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

Great Swords generally have delays ranging from 431 to 480, while Great Katanas generally have delays ranging from 420 to 450 (with some exceptions). While it's true that Great Swords average higher damage and delay, it's not always true when comparing specific weapons.

SE simply picked low damage/delay subtypes for Ragnarok and Caladbolt, and mid-range or high damage/delay subtypes for GKT REMAs and Lionheart.

It is annoying, and having Ragnarok and Caladbolg be one of the higher damage/delay subtypes would make them better, but it's not a massive difference; in my primary gearset, increasing Caladbolg's delay to 480 (and increasing damage proportionally to 338) would increase DPS by about 2%.

I know it's Not much just bitching about it lol

I've got the +3 but can't actually tell. Maybe needs testing in PVP to see if it does somethig else.

"Augments" implies that it adds something to the ability.

It adds the Chainbound effect to weapon bash.

Whoa.

That's what it does?

Chainbound

Whoa .. nice. So the question is, how do we use it best? Which weaponskills would work well with Chainbound? I'm not totally understanding what it means on BGwiki when it says ..

"Please also note that due to the priority and properties of the skillchain elements while the target mob is Chainbound, 3 of the 8 active skillchain elements are never used. Thus, it is impossible to create Impaction, Reverberation, Gravitation, or Distortion skillchains."

Edit: Ok so I been looking at the different skillchains and which could combine:

Induration (ice) > Guillotine
**Reverberation (water) > Entropy or Infernal Scythe
Compression (darkness) > Insurgency or Infernal Scythe
**Impaction (thunder) > Herculean Slash

**BGwiki states they are impossible with Chainbound.

If what's stated above is true, I can only see us using Compression by using the combination of Weapon Bash > Insurgency. Great Sword gets literally nothing from this .. especially if Impaction is impossible. Can't see why I'd want to make Impaction with Herc Slash anyways.

(Taken from FFXIcyclopedia) Magic available to MB with Compression: Drain III (?), Drain II, Drain, Aspir II (?), Aspir, Blind, Sleep II, and Sleep.

So if Drain III works with Compression, it could be quick and easy to MB it without relying on Sekkanoki, Meditate, and/or the right buffs to do darkness. Also Weapon Bash stuns the mob .. so less chance it will hit you as you're casting, and even if you lose hate in that moment it will be stunned in place .. so less chance of wasting TP.

Edit2: Azagarth confirmed Drain 3 works, so it's likely Aspir II does as well.

Which version of Chainbound does it inflict? That page describes Wild Flourish's version, while Konzen-ittai's version is stronger.

i just bash+insurgency = compression for drain3 mb.

I only have +3 though not sure if there is any difference at all l for +2

Nice to know this! I can think of times I'll use Bash+Insurgency+Drain 3 MB. I'm guessing there ain't much difference, if any between +2 and +3. If anyone can confirm it's like Wild Flourish and not like Konzen-ittai that would be great.

Also does it work the other way around? Say if you did Insurgency followed by Weapon Bash .. would it still do Compression? I'm not on the game til later so cannot try it.

not that its all to usefull but you can do bash+entrophy for frag too

It does not work the other way around from what I can tell, but honestly I am not using it to often.

Would be awesome if it worked the other way but I doubt it will. May have to try it when I get on.

Edit: Nevermind .. on the BGwiki skillchain page it says "Konzen-ittai/Wild Flourish (opening only)".

Insurgency and Entropy the only worthwhile WS to use with it?

Edit2: I've tried looking this up but I can't get my head around why Entropy makes Fragmentation when BGwiki says Chainbound is only meant to give T1 skillchains ..

"Important Note: For purposes of skillchain calculation, only the highest priority level 1 skillchain element of the closing weaponskill is considered. All other level 2, level 3, and secondary skillchain elements are completely ignored."

.. and Entropy has Gravitation A and Reverberation B. Either it's not worded correctly, or I need it explaining to me in simpler terms.

Edit3: Looking at the Wild Flourish page on FFXIcyclopedia. Makes a little more sense now, although some WS are missing from the list of possible skillchains: Your text to link here...

I'm guessing because Entropy has Reverb B, it links like this: Induration (Bash) → Reverberation (Entropy) = Fragmentation

One of the cool things about this is you can link Weapon Bash with other DD's weaponskills if you'd like something specific. For the sake of us Dark Knights I'll post cyclopedia's list here (Wild Flourish = Weapon Bash):

Scythe Skillchains
Wild Flourish + Slice = Scission
Wild Flourish + Dark Harvest = Fragmentation
Wild Flourish + Shadow of Death = Induration
Wild Flourish + Nightmare Scythe = Compression
Wild Flourish + Spinning Scythe = Fragmentation
Wild Flourish + Vorpal Scythe = Transfixion
Wild Flourish + Guillotine = Induration
Wild Flourish + Cross Reaper = None
Wild Flourish + Spiral Hell = Scission
Wild Flourish + Insurgency = Compression
Wild Flourish + Catastrophe = None

Great Sword Skillchains:
Wild Flourish + Hard Slash = Scission
Wild Flourish + Power Slash = Transfixion
Wild Flourish + Frostbite = Induration
Wild Flourish + Freezebite = Induration
Wild Flourish + Shockwave = Fragmentation
Wild Flourish + Crescent Moon = Scission
Wild Flourish + Sickle Moon = Scission
Wild Flourish + Spinning Slash = None
Wild Flourish + Ground Strike = None
Wild Flourish + Scourge = None

Chainbound does not "give skillchains", it applies skillchain properties to the monster you're fighting, which you then SC off of with your own skillchains. Entropy gives Fragmentation because Induration > Reverberation = Fragmentation.

I'm guessing this list of possible skillchains from Wild Flourish is not complete? I can't see anywhere where Impaction > Reverb = Frag. Induration > Reverb is there, but not that one.

I don't like the "unconfirmed ones", they should be confirmed because Gravitation would be better than Compression if it's possible.

Possible Skillchain Combinations:
Level 1 Skillchains
Compression → Transfixion = Transfixion
Impaction → Liquefaction = Liquefaction
Scission → Liquefaction = Liquefaction
Reverberation → Impaction = Impaction
Induration → Impaction = Impaction
Impaction → Detonation = Detonation
Compression → Detonation = Detonation
Scission → Detonation = Detonation
Transfixion → Compression = Compression
Induration → Compression = Compression
Liquefaction → Scission = Scission
Detonation → Scission = Scission
Transfixion → Reverberation = Reverberation
Scission → Reverberation = Reverberation
Reverberation → Induration = Induration

Level 2 Skillchains
Liquefaction → Impaction = Fusion
Induration → Reverberation = Fragmentation

Unconfirmed Level 2 Skill Chains possibility:
Detonation → Compression = Gravitation
Transfixion → Scission = Distortion

Edit to my earlier post; Induration > Reverberation is Fragmentation, not Impaction > Reverberation.

Wild Flourish Chainbound just applies all eight level 1 skillchain properties to the mob. You can see how to make skillchains from that on either the ffxiclopedia or bg wiki skillchain pages.

However, because of skillchain property priority, some of the skillchains never appear when the mob has all 8 level 1 properties on them, due to other skillchains overwriting them. For example, Transfixion > Scission gives Distortion, but because Liquefaction > Scission gives Scission, and Liquefaction has a higher priority, you get Scission instead of Distortion.

Well yeah .. I mean, I already looked at those for a long time, I'm getting confused by certain statements and lists. Like .. why is there an unconfirmed list? Why did you not answer my question about Impaction > Reverb? Looking at those pages again is not going to help me understand this. I'm the kind of guy who just clicks on FFXIcalc so I don't have to figure out which WS skillchains with what. I've never understood the skillchain diagrams completely.

And the fact BGwiki says some skillchains will never occur means I have to avoid those .. but then you say Impaction > Reverb = Frag, which isn't on any list I've seen, including the BGwiki Impaction and Fragmentation pages. If I knew how to do this, I'd have listed all the WS we could use already. It's probably better for someone else to do it, because I know I'll get it wrong .. and then someone will call me an idiot for spreading misinformation. All I'm really looking for is for someone to turn around and say "just use Insurgency/Entropy because the rest suck", or "you can use this, this, and this" so I can move on and enjoy the rest of my day.

The Impaction > Reverberation was my mistake; I meant to say Induration instead of Impaction.

The level 1 skillchain and level 2 skillchain sections on this page have every single possibility for skillchains using level 1 skillchain properties:

http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Skillchains

The only caveat is that with Chainbound, you can never get Impaction, Reverberation, Gravitation, or Distortion because every combination that gets those also gets a different SC as well, and the other ones are higher priority.

K that's making more sense to me. So out of the skillchains on that list .. we can do Liquefication, Detonation, Scission, Induration, Compression, Transfixion, Fusion and Fragmentation? No others?

Also should that unconfirmed list be ignored entirely? I think it's misleading.

Yes, that's correct.

Ok I really want to understand this.. so I'm testing myself here. Considering Resolution has A Fragmentation, and B Scission, I can't see anything Frag would link with (only gravitation) .. so am I safe to assume it would default to Scission which would create a level 1 scission skillchain (can link with liquefication or detonation) ? I'm asking this because Reso is not on the Wild Flourish list.

Yes, it would pick Liquefaction > Scission = Scission.

Resolution: Scission
Torcleaver: Nothing
Scourge: Nothing

Entropy: Fragmentation
Cross Reaper: Nothing
Quietus: Nothing
Insurgency: Compression

Wow that is a great find. Still no way to do dark-based on great sword though eh?

Nice, this is what I what I was looking to do. I understand it now. I think with Scythe I'll stick to using Insurgency, while with Great Sword I'll use Resolution.


Yeah I'm glad I mentioned it, otherwise we'd only have used Weapon Bash for stunning.

I think someone needs to add this fact to the Wiki pages for Weapon Bash and Ignominy Gauntlets +2 and +3. "Augments Weapon Bash" gives a Chainbound effect the same as Wild Flourish.

Updated Skillchains

Bash + Slice = Scission
Bash + Dark Harvest = Fragmentation
Bash + Shadow of Death = Induration
Bash + Nightmare Scythe = Compression
Bash + Spinning Scythe = Fragmentation
Bash + Vorpal Scythe = Transfixion
Bash + Guillotine = Induration
Bash + Cross Reaper = None
Bash + Spiral Hell = Scission
Bash + Insurgency = Compression
Bash + Catastrophe = None
Bash + Entropy = Fragmentation
Bash + Quietus = None

Bash + Hard Slash = Scission
Bash + Power Slash = Transfixion
Bash + Frostbite = Induration
Bash + Freezebite = Induration
Bash + Shockwave = Fragmentation
Bash + Crescent Moon = Scission
Bash + Sickle Moon = Scission
Bash + Spinning Slash = None
Bash + Ground Strike = None
Bash + Scourge = None
Bash + Resolution = Scission
Bash + Torcleaver = None

Special Skillchains

Bash > Entropy > Insurgency = Light
Bash > Vorpal Scythe > Transfixion > Spiral (Scission) = Disto > Entropy (Gravitation) = Darkness > Entropy/Quietus (Umbra/Darkness) = Umbra/Darkness
Bash > Entropy > Entropy > Insurgency > Cross Reaper/Quietus > Entropy > Entropy(Anguta AM)/Quietus ends with Double Darkness/Umbra

Bash > Power Slash > Transfixion > Resolution > Grav > Ground Strike/Torcleaver > Darkness

(Great Axe w/ 3000 TP) Sekkanoki/DS/NV > Bash > Upheaval > Drain III MB > 2000-3000 TP Armor Break

I've got one more question, which I already assume the answer is no .. but just for clarification. If the mob is completely resistant to stun, would the chainbound effect still land? Or is it only a matter of damage dealt?

90% chance it procs independently of the stun effect.

Cool! But why is it 90% chance? I can understand why Wild Flourish would be 90% as it can miss, but Weapon Bash can't miss, so how is it not 100%?

I love this find. This allows Scythe to Light with no one's help now with Bash > Entropy > Insurgency and someone could close a secondary Light with something like CDC for those power plays.

Too bad people aren't observant and just WS willy-nilly. It is my biggest pet peeve.

Edit: I mean without opening with a terrible WS since Guillotine could do the same thing.

Self light on Scythe? Epic. Don't be afraid to share more multi-step possibilities, not just with DRK, but combined with other DD jobs too. The more info on this the better I say. I'm going to add that light skillchain to my post above.

What I mostly do is cycle through Level 2 SCs, Frag > Grav > Fusion > Disto > Frag, but DRK doesn't have a Frag Scythe WS so you have to think about that.

Bash > Entropy > Entropy > Insurgency > Cross Reaper/Quietus > Entropy > Entropy(Anguta AM)/Quiteus ends with Double Darkness/Umbra for example.

When making a SC I usually work backwards starting with what you want to end with and going from there.

Yeah that's quite a long one lol. Amazing if you solo, but becomes a problem if you have another DD in party. Any smaller skillchains worth using?