The Definitive Dark Knight Guide

^ yea i see what you mean.

Way back use to use Mercy Stroke macro'd into an ability or another. Stopped doing that.

Tried Macroing Blood Weapon & Blood Price together - didn't like that either (I'd have to hit the macro repeatedly between GCDs, as tapping it just once doesn't seem to make it trigger if I hit it too soon)

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Originally Posted by Giantbane

I'm not sure how people are using DA + SE all that often when tanking unless they're dropping Grit and Using Blood Weapon. Since DA + SE is such a low priority, I rarely find I have enough mana to use it more than 1x per minute (maybe) in a single target fight.

This is with only using 1-2 power slash combos to start the fight and doing siphon combos (SE / DL) from that point on.



On lower level content like EX: DR, I find the extra SE's allow healers to stay in cleric longer.

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Wth are you using the rest of your mana on lol you should be able to throw out at least 3 or 4 a minute not just 1. Hell I find I usually have enough mana to throw dark arts onto CaS for the dps gain.

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Originally Posted by Allyrion

What are people using in A1S for the Plasma buster? What do you save for it?
I don't know if it's cause we have an AST or just me, but the boss hits pretty hard outside of the buster.
You can use anything at the start of the fight and it'll be up by the first Plasma, but what have you guys been using to survive it?

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Yes, you can pop every ability except Living Dead & it will be up in time for Plasma. I actually do so I can tank without Grit until the Oppressor 0.5 spawns.

Hydrothermal Missile cast ends -> Shadowskin
Royal Fount -> Dark Arts
Begins casting Hypercompressed Plasma -> Dark Mind

As long as you didn't burn Dark Arts on another ability by accident this reduces damage taken to 11000~11800 damage. I prefer to save Shadow Wall to eat Pod/Fount so I can keep Grit off longer.

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Originally Posted by Drtoxicmedica

Wth are you using the rest of your mana on lol you should be able to throw out at least 3 or 4 a minute not just 1. Hell I find I usually have enough mana to throw dark arts onto CaS for the dps gain.

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unmend if i'm ever away from the boss and it won't break my combo > dark passenger > DA + carve & spit

maybe DA + Dark Mind depending on the fight?

only use DA + SE if I already have enough for all of the above.

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Originally Posted by Giantbane

unmend if i'm ever away from the boss and it won't break my combo > dark passenger > DA + carve & spit

maybe DA + Dark Mind depending on the fight?

only use DA + SE if I already have enough for all of the above.

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Are you literally running out of mana or sitting on a decent amount? I find once I know the fight well I can usually run my MP pretty low without accidently losing darkside should at least be able to DA SE everyother combo or so.

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Originally Posted by Drtoxicmedica

Are you literally running out of mana or sitting on a decent amount? I find once I know the fight well I can usually run my MP pretty low without accidently losing darkside should at least be able to DA SE everyother combo or so.

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Try to stay around 50-60% unless I absolutely know I'm not going to want to use it soon, need to burn something down fast, or want a big self heal.

But it shouldn't make any difference, spending all your MP doesn't make you get it back any faster, so as long as I'm not running out of MP completely, keeping myself at 20% isn't going to make me regen mp faster for more DA+SEs.

It takes ~15s for 2 siphon combos to cover the cost of 1 dark arts. So assuming blood price was going to cover the cost of darkside every minute (kinda doubt it against a single boss), we only generate about 4 dark arts worth of mana per minute if we have 100% up time on the boss. 1 DA is going to be for C&S and another DA's worth of mp is going to dark passenger. Which leaves at most 2 DA + SE's per minute under the best conditions. Even throwing out sole survivor on adds isn't even going to give you another DA's worth of MP to use.

Hello

Any lv60 DRK using controller could share his bars?

thx!

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Originally Posted by Allyrion

What are people using in A1S for the Plasma buster? What do you save for it?
I don't know if it's cause we have an AST or just me, but the boss hits pretty hard outside of the buster.
You can use anything at the start of the fight and it'll be up by the first Plasma, but what have you guys been using to survive it?

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I've been using Shadowskin + DA Dark Mind on first, Shadowwall + DA Dark Mind on second, third same as first again. Living Dead if healers are in a bad spot or I want to stockpile CDs back up. I usually take 7-9k from the plasma, so I don't really see a reason to stack more CDs than that.

My computer keyboard layout is as per below (without explanation for the reasoning).

Hotbar 1:
1 = Provoke
2 = Unleash
3 = Unmend. Macro icon = Plunge
4 = Low Blow
5 = Macro: Reprisal --> Plunge --> Dark Passenger. Macro icon = Dark Passenger
6 = Macro: Mercy Stroke --> Hard Slash. Macro icon = Hard Slash
7 = Syphon Strike
8 = Macro: Blood Weapon --> Blood Price --> Soul Eater. Macro icon = Soul Eater
9 = Scourge
0 = Defensive macro: Dark Dance, Shadowskin, Foresight, Shadow Wall
- = Carve and Spit
= = Dark Arts

Hotbar 2:
Ctrl 1 = whatever you want
Ctrl 2 = Salted Earth
Ctrl 3 = Abyssal Drain
Ctrl 4 = Sole Survivor
Ctrl 5 = whatever you want
Ctrl 6 = Spinning Slash
Ctrl 7 = Macro: Blood Price --> Power Slash. Macro icon = Power Slash
Ctrl 8 = Delirium
Ctrl 9 = whatever you want
Ctrl 0 = Dark Mind
Ctrl - = Macro: party chat on use of living dead + Living Dead. Macro icon = Living Dead
Ctrl = = Sprint

Hotbar 3:
Alt 1 = Reprisal
Alt 2 = Shadowskin
Alt 3 = Foreskin
Alt 4 = Shadow Wall
Alt 5 = Convalescence
Alt 6 = Awareness
Alt 7 = Dark Dance
Alt 8 = Blood Price
Alt 9 = Blood Weapon
Alt 0 = Mercy Stroke
Alt - = Darkside
Alt = = Grit

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Originally Posted by Hysterior

Any lv60 DRK using controller could share his bars?

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Here's mine (Only 2 bars needed) :
Left trigger:

• Left: Reprisal
• Up : SoulEater
• Down : Delirium
• Right : Syphon Strike

• Square : Hard Slash
• Triangle : Spinning Slash
• Cross : Dark Passenger
• Circle : Power Slash

Right trigger:

• Left: Shadow Skin
• Up : Shadow Wall
• Down : Dark Dance
• Right : Foresight

• Square : Provoke (Macro)
• Triangle : Unmend
• Cross : Low Blow
• Circle : Unleash

Left trigger+Right trigger:

• Left: Salted Earth
• Up : Scourge
• Down : Plunge
• Right : Abyssal Drain

• Square : Darkside
• Triangle : Sole Surviror
• Cross : Dark Arts
• Circle : Grit

Right trigger+Left trigger:

• Left: Blood Bath
• Up : Awareness
• Down : Dark Mind
• Right : Blood Weapon

• Square : Carve and Spit
• Triangle : Blood Price
• Cross : Convalescence
• Circle : Living Dead (Macro)

Hope that helps :)

Here's how I have my DRK set up on controller.
I'm sure it's easy to see my thought process when setting it up. Hotbar 1 is enmity and tanking cooldowns mainly, hotbar 2 is where I mostly stay once hate is secured, whilst I use Expanded controls for things that I need to get to quickly regardless of what I'm doing.

Hotbar 1
L1
UP: Dark Dance
Left: Shadow Wall
Right: Forsight
Down: Shadow Skin

Triangle: Blood Price
Square: Dark Mind
Circle: Living Dead
Cross: Convalescence

R1
UP: Unleash
Left: Abyssal Drain
Right: Unmend
Down: Plunge

Triangle: Power Slash
Square: Scourge
Circle: Spinning Slash
Cross: Hard Slash

Hotbar 2
L1
UP: Mercy Stroke
Left: Provoke
Right: Sole Survivor
Down: Dark Passenger

Triangle: Blood Price
Square: Salted Earth
Circle: Bloodbath
Cross: Blood Weapon

R1
UP: Reprisal
Left: Carve and Spit
Right: Plunge
Down: Low Blow

Triangle: Delerium
Square: Souleater
Circle: Syphon Strike
Cross: Hard Slash

Expanded Controls
Both (but you can set most of this as you like or use for PVP actions)
UP: Limit Break
Left: Grit
Right: Strength Pot of your choice
Down: Darkside

Triangle: Low Blow
Square: Carve and Spit
Circle: Dark Mind
Cross: Dark Arts

how important is it to be able to get 2 oGCDs in between your GCD?

I seem to be about 100 dps behind all of the highest DRK parses that I've seen, and I just don't know where else I could make it up except that my internet connection only allows me to use one oGCD between each GCD without a VPN.

You can't always do 2 oGCDs between your GCDs. It depends on which combinations of oGCDs you're using. Every oGCDs have their own animation-lock, some of them can be interrupted really fast (any buffs, Carve & Spit, ...), while some others can't (Plunge).
Also some combinations of 2 oGCDs aren't possible whenever you have Blood Weapon on, so that's something you'll have to figure out yourself in the long run.

But in any case being able to put 2 oGCDs between your GCDs won't give you 100 more DPS, so I'd say it's not that important.

Hello,

First of all, thank you for the DK guide. It was really helpful to get me through the dungeons and tanking. As first time tanker in FF, I really quite enjoy it. (Was playing WHM before)

Anyway, I got a question regarding some boss battles.

i.e. Ifrit and Ramuh Extreme is the battle where the 2 tanks need to switch after debuff stacks, and the problem is when I was off tanking, and I need to take over the Boss from the main tank, I seem to not be able to take over the boss agro off from the main tank which leaves them dead because debuff stacks / damage becomes too high.

I have used the enmity rotation that you have listed in your guide.
Starting with "Unmend"
Then the rotation of Dark Arts > Hard Slash > Spinning Slash > Power Slash.

But somehow the boss wont switch his agro to me and keep sticking his agro on the Paladin or warrior. I hope someone can help me out.

Thank you in advance.

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Originally Posted by indootje

Snip.

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Do you have provoke cross-classed? You need to use provoke in order to take over.

Basically, you should prepare your combo like this:

Hard Slash > Spinning Slash > Provoke > Power Slash.

Don't bother using Dark Arts on Power Slash, it's too much mana for a very week additional aggro multiplier (from 5.5x to 6.5x).

If you're afraid to be late, you can just use Provoke and follow up with Unmend or Unleash. But a prepped Power Slash combo is the safest snap aggro.

Oh I see. I guess I have to level a paladin then.

DK is the first tanking class I have played, hence have no provoke. Thanks for the info, ill level Paladin right away then.

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Originally Posted by indootje

Oh I see. I guess I have to level a paladin then.

DK is the first tanking class I have played, hence have no provoke. Thanks for the info, ill level Paladin right away then.

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Ideally, you wanna get PLD to 34 for Awareness. But if you don't want to, then at least get to 22 for Provoke. Marauder to 26 for Mercy Stroke is nice, but you don't really "need" it any higher than level 8 for Blood Bath.

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Originally Posted by Drtoxicmedica

Wth are you using the rest of your mana on lol you should be able to throw out at least 3 or 4 a minute not just 1. Hell I find I usually have enough mana to throw dark arts onto CaS for the dps gain.

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When you say "Hell, I find I usually have enough mana for DA C&S", you make it sound like you're not doing that normally. Should you, though? I feel like the priorities for mana are DA C&S > Dark Passenger > DA Soul Eater

If you divide mana spent by potency gained, DA C&S and even Dark Passenger vs 1 target comes out ahead of DA Soul Eater. DA Soul Eater is for when C&S and DP are on CD and you have excess mana. I'm open to any DRKs disagreeing and explaining why, but I've never used C&S for mana unless I just messed up my MP by not paying attention or something.

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Originally Posted by Lawson_Grey

When you say "Hell, I find I usually have enough mana for DA C&S", you make it sound like you're not doing that normally. Should you, though? I feel like the priorities for mana are DA C&S > Dark Passenger > DA Soul Eater

If you divide mana spent by potency gained, DA C&S and even Dark Passenger vs 1 target comes out ahead of DA Soul Eater. DA Soul Eater is for when C&S and DP are on CD and you have excess mana. I'm open to any DRKs disagreeing and explaining why, but I've never used C&S for mana unless I just messed up my MP by not paying attention or something.

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Honestly depends on the fight. Imo if your using DK on C&S but losing out on 2 SE it's not really worth it if mana is on the lower spectrum. And you'll need a little mana for dark mind or DP for adds etc. What I mean by find mp for it simply means I tend to usually have mp for it regardless of situation. Really only matters on certain bosses or fights that aren't straight dummy fights.

DK should be DA stupid auto correct

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Originally Posted by Drtoxicmedica

. Imo if your using DK on C&S but losing out on 2 SE it's not really worth it

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That doesn't make sense. They both cost one Dark Arts to boost. Boosting C&S gets you 350 potency gained over the 100 C&S normally gives. DA Souleater only gives 160 of a boosted potency (240 normally, 400 with DA). C&S restores exactly half of a Dark Arts in terms of mana (About 800-850). You would not lose out on 2 souleaters because C&S only ever returns enough mana for HALF of a Dark Arts. Which means DA Souleater comes to 240 potency vs C&S 300 if you add half of a DA SE to a full DA SE. Or you could look at it is using C&S twice to get one more DA SE, which is obviously not worth it.

It's ALWAYS better to use DA C&S instead of DA Souleater. DA C&S > Dark Passenger vs 1 target > DA SE is just how the math works out.

The only time I'd ever use C&S without DA is if I messed up managing my mana and got too low to handle a boss mechanic, such as burning all my MP and not having enough to Dark Arts Dark Mind in AS1. But I just try to not do that and stay one step ahead.

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Originally Posted by Lawson_Grey

That doesn't make sense. They both cost one Dark Arts to boost. Boosting C&S gets you 350 potency gained over the 100 C&S normally gives. DA Souleater only gives 160 of a boosted potency (240 normally, 400 with DA). C&S restores exactly half of a Dark Arts in terms of mana (About 800-850). You would not lose out on 2 souleaters because C&S only ever returns enough mana for HALF of a Dark Arts. Which means DA Souleater comes to 240 potency vs C&S 300 if you add half of a DA SE to a full DA SE. Or you could look at it is using C&S twice to get one more DA SE, which is obviously not worth it.

It's ALWAYS better to use DA C&S instead of DA Souleater. DA C&S > Dark Passenger vs 1 target > DA SE is just how the math works out.

The only time I'd ever use C&S without DA is if I messed up managing my mana and got too low to handle a boss mechanic, such as burning all my MP and not having enough to Dark Arts Dark Mind in AS1. But I just try to not do that and stay one step ahead.

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DA+SE isn't even really worth 140 extra potency. If you weren't using DA + SE you'd be using Delerium (dps purposes only) which is 280 pot. So DA + SE is really only adding 120pot.

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Originally Posted by Giantbane

DA+SE isn't even really worth 140 extra potency. If you weren't using DA + SE you'd be using Delerium (dps purposes only) which is 280 pot. So DA + SE is really only adding 120pot.

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Good point! You wouldn't ever use regular SE anyway, which puts DA C&S and Dark Passenger even further ahead in terms of MP priority.

You mention a DE rotation for MP replenishment but you didn't specify what DE was and list it several times. I'm trying to understand this guide but I'm a little lost. Here are a few examples where you mention DE but there's no examination what you mean by It

2. The DE rotation is your second highest DPS rotation at 680 potency. This should be used if you need to replenish some MP and/or if you need to keep the -10% INT buff up

Do I need to recoup MP? Chill out with a few DE rotations to maintain DPS and get some MP back


Can you revise this and add DE and what it means. Thanks!

DE = Delirium. In the OP it's suppose to be DL but players on here are interchanging

Just for the giggles, could you guys try out INT accessories in 4-man/8-man raids (the latter being obviously survival/crit melded but obviously just in 4-man to tread possibly thin ice?) My DRK friend tells me it admittedly immediately provides noticeable differences in AOE damage, thereby almost doubling self healing.

It's a fun/interesting idea.

Out of my own ignorance I've almost spread misinformation regard my post, I've been informed the above suggestion does not work at all for anything. I apologize.

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Originally Posted by Shining_Tiger_Excalibur

Just for the giggles, could you guys try out INT accessories in 4-man/8-man raids (the latter being obviously survival/crit melded but obviously just in 4-man to tread possibly thin ice?) My DRK friend tells me it admittedly immediately provides noticeable differences in AOE damage, thereby almost doubling self healing.

It's a fun/interesting idea.

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No Shining, we already debunked the INT not working in the other thread. :P

Guys, don't try INT on DRK!

I was just ahead of you Phoenicia but not far enough lol.

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Originally Posted by Lawson_Grey

Good point! You wouldn't ever use regular SE anyway, which puts DA C&S and Dark Passenger even further ahead in terms of MP priority.

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If your talking out of tank stance yeah C&S always used with dark arts however in grit without blood weapon I tend to only use it if I have Hugh mp at the time simply because I'd prefer getting healed a bit since I tend to play very aggressive in terms of my hp. It's really only 50 potency more than buffed soul eater. In grit if I have the mp I'll dark arts it other wise I prefer to just SE more often. There's no difference in any of my parses prioritizing either in fights.

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Originally Posted by Drtoxicmedica

If your talking out of tank stance yeah C&S always used with dark arts however in grit without blood weapon I tend to only use it if I have Hugh mp at the time simply because I'd prefer getting healed a bit since I tend to play very aggressive in terms of my hp. It's really only 50 potency more than buffed soul eater. In grit if I have the mp I'll dark arts it other wise I prefer to just SE more often. There's no difference in any of my parses prioritizing either in fights.

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How do you play very aggressive in terms of your HP while being in Grit (where the heal makes a difference)? just stand in AoE?

50 potency is looking at it wrong. DA adds 120 potency to SE (over delirium), DA adds 350 potency to C&S. The difference is 230 potency.

What's the point of Unleash once you get Abyssal Drain?

Unleash's use is being slightly cheaper MP-wise.
Abyssal Drain costs about 100 more MP at level 60 in exchange for being usable at range and dealing slightly more damage (120 potency versus Unleash's 100), and giving an HP drain effect when used with Dark Arts.
If you're not going to use Dark Arts on Abyssal Drain, it comes down to a matter of taste.

Also I personally just don't like the animation for Abyssal Drain.

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Originally Posted by Giantbane

How do you play very aggressive in terms of your HP while being in Grit (where the heal makes a difference)? just stand in AoE?

50 potency is looking at it wrong. DA adds 120 potency to SE (over delirium), DA adds 350 potency to C&S. The difference is 230 potency.

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Right. But between the 2 it's a difference of 50 potency. And it's simply to add to overall hp recovery as apposed to pure dps. not save my ass levels of healing but to help ease healing needed. Regardless of how you look at it there have been no difference in my dps numbers using C&S for mp while in tank stance. So that's how I use it. Unless I need to do delirium I just double up on buffed souleaters. Mind you I only use it for mp while in tank stance thats it. rarely am I in tank stance the whole fight and if I am in grit it's because mitigation is helpfull. But i mean heaven forbid I don't buff C&S spit everytime sorry.

I'm only 55 but I find that my MP is usually at around 85%+. Should I be using it more for damage? Not having many aggro problems.

You should be using Power Slash as little as possible.
It's your lowest potency combo, and with Darkside on it is a net MP loss.
In trash pulls you might not want to burn your MP too much (you need it for the next trash pull) but versus bosses you should be using Dark Arts Souleater as much as your MP will allow.

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Originally Posted by Misha_Tameshigiri

Unleash's use is being slightly cheaper MP-wise.
Abyssal Drain costs about 100 more MP at level 60 in exchange for being usable at range and dealing slightly more damage (120 potency versus Unleash's 100), and giving an HP drain effect when used with Dark Arts.
If you're not going to use Dark Arts on Abyssal Drain, it comes down to a matter of taste.

Also I personally just don't like the animation for Abyssal Drain.

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Unleash also does not break current weaponskill combos like Abyssal does. Besides, having the radius AOE around yourself can be quite more comfortable than around a target hitboxwise. (big enemies tend to eat the whole radius up even when small ones are directly next to them, See A2(S))

Not sure if it's been discussed but, where does Pot fit in to an optimal in-raid opener? The lack of ramp-up and large amount of oGCD usage leads me to suspect it'd be extremely early on, if not pre-pull or immediately after Unmend.

I use pot right after Unmend for the reasons you stated. Since I use Dark Arts prepull > Unmend > Scourge + Carve and Spit > etc, I'd like to have that Pot going ASAP to affect Scourge and Carve and Spit, and then the rest of the opening rotation along with all the off global cooldowns.

Take care if you're not MTing as this usually rips aggro for a second even without grit.

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Originally Posted by Lawson_Grey

I use pot right after Unmend for the reasons you stated. Since I use Dark Arts prepull > Unmend > Scourge + Carve and Spit > etc, I'd like to have that Pot going ASAP to affect Scourge and Carve and Spit, and then the rest of the opening rotation along with all the off global cooldowns.

Take care if you're not MTing as this usually rips aggro for a second even without grit.

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Just out of curiosity, why would you unmend if you're not the MT? I think if you omit that, you'd be fine on aggro.