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The Mighty Knight isThe Slormancer’s resident sword-wielder, but his unconventional approach to combat may surprise you. Rather than only using melee attacks, the Knight has several powerful ranged attacks like Throwing Sword or The Elder Lance, making him a versatile fighter.
The Slormancer’s build progression is incredibly deep, with dozens of systems stacking on top of one another. If you need some tips for crafting the perfect Knight build, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’ll take a look at some suggestions for Slorm Reapers and Skills to use, as well as stats to focus on.
Slorm Reapers
Your Slorm Reaper defines your build, and with 120 to choose from, it can be overwhelming to settle on just one that is absolutely perfect for your build. Luckily, we have some recommendations for Slorm Reapers that are powerful across a number of different builds, so you can use these as jumping-off points.
Big Fury Sword
The Big Fury Sword has the simple effect ofincreasing your Raw Damageby a large degree. This weapon alsomakes your Skill Damage Lucky, which means that each attack will roll its damage twice, thentake the higher of the two values. This means you’ll be doing more damage on average.
The Big Fury Sword isgreat for almost any build that uses Raw Damage(as opposed to Elemental Damage), so it’s quite versatile. However, this also means that it’snot always the best in slot Slorm Reaper, so use it until you get something a bit more specific to your build.
Sword Of Endless Transference
The Sword of Endless Transference is all aboutimproving Indirect Damage, which is essentiallyany type of damage this isn’t directly dealt by you; Damage over Time effects likeBleedorBurnand additional hits from things likeWhirlwind’s Arcane Beamall count as Indirect Damage.
This Slorm Reaper makes it so your Indirect Damage canLeech Life and Mana, whichgreatly improves the survivability of bleed builds. It also allows overkill Indirect Damage to be stored and used as an additional hit of damage the next time you deal Indirect Damage, ensuring your Bleed stacks don’t go to waste.
Sword Of Detonating Force
This Slorm Reaper is another that is used with Damage over Time builds, but provides a unique option apart from the aforementioned Sword of Endless Transference. The Sword of Detonating Forceincreases all Damage over Time you deal, while also applying a uniqueTime Weaknessdebuff, which stacks up to 50.
Each stack of Time Weaknessincreases Damage over Time dealt to that enemy, further scaling the damage of your DoT effects. What makes this Sword interesting is its Ancestral Skill,Detonate, which can be activated toinstantly deal all of a target’s Damage over Time effects in an explosion. This is especially useful against bosses, allowing you to chunk down their health.
Giant Sword Of The Giant Slayer
The Giant Sword of the Giant Slayer is another great general-purpose Slorm Reaper thatincreases your damage to Elites. This weapon’s unique effect makes your attacks against Elitesalso hit nearby enemiesfor the same damage as the original attack, letting you focus your power on taking down high-health Elites.
The Giant Slayer also makes your attacks inflict theEnfeebledebuff, which makes them takemore damage from all sources. Overall, the Giant Sword of the Giant Slayer is just a great option for increasing DPS without needing to build to heavily around its effect, making it perfect for experimenting with the Knight’s Skills.
Thornbite Sword
One of the Knight’s available playstyles centers around Thorns, which involvestaking damage to deal damage. The Thornbite Sword increases your Thorns Damage with each level, andincreases yourThorns Damage Multiplier when you stand still for half a second, as well as theThornbite Protectionbuff that shields you from a sum of incoming damage.
Thorns builds are all about building your defenses as high as they can go, then letting enemies kill themselves trying to scratch your life bar. This build works best with theEnduring Protector Specializationthat centers around damage reflection, damage reduction, and Thorns damage.
Skills
The Knight’s varied set of Skills are all fun to use and powerful in their own ways, so experimenting with the ones you like the best will lead to the best results. Below you can find some suggestions for where to start, though.
Whirlwind
Whirlwind provides the classicspin-to-win gameplaythat is almost an essential inclusion in any ARPG. By channeling the Skill, you’ll spin around in a circle, dealingcontinuous damageto enemies that get in the way.
A fun use of Whirlwind is to pair it withArcane BeamandDancing Blades, giving each rotation of the attack a chance to create another hit of damage. As these Mastery nodes are upgraded, you’ll becovering the screen in additional damage effectswhile you swirl around with your blade.
Whirlwind is best paired with stats likeLife LeechandMana Leechdue to itshigh number of hits with each rotation. These stats will let yousustain yourself through larger packs of enemies. Plus, with enoughMana Leech, you can entirelyoffset the channel cost of Whirlwind, allowing you toslot in powerful Aurasto further boost its damage.
Grappling Hook
Grappling Hook is a great option as a Secondary Skill for the Knight, providing a variety of useful effects that pair well with more damage-oriented Skills like Mighty Swing or Whirlwind. By default, Grappling Hook will pull you to the targeted enemy or wall, dealing damage along the way.
However, Grappling Hook’s usefulness skyrockets when upgraded with theCaptain Hook Masterynode, which lets ithit in all directions around youandpulls enemies toward youinstead of you to them. This lets you easilygroup up enemies, which works especially well with the short range of Whirlwind to get your enemies where you want them.
TheLong ChainMastery upgrade improves Captain Hook even more, allowing you topull enemies from even further away. For melee builds, Grappling Hook is a great tool to have.
The Elder Lance
The Elder Lance is one of the Knight’s most interesting Skills. By default, you throw a spear that is so weak it doesn’t do any damage, so the spirit of Bryan has to chip and and throw his own spear after, where the real damage of the attack comes in.
This Skill can then be upgraded with theHonorable ThrowMastery node to let your initial lance throw deal damage, which then pairs withAncestral Trainingto make it dealtwice as much damage as Bryan’s lance, letting the initial hit serve as the attack’s main source of damage.
you’re able to also scale this Skill’s damage using theAlign the Starsnode, which makes each cast grant aCosmic Stack, which boosts the damage of yourAstral Meteorsand Astral Retributions. If you also unlock theCosmic Powernode, you canincrease the base damage of the Elder Lance. This buff hasno stack limit, so it excels in content likethe Great Forge, where you can build it up over the course of the run.
Stats
As with any build in The Slormancer, your stats can vary wildly depending on your Slorm Reaper, Skills, Legendaries, and so on. Damage over time builds will want very different stats than a build centered around damage reflection, for example.
For builds that hit a lot of times, like Whirlwind,Life LeechandMana Leechare almost essential. These builds will also want to prioritize defensive stats likeMax LifeandArmorsince they will be within melee range of enemies and thus take more close-range damage.
If you’re instead usingThrowing Swordto inflict tons of Bleed, you’ll want to increase yourDamage over Time, as well asbonuses to projectiles like Pierce, Fork, or Rebound Chance, so that you can get more out of each sword throw.
Movement Speedis almost universally strong to have, so it’s never a bad idea to stack some up on your gear.
