How to play DRK

How to play Dark Knight


Overview:
Dark Knight is a tanking job in FFXIV whose role is to fill the spot of the missing PLD or War. In other words, the Dark Knight theoretically main tanks more safely than a WAR but worse than a PLD, and does more damage as an offtank than a PLD, but less than a WAR.
As a Dark Knight, here are your priorities:
  1. Hold hate on your targets, as appropriate. If you are MT hold hate on the boss, and if you are OT hold hate on the add(s). This also includes correctly executing tank swaps where necessary.
  2. Protect the party. By holding hate, you have the focus of the main attacks of the target. Make sure you are not cleaving the party. Make sure you don't die and have the adds run loose.
  3. Do damage. A tank should be doing anywhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of the overall damage that a damage job does, skill being equal. If you are doing less damage than that, you are not pulling your weight as a member of the party. Damage is important because many encounters in this game have scheduled times of high damage to the party, and these scheduled times can be skipped by doing higher damage to the target. This is commonly referred to as "pushing phases".
  4. Keep Darkside up. Darkside gives you 2 additional defensive CDs and Dark Arts which is an Offensive and Defensive CD. If you cannot keep Darkside up while you are fighting, then you are doing the wrong 1, 2, 3 combo.

Rotation:
I am putting the rotation above the Abilities section, since the ability section is very long.
A greater than sign indicates progression to the next move, a square bracket indicates an oGCD move.
Single Target Pull:
Unmend > [Salted Earth] > Unleash (if free)

Single Target Enmity:
Hard Slash > [Dark Passenger] > Spinning Slash > [Dark Arts] > empowered Power Slash

Single Target Main tank:
(make sure that Scourge is up, refresh at 5 or fewer seconds left but don't break your combo)
Hard Slash > [oGCD filler] > Siphon Strike > [Dark Arts] > empowered Souleater/Delirium > [oGCD filler]
oGCD priority: empowered Carve and Split, Dark Passenger, Low Blow, Salted Earth

AoE Pull:
Unmend > [Salted Earth] > Unleash

AoE Main tank:
{Scourge is not as important here)
[Dark Arts] > empowered Abyssal Drain > [Dark Passenger] > Hard Slash > [oGCD filler] > Siphon Strike > empowered Souleater/Delirium > [oGCD filler]
oGCD priority: empowred Carve and Split, Dark Passenger, Salted Earth, Low Blow

Abilities:
All Dark Knight abilities serve to support all 3 goals above. They can be divided by function. See my HUD as an example:

The abilities in the picture above will be discussed in approximate order of how they appear on the hotbars below:
  • 1, 2, 3 combos: There are 3 combos that fit into this category, spread across 6 weaponskills. They are on the Global Cool Down. The following skills will break your combo: Unmend, Scourge, Grit (on), Abyssal Drain.
    1. The first combo that you learn is Hard Slash > Spinning Slash > Power Slash. This is your emnity combo. Dark Arts will empower Power Slash to generate more enmity. You will likely use this combo once when you pick up the target and never use it again on that target. Additionally, it is only useful for single target. Total combo potency of 670. Uses: right after picking up a single target, right after a tank swap, regaining enmity after dying.
    2. The second combo that you learn is Hard Slash > Siphon Strike > Soul Eater. This is your DPS combo and your mana + health leech combo. This combo will be used about 60+% of the time. Dark Arts empowers Soul Eater to do 400 potency, which is even stronger than your enmity combo. It is your all purpose go-to combo. Total combo potency of 660, 800 with Dark Arts. Uses: If you need HP (which should be frequently), if you need to push damage (which should be all the time).
    3. The last combo that you learn is Hard Slash > Siphon Strike > Delirium. This is your DPS combo when you do not have enough MP to empower Soul Eater with Dark Arts. This combo will be used about 20+% of the time. Dark Arts does nothing to this combo. This combo is a poor man's Dragon Kick, and is inferior to Dragon Kick's debuff in every way. If there is a MNK in the party, the MNK still needs to Dragon Kick. Total combo potency of 680. Uses: If you need MP (which should be frequently), if you need to push damage (which should be all the time).
  • Unleash: Very much like Flash for PLD. However, since DRK has other ways to generate AOE enmity, Unleash is not very useful. Uses: extra enmity when it is a free cast from Unmend, AOE enmity when Abyssal Drain/Dark Passenger are on CD.
  • MP leeches: DRK must keep Darkside up at all times. As such, leeching MP to counter the Darkside MP drain is very important. You can leech MP to some degree with your Siphon Strike combos, but ideally you will have Blood Price up almost 100% of the time when tanking, and Blood Weapon up almost 100% when not.
    • Blood Price: Blood Price converts damage taken into MP. The amount of MP that you recover is unaffected by damage reduction from parry or mitigate. As such, the combination of Blood Price any defensive cooldowns (with the exception of Dark Arts empowered Dark Dance) does not diminish the effect of Blood Price. For this reason, it should be used with almost 100% uptime. Uses: All the time when getting hit.
    • Blood Weapon: Blood weapon converts damage dealt into MP, increases your skill speed, and may only be used without Grit on. This means that you will run out of TP faster. Unlike WAR, DRK does not have the ability to regain TP in any way. Unlike PLD, DRK does not have lower TP and equal potency damage options. Given this, if you foresee a long fight, you may want to use this sparingly if at all. Uses: To recover MP at the cost of TP when Grit is off.
  • Defensive CDs: Here are the most commonly used Defensive CDs. Note that this includes two crossclassed CDs from MRD: Blood Bath and Foresight.
    • Bloodbath: This leeches 25% of physical damage dealt into HP. Consider that each hit, you are recovering a hundred or so HP, plus dot ticks, which results in something like 1% of your health back per hit that you deal. This can be thought of as a weak version of Blood Weapon for HP. The following attacks will not regenerate HP with Bloodbath: Unleash, Unmend, Abyssal Drain, Dark Passenger. Uses: Minor self heal.
    • Foresight: This increases your physical defense by 20%. In other words, this reduces physical damage taken by about 6% as of 3.0. A common conception is that damage mitigation will scale with gear, so with max gear this ability will improve per tier. While this is possible, it is more than likely not noticeable. At 6%, this is maybe 600 HP difference from a tank buster. Assuming your base defense value increases by 100 (estimated 50 ilvl increase), the extra 20% from Foresight increases Foresight's mitigation from 6% by less than a percent. Do not be fooled into thinking this is for anything other than auto attacks. Uses: Minor defensive CD to smooth out Auto attack damage right after a tank buster or if your health is falling behind.
    • Shadowskin: 20% damage reduction for 20 seconds on a 90 second timer. This is your go-to defensive cooldown for generic situations. Uses: in anticipation of heavy damage.
    • Dark Mind: Reduces magic vulnerability by 15% (or 30% if empowered by Dark Arts) for 10 seconds. On a 60 second timer, can only use when Darkside is active. Because most tank busters in the game have so far been magic based and telegraphed, this is your go-to defensive cooldown for tank busters. Since it's on a 60 second timer, that allows you to use it very often. Uses: in anticipation of magic tank busters.
    • Dark Dance: Increases parry by 30% (and evasion by 20% if empowered by Dark Arts) for 60 seconds. on a 60 second timer. This is a weaker defensive CD because parry is capped at 20% damage reduction per parry, so for each incoming physical attack you have an effective mitigation of 6%. Empowering with Dark Arts will increase your evasion rate by 20%, which would actually be a huge bump to effective physical mitigation. However, this cooldown is still random, meaning you could get more or less mitigation, and it is not known what a 20% increase in evasion rate translates to in actual effective evasion chance. If it is 1:1, then this cooldown's effectiveness jumps to 26% with Dark Arts. If not, then less. Uses: Significantly reduce damage taken when AOE tanking. Recommended to not empower with Dark Arts.
  • Harder hits: These are extra hits that will increase your damage and thus enmity generation.
    • Salted Earth: This is a ground target AOE that is off Global Cooldown. It should be up close to 100% of the time, and can be considered "free damage". Uses: when the target will not move a lot.
    • Carve and Split: This is a hard hitting, off Global Cooldown attack with a potency of 100 and restores MP. If empowered by Dark Arts, the MP recovery is lost and the potency jumps to 450. This move should always be empowered. Uses: Empowered, during burn phases for a large DPS boost.
    • Dark Arts: This is covered with each move that it empowers. MP should always be reserved for this move, plus the tick down from Darkside. Plan to hove at around 2000 MP or at minimum 1600 MP. Uses: When you have enough MP, use for the following Offense: Carve and Split (DPS), Soul Eater (DPS), Abyssal Drain (AOE, currently bugged). Defense: Dark Mind.
    • Reprisal: Does 210 potency and reduces damage dealt by 10% for 20 seconds. Every time you parry, you can use this move as long as it is not on CD. CD is 30 seconds. This can be thought of as a bad version of Storm's Path. Because of the randomness of parry, this move cannot be guaranteed for heavy raid damage and thus should be used on CD. Uses: Use as a DPS boost on CD.
  • Unmend: Ranged attack. Useful for pulling, has a chance to proc a free (no MP cost) Unleash. Useful as a filler if you run out of TP. Uses MP to cast, not TP. Uses: to pull.
  • Low Blow: 5 second stun. Has a chance to refresh cooldown on successful parry, so should be used on CD as a damage increase. Off global cooldown. Uses: Use on cooldown, weaving between your 1, 2, 3 combo.
  • Scourge: A dot with 100 potency up front, 40 potency over 30 seconds, and a 60 TP cost. This is a good move, and given that your effective damage reduction with Grit on is only 5% because of the 15% damage increase from Darkside, this should have 100% uptime. Uses: extra damage.
  • Provoke: A must have for tank swaps. Uses: snap aggro for tank swaps (queue up a Spinning Slash > DA empowered Power Slash to follow immediately.
  • Heavy CDs: these cooldowns are to be used when you are going to take massive incoming damage from a tank buster.
    • Shadow Wall: 30% mitigation for 10 seconds. 180 second cooldown. This is like a slightly worse sentinel, and should be used in anticipation of a tank buster. Uses: prevent death from a tank buster.
    • Convalescence: 20% increased healing. Does not seem to stack with any self heals, with the possible exception of Abyssal Drain. Uses: In anticipation of a tank buster, to allow healers to heal you up quickly.
  • Darkside: 15% damage increase, gives the ability to use an anti-tank buster defensive CD with the lowest recast timer, a parry CD that will proc your low blow and Reprisal, and empower your offensive abilities. Must be up 100% of the time, regardless of whether you're tanking or not. Out of combat, you will regen MP slightly faster than the MP drain. If you are low on MP between pulls, turn off Darkside between pulls and wait at least 3 ticks of MP regen and you will be ahead on MP. Uses: This is core to the DRK job. It must be up 100% of the time.
  • Grit: Tank stance, 20% damage taken reduction, 20% damage dealt reduction, bonus enmity generation, 5% increased accuracy. This should be on at all times while MT, unless you are confident in your ability to not die. Uses: Hold threat, not die.
  • AOE Dark Arts Dumps: These two abilities may be used with Dark Arts if you have extra MP.
    • Abyssal Drain: AOE attack with bonus enmity. Think of a tanking version of a min-flare. Dark Arts empowers this move to leech HP off of all enemies that are hit. Very powerful AOE. On Global Cooldown. Better than Unleash for most AOE threat and damage situations. Uses: AOE threat, HP leech.
    • Dark passenger: Line AOE that does 150 potency (250 when empowered by Dark Arts, plus blind). Off Global Cooldown. Should be weaved between 1, 2, 3 combo when MP is high enough. Uses: I would recommend saving Dark Arts empowerment for Siphon Strike, although if you are in a burn phase that has less than 6 seconds left empowering this move is a good choice.
  • Executes: These moves should be used on CD when the enemy's health is low:
    • Mercy Stroke: Extra, off global cooldown attack that can be used when the enemy is lower than 20% health remaining. Uses: when the enemy's health is lower than 20%.
    • Sole Survivor: 15 debuff on an enemy. If the enemy dies within that time, 20% of your max HP and MP is restored. Uses: On adds mid-fight to refresh your MP.
  • Living Dead: 10 seconds where your HP cannot fall below 1. If it does fall below 1 during those 10 seconds, you receive Walking Dead debuff. Walking Dead has the same effect of Living Dead, but you must be healed for a total of your maximum HP within the 10 seconds of Walking Dead, or you will die. This is actually a very complicated cooldown. The Walking Dead portion of the cooldown is misleading and needs clarification. If, as in the screenshot, my max HP is 13165, I must be healed for a total of 13165 HP within 10 seconds before the Walking Dead timer runs out. However, this is where it gets complicated: because I cannot fall below 1 HP, the maximum healing I can receive from Benediction is 13164. Overhealing does not count towards this maximum HP (13165) number, so if I am not hit between being healed and the end of Walking Dead, i will die. To clarify, here are two scenarios: Walking Dead triggers, boss dies without hitting me, encounter ends and healers benediction me. I will die. Scenario 2: Walking Dead triggers, receive some sort of healing (doesn't matter), boss hits me, I am healed for the remainder of the balance of 13165 - the initial heal. I will survive. Uses: To not die, to cheese a tank buster.
  • Plunge: Gap closer. Note that unlike gap closers in other games, Plunge does not have an bonus enmity effect. It should not be used to pull. Uses: Gap closer.