How to deal with Army of One

DkySven · 08-19-2009, 02:40 PM

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 · 08-19-2009, 02:53 PM

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 · 08-19-2009, 03:02 PM

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 · 08-19-2009, 04:23 PM

marks also have winter stroke and seeking strike

Immune · 08-19-2009, 04:28 PM

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 · 08-19-2009, 04:38 PM

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 · 08-19-2009, 06:01 PM

Mana burn goes through AoO unreduced.

Z.

dani-o · 08-19-2009, 09:36 PM

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

TehCurt · 08-20-2009, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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 · 08-20-2009, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.....

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.

08-19-2009, 02:40 PM	#1
DkySven Marquis Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,076	How to deal with Army of One 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! __________________ Dky Sven, level 54 knight (Ra) Valhalla Dky the Goat, level 35 conjurer(Ra) Dky Sven, level 51 knight(Horus) Something

08-19-2009, 02:53 PM	#2
ArchmagusArcana Master Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 357	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. __________________ Alsirian Legion Horus: Wulfgar Heartsfang 50 barb: Arcan Heartsfang 50 Lock RA: Drakonklenok 50 Knight

08-19-2009, 03:02 PM	#3
Onteron Initiate Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 123	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. __________________ Eric Onteron (50 Conjurer); Eric as a [noob] lock (50) \| Horus Alsius (Retired)

08-19-2009, 04:23 PM	#4
Mbwana Initiate Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: No longer South Korea, dammit Posts: 156	marks also have winter stroke and seeking strike __________________ \o\ M'bwana - Mbwana - Embwana (Ra) /o/ ~ PERL ~

08-19-2009, 04:28 PM	#5
Immune Master Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: New York Posts: 279	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. __________________ This is a lie.

08-19-2009, 04:38 PM	#6
Brother-brian Master Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 271	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.....

08-19-2009, 06:01 PM	#7
Zordak Master Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 451	Mana burn goes through AoO unreduced. Z. __________________ Based on facts, as I choose to see them.

08-19-2009, 09:36 PM	#8
dani-o Duke Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: gracias kailer por los -38 de karma ¬¬ ... De nada. Kailer Posts: 3,917	you have missed "throat cutter" from 150 to 650 damage in the last hit, ignores all defenses. really nice job __________________ if you can shot from a 40mts range, and actually move faster than a class that can only attack you from 1.5 mts... how in the world are those guys going to be able even reach you? -chilko-