(Don't) Fear The Reaper: A Dark Knight Guide

Abyssea
I'm going to be a straight-shooter here, even as a career Dark Knight- jobs like WAR, NIN or MNK will highly out-damage DRK, due to the lack of Critical Hit stats in DRK's arsenal. WAR will have just nearly every weapon skill for red weakness available. Plus, there are (unexplained) issues when using drain2/absorb spells (Absorb-ACC & Absorb-Attri being exceptions), and their added effects not carrying over, while status enhancements purchased with Cruor are applied. Regardless, it's doubtful that you will need to use Dark Magic much, aside from Yellow Weakness Targeting with Drain, Aspir and Bio II. However, this should by no means discourage you. If you must come DRK, whether it be lack of job selection or some other reason, the job has its own tools for weakness targeting, as well as damage dealing, in place of another DD when it's needed.

Resolution will still deal a reasonable amount of damage on many things with proper atma configuration. For TP moves and other special attacks that need stunning with Stun or Weapon Bash, like Glavoid's "Disgorge," DRK can handle this well. For tanking in a low-man setup, this is where DRK/MNK shines- Cruor Buffs increase the potency of your HP Boost, and most importantly, Counterstance can be improved with Atma choices consisting of Gnarled Horn (Counter +10%), Roaring Laughter (Counter +12%). Depending on your needs, you can either use one or both Atma. If you two-box, you will probably prefer to use both Atma + Razed Ruins (after all, your WHM/mule can raise you...right?).

Here are some suggested choices for Atma:

Melee/Normal Atma:
Atma of the Razed Ruins (Ironclad Pulverizer)
Atma of the Voracious Violet (Eccentric Eve)
Atma of the Stout Arm (Briareus)
Atma of the Sanguine Scythe (Bukhis)
Atma of the Lion (Hadhayosh)
Atma of the Apocalypse (Shinryu)
Atma of Alpha & Omega (Limbus: Proto-Omega)
Atma of the Griffon's Claw (Proof of the Lion + Excenmille's Camp: complete all Quests & Ops in Altepa)

- Razed Ruins stays on you for Meleeing. Always. If you find that at any point when you're DDing that DEX+50/Crit Hit Rate+30%/Crit Hit Damage+30% for your melee hits are not serving you well...simply put, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG! Unless, of course, you're soloing. If you don't have it yet, then you'll want alternate atma like Sanguine Scythe or Gnarled Horn in the mean time that you're doing zone boss wins. Voracious Violet has a Regain of 2TP/tic, with STR+50 for your Resolution Modifier and Double Attack +10%. For Apocalypse DRKs I would recommend Sanguine Scythe paired with RR/Apoc Atmas. Stout Arm is a decent alternative to VV. When you defeat Shinryu and stagger him with Red Weakness, you'll obtain Atma of the Apocalypse, which has Triple Attack+15%, Auto-Reraise, and Quick Magic+10%.

Tanking/Soloing Atma:
Atma of the Stronghold (Lacovie)
Atma of the Mounted Champion (Kutharei)
Atma of the Gnarled Horn (Sobek)
Atma of the Winged Gloom (Azdaja)
Atma of Roaring Laughter (Zazarg's Camp: Complete all Quests & Ops in Uleguerand)

- Stronghold+Mounted Champion are good for when you're messing around solo, but need a big boost of HP restoration on the side. Gnarled Horn + Roaring Laughter are your Counterstance+ Atma for when you're on /MNK.

Primeval Brew Atma:
Atma of the Ultimate (Limbus: Proto-Ultima)
Atma of the Cosmos (Iratham)
Atma of the Beyond (Hadal Satiator)
Atma of the Baying Moon (Lugarhoo)
Atma of Hell's Guardian (Pandemonium Warden)
Atma of the Griffon's Claw (see above)

- Understanding that Atma of Hell's Guardian may not be available to most players, Baying Moon is an alternative selection for that slot.

Red Weakness Targeting:

Job/Weapon - Weapon Skill
Great Sword - Freezebite
Scythe - Shadow of Death
Sword - Red Lotus Blade, Seraph Blade
Club - Seraph Strike

/SAM:
Great Katana - Tachi: Jinpu, Tachi: Koki
(using "Feast of Swords" GKTs, requires 175 skill, can attain with corresponding Hachimaki+Torque+Merits)

/NIN:
Dagger - Energy Drain, Cyclone
Katana - Blade: Ei
(using Trainee Burin for Katana, requires 175 skill, can attain with corresponding Hachimaki+Torque+Merits)

/WAR:
Polearm - Raiden Thrust
Staff - Earth Crusher, Sunburst
(requires 150 Staff Skill, can attain w/ Temperance Torque or 4 Merits+/WAR)

Chances are, you won't need to use Dagger, Great Katana or Katana, since it's most likely you will have a Ninja in your group to cover them.



Limbus
DRK will mostly be doing DD work, though there are some instances where it can solo certain Limbus areas on its own, depending if the conditions are in favor or against DRK. The bosses of this event always follow a pattern, as well, and usually they'll be as follows:

Omega:
100%HP: Quadrupedal Stance, takes magic damage. Twilight Scythe is effective here, but be careful not to ramp up your enmity with it
<75%HP: will switch to Bipedal Stance, takes physical damage. Will sometimes revert back to Quadrupedal Stance.
<30% HP: Permanently uses Bipedal Stance, but will use more extreme attacks and defenses, and resistance to attacks is lesser than previous forms. Groups will usually farm Gunpods when he spawns them.

Arch-Omega, however, has only two forms. It will stand on his two feet @ 75% and have access to all final form TP Moves. Arch-Omega zergs recommended to start up buffs @ 75%.

Ultima:
<80%HP: Dissipation #1, Stun when it's about to TP with it
<60%HP: Dissipation #2, see above
<40%HP: Dissipation #3, will also start using Armor Buster.
<20%HP: Dissipation #4, will begin the countdowns for Citadel Buster. Stun when he uses it, or Brace for impact!

Voidwatch
This is where a Dark Knight purely using Resolution for its damage-dealing will shine. Plus, throughout your journey past each Voidwatch Tier, you will come across several Atmacite after defeating various NMs for your selection. Each atmacite will require upgrading with cruor, and while taxing, you will earn it back through doing as many voidwatch fights as possible. Some recommended ones are:

Atmacite	NM	Total Cruor	Final Stats
Valiant	Ig-Alima	2,625,000	HP+10% All attributes +15 Accuracy+5 Haste+5%
Latitude	Pil	1,575,000	MND+5 "Subtle Blow"+10 TP Bonus +50 Haste+3%
Coercion	Kaggen	1,575,000	STR+5 AGI+5 Accuracy+10 "Regain"+3
Dark Designs	Abununnu	1,575,000	INT+10 Magic Accuracy+10 TP Bonus +50
Discipline	Voidwrought	1,010,000	HP +10%, All attributes +3, "Magic Def. Bonus" +10, "Save TP" +20
Persistence	Kholomodumo	750,000	STR+15 Accuracy+5 Physical damage taken -5%
Eminence	Hahava	1,010,000	HP+5% STR+5 INT+15 "Double Attack"+3%
Deluges	Uptala	1,245,000	Enmity+15 VIT+15 "Store TP"+15 "Double Attack"+3%
Provenance	Provenance Watcher	2,800,000	DT -10% Occasionally negates MP cost Auto-Reraise Sphere: Reraise

For starters and those with 2 Periapts of Emergence (think of these as your Lunar Abyssite for Voidwatch), you should try to upgrade Discipline and Coercion first for being able to frequently WS. Discipline is something to look into for when your COR is giving you Miser's Roll and battles where Save TP will help your WS frequency. Latitude will increase your Resolution damage via TP Bonus+50 as well as giving you haste +3%, allowing you to swap in any gear with good offensive stats if desired (*cough*AugmentedEBody*cough*). Coercion's 3TP/tic Regain and any COR giving you Tactician's Roll will help your TP phase go pretty quick towards your next WS, and there's nothing wrong with some extra accuracy on more evasive VwNM. Outside of Discipline, Persistence is a nice and cheap filler Atmacite, and Eminence isn't all too bad either. Further on, you can advance your options and look to Atmacites like Dark Designs and Valiant, both providing large upgrades for any all-purpose DRKs. When you've finally kicked Provenance Watcher's ***, you'll receive a 3rd PoE and the option to upgrade Provenance. Valiant will be a staple 3rd Atmacite to use in this case as well.

Every single one of your Absorb spells will have a chance to stagger the enemy, so get them. I'm not kidding, and have your dark magic set with you. On some monsters, you'll end up resisting (like Pil or any of the Caturae in Provenance), but for the most part, expect to be called on for when Dark Black Magic is needed for stagger.

Einherjar
There's not much to explain what Dark Knight does in Einherjar, obviously. By level 99, everything's pretty squishy, even the T1 Odin fight. Odin will also spawn his Einherjar soldiers, but you can ignore these as they will either be kited or you'll be under Perfect Defense so that they won't damage you for much. Here's a summary of Odin's TP attacks, in order by HP%:

89%HP: Sanngetall
79%HP: Sanngetall
74%HP: Geirrothr
69%HP: Sanngetall
59%HP: Sanngetall
49%HP: Geirrothr, then Sanngetall
39%HP: Sanngetall
29%HP: Sanngetall
24%HP: Geirrothr
19%HP: Sanngetall
9%HP: Zantetsuken, disengage and /rest.

For T2 Odin, refer to this page for battle pattern and rewards.