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

To be 100% honest, in a real fight you won't be casting any magic. Casting anything presents a 3s global lockout on your attack round along with the time it takes to cast the spell itself. That's typically two or more attack rounds, with possible multi-attacks, that you will be missing out on. Buffs you can apply prefight or start the fight with are ok, but nothing is going to be happening in the middle of that battle except WS -> TP -> WS. The goal is to kill the enemy in under one minute. Recently on Ambuscade we were killing the Bird in under 30s, with our fastest being a sub 15s kill. Without our super players it would die in ~45s.

That is the pace melee need to move at now. No screwing around, just pure focused offensive power until it stops twiching. This is necessary because the longer the target stays alive the higher chance it's going to get Amnesia, Petrify, Terror, Paralyze, Stun, Weakness, Zombie, Death, Charm or some other "*** You I Win!" move off. If people aren't doing this on their melee jobs then they aren't part of this discussion.

This is a role DRK was absolutely king of for a long time, which is why it's really head scratching to see older DRK's going "but but but muh play style" when faced with the reality that Scythe is no longer the preferred weapon for accomplishing this role.

There isn't a need for this. He posts very useful information that is appreciated, at times. He does like to be long-winded and seems to want to be heard often, but its not like he's throwing out baseless nonsense, so its tolerable. His gear selection and advice on Resolution specifics are pretty helpful, for newbie DRKs like myself. I only ask that the discussion cover all of what DRK has to offer, and not just "Deal high DMG with Rag".

Some others have pointed out things that Liberator and Apoc can do. Its great to have a discussion in full scope so we know what we're working with and how to gear our ***. Its appreciated. Some of us DRKs aren't really blessed with the gear to join the 135+ content, so I enjoy hearing a discussion that covers what else DRK can do if it's not getting those invites. For instance, SC < MB > Tank, that's useful to a guy like myself. Always thought DRK was hit and ws, but it can do more, as pointed out by the comments.

It doesn't need to be chippy.

If you don't like what someone is saying, ignore it or block them.

Questions ~ think I read blazed had something like 1350 acc with a liberator while doing SR. How would caladbolg do in a similar buff/gear situation? And how would it fair in general if acc wasn't an issue?

Just to regurgitate this job combination: I heard on another thread or page that using Tenebrae causes the attack bonus from Endark to not diminish over time. Was this true or just a rumor? Also, when using Endark as /run, which hit actually occurs, the Endark Additional dmg or the Rune effect? I would assume its the rune, since the hierarchy on ae's places Rune at the top (I think?). This means using Tenebrae actually gives you less additional dmg/swing than not using runes? Correct or no?

Correct, that is something I only do on the pull, never in the middle of a fight, which is why I wasn't doing absorb-mnd, only str. Once I start swinging I try to be only doing that. Minimize any other actions.


One of the main reasons relic weapons are so powerful on drk is from the acc it gives. Assuming you have the acc for caladbolg and are on AM3 like a lib would need to be, that great sword can, and probably will beat ragnarok. I believe the 119 v3 Empy weapons have a 50% triple dmg proc on AM3 AND works on multi-hit proc, that in itself is a mini-ws on non-crits and a scourge/cata on crits. That would literally beat dacnomania both on white dmg and ws dmg. Lastly you can't forget having +50 vit mod in a slot never before counted in torc sets would increase that spike dmg, especially when running sc.

The one downfall of Caladbolg is not having Scourge ws as a link during sc.

With that much +vit. And bonuses from other gear would that be better than resolution (assuming acc isn't an issue)?

You get a +100 acc on the first hit of all ws, in the case of single hit ws you get the +100 acc and not have to worry about the other hits in a ws. Losing that much acc could potentially pose problems for reso, assuming you don't have acc as a problem at all I still think reso might be ahead as a solo ws at 300%, I still currently get better numbers on torc at 100% though, so spamming ws with a blu or pld, sam, war, torc would be the faster kill option just due to the sc properties. Especially if the war is a rag war, being able to close torc off each other sc would be huge having more tp than doing it solo.

It's crazy how much activity there is in this DRK sub forum now, it's amazing. Thanks to everyone who continues to test DRK and our options.

With all the Ragnarok talk, I've reached an awkward crossroad. On one hand it would be sweet to afterglow Rag so I have the option of Mythic Scythe and Relic Great Sword available. On the other hand, I built Scythe because I've always preferred using it even when other DRKs told me it wasn't the best. I just love Scythe, and I built Liberator so I had the reason to use Scythe on my favourite job.

So I guess what I'm asking is, how can I make my Mythic more competitive? How can I even the gap between Liberator and Ragnarok in high buff situations? It's not always so easy to get the 3000 tp for aftermath, so I'm wondering how others would optimize Scythe if they didn't have the choice of weapons (or can just switch to BLU..). It feels like it's seriously close between Rag, Apoc and Lib depending on the situation, gear, and buffs. I can't afford a full +1 Argosy set, I'm barely getting Reisenjima gear at the moment, nevermind the abjurations.

Would love a Rag afterglow, but I need gil for equipment too. So I'm going to need to focus on Liberator and gear for it, unless I accept that I'm going to need to use Founders, Reforged, and the odd piece of Odyssean for a few months til I Afterglow Ragnarok. Decisions ... decisions ... I would prefer to optimize all I can for Liberator without feeling like I could be doing more with Rag. How would other DRKs get the best out of Liberator if they had no other choices available? It's not that I don't want to do as much damage as possible, I simply cannot afford to be afterglowing my Rag at this time.

Rune procs take precedent over everything else I've seen so far. This means you keep the Attack from Endark and the Accuracy for Enlight (PLDs).


No, it loses by a lot.

AM3 on Empys only looks good on paper, in practice it's weak due to what a TP/WS split is with a fully buffed melee. Not only would you suffer from the exact same 3000TP problem as Mythics, but you wouldn't even get the additional TP gain and thus never dig yourself out of the DPS hole you started in. Today it's common to have a 30/70 or greater split between melee and WS damage.


Again it's not even remotely close. Torc is better then Scythe WS's but it doesn't compete with Resolution. Primarily the problem is in the VIT mod which is a royal PITA to gear around. While VIT's not nearly as bad as MND or INT, it's no where near as good as STR or DEX. DRK and WAR gets an *** ton of STR on gear that also happens to have an *** ton of Attack, Accuracy, DEX, Double Attack and Store TP, all the essential ingredients to murder something. Trying to switch to VIT you end up having to drop accuracy, or attack and you quickly find yourself 150 or more acc less then your TP set.

The only way to do better then Resolution is to be severely, grossly, obscenely low on cRatio. I'm talking defender + attack down + monster has Cocoon and / or Harden Shell up type situations. DRK gets so much attack that you will never be in this situation on anything you would be using a DRK to begin with. Highest attack bonus in the game, highest Attack gifts in the game, highest attack gear in the game, Job Abilities that give it even more attack and a brand new Job Trait that just adds even more attack. Standing outside MH without Ionis, food, LR, EnDark or any other attack buff I have 1728 in Reso set. Just a mediocre Endark II + Last Resort gives me 2505. The moment you toss in Frailty + Dia II + Food, possibly Chaos or Fury and your capping on everything your able to melee on, heck your probably capping on T4 HELMs too.

Short Answer:

No your not going to discover some hidden magical power that lets you "do better" then Resolution.

I still love my liberator and is still my weapon of choice. The ws and the gain 3000tp first do hold it back as discussed in detail here, however fights like VD tenzen that allow you to get to 3000tp etc will go nuts due to the X hits.

I am in the process of making and editing a nice VD tenzen set up with DRK,BLU,GEO as its a nice easy way of obtaining the afterglow or simply selling the currency

My personal Favorites

1. Liberator = Longer fights, skillchains, crazy kracken club like speed, lots of fun
2. Ragnarok = High buff situations, zergs etc
3. Apoc = 9999 Hp souleaters, when everything goes 'Pete Tong' and you need to stay alive

Agree nice to see a lot of input here now

Petition SquareEnix to stop screwing around and fix Scythe Weapon Skills, tell them to fix Great Axe and Hand to Hand while their at it.

Insurgency, raise WSC to 50/50

Entropy, change to STR, DEX or VIT

Cross Reaper, have fTP transfer on hits

Quietus, raise fTP to 5.0 and have the def ignore effect changed to 30/50/70.

Those would make Scythe kick *** and be competitive with other Super Weapon Skills in the game.

Please,Please,Please stop posting, for the sake of humanity!

once nice thing I have been enjoying about apoc is that cata is so dang conistent. I almost always see high 9000's. I have very poor drk gear and n like 50 jp too, so it will only get better! My rag has not got 119 yet, im still on trials, but just seeing the near 4k ws dmg base im getting on scourge on a dmg83? weapon is really cool to say the least, to give an idea my catas when I was breaking trials was more like 3200, again poor ws gear atm.

I cant wait to get a MB setup that will net me 9999hp and go nuts with apoc, I think that alone will make me love apoc even more haha.

Ugh, I've been telling SE about Scythe since Resolution was introduced. It's been that long.

Whats wrong Lusty? Don't like Vize 2.0?

Kylos: Remember that AG'ing a weapon is technically free. If you can do a couple of Tenzens/puppet/Levi's a day you will be done sooner then you think. You have stated that you roll with a semi small group, so that would be perfect for you guys. Might have to switch jobs around...but if you aren't willing to do that, then well, you prob aren't serious about getting AG'd. (That goes for anyone)

Also, curious about the Reisen/abj gear issue. Without that step into Valorous/Emicho/Argosy/Carmine you aren't going to be "closing the gap" as you stated. Just keep practicing different strats and you will get the items eventually!

No I don't run with anyone who would do that all day everyday. When there's a campaign on I'll gladly spam it just to save Plutons and to sell Beitetsus and other things off, but I'm in no serious rush as I want to Job Master my job using Liberator first. Also I literally just geared SCH yesterday so there's that to skill up as well. A better job to fit into Reisen partys than my Corsair.

did you even read my post dude?

If you meant me, yes I did.

So I took Saeval's advice and posted something on the official forums. I'm not asking for a nerf to Reso, just a bonus to Scythe weaponskills, and I asked about H2H and Great Axe at the same time. Upvote if you agree please. Your text to link here...

Maybe reading comprehension isn't so great? When did I say run BCNM's all day everyday? If you are going to be lazy and only do ***during a campaign, then don't bother asking questions on how you can perform better. Your post kind of implied that you were worried about falling behind and wanted suggestions on how to up dmg and be relevant as a DD. Your excuse filled response to me proves otherwise.

Also: If you want a stepping stone into T1 Escha sky mobs, do Met. Can do with a few people and or all trusts. Melts to fire and drops Amalric(your SCH) and Argosy(your DRK) feet abj.

Well I literally finished my afterglow mythic last month, I was left with hardly any gil at that point (because I'm a player who prefers to farm the gil and buy Alex & Beitetsu's than spam Salvage/BCNMs). It took so long to make my Mythic from scratch that I got behind on Escha and Reisenjima content. I've been playing catch up ever since. So, while I could do Tenzens to complete another AG, I have other priorities at the moment. As far as performing, only the richest players are going to be able to afford the sets to pump Reso's numbers as high as stated in previous posts.

That's what I'm lacking the most, even if I was to afterglow my Rag (whether it happens in a week, or 2 months doesn't matter), I don't have the gear to back it up anyways. So I was asking other Lib DRKs how they would compensate for the lack of aftermath in situatuons that could really use it. And seen as I'm a blank slate and don't have other options (like Bloodlusty and others have multiple afterglows to play with), I was asking how they would focus on Lib if that was their only option.

It's not an excuse on my end. It's a matter of actual time. I have work, I have a kid, and I don't play FFXI all the time. I have other things to do, and after completing a Mythic and its Afterglow I'm not going to jump right into making a new afterglow because Saeval happened to pump out great numbers with Best in Slot gear I can't afford at the moment. When I find the time, I'll probably make the gil, do a bunch of Tenzens, and Ill afterglow Rag, but in the mean time I have a job to get to Master, I have more Reisenjima gear to get, and I have a Scholar job to get used too.

I leveled and geared SCH specifically so I didn't need to bring my COR and take up an extra slot in a party. It's not a matter of "laziness", it's just a lack of time and not wanting to do yet another round of Tenzens and farming gil so soon after finishing one.

7 Levi runs every time you cap merits is a pretty painless way to gather RME items over time. If you have someone on the backline that can burst thunder (GEO, RDM, etc), GS DRK making four step light with another DD should obliterate Levi in record time. (Grav WS)>Reso>(fusion WS)>Torcleaver/Scourge lets you use your best weaponskills while bursting thunder at every step. Couple hundred stones per character in... I dunno, 40-45 minutes? Maybe less. Not bad at all.

I'm well aware how it's done. Sorry but I'm not here for another one of these conversations. I've already had this conversation, and I did do Tenzen a bunch of times with one guy I know for my Mythic. But I spent most of my time solo farming gil, got to 100M and bought the rest I needed during a campaign. NO ONE does Leviathan on Cerberus, and if they do they keep it a secret. It's sad because apparently it's much quicker, and easier, but no one ever does it. And when I've asked if people would prefer to do it .. they're like, nah Tenzen is fine. Anyways, I'm not here to talk about how to farm an afterglow, I've been there and had that conversation several months ago and it doesn't need to be repeated.

My original statement still stands. You can do the above mentioned BCNM's at a rate of 3-4 a day (or even a couple times a week) and still be done in a decent amount of time. I am in the same boat as you time wise/busy life. It's just about being efficient and fast. If you can bang stuff out with a small group of friends it will go quickly.

If you are focusing on how to be more efficient with Lib, would look to Lusty. He posts reasonable and actually obtainable sets for the 99%. Either way you are going to have build 3k for AM. maximizing that with STP/MA 4hit builds is your best bet. It's also going to vary depending on what augments you produce on Valorous/Odyssean.

Well if you want groups for leviathan you could always move to Asura (what a fun conversation that always is)!

Theres no difference between Tenzen and Leviathan besides Tenzen being a longer run.