[KotBS] Solo-friendly, but still group friendly build

[Fey]

I was going to bring up, Slice Through, but damn. Not worth it.

[ShadowWar]

I was going to bring up, Slice Through, but damn. Not worth it.

Yeah, it got crushed hard in the normalization.

[Fey]

It is legitimately just different, and not better than the normal snare. And you have to spend points to get it. I'm mostly on destro these days, so I can't complain too loudly. The old version was quite good.

Not that bad for SnB, you can now justify ignoring left tree.

[forsa]

No worries from my end

I'm still not convinced Focused Mending is as good as everyone thinks it is. In large part, because it requires you to run Stay Focused!, which does not scale. Anytime you take an aura with no debuff, it needs to be SO good, that it makes up for 24 people not being debuffed. That's a lot to ask for from an aura, and making 6 people get healed for 15% more doesn't seem like enough. Obviously, the value scale shifts as you go to smaller-scale fights.

Perfect.

The issue with Focused Mending is that the moment you meet chosen, you get perma -25% inc healing, so FM helps somewhat remedy this up to -10%. If we consider other HD's, well you get the idea.
Stay Focused was gutted (used to give ap on def to entire party so was cool, thou regen was worse than chosens regen aura) but due to destro constant whine on forum (especially some specific chosens), it was decided that it is "balanced" for knight to go with only 2 auras and 3 tactics (wow, just like IB) in group play.

I tried playing around with different utility builds with warlord +2 glory, nothing felt really good. I'm still noodling over this: https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 7,8058,503 and may give it more of a try in the near future. Dirty Tricks feels like a bandaid compared to Overpowering Swings, 6 people +5% to crit seems WAY worse than EVERYONE +10% to crit on a lot of targets, and both take a tactic. There's a scaling factor here again that I struggle with. Anyway, appreciate the thoughts, definitely going to look over them more.

Rugged is useless: you already have enough defence when snb + warlord, so its either its FM (resists gain from 1 point in glory is nothing compared to it), or maybe super punt (BD).
Dirty Tricks provide +5% (was higher but order is too op) to entire party (excluding you ofc) mainly dd and HEALERS, while OS grant +10% inc crit which helps only dd and can be negated by rr/gear/tactics/skills that provide enemy high anticrit.
If you remove both DT and FM, you cripple your party a lot, as ror is about outgoing damage vs incoming damage, and your healers will have a hard time to outheal inc dmg.

Current Gear

https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com ... 487/armory

I'm running 2 piece off-sov, 5 warlord, and 2 triumph (iirc), and for gems it's either 3 +40 hp regen items, or three genesis items. I'll get the triumph jewel eventually and decide on a weapon and may actually go do PvE to get what I need unless I decide Fortress Claymore is good enough (the run speed proc is nice).

If you are going for damage, most common is 5 Off Sov + 3 WL (body, boots, cape), later can be swapped for 5 OfSov+2WL +2 Vic.
For party/rvr its almost always better to run 7WL (proc is godly on a tank).
Best weapons are the Fort weapon (charge proc and ok stats), Nightless (def proc), SC 63rr weapon (stats), Bloodlord (pure damage) and Fate of Tolya (def vampirism is pretty strong actually).
Nightless (or fort) + Warlord are "default" for party 2h kn.

Mastery Build
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/c ... 43,503,779

As far as i understand that is purely solo build.
After latest patches i'd drop the Unbalancing Attack (wimpy damage with -40 ap on 10 sec cd, complete trash if solo) for the buffed Myrmidia's Fury (channels where already better after 1.5s gcd patch), maybe even drop the To Golry for the Staggering Impact - imho both ap drains are too weak for 1v1 even combined, and are not worth the 1 gcd enemy will use to chug an ap pot.
Oh and m2 Emperors Champion is the best solo m2 due to massive 2.4k heal and stat boost (was 30 sec before, sigh), Raze is crap outside of rvr moral bomb due to being easily interrupted by almost anything.
For m1 its up to you, but remember that SH can pop your 3600 absorb with 1 click, for me its either Demolish (cause kn has no armor debuff outside of equip) or ChCh (no running away)
RoR.builders - Knight of the Blazing Sun

Renown Build
Reflex x4, Might x5, Vigor x4, Futile Strikes x1, Deft Defender x1

Due to KN's low mobility, i prefer 2 charge procs (weapon and rr), and ~ x3 anticrit for no damage spikes

Just my 2 cents.

[ShadowWar]

Rugged is useless: you already have enough defence when snb + warlord, so its either its FM (resists gain from 1 point in glory is nothing compared to it), or maybe super punt (BD).
Dirty Tricks provide +5% (was higher but order is too op) to entire party (excluding you ofc) mainly dd and HEALERS, while OS grant +10% inc crit which helps only dd and can be negated by rr/gear/tactics/skills that provide enemy high anticrit.
If you remove both DT and FM, you cripple your party a lot, as ror is about outgoing damage vs incoming damage, and your healers will have a hard time to outheal inc dmg.

I didn't realize DT gave heal crit as well, so it's definitely better than expected, and scales better for sure. That's a fair point about rugged with SnB, though I would think the extra block % from it with the stat changes would be welcome.

I don't know if I agree with the base argument that you should take things to negate things destro may bring (Focused Mending), or not take things because destro can negate it (Overpowering Swings). I also don't agree that the game is simplistic enough to be reduced to the out vs in damage. I also, have not had the issue for healers that you mentioned. It's possible we have enough knights that run it already around, but my experience has not been what you mentioned, even in situations where I'm the only KotBS in the group.

If you are going for damage...

I'm not going for damage, at least definitely not a priority. For weapons, I'd been considering mostly the Fort weapon (the speed proc is great), Nightless (yay defense), or maybe Half-moon (I don't even remember why anymore, I'd need to look). This really was on the back-burner of my thought process for quite a while, because it's super low on the impact. Not sure what Fate of Tolya is, and the armory doesn't show any proc, just stats.

As far as i understand that is purely solo build.

Yes, I swap overpowering swing in for Runefang and drop the ward for Banish Darkness when I'm in WB. I'm a big fan of BD for different situations, so BD/DC/Rf are three that get swapped around for solo play with each other.

After latest patches i'd drop the Unbalancing Attack (wimpy damage with -40 ap on 10 sec cd, complete trash if solo) for the buffed Myrmidia's Fury (channels where already better after 1.5s gcd patch), maybe even drop the To Golry for the Staggering Impact - imho both ap drains are too weak for 1v1 even combined, and are not worth the 1 gcd enemy will use to chug an ap pot.

Most of my solo encounters is not to kill them fast as possible, it's still to lean into being a tank and outlast them. My combat isn't a game of burst, it's endurance. So, overtime the AP drain adds up. Myrmidia's Fury is great if I was looking for that faster kill, but that's not how I'm built. I have AP pots as well, I'm happy to chug blue AP pots when they do: I'm still coming out in the end this way, and have more tools to deal with the elongated combat.

Oh and m2 Emperors Champion is the best solo m2 due to massive 2.4k heal and stat boost (was 30 sec before, sigh), Raze is crap outside of rvr moral bomb due to being easily interrupted by almost anything.
For m1 its up to you, but remember that SH can pop your 3600 absorb with 1 click, for me its either Demolish (cause kn has no armor debuff outside of equip) or ChCh (no running away)
RoR.builders - Knight of the Blazing Sun

Very good point about Emperor's Champion, I'm going to give this a whirl. I usually don't think about the M2 very often because the M1 is SUPER useful. A lot of solo roaming classes have health drain, and if you are absorbing, they aren't draining. I usually don't run Demolish, a lot of my damage comes from elemental. When I look through my fight histories, Blazing Blade is almost always top damage.

[forsa]

Fate of Tolya has 150hp vampirism on being hit, which may not sound much but its is fixed (edit: armor/ armor debuff affects it) and proc quiet often, especially when you receive lots of low damage hits.
Second proc is 45ap on being hit.

[ShadowWar]

That is really good. Where is it from?

[forsa]

That is really good. Where is it from?

Crypts and Tunnels.
You can trade the weapons (if for example you picked 2 shields and a 1h or just want to try another one) using merchants near Vanq trader. First you sell one of your sent weapons for "sentinel soul" (or smth like that), second you buy the weapon you want from the second merchant with aforementioned sent soul and 50g

[Zxul]

Fate of Tolya has 150hp vampirism on being hit, which may not sound much but its is fixed (no def stats or debuffs affect it) and proc quiet often, especially when you receive lots of low damage hits.

If its a same proc as other lifetap procs on weapons, like its likely is, it got nerfed with the abilities patch- its now mitigated by armor.

[forsa]

If its a same proc as other lifetap procs on weapons, like its likely is, it got nerfed with the abilities patch- its now mitigated by armor.

Interesting.
I've seen this proc only on tank 2h weapons and tank armor set iirc.
What are other lifetap weapons?
Is it affected by armor pen from WS?