Warrior Guide to Dark Knight.

Hello MapleLegends!
Since there is none out here and people were looking for one I will try my best to make a in depth guide.
I have 8 years of experience with the class and it has always been my main up until Red patch.

1. Accuracy
2. Warrior
3. Spearman
4. Dragon Knight
5. Dark Knight
6. HP Washing Yes / No?
7. Useful tips
8. Conclusion


1. Accuracy.
Make sure you do some research on this before you start one.
It is key you have accuracy. It is your bread and butter.
I used this to find out how much accuracy I needed: http://screamingstatue.com/accuracymain.php
1 DEX = 0.8 Accuracy so keep that in mind adding DEX
I recommend to not go above 50 base DEX. If you are still missing a lot try to improve you gear.

Useful items for accuracy boosts.

Blue Old Wisconsin. ( http://bbb.hidden-street.net/eq/hat/blue-old-wisconsin )
This item will give you 7 accuracy at level 20 and has 7 slots so if you feel like scrolling you can increase the accuracy / DEX even more.
You will most likely keep this helmet until you can get a Zakum helmet.

Zakum Helmet. ( http://bbb.hidden-street.net/eq/hat/zakum-helmet-1 )
This will give you 15 accuracy but also 15 DEX. Again a great boost in accuracy!
If you scroll this Aim for DEX! Not accuracy scrolls.
This might be hard to obtain.

Overall.
Try to get a level 35 Overall. It will have 4 DEX clean.
If you can scroll a overall to 20+ DEX .

White Raccoon Mask. ( http://bbb.hidden-street.net/eq/eye-accessory/white-raccoon-mask )
This will give you 2 accuracy clean and has 7 slots. Try to scroll this with 70% accuracy scrolls.

The more of these items you have the less DEX you will have to add.


2. Warrior.
How to start out your warrior?
On creating your character you are looking for these stats.
STR x
DEX x
INT 4 (x if you are hp washing I will go over this later)
LUK 4

In order to become a warrior you need 35 strength. You should not really have to worry about DEX yet at this point.

Once you are a warrior the first thing you want to aim for is maxing "Improved MaxHP Increase.
The reason for this is you will gain 40 (when maxed) more hp on leveling up. If you take this skill later down the road you will be missing out on a decent amount of hp. As for a Dark Knight every little bit of HP counts!

Spoiler: Skill Order

5 Improved HP Recovery
10 Improved MaxHP Increase
20 Slash Blast
20 Powerstrike
8 Endurance (This skill is bugged atm and will make you regenerate HP every 3~4 sec when max)
The spare points in Improved HP recovery.

3. Spearman.
Congrats! You are now a Spearman.
As for a Spearman this is were you will decide your path! Will you go Spear or will you go Polearm?
What do I recommend?
Spear will be better then Polearm. The reason why is in 3th job spear puts out more dps.
People argue that Hybrid is better but it is not. Hybrid is not bad, don't get me wrong but it is pointless once you hit 120. All your points will be wasted in Polearm skills and it will also slightly hinder your training at the higher levels.

Spoiler: Skill Order

5 Spear Mastery
6 Spear Booster
20 Spear Mastery
30 Hyper Body
20 Spear Booster
20 Iron Will
Spare points into Increase HP recovery / Iron body (to spend points)

You might ask your self: Why not Final Attack?
The reason why you will not take final attack is because you will lose dps.
Final Attack will lose a lot of dmg on multiple targets. Example: If you Slash Blast 6 mobs and you get a Final Attack Proc on top of it and you hit the first mob 1k the second mob will be hit for 750 3th 500 4th 200 and so on. Every extra mob you hit with Final Attack will lose a X amount of dmg. I do not know exactly how much it is but it is a lot. By the time you finished your Final Attack animation you could have done a second Slash Blast which deals a lot more dmg then a Final Attack proc would do.


4. Dragon Knight.
Good job you survived the boring part... not really but 10 more levels and you will be happy you kept on leveling!

I will continue the guide from here assuming you will go for spear. If not your build will be different here which I will address later on.

Spoiler: Skill Order

1 Dragon Fury:Spear (for luring purposes.
30 Spear Buster ( for some reason it is called Crusher here )
20 Dragon Blood
20 Elemental Resistance
3 Sacrifice
30 Dragon Roar
30 Dragon Fury:Spear
Left over points into sacrifice.

So here is the big question. Why would you max Dragon Fury:Spear instead of going Hybrid and Max Dragon Fury: Polearm?
The reason why is fairly simple and obvious yet many people do not seem to understand why.
To clear some things out. You can not use Dragon Fury: Polearm when you have a Spear equipped (seems obvious) On the later levels grinding mainly 4th job you will only be using Buster. It puts out a lot more dmg and will make grinding at skeles a lot easier. You will have a situation (skeles as example) where you will Buster mobs Rush them Buster again and so on. Sometimes mobs will not get pushed but stand in place instead. If they are "LOW" on HP you can usually finish them of with a simple swing of Dragon Fury:Spear.
This will happen more often then you think. This is the main reason why pure Spear is better then hybrid. It might not look like a lot but this will save you a lot of time since the range difference between Buster and Fury is huge. You now no longer need to walk back to mobs! Your life has become so much easier now.

Spoiler: Spear Fury in action

5. Dark Knight.
Welcome to God status. This is where the fun really begins! (Yes Dragon Knight was already loads of fun but it gets better!)

Spoiler: Skill Order

1 Rush
20 Berserk (if you have access to lv. 20 Berserk skill books)
10 Beholder
30 Power Stance
30 Achilles
19 Maple Warrior (If you do not have lv. 20 Maple Warrior book put 9 points in)
20 Hex of the Beholder
30 Rush
30 Monster Magnet
25 Aura of the Beholder

Spoiler: Skill Order (Accuracy Issues)

1 Rush
20 Berserk (if you have access to lv. 20 Berserk skill books)
10 Beholder
20 Hex of the Beholder
30 Power Stance
30 Achilles
19 Maple Warrior (If you do not have lv. 20 Maple Warrior book put 9 points in)
30 Rush
30 Monster Magnet
25 Aura of the Beholder

Spoiler: Skill Order (No access to Berserk 20)

1 Rush
10 Beholder
20 Hex of the Beholder
30 Power Stance
10 Berserk
30 Achilles
19 Maple Warrior (If you do not have lv. 20 Maple Warrior book put 9 points in)
20 Hex of the Beholder
30 Rush
30 Monster Magnet
25 Aura of the Beholder

Why Hex of the Beholder lv. 20 and not 25?
Hex of the beholder overlaps buffs. This is a annoying thing of being a Dark Knight that all your buffs will overlap. At Lv. 20 you will get 20 accuracy and 50 evade. Once you go over Lv. 20 it will also add attack (I believe it was 18 or 20 when maxed). If you add the extra 5 points into it you will "NOT" be able to use Attack pots like Heartstoppers or Onyx Apples. This skill will rebuff every 10 seconds so you will not be able to keep up your attack pots.
Do not add points in one by one. Save up 20 points and add it all at once. Bless gives 20 accuracy. If you have it lower then lv. 20 it will be worse then bless and since accuracy is so important for warriors this is a big deal for us.


6. HP Washing Yes / No?
Lets get one thing very clear here. You do "NOT" need to hp wash to play a Dark Knight but if you do not do this you will handicap yourself A LOT!! <------------

The reason why you want to HP wash is because of the skill "Berserk" This will increase your damage by 200% when you are below 40% hp at lv. 30.
In the current state of the game it is not possible to obtain Berserk lv. 30 because it only drops from Horntail which is not killed yet.
So assuming you have Berserk lv. 20 you need to be below 30% HP in order for Berserk to be active and it will increase your damage by 170%.
If you "DO" HP wash you can zerk at 9k HP.


For HP washing you will need to add some base int or have good int equips.
I am not an expert on HP washing but this is what I did.

I have 80 base INT (no int equips) and 15 INT from my zakum helmet.
If you have INT equips you can take less base INT.

This is how I did it.
I added 35 STR to be able and do my job. From there I only added int till I was at 80. from there you can add your points to STR / DEX.
At lv 90 till 130 I added all my points into HP and will wash them back over time.
If you do this method I highly recommend you have some decent accuracy gear since the more you need to add into DEX the less dmg you will do (it will be a lot lower compared to non washed)
Once you achieve berserk lv. 20 is where the fun starts. You can pretty much zerk everywhere including zakum. You are weaker then a non washed Dark Knight until you get your points back into STR (this will take around 4 months to do).
Because of Berserk we can actually get away with this!

To answer your question. Should you HP wash? Yes you should!

This is my personal experience so far with washing.
I am at the point I am hitting over 9k with berserk up with a "BAD" Spear. My damage output is about the same if not better then a non washed Dark knight. On zakum with party buffs I crit between 12k~18k (on warrior elixir)
Once I get my 250 STR back I will most likely be critting around 14k~22k a line.


7. Some useful tips.

DEX over Accuracy.
You always want to try and scroll items for DEX over Accuracy. You will get less accuracy from DEX but DEX will increase your damage. Keep this in mind when you are making your gear. Damage plus accuracy is ALWAYS better then pure accuracy.

HP management.
Key skills! Dragon roar / Sacrifice. Since you will be using zerk all the time (assuming you HP washed) these 2 skills are key!! (If you use Sacrifice / Dragon Roar on the exact same time you get 1/1 you will die. Be careful at Zakum and other bosses that can 1/1!)
For a Dark Knight to do optimal damage out put you want to have zerk up as much as possible. Preferred 100% of the time! (this can be hard to do with berserk lv. 20)
At the moment of making this guide the Berserk animation is bugged and it does not pop up when you are actually in zerk range so you have to get the numbers down in your head as guide.
Dragon Roar is great to get chunks off your health if you are full or close to full hp.
Sacrifice is used to get to the sweet spot. Since Dragon Roar consumes 30% it is hard to get to the sweet spot assuming you have Berserk lv. 20.

GET A MOUNT!!!!!!! <-----------------
YES! GET IT!
It will be the best 20m (at level 70) and 50m (at level 120) you have ever spend!
A mount in combination with Rush will make warriors in general so mobile people don't even know until they actually see it. You now have 170% speed. YES MORE THEN HASTE!(is this even legit??)
Rush mobs with 170% speed and you will fly through the maps mobbing and slaying them at a insane rate.
Warriors are a very mobile class if combined these two things and will make your overall experience with this class a lot better.

Spoiler: Warrior Mobility OP!

As you can see in this video you can clear maps with ease if you use your mount in combination with rush.

How to Rush.
Rush is a little bit weird since mobs that have been attacked and are pushed back by damage can not be rushed. In order to avoid this ( killing alone ) simply delay your rush by a second. You will Attack the mobs wait a sec and rush after. This does not require a lot of practice but it is something to keep in mind.
If you are playing with a party and you need to Rush mobs tell them in advance in order for you to rush mobs they should not attack for the time being or it will give you a very hard time to actually pin mobs.

Spoiler: How Rush Works

Pots.
Warriors are a really cheap class if it comes to pots because of your high HP and NLC pots that heal a percentage HP.
Once you reach around 5k HP it will be best for you to use "Honster" pots. They will heal you 60% of your max HP and only cost 2.8k ea. This will save you loads of money!
When you have berserk and can use it properly (lv. 20) You should have a combination of pots. Ginseng Root, Reindeer Milk and Sorcerer Elixirs. With these pots you can stay in Berserk range with ease. This only gets easier after obtaining Berserk lv. 30. You will mainly use Ginseng Roots after you get hit by a 1/1 ability.

Spoiler: Effectiveness of pots.

Same video as the Mobility one just keep an eye out on my HP. With these pots I have 100% up time on Berserk.

Dragon Blood and 1/1.
As it says. Dragon Blood can kill you when you get 1/1.
The skill should not consume hp (-20hp ea 4 sec) when you are below 20 hp. If you get this proc at the EXACT same time as you get 1/1 you will be dead.
This happens from time to time. Not often but it will happen.
Long story short. Use Warrior Elixirs on bosses that can 1/1 you. Unbind Dragon Blood and replace it with Warrior Elixir instead. This way you avoid to accidentally buff yourself and die.
Once you get points into Achilles this does not apply anymore. 1/1 damage gets reduced by 15% (Achilles Lv 30)

Zakum.
When we are at Zakum we shine the most at cleaving arms down and add control. Lets abuse this knowledge to the max! The arms are fairly easy and nothing to worry about. There are a few things you need to keep in mind though. You should always focus on the healing arm. It is the arm on the right second from below. Focus this down with your party once you start. After this arm dies you should move to the left side and stand on the middle platform. This makes it so you can cleave all 3 arms down and will give you the highest damage output.
Our damage is falling off on single target. It is not bad but other classes will out damage you.
Because we know this we should use this to our advantage. We are great at controlling adds.
In order to keep Berserk up at Zakum you will need to stand on the right side of him ( Max Powerstance recommended) to avoid the heals from your Bishops. Be sure to bring All Cures with you because you will get sealed but are not able to get dispelled by them. I highly recommend you also bring Reindeer Milk to the fight. They heal 5k HP and will make sure you have 100% up time on Berserk. Once Hyper Body is about to drop off you walk through the body across to your party. Preferably you Rush. This will give you I-frames so you get less hits when crossing. Once arrived rebuff your party and make sure you have all the buffs you need yourself. You will most likely be healed to full hp which is perfect for whats coming next. Climb up to the top platform and Dragon Roar once. This will aggro most, if not all adds on to you. Use the teleporter to go to the right side of the map and roar once as well. If done correctly you are no in Berserk Range on the right side attacking Zakum well cleaving down the adds.
This is a great thing to do. Usually Bishops are the ones to lure adds but by doing that they can not dispel stuns from the party or the armor buffs on Zakum itself and will cost you a lot of time overall. (Example: http://www.twitch.tv/losj1991/v/13213345 )

8.Conclusion.
Overall Dark Knight is an amazing class to play. You will have great results when playing this class. Not only does it do a good amount of damage but you also have good mobility and mobbing potential and to finish it off with your HP management. It might take some practice to master zerking efficiently but once you do you are greatly rewarded. I have played this class for 8 years and still enjoy it to this day.



I hope this guide was helpful to you and gives you some more insight of what the class is all about.

 

No No! You do not need to HP wash. It will make your life easier late game though. On EMS I had around 18k HP and I did fine. The only thing is it will make it harder to keep your Berserk up since you need to pot more often leading to you dropping out of Berserk range. 60 DEX is not a big deal. If you have enough accuracy you can get rid of some dex with AP resets. Just make sure you have enough accuracy to hit the mobs where you are grinding at / go to in the near future.

 

No. The only thing is if you start to late you will need more levels to achieve 30k. You will need more levels to obtain more mana. Look up a HP washing guide to get some more details of how it works. I am not an expert on HP washing.

 

Again I am not an expert on this. All I know is when you have 80 base int you get 8 extra MP ea level which is equal to 2 washes per level. Try to work out some math and see how much you would need to get the washes ^^

 

I wanted 30k HP around lv 130 so I need 80 base int to wash it all back. If you are going to wash slower you can take a lot less int but you will have 30k hp on a later level.
I added all my points into hp from lv 95 till 132 + the 80 base int made it so I miss a ton of str. atm I miss +/- 240 str. This means I miss a lot of damage but because of berserk I can get away with it.
You do not need to go for 80 base int but if you want to wash like a mad man it helps ^^

 

I recommend you to get enough accuracy for skeles. Eventually you need more for Horntail but that is far in the future. For skele you need 139 acc if I remember correctly.
Keep in mind on higher levels you will get a passive bless (Hex of the Beholder lv. 20) so you might be able to drop some accuracy later on.

You do not need this amount of accuracy on early levels though so try to get enough accuracy for the spots you are grinding at.

 

Updated Tips. Added Zakum.

 

I added everything to HP still washing back. I am done in October

 

^^ Good luck with it!