Black Knights, Solos all bosses, 300k+ Crits

[eisiki]

Black Knights
Able to solo all bosses on impossible with no losses
Do 300k+ Crits.
I believe that is a little overpowered :grin: It makes everything so useless in comparison. This imbalance probably should be addressed in a future patch.

Equipment: Black Knight Helmet(-20% leadership cost), staff of necromancy, & leadership scroll

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5530/armorprincessbaal.th.jpg (http://img9.imageshack.us/i/armorprincessbaal.jpg/)
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8915/armorprincess300k.th.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/i/armorprincess300k.jpg/)

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

Black Knights
Able to solo all bosses on impossible with no losses
Do 300k+ Crits.
I believe that is a little overpowered :grin: It makes everything so useless in comparison. This imbalance probably should be addressed in a future patch.

Equipment: Black Knight Helmet(-20% leadership cost), staff of necromancy, & leadership scroll

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5530/armorprincessbaal.th.jpg (http://img9.imageshack.us/i/armorprincessbaal.jpg/)
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8915/armorprincess300k.th.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/i/armorprincess300k.jpg/)

Awesome!! :cool:

[DGDobrev]

Nice work :) Shows just how awesome Gorguanas are ;) The Black Knights are indeed a great unit, but with some help by the Gorguanas, they can really do everything on their own. Top that up with some Phantom spells and you're in for a real carnage on impossible :)

[Elwin]

Thats what i and some other guys showed sometime ago, nothing new ~~

[DGDobrev]

Elwin, give the guy some credit, friend :)

[CyberGuy]

Question:

1. Where can you buy that many black knights? Is there a place where they have it in horde?

2. Where do you get the black knight helmet?

[TemjinGold]

1) Necromancer Mesmere can make them from dwarf units.
Moron Dark can turn Knights into Black Knights

2) The helmet is random like most other artifacts.

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

Is this 1 stack Black Knights possible as a Mage though as she has such low leadership. I have 45 BK's and that is nowhere near enough even with Evlin spell surely?

[loreangelicus]

Black Knights
Able to solo all bosses on impossible with no losses
Do 300k+ Crits.
I believe that is a little overpowered :grin: It makes everything so useless in comparison. This imbalance probably should be addressed in a future patch.

Equipment: Black Knight Helmet(-20% leadership cost), staff of necromancy, & leadership scroll

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5530/armorprincessbaal.th.jpg (http://img9.imageshack.us/i/armorprincessbaal.jpg/)
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8915/armorprincess300k.th.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/i/armorprincess300k.jpg/)

Rage spent is zero? No chest digging whatsoever? Is this the trade off when using solo BKs since they are so slow?

I really don't understand why they should go "boring" solo. Why not use some support troops? At the very least you could add Bone Dragons to fetch for chests since whatever build you have for BKs would most likely benefit the undead dragons as well (Eviln, Staff of the Acolyte Necromancer, "Dark Commander", etc.).

Even if you add slow troops like Inquisitors, Gorguanas, Archmages, Demonologists, etc. you could always get the blue pet dragon. With "Dark Commander" level 3 you would have +2 initiative, an additional +1 from the blue pet dragon, and your Bone Dragons would most likely give you the first move. Then just Teleport level 3 your BKs to the enemy ranks.

At least this way you still get to fetch chests. :)

Btw, the best way to get Black Knights is via the wanderer scroll Call of Death. I'm still at the first 4 islands and I already have 9 wanderer scrolls, 2 of which are Call of Death. This is why fetching chests is so important. :)

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

Rage spent is zero? No chest digging whatsoever? Is this the trade off when using solo BKs since they are so slow?

I really don't understand why they should go "boring" solo. Why not use some support troops? At the very least you could add Bone Dragons to fetch for chests since whatever build you have for BKs would most likely benefit the undead dragons as well (Eviln, Staff of the Acolyte Necromancer, "Dark Commander", etc.).

Even if you add slow troops like Inquisitors, Gorguanas, Archmages, Demonologists, etc. you could always get the blue pet dragon. With "Dark Commander" level 3 you would have +2 initiative, an additional +1 from the blue pet dragon, and your Bone Dragons would most likely give you the first move. Then just Teleport level 3 your BKs to the enemy ranks.

At least this way you still get to fetch chests. :)

Btw, the best way to get Black Knights is via the wanderer scroll Call of Death. I'm still at the first 4 islands and I already have 9 wanderer scrolls, 2 of which are Call of Death.

There's no guarantee you'll get BK's though is there.

[Urbz]

Rage spent is zero? No chest digging whatsoever? Is this the trade off when using solo BKs since they are so slow?

I really don't understand why they should go "boring" solo. Why not use some support troops? At the very least you could add Bone Dragons to fetch for chests since whatever build you have for BKs would most likely benefit the undead dragons as well (Eviln, Staff of the Acolyte Necromancer, "Dark Commander", etc.).

Even if you add slow troops like Inquisitors, Gorguanas, Archmages, Demonologists, etc. you could always get the blue pet dragon. With "Dark Commander" level 3 you would have +2 initiative, an additional +1 from the blue pet dragon, and your Bone Dragons would most likely give you the first move. Then just Teleport level 3 your BKs to the enemy ranks.

At least this way you still get to fetch chests. :)

Btw, the best way to get Black Knights is via the wanderer scroll Call of Death. I'm still at the first 4 islands and I already have 9 wanderer scrolls, 2 of which are Call of Death. This is why fetching chests is so important. :)

I do agree but I think people do stuff "because they can" ;)

@ kings bounty hunter, there's some tricks to change the sort of troop you will get, if using other eggs and such before the scroll. Also you dont get troops you already have so it might help having other undead troops in your army i reckon?

[lauvhk]

@ loreangelicus

If you refer to the first pic, you cannot use your pet dragon during boss fight. And even if you can, that's the last fight...

[loreangelicus]

@ loreangelicus

If you refer to the first pic, you cannot use your pet dragon during boss fight. And even if you can, that's the last fight...

I forgot about that, thanks. :) Haven't fought any bosses yet in KBAP, so KBTL experience on that hasn't kicked in yet.

But still, for regular fights, moving around with BKs to fetch chests should be tedious on the solo strategy, even with Haste, right?

@ kings bounty hunter

If you religiously collect eggs (griffon, spider, snake, etc.) you could use those to change the resulting summon of Call of Death/Call Colossus/Call of the Wind (?). See discussion of generating black knights from this post:

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=11540&highlight=black+knight

@ urbz

Yes, having other undead troop types would increase your chances of getting the black knights, but with enough eggs (and you would have a lot if you don't sell them or use them as troops, which you shouldn't anyways) you don't need to keep other undead troop types. Besides, the only late-game undead that I deem worth using are black knights and bone dragons; honorable mention goes to ancient vampires and necromancers.

[Elwin]

Well. If u play black night only u have guaranteed +2 speed from adrenaline its not realy a problem ~~

[loreangelicus]

Well. If u play black night only u have guaranteed +2 speed from adrenaline its not realy a problem ~~

That goes to show I haven't played enough KBAP to know all the combos. A paladin skill, right? And here I am playing paladin. :)

And if I remember correctly from forum posts, the pet dragon gains more XP when you are using less troops?

[Elwin]

Yes. Dragon levels very a lot especialy when I went to Nameless/Shettera on level 25 ~~ Armies were like 15 times more so exp multipplier was high
And black with dark commander and adrenaline are fking sweet 9 init 4 speed and with splinter of darkness even more sweet

[Hento]

And how again do you replenish Black Knights, I presume undead units can't be resurrected?

[loreangelicus]

And how again do you replenish Black Knights, I presume undead units can't be resurrected?

How to "resurrect" black knights? You use the most overpowered and efficient "resurrect" spell of all, the brand new (not found in KBTL) Chaos spell Eviln. It is powerful since it is dual-purpose and is applied as a percentage of the stack; at level 1, it either kills 30% of a living stack or resurrects 10% of the original undead stack. So if you had 100 black knights and lost 10 of them, you could use a level 1 casting of Eviln (at just 15 mana) to bring back all 10 of the lost BKs.

You need a dead body to cast it on though (and then you walk your BKs into it), but with black knights running around, there's plenty of that lying around. :)

And this is the same reason why Bone Dragons are the best dragons; they are easy to resurrect.

[Hento]

Wow, I just realized Black Nights would have 10 initiative and 6 speed in the first round with running talent, and 9, 4 after first round and than have huge damage after they get hit and way higher attack than anything else + 1 moral by default!

This is truly an overkill...is steam armor also effective for black knights, because losing 1 initiative would not be problem at all then. But it all depends if you can find Eviln spell and invest in chaos which is not so good for warrior/paladin

Also would Paladin's skill Resurrection resurrect Black Knights since it can get to 100% and you would only have 1 stack?

[TemjinGold]

Paladin's skill would resurrect but it wouldn't count as a "no-loss" fight.

[loreangelicus]

Wow, I just realized Black Nights would have 10 initiative and 6 speed in the first round with running talent, and 9, 4 after first round and than have huge damage after they get hit and way higher attack than anything else + 1 moral by default!

This is truly an overkill...is steam armor also effective for black knights, because losing 1 initiative would not be problem at all then. But it all depends if you can find Eviln spell and invest in chaos which is not so good for warrior/paladin

Built-in 30% physical/50% poison resistance, immune to mind spells, Black Helmet (-20% leadership for BKs), Staff of the Acolyte Necromancer (-15% leadership for undead), "Dark Commander" (I always remember the KBTL name for it) warrior skill for +7 attack/+2 initiative, Revenge for massive criticals on counter-attacks, Shard from Moro so that he ALWAYS counter-attacks and gets +10 attack, the ultra-powerful Eviln spell to resurrect them... I believe the developers made this possible as a "panic button" for anyone having a hard time with the game.

I'm sure any class could benefit with the use of BKs, especially the warrior and paladin since they have more leadership, and it is their skill trees after all that make the BKs even more powerful.

Even 1 level of Chaos to get level 1 Eviln is acceptable, and late-game could resurrect a lot more than what a level 3 Resurrect does for the living. As for getting the Eviln spell, if not sold at shops, you could always dig for it. I'm at Bolo in my current game and have already dug one up.

If you don't like the idea of going solo unit with them, you could always team them up with Bone Dragons who also benefit from some of the pieces of the BK build.

Then maybe throw in demonologists for more dead bodies via summons, necromancers who also benefit from the undead-specific build...

[Smash]

Is this 1 stack Black Knights possible as a Mage though as she has such low leadership. I have 45 BK's and that is nowhere near enough even with Evlin spell surely?

Without problem.

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

I'm struggling to find enough undead and demons to free Moro Dark. Just clearing out Shettarra and Nameless Island..I don't think it will be enough to get the sword from him :(

[jake21]

It is guaranteed you can get BK's if you want them either via Morro or the Necro in dwarven area.

There's no guarantee you'll get BK's though is there.

[Tianx]

On your score bar, how do you have the dragon, rage and mana show up?

[Smash]

Man, this game really favor one stack army :).
If you want try Black Knights strat download attachment, there is plenty of islands to cleared, i found evlin spell on last island >< but everything is ready for fun.

Funny just beat Driller with 189 black knights, what a easy fight, no-loss thx to time back but even if you got losses you can summon creatures and use them as host for your evlin spell :).

Base damage of my Dread Knights (promoted :D) just jumped from base 12-16 to 21-28 OO thx to items.

Feel the Power of Darkness.

[adecoy95]

where do you get the shard

[rollems]

where do you get Black Night? i have only 8 from scarlet. but thats all available there to buy.

[DGDobrev]

Read the posts above :) BK's are available in Montero Shafts from Meshmere after you do his quest and usually on shipwrecks and Nameless island. A call of Death Scroll will also do sometimes.

[Direwolf]

Hi all,

I think someone earlier in the thread asked this but i didn't see a response so I'm hoping someone can enlighten me...

How do you get the splinter of darkness?

I mean, i know you have to get the value down to zero. But, with the strength of the stacks in Shaterra and Nameless is this something that can only be achieved in the end game? I've got the value down to about 70% but have killed every stack that isn't on these two islands...i don't want to not play my undead build army just to keep it at 70% but if i do the value will slowly creep up.

I'm level 25 right now w/ 112 black knights.

Pls advise.

cheers,
DW

[lauvhk]

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=118997&postcount=1

[Direwolf]

Hi Lauvhk,

Thanks for the link, although i'm familiar with that post and as i said in my first posting i understand the MECHANICS of how to lower the counter to zero.

What i'm asking is if I'm correct in assuming that the splinter of darkness cannot be gained until you're a high enough level to fight the battles in Nameless and Sheterra. Or is there something else that can be done?

cheers,
DW

[DGDobrev]

Yes. Kite your way to Elon, get 1-2 dragon eggs in the process, do the free quests for XP and leadership, get Moro as your companion, free him in the first 50-60 battles (can be done sooner), dismiss him and get Elenhel. He should be freed by the time you reach Verona (or halfway through Verona fights).

Takes very little game time, I think it may be done in less than 2 days. If you're fast and have a map of Verona on Scarlet, it'll take even less. Debir-Scarlet-Verona-Elon-Sheterra-Debir is the loop you need :)

[Direwolf]

thx DGD.

[Smash]

Yes. Kite your way to Elon, get 1-2 dragon eggs in the process, do the free quests for XP and leadership, get Moro as your companion, free him in the first 50-60 battles (can be done sooner), dismiss him and get Elenhel. He should be freed by the time you reach Verona (or halfway through Verona fights).

Honestly i do not quite understand what you wrote there, why you would like to get rid of Moro? He boost your Black Knights.

[DGDobrev]

Because Elenhel is a source of useful wanderers' scrolls. Wanderers' scrolls make you powerful and help you reach higher levels. He is also the only companion who complements your char perfectly, so that she can wield all +XP% items in the game without having you waste a slot. Splinter + Black Helmet is +2 Morale to Black Knights so you don't lose much. The extra artifact slot will help you equip Amulet of Death + Dead Skull even if you're a warrior/paladin and the extra gloves slot will help you equip 2 x gloves of necropolis for +1 Spd/Initiative boost to all undead, which in my opinion is better than +1 morale. With both sets on and some investment in Dark Commander and Adrenaline, you can get your Black Knights respond faster than an Archdemon or Black Dragon, giving you the upper hand in every battle.

Not to mention that +4 intellect bonus. With it, even as a paladin or a warrior, you can get 20 intellect and improve your buff durations by +1, which is a battle winner in many cases.

[loreangelicus]

Honestly i do not quite understand what you wrote there, why you would like to get rid of Moro? He boost your Black Knights.

Because Elenhel is a better companion for a mage. And even for a warrior, Elenhel is still probably better since you get a wanderer scroll from him every 30 battles.

Essentially, you only need Moro for the Shard.

[Smash]

Because Elenhel is a source of useful wanderers' scrolls. Wanderers' scrolls make you powerful and help you reach higher levels. He is also the only companion who complements your char perfectly, so that she can wield all +XP% items in the game without having you waste a slot. Splinter + Black Helmet is +2 Morale to Black Knights so you don't lose much. The extra artifact slot will help you equip Amulet of Death + Dead Skull even if you're a warrior/paladin and the extra gloves slot will help you equip 2 x gloves of necropolis for +1 Spd/Initiative boost to all undead, which in my opinion is better than +1 morale. With both sets on and some investment in Dark Commander and Adrenaline, you can get your Black Knights respond faster than an Archdemon or Black Dragon, giving you the upper hand in every battle.

Not to mention that +4 intellect bonus. With it, even as a paladin or a warrior, you can get 20 intellect and improve your buff durations by +1, which is a battle winner in many cases.

Except of +50% xp and call of undead for free knights i wouldn't called rest of the scrolls such important.

+4 int is unneeded thing, iron skin work 5 turns more than enough.
Time Back and Evlin are not based upon int, mana pool is more important.

With Elenhel you loose weapon slot very bad, how you want your Knight to has up to 21-28 base damage? Seriously 180+ BK killed whole stack of 12 Emerald Dragons in first turn in one hit... add to this +40% fire damage spell and their buff and nothing will survive.

I prefer +10% better stats and crit and +3 attack over initiative and speed which BK do not need as even if opponent attack first they will just die to retaliate while slots can be use for other artifacts.
Adrenaline and Dark Commander are enough, additional you have run ability and mana accelator to get where you want in first turn. Oh and warrior storm ability +3 initiative in first turn.

[loreangelicus]

Except of +50% xp and call of undead for free knights i wouldn't called rest of the scrolls such important.

+4 int is unneeded thing, iron skin work 5 turns more than enough.
Time Back and Evlin are not based upon int, mana pool is more important.

With Elenhel you loose weapon slot very bad, how you want your Knight to has up to 21-28 base damage? Seriously 180+ BK killed whole stack of 12 Emerald Dragons in first turn in one hit... add to this +40% fire damage spell and their buff and nothing will survive.

I prefer +10% better stats and crit and +3 attack over initiative and speed which BK do not need as even if opponent attack first they will just die to retaliate while slots can be use for other artifacts.
Adrenaline and Dark Commander are enough, additional you have run ability and mana accelator to get where you want in first turn. Oh and warrior storm ability +3 initiative in first turn.

A debate on the build of the Black Knight? Seriously, any half-decent build on the BKs plus Eviln and they could solo any fight, even on impossible.

What is critical is that any high score run needs Ancient Knowledge, and you could, with a lot of patience and reloading battles, manipulate Elenhel to produce AKs every 30 battles.

[McSwan]

Yeah, my first attempt at beating the record went bad when I realised I got unlucky and had no AK scrolls at all so had to start again. Restarted a gaem where I knew I had 6 :)

DBdob.. wrote:
"Yes. Kite your way to Elon, get 1-2 dragon eggs in the process, do the free quests for XP and leadership, get Moro as your companion, free him in the first 50-60 battles (can be done sooner), dismiss him and get Elenhel. He should be freed by the time you reach Verona (or halfway through Verona fights).

Takes very little game time, I think it may be done in less than 2 days. If you're fast and have a map of Verona on Scarlet, it'll take even less. Debir-Scarlet-Verona-Elon-Sheterra-Debir is the loop you need "

Nice idea. Don't know why you;d need to goto to Sheterra though? Doesn't rusty have a quest that you need to go to Elon for anyway? You could pick up the princess in Verona I guess.

It won't cost you any time kiting a place if you *have* to return to it anyway, but it will cost you if you return to the same place more than you optimally have to.

So...
Kite debir..
Kite Scarlet..
Kite Rusty .. get bird and anti-drinking quest that leads to elon
Kite Verona .. get princess
Kite Elon .. Get dragon eggs - get drink for return to rusty - get undead companion
Maybe goto Dersu
kite nameless - get quest that you have to go back to scarlet for.
clear BOLO - you have to get the stone before returning to debir - shouldn't be a problem with dragons
clear debir - drop off princess - drop off stone
clear scarlet - do parrot quest - is there anyhting else you need to return here for?
clear Rusty
clear verona - get elenel
kite/ clear monterro as it doesn't cost you time to walk over the bridge?
then goblin place etc.

Yeah that could be an awesome plan, maybe not the most optimal, but the most "doable".

Also, you could start doing the chest trick in debir too for maximum chance of AK scrolls/ runes.

[DGDobrev]

McSwan, your idea is pretty good, but it takes a wee bit longer. The idea for:
Debir-Scarlet-Verona-Elon-Sheterra-Debir came because of:

Debir-Scarlet: 3 hours. Go for the verona map straight away. Get any chests floating around scarlet.
Scarlet-Verona: 6 hours. Elon map is easily kiteable and you can use your ship to land there. Take the map and get any chests floating around verona or treasures that are easily accessible. If there aren't many enemies on the way, you can get the countess. If there are, no big deal.
Verona-Elon: 7 Hours. Sheterra map is in the underground, River of Memory. Use the boat to get near moro, recruit him and get in the entrance hext to him. Take the map, steal around. If there are any dragon eggs, don't miss them.
Elon-Sheterra: 5 hours. Since we're going back to Debir to start the game properly anyway, we may as well get a few more levels. Do the Fasmodey quest, take the sword from Hephestus, get a few more eggs.
- if you want agvares rather than moro for a girl power party, this route also works.
Sheterra-Debir: 7 hours. Now we can properly start the game at a high level, with a number of runes and items already in hand to boost Amelie.
Notes: scan your file for useful items in Scarlet, Verona, Elon and Sheterra, so that you can buy them on your way there without wasting too much time in checking

28 hours is the travel time, a few more for looking around and stealing, so in day and a half you can become powerful enough to get off the right foot. Now you can easily beat the game in 9 days tops :)

Still, I guess one can go to bolo after sheterra, or skip sheterra at all.

Your route is quite nice, certainly provides an additional option and I like it. However, for me, shettera is very important because it allows you to get a few quests, maybe buy some powerful items and even get some troops you might find useful. Some archdemons to help your dragons and halve the enemy stacks is always efficient :)

[Smash]

A debate on the build of the Black Knight? Seriously, any half-decent build on the BKs plus Eviln and they could solo any fight, even on impossible.
What is critical is that any high score run needs Ancient Knowledge, and you could, with a lot of patience and reloading battles, manipulate Elenhel to produce AKs every 30 battles.
You can debate on anything, didn't you know? This is about maximize BK potential, i do not care if they need this or no same as i do not care about high score runs! Got it?

[loreangelicus]

You can debate on anything, didn't you know? This is about maximize BK potential, i do not care if they need this or no same as i do not care about high score runs! Got it?

Easy there fella, so you don't care about the score, got it. :grin:

You also do understand that any debate on maximizing the potential of BKs would go straight to a debate on which is the best class to use for this build, from the different supporting skill trees to the different item slots which in turn would result in different items.

Maybe you could post screenshots of your end-game build of your black knights then (hero screen and stats screen of the Bks); and maybe a short description of how the build is used considering that a warrior build would play differently than a mage build.

[ZomBPir8Ninja]

How did you kite the Verona map on Scarlet? Both maps are in corners guarded by stationary enemies.

[KongMysen]

They can both be optained since the guards aren't REALLY stationary- It just requires alot of reloading.

Edit: Post #3 in the posted thread is my way of kiting. Others do it differently in terms of quicksaving etc.

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=13252

[McSwan]

Your right dgdobrev, your plan is better. I was hoping to find a way to get him without the time penalty, but it seems unavoidable.

I've come to the conclusion though, for high scores that getting elenhel right from the start would be the best plan to make him as many cough up AK scrolls as possible, but unfortuneately, doing that also costs too much time. Also, Morro does need to die, he's worth too much xp.

I just beat K'TAHU with 132 black knights, no loss, lev 43 mage, with just the black helmet. Even with level 1 frenzy they ended up with an attack of about 140. Mana spring/ guardian angle, elvin, stone skin worked a treat.