The Mysterious Dread Knight

Arctic_Slicer · 11-09-2005, 03:00 AM

At this point all that we have been told about dread knights is that they are users of fear, dread and despair. Besides being told that they are not like the shadow knights of "EverQuest" we know almost nothing about them. Trying to uncloud the dread knight's mysterious nature will some deep thought about what each of their tools mean and how they can be used in combat.

Once again it has been said that a dread knight uses fear, dread, and despair as tools of combat. What this seems to imply is that dread knights are people who would go about exploiting their enemies emotions to instill doubt into their victims. By doing they can manipulate how an enemy reacts and thus weaken their defenses. This makes them fundamentally different than the warriors who use weapons and strength as their tools for battle. The weaknesses of the mind are often the ones that leave you most vulnerable.

With that in mind we can begin to speculate on how a dread knight functions in combat and what their abilities are. First and foremost we know that their primary role is that of the defensive fighter or more commonly known as the tank. Mainly of the dread knights combat abilities are likely those that take advantage of the weaknesses of the mind, most likely some forms of debuffs. As a debuffer and a tank they could certainally be a very useful addition to any party. With their abilities it is likely possible to make their enemies weaker to a variety of different attacks. Being able to reduce different attributes for diffent situations and party make ups or simply reducing them in a way that allows them to mitigate more damage or make their own attacks more effective. In combination with their ability to take damage they should prove to a powerful character.

Being the kind of person to exploit the weaknesses of the mind and messing with other people's emtions we can gather that they are probabally not the most well liked people in society and could possibly be downright hated. It is not unreasonable to think that dread knights are ones who their abilities for selfish and greedy needs. The kind of person who lives only to increase their power, vanity, and fortune. While they aren't neccesarily evil we can gather that they most certainally aren't the good kindhearted type of person either.

So what are your thoughts on the mysterious dread knight? Is there anything you can add to help uncloud their mystery?

Pirotess · 11-09-2005, 07:15 AM

Very nice class description and theory Arctic_Slicer. I agree that Dread Knights are likely to have debuffs to a certain degree. Whether they are mental or physical or both is hard to say though. I wouldnt be surprised however to see some common ground between the Dread Knight and Necromancer. I get the impression they are cut from the same cloth but the Dread Knight went the physical combat route with a dabling of magic and the Necromancer went the magic route with a dabling of physical combat.

I wish we could get some real official class descriptions finally. We're coming up on 2006 pretty quickly and dont have much specifics on classes which is usually the first thing a game announces in my experience.

Arctic_Slicer · 11-10-2005, 07:14 AM

Thank you for you compliments. I have actually been wanting to write about the dread knight for sometime but never really got around to it. While there hasn't been a whole lot of official information released on this mysterious class I felt that the most important aspect about them has been released the "core" of their class if you will. While it is possible that they might be similar to the necromancer I don't really expect them to be able to call undead servants like a necromancer. The only other thing that has been said by sigil about them is that they are not like the shadow knights of "EverQuest" which really re-enforces the view that they will not be necromancer like. Sigil has made it a point that they don't plan on designing "hybrids" and want each and every class to be unique. Of course that certainally doesn't mean that some classes don't overlap in some areas and flavorwise it would make sense for the dread knight to overlap with the necromancer in some areas.

Necromancers certainally share the same lust for power and will sacrifice everything to obtain it even their health and beauty. By doing so they can gain immorality and have a limitless supply of minions at their command. A necromancer motto could very well be "greatness at any cost". It is also likely that a necromancer will have some debuffing type of abilities but I wouldn't expect those kind of abilities to their classes "core".

While these philosophies are similar to those I applied for the dread knight they are different in some aspects as well. A dread knight has the title "knight" which implies that they have some role in society whether it's a well liked role or not is another matter. It is also possible that they are members of an underground society. It also implies that they may serve some sort of lord. Given their personality however I would expect this service to be more a mercenary contract than a formal knighthood. It might even be a "shadow" knighthood where they exist more or less outside of the ranks of other knights and is a more secretive service. While a dread knight would most certainally prefer to be a lord rather than serving under one. The reality though is that they are not and only by serving existing lords can they increase their fortune and possibly influence that would eventually allow them to seize such power.

I could be wrong of course as all of this is theroy but given what we know it feels right. Necromancy is for all intents and purposes bad for your health. For a necromancer who focuses on summoning the most powerful of minions while sacrificing their own strength it would be a fair trade. For a dread knight however who needs their strength wouldn't risk their good health for their minions especially animated ones. Necromancy really doesn't seem to fit into a dread knights sense of "flavor". It seems natural that a dread knight would be the kind of profession that would need their health and desire their beauty both of which are too valuable to waste on necromancy.

Pirotess · 11-10-2005, 08:27 AM

Well mainly my thought process on the Dread Knight/Necro link is that a major portion of the Thestra lore deals with the undead sweeping over the lands. With that in mind it seemed to me a little too powerful to just have one class that could harness that massive number of undead. We shall see though.

Arctic_Slicer · 11-16-2005, 03:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pirotess

Well mainly my thought process on the Dread Knight/Necro link is that a major portion of the Thestra lore deals with the undead sweeping over the lands. With that in mind it seemed to me a little too powerful to just have one class that could harness that massive number of undead. We shall see though.

Most certainally a possibility especially given the lore. However given the information we have that the dread knight is to be different from the shadow knight it is likely that they aren't. Also apparantly the Vanguard Paladin is supposed to be different from our sterotypical paladin as well. It has been said that paladin's will have limited healing in Vanguard. This is somewhat different from the paladins where healing is their secondary purpose. While Paladin's might have some heals it doesn't seem like they will have heals like the paladins of "EverQuest" did. From the information we have it is likely that the paladin will be supportive with beneficial spells but most of those spells will be more buff oriented than heal oriented this is also probabally partially a product of the combat system of Vanguard that wants to limit the spam healing.

Pirotess · 11-16-2005, 08:46 AM

Not to mention Paladins are not in the healer archetype so I would really hope they cant heal at all past the occaisional Lay of Hands.

Siencyn · 11-18-2005, 12:05 PM

I am also longing for more class info.

I can understand why they are being tight-lipped about the classes, however if IS getting rather close to 2006 with beta 1 in full swing. I am hoping for at least some generic info before the end of the year.

here's to hope!

Finian Bladesinger · 11-18-2005, 04:10 PM

I agree

Aram · 01-21-2006, 06:08 PM

What I don't understand is that the concept of the Dread Knight seems antithetical to the function of a tank. Dread Knight makes enemies afraid. Scared enemies tend to run away more then fight. As a tank you want to be the most appealing target out of the whole group, make certain all the mobs beeline for you...not crap their pants and run the other way.

*shrugs*

Flagg · 01-21-2006, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Siencyn

I am also longing for more class info.

I can understand why they are being tight-lipped about the classes, however if IS getting rather close to 2006 with beta 1 in full swing. I am hoping for at least some generic info before the end of the year.

here's to hope!

My current guess is ethier a) e3 or b) about 2 months before release which seems to be targeted for "summer".
Artic my guess would be some sort of lawful evil type. As far as abilties I not sure what things they will bring to the table. I would say you have pretty much the same ideas as me. Save I think that dread kinght will have debuff/weakness type spells that especial cater to hurting "good/holy" npc. while they will be able to do the spells on any npc that doesn't have immunity it would hurt worse on certian types of npcs Also they would stack with every other debuff so as to make them useful no matter what other classes are in the party. I figure that they will be hated in certian areas and hoefully kos in a few towns.