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

I must have forgotten to mention that's in Escha-Ru'an.

Yes, I do go /war. Yes I'm insane enough to ride Berserk because it's how I get my jollies. But I was mainly coming from the vantage point of soloing. Sorry if I missed the point of being in a CP party.

I've cp'd on other jobs on crawlers though, but then again they were mixed melee blm SC+MB parties. Like I said, just throwing that out there.

/Backs away slowly... then sprints towards the horizon!

kthxbai.

Anyone got suggestion for Apoc 119III setup? any chance to self-sc as it has no 2-3 hits AM. Was thinking to make Apoc or Lib but it seems making Apoc is a wrong move....

Its not a "wrong" move. It depends on what you prioritize.
Liberator insurgency spam > Apoc catastrophe spam.

Now that that is out of the way, Apoc CAN be a superior i119 III choice in my opinion.

If you are dedicated DRK and buff your drain III's, and get above 6k HP(min.), you are walking death with souleater up. Being able to drain back all your HP while still doing 10-17k damage is a lot of fun. Also look into the changes made towards Catastrophe's aftermath once you hit i119 III.

However, insurgency is a superior raw dmg WS and if you can maintain Lv.III aftermath (which is far easier said than done)the occ. Atk thrice is going to shine.

My playstyle however, I prefer Apoc. Aftermath maintenance is much much easier with relics and empyreans, the accuracy bonus from it also allows me to make use of other slots, and being able to restore my own HP, while doing dmg, and increasing my own haste is too good.

You can make the argument that better Abs spells from Liberator is more utility, but I don't personally see it as that great.

So what do you think?

Is more haste, more accuracy, more survivability inferior to 2-3% more dmg?

Also, this does appear to show a warrior killing an Apex crab without GEO buffs in about 35 seconds and I believe that is indeed a Ukon being used. Pretty sure a Conqueror could have done it in 28-32 seconds with same buffs. Throw in Indi-Haste, Frailty and geo fury and I'm certain an Apex crab can be downed in 15 seconds with that same war.

Do I think other jobs can do this? No. WAR has retaliation.

Somethings up with that video, there is no trust with that name, looks like a GEO doing indi-frailty or a BRD doing songs, Has shield and what looks like a club in main hand.

Also it's using Warcry which is a 60s buff that gives 12% attack and more importantly +700 TP Bonus but has a five minute recast. That buff is amazing and responsible for my WAR being able to crush so much CL130~135 content. It's not something you can count on being up full time in contentious content. Without the FFXI dat mods that give individual buffs different icons I can't see exactly what he's using but I'm betting it's every WAR JA up at once, all of which have rather long cool downs. So basically using all hits buffs his can kill one bat in 35 seconds.



This is EVERY SINGLE BAT in less then 20s for over an hour, not just when the camera was rolling with a single short duration buff.


So 35s instead of under 20s and using all JA's to kill one mob instead of constant mobs for over an hour straight while using a GEO and therefor not "soloing with trusts". A 75% exaggeration in kill time coupled with using short duration super buffs and another mule doing buffs or debuffs. This is why I mentioned earlier that people say "soloing" to mean multi-boxing things instead of actual soloing.

See here is why I knew he was shitting everyone, I went out with my own GEO friend and did all these things, though I used a mule RDM instead. Testing doing that exact SC, I was even the person who told people on the WAR forums that was the five step double light SC WAR's could use with GAXE. Used various weapons on different Apex mobs to determine the requirements. I even have a Chango that I tested for the +SC damage and Radiance.

Basically he was bullshitting everyone and hoping nobody caught on. Giving another job Retaliation wouldn't change anything as they can already get TP fast enough, it was Warcry's big boost along with his dual-boxed BRD or GEO that did it. If I go down there with a BRD or GEO and only time one kill with AM already activated with all cooldowns used then I know I can I can easily kill one monster in 30s. It's the average time over the course of the entire party that matters.

That doesn't look remotely like a GEO.

I don't disagree on the silliness of the hyperboles I see people making, though.

Next we'll move the goalposts to having an unpartied RDM dualbox and ***, because anyone can do that, right?

I think I might have found something interesting, and I have no idea why it's happening. Maybe there is a legit reason, but I don't know of it. Does anyone else notice that Endark II is giving accuracy along with attack? Anyone know why?

I think I might have found something interesting, and I have no idea why it's happening. Maybe there is a legit reason, but I don't know of it. Does anyone else notice that Quietus has a 100% miss rate when it's the fourth step in a skillchain? Anyone know why?

SE trollin'

lolDRKacc

Yeah i'm getting +20 acc tonight from it, not sure if it was there before though lol

I am getting 10 acc from it with 546 dark skill

You have ten points into your Endark job point category, don't you?

and conversation over lol

Really behind here. What's the 2/3/4 step skillchain for dark knight with GS? Scythe?

I'd answer you, but you're a Galka.

As if that wasn't bad enough, you're also a server hopping traitor. Don't you enjoy doing nothing all day like the rest of Lakshmi?!

Still <3 you regardless.

You never invited me to do anything. You made a post a while back about GEOs who club and interrupt your skillchain. I wasn't wanted. Besides, in 2 months, Lakshmi is getting merged with Asura anyways. Just getting an early start.

GS Light, only possibly with Rag, Dark not possibly.
Resolution -> Torcleaver (Ground Strike) -> Scourge -> Resolution -> Torcleaver

Scythe Dark,
Cross Reaper -> Insurgency -> Entropy -> Cross Reaper -> Quietus (if still need)

Scythe Light,
Entropy -> Guillotine -> Entropy -> Insurgency

The last accuracy gift for DRK is in the 1500s somewhere, and it's 8 accuracy.

Eight. Goddamn. Accuracy.

Dammit, this was the one I was neglecting.

where can i find info about this server merge? not seen anything about it anywhere

Just want to back up and comment that crawlers are a far safer solo with trusts than raptors. Koru and Qultada are usually on the ball about dispelling cocoon and I'd rather deal with the occasional gimped WS than hitting orange HP with how ADD Apururu seems to be sometimes. Seem less evasive too, but that might just be me making progress. No Matamatas to deal with either.

what are the qualifications for soloing Apex Erucas? Been doing reisenjima in my offtime for the occasional NM pop for sellables, but faster XP is always welcome.

I'm guessing just a great acc build with trusts works, but are you using August to take the heat off the healer? Also, are you self-skillchaining with scythe, or do you have ragnarok?

Well this is on blu but it should work on drk too when you have LR up.

August/Amchuchu doesn't matter which.
Shantotto II.
Qultada.
Arciela.
Apururu.

With the amount of SCs that were going off most of Shantotto's spells did 6-7k and she would do 2-3 per MB. Apururu's mp was never really an issue as Qultada had chaos/evokers on while ring was down and the rings didn't last that long really. Qultada and Arciela always got cocoon right away.

I'd say you would probably better off with scythe for the easier SCs on the Erucas. If you do raptors then go with Reso spam as they are squishy and something other than Shantotto II.

If you can do Raptors, you can do Erucas. They don't link FYI and not having to navigate around Matas makes pulling the non-127s easier.

You don't need a tank because they won't be doing any tanking. Replace it with another buffer of your choice. Even a weak march is nice for LR downtime. With LR up you can ride Seigan/3E if you like. I might switch to Sylvie in this spot and switch Apururu to Cherukiki, but I worry for her MP.

Crawlers with Scythe doing the full 5-step you'll want to shitcan Arciela because her favorite hobby is *** up skillchains. Koru-Moru isn't fanning the mob with sexy-but-pointless moves so is very prompt about dispelling, even if he's a dumbshit sometimes and wants to Phalanx II you before Haste II because you always have hate.

This leaves only Qultada and Shantotto *** up your skillchains, but he rarely gets TP and she usually picks something you can continue from, only exception is closing Light off your Fusion step. Sometimes you might as well just be going Entropy-Quietus when she's close to 1k so she'll either give you the a darkness for Quietus or a Fragmentation(?) for Insurgency Light. She can also double dark but it's garbage, so just let her have the Entropy opener.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/47586/apex-camps/2#3108787

There is the Accuracy and Defense of those mobs so you know what to shoot for. I'd kill Raptors though, they squishy and have no defensive TP moves so you can tear them up.

Funnily enough Arciela doesn't do anything to mess any skillchains up, none of her TP moves do damage and she gives you att up, now if you are being stupid and using Arciela II then you deserve it. She generally goes to dispel as soon as cocoon is up unless Qultada got there first but yeah that's the normal Arciela not Arciela II.

The only thing I don't like about Raptors is their tendency to stun on the third or forth step of my skillchains. They also do plauge iirc. Trust healers are occasionally slow and getting rid of that ***.

You guys have shown me a great new camp that I felt like I was severely underskilled for. Turns out I can chain Raptors fairly easily (takes me about 1.5 minutes to do first mob, since I have to setup Darkness NVDS -> Drain 2 for 3k MB, the Dread Spikes).

The advice here is useful, but I would mention that Raptors are certainly a royal pain. Very squishy, but as mentioned by Trulusia, they have the propensity to always halt my SC, as Third Eye wears off at the worst time. Will try Erucas today. The occasional Matamata is pretty irritating as well, but its great CP.

I'd also like to add that, maybe its jus me, but I usually prefer to just do 3-step double dark (Quietus > Entropy > Quietus) and then MB drain off of that, since its less of a risk of it being interrupted. I have success doing the 4 step, but anything after that is kind of troubling for me to pull off. Plus the dmg from Guillotine/Insurgency is rather weak. I could be lacking some STP which is the clear difference. Only time I;ve been able to hit 5 step is with Soul Enslavement.

I do understand that the SC is really for Shantotto, who will be spam happy with her nukes and add tremendous dmg over time.

Gaddammit.

Koru does Dia 3 though, and is a little more accessible.