Dark Knight Speedy Opener and stockpiling Rotation!

A quick demonstration of a Dark Knight rotation, including a general overview of considerations to maximize the bursts throughout a fight.
If you want the more detailed version of this, alongside explanations level by level, watch my level 51-90 Dark Knight Guide:
• Dark Knight Advanced G...
I also have a 30-50 Starter Guide for the Job:
• Dark Knight Starter Gu...
Discord Community Server, come hang out:
/ discord
Twitter: / caetsuchaijich
Music Used:
FFXIV Endwalker - Cradle of Hope

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

If you want the more detailed version of this, alongside explanations level by level, watch my level 51-90 Dark Knight Guide: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYi7hpeYe7OApas I also have a 30-50 Starter Guide for the Job: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ip-6q2ekpJuAiNE

[@Shogunelite]

My eyes began to cross halfway through the opener

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It goes very fast! 😂

[@Ashgrom]

It’s really not that bad. It looks hectic on paper, but there is alot of double oGCD weaves. You have about 2,5 seconds between each GCD to fill in. And while this is optimal, if you jumble the rotation a little bit it’s still fine because it will all line up after 2 mins

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

@@Ashgrom That is absolutely true! The order does not have to be followed perfectly!

[@kazsixteen7359]

​@@Ashgromyou do have to go pretty fast for the delerium double weaves so you get all three bloodspillers in. A lot of the time i dont do this exact weave pattern cause its hard for me to remember but ill just mix and match the abilities i know are used for the double weaving to make it simpler for me. So i may use a plunge with a salted earth or a shadowbringer. It probably isnt as good as the actual rotation but my brain can keep up better that way.

[@Ashgrom]

@@kazsixteen7359 it is just as good as the ”proper” rotation. As long as you get all the abilities into your shadowclone

[@ednorthon]

I have no idea why I'm here. I don't even know this game but it looks fun. Your explanation is very detailed for such a long combo but my dyslexic ass gave up half way and just listen to some foreign incantation. Great job

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Thank you! The game is final fantasy 14, and if you want to try it, it actually has a free trial for the first 60 levels of the game which is quite a lot! And you don't need to know how to perform an opener like this to get into the game! 😊

[@rasrandir]

The class shown is also playable in the free trial! You can play it starting in the first expansion :)

[@Bleachedentity]

A big point to bring up is that as long as you use living shadow asap and don't overcap on mana and keep darkside up the order of ogcds doesn't really matter as long as you play into buffs

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

This is absolutely correct, the order is there to help make sure the bigger buttons land in raid buffs, but ultimately, the exact order, aside from the things you listed, doesn't really matter much! 😊 I know some players like having a set order to follow too so that also helps 😊

[@Bleachedentity]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh yeah I feel it's very valid to have a baseline to look at but some players just stress way too much over order in DRK's case

[@HeavenOnHigh]

Iirc, darknight was a dps in ff11 and samurai tank.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yea that sounds right to me 😊

[@Itachiflameamaterasu]

Man I wish they kept DRK as it was back in HSW. Ever since SHB they turned it into a DPS in disguise with mid tanking abilities, and gave it trash skills and traits in EW, like who thought Enhanced Unmed was a good trait 😂. This was my fave class but switched to GNB.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Yeah, I miss drk from stormblood as well. Many of the cool tricks it used to have probably could be made to function in current ffxiv, so it is a shame it's all gone! 😢

[@Itachiflameamaterasu]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Facts 😔

[@ozmintheobserver]

Funny thing is he didn't even have to speed up the rotation at the beginning really, that's how fast and adrenaline pumping the attacks come out.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

It is quite crazy yeah! 😂

[@kahl9670]

I prefer to pull with Unmend. It keeps the GCD consistent and is easier to position the boss on pull.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

That's fair, pulling with ranged attack or provoke tends to be a somewhat subjective thing between tanks, and overall I think the difference is minimal! 😊

[@SeaFrosty]

As a new sprout, this scares me.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

You won't need to be able to do this immediately! You will have plenty of time to learn before this even becomes a consideration you have to make, and most regular content does not call for this level of perfection anyway either!

[@jeannineelizabethcain5253]

To be fair in casual stuff you'll be fine if you mess up a bit

[@Zezepo]

These optimal openers always make my brain rattle. I almost never double weave anything, either my fingers are too stiff to press the keys or I fumble the timing and clip my gcd.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I suppose it's a matter of practice! I recommend practicing with a striking dummy so you are in an environment where failing has no consequence 😊

[@iveyyewitt1621]

You ever do one for PLD? NGL after taking a long break and then seeing Salted Earth in PvP I have no interest in DRK at the moment.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I did make a paladin one, but with patch 6.4, they made it so atonement no longer breaks combos which changes things a bit, so you might find my full length guide for paladin that I made more helpful! Here is a link to the pld opener short: kzbin.infoYee9H5FSLqE?feature=share Here is the full length guide: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYrdZX1mjrWLkNE

[@Webberjo]

Is pulling with Provoke only beneficial if you don't have to reposition the boss mid?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Great question! If you have to reposition the boss mid I think it may be easier for your co-tank to do the pulling, since the other tanks don't have quite as strict a start as DRK with Blood Weapon ticking. However, if you are pulling, then depending on how fast you can get the boss into position, Unmend may be the better choice for pulling to keep pace with the Blood weapon stacks. I think it may depend on the specific boss fight though! If you are not pressed for time, and you can move the boss fast enough, then Provoke is good since it can let you start on Hard Slash earlier, and you need to reach Souleater quickly to use Living Shadow, so the value provoke provides in this way is huge! But regardless, whether Unmend or Provoke is best can depend a bit on the fight and the situation!

[@INeosIRex]

... no. never use tbn one anyone if ur not sure its breaking. and no autos dont do that consistently (yes savage included)

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

This is true, if you know it won't break then you can of course skip it! But sometimes something weird happens that means that a TBN that you would always expect to break on certain fights, just doesn't. Besides, the best way to know whether it will break or not is if you try it! Then you can always leave it out on future pulls of that fight if it doesn't seem to break

[@uru-71]

​@@CaetsuChaijiChIf you know TBN won't break would you still use Blood Weapon pre-pull? If not where would you recommend weaving it in the opener? :) I often find myself in this situation in older content mostly.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Personally I recommend still using blood weapon prepull, as you want hard slash to benefit, so that you can use living shadow after souleater. It does lose you 600 mp from blood weapon, but it is worth it 😊

[@italorosa630]

Whats the name of this greatsword??

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I am pretty confident this is the "Amazing Manderville greatsword" dyed cherry pink 😊 The second stage of the endwalker relic weapon!

[@italorosa630]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh thank you!!!

[@paixeon8816]

Why use tbn before pull? Wouldn't it be more damage to just use edge of shadow?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

If the shield manages to break from damage, then you will get the mp refunded to use later. Since you use blood weapon before pull, if you don't use TBN, you will waste 600 mp from blood weapons first activation. You want blood weapon active for the first gcd such that you can use living shadow after souleater. If you know for certain that TBN is not going to break, you can skip it, since it would be better then to have an extra edge 😊

[@paixeon8816]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh Thanks was always curious since I usualy off tank and have only realy seen my shield break from big pulls and tank busters, in that case would you just sneak in the edge of shadow before the first hit?

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

If you are off tank you use TBN on the main tank instead. If you know the shield won't break then skip using TBN. Do not use edge before the first hit. This will delay the rest of your opener (and everything else for that matter) by that half a second. The 600 mp you avoid missing out on is not worth it 😊 Simply do the opener as described without TBN!

[@cain7925]

Looks boring lmao

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

Dark Knight, or even Final Fantasy XIV in general, is not for everyone - maybe you can find a different job that looks more exciting! ^^

[@GoatOfWar]

Just play Warrior, it's better at everything than Dark knight.

[@CaetsuChaijiCh]

I believe dark knights opener burst is slightly better, and overall where it really counts, all the tanks are pretty even in performance! Some players simply enjoy dark knight more 😊

[@GoatOfWar]

@@CaetsuChaijiCh As a Dark knight main who now plays Warrior, the burst doesn't matter because fights don't end after your opener. In the long run, War will end up doing more damage than you. And on top of that, it's much tankier than Dark knight is, has better party utility and the shortest invuln in the game. There is no logical reason to play Dark knight over Warrior anymore. You can clear with Dark knight if you really want to, but you should just play Warrior because it does everything better. The balance team fucked up.

[@Aki-Iji]

​@@GoatOfWar In this game the burst is the single most important part of the fight. With every raid buff and burst being aligned on 2m CDs, if anything drifts out of that window your damage will plummet, regardless of if your 1m burst is strong or not. That's why PLD got reworked so it could deal more damage, since it was one of the few jobs that wasn't entirely normalized into a 2m meta. As for DRK, if you look at speed kills in FFLogs, it occupies most of the spots in the top 10 section for every fight, with some teams running double DRK because their burst is just that insane. If you look at aDPS for tanks (how much damage they push into buffs) you'll see just how much more damage DRK actually does compared to other tanks. rDPS isn't invaluable to look at either obviously, but with none of the tanks having raid buffs, it's not showing how much that tank is contributing to the most important part of a fight.

[@arcanine_enjoyer]

​@@GoatOfWar if you only started playing WAR after the potency changes you were never a DRK main you just played whatever was meta. If this was before the potency changes then you were also never a DRK main, just someone who picks jobs they think are good and abandons it once they're bored, frustrated, or find something better in their eyes. I am a tank main (except Paladin because it's boring to me) and to me all the tank jobs are great (except Paladin because it's boring to me) although I do favor Dark Knight. Big swords give small Hrothgar brain big happy chemicals. I'd never abandon Dark Knight even if it was so bad you could only play it in MSQ. Of course I'd pick a job that could actually be brought to high-end content but I wouldn't straight up claim another job as vastly superior just because of its inherent gimmick.

[@GoatOfWar]

@@arcanine_enjoyer Have fun enjoying the extra challenge for inferior outcomes i guess. You are not doing the job any favors by playing it when it's bad, because the devs will see people are still playing it and will then become complacent in their balancing.