(Don't) Fear The Reaper: A Dark Knight Guide

It's just a nice dump of stp while keeping most defenses. Generally sakpata's going to give about the same result(8 DA vs 10 STP isnt too different long term i think) and be tankier to boot.

If you were to say use it for an emp am3 then the crit rates nice but if you can use the pdl on sakpata that'll outweigh it

Having trouble getting the full .exe of the damage calculator to let me grab it off github. Can anyone clarify what the damage difference (WS not white) between a r15 Ragnarok and r15 Caladbolg is? Would it be something like 15%? Or larger?

What do you mean? Torcleaver with Calad VS Torcleaver with Ragnarok?

Ah, yes, sorry for not clarifying. General Torc spam.

I will check it when I'm back home if none else will before that.

Not sure I'm using 100% optimal TP/WS sets, but I smashed something together for you. With massive buffs and assuming strong gear (ranked ody, +2 earring, etc). WS at 1500-2200

Ragnarok: WSavg 55,136, DPS 10,196, ratio 75.7% WSD, 24.3% white
Caladbolg: WSavg 67,080, DPS 13,428, ratio 70.5% WSD, 29.5% white

Difference looks like ~30%

Edit: I forgot to put the AM on for Ragnarok and then couldn't get back to Ragnarok, so these results might be slightly off. Either way, it's incredibly large.

Under the same conditions that I ran it's a significant difference, roughly 12k damage difference. But yes, big difference.

main="Caladbolg",
sub="Utu Grip",
ranged=Empty,
ammo="Knobkierrie",
head="Nyame Helm",
body="Nyame Mail",
hands="Nyame Gauntlets",
legs="Fall. Flanchard +4",
feet="Heath. Sollerets +3",
neck="Abyssal Beads +2",
waist="Sailfi Belt +1",
ear1="Moonshade Earring",
ear2="Thrud Earring",
ring1="Epaminondas's Ring",
ring2="Niqmaddu Ring",
back="Ankou's Mantle",

SV songs with Aria on cogs, lucky chaos/sam cor rolls(no XI but gave job bonus), Dia 3 with light shot, warcry from war, boost-str, sublime sushi +1 because DRK can't hit a barn door with a shovel, and distract 3. The above set punched out ~73k at 1ktp spam. Replacing only calad with ragnarok punched out ~61k. (Nyame was set to path b r25)

I ran it like this because trash mobs be trash and I run it on the higher level cogs because it's somewhat more (albeit not really) similar to say sortie basement bosses from an acc perspective and at least its a higher stats compared to in order to better understand making use of pdl or other. No armor break or geo as GEO may or may not even be present half the time, and armor break may or may not even land so that's entirely dependent on resistances and macc.

Was thinking from a practical standpoint of perhaps a melee sortie run with WAR,DRK,BRD,COR,RDM,WHM.

Thank you both for the detailed breakdown!
This is the kind of information I struggle to come by when trying to gauge value added for the cost benefit analysis of pursuing various options as a solo/lowman player with limited resources.
When discussing GSD options for DRK Caladbolg was clearly the best but as someone who already has Ragnarok the question becomes well, how much better are the better options? Augmented Montante +1 for instance has been said to wash Ragnarok for years, but it's never been laid out how wide the gap in the rankings is. 30%~ is a great starting point when trying to gauge the best way to direct my time.

If you can get Montante +1 reasonably quick, it will outperform Ragnarok with better Resolutions. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say it is at least 5% better. Perhaps even 10%. But that comparison was from a few years ago when I began using it after being heavily encouraged to leave my Rag in storage.

Caladbolg's Torcleaver is on a much higher level, and I didn't need to crunch any numbers as it was very clear when I got it. Torcleaver excels when you can spam with high buffs using Soul Enslavement, but even without, it is really good. The only issue with Caladbolg is not having an easy way to recover MP, so keep a Scythe around for Entropy.

I'd also encourage getting the Loxotic Mace +1 for undead (Odyssey) and the Ambuscade GA to land Armor Breaks, as that will expand your weapon choice.

main appeal of rag is giving gs a multi-step light option. besides that its pretty mediocre, if you already have it go nuts. Just be working on calad in the meantime if you wanna get better dmg output.

Kylos nailed the other things to get, would highly reccomend Lycurgos as its a very effective weapon if you can keep your bursted drains going, and it remains in your arsenal for breaks even beyond that.

Hiya old friend