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There’s been a lot of posts from people asking for builds lately so in order to avoid further posts on the subject I decided to make a post answering most common questions about people who want to roll DK or are thinking about rolling DK (plus some starter tips).
Should I pick Dragon Knight or an other class? What’s the Dragon Knight’s gameplay like?
Since game start, the DK class has undergone many nerfs and changes. Up until 1.6, it was the best class for DD (Damage Dealer) and one of the best classes for tanking in the game (even though they are all pretty strong). At the moment, DKs are still pretty strong, they still have the best DPS for long fights hence they are a very good pick for people who want to do end game PVE (trials/arena). They are also still very strong as tanks since they are the only class with the ability to pull enemies towards them and they can output a very nice amount of Damage as well as CC (crowd Control).
In PVE:
Dragonknight abilities evolve around fire damage, most of their skills do fire damage and they synergise very well with each other (they also require a great deal of practice to master them and an understanding of how the skills interact with each other).
Magicka DragonKnights are the strongest DDs at the moment for long fights, Stamina DragonKnights are also quite strong (probably less than Nightblades and maybe less than templars) but there aren’t many players playing them mainly because most old DragonKngiht players don’t have the correct race to play them as stamina effectively and because magicka DK > Stamina DK (at the moment). You’ll be mostly wearing Medium armor as a stamina player and Light armor as a Magicka player.
In PVP:
There are two viable styles of PVP gameplay with DKs, you can play them with 2H/Bow (stamina setup) or with a shield & sword(1H/S) + either staff or an other 1H/S. Both setups are pretty good but are heavily dependent on gear (it’s also the case for other classes though). As a stamina player, you’ll either snipe your enemies from afar with your bow or engage them on hand to hand combat by dealing huge blows to your enemy and executing them when they are low health. You won’t be very tanky but you’ll be able to roll dodge a lot while fleeing multiple enemies and you’ll be wearing mostly medium armor. As a Magicka player, you’ll wear Heavy Armor, have a lot of tankyness/survivability and at the same time you’ll be able to deal a lot of damage with Dragonknight class skills (whereas with a stamina build you’ll be using weapon skills which are available to every class). In both instances, you’ll have very good skills to survive such as volatile armor, scaled wings (reflects enemies projectiles back to them with increased damage), Green Dragon Blood (one of the best self heals in the game), Igneous Shield (Self/group shield that increases the heals you do, including Green Dragon Blood).
To Conclude: In PVE, DKs are still one of the best classes available for end game, they lack burst damage for short fights but deal a very nice amount of damage on longer fights. In PVP (I’ll speak of Magicka here since I play that), they lack the One Shot power that some classes have such as NightBlades or the escape/burst capabilities that Sorcerers have, but they can become tank machines capable of holding their ground versus multiple enemies (and killing a couple before eventually dying) and are capable of beating any 1V1 matchup provided you’re skillful enough.
What Race should I choose?
For Stamina users:
Either Redguard or Imperial. Redguards are very good to begin with and will give you much needed stamina sustain which is the weak point of DragonKnights. After you progress into the Champion System and increase your stamina sustain, Imperial will be a better choice. If you’re starting now, you should pick Redguard since chances are by the time you have enough CP (Champion Points) to sustain your stamina, you’ll be able to buy a race change from the crown store.
For Magicka users:
Either Dunmer or Altmer. Dunmers used to be the best since they have increased fire damage, moreover they also have fire resistance which is VERY helpful if you’re planning to PVP (since you’ll want to be a Vampire). Altmer has increased Magicka Regen, Increased Magicka Pool and increased elemental damage which is also very very good for any magicka class.
To Conclude: Redguard for Stamina and Dunmer for DKs. Note that Dunmer’s passive tool-tip regarding fire damage was changed after 1.6 but it is still working as 1.5. If the passive worked as stated in the tool-tip, the choice between Altmer and Dunmer might not be as obvious.
What do I do when I start playing?
First of all, starter tips:
– Open your map, locate the Mage’s and Fighter’s guild in your town and go join the guilds, this will open the skill lines for you and allow you to start leveling them. Fighter’s guild is leveled by killing undead and you don’t need to worry about it very much, the Mage’s guild is very powerful for magicka Players and will require you to read every single book you find in the world (not the books in bookshelves, the lonely books you’ll find in some locations (I can’t recall if Mage’s Guild quests actually increase your skill line level as well). Mage’s guild is not a priority for stamina users but the meteor ultimate is quite nice when killing trash. In any case it’s never a bad idea to have it leveled up so go read them books! :).
– Bookshelves, when you open them, you have a chance to increase some skills while doing so (I.E.: You read a book about sword fighting will give you +1 in 2H skill line). Some players prefer not opening any book until they have played a lot and leveled theirs skills allready, this could be a good idea since it takes more experience to level up skill lines at higher levels and the books basically give you a free level. Personally, I never remember to open the bookshelves so I prefer to do it all the time, when I think about it ;).
– Get into provisioning and alchemy as soon as you begin, there are some provisioning/alchemy passives that are very useful since they increase the duration of food/drinks & potions (plus it’s nice to be able to craft them), you must have them in your main character. Best way to level them up is to pickup all materials & recipes you find, open every container. If your inventory is full, send the materials by mail to a trusted friend/guildie and ask them to return them. That way you don’t have to make trips back to the bank and you don’t fill your bank with materials. You need to do this since the beginning for the provisioning else you will have to either create a new character or buy the materials (the materials you loot are linked to your level. If you get to a high level, you won’t be able to loot low level provisioning materials anymore and thus you won’t be able to craft low level recipes/drinks unless you buy the materials).
– How to level up skills effectively: When you gain experience, your equipped skills (in the active bar) level up. When your skills earn level, the corresponding skill lines also earn level (except for Mage/Undaunted/Fighters/WereWolf/Soul Magic/Armor). If you want to level up destruction staff quickly, a good idea is to fill your bar with destruction staff skills just before you return a quest. This will level up the equipped skill lines as well as the equipped skills. Once the quest is returned and you get the XP, you can set up your bars as they used to be. For the Armor you can equip crafter gear with training, it’s a good idea to have at least 1 piece of each armor and 5 of your “main” armor so everything is leveled up. Regarding Werewolf, you need to kill mobs (ANY mobs and they don’t have to give you exp, just the act of killing works 
).
What skills do I level up first then?
For Magicka players:
Survivability: Dark Talons / Dragon Blood / Reflective scale (Draconic Power skill line)
Damage: Lava whip, Fiery Breath, Fiery Grip, Dragon Knight Standard (Ardent Flame skills) and Wall of Elements / Impulse / Force shock (from Destruction staff).
Note that, if you’re a power leveler(AKA grinder), you’ll want to level up destruction staff as soon as possible since Impulse is the best skill to grind (AOE AOE AOE). Dark Talons morphed into Burning Talons is also VERY good if you’re leveling with a friend (provided he activates the synergy).
What needs to be understood and this is true since the beginning, is that DKs are not burst DPSers. You can deal with a myriad of enemies at once in PVE with your high sustain and Damage over Time abilities (example at early levels: you’re fighting 5 mobs, you use Burning Talons to root them all, then you apply Fiery Breath on them. You now have 5 immobilized enemies taking slowly damage over time. All you have to do is use defensive skills if needed and single target them one by one with Force Shock. Once you have impulse unlocked, all you need to do is Block and Spam Impulse or Talons + Impulse and they’ll be dead in no time.
To conclude: You should level the first two skill lines from Dragon Knight class in priority (and slow level the third one), and you should prioritize Destruction staff skill line leveling (Pro-tip: You can use a crafted staff with training trait to speed this up). While leveling up, you need Light Armor. It’s always nice to have at least 1 piece of medium and 1 of Heavy armor equipped (if they are crafted with training even better ) so that those skill lines also level up slowly.
For Stamina Players:
This is more tricky ^^. You can forget about destruction staff class and you still need to level up the first two skill lines from DK, but you also need to level up two hander and bow. (or 2h and Dual Wield).
For 2H: Cleave Uppercut Reverse slash & momentum are all very useful. Cleave will do AOE (but it sucks IMO), Uppercut will be your source of damage later on when morphed into Wrecking blow, Reverse slash will be your execute (Executioner morph) and Momentum you will morph into Rally.
For Bow: You can also go Bow instead of DW, you’ll be using Poison Arrow and Snipe for single target and Arrow Spray & Volley for AOE;
For Dual Wield: I mention Dual Wield because Dual Wield has the BEST AOE skill in the game: Whirlwind (that you morph into Steel Tornado). Make sure you also invest in passives that increase the steel tornado class and you’ll be ravaging groups of mobs in no time (and suffering because you’re out of stamina ;)). If you hate bows, go for this. Else, level this last.
To conclude: You’ll want to level up all 2H, all Bow skills/passives, you’ll also eventually want to level up all the DK skill lines since you can morph some skills so they cost stamina instead of Magicka. You’ll want to wear Medium Armor and get all the passives from MA skill line as well.
At last:
http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/1-6-in-progress-dragonknight-build-compilation-updated-weekly/
Here is a build compilation. Go through it, read the builds, make sure they are still working (there where many changes after update 6) and work towards the one you want to aim for. There’s also builds that are no listed there but you can find them in the first two pages of this sub-forum. Also remember that people usually give you the skills but they suppose you can figure out the passives to go along with them. If you’re unsure, ask and you shall get an answer ;).
Final Words
Here’s what I got at the moment. I’ll edit this along the way with the questions people ask or with some advices other DK players might have (since I don’t have the monopole on the truth ).
Be sure to ask questions here instead of polluting the forum with new threads :).
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TehMagnus.
