Introduction
Wow another guide by Dai himself, yep that’s me. I’m just mostly a sin player that made the guide for Abyss Walker and Jotunn shown in here
Lunar Knight is one of the warriors I’ve actually enjoyed next to Mystic Knight (despite literally everyone playing it..) Anywho, Lunar Knight has gotten a few changes which changes up his gameplay somewhat entirely, your main damage focuses on building up bubbles for [Thousand Moon Waltz] and using [Smash X] off cooldown.
Bubble System
[Lunaris] is basically your bubble system that’ll allow you to use [Thousand Moon Waltz] which consumes 45 bubbles and you’ll be able to extend it if you have another 45 bubbles.
Skills
Warrior
[Breaking Point]: Hey, buff yourself and the party with this white skill.. Press it again if someone needs a rebuff or there’s a mech wipe buff..
[Brush off]: Self cure. Can be used at any time (including airborne). Useful to cancel any skills that can't be canceled using [Awakened Eclipse] or [Parry] so that you can cast [Awakened Eclipse] or [Parry] or [Flash Step].
Swordsman
[Moonlight Splitter]: Medium ranged filler skill that links well with [Sword Flurry] and can be extended 2 more times with LMB, generates 2 [Lunaris] per casts
[Sword Flurry]: Medium ranged multi-hit filler skill that links well with [Moonlight Splitter] and has crit resistance debuff which is used to generate 2 [Lunaris] per casts
[Crescent Cleave/Moonfall]: Split into 2 skills that can be used at any time holding S for [Crescent Cleave] or not holding S for [Moonfall]. Both can be extended with LMB for more damage.
[Crescent Cleave] is a short ranged skill that deals a lot of damage towards medium-large bosses. Positioning is somewhat important against medium sized bosses when using this skill to deal a good amount of damage.
[Moonfall] combines waves into an area of projectile that’s more so used against smaller bosses. When used after [Luring Slice], this will become [Crescent Cleave Instant] which creates a beam of lunar energy erupting from the ground that has no dependency on enemy size and can be used whenever, it does not share cooldowns.
[Halfmoon Slash]: Short ranged filler skill that gives you a 10% MATK (Magical Attack) buff for 20 seconds. This skill should be used whenever the buff runs out or your other skills are in a few secs of CDs.
[Luring Slice]: Short range debuff skill that should be used to debuff enemies and to use [Crescent Cleave Instant]
[Parry]: Only used to block an attack and counterattack it
[Eclipse]: Short range filler skill only to be used to cancel animations or iframe attacks (even though it’s a short iframe..)
[Courageous Shout]: Buffs your damage by 15% for 900 seconds. Keep this active at all times.
[Blade Storm]: Decent damage skill that puts your character into the air dealing AOE damage around you and landing dealing 3 large hits, you’re invulnerable in the air. This skill is only used to generate 2 [Lunaris] per hit (16 hits x 2 = 32 [Lunaris]) or to dodge mechs.
Lunar Knight
[Moon Blade Dance]: Medium ranged skill that deals medium to very high amounts of damage depending on the size of the enemy. Each hit reduces the CDs of [Smash X], you need to make sure you’re getting your full hits in depending on enemy size and hitboxes. You’ll be able to get most of your hits in on medium-larger bosses (Obviously..). Hold the [S] key while casting to prevent yourself from moving forward while casting, hold the [W/A/D] keys to move in those directions.
See below on tips for aiming this skill.
[Flash Step]: Utility skill that fires out a wave dealing average damage and allows the user to move backwards upon cast. After the initial cast, you’ll become invulnerable during the roll animation. While moving, you can turn your camera around to move freely.
[Smash X]: Long range very high damage skill. This skill now has an aerial type which is used when pressing RMB at the end of [Moon Blade Dance] / [Thousand Moon Waltz]. This aerial skill will only be casted when it is off cooldown and you do not have enough [Lunaris] to cast another TMW. Otherwise both skills will only be prioritized. Ground [Smash X] is to be used against small/medium bosses while Aerial [Smash X] is to be mostly used against larger bosses. (Ground: 2 Hits, Aerial: 4 Hits against dragon-sized bosses)
[Ascension]: Long range, decent damage burst skill. It’s not a high priority skill due to its cast time but you can cancel out of the animation a little bit early using [Eclipse]. Make sure you time this skill well or you can miss out on some damage. This skill generates 1 [Lunaris] per hit. (12 hits)
[Thousand Moon Waltz]: Costs 45 [Lunaris] per loop. This skill is used after pressing RMB in [Moon Blade Dance] and does a high amount of damage regardless of boss size. You can extend [Thousand Moon Waltz] as long as you have another 45 [Lunaris] which is in total 90 bubbles.
Generally speaking, whenever you use [Moon Blade Dance], you should simply hold down RMB - you will use up all instances of [Thousand Moon Waltz] (if you have any), you will use [Smash X] automatically if it is off cooldown, and you will do the falling slash of [Moon Blade Dance EX] if none of the others skills were available.
Make sure you have 100 bubbles before you enter content…
Skill Build
Unified Skills: Max HP Boost & FD Boost
Skill Crests
[Moon Blade Dance CDR] | [Halfmoon Slash ASPD] | [Moonlight Splitter DMG] | [Cyclone Slash DMG] | [Crescent Cleave/Moonfall CDR] | [Blade Storm CDR]
You can take [Crescent Cleave/Moonfall DMG] if you wish, I just feel more comfortable with CDR.
Skill up: +1 Moon Blade Dance
Dragon Gems: 1 Conversion Gem and 3 Elemental
Rotation
There’s not really a proper rotation for this class as long as you’re prioritizing your main skills more often.
Misc Tips
Aiming Moon Blade Dance
By default, the game's mouse cursor and your character are offset - your character stands to the left of the center of your screen/mouse cursor. [Moon Blade Dance]'s sword beams aim through your cursor - draw an imaginary line from your character's head through the cursor on your screen. That line is the path that your sword beams will travel.
As such, the further away your target is, the more to the left you will need to aim in order to hit as many hits of [Moon Blade Dance] as possible. You should practice in [Boulder Training Ground] to get a feeling for the offset required at various distances and boss shapes. A good rule of thumb is to aim for the left shoulder (the left side from your view, or the boss's right side) of the boss.
There is a setting (ESC > Settings (on the left side) > Cursor Offset) that allows you to change this offset. If you center the cursor on your character, then you do not need to aim to the left of your target and can just aim at the middle of the boss.
Spacing or keeping the correct distance is also very important for maximizing your hits and damage against enemies while using [Moon Blade Dance]. For small to medium sized bosses, you will want to be 1.25x [Flash Step]'s distance away. To get a feeling of this distance, you can go right up to the boss, press [Flash Step], then take a few steps back. When actually fighting bosses, keep that distance in mind. For large bosses (e.g. dragons), you should be very close.
For [Thousand Moon Waltz], you do not need to do any special aim - just look at your target.
Surviving
LK's kit has many iframes, lots of airtime, and good repositioning options. The class also generally plays midranged, so you're away from most boss melee attacks. You should never die to stomp attacks.
Using the skill build above, you have access to:
- [Parry] a parry/block skill
- [Awakened Eclipse] an iframe skill that can be used at almost any time
- [Awakened Blade Storm] an iframe and aerial skill
- [Moon Blade Dance] an aerial skill that allows you to move around using WASD
- [Thousand Moon Waltz] using SHIFT + direction key you have an aerial iframe
- [Aerial Smash X] an aerial skill; when combine with [Thousand Moon Waltz] you will literally float in the air for several seconds
- [Flash Step] an iframe and repositioning skill
- [Destructive Swing] an aerial and iframe skill
- [Aerial Combo] extends your jump airtime and ends with an iframe when you land on the ground
- [Brush Off] cancels almost anything, allowing you to cast any of the above skills (e.g. if you're about to get hit while in MBD and TMW isn't available, you can use [Brush Off] and immediately cast [Parry], [Eclipse], or [Flash Step] while you're still falling)
If you adjust your skill build like this to include the Gladiator side of the Swordsman tree, you now have access to even more options:
- [Infinity Edge] is a very long iframe
- [Line Drive] is an amazing repositioning skill, also iframed during the dash
- [Forward Thrust] an iframe skill
Pushing/Pulling
Certain nests and raids have mechanics that require the party to push objects around (e.g. Rune Dragon boss 1, Red Dragon boss 3).
[Halfmoon Slash] is one of the best pushing skills in the game and very simple to use. An LK can solo the RDN Boss 3 statue push using just [Halfmoon Slash] and a few right clicks.
[Eclipse] can be used to pull objects towards you, which is helpful if an object gets stuck in the wall or if you need to group the objects closer together.
Other LK skills have a little bit of push/pull power, which can be used to supplement. If you learned [Forward Thrust], it is also a decent pushing skill.