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

I'm in a group for Lilith atm, and I don't know nearly as much about magical WS calculation as physical, so testing isnt my strong suit.
I have some non ilvl scythes I can test with, what controls should I put in place and what am I looking for?

just one ws at 1K, 2K, and 3K and otherwise naked. i also need to look up the MAB gifts drk gets

edit: which is apparently none.

I've got a Dacnomania I can use for that, theres the standard WSD+8% from gifts I think, may wear Hachirin no obi to control day/weather proc if applicable.

Also I'll test Dark harvest with the same setup, I dont think its been retested either and had similar changes.

or just do it naked and not on light/dark day. just go outside starting nation and one ws at each anchor point is all we need

Sorry it took me a bit, but here is the preliminary:
Shadow of Death

Notes, this was on Lightsday with Hachirin no obi equipped, so all samples have 10% penalty which is NOT accounted for in the numbers.
Weapon was Dacnomania, naked except for the aforementioned obi.
106 STR
101 INT
8% WSD From Drk gifts
Shadow of Death is 40% STR / 40% INT according to The June WS Update
I hope this gives you something to extrapolate fTP values from. I think Dark Harvest, the great sword ice WS, and the polearm thunder WS are similarly untested even 5 years later.

Also yeah, I know its lightsday testing, but its late and if I wait its going to be darksday which will just skew things the other way.
Good enough.

/Edit
Almost forgot to throw Infernal Scythe in as a point of comparison
All Infernal Samples did 1030 damage under the exact same conditions.

/Edit2
Went ahead and did a little more under Darksday. 373, 1437, and 2926 damage at 1k 2k 3k for Shadow of Death, 1259 Infernal Scythe.

Put together without weather, it comes to 339, 1306, 2660 at 1k 2k 3k for Shadow, and 1144 for Infernal.

looks like 1, ~4.175, ~8.6125

Thanks for that.
I know Freezebite and Herculean Slash have a similar relationship for Great Sword as well. Functionally they are worse in Dyna than their scythe counterparts, their fTP values may be fine, but the 33% Dark affinity available in gear and 25% weather bonus available in Dyna are huge. And then you get into Liberator and Anguta.

Long story short, Shadow of Death in Dynamis San d'Oria vs blue eyes statues is pretty cool.

But would there be a trade-off in overall attack power? I generally don't use the Escha nor Reisenjima gear anymore on DRK in particular (except MAB gear for elemental spells). They lack in STR, Acc, and Attk. My current STP, DA, and balanced sets also lack in Acc, STR, and Attk power when compared to the full Fallen's +3 set, but that's where I start playing with trade-offs. Less power and acc, but more TP gain and subsequent WSs.

What's the BIS Gear we can equip with Regen in each slot?

I believe it would be:

Head: Volte Salade/Twilight Helm (2)
Body: Sacro (13)
Hands: Volte Moufles (2)
Legs: Volte Brayettes (3)
Feet: Volte Sollerets (2)
Neck: Bathy Choker +1 (3)
Rings: Chirich Ring +1 (2 each)
Earrings: Infused Earring (1), Dawn Earring (1, daytime only)
Waist: Lycopodium Sash (3, daytime only)
Back: Scuta Cape (2, but lowers movement speed)
Ammo: None

thats the question and the fun thing about XI is all the different gear combos to min/max for certain things. Having more multi-attack gear is good but if you can't hit the monster cuz you lack acc then its not the best...

check these sets out and go from there
good thing about scythe is that its pretty flexible to build around ~ you shouldn't really have acc issues if you're using apoc tho >_>;;

Every job can get 5 in the back slot, utilizing resin for your JSE cape. Also, Mengado +1 gives 3 regen if you care to use the ranged slot. Daytime only

There’s also a grip, Mensch strap +1 and Brutality that has +3 Regen each, but now we’re getting into tp Loss swaps. But you said BIS so...

What can you replace instead of Volte? That’s currently a hard one for me.

Yorium set can get regen+2/piece if you want to go that route

Should make ambu cape with 5 regen

Baghere salade also has 2 regen.

I'm just returning to playing DRK from a huge break from the job and I'm wondering about Endark, Endark II, and how the new dark skill earring plays into it/if at all.

Last night's Dyna-D I was being a bit less conservative with my ws's and ended up dying quite a bit more than usual (R15 Calad pulls hate quite a bit).

I was TPing in my Hybrid (50pdt/mdt and decent hp), but I would always end up dying during the ws phase with my ws gear on.

Unfortunately T3 Hydra's seem to ws you literally the second you ws them, before gearswap can even swap you back into your Hybrid set.

So I'm thinking of making a Torcleaver set with a little more PDT/MDT and HP for Dyna-D T3's to avoid this issue. My current set has:

PDT: 16% - 10% from cape, 2% from Odyssean Helm, 4% from Sulevia's Feet +2

MDT: 6% - 2% from Odyssean Gloves, 4% from Sulevia's Feet +2.


I'm using this set:

ItemSet 349370 (With a Regal Ring instead of Epinadoma's)

Any suggestions?

Personally I'd add D.ring, Hjarrandi Helm and Flume Belt +1. Would bump your PDT up to 38%. If you want more, Sulevia Gauntlets +2 would be nice as well to reach a total of 43% PDT/Capped MDT (assuming Shell). I feel anything beyond that wouldn't be worth sacrificing.

Why not just keep high hp with drain 3?

All my WS capes are DT -5. PDT is predictable, so losing 5 PDT in favor of MDT has been a good trade off.

You probably wanna fix that?

edit: wrong person :|

That’s not my gearswap

(corrected it)

Doesn't it itch, though?

It’s a good idea, one that is making me try to build a partial ratri set, but have you also considered play style changes or DD partners? If you’re dropping a torc right at 100%, you’ll push it right down to low hp and it’ll SP and/or ws you. Wait for the tank to grab more hate, or for an SC setup so you can drop it with a 1 (more) shot.

Slower is faster in this case because you’re not losing out on your dps from being dead/weak.

This should be the easiest "fix". DRKs major benefit on all waves is being able to sit at 4-6K HP, and with BRD swaps, I highly doubt you should have any legitimate death issues. Can also just not hit the WS button if you aren't sitting at high HP/in hybrid or DT set...

The vast majority of my wave three experience is on Corsair, some Ranger, some Red Mage. I've done some RP-earning runs on DRK, but those have been farming wave1/wave2 runs rather than either wave3 farming or a ftw run (we've got MUCH better DRKs and heavy DDs than me for those runs hehe).

As such- how much resistance to Drain3 do the volte mobs in wave 3 have? I know when I've attended as COR for those runs, I swap from Leaden to either Wildfire or Savage Blade once in Wave 3 depending on buff/debuff setups, and both trounce Leaden. I'm able to get really solid Drain 3 returns on wave 1 and wave 2 of course, but didn't expect the results for wave 3 to be anywhere near as viable compared to combining "acceptable" drain3 numbers with a hybrid set.

On wave 3 you should mainly drain3 pets. On Volte you will be probably at least 50% resisted, unless you have some cool RUN who will Rayke mobs for you :P

PETS! Durr of course! You'd think I never had to aspir pets on RDM due to crappy dark magic skill! :) ^^

I did run with you guys on White Mage a week or two ago, and here is what I recommend.

First, go over your Drain3 sets with a fine toothed comb. Keeping HP over 5K isn't realistic in wave3 before boss, but you can maintain 4k. Learn what to aim for in Drain targets. Pets are often the best targets in wave3, provided your sleepers are expecting it. I think automatons are less good than others. Normal enemies are okay, NMs are the worst, but often drain3ing an NM is the only option.

Second, we aren't Warrior/Dragoon/Samurai, we do not have to fulltime Hasso to keep up damage output. When Last Resort is active, Seigan and Third Eye should be kept up as top priority. Its okay to be in TP gear while Third Eye is up, but if Third Eye is down, assume the target is going to do its level best to oneshot you. Hybrid gear at a minimum, if not full DT.

On the topic of DT sets, I realize I'm a bit unusual in this regard, but I build my full DT set around regal captain's gloves. I realize they are an Ou drop and therefore not that common, but they are a less-desired piece that should be easier to come by. The nice thing about these is that they ensure a minimum TP income for when you have to drop accuracy out of your build, such as when you have to go full turtle.

Anyway, Seigan/Third eye + Drain3 HP is my primary lifeline in wave3, as generally when I take hate I'm good to stay alive until someone else grabs hate. Sure, I'll take a magical WS through Third Eye every once in a while, but they generally aren't too bad.

Third: If the other DDs aren't able to bounce hate safely, Third Eye will not be enough on its own. If this is the case, just assume you are main tank and play accordingly. Drop Caladbolg for Apocalypse, and use AM to ensure you don't need hasso at all, and just fulltime Seigan.

With all of that you should be much safer in wave3, and staying alive is the key to winning the parse. Sure, things can still go wrong and you will die every once in a while, but its dangerous content and that goes for anyone. All things considered, Dark Knight can be one of the tankiest DDs in wave3, provided you give yourself a margin of error for safety.