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

Easiest then, just finish rag AG lol... im sure hes trying and it has to be done eventually anyhow! Time is money! I didnt use drk until I had AG rag though, I spoiled my drk so idk about other GS much. The plutons are dirt cheap atm though 10k> atm with ambuscade spam going on. You could honestly get all 10k for probably 80m atm bazzar diving.

Anytime it's viable to do so. Torcleaver can put out some absolutely absurd numbers with /thf. Sneak attack means that you can completely ignore accuracy for Torcleaver and just boost the ***out of it's damage. I haven't personally seen a capped damage Torcleaver, but I suspect it's possible. I've seen plenty of capped lights from it though. It's even viable against super high level mobs, if that's something your party wanted to do.

For Drain/ Aspir, Would Lugra Cloak +1 beat out carmine scale mail + Pixie Hairpin +1?

In terms of raw drain value, I believe that it would. But the loss of that much magic accuracy isn't very appealing. If you are in a situation where that is irrelevant, Arco/Yorium body can get up to 7% drain/aspir potency and potentially magic accuracy also. So that'd be the better choice. Yorium body also doubles as a Phalanx piece, which can be nice.

Just so that everyone is clear, I ran out again for a few casts.

Liberator (AG), 469 Dark Magic Skill: +33 STR for 3:03
Liberator (AG), 469 Dark Magic Skill, Chuparossa Mantle: +36 STR for 3:13
Liberator (AG), 479 Dark Magic Skill, Pavor Gauntlets: +36 STR for 3:05
Liberator (AG), 469 Dark Magic Skill, Black Cuisses: +33 STR for 3:13
Liberator (AG), 532 Dark Magic Skill, Chuparossa Mantle, Pavor Gauntlets, Black Sallet/Cuisses/Sollerets, Nether Void = +87 STR for 4:01

I may be mistaken, but there isn't currently a situation or gear replacement slot for Pixie Hairpin +1 in the headslot. Since Lugra takes up both the body and head, it's not optimal for drains.

Pretty sure mostly everyone here knows this by now but if you're a newer player to the job this demonstrates a really effective tactic Dark Knight has.

Makes me really sad that, after winning the lot on Dacnomania, I quickly zoned and lost it. </3 my life.

Ya that was a sad day for sure.... poor galka.

I did the same thing last night for fun, hits 5k+ is just fun as can be :D Are you missing something by chance because your around 5200~ a hit and I remember all doing around 5600+ when I tested it.

Why does every scythe WS not cross reaper have to suck so bad?

Strange comment. Not just because we already discussed the use of Insurgency and Entropy, but also the fact your character has DRK at level 1? (you're a DNC, RNG and NIN before anything else) Obviously that doesn't mean you can't see someone else play it, or you have a mule with the job ... but still, what was the point of this comment? They can't suck that much if we have a bunch of AG Lib and Apoc DRKs running around.

I could agree if I was the only stubborn person left to make a scythe, but that's not the case. The balance between Scythe and GS must be quite good to see such a split among players. I don't understand why people come here saying "Cross Reaper Rocks, Everything Else Sucks!", especially when it appears like they haven't leveled the job on the char they are posting with. Enlighten me please.

PS: Not everything is about the STR modifiers! You have to take aftermaths, buffs, the skillchains you want, and other modifiers (like Attack for Insurgency) into account.

Thanks very much for doing this. I ain't been able to get on and try anything myself. I guess someone can delete that line from the wiki page? Only thing I can think of is the person who added it assumed Absorb Potency caps at 50%.

Totally my feeling, i don't understand the post since Kairu asked on page 86 where is Scythe standing versus other weapons, and i posted the parse result vs Lionheart,Almace,Aeonic Polearm and GK to help make an idea on page87.

attack is not a modifier and is not specific to insurgency.

Reading the forums I always had the impression that the strongest scythe modifier was feelings!

I don't have insurgency and my drk is level90. I've been leveling it. Every single WS so far except cross reaper does either 1/4 or 1/2 the damage of cross reaper.

Liberator buffs insurgency by 30%. There was previous comments by people saying that without mythic it isn't worth using. If something is the best WS before 30%, then gets a 30% buff well...something might be horribly broken for weapon type then.

I don't have catastrophe, insurgency, or Quietus yet. However, at the lowest gear levels, cross reaper is already doing double to quadruple the damage of every other scythe WS. Cross reaper also scales more than the other scythe WS(again, not insurgency/cata/Quietus as I dont have them). Since cross reaper scales so well with gear, it means it'll become even stronger the more gear I get, while already being the strongest WS I have.

Just a quick glance at Quietus and no real mention of it anywhere I see that it's probably worse than cross reaper too? TP scaling is ignore defense which is pretty irrelevant with -42% defense down from a geo. Cata is constantly stated as "not being good damage", insurgency has a weak 20% str modifier and hilariously pathetic FTP values. Nearly everyone I talk to and every drk I see is going on and on about resolution(which is great sword.).

It's why I keep asking, and don't see it talked about much:

Why is scythe so awful?

These are just random numbers, though. I don't have any actual data with them. Is that insurgency WITH a liberator? Why is a RUN in a parse and not a war or drk? How do I know the differences in these people gear? How do I know they were even paying attention? How do I know their differences in skill? You also can't parse people against each other because that doesn't really work, you have to parse someone against themselves or look at a spreadsheet.

I dunno, just looking at numbers and modifiers on every scythe WS they all *** suck compared to gaxe, gsword, gkt, dagger, katana. Cross reaper being the only actually decent one. It's why I'm curious.

I'm honestly just asking, and from my own personal experience every scythe WS that isn't cross reaper SUCKS. I'll have to unlock insurgency/Quietus to see what their damage is like. However, as I've said, numerous people even in this very thread said that cross reaper is your go to WS and you only cata/insuregency for AM(And insurgency sucks without liberator). That's pretty much "yeah, everything not cross reaper sucks", which is kinda lame design for a weapon.

To add another question:
Right now without those emp/relic/merit WS skillchaining as scythe is a nightmare from hell. It doesn't seem like you have very good skillchain properties compared to a dagger. Does it get better?

edit: I'm just curious. I want information. I'm liking drk a lot but I feel like scythe is one of, if not the worst weapon in the entire game. I really just want to like and want information and data and facts to show me the light. That's all I'm asking. Other job forums have lots of spreadsheets and data and facts and this one seems to not be as active or have as much information. There doesn't seem to be some "Spreadsheet/math guy" with all the information and logic and knowing the inner workings of the game on the drk side of it.

Really, I'm just curious. I don't think I'm right and I don't think anyone is wrong, I just want actual data shown at me because I'm CURIOUS about scythe as a weapon in the current meta/game.

edit2: Found the post.
Basically says to me "Cross reaper all the things".

You are right! Thanks for clearing up your position Kiaru. Before you get access to Quietus, Insurgency, Entropy etc, Cross Reaper is the WS of choice.

When SE changed the modifiers on WS a few years ago, Cross Reaper was one of the biggest winners. Since then I was asking SE to change modifiers on Insurgency and other WS to bring them in line with other WS on other weapon types, but as predicted was met with silence. But that was before I got AG Liberator, and before I saw what others were doing with Scythe. I was pleasantly surprised by the power of Insurgency, but without Lib it's probably going to struggle against Cross Reaper.

So I came to the conclusion ... if you don't have AG Lib or Apoc, use a Great Sword for Reso! You're probably going to get more out of the job that way. Or you could go the GS route and AG Ragnarok for super Reso spam? Either way, it seems to work quite well. Still waiting on real testing to see how Rag compares to Lib. Without AM3 up Ragnarok is going to kill it. But Lib has the aftermath so is able to spam WS back-to-back with little support. GS needs the buffs... Liberator not so much. It's a matter of preference, and luckily we have a good range of DRKs doing different things .. which is what I always hoped for.

Thanks you for more information! It really sucks that they didn't fix our other WS :( Guillotine looks soooo cool but sucks now. I miss it being the best WS.

What makes apoc good? Is it the 10% JA haste allowing you to sub war? Is it good before you AG it allowing you to drop haste gear for more da/ta/store tp/attk/acc/etc?

I also don't want to play gsword :( I like scythe and think it's cool, it's also drk's main weapon. I would feel bad about playing gsword. I'd just play rune if I wanted to use gsword, but that's a personal thing.

Entropy/Cross Reaper/Insurgency are all different level 2 properties, allowing you to make Light/Darkness with any other level 2 except for Fusion type level 2 weapon skills. Dagger is very unique in that it gets access to all 4 types of level 2 (On THF with Mandalic Stab being needed Fusion).

Super off topic, but is that a real-life cubone in your avatar?

Make a Lib dude. I was skeptical about making a Mythic, but once you get started it's actually quite fun. I would say Einherjar and farming gil to be the least fun parts of the experience. Also I did mine solo ... aside from tokens for Nyzul as that would take FOREVER, so it's best to find others building to at least have 2-3 of you for a decent haul.

I see you built other weapons, so yes it is an investment .. but if you love Scythe it's totally worth the time and effort. Just getting that AM3 up and going to town on something is enough incentive. I can't believe I played DRK all these years without it. But it's not just the damage you want to think about, Lib gives you the magic accuracy and Absorb buffs too, which we all know is a nice advantage over other afterglows.

Apoc is different as it gives you additional Job Ability haste that we didn't get before, but only with the AG version. Bloodlusty has all the weapons, and he said Apoc has its place in short fights, but after one minute it starts to lose its advantage.

I can't believe you still don't have Apoc..............

Apoc is definitely good for short fights. I like Apoc for fights where I'll probably be taking damage also. Drain3 + Catastrophe cures really makes you a potent tank.

Thanks for the helpful responses! Really appreciate it!

I have a question regarding this. Without liberator how are absorb land rates on the highest tier content?

How are the absorb land rates WITH liberator on the same content?

Liberator is quite an improvement as far as Absorbs and Drain/Aspir go.

I'm asking for land rates/accuracy though!

Yeah, I don't make gil that quick as I hate farming. I'll get it one day, but I would rather AG my Ragnarok and get a Death Penalty before I get to making one. Apoc is the last "ultimate" weapon I don't have for DRK, and it grinds my gears.

Hard to say. But think about how much magic accuracy you get, and how much you would lose using "Augments Absorb" equipment. It's kinda hard to test without going up against something like a T3 Reisenjima NM countless times to confirm. All I know is the amount of Magic Accuracy you get is huge, and the 50% absorb potency is the very delicious icing on the cake. Also great for Drains/Aspir of course, which again you may be sacrificing some MACC to get drain/aspir potency in some slots.

I'm asking if you can actually land absorbs on 140+ enemies.

You can drop gear haste with any DRK weapons.
With LR up and capped magic haste, you only need 12 from gear.

Not tried personally. All I know is I have ton of MACC and I'm only going to miss on things that completely resist dark magic spells. Since I got it I don't think I've ever missed, and there's always Dark Seal / Nether Void combo to make them better and completely accurate.