Author: Caliostro

Now, first thing I'd like to remind people is that, most of us, me included, are nowhere near an endgame phase yet, as such I'm going of theory and logic, making this a somewhat temporary guide, to be "fixed" as more and more people advance through the game.

And now:


Table of Contents

- Skill Points
-- The Sword and Shield Knight
-- The Dual Wielding Knight
-- The 2 Handed Sword Knight
-- The 2 Handed Axe Knight
- Stat Points
-- The Classic PvP
-- The Glass Cannon
-- When to use either one


Skill Points

The Sword and Shield Knight

Easily one of the most popular (and argueably equally effective) builds for A.K.s. The protection of a shield and sword combined make this one of the builds intended to resist hellfire and brimstone, while keeping up a good dosage of attack with sword's high-damage skills.

Level needed to complete the build: 129 (125 without maxing either whirldwind or soul knight.)
Skill points left at 150: 21

Skill Point Distribuition:



Alternatively:



Pros:
- Very high survivability. High defence and block ratio.
- Decent damage
- Medium attack speed

Cons:
- Swords have the lowest base damage of... well... Any other option for a Knight. Even though skills sort of even-out the damage diference between other 1handed weapons, this build never reaches the damage potential of 2handed or dual knights.

Description:
One of the most popular and effective builds due to it's huge survivability while maintaining a decent damage output.
The most important skills of this build are:
- Sword Mastery - Obviously, since it affects the damage of almost every attack you have.
- Sword Defence - For it's enourmous bonus to blockrate. 80% when maxed! One of the main factors to why this build has such a high rate of survival.
- Blind Jab - An extra 80% defence as follow up to a medium - high damage attack with 6 sec cooldown.
- Shield Shove - When maxed it adds almost 3 seconds of stun to a medium-low cooldown (6 seconds) move, leaving the oponent open for strikes.
- Air Smashing - Highest damage sword skill, with a big cooldown. Basicly the strongest weapon a Sword/Shield Knight has.
- Strenghten Health - Ignoring how priceless this skill can be in PvE (rendering HP pots almost useless), this skill is at least equally priceless for PvP. Quickly regenerates the knights health, up to a maximum of 2410 health per use. Considering this build is designed to prevent damage, this skill also gives the possibility of healing some of the damage that goes through. Priceless.
- Attack Acceleration - Basicly put: Faster, Stronger, Better. This skill is nothing but essential for ANY Knight worthy of the name.




The Dual Wielding Knight

Note: Before anything else, a Knight can use this build with ANY weapons he chooses... But considering weapon class-specific skills are useless to dual wielding, the most effecient choice is clearly Axes. They have more damage than other weapons, and none of the others have any significant advantage over them (2% blocking' Not worth it in my opinion...).

Level needed to complete the build: 129 (For the last level of Spout Anger)
Skill points left at 150: 24

Skill Point Distribuition:


Pros:
- Fast. Very. Not only it has the best standard attack speed, but it's power moves have less recovery time than most other build's
- High Damage powermoves and quick medium/medium-low damage follow ups. Spout Anger has the second best damage potential of all Knight builds.
- One ranged move - Energetic Blade. Definetly can't be spammed to use the Knight as an archer (lol), but it's a good pre-emptive strike, and good to hault a runner or break a knock-back combo chain from a ranged class.

Cons:
- The "follow up" moves, though fast, don't do all that much damage.
- Low survivability... The best weapon of this build is it's speed, and it relies on it to hault enemy's attacks... But that doesn't always work... It has almost no defensive tactics whatsoever...

Description:
Definetly an offense-inclined build. Lives by the principle: "The best defence is a good offence". The strong point of this build is to be relentless in an attack, not giving the oponent any room to fight back.
- Dual Mastery - Obviously, since it affects the damage of almost every attack you have.
- Spout Anger - Your "tactical nuke". 7 hits followed up by a 3 second life drain. Second highest damage a Knight can deliver, and can be easily followed up by other moves.
- Energetic Blade - A ranged attack that can be used either as preemptive attack, "interruptor" against ranged classes, "stunner" against runners, or just overall nuissance in a war. Good damage to go with it too.
- Strenghten Health - Priceless for any build. And when your defence isn't all that good, beeing able to recover after a hard blow makes all the diference.
- Attack Acceleration - Basicly put: Faster, Stronger, Better. This skill is nothing but essential for ANY Knight worthy of the name and allied to Dual Advance (for extra critical probability) and the already fast speed of Dual wielding, this makes the entire foundation of a dual knight's relentless attack.




The 2 Handed Sword Knight

Power AND defence. The allied power of 2 handed weapons very high damage with sword's defensive abilities, creating a fine balance between offence and defence.

Level needed to complete the build: 141 (Yes, very high. But it can easily drop to 129 if the player "forfeits" maxing a few extra skills)
Skill points left at 150: 9

Skill Point Distribuition:


Alternatively:



Pros:
- Very High damage. Genocide alone has the highest damage potential in the whole game, having more than double the damage of almost all other high-damage skills except for a couple skills which have slightly more than half the damage.
- Good defence. Sword Defence grants a temporary very high block rate, Berserker gives a 3 second stun, and Sword Mastery ups the defence a considerable ammount.

Cons:
- Slower than other builds. This makes it hard to land hits on quicker builds.

Description:
The power and brutality of 2 handed weapons, brought together with sword's defensive skills. Though slower than some other builds, Sword Defence's huge boost to block and/or a well placed Berserker can create openings in an oponent's attacks, after which, the raw might and power of Genocide followed up by Air Smashing will deliver letal punishment.

- Sword Mastery - Obviously, since it affects the damage of almost every attack you have.
- Genocide - Simply put: The most damaging skill in the entire game. Make the math.
- Sword Defence - Priceless for any build. Grants 80% block when maxed + 25% defence (allied to Two-Hand-Mastery's defence bonus). Blocking temporarely stuns your oponent, leaving him wide open to brutal and merciless retaliation.
- Strenghten Health - Priceless for any build. And when your defence isn't all that good, beeing able to recover after a hard blow makes all the diference.
- Attack Acceleration - Basicly put: Faster, Stronger, Better. This skill is nothing but essential for ANY Knight worthy of the name. In a build that's slow but powerful, this skill evens out the speed, and pumps up the damage even more.
- Berserker - Admitedly, first time I looked at this skill, I completely dismissed it. However, with one single point, this skill will deliver, not only meaningful damage, but damage bonus to the Knight, AND a 3 second stun to the foe. And we all like our foes good, stunned and completely helpless.
- Air Smashing - Second highest damage attack of this build, and an extremely good follow up to Genocide.




The 2 Handed Axe Knight

Raw power. The ultimate glass cannon.

Level needed to complete the build: 146 (Yes, very high. But it can easily drop to 129 if the player "forfeits" maxing a few extra skills)
Skill points left at 150: 4

Skill Point Distribuition:


Alternatively:



Pros:
- Damage. The highest damage skill in the game allied to the highest damage weapon Knights have. The result is sheer destruction.
- Possibility to "cripple" the oponent.

Cons:
- Slow. Very.
- No defensive abilities besides Two-Handed Mastery. It's a glass cannon.

Description:
This is not an easy to use build. It's slow, and lacks defensive capacity. However, if used correctly, it can cripple down the oponent, just before it demolishes it with it's incredible power.

- Axe Mastery - Obviously, since it affects the damage of almost every attack you have.
- Genocide - Simply put: The most damaging skill in the entire game, together with the most damaging weapon Knights have. Make the math.
- Strenghten Health - Priceless for any build. And when your defence isn't all that good, beeing able to recover after a hard blow makes all the diference.
- Attack Acceleration - Basicly put: Faster, Stronger, Better. This skill is nothing but essential for ANY Knight worthy of the name. In a build that's slow but powerful, this skill evens out the speed, and pumps up the damage even more.
- Berserker - Admitedly, first time I looked at this skill, I completely dismissed it. However, with one single point, this skill will deliver, not only meaningful damage, but damage bonus to the Knight, AND a 3 second stun to the foe. And we all like our foes good, stunned and completely helpless.
- Wrist Chop - Easily a "pillar" skill of this build. When maxed it can slow a player down to 50% it's attack speed for 9.5 seconds. This will destroy the major advantage other builds have over this one, speed. Leaving them open for the 2handed Axe's full wrath.


Stat Points

There are basicly 2 main variations of stat point displacement: The Classic PvP and the The Glass Cannon.


The Classic PvP

This is one of those "ancient formulas passed down from generation to generation", since the very first MMOs with PvP, to 2Moons, this one is a sure bet.

Formulae:
- Enough Strenght and Dexterity to use your gear.
- Everything else = Health.

This is the most used stat displacement method. This gives you the most possible ammount of life, neglecting damage bonus from strenght. To be honest, the bonus isn't usually that big, and the extra health generaly compensates.


The Glass Cannon

The alternative to the "The Classic" based on power.

Formulae:
- Minimal Health. Just enough to NOT die from anything that touches you.
- Enough dex to use your weapon.
- Everything else = Strenght.

This is the most used alternative to the classic pvp displacement. It works under the concept of betting everything into power, and hoping you'll kill your oponent before he gets a chance to damage you seriously.


When to use either one'

Up to you. You may, as an example, want to pick up a 2 Handed Axe Knight and make him a glass cannong to bring up his damage potential to the full max while disregarding your own survivability, or you can use the the classic displacement in order to try to protect his weakness... Or you can pick up a Sword and Shield Knight and say "hey, this guy has enough defence... Let's pump up his damage!"... Etc. It's totally up to you.




And that's pretty much it for the great and glamorous Azure Knight. There ARE many other possible builds, I'll try to add some soon. But these should be the most effective/popular.
Now, go build your knight, and remember:

"No mercy for the weak, no pity for the dying, no tears for the slain."



Disclaimer: It's still pretty soon in the "life" of this game. As such, this guide is still very "raw", and will be "adapted" and modified along with the game and it's comunity. Feel free to contribute in any way.



- Caliostro

Article Source: http://phpbb.acclaim.com/2moons/viewtopic.php?t=19696

Skilltree Source: http://2moons.mmosite.com/guide/class/azure_knight.shtml