1. Introduction
Hi, although my account is Robo-Emperor my most used game name is DragonEmperor (might be banlisted because I leave mid-game when my mom enters my room to check if I play games >.<)
Now, what is a "Late Game Power House Dragon Knight?" A Late Game Power House Dragon Knight is an unstoppable insanely crazy monster that would probably turn the tides of battle. How do I know? I try this every game and unless my team is not very skilled in Dota, I always win, even 3v4. Now there are pros and cons of this particular build I will be sharing with you all.
Pros:
-At late game you can easily destroy all towers, barracks, and enemy heroes provided that you're not outnumbered or the enemy players are hideously fed >.<.
-If you successfully follow this guide's instructions, you'll never be called a noob.
Cons:
-You're not a team player. You're one of those "loners" who do nothing but farm and creep the entire game.
-Your fun starts mid-late game and if the game ends before, you've wasted your time (happened to me when my team was really good :s)
2. Hero Stats
Base HP is 511.
Base Mana is 195.
Base Armor is 4.4
Base Damage is 46-52.
Base movespeed is 290.
Base STR is 19 + 2.8 per level.
Base AGI is 17 + 1.7 per level.
Base INT is 15 + 1.7 per level.
Breathe Fire - Breathes fire at enemy units which deals damage.
Level 1 - 75 damage.
Level 2 - 150 damage.
Level 3 - 225 damage.
Level 4 - 300 damage.
100 / 115 / 130 / 150 mana cost. 12 second cool down at all levels.
The second skill to max for harassing reasons. NEVER use level 1. Always use it level 2 or above. Not a good harassing tool for it will be maxed second; however, sometimes it does put fear into the enemy so mind tricks work with this. When you use it, MAKE SURE you hit at least 1 hero and all or most of the surviving creeps.
Dragon Tail - Knight Davion bashes a melee-range enemy target with the fury of a dragon's tail swipe. Stuns the target and deals minor damage.
Level 1 - Deals 25 damage, stuns for 2.5 seconds.
Level 2 - Deals 50 damage, stuns for 2.75 seconds.
Level 3 - Deals 75 damage, stuns for 3 seconds.
Level 4 - Deals 100 damage, stuns for 3.25 seconds.
100 mana cost and 9 second cool down at all levels.
Despite it's crappy range, it's still ranged. Best use of this is to attack an enemy hero with EDF on and when he starts to run use it. More on this later. Also a decent escape mechanism. If the enemy hero is melee, use it and RUN!
Dragon Blood - Grants Dragon Knight blood from his ancient ancestral dragon heritage, which increases health regeneration and armor.
Level 1 - Increases hp regen by 1 and armor by 2.
Level 2 - Increases hp regen by 1 and armor by 4.
Level 3 - Increases hp regen by 3 and armor by 6.
Level 4 - Increases hp regen by 4 and armor by 8.
Your first skill to max! If combined with my recommended item build and strategy, you can stay in your lane until mid-game, hoarding all the exp, not the gold, but the exp.
Elder Dragon Form - Transforms the Dragon Knight into a powerful elder dragon. Lasts 60 seconds.
Level 1 - Transforms into a Green Dragon with a corrosive breath attack.
Level 2 - Transforms into a Red Dragon with a splash attack.
Level 3 - Transforms into a Blue Dragon with an extremely powerful frost attack.
Green dragon gives an additional 10 movement speed and corrosive breath, which deals 20 damage per second to towers.
Red dragon gives an additional 35 movement speed, 5 base damage, and deals full splash damage.
Blue dragon gives an additional 60 movement speed, 14 base damage, and deals full splash damage with frost attack.
EDF lasts 60 seconds on all levels, and has a 135 second cool down on all levels.
Your escape and kill mechanism. Many players I found seem to want to not use this unless when an enemy hero is near. WRONG! The cool down is 135 sec, if you exclude the time you're the dragon, it's 75sec. Not that long! If you're escaping an enemy ganker, USE IT FOR IT WILL MAKE YOU FLY! Like not immune to melee damage fly, but extremely fast movement speed fly.
3. The Skill Build
Note that these builds are meant for surviving not killing.
The Early Pusher
Usually used 1v1 against a melee hero.
Level 1 - Dragon Blood
Level 2 - Breathe Fire
Level 3 - Dragon Blood
Level 4 - Breathe Fire
Level 5 - Dragon Blood
Level 6 - EDF
Level 7 - Dragon Blood
Level 8 - Breathe Fire
Level 9 - Breathe Fire
Level 10 - Dragon Tail
Level 11 - EDF
Level 12 - Dragon Tail
Level 13 - Dragon Tail
Level 14 - Dragon Tail
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - EDF
Level 17-25 - Stats
You use breathe of fire to harass the enemy melee hero. This build is if you're better than the melee hero because EDF lvl1 is extremely good against towers but ultimately useless if you don't get to the tower. Dragon tail is absolutely useless unless the melee hero is competent.
The Early Farmer
Usually used 1v1 against any hero or 1v2 against any heroes.
Level 1 - Dragon Blood
Level 2 - Breathe Fire
Level 3 - Dragon Blood
Level 4 - Breathe Fire
Level 5 - Dragon Blood
Level 6 - Breathe Fire
Level 7 - Dragon Blood
Level 8 - Breathe Fire
Level 9 - Dragon Tail
Level 10 - EDF
Level 11 - EDF
Level 12 - Dragon Tail
Level 13 - Dragon Tail
Level 14 - Dragon Tail
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - EDF
Level 17-25 - Stats
This build is when you know you're not going to reach the tower. Notice this build is exactly the same as the first except it diverges at lvl 6 so judge whether or not your enemy laner is competent or not by then!
The Early Hero Related Build
Usually used 1v1, 1v2, 2v1, or 2v2 against and with any heroes.
Level 1 - Dragon Blood
Level 2 - Dragon Tail
Level 3 - Dragon Blood
Level 4 - Breathe Fire
Level 5 - Dragon Blood
Level 6 - Breathe Fire
Level 7 - Dragon Blood
Level 8 - Breathe Fire
Level 9 - Breathe Fire
Level 10 - EDF
Level 11 - EDF
Level 12 - Dragon Tail
Level 13 - Dragon Tail
Level 14 - Dragon Tail
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - EDF
Level 17-25 - Stats
Level 1 Dragon Tail is 2.5sec stun, level 4 is 3.25sec stun, not worth the three extra skill points early game. This build is used for the following reasons:
1. The enemy hero is a ganker and you use dragon tail to temporarily stun the enemy to run.
2. Your partner can kill if you stun the enemy.
I don't ususally go with this build because DKs solo because they are everlasting. Also Late Game Power House Dragon Knight is a horrible early ganker.
4. The Item Build
No variation of items. YOU MUST GET THESE ITEMS IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER.
1. Helm of the Dominator
2. Boots
3. Hand of Midas
4. Power Treads
5. Battle Fury
6. Quarter Staff
7. Satanic Helm
8. Butterfly
9. Divine Rapier
*More detailed List of Items*
1. Courrier
2. 6x Tangoes
3. Helm of Iron Will
4. Mask of Death -> Helm of the Dominator
5. Boots
6. Gloves of Haste
7. Hand of Midas
8. Gloves of Haste
9. Belt of Strength
10. Power Treads
11. Void Stone
12. Ring of Health -> Perseverence
13. Mythril Hammer
14. Claymore -> Battle Fury
15. Quarter Staff
16. Messerschmidt's Reaver
17. Satanic Helm
18. Eagle Horn
19. Butterfly
20. Sacred Relic
21. Demon Edge
22. Claymore -> Divine Rapier
Now before everyone flames me for even mentioning the "most rejected items" (#3, 4, 5) please hear me out in the strategy section.
Helm of the Dominator is gotten before Hand of Midas. Granted, getting Hand of Midas first will yield higher profit BUT you really NEED the Helm of Iron Will to survive in your lane without ever retreating until mid-game. That's why it's gotten third after boots because movement speed is more important than gold for the moment :s.
Battlefury is gotten for DMG and MANA REGEN, NOT FOR SPLASH! Splash is just for farming. You'll be in EDF when facing heroes. Seriously, +65dmg +150%mana regen for 1 item is a bargain. The other mana item is linken and frankly, linken is too dam expensive and lots of saving is required where as BattleFury, you can buy its parts without saving much.
5. Strategy
Now here's what you've been all waiting for! Strategy! Let's start with the Early Game.
Early Game
Early game you get 6x tangoes and courrier. Courrier will bring you additional tangoes and items listed above. Now here is a very important announcement.
DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT GO NEAR THE TOWER! EVER! Just last hit creep while consuming tangoes and the enemy hero/heroes won't be able to kill you. DO NOT NORMALLY ATTACK THE CREEPS. If you get to the enemy tower, simply hold position behind your wall of creeps to reap experience. Here are your priorities early game:
1. Don't Die! EVER!
2. Getting gold not possible then get only exp. DON'T PLAY RISKY!
3. Get Gold. (Destroy towers but if it's even slightly risky, don't do it)
It all depends on whether or not the enemy hero is a good harasser, there are two enemy heroes, or you're with a partner. Don't worry about gold, just worry about living. NEVER MAKE FOUNTAIN TRIPS! If you don't have mana, wait it out. If you need to retreat to heal, you've failed miserably.
Early-Mid Game
By now you should have completed Helm of the Dominator, bought boots and a glove of haste. If you can farm, farm. If there isn't a farmable lane, request that someone take your place and you creep. Get hand of midas and watch your ability to make gold increase. Turn strong creeps to gold and your aspd boost allows you to last hit creep with high efficiency provided you're not a noob.
Now that your gold is pouring in, get power treads of increased movement speed and ASPD. Again, continue to creep and farm. Getting lots of gold fast is crucial. After that get void stone so you can finally use Breathe Fire without worrying about making fountain trips. Complete perseverence and get mythril hammer. Once again, your ability to make gold increases drastically as the damage output makes last hit creeping extremely easy. Soon, you get BATTLEFURY! 150% mana regen! w00t! 65dmg with splash! Now I'm really not joking. Making money should be breeze. Takes about 3 secs to annihilate a whole creep wave with 90% of the gold yours (200+ gold, 400+ if you can use midas). This is what battlefury is for. Mana regen and dmg combined. Splash is just an added benefit that lets you creep insanely.
Now, before I continue, I like to address some arguements that disagree with my point of view.
Boots of travel allows you to teleport around, allowing you to reinforce your team quickly and escape quickly. This build I'm showing is not designed for that and early game, ASPD is way better then teleport, especially if teleport costs WAY more than ASPD.
Also Battlefury. So what if EDF has splash? You're not going to use it! +65 damage aint a joke folks. 150% mana regen aint a joke either. DK lacks damage, ASPD, and Mana. Battlefury will most assuredly solve mana and almost solve damage. If you disagree then disagree, battlefury turned the tides in many games for me. Try it yourself!
Mid-Late Game
Now you're ready for battle. If your team requiests pushes and ganks, join them; however, continuing to farm and creep is important too. After you get quarterstaff, ASPD increase will once again boost gold mining capability and soon you'll get SATANIC! Now this is where all your ASPD pays off. Your damage bonus should be +107 by now and 70%. Watch as your lvl 3 EDF dragon absorb tremendous amounts of health when vs enemy heroes. Don't run! Ever! If you run, you die, if you attack, you live and possibly kill. Even if you're triple teamed, unless your escape is assured, fight! Try to end the game with your team!
You should get lots of gold from destroying towers and barracks. Farm after your push and before the second push. If you complete butterfly, you're godly. Reason? Insane def, hp regen, ASPD, damage output, life steal, and evasion. This is what the Late Game Power House Dragon Knight is all about. Don't be scared to fight 2 enemy heroes head on. Just get in there and blast away your skills and attack! Get sacred relic if you can.
If, by some weird circumstance, you don't win and the game drags on, get divine rapier. Then your victory is assured. You'll be doing 400+ damage with 160hp leech attacking 90% faster. Nothing can beat that! Nothing! Unless you're triple teamed by stunners and disablers, nothing!
6. When does this build fail?
Here's where this build fails. The enemy team does group ganks often and if you get ganked three times before you complete BattleFury, I strongly recommend you choose a different DK build. 3 Ganks = lots of time gone and 600+ gold gone as well. Remember, your gold pours in only after you get a mythril hammer/claymore and that 600 will take 5 min to reclaim.
The enemy team does an early push and succeeds. What I mean by this is that your entire team gets slaughtered in a push and the enemy team succeeds. There is no way for you to farm until mid-late game without the enemy doing more powerful pushes so at this point it's GG unless you got a backup DK build, you're insanely rich, or your team is competent enough to hold the enemy team off until mid-late game.
Early game you have a noob on your team who fed an enemy hero(3+ deaths). That enemy hero will be hidouesly rich and overleveled early game meaning you're going to get ganked or your other allies will, therefore farming is not possilbe (unless the hideously fed guy is also a noob).
Your team's strategy is not level until 16 and attack. If your team wants constant cooperation from you, then this is not the build for you unless all they want you for is your level 1 dragon tail.
7. Closing Comments
Remember folks, this is A DK build not THE BEST DK build. As I mentioned before I use this build and not once have I ever been called a noob. I was before I used this but now I'm not. Reasons? I don't die therefore I don't feed, I have better equips than most of my team (Gankers are rich), and mid-late game is where teamwork is really needed and that's when this guy shines.