Introduction
“The tournament commences.”
Dragon Knight is a melee strength carry who is able to maintain a presence at all stages of the game, which has made him a popular and stable pick in the competitive scene for quite some time.
He has access to early burst magic damage, is highly tanky, and is very strong in the mid and late games thanks to his ultimate, Elder Dragon Form.
You can find Dragon Knight's complete character profile here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Becomes very tanky and has good lane sustainability
- Good at all stages of the game
- Has amazing lockdown
- Great pusher
- Great creep clearance/farming capability
Cons
- Constant mana issues
- Needs farm and levels
- Not the hardest of carries
- Significantly less threatening when not in ultimate form
Item Build
In competitive Dota Dragon Knight is typically laned mid. In public matchmaking, however, he is more commonly seen in one of the side lines, either as the farm in a dual lane or a trilane. The only major divergence this causes in his item build, however, is that when laned mid he almost always grabs an early Bottle, for the mana regen and rune control – an item which he does not purchase when side-laning.
Starting Items
A standard starting build for Dragon Knight is:
- A set of Tangos, a Quelling Blade, Gauntlets of Strength, 2x Iron Branches.
Dragon Knight’s passive ability, Dragon’s Blood, means he can get away with just one set of health regeneration, as opposed to most farming cores who will need two sets. This frees you up to grab a Gauntlets of Strength, which gives you some great stat gain when couple with the Iron Branches.
You can opt for a Stout Shield instead of the Quelling Blade if you expect a lot of lane harassment, although again your passive Dragon’s Blood will give you good lane sustainability even with a certain degree of harassment and so you can go greedy and get a starting Quelling Blade.
Early Game
Early on you want to grab some basic Boots of Speed from the side shop (DK has one of the slowest move speeds in the game), then work on upgrading your starting items – turn the Iron Branches into a Magic Wand, and upgrade the Gauntlets of Strength into an early Bracer.
Your upgraded boots of choice should be Power Treads 9 times out of 10. An argument can be made for Phase Boots, which will give you a nice infusion of damage as well as chasing capacity, but it’s hard to overlook the benefits of Power Treads on most strength cores – a really nice stat gain which augments both your damage and your health pool, as well as some early attack speed (attack speed generally being something DK lacks).
Some situational early items to consider are: Soul Ring (DK is a hero with significant mana issues; a Soul Ring helps alleviate this and is a great fit for the hero because he has such high health regeneration), Bottle (only if you’re laning mid, in which case you should rush Bottle first and use the mana regeneration to push the creep wave out ahead of the rune spawn using Breathe Fire), and Hand of Midas (only if you’re safe lane farming and have a great start. It’s risky but viable).
Core Options
You have a lot of options to choose from next, and which you opt for depends upon personal preference as well as the specific situation in your particular game. Some quick rules of thumb:
- If you’re under early pressure and/or the enemy team have a lot of crowd control, stuns, or burst magic damage, go for Black King Bar.
- If you want to be a bit greedy but didn’t opt for a Hand of Midas go for a Helm of the Dominator – this allows you to dominate a creep and use it to stack the ancients whilst also giving you some combat presence.
- If you want to be the aggressors and make plays (typically ganking style) go for Shadow Blade.
- If you want to be combat-ready but don’t necessarily need spell immunity consider Maelstrom into Mjollnir.
Helm of the Dominator – The greedy option that also gives you some combat capability (as opposed to Hand of Midas). HotD not only allows you to farm the jungle with ease, and creep stack using a dominated creep, it also gives you +20 damage, +5 armour, and life steal.
Black King Bar – BKB is the safe option as a first core item for Dragon Knight, but even if you don’t opt for it straight away it always makes for a good luxury item pick-up. It gives you some added damage and health, but most importantly the active Spell Immunity will allow you to stay alive and not get stun-locked or burst down by magic damage during teamfights.
Shadow Blade – The ganker build. Shadow Blade allows you to go-a-ganking, using the Shadow Walk ability to scout out prey and then initiate on them with 150 bonus damage - followed up with your Dragon Tail, some right clicks, and Breathe Fire; it’s a pretty fearsome ganking combo. You also get +22 damage and +30 attack speed from it.
Maelstrom – A cheap option but one which also gives you some combat prowess whilst opening up plenty of options later on. You get +24 damage, +25 attack speed, and a 25% chance to deal 120 AoE damage. Most importantly it’s cheap and easy to build into whilst also giving you access to the Mjollnir upgrade later on, which is a great luxury pick-up.
Luxury Items
Drums of Endurance – One of the most cost efficient items in the game, it also gives you a bit of everything you badly lack, chiefly health, mana (stats), and attack speed. Drums are a great option if you're fighting regularly in the early game or if your farm is quite poor.
Assault Cuirass – Assault Cuirass’s attack speed and minus armour aura both make your carry potential significantly greater. You’re going to hit that much harder and that much more frequently in teamfights, and do so whilst also increasing the damage of your entire team, which is why AC is frequently a high priority pick-up on DK.
The extra armour will also make you that much more tanky; the multiple auras benefit your entire team; and the minus armour works on structures, which gives you really solid pushing potential when combined with your Dragon Form.
Mjollnir – Attack speed, attack speed, attack speed. Mjollnir is a great pick-up because attack speed is what you most lack at this stage of the game, rather than raw damage really. A no-brainer if you opted for a Maelstrom earlier on as well.
Daedalus – Very high damage (+81) and a chance to Critical Strike. A good 5th or 6th slot item.
Satanic – Satanic gives you direct damage benefits as well as increased survivability. The chance to heal yourself back up when low on health using the Unholy Rage active makes it similar to the health effects of Roshan's Cheese. As long as you're able to attack, you basically get your health pool completely regenerated, and since Black King Bar is core on Sven you usually will be able to.
Heart of Tarrasque – Will make you a full on tank. Your health pool will be enormous and you’ll also hit a lot harder. A good luxury item if you feel you’re falling in teamfights too quickly, but I prefer…
Heaven’s Halberd – If you do feel you die too quickly in teamfights consider Heaven’s Halberd instead of Heart of Tarrasque. You get a nice chunk of health, damage, and bonus effective health (through evasion), but you also become an anti-carry thanks to the Disarm active.
Monkey King Bar – Huge attack damage, mini-bash, and a little bit of attack speed. It also grants you True Strike, making it the ideal pick-up to combat agility carries that would typically build into a Butterfly or which have evasion built-in (such as Phantom Assassin).
Situational Items
Soul Ring – Situational early game item. DK is a hero with significant mana issues; a Soul Ring helps alleviate this and is a great fit for the hero because he has such high health regeneration.
Bottle - Only if you’re laning mid, in which case you should rush Bottle first and use the mana regeneration to push the creep wave out ahead of the rune spawn using Breathe Fire.
Hand of Midas - Only if you’re safe lane farming and have a great start. Even then it’s still risky, as the enemy team may react to it by putting on early pressure. If you fear that but still want to be semi-greedy then consider going for Helm of the Dominator as your core item.
Boots of Travel – When you are at that stage of the game where you’ve ran out of item slots then swap out your initial set of boots for Boots of Travel. It frees up a slot you would otherwise have reserved for a TP Scroll and makes you much less susceptible to split-push in the super late game.
Divine Rapier - Finally, there's always the Divine Rapier option if your back's against the wall and defeat is almost imminent or you feel you're so far ahead you just want to have fun. Just be sure to warn your teammates of your intentions in advance.
Skill Build
Breathe Fire is a magic damage AoE nuke that is always maxed first. It causes Dragon Knight to breathe fire in a line in front of him which extends 500 units and deals 90/170/240/300 magic damage.
Breathe Fire is a potent nuke in the early game, and remains useful even in the mid game, which is one of the main ways in which DK is able to have a decent early game impact despite being a carry hero. It’s great for damaging multiple heroes during teamfights if positioned correctly and allows you to clear creep waves with ease.
Dragon Tail is DK’s stun, which also deals damage. It is always skilled first but most guides will recommend you max it last. The stun lasts for a lengthy 2.5/2.75/3/3.25 seconds and also deals a small amount of magic damage (25/50/75/100). It actually scales quite well with levels – with both the damage, stun duration and cooldown all getting buffed.
This is great for giving DK access to some hard lockdown – something many carries sorely lack and so struggle to deal with being kited. At level 4 it is actually one of the best stuns in the game.
Dragon Blood is a passive ability which gives DK higher health regeneration and armour. It is usually maxed second. Dragon Blood gives you an additional 2/3/4/5 health regeneration and 3/6/9/12 armour. This makes you incredibly tanky and gives you great sustainability in the lane.
Dragon Knight's ultimate, Elder Dragon Form, is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). This turns DK into a Dragon, which has ranged form, +25 move speed, and +372 attack range. As it gives you ranged attack range it makes you much more fearsome in teamfights.
On top of that each level also gives you access to a different dragon form. At level 1 you become a Green Dragon which deals an additional 20 damage per second for 5 seconds on attack. At level 2 you become a Red Dragon, which also deals splash damage up to 250 units. At level 3 you become a Blue Dragon which also slows enemies by 30% and reduces their attack speed by 20% for 3 seconds.
Gameplay Tips
Breathe Fire is a great way of ensuring last hits when necessary and for pushing the creep wave. This is why DK often purchases Bottle or Soul Ring, so that he can spam this ability effectively despite his relatively low mana pool.
Dragon Tail is one of the best stuns in the game – dealing a lengthy 3.25 seconds of lockdown and 100 magic damage at level 4. It is even better when combined with your ultimate form, as the range increases from 150 (melee range) to 400 units, making it much easier to land.
The effect from the Green Dragon Elder Form – Corrosive Breath – works on structures. When pushing towers as Dragon Knight you can pop your ultimate to help power down the tower much more quickly. Each attack while in this form deals a total of 100 damage over 5 seconds.
The effects from Elder Dragon Form’s final two forms (the Red and Blue Dragons) go through Spell Immunity, making them fantastic late-game abilities.
Always level up Elder Dragon Form! Most guides written prior to version 6.78 will recommend not getting the second level in Elder Dragon Form because at the time the Red Dragon did not acquire Corrosive Breath. This is no longer the case, and so it should always be skilled.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
