08-17-2020, 01:54 AM
Ehh, I can't say I'm fully in favor of a lot of these things. Black knights aren't a perfect class, and they're not meant to be. But I'm gonna point out a couple things here and now.
Black knights are versatile as hell. Often, they're seen as taking up a lot of SP for important passives, but honestly, you don't *need* all of them. Prophylaxis isn't something that works with every build, and that's fine. Negation is absolutely monstrous for any non-lich, so it's a no-brainer to max it, but that doesn't mean it's not worth the 5 SP. Same with the 10% DR from Indomitable. Stalemate? Combined with Negation, you can basically say goodbye to basic attacks. Like, BK seriously asserts dominance in any sort of battle with its passives alone. But that's not even all it has.
Crescent rook. Radical movement skill that's actually a projectile, so immobilize doesn't affect it. Can be used for all sorts of combos, or, if the opponent has a visible mirror, it's well known for being used to bait the mirror and bring the opponent to you. It's kinda a sweet mechanic, and sick when people use it. It doesn't have perfect elemental scaling, but this doesn't impede the excellent utility of the skill.
Hanging. Arguably the most movement skill that also includes a basic attack at the end of it- With extra hit, to boot. Even if you don't build around basic attacks, that can still be a fresh free 100% SWA that you're smacking down. Compare it to Haunting, and it looks leagues better.
Checkmate. A devastating attack. It's short range, but the mobility options of a BK can help you get in on the action. It's certainly not perfect, a basic attack, after all... But under certain conditions that many BK manage to consistently replicate, it can just automatically hit, *and* it's got a +scaled defense to damage tag. On a class that gives +6 defense as an innate. That's incredibly meaty.
and ALLL of its utility skills tend to be just kinda sick. Forced move gives Black Knights a monstrous presence in Teamfights, Steel Aura completely turns off a ton of different builds, Steel Blood gives them a reliable poison counter, and Steel Body lets them easily shrug off Arbalests and their ilk.
If anything? I feel like BK suffers from having too many options. Some of them feel a little tricky to use, but they've all seen some incredible use. And above all...
The Black Knights of Chaturanga are chivalric beings, for hire. Their job isn't to be some old bastion standing around and taking hits, but to be a valiant warrior, on the front lines of battle. They crush their enemies beneath their bootheel, working with their team as a cohesive unit to make sure no one's hung out to dry. I think that's a wonderful identity for the Black Knight, and I think it fulfills that role very nicely.
With that all said.
I can sympathize with a couple things regarding Black Knight. With Charge's nerfs, it can be a little nerve wracking pursuing a mobile character. And even if you don't need them all to make an incredible black knight, not being able to take on all of them just kinda feels disappointing. Maybe the boxer treatment, reducing a couple of their passives to 3 rank, could go nicely. Giving board shaker a touch up would be nice, as well, as it'd give Black Knight a good autohit in an element that it nearly always scales. It's something that needs to be treated with care, though, as it'd be easy to get out of hand with that AoE.
If I were to give my thoughts, I'd like to see Board Shaker become 60/65/70/75/80 SWA and 100% earth attack, with an increase of 30(or 40)% SWA if Battle Weight is above 40. It's kinda long overdue for that to become a SWA thing given how much less damage boardshaker will usually do just using torso weight as a base. That's just a basic quality of life thing.
Overall, though? BK still dominates as a class. It meshes very well with the base benefits provided from soldier(of which there are many), can be specialized into any of a dozen different roles because it's so versatile as a subclass- and as a mainclass, with the right support, it can become absolutely immovable. 15% Bulwark DR and 20% Indomitable DR+guard DR+Negation+Stalemate just gets terrifying- and they can even cripple an opponent's mobility.
Buffing it in general is, in my opinion, not really a priority, as it'll just go back to, instead of being present in most pvp like now, in all pvp, like it used to be.
Black knights are versatile as hell. Often, they're seen as taking up a lot of SP for important passives, but honestly, you don't *need* all of them. Prophylaxis isn't something that works with every build, and that's fine. Negation is absolutely monstrous for any non-lich, so it's a no-brainer to max it, but that doesn't mean it's not worth the 5 SP. Same with the 10% DR from Indomitable. Stalemate? Combined with Negation, you can basically say goodbye to basic attacks. Like, BK seriously asserts dominance in any sort of battle with its passives alone. But that's not even all it has.
Crescent rook. Radical movement skill that's actually a projectile, so immobilize doesn't affect it. Can be used for all sorts of combos, or, if the opponent has a visible mirror, it's well known for being used to bait the mirror and bring the opponent to you. It's kinda a sweet mechanic, and sick when people use it. It doesn't have perfect elemental scaling, but this doesn't impede the excellent utility of the skill.
Hanging. Arguably the most movement skill that also includes a basic attack at the end of it- With extra hit, to boot. Even if you don't build around basic attacks, that can still be a fresh free 100% SWA that you're smacking down. Compare it to Haunting, and it looks leagues better.
Checkmate. A devastating attack. It's short range, but the mobility options of a BK can help you get in on the action. It's certainly not perfect, a basic attack, after all... But under certain conditions that many BK manage to consistently replicate, it can just automatically hit, *and* it's got a +scaled defense to damage tag. On a class that gives +6 defense as an innate. That's incredibly meaty.
and ALLL of its utility skills tend to be just kinda sick. Forced move gives Black Knights a monstrous presence in Teamfights, Steel Aura completely turns off a ton of different builds, Steel Blood gives them a reliable poison counter, and Steel Body lets them easily shrug off Arbalests and their ilk.
If anything? I feel like BK suffers from having too many options. Some of them feel a little tricky to use, but they've all seen some incredible use. And above all...
The Black Knights of Chaturanga are chivalric beings, for hire. Their job isn't to be some old bastion standing around and taking hits, but to be a valiant warrior, on the front lines of battle. They crush their enemies beneath their bootheel, working with their team as a cohesive unit to make sure no one's hung out to dry. I think that's a wonderful identity for the Black Knight, and I think it fulfills that role very nicely.
With that all said.
I can sympathize with a couple things regarding Black Knight. With Charge's nerfs, it can be a little nerve wracking pursuing a mobile character. And even if you don't need them all to make an incredible black knight, not being able to take on all of them just kinda feels disappointing. Maybe the boxer treatment, reducing a couple of their passives to 3 rank, could go nicely. Giving board shaker a touch up would be nice, as well, as it'd give Black Knight a good autohit in an element that it nearly always scales. It's something that needs to be treated with care, though, as it'd be easy to get out of hand with that AoE.
If I were to give my thoughts, I'd like to see Board Shaker become 60/65/70/75/80 SWA and 100% earth attack, with an increase of 30(or 40)% SWA if Battle Weight is above 40. It's kinda long overdue for that to become a SWA thing given how much less damage boardshaker will usually do just using torso weight as a base. That's just a basic quality of life thing.
Overall, though? BK still dominates as a class. It meshes very well with the base benefits provided from soldier(of which there are many), can be specialized into any of a dozen different roles because it's so versatile as a subclass- and as a mainclass, with the right support, it can become absolutely immovable. 15% Bulwark DR and 20% Indomitable DR+guard DR+Negation+Stalemate just gets terrifying- and they can even cripple an opponent's mobility.
Buffing it in general is, in my opinion, not really a priority, as it'll just go back to, instead of being present in most pvp like now, in all pvp, like it used to be.
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