Leveling Dark Knight with Great Axe?

[Miruka]

I was futzing around and giving him like Fantasia/Gavotte and stuff instead of Min/Mad too. Ahhh, distance plugin.

[Sonomaa]

Seems like everyone has there own ways of leveling DRK... lol

Personally, I used GA and /WAR from 25 to 56. Sturmwind will easily outdamage any other WS at those levels, and 2h DoT with the right gear actually does well. By 50 the range of a full-hit was around 300-500 without SE, and 600-900 with SE.

At 56 I changed to /NIN and went with Rampage for a bit, but the damage and DoT through those levels were kinda weak overall. But, did get a crazy 1.5k rampage on an IT, lol.. In the end though I didn't like being a gimpy WAR.

At 59 I changed to Scythe and used Guillotine the rest of the way, still while /NIN. Depending on the mob, a full-hit would usually have a range of 500-1200 with an average of like 700, and a full-hit with SE would usually have a range of 1200-1800 (had an 1800 at level 60, lol).

I also parsed every exp PT from 40ish to 75, and outparsed in almost every PT with a majority of them with WARs and/or MNKs. I still have those saved somewhere in like this library of parses I have.

Im going to ignore what you said because Im pretty sure only you could pull off shit that insane, a standard, even a well equiped DRK doesnt have the rukenshin+150toattack bonus that you do

[JoOeetheplatypuS]

Seems like everyone has there own ways of leveling DRK... lol

Personally, I used GA and /WAR from 25 to 56. Sturmwind will easily outdamage any other WS at those levels, and 2h DoT with the right gear actually does well. By 50 the range of a full-hit was around 300-500 without SE, and 600-900 with SE.

At 56 I changed to /NIN and went with Rampage for a bit, but the damage and DoT through those levels were kinda weak overall. But, did get a crazy 1.5k rampage on an IT, lol.. In the end though I didn't like being a gimpy WAR.

At 59 I changed to Scythe and used Guillotine the rest of the way, still while /NIN. Depending on the mob, a full-hit would usually have a range of 500-1200 with an average of like 700, and a full-hit with SE would usually have a range of 1200-1800 (had an 1800 at level 60, lol).

I also parsed every exp PT from 40ish to 75, and outparsed in almost every PT with a majority of them with WARs and/or MNKs. I still have those saved somewhere in like this library of parses I have.

Im going to ignore what you said because Im pretty sure only you could pull off shit that insane, a standard, even a well equiped DRK doesnt have the rukenshin+150toattack bonus that you do

Actually I do believe that Ruke only has a natural DMG taken -20% and enmity+15. Its ryko with the +150 atk.

Oh and kirschy, obviously ridill and kclub will kick everything's ass.

[Stilgar]

Seems like everyone has there own ways of leveling DRK... lol

Personally, I used GA and /WAR from 25 to 56. Sturmwind will easily outdamage any other WS at those levels, and 2h DoT with the right gear actually does well. By 50 the range of a full-hit was around 300-500 without SE, and 600-900 with SE.

At 56 I changed to /NIN and went with Rampage for a bit, but the damage and DoT through those levels were kinda weak overall. But, did get a crazy 1.5k rampage on an IT, lol.. In the end though I didn't like being a gimpy WAR.

At 59 I changed to Scythe and used Guillotine the rest of the way, still while /NIN. Depending on the mob, a full-hit would usually have a range of 500-1200 with an average of like 700, and a full-hit with SE would usually have a range of 1200-1800 (had an 1800 at level 60, lol).

I also parsed every exp PT from 40ish to 75, and outparsed in almost every PT with a majority of them with WARs and/or MNKs. I still have those saved somewhere in like this library of parses I have.

Hey Ruke, mind posting what gear you used when you went Scythe DRK/NIN? Just the idea of using the highest delay weapons in the game with no Double Attack or Berserk sounds like it would be utter crap, but knowing your LJ and reputation, I have 120% faith that you pulled it off just like you say. What I want to know is how?

[Sagus]

leveling drk to 37 for my rdm I used gaxe the whole way. If souleater wasn't up, screw Sturmwind, opening a fight with Shield Break ftw.
If Souleater was up though, by all means, have fun tanking after busting out the Sturmwind
probably wouldn't do that without a PL, but honestly, unless it's an LS pt, do PL-less pts even exist at low levels anymore?

[JoOeetheplatypuS]

Seems like everyone has there own ways of leveling DRK... lol

Personally, I used GA and /WAR from 25 to 56. Sturmwind will easily outdamage any other WS at those levels, and 2h DoT with the right gear actually does well. By 50 the range of a full-hit was around 300-500 without SE, and 600-900 with SE.

At 56 I changed to /NIN and went with Rampage for a bit, but the damage and DoT through those levels were kinda weak overall. But, did get a crazy 1.5k rampage on an IT, lol.. In the end though I didn't like being a gimpy WAR.

At 59 I changed to Scythe and used Guillotine the rest of the way, still while /NIN. Depending on the mob, a full-hit would usually have a range of 500-1200 with an average of like 700, and a full-hit with SE would usually have a range of 1200-1800 (had an 1800 at level 60, lol).

I also parsed every exp PT from 40ish to 75, and outparsed in almost every PT with a majority of them with WARs and/or MNKs. I still have those saved somewhere in like this library of parses I have.

Hey Ruke, mind posting what gear you used when you went Scythe DRK/NIN? Just the idea of using the highest delay weapons in the game with no Double Attack or Berserk sounds like it would be utter crap, but knowing your LJ and reputation, I have 120% faith that you pulled it off just like you say. What
I want to know is how?

Berserk and Double Attack make the same difference on 2h as 1h. pDIF (which is what attack affects) is a factor independent from DMG and delay. You lose as much on 2h weapons as 1h weapons.

Didn't I already say this?

[RKenshin]

I was futzing around and giving him like Fantasia/Gavotte and stuff instead of Min/Mad too. Ahhh, distance plugin.

Yeah, I remember. -.-

Thanks for reminding me, just remember that when I level BRD with you you're going to get a whole bunch of Carols you dirty schmuck.

Im going to ignore what you said because Im pretty sure only you could pull off shit that insane, a standard, even a well equiped DRK doesnt have the rukenshin+150toattack bonus that you do

So much for my quest to try the same with DRG, my secret is out.

Hey Ruke, mind posting what gear you used when you went Scythe DRK/NIN? Just the idea of using the highest delay weapons in the game with no Double Attack or Berserk sounds like it would be utter crap, but knowing your LJ and reputation, I have 120% faith that you pulled it off just like you say. What I want to know is how?

I'm just going to take the lazy way out and rip screen shots off my LJ.

40s gear and a damage shot:
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7275/drkgear0wr.jpg
(Sturmwind practically one-hit stuff with all buffs, lol)

Early 50s damage shots:
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6439/sturm76mx.jpg
(fucking collibris, bad memories)

Gear at 60 and a few damage shots:
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/7700/equip2fd.jpg

Those Guillotines in the picture are some of the highest I've had so far up to 61, top two with Souleater and the bottom without. All of them with me as DRK/NIN... Overall the WS is really fun, even though it jumps around a lot between a wide range of numbers. My average in my first PT with it was 750...

And this was the Rampage I blabbed about as well, at 56:
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2964/ramp15kz.jpg


And, come to think of it, I haven't had a full update since that post. I never covered the exp from 61 to 75, I was just magically a Kraken DRK on JoL/AV an update or so later after leaving off at 61... lol

I'm pretty behind, but seeing as there's a big gap in exp I probably have more shots laying around in one of my folders for an update. If I find anything interesting I'll post it, or if there's anything else you want to see/know feel free to ask.

[Stilgar]

Seems like everyone has there own ways of leveling DRK... lol

Personally, I used GA and /WAR from 25 to 56. Sturmwind will easily outdamage any other WS at those levels, and 2h DoT with the right gear actually does well. By 50 the range of a full-hit was around 300-500 without SE, and 600-900 with SE.

At 56 I changed to /NIN and went with Rampage for a bit, but the damage and DoT through those levels were kinda weak overall. But, did get a crazy 1.5k rampage on an IT, lol.. In the end though I didn't like being a gimpy WAR.

At 59 I changed to Scythe and used Guillotine the rest of the way, still while /NIN. Depending on the mob, a full-hit would usually have a range of 500-1200 with an average of like 700, and a full-hit with SE would usually have a range of 1200-1800 (had an 1800 at level 60, lol).

I also parsed every exp PT from 40ish to 75, and outparsed in almost every PT with a majority of them with WARs and/or MNKs. I still have those saved somewhere in like this library of parses I have.

Hey Ruke, mind posting what gear you used when you went Scythe DRK/NIN? Just the idea of using the highest delay weapons in the game with no Double Attack or Berserk sounds like it would be utter crap, but knowing your LJ and reputation, I have 120% faith that you pulled it off just like you say. What
I want to know is how?

Berserk and Double Attack make the same difference on 2h as 1h. pDIF (which is what attack affects) is a factor independent from DMG and delay. You lose as much on 2h weapons as 1h weapons.

Didn't I already say this?

The thing is, though, that someone using one-handed weapons w/o war sub is likely dual weilding, thus getting a very nice reduction in delay, which is a very nice advantage over someone using a 2h weapon. My question was perhaps phrased in a bad way. What I meant to ask was how could drk/nin with scythe be any better damage wise than drk/thf, which we all know sucks ass in terms of tp gain. But drk/nin wouldn't even get SATA to stack with WS. And so, how could Ruke pull it off? And the answer is his perfect gear and innate ability to do shit no normal human could.

[Kirschy]

Ruke is insane =p. I might be a little off here, but did you have Scythe Merits by the time you were spamming Guillotine? Gear + Merits and the appropriate food/songs, it makes sense that you were slashing through everything. Honestly, increadibly impressive compared to anything I could put up while I was lvling DRK =p.

On the note of drk/nin vs drk/thf... I'd imagine the reason /nin works for higher parsing, is the ability to spam WS and Souleater without worrying too much about dying. drk/thf is more dependant on how things are going on in the party. Also, if youre equipped well /w a BRD... Spamming Guillotine (or any multihit) isn't going to differ that much from spamming an SA WS every minute.

[RKenshin]

I had one merit in Scythe to get Guillotine at 59 instead of 60 (impatience ftw). I also ate sushi just about 100% of the time, minus I think one Colibri pickup PT where I just got sick of popping sushi nonstop and used kebabi instead.

[Immortaldonut]

concerning the "leveling drk to 37" delio, great axe rocks. it rocks hard like playing a burning guitar with your teeth. i was doing way more damage with sturmwind than with either great sword or scythe. i PL'd my war to 37 before my drk, so i skilled up all 3 weapons.

[Obev]

it rocks hard like playing a burning guitar with your teeth.

That's all I needed to hear. :D