Heavensward: How to Unlock FFXIV Dark Knight & Beginner Tips

How To and Where To Unlock FFXIV’s Dark Knight Job

Dark Knight is an exciting new tank class released in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward that uses magic to not only hold hate, but inflict pain onto enemies. However before we get into explaining how FFXIV‘s Dark Knight works, we first have to explain how to even unlock it.

First things first, you need to be at least level 30 in a Disciple of War or Magic class to begin the quest and have access to Ishgard. This may be obvious to most, but if you just picked up FFXIV: Heavensward and were looking forward to starting right away as a Dark Knight, that unfortunately won’t be possible.

Unlike the other new Job quests that are easily found by just looking at the Ishgard map for an appropriate marking, the FFXIV Dark Knight job quest is well-hidden. First, find the Ishgardian Citizen at coordinates (13,8) near the tribunal to begin the quest.

After a short exchange, you’ll be on your way to meet your new mentor. Speak to the Punctilious Temple Knight to trigger a cutscene where you will meet Fray, your connection to the FFXIV Dark Knight world. After this cutscene is over, you will have unlocked the Dark Knight, congratulations!

However, stopping here and jumping right to it would be foolish. There is a Job quest to tackle right after completing the unlock quest. It can be surprisingly challenging if you don’t employ the right strategy. It’s important that you get through it though as Darkside, the ability that you unlock as a reward, is an extremely important one.  With that, let’s break down the next quest, Ishgardian Justice.

Darkside and Your First Job Quest: Ishgardian Justice

Go ahead and switch over to Dark Knight and begin following the steps for Isghardian Justice. You won’t have to go far and the Lowborn Crone that you are looking for is clearly marked on the map. Fray has some choice words for the corrupt Temple Knights and is counting on you to help dish out justice.

Follow the steps for the quest (everything is clearly marked on the map and is easy to find) until you meet the Pernicious Temple Knight to begin an instanced battle.

Now this one can be tricky and you’re going to need everything at your disposal to pull it off successfully. FFXIV Dark Knights don’t have any native curing or healing abilities until you unlock Souleater at level 38. Luckily, Fray will be there to take care of the curing for you. However, Fray doesn’t cure as fast as you would like usually, so the onus is on you to get the job done. Finally, it is important to keep in mind that you are the tank in this scenario, not Fray. Make sure to use Unleash to keep all of the enemies on you, and off of Fray. Fray has more health than your average healer but won’t be able to hold out forever.

The first group of enemies are easy, so clear them quickly, making sure to avoid their AoE attacks at all costs, and three flames will appear. When you touch these flames, you will get a stacking buff that will increase your damage dealt and reduce the damage you take. However, you can only handle about two stacks at a time, otherwise you will be killed. Grab two and then move onto the next group of enemies.

There is a White Mage enemy, Ishgardian Chirugeon, that should be taken down first. Hit it with your Hard Slash combo and then use Low Bow to stun its Cure. It should be dead before it ever gets a chance to try and Cure again. With the White Mage out of the way, you should be able to quickly dispatch of the other enemies. Again, just be sure to avoid their AoE attacks as getting nailed by them will reduce your HP to a point where Fray has a hard time keeping up. If your darkness stack levels are low, replenish them by hitting the flames before moving on. Just be careful not to grab too much.

Move into the final room and employ the same strategy used above. Kill the Ishgardian Chirugeon first, then clear the other adds, and finally the boss knight, Pernicious Temple Knight. More adds will spawn while you’re fighting him. Move off the Pernicious Temple Knight when they appear, take out the Ishgardian Chirugeon first, then the others, then back onto the Pernicious Temple Knight. Keep the pressure on by using your DoT attack Scourge while mixing in Reprisal when you can and you should be able to take out the Pernicious Temple Knight in no time.

Once you’ve defeated the Pernicious Temple Knight, you’ve all but completed the quest and will have unlocked Darkside, an important ability that we will get to shortly. Your next quest is at level 35 and will be given by Fray where you first met.

With all of that out of the way, let’s talk strategy going into your first dungeon as a Dark Knight.

How to Play as a FFXIV Dark Knight

If you’ve ever played any of the other tank classes before, there will be some things about FFXIV’s Dark Knight that do look familiar. However, Darkside adds an element of MP management that doesn’t exist with the other tanks, Paladin and Warrior. Let’s start with the basics first though.

During dungeons, you’re usually going to be fighting groups of two to three enemies more. Pull these enemies using your ranged attack Unmend, which has the added benefit of increasing your enmity (or hate if you prefer). Once the enemies are grouped together, regularly hit them with Unleash, which dishes out AoE damage that also increases enmity. Be careful though, as Unleash does drain your MP. Once you’ve got all the enemies together (and pointed away from the other party members, especially the healer), begin your Hard Slash -> Spinning Slash combo which quickly builds enmity on a single target.

Now FFXIV’s Dark Knight has two stances that can both be used at the same time but have very different functions. The first is Grit, which is similar to Shield Oath on Paladin. It will reduce your damage but greatly increase your enmity generation and reduces your damage taken. This should always be on if you’re main tanking (read: any four man dungeon). Next is the ability you just unlocked, Darkside. Darkside rapidly drains your MP but in return increases your damage. With this on, you can greatly aid your team’s damage per second (DPS) but you’ll need to keep your MP intake high to maintain this.

While in Darkside, the only way to reliably refresh your MP is by using Syphon Strike after Hard Slash instead of Spinning Slash. The problem is, this messes with your enmity generation. The trick is to start off by building hate with Unleash and Hard Slash -> Spinning Slash (with Darkside on if you’re starting with high MP), but then once you have hate pretty much locked, start using Syphon Strike after Hard Slash instead, mixing in Spinning Slash everyone in a while if your MP is high. By doing this, you can offset the damage that is reduced by Grit while still maintaining all of its benefits.

While that’s going to be your combo rotation of sorts, there are other important abilities to mix in as well. Low Blow is an off GCD (read: doesn’t count towards your cooldown timer) Stun, but does have a cooldown before it can be used again. Stunning deadly AoEs are crucial to surviving tough fights as a FFXIV‘s Dark Knight.

Shadowskin reduces your damage taken and can be combined with Reprisal (which can be used after a successsful parry) to provide some quality damage mitigation. Finally, Scourge should be used as much as possible to keep DoT on your enemy and increase your party’s overall DPS.

And that just about does it as far as beginner Dark Knight tips are concerned in FFXIV: Heavensward. As you level up, you’ll acquire new abilities that you’ll need to work into your rotation. But as long as you understand the basics, you’ll be in a great position to learn how to use these new abilities with ease!

How are you liking Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward and the new Jobs so far? Let us know in the comments!