The Definitive Dark Knight Guide

[Docfiord_Fowling]

Still low level but reading things ahead. Your comment got me thinking. Sounds like blood weapon is perfect with living dead?

Blood Weapon replenishes MP, not HP So... no, it would not work so well.

[SpecialKK]

Blood Weapon replenishes MP, not HP So... no, it would not work so well.

I was thinking more along the lines of grit doesn't matter while in living dead, so why mitigate? Just pop BW, get MP back and dps hard. If you survive, turn grit back on with a healthy pool of mp

[Docfiord_Fowling]

I was thinking more along the lines of grit doesn't matter while in living dead, so why mitigate? Just pop BW, get MP back and dps hard. If you survive, turn grit back on with a healthy pool of mp

Walking Dead lasts for 10 seconds. You can get 3 out-of-grit GCDs in that time. The 4th would be to turn Grit back on for 1326 MP. If you can generate more than that amount of MP in 3 GCDs, then yeah, its worth. Otherwise, the slight DPS increase seems like a much bigger hassle than it is worth.

[Rhaja]

It would be situation, but in that amount of time you can easily get back to full.

However Living Dead has never worked for me. Not that its bugged, but that I can never get back because the healer isn't able to, or is already dead. As it is right now, Living Dead is sadly more of a "How can I best leave my party" state. I've used it to set up the aoe blind, to stun and get Salted Earth and Scourge on everything I can, or to hold the ground and tell the dps (friends at this instance) to run back to the healer. Oh, or at the end of a fight because I'm trying to hold the boss for the DPS for those precious ten seconds (mostly level 50 EX fights)

One day it'll be in a better state =;[

[Docfiord_Fowling]

We're doing some confirmation testing right now, but here's all the requirements we know about Living Dead

You must receive heals equal to your total HP amount. (10,000 HP needs 10,000 points of healing)
Benediction alone does not work. Over heals do not count, so a Benediction will restore 100% -1 HP. You need to then take damage and heal up via a healer, self healing, or the natural HP tick.

[Docfiord_Fowling]

We just did some testing and got some very interesting results.

1. Aggro a mob
2. Active Living Dead
3. HP drops below 0 - Walking Dead is up
4. Kill the enemy
5. Benediction

SUCCESS

1. Aggro a mob
2. Active Living Dead
3. HP drops below 0 - Walking Dead is up
4. Have an off tank provoke the enemy and establish aggro
5. Benediction

SUCCESS

1. Aggro a mob
2. Active Living Dead
3. HP drops below 0 - Walking Dead is up
4. Stun the enemy
5. Benediction while enemy is stunned

FAILURE

1. Aggro a mob
2. Active Living Dead
3. HP drops below 0 - Walking Dead is up
4. Stun the enemy
5. Have an off tank provoke the enemy and establish aggro
6. Benediction while enemy is stunned

FAILURE

It seems whenever stun is involved, it does not work. What the hell?

[elemental10]

Thats because you need to heal up to your maximum health.

Once you go living dead, you have 1 hp left. If you get benediction right then, you will heal up to your max hp minus 1.

So, if you don't take damage and recover back that 1 hp, you're dead. Thats why when you stun the mob and proceed to kill it, you will not get damaged but you will be at full health BUT you still need that 1 hp heal back. I take it from your tests that once you go full hp, any overheals will not be considered as gaining that 1 hp back and that includes any healing spells, self-heal or the natural regen.

I think SE should look into overheals as counting towards the max HP heals because that would solve the problems of a lot of Living Dead failures, i.e. Benediction + any kind healing (even when at HP bar is full) should do the trick. Also, I think it would be good if instead of us dying at the end of Living Dead, we could be penalized by having a status effect where we cannot do anything at all for a certain amount of duration. It will make it less risky, up to par with Holmgang at least.

[Docfiord_Fowling]

Thats because you need to heal up to your maximum health.

Once you go living dead, you have 1 hp left. If you get benediction right then, you will heal up to your max hp minus 1.

That's the theory, but if that were the case, how was I able to live with a Benediction after the other tank provoked it? There's no more incoming damage and I went from 1 to full HP with Benediction. Shouldn't I still need that 1 HP? It appears not. Try it out, it's weird.

UPDATE : This has since been patched. Benediction is enough to cleanse the debuff.

[Aerin92]

3. The SE/DS rotation is your "I need some HP" rotation. Don't expect a lot of incoming heals from this, its more about maintaining. You'll rarely be using this rotation.

I must be over-thinking this or missing something huge, but what in the world does DS stand for? If it means Dark Side than this makes no sense since Dark Side isn't a part of any combos at all, it being a toggled buff and all that.

Unless OP is simply stating Soul Eater without Dark Arts is not worth it most of the time, which perhaps could have been worded better imo. Anyone else have an idea?

[Allyrion]

I must be over-thinking this or missing something huge, but what in the world does DS stand for? If it means Dark Side than this makes no sense since Dark Side isn't a part of any combos at all, it being a toggled buff and all that.

Unless OP is simply stating Soul Eater without Dark Arts is not worth it most of the time, which perhaps could have been worded better imo. Anyone else have an idea?

It confused me a little too. It is Darkside.
It's more clear if you look at the part above it.

Hard Slash (150)
Syphon Strike (250)
Souleater (260, DA 400)
Delirium (280)

Souleater Darkside: 660 potency
Souleater Dark Arts: 800 potency
Delirium rotation : 680 potency

First and foremost, establish aggro with your Power Slash combo described above; afterwards, its all about using the right tools for the job.

1. The DA/SE combo brings MP replenishment, HP replenishment, and 800 potency to the table. I usually sneak in as many of these as possible while I have BP or BS up. This is your highest DPS rotation.
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
3. The SE/DS rotation is your "I need some HP" rotation. Don't expect a lot of incoming heals from this, its more about maintaining. You'll rarely be using this rotation.

It's a bit weird to mention Darkside at all in this, since it should be a given as it is with DA/SE, otherwise it should be DA/SE/DS.
Adding DS to everything would be pretty redundant though. DS also isn't actually in the abbreviations so though it's pretty obvious, it was confusing in the context of 'why is it mentioned for this combo if active for all?'.

But yea, I'm pretty sure it's just a non-DA Souleater as they mention Darkside Souleater combo above it in comparison to 'Soul Eater Dark Arts' and Delirium.