In depth guide to: Dragon Knight

Welcome to my guide! my name is DarkX, i'm here to guide you through the friendly neighborhood Dragon Knight.
DK is strong hero with a good skillset that makes him shine in mid and late game, he is also very fun to play!
Hope you enjoy reading this guide and it helps you improve your game.

Skills and Skill build 

 

 

Breathe Fire

Unleashes a breath of fire on enemy units in a line in front of Dragon Knight.
Range: 500
Radius:150 (starting radius) / 500 (Distance) / 250 (Final radius)
Damage: 90/170/240/300

Great skill, this skill is very useful both for pushing (it can hit Seige units) and early game teamfights, however you are not even remotely capable of using this skill early on as you have really bad mana problems.

Level it up at levels: 3,4,5,7

Dragon Tail

Dragon Knight smites an enemy unit in melee range with his shield, stunning it while dealing minor damage. When in Elder Dragon Form, the cast range increases to 400.
Range: 150 (400 while in Elder Dragon Form)
Stun Duration: 2.5/2.75/3/3.25 Damage: 25/50/75/100

The longest level 1 guaranteed stun in DotA, and one of the best skills to get first blood with, but keep in mind that you need to get to melee range to cast it (without your ultimate activated).

Level up this skill at levels: 1,12,13,14

Dragon Blood

The life blood of the Dragon improves health regeneration and strengthens armor.

Health Regen per second: 2/3/4/5
Armor: 2/4/6/8

This skill makes dragon knight very tanky in terms of physical damage and lane sustainability, and it helps you survive since you lack an escape mechanism.

Level this skill up at levels: 2,8,9,10 

 

Elder Dragon Form

Dragon Knight can take the form of three powerful elder dragons.
LEVEL 1 - Green Dragon: Short poison damage over time on attack.
LEVEL 2 - Red Dragon: Short poison Splash damage on attack.
LEVEL 3 - Blue Dragon: Splash damage and frost attack that slows enemy units.

Duration: 60
Bonus Speed: 25
Bonus Attack Range: 372

Your ultimate is a really strong skill that synergizes with your other abilities, it transforms you into a dragon (which is pretty Badass) giving you extra movement speed and making you ranged, Level 1 and 2 Elder Dragon Forms have the skill: Corrosive Breath, Corrosive Breath deals 20 damage per second for 5 seconds and is non-lethal (target is left with 1 HP) and Works on structures and with that you can destroy towers with ease and combined with breathe fire, it makes you a really good pusher.

Level your ultimate whenever possible, at levels: 6,11 and 16

Starting Items 

Congratulations! you have successfully picked DK!
You can go to whatever lane you wish, but preferably you want a sidelane, make sure to leave the safelane for your hard carry, if there is no hard carry, then you can go to the safelane.

You're going to need the following starting items:

 

Early Game and your Core items 

Early game is very important for all heroes, DK is not an exception, you need to focus on last hits, however don't forget about your godly stun, your awful mana pool restricts you though, so only use your skills if you're certain about getting a kill, basically just maintain balance between farming and going for kills, balance is key.
You can get an early: 

Soul Ring

If you want to use your skills without restrictions, you have the choice to get this item or not.

you should be farming your Core items which are:

Power Treads 

Black King Bar

 Your immense lack of attack speed is partially cured with power treads, but that's not the only reason you get it, the ability to change the attribute to Intelligence before casting a spell saves you some mana, and getting used to that is really good.

DK's biggest weakpoints are Stuns and damage from spells (Pure and Magic damage), as you are very tanky against Normal attacks thanks to Dragon Blood, and that's exactly why we get a Black King Bar (BKB), being able to last the longest during a teamfight is enough to win it for your team.

Early-mid game, is when gankers (who almost always go mid) get their ultimates and start ganking like they are paid to, in this part, you are very vulnerable, so Kindly ask your supports to plant wards, if they refuse then buy them yourself, 150 gold spent on wards can save you from multiple deaths which cost much more than just 150 gold, and always have a Town Portal Scroll (TP).

as you can escape by stunning the enemy and TPing away.

Situational items and your 3rd core item 

DK is so versatile that it is almost always hard to determine what to get as your 3rd core item, but i'll list almost all of the items you can get as situational items:

 

Armlet of the Mordiggian

Gives +8 HP regen / +9 Damage / +5 Armor / +15 Attack speed, and when active gives: +31 damage, +10 attack speed, and +25 strength while active, but drains 40 HP per second, it's terrific on strength carries, as it gives them a ton of damage (coming from both strength and flat damage bonuses), works great as your 3rd and last core item.

 

Helm of the Dominator  

gives damage, armor and lifesteal, and builds into the all powerful satanic later on, serves great as your 3rd and last core item. 

 

Shadow Blade

Provides decent stats, namely attack speed and damage and serves as an escape mechanism as well as an initiating teamfights, works great as your 3rd and final core item.

 

Assault Cuirass

you can use the hyperstone you bought to complete Assault Cuirass (AC), it gives you even more armor and attack speed and reduces the armor of nearby enemies by 5, works great on DK but, because of your passive, this item should be built on another hero that actually needs more armor, however you can build it if there no one in your team that is willing to do so.

 

Heart of Torrasque

this item makes you a meatshield, pure beef, combined with the armor from your passive it will make you stupidly tanky, which switches your role from a carry to tank, but that's what DK is all about, versatility.

 

Daedalus

Crits! more damage dealt in an Area of Effect (AoE) is always welcome, you're gonna do crazy damage in teamfights thanks to your ult combined with Daedalus, handy but get it later on in the game, avoid getting it early, there are much more important items to farm early on.

 

Mjollnir

this uses your hyperstone you purchase after getting your core, the highest attack speed item in the game, and it's preferable to get this not AC, but it's your choice to make.

 

Satanic

a great item, gives crazy lifesteal, and the active gives you 175% lifesteal which heals you greatly.

get your 3rd core item according to your situation
do you want to get satanic later? get helm.
do you want to start fighting really early? get armlet
want to gank frequently and be able to escape? get shadow blade  

Mid Game 

Mid game is when the lanning phase is over, and everyone is grouping up to push towers and giving their hard carry space to farm, you are not a hard carry, so you shouldn't camp your lane and farm creeps:

-ask your team for ganks or teleport to another lane to gank

-if nothing is happening be prepared to crumble some towers, use your Q to clear creep waves (try to get the last hits while at it), and once your creep wave reaches the tower Press R and right click away; your corrosive breath passive from your ultimate will do high damage to the tower

-and be prepared to TP as there is probably a group of heroes heading your way to kill you.

after you've built your core items get a

 

Hyperstone

Hyperstone is great on DK, since it gives him all the attack speed he could dream of, and it builds into AC or mjollnir

 

Late Game and Ancient stacking 

Late game, hopefully you've farmed well and participated in team fights, DK starts to fall off in this stage of the game, but still, you're a great team fight hero and your team needs you so don't get caught out of position and get killed, as this might cost you a team fight and even the game.

 

depending on the situation, either force a teamfight or take roshan if things are going well, it they're not, then try to farm your jungle and turtle up in your base, be ready for any teamfight, once a fight starts:

-activate BKB and armlet (if you have it)
-stun anyone who is channeling a spell, or more preferably the enemy's hard carry
-focus their hard carry and try to kill him, he is their main damage dealer, and if he is down, you basically won the fight and probably the game.


if you havent farmed well, its probably because you have been ganked alot, or you arent focusing on last hitting, whatever the case, you can fix that, by farming some more:

-dominate a creep, using the helm of the dominator's active ability
-and send it to the ancient camps

-and attack those ancients at the 53 second mark
-when they chase your creep, move away from the camp and they will follow you, if you were succesful, there should be more ancients

 -do this twice or thrice, with your creep while you are farming the jungle so you are not wasting any second, after stacking send your hero to the ancient stacks, activate your ult and melt them, (you should be a red or blue dragon to do this), and watch your gold go through the roof, doing that could possibly turn the tables and result winning the game! but remember your team's hard carry has the priority to stack and farm ancients, so if he is behind on farm he should be getting the ancients (be a team player).

Epilogue 

Dragon Knight is a great hero, but you're not that great of a hard carry so you can't outcarry late game carries, so you need a great hard carry on your team (like anti-mage, Phantom assassin, Phantom lancer, lifestealer... etc)

thank you for reading my guide :)

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