DPS is the job of DPS.

[Gemina]

There will never be/should never be a scenario in which a DRK is using ONLY Grit, and never using Darkside with it, though. There will also never be/should never be a scenario in which a DRK is NOT using Darkside. Especially now that SE removed the MP drain from the ability.

I know! It was one of the first edgelording lessons I learned when I kept swapping between them before reading the tooltip. All the guides I read were 3.0 DRK, so for the first 5 levels or so, I actually played DRK like 3.0 DRK Luckily, those levels were spent with my squadron, which is precisely why I chose to only tank with them or FC mates in the beginning.

20% when active” isn’t entirely relevant because Darkside should always be active. That being said, Grit+Darkside may cancel each other out in terms of loss and gain, but Darkside alone would still be +20%. Grit is still a damage penalty in that sense because it cancels out the gain.

I'm not arguing with you. And I am not trying to provide situations where DS should not be active. I'm only stating why I don't/didn't see it as a penalty. But I am also factoring overall group DPS, and whether or not dropping Grit truly benefits this DPS if healer DPS is sacrificed as a result. Of course, I am talking about any content where the instance can't be facerolled, and when all participants playing optimally, DPS is shifted between the offensive/defensive mindset of the healer and tank.