Dark Knight Guide by Riverking
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NOTICE: | This article is currently undergoing construction by a single editor or group of editors. |
This guide is a work in progress. So bear with me while I build it up! Falaras has a fantastic guide for Dark Knight that was created for Eden. However I wanted to create one from the perspective of Horizon as we aren't in ToAU-era yet and we have unique Era+ changes here on Horizon. Thank you for reading!
Introduction
Hello! My IGN is Riverking and I'm a Dark Knight main on Horizon XI that has taken Dark Knight into end game content. Only just recently have I found link shells for this content so soon enough I will have completed everything on Dark Knight. This is what I've done thus far on Dark Knight
1. All HNMs that require melee
2. All T1 HENMs
3. Most of Sky
4. Some of Sea
5. Some of Dynamis
Dark Knight is an incredibly versatile heavy DD that can do more than people realize. A competent Dark Knight will bring the following to your team:
1. Heavy DD - even if you don't use your tools, you will still do excellent damage when geared
2. Sleeps and Binds - I sleep enemies in Dyna and I've even landed a bind on Byakko. These things can prevent full party wipes when well placed.
3. Two Stuns - Stuns are very good
4. Able to Tank - I've tanked on HNMs and HENMs
5. Debuff with Absorbs - lowering enemy stats can be very good if you can consistantly land the absorb
Horizon Changes 
- Moderate changes to Artifact Armor.
- Minor change to the relic weapon Apocalypse.
- Significant changes to the relic weapon Ragnarok.
- Arcane Circle has a damage bonus against arcana for all parties members as well as providing protection against magic aggro. The recast of this ability has also been doubled to 10 minutes.
- Arcane Circle Recast merits now decrease its recast time by 20 seconds per merit, instead of 10.
- Desperate Blows was a merit ability in era.
- Desperate Blows was a merit ability in era and wasn't available until the Treasures of Aht Urhgan era.
- Souleater now has a recast time of 5 minutes, instead of 6.
- Souleater Recast merits now decreases its recast by 10 seconds per merit, instead of 12.
- Last Resort's duration has been doubled from 30 to 60 seconds.
Abilities
Blood Weapon
Level: 1 Recast: 2:00:00 Duration: 30s
A Dark Knight's Two Hour Ability. When activated it will drain HP equal to the damage dealt to the target. Does not work on undead.
Useful in a Zerging situation in conjunction with Souleater. Without a multihit weapon like BZagh, Ridill, MKris, or KClub it is actually fairly weak. However, it has saved my life before in a pinch. It has also completely let me down too.
Arcane Circle
Level: 5 Recast: 10:00 Duration: 3:00
Grants a 15% bonus to resistance, defense, and attack against Arcana to party members within area of effect. On Horizon, Arcane Circle will also provide protection against magic aggro during it's duration.
Last Resort and Desperate Blows
Level: 15 Recast: 5:00 Duration: 1:00
When active, increases attack by roughly 15% and decreases defense by the same amount.
Generates 1300 Cumulative Enmity which means that it can easily pull aggro from the tank onto you. Use this ability on cooldown but use it before you attack the enemy to prevent you gaining all that enmity.
Desperate Blows is a group 2 merit from the ToAU expansion. It has been Era+'d into our trait pool as a direct buff to DRK. This trait reduces the delay for two-handed weapons while Last Resort is active. This is considered "job ability" haste and will grant 15% JA Haste to you.
Weapon Bash
Level: 20 Recast: 5:00 Duration: Instant
Instant stun on a 5 minute recast. Stuns are incredibly valuable so be sure to look out for opportunties to use this ability. The duration on this stun is longer than the Stun spell.
Use it selfishly when you inevitably pull hate. Use it to stun -ga spells. Use it to stun dangerous monster TP moves. If you're bad at recognizing situations when you need it just use it.
Souleater
Level: 30 Recast: 5:00 Duration: 30s
Consumed 10% of your HP per hit and converts that amount directly into damage.
While active it also grants the user 25 accuracy.
Will activate on Weapon Skills, including multi-hit ones. Meaning Guillotine will convert 40% of your current HP into extra damage. It will use your initial HP for all of these conversions. For example, if you have 1000 HP, and you use Souleater+Guillotine, you will be dropped to 600 HP and your Guillotine will do 400 extra damage.
Generates 1300 Cumulative Enmity which means that it can easily pull aggro from the tank onto you.
This is the ability that gives Dark Knight the reputation that it has and every Dark Knight uses their Souleater differently. I've noticed three archetypes of Souleater usage.
The Souleater Enthusiast
This Dark Knight will use Souleater on cooldown. They play a high-risk high-reward game each time they use Souleater and they love it. Healers on the other hand hate this DRK and in their defense it is very taxing on their MP pools.
With coordination and a willing team. This DRK can speed things up. Otherwise, they might slow things down.
The Weaponskiller
This Dark Knight will use Souleater directly before their Weapon Skill. They will likely keep it on until they pull hate then immediately turn it off. They may even wait until the enemy is low HP so that there is virtually no threat to them.
This is a safe way to use Souleater without your party hating you too much. You're losing some potential on the ability but in an uncoordinated setting this is likely preferred by many players.
The Scaredy Cat
This Dark Knight will never use Souleater. They don't even have it macro'd in because they're too scared to use it given Dark Knights reputation to die all the time.
Don't be this Dark Knight. Communicate with your team and work your way into using it for weapon skills. You'll get more comfortable using Souleater the more you use it.
Spells W.I.P.
Drain
Level: 10 Recast: 1:00 MP: 21
Bind
Level: 20 Recast: 0:40 MP: 8
Aspir
Level: 20 Recast: 1:00 MP: 10
Sleep and Sleep II
Level: 30/56 Recast: 0:30/0:30 MP: 19/29
Stun
Level: 37 Recast: 0:45 MP: 36
Absorb-STR (And DEX, VIT, AGI, INT, MND, CHA)
Level: 43 Recast: 1:00 MP: 33
Sub Jobs W.I.P.
Samurai
1. Hasso
2. Meditate
3. Zanshin
4. Store TP
5. Third Eye
6. Seigan
Samurai will win every time on anything that uses a two-handed weapon.
Ninja
Shadows are too strong. Defensive option.
Warrior
Useful when leveling until Hasso at 50
Thief
Only used on incredibly evasion bosses like HNMs and Skygods.
Dragoon
Only used in a zerg as it provides more accuracy and more haste with the Wyvern Earring.
Merits W.I.P.
Work in Progress. However, to provide a general list.
1. Crit
2. Scythe Skill
3. SE Recast
4. LR Recast
5. STR
6. HP
7. Dark
Weapon skills
Scythe
Guillotine - Bread and Butter - use this if you're not opening or closing Darkness.
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Cross Reaper - Used to Open and Close Darkness
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Spiral Hell - Used to Open and Close Darkness. Era+'d into Gravitation instead of Distortion.
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Catastrophe - Requires Apocalypse. Heals you for a portion of damage dealt. 10% Haste Aftermath.
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Great Sword
| Shockwave - This is an AoE weapon skill. Why do I list it here? Because it puts enemies to sleep.
It's great for farming. I used it in mission fights when my static didn't have an AoE sleep option and it works decently. Try it out - it's not perfect but it's pretty cool.
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Spinning Slash - Generally used when you are /THF in combination with SATA. Used to Open and Close Light
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| Ground Strike - Generally used when you are /THF in combination with SATA. Used to Open and Close Light. Or to Open Darkness.
Note: This can OPEN Darkness but it cannot CLOSE Darkness. This is because Distorion is Property B. So, when you attempt to close Darkness when Gravitation is resonating, the Fragmentation in Property A will take priority and you will chain Fragmentation instead.
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| Scourge - Requires Ragnarok. Deals critical damage. Chance to crit varies with TP. 10% Critical Hit Aftermath. |
