Dark Knight (Final Fantasy XI)/Abilities

The Dark is one of the advanced job classes in Final Fantasy XI. This is a list of job abilities and traits of the class.

Attack Bonus
As the name suggests, Attack Bonus permanently increases the Dark Knight's Attack. There are multiple levels available:
 * Attack Bonus I - available at level 10
 * Attack Bonus II - available at level 30
 * Attack Bonus III - available at level 50
 * Attack Bonus IV - available at level 70

Resist Paralyze
This set of abilities allow to gain resistance to the status Paralyze. There are multiple levels available:
 * Resist Paralyze I - available at level 20
 * Resist Paralyze II - available at level 40
 * Resist Paralyze III - available at level 60
 * Resist Paralyze IV - available at level 75

Arcana Killer
This ability, available at level 25, increases damage dealt to the Arcana monster family.

Desperate Blows
Desperate Blows is a merit trait. It reduces the delay on two-handed weapons while Last Resort is active.

Muted Soul
Muted Soul is a Merit trait. It reduces the enmity caused when Soul Eater is used.

Blood Weapon
Blood Weapon is the Dark Knight special two-hour ability in Final Fantasy XI. As with all two-hour abilities, it is usable from level 1 up. The ability, when activated, will give the dark knight a 30 second special ability status effect.

While in affect, every successful landed hit by the Dark Knight will drain a significant additional amount of HP. Blood Weapon has absolutely no effect on accuracy so it is completely possible that a Dark Knight could miss every single attack he has during that 30 seconds and gain nothing from using the ability. Also, like all HP and MP siphoning abilities, this has absolutely no effect when used versus undead.

Arcane Circle
Arcane Circle is an ability available at Level 5. The ability will grant all nearby allies protection versus arcane type creatures for a period of 30 seconds. It is usable once very 10 minutes. Arcana include Bombs, Golems, Magic Pots, Jars, Evil Weapons, and mimics. Elementals are sometimes argued to be in this classification, but that is disputed.

Equipment Enhancement

 * Chaos Sollerets

Last Resort
Last Resort is an ability available at level 15 and is usable once every 5 minutes. Last Resort is very similar in its affect to Berserk, the Warrior ability. The ability will increase a Dark Knight’s Attack characteristic by 15% while it will drop his Defense characteristic by 15% as well.

Also, unlike Berserk, it creates a very considerable amount of enmity, so it is likely to draw the attention of any creatures the party might be fighting, so it is quite likely that the Dark Knight will take a lot of additional damage after using this ability. Unlike Berserk, this status only lasts for 30 seconds. Generally, this means that Last Resort is only used by Dark Knights just before using a Weapon skill.

Weapon Bash
Weapon Bash is an ability gained once the player reaches level 15. The ability can be used once every 5 minutes. When used, the Dark Knight will use his weapon to strike the enemy. It does a small amount of damage; however, its true application is its ability to Stun a creature and interrupt spell casters. It is relatively unreliable for stopping creatures' special abilities. This ability does create a large amount of enmity, similar to the Fighter skill Provoke.

Soul Eater (Final Fantasy XI)
Soul Eater is an ability available at level 30. The ability can be used once every 6 minutes and lasts for a period of 1 minute or until the player takes the effect off manually. While active, each hit inflicted by the Dark Knight will decrease the Dark Knight's HP by 10%. This loss of HP is converted directly into damage versus another creature. Soul Eater also has a moderate effect on the Dark Knight's accuracy.

If used with a support or subjob, the player will still lose 10% of his life per hit, but he will only transfer about 5% of that into damage to his enemy.

Although Soul Eater is not affected by Defense or Vitality, it is affected by resistance to physical attack. Creatures weak to physical damage will take more damage than 10% of the Dark Knight's HP, while creatures with high resistance to physical damage, such as Flans, will take less, flans taking about half the normal amount.

Ability-enhancing Equipment

 * Gloom Breastplate
 * Chaos Burgeonet
 * Sable Cuisses

''All three of these items are assumed to increase the percentage of converted HP to damage to 12% rather than 10%.

Dark Seal
Dark Seal is a merit ability. It boosts the Accuracy of the next Dark magic spell they cast.

Diabolic Eye
Diabolic Eye is a Merit Ability. It is an ability that grants the Dark Knight an increase in accuracy at the expense of HP.