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

Just cut your life into pieces

I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be. I did a dynamis run last night and yeah we less damage now but by an absurd amount. I'm thinking like 8-10% at most. I still lead the run in dps and the biggest thing I noticed was WS'ing in less than 2K tp, that felt super weak to me, above 2.5k was still hitting like a truck. I still saw the odd 55k, but felt I was mainly around the 40k range.

Arch, how does lib avg ws compare to Torcleaver calad?

I didn't do up any spreadsheets or anything like that but I did swap weapons for a while during the run and I still feel like Lib pulls ahead, another DRK with us agreed. Same buffs and all that and it just felt like Lib was doing better. Still have insane TP gain and popping off WS's at 2.5k consistently for above numbers. Torc was doing what Torc always does. Mind you only thing is my Calad is only 20% aug'd or so, I'm sure that'll make a difference.

thanks man

This is probably a dumb question but I'm bored at the moment:

So Insurgency damage with Liberator is the bees knees, but for a non-Liberator user (Anguta or Apocalypse), will it still pull good numbers?
I honestly only ever use Insurgency for skillchain purposes on Anguta so never noticed the damage.

Cross Reaper is better for general damage if not using Liberator.

From my experience, you're better off going Caladbolg unless you're setting up skillchains or having Accuracy issues (in which case it could just be used as a macro piece...). Keeping AM up is an absolute necessity and going from camp to camp makes it likely you're gonna run into snags wailing on mobs until 3k while a Calad user could pop AM at any point. On the end boss it's even worse, Calad's overall attack speed and triple damage is gonna add up.

Liberator's biggest selling point is abusing DRK's Last Resort attack speed to exploit Scythe's great Skillchain properties and getting powerful Accuracy bumps from Absorb-Acc when those situations come up.

So our aeonic group is about to close out its current round in the coming weeks, and begin anew sometime in January/February.

I'm considering either Anguta, Doji, or Lionheart as my next one. My question is how does the Anguta hold up against other options DRK has in light of recent changes, especially after the whole WSD thing?

Holds up great.

Cross Reaper is ***.

I'm using Anguta with 5/5 Ratri+1, WSDMG Cape/Ring/Knob ETC, moonshade with angutas tp bonus is also really nice.


Honestly all of the 2 handed Aeonics are nice with the exception of staff.

I don't really use GS anymore on DRK. Scythe works very well with the whole casting aspect. The only time I break out GS now is for shockwave/sleepga.

If I ever need Light SC ahead of time I'm breaking out my Chango.

R15 Apoc is within spitting distance of R15 Anguta with LR up and beats Anguta with LR down....

Lionheart > Doji > Anguta of the 3 you mentioned in terms of DPS.

When it comes to REMA and access to R15 which I assume you do with an Aeonic group, you really need to focus on the bonus WS.

Example is Chango which takes a great weapon and makes a GS WS better. (upheaval) Vs Anguta that just gets some base damage and acc since Entropy is pretty much garbage.

I was looking at this, but R15 Liberator is looking pretty damn good as well. It's really nice having some solid options with Scythe.

Yeah lib is great. Same principle. Insurgence is good with +30/+15%

OK, cool. Thanks for the input!

Pretty new character and currently working on slowly building up drk. Stuck in that weird space between low tier ambuscade and t1 nms but shy of omen. Anyone have advice on what to do to help bridge the gear gap as I gain more jp? Also sry if this has been asked to death.

A good friendly Social Linkshell would be the answer I'd give. I have no idea what server you're on but there is usually a bored player or two willing to help newbies/rerturnees with lower end content to gear up.

Also, just keep churning out those JP. They'll begin to shine through after a while.

As Brahmsz said, making friends is the best advice. Asking around ppl in your CP party is also a good way to get some contacts.

All else failing, level your whm, get empyrean pants, and then you can pretty much do any ambuscade as whm providing you can pay attention a little bit. Whm is somewhat unique in that regard where with very minimal gear it doesn't 'get stuck in that weird space' as most other jobs would.

Also, it'll never hurt to have that job available. in XI, flexibility is king.

Any drk here tried unafraid of the dark? I would like to know their experience in terms of weapon to be used - assuming u have access to all rema - and any kind of hints that might be helpful, thanks

Sup guys I just finished Caladbolg afterglow last night and was wondering if anyone has a spreadsheet for drk at all. Been trying to look through post haven't found one. More so look at how close it stands with lib as it's all I've seen post about thanks.

At AG stage Caladbolg is DRKs best DPS weapon. At R15 it’s probably still best but Liberator gets very competitive. During the WSdmg bug Lib was looking BiS. Maintaining Am3 is necessary for Lib.

Ok cool was just checking trying to get augs right on gear and what not to fully enjoy this thing. Still haven't even got to use it yet which I cant wait for today (got it last night went to sleep)

I mean is that just circumstantial evidence or did you have numbers to back it up? Can you show the params that detail Caladbolg has being higher total DPS output right now?

You are welcome to use mine.

Caveats - I've added quite a lot to this dps sheet, but I am not claiming it's anywhere near updated or accurate. The fact that I'm sharing it doesn't mean I will fix anything, or add anything to it. Maybe someday I'll have enough free time!

Augments on gear are mine, but adding and modifying gear/stats is about as simple as it gets so no reason to really even mention it.

Few notable things I added are geo buffs, Smite, changes to LR merits (per SE update few years ago), augmented lib/calad, "some" recent gear, and new dynamis neck calculations (thanks to Langly, as I used his from nin.xlsx) Probably more stuff that I'm forgetting.

No job points / gifts, and no updated or augmented Rag.

edit: updated link, first post had an outdated copy of the sheet

Thank you Orestes, that is a huge help.

Cool beans. Missing a few pieces, but we can workshop it to make it accurate! Super cool man!

Caladbolg has been best or one of the best weapons for a couple of years now and Torcleaver is by far our best ws at 1k tp. Now its just gained more damage, 20 more STR and VIT and 10% more Torcleaver damage. You don't need numbers or spreadsheets to figure out its the best, just look at the facts

All that is the definition of circumstantial evidence man. I could cite having beat multiple Calad DRKs in parse, but it's a waste of time friend. Unfortunately looking at a small portion of the equation doesn't give you a clear picture of what's best and why it's best.

What exactly makes it "circumstantial evidence" Your on a internet forum asking for advice and I am giving it based on my experience and facts. I have all the REMA except Redemption and I use them all. I consider myself a veteran DRK and I was just sharing my knowledge. Don't ask for something if you don't want it

The facts are
1. Torcleaver is one of the best WS at 1k TP especially now no WSD bug again
2. Even before augments Calad was one of our best weapon +50 VIT, low delay and triple damage make this so.
3. Calad got 10% Torcleaver damage aswell as 20 STR and 20 VIT even further increasing WS and melee damage
4. Other REMA that got upgraded dident get the same kind of boost due to poor WS tied to the weapon. in a zerg situation nobody spams entropy with anguta they use cross reaper for example, meaning the gap grows even bigger

The fact that spreadsheets don't take into account many many factors such as skillchain damage, use of JA's etc actually makes them "circumstantial" imo...

In fact if you look in Orestes post a few up from yours he shares a spreadsheet which you don't even need excel to quickly open in your web browser and see he has a comparison of Lib and Calad. Calad wins and that's without skillchain damage. There is your evidence

Also people talk like Liberator and Calad are DRK's only weapons these days. We have so many strong options... Anguta Cross Reaper spam is very very strong, almost as strong as Calad/TC Spam in a zerg situation. We have so many amazing great sword options that are not even REMA's! Apoc is amazing for solo/low-man. Ragnarok DRK is the only DD that can solo multi-step with a GS. DRK's are spoilt for choice really

Torcleaver is just a really strong single hit weapon skill.(4.75/7.5/10? fTP)

DRK has access to more WSDMG than any other job. 74 without Dark Matter augments, 87 with.

Augmented Caladbolg itself offers:
314 Damage
430 Delay
70 VIT (56 WSC)
20 STR (6 fSTR) (23 WSC+fSTR for Resolution as well)
Torcleaver Damage +10% (5.225/8.25/11? fTP)

Feel free to give me the stats for an enemy (post debuffs) and player stats (post buffs) in their respective weaponskill sets and have me compare Augmented Caladbolg's Torcleaver and Montante +1's Resolution if you insists.