I haven't had an issue with threat or mitigation as DRK at the moment. I don't feel squishier than a warrior. The only thing is that the non-specific mitigation abilities-Shadow Skin and Shadow Wall--seem to have a bit high of a cooldown, but otherwise I've had no issue with it.
The issue I see with DRK at the moment is that when tanking a dungeon or some such, there's really no reliable ways to generate MP in a pinch if Blood Price is on cooldown. Syphon Strike is frustrating to try to weave into a rotation when you're also trying to keep enmity because DRK has no TP-using AoE threat abilities, and its basically only treading water to keep Darkside up.
Blood Price is absurdly useful but won't be up for every mob group, and it also depends on you taking damage. So if you hit blood price and your WHM casts Holy and stuns the mobs? You aren't getting any MP until those stuns wear off. If the mobs attack really slowly? You're not getting much MP because it matters more of how fast they attack than how hard they hit.
I've taken to using Blood Weapon into my rotation be activating Shadow Skin, deactivating Grit, then activating Blood Weapon to regenerate MP, but this is a pretty awkward sequence to go through because Shadow Skin and Blood Weapon aren't on the GCD while Grit is, for some arbitrary reason.
Living Dead is pretty lackluster though. It has the effect of Holmgang but with the cooldown of Hallowed Ground without the benefits of either, and no mitigation.
Tanking bosses though I've had no issues with so far.
The issue I see with DRK at the moment is that when tanking a dungeon or some such, there's really no reliable ways to generate MP in a pinch if Blood Price is on cooldown. Syphon Strike is frustrating to try to weave into a rotation when you're also trying to keep enmity because DRK has no TP-using AoE threat abilities, and its basically only treading water to keep Darkside up.
Blood Price is absurdly useful but won't be up for every mob group, and it also depends on you taking damage. So if you hit blood price and your WHM casts Holy and stuns the mobs? You aren't getting any MP until those stuns wear off. If the mobs attack really slowly? You're not getting much MP because it matters more of how fast they attack than how hard they hit.
I've taken to using Blood Weapon into my rotation be activating Shadow Skin, deactivating Grit, then activating Blood Weapon to regenerate MP, but this is a pretty awkward sequence to go through because Shadow Skin and Blood Weapon aren't on the GCD while Grit is, for some arbitrary reason.
Living Dead is pretty lackluster though. It has the effect of Holmgang but with the cooldown of Hallowed Ground without the benefits of either, and no mitigation.
Tanking bosses though I've had no issues with so far.
