Death Knight Build Guide – Dungeonborne

The Death Knight is one of the close-combat classes available in Dungeonborne. I'll teach you which abilities, skills, and weapons to choose to create a strong Death Knight build.

Best Active skills for PVP and Solo

Every class in Dungeonborne has two Active Skills, one on the E key and one on Q. Death Knight players will always have the Grasp of the Grave E skill. When it comes to the Q Skills, Soul Shroud is the way to go.

Grasp of the Grave allows the player to grab an enemy or ally and yank them toward your position. It's perfect for grabbing a long-range enemy combatant and forcing them into the frontline or pulling an ally out of danger. When pulling an enemy, they will take Shadow Damage.

Soul Shroud takes a moment to activate but slows enemies near you by 15% for one second while dealing Shadow Damage to them. The amount of Shadow Damage done is increased by your Intelligence, Strength, and Will attributes. I place Soul Shroud over Soulstorm because of the increased damage and its slight slowing effect. It's helpful for catching enemies in the moments after they try to retreat from your Grasp of the Grave.

Best Passive skills for PvP and Solo

The Death Knight has three Passive Skills you should focus on unlocking first. These three abilities are Grim Harvest, Soul Cage, and Life Steal.

Grim Harvest makes the Death Knight's E ability, Grasp of the Grave, generate 20 Soul Energy when it hits an enemy target. This includes both enemy players and monsters, making this ability perfect for either PvE or PvP. The Soul Energy generated is enough to give you an extra use of your Q skill while waiting for your Grasp to recharge. You'll need 54 Strength to unlock this ability.

The second ability, Soul Cage, activates a 200-health shield when you use your Q Active Skill. The shield will last 8 seconds before disappearing and entering a 30-second cooldown. Since your Q skills damage enemies close to you, Soul Cage will put you in a good position to charge at them and swing your weapon while your Q damages them. Unlocking Soul Cage requires you to gather 39 Stamina.

Slaying any enemy, whether monster or human, will cause them to drop small orbs of Soul Energy. The Life Steal Passive capitalizes on this by healing you for 14 Life every time you pick up a single Soul Energy orb. This is particularly helpful for PvPvE because you can kill weaker monsters to regenerate health and Soul Energy for free. However, if you are playing solely PvP you may want to swap this ability out for Soul Reaper and focus on healing through consumables.

Best Stats

With the previous Passive Skills in mind, you'll want to focus on raising your Strength, Stamina, and Will. You'll need to raise them to the following amounts to unlock the best three Death Knight Passives:

• 59 Strength for Grim Harvest.
• 42 Stamina for Soul Cage.
• 24 Will for Life Steal.

If you play mostly PvP, I recommend working on raising your Intelligence to 43 to unlock the Soul Reaper passive. Anyone who prefers PvE or PvPvE should continue to increase their Strength and Stamina to take down larger enemies and tank their hits.

Best Gear and Affixes for PvP

One of the greatest starter weapons for the Death Knight is the Mace and Shield Duo. You'll want to get a Mace with the Morgenstern title because of their focus on physical damage. The Mace can be used to hit enemies while defending with the shield, giving it an advantage over a sword and a shield. As a secondary weapon, I recommend a two-handed sword for extra close-range damage.

Any character can hold three Heirloom items at once—a piece of armor, an accessory, and a weapon or shield. I recommend using the Defender's Steel Shield Heirloom for your shield. It will increase both your blocked damage reduction and your stamina, helping you survive much longer against any enemies. Additionally, since it is an heirloom you can easily repurchase it after dying so you'll always have a good shield.

What you use for the armor and accessory Heirlooms is up to the gear you currently have in your inventory. I had a good necklace and okay rings, so I created a Ring of Strength to improve my strength stat. Additionally, I replaced my bad helmet with a Defender's Helmet to improve my damage and health.

After creating these Heirlooms, upgrade them as you go to power up your build. For the gear and accessory Heirlooms, start by enchanting them to unlock the three main Passive skills (if you don't already have them). I lacked Stamina in this build, so I upgraded mine to increase it for the Soul Cage passive.

As you begin to enchant your weapons, I recommend increasing either Shadow Damage, Damage, or Physical Damage. You will want to change these out as you upgrade all your Heirlooms and unlock more enchantment slots. I recommend focusing on affixes that reward you for blocking and dealing damage since you'll be doing a lot of active fighting rather than monster slaying. Some good options include the following:

• + True Damage to Attacker on Block will damage those attacking you while you block. This is especially useful for the Mace and Shield combo since you will be blocking often, allowing you to deal extra poke damage to attackers.
• + Life Recovered on Successful Defense will benefit you by healing you for small amounts while you defend yourself against enemy players.
• + Life on Hit will heal you as you attack enemies. It won't be a huge amount, but any bit of healing helps when facing enemy players who will do their best to outlive you.

Generally, any affixes that buff you based on blocking, defending, or attacking will give you a lot with this Death Knight build.

As for the rest of your gear, you'll want to focus on increasing stats for passives, the affixes mentioned above, and filling in any gaps or stats you're lacking with your current items. You need to play with lesser gear first to help unlock better and stronger items. You'll find some in the Dungeons hidden behind strong enemies while others will be easier to purchase from the Trade Marketplace. If you plan to buy items from other players in the Marketplace, make sure to sell your items in the Marketplace and not to the Merchant. She won't pay nearly as much for them, causing you to miss out on profit. Check the Marketplace often because the items will change as players sell and list new things. If an item boosts the wrong stat or just doesn't do enough, don't be afraid to sell it and purchase a new version with the affixes you want.

If you have time and money, I recommend purchasing rarer items in trades to try and get the affixes you need. If an item boosts the wrong stat or just doesn't do enough, you can easily resell it on the marketplace for a little cheaper.

Best Gear and Affixes for PvPvE/Solo

The build for PvPvE and Solo is pretty similar to the PvP build. You'll want your main weapon to be a Morgenstern Mace paired with a shield. I tend to get mine in the Trade Marketplace, but they can occasionally be found as dungeon loot as well. When you reach higher levels, you can swap it out for a higher-level Mace focused on physical damage like the Beastlord's Mallet.

I typically prioritize my Mace and Shield over any secondary weapon I may have. Of all the weapons I've tested, I've found a two-handed sword to be the most reliable secondary. If you want to have the ability to deal damage from a distance, swap the sword for a Crossbow. Be careful with this swap as you must consistently restock bolts for the Crossbow.

If you've already upgraded certain Heirloom items, I recommend sticking with those while you unlock more and find what suits you best. I always start with the following kit:

• Defender's Steel Shield with a +2.7% Shadow Damage upgrade.
• Defender's Helmet with a Stamina upgrade.
• Ring of Strength with a Stamina upgrade.

As usual, upgrade and enchant the helmet and ring to improve any stats that you are running low on. When enchanting the shield, start by increasing a relevant type of damage (physical, shadow, or general) and swap them to higher-level enchants as you level up.

Fill in the missing gaps in your gear with items that increase your stats to reach the three main passives. Prioritize unlocking the Passive skills while searching for armor with some of the following affixes:

• Affixes that increase a stat or recover health on defense, like +2 Life Recovered on Successful Defense in the first image below.
• Any affixes that deal damage when you block. Since you'll have your shield up often against enemies while swinging your Mace, this will cause them to take extra damage. It's an impenetrable, offensive defense when combined with your Strength and the constant damage of your Soul Shroud. An example of this affix is the +3 True Damage to Attacker on Block on the Mastery Orb in the second image below.
• Affixes that increase your physical or shadow damage, like the +2.7% Shadow Damage affix on the Defender's Fine Steel Shield in the third image below.
• Any affixes that increase stats like Damage or Health for killing enemies. Gear with these on it will cause you to power up as you travel through dungeons killing enemies and monsters alike.

How to play Death Knight in Dungeonborne

This build requires an aggressive, up-close-and-personal tank playstyle. Use Grasp of the Grave to pull enemies in, then whirl on them with your Mace to deal lots of damage. Make sure to activate Soul Shroud after pulling them in to slow them down, preventing them from fleeing your Mace's range. Don't spend too much time blocking without attacking because that will give enemy players time to charge up a stronger attack that can break through your defenses easily.

The video below features a fight between a Death Knight using this build and a Werewolf, one of the stronger enemies in the castle dungeon. The shield tanks the werewolf's hits, allowing you to swing your Mace freely. Activate your Q to deal extra poke damage while using your Grasp to grab the werewolf and regenerate enough Soul Energy to use Soul Shroud again.

Want to learn more about all of the Dungeonborne classes? Check out Dungeonborne Class Tier List – Best Class here on Pro Game Guides.