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

I'd more so like a top tier not including hq and a dream tier like in the blue forums for apoc, rag and lib

These are the sets I use.

Aspir/Drain
ItemSet 342114
I prioritize Magic Accuracy, Dark Magic Skill, Aspir/Drain Potency, and Darkness Affinity when casting Drain/Aspir. Legs are there for the skill and more importantly for the Nether Void effect. This set is almost guaranteed to land you 9999 HP after bursting Drain III and around 6500-7000 without a burst.

Absorb
ItemSet 342115
Again, Skill and Magic Accuracy.

TP (Low Accuracy)
ItemSet 341518
This is a 5-hit build which makes the most of having high Job Points for critical hit damage. You get some absolutely savage critical hits in this set, 2000 or so average. Regardless, high amounts of accuracy and DA/STP on the Reisenjima pieces.

TP (High Accuracy)
ItemSet 342116
If you need more accuracy than what you get here then you probably should not be meleeing what you currently are.

WS (Base / No Fotia)
ItemSet 342117
The thing with a WS set is that you do not want to take off too much accuracy equipment, especially on Dark Knight. Cross Reaper benefits hugely from Weapon Skill Damage +% equipment, hence the Cronus and Ishvara.

^Thanks for this, gives me a general idea of what to look out for on my Escha NM hunts.

I don't really see a use for Emicho body. With an average augment on Valorous body (say 20+acc/att and 3+DA) you're already equal or greater to the offensive stats emicho gives. Any extra stats is just icing. If you get 30+acc with 6+ STP or 4-5 DA, you're cruisin'

I'm assuming that Emicho is simply a relatively more accessible body piece for accuracy needs in this case. Those are simply his sets, not necessarily the end-all best pieces. Valorous can be quite superior, but Emicho is just easier to work with.

Actually NQ Emicho gives you the same or better TP stats except a near perfect Valorous body. HQ Emicho beats Valorous completely, especially when combined with the Emicho hands. Where Emicho suffers is that it's a very poor WS piece. For TP it's great, for WS it sucks.

NQ Emicho Body has a total acc of 71.25 along with DA +4, it's easy to get, cheap and your not playing the lottery. Valorous is annoying to get and you need to play lottery to get anything decent. Valorous has 20 accuracy 25 dex, giving it a base acc of 38.75. You would need a +32.5 accuracy augment to reach the same acc as NQ Emicho along with some sort of not-shitty extra augments.

After hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of stones this is the best I can get.

DEX +4 Accuracy +32 Attack +24
Crit Hit Rate +3%

I get plenty of DA +4 or Store TP +5 augments but they are always either without acc or something like 10 ~ 15 accuracy, and right now you ~need~ over 30 acc in each piece to be relevant.

I know people who's thrown over a thousand stones and still not gotten better.

question on heathen legs nether void bonus, do I need to have these on while using the JA or just casting the spell?

I'm pretty sure you do not need them on when using the JA, but you do need them on when casting the spell.

thank you.

Does the augment path on carmine body matter? Since I was probably going to pick B for use with blu. Is there any use for path B for Drk or would another path offer more uses?

Also should eschite cuisses be augmented?

DRK has better options than Carmine Path B for anything I can think of where you would use. None of the other paths are impressive either imho.

As far as Eschite Cuisses are concerned, I used path D for cloudsplitter on WAR before I got better Odyssean options. You could use it for DRK nuking, Sanguine Blade or that magical scythe WS I can't think of the name of right now.

You could probably put in your Dignitary's earring and maybe an Abyssal Earring or Gwati Earring on your drain and absorb sets.

Are the 119 Adaberk pieces not useful at all? I keep getting the papers, and wonder if uncursing them is worth the gil

Lots of them are good for STR based WS, I personally use the +1 body in my 4hit scythe build.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know in what order Scarlet Delirium adds damage to magic? I toyed with it a little bit while doing Apex bats the other night and couldn't figure it out since I could never get a decent Scarlet off. Also, anyone know off the top of their head if it works with Drain spells? Seems like a good way to make Drain III better when Nethervoid is down. Timing is still a *** though.

I'm pretty sure 5/5 NQ/HQ will destroy every other piece for Resolution and maybe Cross Reaper. But wearing even 1 piece while TPing s asking to take a full force AoE, even with Vex/Attunement.

Cross Reaper gains a lot out of WSD, so Odyssean/Valorous with good augments+large amounts of WSD are my go-to for Cross Reaper and Savage Blade.

As for tping in Argosy, eh. It's not really as bad as people seem to think. Obviously if you get hate or something big is coming, you swap it out. But that's what sets are for. The HP boost from Drain II/III means that DRK is pretty damn safe from damage.

If you're just doing CP, no reason not to use Argosy. If you are in like Sinister Reign where literally everyone uses *** AoE debuffs, maybe don't use it.

I'd love to see some of the sets you use if you find the time.

I don't really do that, sorry.

Why?
No need to lie. You have item sets in your profile. Just take a minute or two and post them. Not many people are contributing itemsets. They really help out.

My item sets are for me to plan things and for ideas I have. And there are no Dark Knight sets in there that I can recall anyway.

The idea of copying someone else's set just seems weird to me anyway. I have always told people I prefer to figure out what I am trying to accomplish and search out what would help the most to do that.

So yeah, I don't share my sets.

That's great. But your on a forum that people help each other figure out what gear sets are good for a specific job. Considering your posting here what harm would it be to help a fellow player out with info that could just be copied and pasted from your gear swap.

Hello again. Today I would like to share my gearsets for DRK. They do not represent "best in slot" sets for the job. Aside from Amar Cluster, I do not have any other Escha/Reisenjima equipment, yet.

These sets are good for players with access to reforged, Sinister Reign, Skirmish, Delve, Incursion, Vagary, High-Tier battlefields, and other content. I did not include the newer abjurations as I don't have any yet. Also I use Liberator 119, so TP/WS sets will differ to using Ragnarok (which I previously used).

In some instances I have NQ pieces which could easily be upgraded by spending gil. As I don't use DRK every day, I try to keep it updated, and I'm saving gil for my afterglow before I think about upgrading. For instance, I know my Zwazo and Ifrit rings are NQ, and after I get my afterglow I'll probably upgrade them.

ItemSet 342254

I do not have the "best" augments for Acro gear; but they all have double attack, and either accuracy, attack, or acc & atk. I only use this when accuracy is not an issue (abyssea etc)

ItemSet 342255

Use the other earring if you can't get Enervating. I like to stack Store TP (but not go crazy with it) so I get the most use out of my Aftermath. It's very easy to self-skillchain provided you have the accuracy to hit reliably.

ItemSet 342257

Your sets may vary depending on luck with augments. Just find as many accuracy pieces as you can, add the mala, add the belt, (and perhaps Ginsen), then I would say you're good to go. If you still lack accuracy for the content, then you either need to use the next set, or you need more buffs.

ItemSet 342256

I only use it when I'm lacking buffs (or the mob is very evasive), and I really need to hit to do damage. This happened to me on Apex Crabs not so long ago. It's always handy to have an extreme accuracy set around.

ItemSet 342258

Again, this is a situational set for times when you want to kill weak mobs quickly. You don't need accuracy, and Insurgency likes attack, So mix and match and find the right balance.

ItemSet 342259

The most common WS set I use at the moment. It's difficult to say how much accuracy you need for this one, as buffs and fights can change the value dramatically. So I tried to stack some accuracy, but didn't go extreme with it.

ItemSet 342260

Think I've only used this once or twice since getting Lib. With trusts it's difficult to run out of MP entirely, and there's always Aspir. But if you're desperate for MP (and you are not playing /rdm or Convert is down), Entropy is very useful.

ItemSet 342261

I love Quietus because if you self-skillchain with it, it's pretty powerful. At the same time as using my extreme ACC set on Apex crabs (lack of buffs), I added some accuracy to the set as Quietus missed too often. If you don't need the accuracy, then stack as much STR as you like, and enjoy your Batman weaponskill.

ItemSet 342264

I hate how long it takes to cast Endark II, so some Fast Cast is nice in slots where you can't get Dark Magic skill. More Dark Magic skill = More Attack Boost!

ItemSet 342266

Not as good as the Drain/Aspir set previously posted, but it sees me through. I really want to replace the Demon Harness one day. If you're worried about defense, use something else.

ItemSet 342267

Absorbs with Liberator is so much fun! And you don't need to stack any fast cast as they already cast quick enough. Ensure they land with plenty of Magic Accuracy, and then enhance them further with special Absorb equipment.

ItemSet 342265

HP! Stack lots of it to make your spikes more effective. Acro hands has a HP augment, and I just prefer Cryptic to Cassie Earring these days; but either works, and Cassie converts 50MP to HP. Also the head purely for the casting time -10%

ItemSet 342268

A /rdm set. Great for casting your stoneskin, phalanx, refresh, blink etc.

ItemSet 342262

Can replace the Vagary earring with Black Earring (abyssea). Also Dark Rings (with augments) are OK til you get those in the set. Clearly Vocane isn't everyone's choice, so Patricius would do the trick as well.

ItemSet 342263

I find this to be enough. Buremte has a MDT-2 augment. I could add more, but having to use a MDT set on DRK doesn't happen every day.

ItemSet 342269

When you're weakened, or just need the extra HP/MP. There's also Bathy Choker +1 which gives Regen+3 on it. Twilight Helm and Mail are also good if you can't get those in the set.

It's difficult to copy someone else's sets as augments will vary. Realize what you need for each set, then figure it out with what you have. I've tried my best to make the sets I have, and they are always a work in progress, but hopefully it gives some Dark Knights a general idea of what we can do.

With all the sets I have, my Mog Wardrobe requires at least half of the equipment. Start with standard TP/WS sets, then work on Endark, Drain/Aspir, Absorb and Dread Spikes. Finally get a decent damage taken set at least, for those sticky situations. Thanks for reading, and thanks to anyone who can critique particular choices and make them stronger; I am willing to listen and learn. I'll post my current augments if anyone's interested.

For Drain/Aspir, Yorium feet can be augmented with Potency+ as well as Macc and Int. The only loss from switching over would be a few Macc (from the int loss) assuming max augments (unless MAB does something?)

Hnnnng ok this weekend if I find some time I'll post some high/top end sets that include Reisenjima and 119Abjuration stuff I'm not gonna go berserk, just TP/WS/fastcast/drain etc

Nice one Squah :) Dark Knights should pull together and share what they're using so we can all benefit and learn.

It's not that I didn't want to share, it's that I'm too lazy to go spreadsheet all this ***and verify that it's actually the best lol.

Girlfriend was busy when I got home some work so I threw together some ***:

Click item set and read description for more clarification if I forgot to post it here

ItemSet 331136
Carmine Mask D, Odyssean stuff with Fast Cast. Sub out the essentially impossible Rahab Ring for Weatherspoon if you have one. I think max augment for FC on heavy armor is 5% versus 7 on merlinic, so max would be 63%, more with Weatherspoon.
ItemSet 331121
Odyssean Greaves Aug with Macc. Niht can get 25 potency.
ItemSet 331124
I don't know how viable a 4-hit build is. It's great if you spam Insurgency but the point of a mythic is to do like 86 step skillchains with yourself. If you manage to get amazing augs like STR+15/Acc+Att/STP+6~8 on each piece of Reisenjima gear then it'll dumpster everything else. Otherwise there's too many other options for me to say "hey, do this". Just get more multiattack and maintain a 5-hit.

Hands are Argosy because of A. lack of haste while using Windbuffet and they have 7% haste on path D and B. ilevel hands only have 20~ evasion and 35~ magic evasion on them. They're the lowest values, and Argosy gives a bazillion fSTR, good DEX, good acc, a shitload of attack, 3-4% DA and 6 Store TP. Hot. Substitutions are Emicho Gauntlets or Valorous Mitts augmented by Jesus. I have a pair with 40acc/34att/2STP and they still lose to Argosy +1.
ItemSet 331105
ItemSet 342304
Needs no excess store TP. Augment with either DA or Crit Rate/Damage to take advantage of the fact that Rag AG has a colossal 24% crit rate on it with aftermath active
ItemSet 342305
Argosy Body and Hands Path D, rest path A for maximum strongs. This ***has +246 STR in gear l0l


edit note: all of this could be wrong but you're gonna do a brazilian damage with this gear anyway so who cares

Thanks Squah, these sets are nice. I can make some obvious changes to some of my own.

Wry no Apoc love? :*(

For Apoc you should follow the Ragnarok build, and follow Insurgency for Catastrophe -- minus the Prosilio +1. Use either Fotia or... I'll be honest, I don't know what alternative there is lol, I've used Liberator for so long that my Apoc is collecting a massive amount of dust.