Hello and welcome to my new Dark Knight guide! As I was playing my Dark Knight I noticed the lack of information about this class, and I eventually decided to make this guide as a result. The main goals of this guide are: - Cover everything Dark Knight related, from basics such as gearing and SP/AP builds to Zerking the very end-game bosses. The old guide is sadly very outdated, especially with new content being added. - Simplify Berserk and break it down to steps while using visuals and GIFs. - Help players understand if/why they should play a Dark Knight and where it fits in the current meta. - Gather feedback and advice from the community, and share it. If you have any feedback, please do share! Why play a Dark Knight? While not being very versatile, Dark Knight has its strengths and things that make it unique. I will list its main qualities and the different reasons to play it: Has Hyper Body, a buff that increases HP and MP and can help unwashed players boss. Best DPS when attacking 3 targets (most relevant in CWKPQ, Zakum and sometimes Horntail). For those who like grinding: Dark Knight is a very strong 3rd job class. Strongest single target Warrior in end-game conditions, very close behind Buccaneers and Shadowers. Great for mobbing content such as LHC and Rose Garden, thanks to good mob control skills and mobility. Cheap to wash and gear on a basic level, can get expensive on a mid-high level of funding though. Leveling is easy for new players, base INT will not be required. High skill ceiling, fun for players who enjoy mechanically hard content. Rewarding to master, small gameplay optimizations and paying attention can increase damage significantly That said, Dark Knights also have major downsides, and you need to be aware of them before making one: Potions are very expensive and you will be using an excessive amount of them. Not desired in some content, such as Neo Tokyo (including Auf Haven). Greatly benefits from Speed Infustion and Sharp Eyes, making it a buff hungry class (though it can do well without them, mostly for solo content). With Shadower/NL only Horntail runs becoming the norm, Dark Knight usually has a harder time finding parties. Some end-game bosses such as Von Leon will require manual potting and will not be trivial to run. To put it simply: if you are not willing to manual pot and don't have friends to run Horntail with, your Dark Knight will mostly be relevant for Rose Garden and CWKPQ after hitting level 200. However, if you enjoy manual potting and engaging content, you will find other uses for your Dark Knight in the end-game. As a Dark Knight, base DEX is not needed. For that reason, you can put everything in STR. However, there is an exception: Since level 200 Warriors end up with 23 base DEX, you can choose to start with that base DEX to help with your accuracy needs. This option is useful for unfunded or new players, because otherwise they can struggle with hitting Carnival PQ mobs at level 30. 1st Job - Warrior: Maxing Improved MaxHP Increase first is the only thing to keep in mind in this job. The other skills for this job are: Improved HP Recovery - Recovers some HP every 10 seconds, required to skill Improved MaxHP Increase. Endure - Recovers HP when hanging on ropes/ladders, useless. Iron Body - An active self buff that increases weap. def by a small amount, useless in MapleRoyals. Power Strike - Your single target attack. Slash Blast - Multi-target attack that hits up to 6 targets, your main skill for this job. Level 10: +1 Power Strike Level 11-12: +5 Improved HP Recovery, +1 Improved MaxHP Increase Level 13-15: +9 Improved MaxHP Increase [MAX] Level 16-22: +20 Slash Blast [MAX], +1 Power Strike Level 23-30: Max Power strike, use the rest of the skill points as you wish, it will not matter. 2nd job - Spearman: Here you face the decision of Spear vs. Pole Arm. It's not a very hard decision though - in Royals spears are superior for most content. The reason for this will be explained in more detail in a later section of the guide. The skills for this job are: Spear Mastery - Passive skill that increases mastery (stabilizes damage range) and accuracy while using a spear. Pole Arm Mastery - Same thing, but for Pole Arm. Spear Booster - Active buff which increases attack speed when using a spear. +2 attack speed when maxed. Pole Arm Booster - same thing, but for Pole Arm. Iron Will - A party buff that increases weap. and magic def, useless for the most part. Hyper Body - A party buff that increases HP/MP. +60% HP/MP when maxed. Final Attack: Spear/Pole Arm - A passive skill that gives you a chance to cast an extra attack. This skill actually makes you weaker due to the way the damage gets distributed between the targets in Royals. Avoid skilling this. For the reasons mentioned above, my suggested skill build is: Level 30-32: +5 Spear Mastery , +2 Spear Booster Level 33-35: +9 Spear Booster [11] Level 36-40: +15 Spear Mastery [MAX] Level 41-43: +15 Spear Booster [MAX] Level 44: +3 Iron Will Level 45-53: +30 Hyper Body [MAX] Level 54-70: Max the Pole Arm skills. 3rd job - Dragon Knight: DRK gets very strong at 3rd job, since your main attack hits 3 targets. You will be using your main attack from this job all the way to level 200. Here you also get important utility skills which will often be used throughout your 4th job. Spoiler: Sacrifice and Dragon Roar Sacrifice drops less HP the more it's leveled. For that reason, we will keep Sacrifice at a relatively high level so it can be used for small HP adjustments. For big ones (such as dropping to zerk range from 30k HP), we will be using Dragon Roar. The skills from this job are: Elemental Resistance - Passive buff which reduces damage taken from element-based attacks. Useful to maintain Berserk HP range. , Spear/Pole Arm Crusher - The main attack for spear users, hits up to 3 targets. It deals more damage with a spear since it's a stab attack. , Dragon Fury: Spear/Pole Arm - The main attack for pole arm users, hits up to 6 targets. This skill is significantly weaker for spear users since it's a swing attack. Also sacrifices a small amount of HP on use. Sacrifice - Hits a single target and sacrifices your HP based on a % of your damage. Useful for maintaining Berserk HP range. Dragon Roar - Attacks up to 15 mobs in a large area (similar to Mage ults). Also locks you in place and sacrifices 30% of your HP when maxed. Power Crash - Removes Defense Up and Attack Up from mobs and bosses in an area around you. Useful for multiple bosses. Dragon Blood - An active buff that increases attack while sacrificing HP every 5 seconds. Not only this doesn't stack with attack potions, but it can also mess up your Berserk and even potentially kill you. Avoid using this. My suggested skill build is: Level 70: +1 Spear Crusher Level 71-80: +29 Spear Crusher [MAX], +1 Sacrifice Level 81-91: +2 Sacrifice, +30 Dragon Roar [MAX], +1 Dragon Fury: Spear Level 92-101: +29 Dragon Fury: Spear [MAX], +1 Elemental Resistance Level 102-108: +19 Elemental Resistance [MAX], +2 Sacrifice Level 109-113: +10 Sacrifice [15],+3 Dragon Blood, +2 Power Crash Level 114-119: +18 Power Crash [MAX] Level 120: Put the skill points anywhere you want, it won't matter. Note: as an alternative, you could max Dragon Fury: Pole Arm first and grind with it throughout 3rd job. This is a great alternative for leveling, especially for unfunded players. When you reach endgame, it is recommended to reset it back to the Spear version though. 4th job - Dark Knight: This job will not give you any new attacks, instead you will be getting mobility skills and important self buffs. There are multiple possible SP builds for this job, but I will try to suggest a balanced one that's centered around the current meta and content. More specifically, this SP build is aimed for early LHC without making too many sacrifices. For the 4th job skill prequests, please check this guide. The skills for this job are: Maple Warrior: A basic party buff that increases base stats (+10% when maxed). Every job gets this. Berserk: A passive skill which increases your damage when below a certain HP (+210% damage when below 50% in Royals). Monster Magnet: Pulls monsters to you from far away (almost off screen with big client). A very important skill for mobbing content. Power Stance: A self buff that will make you resist Knock-back after getting hit (90% success rate when maxed). Rush: Dash forward and push mobs with you. Hits up to 10 monsters in Royals (has a short iFrame when triggered). Achilles: Reduces all damage taken (by 20% when maxed). An essential skill to maintain Berserk HP range. Beholder: Both a passive and active skill. Passively increases your mastery (20% when maxed), and applies all the other Beholder buffs (will be mentioned later on) when summoned. Aura of the Beholder: Recovers some HP every few seconds. Avoid using skill points on this, as this is the least useful 4th job skill. Hex of the Beholder: When maxed, Beholder will buff you with 25 accuracy and 50 avoidability. This does not stack with other accuracy/avoid pots, and the better buff will apply. Hero's will: A basic active skill which cures Seduce. If you have Hero's will 10, it will cure every negative effect and will also cost 1 mp, meaning you will be able to use it after getting seduced and getting hit by 1/1. Every job gets this. My suggested skill build is: Level 120: +1 Rush, +1 Berserk, +1 Beholder Level 121-130: +29 Berserk [MAX], +1 Power Stance Level 131-140: +29 Power Stance [MAX], +1 Monster Magnet Level 141-150: +29 Monster Magnet [MAX], +1 Achilles <- at this point you can start running LHC Level 151-160: +29 Achilles [MAX], +1 Beholder Level 161-163: +9 Beholder [MAX] Level 164-168: +10 Maple Warrior [10], +2 Rush Level 169-178: +28 Rush [MAX], +2 Hero's will Level 179: +3 Hero's will [5] Level 180+: Put those into the skills that fit you If you have access to Maple Warrior 20 and Hero's Will 10, you can use them for that. If you prefer having Hex of the Beholder, you could do the prequest for it and max that instead. *You can absolutely make changes to this build, depending on the kind of content you do, this is not set in stone. I do not grind and I don't know much about leveling content. I suggest having a look at the guide directory for a leveling guide. That said, I do have tips for specific levels, mainly aimed at more unfunded players. Level 10-30: If you have 70-80m to your name, do the Orbis exchange quest to get to level 30. Level 30-51: CPQ1 is great for Spearman, you will do very decent here. You need to be ready to struggle finding parties, though. Level 110+: If you don't have a mage and you can't self leech, I suggest doing Ellin PQ for an easy path to 120. Don't forget to also grab the ring while you are at it, it's good to have on Warriors. Level 120: With level 1 Rush skilled, Dark Knight is already a good Bigfoot slayer. Check the Bigfoot section down below and try to do it at a low level. You should also run Shao daily when reaching level 145. Level 150+: If you follow my skill build, you can start running LHC at this level, since you will have level 1 Rush and level 30 Magnet. Check the LHC section down below. When you reach level 170, Rose Garden, LHC and Shao daily alone should get you to 200 in no time. Washing a Dark Knight is very easy. Your end-game goal is 18,750 clean HP (with HB: 18,750 x 1.6 = 30,000). There's no need for calculations for new players, just do one of the following: Get 40-50 INT gear and wear it while leveling up. Have 40 base INT and leave it there until your 4th job. This should get you to the required HP with a minimal amount of APRs. If you don't want to do that, you can always fix your HP with HP quests/Olaf. Dark Knight is a unique Warrior because it does not require any DEX. For that reason, your gear can be more focused on STR than other warriors. The only other thing preventing you from going full STR is accuracy, so please be calculated and aim to reach around 200 accuracy eventually. I will go through the common gear choices for a Dark Knight: There are 2 viable spear type choices: Spoiler: Spear: Slow spears vs Ski Sky Ski: This will be your best choice when funded. Ski will out damage the others on Onyx Apple or higher attack pot, which is the most common attack potion used in bosses. It can be very expensive to get a 120+ att, and for that reason you can consider alternatives when unfunded. Maple Pyrope Spear is pretty much the same as Ski, except it has a much higher accuracy. You can get one as an alternative. Slow Spears: Slow spears have their downsides, such as lower overall damage on high attack pots and long attack animations. However, they also have a significant upside for certain players. While Dragon Faltizan is expensive, the other slow spears are somewhat cheap (mainly Pinaka), and it can be the best bang for your buck when starting out. Consider using one until getting the funds for a good Sky Ski. * Fishing Pole can be good for solo content, since it's better without SI on low attack pots, but it's a very niche choice for a main weapon. Spoiler: Pole Arms I do not recommend using a Pole Arm in Royals. It's very weak when using Crusher, since it's weaker when using stab type attacks. For that reason alone, it is much less viable for bossing. * You could use a Purple Surfboard for grinding with Fury. Grinding Himes at the 100-120 level range using that is pretty good. As for the other pieces of gear you will need: Spoiler: MoN vs HTP MoN will be much better than HTP. You don't need the DEX from HTP, and will benefit much more from the WA, accuracy, speed and jump from MoN. Spoiler: Overall vs Top and Bottom Simply put - Overalls are for very funded players, while top and bottom are a lot more viable to the average player. You will need the extra accuracy (in the form of DEX) from top and bottom, especially if you use high WA/STR helms instead of Zakum/Scarlion helm. Spoiler: Cape of choice I recommend using one of the universal WA capes and not a Taru Spirit Cape. Taru cape has really bad resale value, and it also requires DEX. Spoiler: Helmet This is where you have multiple end-game choices: Zakum Helmet/Scarlion Hat: This is the default choice and the easiest helm to get. Just loot a few helms, and scroll them with DEX/accuracy scrolls. As for the scroll choice, DEX>accuracy for damage (though it's minor) and accuracy>DEX for accuracy. Pirate Hat: This is also a very viable option for unfunded players. In order to get it, you will have to do 50 PPQ runs, and keep trading your previous helms until you get the final one. Note: you will have to unequip your previous helmet in order to do this every time. The final helmet will be 13-15 all stats with 7 slots (no godly stats), and you can get 60% scrolls that give +3 to a specific stat from Cody in every major town. Your average finished helm stats will be 26 STR with the max potential being 36. This helm does not have base accuracy, so it can cause major issues later on if you don't compensate with other items. Pilgrim Hat: You can get this once a year, it comes with 10 all-stats, 1 WA and 1 slot. It can go up to 6 WA and 15 STR, which is very decent, but gets outshined by the more recent helmets added to the game. Auf Helmet scrolled with STR scrolls: You will only have the base accuracy from the helm to work with, so make sure you don't have accuracy issues if you use this. It will give you a lot of range, but it's relatively expensive to scroll and can be grindy. +20 Auf Helm: (80+ all stats) This is not something I would recommend unless you are absolutely sure Dark Knight is your main character forever. It's very expensive to scroll (150b+), and while Dark Knight benefits from it a lot as a class, It's locked to your character. If you do decide to scroll this helm, it will give you: - Permanent max speed/jump. - A lot of accuracy. - Big damage boost. Now for the accessory slots: Spoiler: Face Accessory I suggest going for Rudolph Nose first, as the extra stats like accuracy, speed/jump etc. will be useful for you. If you don’t have one, just scroll any generic mask/nose for accuracy. As you progress and figure out your accuracy needs, you can transition to pure STR Maple Leaf. Spoiler: Earring For ear, get an Anniversary earring for the start, and later on transition to pure STR ear as well. If it's not available to you, go straight for STR ear. Spoiler: Eye Accessory DRK has no use for DEX when it comes to eye acc. Get any STR based Spectrum Goggle, LPQ glasses or even a Toad band. As for the rest (belt, ring etc.), the choices are more trivial. As the goal of this guide is to simplify things, I won't give you the math and I won't make it long, but just give a general explanation. For Dark Knight, both SE (Sharp Eyes) and SI (Speed Infusion) are very effective. While SI feels nicer since it makes your attack animations shorter, they will both boost your damage significantly, and if you have the option, bring them everywhere you go. To gain the damage from Berserk, you need to maintain less than 50% HP (less than 15k if washed with HB). Your pet auto-pot will heal you repeatedly with the chosen potion, until it reaches the HP you set. In order to set up your pet auto-pot, you first need to learn how the HP bar works. Each "tick" on the bar is 5% HP (or 1500 HP for a 30k HP Dark Knight), meaning every right arrow click from the left will increase it by 1500. For example - if you start all the way to the left, and click 5 times to the right, your pet will only heal you with the selected potion if you are below 7500 HP. Now, for the pot set-ups: 35% HP with Cheese: Cheese heals 4k HP. Start all the way to the left, click right arrow 7 times like so: With this set up, Cheese will heal you when you drop below 10.5k, which means it can heal you to 10.5k - 14.5k HP range. This is the most common set up to use, as it will get you the closest possible to 15k safely, while still maintaining Berserk. This is also what you will use for most bosses that require manual potting, combined with other potions. 30% HP with Milk: Milk heals 5k HP. Start all the way to the left, click right arrow 6 times like so: With this set up, Milk will heal you when you drop below 9k, which will heal you to 9k - 14k HP range. The only upside this has over Cheese, is maintaining slightly more inventory space. Some mobs will drop Milk, so you can also eventually use this to save yourself buying Cheese. Those are the only set-ups you will need, with some very niche exceptions that will be shown later. 45% HP with Barbarian Elixir: Barbarian Elixir heals 1.5k HP. Start all the way to the left, click right arrow 9 times like so: With this set up, Barbarian Elixir will heal you when you drop below 13.5k, which will heal you to 13.5k - 15k HP range. This has a major upside for certain bosses, since you will be able to manual pot any boss that deals 13.5k damage or less. This set-up has 2 flaws: 1) If your internet is laggy, you might die as it won't pot you in time. High ping players will also be prevented from using it for that reason in some bosses, though it will still be useable for others. 2) Uses more inventory space. I will only talk about the bosses where you need to do something that's not trivial. I will not be covering bosses where you only need to hold your attack, such as Shao or CWKPQ. Note: When CWKing, don't forget to Crash the bosses now and then, the attack buff stacks and can kill you. I will not be teaching you the basics of Von Leon, for that please check this guide and then the strategy guide here. Von Leon is the hardest "normal boss" to Zerk. Meaning, it's the only profitable mainstream boss where you will have to use manual pots. It's not a hard boss to Zerk, but it's a hard boss to optimize. There are a lot of small things you can do to maximize your DPS and the quality of your Zerk will affect the smoothness of the run. As for the pot set up, use the following: Auto pot: 45% Barbarian Elixir set up, mentioned in the section before. Manual pots: Unagi (or any pot that heals above 300 HP), on a comfortable key to click, for example: Bring about 2k Barbarian Elixirs and 100 Unagis, just to be safe. This potion set up is safe for high ping as well, as VL does not hit as often as other bosses like Toad. The only exception where you should be using the old potion set-up is if you have some lags where things freeze and your Auto Pot doesn't go through. *If your internet is often laggy and this method does not seem to heal you on time, please revert to the old method* Von Leon can hit up to 13.8k damage (Lightning just shy of 13.8k, Claw (bleed) a little less than 13.6k. the rest deals <13.5k). Your Auto Pot will consistently heal you to 13.5k in time, so you will only have to use 1 Unagi in specific situations: - If your Auto Pot rolled less than 13.8k, use 1 Unagi whenever you see Lightning or Claw (the bleed attack that starts from b2). - During mobs, use 1 Unagi whenever you see Lightning/Claw. - When you get hit by poison claw, make sure to first ACP quickly. The rest of the time you can just be the same as a Hero, your Auto Pot will take care of everything and you will never have to look at your HP. Playing without manual potting: This is possible, and even easy to do: 1) Stack as much W. Def as you can (From HTP, Hex of the Beholder etc.). 2) Rush dodge as many Lightnings as you can. 3) Play without worrying about your HP at all. Your chances to die will be very slim as you will have to get the absolutely max roll on Lightning, and the lowest roll on Auto pot at the same time. Jail: First open the left box, rush the mobs to the right once, then open the right box and rush them again. Once they're all following you, go to the lever and wait for them to walk to you. When they almost reach you, trigger the lever and rush them to the right, and then trigger the lever again. If the key still didn't drop, just aggro the mobs that are left and repeat. The methods mentioned above are just the baseline, now for all the optimizations you can make to be more useful: Using Power Crash: Gargoyles cast Defense Up, not only on themselves but also on Von Leon and on Golems if there are any alive. Defense Up is a problem if not dealt with and it's your job to deal with it by casting Power Crash. You will mostly not see the Def icon above their heads because it will be too cluttered with skill animations so you have 2 options: - If the Gargoyles are on top of Von Leon, just look at his head and cast def once whenever you see the Def icon there. - If the Gargoyles are isolated, just calmly click Crash once every few seconds between attacking, do not spam it. If you see Golems running around with Def icon on their head, wait for them to be aggro-ed back into the stack of mobs by the other attackers, and then Crash them. If you chase them and try to rush, they will rubber band and you will waste your time and potentially be the reason Von Leon healed. Grouping Gargoyles: Clearing Gargoyles is much nicer when all 3 are grouped together. When you see the mob summon animation and you know it's Gargoyles next, just charge your Monster Magnet, and release exactly when they spawn. They will get grouped and it will affect your Gargoyles clear speed. Grouping Golems: When Golems are summoned, just rush them once to any direction, and then walk back to the middle. The Golems will follow you back and stick to you for a few critical seconds and will not walk around. This is extremely useful to prevent Golem leaks and will sometimes be the difference maker. Using Rush iFrame: Rush has a short invincible frame when triggered. While being short, it's still very easy to use it for lightning specifically and prevent dying to Crazy Skull that way. Just rush slightly late, when the lightning is already visible. I do not recommend using it for Rocks, since the timing is much harder, only as a last resort. If you pay attention to animations and start walking early on, you should not be resorting to Rush for rocks. Using Sacrifice: Whenever you make a mistake and you overheal, use Sacrifice specifically to get back to Zerk range. If you just used an Apple and it's not b3, you can also wait for a safe animation and use Roar. Rebuffing: This is the smallest tip, but it helps a little too. Whenever you get dispelled, you have a lot of buffs to cast as DRK, especially if you are the MW20 in the party too. Try to rebuff while jumping to the side, that way you can dodge attacks and you don't get locked. If you have a Corsair in the party, try to HB away from them since their ship takes more damage from 1/1 attacks with HB. Video demonstration: Thank you @chenming The old method is still in the spoiler below for reference. Spoiler: old method As for the pot set up, use the following: Auto pot: the normal 35% Cheese set up, mentioned in the section before. Manual pots: Unagi (1k HP), Cheese (4k HP) on 2 comfortable keys to click, for me its those: You will only need to use about 500 of each pot, but you can bring 1k to be safe. Von Leon can hit just short of 14k damage, so you will have to maintain 14k+ HP throughout the entire run. A good tip to succeeding here is to have your eyes glued to your HP bar for most of the run, while learning to also notice details in the background and to react accordingly. It's hard at the start, but it gets better. Do the following: 1) When the run starts, use an Onyx Apple (which will heal you to 100%), then use Dragon Roar twice, followed by 2 Unagis. That sequence will bring you to exactly 14k HP and you should have time to do it before Von Leon actually shows on the map. 2) Every time you get hit, heal back to over 14k HP. - If you are at 10.xk HP, use 1 cheese. - For any other number, just use Unagis. 3) When you are clearing Gargoyles, move your eyes from your HP bar to VL hands. Whenever VL casts any attack, click exactly 1 Cheese. It will overheal you temporarily, but a gargoyle touch will quickly get you back to Zerk range. 4) When you are clearing Golems, just use Unagis constantly to maintain 14k+ HP, they only hit about 1k per hit. 5) When you get hit by poison claw, make sure to first ACP quickly, and only then click your Unagis. The poison can mess up your Zerking. Jail: First open the left box, rush the mobs to the right once, then open the right box and rush them again. Once they're all following you, go to the lever and wait for them to walk to you. When they almost reach you, trigger the lever and rush them to the right, and then trigger the lever again. If the key still didn't drop, just aggro the mobs that are left and repeat. The methods mentioned above are just the baseline, now for all the optimizations you can make to be more useful: Using Power Crash: Gargoyles cast Defense Up, not only on themselves but also on Von Leon and on Golems if there are any alive. Defense Up is a problem if not dealt with and it's your job to deal with it by casting Power Crash. You will mostly not see the Def icon above their heads because it will be too cluttered with skill animations so you have 2 options: - If the Gargoyles are on top of Von Leon, just look at his head and cast def once whenever you see the Def icon there. - If the Gargoyles are isolated, just calmly click Crash once every few seconds between attacking, do not spam it. If you see Golems running around with Def icon on their head, wait for them to be aggro-ed back into the stack of mobs by the other attackers, and then Crash them. If you chase them and try to rush, they will rubber band and you will waste your time and potentially be the reason Von Leon healed. Grouping Gargoyles: Clearing Gargoyles is much nicer when all 3 are grouped together. When you see the mob summon animation and you know it's Gargoyles next, just charge your Monster Magnet, and release exactly when they spawn. They will get grouped and it will affect your Gargoyles clear speed. Grouping Golems: When Golems are summoned, just rush them once to any direction, and then walk back to the middle. The Golems will follow you back and stick to you for a few critical seconds and will not walk around. This is extremely useful to prevent Golem leaks and will sometimes be the difference maker. Using Rush iFrame: Rush has a short invincible frame when triggered. While being short, it's still very easy to use it for lightning specifically and prevent dying to Crazy Skull that way. Just rush slightly late, when the lightning is already visible. I do not recommend using it for Rocks, since the timing is much harder, only as a last resort. If you pay attention to animations and start walking early on, you should not be resorting to Rush for rocks. Using Sacrifice: Whenever you make a mistake and you overheal, use Sacrifice specifically to get back to Zerk range. If you just used an Apple and it's not b3, you can also wait for a safe animation and use Roar. Rebuffing: This is the smallest tip, but it helps a little too. Whenever you get dispelled, you have a lot of buffs to cast as DRK, especially if you are the MW20 in the party too. Try to rebuff while jumping to the side, that way you can dodge attacks and you don't get locked. If you have a Corsair in the party, try to HB away from them since their ship takes more damage from 1/1 attacks with HB. Slam: You can die to slam attack if you clear mobs far away from VL. Play on big client and watch VL’s hands when you are clearing mobs, pot if it casts slam far away from you. The more efficient you are with all the small optimizations, the more useful you will be. If you don't maintain Zerk for the majority of the mobbing time and you don't pay attention to your surroundings, you will just basically be a worse Hero. For arms, just aim to hit as many targets as you can. Start on the middle of the left side to (mostly) hit 3 targets, when the arms die just move to the right and so on. Let the ranged attackers focus the top arms or rush the bottom left arm first. For the main body, try to touch the body when the pillars drop so you won't get stunned. The current meta for Horntail is Shadower/NL only runs, and DRKs don't fit in any of these. DRK shines in ranged/melee mixed parties where you can split on the right side alone. It's a bit tricky to find a party because you will need more mules than the usual HT run, and finding SI can be hard. I will explain how to run on DRK, in case you did find such a party. First, start at this spot to hit 3 targets (wing + left arm + leg): When the tail dies, go to the right side alone and hit 3 targets: Every 5 minutes, you will need to come back to the left side for buffs. Once you get the warning from the right arm, go back to the left and join the rest of the attackers on head A/B. If your party is only hitting head A, you can use this spot to maximize your damage by hitting both heads sometimes: Otherwise, just hit head A only to avoid triggering an early dispel. Throughout the whole run, pay attention to Def up animation from the left arm: Whenever you see it, use Power Crash to remove the buff. *It casts Def up on all body parts, including those who don't have the icon over them. Alternatively, you could use the CWAB (head C -> wings -> head A -> head B) method: This could be the better option for people who are starting out and are running with mixed melee/ranged parties. 1) Kill legs and tail while you attack on the 3-target spot near the left arm. 2) Everyone attacks head C, while you attack on the 3-target spot on the right. 3) Kill wings. 4) Kill head A. 5) Kill head B. 6) Kill arms. For the 1st eye, just stand on the smaller platform on the left. For the 2nd eye, go to this specific spot, turn off your stance and attack. You will never need to reposition. The reason for this is that without stance you will get knocked back, but it won't get you out of this spot. This will reset your hit count and it will not stop attacking when you reach the hit limit (anti-botting measure). I included this section just to say I do not recommend doing Neo Tokyo content on Dark Knight. This content was not designed for you, and all you will find is pain and dispel spam. Mule your Dark Knight as HB mule and run on your other attackers. You do not have to manual pot toad at all. The Barbarian Elixir on 45% potion set-up will take care of your HP for this boss easily, since you only need to maintain 13k HP. Just buy around 2.5k pots (slightly more for slower runs), and you should be good to go. *This method will not work if your internet is laggy, or if your ping is extremely high (relevant for some Asia players). If your ping is too high for this method, please refer to the old/high ping method in the spoiler below. Spoiler: old method/high ping Toad requires a little bit of manual potting, but it's relatively easy. The only tricky part is having to change auto-pot setup between bodies. For b1: Just use the regular 35% Cheese setup mentioned previously in the guide. You will not need to pot manually. For b2: Switch quickly to Ginseng (NLC 40% black pot) with 10% auto-pot alert, like so: This body can hit above 12k, so your goal here is to maintain 13k+ HP. For the most part, your auto-pot will heal you to the range. Sometimes, you will not get hit for enough damage and you will have to manually use Cheese and Unagi to get yourself above 13k. Just dont semi-afk and watch your HP bar. Use the 35% Cheese pot set-up for this. Rush it to the corner, wait for the frame where Bigfoot's butt is facing you and just hit. You should keep pinning it forever. If it ever escapes your pin, just repeat. This method works with booster only (no SI), or no booster and SI. LHC is the most important leveling content to you as the EXP from this is really good. Before going, make sure you have 2k+ milk, as it burns a lot of potions. If you still have level 30 Magnet and level 1 Rush, make sure to magnet the mobs to you first, and then rush them after. Now for the 2 specific maps you should be running: For Bears: Before starting the run, pick a side to rush. You should ideally have 2 Warriors, and each one should pick left or right to rush. Stay with the team when they are killing the mobs, and drop them to low HP. When mobs are about to die go to the next platform, and rush the mobs from the side you picked towards the center. Repeat until the time is up. For Golems: Rush and Magnet the mobs from the corners towards the center, and then just attack together with your Shads/Buccs. Crusher has pretty good reach and you can attack mobs on 2 different platforms: For the first 3 stages, just do them as you would on any other attacker. Get the ETCs, kill the boss and move on to bonus. For the bonus stage, you should strictly do stage 1, with the following rotation: 1) Pick a direction, either clockwise or counterclockwise, that will be the direction you clear every rotation. 2) Do the following sequence: Rush -> jump forward -> attack once in the air -> Rush again, until you reach the corner, and then clear all the mobs that are left. That way you are always in motion and always hitting mobs. A few tips: - Use your mount when you don’t have any mobs to hit to move faster. - Use Magnet or Roar situationally to pull bees that are out of your reach. - You can capture bees while on mount. For the following bosses, you will need to manual pot the whole time. There is no incentive to do them except for the challenge itself. If you like manual potting and Zerking, I do suggest giving those a try! Unlike all the other bosses before, Anego is more of a reaction time test. Anego has 2 different attacks, and you have to memorize their sounds: - Gun attack that deals low damage: - Slap attack that can deal over 14k damage: Once you memorized the sounds, set up your HP settings for the normal 35% Cheese set up. Additionally, put Milk on a comfortable button that you can click easily, for me its this one: Go inside Anego's map and pin her to the corner. From this moment on, you need to listen to the sounds and have your eyes glued to your HP bar. Whenever you hear the slap sound, just click the Milk button once quickly. *Don't forget to look at your buffs every few minutes to rebuff. Just for the sake of comparison, if Anego is a reflex time test, BGA is more like a rhythm game. BGA can kick you for over 20k damage, which makes it impossible to rely on reactive potting. You have to actively over-pot yourself before every single hit. First, set up your pots like this: Set auto-pot to 45% (9 ticks to the right) with Barbarian Elixir (NLC brown potion, 1.5k HP) Have Ginseng (NLC 40% black pot) on a comfortable button. Then just go ahead and face-tank the boss while attacking constantly. From now on, you have to manually click the Ginseng pot a split second before you get hit by touch damage. Give it a few minutes, figure out the rhythm and just repeat. Just be aware that the Barbarian potions will sometimes not heal you in time to take a hit, so it’s critical that you don’t mess up your manual potting. The later you pot, the better your Zerk will be and the more Zerk hits you’ll get off. If you pot well, your hp should jump up and back down so quick that it will look as if it barely moved. Example of good potting: Example of bad potting: It's intense, but it's also a lot of fun. Here's a video demonstrating this method: Credits: - @PinaColadaPirate For making the banners for the guide, you are a true artist! - @autismax @cremcrem For going over the guide, giving advice and fixing some grammar. - @nut For teaching me how to get the material I need for the banners, and giving some advice as well. - @CodGhost For the Rose Garden method and video. Expect this guide to keep improving and adapting to changes!
Finallly fresh new DK guide, two others was outdated 2015 and 2018 thanks again! (btw RG can start from 170 not 175)
Wouldn't 1 SP in Beholder be more useful at lower levels? It provides 5% mastery at lv1 and lasts ~10mins. Can keep it at lv1 until later on when you fully max.
Holy shit a 2024 drk guide, thanks for making this. Just hit 160 on my drk so the bossing info will be very useful!
This guide came at a perfect time. I just got to 4th job and I was checking to see how Beholder works. I turned it on and looked at my stats but nothing changed. I think the +5% mastery would increase at least my lower range. Would anyone be able to explain how that works?
The mastery part is passive, you don't need to summon to get it. You will see the change of stats when you put SP in it.
hello! thanks to this guide, I was able to survive toad earlier for the first time in 2 years!! (I would always die from just saying wb to someone. so I just stopped going at all) I always wished there was some kind of guide with berserk tips. I randomly decided to check forums before going in toad and was shocked to see this. this is great stuff! thank you for putting it together! and the gentleman that made the banners for you is a real cool cat!! keep up the good work, you rock! got me bricked up! you be good now!
This guide is great especially full of detail in the bossing section. However, some incorrect information is recommended to be revised. 1. In the 3rd job SP build section, the prerequisites of skill have been ignored which makes the whole SP build unreasonable and can't achieved. The Dragon Roar has 3 points required for sacrifices and the Power Crash has 3 points required for Dragon Blood. 2. It was great to add a Pole Arm Fury first to build an alternative for unfunded new players since DK has a powerful training location at Himes and Dragon Roar was quite OP on specific party quests (Such as PPQ) to boost leveling at early 3rd job. It's a good alternative that newcomers might not have plenty of meso to buy leech. 3. In the bossing section, the Neo Tokyo part OP was suggested to be ignored. However, I found a deleted thread (Original post contribute to lxlx penguin, archive: https://web.archive.org/web/2023112...yal Guard-,Von Leon,-@Donn1e @autismax @Barte) has mentioned Auf Haven's potion setup and response on boss skill. It was good to expect that information to be added and cited due to the unreachable of the original post. Keep up your good work, your Bucc guide was flawless too.
Thanks, ill have a look at the sp part when im home and fix what's needed, much appreciated. As for neo tokyo - yes, auf is zerkable, but i still do not recommend this content for dark knight. The reason is not the HP required to tank hits, but the dispel/seduce spams. This content is not designed for warriors and it's extremely inefficient to run.
Good guide, all the bossing tech is very useful! I made a new spearman for fun lately so I've got a few insights for early game. Going dexless is gonna be a bit of a struggle if you're not doing Orbis ETC until LVL25 when you can start wearing the sad mask and capes. Accuracy pills in Ludi are convenient for this at 10 acc for 10 whole mins. The lvl20 fish pole from bubblings has a modest accuracy and speed bonus, plus they're very fun to kill with slash blast. Accuracy becomes less of a problem as soon as you start using Maple Weapons and get a Zhelm though. I'd agree with BusControl, if you're actually going to be grinding in 3rd job, max polearm fury instead as it'll make 3rd job more fun. I only have spear fury maxed on my dark knight since it got the free new source SP reset and I was already 4th job by then, I barely use it. Out of interest, why is monster magnet so high up? It was the last skill I maxed since Dash was just way more fun to use while grinding at ToT. All the weapon recommendations in Plenty's guide for early/mid game are still good for 2024 It's only missing pyrope stuff.
It's because the SP build is focused on early LHC (~150), and it's better to have max Magnet and level 1 Rush there. You can pull the mobs from the corner and then rush once or twice to bring them to the middle. With maxed Rush and low level magnet, you will actually have to walk to the corners. You can tweak the build any way you like if you are not running LHC that early tho! Thanks a lot for the feedback, I hope I'll get some time tomorrow to change a few things accordingly Edit: done
i like the guide very much! BUT i do think u exaggerated with the cons and the way u phrased it, makin me not wanna make another 200 dk. in MY opinion Potions are very expensive and you will be using an excessive amount of them.√ Not desired in some content, such as Neo Tokyo (including Auf Haven).√ Requires Speed Infusion to be useful(the most untrue a sentence can be), and also benefits greatly from Sharp Eyes, making it a very buff hungry class. With Shadower/NL only Horntail runs becoming the norm, Dark Knight is usually rejected from that boss too. (never been rejected from ht even before 200nor do i reject other dk's. BUT u should be a skillfull dk to att bosses that att for more hp then zerk allows u to have). Some end-game bosses such as Von Leon will require manual potting and will not be trivial to run.√ To put it simply: if you are not willing to manual pot and don't have friends to run Horntail with, your Dark Knight will mostly be relevant for Rose Garden and CWKPQ after hitting level 200. However, if you enjoy manual potting and engaging content, you will find other uses for your Dark Knight in the end-game. (i myself CARRIED entire cwk expeditions before lvl 200, so im sure other dk's too) as i said overall i like ur guide but some stuff are not only wrong but makin the dk sound bad and weak, infact dk is one of the stronger +well rounded classes, if u like/can live with the cons, it has alot more pro's. to conclude i think everyone should have atleast 1 dk above 170 and not only for rg, its a GREAT class! also only the ski is "expensive" compared to warrior, anything else is pretty cheap (even some of the endgame) and most of all u dont rely on pt to do stuff, dmg output is more then amazing for example at 200 i hit 3 lines of 60k on apple, 40-43 clean (and u can do too!). if u dont agree id like to hear it and why thanks for the guide btw!
I agree that this is exaggerated so I will change that sentence to be more true, as DRK is not useless without buffs, but it is still very buff hungry regardless and is significantly stronger with them. This is just speaking from my own/friends experience and from the fact that most R> HT smegas nowadays are strictly looking for shad/bucc. That's just the current meta in Royals and DRK has no place in it sadly, but regular parties still do run. Having friends to run with or organizing yourself makes it easier to find a run ofc. However, I will change that sentence slightly so it's not misleading, as it is possible to find parties. I did not mean that you can't run (or do well) in this content before level 200, I just meant that by the time you hit 200 and your char is "finished" that's the content you'll generally have left to do, I think you misunderstood me there. Thanks a lot for helping me improve the guide, and I'm glad you found it useful
for sure ! i agree completely with ur last comment, since HT is really not meant for drk's, BUT its just that, if you play right i GUESS u can make bossing work. but as example i dident know u need a certain amount of hp to auf and such, and i did it before learning that so it can change the prespective/mindset for newcomers alot, hearing that its "not viable" for certain classes just adds to it. hope this becomes the new go to guide also do me a favor when u get to it, reupload the images (rg+ht) with op dmg xD
This information is wrong, it doesn't heal you above berzerk, it heals you until exactly 50% hp if you're with berzerk up, and if you're with ~95% of HP (not zerking) then you're healed to the full health. Wrong information.
