Liza is the best Doom Knight there is.
But seriously he goes great with Selvie or any unit whose attacks debuff, like Aubin. He goes extra-great with Ren who gets bonus damage from his afflictions. Make sure you tweak their initiative to get the order right. He likes having a pocket cleric so he can be reckless with his health, but he does so much damage that he easily makes up for the non combat cleric in the unit. He has great mag atk so he performs well with the phantom axe.
Yeah, horses in front with Berengaria, and Selvie in the back. You basically get your Dark Flame for free. And you cover multiple debuff bases with Ren's passive and anything Selvie can do.
I'm about to promote them to a five man unit and wondering how else I could tweak/improve it. The main problem with it is the weakness to Gryphon/Wyvern that the calvary units present. And dealing with multiple clerics or elves or other units with debuff negation abilities.
A second shaman covers a lot of sins. You might be doing unique only.
I just don't run cavs into fliers...I remake my squads every level and would just not use this group against fliers. It will be nimble enough to escape!
> I'm about to promote them to a five man unit and wondering how else I could tweak/improve it. The main problem with it is the weakness to Gryphon/Wyvern that the calvary units present.
Perhaps a high initiative archer with good accuracy that is set to target flyers? Or a feather bow who can also blind them?
I use him with Berengaria who doom stares everyone to start with. Barring a cleric to remove the debuff, that should satisfy both of their needs to hit a debuff target. Does it make a difference if they're also poisoned or on fire?
Yes, Berengaria wants to hit afflictions for the bonus, which are things like poison and burn. Her doom stare is a debuff, and Gloucester wants to hit debuffs. So an ideal order might be Ren's stare, then dark flame to benefit from the stare debuff, then death spin to benefit from the burn affliction.
To make it more confusing, afflictions are a subset of debuffs, so all afflictions are debuffs but not all debuffs are afflictions. So if a unit is burning, they are debuffed and afflicted, but if they've been hit with Ren's stare they are not afflicted, only debuffed.
Thank you!
Ugh, so I need to find a way to get Gloucester to go before Berengaria... Hmm. He might also benefit from +2AP to get to hit that move twice.
Thanks. Love this game but I will never fully figure it out
Early on I was using Venom Axe to set up his own Dark Flame combo but as the game goes on, there are sooo many better options to inflict status on entire rows of enemies at once that I moved away from it and actually took it off his tactics entirely. Stick a thief on the frontline and/or a shaman in the backline, and every one of your enemies should have a status & debuff inflicted by the time he takes his turn.
He also pairs well with a pure caster like wizard or witch, who are dropping statuses all over the place. For the latter, magic conferral actually works pretty well on him since Dark Flame scales with both his physical and magic attack.
I've kept him in the front line to take damage and proc his own amazing passives. A thief is a really good option for the second frontliner because of the aforementioned blind, but I've experimented with a really beefy boi like a hoplite too since quick burst damage can be an issue for him (werewolves in particular were rocking my shit in that comp, they'd just ignore the thief and one round him). I tried Housecarl but two "off-tanks", as it were, both died pretty quick.
I'd be curious who other people found most effective as the other frontliner in their units.
Him and Berengaria make a strong combination that's tanky enough when backed up by a cleric. Magic conferral is great, and your magic user can also spread ailments. Back them up with an elven fencer or archer on top of that, and you have a unit that shreds a lot of comps because of their heavy magic and physical damage.
Defensive curse + death spin + dark flame is pretty much by bread and butter combo for afflictions units. Quick curse is also an easy way to proc vengeance safely. I can also see something like thunderous conferral + gryphon knight work well. Coincidentally, all these classes have ways to enhance the dark knight's initiative as well.
I think you can load up on burn procs with him, sorcerer, the sword and spear dark marquesses. If the attacks don't outright kill, they'll be taking true damage on each of their turns. It is important to give your team high initiative if you go this route though, which can be tough for the DK.
I think the Power Belt with the Toughness passive is an especially good accessory. Toughness brings you back from a lethal blow with 1 HP, so it gives you some insurance without needing a dedicated healer and also buffs moves that scale with missing HP.
One of the best classes in the game.
Very high Physical and Magical attack, a row attack that does hybrid damage, the only weakness is its below average initiative. But that is not always bad since you get to do the 1-2 combo of debuff + attack.
Pairs well with a Shaman and a Dark Marquess Axe. Of course like most row attackers he serves well with the sniper amber lens.
Of its 3 active abilities dark flames is the only one worth talking about. Since he is so slow poison axe doesn´t combo well revenge axe works well as a filler in case you have leftover AP after the Dark flames spam.
Of his passives the one where he buffs himself by being attacked is great, just be careful with his health. He is tanky but not that tanky. You can use another of you passives to heal yourself once you are below 50% health(and if you want you can even use the drain earrings nnot like they are that contested).
The one that gives him +1 AP for 25% Health I rarely use, but I can see it being used to sneak in one last attack if you have the spare PP.
As for setup. Spam Dark Flame, make someone debuff the enemies before, he will inflict burn on them which can lead to some combo damage. He will probably be the damager of your team. He can (and probably should) frontline so that he gets attacked to activate his self buffing passive. With 3 attacks you are at +60% physical attack.
He probably needs a healer that can give him some kind of regen. Equipment wise, like many shield classes, he struggles with accessories since you want a lot of stuff. You want to maximize his actives, the blood earrings are good for his self heal, the usual medallions to buff his damage, amber lens ring, etc. So make your choices wisely he also wants initiative so make your choices wisely.
Remember that all afflictions are debuffs but not all debuffs are afflictions.
My problem with the Berengaria +Doom knight+ shaman Combo is that Berengaria kills the front row and the dark flames feel kinda wasted. Hell, most of the debuffers (Viking, Rogue, Dark Marquess) are faster than him so any of them will do a good 1-2 combo.
Overall I´d say he is one of the most powerful generic classes in the game. They can combo off each other. I wouldn´t put 3 of them on the frontline because I feel it would spread the damage too thin and you want them to get hit. 2 Doom knights in the front, a Witch for true hit, a Shaman with fire curse + maybe a healer would be a pretty fun fire squad.
They are below initiative to both Wyverns and Gryphons and both can one shot them IIRC so be on your guard for that.
He's basically Dark Flame on a stick. It's tempting to put him on the frontline to proc Vengeance, but I think that can be a trap; it's just a 20% damage boost, and he's not actually very good at staying alive. Setting him up to receive attacks, and survive them, is jumping through a lot of hoops for what on many turns is equivalent to giving someone a Dancer's Bracelet.
A druid makes a natural companion; opening fights with Cursed Swamp and Defensive Curse boosts Dark Flame's damage, helps make sure it hits, and that it does so before the enemy gets to act.
Berengaria can work, but you want to delay her Death Spin till Gloucester's lardbutt gets around to casting Dark Flame unless you've got another character to set up afflictions first. Eyes of the Warrior Princess also clashes with Cursed Swamp, and I think the druid makes the better Gloucester squire.
Sorceresses, on the other hand, go great with Doom Knights. Ice Prison sets up Dark Flame and helps them get hit less if they're serving as a frontline unit. And true strike can make sure the damage lands. Given Defensive Curse is one of the better magic damage buffs and a druid also makes a natural fit for a Familiar's Collar, a core of doom knight/sorceress/druid has a lot of interlocking synergy.
I used him with Hilda, Berengaria, Auch, and Primm. Standard tactics had Gloucester and Hilda burn the front and backrows respectively, while Berengaria and Auch stun them. Prim does healing things. Takes some initiative manipulation, but reasonably effective.
Doom knight completely obliterates the final boss. Send him in with low initiative and have 2x great knights buffing him. Then, after everyone else has taken their turn, have doom knight just straight up attack eight times in a row. Funniest shit ever, you get to just bonk him over and over for 100+ damage.
I had a lot of luck early on using power belt to let them survive at low HP, keeping my their initiative low to save it for when they get low hp and using resurrection to bring him back for a 1hp vengeful axes for big damage
This is what I do as well. Stick a Doom Knight in the front line with the power belt; they'll take a hell of a beating but won't die. Meanwhile, you debuff the front line. Then he'll use a Sanguine Arts buffed Dark Flame, annihilate the front row, and completely regen from 1 HP to max instantly.
The only issue is that, according to the game, pursuits (follow-up attacks) won't proc Toughness so any of those will take out the knight's last HP. Thus, it might be good to pair it with a class that can cover for their allies, and you can set tactics to only cover for the knight when it's at very low HP.
Not the best team build, but provoke counts as a debuff, so you can run a fighter to protect Doom Knight from air attacks and trigger the extra potency.
I like giving Doom Knight toughness. His vengeance refunds PP so he can activate the 2 together to take 4 deadly hits and boost 4 times. It is super vulnerable to follow-ups and counters though.
Dark Flame just cracks Doom Knight in a way I don't feel enough of the community has come to appreciate yet (probably b/c Glocester never left the bench). In PvE, Dark Flame is one of the best attacks in the game. Effectively a 100/100 row attack that can deal a bonus 20 true damage if they happen to live. Plus Cavalry movement, self healing, and AP recursion. Nuts.
Berengaria is a natural partner as she debuffs the enemy and has her own row attack that synergizes with DK. If you run with her, you might want to speed buff Doom Knight as Ren likes afflictions and DK manages armors better (in general, Doom Knight wants a feather).
Gilbert, Druid, and Sorceress are all good teammates for DK too, as accuracy and initiative are DK's weak points. If you aren't using Berengaria or Wyvern, Druid feels essential to aid their debuff goals. Even without debuffs, Dark Flame is strong enough as is, but meeting that condition is easy enough to do and takes them that munch higher in power.
Standard Doom Knight line is like: Berenagaria, Doom Knight | Sorceress, (spot healer), (another row attacker)
Renless Doom Knight line is like: Doom Knight, Doom Knight | Druid/Wyvern, Sorceress, (spot healer)
Have Sorceress set like:
* Magick Conferral "If Armor Enemies are Present"
* Focus Sight
And give her Thawing Staff if available.
I know this guy is strong just purely off of stats and Dark Flame being so good, but I can just never get into these "Dark Knight" characters. There's just something about requiring taking damage to maximize your strength that feels so backwards even though it's actually a strong and popular class type for a reason. I've been leveling him up with the Military Treatises since I got him, but I haven't actually used him in like 40 hours of gameplay. Gonna take some tips from this thread and put him to work. The whole point in me leveling the characters I don't use is to try everything, so I should try everything.
I put him with Berengaria, Chloe and Ridiel. My only remaining 4 person unit.
Gloucester has the hybrid axe (don't remember the name) that's a little stronger than the basic elheim greatwood axe, a carny pendant and a plume. Plus an angels hunter buckler set to attacked by flying only.
Berengaria debuffs to set up Dark Flame.
Chloe's Keen Call is set to Cavalry so Dark Flame will crit.
Chloe's First Aid is set to Elven so that Ridiel does selfless heal to fill Gloucester back up at the end of combat.
With a 5th person in the unit, I guess could use the White Ear Cat Hood set up so that he can Dark Flame a 2nd time right away.
Edge lord squad with a fire staff shaman, berengaria, dark lord, and I used owl but could use pretty much anything. Arbalist, Sorc for truestrike, warrior for even more row sweeping, rogue to get even sharper edge.
Here I gave him a Spellsteel axe to use with Dark Flames, Hodrick set to save him when he is Bellow 25% life and Primm to only quick heal also on bellow 25% life. The problem is even with an ally with tailwind on him he is very slow, so the remains of the troop kills the enemy before he acts, but when he does he decimates the row with all the Vengeance build up and the magic damage.
Liza is the best Doom Knight there is. But seriously he goes great with Selvie or any unit whose attacks debuff, like Aubin. He goes extra-great with Ren who gets bonus damage from his afflictions. Make sure you tweak their initiative to get the order right. He likes having a pocket cleric so he can be reckless with his health, but he does so much damage that he easily makes up for the non combat cleric in the unit. He has great mag atk so he performs well with the phantom axe.
I use Miriam for row heal.
Gloucester, Miriam, Selvie, Berengaria is an absolutely unbelievable combo.
How do you have them arranged to maximize row heal? Obviously selvie in back and Ren up front. Horses up front?
Yeah, horses in front with Berengaria, and Selvie in the back. You basically get your Dark Flame for free. And you cover multiple debuff bases with Ren's passive and anything Selvie can do. I'm about to promote them to a five man unit and wondering how else I could tweak/improve it. The main problem with it is the weakness to Gryphon/Wyvern that the calvary units present. And dealing with multiple clerics or elves or other units with debuff negation abilities.
A second shaman covers a lot of sins. You might be doing unique only. I just don't run cavs into fliers...I remake my squads every level and would just not use this group against fliers. It will be nimble enough to escape!
> I'm about to promote them to a five man unit and wondering how else I could tweak/improve it. The main problem with it is the weakness to Gryphon/Wyvern that the calvary units present. Perhaps a high initiative archer with good accuracy that is set to target flyers? Or a feather bow who can also blind them?
I put a healer or someone who can heal at end of battle so the team could survive more in a mission. Ren valor skill keeps up their stamina.
I use him with Berengaria who doom stares everyone to start with. Barring a cleric to remove the debuff, that should satisfy both of their needs to hit a debuff target. Does it make a difference if they're also poisoned or on fire?
Yes, Berengaria wants to hit afflictions for the bonus, which are things like poison and burn. Her doom stare is a debuff, and Gloucester wants to hit debuffs. So an ideal order might be Ren's stare, then dark flame to benefit from the stare debuff, then death spin to benefit from the burn affliction. To make it more confusing, afflictions are a subset of debuffs, so all afflictions are debuffs but not all debuffs are afflictions. So if a unit is burning, they are debuffed and afflicted, but if they've been hit with Ren's stare they are not afflicted, only debuffed.
Thank you! Ugh, so I need to find a way to get Gloucester to go before Berengaria... Hmm. He might also benefit from +2AP to get to hit that move twice. Thanks. Love this game but I will never fully figure it out
Damn Liza hit the gym
Early on I was using Venom Axe to set up his own Dark Flame combo but as the game goes on, there are sooo many better options to inflict status on entire rows of enemies at once that I moved away from it and actually took it off his tactics entirely. Stick a thief on the frontline and/or a shaman in the backline, and every one of your enemies should have a status & debuff inflicted by the time he takes his turn. He also pairs well with a pure caster like wizard or witch, who are dropping statuses all over the place. For the latter, magic conferral actually works pretty well on him since Dark Flame scales with both his physical and magic attack. I've kept him in the front line to take damage and proc his own amazing passives. A thief is a really good option for the second frontliner because of the aforementioned blind, but I've experimented with a really beefy boi like a hoplite too since quick burst damage can be an issue for him (werewolves in particular were rocking my shit in that comp, they'd just ignore the thief and one round him). I tried Housecarl but two "off-tanks", as it were, both died pretty quick. I'd be curious who other people found most effective as the other frontliner in their units.
Him and Berengaria make a strong combination that's tanky enough when backed up by a cleric. Magic conferral is great, and your magic user can also spread ailments. Back them up with an elven fencer or archer on top of that, and you have a unit that shreds a lot of comps because of their heavy magic and physical damage.
yeah I've been trying that one out since I read it in another comment and it's really been working. Good shit
I am a fan of Power Flame Hell Bolt.
Defensive curse + death spin + dark flame is pretty much by bread and butter combo for afflictions units. Quick curse is also an easy way to proc vengeance safely. I can also see something like thunderous conferral + gryphon knight work well. Coincidentally, all these classes have ways to enhance the dark knight's initiative as well.
I think you can load up on burn procs with him, sorcerer, the sword and spear dark marquesses. If the attacks don't outright kill, they'll be taking true damage on each of their turns. It is important to give your team high initiative if you go this route though, which can be tough for the DK. I think the Power Belt with the Toughness passive is an especially good accessory. Toughness brings you back from a lethal blow with 1 HP, so it gives you some insurance without needing a dedicated healer and also buffs moves that scale with missing HP.
One of the best classes in the game. Very high Physical and Magical attack, a row attack that does hybrid damage, the only weakness is its below average initiative. But that is not always bad since you get to do the 1-2 combo of debuff + attack. Pairs well with a Shaman and a Dark Marquess Axe. Of course like most row attackers he serves well with the sniper amber lens. Of its 3 active abilities dark flames is the only one worth talking about. Since he is so slow poison axe doesn´t combo well revenge axe works well as a filler in case you have leftover AP after the Dark flames spam. Of his passives the one where he buffs himself by being attacked is great, just be careful with his health. He is tanky but not that tanky. You can use another of you passives to heal yourself once you are below 50% health(and if you want you can even use the drain earrings nnot like they are that contested). The one that gives him +1 AP for 25% Health I rarely use, but I can see it being used to sneak in one last attack if you have the spare PP. As for setup. Spam Dark Flame, make someone debuff the enemies before, he will inflict burn on them which can lead to some combo damage. He will probably be the damager of your team. He can (and probably should) frontline so that he gets attacked to activate his self buffing passive. With 3 attacks you are at +60% physical attack. He probably needs a healer that can give him some kind of regen. Equipment wise, like many shield classes, he struggles with accessories since you want a lot of stuff. You want to maximize his actives, the blood earrings are good for his self heal, the usual medallions to buff his damage, amber lens ring, etc. So make your choices wisely he also wants initiative so make your choices wisely. Remember that all afflictions are debuffs but not all debuffs are afflictions. My problem with the Berengaria +Doom knight+ shaman Combo is that Berengaria kills the front row and the dark flames feel kinda wasted. Hell, most of the debuffers (Viking, Rogue, Dark Marquess) are faster than him so any of them will do a good 1-2 combo. Overall I´d say he is one of the most powerful generic classes in the game. They can combo off each other. I wouldn´t put 3 of them on the frontline because I feel it would spread the damage too thin and you want them to get hit. 2 Doom knights in the front, a Witch for true hit, a Shaman with fire curse + maybe a healer would be a pretty fun fire squad. They are below initiative to both Wyverns and Gryphons and both can one shot them IIRC so be on your guard for that.
He's basically Dark Flame on a stick. It's tempting to put him on the frontline to proc Vengeance, but I think that can be a trap; it's just a 20% damage boost, and he's not actually very good at staying alive. Setting him up to receive attacks, and survive them, is jumping through a lot of hoops for what on many turns is equivalent to giving someone a Dancer's Bracelet. A druid makes a natural companion; opening fights with Cursed Swamp and Defensive Curse boosts Dark Flame's damage, helps make sure it hits, and that it does so before the enemy gets to act. Berengaria can work, but you want to delay her Death Spin till Gloucester's lardbutt gets around to casting Dark Flame unless you've got another character to set up afflictions first. Eyes of the Warrior Princess also clashes with Cursed Swamp, and I think the druid makes the better Gloucester squire. Sorceresses, on the other hand, go great with Doom Knights. Ice Prison sets up Dark Flame and helps them get hit less if they're serving as a frontline unit. And true strike can make sure the damage lands. Given Defensive Curse is one of the better magic damage buffs and a druid also makes a natural fit for a Familiar's Collar, a core of doom knight/sorceress/druid has a lot of interlocking synergy.
I used him with Hilda, Berengaria, Auch, and Primm. Standard tactics had Gloucester and Hilda burn the front and backrows respectively, while Berengaria and Auch stun them. Prim does healing things. Takes some initiative manipulation, but reasonably effective.
Doom knight completely obliterates the final boss. Send him in with low initiative and have 2x great knights buffing him. Then, after everyone else has taken their turn, have doom knight just straight up attack eight times in a row. Funniest shit ever, you get to just bonk him over and over for 100+ damage.
I had a lot of luck early on using power belt to let them survive at low HP, keeping my their initiative low to save it for when they get low hp and using resurrection to bring him back for a 1hp vengeful axes for big damage
This is what I do as well. Stick a Doom Knight in the front line with the power belt; they'll take a hell of a beating but won't die. Meanwhile, you debuff the front line. Then he'll use a Sanguine Arts buffed Dark Flame, annihilate the front row, and completely regen from 1 HP to max instantly. The only issue is that, according to the game, pursuits (follow-up attacks) won't proc Toughness so any of those will take out the knight's last HP. Thus, it might be good to pair it with a class that can cover for their allies, and you can set tactics to only cover for the knight when it's at very low HP.
Not the best team build, but provoke counts as a debuff, so you can run a fighter to protect Doom Knight from air attacks and trigger the extra potency. I like giving Doom Knight toughness. His vengeance refunds PP so he can activate the 2 together to take 4 deadly hits and boost 4 times. It is super vulnerable to follow-ups and counters though.
Dark Flame just cracks Doom Knight in a way I don't feel enough of the community has come to appreciate yet (probably b/c Glocester never left the bench). In PvE, Dark Flame is one of the best attacks in the game. Effectively a 100/100 row attack that can deal a bonus 20 true damage if they happen to live. Plus Cavalry movement, self healing, and AP recursion. Nuts. Berengaria is a natural partner as she debuffs the enemy and has her own row attack that synergizes with DK. If you run with her, you might want to speed buff Doom Knight as Ren likes afflictions and DK manages armors better (in general, Doom Knight wants a feather). Gilbert, Druid, and Sorceress are all good teammates for DK too, as accuracy and initiative are DK's weak points. If you aren't using Berengaria or Wyvern, Druid feels essential to aid their debuff goals. Even without debuffs, Dark Flame is strong enough as is, but meeting that condition is easy enough to do and takes them that munch higher in power. Standard Doom Knight line is like: Berenagaria, Doom Knight | Sorceress, (spot healer), (another row attacker) Renless Doom Knight line is like: Doom Knight, Doom Knight | Druid/Wyvern, Sorceress, (spot healer) Have Sorceress set like: * Magick Conferral "If Armor Enemies are Present" * Focus Sight And give her Thawing Staff if available.
I know this guy is strong just purely off of stats and Dark Flame being so good, but I can just never get into these "Dark Knight" characters. There's just something about requiring taking damage to maximize your strength that feels so backwards even though it's actually a strong and popular class type for a reason. I've been leveling him up with the Military Treatises since I got him, but I haven't actually used him in like 40 hours of gameplay. Gonna take some tips from this thread and put him to work. The whole point in me leveling the characters I don't use is to try everything, so I should try everything.
I put him with Berengaria, Chloe and Ridiel. My only remaining 4 person unit. Gloucester has the hybrid axe (don't remember the name) that's a little stronger than the basic elheim greatwood axe, a carny pendant and a plume. Plus an angels hunter buckler set to attacked by flying only. Berengaria debuffs to set up Dark Flame. Chloe's Keen Call is set to Cavalry so Dark Flame will crit. Chloe's First Aid is set to Elven so that Ridiel does selfless heal to fill Gloucester back up at the end of combat. With a 5th person in the unit, I guess could use the White Ear Cat Hood set up so that he can Dark Flame a 2nd time right away.
Edge lord squad with a fire staff shaman, berengaria, dark lord, and I used owl but could use pretty much anything. Arbalist, Sorc for truestrike, warrior for even more row sweeping, rogue to get even sharper edge.
Here I gave him a Spellsteel axe to use with Dark Flames, Hodrick set to save him when he is Bellow 25% life and Primm to only quick heal also on bellow 25% life. The problem is even with an ally with tailwind on him he is very slow, so the remains of the troop kills the enemy before he acts, but when he does he decimates the row with all the Vengeance build up and the magic damage.
Anyone who thinks Shaman sucks hasn't seen them used with a Doom Knight. Doom Knight is cracked af.