“ | The Knight is the most versatile Unit for every situation and is particularly resistant to poison. | „ |
General Assessment
Early game the Knight is a critical unit as it is the only unit you have that can perform significant damage to buildings. As the game progresses, the knight diminishes in usefulness but can remain powerful as he can be summoned in large numbers.
Defense
The knight is useful for defending your castle early game, however his low hit points coupled with his susceptibility to area of effect damage makes him much less useful for defending once attackers get flamestrike or swordrain which can kill any number of knights instantly. By that point your melee defenders should be paladins.
Attack
Early game, knights are critical for attack. If you keep them upgraded they can remain a useful part of your army until you max out their power at level 14.
Strengths
The fact that they cost only one morale point means you can summon large numbers of them very quickly. Because you can summon 3-5 knights for every one of other troop types you can get an army that does great damage quickly. Due to their normal damage, they tear through groups of paladins with relative ease. They are strong against the basic 4 Paladin, 1 Pyromancer defense force commonly used for 16 morale point waves although you may need to take steps to keep the pyromancer in check.
Their sheer numbers and the fact that they deal normal damage means they can do significant damage to structures, even if they are not backed by cannons (or if you lost your cannons early on). Beneficial AoE spells can be very powerful with knights. Heal and Shield are both more powerful the more targets they can hit. These spells can permit you to keep your knights alive much longer than then normally would survive thereby increasing their power.
Knights move at a fast speed which allows them to reach the front lines more quickly than Paladins or most other troops.
Weaknesses
Knights are extremely weak against AoE damage. This means they need extensive micromanagement -- you may need to spend a lot of time with your hero lobbing cannon balls back at their towers lest a couple of explosions decimate your army. Enemy casters are an extreme threat to them and be prepared to defend your knights with swordrain. Micromanaging your hero to protect the knights may mean that he cannot adequately attack or defend your ranged support forces (i.e. if he had to use swordrain to save the knights, then you might have a stray pyromancer attacking your cannons). Knights will ignore spikes and walk over them. Upgraded spikes can be very dangerous to knights as they will damage every knight walking over the spikes.
The sheer numbers of knights you can summon can also cause problems. By blocking the path with knights, other troops may not be able to progress sufficiently quickly. Frost damage seems to be especially dangerous, not for the damage itself but because it can slow your knights down to a virtual standstill for many seconds, thus slowing the approach of all your other troops. Many a battle was lost because a froster slowed the lead knights down and prevented the cannons from reaching the castle in time. Knights usually will need help against a frost tower as their approach will be so greatly slowed they may never make it to the tower.
Another weakness of knights is that they reach maximum level long before your other troops do. This means that as you progress, knights become gradually less effective as you face tougher opponents with further upgraded troops.
In addition, though the knights are said to be 50% resistant to poison, a mortar would easily annihilate a knight within two shots. Toxic cloud also does a reasonable amount of damage.
Levels
Forgings Levels
Elite Boost (Blazing Knight)
Here's an excellent video of the Max Blazing Knight in action, displaying its several strengths and features: Knight vs Elite Knight (by Flothaboss)
Blazing Knight Levels
Level | Alliance Level | Fire Damage Boost | Health Boost |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 3 | 70% | 70% |
2 | 4 | 75% | 75% |
3 | 8 | 80% | 80% |
4 | 12 | 90% | 90% |
5 | 18 | 100% | 100% |
6 | 23 | 110% | 110% |
7 | 32 | 120% | 120% |
8 | 40 | 130% | 130% |
9 | 51 | 135% | 150% |