King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide – How to Build a Defender – In this King: Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide, I’m going to show you how to build your Defender from the ground up in terms of the active and passive skills you should acquire, the Heroes you need to create a reliable party, and the gear you have to equip. If you are looking for a Defender who is capable of defending allies and serves as the tank, then this King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide is for you!
Be sure to check out our King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Beginner Guide 2022 to familiarize yourself with the game’s mechanics!
King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide – How to Build a Defender
Defenders are excellent warriors who can take huge amounts of damage without dying, taking injuries in combat, or depleting too much of their Vitality. This is due to the Heavy Armour they wear as well as the high Hit Points they have. Defenders such as Sir Mordred and Sir Pelleas also act as effective covers, especially when they need to shield Heroes without Armour like Lady Dindraine and Sir Ector. Moreover, this Tank Class is able to deal decent damage, albeit not as high as the Champions, due to their group Defender Skills such as Cleave and Flurry.
As a Defender, it’s best to also crank up the Heroes’ Physical and Mental Debuff Resists together with Block since they will constantly stay in the frontline of Combat. A high Physical and Mental Debuff Resist reduces the potency of Status Effects inflicted on them while Block decreases the damage received when they are facing the attacker. Because of this, enemies will most likely waste their Skills on the Defender in an attempt to incapacitate them.
In terms of party composition, having 2 Defenders at a time is feasible as long as this is supplemented with at least 2 Heroes who excel at dealing massive damage and inflicting status effects like the Champion and Arcanist, respectively. Doing so will allow you to end the fight faster so your Heroes take little to no Vitality damage and injuries.
King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide – Tier 1 to Tier 3 Skills
Every time Heroes level up, they receive 2 skill points. However, they can receive more by activating Shrines, consuming Tomes of Proficiency from exploration, and unlocking perks in Camelot. King Arthur: Knight’s Tale features active and passive skills. Some active skills differ for Heroes belonging to identical classes but this is not true for passive skills that are always the same. In this guide, we will discuss Sir Mordred’s best abilities to prioritize upon reaching Level 15 while talking about some of Sir Pelleas’s essential skills. You can recruit Sir Pelleas as you progress through Act 1.
King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide – Sir Mordred Tier 1 Skills
By the time you reach Level 15, you will have gained access to all skill tiers and have invested a total of 28 points from progression alone. At Level 1, Sir Mordred automatically has access to the active skills known as Strike and Cast Stigma.
Strike – This boosts his Weapon Damage to deal moderate damage against enemies. For Strike, it’s better to only take the Bonebreaker enhancement to further increase your Defender’s Weapon Damage. Bleeding Strike can instead be obtained by other classes that have Extra Bleeding as one of their passives.
Cast Stigma – This considerably increases all damage taken by the target for 1 turn from you and any of your allies. Cast Stigma should be one of the skills you cast first or second because it greatly helps melee and ranged Heroes one-shot weaker foes or impair a powerful boss. The enhancements to take include Stigma of Dishonor, Lasting Stigma, and Wasting Sign. This combination amplifies the extra damage inflicted by 30%, reduces the skill’s cooldown period by 1 turn, and decreases the target’s Armour. As such, your party will be able to quickly eliminate them.
Shield Charge – Alongside Cast Stigma, one of the skills you should immediately use is Shield Charge because it’s an easy way to close the gap between Sir Mordred and the target since he does not have high Action Points (AP). It also deals half the Weapon Damage. Weighed Charge should reduce the ability’s cooldown. This should then be combined with 1 movement forward plus a Strike since the enemy is effectively knocked back and knocked down afterward, allowing you to one-shot them in a single turn.
Unyielding – Unyielding is a passive that automatically boosts your HP upon hitting enemies. The best enhancements to take here are Ruthlessness to compound the amount of HP you get once you kill them and Physical Resistance to improve your Physical Debuff Resist. For instance, if you have been inflicted by Weakness, your damage reduction will be much lower than 30% because of your resistance.
Robust – Robust is another passive that works very well for the Defender Class. This increases their Vitality and HP from the Trinkets and Armour they wear. It’s a huge and important buff given that these tanks shouldn’t die, otherwise, the entire party will die with them. As such, you should also get the Tier 2 and Tier 3 versions of Robust to further increase Sir Mordred’s Vitality and HP later on.
King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide – Sir Mordred Tier 2 Skills
Cleave – One of the most important things to remember in King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is that enemies will become overwhelming by midgame. Rather than facing 4-6 of them at a time, you will have to contend with 10+ in a single encounter. This makes the game harder, especially if your Heroes do not have group skills. Luckily, Sir Mordred has Cleave, which lets him deal greater Weapon Damage against enemies in a 3×3 tile area to start chipping away at their Vitality, HP, and Armour. Note that they have to be adjacent to each other, or be positioned in a straight line to activate this skill. Out of the 4 enhancements, you will only need Momentum to further increase the overall damage to 135%. You don’t need Bleeder since you will not be focusing on Bleeding for this Build. Hack and Slash to knock back targets are not necessary as well since you want them next to Sir Mordred at all times.
Thunderbolt – This is one of the best skills in the game because it’s a ranged attack that can be used against enemies even when they are hiding behind a cover. Because of this, Thunderbolt is a great alternative to dealing significant damage from afar or up close because of its potency. For this ability, you will want to take all of its enhancements, namely, Streaking Thunder, Thunderwrath, Damage Conductor, and Thunderblast. This combination lengthens the range of the skill, amplifies its overall damage, lowers the enemy’s Armour, and stuns them for a turn. The latter is very useful, especially if you are fighting against powerful creatures with very high Vitality and Armour like the Seelie since they won’t be able to use any of their skills, nor can they move towards you.
Armourer – In addition to the Robust Tier 2 passive, Armourer is a good skill to invest in because it further enhances your ability to tank properly. The 2 Thick Skinned Enhancements will provide extra Armour. At the start, your Armour increases by 2, and it will continue to increase by 1 for every 6 levels. The skill itself will also give 1 extra AP even if you are wearing Heavy Armour.
King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide – Sir Mordred Tier 3 Skills
All Resistance – This raises your Physical and Mental Debuff Resist by 10% each. At later levels when you have more skill points, it’s important to invest in the Physical Resistance, Mental Fort, and Extra Vitality enhancements for better defenses and survivability. Resist Injury where you get an Injury Token is not necessary since you can get this from the Essence of Resilience via the Challenges tab of the Journal if you wish. In fact, this essence permanently grants +2 Injury Tokens rather than one.
King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide – Sir Pelleas Skills
Unlike Sir Mordred, Sir Pelleas doesn’t have the Cast Stigma, Cleave, and Thunderbolt. Instead, he has Guard and Taunt.
Guard – This is an excellent skill that prepares Overwatch so that any enemy who steps on the affected grid will get automatically hit. The higher the AP spent by Sir Pelleas, the greater the Armour received by allies within 2 tiles of him. So the idea is to stay close behind him to reap to improve your other Heroes’ defenses. The enhancements to get are Defend Ally, Vindicator, and Knightly Zeal. Defend Ally increases the Armour taken by nearby party members from +2 to +4 while Vindicator boosts its corresponding range by 1 tile. And lastly, Knightly Zeal reduces Guard’s cooldown by 1 turn.
Taunt – This is what Sir Mordred lacks that will immediately get the attention of targets within a 4-tile range. For Taunt’s enhancements, you will want to invest in Armour Bait, Fomorian Curse, and Demoralize. Armour Bait grants Sir Pelleas with +3 additional Armour, which will then increase as his level goes higher. Fomorian Curse reduces the AP cost of this skill while Demoralize lowers the AP of affected enemies.
Flurry – Since Sir Pelleas does not have Cleave, you will have to invest in Flurry as a group skill. Flurry isn’t as potent as Cleave in terms of damage but it does the job of hurting targets. For this, it’s important to unlock all enhancements, namely, Armour Breaker, Dismemberment, Extended Flurry, and Zestful Flurry. Armour Breaker raises the damage Sir Pelleas deals against the target’s Armour while Dismemberment amplifies Weapon Damage. Next, Extended Flurry and Zestful Flurry lets you attack a total of 3 nearby enemies even if they are not next to each other and gain 1 AP upon killing a target, respectively. The latter synergizes well with Guard, which requires the most AP you can give.
King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Defender Class Guide – Party Composition
In King Arthur: Knight’s Tale, you can bring up to a maximum of 4 Heroes per Mission. For party composition, you have the option to bring both Sir Mordred and Sir Pelleas as your Defenders plus a melee and ranged Hero. This setup primarily takes advantage of Sir Pelleas’s Guard and Taunt Abilities such that it’s easy to lure enemies to him. Additionally, he follows a Rightful Path in terms of Morality so if you choose ‘Rightful’ decisions in Missions and Events, his Loyalty to you will improve, thereby amplifying his damage in combat.
Now with a Champion and Arcanist (or Marksman), you can pick off one target at a time the moment they engage with both Defenders. Just be sure that at least one of them has a potent group skill like Sir Ector’s Fire Blast to deal considerable fire damage against everyone in a 3×3 tile area.
Alternatively, only bringing Sir Mordred is not a bad idea either. In fact, this can speed up the encounter since you have an additional space to take in another damage dealing class. So it’s advantageous to go with an Arcanist, Champion, and Marksman or with 1 Arcanist and 2 Champions. With either of these flexible setups, your sole Defender can instantly inflict lethal damage against a ranged character using Thunderbolt, get in the middle of things with Shield Charge, or use Cast Stigma to weaken them for your allies to deal damage effectively. These, coupled with Cleave should make Sir Mordred the biggest nuisance possible to gain the enemy’s attention.
Equipment
When it comes to the Defender’s Equipment, be sure to seek for the Vanguard’s Rune of Piercing since it lets them deal Maximum Damage for every first hit of their turn. It also improves Maximum Weapon Damage while giving bonuses to Armour Piercing to harm the target’s Vitality or HP even if they still have Armour. Alternatively, you can also equip the Rune of Undealt Death, which randomly appears in the Enchanted Tower. This Relic Rune amplifies overall damage while raising the chances of dealing double the damage.
In terms of Heavy Armour, you should aim for those that provide Mental Debuff Resist with Movement AP like the Agile Sigil of Resilience since Defenders don’t have much AP. Or, you can equip the Enchanted Tower’s Goibniu’s Hexed Sigil to receive massive HP and Armour as well as Physical and Mental Debuff Resist. The more impenetrable you are, the longer you survive on the battlefield, which is enough for your allies to kill remaining enemies.
For Trinkets, you will want to equip the Ring of Unyielding and Rhinestone of Echoes that will be randomly rewarded after completing Missions. The Ring of Unyielding further boosts your Physical and Mental Debuff Resist while making you immune to Stun. You will find it extremely valuable in midgame when this status effect starts to appear more frequently. Meanwhile, the Rhinestone of Echoes raises the range of your Shield Charge and automatically taunts targets dealt with melee damage.
Furthermore, remember to bring Stoneskin and Healing Potions to restore Armour and HP, respectively. You will also want to use the following Essences – Mending, Stability, Constitution, and Willpower. You can obtain this from the Challenges tab. Mending restores 20% of Vitality after a Mission, allowing you to avoid going to the Hospice to recover the Stat. This is more of a safety net rather than a requirement in case you take Vitality damage.
Stability grants immunity to getting knocked down so you won’t have to expend AP just to get back on your feet. Meanwhile, Constitution and Willpower will considerably raise Physical and Mental Debuff Resist to a total of 100% each.
Final Tips
For Defenders, it’s important to keep a lookout for all of your allies especially ranged Heroes who don’t have Armour. Acting as moving covers by standing in between them and melee or ranged attackers will therefore be one of their primary roles. When you approach enemies up close, always try to attack them from behind. Doing so will allow you to backstab them to increase the damage dealt by 30%.
Moreover, this class can take Attacks of Opportunity so don’t be afraid to move away from the enemy to dash toward affected Heroes or change positions to activate Cleave. The damage you take from these attacks is very low so your actions will certainly pay off.
From Camelot, aim to unlock the Merchant’s Armoursmith and Master Blacksmith Perks to increase the Defender’s Armour by +2. Other good upgrades to obtain are the Training Ground’s Barracks and Basic and Advanced Physical Training Perks in order to receive 1 extra skill point and 15% HP, respectively. And finally, the Hospice’s Apprentice Herbalist and Master Herbalist features should permanently raise Vitality by 15%.
Stay tuned for more King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Build Guides and be sure to check our Official King Arthur: Knight’s Tale Wiki. You can also drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. What is the class you will be focusing on? How is your experience with the game so far? Let us know in the comments below!
