How to deal with Army of One

[DkySven]

Lately I hear from a lot of people how annoying knights in Army of One are. Don't worry, you can counter it! Here's how:

0. What is Army of One

Army of One is the last spell of the knight tree Vanguard and it's stats at level 5 are:

Army of One
The knight is almost immune to damage.

Type: Constant
Duration: 50.0 secs
Cost: 500 mana
Cooldown: 180.0 secs
Casting: 1.0 secs
Resist magical damage +80%
Resist physical damage +80%
Evasion -100%

1. Prevent casting:

There are several ways of preventing a knight from casting Army of One.

Dizzy spells; almost all classes have these spells, so use them..

Leave him without mana. A knight himself uses a lot of mana already because of his many buffs and crowd control spells he needs to use. Barbarians can speed up this process with Rent, mages with Evedim's Fury, Mana Burn or Energy Borrow and Warlocks can also use Sadistic Servants, which is a great spell against knights, btw.
(I have 1540 mana on my knight, which is considered a good amount of mana for a knight)

Warlocks can use darkness and hunters confuse against Army of One.

Alternatively you could also try to kill the knight before he casts Army of One.

A smart knight will of course wait with casting Army of One until he needs it, but there are also some cowards who only dare to attack when Army of One is on. Laugh at those people, because they won't have the spell when they need it most.

2.How to counter Army of One

There are really a lot of spells to counter Army of One. You can either (a) break right through it or (b) make the knight useless until it wears off.

a)
Warriors:
Your best try is of course Mind Squasher. With it's relatively short cooldown you can use it multiple times during the time that Army of One is active. Nothing is more fun that Mind Squashing 1000 mana worth of knight buffs.

Crushing isn't a killer spell, but the constitution penalty still isn't affected by Army of One, so it's worth using.

Faster weapons; since Army of One offers resistance(which is x%), faster weapons will suffer less from this damage reducing than slower weapons.

Barbarians also have Thirst for Blood, which is great against Amry of One because it's added damage ignores defense.

Mages

The only shared mage spell I can think of which cuts through Army of One is Evedim's fury, but don't worry, mages are great in part b.

Conjurers have karma mirror; it's returned damage will ignore defense.

Warlocks have Soulkeeper, which can deal up to 1000 damage ignoring all defense, which is a lot for a knight under Army of One.

There also might be a few more armor ignoring DoTs I'm not aware off.

Archers

Tear Apart and Break apart are both completely unaffected by Army of One, unless AoO is casted with the spell already active(confirmation needed) Retaliation also cuts through Army of One and works great against knarbs.

Marksmen of course have Ethereal Arrow, which also works nicely against knights.

b)
Warriors

Warriors have a lot of control spells which makes it possible to put the knight away for a while. Examples are:
Disable Limb, knight won't be able to reach people.
Feint, Kick, Rib's Breaker, Balestra all make the knight unable to move or attack people. Actually, knocking down a player you want to deal with alter always works fine.

Mages
Mages have almost the complete Mental tree to make knights useless. Slow spells, cannot attack, freeze, etc. Very useful to put knights away for later when Army of One has weared off.

Conjurers can of course choose to use sanctuary to cut down a lot of the waiting time, although I think this is a bit drastically.

Warlocks have a freeze spell too and some other crowd control spells. (why not Twister? You'll not only stop the AoO knight, but maybe half the enemy army!)

Archers
With the evasion tree archers can choose to just run away from Army of One knights, not leaving them a chance to ever catch the archer.

With Tricks you could cast stunning fist, Ambush or other control spells. Hinder maybe to slow the knight down.


And for all classes: Use debuffs! Make the knight unable to do anything. Lower his hitchance, his damage, his attack speed, or what else you can lower, so you can ignore them while they can't do a thing.

Hopefully this will reduce the complaints about overpowered AoOmonkeys, happy warring!

[ArchmagusArcana]

IIRC for warlocks, Magma blast ignore defense. I never once have seen it do less than 30 damage a tick. I could be wrong, but i dont think i am,

Speaking from barb, knight, and lock perspective, I have to agree with what you posted here, good job.

[Onteron]

Yes for damage the DoT on Magma Blast can be used as it ignores armor (though not Acrobatic/StratPos). Warlocks of course also have Vamp, and all mages also have Mana Burn.

[Mbwana]

marks also have winter stroke and seeking strike

[Immune]

Pretty much how I've always dealt with knights when they use ao1. I almost never lose to knights in 1v1 pvp on my mental-warj.

[Brother-brian]

well, as a lvl 46 knight, let me just say that, since ao1 isnt' 100% resistance, like some of the "invincible" spells out there, we still take 20%. Multiply this by 8-10-12-15 attackers all at once, even ao1 is a useless defense. I die within 3-5 seconds with 8 or more attackers at once. Same for protector. Go figure.....

[Zordak]

Mana burn goes through AoO unreduced.

Z.

[dani-o]

you have missed "throat cutter" from 150 to 650 damage in the last hit, ignores all defenses. really nice job :closed1:

[TehCurt]

IIRC for warlocks, Magma blast ignore defense. I never once have seen it do less than 30 damage a tick. I could be wrong, but i dont think i am,

Speaking from barb, knight, and lock perspective, I have to agree with what you posted here, good job.

marksmen can reduce that by 60% provided strategic positioning and acrobatics are 5


with the new strafe movement, pretty much as an archer i turn on escapist and strafe turn the knight using normals and ethereal arrows untill aoo runs out or it dies

[Eaten]

well, as a lvl 46 knight, let me just say that, since ao1 isnt' 100% resistance, like some of the "invincible" spells out there, we still take 20%. Multiply this by 8-10-12-15 attackers all at once, even ao1 is a useless defense. I die within 3-5 seconds with 8 or more attackers at once. Same for protector. Go figure.....

Army of One is damage reduction. The lowest you can reduce any attack to is 90% of the attacks minimum damage. For example you have an attack of 100 - 200 damage, the lowest possible amount of damage that attack will do is 10, and it will not go any lower than that.

Besides that many spells get passed the reduction. Tear apart, Break Apart, Soulkeeper, Vampirism, Ethereal Arrow, Throat Cutter, Mana Burn, Magma Blast and Thirst For Blood all deal damage that cannot be reduced by Army of One. Tear Apart and Break Apart can actually only be reduced by archers and warlocks.

Also, Protector is just a block chance and chance spells are not to be relied on.

[Arafails]

One more thing for barbarians: Don't underestimate the usefulness of Deafening Roar here. Stunning a knight for 11 seconds give you enough time to cast Thirst For Blood and another buff of your choice.

[ncvr]

Magma blast's DoT and initial hit are reduced by AoO and all damage reduction spells. I just tested this two days ago.

[Eaten]

Magma blast's DoT and initial hit are reduced by AoO and all damage reduction spells. I just tested this two days ago.

The initial hit CAN be reduced by Army of One yes, but the DoT cannot be reduced by anything except Acrobatics, Strategic Positioning and Windwall.

[Vroek]

The initial hit CAN be reduced by Army of One yes, but the DoT cannot be reduced by anything except Acrobatics, Strategic Positioning and Windwall.

Skin of the beast ;)

[Eaten]

Skin of the beast ;)

Damn... missed ONE. xD

[_dracus_]

Well I guess everyone get the picture, when you have an AoO knight you need to find a way to waste time, to use -health skill on him or unresisted DoT.

[RegnumIrae]

since knights have great chance of resisting powers

No, we don't.

[Vroek]

No, we don't.

Lets put this way, 20% blocks is very common, sometimes its 0 -10% sometimes it 30-40% thats alot for a warlock to cope with.
Either way it makes whole lot of difference, especially since knights are equipped with 50 sec AoO and at least 4.5 k health.

[RegnumIrae]

Lets put this way, 20% blocks is very common, sometimes its 0 -10% sometimes it 30-40% thats alot for a warlock to cope with.
Either way it makes whole lot of difference, especially since knights are equipped with 50 sec AoO and at least 4.5 k health.

Blocks are very random, very very.

Anyway, he said that we RESIST a lot, didnt he? :p

[TehCurt]

all it really takes is a good strafe, knight goes into aoo, ill strafe it and normal it, untill aoo wears off then i nuke it with all my powers. (for ranged classes)

even a warlock can strafe a knight, and with a barrier up you can take a good 3 hits before a knight will break it. and with vamp/sk and sadistic servants you'll quiet a knight before long.

honestly im not really afraid of a knight in aoo anymore with strafe its almost dumb to charge down an equal lvl archer 1v1 (considering melee v ranged)

[VandaMan]

you get an AoO monkey 1 v 1 as a conj, you can basically even it out with steel skin. It'll take the knight like 20 hits to break your barrier with steel skin up, and you can just ping ping ping him to death with 100 damage normals :drinks:

[Mbwana]

I'm starting to feel sorry for knights.....

[Akooo]

Blocks are very random, very very.

Anyway, he said that we RESIST a lot, didnt he? :p


Well i fought a knight about 3 days ago with my lock. He resisted 5 spells and blocked 1, so....



guess i was simply unlucky :harhar:

[Anyriand]

Well i fought a knight about 3 days ago with my lock. He resisted 5 spells and blocked 1, so....



guess i was simply unlucky :harhar:


You were, my knight used to block 3, 4 hits in a row, now since last update it doesn't block 2. It all a matter of luck.
IMO, I'd be much more afraid of a conju with steel skin then a knight with AoO... :p

[Eaten]

I'm starting to feel sorry for knights.....

No don't feel bad for knights... An entire tree of spells rendered nearly useless and every other class can stack defense more consistently while dealing 2 - 3x more damage. No, its not knights you should feel sorry, but all those poor Marksmen that used Death Sentence, all those Barbarians that spam Onslaught for the speed bonus and all those poor poor Conjurers that have to wait a whole second longer before they can become invincible for 20 seconds.

Yeah, those are the true victims of the nerfs.

[Arafails]

all those Barbarians that spam Onslaught

Hey man. Onslaught nerf affects everyone. Most barbarians just ditched it and moved on to more dependant techniques, such as waiting to be sure a sultar's terror was being cast. No what we whinge about is mostly what affects all warriors, eg. balestra now sucking balls.

[Anyriand]

No don't feel bad for knights... An entire tree of spells rendered nearly useless and every other class can stack defense more consistently while dealing 2 - 3x more damage. No, its not knights you should feel sorry, but all those poor Marksmen that used Death Sentence, all those Barbarians that spam Onslaught for the speed bonus and all those poor poor Conjurers that have to wait a whole second longer before they can become invincible for 20 seconds.

Yeah, those are the true victims of the nerfs.

+1 :beerchug:

[ArchmagusArcana]

No don't feel bad for knights... An entire tree of spells rendered nearly useless and every other class can stack defense more consistently while dealing 2 - 3x more damage. No, its not knights you should feel sorry, but all those poor Marksmen that used Death Sentence, all those Barbarians that spam Onslaught for the speed bonus and all those poor poor Conjurers that have to wait a whole second longer before they can become invincible for 20 seconds.

Yeah, those are the true victims of the nerfs.

Since we turned this into a pissing contest ;)

Play a barb in the warzone, then you can cry about being nerfed. Id pick my knight 100% of the time over barb, its a shame its stuck on Ra for the time being.

In all seriousness, warriors as an entire class are pretty much broken, but at least as a knight i can be effective in a fight and not have to absolutely RELY on having conju support. Now that may not be quite as true if the class were easier to level, and not broken, thus increasing the warrior population to be more in proportion with the rest of the classes, but at this time, its simply not the case.

[Eaten]

Hey man. Onslaught nerf affects everyone. Most barbarians just ditched it and moved on to more dependant techniques, such as waiting to be sure a sultar's terror was being cast. No what we whinge about is mostly what affects all warriors, eg. balestra now sucking balls.
Oh so you mean Deflecting Barrier which effected everyone within 10m of the knight but not the knight itself didn't hurt anyone? Or the 40% physical reduction that Shield Wall still gives yet since the range of it is so nerfed that it has become useless. No that can't possibly effect your allies at all, since all knights cast those buffs for their own good, obviously...

Since we turned this into a pissing contest ;)

Play a barb in the warzone, then you can cry about being nerfed. Id pick my knight 100% of the time over barb, its a shame its stuck on Ra for the time being.

In all seriousness, warriors as an entire class are pretty much broken, but at least as a knight i can be effective in a fight and not have to absolutely RELY on having conju support. Now that may not be quite as true if the class were easier to level, and not broken, thus increasing the warrior population to be more in proportion with the rest of the classes, but at this time, its simply not the case.

I do, thank you and in my experience barbs have all the CC spells as well as the damage to make them useful. It just depends on how you play. ;)

[UmarilsStillHere]

When we were messing around with Pt sheilds and 1h weps...

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3318/screenshot2009061513171.jpg (http://img195.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2009061513171.jpg/)
This with 8 block chance...

And I cant remember my acctual knight or anyone else's getting 4 blocks in a row in over a year. The randomness of blockchance is crazy.

[RegnumIrae]

...

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/795/screenshot2009081010433.jpg

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/3764/screenshot2009082500493.jpg

[DkySven]

I hear people complaining about Army of One again, so lets bump this thread.

[Eaten]

I hear people complaining about Army of One again, so lets bump this thread.
Nerf it and be done with it. Why should any of the classes have cool spells that make them unique anymore?

[Kittypretty]

make it -100% resist physical dmg, and with a 99% health penalty,

or better yet just make the knight die when he casts it.

[RegnumIrae]

make it -100% resist physical dmg, and with a 99% health penalty,

or better yet just make the knight die when he casts it.

ROFL good idea xD

[Znurre]

make it -100% resist physical dmg, and with a 99% health penalty,

or better yet just make the knight die when he casts it.That WOULD be good, however you must consider that the knight still won't be penalized from engaging in future combat.

Something like permanent nectrostacy for using it could perhaps work?
I don't know, feel free to brainstorm some ideas.

[RegnumIrae]

That WOULD be good, however you must consider that the knight still won't be penalized from engaging in future combat.

Something like permanent nectrostacy for using it could perhaps work?
I don't know, feel free to brainstorm some ideas.

Yay! I haz a hidea!

-25% items durability and -50% gold when you use AoO!

[Mattdoesrock]

WTF?!

Aoo with Necro?! With item durability?!

Knights are poor enough as it is! ¬¬

What they really need is when you use Army of One for your account to be deleted.

[Angelwinged_Devil]

WTF?!

Aoo with Necro?! With item durability?!

Knights are poor enough as it is! ¬¬

What they really need is when you use Army of One for your account to be deleted.

are you serious?

a knight is hard to level already, actually the hardest class to level, bad damage because of high defense and a melee class which means there's not going to be many of them with the grinding we have in RO
it will destroy the last bit of knight out there, army of one is used by so many people as a keyspell, kinda like sultars terror, or the old death sentence, it's vital for the class to have this spell

instead when you cast army of one it should make you go up in flames

[Mattdoesrock]

Also, because Army of One is SO over powered, not only you should your account get deleted and your self-conbust, and your family should self-combust too.

Then your country randomly implodes.

[Nylanne]

Lets put this way, 20% blocks is very common, sometimes its 0 -10% sometimes it 30-40% thats alot for a warlock to cope with.
Either way it makes whole lot of difference, especially since knights are equipped with 50 sec AoO and at least 4.5 k health.

Versus a warlock a knight needs all his health and then some. Using AoO costs a lot of mana, easiest skill to bypass. Often enough, the knight never gets close to a capable Warlock anyways. His own armour is used by the warlock to inflict damage. Blocking works only occsionally and in bursts when it does - which is rare (blocking is VERY VERY expensive for a knight in both setup points and mana for a 30 sec duration). Knights have no hope in hell to land a shield bash anymore (what was once its primary weapon without a shadow of a doubt).

While most classes have plenty of tools to reduce the effects of a skill like AoO (which in fact is a skill i despise), knights have very little to counter with.
Not to mention that our armour is a joke considering what a knight's role is.

Nylann

[Boger]

Anyone having problems with a knight on AoO does not have enought IQ to put some parts together and therefore have problems with it... Good, it gives me alot of RP'eeees :P

[Saltor]

I hear people complaining about Army of One again, so lets bump this thread.

More likely complaining about all the complaining knights do.

We all know the class needs a boost, we're aware it takes a long time to level, we've heard at length just how much every other class has advantages while knights crawl along crippled and under powered.

If it was nearly as bad as all the moaning and wailing made it seem, no one would play one. Since this is obviously not the case, it becomes clear that people play knights solely because they love to complain.

I, for one, will no longer be an enabler. It's intervention time .. just set the shield down and back away slowly.

[RegnumIrae]

More likely complaining about all the complaining knights do.

We all know the class needs a boost, we're aware it takes a long time to level, we've heard at length just how much every other class has advantages while knights crawl along crippled and under powered.

If it was nearly as bad as all the moaning and wailing made it seem, no one would play one. Since this is obviously not the case, it becomes clear that people play knights solely because they love to complain.

I, for one, will no longer be an enabler. It's intervention time .. just set the shield down and back away slowly.

Oh lol.

Then, marks aren't that bad, because I still see marks playing :) Same happens with the barbs, and same happened with the old locks :)

[DkySven]

More likely complaining about all the complaining knights do.

We all know the class needs a boost, we're aware it takes a long time to level, we've heard at length just how much every other class has advantages while knights crawl along crippled and under powered.

If it was nearly as bad as all the moaning and wailing made it seem, no one would play one. Since this is obviously not the case, it becomes clear that people play knights solely because they love to complain.

I, for one, will no longer be an enabler. It's intervention time .. just set the shield down and back away slowly.


That post I did was not to complain about the state of knights ^^ If anything it was a complaint about people whining about Army of One.

It's funny that you didn't post this in a topic with rants about how weak barbarians are. I've seen quite a lot of those too. :p

[ncvr]

More likely complaining about all the complaining knights do.

We all know the class needs a boost, we're aware it takes a long time to level, we've heard at length just how much every other class has advantages while knights crawl along crippled and under powered.

If it was nearly as bad as all the moaning and wailing made it seem, no one would play one. Since this is obviously not the case, it becomes clear that people play knights solely because they love to complain.

I, for one, will no longer be an enabler. It's intervention time .. just set the shield down and back away slowly.
Or maybe those people made knights before the class was nerfed terribly :lighten:

[Saltor]

That post I did was not to complain about the state of knights ^^ If anything it was a complaint about people whining about Army of One.

It's funny that you didn't post this in a topic with rants about how weak barbarians are. I've seen quite a lot of those too. :p

Having a barb myself, I can see room for improvement. I have made suggestions in the past, but they were melee vs. ranged, so the knights were included. ;)

Once NGD starts working on class balance, I'm sure the screaming will be loud and continuous!

[Eaten]

More likely complaining about all the complaining knights do.

We all know the class needs a boost, we're aware it takes a long time to level, we've heard at length just how much every other class has advantages while knights crawl along crippled and under powered.

If it was nearly as bad as all the moaning and wailing made it seem, no one would play one. Since this is obviously not the case, it becomes clear that people play knights solely because they love to complain.

I, for one, will no longer be an enabler. It's intervention time .. just set the shield down and back away slowly.

Everyone put the Regnum down... and step away... BECAUSE THIS ENTIRE GAME IS FULL OF TEARS NO MATTER THE CLASS! So deal with it. :D

I have one of every class they all need work in different areas and from the look of it NGD listens primarily to newbs given the nerfs they've made. Veteran players can and will work around any of these so called "overpowered" spells. Infact I wish every spell was overpowered that way we'd have more choices for our points, giving us more unique builds and increasing the overall fun of the game. I guess its a good thing I don't make the choices for NGD.

[Angelwinged_Devil]

Also, because Army of One is SO over powered, not only you should your account get deleted and your self-conbust, and your family should self-combust too.

Then your country randomly implodes.

you also become a virgin again

[Saryad]

a keyspell.... or the old death sentence, it's vital for the class to have this spell

RIP Death Sentence :crying1:

[Anyriand]

I don't really see knights complaining as much about being nerfed as I hear people complaining about Ao1.

Ofc people will keep playing knights, block is completely random, but we have that amazing op spell! Heck, I can just run into the middle of a zerg with it on and...die. Ao1 ftw :metal:

[Kittypretty]

you also become a virgin again

With herpes.

[chris32finney]

How to defeat a knight with army of one - Run round like an idiot flapping your arms wildly for 50 seconds then turn round and kick him in the nuts.:thumb:

[Eaten]

How to defeat a knight with army of one - Run round like an idiot flapping your arms wildly for 50 seconds then turn round and kick him in the nuts.:thumb:

Lol, amazing coming from one of the biggest aoO spammers out there. :D

[DemonMonger]

I never had probs or heard of problems with people fighting vs knights o.O
Ao1 is a must have skill and is fine as it is since every class has a skill or two to bypass the skill.....

:closed:

[blood-raven]

as a marks, AoO is not a big problem, your faster than a knight so when you run he'l never catch up, also, you can freeze paralyze, stun and cannot attack also archers have a very evil spell called 'sudden strike' who takes away half of the opponent's defends.
ethereal arrow is a funny spell, cause you can cast him on enyone and no one can stop it (unless it's resisted) i used to use it on mages after they casted there energy barrier, because there where not that many marks in ty, they din't know what happend, damage witch goes trough the barrier? at first it was quit hillarious as they ran away:p but i gues thety figgered it out:p.
btw for a marks a knight is a tough opponent slow him down and chew on him and let barbs or mages kill him