Introduction

This guide contains suggestions on how to use your cooldowns effectively, and tips and tricks to play each phase as effectively as possible.

While most gearsets will work for UWU, check the BiS sets posted on the site or in The Balance Discord server if you want to optimize your damage. If you have the Shadowbringers relic, we recommend a GCD speed of 2.45 or 2.40 to take advantage of the free Skill Speed provided.

While Dark Knight does the lowest damage of all of the tanks in UWU, damage does not matter very much as the checks as very lax. Dark Knight does have an incredibly potent set of defensive cooldowns, especially since patch 7.1 where Dark Missionary is available for this ultimate. In particular, The Blackest Night (TBN) and Dark Mind overperform throughout this ultimate, and mitigating damage is incredibly comfortable.

Defensive Skill Usage

Ultimate progression is a team effort. Unlike Savage, incoming damage is so high and healer kits are small enough that GCD healing is not always avoidable. Because of this, how well you perform your job of mitigating for yourself, your co-tank, and your group will directly affect the performance of your healers. The Blackest Night (TBN) in particular is an incredibly strong tool, and smart usage will make a world of difference for your healers. Each phase will include notes on particularly heavy periods of damage on specific party members where TBN will likely be the most useful, and you can often ‘feel’ when an extra TBN would help, but it’s also up to your group’s healers to communicate where their resources are strained. It’s always a win for your party if you can save a player’s life, or make room for an extra damaging healer GCD.

One note for this encounter unlike fights from other expansions is that auto-attacks from bosses can crit, and deal a lot of your health. As a result, it’s especially important to be aware of and mitigate auto-attacks just like you think about tankbusters. TBN is extremely strong for mitigating boss auto-attacks throughout the fight.

Mitigation is rather flexible for this encounter, and further details will be provided in the section for each phase.

Offensive Skill Usage

Optimizing your damage on Dark Knight revolves heavily around shifting potency into raid buffs, and Ultimates are no different. For best results, coordinate with your group to know when burst windows are occurring. Generally speaking, you will want to pool resources for the start of each phase, with additional burst windows according to the length of the specific section and your party’s progress against enrage.

Note that it is impossible to provide a full map of each burst window because killtimes can vary wildly and your party will need to decide how to approach each phase. The following sections will provide guidelines on the more common options, but practicing and consulting with your group so that you’re all approaching phases the same way is important.

Potion Usage

While potion usage may depend on what your group wants to do, a recommended set of potions would be at the start of Phase Two (Ifrit), at the start of Phase Five (Ultima Active Phase 1), and a potion near the end of the fight during Primal Roulette. Potting during Ifrit can allow a greater chance to skip dashes even with deaths, and the other two pots are essentially ‘free’.

Use HQ Grade 4 Tinctures of Strength or better to cap strength for UWU.

Phase One: Garuda

The most optimal opener can vary based on your group and your specific killtime, but as a general recommendation, pull with Unmend and do what’s essentially the standard opener, with a few minor adjustments and omissions. Obviously, abilities like Living Shadow, Shadowbringer, and Salt and Darkness are omitted, but additionally, we recommend saving your Salted Earth until the plumes appear, due to the movement of the boss as well as for the additional AoE damage. If you’re off-tank (and taking the Mistral Song), you should use your Rampart just less than 10s pre-pull.

It’s recommended to use TBN on the off tank (whether that be you or not) taking the Mistral Song at the start of the fight. If you do so, it will still be up for the Downburst tankbuster later. If you’re taking the Mistral Song, it’s recommended to weave Dark Mind into your opener for the Mistral Song too.

Once the boss moves, you’re safe to use Rampart immediately if you’re main tank and it will cover the upcoming Downburst. You can use TBN for the Downburst at any point after the boss starts casting Slipstream.

You can also Shadowstride/facepull opener, but Unmend will often align better with raid buffs, and Unmend will most easily allow both yourself and your fellow melee players to keep your GCDs rolling, as Garuda’s small size and rapid movement can easily eat your inputs, and any advantages of pulling with Shadowstride are outweighed if multiple people experience GCD rollbacks.

Plan your Reprisal uses with your co-tank. While using it to grab the Spiny Plume is popular, more efficient uses are at the first Friction cast and the following Aerial Blast. The second set of Plumes come with quite a bit of damage on the main tank, so it helps to make sure that whoever is holding the boss at that point receives a TBN. Dark Missionary can be placed before the second Friction and last for both cleanses. It can be used before the first Friction and sometimes cover both cleanses too, but this can depend on the timing between cleanses, and ensuring that Dark Missionary hits both cleanses is preferred.

One thing to be aware of throughout this phase is that Garuda’s Feather Rains causing her to disapper can cause attacks to ‘ghost’ if they were prepared and not yet applied before she disappears. This is especially noticeable on the Feather Rain that happens just after the Frictions and Cleanses but can depend on the exact time she gets pulled. To avoid losing major damage, save the Bloodspillers granted by Delirium until after she returns, and especially avoid using Carve and Spit which has an especially long (~1.5s) application delay.

Phase Two: Ifrit

It is possible to keep your combo rolling from Garuda’s death to Ifrit’s reappearance. Potions are often used in the opener here to make sure your group skips the dashes at the end of the phase even in cases of death or mistake.

If you are holding the boss during the Infernal Nail phase, you can hit three targets with Flood of Darkness by targeting one of the front two Infernal Nails and moving onto the hitbox of the other. Using Abyssal Drain on Ifrit plus the two front nails is not worthwhile. If you’re holding Ifrit, it’s recommended to use your AoE combo on Ifrit and the front two nails, as well as Quietus when appropriate, though damage should be balanced to ensure the nails do not pop too quickly.

The Infernal Nail phase is another period of heavy tank damage, so make sure the tank holding the boss gets a TBN. If you’re main tank, and holding Ifrit, you can use Rampart when available, and Dark Mind for near the end of the nail phase, for auto-attack damage and nail explosion damage. It’s recommended to use Dark Missionary to cover nail explosions, and to Reprisal the front two nails if you’re holding the boss. Using Reprisal for the Hellfire after the nail phase can make LB generation more difficult, and as such is often not recommended.

After pulling Ifrit to the ’new north’, you should feel free to use Shadow Wall to further mitigate auto-attack damage. TBN is also valuable for Flaming Crush + auto-attack damage. It’s okay to spend all of your mitigation on auto-attacks here, since if you’re taking Titan first, you can use Living Dead on the first tankbuster, and you’ll still have all of your cooldowns up for the third Mountain Buster if your group sees it.

Phase Three: Titan

You can freely use Shadowstride during this phase to gap-close to the boss at any point where the boss disengages during this phase and you will have enough for every instance this happens. Do be wary about Shadowstriding during Gaols if you’re not confident you won’t mess up the Landslide!

Titan’s Mountain Buster is one of the hardest-hitting tankbusters in the game relative to max HP and comes with a mini-buster and several weaved auto-attacks. If you’re not invulning it, use all of your available mitigation, ask for Feint, and do not allow your co-tank to take it without the benefit of your TBN. Usually, the main tank will invuln the first Mountain Buster (if that’s you, you can press it when you see the “Sons of man! Murderers of my children!” text box appear), the off-tank will take the second, and the main tank will have the boss for the third, if seen. However you do it, it’s important to swap after each one so both tanks can send all of their cooldowns for them. You should TBN every one that isn’t invulned.

Tumult hits hard, and it’s recommended to use Dark Missionary on at least one of them. You should coordinate with your co-tank to split up your mitigation correctly (Reprisal should be on both), but the first Tumult (the one after Gaols) hits eight times as opposed to the second Tumult’s six, so that is a more important one to mitigate.

This phase can play havoc with buff alignment. Most groups will save their two minute burst until after Gaols to make sure the group gets full usage, but for slower killtimes, you might find that using Delirium early will gain you a use, which will mean it won’t be in two-minute burst. If you do opt to use Delirium early, then do make sure you send as many Edges of Darkness as you can during the two minute buffs. For faster killtimes, you can usually save Delirium until after Gaols and still get two usages without missing a third use.

Don’t be shy about dumping your MP before the phase ends. You will gain about 7,600 MP at the absolute minimum between Titan dying and The Ultima Weapon becoming targetable, and if Delirium and Carve and Spit are available for use during the intermission, you can generate over 11,000.

Phase Four: Beyond Limits

Salted Earth can be used on the Magitek Bits and be available for Ultima opener. This doesn’t actually do anything except make your parse better. If your caster is slow to use LB, you may be able to get a full Souleater Combo off on the bits.

Delirium and Carve and Spit can be used on Lahabrea and be available for Ultima opener, but aware that he has 90% damage reduction. You should get five or six GCDs on Lahabrea depending on how quickly your melee uses LB. Stalwart Soul combos gain resources at a faster rate, so you should use those to ensure you get the MP and Blood you need. At the very least, you should gain 1200 MP and 40 Blood here.

Make sure that you are the one who uses tank LB, as Dark Knight has the coolest one.

Bank a Dark Arts proc by using TBN either on a non-tank at Magitek Bits or on anyone for Ultima. This is not incompatible with using the LB3.

Phase Five: Ultima

Going into Ultima, you should have 100 Blood, full MP, and a Dark Arts proc. Your potion should be used just before Ultima becomes targetable, about five seconds after the screen flashes white, and it’s recommended to use Rampart at the same time as your potion, irrespective of if you’re taking the Homing Lasers or tanking the boss. You can use Dark Missionary shortly after Ultima crunches Garuda (just as the screen starts to flash white) to cover the first Tank Purge.

Rampart should be used regardless of whether you are planning on taking the Homing Lasers or not, as the auto-attacks plus Viscous Aetheroplasm still do quite a bit of damage. TBN should be used on whichever tank is taking the Homing Lasers. Shadow Wall can also be used prepull with about three seconds of leeway. Homing Lasers snapshots about three seconds before actually doing damage, so don’t be alarmed by Shadow Wall falling off before it visually hits. The tank taking this Homing Lasers should kitchen sink it, so that the next two Homing Lasers can be invulned to save mit for the Aetheroplasm orb popping post-Suppression.

Throughout the phase, be careful about your usage of Reprisal on Tank Purges, as it can inhibit LB generation and cause you to miss having LB3 post-Suppression. Dark Missionary is safe to use, however.

Post-Predation is a good time to use defensive cooldowns, as Ultima will do a long string of auto-attacks.

The second Viscous Aetheroplasm should be invulned along with the second Homing Lasers. If you’re the one taking the Viscous Aetherplasm and Homing Lasers (usually the ‘main tank’) make sure to stand away from the party, and press Living Dead with three seconds left on your Aetheroplasm debuff for a lot of comfort, if you’re not taking the Aetherplasm/Lasers (usually the ‘off tank’), be ready to Provoke when you see the Aetheroplasm application if your co-tank is handling it.

You cannot skip the third Homing Lasers following Annihilation no matter how high your party DPS. This should be invulned by the player who didn’t take the second Homing Lasers (usually the ‘off tank’) to save cooldowns for Aetheric Boom. It’s recommended to use a combination of Dark Mind and TBN to take the Aetheroplasm orbs during Annihilation. You can use Dark Mind immediately after the second Weight of the Land dodge and it will safely cover the first two. Afterwards, you can use TBN at any point as you’re dodging the Landslide/Ifrit dashes to cover the third orb in the set if you’re assigned to taking those (usually, the main tank does).

TBN by itself is sufficient for the Mistral Song damage during Suppression. Because you are guaranteed not to get the Gaol, you can aid prog by banking blood and MP to dump into it.

LB3 for Ultima can be used shortly before the boss reappears (or as soon as you see the boss start to teleport). After LB runs out, you can start piling on your mitigations to get ready to take the orbs. Using LB1 for safety in Aetheric Boom is recommended, especially as this area is tight for mitigation and it’s possible for players to get pushed back at a strange angle and accidentally not pop the Aetheroplasm orbs as a full group.

Tank damage during Primal Roulette is very heavy, as Ultima will attack uninterrupted while multiple sources of damage pile on. You may opt to save Rampart at Aetheric Boom to use here. Either way, Dark Mind should be available for the second or third primal. Make sure the main tank gets a TBN as each primal’s raidwide goes out. Throughout this phase, raidwide damage is very high, and comes as three sets of two (Aetheroplasm plus Primal raidwide). It’s recommended to coordinate with your other tank to cover a different set of two raidwides with your 90s mitigation (in your case, Dark Missionary). Don’t be shy about using LB1 to help cover mitigation during these paired raidwides if healer MP is low, especially for the last set, as making sure players don’t die is much more important than the potential of a damage LB.

The main tank cannot be targeted by an Eruption during primal roulette, so don’t be shy about standing where you need to to allow for melee positionals.

Watch Ultima’s HP; regardless of when your final burst is planned, you should use your potion by the time the boss drops to around 15% HP to benefit from its full duration.

A final word: Don’t get discouraged if the number on your FFLogs page after clearing isn’t what you hoped. Excellent play can easily result in relatively unimpressive numbers, and often, playing for consistency of clears can run counter to getting a high parse.

Best of luck with your clear!