Dark Knight: From the Desk of a Taru

Category:Guides 
==Opening Thoughts==
*Welcome~Welcome! I am Jolatola from the Fairy server, and I've decided to make some contributions to ffxiclopedia, rather than just bask in the knowledge! 
*In this guide I hopetaru give you the low down on the Job Dark Knight I'll be writing this over the course of a few days/weeks, so don't be surprised if it's incomplete for awhile~ Any spelling mistakes, please let me know, grammatical errors, and whataru else there might be.
*As you may or may not have noticed~ I have been away from FFXI for over a year, and just recently came back. Since I've been gone we've seen lots of new areas to fight in, game mechanics, and all sorts of new goodies! I'm going to do my best to get this guide back up to date, though I'll admit, I'll be spending a lot of time re-capping all my jobs as well. :)
==Dark Knight Overview==
*Dark Knight is predominantly a DD job, with a heavy focus on Two-handed melee weapons such as Scythe and Great Sword.
==Weapons==
*There are 2 main weapons dark knight is known for, Scythe, and Great Sword. While you will probably be using one or the other 99% of the time, it's not a bad idea to keep your other skills capped, or atleast high enough, that if you should need to, you can use another weapon.
===Scythe===
*Although you start out with a Great Sword class weapon, scythe will more than likely be your main weapon.
*There are two classes of Scythe, First, being Scythe weapons (Exm:Orichalcum Scythe) And Zaghnal (Exm:Suzaku's Scythe)
*Scythe generally has higher base damage than Zaghnal but also has high delay. At lower levels, sometimes access to Zaghnal with better base damage and delay than a Scythe type comes sooner in levels (ex: Plant Reaper, Web Cutter, Frost Reaper, Falcastra).
*Pros
**Probably the highest damage weapon type in the game on average.
**High delay but also high TP gain due to the bonus on high delay weapon.
**Guillotine is an incredible weapon skill from lv60 and up.
*Cons
**Scythe type weapons are probably the slowest weapon class at 528 delay with a few exception. Zaghnal types are faster at 480 delay but does not give as much TP.
**Limited choices when it comes to Scythes forcing Drk changing to Zaghnal at certain levels when Zaghnal type weapon has higher damage per second. This is especially true for new players without access to rare/ex weapon drops from NMs. 
**Slice is the sole strong weapon skill for Scythe at low level until Vorpal Scythe. Slice by itself isn't as great as Great Axe's weapon skill Shield Break in utility or Sturmwind in damage.
====Weapon Skills====
*Slice
*Dark Harvest
*Shadow of Death
*Nightmare Scythe
*Spinning Scythe
*Vorpal Scythe
*Guillotine
*Cross Reaper
*Spiral Hell
*Insurgancy
*Catastrophe
*Infernal Scythe
*Quietes
===Great Sword===
*Great Sword has a decent variety of weapons, and weapon skills, which make this a top notch weapon of choice. 
*With consistent damage, and hard hitting weapon skills, many Dark Knights choose Great Sword as their main weapon, as opposed to scythe.
*Pros
**Slightly quicker than scythe.
**Weapon Skills Spinning Slash and Ground Strike Can do incredible damage.
*Cons
**At Low level, Great Sword is somewhat very limited in damage.
**Generally weak weapon skill until Spinning Slash.
**Great Sword's greatest weakness is the delay average of 420-450 which falls into the lowest TP gain chart.
**Lacks the hitting power of scythe to a degree.
====Weapon Skills====
*Hard Slash
*Power Slash
*Frostbite
*Freezebite
*Shockwave
*Crecent Moon
*Sickle Moon
*Spinning Slash
*Ground Strike
*Scourge
*Herculean Slash
*Torcleaver
===Great Axe===
*Unless Drk is your 1st main job, Great Axe is probably the better choice for weapon until after you gain access to Vorpal Scythe weapon skill since most of Scythe's weapon skill at early levels are not as good as Great Axe's weapon skill. It's a wonderful weapon to use at lower to mid levels, but begins to lag behind after lv50+ and ultimately useless at lv60.
*Pros
**At Lower levels Great Axe has better damage than Scythe and Great Sword.
**Sturmwind is the most powerful melee weapon skill at lower to mid levels. It's the strongest WS Drk has access to until lv60.
**Shield Break is the most useful weapon skill at low levels since it pretty much gives +20 accuracy to everyone in the party after use.
**Dark Knight can use Steel Cyclone.
*Cons
**Second Slowest Melee weapon Class at 504 delay with a few exceptions at 489 delay
**Lower Great Axe skill means as you rise in level, the damage will quickly fall off at high level. This is countered by the Axe Belt at lv30 giving Drk similar Skill level to a Warrior until later levels.
**No Access to the Raging Rush Weaponskill.
====Weapon Skills====
*Shield Break
*Iron Tempest
*Sturmwind
*Armor Break
*Keen Edge
*Weapon Break
*Full Break
*Steel Cyclone
===Axe===
*Sometimes Drk prefers the use of Axes because of Rampage damage when use with Souleater. Also, in cases that Drk has access to multi-hit weapon such as Ridill, axes can be a strong main-hand choice. On it's own, Axe is a decent weapon for Dark Knight, not as powerful as the two handed weapons, but in certain situations it can be quite useful. With a Maneater in your main hand, and a Ridill in your off hand, you can pump some serious damage out.
*Pros
**Access to Rampage at 57.
**Able to offhand a second weapon, or shield.
**Offhanding a multi-hit weapon can make for some serious Skill Spam.
*Cons
**Low overall damage.
**Lower Axe skill makes landing full Rampage hits troublesome.
====Weapon Skills====
*Raging Axe
*Smash Axe
*Gale Axe
*Avalanche
*Spinning Axe
*Rampage
*Decimation
===Other===
*Club
**Dark Knight has several choices of clubs, non of which are particularly useful.
**There is -one- exception however, the Kraken Club is amazing for doing a huge amount of damage in a short period of time. Pared with Blood Weapon, Souleater, and Last Resort, it's possible to put out literally thousands of damage in a few short seconds. 
*Sword
** Nothing really to mention here, DRK can use Ridill, which is a nice sword, but other than that, I can't really see any use for the weapon.
** I think it fair I mention Organics here, a relatively new sword from ZNM. This thing boasts some insane stats, and would definitely be a good weapon for a DRK choosing to try 1 hand weapons.
*Marksmanship
**With Bloody bolts, this can be a useful soloing skill, but other than that, there's not much point to having it capped.
==Job Traits==
===Attack Bonus===
*"Improves the power of physical attacks"
*Dark Knight gets 4 Attack Bonus traits over all, 1 every twenty levels, totally a +48 attack bonus at level 70.
**Attack Bonus I (+10 atk) - Level 10
**Attack Bonus II (+22 atk) - Level 30
**Attack Bonus III (+35 atk) - Level 50
**Attack Bonus IV (+48 atk) - Level 70
*These traits don't stack so having Warrior as a sub does not give any bonus to the trait.
===Resist Paralyze===
*"Increases resistance against Paralyze"
*Shortens the length of Paralysis.
*Junk trait, barely noticeable.
===Arcana Killer===
*"Gives an edge again arcana enemies"
*Increases the chance to intimidate Arcana enemies.
*Arcana includes a wide variety of monsters, such as Bombs, Dolls, Magic Pots, Evil Weapons, and Golems. 
*Definitely a better job trait than most people give credit for, though the effect is weak, even 1 intimidation can save your life in the right circumstances.
===Muted Soul===
*Although I don't have this ability, it looks like a wonderful addition to have if you like Souleater
*"Reduces Enmity white using souleater by 10 per merit"
===Desperate Blows===
*"Reduces delay for two-handed weapons when using Last Resort by 5% per merit."
*This effect is applied as Haste, rather than shortened delay, meaning you don't sacrifice TP per hit.
*An Amazing ability when paired with the Group 1 merit "Reduced Last Resort Recast"
*This trait does stack with Hasso if use with Samurai as a sub but it will be capped at 25% Haste bonus (so 3 merit, +15% bonus is enough if used with Hasso).
==Job Abilities==
===Blood Weapon===
===Arcane Circle===
*"Increases party members' resistance against Arcana."
*Meh.
*Well actually it's pretty good, if you put on your Chaos Sollerets, it'll last 1:30, but a really good use for this ability is with Chaotic Earring Equipped, gives +7 attack while Arcane Circle is on you :3
===Last Resort===
*"Increases user's attack, but lowers defense."
*I both love and hate this ability, it gives you alot of hate, but a nice attack bonus.
*Attack bonus is around 15%, and Def. Penalty is the same.
*Each Merit into Last Resort Effect will raise the attack bonus by about 2%.
*Along with Desperate Blows, this can be a great ability to both pump up your melee attacks, as well as attack speed.
*(Doesn't last too long.. ; ; 30seconds.) 3 minutes from the 2011/05 update.
===Weapon Bash===
*"Delivers an attack that can stun the target."
*This ability is great, it's another stun for if your stun is down.
===Souleater===
*"Consumes your own HP to enhance attacks"
*Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Souleater, I find it ends up getting me killed too often.. ~cough~
*Each attack will drain 10% of your current HP, and add it to the damage of your melee attacks, this is proportional, as each attack, you will have less HP, and the effect will get weaker.
*A nice feature about Souleater is it adds a noticeable amount of accuracy to your attacks (About 25)
*When Souleater and Blood Weapon are used together, you will drain the same amount of damage back, as you took, and then some, making it a very useful, but short lived combo.
*Stacks with Weaponskills, but Be careful with Multi-hit weaponskills, as you will do a huge amount of damage, gain a large amount of hate, and your HP will Plummet very quickly.
===Dark Seal===
*"Enhances the accuracy of your next dark magic spell."
*This ability functions the same way as Elemental Seal except it will only affect Dark Magic.
*While I rarely have much trouble with resists, I can see it helping when fighting against larger monsters, such as HNMs, or magical resist mobs.
*I don't actually have this merit yet, though I'm planning on getting atleast one level in it, just to have.
===Diabolic Eye===
*"Reduces Max HP, Increases Accuracy."
*Reducdes your max HP by 25%, and gives you about 20 accuracy.
*At 5 merit points, this ability is similar to Warrior's Aggressor. It's useful unless you have over 85% accuracy.
*This ability is alright, but I find I rarely use it, except perhaps on mobs with very high evasion. The Max HP down is really more of a pain than the +20 acc is worth in most cases.
===Nether Void===
*"Increases the absorption of your next dark magic spell."
*"Increases the potency of Absorb Spells, Drain/II and Aspir/II by 50%."
*I haven't tested this much yet, but it seems very useful.
===Arcane Crest===
*Lowers accuracy, evasion, magic accuracy, magic evasion, and TP gain for arcana. 
*A lot of fun, and very useful for bosses I suppose? 
==Magic==
===Dark Magic===
*Dark Magic is a great way to keep yourself alive. :3 I've partied with way too many Dark Knights that don't cast, and it always annoys me.
*Absorb-TP Will probably be your most used spell. As the name suggests, it steals TP from the monster and gives it to you.
**Dark Magic skill gear will help from getting resists.
**Magic Attack Bonus seems to have no effect on this spell.
**You can only absorb TP that the monster has to give. If you finish casting right after the monster uses a TP move, chances are you will get 0~15TP, so timing is key.
*Drain/DrainII are great spells for those times you get hit, I especially love them as a Taru.
**Dark Magic skill+ Gear, as well as Magic attack bonus do have a noticeable effect on these spells.
**Drain II Can give you more HP back than your max HP, and will give you a "Max HP UP" status effect, usually lasts about 1~2 minutes.
*Aspir is another useful spell, It will only work on monsters that have MP though.
**Again, Dark Magic skill+ and Magic Attack bonus help~
*Absorb-Stat spells can be useful, but in an EXP/Merit party I never really see the point, usually the monster dies so fast, you'll only get a couple hits off after casting.
**They can be used to pump up your Overall WS Damage on larger monsters, but usually at the cost of 2-3 Melee hits, and on larger God/HNM monsters, you may get resists.
*Dread Spikes, is a spell I personally love. It's saved my Taru butt so many times.
**Dread Spikes does take a good chunk of MP to cast, even as a Taru it's noticable.
**Effect lasts about 1 minute, or until it has absorbed 50% of your total heal When Casting. That means if you have 200 HP when you cast, it will only absorb 100hp before failing.
**I usually use it when I know I'm about to get hate, such as after a large WS, or pulling.
===Elemental Magic===
*Lol. 
*As far as I'm concerned, Elemental Magic us useless for a Dark Knight, even with capped skills, you'll be lucky to do a hundred damage with teir two spells, which is easily what you would be be doing per hit with your weapon.
*I suppose there are -some- places this might be useful.. But not useful enough.
===Enfeebling Magic===
*Dark Knight gets Sleep&Sleep II, which can both be really useful... Unfortunately, if you're like me and have nothing but melee jobs leveled, you Enfeebling magic skill is probably so low, you have no chance in hell of sleeping anything.. T.T
*You also acquire Bind, and Poison (I & II) both of which are equally useful, and if you do have trouble leveling enfeebling if you do only have melee jobs leveled you can always level WHM a little and sub it for your Dark Knight and start casting Dia like crazy on mobs in besieged.
==Sub-Job selection==
===Warrior===
*Berserk and Warcry are Damage Dealers (DD) best friends. In terms of raw damage output, these abilities make every blow that lands hit for impressive numbers. 
*Watch your enmity, a few double attacks in a row, can really get the monster's attention.
*Double Attack, another fan favorite of the DD. With Two-Handed weapons, this Trait will increase Damage over Time (DoT). Double Crit hits with the 2-Handed weapons also impress. This trait STACKS with mulit-Hit Weapon Skills such as Guillotine, potentially increasing a 4 hit WS to a 6 hit for some insane damage(Limit of two procs per WS.).
*Provoke has its uses as well when partying with a THF at lower lvls to set up SATA. Or someone else using /THF post 60, though this gets alittle pointless 70+.
*It should be noted as well that this sub offers absolutely NOTHING in terms of Accuracy. Accuracy is huge concern for all 2 handed weapons.
===Samurai===
*My personal Favorite sub ♥
*Samurai offers alot as far as sub jobs go, in comparison to the other choices.
*Hasso : Hasso offers a large Haste, Accuracy, and Strength boost while wielding two-handed weapons.
*Meditate is another great ability, while subbed you will get 60 TP for just hitting the button, Along with Absorb TP, you can Weaponskill constantly..
*Which brings me to Seigan and Third Eye, These two abilities will be your best friend. Even though it's a slight gamble.
**Third Eye with Seigan up has a decreasing chance of letting Third Eye stay active after anticipating an attack as time goes by.
**There is also a chance, that instead of simply anticipating, you will Counterattack. (Seems to be 10~15%)
*Two Store TP Traits will be active by the time you hit 60 on Dark Knight, and they are actually noticeable, giving more TP per hit, especially with the slower weapons.
*Zanshin Is also another neat little trait. While you should probably try not to miss the mob, if you do, Zanshin gives a 30% chance of granting a second attack.
===Thief===
*This is the End-game job of choice for most DRKs in HNM/Sky Gods/Sea Gods scenario's where Hate control of the Target is vital to success. 
*Sneak Attack will spike your damage to some very impressive numbers, while Trick Attack will "Plant" the hate on the designated tanks as well as insure your survival.
*Some DRKs have leveled with this sub pre-Dread Spikes/Seigan for the impressive numbers of their ws' combinations with Sneak Attack, and survivability with Trick Attack.
*This sub provides a much slower TP build then say SAM,RNG, or WAR. Leading to slower chains and exp when leveling this job. There is also no benefit to accuracy unless using SATA which has a 1 minute recast time on both abilities.
*End Game HNMLs will REQUIRE you have this sub for the added hate control. Take some time to level this sub. It has it's uses.
===Dragoon===
*Accuracy Bonus1. Increases your accuracy. Laughable at best,yes it's a bonus, but a small one.
*That's not to say this job is bad, I love this subjob actually, it's TP build is on par with /SAM in the right situations.
*Jump and High Jump can provide quick damage bursts, as well as a nice boost to TP, along with the short cool down on both, this can put your damage up my a significant amount.
*Wyvern Earring is a great earring, offering a 5% haste bonus with the Dragoon Subjob, always a huge help with two handed weapons.
*Wyvern Mantle Not such a huge item later on, but from 30 to 61, it's probably one of the best back pieces you can wear.
*The only drawback I can see to this subjob is you lack Double Attack or Hasso, which might cause a slight drop in your DPS, however I feel that the Jump abilities more than make up for this.
*As a Taru, it's honestly nice to be able to hit someone in the head, not the knees.
===Ninja===
*Utsusemi: Ichi and Utsusemi: Ni are the primary purpose of this sub job. Another end game preference when Area of Effect (AoE) WS' are a big concern in zones such as many of the Dynamis areas. Utsusemi shadows absorb the damage from these WS', increasing your survivability, and allowing your healers to Conserve MP more efficiently.
*Dual Wield, Lol. With a pair of axes it's not that bad, but I'd recommend sticking to two handed weapons. 
**I'd like to mention that this is actually a fun alternative to two hand weapons if you're bored in a merit Party. Toss a decent axe in your main hand, and your choice of weapons off hand, Organics/Ridill are really impressive one handed off hands.
**Kraken Club=NO. do NOT use this weapon in EXP parties, EVER, unless you're partying with friends or people who you trust, this weapon feeds mobs TP, and will likely get you hate faster than anything as you'll be WSing 2~8 times faster.
===Dancer===
*A fairly useful sub, though it has been somewhat nerfed, Curing Waltz II now does about 165ish per cast at the cost of 35tp, not terribly great.
*Healing Waltz, an erase ability is very nice to have, if you don't have White Mage sub leveled, like me.
*Spectral Jig is a free, short lasting Sneak/Invisible.
*I've had the chance to play with this combination for awhile now, and I've gotta say I'm not as impressed as I thought I would be.
**Dancer sub offers you a few abilities, Drain Samba/Drain Samba II/Aspir Samba, Curing Waltz/Curing Waltz II/Healing Waltz, As well as Box Step/Quickstep and Animated Flourish/Desperate Flourish
**It seems like a lot of abilities, but the only ones I see as being really useful are Drain Samba II, Healing Waltz, and Curing Waltz II. 
**The amount of HP Drained with Drain Samba II is usually in the twenties with a Scythe, but sometimes lower, which is nice, but considering the swing speed, it's not as impressive as a faster weapon draining 10~15 constantly.
**Aspir Samba is painfully weak, but it -can- help if you don't have enough MP to cast Aspir.
**Steps seem like a waste of TP in my opinion, I'd rather save my TP for heals or WS, but they can get you a few extra EXP in short Campaign battles.
===Scholar===
*I personally haven't tested any of this, since I have no intention of leveling scholar.
*Dark Arts can apparently have a nice effect on Drain/Aspir spells. Access to Manifestation.
===Ranger===
*A completely useless (situationnal) sub for Dark Knight in my opinion.
*In party situations, this subjob offers nothing useful, aside from a small accuracy bonus.
*In solo situations, the major draw to this sub might be Wide Scan, if you're hunting an NM with a large spawn radius.
*Another benefit would be sharpshot, if you plan on soloing using Bloody Bolts for healing.
===White Mage===
*Solo class sub-job. 
*Primarily for the Cure's, and buffs such as Stoneskin and Blink. The WHM class of Bar spells, and Reraise, Sneak, and Invisible.
*Enfeebling Magic skill of drk is C. With this sub it opens up options such as Paralyze, Slow, and Silence. All helpfull when soloing. With capped Enfeebling Magic skill, this line of spells is very helpfull.
*Subbing RDM or BLM will do the same thing for you in terms of opening up different spell options for Enfeebs.
===Beastmaster===
*Solo class sub-job.
*This is the ideal sub-job for skilling up all of your neglected skills over the past 75 levels of exp parties. The pet does the fighting while you sit back and nuke/enfeeb, use Marksmanship or skill up weaker weapons like Great Axe, Axe, Sword, and Club.
*Quite possibly the only real use for the spell Absorb-CHR you will find in the game.
==Races==
===Tarutaru===
*Lower overall HP will make you more prone to getting one-shotted.
*Low HP also means that your Souleater damage will be lowered, and without the right gear/merits, it will be a significant difference.
*High MP pool letting you rely on spells more, Drain II, Dread Spikes, and Aspir, as well as Absorb spells to offset the racial difference.
*Tarutaru RSE offers great stats for Dark Knight, lots of +str and +vit
*RSE2 is even Better, Creek Boots, and Creek Mitts are amazing armor pieces, easily usable until endgame.
*Tarutaru have two RSE earrings, one offering +35HP, the other +2STR +1 VIT, a great addition to any Dark Knight.
===Galka===
===Hume===
===Elvaan===
*Believe it or not, I actually have -some- experience with Elvaan Dark Knights, my First character was Elvaan, and I got DRK to 55.
*Great HP Is always a help to Dark Knight, enhancing your souleater damage, as well as survivablity.
*Low MP pool is not a huge issue for DRK if your Dark Magic skill is high, Aspir is worth it's weight in Gil. {Atleast on monsters you can Aspir}
*Low DEX can make you more prone to missing, however it shouldn't be a huge problem, the same goes for the low INT stat, enhancing the possibility of resists with your spells.
*Elvaan RSE is somewhat useful for DRK, atleast the parts that add DEX and MP.
===Mithra===
==Stats and what they do==
===Strength===
*Probably the most straight forward stat, and one of the most useful for DRK.
*STR directely effects your weaponskill damage, as well as has an effect on your normal attack power.
*More Strength=More Damage, it's that simple, I reccomend using Absorb-STR before WS to maximize your damage.
**Attack Is just imporant as STR, even more so on normal swings, the more attack you have, the more consistant, and higher your normal attack damage will be.
===Dexterity===
===Vitality===
===Agility===
===Intelligence===
===Mind===
===Charisma===
==Special Mentions==
*I'd like to thank Guwhenivar for his help with the Subjob section, some useful stuff there I might have forgotten!