Search
Close this search box.

Dark Knight

Dark Knight Guide

TBD

Dark Knight is the self-mitigation behemoth, providing near immeasurable mitigation potential. Especially so when faced with magic damage, which is a majority of the damage you face. This guide provides an in-depth view on one of the FINAL FANTASY XIV tanks, Dark Knight.

Gearing

Updated for 6.05

Meld Priority

Crit >= SkS to pref > DH >= Det

6.05 Best in Slot (BiS)

Openers

Credit to Athunin for the images

Dark Knight has a few different options for openers, including some not listed below, due to varying fights calling for different openers to align with phase timings or downtime mechanics.

Double Weave (Standard)

Red box indicates GCDs in Blood Weapon

Blue box indicates GCDs inside Delirium

Using a 5th GCD Delirium the standard DRK opener, aims to align everything with raid buffs as much as possible. If you aren’t able to double weave Salted Earth with Plunge, move it back with Living Shadow

3rd GCD Delirium Opener

Red box indicates GCDs in Blood Weapon

Blue box indicates GCDs inside Delirium.

Purple box indicates GCDs in both

This opener provides decent raid buff alignment and serves as a general-purpose opener that aligns well on many fights. 
The order of some oGCDs can be changed to better align with the raid buff composition of your group.

Single Weave (High-Ping) Opener

Red box indicates GCDs in Blood Weapon

Blue box indicates GCDs inside Delirium

Still offers some raid buff alignment, but noticeably less due to forcing only single weaves.
Only use this opener if you’ve exhausted all other options (VPN, adjusting SkS, etc.) and still cannot double-weave and get 5 GCDs inside Blood Weapon.

Unmend Opener

Should only be used if the boss requires specific positioning at the beginning. Delays Everything by a GCD which can cause buff and phase alignment issues. Generally is better to just have the other tank pull and then take back aggro after finishing our opener in cases where this is needed.

Opener Notes

Use pre-pull The Blackest Night to prevent the MP overcap from the natural MP tick and from BW Hard slash. This saves an edge for raid buffs. If TBN won’t be broken, use another edge with LS instead.

Swapping first Plunge and Abyssal Drain is a very small potency gain with RDM. However, this can affect times you need a plunge later. Plan accordingly.

Delirium is used late in order to catch as many raid buffs as possible, but you can pop it as early as the second weave slot after Souleater along with Living Shadow. You can shift Delirium after the LS if the fight requires it.

Opener FAQs

For general use, pick one of the General-purpose openers. Please just don’t use the single-weave opener unless you absolutely need to use it..

No. In this case you’d want to double-weave normally for everything except under Blood Weapon, where you’d single weave. 

Ground targets can take practice to double weave. You can try using a macro to help execute it more reliably! A macro for it and other useful DRK macros can be found here: https://pastebin.com/uDSjskZm

We use pre-pull TBN to prevent the MP overcap from the natural MP tick and from BW Hard slash. This lets us save an edge for raid buffs.

Don’t use it then, instead just deal with the ~600-800mp overcap and get your 5th edge in at your 60s burst or a few GCDs later.

FAQs & Resources

Taking the edge off of learning the job

Mitigation Cheatsheet

Click to enlarge

Depends on the BiS set you go with, check the links above.
However high quality Chicken Fettuccine and Smoked Chicken are good options. If you need the skill speed, use Fettuccine.

  • 1015 for 2.43 GCD – A bit tight
  • 1117 for 2.42 GCD
  • 1218 for 2.41 GCD
  • 1320 for 2.40 GCD
  • 1421 for 2.39 GCD
  • 1523 for 2.38 GCD – Lenient

Your goal is hitting 5 GCDs in Blood Weapon or Delirium. 
Check the Allagan Studies website for all stat tiers.

First, you should make sure you’re hitting Delrium and Blood Weapon towards the end of your GCD cooldown. Just get as much SkS as you need to make 5 GCDs in Blood Weapon and hit your desired GCD. The higher your ping is, the more you should meld. Note that Blood Weapon is actually a tighter window than Delirium due to Delirium having an extra second. (Thanks SE)

See:

Make sure that you never overcap MP. Use TBN as much as you want to. Just keep in mind to use your Dark Arts proc.
When doing prog, ensure that you leave at least 3k MP at all times to be able to use TBN. Otherwise Spend EoS in raid buffs that affect Magic Dmg as well

Baseline is:
2+ targets = Unleash+Stalwart (+Flood of Shadow)
3+ targets = Quietus

*Living shadow also uses AoE skills. Make sure to use it on cd as long as you abuse its full duration. Read the guides for more information.

No, you should be using them on CD unless downtime will make you lose several GCDs in them.
Holding them for buffs will cost you uses over a fight which is a MAJOR loss and should only ever be considered if the boss will die before you get another use.

See the pastebin link for all the macros! This includes Salted Earth, TBN, Shirk and Sprint.

Having both a <t> macro and <me> macro for Salted Earth makes it easier to use. You’ll sometimes still want to manually place it in case the boss jumps or there’s multiple enemies.

https://pastebin.com/eZD97Z4D

Log Analysis

xivanalysis is a fantastic site for an overview of your endgame encounter performance.

HUD Layout Examples

Controller

Provided by Ramza
Provided by Ramza
Provided by Demon

Keyboard

Provided by Core
Provided by Rietty
Provided by Valor

Site Feedback

Noticed something broken? Noticed something great? Have comments you want to share? Fill out the form below to share your thoughts on the site.