Dark Knight vs. Paladin

[Kain-Highwind]

I am thinking of getting Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia and i don't know what class to get.

I wanna be a knight but wat kind of knight?

Dark Knight or Paladin?

[lordblazer]

PAladin makes the best Tank!

Dark KNight is a great Damage Dealer.

Sicne oyu want to be one or the other you should start off as a warrior.Thats how oyu willg et experience and get a taste of what it will be like to be a tank and a DD.Once you get to lvl 30 and can do the quest.Then you can choose.By then you would already know.

[UltimateSpamGrover]

Wanna be a defender with Cure spells? Be a Paladin. Wanna deal lots of damage? Be a Dark Knight.

Wheres Lionx when you need him?

[Rostum]

PLD lets you take incredible hits and cure yourself with some other offensive WHM spells like Holy and Banish.

DRK is damage dealer but can't take hits, and can use some BLM spells.

[Kain-Highwind]

Thanks everyone for telling me the stuff looks like i will be a DRK :)

But what's the best race for a DRK?

EDIT: Don't double post. -Murder

[Rostum]

Any race you want to be. ^^

Don't make judgement on a races initial stats. Play the one you want to, because you can always make up for lack in stats from equiptment - and you will be looking at your character a lot. >.>;

Also, every race excels in a certain area, which is good for PLD and DRK I think. For instance, a Galka DRK might have more strength than a Taru DRK, but a Taru DRK will have more MP to use so he could focus on STR gear rather than MP gear - if you get me.

[Misfit]

DRK needs DEX and ACC gear man. Screw STR and MP. What's the point if you can't hit anything?! >_O

Anyways, drk pwns pld in ballista too. :3

[Lionx]

A Paladin is not a damage dealer in most respects. The most they would probably do is a Spinning Slash GSword weapon skill and thats rarely even used in parties.

Basically a Paladin is a tank, they offer the most defensive bonuses, and have the best tools in their arsenal to keep hate. Cure spells are used for hate alot of the times, and many PLDs at low levels do not realise that and are lousey tanks. I was able to keep hate as a Hume PLD pretty well at the lower levels providing i do not have a power level and there are good main healers(yes i do worst with one).

A PLD uses Sword and Shield for the most part, and vs harder hitting mobs an Earth Staff. They use Cure spells and their spell Flash at lvl 37 to keep hate. Flash gives off a ton of hate and blinds the monster for short time although that blind is extremely powerful for its duration. Their Shield Bash generates hate as well as their Sentinel and Rampart abilities. Defesive bonus traits and being able to Cover anyone also makes them a great tank, the most reliable. However PLDs cannot do alot of damage for the most part and cannot tank monsters that hit extremely hard, and when i mean extremely hard, i mean those that are IT+++ where it needs a NIN to tank and a good NIN at that.

All races do well at PLD although depending on the race, your equips will differ greatly. So dont go looking at that Taru's Equip and thinking omg thats how its equipped? When you are an Elvaan. Best sj is a WAR, need Provoke. PLDs dont really use their offensive white magic like WHMs...its just for show. And before you ask you can lvl up Divine Magic by using Flash when you get it really quick.

A DRK is a Offensive Knight in that they sacrifice their DEF for ATK. Their innate defense is not horrible and their armor is among the strongest, however they usually take those DEF and move it to ATK.

DRKs uses Scythes and GSwords, mostly Scythes at lower levels and GSword at higher levels. Preffered subs are WAR up to 60, then THF throughout their career (because WAR at that point gathers too much hate). DRKs need to mind how their MP is used, many DRK does not know how to use them and in the end become just a bland damage dealer. They need to manage MP to know when to use Absorb spells(generate alot of hate), to Aspir mobs, and also to konw when to Stun properly becuase dropping AoE attacks hurt. Most DRKs do not manage their MP well or even use their MP, which makes them quite not as good as they should. Most DRKs should only use their absorb spells along with Drain and Aspir, however if you are a dedicated DRK and are not closing in a skillchain, Magic Bursting with a spell with capped elemental might be wise depending on the mob faced(like for instance a "Shelled" crab using bubble curtain..dont bother...HOWEVER vs a slime you might want to since they are weak to magic).

Most abilities a DRK have is sacrificing DEF for ATK like Last Resort and Soul Eater along with most Dark spells. THey also get ATK Bonus traits and have long delay per swing making Acc more important. No race yet again is superior in a DRK's job, each race just has to have different equip. DRKs are more than just whacking which most DRKs do, its a really complex hate job.

It is also a common misconception that DRKs NEED Acc and nothing else, with the introduction of Sushi that you eat Acc gear and DEX gear(past dunes lvl its kinda moot to use em). STR gear for me is preffered especially after 60 with a THF sj to introduce more damage. Besides a Lifebelt and maybe a Verener's Ring, Sushi will help you with Accuracy troubles. PLDs however should focus on VIT until HNMing where HP is the preffered choice of stat increase.

[Rostum]

DRK needs DEX and ACC gear man. Screw STR and MP. What's the point if you can't hit anything?! >_O

Anyways, drk pwns pld in ballista too. :3

It was just an example. =P

[Nakor TheBlue Rider]

I'm a Drk and I Love it.

I'm Glad to See that Lionx Understands theres more to Drk than clicking attack and going afk... lawl

I use Absorb spells and Drain/Aspir and I Manage my hate very Well.
If I get a good Pt We Usually Rock the Mobs Quickly Cuz I Absorb the mobs AGI or VIT depending on the mob.

Although right now im havin gan Accuracy Crisis... Just came back to the game from a year away... had no gear... so now im desperatly trying to get enough Acc Gear so that I can acctually hit the mobs most of the time... /sigh

Update: Yah Accuracy no prob now. Working on more STR & AttK Gear Now :)

[Necronopticous]

I suggest Mithra for the Dark Knight class, the ability to hit frequently becomes much more important than the ability to hit hardest.

[Mikztsu]

With all the respect towards Paladins, lately I've realized that:

Ninjas > Paladins in tanking. Of course it depends what you tank - for example Ninja's really own mobs that hit very hard. Surely they are screwed against monk type mobs, but generally past 70+ there's a lot more love for ninja than Paladin. I love them both though, but I myself like good ninja a lot more than a good pld. That's why I'm taking ninja up now. :)

[Rostum]

Trust me, be whatever you want, gear can add up for things that you lack - pretty much.

[Lionx]

If theres one thing about Ninja and Paladin tanking its more about Risk and Reward. A WAR/NIN at 74 will outshine just about any Ninja in many aspects but cannot compete with holding hate with a PLD at least not without alot of enimity gear.

NIN, if its a good one, seems to chain exp faster and you can take stronger and more IT+++ kind of monsters. However they suck at holding hate compared to the PLD and you can pull hate more easily especially for RNGs and BLMs.

Now for PLDs you cannot take those really tough monsters that hit like powerhouses, but its more reliable, i can unload and not check my hate as much with a PLD tank and deal more damage than i would ever dare than with a WAR or NIN tank and that in itself can also get more exp with the only bad part that you spend more MP and are more MP dependant. But the thing is, you dont die :P

[Kain-Highwind]

well what combo i should i am definately not being a Paladin since their defensive. Even though I like swords, swords are one of the weakest weaponds in this game when there the strongest in all the FF games in the series and staffs are suppose to be the weakest.

I will choose a DRK or a WAR but i am not starting as a mithra since i am a male gender so this topic is now called "DRK vs. WAR" k :cool:

[Mikztsu]

If you want extremely strong attack and extremely weak defense - go go ranger. :)

Anyway Lionx, you're right about that. However, when I said a "good ninja" I meant it, because I've really lately had honour to party with some awesome ninjas who hold hate better than some paladins and they deal good damage too. But yeah, it all depends so much. Guess it's just us - rangers - who loves arrowburn parties and ninja tanks generally. :)


As for Drk vs WAR issue - I'm under impression that war/nin can outdamage any drk *most of the time*, but I could be wrong. war/nin with dual wield axes are a LOT of fun too.

[Lionx]

Oh no doubt there are very good Ninjas that can handle things well after their second provoke and never lose hate. But i tend to say those are a little to rare to be a common thing and to really base the entire NIN job performance on. I mean not everyone has the HQ top end gears, and not everyone can perform that well. So yes while there are amazing Ninjas(even one in my LS), that tends to be the exception and not the norm.

DRKs are generally going to be weaker than WARs until lvl 60ish. The thing is WARs are undisbuted king of melee under 40 and they can hold on par up to 60 and even then can still deal good damage. At 74 a WAR/NIN is too l33t to compare if equipped right. Basically i feel WAR is overpowered.

DRK at first have sucky WSs. Their weapon skills arent that nice, and only at the higher levels do they do better as Skillchain Closers which can break 1K dmg. However WARs can easily hit 1K as well and can tank with the right gear as opposed to the DRK. THe DRK can use magic spells such as the invaluable Stun and other magickles. By no means does a DRK do bad damage but a WAR can do just about anything a melee wants as long as they equip themselves right. At end game..i would expect the DRK to do 1200+dmg...while the WAR to do ~1100dmg..which doesnt matter by a whole big margin by then.