Dragon Knight/Guide

Durable Carry
Dragon Knight's role is as a durable carry who can farm any lane safely due to his Dragon Blood passive, providing a large bonus to his armor and HP regeneration. His spell Breathe Fire is a long ranged cone shaped AoE nuke, damaging all enemies hit as well as reducing their damage output, and can be used for both clearing waves in lane and accelerating his farm in the jungle during the early game, as well as making it even harder for attackers to kill him. His ability to turn from a melee Knight into a ranged Dragon provides many passive bonuses ideal for teamfighting and pushing. Dragon Knight is adept at stacking ancient camps during the early game, and then clearing them once his Elder Dragon Form gains splash damage at level 12, gathering a large boost of gold and experience. With his Dragon Tail, you and your team can easily aim at a priority target, seeing that this is a single target stun with long duration. With a, Dragon Knight can take the role of initiator and set up ganks with it by sneaking behind the target and stunning it.

Going in depth on his Elder Dragon Form, his ultimate temporarily transforms him into a Dragon, turning him into a ranged hero with more base movement speed and increased cast range for Dragon Tail. Each level additionally adds a new attack modifier which stacks with the previous levels: As a carry, you must build according to the game, but it is highly recommended, in most matches, to build a, seeing that Dragon Knight has a strong natural defense against physical damage, but is still vulnerable to magical damage and to being disabled.
 * Level 1: Becomes a Green Dragon with Corrosive Breath, a modifier which causes your attacks to deal 20 magical damage per second for 4 seconds.
 * Useful for taking down towers early, as the attack modifier applies to buildings, and the magical damage is not reduced by the building's armor.
 * Level 2: Becomes a Red Dragon with Corrosive Breath and Splash attack damage, applying the poison effect to all enemies hit by the splash damage.
 * Useful for killing crowds of enemies, especially neutral creatures and a large wave of pushing enemy creeps, and for taking down towers, as the damage per second works on them.
 * Level 3: Becomes a Blue Dragon with Corrosive Breath, Splash attack damage and Frost Breath, which slows all enemies units hit directly by hits attacks and units hit by the splash damage.
 * Useful for killing crowds of enemy Heroes, especially because the attack speed and movement speed slow from Frost Breath pierces spell immunity and will be of great use in a team fight, making it difficult for enemies to flee or right clicker to fight, and since it is his level 3 ultimate, by the game time, you should be well armed with items.

Ability Builds
Both builds requires only one skill point for Dragon Tail, as it scales terribly, and the first level of this ability is extremely useful for the rest of the game.


 * In the average game, two points of Dragon blood in the early game is the sweet spot, providing enough HP regeneration to sustain him from harassment and neutral creep damage.
 * At level one, the 25% damage reduction of Breathe Fire, or in some cases the 2.5 second stun of Dragon Tail, is in nearly all cases better than taking the passive point at level 1. It's far more economical to purchase extra regeneration if you are expecting a difficult early lane.
 * In difficult lanes, getting a third or maybe even fourth early point can help your survivability, but it does drastically lower the speed at which you can farm with Breathe Fire.
 * In easier lanes, where you have successfully gained control of the lane and farmed up an item to sustain you, such as or, skipping the second point in order to gain Dragon Tail earlier and maxing out Breathe Fire at 7.
 * Taking the value point of Dragon Tail at level 5 allows him to maximize his kill potential at level 6, when he can first transform.
 * Dragon Tail has the weakest scaling of all his spells, with a level 4 spell only providing an extra 0.75 seconds of stun, and is so usually reserved until last.


 * In many cases, an offlane Dragon Knight's strength is his extreme durability and long-duration stun, making it extremely difficult to bully him out of lane.
 * This offlane build greatly sacrifices Dragon Knight's ability to flash farm with Breathe Fire in favor of maximum durability, and should be used in cases where the lane is a constant struggle. If you manage to gain control of the lane and successfully farm a fast soul ring, Consider skipping the later points of Dragon Blood in favor of Breathe Fire.

Talents

 * Level 25 Talents: While the +1.75s Dragon Tail stun is situationally powerful, +40 strength is picked 83% of the time and has a +4.5% win rate. The additional +40 damage provides approximately 800 HP and 28 HP regen. This Talent, combined with the Level 20 Talent of 2x Dragon Blood HP Regen/Armor and a BKB, turns Dragon Knight into a nearly unkillable foe in the late game and can provide the durability needed to break high ground.
 * Level 20 Talents: 2x Dragon Blood HP Regen/Armor is incredibly powerful and, coupled with a BKB, can make Dragon Knight nearly unkillable in the mid/late game. This talent is picked up approximately 80% of the time and has a +7.6% win rate compared to +150 GPM. This talent increases his HP regen to 20 and armor to 24.
 * Level 15 Talents: +35 Damage is the clear choice here. It is picked 58.4% of the time, and boasts of a +3.8% higher win rate than +300 health. While additional health is always useful, Dragon Knight is naturally tanky and tends to build strength items. Also, Dragon Knight struggles with right click damage output in the early/mid game, so the +35 damage talent provides a good solution to one of his weaknesses.
 * Level 10 Talents: Approximately 85% of players opt for the +30 Attack Speed Talent at level 10; however, Dragon Knight also lacks mana regeneration and does not normally build mana regeneration items, other than Soul Ring, and therefore the +2 mana regeneration talent can also be beneficial and has a slightly higher win rate of +0.2% than the Attack Speed talent.

General

 * Dragon Knight is one of the few heroes with no cast time on his abilities, so abilities can be cast in between attacks on the backswing animation.
 * Creep stacking is a good tactic for Dragon Knight, as his ultimate will clear camps quickly.
 * Dragon Knight has a quick, clean attack animation, making last hitting fairly easy (especially with a ).
 * With any source of lifesteal, Dragon Knight rarely needs to return to the fountain.
 * In the early game, enemies teams may choose to ignore Dragon Knight during teamfights, due to his low damage.
 * Dragon Knight's item build varies depending on what he's facing. Good players must analyze enemies' items to make an informed decision.
 * Like several other carries, Dragon Knight relies heavily on to keep himself from being disabled in teamfights.
 * Despite being tanky against physical damage, Dragon Knight has no defenses against magical and pure damage.
 * In the early to mid game, do not overestimate Dragon Knight's tankiness against a mixed lineup of heroes and his vulnerability to ganks.
 * More tips needed.


 * Breathe Fire can be used to farm and harass in lane, especially if Dragon Knight has a.
 * Breathe Fire is useful as an early game nuke, being your damage source until you can unleash heavy physical attacks.
 * Breathe Fire reduces enemies attack damage, try to apply it on enemy carries if possible.
 * Breathe Fire also reduces attack damage of creeps, allowing Dragon Knight to better tank stacks neutral camps.
 * Breathe Fire has enough range to stack ancient camps for mid Dragon Knight.
 * More tips needed.


 * Dragon Tail is the longest guaranteed level 1 single target stun in the game.
 * Dragon Tail scales poorly. One or two levels is often enough to fulfill its primary stun purposes.
 * Dragon Tail is great for ganking, especially if you have or.
 * Dragon Tail's cast range increases to 400 when you transform yourself into a Dragon. It is sometimes worth transforming simply to land a stun on a fleeing enemy.
 * More tips needed.


 * Consider leveling Dragon Blood early to increase Dragon Knight's survivability. This is especially helpful when playing in the offlane.
 * Despite the health regeneration, Dragon Knight is still quite vulnerable to magical damage.
 * More tips needed.


 * Elder Dragon Form has a duration of 60 seconds and a cooldown of 115 seconds, which means it can be active nearly half the time even if used immediately after cooldown.
 * Despite its long duration, make sure Elder Dragon Form is always ready before a teamfight. Without it, Dragon Knight is easily kited and deals less damage.
 * Elder Dragon Form changes attack range from melee to ranged. Keep this in mind when building items as it also changes the effect of items like, damage block, bash chance and cleave.
 * The Dragons' corrosive breath affects towers, easily taking them down even in the early game.
 * Use the splash damage from level two and three to clean waves and stacked camps. Consider purchasing a to stack jungle and ancient camps.
 * Coupled with, Dragon Knight can clear stacks of ancient camps.
 * Splash damage does not trigger lifesteal.
 * Splash damage applies critical strike, and is affected by damage manipulation.
 * More tips needed.

Items
Starting items:
 * . Dragon Blood can keep him in lane with minimum health regeneration, but a minimal amount of regeneration is ideal for sustaining during his early levels.
 * makes last hitting easier due to his low base damage.
 * helps with Dragon Knight's small mana pool, allowing him to use Breathe Fire more often in lane.
 * gives nice attributes, and can be used to build a.
 * can greatly help his early game durability against ranged enemies.

Early game:
 * are compulsory because of the early speed boost they give.
 * can help offset the damage of being harassed by spells, and provide a burst of HP and Mana to help win early fights.
 * is a useful item on Dragon Knight, as it allows him to farm using Breathe Fire constantly. The extra health regeneration from Soul Ring together with the regeneration from Dragon Blood offset the health loss.

Mid game:
 * are ideal for Dragon knight, useful not only because of the attack speed they give, but also because you can switch the attribute as the situation requires. Using Soul Ring while set to strength, then casting spells on intelligence minimizes the HP cost and maximizes the mana gained. Setting Power Treads to agility allows you to passively regenerate a larger percentage of HP from your passive. Otherwise you can keep them on strength to make you more durable and to make last hitting easier.
 * is a natural upgrade for Magic stick, offering a larger potential burst of health and mana.
 * provides a large amount of HP regeneration, and armor, as well as a nice boost in strength, attack damage, and armor when activated, significantly increasing Dragon Knight's mid game strength. His HP regen from Dragon Blood effectively manages the HP consumed by an activated Armlet.
 * is a crucial item to have in most games to prevent being disabled. With the added survivability, damage and spell immunity, you become more durable and able to jump into the fight with less risk of dying.

Late game:
 * gives good mobility, and ideal in games where Dragon Knight requires a way to initiate or gank the opposing team. The stealth allows you to initiate using your stun, and the bonus damage coming out of stealth is also helpful.
 * gives attack speed and armor to you and surrounding allies. It also places a debuff on enemies, making them easier to kill. It is a good item if you have many auto-attackers in your team.

Situational items:
 * is a natural upgrade from, and is strong in Dragon Knight's hands for multiple reasons. The break it provides reduces an opponent's outgoing damage even more, effectively stacking with the debuff of Breathe fire, and disabling most passive abilities.
 * provides you with a modest chunk of attributes, as well as increasing his move speed, and Maim allows Dragon Knight to still effectively lock down enemies when Elder Dragon Form is not available, and in the late game may be disassembled in order to build and/or
 * is a good item for improving both offense and defensive: it gives more damage, more strength, and Maim is helpful for chasing and locking down enemies. The evasion stacks nicely with Dragon Knight's large HP pool and high armor, and the disarm effectively prevents the enemy carry from dealing damage.
 * is a very situational late-game item which can provide a large amount of utility. A second dispel beside BKB can help minimize the effect of an enemy team with a large number of disables. The Dragon Form Timer starts full when Illusions are created of the dragon, allowing Dragon Knight to continue pushing and fighting with the splash damage and cold breath attack modifiers.
 * is the best item to buy if you need to be tankier. Not only does it provide you with a massive HP boost and a passive ability to gain health more quickly, but it also adds 45 damage.
 * gives more survivability and tankiness for both you and your team against magic damage, the bonus health regen is also very useful.
 * grants a sizeable strength boost, as well as damage and 25% lifesteal, significantly increasing Dragon Knight's survivability.
 * makes you deal more damage, and gives you the chance to make critical hits.
 * improves Dragon Knight's tower pushing and increases his damage. It also synergizes with an pickup and creates a huge armor disparity.
 * provides a slow that stacks with lifesteal from and . It also pierces spell immunity, like the Frost Breath from your level 3 Dragon Form. Cold Attack combined with Frost Breath reduces an enemy's damage output significantly and makes it hard for enemy heroes to disengage from a fight once they are attacked by Dragon Knight. It also provides a huge health boost rivaling  and can be considered as an offense oriented replacement as it also provides intelligence that helps with your mana consumption, and agility which gives attack speed for more DPS and armor that increases your overall effective health.
 * can be considered as a final luxury when your team is far ahead.

Dragon Knight/Руководство