Is dragonknight worth playing?

arena25

Hi, everyone, Arena25 here looking for some advice.

Not to needlessly talk about myself in the third person, but Arena25 has been looking at his 8 characters and wants to make a couple changes.

On my current character list, Arena25 have 6 nightblades, 1 Templar and 1 sorcerer. Arena25 is thinking about trashing 3 nightblades and replacing them with 1 additional Templar and 2 dragonknights (He has had difficulty playing with sorcerer, or at least, playing it using only the unique class abilities.)

However, before he does so, he wants to ask the ESO community as to whether or not Dragonknight is a good class to play.

His three questions are:

1: Are Dragonknights easy to learn/master?
2: How do they do solo against Scary monsters (he usually takes on Hard or Deadly difficulty monsters with a group of pals.)?
3: How do they compare to Nightblades (whether stamina or magicka based)?

Any help would be appreciated.

Arena25

bigted209

I've been running a MagDK for quite a while, so I'll answer in an itemized fashion. The simple answer to your question...absolutely yes.

1) not exactly "easy" to master, but once you get your DoT rotations down, it becomes second nature.
2) my MagDK is the toon I use for soloing normal/the "easy" vet dungeons. Great damage output, great survivability.
3). Everything beats a magblade, and I feel it wins over stamblade due to availability of shields and numerous options for self healing.

Enslaved

arena25 wrote: »

Hi, everyone, Arena25 here looking for some advice.

Not to needlessly talk about myself in the third person, but Arena25 has been looking at his 8 characters and wants to make a couple changes.

On my current character list, Arena25 have 6 nightblades, 1 Templar and 1 sorcerer. Arena25 is thinking about trashing 3 nightblades and replacing them with 1 additional Templar and 2 dragonknights (He has had difficulty playing with sorcerer, or at least, playing it using only the unique class abilities.)

However, before he does so, he wants to ask the ESO community as to whether or not Dragonknight is a good class to play.

His three questions are:

1: Are Dragonknights easy to learn/master?
2: How do they do solo against Scary monsters (he usually takes on Hard or Deadly difficulty monsters with a group of pals.)?
3: How do they compare to Nightblades (whether stamina or magicka based)?

Any help would be appreciated.

Arena25

1: Compared to scrub friendly templar, it is not that easy. But it is much more fun and still not that hard as maybe NB
2: You can solo many dungeons as sDK, and in group you have great dots to help group melt things fast. Also, pretty much best tanking class, imho
3: mDK vs mNB - PvP related I would say mNB is kinda better atm, but in u13 this might change, since mDK will be buffed and mNB will be nerfed a bit. Still, it seems to me that mNB can be better for zerg train than mDK. PvE - mDK will be great, a lot of utility in groups, a lot of self heal skills that damage enemies as well. I might not be that objective since I like DK a lot as a class.
sDK vs sNB - in PvP I think sNB will be better if you enjoy solo ganking and small scale ganking groups. sDK is not that great compared to, idk sSorc, but I enjoy playing sDK in PvP. I do use meta build, with s&b and bow, tumorscale, viper and vicecannon. In PvE, sDK has better dots, maybe its a bit more resistant, rotation comes natural once you get used to use claw when needed, compared to sNB. I still think that sNB have a bit better sustain with siphoning attacks, and it has execute, and DK has no execute at all. PPl here will prolly nail me to the cross, but I somewhat think sNB might be better for PvE. I still like DK better, but as I said, I do spend some 90% of time as both mDK/sDK.

TheShadowScout

arena25 wrote: »

1: Are Dragonknights easy to learn/master?

Harder then Templars, but much easier then Nightblades...

arena25 wrote: »

2: How do they do solo against Scary monsters (he usually takes on Hard or Deadly difficulty monsters with a group of pals.)?

Dragonknights often wreck stuff others despair at. Even after years ort nerfings (used to be, they dominated both the PvP and the PvE, these days they are not quite that bad anymore...). Dragonknights still make the best tanks IMO, have one of the best selfheals in the game, can do really nasty amounts of damage... DoTs, and AoEs, they got what you need to be prepared for pretty much anything.

arena25 wrote: »

3: How do they compare to Nightblades (whether stamina or magicka based)?

Let me say this... I am a casual PvPer, and so don't do as much as the hardcore cyrodil masters, but... my main PvPs a little; starting in late 2014, I reached the 100 nightblade kills achievement about a year or so later in early 2016. Now its 2017, and I still am only at 82 dragonknight kills...

Having some DKs of my own, I can say they compare very favorably. They make superb "assault tanks" in stamina version, or awesome pyromancers in magica version; and they easily survive things my nightblades would struggle with... especially annoying is their flapping wings if you ever face one in PvP as ranged character, having your best missle-type attacks sent right back at you hurts (on the other hand, doing that might be fun if you drine a DK through archer valley...).

Playstyle wise DKs are almost the polar opposite to the stealthy nightblades hoping for a nice backstab to gain the advantage... Both DL versions are more for direct attacks, one way or another, getting in your opponents faces and taking them on mano a mano (or mer a mano, or whatever, depending on your race selection).
That does however mean they are not quite as good at sneak attack burst damage - DKs go more for the "slow and steady grind them to dust" approach, at least compared to nightblade gankers. Especially since DKs have no execute move, though one can offset that by taking a two-hander as sDK, and mDKs kinda don't really need it thanks to all the firepower they can bring to bear (literally).

I personally have three DKs alts - an argonian "draconian wannabe", an dunmer pyromancer, and an redguard marauder. All are fun to play, even though I have to say personally DK is my least favorite class - probably because of the fire, fire is my least favoreed element... but that is pure personal preference, and should have no impact on other peoples opinions.

waterfairy

I've encountered dk tanks that were nearly impossible to kill in pvp. I don't know what skills and gear they were using but it took a few of us to finally bring them down.

MasterSpatula

For anyone who played the first year, who'da thought we'd ever reach a point where this question would be asked?

JWKe

It's an MMO and seasons change. I was playing a Stam Sorc before they were even good and now they're one of the more viable Sorc builds out there.

tinythinker

MasterSpatula wrote: »

For anyone who played the first year, who'da thought we'd ever reach a point where this question would be asked?

Yeah. My first character in beta was a magDK, recreated it in early access, but eventually it was shelved. I tend to run mediocre gear and it is slow and unfun without the right sets to make the build shine.

GawdSB

My favorite thing to play atm is my Mag DK. The rotation isn't the easiest but it's still fun to play, and it melts anything in it's way.

SnubbS

MagDK is worth playing because it's a unique playstyle, which can be amazing in certain scenarios. StamDK simply isn't worth playing -- if you want to play StamDK, roll StamSorc.

FloppyTouch

No

Taleof2Cities

Enjoy playing both my Stam DK and Magicka DK ... they are fun and definitely unique even though they're the same class.

IcyDeadPeople

arena25 wrote: »

1: Are Dragonknights easy to learn/master?

I don't think any class is easy to master, but DK is fun to play and not hard to make viable build for pve or pvp with stam or magicka dk.

arena25 wrote: »

2: How do they do solo against Scary monsters (he usually takes on Hard or Deadly difficulty monsters with a group of pals.)?

Not sure about PVE - do you mean like trials and veteran dungeons?

arena25 wrote: »

3: How do they compare to Nightblades (whether stamina or magicka based)?

both are fun and quite different to play.