Atma and Merits help

[s_white62]

2 thing what Atma's to use for partying, solo, and NM and 2nd thing on where put merits point towards too please help me out

[Kagato]

VV/RR/GH for parties. I replace GH with Apocalypse for NMs and events. I don't really solo in abyssea so can't help you there.

For merits, distribute between Scythe and Great Sword skill, giving most to your preference or keep it even, whatever floats your boat. Max out Desperate Blows and Last Resort Recast. The rest is really your choice, but I have at least 3 in Muted Soul.

From there, just build those STR, HP/MP and Critical Hit to your tatse, if not maxed out, then stick the rest where you feel comfortable. Really, though, the absolute choice to make is Desperate Blows 5/5 and LR Recast 5/5. Just be wary of what you raise/lower in categories other than DRK since they affect all jobs, which is why raising stats, HP/MP and Crits should be your decision. Since I am a DRK main, I capped STR and Crit rate and Put a majority of my points into HP with only a couple in MP.

This is just a general run-down. Any specific questions you have?

[Zyla420]

i personally went with this as far as drk specific merits go:

5/5 LR recast
5/5 LR effect
5/5 dark seal
5/5 desperate blows

for the rest it's really based on what other jobs you play, choosing merits based on what will mesh well with the other jobs

edit: forgot about atma, depends on what you're doin i suppose. for NMs i like RR/VV/apoc or substitute apoc with sundering slash for ws spamming. though sometimes i like putting minikin on for refresh and to pretend i'm a blm XD. i don't solo on drk much so i can't give insight into that cept apoc is ur fwend.

[Taint2]

5/5 LR recast
5/5 SE recast
5/5 desperate blows
5/5 diabolic eye

Even with a 90apoc and capped gear my Acc is lacking on T3-T4 VW mobs, which makes diabolic eye super useful. Also with the SE update you should be spamming it.

[Rezeak]

I went with 5/5 Muted soul since the -50 enmity (halfs all hate) is pretty useful when a tank is trying to keep hate and ur pumping out a ton of DMG.

i also did
5/5 SE + LR recast
5/5 DB

Like most DRKs

For group 2 the pros and cons are this.

Muted soul
Pros: Alot less hate meaning if ya DD is held back by hate it helps tons
Cons: You don't always use souleater and really it needs to be 3+ to see any effect

Dark seal
Pros: can use 1 DRK spell unresisted every so often it's pretty effective with just one merit in it
Cons: With capped/merited/geared Dark magic skill it isn't really need at all + alot of spell arn't worth meriting it up to 5/5

Diabolic eye
Pro: More acc and is still semi effective at 1/5
Cons: Less hp which effect survivabilty quite a bit.

Desperate blow ... 5/5 this

The normal setups
5/5 Diabolic eye
Basically for those you want the acc bonus every 3/5 mins

5/5 Muted soul
Basically for those who like keep souleater up and not hate locking a mob on them while they do it.

1/5 Dark seal
1/5 Diabolic eye
3/5 Muted soul
Basically i little bit of everything the 1/5 Dark seal and 1/5 diabolic eye allows you to have access to thos abiltys for the odd fight u may DS Drain II for a SE zerg or NM where the 3 mins of boosted acc will help as well as the muted soul allowing a decent amount of hate loss of SE. (this is a good starter build to see if u like muted soul/Dark seal/Diabolic eye)

5/5 Dark seal
for DRKs that need the extra macc or spam drain II (i dunno really)

[Taint2]

5/5 muted soul is just silly nowadays. Back when DRKs were zerging kirin, tiamat etc it had some use but now the hate caps are reached fast enough that- 50 emn isn't doing much.

[Rezeak]

And i think 5/5 Diabolic eye is silly since DRK has plenty of acc and the HP loss is too much.

Honestly calling someone out because of there choice between Dark seal, Muted soul and D.Eye is retarded as they are all flawed in some way and it's like saying ur car sucks because blue is faster.

In Voidwalker in my linkshell we don't really need DRKs (maybe for a T3/4 we havn't done is different) we generally use mainly ranged DDs like SMN BLM RNG which means i usally play SMN COR SCH or WHM so if that is the only place it's useful it's 100% useless for me i still would rater the +15% hp tho

Not to say muted soul is any better or the OMG this is what DRK needs like you said u cap hate really easily but i still find times when it is useful.

[Taint2]

And i think 5/5 Diabolic eye is silly since DRK has plenty of acc and the HP loss is too much.

Honestly calling someone out because of there choice between Dark seal, Muted soul and D.Eye is retarded as they are all flawed in some way and it's like saying ur car sucks because blue is faster

You aren't capping ACC on every mob. Which makes diabolic eye infinitely better then muted soul. Again muted soul is doing little to nothing for you. It had situational use at 75 when DRK was topping zerg parses, now its useless.

If Im not capped on ACC on a mob no other DRK is. My gear is perfect and I have a 90poc. Id entertain an arguement for Dark seal but you have 15 merits in the wrong spot, fix it.

[Rezeak]

You aren't capping ACC on every mob. Which makes diabolic eye infinitely better then muted soul. Again muted soul is doing little to nothing for you. It had situational use at 75 when DRK was topping zerg parses, now its useless.

If Im not capped on ACC on a mob no other DRK is. My gear is perfect and I have a 90poc. Id entertain an arguement for Dark seal but you have 15 merits in the wrong spot, fix it.

Sorry u have an apoc an i need to merit my DRK for a mob i never fight on DRK

Either way i'd never use a -15% hp abilty since it increases the chances i would die.

Edit: My reasoning is that muted soul has no side effect except if ya using SE as a hate tool and therefore at the least it could save me even 1% of the time for no cost imo

With Diabolic eye on mobs where i need a the acc the -15% hp(-250-300 hp) increases the chances i would die quite a bit because alot of those mobs have highly dmging move either way point is i never would use it where as muted i use it all the time and even if it's not 100% useful it's just there.

O and on the last note if i REALLY REALLY REALLY needed acc i'll just dual box a BRD thx

Either we're arguein about something that has no effect on DRK what so ever i mean u can argue that u can kill T3/4 voidwalker like 2-3% quicker but honestly speed isn't the big thing there unless it's a T3/4 i havn't done that need to be killed quickly and even then i wouldn't use it cause it would gimp my SE DMG lol.

[Taint2]

Sorry u have an apoc an i need to merit my DRK for a mob i never fight on DRK

Either way i'd never use a -15% hp abilty since it increases the chances i would die.

Edit: My reasoning is that muted soul has no side effect except if ya using SE as a hate tool and therefore at the least it could save me even 1% of the time for no cost imo

With Diabolic eye on mobs where i need a the acc the -15% hp(-250-300 hp) increases the chances i would die quite a bit because alot of those mobs have highly dmging move either way point is i never would use it where as muted i use it all the time and even if it's not 100% useful it's just there.

O and on the last note if i REALLY REALLY REALLY needed acc i'll just dual box a BRD thx

Either we're arguein about something that has no effect on DRK what so ever i mean u can argue that u can kill T3/4 voidwalker like 2-3% quicker but honestly speed isn't the big thing there unless it's a T3/4 i havn't done that need to be killed quickly and even then i wouldn't use it cause it would gimp my SE DMG lol.

You are talking yourself into circles of no sense. An ability to save you 1% of the time vs an ability that can be used quite often. 200 hp isn't going to kill you, if the mob can 1shot you you'll have some sort of mitigation and for the rest of the time its aiding your damage. Whether its a VWNM, a dynamis NM or you are using an odd weapon to help with a proc.

You can sing mad with your BRD ill stick to marches. Just like you can stick to a useless trait and Ill stick to a useful ability.