How-To Guide: Dark Knight

==Blackest Dark Knight==
Dark Knight a.k.a. "Glass Cannons" is the polar opposite of Paladin. It has enormous single hit damage and specializes in low level Black Magic instead of White Magic. Dark Knight abilities generate a lot of hate when used. To use Dark Knight optimally requires a lot of skill, and the player will have to be very careful of the hate threshold. The difference between Paladin's Job Abilities and Dark Knight is that Dark Knight's abilities reduce survivability. Dark Knights have a small MP pool, so your use of spells is quite strategic. On the other hand, only the dark-based spells of a Dark Knight are useful most of the time. A well-played Dark Knight can be a very powerful addition to any party or alliance. A poorly-played Dark Knight can just die a whole lot or just be a crippled damage dealer. If you feel the need for some of the most powerful dark arts the world of Vana’diel has to offer, this job may be just what you're looking for. Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.
==Job-Race Combinations==
Please note that race is the absolute last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is seriously exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats to equal, or possibly even surpass other races.
===Hume===
* If you choose Hume to be your Dark Knight’s race, you will greatly enjoy decent accuracy, attack, and magical damage. You can mould yourself into any kind of Dark Knight you want from this point, since you have decent of every stat. Average HP allows your Souleater to deal vicious damage, while your vitality means you don’t have to worry all that much about being killed from doing so. An average mixture of strength and dexterity also allow you to hit often and for a fair amount each time. Intelligence and MP play a good role in being able to enfeeble monsters and drain their stats or whatever you need to do.
===Elvaan=== 
* As an Elvaan Dark Knight, you will be one of the deadliest of them all. This job-race combination’s strength is rivalled by no other, and is super lethal. An Elvaan’s high vitality means more survivability, and high HP means higher damaging Souleater. Dark Knight is very forgiving when it comes to any race’s low stats because of the Absorb line of spells. This helps alleviate Elvaan’s low dexterity, and therefore low accuracy. Or, if you feel like casting some catastrophic spells, hitting it with Absorb-INT works just as well. Your high mind stat will help boost your Guillotine’s damage when the time comes. Expect a lot of foes to fall at your hands when that occurs.
===Tarutaru=== 
* A whole lot of bang in a little buck. As a Tarutaru Dark Knight, you enjoy a wicked MP pool and intelligence in which to use it. Plus, high dexterity and agility mean you can hit more and dodge more if the need arises. Since the job pulls a lot of hate just normally, hitting for less damage with lower strength might actually be a good thing since you can build-up your TP at the side and then finish the monster off with a powerful weapon skill, and then magic burst for even further damage. Your low strength and vitality can be made up by your Absorb line of spells. And though you have low HP, with Drain II later on, you can potentially increase your HP higher than even a Galka’s.
===Mithra=== 
* Adding a little bit of finesse to the powerful brute that is Dark Knight, a Mithra Dark Knight plays Dark Knight very well. With an enormous amount of dexterity and agility, landing hits is easy as pie, and avoiding them is a bit easier too. With average strength, a Mithra’s damage is high up there too. Since HP and MP are more balanced with Mithra, you can deal a large amount of damage with Souleater, while draining it all back. And with their moderate intelligence pool, that’s no joke. The only downside is their low vitality. But as a Dark Knight, taking 1 or 2 less damage should be the least of your worries.
===Galka=== 
* A truly menacing job-race combination. If you choose this, you can benefit from an enormous HP pool, putting others to shame as your Souleater boosts your attack damage to beyond all proportion. Since you have high strength too, that just makes it insane. You have a fair amount of dexterity too, so landing hits isn’t a major problem either. The only true downside to a Galka Dark Knight is its MP. However, you make up for it by having a decent amount of agility, and the highest vitality in the game, making you by far the most survivable of all Dark Knights. Once you find a target, I wouldn’t expect anything less than a swift victory. 
==Equipment Choices==
===Weapon===
* In general, Dark Knights can use any type of blade weapons with a few exceptions. This includes daggers, swords, axes, great swords, great axes and scythes. They can also use some crossbows.
* Dark Knight excels in two types of weapons: Great Swords and Scythes. Great Swords are moderately fast at an average of 420-450 delay. Scythes are split into two types: Zaghnal and Scythe. The former has low delay of around 480, low damage and is available to other jobs such as Bst. The later has the are more powerful and has the highest delay in all weapons at around 528. The choice is up to the player. Great Swords are at the lower scale of damage over time and has a lower rate of TP gain over time (i.e. it takes longer for a Great Sword to reach 100%+ TP than using a Scythe). Great Sword becomes a very appealing choice at lv66 for a Drk due to Spinning Slash, a powerful Weapon Skill. Scythe is the trade-mark of a Dark Knight. Most Dark Knight will use Scythe as their main weapon especially after lv60 with Guillotine.
* Scythes and Great Swords two aren’t the only weapons Dark Knight can do well with. The two-handed Great Axes have an amazing damage over time, and get some pretty cool weapon skills. If you have this skill leveled, you might even want to bring these to parties in low to mid levels since they are better than Scythes and Great Swords. When subbing Warrior, get yourself an Axe Belt for higher skill in them than even your Scythes and Great Swords. Shield Break is the most useful weapon skill for low to mid level due to the fact that it can significantly reduce the monster's evasion (which is always a problem at low levels). The weapon skill Sturmwind is one of the strongest Weapon Skill Dark Knight has access to at low to mid levels, until Guillotine.
* In Lv.75 end-game scenarios, having your club skill high can help too. Can you imagine why? I mean, a Dark Knight using a puny little club. What about the club that hits eight times per hit! Using the Kraken Club with Souleater and your two-hour ability active can deal the most ludicrous damage in the entire game. Per attack, you can deal up to about 1600 damage. With Haste on, you can attack a lot too. A full team of eighteen Lv.75 Dark Knights using Kraken Clubs can take down even Kirin before he summons his minions. 
* Though not very high, Dark Knight has some skill in Marksmanship. If you can, picking up a crossbow can really help. There are three very useful types of bolts you can, and should use. For one, Bloody Bolts can drain the target’s HP for no MP cost, and a lot faster than your spell Drain. Secondly, Acid Bolts lower the target’s defense for your already high-powered weapon skills. Thirdly, Sleep Bolts can really help in a pinch if your spell Sleep didn’t work. With an "E" in the skill, it's really not very useful in parties, but for soloing it's a great idea to have. Should probably have one for pulling in case you have to anyway.
===Armor=== 
* It's a misconception that Dark Knight has lower defense than warrior. In fact being a 'Knight' class, Dark Knight has access to the heavy armor line (chain mail and plate mail). Combine with the fact that they have higher Vitality than Warrior, a Dark Knight can become as tank at low levels when using Warrior as a sub. However, pass level 30, Drk/Nin loses the ability to tank effectively.
* Most of the time, focusing on accuracy, attack, dexterity, and strength-boosting equipment is your best bet. In fact, try picking up a Republic Subligar for Lv.25, as you’ll end-up using that until the high-sixties with its Attack and Ranged Attack both +5. Another prominent piece of equipment is the Haubergeon body piece. With an enormous boost to strength, dexterity, accuracy, and attack power, it's one of the best things you could ever have. Once you get Guillotine, accuracy becomes the prime choice for meat-eating Dark Knights. Anything that raises your HP can be very useful for Soul Eater. 
==Walkthrough==
===Advanced Job Quest===
* You can only get this quest once you are Lv.30 or higher. This is possibly one of the most trivial quests of all times. Seriously, it’s annoying. You virtually require Warrior leveled at least a little bit, and you have to kill <I>one hundred</I> monsters with a weapon that takes 11.1 seconds in between swings. Is it worth it? Heck yeah it is! Dark Knight is great. This quest is just what sucks. First, you have to talk to Gumbah, who is a little child Galka that you may recognize from the opening cutscene if you started in Bastok Mines. After you talk to him twice, go to the Palborough Mines. If you’re doing this as your Lv.30 or higher job, you shouldn’t need Sneak (Depending on the server your are on), but if you are doing it as a low level at this point, use Sneak. Go to the top floor of the mines and take the river boat down to Zeruhn Mines. You will receive a cutscene with Zeid. He gives you the sword called the Chaosbringer. Please note, it’s not chaos for the monsters, it’s chaos for you. You must now go out and fulfil its desire for blood by killing one hundred monsters. They can be any monsters, even the ones right outside Bastok. However, like I said you only get five swings per minute, so it’s a really good idea to have your Warrior leveled, and to have a ton of accuracy-boosting equipment. You don’t have to kill them all in one sitting, thankfully. The finishing blow <I>must</I> be with that sword, and it doesn’t count if you finish the monster with a weapon skill either. I suggest pulling out some paper and a pen/pencil and making a tally of every kill you make. Just to be safe, kill 110 or 115 monsters. Now, go to Beadeaux, the Quadav stronghold, and you will get a cutscene. Congratulations! You can now become a Dark Knight. If you want, you can follow-up this quest with another one to get a really awesome Lv.5 sword called the Deathbringer. However, it involves killing another 100 monsters with the Chaosbringer.
===Soloing 1 to 10===
* Soloing these levels is quite annoying, even for a melee job. Since your attacks are so slow, and your accuracy is so low, it’s kind of a pain to solo. Whatever you do, don’t use your Chaosbringer weapon that you get from finishing Dark Knight. Pick up a Great Axe (at lv5 and 8) or Great Sword that has some decent damage over time to it. Scythes aren't a very good option until level 10 (However, if you have no Scythe skill, it might be a wise idea to just stick it out with a scythe from level one, otherwise you wont be able to hit anything once you start partying). Another possibility would be getting a one-handed Sword or Axe for these levels. Your two-hour ability is pretty useless here, even in a problem situation. Don’t rely on it to save your hide until Lv.30 comes around. Otherwise, Dark Knight isn’t so bad. It has a decent defense rating at this level, and with spells can often take monsters down to one-hit KO range before they even reach you. At Lv.5 you get Arcane Circle, it's good against arcane monsters and it also will boost your party. Remember to get Signet before you go outside.
===Valkurm 10-20===
* At Lv.10 you get your first Attack Bonus, which puts you into position of damage-dealer right away. Great Axe weapon skill Shield Break is the most useful at these levels when everyone are suffering from low accuracy. Since your defense still isn’t too far from other jobs, you might be asked to sub-tank or possibly even main tank for parties in these levels so be prepared to use Warrior as a sub job (even though it doesn't offer anything other than Provoke and Defense Bonus). I suggest you ask your party leader to invite a proper tank if the latter occurs. Since you have magic, remember to lay the hurt on the monster with some enfeebles, and the occasional spell. At Lv.15 you get a very weakened version of Berserk, the Warrior job ability. It’s called Last Resort, and what it does is increases your attack by 15% and lowers your defense by 15% for a whole thirty seconds. That’s basically enough for you to get two attacks in. The job ability gives a ton of enmity, so I wouldn’t suggest using it for casual use. The best situation is to wait until you have 100% or more TP for the start of a fight, and then use Last Resort before the fight actually starts, then use a weapon skill with it active. Either that or try to finish the fight with a quick Last Resort Weapon Skill combo. This is where the skill requirement begins.
===Early mid-levels 20-40===
* Dark Knight stays relatively annoying to level until Lv.30 when you get Souleater. At Lv.20 you get a pretty neat job ability called Weapon Bash. It hit’s the monster with the blunt side of your weapon to deal small amounts of damage, but also stuns them. Use it whenever someone needs an extra second or two, for example when recasting Utsusemi. You also gain access to Neck Chopper, a Great Axe with +5 accuracy. It'll be your prime weapon until Lv.30 if you use Great Axe (you should!). Sturmwind is also available but it will not be very useful since you will have to use Shield Break most of the time.
* At Lv.20 Ranger becomes an acceptable sub job due its +10 accuracy bonus. This is a huge boost to accuracy for a low level character. Combine with Shield Break, your Dark Knight will be able to deal significantly more damage (as much as 15% more) over time. At lv.30, Warrior or Dragoon become the better choice. Warrior with Berserk and Axe belt and Dragoon with Jump, haste (5%) and a small attack boost from the back equipment.
*At Lv.30, like I said, you get Souleater. This is Dark Knight’s shining example of power and will likely make you want to level this job past 37, assuming that was your original intention. When used, it will give Provoke-like hate, and then consume 10% of your current HP and pour it into your weapon damage. That is to say, if you have 1000 HP for example, and you use Souleater, your attack will drain 100 of that and add it directly into your next hit. This put a burden on your Healer since he will have to spend more MP curing. So always remember to watch if your healer is comfortable with you spamming Souleater left and right or not. Souleater increases your accuracy. There are two decent times for using it. Before using a weapon skill or right before the end of the fight. Just remember that if you can't kill it quick, it will certainly going to kill you. If you are using it too early in the fight then cancel it after the weapon skill. In these levels too, you start getting your “Absorb” line of spells, which transfer one of a monster’s stats and gives it to you.
*If you are using Warrior as a sub job, Berserk, Last Resort and Souleater when used with Sturmwind can generate over 300+ (potentially 400+ with adequate attack boost) damage at lv.30-40. Combine with a skill chain you can push the total damage to over 700 (2 WSs and a skill chain). Such damage can take out as much as 40%-50% HP of an IT monster. The draw back is that you will generate so much enmity that even the best Paladin will not be able to save you. You will also have very poor defense during this period (close to 50%). So unless you are certain that you can kill the monster after using such boost, don't do it since you can take as much as 160 damage per hit.
===Your AF Weapon=== 
* It’s a pretty decent Scythe. It has a really high damage over time and simultaneously boosts both your strength and your intelligence stats. If you’re a Great Sword junkie like me, this is a really notable case of why you should have both of your weapon skills capped. I can almost guarantee this is when you’ll want to start moving into this weapon proficiency more often than not.
* Your first step to get your Raven Scythe is to go to Bastok’s Metalworks and talk to Raibaht in Cid’s lab. He will then send you to a Galka named Mighty Fist in the Darksteel Forge. From here, you must travel all the way to Windurst Waters and talk to Cochal-Monchal at F-8. Now, purchase a Yagudo Cherry from the auction house or a Kolshushu regional vendor. Head to Giddeus. Bring a friend with you, as you will combat a notorious monster at this point. Following the path west, head to H-7. Drop down and continue south to H-14. Trade the cherry to the ??? to spawn a notorious monster. Once you’ve defeated it, touch the ??? to receive a key item. Take the item to Mighty Fist and then talk to Raibaht. Congratulations! You’ve acquired your first piece of AF.
===Mid-High Levels 40-60=== 
* These levels are both quite nice and really bad for Dark Knights. Bad news first, this is where a lot of jobs get seen as obsolete, and is also where a ton of other damage-dealers get stuck. You’re going to be sitting there, among 15-20 other damage-dealers, seeking with no luck. On the bright side, like most other damage-dealers, you can solo, or do Besieged and Campaign to get some experience. Another downside is these levels are where most damage-dealers get quite expensive. Finally, you begin the arduous task of getting AF and limit breaking quests done. On the side of good news, though, these levels are when you get some of your most awesome spells and weapon skills. Namely Lv.60 when you finally get Guillotine. Absorb-STR, DEX, and TP are great spells that can help boost either stat where you need it most. Me, I’d be Absorb-DEX all the way, but I’m just an accuracy nut. Anyway, in these levels, you’ll be doing mostly the same things. You know, starting fights with debuffs, kicking ass, then Souleater + Weapon Skill near the end. Except now you can absorb the target’s TP every minute. Remember, it won’t work unless the monster actually has TP.
*Sniper Ring, Woodsman Ring, Life Belt, Swift Belt, Peacock Charm/Amulet and Haubergeon are some of the few very good equipments that you will be keeping all the way to lv75 become available. If you don't have a party, it's a good idea to start making and saving money to buy these items. You will at least need to have a Haubergeon, a pair of Sniper or Woodsman ring and a life belt by level 60.
===Your Artifact Armor=== 
* I’ll be honest, I used to really think this armor set was a load of hooey until I took the time to look into it better. Now I think it’s actually somewhat decent. Starting with your AF boots at Lv.52, the only good thing about them is the Mind stat. You might be asking “why?”, and the answer is “Guillotine damage”. Still, you are much better off with more accuracy (if you are eating meat) since you will certainly deal more damage if you land all the hits or simply more Str if you are munching sushi. Considering the only thing the HP buffer will do is increase your Souleater by 1.5 damage, it’s not that worth it. Next are your AF hands, which are pretty decent. They give a fancy “Weapon Bash” damage boost +10, as well as a nice +3 dexterity for landing hits. Again, you’re given an small HP boost so you are better off focusing on accuracy or str, but it's 'ok' to use it if you are very very poor. Your AF flanchard (pants) is(are) very underrated. However, some other leg wear are better (lv55 ones are great). Next is your body piece. It looks really cool, and is really awesome. Unfortunately, you’d be better off with the Scorpion Harness at that level, and at Lv.59, you'll be wearing the Haubergeon body piece. Speaking of Souleater, the next piece is your AF headpiece. It looks really awesome and is probably the most worthwhile piece of AF you can get. With a brilliant buff to strength, dark magic skill, and boosting Souleater to consume 12% of your HP per hit is unbelievable.
===High Levels 60-74=== 
* With your mostly useful artifact equipment in hand, the time is now to begin the last fifteen levels. Again, you’ll be hard-pressed finding parties, but now you’ll be even better in them. Plus, if you party with a Paladin, there’s almost no way he or she is going to lose hate to you, so you can just go absolutely nuts. I’m kidding, of course. NEVER go absolutely nuts in a party. Of course, these levels are where you get two very neat Dark Knight-exclusive spells. Drain II and Dread Spikes. Drain II at Lv.62 will actually work well at the start of fights, since you can actually drain <I>over</I> your maximum HP and put it at that extended maximum until you can use it again. This means extra Souleater damage, and more survivability. If that’s not enough, it’ll also boost your Dread Spikes, which is acquired at Lv.71. These spikes let any who oppose you feel your wrath, since whoever attacks you will just be dealing damage to themselves. They drain however much damage you took and give it right back to you. They work for one-half of your max HP, so Drain II can make it even better. A Dark Knight going overboard on abilities or weapon skills can easily strip hate from the tank. If you get hate from a Paladin tank, run behind the Paladin, as any Paladin who is control of the situation will use Cover.
===Merit Parties and End-Game Activities=== 
* Merit parties are drastically different than normal parties as they no longer have a static tank and everyone is sharing a portion of enmity. Also, equipments for these parties are heavily focused on Haste for normal attacks and Str/Acc for weapon skill. A Dark Knight without any Haste equipment and Str/Acc for weapon skill will deal as low as 50% the damage of a fairly well equipped Dark Knight with at least 15% haste in his equipment set.
* In Dynamis, the Dark Knight will act as he does in parties, dealing damage and absorbing the mobs' stats. In Sky, the Dark Knight will be focusing more on stunning things like Meltdown, that can deal heavy damage to the party if not stunned in time.
* Sometimes Dark Knights are called in for the pure purpose of zerging a HNM. Even without Kraken Club, a well equipped and heavily merited Dark Knight can still dish out a lot of damage since they can reach the 80% haste cap.
==Support Jobs==
===Warrior=== 
* Your main support job. If not all the way to Lv.75, then at least to Lv.50 or so. Warrior gives a nice boost to strength and dexterity, plus a trait for defense boost, and one of the most useful damage-dealing job abilities in the game: Berserk. Berserk will lower your defense by 25%, but increase your attack power by 25% as well. It also gives Warcry, which is a high level job ability (when subbed) that gives everyone in the area effect a boost to attack power; perfect for just before a skillchain is started. Warrior also gives you Provoke. Now, since Dark Knight is about as frail as a Black Mage but with metal armor, I don’t suggest you use this after about Lv.15 unless it’s really necessary. Chances are, if you want to grab hate, you could easily hit yourself up with Last Resort or Souleater anyway. Though if you have decent gear, you can probably tank Lv.10-15. 
===Samurai=== 
* Samurai not only gives you extra TP per hit, but a number of job abilities that’ll just make you cry out in happiness. Hasso, Lv.50, boosts your strength by between 3-5 (when subbed), increases your accuracy by 5, and gives you 10% quicker attack speed. For how long? An infinite amount of time! It lasts five minutes and can be recast every minute. The only downside is that it doubles your recasting time for all spells, so turn it off before using any spell. Third Eye, acquired at Lv.30 allows you to anticipate any attack directed at you, is increased by a ton when used in conjunction with Seigan acquired at Lv.70. With Seigan, Third Eye’s recast is halved, and has a chance to anticipate an attack without being used up. Plus, it allows you to possibly counter. Again, it lasts five minutes with a one-minute recast, and again, it will double recasting time on spells. Hasso and Seigan can’t be used together, but are amazing when dealing damage and keeping yourself alive when you pull hate respectively. And if that’s not enough to make you sub this, you get Meditate at Lv.60. Bam, an almost instant 60% TP right before your eyes! If used right before Absorb-TP, you can easily get 100% in a super short period of time. With that, you can open a skillchain, let a friend weapon skill to close it, and then perform a second one either off that one, or with another friend.
===Ninja=== 
* Believe it or not, this sub actually starts to work around Lv.30. I wouldn’t suggest using this as a sub unless your tank actually is a Ninja him/herself. The reason being, it doesn’t add anything to your overall damage over time or anything else for that matter. However, it does give you a ton of survivability with Utsusemi. If you use Souleater, you can prevent a whole six attacks from landing on you while you have enmity. Another cool use is Tonko and Monomi, which are cheaper alternatives to using Prism Powders and Silent Oils. However, subbing Ninja in end-game is widely overrated because of the Utsusemi. Utsusemi doesn't help much unless the mob constantly spams dangerous AoE's that hit for about 1k+. Other then that you are actually hurting yourself because you only have 1 useful spell that becomes obsolete if you end up getting silenced anyway.
===Thief=== 
* A great alternative for any Dark Knight’s support jobs. It basically trades-in a small portion of your damage over time for survivability and hate control, but only works well Lv.60 and higher. Using Last Resort, Sneak Attack, Trick Attack, Souleater, and then Guillotine can deal some absolutely ludicrous amounts of damage, and give it ALL to the person in front of you. Meaning if you have a Ninja tank and are otherwise scared to even lift a finger, subbing Thief can pour all that enormous enmity on the Ninja, not only letting you deal all that damage, but even more later, since his or her hate threshold will be immediately increased. Thief sub also allows access to Treasure Hunter for farming and camping NM’s, and also gives a really decent bonus to dexterity for accuracy purposes.
===Dancer===
* Is an extremely useful and underrated support job. It provides increased acc as a job ability along with a evasion bonus. But the biggest thing is that you now have drain attacks you give to yourself and party along with the ability to emergency heal party members, be very careful however do to the fact of increased hate from the monster you are fighting. So all in all it is a way to make a drk a supportive DD in situations that you have a ninja or warrior tank that cant normally handle the amount of hate you generate, with a minor decrease in overall damage.
===Dark Knight as a Support Job===
* For those who just need to deal more damage, this is the perfect support job for you. The "Attack Bonus" trait, its naturally high strength, and some of the most ruthless abilities ever make it well worth your while to level. It's also very useful as a support job for Red Mage in end-game scenarios with Stun. Ninja also finds it useful to sub when soloing for Stun to give them a few moments in order for them to re-cast shadows in a pinch. Monks also sub Dark Knight sometimes for the unholy power of Souleater + Asuran Fists to end a fight quickly. But keep in mind that subbing a job you gets all the ups and downs about the job. So the chances of your eight punches ALL landing on a mob is rare. Regardless of your ACC+ ability.
==Overview of Job Abilities, Traits, and Spells==
===Your Two-Hour Ability===
* Blood Weapon is an amazing concept, but ultimately fails to deliver as a two-hour ability. Even so, it’s not all that good. Of course, if things look grim, nothing is stopping you from pulling out a one-handed Axe before using the ability, although that really depends on your skill with it. At least until Lv.30 and higher, then it becomes a bit more useful. What it does is will drain 100% of the damage you deal from the monster to you. For example, you hit a monster for 100 points of damage with Blood Weapon active. It will then say “Additional Effect: 100 HP drained from the Target.” It won't actually drain the target's HP, but you will restore your own. It's just worded funny. Like I said, a cool concept. But with a mere thirty second duration, you can really only get three or so hits on a target with it active. Now let’s say, for example you deal that same damage, have 1000 HP, and use Souleater. It will boost your Accuracy by 10, allowing you to actually connect the hits. Secondly, you deal 100 damage. Plus 100 more through Souleater. Then, you restore that 100 HP and also deal all that extra damage. It’s a cool combo. Imagine seeing that with a Kraken Club that hits its target 2-8 times per attack. Even though you’d probably hit for zero damage base, you’d still deal 100 damage through Souleater. Times that by 8. That’s 100x8 = 800 damage <I>per hit</I>! It also has a short delay, so if you have Haste active, you’ll deal a ton of damage in that 30 second duration. (Great for high-level notorious monsters!)
===Job Abilities===
*Arcane Circle is a Lv.5 job ability that has one good use. What it does is extends your Arcana Killer (which isn’t actually obtained until Lv.25) to everyone in your party within range. Meaning if you’re fighting an arcane-based monster such as a Bomb or an Evil Weapon, whoever has its enmity has a chance of intimidating it.
*Last Resort is basically like a watered-down Berserk.(was 30 sec. duration before update 2011/05 and came to 3 minutes).It only gives 15% attack, while lowering defense by 15%. What’s actually kind of a bad thing about this job ability is it will also give you Provoke-like enmity. Meaning you lower your defense while making the monster angry at you. This isn’t exactly a Dark Knight’s most shining job ability. The best strategy to using this is, if you have TP at (or near) the start of the fight, engage, but have your back turned. Turn around after you’ve used the job ability and attack. At about the 20 second point (count the in-game clock about 6-7 minutes) then unleash your weapon skill. If timed properly, you should get a decent damage boost for all of your attacks, including your weapon skill. And the effect should wear off before taking any hits if you actually do take hits.
*Weapon Bash, acquired at Lv.20, will require the use of a two-handed weapon. This shouldn’t be a big deal, since you’re a Dark Knight and will almost always be using two-handed weapons. The job ability is instant and has a chance to stun its target. It will also deal damage. The benefit to Weapon Bash is it has a better chance to stunning than Paladin’s Shield Bash. However, like Shield Bash, it will give enmity. Not as much, mind you, but it might turn the monster your way if you’re just at the hate threshold. I suggest using this to try stunning a Bomb Toss or high-damaging spell (or even worse, a cure spell).
*Souleater is hands-down Dark Knight’s most prized job ability. It does three things. One, it gives you hate right off the bat for simply using it. Two, it gives you accuracy; about +10. Three, it consumes 10% of your HP (12% with AF headpiece) and pour it directly into your damage. Meaning if you have 1000 HP and hit a monster for 100 damage, you will deal an extra 100 damage in the same hit, while bringing your HP to 900. It’s a seriously amazing job ability that will be your best friend until 75. The problem is, like I said, it gives a lot of hate when used. And since each time you hit the target, you’ll be losing 10% of your HP, that’s no joke. With this said, there are two good strategies. The first possible strategy is similar to that of what I said with Last Resort. That is to say, use it just before you turn around and start wailing on the monster. Another choice is to use it near the last quarter of a monster’s health, hoping you finish it off before it kills you. Obviously more dangerous, but it will also let you use a weapon skill with Souleater’s effect, as opposed to just beating it to death with your weapon. This is especially prominent with Guillotine, since it is a four-hit weapon skill. Yes, it will actually consume 40% of your HP and pour it all into its damage. That extra damage should finish it off. Of course, if it doesn’t, it’ll almost totally finish you off.
*<I>Dark Seal</I>… Have you ever seen or heard of Black Mage’s job ability called “Elemental Seal”? It’s basically like the same thing, except it works solely for Dark Magic like Drain, Aspir, Bio, and the Absorb spells. The main purpose of this job ability is to decrease the chance of your spells being resisted so you can get a much more full effect.
*<I>Diabolic Eye</I> is an effective means of increasing your accuracy for getting faster TP and more powerful multi-hit weapon skills. It doesn’t come without penalty, though. It will lower your maximum HP by 15% to increase accuracy by 20. On the bright side, it has a really nice three-minute duration, meaning you can use it in conjunction with Berserk. It starts off with a fifteen minute cool-down, but can be brought down to five minutes with full merits.
===Job Traits===
*Attack Bonus makes your damage hit higher-end more frequently. It’s a very beautiful job trait that you get four tiers of starting at 10 and ending at 70. The bonus is a wicked +10 at Lv.10 and works its way up to +48 by Lv.70. Thus proving this job’s insane ability to deal fearsome damage.
*Resist Paralyze is a nice little passive ability that occasionally will allow you to completely resist the effects of paralysis. Even if such isn’t the case, this job trait will greatly reduce the duration of the effect. Meaning of course if you don’t have a White Mage, or if you do, but he’s slacking off, you won’t have much of the same effect of this ailment. And when your attacks take upwards of six seconds between individual swings, losing the occasional hit can be really frustrating.
*Arcana Killer gives you the ability to occasionally intimidate ‘arcane’-type monsters, totally shielding you from its attacks. Even though you shouldn’t be tanking, Dark Knight often pulls hate. When fighting Bombs or Weapons or anything of that variety, it can be a nice little boost.
*<I>Desperate Blows</I> gives your Last Resort a <I>real</I> purpose finally. It will still increase your attack by the 15%, but now it will also give you a speed to your attacks. Each merit allotted to this trait will boost your attack speed by an extra 5% (meaning 25% total) for the duration of the ability’s effect. This is really nice for your two-hour ability, since its biggest loss is its short duration and your long weapon delay. Desperate Blows will only trigger when you’re using a two-handed weapon, though.
*<I>Muted Soul</I> will actually increase the usefulness of your already most useful job ability: Souleater. It lowers your enmity per hit by a ridiculous amount, allowing you to go a lot more badass than normal. Each merit will lower your enmity by 10, allowing for a 50 enmity reduction with full merits. And since Souleater lasts a whole minute duration, that really frees you up for dealing a massive amount of damage. It may even lower the need to time Souleater near the end of a fight. 
===Spells===
*Elemental “Nukes” aren’t really the backbone of this job. They serve basically only one purpose. That purpose is to magic burst on your own skillchains or other party members’ skillchains. Since your intelligence and Elemental skill is no where close to that of a Black Mage’s, you won’t have even close to the same damage as one with these spells. You also get them a lot slower than Black Mages, allowing for a maximum tier 2 of 4 of these spells. The order learned is Stone, Water, Aero, Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder. I suggest saving your MP for more useful spells such as Drain and Bio, but it’s still fun to magic burst your own skillchains. However, elemental casting is useful in some cases with endgame; HNM's, Sky, Sea, ect. For the use of not pulling off too much hate off the tank. Mobs that can counter attacks, or are really resistant to physical damage.
*Enfeebles are more Dark Knight’s thing than standard Elemental nukes. Though that’s still not truly Dark Knight’s purpose. If you want to go seriously in-depth in enfeebles, please visit my How-To Guide: Red Mage and go to the spells section. However, one of a Dark Knight’s primary spells is an enfeeble in the category of Dark Magic. It’s called Bio, and deals a fair load of damage, knock’s your target’s HP off a little bit per tic, and also lowers its attack. It’s very useful, has a short cast time, and consumes little MP, so use it at the start of every fight, unless someone is already doing so. Bio II is more potent in all three parts, so when you get that, you should use it. You also get Poison, which deals no damage other than its damage over time. It’s simply an anti-Regen. Bind is a somewhat useful spell that will halt an enemy’s movement for a short time, assuming it lands. Use it when soloing to unleash a hellfire of enfeebles and status-down crossbow bolts before it starts coming to you. Sleep, however, is more useful in case of danger. It will both halt the target’s movement and actions for the duration of the effect. It won’t stick for very long if the target has Bio or Poison, or if it’s being attacked, so be careful when using it. Stun at Lv.37 is one of the major things a Dark Knight gets. With a lightning-fast casting time of 0.5 seconds (but re-cast of 1 minute) you can easily stop any enemy ability or spell cast. Best of all, it has a very large success rate, so it’s even more useful than Weapon Bash. 
*Drain and Aspir are possibly Dark Knight’s two best spells, especially with their high Dark Magic skill. Drain saps a target’s HP and gives it to you, and Aspir saps MP and gives it to you. Drain is a very useful spell when you take damage in partying, or just all the time when soloing. It deals damage even if you have full HP, but it’s got less of a point that way. Aspir is different in that it only works on a small handful of monsters. It will only work if the target actually has MP in the first place. It’s useful after enfeebling and using Drain. Both of these spells have one-minute recast timers, so time wisely. You can get Drain II at a higher level. It’s Dark Knight-exclusive. It’s a lot better in that not only does it drain more HP, but it will also increase your maximum HP if you drain more than it. The duration of the HP-boost is equal to the re-cast timer, so you can have your HP high as long as you have it.
*Absorb spells are a line of spells exclusive to Dark Knight. They literally absorb a target’s stat. Be it mind, strength, dexterity, or anything. They’re super useful, especially on monsters that have really high of one or two stats, and you just want to get rid of it. You can absorb a dexterous monster’s dexterity, giving it to you. Making it less accurate, and you more accurate. The transfer of stats is quite large, too. About 10 or so of whatever you steal. They give you a fair bit of enmity, but are still useful to use near the start of the fight. At Lv.45 there’s one Absorb spell that actually saps the target’s TP. Use that to help you deal the most damage you possibly can. Maybe get two Guillotines off before your Souleater wears off.
*Tractor is a spell that is quite useful when it’s needed, but isn’t needed very often. What it does is drags a fallen ally to your current position. It’s great for getting out of high-aggro areas, especially those with undead in them that would aggro your ally the second he or she is raised. Tractor can also be used for situations such as the tractoring trick in Batillia Downs where you can tractor party members up on a cliff that would normally take a while to get to by having to go around most of the game.
*Dread Spikes is another Dark Knight-exclusive spell that will cover you in magical spikes that deal damage to the enemy when you’re hit physically. Unlike Black Mage’s and Red Mage’s spikes which deal a tiny amount of damage and might paralyze or stun the target that hit you, Dread Spikes will absorb most of the damage you took from the thing that hit you, restoring it to full most of the time. Best of all, they won’t give you any additional enmity. This means that the monster hits you, leaves you alone, and you still have full HP. The effect lasts until it absorbs half of your maximum HP at the time of cast, meaning you should use Drain II and equip some HP-boosting gear before you use these. The damage you take is calculated before the spikes restore your HP, so if a monster hits you for 150 damage and you only have 100 HP left, you will still be defeated.
==See Also==