Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward – #38 – Durmin the Dark Knight



Just a quick little detour into one of the game’s best job quest series.

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0:00 – Introduction

1:00 – Quest start!

2:30 – QUEST: “Our End”

8:15 – QUEST: “Ishgardian Justice”

20:21 – QUEST: “The Voice in the Abyss”
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Edited by Daniel Floyd

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44 thoughts on “Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward – #38 – Durmin the Dark Knight”

  1. every time Fray starts talking about Darkness I hear Ansem yelling "Submit!" in the back of my mind. I very much enjoy Batman Class, and am looking forward to watching this questline!

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  2. …while this job quest is fantastic, I honestly thought it might be best to save it for Stormblood. But happy to see it regardless. It's a very different flavor of job story, and it's deliciously edgy

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  3. At first I wasn't sure exactly what side thing Dan said he was planning on doing, but after replaying through the Dark Knight quests on an alt earlier this week, I was surprised by how I didn't think of that earlier.
    But regardless, still a nice reward for me to see after I finally completed the dreaded Book stage for my Zodiac Relic! For those not in the know, Relic Weapons in FF14 are generally the grindiest weapons to go for that is still 'manageable' by those not inclined to participate in Savage raids and Extreme trials… IF you don't mind to grind a LOT, that is.
    This is especially true for the first set of Relic Weapons from ARR: The Zodiac Weapons. I'm not gonna explain how you go about getting them (plenty of videos and guides about that), but I will give some pieces of advice for those thinking of getting a Relic weapon: Take your time and make gradual progress (to prevent burnout) and look up what you actually need to do/have (to prevent wasting resources and save time).

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  4. Dark Knight! And via the New Game + feature, too!
    New Game + lets you revisit many stories you've already played through. Excellent way to go through old stories.
    Also, I hope Dan opens up the Journal at some point through this. The Journal usually has summaries of what's going on for each quest, and the Dark Knight ones are some of the more flavorful ones in the game. If he doesn't, you should! And if you've finished them, you can always check up on old Journal entries for quests under the Completed tab. Who knows? You might find out a detail you missed.

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  5. How did Morenthal get back on his feet? Was he still alive? Or is the batman questline a crystal-powered Tyler Durden situation? I'm curious how important this Dark Knight stuff is to unlocking the best job Final Fantasy has ever created; not that it needs addressing because it is so obvious that everyone knows the answer, but for clarity's sake: Blue-Mage is the best job in all of Final Fantasy. There are blue mage in this game, right? …right?

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  6. It seems to me that Dark Knight is one of the jobs that's not super common, but often gets really good writing when it's used. Dan already talked about FFIV and Cecil, Leon from FFII was a proto-DK, not to mention Bravely Default's Alternis Dim. I look forward to what this version has for us!

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  7. … I just realized. You collect jobs in this game more than you collect titles in Skyrim, don't you? Dark Knight, Azure Dragoon, head of the College of Winterhold…

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  8. I know this will be seen well after you’ve finished this, Dan, but I hope you read aloud the journal entries for these quests. They’re honestly the best part of these quests and tie everything so well together. ^_^

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  9. I don't know if you'll do any job quests for Stormblood. I imagine it would be Monk, Samurai, or Ninja. I can't say if Ninja is relevant, and I've heard the Sam questline is controversial. Having played Monk, it's maybe a little relevant, but not too greatly.

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  10. Playfriends, welcome to what is proclaimed as one of the most acclaimed job quest series in Final Fantasy XIV! This is your spoiler free lore comment.

    All job quests operate as if they are set during the Main Scenario Quests of the expansions they are released in. Usually, the expansion job quests tell two separate, but connected, story lines: one for the 10 levels prior to the expansion's start, and 10 to reach that expansion's level cap. Heavensward jobs stretch out the first set across 20 levels, from 30 -50.

    As Fray & Durmin demonstrate, while Dark Knights are not necessarily linked to Ishgard, but the institutional classism and firm belief in the unquestionable doctrine of the Church & its Temple Knights is ripe breeding ground for the abuses and corruption that Dark Knights abhor.

    11:30 – It's hard to say if Fray's comment here is posturing, or their true mission. While the Dark Knight is a tank, taking enmity from enemies and preventing damage to others, it could also be said that vengeance is the Dark Knight's primary goal. If innocents survive the engagement, is it by happenstance, or design? Sometimes it's hard to say. This is a fine line that Dark Knights have to walk.

    17:45 – It's real easy to take the Dark Knight's oath and methods too far. Fortunately, Durmin has the wherewithal to not follow Fray's suggestion here and just cut the throat of every member of the Temple Knights. Including their commander, Aymeric.

    But a Dark Knight is one of the best at stomping out deep rooted corruption. Sometimes you have to cut out the evil.

    28:12 – I really like this. Not that I view Fray's cynical belief as correct, but that it strikes a juxtaposition between the Warrior of Light, who has helped thousands, sometimes for little to no reward or recognition, with someone who doesn't have that kind of heart. That Fray sees some kind of merit in Durmin's methods, but kindly disagrees, is nice.

    Dark Knight has one aspect that is fundamentally different than all other job quests: the quest journal does not just summarize the events of the quest. It instead offers commentary on the actions and attitudes of the characters in the quests. This starts small, but as the job quests go on, the snark starts to add up.

    One big note if you're enjoying the Dark Knight storyline: The writer for these job quests is Natsuko Ishikawa, and brought her some recognition for its quality. She would be the primary writer for patch 3.2 & 3.4 (the next bit of MSQ that Durmin will go through), and eventually half of the Main Scenario Quests in Stormblood!

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  11. The DRK quests really are quite great, though the SB ones can be a little offputting. What makes them so good is the way that they offer actual character development to the WoL, which they normally shy away from doing to allow the player space. I do have to say though, as someone who started off as a WAR, but switched to DRK during HW, there is a lot of resonance to be had playing a DRK through ShB. For obvious reasons though, I won't elaborate on that here.

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