DRK - Excessive Dark Arts

[MauvaisOeil]

nvm post deleted the forum redirected my answer on an other topic after logging in.

[Giubba]

Why was it decided that players want to use Dark Arts before every attack? When I'm soloing, I find myself mashing the button 3-4 times per DPS rotation, or every other one.

The way Dark Arts was back in 3.0 was fine; at the end of a combo, or with Carve and Spit for the damage <-> mana tradeoff. Dark Arts and Abyssal Drain could only be used about 3 or 4 times, and Dark Passenger was on a cooldown.

At that point, usage of Dark Arts was a choice for effect. Now, it's just a button we spam for damage. Why??

At this point they should use it like a let's say x second effect that last for a syphon strike and soul eater.

[Raim]

I like the way it feels in single target and keeps things busy without being needlessly convoluted like before with the plethora of ogcds that were fire and forget. The only thing I'd change is remove Dark Arts from Abyssal Drain and have it boost Salted Earth and Salted Earth will drain health from enemies instead.

[EusisLandale]

The only thing I'd change is remove Dark Arts from Abyssal Drain and have it boost Salted Earth and Salted Earth will drain health from enemies instead.

Why would you do that?

[Raim]

Why would you do that?

Because its clunky to have to DA before every move compared to just having the HP drain effect realistically obtainable over time for each pool and come as a solid, constant pace.

[EusisLandale]

Because its clunky to have to DA before every move compared to just having the HP drain effect realistically obtainable over time for each pool and come as a solid, constant pace.

Abyssal Drain 120 per 2.5, Salted Earth 75 per 3. Over 21 seconds that's 960 and 525. 435 is the potency gain Salted Earth would need to have to match Abyssal Drain in a situation where you have to do it every move.
Realistically though, outside of some stupidly huge pull, about 30 attacks coming in between every Abyssal Drain, you won't be able to keep it up.
Overall though, we're not going to come across many if any situations where we need constant healing from Abyssal Drain which means we also won't need constant healing from Salted Earth. What we do see is situations where we need a big chunk of health NOW so AD being faster than periodic damage means it's the superior option there.

[Derio]

I would rather them buff DRK and WAR than nerf PLD. DRK needs scourge back

[Mithron]

If DRKs don't do enough damage, that's an easy and natural fix that will happen over time. Spamming Dark Arts however isn't something they'll naturally change unless enough people complain about how much they don't like it. That's the point of this thread. It isn't "buff DRKs they suck worst tank" or anything like that, it's how we fundamentally play the job and its style versus other jobs, that's what really matters way more.

[SyzzleSpark]

If DRKs don't do enough damage, that's an easy and natural fix that will happen over time. Spamming Dark Arts however isn't something they'll naturally change unless enough people complain about how much they don't like it. That's the point of this thread. It isn't "buff DRKs they suck worst tank" or anything like that, it's how we fundamentally play the job and its style versus other jobs, that's what really matters way more.

The point is a lot of us LIKE the DA playstyle. A lot of us LIKE having to actively boost individual hits with extra timed button presses. Its like doing a Smash attack in SSB. In terms of plain-old muscle memory and the way the job feels in your hands, a lot of us find it engaging, fun, fast paced, and exciting. If you don't want to play a job that requires so many button presses, there are others out there. Its like saying Bloodletter procs feel bad on BRD. They don't. They're amazing.

For me, DA is a button that makes me feel like I'm exploding with power and needing to press it often to keep from losing control and overflowing. Its exciting trying to keep your MP down during BW and Delirium BW windows.

This is not a problem with the job. It is not something that NEEDS fixing. And considering that it is something that makes the job unique, I don't want to see it go away, and again, there are a fair few things about DRK right now that are ACTUAL problems and do need to be addressed. This just really isn't one of them. If anything the jobs playstyle and general feeling in the players' hands is one of the few things they did right in the expansion. Most jobs in this game press a button every 60-90s and and go about their rotation. DRK has to actively press this button to reap the benefits and that is what makes it exciting.

The other thing, is that all of the potency we lost from Reprisal and Low Blow got distributed to our extra DA casts. So without DAing extra abilities not only would they have to put that potency elsewhere, but they would also have to give us some other mana dump that we have to use just as often or completely retune our mana returns (again), lest we be unable to keep our MP down.

[_Pigzig]

snip

Yeah, nah its lame. Some of us don't want to spam a "do more damage on next ability" ability before every attack whenever MP gets high enough. The way the animation looks fit with the way it worked in Heavensward. DRK was better when DA was something used once in a while to give yourself bonus DPS, not something to power up every move constantly.

Like someone said it devalues the animation. It clearly wasn't meant to be a spam move judging by the fact it taxes MP and has that dramatic animation. Honestly the job seems messed up and needs major fixes in general. Clearly something just went wrong and after it's not the expansion posterchild anymore maybe they didn't bother to make it play properly especially at lower levels.

I haven't got to 70 yet but most of the dungeons are still low level ones, even if it fixes then there's still going to be DA spam in lower levels.