Dark Knight Discussion

[Dein]

Anyone have any A2S parses? Wondering how I did in comparison to other DRKs. I went full VIT accessories and made a lot of mistakes and ended the fight at 668. I'm sure that's on the low end of things, just want to see some potential numbers. Would especially appreciate parses with someone in melded i150 accessories.

I just downed A2S last night and MT'd on DRK. I ended up parsing 686 with full VIT accessories and the last wave of our kill was almost a wipe (other tank and our blm died and I had to scramble to pick up a widow and doll) but next week I'm going to try going 3 STR and 2 VIT accessories.

[Seravi Edalborez]

So what is the general consensus here regarding accessories? It seems like going full STR accessories at this point leaves you with a rather low HP count, but going full VIT seems kind of pointless as well.
Forgetting melding for a second, are people going sort of like a 2/5 STR & 3/5 VIT mix? Because that's what I've been doing for a while now and it seems like it will work for now until I see more reason to have more HP...

Kind of annoying too, because I'm extremely against stacking VIT accessories in general on any tanks in this game unless it's melded and you've also got STR.

Melds are always the best option, but for otherwise balancing STR vs VIT you have to gear to your party. If your healers are slower than snails you just have to suck it up and have more VIT or leave if you have that luxury. Or if they are princesses and "notice" that you are wearing STR.

The rising hive mind of all STR all the time is something that I can't really agree with. You don't need a lot of extra VIT but just a bit while people are under geared or underskilled is sufficient.

[Ravant]

This has probably been asked before but, is Salted Earth bugged on ACT for anyone else? It shows up in my parse as Unknown.

[Jahaudant]

The "full str all day every day" thing is cancer. Try doing A1 with some wannabe dps Warrior with barely 15k HP in defiance... Even when you pop Vengeance, IB, Conv, Thrill and Path correctly for the buster you are guaranteed around 15k damage out of around 16k health and all it takes is being 1-2k HP under max for a wipe. Meanwhile, at the opposite end, I'm in piss-easy-to-obtain crafted accessories at 25k hp and my healer is DPSing while eating a sandwich no problem.

[Carth]

Thing is, it wasn't cancer until Savage came out. Everything in the game was tankable with full STR accessories, though A1 kinda pushed it especially if a missile was missed.

[Kiarax]

Anyone have any A2S parses? Wondering how I did in comparison to other DRKs. I went full VIT accessories and made a lot of mistakes and ended the fight at 668. I'm sure that's on the low end of things, just want to see some potential numbers. Would especially appreciate parses with someone in melded i150 accessories.

I just downed A2S last night and MT'd on DRK. I ended up parsing 686 with full VIT accessories and the last wave of our kill was almost a wipe (other tank and our blm died and I had to scramble to pick up a widow and doll) but next week I'm going to try going 3 STR and 2 VIT accessories.

Decided to try DRK tonight, was worried about learning MP management (went PLD before) but figured I'd try since I knew I'd be able to make up a fucking ton of extra DPS and grabbed the DRK eso weapon. Funnily enough we didn't clear last week (hit enrage) and... well, I guess this parse speaks for itself:


The law ring is a VIT one (was scared of that final wave!), food was HQ Baked Pipira Pira (not on in the SS, so missing 34 VIT from that). Eso weps seem to be around a 4% DPS gain from my limited testing, so should be around 810-820 if I was still using Hive Weapon.

[Ramset]

Our DRK fill in who ran with us tonight...first time in A2S parsed 819. Pretty damn good for first time in the fight lol.

[Kiarax]

Once you have a grip on how much MP you can blow on each wave there's a lot of damage potential on the class, I didn't turn off Grit at all when I could have on a few waves pretty easily (we have an AST too so I tend to be a little more careful than I would be with SCH+WHM). Hoping I'll be able to push 900 on a decent run next time but we'll see.

[Classikmage]

Anyone happen to know exactly how much of an increase in damage Darkside gives? Is it 20% the same as teh reduction from Grit, or less? I just started DRK and I'm kind of curious since it doesn't actually say the amount int he tooltip.

[Grey Jorildyn]

It's +15% damage.

[Ragnus]

Any tips on lower level MP management under Grit? I'm level 36 at the moment, Blood Weapon makes it brainless but without it I feel like Syphon Strike can't keep up with things when Darkside, Unleash, and Unmend both use MP like crazy. I'm making sure to drop Darkside between pulls also so I get the better MP regen back for even one tick.

[Kimchi]

Any tips on lower level MP management under Grit? I'm level 36 at the moment, Blood Weapon makes it brainless but without it I feel like Syphon Strike can't keep up with things when Darkside, Unleash, and Unmend both use MP like crazy. I'm making sure to drop Darkside between pulls also so I get the better MP regen back for even one tick.

Don't you have Blood Price for MP generation?
You regen mana for each instance of damage taken. Shouldn't have mp management problems when you can use it for every pull.
It's from the level 35 DRK quest.

[The Stig]

Any tips on lower level MP management under Grit? I'm level 36 at the moment, Blood Weapon makes it brainless but without it I feel like Syphon Strike can't keep up with things when Darkside, Unleash, and Unmend both use MP like crazy. I'm making sure to drop Darkside between pulls also so I get the better MP regen back for even one tick.

Pop blood price generously, typically while you're smashng Unleash. WHMs don't have Holy yet, so go enjoy!

After hate is established (about 5 unmends at that level) you should be fine with weaving a syphon strike here and there. When there is only 1 mob left, drop Grit and Blood Weapon, repeat.

[Clash Perez]

In lower dungeons, I tend to either leave Grit off for most of the dungeon, or if I need it then use Unmend only once on the pull, and use Unleash more sparingly. A couple of Unleashes in the beginning is usually enough to solidify hate, and following with Siphon enough to keep MP at a comfortable level, tossing in more Unleashes as the MP is available.

Once you get Blood Price, it becomes a lot easier to manage Grit full-time.

[Ragnus]

Yeah, I actually went into the dungeon right on the cusp of 35, and exited at level 36 iirc. I'll go get Blood Price tonight then.

[Classikmage]

Sorry if this is offf-topic, but.... in the spirit of DRK, I have to say.....


"Cut my life into pieces, this is my LAST RESORT!"

[Kiarax]

Alright so looking for some second opinions from people who have some gameplan in their head for esoterics. I got the gobcoat from a2 this week and it's kind of thrown a wrench in what I should upgrade first. Obviously I picked up the weapon first but now I'm not sure what direction to go next week. Right now I'm using all the 190 pieces on the left side minus the body, which is the 180 law piece, right side I have potentially 4 melded accessories (missing a second ring but I wouldn't be opposed to making another one if necessary) and a mix of whatever other pieces I feel I need. I was planning on grabbing something like the head/hands/feet next but since I got the gobcoat I'm wondering if I should just do the belt, it's got shitty secondaries but they are a little better than the savage belt, and it'll give me 7 STR 9 VIT for only 375 esoterics, a bigger jump than anything else I can get next week. Grabbing head/hands/feet would only be 4 STR and 6 VIT in comparison (for a little more eso too). Would also open up the option of getting the body the week after too, which is shitty but I'm not expecting to get the savage body for a long time anyway. Good idea Y/N? What are other people doing with their eso?

[Taint]

Get the belt its BiS.

[Dein]

^What Taint said plus you'd want to get the body anyway since A4 is presumably what drops weapons and body anyway. Better to buy pieces from the later floors so that you're less likely to replace them in short order.

[Kiarax]

Yeah, I think the belt letting me grab the body the week after is sealing the deal here, can't do that if I pick up the head/hands/feet and that'll be a gigantic jump too.