(Don't) Fear The Reaper: A Dark Knight Guide

It's just a nice dump of stp while keeping most defenses. Generally sakpata's going to give about the same result(8 DA vs 10 STP isnt too different long term i think) and be tankier to boot.

If you were to say use it for an emp am3 then the crit rates nice but if you can use the pdl on sakpata that'll outweigh it

Having trouble getting the full .exe of the damage calculator to let me grab it off github. Can anyone clarify what the damage difference (WS not white) between a r15 Ragnarok and r15 Caladbolg is? Would it be something like 15%? Or larger?

What do you mean? Torcleaver with Calad VS Torcleaver with Ragnarok?

Ah, yes, sorry for not clarifying. General Torc spam.

I will check it when I'm back home if none else will before that.

Not sure I'm using 100% optimal TP/WS sets, but I smashed something together for you. With massive buffs and assuming strong gear (ranked ody, +2 earring, etc). WS at 1500-2200

Ragnarok: WSavg 55,136, DPS 10,196, ratio 75.7% WSD, 24.3% white
Caladbolg: WSavg 67,080, DPS 13,428, ratio 70.5% WSD, 29.5% white

Difference looks like ~30%

Edit: I forgot to put the AM on for Ragnarok and then couldn't get back to Ragnarok, so these results might be slightly off. Either way, it's incredibly large.

Under the same conditions that I ran it's a significant difference, roughly 12k damage difference. But yes, big difference.

main="Caladbolg",
sub="Utu Grip",
ranged=Empty,
ammo="Knobkierrie",
head="Nyame Helm",
body="Nyame Mail",
hands="Nyame Gauntlets",
legs="Fall. Flanchard +4",
feet="Heath. Sollerets +3",
neck="Abyssal Beads +2",
waist="Sailfi Belt +1",
ear1="Moonshade Earring",
ear2="Thrud Earring",
ring1="Epaminondas's Ring",
ring2="Niqmaddu Ring",
back="Ankou's Mantle",

SV songs with Aria on cogs, lucky chaos/sam cor rolls(no XI but gave job bonus), Dia 3 with light shot, warcry from war, boost-str, sublime sushi +1 because DRK can't hit a barn door with a shovel, and distract 3. The above set punched out ~73k at 1ktp spam. Replacing only calad with ragnarok punched out ~61k. (Nyame was set to path b r25)

I ran it like this because trash mobs be trash and I run it on the higher level cogs because it's somewhat more (albeit not really) similar to say sortie basement bosses from an acc perspective and at least its a higher stats compared to in order to better understand making use of pdl or other. No armor break or geo as GEO may or may not even be present half the time, and armor break may or may not even land so that's entirely dependent on resistances and macc.

Was thinking from a practical standpoint of perhaps a melee sortie run with WAR,DRK,BRD,COR,RDM,WHM.

Thank you both for the detailed breakdown!
This is the kind of information I struggle to come by when trying to gauge value added for the cost benefit analysis of pursuing various options as a solo/lowman player with limited resources.
When discussing GSD options for DRK Caladbolg was clearly the best but as someone who already has Ragnarok the question becomes well, how much better are the better options? Augmented Montante +1 for instance has been said to wash Ragnarok for years, but it's never been laid out how wide the gap in the rankings is. 30%~ is a great starting point when trying to gauge the best way to direct my time.

If you can get Montante +1 reasonably quick, it will outperform Ragnarok with better Resolutions. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say it is at least 5% better. Perhaps even 10%. But that comparison was from a few years ago when I began using it after being heavily encouraged to leave my Rag in storage.

Caladbolg's Torcleaver is on a much higher level, and I didn't need to crunch any numbers as it was very clear when I got it. Torcleaver excels when you can spam with high buffs using Soul Enslavement, but even without, it is really good. The only issue with Caladbolg is not having an easy way to recover MP, so keep a Scythe around for Entropy.

I'd also encourage getting the Loxotic Mace +1 for undead (Odyssey) and the Ambuscade GA to land Armor Breaks, as that will expand your weapon choice.

main appeal of rag is giving gs a multi-step light option. besides that its pretty mediocre, if you already have it go nuts. Just be working on calad in the meantime if you wanna get better dmg output.

Kylos nailed the other things to get, would highly reccomend Lycurgos as its a very effective weapon if you can keep your bursted drains going, and it remains in your arsenal for breaks even beyond that.

Hiya old friend

This is what I got putting a hybrid TP set together:
main={ name="Caladbolg", augments={'Path: A',}},
sub="Utu Grip",
ammo={ name="Coiste Bodhar", augments={'Path: A',}},
head="Flam. Zucchetto +2",
body="Hjarrandi Breast.",
hands={ name="Sakpata's Gauntlets", augments={'Path: A',}},
legs={ name="Sakpata's Cuisses", augments={'Path: A',}},
feet={ name="Sakpata's Leggings", augments={'Path: A',}},
neck={ name="Abyssal Beads +2", augments={'Path: A',}},
waist="Ioskeha Belt +1",
left_ear="Brutal Earring",
right_ear="Telos Earring",
left_ring="Defending Ring",
right_ring="Niqmaddu Ring",
back={ name="Ankou's Mantle", augments={'DEX+20','Accuracy+20 Attack+20','Accuracy+10','"Dbl.Atk."+10','Damage taken-5%',}},

50% DT exactly.

5x Sakpata is simply better :)

AF+4 body seems worth using. DRK AF+4 body has +20 acc +10 DEX over Nyame R25. This 30 acc makes it the best Torc piece IMO - I do feel like I miss acc more still on DRK vs SAM or WAR.

I put it together for doing Limbus for now, 130 mobs. Not somewhere I have super buffs and Aria.

Don't have 45M for a ring I would need to swap DRing for with 5/5 Sakpata either.

You don't need 50dt for 130lvl mob, you don't even need 30. If you pull few mobs, then just sleep them.

Well no, that's why I use normal TP set.... only toggle this when needed, and when I need it, I need it.

And you don't need 5/5 sakpatas outside of oddy bosses.

5/5 Sakpata is simply phenomenal in every way for Caladbolg, because even if you need just dps it's still competitive for bis dps against more glass cannon options. It's not like you sacrifice much or even any dps to wear 5/5 Sakpata.

You make it sound like sacrificing alittle meva in content that dosent need it makes you a glass cannon. And competitive is a nice way of saying inferior tp gain.

This debate occurs in literally every thread. Savage warrior using gear to supplement white damage. Sam using tp feet that are worse defensively. Monk using kick attack feet. BLM or Smn using some niche efficiency staff for x gains. Ninja wearing attack gear. It's the same debate repackaged with a different date :)

I agree with both standards of gearing, because it doesn't really "matter" in either case. It's like going to a location and driving the speed limit or speeding to your destination. The latter might save you a few seconds or minutes, but it's far less safe. The former is recommended but will take slightly longer. But relatively speaking, the travel time is basically the same in both cases, give it take small benefit here or there. Wearing either defensively or offensively superior gear is so close in performance that neither option matters really, it's just what you value more (slightly more dps or significantly better defense).

I've flip flopped between gear for different events and I find myself using glassy sets for normal activities like UNM, Ambu, OdyA, omen etc, and it works fine for 75% of the time. But the moment one annoying enfeeble lands on me, my entire perspective changes and I go defensive the rest of the event. Lol

I feel like over the last couple of years whms and sch don't bother to erase or -na anything anymore (admittedly I also became lazy) since they land less due to meva and because they got used to expecting people to use remedy and panacea. This is fine for content where they really can't be expected to do it because there's no time to do anything but cure (ody 20/25, sortie basement) but there's no justification for being lazy everywhere else like limbus and ody c

By gearing to avoid debuffs we encourage people to get lazier

If you would kill something with 1000tp Torc > 1000tp Torc or single 1000tp Torc with almost no overkill and regardless of white damage, then maybe I could agree that slightly better tp gain is equal to faster kill. In every other scenario loosing some tp gain in exchange for much better white damage is going to be break even or better for kill speed.

With just BRD+Chaos roll you can't kill Limbus 130 mobs with Torc>Torc. Usually leaves 10% HP or so.

Is the main one, why bother wasting time doing that when someone can just use a med(sometimes even scripted to ala autoecho), more annoying ones are times when you can use divine caress and the whm just forgets that is a thing at all.

Yeah but now pug whm and sch erase and -na nothing when the healing requirements in Limbus are near zero.

I mean if you want to gear for the purposes of training your whms to erase better you could always

Excellent belt for that status debuff assault.

Throw that on with Argosy and some -DT gear.