Last Wednesday, Kakao announced they would be introducing the highly anticipated Dark Knight class into Black Desert this week. Promising an aggressive fighting style, the class uses a two-handed Kriegsmesser sword combined with dark magic to deliver heavy hitting attacks and plenty of CC at both close and mid-range. In anticipation of this release, I decided to get ahold of a KR account to try out the flashy swordplay myself.
For the greater part of its lifespan, Black Desert’s class roster seemed quite adequate. The game has done a really good job of servicing many various playstyles, and the current classes cover pretty much any role you could think of. However, in a game with a combat system as complex and player intensive as BDO’s, new classes are still a much needed addition, providing toolkits that may offer certain players a more comfortable fit for their specific playstyle. In comes the Dark Knight, offering a satisfying combination of long, vulnerable attacks alongside low cooldown iframe movements that allow you to quickly engage, disengage, or sidestep to avoid punishment. This creates an interesting dynamic that makes the class feel heavy without sacrificing the combat speed Black Desert is so well known for.
Dark Knight isn’t a combo heavy class, none of her abilities really transition into one another. Much like awakened Sorceress, her complexities instead come from properly timing your attack and mobility skills to avoid getting caught out in the middle of a fight. This sort of gameplay is something that I personally enjoy, as I’ve had to think carefully about what abilities to use during a fight rather than going through a predetermined chain. Unfortunately though, Dark Knight does seem to lack any sort of meaningful animation cancels, removing a lot of the intricacy that comes with many of the other classes in Black Desert.
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The utility of this class is amazing for being unawakened. Their kit is loaded with a large selection of CC abilities, several of which are even ranged and can connect from a safe distance. I haven’t had much trouble locking down multiple opponents at once either, as most of Dark Knight’s CCs are large AoEs. PvE sustain is no issue either, with a number of abilities absorbing either mana or health on hit, and one skill even actively regenerating them over time.
Dark Knight will not be getting an awakening with its launch, however I do imagine it will come fairly soon as the Korean players only had to wait a bit over a month to get theirs. As with every class before it, Dark Knight’s gameplay will change quite dramatically. Although I haven’t touched the awakened version of the class in KR yet, I did take a peek at its abilities and dug around for some gameplay videos. It at least seems extremely strong, as the kit appears to be loaded with high damage numbers on attacks that cover huge areas and have low cooldowns, but I haven’t actually had a hands-on with it. If nothing else though, it sure does look damn fun to play with.
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In the time I’ve spent grinding this character, I honestly think Dark Knight has become one of my favorite classes. Everything just flows so nicely together and I enjoy the big, sweeping attacks of the Kriegsmesser, it’s just really satisfying to use. Sadly though, while the class is quite strong, I don’t believe it will be competitive in PvP until its awakening comes out. The abilities are just too slow to match any of the existing awakening weapons. That being said, I’ll certainly level one to 56 in preparation.
Dark Knight will be available to everyone on NA and EU today.
