Why is Quietus so weak?

[Lyth]

While there are definitely parts of DRK's AoE toolkit that are a lot of fun (i.e. the TBN/Quietus interaction), there are parts that are less well thought out. I feel like there could be some benefit to standardising the value of DA in AoE, similar to what was done with single target in 4.3.

-Abyssal Drain costs 0.55 DA for 120 potency/target. Unleash costs 0.45 DA for 50 potency/target. The average single target GCD is worth 267 potency.
-If you Unmend, you can trigger a proc to make Unleash free.
-You could spend an extra DA on Quietus for an extra 50 potency/target. You could spend it on Abyssal Drain as a self-heal at a dps loss.

Looking at these, it's not really intuitively obvious how these trade-offs work. Why on earth are we using multiples like 0.45 and 0.55? Could we not just set Abyssal Drain at 0.5 DA for simplicity? Does Unmend serve a function any more once you get Abyssal Drain? Could we not just remove it and drop Abyssal Drain down to level 6? If the value of DA on Quietus is 50 potency, should it not also be 50 potency on Abyssal Drain for equivalency?

I also feel that Blood Price and Blood Weapon also have their share of problems here. Under Blood Price, you have periods of infinite MP where potency per MP doesn't matter at all, as long as you're in Grit and you have enmity. Dropping Grit, Blood Weapon gives you large bursts of MP under Quietus, but has no interaction with Abyssal Drain or Dark Passenger at all. Can we just merge Blood Price and Weapon into a single ability that gives MP/blood per mob hit up to some fixed cap (i.e. hitting 6+ targets generates the same amount of MP/blood as hitting 5), regardless of stance, and regardless of whether the attack is physical or magical? You'd lose out on the infinite MP, but gain a system that was at least more consistent.

[TouchandFeel]

snip

I second pretty much all of what Lyth said, many of those points are things I have been asking to be addressed for a long time.

In addition I really feel Quietus should compensate for the Grit damage penalty like Bloodspiller does.

[Shurrikhan]

While there are definitely parts of DRK's AoE toolkit that are a lot of fun (i.e. the TBN/Quietus interaction), there are parts that are less well thought out. I feel like there could be some benefit to standardising the value of DA in AoE, similar to what was done with single target in 4.3.

-Abyssal Drain costs 0.55 DA for 120 potency/target. Unleash costs 0.45 DA for 50 potency/target. The average single target GCD is worth 267 potency.
-If you Unmend, you can trigger a proc to make Unleash free.
-You could spend an extra DA on Quietus for an extra 50 potency/target. You could spend it on Abyssal Drain as a self-heal at a dps loss.

Looking at these, it's not really intuitively obvious how these trade-offs work. Why on earth are we using multiples like 0.45 and 0.55? Could we not just set Abyssal Drain at 0.5 DA for simplicity? Does Unmend serve a function any more once you get Abyssal Drain? Could we not just remove it and drop Abyssal Drain down to level 6? If the value of DA on Quietus is 50 potency, should it not also be 50 potency on Abyssal Drain for equivalency?

I also feel that Blood Price and Blood Weapon also have their share of problems here. Under Blood Price, you have periods of infinite MP where potency per MP doesn't matter at all, as long as you're in Grit and you have enmity. Dropping Grit, Blood Weapon gives you large bursts of MP under Quietus, but has no interaction with Abyssal Drain or Dark Passenger at all. Can we just merge Blood Price and Weapon into a single ability that gives MP/blood per mob hit up to some fixed cap (i.e. hitting 6+ targets generates the same amount of MP/blood as hitting 5), regardless of stance, and regardless of whether the attack is physical or magical? You'd lose out on the infinite MP, but gain a system that was at least more consistent.

Personally, my favorite part of DRK is when it hits "critical mass" so to speak, whereupon, with enough enemies present, it needs no healer or can just about keep up with Warrior's Inner Release AoE dps due to BW-Quietus refunding itself. My least favorite: how rare those situations are, and how starkly we lose access to them. Well, apart from Blood Price's anti-synergy with AoE stuns.

I like the idea of wanting to stance-swap, much like how Scourge enticed even the most timid DRK out of Grit for at least a bit per 30 seconds, while Blood Price now wants you to be back in Grit, but dislike the MP and uptime costs attached to stance swapping... Blood Price has its issues, but I'd rather keep it separate (even if bound to the same key, assuming you could see two recast timers within the same slot, with some universal revisions) than see it merged with Blood Weapon, if only to maintain that ebb and flow, assuming that Grit itself, and DRK stance-dancing, could be improved upon. The larger Blood Price issue, honestly, is how massively affected it is by enemy attack speed. If it's not going to scale with the actual damage dealt, therefore seeing use even in boss fights by allowing you to cheesily immunity-CD massive hits for massive mana, or damage that would have been dealt (i.e. pre-mitigation) as to invite less hatred from healers, then it'd feel like a huge improvement just to have Blood Price continually drain mana from enemies around you.

Similarly, I'd like for Unleash and Abyssal Drain to be separate, viable options that have different rotational places and purposes in AoE. But that would require first making them actually distinct in more than just potency and enmity modifier. Essentially, I'd prefer the -- presently false -- complexity make something out of itself, rather than the toolkit be trimmed down (in terms of buttons required) to its current complexity.