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

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Catastrophe

So essentially Sanguine spamming but for DRK?

Yeah, but Cata is generally stronger, unless you are RDM with Crocea. Cata also can skillchain and add +10% JA haste. Its also physical. General idea is the same tho, you keep full curing yourself, while doing pretty good damage.

3 step darkness (cata>reaper>cata) for good damage especially at R15 while keeping your drain 3ed HP topped off is very powerful. And the JA haste Simon mentioned is especially good for LR down.

Also a really neat gimmick.


Cata also ignores Shadows

I’ve been looking and I see a lot of references to a spreadsheet but have not found a link. Can someone share that?

I’ve gathered a lot of gear and want to try to figure out some sets with what I got.

FYI, in the patch notes just now:
The issue with the item Agwu’s Scythe wherein the attribute “Stalwart Soul”+30 was not functioning properly.

Yeah, I filed a bug report not long after this post. I'm content they at least took the report seriously and agreed they screwed something up... Will retest it again in a bit. Not really expecting much but I still want to know what the description means.

Agwu's Scythe Test 2.0 (Post Update).

Previous test results:

New Test Results:
- 9,999 HP with Sublime Sushi returned 599 HP (HP+40) with Blood Weapon up.
- 6% HP consumed for Souleater damage conversion of 30% HP.

Hello! I just recently came back to the game was hoping someone could advise me on whether or not I should keep or sell my Ratri Breastplate +1.

I purchased it in 2019 and quit playing shortly after. I have been looking at builds and as far I saw I don't think I have seen it used in any gear sets.

Is the Ignominy +3 better than the Ratri +1? Or does Ratri come out ahead for scythe weapon skills and swapping to Ignominy +3 for great sword?

I just feel like I wasted my gil on it and need to know if I try and make my gil back or actually use it. Thanks guys!

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to post my testing results with Crepuscular Scythe.

I did 4 tests (and sub tests) and repeated them to make sure my results were as correct as possible.

Test 1:
Establish Dread Spikes baseline of 60% of Max HP with 1,200 JP Gift.

Test 2:
Heathen Cuirass +1 (which happens to ignore 1,200 JP gift of 60%) for current cap of 77.5%.

Test 3:
3a) Crepuscular Scythe by itself. Does it break current cap of 77.5%?
3b) Equip Crep. Scythe, then put on another weapon (I chose Apoc.). Does the buff stay on?

Test 4:
4a) Crep. Scythe & Heathen Cuirass together. Do they stack?
4b) What is the new Dread Spikes cap?

Target was Apex Pugil for little to no Magic Evasion and Magic Defense Bonus. I had two HP values based mainly on if Heathen Cuirass was on or not. Non-Heathen = 2,384 (NH). Heathen = 2,283 (H).

Test 1: 60% Baseline with JP Gift. Yes.
Test 2: 77.5% Cap with Heathen on, which ignores 60% JP bonus. Yes.
Test 3a: Does Crep. Scythe break current cap of 77.5%? Yes. Cap with Crep. Scythe alone = 84.9%.
Test 3b: Does Crep. Scythe boost remain after de-equipping. Yes.
Test 4a: Do Crep. Scythe & Heathen Cuirass stack? Yes!
Test 4b: What is the new Dread Spikes cap? 102.4%!


Things I'm not sure how to solve for because I'm bad at math:
How does the "Absorption +50%" factor into the current formula?
How does it interact with native 50%/60% caps?
How does it interact with Heathen's "Potency +35%"?

Thats the only thing left we gotta get tested really is the potency and how it works with it. These items stacking while both not equipped which will need testing a select mobs because of magic resist and what not. Dread spikes as we all know is still is all over the place when it comes to how much is taken.

Thank you for this and the the Agwu Scythe testing.

Perhaps obvious question but want to be sure: Was the Crepescular Scythe equipped only for Dread Spikes midcast, or was it equipped throughout the duration of the status effect?

HP * 0.5 * (1 + Heathen Bonus + Crepuscular Bonus) + JP Bonus.

HP * 0.5 * (1 + 0.35 + 0.5) + 0.1 = HP * 1.025

You're welcome! Equipped before spell, and casted manually without swapping out.


Thanks Geriond! /bow

Crepuscular Scythe Testing continues. PT. 2

So by request, I tested Dread Spikes in a more "realistic" scenario where a particular mob would have resistance and the player wouldn't get the full benefit of HP absorption on spike.

I headed out to Woh Gates Apex Toads camp and ran the same 4 tests again. Apex Toads had a consistent -25% resistance to Dread Spikes.

I went DRK/WAR in order to tank my defense and get bigger numbers quicker. Two sets of HP were as follows: Non-Heathen = 2,497 (NH). Heathen = 2,396 (H). Preliminary results showed a margin of error of 2 HP after each test. lol.

Test 1) (NH)
Estimated Result: 1,123 HP absorbed. Actual Result: 1,121.

Test 2) (H)
Estimated Result: 1,392 HP absorbed. Actual Result: 1,390.

Test 3) (NH)
Estimated Result: 1,589 HP absorbed. Actual Result: 1,587.

Test 4) (H)
Estimated Result: 1,840 HP absorbed. Actual Result: 1,838.


So hopefully, the next (and last) test will be a theoretical build regarding 9,999 HP and 10K+ with HP% food to see if Dread Spikes can break the HP Cap. Cheers! '-')/


P.S. The Vanilla Enchantment icon for the Non-Elemental Damage window is the same as the Fisherman's Feast. XD

Crepuscular Scythe Testing continues. PT. 3

OK! Third and hopefully last test! Does Crepuscular Scythe + Heathen Cuirass break the HP Cap?

I headed out to Woh Gates Apex Toads/Pugil camp again.

So step by step:

1. Summoned Monberaux (Healing and to avoid AoE), Koru-Moru (Healing & Haste II), Ulmia (Double Marches).

2. Pre-buffed Dark Seal+Nethervoid, engaged an Apex Pugil, waited for trust buffs, skillchained Darkness (Entropy ~> Cross reaper), and magic bursted Drain III for 7,964 damage (overcapped for 9,999 HP in current TP set at 2,385 HP).

3. Pre-buffed Last Resort+Berserk for minimal Defense. Equipped my Dread Spikes set w/ Crepuscular Scythe (see below) and manually casted Dread Spikes. (Looking at my equipment menu in town, swapping from my TP set to Dread Spikes set puts me at 2,385/4,598 HP)
ItemSet 380894

4. Pre-buffed Scarlet Delirium and swapped to my Scarlet Delirium Set with Apocalypse (see below). (Swapping to this set in town puts me at 2,385/3,958 HP) Defense after Berserk and Last Resort (Last Resort Effect merited 5/5) = 463
ItemSet 380895

5. Pulled 3 Apex Pugils individually with Stun, Poison, and Water I respectively.

6. Watched the log and carefully added up the numbers. Please note:
If a mob does a Multi-Attack, the log won't show a Dread Spike absorption for the Mult-Attack hit. But it will STILL count towards the Dread Spikes HP Cap.


TL/DR: With 9,999 HP, Crep. Scythe and Heathen Cuirass, Dread Spikes absorbed 10,247 HP.

Thank you for test!

You Scarlet Delirium set doesn't make sense tho. The bonus to damage is based on % HP you get damage for. If you double up your max HP you will need to lose twice more HP for the same effect.

Uh... I think you misunderstood the purpose of me putting on my Scarlet Delirium Set. It's 5/5 Ratri and other Physical/Damage Taken + gear. The point of using that set was to take as much damage as possible before the timer on Dread Spikes wore off.

Nah I complete understand the purpose of this set in this test. I had no problem with your test at all. I simply hinted you that Scarlet Delirium set you (I assume) also use for Scarlet Delirium, since it's called that, doesn't make sense.

Yeah, putting on Ratri for Scarlet Delirium will often reduce the bonus you get as compared to getting hit in your normal set.

example on the head slot, 400+ HP lets say added onto a rough high end of 2800 HP, Now keep in mind i'm using rough numbers for the example. That is roughly a 13% increase in Max HP while only increasing the damage taken by 7%.

Now to show these numbers using an example of 1000 damage hit or 1070 for the 7% increased damage

((1000/2800)*100)/2 = 17.8% increase in damage
((1070/3200)*100)/2 = 15.7% increase in damage

And since Scarlet Delirium is based off Max HP as Simon explained it doesn't work out better. in fact this was a decrease by 2%.

Now if you had 6K+ HP from a great Drain III proc then it's only a 6.6 or lower % increase in max HP and you would have a case for using the set but even then it's barely any better than just using normal Ilvl gear without any DT on it at all.

So you're generally better off using just 0DT gear unless you want to calculate the HP you need to be at for each piece to actually benefit you and then make a rule in the LUA to check your HP as well as the buff being active in a custom melee and idle set to equip the set appropriately

Use this set if you have big enough balls :D

ItemSet 380900

I have two Scarlet Delirum sets myself; one is a simple "take off your visible armor", and one is a much more dangerous "put on DT+ gear". The first one gets a decent amount of use, but the second one is very dangerous and an unlucky double attack can often just kill you, so I get use out of it much more rarely.

I'm pretty exhausted so I'll keep it brief.

I have two Scarlet sets, much like Geriond mentioned. The set I posted is a high HP set when I'm near or @ 10K so the HP boost doesn't matter much.

I also used to use the Plastron set for years, well before the Ratri set was released and more often than not it got me killed in iLVL content.

Circling back around, Crepuscular Scythe is gonna be a great utility weapon for sure when it becomes more available for others to attain.

At 6k+ HP, a full on non-ilvl DT+ set is probably going to be the only thing that gets a decent SD in nearly all situations.

Hey, does the convert HP to MP gear actually work for the Scarlet Delirium calculations? Back in the Parade Gorget/Sorc ring days, they messed with a lot of HP percentage calculations. HP+/HP- gear would work, but anything that "converted HP" worked differently.

If you lowered your HP through the convert gear, you'd still get 100% if you did a <hpp> call, but the game would treat your unconverted base HP + the flat values on equipment as your actual base for some of formulas involving HPP.

I believe certain buffs like Diabolic Eye also had this interaction.

Side note, might be able to get slightly more suicidal during the Drain 3 SD set, with one of Rancorous mantle/ring, Eluder's satchet, and AV's Minerva Ring

Edit: Though, you'd have to get hit for 1250+ for Eluder's to start outperforming Tiphia. Lol

It's a good question and the test would be really easy, so maybe I will do it later.