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

So I am looking at this new gear in the eyes of a gs dek using torcleaver. I know I know, hold the boo please. However the new gear can stack lots and I mean lots of ws dmg %

This gets me thinking is there a a cap on ws dmg? If not I think it might be possible to see more than +80% ws dmg in torcleaver set, even at a cap of 50% I can still see a half decent drk hitting 30k+ ws spams.

Another thing I was thinking was I am not sure of you can carry more than one set of this new gear, meaning you can possibly cap double attack with the new gear, and have plenty of acc as well as sTP in tp build one one set, then on your second set massive ws mods for single hit ws.

Not sure, maybe someone can give the his a closer eye for me.

gear cant be augmented

Oh ok, thank you for that info.

The augment you go for on Ankou's Mantle really depends what weapon you use more: Ragnarok or Apocalypse. STR+20 and Acc/Att+20 are no brainers, well... perhaps DEX+20 for more accuracy I suppose, but the third slot can go a few ways.

If you use a Ragnarok then Double Attack+10% or Critical Hit Rate+10% will be the way to go but if you use an Apocalypse I think Weapon Skill Damage+10% will be the way to go purely because of how much that attribute affects Cross Reaper, Catastrophe, Quietus and to a less extent Insurgency. If it turns out we can get a 2nd cape next month then getting two is a sure thing. At this stage however it depends on your weapon of choice.

Oh yeah, the Sulevia's set is pretty savage for Torcleaver given how much VIT there is on each piece. Near-perfect augments on some Reisenjima pieces will still probably win but it's a sure option. Odyssean Gauntlets with VIT, Acc/Att and Weapon Skill Damage will beat the Sulevia Gauntlets +1 without a doubt.

Here are two sets I can think of for a DD/DT build.
ItemSet 342958
Capped on gear haste and Damage Taken -% while packing a lot of accuracy. Solid option but I think the second build might be better if you can get your hands on the mail. Alber Strap is needed to push the set to the Damage Taken -% cap.

ItemSet 342959
I think this one is superior but requires the Tartarus Platemail to pull it off. The set has +318 accuracy, Apoc included.

good hybrid set for dps/dt. However if this is SE's attempt at getting more 2h melee on the front lines and involved in end-game/current content its a long ways away from being enough.

Can the new Ares gear at least be augmented?
Maybe some STP and QA/TA + Crit hit % augments will make it beat current dark matter augmented valarous/odyssean gear for tp and argosy+1 5/5 for ws's such as resolution

The equipment cannot be augmented, only the JSE capes.

So I've recently came back after a long break and looking to upgrade a few things... my Apoc is only at 119, I very much doubt I'll bother upgrading it, so I'm looking for a few easy to get/cheap weapon choices. I doubt the 119 base apoc is a viable option so I did get an NQ Triska Scythe when I was back last time should I upgrade that or should I splash some cash on a Cronus?

The i119 III Apoc is the second best DPS scythe in the game, and DRK's 3rd best DPS option after Rag and Lib. It is barely behind liberator and offers a lot of utility. There are situations where Apoc is also the 2nd best DPS option from GS and Scythe.

Upgrade it, and look up the changes to aftermath haste. This is the 2nd best Apoc manifestation in the history of XI.(the 75 pre-aftermath nerf version being the only one that was better)

It's more of a case of I just don't have the time nor money to upgrade it quickly as most of my time is taken up by XIV. I'd need something, mainly a scythe because **** GS, to see me over till I can upgrade it. Already seen the changes to Apoc i119 III and I'm pretty impressed but like I said in my original post it's base 119 version is probably lacking behind a lot of other Scythes thus I want a cheap/easy to get upgrade.

No point gearing up drk if I don't have a decent weapon to use. Though saying that I won't be doing anything high level so base 119 apoc might still be fine.

Very true, although you should be using a +5% WSD niht mantle for 1 hit WS, so the new capes will only be offering another 5. Worth considering if you are picking one choice, as the tp dmg/gain from DA+10 may well outperform this.

I thought you could get enough items for 2 fully augmented capes each month?

You can only get 1 cape per job each month though.

Chances are pretty good you won't be able to get capes next month. Probably going to be some other slot.

I'd bet against you on that. Maybe if we could get more than one cape per job per month, but not under the current system.

I agree. However, they could continually rotate the back piece with the associated gear, then repeat after all have been cycled through the first time around. I.e. we could have to wait until possibly later in the summer, July or August, for the cape and associated Sulevia gear to return to Ambuscade. I see it as a "flavor of the month" type thing, similar to what they do with the monthly campaigns. But again, this is all speculation at this point

Considering we know that JSE neck, waist and ear are all a thing, do you really think that only the Total Hallmark items are going to change each month? And I would wager that SE DOES NOT WANT you to have a cape for every occasion. It's an incredibly powerful piece, and you have to consider carefully how you want to use it. I imagine we won't have another chance to get a cape for a while. Probably a few months.

Yep. I'd even go so far as to guess that's one reason they're based on total hallmarks. ***'s not going to come back for a while, why not grab a set even if you don't really need it? Won't cost you anything, you'd do those runs for capes and sellables anyway.

It'll take 6 months to a year to get that many capes for any given job anyway, more if you're spreading augments across 3+ jobs. That's long enough, if they want to add other JSE accessories they can put them in a different event.

I compared cape options using the DPS spreadsheets. I have DA+10 (str/acc/att+20) beating WSD+10 even when using a scythe, albeit very close (~1% dps increase on average across a range of ilvl targets). The comparison was done using a 4 hit apoc build. Tp set used bleating mantle when testing WSD+10 cape in ws set and the DA+10 version was used in both tp and ws sets as a comparison (niht mantle with +5% WSD was near identical to the DA+10 cape in ws sets for cata, quietus and CR). The gap is wider for Rag in favor of DA+10 as expected. I couldn't get crit+10 to beat DA+10 in any situation i tested

what does the rest of your cata set look like though?

I'm also interested in knowing how haste +10% on the back looks like, freeing up other slots for TA/QA or what STP+10 allows for, for example dropping bloodstrain in favor of duplis etc.

With the new Ambuscade gear, I think the new best 50% PDT + ACC mixed set is something like:

(Weapon of Choice)/Tzacab/-/Seething Bomblet +1
Sulevia +1/Homeric/Telos/Dignitary's
Tartarus/Sulevia +1/Defending/Gelatinous +1
Ankou (DEX/ACC/ATK/DA or STP)/Tempus Fugit/Sulevia +1/Sulevia +1

This set puts you at 50% PDT and MDT with Shell V, >1100 defense with Protect V, +175 VIT, 50% PDT and MDT with Shell V, +245 ACC, and +105 DEX.

If you don't want to dedicate your Ankou's Mantle to DEX, you can use a differently augmented Ankou's (as long as it still has 20ATK/ACC on it), Agema Cape, or Grounded Mantle +1.

Bloodrain strap instead of Tzacab Grip, Zennaroi Earring instead of Dignitary's Earring, Loricate Torque +1 instead of Homeric Gorget, Sulevia Platemail +1 instead of Tartarus Platemail (though you'd need either Grounded Mantle +1, HQ Tempus Fugit, or Ionis to hit 25% Haste, and you'd need to use Genmei Earring or Agema Cape to hit 50% PDT) and a 6% PDT augmented Dark Ring or Vocaine Ring instead of Gelatinous Ring +1 are also alternatives.

I cant see haste on back being worth it. In reality what you free up is the waist slot. Although this is the only other slot (outside dark matter augs) which can offer 10 MS like the DA+10 cape (windbuffet+1), you will have no additional stats besides 2 acc. Store tp is useful if you don't want to aug reisen gear really.. as its possible to get 8 store tp augs you can reach a 4 hit scythe or 5 hit rag without sacrificing valuable multistrikes slots such as waist/neck/ears. The new ares119+1 mask comes with 8 store tp, emichio/+1 hands have 6/7 then you should aug ody body, legs and valor feet to take advantage of the base 5 before augs.

The questing that is nagging at me is, "does this set have some sort of set bonus". We have been given set bonus on HQ abj. gear, and the old Ares/Ares+1 both had a "set bonus"....... Does this HQ or NQ have one? anyone seen anything on DA/TA/ACC/ATT/-dt with this stuff on in a set vs only 1 piece?

It doesn't when gear has a set bonus in the majority if not all. The item description says some kind of set bonus.

What do we think about Torcleaver sets in this day and age?

This is what I'm aiming for.
ItemSet 343127
WSD on the Odyssean Helm, Odyssean Gauntlets and Valorous Hose.

You will have acc issues on any high end content without relic 119 (III)
I am personally on a new account and run a macbain near perfect aug and have issues hitting anything over 124 content, again new account still missing lots of gear. However when my Torcleaver hits, it really hits, and hard.



I didn't last long after that zerg. Granted this was only on D and not VD, I was hitting for the 15k-18k range on VD when I was able to get enough acc to TC

What is this? Screenshots for ants?!?!

There is this new feature on computers now days that lets you zoom in and see things closer. Check it out some day.

I have perfect Torcleaver set on my DRK and use it with RAG.. Honestly its only ever used for skillchaining. Reso destroys it.

share your sets please! don't just tease us XD

I'm working on a 5-hit /SAM build for Ragnarok but with enough extra store tp to account for when you use Torcleaver/Scourge/Ground Strike and i'd like to know peoples opionion, maybe there is a better way I can achieve this.

ItemSet 343148

If 5+ store tp on head/body/legs/feet you should get 210+ tp per hit
Windbuffet +1 with capped magic haste and last resort
This should be around 1100 acc if augments are decent

ItemSet 343149

This should return 160 tp maybe a little less

Just picked up an Anguta, and as expected, it's pretty lackluster outside of as a toy.

HOWEVER, it does have one niche use; it's quite good if you're in a situation where you are the only DD (so you can self-skillchain freely), AND you're fighting a mob that doesn't resist darkness skillchains. In that situation, you can do Insurgency > Entropy > Cross Reaper > Entropy for Gravitation > Darkness > Umbra. On a mob not resistant to darkness skillchains, the final Umbra does around four times the damage of the final Entropy.

It's not much of a use, but it's something.