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**nazlfrag** · 08-02-2006, 09:35 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

You'll be fine just skilling up your dark magic skill on drk, elemental and enfeebling magics are not so important. The mages you party with should cover these areas. While soloing you can skill these up, but there's not much call for them in party situations. Your weapon skills will be fine with your plan. I'm only a newbie drk myself, so take this advice with a grain of salt ^^

**spiffaliffa** · 08-03-2006, 04:05 AM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Well great sword is Good For DRK but Sythe is more powerful and is a lot cheaper

I Just did the quest im a lvl 6 /3 WAR

**Ellipses** · 08-03-2006, 04:40 AM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Greatsword, Scythe, and Greataxe are all situational. There are levels where one is better than the others, and there are levels where it's all about the skillchain. In general, pre-capping skills isn't something to worry about. If the skills don't cap on their own as you level the job, it means either it's not an important skill for that job or it's important, but rarely used in XP, so you'll need to join skill-up parties throughout your career anyway.

If you really feel like taking the time to level your DRK weapons on WAR, it's not detrimental, but it's not necessary, either. But if you don't have BLM or RDM leveled, it's really not worth leveling just to get magic skill ups.

**Grizzlebeard** · 08-03-2006, 04:49 AM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Originally posted by kingceltic

Before entering DRK...

...you should go out for a nice meal, a few drinks, some slow music, and turn the lights down low...

I'm sorry, I can resist everything but temptation.

**Kazuma** · 08-03-2006, 12:18 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Originally posted by Ellipses

Greatsword, Scythe, and Greataxe are all situational. There are levels where one is better than the others, and there are levels where it's all about the skillchain. In general, pre-capping skills isn't something to worry about. If the skills don't cap on their own as you level the job, it means either it's not an important skill for that job or it's important, but rarely used in XP, so you'll need to join skill-up parties throughout your career anyway.

If you really feel like taking the time to level your DRK weapons on WAR, it's not detrimental, but it's not necessary, either. But if you don't have BLM or RDM leveled, it's really not worth leveling just to get magic skill ups.

Woah Greataxe?? Unless you mean for fun runs, then levelling Greataxe isin't something that needs to be done. At most, Dark Knights get a B- in the axe area, so it's pretty much best off that you level those whenever you have time to kill/bored. It's best to level both Greatsword, and Scythe as you level. Levelling one, and not the other will only make for a larger headache in the end. As for prelevelling, I don't reccommend it at all.

Warriors get at most a C+ in both Scythe and Greatsword, so even if you did, you wouldn't be able to cap it far, not to mention most parties will regard you as "y r u usin scyth/greatswrd?" In all honesty, it's better to just go ahead and become a Dark Knight, and level your skills as you go. As Dark Knight has an A+ In Scythe and an A in Greatsword, your skills will gain fast, and cap quickly. And as I said earlier, try to keep them both leveled as you go. Just inform your party at the start that you have both weapons available, and if you could adapt a skillchain for both of them. If you have both leveled, it makes you extremely versitle in parties, and you'll recieve invites a lot faster (Just make sure you put in your search that you do in fact have both stats levelled)

On magic, you probably won't be casting a whole hell of a lot in exp parties, so if you want to try and cap your magic skills earlier on, it won't hurt. I'm a Taru DRK so my INT normally makes my spells stick a lot more (Bio, Absorbs, and whatnot)

As for DOs and DONTs
1) DO NOT make "My soul is black inside blahblah" macros. If you make any of your macros emo I will hunt you down and obliterate your kneecaps. >.>

2)DO be careful when using the skill "Last Resort" at lower levels(15). It acts like a mini-voke, and with hate control being so crappy at lower levels, and your defense paper thin, it's almost like opening your arms, and welcoming a one-shot-wonder.

3)DO use Soul Eater(30) for Weapon Skills and Weapon Skills only. This CAN'T be stressed enough. Once you do your deed, cancel it. More often than not, you'll catch the mobs attention by SoulEater>WS and you don't need to jeapordize yourself anymore by lowering your HP even further.

4) DO level THF, WAR first, and when you have time, SAM, and NIN. DRK/0THF can do some amazing damage at higher levels, as can DRK/WAR. Subbing Samurai should only be done for fun and/or LS events, such as Sky and whatnot. /NIN? I do it so I can go banzai on crap and not die right away xD. Plus I hear it's good to have on TP-Burn parties higher on, but I doubt it extremely, and thats only if you have your axe leveled. (Dual wield is also a good way to get singlehanded weapons leveled quickly)

I got more information to put up but I got a PT invite, so I'll do it later

**Ellipses** · 08-03-2006, 12:24 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Originally posted by Kazuma

Woah Greataxe?? Unless you mean for fun runs, then levelling Greataxe isin't something that needs to be done. At most, Dark Knights get a B- in the axe area, so it's pretty much best off that you level those whenever you have time to kill/bored. It's best to level both Greatsword, and Scythe as you level. Levelling one, and not the other will only make for a larger headache in the end. As for prelevelling, I don't reccommend it at all.

/shrug

The handful of DRKs I've had in linkshells have all complained about no one realizing how good Greataxe can be at certain levels. I think they mostly meant Sturmwind levels, so that's not a terribly large range, but I wouldn't want to encourage someone to not see it as an option. (Granted most parties will neither expect it nor accept it.)

**Kazuma** · 08-03-2006, 12:38 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Originally posted by Ellipses

/shrug

The handful of DRKs I've had in linkshells have all complained about no one realizing how good Greataxe can be at certain levels. I think they mostly meant Sturmwind levels, so that's not a terribly large range, but I wouldn't want to encourage someone to not see it as an option. (Granted most parties will neither expect it nor accept it.)

Well, Sturmwind coupled with souleater I could understand, but I'm just letting it be known ahead of time, that most people won't want a dark knight with an axe. I've seen it happen thousands of times, where someone joins, dosen't have what the PT leader wants, drama starts, and the person is kicked. But as you said the dark knights you mentioned possibly meant it around the lower 30s. But even at that level, Hardslash is hard to beat, as it does a crapload of damage all on it's own.

**Ellipses** · 08-03-2006, 12:43 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Oh, I wouldn't try to tout Greataxe as the only weapon to level for DRK. Greatsword and Scythe come first, obviously. But it's a nice option to have.

There's also the issue that he's a Warrior right now with apparently no Greataxe skill whatsoever. >.>

**tdh** · 08-03-2006, 01:40 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

DRK has a B+ rated skill in Great Axe, and it's not a bad option until about Lv.35 for DRK. It limits your Skillchain options, since Sturmwind's Skillchain options are really only Scission and Reverberation, but Sturmwind is more damaging than Slice, or Hard/Power Slash. At that Lv.35, the difference between a B+ Great Axe for DRK, and A+ Great Axe for WAR is only 5 Skill levels. I used Scythe and GS until Lv.34, then abandoned GS due to lower damage than Scythe. Took me a long time to get my GS caught up at Lv.52, but now I keep both cap'd in EXP. Both weapons have a WS that fights into the same spot in a Skillchain.

But back to the Great Axe issue, keeping it cap'd isn't really a requirement. It's situational, but those situations disappear past Lv.40 really.

**Ziero** · 08-03-2006, 01:42 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Gaxe is better then scythe and Gsword for a long time to come on Drk. In the lower lvls Gaxe's first WS is better then both Slice and Hard slash and the B ranking makes little to no difference. The only real exception to this is the Death Bringer, which is absurdly overpowered for it's lvl, otherwise Gaxes outperform both Gsword and especially scythe. In the 20s you get the neck chopper which has the same acc bonus as the Braveheart and similar dmg/delay as the cruel scythe in addition to shield break. At 23 you get sturmwind which is stronger then both Power Slash and any of the Drk WS at 100 tp. And at 30 you can sub thf and use an Axe belt, which would negate an skill lvl difference between A and b completely at that lvl.

The difference between A and B skills at lvl 20 is 3 points, the difference at 30 is 4 points. And at lvls where good thfs used C, D and E ranked weapons, using a B ranked weapon for superior WS and DoT isn't that bad.

If you want to be the Best Drk you can be, lvl Gaxe, Scythe and Gsword. War has A+ in Gaxe and B in scythe and Gsword so it won't be too hard. That and never sub thf pre 30 and only sub thf post 30 if you're using Sturmwind to close Fragmentation.

As for what mage jobs you should lvl, the only one worth lvling is Whm because Drk/Whm is great at soloing. I was able to take on T mobs without trouble in the dunes with Drk/Whm. Other then drain most of your Drk spells are usless.

**kingceltic** · 08-03-2006, 02:37 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Well from what people have mentioned, in the long run Gaxe past 40 will be useless due to the fact Gsword and Scythe will surpass Gaxe in every possible way. I dont prefer Gaxe also because the delay is pretty long, and as an Elvaan i want most of my hits to land. Of course i do have some Acc+ and DEX Rings but Gaxe is pretty slow. Up to this point im a quarter of the way into my DRK Carreer. I guess i always could lvl up my Scythe and Gaxe as i lvl up my DRK.

**Murphie** · 08-03-2006, 03:00 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

If you're worried about your ACC with GAXE, just wait until you level Scythe.

**Raydeus** · 08-03-2006, 03:54 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Up to lvl 60 the skill difference between G. Axe and Scythe/G. Sword is really small so there isn't really much difference between their acc.

(@lvl 60 G. Axe caps at 196 skill and Scythe/G. Sword cap @ 203)

After that the gap really becomes much higher, that's when you'll really notice the skill difference between weapons.

At lvl 75:

Scythe 276
G. Sword 269
G. Axe 256

Edit > Up to lvl 30ish Marksmanship is a great way to do some nice extra dmg too, and Bloody bolts will help a lot for those times when you catch some aggro.

**tdh** · 08-03-2006, 03:55 PM

Re: Before enetering DRK should I...

Originally posted by kingceltic

Well from what people have mentioned, in the long run Gaxe past 40 will be useless due to the fact Gsword and Scythe will surpass Gaxe in every possible way. I dont prefer Gaxe also because the delay is pretty long, and as an Elvaan i want most of my hits to land. Of course i do have some Acc+ and DEX Rings but Gaxe is pretty slow. Up to this point im a quarter of the way into my DRK Carreer. I guess i always could lvl up my Scythe and Gaxe as i lvl up my DRK.

At Lv.40 both Scythe and Great Sword will be a better option for DRK than Great Axe. Better DPS, higher damage, and increased Accuracy. Great Sword will be low damager, but much lower delay, so you should be able to keep up with DoT.

Keep in mind the delay comment is pretty silly. The only other weapon in the game that has a higher delay than 85% of Scythes would be Guns. Majority of Scythes have a delay of 528, and only ever few levels you'll find a Great Axe with a delay of 504 or something along those lines. So delay and Acc will be your biggest enemies from Lv.30 on out.

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