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

SR is a bad place to compare weapon dps since the fights are so short, and it's really about who can get and maintain the lead first. If you have to spend time using spells or buffs or something, you lose seconds (dps). If someone engages just one second before you, you lose. At most those bosses last 25-30 seconds, and some of them do dumb stuff like amnesia, which will throw all competition out the window.

Honestly, considering how short the fights are in SR, I'd imagine Calad has the advantage simply due to not having to manage AM3. It shines in the shorter fights because you can start WSing right off the bat.

On the flip side, the shorter the fight the smaller the sample size, so there's gonna be a ton of variation in general.

As for Calad VS Lib, I think they are closer than people might think at first glance. I have both at R15 now and want to get some more solid data as to how they compare within my own arsenal.

If R15 Lib is that close to begin with, it would do very well when some accuracy is needed. I keep whiffing pretty badly with Calad. Not to mention most of Scythe's WSDMG gear has some really nice accuracy/scythe skill thrown in with it.

For Torcleaver I'm kind of stuck choosing between a nice WSDMG aug, or going with some more mediocre wsdmg/high accuracy on Ody Head/Hands. Plus the base weapon has no accuracy on it, while Liberator's augs give it additional accuracy.

Kept whiffing really bad on wave 3, ended up using Apoc. Mainly Torcleaver was missing. Resolution was pretty consistent since ftp transfers on each hit.

using Resolution with a Caladbolg. ugh

I know, it pains the hell out of me to do so. That's why I just switched to Apoc for the pure accuracy and survival.

I should of mentioned the same DRK switched to Cala after about 15 fights, and then I started closing the gap on the parse.

Speaking of Parses. What does a Drk parse these days.

Edit: and does ffxi have a site that tracks parses or that ppl submit to? like xiv does with fflogs?

Smart man.

But seriously SR is horrible for parsing against people. Too short of fights and too many annoying mechanics.

would it be possible to update this with the new gear that has come out?

https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/50426/high-end-sets-advicesuggestionsideaslua

lmao, I remember making profile picture

FYI, the ambuscade scythe is pretty decent for dark Knight and warrior. Not sure who else grabbed one up, but saw a warrior testing it in omen and it was fairly impressive. Saw 64k spiral hell on kin， which I though was cool. For a crappy WS, it's better than I thought it would be. Averaged around 30ks, with spikes considerably higher. Haven't seen any drk post about it yet, but Something to look into for either job. I'll end up making one soon enough just because it looks neato

GAXE was pretty nice with an unresisted drain 3 up. Even better with 9999 HP.

that sounds cool, being able to use GA, make ukko fury pretty decent on drk? i would like to see scythes skillchain with spiral hell closing after entropy to see what comes out.

Steel Cyclone with the damage buff can be pretty decent, and Upheaval is pretty nice with the TP bonus.

AND! upheaval (my bad) has compression prop, so can mb drain with weapon bash

What exactly is that video supposed to show？

oooh he used the consume mana for a 14k spiral hell. In a really mediocre skillchain.

After watching 5 times I finally figured that out. I guess he was proud of the 50k/70k darkness(es).

The WS with the right support and gear is much stronger than that video is showing, with Drepanum. And multi-step scythe SCs are all strong whichever combination you slice it. At least the video reminded me to use Consume Mana. Totally forgot it existed.

Glad I'm not the only one that forgot about it! And now that I remember about it, it makes me wonder if it will be part of the drk job adjustments. My money was on the absorb spells, but seeing that getting adjusted might be nice. Based on max mp, but consumes 10%? or something. *randomly daydreams*

I should be using it in my multi step and then entropy afterwards, but I never really noticed any improvement in damage. Maybe I should be using it at the tail end of the skillchain.

Spiral Hell with Drepanum has slow start at 1000TP. With typical scythe WSD gear and moonshade it's around 22k on avg. Entropy with Anguta is around 21.5k, Cross reaper with Redemption has also 22k, Insurgency with Liberator ~23.1, Catastrophe has ~26.5k, Cross Reaper with Anguta ~27k and Torcleaver ~32.5k

So Torcleaver clearly wins as single WS at 1000TP

It keeps winning with more TP too, but Spiral Hell with Drepanum has a very solid jump at 2k and 3k TP.

2000 TP:
Entropy Anguta - ~32.7k
Cross Redemption - ~37.5k
Insurgency Lib - ~40.9k
Cross Anguta - ~44.6k
Torc Caladbolg - ~48.2k

3000 TP:
Entropy Anguta - ~35.8k
Cross Redemption - ~52.8k
Cross Anguta - ~49.4k
Insurgency Lib - ~54.3k
Torc Caladbolg - ~59.2k

But ofc Torcleaver is for Light SC and only 2 step. It also has way less accuracy.

Going to 3-4 multistep double darkness or Umbra we have few options
1. Cross/Spiral/Quietus > Cata/Entropy > Cata/Quietus/Entropy
2. Insurgency > Entropy/Cata > Spiral/Cross/Quietus > Quietus/Cata/Entropy
3. Entropy/Cata > Cross/Spiral/Quietus > Entropy/Cata/Quietus

Looking at this I don't find Drepanum good for multistep, unless maybe for one SC per minute. The only WS that takes advantage of it is Spiral Hell and its strong only at 2000+ TP and you can take advantage of it's skillchain bonus only with consume mana, that has 1min recast and adds 1sec JA delay.

In 3 step you can start with strong Spiral, but Entropy and Quietus will both be weak. Apocalypse can do good/strong Cross, then pretty decent 2x Cata or you can start with Cata and do Cross as 2nd WS if you are sure that you can overflow TP on Cross. Either way it should be much better than Drepanum. Entropy > Cross > Entropy with Anguta should easily be much better too and if you start with 2000+ TP Entropy you will make Umbra. Assuming you have AM3 on, Liberator should also be better with Entropy > Cross > Quietus.

Now 4 step is even more brutal to Drepanum. Both Anguta and Liberator can start with stronger Insurgency (Anguta with TP bonus, so assuming you don't start at really high TP). Both Anguta and Liberator will have much stronger Entropy too. Then Cross from Anguta and Liberator (should be possible to overflow a lot more TP with AM3 up and AM3 proc on WS also helps) should easily beat Spiral from Drepanum. Lastly Quietus from Liberator would be stronger than from Drepanum and Anguta would make Umbra with Entropy, so would easily win too. I think Insurgency > Cata > Cross > Cata with Apocalypse would be better than anything from Drepanum too.

What makes Anguta really great here too is that it uses multihit WS, so the chance for breaking SC with miss is very low. Now doing Spiral and Quietus with Drepanum has much higher risk for misses.

Lastly we should talk about Lycurgos with enough HP to get TP bonus +1000 and it's Upheaval > Steel Cyclone > Upheaval > Steel Cyclone
That's only 4 step Darkness, not double Darkness, but it uses only really strong WSs. Upheaval with +1250 TP bonus is as strong or stronger than Torcleaver, tho accuracy (especially for hits other than 1st) might be an issue here. Misses on Steel Cyclone can also easily break SC.

What would be the difference between an Odyssean Helm with WSD+5% augment and a Valorous Mask with WSD+9% augment?

I'm wondering if the 12 VIT justify bothering at all.

it's not- 9% should be better

New Odin body should be real nice for Liberator AM3

hey err'ybody, was flipping through my gs to update for incanters finally, and was looking over my dread spikes, and started wondering if im doing it right. i know its based off your hp, but is based off current or max hp? debating if throw on more ratri is worth with it, seems the gearset for that at least is out of date so double checking if im still doing things right or that i may have gotten backwards and stacked skill/duration vs hp amount.
edit. i do have some hp + fastcast/SIR thrown in there to

HP + Empyrean +1 body is the set you should be aiming for, since Dread potency is based off of your max HP at the time of cast.