An In Depth look at Dark Knight

An advanced guide to the class

Last Update: 23 JAN 2019 (Seiryu, Final Omega, High Ping/SKS opener added! Good luck, everyone ^-^)

Hi! Emiin Vanih [Lamia] here. With the help of The Balance Discord server, We have a compendium on the information that is regularly disseminated therein, and give a general tips and tricks to utilizing Dark Knight. While Dark Knight is somewhat easier to learn than most classes, it is fairly hard to master. Additional Note – Hydratos/Eureka gearsets will not be supported for the BiS sets, as they are niche and not as common and we are nearing the echo-patch for Alphascape. A good Eureka Weapon, and the 390 Gloves/Head/Feet pentamelded will provide a small (10-30 DPS) increase, but the change will not be substantial enough for you to waste your time, should you not enjoy the content. Utilize the Tank DPS Calculator to see what benefit the pieces may give you.

For those curious about 5.0, myself and friends will be making guides for Shadowbringers across all tank classes! Please…look forward to it. Keep up with progress at the contact information at the bottom of this guide.

Contents show

Disclaimer

  1. This guide will talk about Dark Knight at raiding (Level 70, 8-man) level. Some topics will be addressed that will spread towards other avenues of play within FFXIV, but raiding will be the primary focus.
  2. Tooltips and basic skill potencies will not be addressed unless mathematically necessary. I expect anyone reading this guide to be able to understand how to read tooltips.
  3. Initialisms used throughout this guide:
    1. GCD – Global Cooldown: Weapon Skills, Spells
    2. OGCD – Abilities
    3. DA – Dark Arts
    4. HS, SpS, PS – Hard Slash, Spinning Slash, Power Slash – Threat combo
    5. HS, SS, SE – Hard Slash, Syphon Strike, Souleater – Damage combo
    6. C&S – Carve and Spit
    7. BS – Bloodspiller
    8. TBN – The Blackest Night
    9. All further initialisms will be explained when they appear.
  4. Potencies listed do not include slashing damage or Darkside modifier, to simplify the math therein. Abyssal Drain, Dark Passenger, Unleash, Unmend, and Salted Earth are not affected by Slashing.

Part 1: The Basics – How to achieve numbers in a general setting (non-optimization) – blue/purple on FFlogs

General rundown for anyone somewhat new to Dark Knight. If you’ve played the class to 70, you should have a general idea of what to do.

  1. Avoid using Grit when you become comfortable with a fight to understand the damage output, or not in imminent danger of getting face-rolled.
  2. Use all offensive OGCDs on cooldown (Plunge, Blood Weapon (BW), Delirium, DA C&S, Salted Earth). Delirium is not effectively used on Blood Price for single target. Save it for Blood Weapon.
  3. Never allow either your Mana or Blood Gauge to cap out (9480 Mana, or 100 Blood respectively). Prevent Mana capping by utilizing DA or TBN; Blood capping by using BS or Quietus, depending on single or AoE targeting.
  4. For safety purposes, attempt to maintain mana above 4800 – This will allow for one TBN usage for safety/mitigation, a DA, or using Grit, if necessary (1200 required for Grit).
  5. If unsure about proper manipulation of TBN, save it for Tank Busters or hard hitting AoE damage. At starting gear of around i310-i320, TBN is a 9-10k shield that is very useful on both types of damage. In current gear, we are sitting at around 13,500 HP shield.
  6. Dark Arts Priority Listing – how to spend your mana
    1. Carve & Spit (ensure you have 2400 mana for this every 1m) – +350 potency
    2. Bloodspiller when in Grit – +175 potency in grit, +140 potency out of grit
    3. Syphon Strike, Souleater, and Bloodspiller, and Plunge (equal priority, +140 potency gained on each ability)
  7. AoE Priority (3+ targets)
    1. Unleash if targets are surrounding you, and unable to pick up with Abyssal Drain.
    2. Abyssal Drain to burn mana and build threat.
    3. Delirium under Blood Price if an add pack will last the duration.
    4. TBN for the shield, mana dump, and to enable Delirium/Quietus casts.
    5. Quietus to regain mana, burn blood. DA Quietus if using it would cause you to mana cap (480/target hit).
    6. Dark Passenger (DP)
      1. 2 targets, DADP (560 potency vs. 308 used on Weapon Skills)
      2. 3+ targets, DADP if GCDs that would otherwise be spent on Abyssal, are replaced by Syphon Strike. DPS Gain discussed here
      3. Decent for the blind debuff in Dungeon runs, but only 10%.
      4. Threat – Nice for starting an AoE fight, in order to ensure that you have the threat necessary to hold off of initial burst.
      5. Mana Dump – DADP prior to using Quietus, Syphon Strike
      6. Mana Dump – DP Alone, suggesting you are unable to fit any further DA GCDs within a buff window (Discussed later).
    7. Hard Slash into Syphon Strike broken combo – SS in Grit nets you 2400 mana, equating to just under two Abyssal Drain casts. Abyssal Drain by itself will typically grant more damage than finishing your Souleater combo.

Note that this list is a generic quick-list guide, and is not meant for optimization. This list will simply pump your numbers to a somewhat respectable level. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics, we’ll go into specifics.

Part 2: Map Your Cooldowns – Offensive and Defensive utilization

Offense

Dark Knight specializes in throughput among the three tanks – while we have our smaller burst windows within Blood Weapon usage, our output relies heavily on our consistency. Maintaining uptime is key, as well as utilizing your cooldowns as best as you can. Riding your GCD properly is the largest factor in a Dark Knight’s DPS.

Another factor is ensuring that you do not lose an OGCD cast throughout an encounter, or that you use these cooldowns more effectively. For example, saving Salted Earth for AoE damage in a raid (O3S Ninjas, for example) will have a much larger benefit to your DPS than using this skill on cooldown. After progressing through a fight, ensure that your cooldowns are mapped out in order to gain effectiveness with them.

  1. Plunge can also be saved for a few seconds on occasion, if it gains you an extra GCD. However, the overall gain of Plunge saving is somewhat mitigated by sprint no longer having a TP cost. Plunge’s high potency (200) is the key factor towards hitting it on cooldown, losing a cast throughout a fight is almost as bad as losing a GCD, on average. As Sprint does not cast TP anymore, it is often a more viable option than saving Plunge.
  2. Dark Arts is effectively 140 potency gained when used on any weapon skill, and Plunge – this will be delved into further in later sections, but it has equal potency on SS, SE, BS, and Plunge.
  3. Attempt to pool your mana/blood for more optimum usage during raid buffs. Extended practice with your team will allow you to further understand when manadumping on Dark Arts will be best for you.
  4. Shirk is, technically, an offensive tool as well. While its original intent was to make tank swapping easier, what it ended up becoming was a tool to enable optimizing tanks to avoid using tank stance and threat combos in their entirety. Throughout a fight, its usefulness increases, exponentially granting more and more threat to whoever it is cast upon.
    1. OT Vokes, MT Shirk – Standard Shirk usage, performed on every tank swap.
    2. OT Vokes, OT Shirk – Efficient for low-threat openers, so long as there won’t be 2 tank swaps within 2 minutes.
    3. OT Voke, MT Shirk > MT voke, OT shirk – the “Circle Shirk”, generating you a total of 56% more total threat. Incredibly useful if for some reason you like to single tank raid fights.

Defense

Defensive cooldowns can be interestingly utilized, and for the most part, are completely variable based on the fight, your co-tank, and what is best for your raid group. One static progressing through a fight will have a completely different skill rotation used compared to yours, and it may be just as viable. Work with your team in order to find out what works best for you.

  1. Grit, and utilization of it, is best utilized as a progression tool, and not an optimization tool. Once a fight is properly learned and optimized, Grit is typically removed from the equation. Grit itself is a very powerful, but is not necessary when you begin optimizing a fight. The overall goal is to minimize Grit’s usage entirely. It has often been described as a crutch – and it is. Don’t be afraid to use it when you need it.
  2. The Blackest Night, when used effectively, has a significant impact on the damage you receive from Tank Busters, or spots where healers cannot heal you effectively. It is a 15k~ shield that is taken into effect after other mitigation has been applied, meaning it gets stronger when used with other cooldowns. Cleverly used, this can help a great deal in reducing the amount of incoming healing required on you. Play with effective usage of TBN, and see how your healers can use the shield effectively, if at all.
  3. With the changes to Shadow Wall and Dark Mind in patch 4.3, we have an incredible amount of breadth in how to optimally plan for tank busters, usage in raid wides, or other such incoming damage. I personally prioritize Shadow Wall > Dark Mind for Tank Busters, then AoE damage, then fluff damage, allowing for cross-role actions to be used otherwise.
  4. Mitigating damage isn’t only about mitigating Tank Busters. While they are the highest single-instance sources of damage, they are not the only damage that is present within a raid. The constant threat of auto-attacks and AoEs also pose a significant threat to tank survival, just not an immediate one. Make your healer’s lives easier, and mitigate some auto-attacks as well.
  5. Living Dead is, in effect, up to 8-10 seconds of invulnerability when used properly. While the initial buff is active, your healers can completely ignore you. So long as you “die” within the 10s timeframe, you require no healing until Walking Dead, where one healer GCD+OGCD can typically bring you to full (Or, Benediction). A strong benefit to the ability is that it activates when you “die,” as opposed to when the skill is activated.
  6. Map. Your. Cooldowns. If you want to be the big-dick tank that never enters Grit and doesn’t afraid of anything, you need to understand the damage that is incoming in a fight, when to use cooldowns, tank swap, and what cooldowns are best utilized where. A good tank uses their cooldowns effectively so that their healers never notice they were out of Tank stance.
  7. Delete the thought of always Main Tank and Off Tank. Both tanks in an optimized setting will share equal burden. Main Tank and Off Tank terms should be used as a “Who is currently tanking the boss,” similar to how other languages use “First Tank” and “Second Tank.”
  8. Just as Shirk is used as an offensive tool as stated in the previous section, it is also a defensive tool. Sharing the tanking burden will allow for both tanks to effectively use their cooldowns, making the lives of your raid and the healing requirements easier. Optimize your tank swapping, and cooldowns with your group in order to get their maximum effectiveness.
  9. Your DPS have mitigation abilities as well. All Melees have Feint (-10% phys), Ranged have Palisade(-20% phys), Bards have Nature’s Minne(+20% healing)/Troubadour(variable 10/15% buffs), Machinist has Dismantle (-10%), Casters have Addle(-10% magic) and Apocatastasis(-20% magic). Discuss mitigation options with your raid group for optimal play.

Cross Role Actions

With the changes to Cross-roles in 4.4, we now have the option to take all cross-roles into a fight, doing wonders for a Dark Knight’s versatility, while murdering our hot-bar space. Here’s some of the more confusing cross-roles, and how they can be used effectively.

  1. Ultimatum – AoE Provoke, but typically taken as a secondary provoke in a few scenarios. If your group can use it, then more power to you. It can be used as a pinch in saving wipe scenarios in longer fights, such as Ultimate Coil. Use this at your discretion.
  2. Awareness – One of the more curious cross-roles, as its usefulness is technically questionable. A boss’ crit rate typically hovers around 5%, so it does not have an intrinsic value. The value of Awareness lies in the “Insurance policy.” Awareness can be used effectively in certain situations in order to ensure that a tank takes a specific window of damage, and does not get surprised by critical hits. Awareness will have more value on high-critical enemies or phases such as Shiva Extreme’s bow-phase, or guaranteed critical hit strikes and Tank Busters, such as Critical Hit in O3S, or Tera Slash in Shinryu Extreme.
  3. Anticipation – One of my personal favorites. On its surface it does not do much, as it simply enhances the parry rate, while not guaranteeing parries such as Raw Intuition. However, in fights that have a high amount of physical damage, it can add up. The positives come in three forms – its short cooldown, its high uptime, and that Dark Knight has no built-in defenses against physical damage.
  4. Convalescence – I personally do not favor this cross-role, but a smart group can use it very effectively. My personal issue with Conva is that it does not work on what a healer primarily wants to use for healing – oGCDs such as Tetragrammaton, Excogation, or Essential Dignity. It does, however, work on Regens, and Fairy Embraces. Here’s a few ideal uses of Conva for your group to potentially plan around.
    1. Getting two uses of Regens while it is active, for 30-40 seconds of 20% more regen healing.
    2. Deployed Adloquium, if your group uses you as the primary source of the heal.
    3. Living Dead, if your group uses AST/SCH and does not have access to Benediction or other effective means of healing it.

Part 3: Specifics

Threat Management

As a tank, your primary job is to keep threat, and maintain it throughout the encounter. While tools like Shirk, Shadewalker, and the primary abilities that other DPS have that adjust their own threat exist, your primary job still relegates to maintaining threat.

That’s not to say that the DPS should not be using their cooldowns. Everyone should. Threat is, after all, a team effort. You are not the only one who has tools for threat, you simply have the best ones available to you. Talk with your group and make sure all of your tools are used effectively.

FFXIV subreddit Wiki link for all Threat generation

Changes in 4.3 –
Dark Passenger – Damage x 5
Dark Arts Plunge – 400 additional threat potency
Dark Arts Power Slash – 1650 additional threat potency (2420+1650 total)

Dark Arts Power Slash is the most notable threat manipulation tool that a Dark Knight has above other tanks. As we can see in the wiki link above, DAPS in itself nets nearly twice the threat potency as it did before, as well as an additional 140 potency on top of its base. . But is this required? That all depends. Due to the changes in 4.3, DA PS is no longer a threat loss in itself. Using Power Slash is, but DA is a simple potency boost as it is for other abilities now.

So how do I manage my threat?

Patch 4.3 has allowed Dark Knight to passively generate the same amount of threat as Warrior and Paladin do, with only a slight modification to priorities, or a very small DPS loss (similar to Onslaught use). After your opener, your threat will be managed in the following ways

  1. Outgoing DPS – Your performance offensively will have the largest impact on holding threat for your group. Your group’s tools will get you far, but they won’t carry you through the entire battle. Learning how to play effectively will be the strongest tool in your arsenal.
  2. Supplementary tools – DA Plunge and DADP are just that – supplementary. For the most part they will have little to no effect when you are actually tanking a boss, and are much better used on add pickup.

How do I grab aggro on additional enemies?

Add pickup is a bane for pretty much every tank class. With our new supplementary tools, add pickup has become much easier. DA Plunge and DADP have a combined threat total near that of a PS combo alone, and are much less damaging to your DPS (and in some cases, a raw DPS gain). Choose which tools you use based on the encounter

  1. How long will I be holding the add? How long will they be alive?
  2. Do I really need to hold it that badly?

Experiment in fights, and learn what you have to use as you go along. There is no correct answer for every situation.

Dark Arts, Bloodspiller, and Mana/Blood Management – Map your Mana Usage

By far, the issue that is the largest DPS issue with Dark Knights is mana management – How do you keep up and learn to expend where you have to?

Dark Arts Priorities

As stated in the generic guide, your priorities are always in that order.  However, in a raid optimization setting, the list expands, and specific situations will appear. A keynote to remember, is that Dark Arts is the same potency modifier (non-grit) for your main 3 spammed abilities (SS, SE, and BS).

Basic Math on skill priorities, written out by Damelia Lhea, former Tank Mentor of The Balance –

SHOULD I DA SYPHON OR SOULEATER BCUZ CRITS
If neither Crit, then the DA choice does not matter.

If Souleater Crits, but Syphon does not:
   If you DA’d Souleater:
       Syphon + DA Souleater*1.4   = 250 + 440 * 1.4 = 866
   If you DA’d Syphon:
       DA Syphon + Souleater*1.4    = 390 + 300 * 1.4 = 810
   Theoretical retrospective loss of 56 potency by DAing Syphon instead of Souleater
   
If Syphon Crits, but Souleater does not:
   If you DA’d Souleater:
       Syphon*1.4 + DA Souleater     = 250 * 1.4 + 440 = 790
   If you DA’d Syphon:
       DA Syphon*1.4 + Souleater     = 390 * 1.4 + 300 = 846
   Theoretical retrospective loss of 56 potency by DAing Souleater instead of Syphon
   
If both Crit:
   If you DA’d Souleater:
       Syphon*1.4 + DA Souleater*1.4     = (250 + 440) * 1.4 = (250 + 300 + 140) * 1.4
   If you DA’d Syphon:
       DA Syphon*1.4 + Souleater*1.4     = (390 + 300) * 1.4 = (250 + 140 + 300) * 1.4
   These are clearly equivalent.
   
TL;DR doesn’t matter retrospectively which one you DA, it’s just feelsbadman when you pick the “wrong” one.

This math also applies to Bloodspiller, as when not in grit, it is also an effective 140 potency increase.

Dark Arts and Raid Buffs

Multiple raid buffs will affect your personal DPS, and in order to optimize effectively, you must be aware of both how much you will gain with them, as well as when your raid members are casting them – this guide will list skills that directly affect damage multipliers or rates.

All Damage –

  • Balance(AST)  – 5% damage AoE, 10% personal, 15% full buffed – 30-60s duration
  • Trick Attack(NIN) – 10% Damage, 10s duration, 60s CD
  • Hypercharge(MCH) – 5% damage, 27-30s duration, 2m CD
  • Foe Requiem(BRD) – 3% damage, 15-20~s duration, CD dependant on mana
  • Devotion(SMN) – 2% Damage, 15s duration, 2m CD

Critical/DH Rates –

  • Spear(AST) – 5% Crit rate AoE, 10% personal, 15% buffed – 20-40s duration
  • Chain Stratagem(SCH) – 15% Crit rate on target, 15s duration, 2m CD
  • Battle Litany(DRG) – 15% Crit rate, 20s duration, 3m CD
  • Battle Voice(BRD) – 15% DH rate, 20s duration, 3m CD
  • Song buff(BRD) – 2% Crit rate, constant.

Physical Damage –

  • Embolden(RDM) – 10%-2% Physical damage (drops 2% per stack), 20s duration, 2m CD
  • Brotherhood(MNK) – 5% Physical Damage, 15s duration, 90s CD
  • Radiant Shield(SMN) – 2% Physical damage, 16-20s duration, 60s CD

Magical Damage (Dark Passenger, Salted Earth) –

  • Contagion(SMN) – 10% Magic damage, 15s duration, 1m CD

Your goal for optimal Dark Arts usage is to ensure as many Dark Arts hit during raid buffs as possible. As you can tell, not everything will line up perfectly, but there are some windows you can focus on for pooling mana and blood effectively to increase damage output.

  1. Opener (10-15s) – Openers will be listed in a future section, but are designed around maximizing all buffs, potions, and setting you up for success.
  2. (60s) Trick Attack window – Flat 10% increase 10s, every minute. This should land 4 GCDs at a minimum.
  3. (90s) Brotherhood – As it is only 5%, our focus can be spent here, however in 30s, Trick Attack will be back.
  4. (2m) “Second” opener – Trick, Hypercharge, Embolden, and Stratagem will be active for this window.
  5. (3m) – Trick, Battle Voice, Battle Litany, Brotherhood.

The Blackest Night

The entirety of the r/ffxiv subreddit and Official Forums has been in a ruckus over this ability, and whether or not is is a dps gain with Bloodspiller for Dark Knight. The long and short of it: maybe. The next section will cover The Blackest Night when used offensively, for the purposes of increased DPS. Consider the following information:

TL;DR – TBN is relatively DPS neutral when looking at a large scale of events. Focus on using it to reduce damage, and optimize your mana usage after you are comfortable with your raid group and damage intake.

As Bloodspiller is a GCD and not an OGCD, you are not simply trading mana for potency. You are pushing your current rotation of HS SS SE back by one GCD every time it is used. Also, you are trading the use of a Dark Arts in order to gain the use of Bloodspiller.

Let’s begin the math train, beginning with our integers!

  1. For the purposes of simplicity, we’ll assume that no abilities are using Dark Arts, as they all equate to 140 potency gained. TBN’s mana cost is the same as Dark Arts, and therefore equates to 140 potency lost when cast. (-140)
  2. HS is 150 potency baseline. (150)
  3. SS is 250+70 (1200 mana gained, half of a DA) (320)
  4. SE is 300 potency (note – there’s more math involved regarding blood gauge gained and natural Bloodspillers, but we’ll keep the math non-convoluted for now).
  5. Bloodspiller is 400 potency.

To fully understand the math behind Bloodspiller and TBN, you must understand what GCD the added Bloodspiller will be replacing.

  1. Replacing HS: 400 – 140 – 150 potency, for 110 potency gained.
  2. Replacing SS: 400 – 140 – 320 potency, for 60 potency lost.
  3. Replacing SE: 400 – 140 – 300 potency, for 40+ potency lost, and -10 Blood gauge.

Throughout a fight, you’ll only know which GCDs you have replaced depending on which GCD you end a fight/phase with. Note, that this math does not equate to Bloodspillers gained naturally, as the (-140) modifier will not be present, and naturals are always a gain when used.

Overall, TBN granted Bloodspillers ends up a 10 potency gain over three uses when used regularly throughout your rotation. At some points it will be a loss, some it will be a gain.

It’s best not to think about it too much.

In higher-end play, The Blackest Night used excessively is considered a DPS loss, despite the math above. The reason for this is covered in the Mana usage section – use your mana in raid buffs. Because of the shift in mana usage, using TBN at a somewhat inopportune time will cause you to lose a Dark Arts within raid buffs – which will net a larger DPS discrepancy over the potencies listed above.

One aspect not entirely covered, is the potential for Healer GCDs gained with proper utilization of TBN. Each cast on yourself will net you a 12-13k shield, depending on gear, which when used on unavoidable tank damage, can add up well to ease healer actions within a fight. Plan your TBNs accordingly. Utilizing this skill specific to tank busters only is wise in and of itself, and will have a negligible change to your overall DPS output. TBNs used to grant a second DA Bloodspiller for Trick Attacks (+40 pot) will either bring the SS replaced down to (-20), or bring the SE replaced to (0) (assuming these Weaponskills are not used within the trick window, as they were “replaced” later in the fight).

Using TBN for Delirium

TBN Expenditure – 2400 mana / 140p
Delirium gain in 8s – 3 GCD, 3 autos – 5280 mana + 18 Blood / 308 pot+18blood pot

Delirium use always ends up in a gain, especially if used with raid buffs. So long as you don’t lose a cast during a fight.

Why is the blood lost from Souleater ignored?

In order to nullify the added gauge from the Souleaters replaced, you’d have to have 15 TBN casts. Hitting TBN on cooldown would land you in the 3:15 time frame, including the one used on pull, at 0. Not only that, you have to consider the GCD that the bloodspiller granted naturally from not hitting the Souleaters that you’ve replaced through TBN. Testing with a 3:20 striking dummy run to match 15 TBN casts, my rotation ended on Syphon Strike sitting at 32 blood. I could have used 9 TBNs within that timeframe and had it been a gain, and have no wasted blood. That, as well is where the issue lies with including the blood gauge within TBN math – how much blood will you end with at the end of a fight / phase? How many TBNs need to be added/removed? It’s too much to think about. Don’t. Simply use them effectively, and further optimization will come to you as your raid group progresses through the fight.

At 15 TBN uses, it will be a loss. Maybe. Depends where you used the Bloodspillers. But hey that’s also 170,000+HP your healers didn’t have to heal so that’s something!

TBN’s true offensive value – GCD Manipulation

One of the more notable uses of TBN granted Bloodspillers is the mystical art of GCD Manipulation. This phrase simply means adjusting your GCD and combo rotation in order to land on specific combos throughout certain parts of the fight.

Example 1 – Phase ending – Suggesting you have a 1 minute phase, and the boss/target disappears. You ended the phase on a Hard Slash, losing your combo and only netting an extra 150 potency. By using a TBN granted Bloodspiller at some point in this window, you will be able to end on Souleater instead, as the Hard Slash is replaced by Bloodspiller, netting you an extra 110 potency within this window utilizing the math above.

Example 2 – You are on add pickup for the fight. Normally, when the add spawns you just hit Syphon Strike in your combo rotation, leaving you to hit the add with Souleater, granting no additional aggro Conversely, you would use Hard Slash twice, costing you potency and uptime. Using TBN and the Bloodspiller granted slightly earlier within the fight will allow you to leave the primary boss after Hard Slash, not interrupting your GCD rotation, and hit the add with Spinning > Power Slash, maintaining uptime, no repeat GCDs, and maximizing your threat on the add.

These are just some of the examples that can be used, and are just hints at the potential that you can do while optimizing fights. If a fight ends on an odd GCD, play around with TBN usage, and sometimes it can be to your advantage!

Personal defensive recommendations – I tend to stick to the uses listed in the original post, while learning a fight/pug groups, I use TBN on all busters and raidwide AoEs. In the end, TBN is an amazing shield, but boils down to a simple statement – If it does not save healer GCDs, or your life, it does not do anything. Use TBN wisely,

Part 4: What everyone asks about

Openers

Video to openers can be found here. For the most part, openers have not changed since 4.2. The addition of Sole Survivor having an “Excogitation” effect, as well as Plunge being double-weavable, allow for a bit more optimization. Dark Passenger’s threat bonus also allow for some threat bonuses and DPS gains for main tanks, if they are so inclined. In all instances, the DA before pull is used 6-9 seconds before engage.

Main Tank – High Threat
Video Link to execution

Best used without a Ninja, or when threat may be tricky in openers. Have those DPS use Diversion! If you feel that this is too much threat, some abilities can be moved. The Dark Arts Dark Passenger is 100% for additional threat, and can be removed easily in order to allow for an additional Dark Arts, or DP used within raid buffs. Adjust as you wish. The overall goal is to slowly remove threat actions bit by bit, until you are able to use the optimized opener below.

Main Tank – Optimized DPS
Video Link to execution

Opener used when you are comfortable with your raid group, threat generation, and have a Ninja for Shadewalker. Use at your discretion. If you do not feel this amount of threat is sufficient, replace the first Souleater combo with DAPS. The only change this will make, is that your first Bloodspiller will be after Souleater instead of before.

Off-tank Opener
Video Link to Execution

Dark Passenger is used as an additional damage/mana dump within Raid Buffs. If you do not feel comfortable adding Dark Passenger (or have a physical-buff based group), hold onto this mana until later. This opener is designed with a Meta comp in mind, and utilizes the most out of buffs such as Trick Attack, Chain Stratagem, etc.

High Ping/High SKS Opener (Off-Tank)
Video Link to Execution
Image when I can, up soon!

This opener was created in order to facilitate for Dark Knights who have issues with the rotation, and clipping in general. Looking at the prior opener, there are 5 double weaves in Blood Weapon, which can cause for many, multiple lost GCDs. This opener attempts to alleviate that for those that play faster, or have ping issues – reducing doubleweaves to 1 in BW, and 2 outside. On paper the opener itself is slightly less potency, however the true gain is after the fact – more GCDs throughout the encounter. Use whichever opener you wish. I use this opener exclusively, as I value the gained GCDs over the gained potency in the opener.

4.4 BiS Sets

Using both the Statistic Intervals Sheet created by Nemekh, and the Gear Stats Calculator by Mike Matrix, we’ve compiled gearsets that will maximize DPS in the current setting.

The sets that we’ve built are within 1-2% DPS of each other, well within random variance. Pick the set and speed that you wish to play at. Currently, Critical Hit is in the lead this tier, but DH is not far behind in the slightest. You can meld whatever you’d like.

2.37 “Standard” set
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17BXL		2.32 “Sanicboye” GCD Set
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17C0H
2.34 “Poorboye” set
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17BWP

Overall, the 2.37 “Standard” set is recommended. While it has less simulated DPS, it provides much more leeway for GCD clipping and weaving. Itemization this tier prevented us from building any strong sets that would be on a slower GCD. If you feel more comfortable and play better slow, then by all means go slower. Not clipping your GCD, and Phase transitions, are still the key rules when picking speed tiers.

The simulations regarding all speeds operate under the assumption that the player is a robot, and is able to land 8-hit Blood Weapon, and up to 12-hit Delirium reliably in every window. As most of us are not robots, nor do we have incredibly strong ping, this will be difficult to do for the standard player. But, as always, play what you are most comfortable, and have the most fun with.

Stats, and Reasoning

Currently (4.4), we regard stats in the following manner –

Crit = DH > Det = SKS > Ten

Crit Caught up! Finally! – It was bound to happen. The more Crit there is on gear, the better it gets. Crit and DH are so close to one another, that they self-adjust depending on group synergy. Crit has taken the lead, but even in a fully stacked crit-comp, they’re within 0-10 DPS of each other. I personally will be melding DH. Your melds are up to you.

Why no Tenacity stacking gear? – Tenacity is an efficient stat for what it is – 217 points for 1% DMG, and mitigation. A gearset with full Tenacity, melded, at the moment is somewhere in the ballpark of only 8% added mitigation (364 is considered 0% for all intents and purposes). However, the overall cost sacrifices much of our personal DPS, and does not noticeably increase healer DPS in exchange.

Tenacity is currently regarded as a progression stat, in a similar vein to Grit usage – helpful on occasion, but not enough to warrant future use. Most discussions revolve around a simple statement – Tenacity is iffy on gear, but awful melded. Don’t go out of your way looking for it.

SKS buff, and Speed tiers– Skill Speed has always been a tricky stat to wrap your head around. With the increased AA potency, as well as our rotation not being locked specifically to rotational buffs, it has garnered some merit of thought. However, the same issues lie with SKS as they always have –

  1. What GCDs are gained, if any, throughout the fight?
  2. Does a fight have a large amount of downtime?
  3. How badly will we clip our GCD with double-weaving OGCDs?
  4. How bad is the hit on our TP Whoops let some Heavensward slip in on accident
  5. We don’t have Scourge anymore. 🙁

TL;DR – It’s tricky to put a proper weight on SKS. Gained GCDs are always huge, but if the extra GCD is not hit with increased SKS, then half of the value has been completely lost. Gaining an extra GCD within a phase or jump transition is huge, but not gaining that GCD means that the extra SKS was potentially wasted. Equip and gear SKS at your discretion.

SKS has gained a large amount of ground in this patch due to the higher weight of Crit, and how much base stats we have on our gear. Since we can compensate for our formerly lower crit rates now, we are able to abuse the benefits of SKS more often.

There are two specific tiers that are created in this sheet that DRK should consider – 8 hit Blood Weapon, and 12 hit Delirium. The gearsets listed hit these tiers regularly, and somewhat consistently. Sometimes it takes a bit more finesse, but it is doable. As stated at the beginning of this section, Pick the speed you want to play at. There is a negligible difference otherwise.

Part 5: Even more Advanced Guide

Since the release of patch 4.4 I’ve been working on a supplementary guide to this one, covering the more in depth discussion of speed, and how it relates to Dark Knight. With the newer gearing options of 4.4, Skill speed is a viable gear choice, and the benefits and limitations should be understood before one would delve into the evils that are associated with Skill Speed. I present to you,

The Speedmeme Manifesto.

Proceed at your own peril. Huehuehue.

This is meant purely as a compliment and follow-up to this guide, so don’t take the information presented as gospel. I kept it as a separate document because it is a bit more wordy than this one, and repeats some of the same information, as it was designed as a stand-alone guide. I hope it helps!

Frequently Asked Questions, and Fight Optimization

F.A.Q.

– Should I hold Plunge or use it on Cooldown?

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In general this is a tricky question to answer for certain; it all depends. Run yourself through a personal checklist –

  1. How many GCDs will I gain if I save the use?
  2. How long will I be holding Plunge?
  3. Is Sprint sufficient to save a GCD?
  4. How many casts do I lose overall if I save Plunge?

As you can see it can get a bit messy. The long and short of it always lands in my favorite idiom – map your cooldowns. Figure out when and where you’d need to use it, and use it effectively. I personally use spreadsheets as I am insane. Use what you need to at your discretion. Some general rules of thumb –

  1. If you gain 2 GCDs it’s worth saving.
  2. If you only hold it for around 5 seconds, it’s worth saving.

– How can I effectively use Salted Earth?

A common misconception with using Salted Earth effectively is assuming extra casts mean more DPS. What you should be looking at moreso, is do I gain additional ticks. The cast count itself does not matter, but whether or not you used the casts effectively. Poor positioning or poor timing can lose you ticks that you could have gained by either waiting a few moments, or adjusting your cast. Salted Earth by itself is worth 525 Potency. Use it well.

4.4 note – Due to the recent change to ground-based effects, Salted Earth now has a near-guaranteed extra initial tick, meaning that the ability now will typically hit 8 times for a total of 600 potency. This is not guaranteed, but it is fairly consistent overall. In most cases, ensuring that your target gets the initial hit will be more beneficial than pre-placing it for later movement. Place that circle down at your discretion.

– Who should pull in my party comp?

If you’re running a PLD/DRK composition; you should pull. If WAR/DRK, the Warrior.

The Paladin loses too much in comparison to you when initiating the fight. While you only lose potency, your co-tank pushes his entire opener back 4 GCDs, losing potentially strong alignment for him within party buffs throughout the entire encounter. If pulling in tank stance, he loses 5 GCDs, having to switch back to Sword Oath.

Warrior loses incredibly little in comparison to us, with the snap-threat aggro created by Equilibrium. With Shadewalker from a Ninja, this is sufficient on pull to maintain threat for openers.

Overall, all that matters is the initial threat in an optimized setting. Afterwards, regular tank swaps and Shirk usage will compensate for all necessary threat.

– How much DPS do I lose by staying in Grit?

Somewhere around 25%. The losses are pretty universal across all tanks – you aren’t losing anything more than the other tanks if you are forced to stay in Grit over them.

– How do I tank out of Grit?

Oldest question in the book, and by all means the hardest to answer. In progression, Grit is an incredibly effective tool to understand how damage works in a fight. Afterwards, however, it is completely unnecessary. Learning how a fight works is more important than turning on Grit.

Tanking without utilizing tank stance is completely dependant on your entire raid’s teamwork. You are not the only person in the fight that can help the healing burden. Tanks, Healers and DPS need to learn how to use their cooldowns effectively in order to minimize all around damage taken. Learn to use your smaller cooldowns throughout the fight on places where you are difficult to heal, or Healers may be otherwise distracted. Have DPS mitigate certain mechanics, or help you with Palisade/Apoc. Just like how threat is a team effort, incoming damage is a team effort as well.

Should I use Dark Passenger?

Yes. Math checks out. – The math is flubbed in certain instances in order to simplify the math therein. Not updated for 4.3, however DADP will still be a DPS gain.

Specifically, Dark Arts Dark Passenger.

DADP, however, is only a consistent gain on more than one target. It is an AoE tool specifically, and is not to be used on cooldown when fighting a single enemy/boss. Many people who contest this idea bring up the thought that because DADP has such a high initial cost, it is not worth a the cast over Abyssal Drain. While true when directly comparing the two, it is not true when applied in practice. DADP has the benefit of not being tied to the GCD, which is the primary reason that it is such a large gain over time.

The most significant gain is on 2 targets, which I did not sim out as it is easy enough to prove – a DRK’s GCD will be spent on single target damage in a 2 target scenario, as Abyssal Drain is a potency loss. So your mana choices are between 2 Dark Arts (154 potency x2 = 308), or DADP (240 x 2 = 480). DADP is a raw 172 potency increase for the same mana cost.

Fight Specific Optimization and Tips

Most of these tips are a work in progress, and fairly incomplete. Major cooldown usage is dependant on yourself, your co-tank, and your group. Learn the fights and do what is best for your team. Refer to full strategy videos for timelines, group mechanics, and how to do the bulk of the fights. These tips are relegated to tanking and Dark Knight specifically, and are meant to be complementary to those guides.

Past Trials and Raids (non-content-relevant) will be found in the historical section at the end of this guide. I’ll be updating this soon, as I start clearing or people start feeding me information. Please be patient, my friends!

Trials

Seiryu

  1. The buster after swap is Magical. All autos are Physical. Because the busters are typically by themselves and not surrounded by autoattack sandwiches, you will not need to do terribly much to mitigate them. They do however, hit hard enough that you shouldn’t ignore them, either.
  2. Plunge on the knockbacks is fairly handy, however Sprint will usually do you better, as well as pre-positioning and shifting before certain knockbacks hit in order to abuse server ticks. I did not find any reason to save Plunge for specific mechanics throughout the fight, as the boss was close enough to not worry about.

Omega – Psi/Alphascape

O9S – Chaos

  1. Chaotic Dispersion is Physical. Orbshadows are Magical. Plan cooldowns accordingly. Due to the forced tank swaps in this encounter, for the most part you can use your cooldowns incredibly efficiently and often.
  2. Plunge can be used somewhat to cheese the jumps during Cyclone and Tsunami. The use during cyclone is somewhat skeptical, as due to Plunge’s shorter animation there is potential that you will still get the Windburn DoT. Use this at your discretion (Or what I do, is hit ShadowWall and Dark Mind beforehand because I’m a greedy bastard).

O10S – Midgardsormr

  1. Tail End, as you can imagine, is incredibly scary. It’s also Physical, reducing our effective defenses. Coordinate with your raid group on how to best use party mitigation as opposed to simply relying on yourself. Tail End does a baseline 105k damage, and in a worst case scenario, you can get four of them in a 3 minute timespan. Plan for the worst, and make sure your group knows effective strategies.
  2. Midgardsormr’s auto-attacks are Magical in the air, and Physical when on ground. Make sure you utilize your fluff cooldowns effectively. Don’t pull and Emiin and spam Anticipation in phase 1!
  3. The Dragon add’s damage is magical – at least, the damage that matters. Use a FFLogs link to learn the timing of his Breaths, so you can utilize your cooldowns more effectively. Dark Mind and TBN can see some great work here, make sure you use them effectively!

O11S – Omega Weapon

  1. Mustard bomb is Magical. Technically, this ability can be zeroed out with extreme mitigation to reduce the damage of the follow-up bleed effect, however the bleed does not do enough damage to worry about. The initial hit of Mustard Bomb however, is quite spicy.
  2. The Tether > Atomic Blast combo should be relegated to Dark Knight if possible, as they have more than enough mitigation to survive it than other tanks. However, due to the reduced HP mechanic, The Blackest Night is neutered. Ensure that your team is working with you to mitigate this thoroughly.
  3. Despite what guides and party finder tells you, having a tank bait the super-missles during Pantokrator 2 is a huge loss for the group! Here is a video of a bard executing it flawlessly, and easily. For both Paladin and Dark Knight, it is an incredible uptime and DPS loss to do this mechanic, and there is nothing lost by doing it in the intended fashion. Some bards in fact tell me it’s easier than short-missile baiting.

Omega M & F

  1. Solar Ray is Magical. Optimized Blade Dance is Physical. Adjust your cooldowns appropriately in order to deal with these. Living Dead is a viable option as OBD hits incredibly hard and not incredibly often.
  2. In order to have Plunge up for the first knockback in the fight, you’ll need to cast it on-pull. Disgusting, I know – but there isn’t really a way around it or you lose an incredibly useful cast.
  3. I use this custom opener for the fight. It allows for multiple setups for the first segment, moving into the second segment of the fight – Blood weapon and Delirium optimization for more uptime, Salted Earth alignment, and Plunge alignment.  If done correctly and off cooldown, BW and Salted will end just as Omega-F leaves for the first split. For Salted optimization after this, you are preferably the tank that does not move, gaining you DPS through not having to save/lose Salted Earth ticks.
  4. If you set up your DPS properly for the split, you should be able to pick up your Twins target with minimal threat use. As you’ll need slashing (hopefully), your DPS should have Diversion, so threat will be easy (unless you have the Bard/Machinist, and are now sad). I use this rotation for easy pickup, which has enough threat should your DPS be using Diversion properly.

Final Omega

  1. All tank busters are Magical. Defensively, Dark Knight gains a great deal here. DRK will always have either Shadow Wall or Dark Mind for every buster throughout the fight, allowing for Rampart and other defenses to be used for autos extremely effectively. Unless your team always shares Savage Wave Cannons, you will always have cooldowns for every buster.
  2. Here’s an effective custom opener for the fight, if Off-Tank. Designed for Sole Survivor to pop immediately after SWC hits, allow for Carve to happen before you move out if Defamation tank, and allow for Plunge to come back after your defamation if DNA tank.
  3. As always with final fights, comfiness is made with your group. My best suggestion is to ask around in some places for cooldown maps, or develop your own strategy to make the best of your situations. This fight requires a lot of teamwork and strategy to do effectively. Here’s a map that my group made, and you can adjust or make your own off of this! Good luck!

Credits

Emiin Vanih – Lodestone || FFLogs || Twitch || Twitter || Discord – Emiin#0178
Find me on my Discord Server!
Feel free to message me for any questions on this guide, or things you’d like added.

Tank Guide Trifecta

Emiin Vanih – Paladin Guide
Ny Cro – Warrior Guide

Thanks to The Balance Discord Server for all help maintaining and building this guide. I am no longer associated with The Balance, and cannot be located there.

Tofurkey Meepers [Lamia] (Co-tank buddies4lyf)
Voxfall Valerie [Ragnarok]
Raffter Senpai [Ragnarok]
Zayatani Kagon [Ragnarok]
Damelia Lhea [Gilgamesh]
Aya Liz [FFLogs]
Sky Ikaza [Balmung]
Sarangerel Ura [Ragnarok]
Jam Valesti [Leviathan]
Ari Aquitane [Excalibur]
Nemekh / Velinas Dar’Korsalar [Exodus]
Liu Mei [Excalibur]

Historical data

Trials

Susano

  1. First Phase Assail timing for CD/TBN usage
    1. After 3rd auto
    2. 2nd auto after the first stack mechanic
    3. 3rd ish auto after the 2nd stack mechanic (skippable with high dps)
  2. 2nd phase – Tank swaps happen once a minute. One cast of Ukehi per tank swap. Both tanks having Shirk is a must. Reprisal on both tanks will have the debuff for each tank buster, and each Ukehi.
  3. This fight is training wheels for how to properly mitigate busters, and provide utility.

Lakshmi

  1. Screw this fight.
  2. All busters, including the 2nd threat cleave, are magical. In addition to TBN you have all of your abilities at your disposal – don’t forget DA DM exists, as it is incredibly powerful. Granted, it’s very annoying to cast 3-4 OGCDs before a tank buster, but it’s another strong cooldown for each hit.
  3. Voke > Shirk from the OT has the potential of driving them farther down in threat than #2. Be careful with its usage in the first phase. Circle Shirk is optimal before/during the first tank buster in order to make sure the tanks are #1 and #2, respectively.
  4. Vril2win

Shinryu

  1. DADP gains a lot of use in this fight, for both the Heart+Shinryu as well as tail DPS. Use it whenever you can abuse 2 targets.
  2. Rumours floating around that threat on the Heart is duplicated to Shinryu himself. Swap targets if you have to, you won’t have issues.
  3. Living Dead has an interesting caveat in this fight, if your group pushes phase after the 3rd Akh Morn – You can actually avoid having to heal the damage afterwards (and completely negate Walking Dead) if the Active Time Maneuver happens at the same time.

Byakko

  1. Byakko’s tank busters are Magical. Hakutei’s swipes are Physical. Plan cooldowns accordingly.
  2. State of Shock, and the position of the follow-up stack, Highest Stakes, is determined by the wall closest to where the target is when grabbed. Byakko will pick the farthest wall, and throw you there. Know this, and position accordingly so that your dps can maintain uptime, and stack positions don’t target the far wall.
  3. Keeping Byakko centered in the arena will assist both positioning for Highest Stakes, and Unrelenting Anguish. There’s no reason to tank him against the wall.
  4. “Tank LB Cheese Strat” – by ignoring the second Hakutei, and simply using Tank LB3 for the ultimate, you can increase overall DPS output for the raid. Be warned, that this is slightly more dangerous while Hakutei is alive, as he swipes at the ST more often.

Tsukuyomi

  1. Auto-attacks, and Busters, are Magical in Phase 1 and 3. She then switches to Physical after her final transition.
  2. Torment Unto Death is a forced tank swap – you will die to the next auto-attack immediately after it, regardless of phase. Ensure you tank swap properly.
  3. Casting Plunge and Carve and Spit early in the first phase will allow you to get an extra cast of both before the phase transition.

Suzaku

  1. Cremate, the initial buster is Magical. Use your tools wisely.
  2. The first phase lasts for almost exactly 1m50s. There’s a few tips and tricks you can use to maximize damage until the Female phase –
    1. Salted Earth 1s Prepull will allow for almost 3 full casts to affect the boss, as well as the pinion adds if timed correctly.
    2. DADP as always when you can cleave.
    3. Since the DDR phase is so long, you can turn on grit, turn off darkside, and hit blood price twice, netting you a large amount of mana and 40 blood.
  3. Phantom Flurry is Physical. It also locks her position for the duration of the entire cast, as well as the cleave afterwards. Move as soon as you see the cast bar and prepare to shirk as necessary.

Omega – Deltascape

Universal timeline guide can be found here. Originally created by m1s3ri and found here.

O1S – Alte Roite

  1. All Tank Buster and AoEs are magical. Plan CDs accordingly.
  2. Dark Mind can be used on every Twinbolt. Utilize Rampart and Shadowwall for the Wyrmtails prior to reduce healing before the busters themselves.
  3. My group felt that Reprisal was best used for AoEs (Blaze specifically). It can be used to effect on the Twinbolts following Charybdis, as well.
  4. Plunge can be used after a few downbursts to avoid Fire bombs and position yourself properly to continue DPS. Attempt it a few times with your group to see what works to maintain uptime.

O2S – Catastrophe

  1. All Auto-attacks and Busters are magical.
  2. Reprisals best saved for Gravitational Wave, unless your strats revolve elsewhere for healer dps uptime.
  3. The only plunge worth saving in this fight is after the first Long Drop knockback. It has no other worth saving in this fight. Use Sprint instead.

O3S – Halicarnassus

  1. With regular tank swapping, every buster can have Awareness, reducing the damage to near negligible. Use the strategy that works best for your group.
  2. White Flame’s attacks, as well as the Dragon’s Frost Breath, can be mitigated with Dark Mind.
  3. Living Dead can effectively be used twice in this encounter. Use at your discretion. I prefer to use it on White Flame, and Giant/Ninjas.
  4. Refer to the DAPS section to use what’s best for picking up adds, if you have any to pick up. Personally, I only use DAPS if my first hit on the add is PS. If I can Spinning Slash, I do not use DA. Use Bloodspiller to grant you a GCD buffer to use what’s best for you. With properly timed GCDs, you won’t lose any in physical movement to pick up an add, maintaining your DPS as best you can.
  5. With a Ninja, Shadewalker will be up for up to 3 sets of adds. Work with your co-tank and Ninja to best figure out which would be used where.
  6. Additionally, diversion is up for up to 3 adds as well. Remind your DPS they can actually use this ability to help you.

O4S – ExDeath

  1. Plunge on pull will allow you to gain an extra cast before Decisive Battle. Timing is tight, ride that cooldown hard.
  2. Plunge timed properly can be used to completely nullify the Vacuum Wave cast. Plunge must be used just after you are hit by the wave. It takes some getting used to, but it’s not too bad.
  3. Map your cooldowns based on your fight duration – you have short cooldowns, make sure you use them effectively. An extra cast of C&S is better than landing one in Trick Attack, for instance. Depending on fight timing you can gain an extra cast. Map your uses.

O4S – Neo ExDeath

  1. Dark Mind is very powerful in this fight, don’t forget about it. Aero 3 casts are often enough and usually covered by Dark Mind sufficiently.
  2. Use Dark Mind after the GCDelta Almagest and Rampart during Aero 3 cast, allowing Rampart to be used for Aero 3 and EarthShakers.
  3. Reprisal best used for every Almagest, and Aero 3s. Work with your cotank on what to use and where. One tank can handle every Almagest cast.
  4. Tank Invulns can be used best for Double Attacks, and LD for Delta Attack.
    1. Pre-pop LD for Delta Attack 1 (During next GCD after Aero 3) to ensure it’s up for the second. This issue does not arise in the rest of the fight.
  5. Plunge can be used effectively to get back to the boss, but don’t hold it for longer than 5-10s. Same rules apply. Sprint can be used if Plunge is on CD. Map out your uses of plunge for the most efficiency.

Omega – Sigmascape

O5S – Phantom Train

  1. Head-On is Physical. All other damage in this fight is Magical.
  2. Plunge can be used for uptime against Head-On, Remorse, and Headlamp, but the timing is incredibly tight. Make sure you use a cooldown for the damage if you’re tanking – it obviously hits hard so be careful.
  3. TBN should be enough to survive the Agony ghost. If not, DM/Shadow Wall is your friend. Pool mana and blood on the Ghost Chimney in order to kill it successfully.

O6S – Chadarnook

  1. All damage in this fight is Magical. Welcome to the bread and butter this tier of why Dark Knight is amazing.
  2. As a Dark Knight, you are best equipped to serve as off-tank in this fight. The OT receives more damage, and you have more tools to mitigate the constant influx. If teamed with a PLD, pull, and threat swap before Goddess spawns.
  3. TBN in most cases will pop within 2 auto-attacks, and help for mitigating the extensive auto-attack damage that happens during this fight.
  4. Demonic Shear does not hit very hard; but Last Kiss is much more punishing. Depending on your role, make sure your cooldowns are mapped accordingly.
  5. Open the fight with Grit, regardless of your role in the opener. Pop Blood Price during boss-activation for a free 20 Blood before the boss even appears. Make sure to turn it off before engaging, of course!

O7S – Guardian

  1. Arm and Hammer, all add damage is Physical. DM has some effectiveness on the Diffractive Plasma and Ink, but is notably weaker if you are not main-tanking on this fight.
  2. Welcome to Cleave City! DADP has incredible strength in this fight if used alongside every add spawn. If able, ensure Salted Earth is also used effectively in order to gain more ticks throughout the encounter.
  3. The second Plunge in the encounter should be saved for the Dadaluma Shockwave, as the distance and GCDs gained is still worth the lost cast overall. It feels nasty, but worth.

Kefka (Clown)

  1. Hyperdrive is magical. Despite this, most strategies revolve around using invulnerabilities to ignore the damage. With any tank composition you can invuln 3 of the 4, and will have to “super cooldown” one of them.
  2. If you are main tanking, TBN has great value in reducing the amount of fluff damage you take. Most AoEs can be reduced to little-negligible damage with proper cooldown use. Make sure to utilize Tank Swapping to its full effectiveness.
  3. Used early in the fight, Plunge and Carve and Spit can be used twice before the first Graven Image. If these grant you an extra cast throughout the encounter, by all means. The Plunge is typically free. Timing is around after the 3rd GCD.
  4. Learn your Plunges! You can effectively negate the pushback in the two primary pushes of the fight – Shockwave and Aero Assault. Practice and learn!

God Kefka

  1. This fight is incredibly heavy on tank busters, and tank mitigation. Make sure you and your cotank are swapping effectively, getting the most out of your cooldowns, and have a plan. Map your cooldowns. Here is one written out map to the fight. Or if you like, you can make your own cooldown map with this tool.
  2. Ultimate Embrace is Physical, and most are mitigated with Invulnerability cooldowns. Wings of Destruction and Hyperdrive are Magical.
  3. Hyperdrive has two components – a 40,000 damage hit, and a 60,000 damage bleed applied afterwards. If you are able to completely nullify the damage from the initial hit, the bleed damage does not apply. There are many options for cooldown uses to ensure this is nullified. If your group’s strategy does not benefit from this, then don’t stress too much about it. A White Mage’s Benison is a strong addition to this option if you choose to do so.
  4. TBN sees significant use in this fight in preventing excess damage on you prior to Heartless Archangel. Try to map your uses so that your healers don’t have to waste excess GCDs topping you up.

Change/Editlog

  • 23/01/19 – Seiryu, Final Omega finalized and added. Unless there are bug/typo fixes, this will be the final update until 5.0 release.
  • 06/01/19 – Final Omega tips added. High Ping/SKS Opener added.
  • 01/10/18 – Suzaku, O9S, O10S added. Adjustments for 4.4 added. 4.4 BiS added.
  • 31/05/18 – Best in Slot section, Openers updated. Trick Attack section removed. I felt it was unnecessary, and was basically almost 2 pages of “did you guys know you do more damage in trick attack? If people want it back, I can re-include it.
  • 29/05/18 – Byakko, God Kefka added.
  • 21/05/18 – 4.3 Updates – massive overhaul throughout the guide.
  • 17/05/18 – Clown Kefka added.
  • 25/04/18 – Openers updated.
  • 06/03/18 – GCD Manipulation section added, O7S added.
  • 11/02/18 – O6S added.
  • 01/02/18 – 4.2 BiS added, O5S tips added.
  • 06/01/18 – Dark Passenger added to FAQ. Typos and redundancies fixed.
  • 21/12/17 – Clarification changes, organization changes.
  • 14/11/17 – Shinryu, patch 1.1 information added.
  • 24/9/17 – FAQ Added, BiS/Openers changed.
  • 4/9/17 – Added further notes for O4S.
  • 12/8/17 – Clarifications, additional notes on math sorcery involved, amusing pictures added.
  • 10/8/17 – Math corrections, typo corrections.
  • 9/8/17 – Added TBN/DM tips, Encounter Specific tips, typo fix. Published to OF/Subreddit
  • 8/8/17 – Created/Published.

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