Dark Knight Guide by Riverking
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NOTICE: | This article is currently undergoing construction by a single editor or group of editors. |
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 - situational but can be beneficial
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!
If you see any errors or criticisms please reach out to me on Discord: .riverking
Horizon Changes 
- Moderate changes toArtifact 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.
Grants +15 Arcana Killer to you and each of your party members.
On Horizon, Arcane Circle will also provide protection against magic aggro during it's duration. For example, you can use Arcane Circle and your WHM can cast Protectra on your party while right next to an elemental and you will not get aggro.
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 that is 100% accurate(unless the target is immune to 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.
Note: This requires a two-handed weapon. So if you are /NIN with axes or in a zerg using a one-handed weapon. You will not beable to use Weapon Bash.
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
Hasso and Seigan
You will likely always be in Hasso or Seigan while doing end game content due to /SAM. These abilities will increase cast times and recast times by 50% which is a massive penalty. If you're in a situation where your group is expecting you to stun or sleep something. Then I would make sure that you are removing Hasso or Seigan before casting your spell. With the duration and recast of Hasso or Seigan you can easily put it back on again post-cast.
Drain
Level: 10 Recast: 1:00 MP: 21
Drains HP from the enemy and gives it to you. In my current Drain set I hit for 300 so a decent nuke and it helps the healers out. Magic burst on Compression, Gravitation, or Darkness for even more damage and healing.
Undead are immune to Drain.
Bind
Level: 20 Recast: 0:40 MP: 8
Binds the enemy in place. Use it to help out when something links. I've bound things in EXP and Merit parties. I've bound things in battlefields like 9-2 Sandy missions. I've even bound BYAKKO before.
Just throw it out there when your party needs it.
Also used to tank - I will get into that later.
Aspir
Level: 20 Recast: 1:00 MP: 10
Drains MP from the enemy and gives it to you. Just like with Black Mage - you can use this to help sustain your MP pool when fighting aspir-able enemies. You're not getting a refresh from the RDM most of the time so without a Parade Gorget you'll be tapped.
Undead are immune to Aspir. See the Aspir page for a list of Aspirable Enemies.
Also used to tank - I will get into that later.
Sleep and Sleep II
Level: 30/56 Recast: 0:30/0:30 MP: 19/29
Just like with Bind, this can be used to take pressure off of your party in a big way. Having an extra sleep can save lives.
Also used to tank - I will get into that later.
Stun
Level: 37 Recast: 0:45 MP: 25
I've said it multiple times so far. Stun is an amazing tool to have in your kit. With a quick cast time, this can stop powerful -ga spells in it's tracks and save your party from wiping.
Stun has a lot of magic accuracy added to it. This makes it very hard for enemies to fully resist its effect. Similar to how elemental magic has many resist states(1/2, 1/4, 1/8) the duration on stun will act similarly and be longer or shorter depending on how well it was resisted.
It is recommended that you cast stun in your Haste gear to lower its recast time.
Also used to tank - I will get into that later.
Absorb-STR (And DEX, VIT, AGI, INT, MND, CHA)
Level: 43 Recast: 1:00 MP: 33
Absorb spells will take a large amount of whatever stat it is and give it directly to you. This amount will decrease over time.
STR is useful to set up for stronger weaponskills
DEX is useful to give yourself more accuracy
AGI is useful to lower the enemies evasion
VIT is useful to lower the enemies defense
INT is useful to help BLM damage
MND is useful because Guillotine scales off it
CHA exists? idk
THAT BEING SAID I only absorb when I have nothing to hit. Getting more auto attacks off and TP for WS is more important.
Elemental Magic
Look. I know it's cool we can cast Fire II and what not - but 99.99% of the time it is a complete waste of time to cast these spells.
If you're fighting something like Shadow Lord and he's currently immune to physical damage, then sure - go ahead and cast some nukes to help push damage. Otherwise, don't cast these spells.
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 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
A note on multi-hit weapon skills like Guillotine and Cross Reaper or when double attack or triple attack procs on your weapon skill.
All hits after the first all have an fTP of 1.0. Additionally only the first hit's fTP is increased in "Damage varies with TP" weapon skills.
This means that Guillotine's fTP is 3.875 assuming all hits connect.
Scythe
| Guillotine - Bread and Butter - use this if you're not opening or closing Darkness. Accuracy is very important for Guillotine. It's also very attack starved so eating +ATT food will help a bunch when you have good accuracy gear.
Can be used to Open Fragmentation and close Induration.
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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. |
Weapons and X-Hit
Weapons
Tredecim Scythe works on Horizon XI
This is the scythe you want unless you have an Apocalypse
Every 13th swing of this scythe is a guaranteed critical hit if it doesn't miss the enemy. Missed swings still count but WS swings are ignored. The scythe has a 'memory', zoning or unequiping it doesn't reset the count.
This effectively results in Critical Hit Rate +7.69% for standard melee attacks.
Also having a Delay of 528 makes it so we don't always need Rajas Ring equipped.
Don't bother buying this
I just checked the Auction House and nobody has even make this scythe on Horizon. Or if they have they haven't put it on the Auction House. Tredecim Scythe is valued much higher due to the hidden effect working.
Don't bother buying this
I would not buy this scythe as Tredecim Scythe is valued much higher due to the hidden effect working. You might see a very old and hard to read graph that says Death Scythe +1 is better than Tredecim Scythe.
In reality, I have no idea where that data comes from and I trust the testimonials from my fellow DRK players that say Tredecim Scythe is king.
I don't have an Apocalyse so I cannot write from experience. That being said - it has bonkers 103 weapon damage, can still easily 6-hit, comes with +20 Accuracy, can blind your enemy which helps the tanks.
Not to mention Catastrophe which grants you a 10% equipment haste aftermath which allows you change your TP sets to fit in more attack/STR/accuracy as the equipment haste cap is 25%. Oh, and Catastrophe heals you.
X-Hit
What is X-Hit?
X-Hit is how many hits you require to gain 1000% TP to be able to execute a weapon skill. Your X-hit contributes greatly to your DPS as a whole.
How do we increase our X-Hit?
The goal for scythe is a 6-hit and we gain that via Store TP which is another reason why /SAM is so good because it gives us a foundation of +15 Store TP
The goal for greatsword is generally a 7-hit.
| Weapon Delay | Store TP | X-Hit |
| 528 | +16 | 6 |
| 513 | +20 | 6 |
| 480 | +10 | 7 |
| 466 | +16 | 7 |
| 444 | +26 | 7 |
Use this calculator to find the Store TP you need.
Gear Sets
TP Sets
It is generally recommended to have three different TP sets. I will separate them into a Low, Medium, and High Accuracy sets. You can obviously mix and match these items as you see fit. Just try to reach 95% accuracy whenever possible.
In a general sense, your stat priorities for TP should be the following
Stat Priorities: Store TP (Until 6 Hit ) > Haste > Accuracy > Attack > Strength.
Reminder that we have 0.70 DEX Accuracy Scaling with two-handed weapons on HorizonXI.
With a Delay 528 Weapon we only need +1 Store TP to get to 6-Hit while on /SAM - if you're using one of the alternative scythes then you'll need more Store TP
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The goal of a low accuracy set is to maximize Haste, Attack, and STR without hurting your accuracy too much. This set has 391 accuracy while fully merited with Hasso and Elvaan DEX. 21% Equipment Haste |
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| Alternative 1 | Alt 2 | Alt 3 | |
| Weapon | Triton's Scythe | Orichalcum Scythe | Death Scythe +1 |
| Ammo | Tiphia Sting | RSE Sachet | Happy Egg |
| Head | Optical Hat | Black Sallet | Celata |
| Neck | Peacock Charm | Royal Guard's Collar | |
| Ear1&2 | Attila's Earring | Assault Earring | Hollow Earring |
| Diabolos's Earring | Merman's Earring | Coral Earring | |
| Body | Adaman Hauberk | Hauberk +1 | Haubergeon +1 |
| Hands | Homam Manopolas | Dusk Gloves | Adaman Mufflers |
| Ring1&2 | Toreador's Ring | Sniper's Ring +1 | Sniper's Ring |
| Woodsman Ring | Jaeger Ring | Venerer Ring | |
| Back | Amemet Mantle +1 | Psilos Mantle | Amemet Mantle |
| Waist | Speed Belt | Swift Belt | Quick Belt |
| Legs | Adaman Breeches | Black Cuisses | Dusk Trousers |
| Feet | Dusk Ledelsens +1 | Dusk Ledelsens | Adaman Sollerets |
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The goal of a medium accuracy set is to maximize Haste and Accuracy without hurting your Haste, STR, and Attack too much. This set has 409 accuracy while fully merited with Hasso and Elvaan DEX. 20% Equipment Haste |
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| Alternative 1 | Alt 2 | Alt 3 | |
| Weapon | Triton's Scythe | Orichalcum Scythe | Death Scythe +1 |
| Ammo | Tiphia Sting | RSE Sachet | Happy Egg |
| Head | Optical Hat | Celata | |
| Neck | Peacock Charm | Royal Guard's Collar | |
| Ear1&2 | Attila's Earring | Hollow Earring | |
| Diabolos's Earring | Assault Earring | ||
| Body | Adaman Hauberk | Hauberk +1 | Haubergeon +1 |
| Hands | Armada Mufflers | Adaman Mufflers | Dusk Gloves+1 |
| Ring1&2 | Rajas Ring | Sniper's Ring +1 | Sniper's Ring |
| Woodsman Ring | Jaeger Ring | Venerer Ring | |
| Back | Forager's Mantle | Amemet Mantle +1 | Amemet Mantle |
| Waist | Speed Belt | Swift Belt | Quick Belt |
| Legs | Adaman Breeches | Black Cuisses | Dusk Trousers |
| Feet | Dusk Ledelsens +1 | Dusk Ledelsens | Adaman Sollerets |
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The goal of a high accuracy set is to just maximize accuracy at all costs. This is used for when your melee damage is not important and getting TP on evasive bosses to set up your Black Mages for a magic burst is the strategy. If there are other enemies to TP on, you can always swap into your Low Accuracy set, get TP, then switch to this for when you're ready to set up the skill chain. This set has 444 accuracy while fully merited with Hasso and Elvaan DEX. 5% Equipment Haste |
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Guillotine Set
Guillotine is a fickle beast. It does not have an attack bonus like other favorable weapon skills. Every weapon skill in the game has a +100 to accuracy for the first hit. The three remaining hits of guillotine do not benefit from this. Additionally, while it scales with STR and MND it only scales at 25%.
For comparison, let's look at Warrior's Steel Cyclone which has better scaling, accuracy and attack bonuses.
| Guillotine(per hit) | Steel Cyclone | |
| Scaling | 25% STR/25% MND | 50% STR/50% VIT |
| Attack Modifier | 1.00/1.00/1.00/1.00 | 1.66 |
| Accuracy Bonus | +100/ 0 / 0 / 0 | +100 |
| fTP (1000% TP) | 0.875/1.00/1.00/1.00 | 1.5 |
Why do I bring up Steel Cyclone? Because people are going to look at it and wonder why the hell doesn't my Guillotine hit that hard. For Steel Cyclone to be good, they mostly just need to pump STR and VIT and call it a day. They've got the first hit accuracy bonus and a 1.66 modifer to their attack making pDIF easier to cap out.
Guillotine on the other hand needs enough attack to cap pDIF, enough accuracy to not completely whiff your attacks, and then we can worry about stacking STR. We do have a higher fTP at 3.875 assuming all four hits connect.
Another big reason why we love Guillotine is because it's multi-hit meaning we can get four Souleater hits from it.
If you want more information on Guillotine stat priority then read this Guide.
TL;DR
Accuracy until Cap > Attack/STR until pDIF Cap > STR > Attack post cap
Note on Hecatomb vs Onyx
Both armor sets are excellent for a WS set. Experiment with both and find what you like.
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The goal of a low accuracy set it to cap pDIF with +Attack then pump as much +STR as possible without killing your accuracy. This set has 389 accuracy while fully merited with Hasso and Elvaan DEX. +61 STR |
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The goal of a medium accuracy is increase your accuracy without hurting your STR and ATT too much. This set has 417 accuracy while fully merited with Hasso and Elvaan DEX. +50 STR |
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Drain Set
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The goal of your drain set is to first reach 300 Dark Magic skill to reach the soft ceiling of Drain damage. Then you want to worry about your magic accuracy using this as a guide: 1MAcc = 2 INT = 1 Dark Skill It shouldn't have to be said but only use the Pluto/Dark Staff when you don't care about losing TP. Note: The "Dusksoul Ring" in my FFXIAH link is a placeholder for the Overlord's Ring which is a HorizonXI custom item. |
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| Alternative 1 | Alt 2 | Alt 3 | |
| Weapon | Dark Staff | Y's Scythe | |
| Ammo | Morion Tathlum | RSE Sachet | |
| Head | Chaos Burgeonet | Ace's Helm | Homam Zuchetto |
| Neck | Prudence Torque | ||
| Ear1&2 | Phantom Earring +1 | Phantom Earring | Morion Earring +1 |
| Boroka Earring | Heims Earring | Magnetic Earring | |
| Body | Crimson Scale Mail | Blue Cotehardie +1 | Blue Cotehardie |
| Hands | Blood Finger Gauntlets | Crimson Finger Gauntlets | Abyss Gauntlets |
| Ring1&2 | Diamond Ring | ||
| Omniscient Ring | Eremite Ring +1 | ||
| Back | Merciful Cape | Federal Army Mantle | |
| Waist | R.K Belt | Mrc. Cpt Belt | |
| Legs | Abyss Flanchard | Chaos Flanchard +1 | Chaos Flanchard |
| Feet | RSE Feet | Homam Gambieras | Dusk Ledelsens |
Stun Set
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The goal of this set is to maximize haste and fast cast. You can fill in the blanks with INT and Dark skill if you want but Stun has a large accuracy bonus. This reduces your casting time and recast of your stun. Be sure to remove Hasso or Seigan before you cast stun. From Loquacious Earring: 21% Equipment Haste |
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| Alternative 1 | Alt 2 | Alt 3 | |
| Head | Horus's Helm | Patroclus's Helm | |
| Hands | Homam Manopolas / Dusk Gloves | Armada Mufflers | Adaman Mufflers |
| Waist | Speed Belt | Swift Belt | Quick Belt |
| Feet | Dusk Ledelsens +1 | Dusk Ledelsens / Armada Sollerets | Adaman Sollerets |
Enfeeble Set
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Stat Priority: |
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| Alternative 1 | Alt 2 | Alt 3 | |
| Weapon | Dark Staff | ||
| Ammo | Morion Tathlum | RSE Sachet | |
| Head | Crimson Mask | Homam Zuchetto | |
| Neck | Prudence Torque | ||
| Ear1&2 | Phantom Earring +1 | Phantom Earring | Morion Earring +1 |
| Boroka Earring | Heims Earring | Magnetic Earring | |
| Body | Crimson Scale Mail | Blue Cotehardie +1 | Blue Cotehardie |
| Hands | Abyss Gauntlets | ||
| Ring1&2 | Diamond Ring | ||
| Omniscient Ring | Eremite Ring +1 | ||
| Back | Altruistic Cape | Federal Army Mantle | |
| Waist | R.K Belt | Mrc. Cpt Belt | |
| Legs | Chaos Flanchard | ||
| Feet | Mountain Gaiters | RSE Feet | Homam Gambieras |
Physical Damage Taken Set
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This set has -49% Physical Damage Taken, +10 Parry, +45 HP(more or less depending on RSE Belt, and chance to annul physical damage.
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Magical Damage Taken Set
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This set has -25% Magical Damage Taken and chance to annul magical damage. Having one resistance in each element will give you chances to resist spells. Not much but it's something
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