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

Yeah Kylos, Founder's Greaves are pretty awesome. Mine currently have one less accuracy than yours. I have the Loyalist sabatons that could be good for Torcleaver, Catastrophe and other single hit WS. I'd like to get Amms to replace my Diamante for the overall DT. Trying to get the Founder's Breastplate for the accuracy as well.

I've found the Escha NMs ridiculously evasive for the most part. So any job needs as much accuracy as you can stack. A benchmark I've found useful is being around 1180-1200 accuracy before a high accuracy food and buffs.

Thanks for that. I know most heavy DD are not going to have a place in today's game when it's so much easier to make a mage/pet/ranger party, but it don't hurt to keep DRK updated in case anyone needs one.

Any other pieces of gear from Escha or Sinister Reign which stand out?

I agree with keeping a job you enjoy playing in high end gear.

So has anyone else kept up-to-date with DRK equipment?

With the addition of Job Points the only jobs I try to keep up-to-date right now are RUN, DRK and GEO. Two Utility Jobs and my fun one, DRK of course.

DRK is clearly the most fun out of my three jobs, but I use it the least, and it's been that way for a few years.

Really disappointed this sub-forum has died so much. I really wanted to have something to aim for. Previously we had an active community of career Dark Knights who posted their latest sets.

Having not touched Escha NMs as much as I would like, I am left wondering what to aim for. I have seen Skormoth Mask which is "probably" the best TP piece at the moment for anyone using a Great Sword. (Heath. Burgeonet +1 has Scythe Skill+ on it).

On the Corsair forum, the job got access to Escha gear such as Purseur's which gets a lot of useful augments for the job. Sadly, I have no idea if there is an equivalent for heavy melee and whether there's any point acquiring them.

And then you have the new abjuration gear, which I ain't looked into. Surely someone out there has some sick new abjuration they can use on DRK?

With Sinister Reign, Escha and new Abjuration gear, DRK has a lot of equipment to choose from, and the augments make it even more difficult to decide which equipment is good, and which is trash.

The new Ebody stuff looks pretty bad. Not sure if there is some augments I haven't seen yet but it seems really underpowered compared to what else is available.

And yeah DRK is suffering because all 2H got left behind with the recent set of WS updates combined with melee not being nearly as effective as before. SE seems to have defaulted on their promise not to make boss NM's with overly crazy AoE's and stupid stats.

While I know it's the case, I still wish to keep my DRK equipped for any future situation where heavy DD find a place again, but sadly no one is interested in posting new gear sets, so I might have to dig through any information I can find and post some potentials here .. when I find time.

Escha Rewards

Eschite Cuisses - Despite having the same Dark Magic skill as Heathen Flanchard +1, you can augment it further with Magic Attack Bonus+25, Conserve MP+6, and Fast Cast+5, so it would make Enif legs obsolete.

Subtletey Spectacles - I'm using Iqabi Necklace for accuracy, so this would be an upgrade.

Forefathers' Grip - Not sure how much accuracy and attack it gives, but could be used if it gives anything more than Bloodrain or Tzacab in high accuracy situations.

Sapience Orb - Impatiens occasionally quickens casting rarely procs, so if you get the orb you could use it. Personal preference really.

Eschan Stone - Another accuracy piece.

Kubira Meikogai - Very nice PDT. Beaten by Tartarus Platemail, but not many will have one. Also the accuracy is sweet, not sure if it's the best at the moment, because again, Sinister Reign or Abjuration gear might have something better.

Will look at Sinister Reign/Abjuration stuff later.

Considering how they changed consume mana to work for magic weaponskills and the ton of mab drk can get from sinister reign gear, it looks like SE wants drk to use Infernal Scythe. And with magic burst being popular in a party a geo will probably have malaise up.

But would anyone bring a DRK for Infernal Scythe? Seems unlikely.

They might bring a DRK as a tank. Drain III and dread spikes seem like a winning combination to stay alive. Obviously not a pick up group as they never like to stray away from the tried and true ways of doing things, but if you have some friends who know you can tank on DRK could be a possibility.

DRK isnt even on Skormoth Mask

Oh my .. seriously, I need glasses, to stop assuming, or both. Well that sucks.

Used DRK as a tank before in emergency situations, once on a Morimar run when I tanked Tojil as the other DD died after Lahar and I stayed alive until they unweakened. I don't see DRK becoming a tank for anything at this point.

But yeah .. Dread Spikes and Drain III recast are too long to consider tanking anything strong, even with max dark magic skill, it's easy to have spells interrupted. You need timing to get spells off in-between hits.

It has similiar drop rates as T mail, IE rare as ***. All those bodies are like that, SE was trolling peeps.

I got the Eschite legs for the MAB on my WAR's Cloud Splitter set, which with Fencer is quite potent. DRK just doesn't have much to offer right now. Neither GS and Scyth aren't particularly good at multi-step SCing. Scyth can do a 5-step double darkness but relies on Quietus to do it which sucks horribly right now. GS is great at spamming high power WS but can't link with itself with Ragnarok using Scourge as a fusion link between Distortion and first light. I would of really liked Consume Mana to not be a "one shot" move like that cause it's utterly wasted. I would of preferred it to be like Hasso, one min recast five min duration and consumes MP each tick in return for DD enhancements like +Attack / Accuracy / Magic Haste / Store Tp / DA / Crit / ect. Or even make it like Soul Eater where each hit consumes MP but grants auto-crit or something.

Totally agree Saevel. I tried Consume Mana once, and was so disappointed I ain't used it again. Would rather have the MP than a slightly better WS one time. And yeah, I wish DRK had more skillchain options. Going to look through abjuration gear to see if we got anything nice.

(ilvl 119) Abjurations

Carmine Mask +1 - 1% more Fast Cast compared to Haruspex Hat +1

Carmine Scale Mail +1 - DRK has used Demon Harness for dark magic skill for so many years, so it can finally be put to bed with this one.

Carmine Cuisses +1 - Movement Speed +18%! Also the augments suggest accuracy +20, which would give Accuracy +39 overall.

Carmine Greaves +1 - Fast Cast on the feet slot? Might as well if you can get it.

Lustratio Harness +1 - What strikes me the most is the STR +41 with Accuracy +40 and a possible augment of Accuracy +20. Could be an exceptional Resolution piece on high content.

It's difficult to tell whether the Argosy (Armada) set is any good, as possible augments have not been added to BGwiki yet. With the base stats alone, nothing stands out.

The ilvl119 abjurations are very costly, so that may not be an option for everyone.

Can someone post a current Mcbain Acc set? I'm having trouble getting over 900 not sure what's missing.

Honestly what is stopping the Carmine set from being made is something they could fix with sparks. If they add the dragon mail set to RoE it would be a cinch to make.

Whils't questing for my liberator I thought I would make a quick video for DRK as there's nothing on youtube. I have Apoc, full EMP+1 set and a decent Acro set which has almost perfect store tp augs. However the damage Macbain can spam is crazy and is out shining my Apoc which i'm guessing most of you on here already know.

Feel free to post comments and ask questions. Have fun. I'm not elitist it's just there to show what DRK can do, as people still don't see the potential. Stylelock in use, To acro of course


[url] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDcN1fHLx8w [url]

Thanks lol

NP.

Rooks, I made a contribution in a guide, can I have a badge now????

Still working on Liberator, just alex, ichor and ZNMs to go :) Did anyone find any useful pieces of equipment other than the ones I listed?

After next update anyone planning on testing absorb potency? It seems they are going to be making it related to skill, which hopefully makes 50+ without JA / Liberator possible and even more for you Mythic folks.

Duration is becoming scalar, not potency.

I just reread it and yeah it's duration not potency, damn and here I thought there would be a decent update to absorbs.

Added some of my own sets for Lib Reference. Still need to get into Sinister Reign for those PDT and Founder Feet. Would like to get the Escha Vamp ring and as Kylos pointed out the Carmine Body as dark magic/absorb upgrades.

All Acro has Att/Att, Str/Dex. STP on Legs, Feet and Body, DA on Hands. I try to emphasize Dex as with a nether void absorb you can cap Ddex fairly easily for the big boost to crit rate.

http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/337994 Base TP, add more acc as needed
http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/337995 Base AM3
http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/337996 Base Insurgency
http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/337997 Max Dark Magic
http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/337998 Absorbs