Turning Marauder into a FFXI DRKFollow

I've been customizing my marauder to be a FFXI DRK. I think this shows promise. Thought I'd put this out there so we could discuss it and see if we can improve the build.

Currently I'm doing STR(x*5)>DEX(x*3)>PIE(x*2), x being the amount of points to be allocated.
I thought to stop allocating points in piety for the moment until I start testing how hard of a time I have landing debuffs and such.

I've been leveling thaumaturge along with it.

http://ffxiv.zam.com/en/abilitylist.html?name=&rank_low=&rank_high=&class=22&equip=1&order_by=

sacrifice, poison, slow, gravity, bio, dia, absorb-spells, siphon mp, drain seem like the best low level choices.
Because of the limited amount of slots some compromises will have to be made. Probably take out bio and poison at the very least.

light swing, bloodbath, skull sunder, disorient all seem to fit well. build tp with light swing, spend it with skull sunder (less tp than trunksplitter, keeps a good rythm).

None of this is set in stone. Lets discuss what you think and what could improve the build.

I'm running late to class now, but I'll go over this post when I'm back, maybe calculate the skill slots till level 20 and so.

Sounds interesting, glad someone is testing out stuff like this!

this thread is an interesting idea. i can see the possibilities, you know, turning glad into a pld with conj skills, or mrd into a drk with tham skills.

makes me wonder if there are any hybrid gears out there, stuff with say, +mp and +dex, or +mag. acc and +acc on them. i know some items exist with one or the other, but if you can find one with both you might want to snatch it up if you find yourself having trouble landing things.

alternatively, i think there is a glad skill that lowers magic resistance or something. maybe think about looking into that. not certain what rank glad it is tho.

got my thau to 10 last night.

punishing barbs... owns. it doesn't scale. its 1=1 damage reflection. the duration decreases. but the whole point of this build is spike damage. its a MUST have I'd say. I killed 6 three star level 20 crabs that ranked red yesterday thanks to it.

really find this being an interesting idea. Just like DRK our MP pool will be very small but unlike DRK we cannot just sit to regain it. If a person is going to be casting more such a DRK style MRD, we would want to increase our MP pool. so by doing this is the dmg lost going to be equal, less, or greater then the damage gained from absorb-X spells and such?

I think someone will not get a decent feel for this type of spec until the 20's when exp starts to drop and mobs scale higher. Anyone been able to test this in the 20+ range? currently at 21 i find myself using 100% MRD abilities, maybe shock spikes if i am doing a multi-mob levequest, and second wind for a post battle heal.

I myself would test this but i have not yet leveled thaumaturge.

Hey Maj, just wondering how the DRK is coming along?
i loved my Dark Knight in FFXI and am trying the same thing here.
Got my MAR to r20 and parked it, leveling my THM right now. its r12.

Any further progress?

Just noting that that would only work if you already had Tranquility set on your action bars and kept it there. Any ability with a timer is automatically set to its highest recast when you first equip it, and from recollection Tranquility has a 10 minute timer on it even if it isn't cross-classed. It doesn't have an AP cost though so it shouldn't get in the way of any build since I can't think of a way to use up three full bars.

What do you do about abilities being pushed off your bar when you switch between classes due to insufficient action points? Just macro them back?

i pertty sure it will work seeing how you can be pertty much anything you want in this game.

Ok, this is where I am now. I am 18 MRD and 20 THM. I am trying to play as a DRK where my MRD incorporates THM spells.

I don't think I have a good balance between Point Allotment and Actions. I need to work on this because I struggle to kill yellow mobs. As THM, I was comfortable to take on yellow mobs easily (or confidently). As MRD (DRK), I am scared.

Point Allotment:

STR 55
VIT 45
DEX 55
INT 18
MND 55
PIE 37

Action Sets (Action Pts):
Light Swing (0)
Broad Swing (0)
Fracture (3)
Foresight (3)
Skull Sunder (3)
Brutal Swing (3)
BloodBath (3)
Second Wind (3) (PUG ability)
Disorient (3)
Absord ACC(3) (THM ability)
Sacrifice II (2) (THM ability)

What I think:

I think I need to switch out MND and put most points in STR, DEX, VIT, PIE. In that order.
I think I need to unequip cure cast spells, because it takes too long to cast. Usually when I use the spell, the mob hits me for the same amount of damage. Wasted effort.
Maybe I should use Punishing Barbs and use it as part of the fight. It's cheating but it will get the job done. I won't get as much SP.

Any thoughts?

I've tried this build as well, works surprisingly well at lower lvl. Don't really have much issue landing Scourge, and its a great opener for Damnation. The only thing is i'm not really sure what damnation dmg is based on outside earth/water/ice, being that its an Umbral attack. Considering the low mp you have using THM skills, Damnation is pretty good for regaining mp, and it stacks with bloodbath. Till I had a bit more of an mp base, I mainly stuck to using sacrifice to keeping my health up. I was assuming this builds focus was dark magic, so I made sure to increase earth/water/ice, purely to back Umbral attacks. I did notice though, for higher lvl mobs, higher PIE did help at landing debuffs. Even though I have my dex is nearly equal to my str, sometimes on higher lvl mobs I miss alot. So having the ability to spam Scourge, sometimes saves my arse when I need a damage spike. An example of this was I was level 10 and I was fighting a lvl 16 mob. I will look foward to the drk release, but in the mean time this is a great idea. I could see it be useful at higher level. I looked around, and there was other people who seemed to enjoy this as well:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/2003-Thinking-of-making-an-MRD-THM/page3

Some people on that forum tried to knock it, but a veteran showed its potential. Though it seems like he went more of a general route in using THM skills, and not just the dark magic side of it. What is your guys take on it?



Edited, Aug 5th 2011 6:55am by XyphonCromwell

Edited, Aug 5th 2011 6:55am by XyphonCromwell

Damnation was definitely not worth it, regaining 2-3 MP for 1000 TP - use that TP for a real attack! Stygian Spikes + Siphon MP are more than enough mana regen. I did add Absorb TP, Absorb ACC, and Absord ATK today and was very pleased with the results. I originally tested the stat absorbs when I first got them and had resist problems, but with solid PIE I had no issues landing them today.