VK is much better than people give credit for

The forum sentiment seems to be that Void Knight is the weakest Sentinel mastery and one of the weakest masteries overall, mainly due to lacking defenses. But what I’m finding is that the timewarp shenanigans that the VK gets- stuff like Volatile Reversal, Anomaly, and the Void Flux node- are really effective when used well. You do have to be tactical about how you use the tools at your disposal- nothing smarts like rewinding back into an AOE that you were safely out of- but the better I get with these skills the more I like and appreciate them.

I just finished the campaign with a VK shield throw build based on Boardman21’s old writeup and I have to say that’s the easiest Lagon has been for any character so far. Being able to rewind from side to side of the balcony on a 2 second cooldown beats all the other options all to heck.

I mean yeah you could make some very specific viable builds with it, but the other masteries are more reliable due to having tank based passives. Especially since in this game survivability is more important than damage.

Sentinel got some minor tweaks over the last patches. It’s nothing really outstanding but as I’ve leveled 2 sentinels recently I have to say that he plays a lot smoother than a few months ago.

VK is a very strong class imho. I use the passive tree a lot when building other masteries.

So I leveled a warpath Paladin (crit/physical) and a warpath VK (void damage) simultaneously to get a feel for the differences. The paladin felt smoother most of the time. A huge buff for the VK was when I got anomaly with the bubble.

But with the Paladin aura theres a huge advantage for Paladin in defense and offence. As you can use Devouring Orb on both builds for defensive purposes the VK has a disadvantage with the mastery skill.

I then switched from warpath to erasing strike to utilize the echo mechanic that doesn’t work with warpath.

It’s defenitely possible to create a powerful VK, but in direct comparison it’s easier to create a viable Paladin or FG.

It needs a few more small tweaks. Perhaps give the VK some bonus features for the VK skills that are used by other classes (like echoes and devouring orbs) to not let the other masteries take the advantage of those skills that easy. Something similar to the Ring Of Schields buff in the FG tree.

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Like a % chance to auto-cast DO or Anomaly on (other) skill echo? That would be similar to the FG’s Shield Cracter node. Or if you take x% damage in a single hit then you loose a DO instead of taking that hit (& DO explodes in a massive AoE) with a cooldown that’s >> than the cooldown for DO (say 10s).

As a newer player VK is the first of 3 classes i’ve played where I had to reset the passive tree to be more defensive due to dying a ton. We can go into resistances and all that but lets assume they were good which im confident they were/are I really really wanted it to be a more dangerous 2 hander class? if that makes sense but I ended up having to use a shield or id die way to often. As I am new I can maybe make a 2hnd class work somehow but as this game is being toted as all builds/trees viable for endgame. How I wanted to play the class ended up being to difficult. But in the end I think i agree that the VK is still better than people claim as i am really enjoying the class after rebuilding.

I also think that VK generally is in a good place, but it’s definitely not the cookie-cutter class, where you can be awesome and have an easy time with everybuild, you really need to put some thought in your build.

FG and Pala just have a really easy time because being inherently tanky.

I agree that VK is interesting, especially with the volatile reversal and anomaly, even though volatile reversal can be used on any sentinel anyway.

I don’t mind the build appraoch you have to take to make VK endgame viable, but i already suggested some stuff in the VK passive thread for some unique defensive mechanics, because i think VK could use some cool defensive stuff(not general defenses, but some very situational)

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Slightly off-topic, how’d you get Warpath to work with your paladin? I tried doing this forever, testing various things and relabeling skills constant to get it to work and I couldn’t get it to feel smooth. Finally when with Rive/Judgement and other support and my paladin actually feels like a melee build and I love playing it. On the other hand I respec-ed my VK into Warpath, Anomaly and Volatile Reversal and and I’m finding it’s a blast.

What are the odds you encountered?

Holy Aura is the big winner for me. It grands crit chance, crit multi, elemental and poison protection and health gain on kill. I set it on autocast to get the double stats bonus as often as possible.

Devouring orb is for defensive purposes only so I specced into void and elemental protection and right side to get mana efficiency. I did not spec into the orbit node because it’s not important to have it around. To much mana cost.

Lunge with crit chance buff and warpath also specced into crit chance, crit multi and more damage.

For getting most out of that crit I have many points in VK tree to get flat melee damage and crit multiplier for number of points spend in the tree.

Depending on your playstyle you could also take the warpath node that doubles damage and makes you stand in place while whirling. Massive damage boost.

Most of the time I hold the lunge button down the whole time to lunge as much as possible (autocast is viable, too). Between the spins you have to stop anyways to cast the orb. So everytime you release warpath skill button your Sentinel lunges and casts an orb. This way you are very quick on your feet even with warpath making you stand in place. It’s a flavourif playstyle.

The Last Laugh is my weapon giving crit and killing everything below 18% hp instantly.

When I spin there are only yellow numbers now so it seems I am at 100% crit with all buffs.

In the VK I did not go for crit. I went for Void damage and warpath to spread all the void orbs. Also devouring orb is specced into damage and orbit. The VK needs more mana that way and the damage scaling curve is more flat. It’s still good, but it needs more investment into gear, it feels.

Both are around 60+. So theres much to do to improve them both. But until now the Paladin feels better.

Edit:
Forgot about vengeance. This I use to regain mana. Skilled into damage reduction and max reposte (top line of the skilltree)

Great breakdown thanks for sharing!

This is probably the primary reason I didn’t like Warpath on my Paladin. I tried using both Vengeance or Smite to regenerate mana and it just felt absolutely clunky to have to stop spinning to regain mana. I didn’t like the feel of this at all. In Void Knight using Volatile Reversal the mana regen happens almost instantly which allows me to continue the whirl.

Fair. But you won’t be able to cast DO pr Lunge without stopping to spin.

But it’s a matter of taste, I think. I use vengeance anyway for tougher enemies to get that additional damage mitigation. Don’t like volatile reversal that much. Its unpredictable for me. And bugged.

Definitely true. Lunge isn’t as problematic form be because you spin around the end, damaging then just outside and lunge right back in. With Vengeance to replenish your mana you have to actually stop, hold vengeance down while you replenish. then depending on how long that may take, lunge in and Warpath again.

Also, I’m one of the advocates for Devouring Orbs getting a node that makes it instant cast like Sigils of Hope, so you now know how I feel about that! :smiley:

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