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

Gourney Legs(120 Hp), Feet(78), Hands(82) actually give more mp with the hp augment (I'm a mithra so maybe the hp% is worth it for elvaan/galka) Also the egoist's tathlum gives 45 hp, and it's super cheap.

Usually i'm trying to recast dread spikes while already getting hit so I also integrate Flume Belt+1, twilight torque, and Ethereal Earring in my set.

Also the bale body would only be safe to cast in if you aren't getting hit and aren't subject to any incoming magic/aoe damage.

The major weakeness of harcore +hp stacking sets is that you place yourself in non iLevel gear in 3 or more major slots (body/legs/hands).
Consider that you are missing somewhere around 165~200 defense, 170-210 magic evasion and 9~15 mdb by not being in some mix of wayfarer/xaddi/cizin/gorney/fallen/igno in those 3 slots.

On a mithra Drk/Sam, Fallen's Flanchard +1 versus Ares Flanchard +1 depending on gear stacking is only +/- 10hp.

Fallen Legs +1 give you 77 more def, 8 Mdb, 64 magic evasion and a healthy chunk of statvomit.
Things like Ares's Flanchard +1 shouldn't be in a dread spikes set anymore.
Accessory slots are situational based on what you fight and whether you are trying to cast while being hit or not, but I feel much better keeping my head/body/hands/legs/feet pieces all iLevel gear.

Great discussion. I've always wondered about the potency of Dread Spikes and Endark and some of the other spells we cast.

I lean more toward the quick cast of Dread Spikes. Like, Sapphire I often cast them during combat, so I want them up ASAP and uninterrupted, so I'm back to swinging. With all the HP on iLevel gear I hadn't really considered a full blow HP+ set.

ItemSet 330209

I need to work on the Fast Cast aspects of the set but it does pretty well for now.

@Orestes
Yes, Nether Void + Drain II followed with a quick Dread Spikes is just fun. I use it often in Skirmish on the Slimes. They always net me over 3k total HP giving me a hefty Dread Spikes.

It's quite rare that I ever need to cast mid-fight. I don't solo on DRK very often, and if I do, I have trusts so it don't matter much. Only time I can think of using dread spikes in a fight would be if my party messed up on a delve boss (or some Incursion fights) and I had most of the hate. In that instance it could be difficult to get dreads up, so I would full-time -dt and keep swinging away to keep hate off my WHM. I would assume the -casting time on the head would be enough.

I still think Are's legs could be a viable option. You don't get many pieces of equipment with HP+% on them. The main question is, can I get it to add over 120 HP after I acquire all the HP gear I need? It might do, but I have yet to collect everything.

Edit: After getting more pieces, I was able to get 105 HP (with ionis) from are's legs, and with aeno mantle +1 I would get 109. Gorney+1 is clearly better, and it gives 125hp, not 120. Thanks for the tip.

Edit2: Updated the dread spikes set. I do not have the mantle yet, but with it I would have (Elvaan) 2794 HP (with ionis, no other buffs). This set would give 1746 HP Dread Spikes. I wouldn't mind casting in this during a fight. It doesn't have as much defense as my ilvl sets or -dt set, but it's much more defensive than the fodder/endark sets.

ItemSet 330182

Edit3:
I faintly remember this debate, which is probably why I was told to stop using INT in my sets.

Changed my Absorb set. It still needs Ombre Tathlum +1 and Onyx Feet. Onyx legs would be nice but I need to have someone craft me the feet first so that's not too important atm. Also not sure about INT for absorbs, so decided not to use Wayfarer Robe. 485 skill with this one. I have Magic accuracy skill +215 on Ragnarok, and +43 MACC from equipment atm.

ItemSet 330146

Edit4: Changed bale feet to ejekamal for the dark magic (endark) set, the Haste/Defense boost would be more useful for me.

I missed the i119 upgrades. Still don't understand what "Magic Accuracy skill" is and how it is different than "Magic accuracy".

Stolen from another thread.

"Magic Accuracy Skill appears to be an analogue for the effect that leveling up normally provided, namely, to reduce the level check penalty. All the iLevel gear is essentially designed around the concept of making players into, for instance, level 110 without actually allowing us to gain those extra 11 levels.

That said, it is functionally the same as Magic Accuracy. Weapon doesn't need to be drawn, it's just that weapons are the primary method of ascertaining player level. Offensive maneuvers tend to rely more or less exclusively on weapon iLevel whereas defensive considerations (e.g., what difficulty a mob will check as) seem to be drawn from the conglomeration of all equipped gear or, at least, all visibly equipped gear, which is the stuff that gets iLevel notation.

Also worth noting that the reason for Magic Accuracy Skill appearing on every iLevel weapon appears to be a fix for things like weapon procs and weaponskill added effect procs that would otherwise be resisted as a consequence of level correction. The efficacy of this fix is open to debate, particularly as regards Bravura and Metatron Torment. "

(posted same thing in thf thread)

Im hoping to return some time in the near future. Been out for just over a year, since last oct after father died.

ItemSet 306451

thats what i was running with on drk before i left. I was mainly doing other things, and was planning on getting around to trying to upgrade equip even then. So now, a year later, im sure it rly needs it.

I was looking for some stepping stones, so to speak, for my drk to get it back up to date some. Realizing i cant go straight for the top tier gear, but im looking for some step set to get there.

Anyone have any suggestions for me?

edit: did 'upgrade' weapon a while back to the Senbaak Nagan

Augmented Otomi Helm and Ejekamal Boots are a quick upgrade. Asperity Necklace if you don't have Ganesha's. If you can down Tojil you can get access to Yaotyl Helm and K'ayres Ring. Xaddi stuff for body/hands/legs/feet gives you some nice options as well, though upgrading each piece to rank 15 is a bit expensive (24 airlixir+2's). There are some different options for belt depending on what you can get; Cetl Belt or Windbuffet/+1 if you're capping haste in other slots.


Thanks for posting these sets, excellent work. I'm working on DRK on my alt, so seeing these lets me know some of the options that I should be going for.

Rush you're reforged. You can hold off on +1'ing the cizin for now if you have augments. Windbuffet belt is now hella cheap so its good to get one for tp. Asperity necklace should be easy to get now and is a notable upgrade. Aim for yaoyotl helm asap its awesome for tp and resolution.

Both the above posts are great advice for gear. Would recommend hopping into some of the new skirmish at the same time. It drops a GS called Macbain that you can get some pretty good augments on. Maybe try to hop in a lower level incursion and see if you get lucky with the GS drop in there as well. The incursion GS is beastly!

Nice to know my work is helping people. While i'm here, Happy Halloween to all the fellow souleating dark knights!

thanks for the suggestions. I just logged in to check. few random things to note. (note sure any of it matters)

In addition to the Kariehy Morion listed above, i also have the .

I already have an Asperity Necklace. Iir, at the time they were still doing 18man delve plasem farming. My drk was having a little bit of an issue with Acc. So i went for the Ziel Charm for Acc+ - I doubt ill be getting tojil any time soon tho.


I actually forgot at the time i was collecting all the skirmish armor, which i got (base pieces at least). I recall augmenting a few cizin pieces, but i sure dont see them anywhere; all 5 pieces have no augs.
I had also started collecting skirmish weapons just so i had something almost half decent (at the time) of each weapon. 12 different weapons so far (but ironically no GS). Almost half were +1. But i guess that rly doesnt matter since they are not for drk.

What about this for spikes?
ItemSet 320773

First of all, you seriously need the Fallen Head 119 for the recast, that was already established. Secondly, I like the extra HP on Upsurge, but you end up losing over 100 MP using those earrings together .. I don't know if I would want that. Thirdly, completely forgot about Bomb Queen Ring, and I can't be arsed to get one and use it for 5 extra HP. The feet are never on AH, and I can't imagine them being better than Gorney. Same for the belt, I can't imagine 3% being better than 55 HP but I could be wrong, I was able to get my Ares' legs over 100hp. Suppose it depends on where you are fighting, your race and other factors. Also the gorget has the same HP as dualism collar and does not have MP on it.

Also my set is more ilvl friendly, meaning you won't die as much casting it mid-fight compared to this one.

ItemSet 330182

Good to see some alternatives though. I still need that damn mantle at some point.

One thing I noticed was that I was able to reach well over 3.8k HP by using Drain II (w/ Dark Seal/Nether Void, and bringing in my spikes set) on rabbits in Kamihr Drifts. This would be the best time to add all the +% HP gear in, but you can't always guarantee a Drain II will be available with all of that. You could easily make multiple spikes sets depending on the situation, if you really wanted too and have the space.

I hate to break it to you, but "x magic casting time-" gear doesn't affect recast. It's not fastcast. It only reduces casting time.

Seeing as it is the only piece in the game that gives that stat, it's really beneficial for dread spikes, especially during a fight when you have the hate. I would prefer the -10% cast time then a few extra HP. Each to their own.

you know you can just precast in the -castingtime hat yes?

You could .. if you really wanted too. But who's going to go through all that just to get a few extra HP? I ain't too bothered about that and don't mind casting with the head on tbh, it's not a big deal. It's more of a mess around then anything else, at least from my point of view. Also it's the best ilvl piece in my set, switching that for something like Ganesha's would make me much more vulnerable in Adoulin areas.

It doesn't matter anywhere else, want to have a dread spikes set for fodder or inbetween fights only? Don't bother using the head at all, stack HP til you are mistaken for a MNK, and all is good with the world.

I wasn't saying don't precast it. It Does work for cast time. But This:
Was referring to Recast. Not cast time. Which casting time- isn't going to have any effect on.

So precast in Fallen helm, midcast in something else.

If you're focusing on recast, Cizin helm +1 is an option. 8% haste and +5% fastcast. And can also get PDT/MDT augments for the defensively concerned. But notably less HP. Or can go with a higher HP option. Presumably, there's something with more HP+ than fallen.

I hardly ever cast Dspikes but I also use Gearswap for most of my jobs(They all have FC sets in them already just tweaked to my liking) so I hardly worry about fastcast or fallen head as cuz im a lil fancy lol

Any1 have a good DRK GS?

i got a pretty one

can u share plz? xD

its rare/ex
:/ can't trade

I'm still working on my alt's dark knight gear, but I see Entropy consistently lagging behind Cross Reaper. Are there any situations where you'd use Entropy aside from needing MP? I have it 5/5 at the moment. Spreadsheet says that, even with ideal gear, Entropy is a bit behind.

possibly skillchain closer?

what is a precast?

the moment before you cast a spell?

There's also Quietus to unlock.
Pretty easy on a mule too with Logins and the cheapness of everything now.

For more damage and fancier double-Dark SCs. (Constant ƒTP 3.0 compared to Cross Reaper's 2.0~2.5 ƒTP.)

Methinks it was sarcasm.