Shattering Stars/Dark Knight

CAUTION!

This subpage is a guide. Information expressed in a guide is usually more opinion than fact and should be taken as such. Guides are written by players, based upon their experiences, successes and mistakes, and are meant to aid other players. However, there may be differing opinions than those expressed in a guide. Strategies and information in guides may not work for everyone.

Dark Knight

Talk to Maat to receive this 'quest' (if it's your first time)
After that you are allowed to trade him the Dark Knight's Testimony.
The fight takes place in Qu'Bia Arena. If this is not your first Maat fight, you must walk to the BC; Maat will not teleport you.
Once you've completed the firght, talk to Maat in Jeuno again for one last bit of text and your level break.

Obtain

A Dark Knight's Testimony from one of the following:

• Adaman Quadav (Level: 74) (Qulun Dome)
• Doom Guard (Level: 75 - 77) (Gustav Tunnel)
• Doom Soldier (Level: 65 - 70) (Cape Teriggan, Gustav Tunnel, Toraimarai Canal, ...)
• Orcish Warlord (Level: 72 - 74) (Monastic Cavern) (considered the best way to get a DRK testimony as it drops 50% of the time. You will need 3 people or maybe 2 Skilled people to get him though as he is in a dangerous place.)

Guides

A Maat Fight Strategy

This is a pretty straightforward fight actually, but it's very important to carry lots of hi-potions and macro them. You'll be using them a lot. Like the other melees, use an Opo-opo Necklace, sleep yourself to 100% TP, use ws, icarus wing, ws right away. Use def or atk food, your choice. Most of your spells won't be very effective against Maat so don't bother. Just focus on hacking Maat up good. (but always hope he wastes turns using stupid spells like Absorb-CHR) Drain might come in handy but I wouldn't bank on it. Use your hi-potions to keep up your HP as you fight and your attack up skills should be done at your own discretion. The biggest threat is Blood Weapon. When Maat activates it, push L3 to break target lock and run around the room to reduce the number of times he attacks you. You DON'T want him regaining lost HP. once his blood weapon runs out, activate your own take back some of the punishment he's dealt you. (if your HP are still in good shape, this wouldn’t' be a bad time to use Souleater too) Use WS when they're ready and you should be okay as long as you are ready for anything Maat throws at you. Just beware not to use Guillotine when soul eater is activated or you could very well end up digging your own grave.

An Alternate Maat Fight Strategy

A lot of Dark Knights have had much luck using a seperate strategy against Maat where like normal you sleep yourself to 100 TP. Use a Blink Band walk up to Maat, the next part requires some quick timing but is fairly easy. Use Last Resort & Souleater. Carbonara is an excellent food choice here, the HP bonus is great for Souleater while still getting a hefty attack bonus. Face away from Maat and pull out your weapon. Turn Guillotine, Icarus Wing, Guillotine. If you have good equipment he should go down on the second Guillotine and you should still be alive. However it is still advisable to carry a great many hi-potions. Maat will usually use Blood Weapon between your first and second weapon skill. If he doesn't go down with the second weapon skill, you could very well be sunk at low health and him with blood weapon active you have to down potions before you can run away which will allow him time to regain some health. Most Dark Knights I know that have beaten Maat did so with this strategy, however most of them are Elvaan or Galka. This strategy can be seen here: Oropher vs. Maat
PS: Get a Blink Band and you will win for sure. I went 1/10 on him, and 1st and 10th try I went in with bands, last one won. 1st Weapon Skill 1.4K with buffs>>+ wing 2nd ws 400ish WON and still had 2 shadows left after over all took me 45-60 sec to beat him. :)

Alternate Maat Fight Strategy

Here you have another strategy to fight Maat. At start use Opo-opo necklace and raise TP to 100. Use Blink Band and take your food ( Tavzanian Taco in my fight ).Enter the battlefield and use Last Resort + Souleater, pull Maat with Bio II and throw a Guillotine. Now here is the difference, don't use your Icarus wing now, if you use it and you haven't a strong guillotine you will die, (that happened my first run ) so now use your Blood Weapon ( your Souleater should be up still ) now you should be recovering HP and taking some TP, you have to survive now, use potions or drain as needed, and feel free to Stun Maat because he should have used Blood Weapon too. If everything is ok as soon as you get 100 TP use a Guillotine ( Souleater still up ) yeah it could seem a suicide but you should have recovered enough HP, and after this Guillotine use your Icarus Wing and make him eat your 3rd Guillotine. The third Guillotine will defeat him. I don't recommend you to unlock target and run because if you do that you won't hit him and he will hit you if not 100% of the time, almost 90% of time. I like this strategy because you start "slow" but perform a "strong" finish and by the time he uses his Blood Weapon (he can recover a lot of hp per hit ) you should be ready to hit him with two Guillotine's so the time he will be drainning your HP shouldn't be too much.

Ultimate Maat Fight Strategy

I'm calling this one the Ultimate one because no matter what job you are or how experienced you are this is the one I used and it made the Maat fight so easy that a drunk monkey could copy this and take him down with ease. Start off with the normal sleep to 100 TP, use a blink band, and get ready to take on Maat. For food use a tavnazian taco for the huge defensive boost, it will make a huge difference. Then start the fight with Absorb-VIT, this will lower his defense and increase yours more. Now walk up to him, pull out your weapon and guillotine then use your Icarus wing and guillotine again. As soon as the second guillotine is finished use Souleater and Blood Weapon. Maat will usually do a Blood Weapon at this point as well, just ignore it and melee him head on. With all the increased defense from the taco and from Absorb-VIT Maat should hit for around 100 while you should be hitting for over 250 and with Blood Weapon you will regain everything Maat hits you for and what you lose with Souleater. Just pound away at him till 100 TP is gained and guillotine one final time. When I used this strategy I didn't have to use a single hi-potion and Maat never got me below 900 HP. The fight should take about 5 minutes total, not record breaking but a nice easy safe win.

-Followed this strat and after 2nd Guillotine... Maat had me at 19 HP.. I got Stun + Drain, then Drain II, then Guillotine to finish him off. And yes 2hr + Souleater. Enderin - Asura

Easy Maat Fight Win

This is one of the more expensive strategies, but fastest and safest. When you enter Maat fight sleep to 100% like always, use a Blink Band and then equip your gear, the food i used was a Bison steak for extra STR+ and atk, i also switched to swordbelt instead of life belt because accuracy isn't that important in the fight, now you should have atk450+ equip as much STR+ gear as possible and then, Drain II Maat, he should start casting a random spell, at this point stun him and absorb-STR, then engage, use Souleater Last Resort and now your attack will be over 500 and STR over 100, Guillotine, vile elixir+1, Icarus wing, Guillotine and if he hits you once during this fight he's lucky, but even if he does it wont be enough to kill you. I strongly recommend this strategy if you have about 80k Gil to burn and want an easy win.

• Note: While a Vile Elixir +1 is not cheap, this is the most reliable "quick kill" strategy there is. I would amend this by throwing in Blood Weapon between the Icarus Wing and the second Guillotine. While this shouldn't be necessary, in the (unlikely) event that Maat survives two Souleatered Guillotines, he will have his own Blood Weapon up, so a couple of big HP Drain hits may make the difference between life or death. I just beat Maat easily using this strategy; the first Guillotine hit for 1300+, which took him down to about 40% or so. The second Guillotine (after Blood Weapon) hit for 1500+, which obviously ended the fight quickly. He hit me once (for 146). This is a painful testimony to farm, so suck up the ~40K for the elixir and get it done right the first time.

Maat Strategy done without an Icarus Wing

When I went in, I used my Blink Band and slept myself to 100%. (112% in my case) The food I used was Carbonara (I forgot to get Signet so I still had Sigil on, since I was in the past) went up to Maat, pulled out my Havoc Scythe, 2hr, used Guillotine right off the bat for 800-some odd damage, casted Absorb-TP, used Guillotine again for another 800 or so damage leaving Maat at about 50%, tossed Drain II to bring my HP up again, then used Soul Eater/Last Resort Guillotine for 826 damage, bringing him right down to 0%. I was still standing with 112HP.

Gear

Weapon: Havoc Scythe Sub: Mythril Grip+1 Ranged: None Ammo: Bomb Core

Head: Chaos Burgeonet Neck: Chiv Chain Earrings: Coral Earring x2

Body: Hauberk Hands: Thick Mufflers Ring1: Sun Ring Ring2: Woodsman Ring

Back: Amemet Mantle Waist: Swordbelt Legs: Chaos Flanchard Feet: Chaos Sollerets

Food: Carbonara

done at 70DRK, Kadian of Midgardsormr (did the Maat fight on Cerberus)

Very Easy Maat Fight Win

To win this with very little effort you must have a Kraken Club, if you don't have one borrow one from a friend. Have the Kraken Club equipped, enter the fight use any kind of sushi. Use Souleater and Blood Weapon then engage Maat. He will go down very quickly. But make sure you have skill in Club first. Otherwise, this strategy is pointless.

One Weapon Skill Maat fight(instant win)

I made the mistake of using a Vitality potion before the fight and could not use a icarus wing, so i used my arrabbiata and slept to 100% tp with Opo necklace.Charged in and used Last resort with Souleater and used Guillotine for 1781 damage.he then said "Ungh... That'll hurt in the morning..." "That was a mighty fine display of skill there XXXXX.You've come a long way..." That was the end.So it seems you can win in one shot if ya make it count.He was at around 40% HP,but i'm not sure how much damage you need to do but it is possible,have fun.

Maat Fight Strategy for Tarutaru

You may have found several of these strategies not working so well for you if you happen to be trying to fight Maat as a Tarutaru. So here are some helpful hits. Gear that will give you +atk is a good way to ensure that every hit you land counts. You will rarely end the fight in two blows as a Tarutaru and Maat can seriously do some damage to you with your low HP pool. So here's my strategy: Make sure you bring between 4-10 Hi-potions +3 First sleep to 100% TP (or more if you like, I found that Mary's milk raises your TP faster if you're willing to spend the gil on it). For food I used a bison steak for the added strength. Make sure you have full HP and get ready to engage Maat. Lock on to him and pull him with Absorb-STR. As soon as he's close enough, let fly with your first Guillotine. Use an Icarus wing and slam him with another Guillotine. Now here's where Maat can break you as a Tarutaru. Do not let him get his Blood Weapon off. As soon as he says "Now that I'm warmed up" Cast Stun on him. If you let him hit you with his Blood Weapon he will 99% kill you. I fought him 3 times before with the best stuff I could manage, got him 75% dead, brought plenty of Hi-Pots +3 and he still KO'd me with Bloodweapon every time. You can not use your Hi-Pots fast enough. After you have stunned him, Abosorb-TP and hack away/use Hi-pots till 100% TP and finish him off with your last Guillotine. When I did this, I only had to use 3 Hi-pots and I killed Maat in less then a minute (Minus the buffering/sleeping time of course!) If you're having trouble beating Maat with your DRK Tarutaru -- give this stragedy a try.

Hybrid Zerg Strategy at 66

After going 0/3 on Maat, I finally beat him by changing up my strategy. I got my Mithra DRK to 66 (going for Maat's Cap), and initially tried sleeping to 100% TP > Guillotine > Icarus Wing > Guillotine, then turning on the Blood Weapon/Souleater and hacking away with a (borrowed) Mercurial Kris. This never worked; by the time I started in with the dagger, he'd always taken a big chunk of HP away, and would shortly start Maat Bashing, Blood Weapon, and all sorts of other nastiness, making my "zerg" feeble and ineffective.
Finally, I decided to reverse my strategy. I started the fight with Absorb-Acc > Stun > BW/Souleater and tore down his HP. I did use a Vile Elixir once my HP got down to 75% (spamming hi-pots would have taken away valuable stabbing time during Blood Weapon). Once Blood Weapon wore, his HP was pretty low. I used a macro to quickly change to a Darksteel Scythe/Pole Grip and more normal DD gear, used an Icarus Wing, and let him have a Guillotine with Souleater still active. He conceded at once. He never managed to WS or bash me; it went so much better than the first three times.
If you're borrowing a Kris from someone, or have one of your own, I recommend this method. I figure a Kris is not quite a Kraken, and ending the last bit of Maat's HP decisively is wise. The Kris hit for 125 - 165 with my setup; total damage with the Kris hits plus my final WS (of 561) was 3306, which may well have been overkill.

Elvan 4 Hit win

Here’s how I defeated Maat in 4 hits. You can do it in 3 if you time your item usage just right. Fist off I started with no gear on when I entered the fight. I put on all my normal gear. (Huberk, Celata, Thick Muffers, Thick Sollerets, Amemet Mantle, Bomb Core, Sipahi Zerehs, Potent Belt, Pallas’s Bracelets, Unyielding Ring, Ecphoria Ring, Insomnia Earring, Beetle Earring +1, Havoc Scythe, and Mythril Grip +1) Except for my neck I used an Opo Opo Necklace and 4 Sleep Potions. I only used 4 potions because I didn’t want to silence Maat instead. I wanted him to waste his mp and attack casting a useless spell instead of a physical attack. Once I hit 100 percent tp with the Opo Opo Necklace and sleep potions I put on my Chivalrous Chain and Blink Band used an Elixer, Marinara Pizza +1, and finally used my Blink Band. I then put my Celata back on. Ran up to Maat and highlighted him and turned away. I hit attack then used Souleater, Last Resort, and Bloodweapon. Faced him then hit him with a regular attack (it was unavoidable) and Guillotine. Popped a Hi Elixer +1 (Vile Elixer +1 is better if you can get one it has a shorter cast time)and then Icarus Wing. During my items I messed my timing and hit him again with a regular attack. Then hit him with a final Guillotine. This was an extreamly easy fight and just about anyone with the right gear could win this fight in 3 hits. Assuming you dont pull my stunt and mess up on the items and try to use them to soon. For those of you who would like a video here you go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Q_Wq-pB1A

Key tips

As you notice there are alot of strategy on here but I believe that making your own is the best cause you'll know what to do better anyhow what I found out from these guides and my experience (tryed 3 times won the 3rd) are these key tips for DRK fight there are more tips for all jobs which you may want to look into (Icarus wings, leveling up in fight for 100% hp...).

• If you use go all out Attack e.g Souleater Guilliotine Icarus Guillotine it is a luck based strategy as you HAVE to land some good weaponskills
• In a Attack strategy where you go Souleater Guillotine twice drinking a vile elixir +1 between Weapon Skills increases your chances massively using a EXP item and leveling will be cheaper but using the item takes time so it will have some risk.
• A defensive Strategy seems to be a more safe / skilled approach to the fight where you will be using your magic and items at the right time.
• If you have enfeebling magic skilled around 180ish you can Sleep II Absorb-STR DEX VIT and AGI giving you a stronger start; When I fought Maat, I attempted a Sleep II with 212+5 Enfeebling Magic skill and it failed. Always have a contingency plan in the event that it doesn't stick, which even capped (and amplified) Enfeebling Magic skill cannot guarantee.
• If you are fighting a drawn out battle use Absorb-TP to stop that Weapon Skill hitting you.
• Fighting on Dark or Light day will reduce the potency of you Dark magic ( I know Dark day should enhance it but it doesn't)
• Keep your Hp high cause Maat bash followed by a stun will give him enough time to do 800 odd damage inculding the Maat bash damage.
• He Hits for 100 of a pure Def strategy (Taco) and 200 for a pure attack strategy (+ about 50 for when he blood weapons and when you Last Resort)
• His attack speed is higher than yours.
• If you have +-0 evasion he'll hit around 5/6 times so you may want to consider more +evasion and not wear a -evasion gear.
• Slayer Earring could save you as when your in red HP with <100% TP you'll only take 80% damage.
• Use Weapon bash with a Slayers Ring (Latent effect activated by having less than 75% HP and less than 100% TP.)
• Getting a Tactical Ring will allow you to get 100% TP before you engage Maat it take 2mins to get 100% TP. (the ring is obtained from the pulling strings 60ENM which is very similar to Maat fight)
• Finally do not think a "drunk monkey could do this" because it is a hard fight and he can beat you reguardless of preperation for example if your just unlucky either by being Stunned or Maat bashed between guillotines on the attack strat or by him using Stun, maat bash, weapon skill close together in any order (Stun locking you) espeacially if he does a A.Fists on you (in combination those can do up to 1000-1500DMG depending on your equips so take care)
• Keep in mind that Maat can always change a fight around. The first time I fought him I used the STR+ Strat, and I ended up getting hit with Absorb-STR, DEX, and VIT. Then he Drained me and Stunned me before I could even use a elixer. But the second time I fought him I beat the record and he only got a Absorb-CHR off. It all depends.

the Idea of this is that you use these key tips(as many or as little as you want) to form your own strategy so that you can say you did it yourself not by following a step by step guide and if you find out another factor that effects DRK vs Maat fight slap it on here

That's pretty much it from what I can remember. Hopefully people will add to the key tips (especially offensive strategy tips) rather than add "how I did it" then call it a strategy cause really there are only 2 strategies in my mind offensive and defensive.

Personal Experiences

I thought this section would allow people to explain Briefly how they fared against Maat (wins and losses especially and where you went wrong) being helpful to other readers also no names please as this is a Wikipedia not a forum also if this passes 10 entries please delete the upper most the guide is big enough as it is.

• I used this basic strategy (An Alternate Maat Fight Strategy), but carried a vile elixir +1 to use between the WS's to get back to full health. Each Guillotine did upwards of 1300 damage on Earthsday, and Maat gave up after the second WS. Vile Elixir +1's return 50% of hp and MP if I remember correctly.

• I used a mainly defensive strategy and i didn't get 100% TP before fight or use a Icarus wing and with Absorb TP I got off 3 Guillotines to his one Weapon Skill only used 8 hi Pots +3.

• I lost the other day I used mainly attack equips and a taco I was close but I didn't spam Hi Potions fast enough and he Maat Bashed me for 100 and then hit me twice and I was gone.

• I used Blink Band, Icarus wing, Vile Elixir +1, and 8 Hi-Potions +3. Used Tavnazian Taco for food. Beat Maat in 5 minutes 45 seconds! Used Drain II & Absorb-TP once each. Didn't bother using Blood Weapon, Souleater, or Last Resort. Just kept my HP high and slowly wore him down.

• Slept to 100% TP, then I slept (II) him, absorbed STR, VIT, AGI, and DEX, then woke him up with a (no SE) Guillotine. Popped my ic wing and did another Guillotine, then popped Souleater and Blood Weapon. Almost died. Beat him with drain (1, this was before 2) at 12 hp.

• The last time I fought Maat I didn't even use Guillotine, I just took my time with elixers. I used bind that luckly stuck during blood weapon for a few moments to allow me to down a bunch of elixers. Fight took about 5-6 min. total.

• Used blink band, opo-opo necklace sleep to 100 (4 sleep potions will do the job), and calbonaro for food. I created a series of macros. 1. Drain II/Stun/Absorb-Str (stun and abs str failed cause i engaged mid macro), 2. souleater / last resort / guillo (hit for 1328), 3. Icarus wing, 4. Guillotine (for 900+). By that time a hit slipped in before my next macro and he folded. My other macros would have been 5. Blood weapon, 6. weapon bash/drain 7. stun/absorb tp and 8. Hi potion. Note about macros, you may want to practice them first. Drain II had 6 seconds before a stun would go off, and stun had 4 seconds before absorb tp would, though that macro failed to work properly anyhow. I didn't use any hi potions, and set the new time, 4 min 52 seconds on Gilgamesh. This was round 2, first i tried defensive strategy without macros, he stun once, maat bashed twice, and and before i know it i was seeing stars.

• I have killed Maat with 13 jobs before getting to DRK, this is by far the most annoying fight i have ever done. 0/3 so far and about 400k spent on meds. None of the above strats works, I'm unable to kill him with 2 ws's and its impossible to get a 3rd one off, even using vile elixir and vile elixir +1. If I wasnt so damn near Maat's Cap I would just stop torturing myself and not do this at all. With merited STR im on 74+16 STR without food. This fight really really sucks big time.

• I beat Maat before Abs-TP came out and didn't use any healing items other than a pamama au lait for a little health regen. I used Opo-opo necklace and 4 sleep pots for 100TP. Cast Abs-STR and then Bio2. WS, Then an Icarus Wing, WS again and then did Last Resort and Souleater when he did Soul. Beat him on my first try. I doubt you can put a link here so just search Shattering Stars Silverhwk on you tube and see the way it went.