FFXIV: Endwalker Dark Knight Guide [Patch 6.1]

Tanks in MMOs are the life blood of a good party, often literally. They’re the wall between the enemy’s attacks and the squishy party members. It’s a big role to fill, and it’s often the first one to be seen to fail if the group wipes. That’s because usually DPS and healers outnumber you in parties for most MMOs, so the focus is on you. In Final Fantasy 14 that is also the case because there’s usually only you or the off tank, and a bunch of DPS and a couple of healers. In this Endwalker Dark Knight guide we’ll show you how to play one of these Tanks in the game so that you don’t have to fail again and again trying to understand the job.

Endwalker Dark Knight Guide [Patch 6.1] For FFXIV

The Dark Knight is one of the cooler tank classes out there. They look like DPS but actually they’re mainly a tank role. They also have unique abilities like any other class that you need to remember when playing them. Some of these abilities can be useful in tanking and keeping yourself alive. But before we do any of that we’ll first need to understand your gauges.

There’s 3 gauges that you need to remember. One is Grit, activating it will increase your enmity; the game’s version of aggro. It’s black when it’s not activated and when it is it turns to red.

The sword looking gauge is your Blood Gauge. The more you use your abilities the faster that Blood Gauge fills up.

The last one is on the top and it’s Darkside Gauge. This one displays the remaining time of your Darkside buff, it also shows the duration of your living shadows or dark arts.

Now each job usually has a rotation that they follow, some of them can be quite long while others are just two buttons. The Dark Knight has a 3-button rotation, and it starts with Hard Slash followed by Syphon Strike then ending with Souleater.

Blood Gauge Abilities

As you can see the last part of the rotation increases your Blood Gauge. Here are the abilities that uses that Gauge.

One of the abilities that you should always have up and takes priority is your Living Shadow, which is a shadow copy of you that attacks the enemy as well.

Bloodspiller is another ability that is off your global cooldown so you can use it any time in your rotation.

MP Abilities

Besides your Blood Gauge you also have to worry about your Mana. There’s a lot of abilities that help you generate it though and here are some of them.

Blood Weapon gives you 5 stacks of the Blood Weapon buff, when you hit something with a weaponskill or spell it gives you blood and mana back.

Another ability that lets you attack and regain mana is Carve and Spit. This is also out of your global cooldown so you can use it anytime.

Delirium grants 3 stacks of free use for the weapons skills Quietus and Bloodspiller, both will restore your mana.

The main ability you use Mana for is Edge of Shadow which is an attack that also buffs you for a duration.

You can use The Blackest of Nights though to get another use of Edge of Shadow. Just make sure you get hit or else that mana you used on this one will be for nothing.

Other Abilities

Salted Earth is your AOE damaging ability. Once this ability is used it’ll turn to Salt and Darkness which is another AOE attack.

Unmend is your obligatory ranged attack to keep your uptime when the boss doesn’t want to get near you or you don’t want to get near them.

Plunge is an ability that you use to close the gap between you and the target.

Shadowbringer is a line AOE that deals massive damage to the first enemy it hits and less damage to the rest.

Speaking of AOE this is your rotation if you want to do AOE, for example when you’re pulling trash mobs. These abilities are Unleash and Stalwart Soul. Use this instead of your normal 3 ability rotation if that’s the case.

There is also Quietus and Flood of Shadow which uses your Blood Gauge and Mana respectively.

Congratulations you now know how to play the Dark Knight in Final Fantasy 14. Now go out there and hit them hard! Massive thanks to Juliacare for showing everyone how to be a good Dark Knight. If you need more information on rotations and such check his video out here: FFXIV: Endwalker Dark Knight Guide [Patch 6.1] – YouTube

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