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

Give DRKs a job trait that brings back the WSDMG bug, but only for scythe WSs.

Since the moment SE released the screenie of a Scythe-wielding DRK and a casting PLD for the update teaser, the only thing I could think of was that SE sometimes gets very trapped by the "lore" aspect of their own game.

Its historically appropriate in their line of games that a DRK uses Scythe as their main weapon choice. Caladbolg is so popular nowadays because let's face it- its easier to use/gear for than a scythe build and using a scythe to its maximum capability. Not to mention that in a large alliance style zerg environment where you can't do those lovely long skillchains where Scythe excels, Caladbolg truly is better. I think SE is tired of this gap, and is toying with methods to "fix" it so scythe is still functional in that environment of single WS spamming without long skillchains.

I think that all DRKs who prefer scythe (myself included) love it for the artistic aspect of long skillchains, the boosted aspects of absorb spells from Liberator, or the survivability of Apoc. When raw power is needed, out comes the Caladbolg and Torc spam. If they make it so one can spam Cross Reaper or Insurgency with similar results, that would be huge in my book.

I'm pretty sure FFXI is the first time Dark Knights used scythes in FF, actually. Previously, they either used swords, great swords, or class specific dark blades.

i don't know what FF you've played, but XI is the only one with scythes except for one character in type-0

damn really? I always have the mental image of a DRK with a scythe, that weapon associated with death. The one exception that sticks out in my head is Cecil in FF4 (pre-paladin evolution) who still uses a 1h sword in both forms.

But ty for the information!

besides a boss or a spin off game with like two or three, yeah.

...its probably just the years of this being my primary FF outlet (outside of the occasional 2 week break to do a replay of FF4 or 6, still my two favorites in terms of replay value, guess that's telling of my age!) that clouded my memory.

On another topic, has anyone made a DRK MEVA hybrid TP set? I'm building one, and I'm having trouble deciding on a good DD/MEVA balance. This is what I have so far:

ItemSet 369947

Cape has 20 DEX/10 DA/45 MEVA.

I don't have Volte Haubert or Volte Moufles yet, so those pieces are still in progress.

I'm thinking about swapping Flamma Manopolas +2 & Hasty Pinion +1 to Raetic Bangles +1 & Ginsen. This swap would give me:

+15 STR
-8 DEX
+30 AGI
+7 ACC
-8% Crit Rate (I usually use Caladbolg)
-5% MP every time I'm hit (can sometimes be painful)

+31 INT
+14 MND
+3 MDB
+52 MEVA

What do you guys think?

I use mine a lot, it's not perfect by any means though, but it helps IMO. I use a mix of Ratri+1 head/feet, Sacro Breastplate, Sulevia hands/legs and DRing/Moonlight to offset the +DT from Ratri. If I had Volte pieces my set would probably look similar to yours. My HP/Meva/hybrid is usually my go-to when ***gets real and I swap to Apoc to stay alive.

Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross had Scythe-Wielding anti-heroes.

I use a similar version and I do make use of raetic hands but I primarily use scythe even though I have a r15 calad because reasons. Mp not exactly an issue with scythes.

Hey all, so I'm getting geared up for liberator. I've made a "pure" Store TP build. This is a low acc build, and I'd probably replace acro, odyssean, and valorous with Flamma for the added accuracy in situations of need. Just looking for some opinions and suggestions on the set.

ItemSet 154212

Acro STP 5
Odyssean STP 3
Valorous STP 6
Ankou STP 10

Set Totals
STP 85
DA 3
Acc 1154

You generally only need something like 89 stp in gear with a Sam roll. Stacking stp for the sake of stp isn’t helping much beyond that.

Need (iirc) 22 stp in the ws set (15 from sub 7 from +2 neck)

AM3 TP
ItemSet 362337
87 STP
3 QA, 9 TA, 1 DA
24% gear haste
28% crit for flavor
10% crit hit dmg
1189 ACC unbuffed

Insurgency/Cross Reaper set
ItemSet 362339

Entropy
ItemSet 362348

I went over stacking of stp to have some overflow as insurgency scales with tp. Also because i went as far as i could to attain very little multiattack in my set as to not take away from AM. Am i wrong to try and do that, will having some multiattack help a little instead of impeding on AM?

Well quadruple attack is only going to help. Triple hurts a lot less than double if at all.

Okay ill definitely throw Niqmaddu back in, i didnt think about that hard enough lol.

Thanks for the insight guys, ill make some adjustments

Does triple attack hurt AM at all?

Neither DA nor TA actually hurt mythic AM3.

DA does extremely little and should not be used unless that slot has literally nothing else better, but TA and QA are still worth gearing for.

What is Multi-Attack check? AM>DA/TA/QA?

QA>TA>DA>AM

Then DA would stop AM3 from proc, and I guess hurt is being the wrong word. But I would try to little the amount of DA gear

Yeah. It'll still technically be a gain because your average APR goes up, at least up until a point, but the gear availability these days means there's almost always something better to slot in.

Typically with Mythic Weapons, you want to slot in as much STP as possible, allowances made for QA/TA.

In my own build for liberator I only have 2 DA because of how tightly I gear everything. (Da is on odyssean)

Idr the exact value as I stated above but I believe it’s like 89 stp minimum with a Sam roll. More isn’t gonna hurt but I have a personal tendency to cram as much ***as possible together for one set. Ie;

ItemSet 369371

Think I’ve posted that before but yeah basically requires a regal cc Sam roll of 2/11 iirc. But provides an absurd crit rate and crit dmg generous amounts of triple and quadruple attack.

If attack capped can utilize something like rogues roll for upwards of like a 80ish% crit rate. All the valorous and odyssean have crit dmg 5 augments as to make the increase in melee crits actually useful between the ws spam

Edit: found my values I added up back then

———————————————————-
19% Gear Haste / capped magic haste / LR

144 STP / gear / cc Sam roll regal

41% critical Hit Damage (augments traits gifts)

71% crit hit rate (this does include rogues roll)

Quad 5
Trip 4
Double 2 (would personally lower this more if I could)

AM3-3Hit-MaxCrit

Looking at this now I think I should revisit flamma head but meh

Telos is +1 DA so you have +3.

Hoho. Unfortunate.

Legit kinda hope this doesn't happen as every scythe has a use. With drk only one GS is used and it's only for pure damage. I love scythe myself dont get me wrong but making them do damage like caladbolg and having the other "unique"
traits would be kinda sad.

Scythe really doesn't need much of an update in my opinion.
Raise Entropy's fTP a little bit, maybe add .2 to .3 to the minimum and maximum fTP values.
Change Quietus to damage varies with TP, maybe a 2.5 to 5 fTP range, and slap on a 50% attack bonus for flavor, done.
Insurgency under Liberator is fine, as is Catastrophe under Apocalypse.

If Entropy and Quietus got moderately sized buffs, Scythe would still be lower in conventional DPS than GSD, but could finally shine as DRK's multi-step SC option. Right now, other than Insurgency w/Liberator, Scythe WSs are too weak to make extended SC chains worth the effort in almost all situations.