Blood Knight

[Nightbringer]

Hey guys. Is there any class which has blood and blood draining based abilities? I know that Occultist have one. Necromancer technically have said abilities, but they are more bound to death theme rather than blood. I'm looking for thematic abilities which would fit Blood Knight class. Blood Knight is different than Death Knight in my eyes, because it does not deal with death and necromancy, but rather is a master of life's energies. It is a warrior, not a caster, but instead of relying on solid warrior's tradition, they rely on occult powers to grant them inhuman skills and strength in combat. It can be as defensive with blade and shield as it wishes to be via life draining magic and further enchanting himself in magical equipment and arcane methods or it can focus on its own magically enchanted weapons to break shields as they would be made out of glass. To cut through armor as it would be made out of paper. To glow and to burn with magical energies, burning, saping, zaping anyone who clashes blades with them.


It is not a dedicated warrior. Soldier will be more experienced than Blood Knight in combat. More hardened and tough. Nightblade will be sneaker and more deadly with its blades than Blood Knight. Caster will wield greater power and cast spells while Blood Knight will not. This pretty much leaves me with very little choice. I'm thinking the best combo for what I want would be Occultist and Arcanist. I kinda lack points for both weapon enchanters from both classes, but maybe I will figure something else. Yet, maybe there are better combinations of classes for what I want to build here?


Btw: Why this game has no vampire class in a first place? It is a gross oversight from developers. I demand my vampires and I want them to sparkle!

[Nightbringer]

"A Blood Dragon should strive for excellence in all matters, but especially in the martial pursuits. Countless Knights and Warriors have I bested in battle, and many more come in hopes of slaying me each year. Unlike them, the passage of the ages strengthen me. You can never know what it is to know what certainty that one's skill with blade and bow increases year upon year, instead of deteriorating into middle age, dotage, and eventually death. That in itself is reason enough to give up mortal life and take up the eternal challenge of immortality..."
—Sir Holbein of Blood Keep, Blood Dragon Champion


More rarer classes have different inspirations. Some of them imply that warrior is in there. Others view him more as a vampire class. Draining life essence of their enemies. I tend to view it neither as an warrior or as an assassin. It should not be trained as a warrior or a rogue to be sneaky or naturally brutish. It should be both of those things, yes, but achieved through mastery of its own mind, its own body rather than mastery of the tools available to it. Either they muscles of warrior or blades of an assassin. Blood Knight should be able to control its own body as it would be his tool to command. He should replenish health with hits, there is no question here. Yet, I do see him more of a magic worker dedicated into making magic immediatly useful in practical purposes like bashing someone over the head with it rather than casting long and drawn out, complicated and vague spells alone, locked in his own room. As in quote below, it is a warrior and it should feel like a warrior, but those traits should be achieved via magical arts. More like "monk + occultist" maybe.

[Legion66]

Well there's the Blood Knight set, but if I remember correctly it was for soldier + necro. You could go nightblade + occultist / necro, or perhaps occultist + necro would be interesting as it's not really your standard fighter but has great vitality skills.

[Nightbringer]

Thanks, I will take a deeper look into those classes. I cannot do Soldier + Necro combo as it is out of the question to me. I'm already leveling up Death Knight under such combination and it just fits so much better that class which is supposed to deal more with death magic rather than vitality sucking magic. If you would go and check descriptions, they mention or imply being necromantic in nature while Blood Knight is more of life draining vampire in theme rather than one dealing in death.

[Carl!!!!]

My vitality based reaper might fit. Melee, dual wield, deals vitality damage, so sort of life force/blood damage, with a little bleeding, and has lots of life steel. Also using the blood knight set, and with some illusions doesn't look necromancer like at all. Lots of red, and blood. He does have a permanent spirit summon (from blood knight set), but it's nice and red, and has more vampiric/blood knight vibe and abilities.

You could try a bleeding damage based trickster using the blood knight set. Although it'd be more of a caster possibly, but you could be melee and dual wield with savagery and whirling death for bleeding damage as well, or throw knives at enemies.


For me though, as long as you had high adcth, and focused on vitality or bleeding damage, and ignore you're getting a lot of it fromt he necromancer mastery, you'll see a lot of blood knight potential. Maybe combine it with nightblade (so your class would be reaper instead of death knight) and good to go. Siphon souls is fun melee range ability perfect for blood knight tbh. You get a big reddish pink ring around you that damages enemies, weakens them a little, and a huge chunk of the damage dealt is given back to you in life.

Spectral binding + spectral wrath: Gives you more life, and lowers enemy vitality resistance, so think of it as weakening enemy life force with your aura to gain more life (vitality stat is tied to hp in lots of games, so vitality damage is more like life damage).

Drain essence can be built around easily, and fits themeatically if you did see yourself on a caster route. Other than these though, most skills that you'll want come as attack procs on gear.

[RodHull]

Originally posted by Nightbringer:

Thanks, I will take a deeper look into those classes. I cannot do Soldier + Necro combo as it is out of the question to me. I'm already leveling up Death Knight under such combination and it just fits so much better that class which is supposed to deal more with death magic rather than vitality sucking magic. If you would go and check descriptions, they mention or imply being necromantic in nature while Blood Knight is more of life draining vampire in theme rather than one dealing in death.

I think your getting a little to hung up on names and descriptions but that aside vitality is essentially life force, its about as close to lifestealing abilities as you can get.

Bleed is a different thing entirely and is a physical effect

Here are some items which might thematically fit your idea

https://www.grimtools.com/db/search?query=crimson%20spike&in_description=1&exact_match=0

https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/8044

[Nightbringer]

Elio, I was thinking and kinda like your combination. Though, Reaper is someone who is implied to deal huge amounts of damage thus reaping. I'm not sure how Nightblade would fit, especially if I would want to use shield+sword combo as it seems poisons and duel wield is a staple of Nightblade where Blood Knight is more about mastery of martial pursuits.

Could you link your build to see what you have yourself?

[Nightbringer]

Nightblade does not fit. It is more of an "assassin" type playstyle. It fits Reaper, sure. Yet Blood Knight is more of a Duelist kind of type. He excels at martial arts as it would be an art. A challenge. An achievement. It has finest, mastery and class. Soldier is a brute, peasant. Nightblade is a butcher, assassin. Hmm, maybe new Oathbreaker class coming in next expansion will have that more refined martial feeling to it.

[Carl!!!!]

Basic build with core items needed that i'm currently playing

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/mN48a3yN

Went nightblade over soldier for the extra heal, shield, and easy dual wielding. Plus execution converted to vitality damage, and the extra passive vitality damage from nightblade.

[Nightbringer]

Thanks for sharing. Usually when I create a build for me what matters is a theme. Roleplaying aspect. So I make big deal of how abilities look like, what their damage type is. What description says. For example, I struggle to find anything in Nightblade which would fit BloodKnight. For one, BloodKnight would never use poisons. Nor dancing knifes are his thing. Yours do seem more fitting description of a Reaper, though I do doubt that I will be able to get anything better than your build from Nightblade.


I'm just experimenting so it is just a sketch in my head. First I still need to level up my original warlock and to develop my Death Knight properly, but this is one of my ideas.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYK4O7V

Not sure how I feel about those magical barriers though. It does not feel as much as BloodKnight and more like SpellBlade or something akin to that. I would call it WitchBlade, but that is already taken.

[Carl!!!!]

Originally posted by Nightbringer:

Thanks for sharing. Usually when I create a build for me what matters is a theme. Roleplaying aspect. So I make big deal of how abilities look like, what their damage type is. What description says. For example, I struggle to find anything in Nightblade which would fit BloodKnight. For one, BloodKnight would never use poisons. Nor dancing knifes are his thing. Yours do seem more fitting description of a Reaper, though I do doubt that I will be able to get anything better than your build from Nightblade.


I'm just experimenting so it is just a sketch in my head. First I still need to level up my original warlock and to develop my Death Knight properly, but this is one of my ideas.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYK4O7V

Not sure how I feel about those magical barriers though. It does not feel as much as BloodKnight and more like SpellBlade or something akin to that. I would call it WitchBlade, but that is already taken.

Well you have 1 attacking skill, rest are buffs that split your damage amongst 5 types, so first narrow it down to one or two damage types. If you want your warlock to be a melee user, you're gonna be very gear dependent. It's doable, for sure though. As a blood knight, I imagine you'll want a red/black theme, so chaos damage should be the focus. Most chaos procs are nice and red, whereas vitality, although fitting, is more pink.

If I were to go melee warlock and focus on chaos damage, it's be more like this
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NKerdJV

Bloody pox just to debuff enemies and it's great for devotion proccing. Could swap for Doom Bolt though. The rest of your chaos abilities are gonna come from gear.

[FlamingX21]

Yo bro, saw your review on game and all taht but wahetever. I don't get why so many Lithaunian's feel so down and depressed. Have met so many yet they feel the worst emotionally it seems, really sad. Feels as if u guys don't get treated decently or smth or idk what's going on with phyhology in that country.

From fellow Latvian. Stay strong.

[Nightbringer]

Well, I have friend from India who also tells me that Lithuanians are generally are down like that. It is our trait. Probably it is due to harsh oppression dating multiple generations from Carist Russia and then USSR. People elsewhere seems a lot more chill, happy and positive. I do not know why it is so. Personally I do not feel ♥♥♥♥♥♥ nor our modern environment is like that. It is positive and modern. I guess it is our Soviet legacy which still haunts modern generation.

[FlamingX21]

Strange indeeed, but thanks for giving in-dept view in that. You guys shuuld let that go. USSR is long gone, new times have came. World War 3 might already been in doorsteps while u still crying about WW2. C'mon let that ♥♥♥♥ go. xD

[Nightbringer]

I'm thinking myself just to work here few years, gain work experience and then to emigrate somewhere sweeter like Austria or Switzerland, maybe even to France. We have huge problem with emigration, so I'm not sure how Lithuanians will change as a lot of young blood will just leave the country for good and what the rest will do here and how they will behave. Usually Lithuanians love to complain and do nothing. They are generally closed people, but less than people in Finland or Estonia. We also are overly concerned about what others think and how we appear in public. We also tend to work hard, often disregarding our own well being. Older generations especially tend to be rather crafty with mundane things like cars, cooking, gardening, etc.


Well, hopefully bad times are over or at least I will be able to hide through them somewhere in Switzerland. :)

[Nightbringer]

Originally posted by Elio:

Originally posted by Nightbringer:

Thanks for sharing. Usually when I create a build for me what matters is a theme. Roleplaying aspect. So I make big deal of how abilities look like, what their damage type is. What description says. For example, I struggle to find anything in Nightblade which would fit BloodKnight. For one, BloodKnight would never use poisons. Nor dancing knifes are his thing. Yours do seem more fitting description of a Reaper, though I do doubt that I will be able to get anything better than your build from Nightblade.


I'm just experimenting so it is just a sketch in my head. First I still need to level up my original warlock and to develop my Death Knight properly, but this is one of my ideas.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYK4O7V

Not sure how I feel about those magical barriers though. It does not feel as much as BloodKnight and more like SpellBlade or something akin to that. I would call it WitchBlade, but that is already taken.

Well you have 1 attacking skill, rest are buffs that split your damage amongst 5 types, so first narrow it down to one or two damage types. If you want your warlock to be a melee user, you're gonna be very gear dependent. It's doable, for sure though. As a blood knight, I imagine you'll want a red/black theme, so chaos damage should be the focus. Most chaos procs are nice and red, whereas vitality, although fitting, is more pink.

If I were to go melee warlock and focus on chaos damage, it's be more like this
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NKerdJV

Bloody pox just to debuff enemies and it's great for devotion proccing. Could swap for Doom Bolt though. The rest of your chaos abilities are gonna come from gear.

Arcanist occultist combo is good, because it is my main hero. Though, I do struggle with build no matter what way I want to go. I care less about it being good and more of being thematically sound.


As a BloodKnight, I'm kind in a pickle, because he is not a caster nor he should ever use poisons or vile curses. So it takes out majority of skill trees everywhere. Maybe warrior would be good for such build I wonder. I'm kinda locked as a melee hero who might be using shield+sword combo and not necessary double wield. Also, maces are no go. I do not know, I will decide about the feel of the hero on the go. I still need to decide how I will imagine my character first. Choosing best classes for my power fantasy is the hardest part. Afterwards, it is just a matter of optimizing your build to best suit you.


Thank you for your suggestion, but Sigil of Consumption is kinda the core of my build. I need to get life drain somehow. Necromancer would give me that, but in that tree there is just few skills with which I'm comfortable with. Basically, everything that mentions "death" or "necromantic" is no go for me. Drain Essence seems as a good skill, but terrible early on as I it was completely useless without proper gear and levels. I'm also not sure about playstyle with that ability. I do not just to sit there and channel Drain Life spell. This is more of Warlocks thing. I'm also more of a warrior kind type of dudes and Bloody Pox seems something which Warlock would do. I want to primary beat enemy with my sword and regen life as crazy. I do believe Sigil of Consumption gave me best life regen which I experienced during level up process.