Beginner's Guide to the Dark Knight : FFXI Submissions

You ever feel that need, that craving, that desire, to be a complete Bad_Ass?! Well then look past the simple and plain SAM, NIN, DRG, and PLD. Take a Look at the Original Bad_Ass, the DARK KNIGHT! To aquire the ability to be a DRK, you must have a job at lvl30. Next Make your way to Bastok Mines (J-7), and talk to a NPC named Gumbah. After talking to Gumbah and getting a cutscene, make your way onto the 3rd floor of Palborough Mines (G-Cool, take the water ride (boat/cart/moving object) back into town (make sure that you have an inventory slot open) after your lovley water ride you will receive a 2-Handed Great Sword. After equipping this Sword, you MUST kill 100 mobs (its worth it your gonna be a DRK/psych).

You can kill any type of enemy but they must die by the hand of your sword and you must not zone or your mob count will restart...I advise using a pen and paper to help keep track of your slain mobs. After Killing all of your mobs Travel down to Beaudaux and after entering you should get a cutscene, then the ability to be a DRK. If you don't then you didn't kill enough mobs, so get back out there and do it again.


Job Abilities:

Blood Weapon - lvl 1, Recast - 2 hours, Duration - 30 seconds
-Drains your targets HP during melee attacks
notes on blood weapon*
- In my opinion Dark Knights get shafted on the 2-hour. It sounds really good at first, but do not rely on it to save your party. The best time to use this 2-hour is if you have 50% health and you know the mob is decimating your party. Do not wait till you have 10 health because you will die before even hitting and draining the mob's health.
*update- Blood Weapon is useful when you get last resort, soul eater, berserk (if subbing Warrior). You will drain a lot more HP using these skills
(Thank you Kessen 99 for pointing that out)

Arcane Circle - lvl 5, Recast - 5 min, Duration - 3 min
-Raises party defense vs. arcana
note*
-Good to use against the monster family bombs, evil weapons, cardians, and
Elementals. If I left out any arcana, let me know

Last Resort - lvl 15, Recast - 5 min, Duration - 30 seconds
-Enhances attacks but lowers defense.
notes*
-What no one will tell you is that last resort has a built-in provoke. And it
doesn't last as long as berserk. If you have a warrior sub, use berserk
instead. I'm not sure if last resort and berserk stack, but I heard that they
don't.
update*
Kessen 99 confirms that last resort does stack with berserk. Also best used
before a weapon skill to maximize damage. (Thanks again Kessen99).

Do not use last resort until the tank has
drawn enough hate, unless you want to draw hate (not recommended).

Weapon Bash - lvl 20, Recast - 5 min, Duration - Instant
-Delivers an attack that stuns the monster (you need a two-handed weapon)
note*
-Best used when you can predict the monster will do a special attack, like
goblin Bomb Toss (Exploit from Waitinginshadow - JAs at right time forces Goblin to drop bombs). It almost will never stun incredibly toughs. Also, at lvl 33 I am doing 11 damage (yes I know, dissapointing). This is not a damage dealing move, but one that interrupts the enemy.

Souleater - lvl 30, Recast - 6 min, Duration - 1 min
-Consumes HP to enhance attacks
note*
-Finally a great job ability! This attack blows away last resort and berserk,
and can be stacked with either. Last resort and berserk will do an extra 5
damage or so, Souleater will do an extra 50 (at my level). This attack is HP dependant, so the more HP you have, the more damage it will do. It does not draw hate until you hit the mob for 100 damage each hit =). Use only if you have a White Mage you can trust (also, for bad parties using this move is not good nor recommended, you will mostly be red health or die).


Job Traits:

Attack Bonus - lvl 10
Resist Paralyze - lvl 20
Arcana Killer - lvl 25
Attack Bonus - lvl 30
Resist Paralyze - lvl 40
Attack Bonus - lvl 50


Sub Jobs:

The Most common subs for DRK are:

-Warrior
A great sub. Added STR, VIT, Health. You have provoke to use in certain
situations, and can berserk when Last resort is charging. The defense bonus, double attack, and attack bonus all gained by lvl 30 make this a perfectly fine sub.

-Thief
The sub I have. I subbed Warrior until I got dark to lvl 30, then switched to
THF sub. Why? Well it might be because I was lazy to level warrior to 30, but the DEX and agility help me hit more often (important when using 2 handed weapons like scythe and great sword) and dodge hits more often. You get evasion bonuses, gil finder, treasure hunter for farming (perfect for low-level players who need some extra gil). Sneak attack is good with scythe, even though its not the same sneak attack as you would get with thief as a main job, but it gets the job done and you hit a MUCH greater amount of damage than you would hit on a normal attack basis. Normally, sneak attack would be worthless subbed with a main that uses one handed weapons (sometimes true, but not always the case (dependent on character setup and equipment)), but for scythe it works well (100+ dmg, 130+ with Souleater on incredibly tough mobs at lvl 33). Trick attack is good when Dark Knight gets to lvl 60, but at that point you will probably pick samurai as a sub to do guillotine more and increase your DoT.

-Samurai
I cannot wait until I get my dark to lvl 60 and sub samurai. Why? Meditate.
Period. It has a pretty quick reload, meaning you can use it a lot and build
TP fast for guillotine. A sub that allows no room for error, subbing Sam means drawing hate which would be hazardous. You miss out on the defense and attack bonuses of subbing warrior, and the evasion bonuses of subbing thief. But this is the ideal damage dealing combo for DRK, You will most likely draw hate from doing guillotine even once, so make sure your party knows what they are doing.


Armor:

As a Dark Knight, armor isn't a main priority until later in the game. Still, its nice to take a few hits. You don't always need the most current upgrade, but something that's fairly recent. The best way for me to buy armor for my character is to wait longer intervals than normal (instead of buying every 4 levels, buy at every 8, in some cases higher level armor can be cheaper than lower level ones). Or use conquest points
to buy armor. Heavy armor, ones that allow you to use headgear, is ideal. At lvl 30, buy centurion however, it adds very good stats and can be bought with conquest points. Most DRKs will always upgrade weapons first, so ones that have good armor will be more attractive to invite to parties.


Earrings/Rings/Necklace/belt:

Things that add in DEX, STR, AGIL, or INT (in that order), and Attack are
always helpful. Items to look for could be spike necklaces, bone necklaces,
ONYX rings, I don't know what snipper earrings are, but I've heard they are useful for Dark Knights. Warrior belts are good (added STR and VIT), but I am waiting for money to buy better belts. If you pick a race/sub, try to get items that can round up your combination. If Elvann, try to get more DEX items. If Hume, try to get more STR and DEX. In no way will 2 Onyx rings make up for a Hume's 5 or less STR than Elvann's STR, but it will help you do almost as much damage, or hit almost as much. A well equipped Hume can out-damage a poorly equipped Elvann, so remember that. Also, DEX is very important when using 2-handed weapons.


Best stuff to wear:

Lets say you have a ton of money/done all the quests, etc. Look for/buy RSE equipment, or hunt rare equipment off notorious monsters, or get AF gear (Drop the AF scythe as soon as possible, its horrible). These equipment can make a poorly equipped Dark Knight a run for his money. Emperor's Hairpin, Valkrye Mask, Leaping boots, Vagassos Scythe, are all welcome additions. JSE is very good as well, but the requirements are in the late 60's. I will list the stats of the AF armor in my next update. Did I mention AF armor looks cool? Its why I wanted to be DRK =)

Weapons:
For a Dark Knight I recommend using a scythe at lower levels once you can use Guilotine you will destroy (My current records is over 2k of dmg) you will also want to level up your great sword by the way.

Enjoy destroying your foe while you play as your Bad_Ass new job!!





Ok I did not type this entire paper My bro helped we were sitting down here wiping together this stuff..... a chuck of this guide did come off of my bros USB he had it stored on cause he posted it up on his LS website a while back maybe that could have gotten around online somhow but this guide sooner or later came from the two of us

http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/faqs/ff11darkknight.txt

How are you going to weasel your way out of this one?

Kourath, I know for a fact he didn't steal it, because he sent it to me, and I PERSONALLY corrected all the grammar mistakes and edited it around to make it sound better.

Touji, please repost the guide up. The whole, edited version.

I'll take your word for it, BUT, the linked (almost identical) guide is apparently copyrighted by "Ryan Ruger". I sure as hell hope you or your brother are "Ryan Ruger", and if your not, I sure as hell hope Ryan doesn't get pissed off when/if he sees his guide here.

Actually, it is the same..................

I edited some of the words, but I remember the original very, very well.... It is that. I'm going to dig into it.

No votes until I settle this. Any yays/nays will NOT count until I have a confirmed report.