The Dark Knight was once the most talked about Tank when I started playing FFXIV. At the time, it was the most difficult Tank to master and though it didn’t have a major difference in stats, it has always been one of the harder Tanks to play simply because there’s more a player needs to be aware of when using it’s abilities and skills.
While you will often hear players compare Tanks as being “better” or “worse” than each other, there is really no point in having this conversation. Unlike DPS Jobs, there is a minimal amount of difference between stats among each Tank. However, there is a lot of validity in comparing their playstyle since players will vibe with some Tanks over others. All Tanks have similar amounts of mitigation, their damage is pretty equal with the core difference being how much is sustained damage and how much is burst damage, and players will ultimately need to make the decision of which Tank they want to main based on how complex they want their rotation or playstyle to be.
The Dark Knight is relatively straightforward, however, it does come with a few things a player needs to master. For example, Dark Knights have a unique shield that when broken will allow a free cast of one of their Abilities, being a major drawing point for DPS-hungry Tanks. As the Job requires mana to cast certain abilities, players will need to keep track of their consumption as this shield also relies on mana to utilize it.
Arguably, the hardest thing about playing the Dark Knight is the Invulnerability that it uses. While in most cases players would simply need to press their Invulnerability Ability, the Dark Knight needs to deal a substantial amount of damage during a short period of time and the Healer must ensure that they let the Dark Knight die, as if either of these is not completed the Dark Knight will simply wipe. Unfortunately, this leads to the largest number of wipes I’ve seen and I’ve personally been on both ends of this mechanic failing.
Nonetheless, the Dark Knight is a terribly fun Tank to play and while one could argue that it doesn’t have as much defence or utility as a Warrior, understanding its toolkit will provide you with more than enough mitigation with the added pleasure of timing it so you get some extra damage.
Unlike many of the other original Classes which turn into their specialized Jobs, the Dark Knight will begin as the specialized Job, meaning you will have your Job Stone upon accepting your job and you will not need to switch your Hotbara or ensure that you’re not playing on the base Class by mistake. This also means that unlocking the Dark Knight will not allow you to have an extra Hotbar if you want to make Custom Menus.
So let’s get started and chat about how you can begin playing the Dark Knight.
Note: If you have any questions about FFXIV that you want me to cover feel free to leave them in a comment below, you can also ask me while I am streaming on Twitch, YouTube or in our community discord.
HOW TO UNLOCK THE DARK KNIGHT IN FFXIV
The Dark Knight is one of the easier Jobs to unlock than some of the others, simply because players will not need to level and do Class Quests in order to unlock the specialized job.
Though the Dark Knight is unlocked as a level 30 Job, players will need to have at least one Disciple of War at level 50 and will need to complete the main story until the end of A Realm Reborn. The final quest of A Realm Reborn is called “Before the Dawn” and you can check your Journal with “J” to see whether or not it has been completed.
After players have met both of these requirements they will need to head to The Pillars in Ishguard to X: 13.2, Y: 8.8 to accept the quest labelled “Our End” and is provided by the Ishguardian Citizen.
To complete Our End you will need to complete the following steps:
Search for the Temple Knights in the Brume.
Locate the Punctilious Temple Knight at X:11.3, Y:12.1
After the cut scene, speak with Fray.
Once players have completed this quest they will be able to switch freely onto the Dark Knight as they please. Ensure that you save this as a new Gearset so you don’t have to put your Weapon on each time you want to switch.
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