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

I can't speak for everyone but I'm sure there are other old Drk's who like reading about stuff like this. Some people just simply love the job and like to know what others are up too and for the love of god if your a Drk you know reso spam (as boring as it is) will be your top DPS choice anyone who even casually browses this thread is reminded every 3 post.

Is it so wrong for other Drk's to share what they have fun with in a *** video game as long as they are clear it's not your best DPS choice.

You refer to "people" don't care bla bla bla. What people are you referring to? It's a drk guide I would assume that means a guide pertaining to all things Dark Knight including things when your just with your friends or solo having fun with the job.

I cant' imagine a fly be night drk actually spending the gill/time to gear the job properly to where it would matter which weapon they chose and a seasoned drk or a new serous drk would have read enough to know which weapon is the best choice.

Sorry for long post but I used to enjoy reading thread. It's been full of well know and useless ***for the past month or so.

There was a 3 page argument a week or so ago just because someone asked if a Lib was worth making. Of course it's worth making you should strive to make all your weapons just make the rag first would have been the simplest answer.

First off I appreciate every ones useful input on this thread. I see Thorva and Saevel both trying to help everyone out on here. The biggest issue I think for many is that Saevel is pushing the idea of 100% DPS DRK Reso (No fun allowed) or don't bother playing idea too hard. He most likely doesn't even mean to come off that way but that is how he is coming across to many and Thorva is snapping at him for it.

Apoc was my first relic before they made it super easy by changing dyna many years ago. Then I got Rag when it became strong cause it was strong and I hated people complaining saying it was the ragnawagon. Idea was it was 1 of strongest weapons in the game so why not get it?

I all ways wanted Apoc from when I started playing like 11-12 years ago "It is a huge *** golden scythe I get to swing around how could you not want it" I use to tell many. This is a game this is not a job this is not our lives on the line here, all this is for fun. Yes most of us like to optimize our gear as best as we can to do more dmg and be more useful. As long as me going from GS to scythe and I am not going to be the sole reason for making my group fail a fight I will sometimes swap to Apoc and play with it. That is why I do not like the below quote.


Most know Rag Reso is 1 of the best for pure DPS if geared correctly (Acc being a big issue) but most fights do not require it to do well and still win. So DRK's are allowed to have fun with other weapons.

Mainly I would like all this petty arguments to stop both are trying to be helpful in their own way just try not to push one idea down other's throats so much because most understand it and might still need help with gear still. There is no need to bash each other cause you don't like what the other person said. A healthy debate is good to have snapping at each other isn't going to help so lets all continue helping each other for the job we all enjoy without getting overworked.

....... Because I'm BATMAN!!!!
#MicDropDealWithIt

So I was browsing the AH out of curiosity and came across Arasy Scythe. I had passed it over without looking at it at the time it was released, however, it provides an extra +7% to Drain and Aspir Potency. While the 50 JP requirement to use it might be a bit annoying for a new DRK, it's a cheap alternative until one can get a Misanthropy. 100K in Upper Jeuno Weapon Shop.

Well as I've said before I divide the game into "content where it matters" and "content where it doesn't". When giving advice, gear sets and comparing numbers I only care about the former. You can have lots of fun in cases of the later, as your not really at risk of wiping / losing and there is no hard time constraint, you really have freedom to do whatever and I often do. I have lots of "off spec" sets just for those situations. Thing is, those situations don't really matter in the grand scheme of things and when filing slots for a serious event, that's when ***matters the most. Many players don't seem to be capable of separating those situations and damn near every DRK I attempt to bring to a serious fight wants to use an Apoc or something. I ask them to use Resolution and their response almost always is "well my set isn't really that good / ect.". That is why I pound away at having a solid Resolution set, don't even need Rag. Most of the hate coming my way is from DRK's who want to use a Scythe in high end content and they don't like being told it's not that useful there. Once your at CL135 or higher it's really about making the target dead ASAP because they simply have too many dangerous TP moves that can screw everything up. It's the whole reason we started using SCH + BLM Magic Bursting to begin with.


Except they don't. Every other day is someone saying something like "My weapon X does so much more then Rag / Resolution". For much the reason you stated earlier, that they want to use a big shiny awesome looking Scythe without reguards to the math behind it. Right now Scythe is hurting because SE made some very stupid decisions about the Weapon Skills attached to it, it was over "balanced" in a way that prevents them from really being exploited math wise. The weapons themselves are really good but the WS's attached are wimpy and this becomes very obvious once someone starts blinging themselves out and trying to reach higher level of performance. "Player skill" or "play style" doesn't come into the equation, this is pure math on the server.

That all being said, if all someone is doing on DRK is soloing / dualboxing 125 content then it really doesn't matter what they do or how they do it.

To put it more simply, nobody gives a ***what job you play or weapon you want to use when you're playing with your friends, just don't whine when people expect you to use the stronger damage choice or try to tout about as your choice as the better one.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I'm here to help push the knowledge base and help point people in the right direction. Anyway I like to talk about utility sets and alternative gear options for those who are either new to the job or don't have access to certain content yet.

I can truly understand discussing the best gear and the best way to take down high end (135+) content, but... since that's not really my thing I try to stay above the fray and contribute where I can.

I don't want to see this thread shut down over petty arguments, so let's just keep it moving. (Preferably forward)

You have every right to play with any build you like on DRK.

But, if you're aiming to optimize your performance for a certain task, you'll want to consider making that your priority first. Even if it means you have to put your experimental build away, until you find yourself confident to make it be on par with an optimal one. (And believe me, I experimented a *lot* back in my newbie days.)

My issue here, is that it really seems Resolution seems to need a lot of hard to get gear to the point it beats Torc.

I've been back for 4 months and still have Torcleaver outperform Resolution even with capped acc/atk, which was kinda annoying because after listening to the advice on here and putting effort towards Res over Torc.

I think what it comes down to is that WSDMG% is easier to get that the super high STR/Da that seems to be needed for Res to outperform Torc which let's Torc out do Resolution.

I would love to see the math behind it like optimal gear and avg gear for Torc vs Res put into the WS formulas maybe i'll get a excel sheet out like the old days to work it out myself.

Then we could have good advice like use Torc till you have X STR and DA with capped acc/atk

124~136 basically ambuscade/escha sky/low tier reseijima stuff.

TP acc: 1146 (no buffs/food)
Reso acc: 1086 (no buffs/food)
argosy paths:
head - A
hands - A
legs - A
feet - A

Yeah it low accuracy for anything over CL130 by about 20~30. Belt and forget adds 20 so you just need a little more. Did you go STR 30 or ACC 30 with your cape?

Reso doesn't require hard to get gear. NQ Argosy is cheap and Valorous / Odysseus are fairly easy to get. You guys focusing too much on STR and not enough on accuracy. DRK got shafted on ACC gifts but had an overabundance of ATK.

I have capped Acc(ag Rag makes that easy), most of my Gear is amb+1 stuff with some SR stuff and even DRK/WAR w/Geo and COR on Amb zergs where i'd think resolution should parse higher, it doesn't sure the WS can spike higher but the avg is a fair amount lower then once I factor in Skillchain dmg makes me feel it's a strong WS.

I'm not saying your wrong just I can't get Resolution to perform like people are saying not even to the point where i'm not sure if one or the other is better.

That said, the way DRK is now is the best it's ever been for those that embrace multiple builds because while I'm sure Res DRK is high up there it not by a huge margin meaning when you can exploit things like increased survivability of Apoc or closing double light with Torcleaver it really sets the job apart from others.

went str on the cape. ~ are you saying i'm 20~30ish acc short with buffs then?

WS DMG only affects first hit of WS right? so say with 29% WS DMG if factor that into ftp
On WSDMG i have for res is gifts so 8%/5 = 1.6%

Resolution: 85% STR 5-hit copies fTP so these are for each hit
@1000: 0.71875, 0.91875 (ele gorget + belt), 4.59375-> 4.66
@1250: 0.91406, 1.11406 (ele gorget + belt + moonshade), 5.57->5.65

Torcleaver: 80% VIT 1-hit high fTP WS
@1000: 4.75 fTP->6.12
@1250: 5.4375->7.0

So before you start considering things like stats Torc start 18% stronger than Resoultion.

My stats for WS atm is 315 STR and 290 VIT
315 X 0.85 = 268 DMG + 304 DMG = 572 DMG X 5.65 = 3,230
290 X 0.8 = 232 + 304 = 536 X 7.0 = 3,752

Now to try and factor Multi attack in i'll consider Res is at 50%da and Torc at 30%da as rough numbers.

Res = +1.0ftp
Torc = +0.3ftp

@125 tp
5.65->6.65 Res
7.0->7.3 Torc

Res = 572 DMG X 6.65 = 3,803
Torc = 536 DMG X 7.3 = 3,912

Now, i know this is napkin math and it's likely Res would get more DMG from the fSTR and I'm pretty sure there is more STR u could squeeze out but i does show one thing it's very close and if acc ever becomes an issue Torc is the best.

I'm sure there is a certain point in gear where Resolution is better cause it can benefit for multiattack/STR more but I also think that for any up and coming DRK or back to the game DRK Torc > Res until you have access to good endgame gear.

Yes. You need to have about the same acc in WS as in TP with 1100 as the minimum.

The problems your going to run into with focusing on WSD/VIT is lack of accuracy and store TP during the WS. There is no Argosy equivalent for WSD/VIT so your stuck mixing various pieces and going for augments with stones. First hit gets +100 accuracy, it's not automatically capped. Fudo SAM's run into this problem a lot. Also STR is worth alot more then VIT, fSTR is +1DMG for every 4 STR over VIT. Assume the target has 200~250 VIT for comparisons. I've run into situations where I have 1185 acc in TP but WSD Torc set was around 1030 acc. I had to refigure my sets and I'm still trying to get better Odyssean with WSD/VIT. Resolution had 1180 accuracy in its optimal set.

Ultimately Resolution just scales much better then Torc. I've run this up and down because Torc isn't the only WS in this situation.

No one enjoys the reso/rag fan boy talk. It's been said over and over again that rag optimizes dps. Great. Anyone with a brain can look through a couple pages of the DRK guide and figure that out. If someone wants to continue bring up Rag when you're posting about some Liberator or Apoc sets, then ignore them.

The rest of us appreciate the Scythe talk and equipment sets that you contribute to this guide. Please don't let one person, who tries to argue about Rag at every opportunity, prevent you from posting. Just ignore it, as the rest of us do.

I enjoy it.

Enjoy the job, enjoy the game. If you wish to help please do, if you feel unappreciated then I can see why you would want to stop. In the end I'll be happy to derp around on drk for fun than try to impress anyone ( I never impress even a nub) with my loldrk-scyth over GS.
Thanks to all who post to actually try to offer advice gear and what not to improve players output and enjoyment and have a Happy Thanks Giving :-)

Alright, these heated discussions are clearly getting out of hand, and I would highly appreciate it if we cooled our jets here. It's starting to turn away people who are contributing to the best of their ability, and I'm currently in the process of updating the guide despite my RL schedule. If the noise keeps up, I'm going to have to put my foot down eventually.

Chill out. Be Civil. Please and thank you.

This PM was from me, despite Ive decided not to post on this forum I feel I have the responsibility to reply since you bring it in public with little context in entire discussion(just FYI, I believe it's against the rules to post PM in public but whatever).

I personally don't think it's wrong to discuss different builds that has lower dps as long as their usage are being brought up, or gear set information is provided. For example, SC situations, defensive playstyle situations, the point is to focus on the content of information instead of personal preferences, anti math, anti spreadsheet etc.

I think information like gear sets, comparison between pros and cons of different playstyle style, pros and cons of different weapons, when does each playstyle shines is great.

Opinions like "I hate math, I don't want to read ws formula in dps discussion, I hate spreadsheet, play what you want, whoever prefer to discuss numbers should shut up" which happens a lot on forums lately doesn't contribute anything in a discussion, it's off topic.

I see this happens a lot on forums recently, that's why I sent a PM trying to solve this in private. I still encourage you to post scythe sets or post situations favoring different playstyle.

Theres difference between saying "I think scythe isn't that bad because it can do X but GS can't" and "just let people play with scythe and let them have fun". The former is providing information, the latter is provoking drama.

I think you are out of touch with reality.

edit: nobody ever once said "I hate math, I don't want to read ws formula in dps discussion, I hate spreadsheet, play what you want, whoever prefer to discuss numbers should shut up." Only that they were tired of the same information and didn't want the same copy/paste every page.

There is a lot of good info that stems from the discussion I think the problem is that people are making assumptions.

Rag/Res is not the best setup for DRK in context for a "DRK Guide" this is proved to me by being back for 4 months and still not hitting good Res numbers. Then I get told i'm not stacking enough acc if i followed that advice i'd be putting more acc on when i'm well over cap already... bad advice.

When it really comes down to if you access to gear that stacks enough da/STR at capped acc then Resolution is better. Torcleaver will be the best WS for a lot of DRKs out there but are told Resolution is better (without explaining) so effectively there are people tell DPS how to do less dmg and how to play DRK badly.

I also have a Apoc and a lot of the content i've done Apocs utility has made it the best weapon infact Apoc has let me build CP parties that lack a tank and decent healing so even in endgame Scythe is not obsolete.

Basically, in context of DRK being pure dps for the highest content then yea Rag/Res with the best gear is the optimal setup and it's good advice.

But in context of a "DRK guide to FFXI" DRK lvl 1-99, CPing, Amb, Soloing content ect. saying that Res/Rag is the best setup is terrible advice.

It's also true to say making Apoc over Rag is a better choice if your a casual player like me or play with only a few people because while Rag is amazing dmg it rare you need that extra dmg if you doing things right but Apoc can be the difference between winning or losing if your limited of man power or just soloing content.

I'm sure there are those who actually take the time to read through the guide thread and even the Up To Date Gear sets guide (I know I do at least) for information.

I can at least say I get questions from people in-game asking for DRK gear/abilities/spells/augments advice. Many of whom already have at least one of the R.M.E.A. despite the fact I still haven't finished any of mine yet. (I think of it as a long-term layaway plan)

I know I'll still be here and if there's something I can help with I will. Cheers.

As if "let people use whatever they want" in 2 different thread isn't same information over and over. So can we move on then?

This is a MMO where you play with other people. DRK is a DPS job and therefore it's role in a group context is hitting stuff hard until it stops moving. Now you can do lots of stuff on the side, but that's by definition auxiliary content and not the focus of the job. Any player who takes this job seriously should be focusing on raw DPS in group content. Now there are all sorts of unique situations, which is why everyone needs multiple sets. When I CPed DRK I was /RUN using Scythe to open darkness. My 5K unbuffed WS's were nothing compared to the 80k nukes landing after. Then I've built my own melee SC parties and invited many DRKs who couldn't do jack ***for damage because they were "playing their own way".

This is an MMO, if most of your time is spent with trusts then it's time to find a new game or join / form a strong group. We most certainly not supposed to waste time on how to best solo old content just to make people feel special.

You are missing the point. For this entire time I encourage people and Thorva through PM to post more information about scythe. Bolded information for importance. I also talked about this through PM to prevent it turn into another 5 pages of drama.

Then not only content of PM(that does not accurately represent my opinion regarding the issues) somehow popped on the forum again, and it turned into another page of drama.

Psycooo, if you have an issue with people(me or Saevel)please send a PM and I am happy to solve this with you. But posts irrelevant to information of the job is off topic.

Anyways, not going to derail this further.