Looking for Unique Ways to Play Dragon Knight

[Tagby]

Hello Community!

Hope y'all are having a good day.

I have been practicing my Dragon Knight for two weeks and I have learned how to properly level DK and which items NOT to buy for Dragon Knight. Put 1 point in each of his 3 skills, then max out Breathe Fire, then Dragon Blood, and then finally max out Dragon Tail. Purchase Soul Ring, Power Treads, Armlet or Maelstrom, Drums of Endurance, always a Black King Bar, Mjollnir or AC, Helm of the Dominator (upgrade that to a Satanic later), HoT vs. Satanic, or Daedalus. Those are the items I'll usually buy. But I want to know if and how I can get creative with DK.

Does the Community have any clever/unique item suggestions for Dragon Knight? Something outside the box. I'd love to hear your comments!

For example, I was very excited yesterday when I was playing a Ranked Match and a teammate suggested the idea of purchasing a Bloodstone over a Heart. I thought this was stupid and that DK should ALWAYS go Heart or Satanic, but when he explained his argument I saw that he made some interesting points. I have never purchased a Bloodstone as I prefer Refresher or Linkin's Sphere on heroes I enjoy playing. He told me that Bloodstone would (1) Solve DK's mana regeneration issues, (2) Reduce the respawn timer according to the number of charges you have, and (3) If you die, Bloodstone will help your team as it will restore 500 HP + 30 HP per charge to all nearby allies.

I'm going to try that today!

So Community, do you have any clever item suggestions that may sound unusual for DK, but actually prove to be useful, effective, or maybe even deadly? Discuss.

[Tagby]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Magikabula:

About skadi: The stats are GREAT, don't get me wrong, but the passive component will be wasted on a DK that goes a lifesteal build. If you have a mobility item like Phase or Blink, DK's stun and his lvl 3 dragon form will be plenty of lockdown, while in his Knight form, your HotD will cancel your skadi slow (Ranged lifesteal stacks with Skadi UAM).

(...)

Consider going a perma stun build with Abyssal, Scythe, and Blink to land a whopping 6secondish disable. That should be enough to kill someone with any backup from your team.

Thanks for your reply for Magikabula.

Have you tried Skadi in-game?? I just did that twice today. It really helped slow down the enemy heroes trying to escape with Mask of Madness as it gave our initiator time for his Blink Dagger to cooldown before he blinked in and stuned the b*stard and secured the kill. My second Skadi match, I also put Shiva's on Dragon Knight. Think about it! :D

Level 3 Elder Dragon Form move slow: 30%
Eye of Skadi move slow: 35%
Arctic Blast from Shivas Guard: + 40%
----------------
105% MOVE SLOW!

That is SO MUCH SLOW! I can't see why you wouldn't want to take advantage of that...


-----------> The next question for you:

Magikabula, my next question for you is: Why do players frequently discourage building Skull Basher on Dragon Knight??

I never understood that. Dragon Knight is a hybrid hero: he's only a Semi-Carry in Knight Form but a deadly Hard Carry in Dragon Form. Since DK usually isn't in Dragon Form all the time (his Ultimate has a long cooldown too), I thought it would be strategically ideal that the player would improve his Semi-Carry form as much as possible.

Consider this teamfight situation:
You know how it is. You've been there before. The enemy team wants to destroy your Mid Tower, so your team runs to Mid to defend. A teamfight will half-assedly breakout in the Middle Lane, so you pop your Ulti and jump into Elder Dragon Form 'cause you think, "Uh-oh! Sh*t's about to get REAL," only to realize 10 seconds later either the enemy team is too timid to start the fight (or YOUR team is afraid that they won't be able to survive the fight if they initiate first).

Then you're just awkwardly flying up in the air next to your Mid Tower as a badass dragon, but not doing anything. =/ The clock is ticking and so is your Ultimate's duration. The duration ends and you return to your weaker Knight Form. After a long 30 seconds goes by, FINALLY somebody has the balls the start the fight, so both teams go in and give each other everything they got. You try to Dragon Tail their Shadow Shaman (in Knight Form), but you misclick and stun a creep instead!!! D: OH GOD. You know what happens next. Shadow Shaman does his thing and then the enemy team focuses you down and you die.

Will I truly get harassed by my teammates in-game for building Skull Basher on DK? I would upgrade it to an Abyssal Blade ASAP to have 2 stuns, but it's expensive so for the majority of the game you're running around with a highly discouraged Skull Basher. =(

[MILNOR]

Try vanguard Bkb and radiance with dragons blood lvl 4 by that point of course. Lots of tank and damage over time. Maybe add blade mail to that to ruin their carries late game

[ChemicalBacon]

I have always played him like this:-

Crystalis - bonus dmg and crits
Tranquil boots - Bonus hp regen and speed
Mjoll - speed and defence from the active, multiplies with crits
Blink - DK is slow and needs travel, allows better use of hsi short ranged stun
Heaven's halberd - disables and gives a str. bonus
Shiva's guard - armour + int + an AoE slow

[xiaozhubiang]

5 divine rapiers and 1 boots of speed

[境界線]

my personal super tank build
-power treads/phase
-Helm of Dominator
-Blademail
-AC

and 2 left for dps item, i usually pick 2 butterfly..

[stoic]

Opprinnelig skrevet av meh®:

my personal super tank build
-power treads/phase
-Helm of Dominator
-Blademail
-AC

and 2 left for dps item, i usually pick 2 butterfly..

Butterfly is a waste on DK since he isn't agility and after ac you don't really need more attack speed. you would do better with heart.

[Tagby]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Bearded Spy In A Fez:

Opprinnelig skrevet av meh®:

my personal super tank build
-power treads/phase
-Helm of Dominator
-Blademail
-AC

and 2 left for dps item, i usually pick 2 butterfly..

Butterfly is a waste on DK since he isn't agility and after ac you don't really need more attack speed. you would do better with heart.

Unless you're trying to go for the Evasion benefits, Heaven's Halberd would be a way better choice.

I started a bot match with cheats enabled and gave DK these items: Tranquil Boots, Shiva's Guard, Crimson Guard, Assault Cuirass, Heaven's Halberd, and Heart of Tarq. That made Dragon Knight SO DAMN TANKY that I stood still in the Dire respawn for a solid +60 seconds before I needed to walk out and regenerate my health!

That Evasion bonus just goes to show you how valuable it can be against Right-Click heroes.

[ChemicalBacon]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Blue Eyes White Dragon Knight:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Bearded Spy In A Fez:

Butterfly is a waste on DK since he isn't agility and after ac you don't really need more attack speed. you would do better with heart.

Unless you're trying to go for the Evasion benefits, Heaven's Halberd would be a way better choice.

I started a bot match with cheats enabled and gave DK these items: Tranquil Boots, Shiva's Guard, Crimson Guard, Assault Cuirass, Heaven's Halberd, and Heart of Tarq. That made Dragon Knight SO DAMN TANKY that I stood still in the Dire respawn for a solid +60 seconds before I needed to walk out and regenerate my health!

That Evasion bonus just goes to show you how valuable it can be against Right-Click heroes.

Not sure if you know this but Butterfly now has an active, you exchange the evasion for 8% extra movespeed for a few seconds - which is good for closing distances

[Tagby]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Chemicalbacon:

Not sure if you know this but Butterfly now has an active, you exchange the evasion for 8% extra movespeed for a few seconds - which is good for closing distances

Oooooooo! That is a good point......

[Warlocke]

my fav build
get rekt
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/903284070

[76561198083386293]

#dagongaming

[Maka-61]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Pieeer1:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Blue Eyes White Dragon Knight:

Have you ever tried an Eye of Skadi on Dragon Knight? It's absolutely marvelous. You transform DK into a Viper or Venomancer because all that Skadi slow stacks with your Level 3 EDF's attack slow. Enemy heroes too fast for you? Can't seem to chase effectively? Eye of Skadi.

Problem solved.

Skadi is good on him because of the straight up takiness he has at that point of the game. 2.5k health with a good 25 armor? I don't understand why he isn't picked more.

massive tankability, instant cast sometimes ranged stun, basic aoe nuke and aoe slow autoattacks with ulti, hes pretty dam strong lategame with bkb and lifesteal.

[Magikabula]

"Have you tried Skadi in-game??"
Just tried it against bots, with interesting results. First of all, I think it's pretty bad to rush Skadi as a first item. I found that I really needed a heart to keep my Hp up because while Skadi gives you a hackton of raw hp, your dragon blood regeneration does not scale along with it. If you are going skadi, you are missing out on lifesteal, which is one of the most common method of sustainablility that can only be compensated by a Heart of Tarrasque.

The slow is very good, I won't deny it. Bots are pretty dumb sometimes, so I found that when I attacked one guy and forced a retreat, his two teammates kept bumping into him, but couldn't path around him because the aoe slow from lvl 3 dragon form kept them from getting ahead of the first guy.

I still don't think it's worth it. Consider how much game time is spent without level 3 dragon form. Yet dragon knight is still able to excel by utilizing his stun and his dragon breath to get kills. His icy breath at level 16 is, in my opinion, just gravy. It's good when you don't wanna blow a stun but still don't want someone to get away. If you really need to slow someone more than your level 3 dragon form allows you, I don't think more slow is the answer. You need more damage. But if you do want more slow, why not Rod of Atos?

Sange and Yasha would be better than skadi imo. Easier buildup and you can still use lifesteal. As for shiva's, I gotta say no. Unless you are going a full tank build and you are the frontline blink initiator (which wouldn't be a bad way to play him) then you want to go AC over Shivas any day.

Ill share my thoughts on a basher in another post.

[Nolo Contendere]

@ everyone saying "lifesteal > skadi": porque no los dos? unles they changed something when i wasn't looking, skadi and lifesteal stack.

[Magikabula]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Nolo Contendere:

@ everyone saying "lifesteal > skadi": porque no los dos? unles they changed something when i wasn't looking, skadi and lifesteal stack.

Skadi and lifesteal do stack on ranged heroes, but not on melee heroes. Dragon knight would not be able to jungle as efficiently during the down times of the game if he went skadi.

About the basher build, I can see why people might get scared if their dragon knight started building one, but I honestly don't think it's terrible. If you started with a more traditional build with treads, blink, drum and armlet, then you shouldn't get too much flak for building a basher if the game is going alright. I would, however, recommend building the Sacred Relic first if you have Loda'esque farming skills. That way you could defend your build, saying that your building an Abyssal blade for the damage. In dragon form, an extra 100 damage splashing about is nothing to sneeze at, and the active will make sure no one escapes from your initial dragon tail.