Strategy
Gameplay
| Playstyle | |
|---|---|
| Dragon Knight is a durable front-line carry who can transform into a dragon and wipe out enemies with ranged projectile attacks. His heavy armor and regeneration from Dragon Blood makes him tankier than most carries, especially in the early game. If his team gains the upper hand, Dragon Knight's presence often ensures continued domination with little chance of enemy comeback. With a Shadow Blade, Dragon Knight can make a decent ganker due to Dragon Tail and its long stun duration. While resilient, Dragon Knight's damage output depends heavily on his dragon form, and can be rather useless if caught while it's on cooldown. Dragon Knight is also quite slow, and has no mobility skills. | |
| Pros | Cons |
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Durable Carry
- Dragon Knight's role is as a durable carry who can farm any lane safely due to his Dragon Blood passive, providing a large bonus to his armor and HP regeneration. His spell Breathe Fire is a long ranged cone shaped AoE nuke, damaging all enemies hit as well as reducing their damage output, and can be used for both clearing waves in lane and accelerating his farm in the jungle during the early game, as well as making it even harder for attackers to kill him. His ability to turn from a melee Knight into a ranged Dragon provides many passive bonuses ideal for teamfighting and pushing. Dragon Knight is adept at stacking ancient camps during the early game, and then clearing them once his Elder Dragon Form gains splash damage at level 12, gathering a large boost of gold and experience. With his Dragon Tail, you and your team can easily aim at a priority target, seeing that this is a single target stun with long duration. With a Shadow Blade, Dragon Knight can take the role of initiator and set up ganks with it by sneaking behind the target and stunning it.
- As a carry, you must build according to the game, but it is highly recommended, in most matches, to build a Black King Bar, seeing that Dragon Knight has a strong natural defense against physical damage, but is still vulnerable to magical damage and to being disabled.
- Only take one skill point for Dragon Tail, as it scales terribly, and the first level of this ability is useful enough for the rest of the game.
- In the average game, two points of Dragon blood in the early game is the sweet spot, providing enough HP regeneration to sustain him from harassment and neutral creep damage.
- At level one, the 25% damage reduction of Breathe Fire, or in some cases the 2.5 second stun of Dragon Tail, is in nearly all cases better than taking the passive point at level 1. It's far more economical to purchase extra regeneration if you are expecting a difficult early lane.
- In difficult lanes, getting a third or maybe even fourth early point can help your survivability, but it does drastically lower the speed at which you can farm with Breathe Fire.
- In easier lanes, where you have successfully gained control of the lane and farmed up an item to sustain you, such as Soul Ring or Bottle, skipping the second point in order to gain Dragon Tail earlier and maxing out Breathe Fire at 7.
- Taking the value point of Dragon Tail at level 5 allows him to maximize his kill potential at level 6, when he can first transform.
- Dragon Tail has the weakest scaling of all his spells, with a level 4 spell only providing an extra 0.75 seconds of stun, and is so usually reserved until last.
Offlane
- In many cases, an offlane Dragon Knight's strength is his extreme durability and long-duration stun, making it extremely difficult to bully him out of lane.
- This offlane build greatly sacrifices Dragon Knight's ability to flash farm with Breathe Fire in favor of maximum durability, and should be used in cases where the lane is a constant struggle. If you manage to gain control of the lane and successfully farm a fast soul ring, Consider skipping the later points of Dragon Blood in favor of Breathe Fire.
Ability Builds
| Generic Dragon Knight | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 25 | |||||
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| Offlane Dragon Knight | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 25 | |||||
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Talents
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| +400 AoE Dragon Tail During Elder Dragon Form | 25 | +12 Dragon Blood HP Regen/Armor |
| +85% Breathe Fire Damage/Cast Range in Dragon Form | 20 | +150 Elder Dragon Form Attack Range |
| +300 Health | 15 | +0.4s Dragon Tail Stun |
| 30% Breathe Fire Damage Reduction | 10 | +15 Damage |
Notes:
- Grants bonus attack damage.
- Does not benefit illusions and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.
- The health talent increases the max health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.
Tips & Tactics
General
- Dragon Knight is one of the few heroes with no cast time on his abilities, so abilities can be cast in between attacks on the backswing animation.
- Creep stacking is a good tactic for Dragon Knight, as his ultimate will clear camps quickly.
- Dragon Knight has a quick, clean attack animation, making last hitting fairly easy (especially with a Quelling Blade).
- With any source of lifesteal, Dragon Knight rarely needs to return to the fountain.
- In the early game, enemies teams may choose to ignore Dragon Knight during teamfights, due to his low damage.
- Dragon Knight's item build varies depending on what he's facing. Good players must analyze enemies' items to make an informed decision.
- Like several other carries, Dragon Knight relies heavily on Black King Bar to keep himself from being disabled in teamfights.
- Despite being tanky against physical damage, Dragon Knight has no defenses against magical and pure damage.
- In the early to mid game, do not overestimate Dragon Knight's tankiness against a mixed lineup of heroes and his vulnerability to ganks.
- More tips needed.
Abilities
Breathe Fire
- Breathe Fire can be used to farm and harass in lane, especially if Dragon Knight has a Soul Ring.
- Breathe Fire is useful as an early game nuke, being your damage source until you can unleash heavy physical attacks.
- Breathe Fire reduces enemies attack damage, try to apply it on enemy carries if possible.
- Breathe Fire also reduces attack damage of creeps, allowing Dragon Knight to better tank stacks neutral camps.
- Breathe Fire has enough range to stack ancient camps for mid Dragon Knight.
- More tips needed.
Dragon Tail
- Dragon Tail is the longest guaranteed level 1 single target stun in the game.
- Dragon Tail scales poorly. One or two levels is often enough to fulfill its primary stun purposes.
- Dragon Tail is great for ganking, especially if you have Shadow Blade or Blink Dagger.
- Dragon Tail's cast range increases to 400 when you transform yourself into a Dragon. It is sometimes worth transforming simply to land a stun on a fleeing enemy.
- More tips needed.
Dragon Blood
- Consider leveling Dragon Blood early to increase Dragon Knight's survivability. This is especially helpful when playing in the offlane.
- Despite the health regeneration, Dragon Knight is still quite vulnerable to magical damage.
- More tips needed.
Elder Dragon Form
- Elder Dragon Form has a duration of 60 seconds and a cooldown of 115 seconds, which means it can be active nearly half the time even if used immediately after cooldown.
- Despite its long duration, make sure Elder Dragon Form is always ready before a teamfight. Without it, Dragon Knight is easily kited and deals less damage.
- Elder Dragon Form changes attack range from melee to ranged. Keep this in mind when building items as it also changes the effect of items like Manta Style, damage block, bash chance and cleave.
- The Dragons' corrosive breath affects towers, easily taking them down even in the early game.
- Use the splash damage from level two and three to clean waves and stacked camps. Consider purchasing a Helm of the Dominator to stack jungle and ancient camps.
- Coupled with Armlet of Mordiggian, Dragon Knight can clear stacks of ancient camps.
- Splash damage does not trigger lifesteal.
- Splash damage applies critical strike, and is affected by damage manipulation.
- More tips needed.
Items
Starting items:
- Tango regenerates health early on until Dragon Blood.
- Clarity helps with Dragon Knight's small mana pool, allowing him to use Breathe Fire more often in lane.
- Iron Branch gives nice attributes, and can be used to build a Magic Wand.
- Stout Shield can greatly help his early game durability against ranged enemies.
Early game:
- Quelling Blade makes last hitting easier due to his low base damage.
- Boots of Speed are compulsory because of the early speed boost they give.
- Magic Stick can help offset the damage of being harassed by spells, and provide a burst of HP and Mana to help win early fights.
- Soul Ring is a useful item on Dragon Knight, as it allows him to farm using Breathe Fire constantly. The extra health regeneration from Soul Ring together with the regeneration from Dragon Blood offset the health loss.
Mid game:
- Power Treads increases attack speed, and also allows for attribute switching. Using Soul Ring while set to strength, then casting spells on intelligence minimizes the HP cost and maximizes the mana gained.
- Magic Wand is a natural upgrade for Magic stick, offering a larger potential burst of health and mana.
- Armlet of Mordiggian provides a large amount of HP regeneration, and armor, as well as a nice boost in strength, attack damage, and armor when activated, significantly increasing Dragon Knight's mid game strength. His HP regen from Dragon Blood effectively manages the HP consumed by an activated Armlet. Furthermore, the Dragon Blood talent allows Dragon Knight to keep Armlet on without draining too much HP.
- Black King Bar is a crucial item to have in most games to prevent being disabled. With the added survivability, damage and spell immunity, you become more durable and able to jump into the fight with less risk of dying.
Late game:
- Shadow Blade gives good mobility, and ideal in games where Dragon Knight requires a way to initiate or gank the opposing team. The stealth allows you to initiate using your stun, and the bonus damage coming out of stealth is also helpful.
- Assault Cuirass gives attack speed and armor to you and surrounding allies. It also places a debuff on enemies, making them easier to kill. It is a good item if you have many attackers in your team.
Situational items:
- Silver Edge is a natural upgrade from Shadow Blade, and is strong in Dragon Knight's hands for multiple reasons. The break it provides reduces an opponent's outgoing damage even more, effectively stacking with the debuff of Breathe fire, and disabling most passive abilities.
- Sange and Yasha provides you with a modest chunk of attributes, as well as increasing his move speed, and in the late game may be disassembled in order to build Heaven's Halberd and/or Manta Style.
- Heaven's Halberd is a good item for improving both offense and defensive: it gives more damage, more strength, and status resistance. The evasion stacks nicely with Dragon Knight's large HP pool and high armor, and the disarm effectively prevents the enemy carry from dealing damage.
- Heart of Tarrasque is the best item to buy if you need to be tankier. Not only does it provide you with a massive HP boost and a passive ability to gain health more quickly, but it also adds strength which increases his attack damage.
- Pipe of Insight gives more survivability and tankiness for both you and your team against magic damage, the bonus health regen is also very useful.
- Satanic grants a sizeable strength boost, as well as damage and lifesteal, significantly increasing Dragon Knight's survivability.
- Daedalus makes you deal more damage, and gives you the chance to make critical hits.
- Desolator improves Dragon Knight's tower pushing and increases his damage. It also synergizes with an Assault Cuirass pickup and creates a huge armor disparity.
- Eye of Skadi provides a slow that pierces spell immunity, like the Frost Breath from your level 3 Dragon Form. Cold Attack combined with Frost Breath reduces an enemy's damage output significantly and makes it hard for enemy heroes to disengage from a fight once they are attacked by Dragon Knight. It also provides a huge health boost rivaling Heart of Tarrasque and can be considered as an offense oriented replacement as it also provides intelligence that helps with your mana consumption, and agility which gives attack speed for more DPS and armor that increases your overall effective health.
- Moon Shard can be considered as a final luxury when your team is far ahead.
