Dark Knight.EXE

A Veteran Dark Knight Player Take on its Current Skill Kit

By Abendveil (Amorphous_Veil)

            Let me give you a bit of background on myself.  I have been playing BDO from about two weeks after NA server launch in 2016.  I originally played ranger until the release of Dark Knight, at which point, I chose to play DK instead.  I am still a Dark Knight main to this day (although I do play Archer as well as I enjoy ranged classes).  Through many ups and downs I have remained on Dark Knight because I enjoy the kit and the playstyle I use with it.  I currently play succession because that’s what my gear is arranged for, however, I also play awakening from time to time, and pre-succession launch played awakening of course.

First off, I’d like to say a few things about Succession and Awakening while briefly going over the main strengths and weaknesses of each respectively.  Succession Dark Knight is pretty good in its current state in my opinion. It has good damage and protection (in most cases) and does fairly well in all forms of PVP if played well.  Awakening has many of the same strengths with the added bonus of ranged chip damage but added weakness of less damage trading potential and protection.

Main Succession Strengths:

• High damage trading potential
• Good combo potential through floats/stiffs
• Very high damage against evasion targets
• Many protected cc skills
• Good protection on movement abilities
• High burst mobility
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Main Succession Weaknesses

• Gaps remaining in protected skills (the size of the gaps are dependent on fps and latency)
• It’s easy to grab because all of its damage is melee range
• Can very easily run out of damage abilities to use during a combo because remaining absolute skills in the kit lack damage
• Can be seen as very linear in playstyle due to low number of useful skills

Awakening is about on par with succession currently I believe.  Though I have not pvp’d much on it recently so its hard for me to tell!  The main things awakening is lacking is damage spread throughout skill kit, non-hotkey or C swap transitions between stances and the ability to cancel main-hand absolute skills with dusk.

Main Awakening Strengths

• Ranged poke damage
• High combo potential through floats/stiffs/down smashes
• Access to pros of succession kit (minus high damage trading potential)
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Main Awakening Weaknesses

• No succession version of nocturne
• Does not flow particularly well between kits without C swapping
• Many useless skills that don’t do damage or have any kind of useful mobility/cc/protection

Dark Knight Skills

The following will be a break down of the main hand kit and my take on each skill and why I use or do not use them

Disclaimer: These will be my personal thought on each skill and my ideas of ways that could improve some skills.  I am not saying that every skill that I put a suggestion on should be changed.  This is just some ideas of small to large changes that could improve the kit overall.

Color Key for quick reference

Good Skill

Okay Skill

Bad Skill

Suggestions for changes to improve skills

Dark Knight Mainhand & Succession Skills

Absolute: Kriegmesser Training (LMB in Mainhand)

• Basic attack skill, kind of useless, doesn’t give any kind of duration buff like some other classes and doesn’t do much damage.
• Good for getting back mana (if you aren’t chugging pots) or pulling mobs
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Absolute: Sudden Attack (LMB after sprint/Smokey Haze in Mainhand)

• LOCK THIS SKILL. Skill is not protected, doesn’t do damage, can activate when trying to use other skills out of smokey haze.
• It does have a knockback, but the risk of leaving it unlocked and having it activate by chance is not worth it.
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Absolute: Unveiled Dagger & Ultimate Stinger (F in Mainhand)

• One of main catches in succession. Great skill for quick catches, only con is its unsafe however this is fine because of the activation speed and its utility.
• Has a 10% attack speed duration buff for 5 seconds that is good to try to keep up 100% of the time.
• Ultimate Stinger: kind useless… adds 25 HP on hit to unveiled once every 25 seconds which is cool but why the mega long cooldown?
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Absolute Hidden Strike & Ultimate Hidden Strike (Hold F after Unveiled Dagger or Hotkey in Mainhand)

• LOCK THIS SKILL, or be very good at not activating it after unveiled dagger.
• The cc on this skill is a stun due to Ultimate Hidden Strike which if used against opponents can mess up your combo potential due to cc limit. Use with care.
• Ultimate Hidden Strike: adds a stun to Hidden Strike. Cannot learn Absolute Hidden Strike without learning Ultimate.
• Suggestion: Would be cool if Absolute could be learned without Ultimate learned or if the stun was changed to a stiff. Alternatively take the stun off Ultimate and add a forward guard or super armor to skill instead.
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Absolute: Darkness Burst (RMB in Mainhand)

• LOCK THIS SKILL. Key bind interferes with combos occasionally, damage not worth the risk of being unprotected.
• Knockback on skill second hit but slow second hit activation.
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Absolute/Prime: Airstrike (W + F in Mainhand

• Prime: Great skill. Good for quick engage and/or re cc
• Absolute Note: absolute version of the skill cannot be cancelled out of as well as prime can be.
• Suggestion: allow absolute to function the same as the prime version in respects to cancelling the attack portion with Dusk.
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Absolute/Prime: Slanted Balance (S + LMB in Mainhand)

• Great skill. well protected cc ability with low cooldown and okay damage range
• Note: Prime version only adds a bit more damage range after cc range nerf.
• Suggestion: Increase Prime version damage or add other benefit to Prime version
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Absolute/Prime: Pervasive Darkness (Spacebar in Mainhand)

• Great skill. Has a lot of utility as either a quick forward guard or damage skill.
• DP Shred, forward guard, good accuracy
• Prime: High damage.
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Absolute/Prime: Ravage Rake & Absolute: Flow Ravage Rake (LMB + RMB in Mainhand.  Hold for Flow or press S during skill for immediate Flow)

• Good Damage ability. Used after opponent is cc’d in pvp and in pve for succession.
• Prime: High Damage, HP 30 back on hit.
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Absolute/Ultimate: Repeated Annihilation (Shift + RMB in Mainhand)

• LOCK SKILL or be careful not to use key bind.
• Low damage, unprotected, no cc. pretty much only gets used if you are completely out of options…
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Absolute/Prime/Ultimate: Enforcement & Flow: Termination (S + RMB, Hold for Flow in Mainhand)

• One of main damage skills. Melee to close range, unprotected but stiffs on main skill hit
• High Damage, great accuracy on skill
• Flow: adds another action to skill with more damage than main skill and no cc
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Absolute/Prime Kamasylvia Slash (Shift + LMB, hold to charge in Mainhand)

• Good Skill. Knockdown on hit, forward guard while charging
• Absolute: cannot hold skill once fully charged, okay damage.
• Prime: Great damage, can hold but drains stamina, flows with Prime Nocturne, forward guard turning can be finicky (probably due to latency)
• Suggestion: Allow absolute version to be held same as prime
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 Absolute/Prime Wheel of Fortune (Shift + F in Mainhand)

• Great skill. Super armor with a float on hit, good damage
• Gap in protection when used before or after certain other skills that have protection. Common denominator of gap is wheel of fortune….
• Absolute: cannot cancel out of skill with Dusk
• Prime: great damage, can cancel out if needed with Dusk
• Suggestion: Allow Absolute to be cancelled with Dusk same as Prime
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Absolute/Prime Obsidian Ashes (Shift + E in Mainhand)

• Good Skill. Ranged damage and bound, unprotected.
• Absolute: Cannot cancel out of attack with Dusk
• Prime: High damage, can be cancelled with Dusk
• Suggestion: Allow Absolute to be cancelled with Dusk
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Absolute: Corrupt Ground (Shift + Q in Mainhand)

• LOCK THIS SKILL. No damage, cc is a stun, skill is too long, unprotected and locks you in the animation on use.
• Suggestion: Remove Stun and Add Super Armor or 360 Block (wall of thorns). Or just allow skill to be cancelled and speed up animation to something similar to Wrath of Vedir.
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Absolute/Prime: Lunacy of Vedir (Hot Key Only)

• Great Skill. High Damage, Super Armor, Bound
• Nocturne can be used during skill to get out of sticky situations
• Absolute: Cannot be canceled with Dusk
• Suggestion: Allow Absolute version to be cancel out of with Dusk like Prime
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Prime: Twilight Dash (C in Succession)

• Great skill. Super Armor Movement with High damage
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 Prime: Spirit Legacy (Hot Key Only)

• Great Skill: High Damage, Forward guard, DP Shred and Down smash
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Prime: Spirit Absorption (Hotkey Only)

• 3-minute class buff. Dark Knights is one of the better one. No complaints
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Spirit Satiation (Hold Shift + Space)

• LOCK THIS SKILL. Terrible skill. Amount of healing for channeling is a bad joke.
• Bad key bind activates when trying to use other skills
• Suggestion: change skill to a passive skill that activates off of proximity to targets marked with Imperious Command. Passive HP regeneration = Base amount + Bonus per Marked enemy within X Meters
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Dusk II & Chain: Dusk (Shift + A or D)

• Good skills. I-Frame on low cooldown
• Chain Dusk: must be used immediately after Dusk
• Suggestion: Change activation requirement of Chain Dusk from “after using Dusk” to “After using any skill” this would allow better utilization and management of DK movement in combat.
• Additional suggestion: add a (Shift + S) activation key bind to allow backward movement alternatively see Smokey Haze
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Smoky Haze (Shift + W)

• Good Skill. Super Armor Movement Ability on low cooldown
• Rare Occurrence Note: Sometimes character sprints instead of using skill when hitting key bind in combat stance
• Suggestion: Add (Shift + S) key bind to allow backward movement without turning camera
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Absolute: Scarring Slash & Unclosed Scar (A or D + LMB)

• Okay Skill. No damage, CC, or Protection
• I use this mostly to pull mobs in PVE. Unusable in PVP
• Unclosed Scar: Adds 20 bleed damage every 3 seconds of 9 seconds
• Suggestion: Add 2 second cooldown and SA when used off cooldown much like the side slash skills other classes have. Increase Unclosed Scar bleed damage and maybe duration (100 every 3 sec for 12 sec?)
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Absolute: Shadow Bullet & Shadow Bullet: Air (A or D + RMB, A or D + RMB while airborne)

• Good Skill. No damage, ranged stiff, Absolute is unprotected
• Shadow Bullet Air: Super Small I-Frame and must be airborne to use otherwise same as Absolute
• Suggestion: AWAKENING ONLY: allow the usage of Shadow Bullet: Air with its key bind in awakening stance while airborne in Shattering Darkness and Flow: Bombardment. This would add a semi protected transition to Mainhand stance without the use of a hotkey or C swapping.
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Dark Shadow & Absolute: Split Second (Q to toggle Block Stance, LMB in Block Stance to activate Split Second)

• Good Skills. While DK Q block isn’t as strong as other classes in tankiness or protection radius it is still a Q block. Great protection activation time on key press.
• Split second is a good option for a protected stiff in close range fights
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Absolute/Prime Nocturne (Hotkey Only for Absolute, Activation options for Prime version)

• Good Skill. Good stalling skill to allow cooldowns to come up or flank opponents
• Prime: far superior to absolute due to ability to activate Nocturne during certain succession skills
• Suggestion: Allow Absolute: Nocturne to be used off of Absolute: Lunacy of Vedir, Awakening stance Twilight Dash, and other awakening skills such as Trap of Vedir. This would add a transition to Mainhand stance from Awakening without C swapping or using a skill off hotkey. This would make Awakening much more fluid with Mainhand.
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Luscious Snare III (Hotkey Only)

• Okay Skill. Cool stiffness trap, super hard to use during a fight
• Duration to low, animation too long to use during intense fighting, can really only be used once preemptively but duration is so short that trap disappears before anyone gets near it usually.
• Suggestions: Increase Duration drastically (60 seconds), allow multiple to be placed if skill is used and one is already placed. Alternatively, SUCCESSION ONLY, add a passive to skill as PRIME version that places a trap at the location of skill use for Lunacy of Vedir, Corrupt Ground, Nocturne, and/or impact location of Shadow Bullet/Shadow Bullet: Air if the skill is aimed at a surface
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Vedir’s Dogma (Hotkey Only Toggle)

• Bad Joke of a Skill in its current form. Drains MP for 20% damage increase on skills no DK uses.  Toggles off if stance changes from Mainhand to Awakening.
• Suggestion: Change effect to something interesting. My suggestion is change skill to consumer 2.5% Black Spirit Rage Per 3 seconds and add the Black Spirit Rage effects and additional effects to certain already used skills. (would be a toggle on that increases the effects of certain abilities in the Dark Knight Mainhand Kit like accel for Nova or Mist effect on Corsair Skills).  The effects could be substantial because usage of Dogma would reduce uptime of Rage Absorption and other BSR skills, so it’d be a tradeoff.
•  

Imperious Command (Passive, E or certain skills to activate damage)

• Pretty Good Skill. Extra Damage on Kamasylvia Slash, Corrupt Ground isn’t used so it might as well not be on there.
• Suggestion: Expand skills that detonate Marks, Shadow Bullet and Pervasive Darkness are options. Additionally, as discussed above with Spirit Satiation add an HP regeneration bonus to passive healing of Spirit Satiation based on total number of marked enemies withing X Distance.
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Dark Knight Skill Enhancements (Rabams)

Suggestion: add multiple levels to Rabams to allow damage scaling at higher levels (three levels per skill staggered 4-character levels e.g., 56 > 59 > 63)

Shadow Strike & Wrath of Vedir (Shift + X or Hotekey)

• Both are good options
• Shadow Strike: lower cooldown than Wrath, good damage, high accuracy modifier, is ranged
• Wrath of Vedir: Fast activation, High Damage, Pulls in PVE
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Obsidian Blaze & Unveiled Fate (Shift + Z or Hotkey)

• Both are kind of bad
• Obsidian Blaze: Has Super Armor, no damage, Long Cooldown
• Unveiled Fate: Not protected, no damage, float on second hit but good luck getting there
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Slanted Slash & Balanced Strike (Hotkey Only)

• Slanted is Okay Balanced is the pick
• Slanted Slash: Forward guard, Okay damage, floating on second hit
• Balanced Strike: Hot Keyable Second Airstrike on a Long Cooldown
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Apperentally theres a character limit.... my thoughts on Awakening are posted as the first comment in this thread!

Thank You

If you have thoughts or comments please feel free to add to this post!  I will be checking back every now and again.

Sincerely Veil

Dark Knight Awakening

Take my Opinion of Dark Knight Awakening Skills with a grain of salt as I have not extensively played awaking recently.  I hope others who have will look out for us on that front!

Overlord (E in Awakened stance or Hotekey)

• 3-minute class buff for Awakening. No Complaints
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Dusk: Hallucination (Automatically Activates)

• Allows the skill “Dusk” and “Chain Dusk” to be used while in awakening stance. See those skills above for suggestion.
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Elvia: Scorched Faith (Hotkey while Elvia Weapon Buff is Active)

• Does a huge amount of damage to Elvia Mobs (in theory).
• Downsides: Have to have Awakening Elvia Weapon Buff to use skill and it takes up a hot-key slot.
• Suggestion: Convert to normal skill and instead apply the extra Elvia damage with weapon buff to Rebam skills or something.
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Vediant Training (LMB in Awakening Stance)

• Basic melee Attack in Awk Stance.
• No cc, no Protections. Pretty much never use this for anything.
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Hallucination Gap (LMB while Q blocking in Awk)

• Good skill. Works same as “Split Second” in Main Hand Q block stance.
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Touch of Exploitation (S + LMB in Awk or Quickslot)

• Kind of bad skill. No Protection, Bound on last kit only, mediocre damage at melee range.
• Can be used as damage fill.
• Can have Core attribute applied to add a forward skill during use. (However, this is not my first choice for Core)
• Suggestion: Add Forward Guard, Remove Bound on last hit and add Knockback on all hits as Core Attribute. Additionally, increase damage?
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Spirit Hunt (W + RMB in any Stance)

• Great Skill. Protected Transition skill between stances.
• Has Low cooldown, okay damage at melee range, and Super Armor.
• 25% BSR skill. Adds attack range and damage but casts to slow.
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Spirit Blaze & Flow: Spirit Blaze (S + RMB in Awk, Quickslot ) & (RMB after Spirit Blaze or Quickslot in any stance)

• Spirit Blaze: Okay skill. Unprotected melee AOE but casts quickly with float on extra hits and decent damage.
• Flow: Spirit Blaze. Good damage and after most recent change is a down smash. Can be used in any stance as well through Quickslot.
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Shattering Darkness & Flow: Bombardment (Shift + LMB in Awk) & (Flow has Several input options)

• Both are good skills. High ranged damage on direct hits, wide AOE on extra hits allows chip damage. 
• Both have Forward Guard. However, in certain instances other players CCs will go around or under the forward guard protection (reason unknown).
• Shattering Darkness can have stiffness added through Core attribute. (this could be my Core pick)
• Shattering is the 50% BSR skill for DK. Adds extra hit and stiffness on phantom blade hit (which overlaps with core attribute why?)
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Seed of Catastrophe & Flow: Root of Catastrophe (Shift + E in Awk, Quickslot) (Flow has Several Input options)

• Both Good Skills. Both Cast quickly with decent ranged damage in a smallish AOE.
• Unprotected, but Floats on hit.
• Seed of Catastrophe can have Super Armor added through Core attribute (could be my pick but duration of SA is super short because of the quick transition into the flow)
• Seed is the 200% BSR skill in Awk (which is really bad)
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Spirit Legacy (Shift + RMB in Awk, Quickslot)

• Great Skill. Same as Prime Version listed above with slightly more damage
• 100% BSR skill for Dark Knight Awk. Good damage increase on BSR skill.  It’s no Valk 100 but color me satisfied.
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Trap of Vedir (S + F in any stance)

• Good skill. Can be used to disengage or stance change.
• Forward guard on backward movement with no collision.
• Issue & Suggestion: when S + F is used in Mainhand stance after wheel of fortune is used Unveiled dagger will go off before Trap of Vedir which is a problem. Please change activation priority to prioritize Trap of Vedir over Unveiled Dagger when S + F is pressed in Mainhand stance.
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Soul Snatch (Spacebar in certain situations in Awk)

• Bad Skill. No Damage, only upside is stiffness on hit
• Basically, a far inferior version of pervasive darkness from mainhand kit.
• Suggestion: Increase Damage, allow damage to be retained when cancelling animation with other skills. Alternatively, leave spinning vediants at skill use location until another vedient skill is used. (basically, a duration damage trap)
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Twilight Dash (F in Awk)

• Great Skill. High Damage, Super Armor Mobility
• No complaints after most recent return of SA to skill
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Cluster of Despair (LMB + RMB or RMB in certain situations)

• Okay skill. Ranged damage is okay, no cc but applies slow, kind of janky activation.
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Grip of Grudge (Shift + F in Awk)

• Bad skill. 10% BSR skill. Low damage even with BSR version, no cc, no protection.
• Suggestion: scrap skill and start over with new skill.
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Dark Nebula (Shift Q in Awk, has additional input options)

• Decent Skill. Has okay damage, no cc, Forward Guard and flows off other skills well.

Thank You

This concludes my take on Dark Knights current form.  If you made it this far thanks for reading.  If you have thoughts or comments please feel free to add to this post!  I will be checking back every now and again.

Sincerely Veil