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

I just double checked, the hairpin is down to 4M on my server. I still wouldn't spend that much... lol

Unless it's higher than 28% on top of other potency gear I don't see it doing better.

Get the hairpin, it is worth having.

Pretty sure Pixie Hairpin +1 and Archon ring count as affinity so their bonuses would be multiplied separately from drain potency.

Yes, they are both calculated in a separate step, meaning they are both significantly better than any other item that can go into either slot. If you aren't using it, you're just gimping your damage.

I thought LR with desperate blows is only with 10% JA haste?

btw what's Hasso's haste % when it's sub sam?

Not sure why everyone always insists Hasso is useless with LR up, last time i checked both STR and acc help DPS

LR gives you 25% with max merits, Hasso gives 10%, Apoc gives 10%, the cap is 25%. Hasso inflicts a -100% fastcast effect when in use, it really screws up any casting of Stun, Dread Spikes, Drain or Absorbs.

That being said, /WAR is suicide. LR gives -35% defense, Berserk gives -25% and with the monsters ratio cap now 4.0, using both is just asking to be one / two shoted. LR can be maintained almost full time nowadays so the real choice between /WAR and /SAM is around what passive JT's you can get from them.

/WAR = Defense bonus II (+24 defense), +10% DA, +25 acc from Aggressor for 3/5 min.

/SAM = Store TP II (+15 Store TP), Zanshin II (25% chance to reroll a miss), and Meditate (+600 TP every 3min).

Out of all those the Store TP may be the most valuable but the +10% DA from /WAR is really attractive.

Something else to look into is /RUN.

Tenacity III (9% chance to resist status ailment)
Tenacity II (+7% Parry rate)
Magic Defense Bonus II (+12 MDB)
Runes (keep full attack bonus from Endark II).

A note on Runes, because rune effects take priority over enspells, having a rune up prevents endark from procing and therefor prevents endark from gradually losing it's attack bonus.

DRK has plenty of offensive power, it's weakness is in it's ability to survive long enough to exploit that power.

Thanks Saevel, what i am struggling is the Apoc 119III's 10% haste will be useless while LR is up....

Well you also get +15 accuracy from that and be glad, it used to be equipment haste and was even more useless. Apoc has been a defensive weapon for a long time and this just underscores it. LR gives -35% defense down, which can be brutal and end up killing you. With Apoc you can at least get 10% JA haste for this times when your are keeping your HP up and trying to not die.

I view the fix to Apocalypse being more about dropping Desperate Blows merits. (So you'd be at 20% full time from Hasso and AM, and get the remaining 5 ever so often.)

Or not, it's really more of a playstyle option in my eyes.
A give and take compared to a DRK with Liberator or Ragnarok.

Though I think I'm missing something? Merits reduce LR to 4.10 recast. And the new cape only increases duration by 15s? So that's 3.15... I guess that's almost fulltime... 55s off.
Or was there something else I've forgotten?

250 seconds recast, 195 seconds duration means up 78% of the time with a 55s window. That's not really long enough to make any build changes and most importantly, fights will typically be over with in less then three minutes.

Fallen Sollerets+1 reduce LR penalty to -25% I believe.

I like playing on the edge of death though, it's the majority of the reason I enjoy playing DRK. During this past exp campaign I must have died at least 25 times while soloing some CP early in the morning during "Gain Exp." RoV.

That said however... with the Damage taken +50% Plastron set and popping Scarlet Delirium before engaging the first mob I'm riding 3200~3600 attack on average (w/ trusts) one shotting every other mob.

/SAM has it's benefits but with Hasso's (and Seigan's) +100% Recast delay penalty I'll stay /WAR.

Did they change them so that the effect works without them equipped?

Unfortunately no lol

Double checked, yeah the defense penalty decrease drops once you swap them off. Oh well, I just stopped flinching when I see 1k+ dmg to the face.

Wear some DT+ gear and make that ***1500 with Scarlet Delirium up, then change to DT- gear and Drain your *** back to full HP. Then go to town because Scarlet Delirium is awesome.

Honestly I run both seigan and hasso, I am constantly swapping back and forth.

If LR is up I generally don't use Hasso, yeah str +7? (I think) 10 acc (which is nice) but that +50% recast time sucks.

So I normally ride seigan/3rd eye with LR up, helps with direct attacks as well, and I will swap to Hasso when LR down.

I don't like casting with hasso or even using 3rd eye so if I see both my timers are ready I often seigan third eye, cast spell hasso and third eye again. That lowers both 3rd eye recast to 30 second at least once and lowers my spell recast for the spell(s) I just used. I.E. Drain 2/3, Dread Spikes, etc

I don't have AG apoc, yet.... Just finished rag last weekend still need a few more pluton for apoc, hoping to have it AG this weekend.

As for /sam vs /war, it really comes to personal preference. No idea why any drk would ever run both drk and war -def buffs at the same time unless they are bored and want to see how hard they can get slapped in the face by Leaping Lizzy.

I personally prefer /sam, I like the tp gain, and have been hooked on /sam since before the first known Tojil wins. Probably due to the voidwatch area and max buffing thinking 8k reso with hoarfrost was awesome, but we don't have fanatics drinks for every level of content so I don't find a reason to /war as often. Maybe tanking if I run apoc -dt and voke spamming.

If you want to run /sam or /war do it, if not find an alternative or glitch your subjob off in the moghouse (see youtube videos) and see what you can do on drk without a sub. Long as it is effective and not slowing the party down from raises and weakness waits who really cares.

In truth though I really don't see how drks are dying so easy anymore, we have monster hybrid sets, we have potent dread spikes, and we have drain 2/3, most active drks have apoc now as well. (I say active because so few people running drk, and those that do generally are some form of r/e/m)

How does Zulfiqar fare as a GS for DRK? I only have saram +1 gs and macbain (dmg+35 stp+6 acc+15), and I don't really see myself making a weapon at this time. Are there other good alternatives for GS that I can use for the time being?

Also, I hadn't really been using seigan, but that could be very useful. Sadly, I'm already pushing dozens of macros all of the time on DRK, so adding in seigan+3e will probably irritate me. Might be better off for me just summoning August for CP and let him tank.

Also, can someone elaborate on what Scarlet Delirium does? I had thought it converts your damage taken into a percentage of attack and can be fulltimed, but from the comments, it seems it also hurts your defense to some extent? can someone explain?

One more: capped Entropy; What's the verdict? Getting great numbers with Torcleaver/Reso, but just wondering.

Thanks.

also:


At first I thought you were insane, but its really fun living dangerously like this on drk and have the peace of mind knowing its apururu's problem. Having a blast swinging away!

Could try drk/sch and give yourself voidstorm...

Anyway back to drain another thing you could gear for in places you can't get potency or affinity is magic burst damage if you plan on magic bursting your drains.

Seigan+3e will really be helpful to add in your list of macros, since hasso raises your recast, if you are casting anything you will want to use seigan at least during LR to keep your recast timers from going up.

Zulfigar will most likely beat your macbain, can get a great deal of acc on that thing and more dmg than macbain can pull off.

Scarlet Delirium is 50% of the % of damage you take. I.E. 30% of your hp dmg you deal 15% more dmg.

Entropy vs reso/torc. That just isn't even fair. Not saying people can't hit some good numbers with entropy but torc/reso are just nasty for dmg. I still pop entropy when I run scythe, but get better numbers on CR tbh.

Good chance when you get going further on drk you will pull and keep hate off a trust tank. Assuming you are in apex, otherwise you will kill so fast in other cp locations due to mob hp it won't matter if you have a tank.

Good stuff. I already pull hate off the trust tank for reisenjima soloing, but I only really needed something for the initial voke since reso or torcleaver will practically 1 shot it.

Didn't know that bit about seigan - I thought they both increased both timers (recast and casting time). In that case, its a great defensive tool indeed. With Ankou back, though, doesn't LR last all but 1min? so it would only be about 60 seconds of having to Hasso to keep that capped speed on.

Working on zulfiqar, thought so. What about grips? I guess its situational to hit your x-hit build. Was using duplus/bloodrain, but considering Capitoline to get a nice mix of stats.

My LS mates say the same thing. Eh, it's only when I'm solo so I'm not hurting anyone but myself(pun). Just how I prefer to play.


You get a 1:30 to take damage and however much HP you lose percentage wise, halve that and that's how much of an attack boost you gain through Scarlet Delirium. So for example if have 2000 HP and time your Scarlet for say... a throat stab move (99% HP) you get a 49% attack boost.

On the other hand though... if you take negligible damage from a melee attack it's pretty much been wasted. Hence why I use the Plastron set in my macro so I can take 1500 or so damage and start swinging for 1.5~1.8K/swing.

I could be wrong here, but I think they both raise recast of spells, seigan raise is just lower than hasso. Don't quote me on that. All I know is recast timers are lower with seigan, can't remember the details beyond that.

With the Ankou back you get a duration of 3:15 as stated above by FaeQueenCory, that leaves you with a 55 second window without capped JA haste from LR.

As for grips there are numerous options,

Nepenthe Grip +1: Attack+15 "Store TP"+7
Gracile Grip +1: Accuracy+15 Haste +5%
Flanged Grip: Accuracy+10 Magic Accuracy +8 "Double Attack" 1%
Bloodrain Strap: Accuracy +6 "Store TP" +6
Duplus Grip: "Double Attack" 3%

I never used the Duplus when I had it and ended up selling it off.
Basically use what you need in your build.

You are the tank, use the extra spot for a buffing trust and swing harder/faster. :P

Oh so Scarlet Delirium only works when hit with 1 move? Thanks for the grips, I hadn't seen the stats on the new ones.

Exactly, generally I run 3 support and 2 whm on greatsword, or 4 support and 1 whm for apoc (sometimes no whm since I can spam cata at 10k+ in Escha if I go there for cp)

Honestly on both situations it depends on how much I am paying attention, the more I pay attention the less whm I need if any. Drain and dread spikes are absolutely amazing.

Scarlet Delirium grants a damage multiplier - not an attack boost. You won't see your attack number rise when it activates. This distinction is important on a job that has a reasonable shot at capping pDIF on some targets.

edit: works on spells too, including Drain.

It's been forever since I messed with it, but I vaguely recall Scarlet working weird with nukes. Like I seem to recall that instead of boosting damage by a percentage, it just added like half the damage you took to your nukes. I might be misremembering it, but I think it did that.

Is Lugra +1 not the best piece for drains / absorbs? I would have thought 31 potency is better than anything else u can get in those slots

No, it has been said a few times now. Get the Hairpin +1 and Archon Ring. Those have affinity bonus.

Can use Founder body if you don't have Carmine scale mail.