 60s recast, as opposed to having to separately account for 2 DPs and a DACS at varying points every 60s.

On Weaving and oGCD priority...

"DP < CS < SaE < RE < BW < DA < LB < PL" is a good list, however from my own testing I've found that DA and LB have two of the shortest animation locks, while BW weapon is second highest.
YMMV, but it also depends on which way you cancel and what GCD you're cancelling off of.

Cancelling off of SE usually only gets you one (or something like DP>DA>GCD), but off of DE/PS tends to be a lot safer. Also of note, is that you can GritOFF into any oGCD if you time it right, but grit on is a gcd which you can't usually double out of.

Also, you can maybe double LB/DP>DA during blood weapon, but that'll be the most of it.

In regards to future testing, I've found DA to have the shortest animation lock outside of DP (god bless DP), so I frequently use it for my secondary ogcd's to force the others to resolve faster (like fire weaving). Not sure if anyone else uses it like I do.

------------

[Syzygian]

6. Mana/TP Management

6a. MP

Blood Price -
-BP is key to MP management and almost always should be kept on cooldown. Key to note are any periods or specific mechanics where you will be taking a rapid many hits in quick succession (A3 Splash, A4 Discoid, T9 Bahamut's Claw, T13 Flare Breath/Akh Morn, FC Rapid Sever, ThEx Holy Blade Dance, RavEx Surpanakha, etc). It is important to note that BP's usage is not limited to MTing, and you will still see MP returns from raid-wide hits, adds, etc. and witholding BP at these times is wasteful.

Blood Weapon -
-BW's attack speed increase is not the only way that it increases DPS, as the extra MP (which adds up to over 3K MP over its duration with full uptime, even if your SS is extremely low) allows increased DA usage. Unlike BP, it is very easy to get a feel for how much MP you'll be getting from this CD over its duration and plan your consumption accordingly.

Sole Survivor -
-Do not underutilize this. It is available many times throughout an encounter or dungeon, and any fight with adds will give you a nice bit of burst recovery from this. Don't forget about it and watch its recast time closely. Use it on the last mob of every pull you do in dungeons religiously, to get in the habit.

Syphon Strike -
-SyS is a big reason why your PS combo is such a DPS loss. It hits like a freight train for a 2nd-tier combo ability (250 potency, only 10 potency behind Rage of Halone) and is a huge source of MP.

6b. TP Management

DRK’s TP management is minimal, and you can run out of TP on extremely high uptime fights, of which there extraordinarily few. DRK’s TP usage is helped by two factors:

1. Blood Weapon – Your TP consumption slows by 20% with BW up, and thus, every 5 GCDs, you save a GCD’s worth of TP. If BW is used on cooldown, your TP floor takes a considerable amount of time to reach, especially given that none of DRK’s WPs have particularly high cost.
2. UM/UL/AD – Unlike WAR and to a lesser extent PLD, your entire ranged/AoE GCD toolkit uses MP, not TP. So pulling and AoEing sees DRK saving TP where the other tanks are consuming theirs. You do use a good bit of MP doing these things of course, but that’s the whole point of the job.

*****As of patch 3.2, with the reduced TP costs of both Delirium and Souleater, combined with BW, a DRK OT now takes 6.5 minutes, roughly the same time as a DRG @ SkS quota, to TP floor. 100% Grit MT TP floors in approximately 4.2 minutes.

------------

[Syzygian]

7. Job Synergy

PLD: If you are in a party with a PLD as a DRK, it is more DPS efficient for you to MT. If the fight is highly physical AND your healers are struggling, it can help to have the PLD MT instead. It should be noted that the PLD/DRK combination lacks a slashing debuff without a NIN, and the NIN must use Dancing Edge (a minor DPS loss for the NIN) to help out. In terms of debuffs, PLD+DRK can maintain -10% mag, -10% phys, and ~50% uptime on -10% of both from RE.

WAR: WAR's slashing debuff allows DRK to match WAR and even outmatch it under rare circumstances, so the benefits of the WAR/DRK combo speak for themselves. RE and DE stacking with Path is also a huge level of raid mitigation, however good WARs do not want to use Path unless it is absolutely necessary. In theory however, WAR/DRK can attain 100% uptime on -20% mag and -10% phys and additional ~50% uptime on -10% of both. As with PLD, in terms of DPS efficiency, DRK MT is best. However some fights WAR may handle better due to their interesting CD structure. The one synergistic downside to playing with a WAR OT is their DPS rotation, which awkwardly includes their enmity combo. This means to do optimal DPS a WAR must generate excess enmity while OTing, which can conflict with DRK's desire to not only avoid its enmity combo but also Grit, while MTing. Keep an eye on your WAR's aggro meter and enjoy crazy high tank deeps!

MNK: MNK and DRK are like Water and Fire, they just don't play nice together. MNK offers very little utility that benefits DRK, and cancels DE in their rotation. The issue with this is that many times in your rotation you will look at the remaining time on DE (also checking SC) to determine what combo you use next, particularly when you've gotten good enough at mana-management that it is largely muscle memory. However, the flipside of this is that when a DRK doesn't have to maintain the DE debuff, they are free to only use that combo when they need MP, and this degree of usage tends to be less than that which is required to maintain 100% uptime of the debuff, particularly if tanking outside of Grit. MNK is also the only DPS that lacks an aggro dump, which can force inefficient PS and/or Grit usage on rare occasions.

DRG: Battle Litany loves everyone. Not much more to say here as there aren't many interactions. This DRK's personal preference is DRG over MNK as the second melee after NIN, since almost every group will have a BRD/MCH and having one of those without a DRG or vice versa is pretty inefficient.

NIN: NIN is DRK's best friend. Literally every utility a NIN has directly benefits DRK. Shadewalker directly facilitates tanking out of Grit, and so does a timely Smokescreen on your main Healer. Trick Attack is a no brainer and is a fantastic boost. Ideally you'd get a slashing debuff from a WAR, but if there isn't one, NIN provides that for you as well, and lastly, DRK has some mild TP issues. Consumption is slowed significantly during BW usage, and all of DRK's ranged and AoE tools consume MP rather than TP, but Goad is still very useful to a DRK on certain encounters that have unusually high uptime, which are
admittedly the exception and not the rule, but still. A DRK without a NIN misses out on a lot.

BRD: BRD's utilities benefit a lot of potential party members, not just DRK. However, BRD can facilitate some DPS gains for DRK. First of all, Foe's Requiem boosts the power of UM, UL, AD, and DP, as these attacks are magical. The boost is definitely significant. Secondly, Mage's Ballad can be a big help during
downtime. You are expected to disable DS any time you are going to not be hitting anything for a significant (12s or so) period of time. Leading up to this downtime, if you know you can count on a Ballad, you can be a little bit more liberal with your mana consumption.

MCH: Many of the same advantages with BRD are present here. However, MCH has a physical version of Foe's Requiem, albeit weaker, which directly benefits the rest of DRK's physical toolkit. The MP turret will also serve much the same purpose as Ballad.

SMN: Extra Virus, Eye 4 an Eye, and combat Raise. Not too much else to say here.

BLM: An extra (weaker) Virus and Eye 4 an Eye, and Apocatastasis. More raid mitigation that could possibly benefit you, but as the tank particularly, its best to mitigate optimally so that a BLM can save their Apocatastasis for someone else in the case of things going pear-shaped.

WHM: WHM's have Benediction for Living Dead. Hard to synergize harder than that. WHM's are pretty lacking in utility otherwise, but as the de facto main healer with DRK being a popular MT at the moment, you'll be working with them a lot. In 4-man content, one thing to keep in mind is WHM's AoE nuke, Holy. In large trash pulls when trying to take advantage of BP, Holy stunning can cause you to lose out on MP returns. Most WHM's will not react too favorably if asked to hold off on this for you, so a test pull to see what they do is usually a good gauge. If necessary, pop BP earlier or later in the pull and adjust your AoE burst to compensate.

SCH: SCH's mitigation tools, and Selene's DPS buffs are much welcomed for DRK. However, the true prize for synergy with SCH goes to WAR - DRK's synergy with SCH is not particularly more than PLD.

AST: Again, AST has a crapton of utility in its cards that benefit the whole party, and DRK is no exception. It has DPS and attack speed buffs, mitigation buffs, not dissimilar from SCH with Eos/Selene, and can main heal/off heal. The Spear card can be extremely handy for DRK with all of its frequent oGCD usage. You may wind up with pretzel-fingers though. Generally DRK as a tank can take advantage of any healer pretty equally.

------------

[Syzygian]

FAQ

1. Where are all my buffs!?
-DRK does not have a Berserk or Fight or Flight equivalent due to the sheer combined potency of their numerous oGCD abilities, which add up to between 2000-2500+ potency per minute, with variation based on procs. In addition to this, the baseline potencies of DRK weaponskills and abilities are considerably higher than those of PLD/WAR.

2. Where's my OT stance!?
-Consider BW an OT stance, just in cooldown form. It provides a very similar DPS increase to Deliverance and Sword Oath by themselves.

3. Why do I have the ability to apply Blind and boost Evasion when I have cooldowns that rely on me getting hit?
-Because they have varying recast times and you are not meant to use those skills in conjunction. Avoid using things that will enhance your ability to dodge incoming damage until BP is on cooldown. This concept of saving certain abilities to use at certain times, in conjunction or separately with/from other abilities is not unique to DRK. In fact, the durations of DADD and DADP line up perfectly with BP's 20s downtime.

4. Why can I not have 100% uptime on RE?
-RE is designed to not have 100% uptime, for balancing purposes. If it did, DRK would have both a Dragon Kick and Storm's Path with 100% uptime, that both stack with Storm's Path. That would be like putting a tank stance on the entire party, and boosting everyone's magic defense by over about 500 points on top of that.

5. EW! PARRY! Why do I have mechanics gated by this crappy stat?
-Regardless of what you think of Parry, in fights that are not wholly magical, a tank parries quite a bit. Playing DRK will illustrate this, as you will get procs a lot. On top of that, for 1/3rd of every minute you have a uptime on DD which almost statistically guarantees procs in fights with at the very least physical AAs, even if all other damage is magical.

6. Why is Shadow Wall weaker than Sentinel/Vengeance?
-If one where to hazard a guess, its because of the combination of Delirium+Reprisal and their high uptime at almost no cost to DPS (Unlike WAR that has to sacrifice a bit of personal DPS for raid mitigation), DM's insanely short recast time and the fact that if the damage is magical it functions as essentially a 2nd Shadow Wall, and in 4-man content, the raw mitigation of DADD and DADP combined against physical damage.

7. Why does Grit/AD/DA/DP cost so much MP?
-Part of the learning curve for the job is gauging potential mana-consumption. BW is almost guaranteed to recover around 3K MP, and BP can regenerate a similar amount albeit less reliably. Both are available every 40 seconds and last 15 seconds, giving 75% uptime between the two of them on some form of reliable MP recovery, in addition to the 884 MP you get every 3-4 GCDs from SyS and 1326 MP you get every time something dies with SS/AV on it. Proper usage of these skills is outlined in this guide, and when you learn to use them properly in relation to eachother you should never manafloor. Its all about planning ahead. Even the highest MP cost of DRK abilities is easily recovered in a few GCDs. Do not be stingy with your mana, at lvl60 you have almost 7K of it and are only really in a danger zone when you get around 1.5-2K. DRKs use a lot of mana. They also regenerate a lot of mana. This is why stacking Piety was never a thing, as the costs/returns of your abilities don't scale with gear, but with level; so if you gave yourself an inflated MP pool, it would only be harder to top yourself off, similar to the idea that a full VIT tank can be harder to top off because of a bigger pool to fill.

8. I've heard that DRK can out-DPS WAR, but I can't... Why not?
-This is the exception, not the norm, and requires many factors to be met. First of all, you must be MTing with Grit off. This gives you RE/LB procs in addition to the baseline DPS of OTing, and extra MP from BP, in addition to maximum uptime. Secondly you must have a slashing debuff from someone. And of course, you must be of equal gear and skill to a given WAR main. It is straight up impossible for DRK to out-DPS WAR on certain fights, as well. WAR DPS is very different from DRK DPS. Both deal high tank damage, but WAR is designed around burst. Its DPS is moderate but with massive peaks. DRK is more sustained. It has burst, but its burst is shorter and less of a % increase over its baseline, and is also irregular in its timing. WAR is extremely rotational and DRK injects a more priority-system-like feel into its playstyle. Because of this, certain fights, particularly those with many breaks, will greatly favor WAR's DPS toolkit. It is on somewhat more sustained fights that DRK shines. Like Yoshi P said many months ago, as long as you have a slashing debuff, DRK DPS is more or less on-par with WAR in most cases (In a strict OT role however, WAR will always win without question). At the time, BW caused some TP issues, but those were fixed and now the more dedicated members of the DRK playerbase have pushed this job to make Yoshi P’s claim a reality.

9. I'm squishy! What are some good cooldown combinations!?
-SW is pretty self-inclusive, as is SK. Pairing SK with any defensive cross-class ability offers very similar if not better mitigation to Shadow Wall in some cases. Shadowskin+Foresight/Awareness/Convalescence are all good combinations. DD+Foresight/Awareness or DADD+DADP are also extremely good physical mitigation tools against trash. Against magic damage and TBs, DADM, +SW/SK or even just Convalescence can easily be enough, or even by itself. In fights with physical tankbusters, you must play a bit more cautiously. In a pinch, DD+Foresight+Convalescence with a SCH/AST shield and Stoneskin, and maybe an RE proc can see you through a big physical hit. Beyond that, rotate Shadowskin/Shadow Wall, and activate Grit if necessary. Heavily physical fights will probably see a lot more pre-TB activation of Grit, whereas DRK can gobble up magical TBs without tank stance with laughable ease. AD on 10 targets is also equal to Equilibrium in healing potential, with an MP cost but no recast time.

10. What is the point of AD/UL?
-UL is a pulling ability for the most part. You tag groups with it as you run past them so that you don't have to target them. It also does not interrupt combos and so it can maintain enmity on targets you are not actively tanking during the single-target portion of your rotation in an AoE scenario. AD is your
ability for tagging a group at range, and is your AoE spam. It deals more damage, so when its DPS you're concerned with, this is better. It costs more MP, however if you spam it against many targets during BP uptime, you will barely notice, and still be able to DA a few for healing. In a massive pull, you'll UM/UL until you've picked up all the mobs you want, pop BP and then AD spam until BP has 1-5 seconds left.

11. DRK's 50-60 skills seem kinda meh. Why?
-Because DRK from 1-50 is actually extremely well designed by 2.x standards. They have 4 job specific cooldowns whereas the other tanks had only 3 not counting CC abilities, they have 3 combo trees, and have a defined MT and OT stance/playstyle, with BW functioning as an OT "stance" and no job-mechanic being tied to Grit. So 50-60 is mostly quality-of-life stuff. PLD and WAR were missing a lot at 50, which is why they got all sorts of neat stuff between 50-60. When you get good at DRK, level-syncing to 50 will feel very alien, trust me.

12. Best party composition for DRK?
-DRK/WAR/DRG/NIN/MCH/SMN/2Healers, hands down. Just my opinion though.

13. Why no Flash/Fracture?
-Fracture is a poor-man's Scourge (Scourge is literally more than double the potency of an untraited Fracture), and with the high base potency of DRK abilities combined with their lack of Berserk-style cooldowns, literally the only WS you have that doesn't beat Fracture in potency is Hard Slash, your combo opener. So Fracture is pretty bad. Flash is essentially a slightly cheaper UL with no damage attached to it. A big utility of DRK is their AoE DPS and you should not be sacrificing this or a CC slot for Flash. The only potential use Flash will ever have is for holding adds that need to be kept alive for some mechanical reason (T6, for example), and there is no current encounter in this tier with such mechanics, and even if there is, that would still be a job more efficient for the other tank in your group to carry out.

14. Is there a point to non-DADM?
-Not really. Although as you gear up against an encounter, you'll find that things you survived with DADM become easily survivable with just regular DM.

15. How does DADD work?
-The boosts to Parry rate and evasion appear to be additive. Otherwise the cooldown would barely mitigate anything at all. In any case DD's main use is in conjunction with Reprisal, and -10% incoming damage added to the 30% extra parry rate is often an adequate pairing in a CD rotation and is frequently available (once per minute).

16. Do BP’s MP returns vary depending on mitigation?
-This was mentioned in the beginning but it bears repeating since it is an unusually common misconception. BP will give you exactly 353 MP every time you get hit at lvl60. By “get hit” I mean a red number appears over your character model and then floats down off the bottom of your screen. The value of this number is irrelevant. It could be 10000 or it could be 0. It could be magical or physical, melee, or ranged. An Adloquium, Stoneskin, or Nocturnal Aspected Benefic will not change this number, nor will any mitigation CDs you use, or procing a parry. If you are hit, you’ll get 353 MP. If you are NOT hit (i.e. you dodged it) you’ll get nothing. I.E. the only direct mitigation that will hinder BP returns is dodging. Indirectly, stuns, silences, sleeps, attack speed slows, and blinds cast on the target will also hinder your returns, but these are things you are expected to plan around and/or compensate for. However, nothing that mitigates a hit but still allows you to be hit will affect the returns, even if it is mitigated to zero damage.

17. When can I turn DS off?
-DS in-combat uptime is a direct loss to your DPS, mitigation, enmity, everything - in one scenario only, and that is when the boss is untargetable and there are no adds for more than 12 seconds (4 server ticks) - This is the time it takes for your natural, non-DS MP regen to make up the cost of turning DS back on, which is 442 MP. That goes out the window however if there is a BRD/MCH using Mage's Ballad/Promoted Bishop Turret for you. Any time you are actively DPSing/Tanking anything, boss, trash, anything... you are expected to have 100% DS uptime, no exceptions.

18. The whole tanking out of Grit thing is scary. Do I need to?
-No, you don't. In fact, due many of the same reasons that tanking out of Grit grants such high DPS, tanking in Grit is substantially less of a DPS loss from OTing than the other tanks would suffer from the same adjustment. Most tanks have 3 tiers of DPS: Tanking in tank stance, tanking out of tank stance, and OTing. For PLD and WAR, the latter two are pretty much equal. For DRK however, there is a substantial increase between OTing and tanking out of tank stance, almost as substantial as the gap between tanking in tank stance and OTing. Every single skill you have is still usable in tank stance and the main mechanics of the job are still present, you just lose BW. The Gritless tanking suggestions in this guide are designed to give you a picture of what is expected of you in high level optimal play, not necessarily what is expected of you on your journey to that point. Grit is like a gun. Better to have it and not need it than not have it and need it. But when you KNOW you can get away without it, keep it off as much as possible. Experiment. The name of the game to be a good DRK is mana-management. The name of the game to be a great DRK is “how can I kill this boss while using Grit as little as possible?” Here’s the thing: If there’s one poorly designed part of DRK as a tank, its Grit. There’s literally every incentive to have it off and none to have it on (outside the default benefits of a tank stance; mitigation, enmity, accuracy, etc). Having it on is a TP loss, MP loss, and DPS loss, and having it on grants you nothing other than the immediate benefits of the stance itself, aside from SE’s heals, for which Grit must be kept on for a considerable margin of time (2+minutes) to see meaningful HP returns from, since it is, essentially, a HoT. For Grit to be useful, DRK would need a TP restore tied to it, increased BP returns, and probably some other, meaningful mechanic (SE heal increased to 150 or 200% of damage dealt or something). But for right now, in terms of optimization and maximizing your performance, finding every possible excuse to turn Grit off is the ideal way to play the job. That being said, learning to determine when you NEED Grit for either mitigation or enmity is still key. Tank on the edge!

19. Is DRK the hardest tank to play?
-Depends on how you define "hard". DRK does not need to worry about lining up too many cooldowns/buffs because it doesn't really have any aside from a pot and BW. DRK also has ridiculous enmity generation, so that aspect of the job and of tanking in general is largely trivialized, which is really a design thing apparently, as you are supposed to be using your other combos 99% of the time. In this sense, DRK is easy. On the other hand, you have a LOT of buttons to push and it is very easy for tanks used to the precision and relative predictability of WAR/PLD to get lost in the sea of DAing stuff while weaving in over a dozen other oGCDs per minute, accounting for recast times, and procs. More buttons to push does not necessarily=hard, but it does create a high margin of error if you don't know what you're doing. Things like accidentally delaying your GCD and issues with latency can be punishing. Because of variances in attack speed, a maximized DPS rotation for DRK is difficult to plot out, assuming you want to optimize beyond the simple SC-DASE-DE-DASE-DE-repeat. The MP management style of DRK is difficult to pick up for some as well, as it does not always occur to players how to maximize MP regeneration to in turn maximize MP consumption, and the high MP costs taken out of context of that are intimidating. It differs wholly from the mana management of jobs like BLM and WHM. Unlike stack mechanics, MP can be far more difficult to keep track of at varying values, and is regenerated/consumed at a far more rapid rate. This mechanic gives way to its own ability rotations and using certain abilities repeatedly when incoming mana is not present can be dangerous, hence DRK being a hybrid rotational-priority based job, rather than (for the most part) purely rotational like PLD/WAR. Its various QoL tools, particularly lvl50-60 abilities, are also easy to misuse or underutilize. Failure to play the job correctly can be extremely punishing not just to you, but the entire raid, in multiple ways, and it takes a great deal of practice to maximize on all fronts; the job's skill ceiling is not easy to hit, and knowledge of fights is extremely important (DRK is not a job that you want to "wing it" on). The simple mistake of losing DS at an inopportune moment or manaflooring renders DM/DD/DP/DA completely unusable and also hampers your ability to do anything else that costs MP, including the entirety of your ranged/AoE toolkit. That said, enmity will rarely be a worry, the cooldown structure is relatively simple (although stance dancing requires you to use cooldowns in creative ways at times), and the simple melee DPS philosophy of keeping every offensive ability you have on cooldown at all times is a solid starting point for success.

20. What kind of player would you recommend DRK to?
-The job was specifically designed for people already experienced with tanking. So there's that. The skills built from playing a melee DPS job (dealing with numerous oGCDs, attack speed variances, resource management etc.) are a plus, but not necessary. I'd also recommend those who prefer MTing to OTing as that is where DRK excels, and the vast majority of its DPS toolkit lends itself to the MT role. Experience on a priority-based/non-rotational job like SMN can also be helpful. If you like MTing, a fast paced playstyle, and can handle the mechanics of tanking combined with resource management and melee-DPS-esque button mashing then you'll like DRK. If you play on controller, I would HIGHLY recommend you get used to hotbar switching. While DRK has the same number of abilities as the other two tanks, keep in mind it has only a small handful with a recast of more than 60s and none of them are useless and you can expect to push almost all of them in a given encounter at least once; there aren’t any that I’d recommend just taking off your hotbar. On that same token, use vertical/horizontal hotbar HUD displays to watch recast times, and group things up by defensive and offensive cooldowns, and particularly put things such as LB, RE, BW, and BP close to your character model so you see them readily.

21. Who is this guide for?
-For anyone with questions. I outlined this with advanced play in mind, but even a new tank reading this ought to be able to take something away from it. For all its complexities, DRK is still a tank, and tanking itself is a relatively simple task. Optimization comes with experience and this guide is largely based off mine as resources on playing this job are (as noted in the introduction) notably sparse. So it is likely to see edits as other experienced DRK's come forward to offer input/corrections.

------------

[Syzygian]

9. Conclusion

Hopefully I’ve been successful in this guide, it will no doubt undergo revisions. Please feel free to correct me on math I’ve tried to plot out or plot out math of your own for me to add as it would be much welcomed. DRK is a very imprecise job at times and it can be difficult to hammer down certain rotational numbers. As a new tank, it probably will see its share of revisions as well but for now, hopefully anyone reading this has a much firmer grasp on the job’s playstyle and mechanics than before, and hopefully some misconceptions and/or confusions were cleared up. A simple Google search on guides for this job will show that pickings are slim and many of the top results are still generic (and highly inaccurate) “thoughts” documents or videos or extremely basic introductory guides made shortly after launch that don’t cover anything one can’t read in the tooltips. There are almost no in-depth text guides. There just aren't many trustworthy sources from which to get accurate information. Anyway, hopefully this was informative and it can continue to grow into a much-needed DRK resource.

TL/DR: (has some inaccuracies, but amusing)...