Essestinal Spells.

[MrMan6187]

Can someone give me a list of the essestinal spells that are definatlly needed to make drk play alot funnier, and more upper-er lol.
if they can be quested for plz say how if u have the time.
thanks in advance.

[Pandar]

Stun is nice absorb spells are ok waste of mp if you ask me
bio/bio2 elemental spells arent a must i dont use em ever except on magic burst
but GET STUN

[albert lee]

drain- *quest look around in forum
aspir- *
stun-buy or dropped
poison-buy
bio1&2 (i don't use very much)-buy
absorb agi/vit/str very useful others are whatevers... dex if u have the money.-buy or dropped
sleep-buy
bind-buy



can't think of any others. basically get all the dark magic. bio1&2 are not necessary. drain/aspir/stun/absorbs i use very often.

[ungooo]

Stun
Drain
Aspir
Absorb AGI and DEX

These are the only ones i ever use in the battle ^^

[Hisdon]

the only 3 spells you need are

Drain
Stun
and Absorb-AGI (does the same thing as Absorb-DEX, highers your accuracy, but it does it by lowering the mob's evasion, this is better because all the melee in the pt get this effect.)

Aspir has never proved to me to be worth it but get it if you want it

[Wescani]

Spells I use a lot:

Drain
Aspir
Poison
Stun
Bio + Bio II

Poison should use for fishing and drain and aspir is great when farming, reduces your downtime considerably, or if you need to rest at all! Stun casts really quick - good for catching NM's oh yeah also useful for stoping nasty attacks :p

Absorb series is good too (from what I've heard absorb-dex is a necessity but then again I dont have 250k in spare change). I've found absord-str to be good on occasions.

You dont need any of the elemental spells later on. But i still use mine for magic bursting. Why? A) It's fun and B) elemental skill goes up about 2 points every time :p

[elias]

Another spell that could come in handy sometimes, for fun, or for helping someone is Tractor.

It can be usful if there is no one else in ur grp who has it, and someone dead is in need of it.

[kumaeru]

Drain, Aspir, Stun

Absorb spells can sortof helpful in some situations. Most helpful absorb spells would be the Agi, Vit, Dex. Abs-Str hardly does anything o.o;;


Drain and Aspir you probably will use most whern farming, it helps lso you hardly ever have to sit and heal. Also you can aspir off beetles for mp (even they do not cast spells..)


Buy Poison, you will use it the most out of any other spell, reason being it's the lowest costing spell for Drk @ 5mp. And it has a reasonably short cast time, great for pulling.


lvl 2 Element spells I am finding more useful when I'm killing more elementals, when farming. When exp'ing I only cast element spells when I am already at 100%+ and am ready for the renkei.

[Mithrael]

Absorb-INT is pretty important, imho. I always use it before renkeis. It adds 5-20% on the Magic bursts, and greatly reduces the chance that your blm will be resisted in the magic burst.

I also always magic burst IF I have a resonably up-to-date spell to MB with. I.E. I don't waste time and mp magic bursting Aero or Fire since the MB damage isn't worthwhile, however, Blizzard, Tunder, Stone II, and Water II do from 90-160 damage on the magic burst.

If I have to choose between absorb-int or magic bursting, I always abosob-int instead. The extra damage from just one Waterga II on a distortion renkei makes it well worth your time to do it. Absorb-INT also generally lasts through the end of the battle, so all spells that your BLM cast in the rest of the time are also enhanced.

I personally don't spend MP on elemental spells unless they're on a renkei, my INT is too low for them to not be resisted without the assistance of the Magic Burst.

[albert lee]

absorb mnd? int is their magic power. mind is magic resistance...

[Mithrael]

nah, i know a lot of people who think that, and i think the myth that mnd helps magic resistance comes from the fact that whm get "Magic Defense Bonus". There are a few threads around debating the question much more thoroughly, but DRKs are very easily able to test this themselves. Here's what you do.

Go to some place with mobs that will live long enough for you to complete the test BDX is a good place, the Quads will barely touch you and have a pretty good amount of HP, also, you won't kill them with three spells as a DRK.

Find a target, but don't engage.

Cast some spell that does fair damage (blizzard or thunder are good)

Absorb-INT (then cancel your INT bonus from your menu so it isn't contributing to your damage)

Cast thunder again.

Absorb-MND (then cancel your MND bonus for the same reason)

Cast Thunder again.


Rest and do it a few more times to make sure you weren't seeing some fluke. at lv.50, my thunder does ~90, after absorb-int it does ~100, after absrob-mnd it does still 100 from the previous absorb-int. if i do it backwards, i get ~90, absorb-mnd ~90, absorb-int ~100.

This is covered most in the RDM forums, where some people have spent waaaay too much time figureing out exactly how much each stat point changes your output of magic damage. but a basic breakdown is your int vs. mob int, your mnd vs. mob mnd. So Banish, Dia, Slow, Paralyze, Holy, etc are less likely to be resisted and do more damage if you lowerthe mobs MND. Blind, bind, poison, elemental enfeebles are more likelely to stick, and elemental spells do more damage if you lower the target's INT.

You can perform the same test adding Burn and ??? (Don't remember which one lowers mnd...) to the chain, you'll see an even larger increase in damage with burn.

[Bamce Sylph]

int=blackmagic resist/defense
mind= whitemagic resist/defense

and for other stats,and the generally accepted number is 2-1
str=atk
dex=acc
agil =evasion /ranged acc
vit=def
cha=spoony bard stuff

[Slacko]

Aspir - useful if the mob has mp, basically you won't need to rest even if your PT doesn't have rdm or brd.

Drain - Basically drk's only "healing" spell. Doesn't work on bones and not too well on bats.

Absorb-AGI - Better than absorb-dex imo and soo soo much cheaper.

Posion - Good for pulling.

Stun - Can be a PT life saver. Some ppl use it for pulling too.

Spells for magic burst - Get Blizzard early on so you can MB in distortion renkei.

[Socrates]

if you're on a budget, just get drain, aspir and stun.

bio&bio2 are redundant spells that blm and rdm gets anyway. they're only useful when lving dark magic skill.

elemental spells are pretty crappy and do very little dmg nor worth the time. but u might want to get them to add variety to your playing experience. i.e. casting water2 after vorpal scythe > viper bite. people will also think you're a better player if you MB.

for enfeebling, poison is handy to pull with. poison 2 is expensive and can be skipped. sleep you should get, it's a lifesaver at times, though it'll prolly get resisted. tractor is nice to have. poisonga and bind can be skipped, i've never used those except to mess around in noobie zones....