Dark Knight buff: Patch 3.26 Nice PVE change?

[Cherie]

Dark Knight Dark Arts Recast time has been reduced from 5 to 3 seconds

I know it was mostly aimed at PVP, but do you guys think that is a fairly nice DRK PVE buff too?

I realize you still have the same amount of mana, but, I've found it rather nice to be able to do nearly 2 dark arts in the time I could usually only do one. It seems to make the initial grab of threat much faster if you are main tanking so you can drop grit if it's a fight that allows it. Also, when grabbing a pack of mobs, if you got some good aoe players, you can snap threat on a mob group a whole lot quicker with plenty of time to dark arts a mitigation cool down too.

Pushing the dark arts button even more often leads to even more button pressing and having to press a buff button in front of a attack every single time is a bit awkward (and now get to do it almost twice as quickly)... so does it just make you more prone to sore fingers? lol Not that drk really have to press very fast anyway (poor monks). But then you can use up your mana more quickly and maybe it might be more troublesome for newer DRKs learning the job?

Personally, I like it, I got to do some experimentation with it today. The timing seems a bit easier now for some reason, especially if you are kiting large groups for speed pulls and stuff. I like that its possible to do more damage in a burst (which I assume is the reason it was added in this feast heavy patch).

Thoughts? Was it a "meh" buff, to you other DRK players, or was it a fairly nice change in PVE?

[MagiusNecros]

You can achieve DADD + DADP more easily and get faster DA AD's. Also a bit more lenient on DASE > DACnS.

So I think it's an okay QoL buff. I'll take what I can get.

[CrimsonThunder]

As a career DRK I haven't noticed any mp drain issues. Personally I think that if you're having issues with it now then odds are you were before which means you need work at DRK, nothing more.

Also yes, being able to safely get DA/DM for Da'at is a welcome blessing.

[Cabalabob]

Personally loving the change, when I have mp to spare I can blow it all on a huge burst now. I like doing DA > syphon Strike > SE > DA > CnS > scourge > hard slash > DA > DP > syphon strike > DA > SE. And AoE being able to do abyssal drains near back to back is nice when you have enough mobs hitting you for blood price that you don't need syphon strike.

Don't play DRK in pvp but don't really see how this helps them there but I'm not complaining.

[Granyala]

Mana cost is still prohibitively expensive.
Unless you have a pack of Trash mobs gnawing at you with the "mana reg on hit" buff active, I don't see how you could use Dark Arts every 3 seconds.

[Lone-wolfe-02]

It's a nice change yeah but all this focus on buffing them for pvp is annoying, drk still needs some pve changes.

[Nalien]

As a career DRK I haven't noticed any mp drain issues. Personally I think that if you're having issues with it now then odds are you were before which means you need work at DRK, nothing more.

I've found it possible to fit a Dark Arts Dark Passenger in my rotation for a potency boost without it costing my a Dark Arts Souleater or Carve and Spit, so technically it can result in greater MP drain because that's an extra 2,652MP I simply wasn't spending before. Not that this matters much in PvE where Blood Price actually serves a purpose and you can get the most out of Blood Weapon because PvE enemies tend to sit nice and still so you can get the maximum number of hits off.

It's a really nice change though, just for making Dark Arts combos less irritating to set up, that 5s cooldown was just annoying... As for other QoL changes, I'd quite like to see Reprisal and Low Blows (the trait) also trigger off dodges, given the Dark Dance Dark Passenger combo is so nice for evasion. Wouldn't mind the cross-class skills being changed too... That's potentially a whole other topic, though...