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

What is your target and buffs, also try not to eyeball. Resolution is much stronger then Torcleaver. Looking at your sets I'd say your accuracy was shitty and you are whiffing hits. Torc is a one hit WS and all WS's get +100 accuracy on the first hit. You are likely ignoring the Torcleavers that miss instead of treating them as 0 damage WS's and / or only remembering the 2000TP+ Torcleavers.

Resolution 85% STR 1.11 fTP per hit at 1000TP with moonshade. This gives it a 5.55 fTP to start and any DA/TA will add another 1.11 to it.

Torcleaver 80% VIT 5.43 fTP at 1000TP with moonshade, any DA/TA will add 1.0 fTP to it.

Basically you see what you want to see.

My resolution set (it's the same for DRK and WAR just the back is different obviously)

ItemSet 342760

All the Argosy +1 except hands are path A, DEX = Accuracy and you need the same accuracy in your WS as in your TP. Back is STR 20, Acc / Atk 20, DA +10.

I don't wiff much on Torcleaver but no I don't count wiffs since no damage done. Kinda hard not to eyeball since I play vanilla. The benefit of using Torc for me has been that it's really really consistent on damage so if I see a 17K or 30K+ Torc it will stick out pretty easily.

I don't do any high end content on DRK so... let's say VD Ambuscade as a target. Buffs and sushi keeps my accuracy pretty steady. The accuracy differences between my TP set and WS set is maybe 17. Matter fact, just did a /checkparam and my Resolution set is higher actually since it doesn't count WS Acc. So 37.

All one hit WS's have a 5% chance to miss, a missed WS is a WS for 0 damage and thus counts for average. This distinction is important when comparing single hit WS's like Torc to multi-hit like Resolution.

That being said it's likely gear and your eyeballs being the difference. DRK's have been attempting to eyeball justify Torcleaver ever since SE released the Merit WS's even then all empirical evidence says otherwise. Reso has better fTP and a better WSC then Torc, Torc just has better SC properties.

Seething Bomblet NQ...

giiiimp!


Also, you still use Gavlias Helm, right?

Keep an eye on this forum here for drk gear sets

This guide is severely outdated and a few of us are working a way to muster all drk sets, noob to elite and everything in between, in one place.
I have a post in there as well as a few other very well designed sets, I have not yet finished all the sets I intend to post but I am slowly getting there. I just get bored making itemsets on here and get distracted easily.

So far I have done a few low to mid tier sets as well as a few casting sets, but I intend on getting high to top tier sets added as well.

for Ankou's mantle (ambuscade jse back). is the crit rate augment worth it?

How much accuracy are you guys bringing to Maju?
Reso spam was spiking into mid 30's, averaging around 21/22ksh but once blind dropped it was a valkrum dunes all over again.

My base high_Acc set sits @ 1477 in Reisenjima without buffs/JA's and no sublime sushi.

I hit 2000+ accuracy - went very well. Got it down as solo DD to 67% before, for some reason, blind dropped and it all went to ***.

is the below overkill? seems like a shiton of work to be able to use melee on this content.

- indi torp
- Frailty
- Geo fury
- distract III
- Auspice
- (soldier's/brave drinks)
(pre-buffs)
- SV'd Ghorn madrigals
- SV'd ghorn Her. Etude
- SV'd ghorn scherzo
- Mighty Guard
- Erratic flutter
- Sam Roll

to put in perspective, dont have half that many buffs in ambuscade VD and the fight on antilon lasts about 1 minute if ads arent running around.

Seriously wtf was SE thinking making this ***so melee unfriendly...

1474 is what accuracy I roll with pre-buffs/food and my accuracy is fine with:
Crooked Cards Hunter's Roll (4, 9, 10 or 11)
Idris Torpor
Dunna Precision
Marcato Honor March
Blade Madrigal
Sword Madrigal
Sublime Sushi

Don't feel like doing the comparing on accuracy buff values to tell you if you can get rid of one of yours, but yeah. You only listed 1 roll also so don't know if you're already using Hunter's Roll or something else either.

Edit: Precision comes from a Dunna GEO, not Idris. Changed.

Did a short 15 minute test on Maju. Results are:

962 samples
42.83% hit rate
1695 accuracy
no evasion- debuffs

Only variable I couldn't really keep from avoiding was turning in time when Blind wore off since it has less evasion when unblinded, but about 1800 accuracy should put you above 90% hit rate on Maju before evasion- debuffs.

Also, Maju's Enmity mechanics change when Oppressive Glare is up which is probably why you got worked after Blind wore. When I actually bring a tank with a DD strat, it becomes very difficult if not impossible to keep hate if DDs continuously weapon skill or mages start doing heavy cures. Guessing it's faster enmity decay while gaze is up or something.

We tried melees on Maju once, highest I could get my accuracy was 1700+ on DRG (pre-269 so might be better now), which parsed 71% hitrate. The DNC in our group was able to hit 90% though so its possible. It's just easier to abuse Run Wild if you want to use physical damage.

I also noted the enmity difference with glare, would almost instantly turn to melees on use, Super/High Jump saved my life. I have not tried it on DRK but would like to again someday for shiggles.

will try drk/drg then for shedding some hate.
We only had 1 cor roll because of a dc.

If you just turn when Blind wears off and wait for it to be reapplied you'll be fine.

Liberator i119 III vs Tizona i119 III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deg9bfX2TS4

Phuoc had done about 20% more damage at the end of T2 (~52%/43%) including skillchains and the DRK got oneshotted by a normal melee attack from August.

Yup, seems pretty par for the course.


Goddamned DRK. Never change.

Nah we were neck and neck at the end of T2


on T3, we were 1% apart after his CDC, with me sitting on 1500 tp ready to ws.

I think that insta kill was from the firestorm or something.. my defense was at 982... don't know wtf happened there lol.

I always go blu to these events where we absolutely destroy all turns within 2-3 mins. I wanted to see how badly Liberator would lose and was pleasantly surprised. Its a beast of a weapon if it can keep up with Phuoc's bluemage.

43.9% + 7.6% = 51.5%
42.5% + 0% = 42.5%
51.5/42.5 = 1.217

So the BLU did about 22% more damage at the end of T2.

so was experimenting with dread spikes, I hit 9999 HP, and have heathens +2 body. my spikes doing nowhere near 68% of my max HP. any body else experience this issue? I had 1 hit actually drain 7k HP, but rest were about 300, tried mess around for about a hour.

Dread Spikes drains 100% of the damage you took until you've drained (total) 68% of your HP. So if you cast it with 9999 HP, you'd expect to drain 6799 HP worth of damage before wearing off (8799 with all gifts and Heathen +1).

Think of it like a really big stoneskin that doesn't work on WSs or spells.

o ok, well makes since then, thought was per hit, but ty quick reply. guess its not broken.

Yeah I reread your original response - for many reasons we don't count the skillchain dmg in zergs as an indicator of weapon vs weapon performance. But yeah you're right, that much dmg was attributed to him.

How much damage, would you say on average, would my Flash Nova GEO do right in between your light SC? Inquiring minds are foaming at the mouth wanting to know.

What accuracy value do you need to do VD Ambusgay/BCNM, Apex CP, Escha T1/2/3, Unity 1/2/3 respectively?

Can't speak for much besides Apex, since that's all I've ever done on DRK. But last night I think I had somewhere around 1080 acc on drk and was effectively chaining Apex Raptors with a non AG 119 Ragnarok (eating RCB). I did have to use Diabolic/SE occasionally to make sure I wasn't whiffing a bunch.

Thorva had posted some acc requierements earlier, and I think around the 1150 range is pretty decent for most events without food. UNM 1/2 is mostly not evasive, so only 135 you'd need acc for. VD AMBUSH this month I'm hearing is not terribly evasive, and drk can get by with around that same benchmark. Someone else can weigh in on Escha/Reisenjima, but I think the t3s+ required something unusually high, like 1350 for Maju. It's actually on this page.

Strangely, when AM was up, I was killing these significantly faster than my Macbain, which has n 80dmg bonus over my Rag. I can't really tell exactly why I'm doing more damage, but It could be a combination of the low delay, crits, and the constant light skillchain from Scourge (3-4 steps) which are causing Shantotto to be spam happy. I'm pleasantly surprised.

Only down side was that I had to wait for Shantotto to close Compression before I could MB drain for high numbers. But when that wasn't possible, I DSNV > Drain 2 a Matamata for huge dmg (they take extra magic dmg) and brought it down by spamming lights.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the exact moment that you killed a huge skillchain in SR, but I did find you interrupting double darkness with Flash Nova in Escha - Zi'Tah:


At least you were on GEO that time instead of BLU.

This was one of my two mistakes in FFXI. I acknowledge this one.

Was it a mistake, though? Galkas are so suspicious. When they take a break from being lazy they're always scheming.

What do we think the practical use of the Anguta is? I'd like to list the pro's and con's of each endgame Scythe as a point of comparison.

Apocalypse
+ 2nd highest base DMG of the four weapons.
+ Highest accuracy of the four weapons.
+ Job Ability Haste as an Aftermath.
+ Fantastic melee damage over time with it's hidden effect and it's symbiosis with Souleater/Catastrophe.
- Costs a pretty penny to afterglow.
- More of a defensive weapon than an outright damage dealing one.
- Catastrophe has a horrible habit of missing.

Liberator
+ Phenomenal magic accuracy.
+ Greatly boosts Absorb spells.
+ Capable of being a Skillchain machine with Aftermath Lv3.
+ Powers up Insurgency.
+ Arguably has the greatest DPS of the four weapons outside Souleater.
- Highest cost of the four weapons in terms of Gil and second highest in time invested to obtain.
- Lowest base DMG of the four weapons.
- Has no innate Accuracy outside of Aftermath Lv1, which you will never use.
- Cannot make the most of Souleater outside of Blood Weapon as it does not have access to Catastrophe.

Redemption
+ Triple damage Aftermath can do some decent melee damage.
- Everything else.

Anguta
+ Highest base DMG of the four weapons.
+ Has a good amount of innate Store TP.
+ TP Bonus of 750 (Moonshade) is excellent for Scythe's best weapon skills like Cross Reaper and Insurgency.
+ Can perform a devastating multi-step Skillchain incorporating Scythe's best weapon skills ending in Lv4 Umbra.
+ Magic Burst Bonus directly helps Drain and Aspir returns.
+ All three Aftermath effects are active at the same time.
+ In terms of Gil it costs absolutely nothing to obtain.
+ It is fully upgraded to Lv119 when you obtain it.
- Heavily starved of Accuracy, more-so than the Liberator as the option to boost Accuracy through an Aftermath is not even there.
- Lowest melee damage over time.
- TP gain rate might be slower than the Liberator as you are reliant on multi-attacks from other equipment.
- Lacks an Afterglow effect.
- Entropy is hardly the strongest weapon skill around and it acts as the Aftermath trigger.

It seems to me like the best use for the Anguta is to use it when Souleater is down and Last Resort is active.

Still @ 9,999 HP and all the triple attacks its pretty bad *** with cure bombs. Just not as bad *** as Apoc with souleater.

People keep saying this over and over in game and on forums. Raise your ws acc set for cata, not that hard. The same level of acc you have while in tp mod you should be using with your ws. There is no reason why people should be whiffing ws more often than not. I almost never miss cata and when I do I chuck it off as the 1 in a while you will always hit. Same with torcleaver.

WS's get a +100 accuracy on their first hit and there is always a 5% chance of a WS missing that first hit regardless due to accuracy cap. Now that we are dealing with very large quantities of accuracy, it's entirely possible for people to have 150 or less accuracy in their WS sets and then whiff far too much.