Dragon Knight advice needed - new to the class!

BrotherSpark

Hey guys,

I currently have a character for all three of the other classes and they're all up to Veteran rank (Khajiit Nightblade, Argonian Templar, Breton Sorcerer). I've been considering how I'm going to build a Dragon Knight. The builds available online are intimidatingly diverse and I can't get a good sense of how I want to construct my own DK. Also I realize the class has changed over time and a lot of the information online is not up to date. I'd appreciate any advice you might want to give me to keep the experimenting and struggling to a minimum.

My initial bare-bones impression is to use 2H, Heavy Armor, and stamina. I imagine I should be able to DPS my way through PvE and tank pretty well after a respec later. My favorite race is Khajiit, mostly for that sweet stealth passive, but I'm open to other ideas; I haven't played a Nord or Imperial and am interested in those too.

Thanks in advance!

The Uninvited

Will you be using it for pvp or pve?

BrotherSpark

The Uninvited wrote: »

Will you be using it for pvp or pve?

PvE, for the 1-50 crawl. I'd like to hope that a build is viable in both but it isn't often the case. I can always respec for PvP later if I really want to.

ShadowDisciple

go 5 medium pieces + 1 heavy and 1 medium...

for stamina dps you can use 2 dot's from Ardent flame and spam flurry as Dual wield + steel tornado for aoe...thats essentially a VERY strong base dps rotation...green dragon blood for sustain and maybe magma shield for oh *** situations and your golden...

For pvp add talons to the bar for some cc..

you can always go 2hander and spam wrecking blow but i hate that...gets boring very soon.

i3ig_Gun

reroll a sorcerer, and go stamina build.

hardcore_gmr

I am a long time DK, and have watched the class evolve (although many players have not evolved with it). In my opinion the dragon knight class is a tanky melee range character with tons of utility to make the class arguably one of the best for a solo build. Because of this I feel the class is at its strongest as a stamina based dps/tank. Magic is really good as well but without lots of CP to overcome the nerfs or without a strong desire to want to forge something new, you will be hard pressed to find a magic build that measures up to the old magic dk (at least in pvp, pve magic dk is largely unchanged).

There are 4 races that I think give the best passives for a stamina DK (redguard, nord, imperial, and bosmer) although many can argue that any stam race will do, including the Dunmer although they only get a 6% increase to max stamina.

2h is strong for dk regardless of whether you go magic or stamina because it has a built in gap closer which the DK naturally lacks. For stamina it gives you the other thing the DK class is missing and that is an execute move. Momentum is perfect as a buff as well. Dual wield is viable due to steel tornado acting as AoE and execute move in one, and with flying dagger getting major brutality buff it gives you a range attack as well. Dual wield used to be good for magic builds but it appears that the passive that increased damage has now been shifted to only effect weapon damage. Heavy weapon still increases overall damage so 2h swords work better for magic it appears.

Heavy armor is best for tanking but I'd recommend medium if you want best dps. Heavy works but is less than ideal if making a dps character. DK's make excellent tanks however because they can make use of the Earthen Heart passives to generate stamina, add weapon damage, generate ultimate, increase healing (if you use Obsidian shield morph igneous shield), and generate main stat by using ultimates. DK class gets some added tank in essential from Draconic power skill line, and offense from ardent flame skill line.

The ardent flame skills are the reason I feel stamina is the better damage dealer even though DK's only have 3 stamina morphs. Ardent flame skills are largely dots, with lava whip and fiery grip being the only direct damage skills. Whip is amazing, but fiery grip is a poor gap closer, gives CC immunity, and deals little damage. For magic, you'll be relying on whip for your class based damage along with the two dots engulfing flame (a dot that increases fire damage) and burning embers (which is an amazing direct heal), but stamina user get Unstable flame (which deals more damage than burning embers) and burning breathe (which lowers your target armor) along with all the powerful weapon skills. Regardless of whether you choose magic or stamina you'll be using a mix of magic and stamina so plan accordingly. The other stamina ability can be used as a magic user or as a stamina user, inferno is a toggle ability that increases crit chance.

In all the class excels when at close range and in the heat of battle. The class is truly the warrior class, capable of taking and dealing tons of damage. DK's are a strong class with good CC and great defensive skills. I hope this helps.

The Uninvited

For PVE I prefer a ranged magicka build myself, for PVP I would definitely go with stamina.

If you're really looking for that strong, 2H in your face kind of build, I would go with at least 5 medium armor and choose Imperial or Redguard. Like ShadowDisciple and hardcore_gmr have said before, couldn't have said it better myself.