(Don't) Fear The Reaper: A Dark Knight Guide

Well, they're getting upgrades next month so they aren't necessarily a waste of time.

Didnt know that, good news I guess. Anyhow for the time being they are very easily replaced, so unless you like doing millions of extra runs for flamma, id just go for something better since time wise I bet you save a ton.

Sulevia feet are necessary for cross Reaper and torcleaver sets.

Yeah, I got word about this. 5/5 Flamma+1 Would be good to have on hand based on this information alone. To be honest, if they weren't getting upgrades, I would probably skip them.


Yeah, I definitely want Emicho, Carmine and Argosy. Those I can farm for no problem, though I may have issues with Duke Vepar.

However, I don't really have a group to farm Valorous Mail with, and Yakshi looks like a pain in the ***. Not to mention, I've got a severely limited budget to work with, so I need to find a primary source of income soon. (Ironically, I did get two Chironic Doublets from the Dominion Invasion Campaign...)

What's everyone's preference on the jse tp cape?
30 dex 20 acc or 20 dex 30 acc?

I highly doubt that the ambu +1 sets are a waste of time, much less then Crossing your fingers for perfect on Valo/Emicho/Ody sets. All of the Ambu sets play a big part in reaching Acc caps to do 125+ content. The game is broken regardless.. so how much time could you really be wasting?

20 DEX 30 Acc.

How do these fair as TP pants? Mulling over giving Apoc dark a shot.

Those are pretty meh in all honesty. I usually don't use any Val piece if it doesn't have 30ish+ ACC values. Sulev +1 or Igno +2/3 would be good alternatives if you want multihit and ACC in the pants slot.

Need at least 21~26 more acc to give them a shot until you hit jackpot on acc/att augments. Quad+3 seems to be max aug in that area (unless there have been reports of higher quad values).

I have only gotten quad atk +1 on my ody legs once. I was trying for wsd% and +vit or +str with acc at 24-30.

Hey guys I just came back from a long break. I stopped playing in 07 and came during abyssea for a bit then quit. I'm back now and trying to regear DRK. I'm mostly soloing ambuscade (Ya I know...) V2 on normal and duoing it on difficult once in a while so needless to say it's going slow lol. I have the cape with 15acc/atk and 5 double attack currently and have about 1300 hallmarks left to spend. Before I buy more items I'm looking for some advice on how I should proceed. If hallmarks weren't an issue im guessing Id make one for tp with 20 dex 20acc/atk 10 dbl atk and 10 more dex. Then one for WS with 20 str 20acc/atk 10 WSD and 10 more str.

Id like to build a cape for nin and pld as well and 2 for drk but it's going to take forever.

So my question is, is it feasible to build one cape for TP and WS. If so what augments would you recommend? Should I go all out for both? It'd take me like 6mos to build em lol.

Also I don't see ambuscade gear in any of the guides. It seems amazing for tp, especially the flamma+1 heads and boots. What gives, should I be using them, they seem even more optimal than the ones listed under welcome to escha, ambuscade, etc.

Thanks in advance!

Which ambuscade capes you make depends on what weapon skill you are going to use. Using Torcleaver with a str/acc/atk/wsd% cape is not ideal. Vit is Torcleavers stat, so you would want vit/acc/atk/wsd% for the ws cape. Having one for TP works. You might want one for magic accuracy so you can land your drains, aspirs, and absorbs.

As long as you have the hallmarks to buy the ambuscade cape stuff, I would go for it. First thing I would do is try to get 5/5 flamma+1 and 5/5 sulevia's+1. Both of those sets are going to give you the most value for your hallmark if you want armor and your WS and TP capes are done with the +10 stat dye.

If I were a returning drk, I would make sure to finish Rhapsodies of Vana'diel because you get access to so much stuff from doing that. I would also unlock all the Home point warps and survival guide warps. Farm abyssea until you get 5/5 Bale+2 armor and the 8 elemental belts to be synergized into Fotia Belt. Then I would farm up the 8 elemental gorgets to make Fotia Gorget. With Fotia Belt and Fotia Gorget, you are getting closer to being a decent emodrk. I would then farm Dynamis valkrum/qufim/tavnazia/buburimu until you get 5/5 relic armor and enough currency to make a Ragnarok to level 75. Then farm alex until you have enough gil to get your Ragnarok to level 119 and then the 10,000 plutons to afterglow level 3 it.

P.S. Welcome Back

These have been the best I've gotten so far. DM augment.

ya I have the same but 6 acc/att. I just leave them in storage.... I was trying to make a QA build but couldnt see it being useful because of acc issues/xhit. It is fun though to play around with tough at 13 QA atm which can be fun to see with calad AM up :D

When your still gearing up though those pants def could be nice!

Seeing the trend in gear released last patch, it may become a factor for some multi-hit builds to have great use in QA. Now I assume everyone is crossing their finger that LR+DB will not get a nerf any time soon. Until that happens, stacking multi-hit is great in any value of 5% or higher. Playing Drk gets tricky once you find certain gear, mainly for one use(DA/TA/QA) that may not help in the long run. Nice Augment regardless, let me know how well it procs.

probably around 3% of the time

I have never heard of anyone being afraid of this. SE deliberately did this and it doesnt overpower drk in the least, it literally is the only think keeping them in the game DD wise. Why on earth would it get nerfed? You literally become the glass cannon drk always was with this. Lots of power at cost of being 1 shot by a bunny.

really ?

the way u got them setup they are awful but they are QUITE Optimal for situational uses.

Sulev +1 good for DT set (NOT TP)

Selev Feet has WSD+6% for Torcleave.

Flamma Feet DA+5% STP+5 good for TP along with Sulev Hands DA+5%

I am sorry but I don't see your point of spending a shitload of gil on Mercenary stuff when u can get the job done with the right combo of armor.

DO NOT Missunderstand me, not saying Valorous is no good, its AMAZING !

But for TP I rather have DA+ STP+ and use my Valorous for WS set.

Just saying ^^;

First, thanks for the reply!

I'm mostly using Resolution and considering my limited play time and limited ability to group up I'm mostly just trying to build my Drk to be able to do some group ambuscade and low tier Escha and unity NMs.

I was thinking of doing on my cape:
20 str
20 acc/atk
10 dbl atk
10 acc

And use that for TP and Resolution. Then work on my nin cape, Pld cape, and get some Sulv armor +1.

Would it be bad or a waste to build that cape. Am I better off going all out to build a TP cape swap out str for dex in above and use a different Reso WS cape in the meantime until I build an optimal one.

Also I'm mud chapter 3 RoV and actually working on the belts and gorgets now, so at least I know I'm on the right track lol

With your goals being what is considered low-tier content (in terms of acc needs ~1200 with food, so 1100 base) I think your cape choice is spot on almost. The best reso cape is 30str/20acc/10DA. I would personally just go that route as it will also be your best tp cape compared to any non-ankou cape as your augs would eventually be subpar months ahead using dye for 10 acc. the costly part of capes is the DYE, do not buy these atm, you will spend so much that its not worth it atm (8000 hallmarks for 10, which is more than a full cape, or about 6m~ gil which can be used to build other gear deficiencies). Make sure you max out on your base mats that cost 100/100/200 thread, dust , etc monthly. Its better to have 2 drk capes without dye, than one with IMO. WHile your thinking now just 1 cape each, remember you can max out 3-4 capes a month (I forget exact), so this month + next = 2 capes per job already. If you feel you might not make it a full month, cool just do the 500 points needed per cape that you want and the next month you will still be able to get another and aug *3* drk capes :D it really goes fast.

With that said It will be less hallamrks to do 2 capes, than one cape with dye. My suggestion is since you probably got the drk cape this month, Aprils ambu start tomorrow, which means in 1 month time you could get 2 more, having 3 total with not very much effort.

1st: 20str/20acc/10da
2nd: 20vit/20acc/10wsd
3rd: 20dex/20acc/10da

At this point from your free dyes you will have 15~. I would then use the first 10 dye for your 3rd cape so you can max out your tp acc as much as possible, then use the remaining on either 1st or 2nd depending which you prefer (torc/reso). Normally a mid lv drk will get better results with torc until 5/5 argosy, at which point reso is nice and you can jump between the 2.

I would focus on the WS cape for first cape, then TP cape, etc. DRK's main job is to deal damage and WS is their main way to do that. Unlocking Torcleaver is something you can do solo, but it can be a little costly. It is worth it, Torcleaver and Resolution are your two heavy hitting WS when it comes to greatsword. Another thing you might want to consider is getting a full group for Ambuscade Volume 2 on Very Difficult setting. I know you are not there right now, but you will be. Gallantry and Hallmarks might be another way for you to make gil. The more people in your group, the more gallantry you get for the win.

Making a Ragnarok is something you should work towards as your greatsword, and Apocalypse as your scythe. Apoc's WS is Catastropy and it is a ws that will help to keep you healed. Ragnarok is tied for top greatsword you can get/make. Relics are easier to make than empyreans and mythics.

For now that does not really help you, but getting a Nibiru Greatsword and Nibiru Scythe might be something you can look at. Paying a merc to get you a Zulfiqar greatsword from Reisenjima is another option. You would have to pay for the stones to augment it, but it would be worth it.

From last night's update:


From what I understand, you can only upgrade two pieces per month with Ambuscade Metals.

Legs look like a great hybrid piece, and I'm torn between Body and Feet. Doubtful Head can beat Flamma +2 in the coming month. Hands are nice if you don't have Emicho +1 I guess.

Its not even close. Feet are the best 1st upgrade option, as they become the highest to date (not including god DM augments) WSD piece, +7. This was already the best for Torcleaver/Scourge before, but now it has +3str/+3vit/+6acc/+6att/+1wsd in addition.

Legs are the close second option, being that it is 45 accuracy 4ta (2* additional hits). I can see a case being made for whether to choose Hands or Legs for 2nd piece this month, which would be purely based on your current gear needs. 6 DA is huge.

Issue that the legs have always had is the lack of stp. Odys legs give a woping 13 stp with augs (more realistic to have 12 though) and you can get 40+ acc with them easily too (easy to get 7 stp and 30 acc with pellucid spamming and cheap). Add that to the nice 2 DA they give you for free.... its just a hard sell to not use them as your other slotts get more options being able to drop stp which would normally equate to bigger gains than the sulveia legs. For a pure multihit build though the legs do have an appeal. We can reach moderate TA rates now on drk.

Personally doing feet and hands.

Do +2 sule legs beat hq argosy for reso/insurgency now? Orwas it artifact+3? Either way how do they compare

af+3 wins.

I don't know which is better for Insurgency but I'll mention what I think about Resolution. Argosy Breeches +1 Path A have STR+55, DEX+23, Acc+32, Att+52, and Double Attack +4% (assuming additional +2% for set bonus) so +6%. Sulevia's Cuisses +2 has STR+47, no DEX, Acc+45, Att+49, and Triple Attack +4%. The DEX on the breeches actually pushes the Acc past the cuisses to 49.25~ making Argosy better than Sulevia in regards to STR, DEX, ACC, and ATT. The difference maker is going to come down to the multi hit values of Double Attack +6% vs. Triple Attack +4%. The Artifact Legs +3 have STR+50, DEX+15, Acc+49, Att+45 and Double Attack +10%. It has more Acc at 49 + 11.25~ from DEX+15 totaling 60.25~ and 4% more Double Attack than Argosy legs +1 but less STR, DEX, Att. Unfortunately, I don't have the numbers and spreadsheets to prove which piece would be better in certain situations but, if I were to choose I'd say get them all because each are a solid piece for Resolution. Artifact +3 has the highest ACC and multi hit values. Argosy +1 has the most STR DEX and ATT. And Sulevia's +2 is the easiest to obtain and would be a good option for Resolution until you get Artifact +3 or Argosy +1 or both and is still the BiS for -Damage % taken :]