Leveling Dark Knight

[Scarletashe]

So I'm playing Dark Knight now and I'm at level 51. I looked up the 50-60 abilities it gets and was wondering about a couple.

Abyssal Drain. does this just completely replace unleash? It seems beter in everyway except it cost more MP. Like Stone 3 beter than Stone 2.

Sole Survivor. What the hell? Mark a party member and if they just happen to die I get healed? This seems like most useless thing ever. How am I suposed to know if someone is about to die? Is this just one of those PVP things or something?

Thank you.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Oh, no. Abyssal Drain is a massive MP drain. You'll still want to pull with Unmend/Unleash to establish hate, then use Abyssal Drain on large packs. It's basically your "I pulled the whole room, now I need to contain this mess and stay alive," button. Keep in mind, you only get the HP absorption if you Dark Arts it, which you'll want to do. I usually run ahead and Unleash packs, then once I've settled into my spot, pop a cooldown, Blood Price and Dark Arts + Abyssal Drain until low on MP.

Sole Survivor's effect triggers on mobs, not players. You want to toss it on whatever mob is closest to death to get the benefits. I use it mostly on trash pulls so I can keep spamming Dark Arts + Abyssal Drain and let the healer DPS more.

[Scarletashe]

Ohh ok. Well I hope that's explained in game about Sole Survivor because on the site I was on it said party member. It doesn't mention anything about using it on enemies. That's kinda messed up.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Really? o.o

That site has an error then. I highly recommend using Gamer Escape if you haven't before. They cover everything. This is Sole Survivor's description btw.

[Rhindas]

Sole Survivor had its tooltip changed fairly early in Heavensward because it DID say something along the lines of "target party member" or something like that, so whatever site you're on probably has the original tooltip. The beginning of HW had a lot of tooltips with incorrect/confusing info.

[Scarletashe]

Well that looks beter. I went to ffxivinfo and this is what it said.
http://www.ffxivinfo.com/job/dark-kn...=sole-survivor

[Rhindas]

Yeah that's the original. That site has some other incorrect/old tips too, so it must not be updated often. Bourne's link has the new, correct description.

[JunseiKei]

~snip~

Abyssal Drain:

• Costs more MP, but 20 higher potency. The MP to Enmity conversion is more efficient than Unleash though.
• Also has a Drain when boosted through Dark Arts. Blood Price up and lots of mobs = HP regeneration.
• Ranged Aoe; 15y, unlike Unleash; can be used if needed to grab 2+ mobs from a distance.

Unleash:

• Costs less than Abyssal Drain but only has 100 potency so generates less enmity;
• Unmend can proc a free one of these, sometimes it's MP efficient to Unmend 2 things to increase chance of getting that free one.
• DOESN'T interrupt combos, unlike Abyssal Drain.
• Costs less MP so when you're running low on MP, it's a safer option than Abyssal Drain to stop you from losing Darkness.
• Centered around you, but fair amount of lag. If you're used to using Flash, this won't pose a problem for you.

Basically, if you have a bunch of enemies with you, Blood Price will make it so you won't have to worry about MP, so use Abyssal Drain. Better enmity and better DPS output. Once you hit around ~30% MP, you stop using skills that consume MP until your bar is full or close to full.

Sole Survivor, you just want to throw it on a mob that's about to die. Don't wait too late, as it can eat the cool down without applying the effect. Put it on too soon and the mob might not die before Sole Survivor fades off. If you need to, make a macro to let your party know about it and prioritize the kill.