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

Yes, you will get better M. acc on newer gear. I.E. leyline gloves, eschite legs, odyssean feet, carmine mask/body.
Unless you are running a toggle on your lua for drain without ds/nv then additional potency really isn't worth it because you sacrifice a very large amount of m. acc to use skirm gear for potency.

Sounds good, saves me millions then!

Damn, I just redid Alluvion Skirmish with the free Simulucrum pieces I got from WKR and reattained an Acro body. Was kind of hoping to get that extra 7% ontop of the 80+ I already use...

Wait a minute... DS/NV is the BEST time to use Acro body as those two abilities put together should almost guarantee you a max Accuracy/Max potency Drain. Why would you use a toggle to use it when both those abilities are down? You're sure to miss a ton of M.Acc when DS/NV is down...

I wrote it backwards. Aza knew what I meant because he is used to my typos.

Ok so with that being said here's what I currently use for my drain set
Head:open due to body (need pixie*1 but I have the worst luck)
Body:Lugra+1 (have Carmine as well)
Hands: fallen+1
Ring1: Evanescence
Ring2: excelcis (need archon)
Ear1: hirudinea
Ear2: abyssal
Ammo: ???
Back:Niht (24pot/8 dark skill)(have an int/macc/mdmg/fc one)
Legs: heathens>>fallen+1 (need eschite)
Waist: using the fotia-type obi(need austerity +1)
Neck:Aesir (need the escha sky one)
Feet: yorium (+10macc/7int/7drain pot augs)

Biggest question is what's a fairly decent ammo and what would I replace feet with? I honestly haven't seen any "better" feet

Pemphredo Tathlum is good for ammo slot. Also the ammo from the unity worm whose name I can't remember is a good holdover. As for feet slot, Odyssean greaves are excellent. I think I was using Heathen before that.

Don't use lugra, it takes away from the ability to use pixie hairpin +1.

yea dont have pixie +1 yet, im being a stubborn fool and trying to get it to drop rather then pay lol

odyssean feet ? can they get drain on them or am i looking for macc in it for drain/ what stats am i looking for, at the point now that i need to seriously start working on farming reis t1s (was gone 5 years came back in whenever it was ambu first started)

That's true for anything lvl125 or below.
On 125+, DS+NS Drain will get resisted if you don't have enough Macc.

OK, I agree on that point. (Although I think its more like 130 since some Apex mobs can go up to 132?) But given most fights 125+ take place in Escha/Reisen you can just Drain a NQ mob outside the pop area.

@Veder: As for Odyss. Greaves you are specifically looking for Magic Accuracy. It comes at the cost of potency (Unless we can possibly get it through Dark Matter Campaign... Hmmm) but it also means lower resists.

I mean outside of acro/yorium, DRK already can get >80% in potency gear. An unbursted NV/DS Drain 3 can already do 4000+ HP... Magic Bursted is only going to go higher really.

You can easily hit 4k+ with this below set using ds/nv non-burst

ItemSet 344217

This will give you on average nearly 6k hp before using diabolic eye.

If you burst with ds/nv you will cap hp.

Outside of using a couple skirmish "potency" pieces, you really don't need, almost nothing in game will one shot you standing with 5k hp, (I say almost because there are times you can be hit for more than 10k)
Grab much more than the pieces listed you are only costing yourself -invent on a job that takes quite a bit of invent already.

Ok, dumb question but do you need heathens on for the NV effect or can you swap it out after the JA to eschite? (playing without gearswap)

It is just activation, I have it in my lua to use eschite, just never updated set here. I will adjust that now. Thank you for pointing it out.

I been back like 9 days and i started upgrading my first ankou's mantle this week. I'm sure there is several that I need... Potentially at least two for tping phase, at least one for magic and multiple for different ws's. What types should I be aiming to get? I am also having trouble with deciding on the dye augments to use.

vit 30, acc/attk 20, ws dmg 10% (torc)
str 30, acc/attk 20, dbl attk 10% (reso, can be used for tp if you don't need the acc)
dex 20, acc30/atk20, dbl attk 10% (if you need acc for tp)
str 30, acc/attk 20, ws dmg 10% (scourge/cata)

Cross reaper can benefit from both the str +30 capes depending on tp, I believe it is DA at low TP and ws dmg at high tp.
Maybe make some int ws capes if you feel the need for scythe ws.

FC with m. acc and int for many spells.

Resolution / Multi-hit STR WS's. Also doubles as TP until you get a dedicated one.

STR +20, Acc / Atk +20 DA +10 then another Acc +10

One hit STR WS's

STR +20 Acc / Atk +20 WSD +10 then another STR +10

TP one really depends on your build, I favor Multi-Attack because I already got plenty of Store TP yet others swear by Store TP due to them always having Liberator AM3 up, even in the Mog House.

DEX +20 Acc / Atk +10 DA +10 then another Acc +10

Those are the basic ones.


Always do Accuracy with a Resolution cape, always. Biggeset issue I see is new players stacking one stat and losing massive amounts of accuracy, then whiffing hits and claiming their Torcs are stronger then their weak Resolutions. You want as much accuracy in your Resolution set as you have in your TP set, 1100 being the minimum without food / buffs / ect.

is Hirudinea Earring worth it for drain sets?

It's personal choice at that point if you can pull all that gear together. I'd say go with what you'd feel comfortable casting in. Also I don't wanna throw away my earring since I know I went 1/9 on the damn thing back in the day.

My set is basically the same save Austerity belt+1 due to server being stupid small and none up, and Carmine Scalemail because Duke Vepar hates me.

ItemSet 344870

Also: While it's no where near neccessary, a Misanthropy is a fun tool to have on you if you can get your hands on one. Anyone know if potency caps at 100% because I'm pretty sure Misan. puts you over 100% at that point.

Think I read somewhere where they (SE) stated there's no cap on potency but I havn't the foggiest where, might have even been wsdmg I'm thinking of

Just now gearing up DRK, would love some opinions on gear. I haven't done much Reisenjima stuff, so I don't have a lot of the Valorous or Odyssean pieces.

ItemSet 347805
Hands: Path B
Legs: Accuracy+21, Store TP+6
Back: STR+20 Accuracy/Attack+20 Double Attack+10
Not really sure what to use as a body here, I have Argosy and a capped Founder's Breastplate, and I have a few Acro bodies I could augment.

ItemSet 347804
Nothing special here, still no Carmine Scale Mail. I use the same set for Absorb-TP, just swap in Heathen's Gauntlets.

ItemSet 347806
Head, Hands, and Feet: Path A
Body: Path D
Back: STR+20 Accuracy/Attack+20 Double Attack+10
Working on HQ Ring (x2?), and been doing UNM for Seething Bomblet with no luck. Would Argosy Breeches be better?

ItemSet 347808
Legs: STR+10 WS Damage+4
Back: STR+20 VIT+10 Accuracy/Attack+20 WS Damage+10
I only had one set of Ambuscade Vouchers to use, so I missed out on Sulevia's head and feet.

Also currently working on Ragnarok, and I have a capped Brutality from SR, but would Cronus be a better option for Cross Reaper?

I am currently using the Lugra+1 body.

I could do flamming+1 body + Pixie but I am unsure if that would be better (cant get shinryu abj to drop).

Hello Cyrinn,
once you get enough Valorous/Odyssean pieces , use those for Torcleaver.

Without Ragnarok, if you are playing solo (with trusts) or doing light sc with a group,
Torcleaver is the best DRK GS Weaponskill, Resolution wont catch it even with HQ Argosy.edit: unless the mob is resistant to light sc :p

Edit: Once you get your Ragnarork, you will be able to 5step using Scourge as a linker:
Reso-> Torc -> Scourge -> Reso -> Torc
which is awesome for solo.

Then for party, it is Reso spam or Reso( after a fusion)/Torc( after a light) to skillchain.

If you have a Caladbold AG, just spam Torcleaver in most situations.

Even then Torcleaver is really bad compared to Resolution. Really depends what your doing and if someone else can do Fusion or not. Just to demonstrate how unbalanced the comparison is.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Resolution
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Torcleaver

Resolution: 85% STR 5-hit copies fTP so these are for each hit
@1000: 0.71875, 0.91875 (ele gorget + belt), 4.59375 Total
@1250: 0.91406, 1.11406 (ele gorget + belt + moonshade), 5.5703 Total
@2000: 1.5, 1.7 (gorget/belt), 8.5 total
@3000: 2.25, 2.45 (gorget/belt), 12.25 total

Procing any MA will add those hits at full fTP values instead of the typical +1.0. This is why MA is very important to Resolution but not nearly as important on other WS's. As Resolution is many hits, you will get plenty of TP without needing to specifically equip Store TP in your WS set. That is important because you can then equip more Multi-Attack in your TP set for both Bonus TP and extra melee damage. A note on TP, because of how linear Resolutions scaling is, over-TPing isn't a bad thing. It's still slightly better to fire off at 1000, but even if you get stuck at 1500~2000 your not going to be losing much DPS.

Torcleaver: 80% VIT 1-hit high fTP WS
@1000: 4.75 fTP
@1250: 5.4375
@2000: 7.5
@3000: 10

Procing MA only adds a regular +1.0 hit. Single hit WS means less TP return on WS if your focusing on damage. About the only benefit of Torcleavear over Resolution is Light property and Sneak Attack boosting it (if somehow that's a thing).

Reso has a -15% Attack penality which hurts it on RUN and PLD but DRK and WAR have obscene attack bonus's. DRK not only has the highest Attack Bonus JA, but it's got ~30% from Smite, another 35% from LR and however much you can get from Endark II. Attack on DRK is not a problem in the slightest.

As for Torcleaver's negatives, it's VIT based and single hit. VIT is an annoying stat to gear for, though not as bad as something stupid as AGI/INT/MND/CHR. The problem with VIT is that it doesn't give you any fSTR, Attack or Accuracy and your forced to use various specialized pieces to really get the most out of it. As a single hit WS it's subject to Fudo-Syndrome where it just whiffs, meaning the same as a 0 damage WS. Also it means your going to get less TP return from it, meaning you need more Store TP in your gear or you need to sacrifice damage on the WS for more Store TP (I do this with my Scourge set for easier self SC's).

In short there is a reason the most powerful WS's in the game are multi-hit high fTP WS's based on STR or DEX. WS's like Torcleaver aren't in that list for a reason.

I just got AG rag few days ago and really haven't had a chance to use it much yet... but I am super disappointed in it's performance so far. Liberator DESTROYS it. Apocalypse is about the same, but with the added benefits of Catastrophe. My resolution numbers are not that awesome, but maybe I need to create a different WS set for it.

I assume Resolution WS sets focus on DA/TA and Str correct? Currently my WS set has lots of STR and WS+dmg. At work right now, or I would copy my sets down :-P

It's like you just started playing a DD job or are trolling people. Ohh wait I sense something ...


And...




Well guess we found our problem.

Resolution is about STR, Accuracy, Attack (not so much with DRK) and Multi-Attack.

Ideally your Resolution set will look like this

ItemSet 342760

Now that's some expensive stuff, so instead you can get a full set of NQ Argosy cause it's cheap and then augment it on path A. Eventually you might replace a piece or two with well augmented Valorous / Odyssean or HQ Argosy. The Flamma +1 feet look to be solid along with the Flamma +1 head. Both pieces are missing Attack compared to Argosy but DRK has so much that it shouldn't be a big deal on those two pieces. And yes +WSD is absolute trash on multi-hit WS's as it only effects the first hit.

You realize your reply could be informative and courteous had you omitted the first 8 lines of your reply...

I said I need to adjust my WS set and was asking what I should focus on. The last time I used Ragnarok was back in Void Watch days.

Sorry to badmouth your bandwagon weapon.

I'm sorry but you're in DRK forums here not WAR forums!

So what is true for rag WAR, isnt here.

So blabla STR mod, blabla ftp etc...
Torcleaver in some if not most situations, is better.

@Cyrin Your sets look OK. Keep working at them and you'll be busting out ludicrous numbers in no time. Although I would honestly suggest going Path A on Argosy Body. I can understand Path D but honestly you're still better off going Path A honestly.


*Talks a deep meditative breathe..*

Ganno already explained that Torcleaver pulls ahead in Low Buff and Solo with Trusts situations. Hell, I've said that on multiple occasions now.

Yes, we know, Resolution copies it's fTP to all hits and DA/TA/QA only helps it but Torcleaver is single hit and VERY consistent damage overall. (outside of wiffing it)

In High Buff and Party/Alliance situations Resolution overtakes Torcleaver by a good bit. In such a case, have at it! 25~35K Resolutions won't be so surprising in those situations.

I actually have the same argument all the time with a fellow DRK in one of my Social Linkshells. He keeps forgetting that he only ever pulls out DRK when his LS does Content Lv 140+ zergs so his numbers are always high. And I have to constant remind him it's the buffs talking, not him individually...

It's not hard content but it gives some numbers on a very accessible content:
I just went out and tested Ragnarok and Caladbolg on WKRs:

Rag269 Resolutions: 40~45k

Calad269 Torc: 35-42k + 30-50k (Light/Darkness)

Fury/Frailty was on with my Idris alt.

By the way, did a search earlier and yes someone did test for a possible cap on Drain potency. Here on ffxiah last year matter fact:
http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/47233/drainaspir-potency-cap/


Also, I ran outside and did a quick test on the mandies outside of Adoulin. With Misanthropy I'm over 9000 100% and saw... 4704. May do a few more later to check if that's max potency or the RNG screwing with me.