The Definitive Dark Knight Guide

[Felorr]

Should also get in the habit of dropping Darkside after each fight. Even in dungeons. It doesn't matter in dungeons so much because between pulls is considered Out of Combat, so Darkside degen won't kill your MP. But things like Ex primals and Coil, when the boss leaves the board for those divebombs, Heavensfall, etc -- your status remains In Combat; you will lose all your MP during these phases if you forget to drop Darkside. So create the habit of dropping it now.

I can't post my findings now, but keep in mind reapplying Darkside has an mp cost of roughly 12 seconds worth of uptime mp drain. Dropping dark side and reapplying it before 12 seconds is a loss of mp.

Fights like Ravana Ex seemed to have been designed with DRKs in mind. Lots of phases with no damage perfect for dropping grit and getting blood weapon time in to regrn MP to use.

[Kaidam]

Hi guys, just came back to FF14 after nearly 2 years of not playing.

Just a few dumb questions, I'm getting the impression that as DK, the default tanking stance is Darkside instead of Grit with the mechanics of dark arts tied to Darkside.

If that is the case, when exactly do you switch to grit stance?

Also, is it a must to use Dark Arts everytime it's up? And what is the go to skill to use Dark Arts on for single target tanking vs mob tanking?

Thanks in advance. I planned to switch to DK from PLD once I finish the main scenario quest.

[Falgern]

...

Grit is the only stance, Darkside is just a buff with no time limit. Stay in Grit and keep Darkside on as much as you can, it should be 100% or near 100%.


You should not use dark arts everytime it's up.

For single target you generally use dark arts for Carve & Spit, Souleater and Dark Mind. Depending what you need. I generally use dark arts every 2-3 Syphon Strikes.

AOE, just use unleash, if there are a lot and you are taking heavy damage i would do dark arts + dark passenger but this hurts your MP a lot. Only use if you pull one group too many
Abyssal drain looks cool but the MP cost doesn't make it that much better than Unleash, there is only one pull I use dark arts on abyssal drain, and it's mostly to see big healing numbers.
No real point in using dark arts for aoe. Just use weaponskills between every few unleashes. Don't use too much MP.

[Kaidam]

Thanks for the clarification. Much appreciated. Can't wait to try DK out. Now just need to clear 50 more quests...

[Xenosan]

I can't post my findings now, but keep in mind reapplying Darkside has an mp cost of roughly 12 seconds worth of uptime mp drain. Dropping dark side and reapplying it before 12 seconds is a loss of mp.

My testing:
Feedback welcomed, my results may be slightly different so either I'm missing something, character race/PIE levels are causing differences. idk.. done for now lol

IMO it's better to go by ticks than by seconds,

(185 Piety : 6930 MP)
----------------------------
In Combat Regen (Darkside turned off)
-265** + (138 per tick * 4 ticks) == +287 MP

287 - 442 (Cost of reapplying Darkside) == -155 MP

~ Net total of -155 MP for dropping DS for 4 ticks.

In Combat Degen (Darkside left on)
-127 per tick [12 seconds == 4 ticks] == -508 MP

~ Net total of -508 MP for leaving Darkside on for 4 ticks.

( -155 > -508 )

Don't get MP back turning Darkside off for 4 ticks, but did reduce MP depletion from -508 MP to -155.

Trying just 3 ticks:

-293 MP for turning DS off for 3 ticks before reapplying.

Darkside left on for 3 ticks: -381

-293 > -381

There's still a bonus of 88 MP in favor of toggling Darkside - even with just 3 ticks.

2 ticks tho is a loss (which makes sense. 2 ticks is practically turning it off, waiting for the CD recast & an extra third of a second server tick then turning it back on).

The recast on Darkside is 5 seconds, which is ~1.66 ticks. Another 1.33 ticks should be enough.

**I cannot identify the cause, nor replicate it consistently, but when deactivating DS, 265 MP is sometimes consumed as it's turned off, ticks non-withstanding. It's the same number whether in combat or not. And it doesn't always happen. It may be the Darkside's degen imitating an arbitrary server tick. IE: deactivating DS at 7 seconds is 2.33 server ticks, the game subtracts -265 for you being 33% into a third tick before applying the native, no Darkside regen at tick 3 (the 9 second mark, 2 seconds after).