RUN/drk

Been finding myself using this combination over /blu for times the added melee damage and hate tools might be better than raw defense. I've heard comments from a few people, but don't see too much info besides the typical last resort/stun aoe etc uses.

I've been using this particularly in omen on gorger/fu to stick an added debuff from LR defense down on them. Also, crowd control from poisonga on floors 1/2/4 followed by foil or liement is amazing hate tool. Arcane killer and circle works well for boss floor, and /drk gets smite 2 for damage. Soul eater for hate, stuns for provoke, which is actually faster depending on your buffs. When melee, last resort gives a great haste boost via desperate blows as well.

Has anyone found a modest use for drain/aspir via a good dark skill build? I'm assuming our dark skill is crap with drk sub, so maybe it's not practical. I've also had trouble landing stun on anything ilvl, but I'm guessing that's probably due to dark skill also. Is there any chance one could build up enough macc to actually land this on something worthwhile?

Just wondering if anybody else has found any additional uses for this support job. Kind of a shame it has so many spells but only a few are useful as a support job. I actually in some cases prefer it now over /Sam and /blu, though. It's different, fun, and bridges the gap a bit between the two.

Thoughts?

RUN/DRK is my goto for Omen and DD'ing in general. Stun lands most of what I cast it on, but not mid boss/mega boss obviously. There shouldn't really be a need for aspir between Tenebrae (Vivacious Pulse) and self Refresh.

RUN/DRK is what we normally use as tank for Omen, unless there is a REALLY good reason not to. It's a more offensively orientated tank that can hit a switch and go full DD mode for 3min. Unlike sub SAM, DRK doesn't interfere with your casting ability and provides a few hate tools for when you can't cast magic. Sub BLU is still kind for ultimate-defense tanking, though sometimes you need JA hate tools in case mute or some other silly SE enfeeble.

It's fantastic to use with an Epeolatry as well. Epeolatry's defense lets you use Last Resort without consequence.

So if you merit desperate blows, you get the haste boost on last resort as a subjob? That's pretty cool -- oh wait, that means I have to get 25 more levels on DRK now... ; ;

Desperate Blows has been a native DRK trait for several years now. Merits only add 2% each, and as with any other job specific merit they only work when that job is set as your main job. According to a JP guide book that was released in 2013, the trait maxes out (15%) at level 45.

I normally sub DRK in Omen because its fun and doesn't harm me too much. If I don't have a whm healer or something, I tend to go a bit more defensive. I don't have macc macro'd into my stun set, though, as it never lands (I assume even if I put macc on it). Its locked behind that crappy /drk magic skill. I have found that putting my enmity set on stun is a huge hate chunk when need. Though it can be tricky getting hate off of a conduit smn, Liement/OFA tend to help out a bit.

Stun has the same enmity generation as Flash, 180 CE 1280 VE. It's quite literally like having a second flash on a separate cooldown timer.

Yea our RUN prefers to /WAR for Kin.

/war literally has one hate tool job ability that is spammable. The rune job abilities are just as hate grabbing, and you get two for /dark, though long timers. But the quicker stuns makes for a pretty interesting rotation with flash, foil, and stun. What I have been able to do is effectively stagger all of my job abilities and only use them to supplant initial hate, or reclaim it after it's been lost. I normally only use flash foil and stun for hate, and just hand select a ja if extra hate is ever needed.

Being able to use liement, ofa, pflug, battuta, last resort, soul eater, vallation and valiance in a cycle is invaluable for continued hate on longer fights.

But I wonder, is poisonga any notable amount if enmity?

320/1, so not really.

Eww

/war for Kin, to quote Saevel about the need of ja hate tool sometimes or on specific mob.

Yes /WAR is pretty bad compared to /BLU or /DRK but both those subs rely on magic to generate enmity while /WAR has Provoke for spammable JA hate and Warcry if there are others nearby. Magic enmity relies heavily upon 1) Having MP 2) Not being Silenced / Muted and 3) Having enough Haste / FC that recasts are low. JA hate tools don't require Haste / FC or MP but can be locked out with Amnesia and usually have long recasts.

So pick whats' useful for that specific target. That's what is so wonderful about FFXI, so many options for things.