typical fight for a DRK at lvl40-50

[supertle]

This is how my typical fight goes in a party with a proper tank, blm and whm against IT mob

When the puller comes back with mob, i take one swing at the mob, activate berserk if it's not active, activate the Abs-agi macro, swing some more, cast drain whether i need it or not since drain will take the mob's hp regardless of my hp, once the mob hits exactly 1/2 it's HP or maybe even more depending how good the party's firepower is, activate souleater, prepare to start a renkei, start renkei, magic burst with the blm, activate last resort with the mob's hp down to almost nothing where at most it'll hit me once with all 3 of my attk buffs up (berserk, souleater, last resort),
the mob should be dead and i shouldn't be hit if tank is doing a fine job,

sometimes I will cast abs-vit right before activating souleater if i feel the tank is going to lose hate, or save my drain spell to be cast after i activate souleater and hit it once, so far this is effective and cause little mp drain on mages

How does your typical fight go?

[Mithrael]

Well, I have 2 separate fighting plans, since our battles don't tend to last long enough for a renkei every fight. Since thief is helping control hate, we generally only use a weapon skill at the beginning of a battle, or when the mob has slightly less than 1/2 life. In the latter case, it's important that we feel confident that we'll kill it with the renkei and MBs, since the thief is using S+T+VB on me. When we have THF & PLD, renkei is Power Slash -> Viper Bite. When we have a NIN tank, renkei is Nightmare Scythe -> Blade: Rin -> Viper Bite.

Our party makeup is generally:
Backrow
WHM/BLM, BLM/WHM, BLM/WHM
Frontrow
DRK/WAR, THF/WAR, PLD/WAR or NIN/WAR

Non-renkei battle:
Puller is coming in with mob, I absorb-agi, then provoke. Thief S+T on pld. I usually get hit once, maybe twice. I Drain. I absorb-str. If berserk and Souleater are available, I use them now, since they add so little to a one-hit weapon skill. Fight is usually over before souleater wears off.

Renkei battle:
Puller is coming in with mob, I absorb-INT (to boost magic burst damage), then provoke. Use last resort and weapon skill, magic burst with BLM, drain. Fight is usually over withing one or 2 swings. I Usually get hit 3-4 times in this situation, but it's not a big deal since these battles are usually extrememly short.

I usually only absorb-int if i'm getting hammered. in that case, i start casting and a blm casts stun so i have a better likelyhood of getting the spell off. Of course, that's not too difficult since one of the BLM is in the same room with me I just shout over to have 'em do it.

[Vittra]

I usually go easy on Souleater, I probably use it more rarely than I should, but I certainly wouldn't blow my load in one fight with 2 Absorb spells, Drain, Stun, berserk, Last resort, souleater and a renkei.

But then it depends on the tank I suppose

[Ashlok]

Drain still drains when you aren't hurt?

[Davyath]

Yes, it will still do its damage, but it will not say how much.

[Socrates]

drk is prettty crappified in tp gain.

i find casting too many spells hinder the tp gain even further.

usually i just pull with poison and cast 1 absorb spell (agi) and just swing the entire fight. i use berserk, or last resort if berserk timer hasn't refreshed.

[Star8urst]

I usualy cast absorb-AGI at the begining of each fight and melee. if we have a good tank I use souleater when he has enough aggro and use drain to top up my HP (i let souleater run full course). I have last resort macroed in my skillchain macro, so that goes off if available. And I use beserk whenever available unless I split-tank for the party.

[omgzzz]

I like your routine, Supertle; although, I don't know how well it works out since fights are short and there's a 5-min delay on the JAs and TP gain is extremely slow.

For now, I find that I can only use a ws on every other fights, even with BRD's acc + haste. So I split JAs and WSs into two, for a consistent dmg output:
As puller and mob comes in, I do an ABS spell, then Berserk+Last Resort...I have the hate at that point, usually; otherwise, I'd Provoke. THF does S+T, PLD takes hate off of me and if WHM knows what he's doing and lets PLD cure himself, hate usually stays on PLD for the rest of the fight. I keep hitting, building TP and sometimes use this time to raise elemental spells...if whm doesn't do Dia, I'd work on enfeeble also. Basically, this fight is to gain TP.
Next fight, I'd begin with an Abs, then when mob is down to 3/4 to 1/2 life, I'd activate Souleater and start sc. After this, I'd drain and a hit or so would pretty much finish things off.

In nonrenkei battles, I'd pretty much do the same, except do Souleater+WS when mob is at 1/2-1/4 life, depending whether or not a BRD is in the party.


My routine will change soon as I'm currently *trying* to lvl my thf for sub.

[albert lee]

typical fight 40-50's wait in jeuno for 1-3hrs get into a pt, find out it's a horrible pt. get 1k-1.5k per hour because Rdm refuse to convert for xp chains and use only for emergency's and forget to refresh the pld, fights go on so long that you have enough time to do all power up's in one battle, consecutively.:mad: seriously i don't get how people can't figure out how to do their fukin jobs.:mad:

[Davyath]

Odd, Im a lvl 44 drk/thf right now... On Ragnarok, I get into Parties in under an hour...

Also, I can use my WS once a fight, mabye cause im hume? I dunno, but it is a treat :D

[Drynavere]

Supertle....I don't really agree with your fight method, unless your fighting an HNM, lol.

If you do this in your exp party, for the chains, you'll have next to no abilities, and no mp. And a DRK, in my opinion, should never have all 3 berserk, last resort and souleater on....there was a whole thread about this, and I got the last word in on it....Basically the conclusion was all 3 = death.

Just my thoughts.

[albert lee]

all 3=death or nothing to use for 2minutes. very hard to kill faster with no buffs.

way i go is berserk, asorb agi,
next fight last resort... absorb-agi, see if berserk is finished then reativate, or use souleater if its not dieing fast enough
next fight berserk, absorb agi.
next fight absorb agi, last resort, if pt's good, ill save my souleater for the 5th chain, if not i'll use it to finish the 4th chain.

[Black Heart]

I feel that using Last Resort + Berserk + Souleater is acceptable in two situations.
1: When the mob is close to death and you want the damage to boost your WS while there is little chance he can do enough damage with that much life left to seriously wound you enough to warrant a serious heal spell.
2: When you activate Bloodweapon after giving the party fair warning. With a One-handed sword this can be devastating, I've taken an IT down to half-life in no time using all 3 buffs plus Blood Weapon. The amount of HP you drain back can add up to more than the mob is hitting you for, as well as what Souleater takes away.

My usual actions during a fight is to have some STR+ or DEX+ food items on me, activate those. Turn Berserk on when the fight starts. Then cast Bio2 or Poison2 if there isn't a BLM with us to cast those, then use either Absorb STR, Absorb VIT or Absorb AGI depending on the mob. I go easy on Souleater and only use it in a pinch or in the situations above, since I will most likely need to be healed if I do use it and that MP can go towards the tank so we can chain more. I activate Last Resort regardless if Berserk is on or not when I have TP for Vorpal Scythe or Slice. I use Drain and Aspir to keep my HP and MP up to decent levels. I use elemental spells when the mob has a sliver of HP left to take him out.
Thats just about it.

[gix]

chain0 T/VT: Abs-Agi -> Swing
chain1 IT: Berserk -> Swing -> Skillchain
chain2 VT: Swing -> Drain/Aspir/Abs-Agi
chain3 IT: Soul Eater -> Swing -> Skillchain
chain4 VT/IT: Last Resort -> Swing -> Skillchain
chain5 IT: Abs-Agi -> Swing -> Skillchain
On casting spells, I try not to cast more than twice as once, as TP gain would be too slow(and I would run out of MP fast )
Nothing really complicated. I try to cast a few spells per fight, and skillchain as much as possible.

[Dragon Ghost]

heh,this is how mine goes

"Puller brings in the mob,eat my chefkabob. Swing,until I gain 100+ TP,set up my Cover Macro (In a set party with a Paladin) I absorb strength,berserk,last resort,and soul eater. Then he covers. Then I unleash Nightmare Scythe I hit the mob hard,but get a buttload of hate. Paladins,need to get some type enmity boost or something heh =\

~I havent died off this _yet_ but Im sure it will happen soon (-_-)