DRK Merits (Job Specific)

Nobody said it was holding anyone back from using Souleater, they just said don't use Souleater with it up. 5/5 Diabolic Eye has a recast of 5 minutes and even with no Souleater recast merits, using Diabolic Eye shortly after using Souleater will make sure you're at 100% HP by the time Souleater is back up.


Diabolic Eye is giving you +20 accuracy you didn't have before, meaning you can take off some of your accuracy gear and replace it with attack, keeping you at the accuracy cap but increasing the amount of damage you do.


Yes, it is true that Muted Soul is helpful in keeping you alive when using Souleater, but it is also true that you are holding back the DD potential of your job because you're too scared to lose EXP or too lazy to save yourself after pulling hate. It is rare for a good DRK to die from Souleater. Like I said there are many ways to protect yourself after a Souleater WS that don't require 5/5 merits in a useless job trait.

Muted soul is a waste, if you merit it you're a tard. End of story.

5/5 LR recast
5/5 LR effect
1/5 Darkseal
5/5 Diabolic eye
4/5 Desperate blows

On any long zergs the + 600ish HP you get from Drain II will massively increase your DPS. 5/5 on Desperate blows is 100% pointless. If you're zerging with a 1hander it does nothing, if you're zerging with a 2 hander you'll be /sam and should be using hasso. If you're DDing and you're /nin get a better linkshell or learn to play your job.

/thread

Muted Soul is not a waste. It all depends on how you play. I use souleater allot and it helps keep hate down. I can use last resort, souleater and guillotine and not pull hate off a tank/caller with it.

I do not like diabolic eye as I use /sam and have cap ACC. Further, with the drop in HP and the fact I use souleater allot, it does not fit the way I play. However, it is useful if you do not have cap ACC nor use /sam.

Also, my drk magic is capped and I got rid of dark seal because I did not notice a big difference in resists with my drains. So, that one depends on your need I guess.

In my opinion it depends on what you plan on doing with DRK, and how you plan on playing DRK that should guide your merit choices.

Muted soul is nice if all you do on DRK is zerg and wish to gain less hate when doing so.

Why do you care about pulling hate? Maybe if you're doing a HNM it would matter. However, for dynamis and similar events you shouldnt need to worry about it. I would think in 2010 if you're LS isn't killing mobs in under 15 seconds you're doing it wrong.

Once again, if you have diabolic eye up you should be switching out 20 accuracy somewhere else. Example:
Hauberk-> Ares body/Askar body. The options are even more plentiful in your WS set.

Capped drk magic will not guarantee a full drain on most NMs.

LMAO, I cannot tell you how many times I have won the parse on a Kirin zerg, specifically because muted soul limited my hate and cause other DDs to suffer the wrath of Kirin before me. Or allowed me to get off 3 full Guillotines during Souleater without getting me killed. Muted Soul just has more uses for me than diabolic eye, I hardly ever need the additional +20 accuracy and -15% HP for 3/5 minutes. Call me lazy if you so please, play the way you want, but I bet I parse higher than you and your pole grip on that plaga scythe.

Zerging with Guillotine! Your comment is now invalid. /facepalm

wut

I never said I zerged with guillotine, I never WS during a zerg unless its in the very beginning or at the very end. I meant during souleater in general melee.

A challenger appears! Ännu en vikingataru!

He's not really a TARU! Lolhume:P

Edit: Sorry, loltypo

Pizza is great and I can't recall the last time I've seen a two-hander eating sushi. But I prefer to cap my acc with gear or JA buffs and eat meat dishes.

I was always under the impression that was the best overall goal for a DD + super haste gearz.

Back on topic. Not a fan of Muted Soul myself. I want those mobs killing themselves on my spikes.

I know right.. Hate it when I cast dread spikes and the mobs suddenly decide to keel somebody else.. ATTACK ME GDI!

Damn right, I get pissed and turn into the Joker from the Dark Knight when that happens. COME ON. HIT ME!!

With an attitude like this:
"I hardly ever need the additional +20 accuracy"
You won't be parsing higher than many good DRKs, regardless of what grip they wear.

Dreadspikes is definitely a really good spell, if used properly.

As stated earlier by other people... the best usage of dreadspikes is when you use it knowing that you will get hate and get hit by the mob. For example, knowing you're about to pull hate with a WS, OR you could also put souleater on and pull hate with that. If you're losing too much HP or mp from your mages, you can always just leave souleater on for just a few hits to pull hate and then click it off etc.

If you're tanking with Dreadspikes as drk/sam, you can have hasso on (for the haste etc.), which is nice too. Then of course, when dreadspikes wears off, you would switch from hasso to seigan + third eye if you're still tanking (a PDT set if the recast timer is not up yet on seigan or third eye). Dead drk = no damage.

Dreadspikes protects you from mob's normal and critical attacks, as well as damage the mob for the amount of damage that your spikes absorbed. In addition to that, you also get TP when you get hit while having dreaspikes up. This effectively makes dreadspikes a pretty nice defensive and offensive spell... when used properly.

Dreadspikes is great, just know when/how to use it appropriately.

As for Muted Soul Vs Diabolic eye...

I honestly find muted soul not as useful. First of all, I actually like the enmity generation from Souleater because it's good for when you want to pull hate for dreadspikes usage. Also, if you just want to pull hate off of somebody, and/or if you're just tanking in general (for enmity generation etc).

Diabolic eye, you can still find it useful when you get flashed or something similar, or when simply fighting more evasive mobs (THF mobs, or simply higher level mobs that are more evasive as well etc.).

Furthermore, if you're going over the accuracy cap on a certain mob with Diabolic eye on, then you can still use it to drop accuracy gear from other places for more haste (blitz ring, although...yes, on weaker mobs where you cap accuracy easily, you can still use blitz ring without diabolic eye) and more STR/attack. (usually from the back piece, rings, ammo, and body slots...but it's all situational, like a lot of things in this game)

I think Diabolic eye can still be quite useful in various cases... definitely more useful than muted soul merits anyway, but that's my opinion.

If you're using Mkris to zerg muted souls is not going to be enough to stop you from pulling hate off of normal DDs. The difference between a Mkris drk and a standard DD's damage in zerg is like 300-400% more damage. Muted souls is only getting rid of 50% of that hate. Now muted souls might let the mob attack another drk, in which case all you're doing is redirecting damage not reducing it. Either way you are in no way contributing to your LSs zerg.

Seeing how it looks like Zandra Tp's in Askar Body on drk wouldn't you think it would be better to have that free +20 to acc over -emn?

Edit: I wonder which zerg weapon Zandra is using? I can't imagine muted souls being all that helpful with Mkris or Kclub/Oclub.

She should be using full perle tbh. Anyways, her accuracy gear is not enough to be capped on anything really. However, since this isnt a drk gear thread I'm going to refrain from disecting it.

5hit.

But yeah, I dont think Zandra got gil-issues, so I assume mkris or kclub.

Btw 5/5 Diabolic eye is 20 haste for two minutes every 3 minuytes. 66% of the time you will have 20 accuracy.
Assuming +20 accuracy adds +3% more to your overall accuracy for the duration(Not unreasonable) then:

3%*.66= 1.98% accuracy overall

1.98% accuracy over 70% accuracy is about +2% more damage overall. That's a pretty big difference tbh.

ftfy

You knew what I meant! Sorry, multitasking atm.

Yes, but this player also seems to think MAB effects dark magic.

Dont hate, so did I 2 years ago:P

DRK tanking is where it's at anyway!

I like my souleater with fries enmity... damn it!

5/5 Diabolic Eye might be useful for those of us who don't have awesome gear. Lets assume capped accuracy situations and eating meat. Swap out Peacock Charm, Cuchulain's Mantle & Swift Belt for the Tern Set when DE is up or when using Souleater?

Perle set + blitz + Tern set = an easy 21% haste while still capping accuracy. Is this Viable?

Yeah the askar setup is for a 5-hit which is way better than a 6-hit perle. It actually says its a 5-hit under the notes but i guess trolls don't read for context. I do wear perle when I /nin and stack acc as u don't get a 5-hit without /sam.


Lol no the earing/body are just there cause I don't usually switch them out from my elemental set. I guess I could pull them out of my gear set. But seeing I don't have specific gear to replace them with, why bother... I don't like incomplete gear sets.

And generally when you eat pizza with that 5-hit setup you're good on ACC for IT mobs in the lower 90s. Obviously there are some exceptions but you gear specifically for what you're doing. The sets are just a general guilde.

You have abyssal.. Abysseal + loq earring herrooo:P

Abyssal is in there, you are right about the loq. I should put it in!