Dark Death Knight (Dias)

Stats

Skills

Leader Skill: Increases the Resistance of ally monsters by 30%.

Skill 1: Deadly Blow [400%ATK]: Unleashes a fatal blow on an enemy, disturbing the target’s HP recovery for 2 turns with a 50% chance.

• Lv.2 Damage +10%
• Lv.3 Harmful Effect Rate +10%
• Lv.4 Damage +10%
• Lv.5 Harmful Effect Rate +10%
• Lv.6 Damage +10%
• Lv.7 Harmful Effect Rate +10%

Skill 2: Check and Destroy [(100%ATK + 14%HP) x 2]: Attacks the enemy 2 times and weakens the Attack Power and the Defense for 2 turns with a 75% chance with each attack. This attack will deal more damage according to your MAX HP. (Reusable in 3 turns)

• Lv.2 Damage +10%
• Lv.3 Harmful Effect Rate +10%
• Lv.4 Damage +10%
• Lv.5 Harmful Effect Rate +15%

Skill 3: Control: Decreases the chances of receiving a Critical Hit by 50% and reduces the damage that other allies receive by 15%. Doesn’t stack up with other damage reduction effects. (Automatic Effect)

Rune Recommendations

Site Review

Dungeons: Unlike Darion, Dias isn’t as useful in the Cairos Dungeons due to a lack of a consistent defense break and attack break. While his passive is a direct upgrade over the Light Vagabond, Dias doesn’t nearly have the same amount of damage and debuffs given to either GB10 or DB10. Darion is also one of the first monsters you’ll replace in starting GB10 teams, so it just makes no sense to build Dias so early specifically for GB10. Give him a pass here.

Raids: If there’s one monster that can be considered a true raids frontliner tank, it’s Dias. His passive does an amazing job reducing the overall damage on your team, while his debuffs makes him the best Death Knight for the job. The bonus resistance on awakening allows him to be even more resilient here, greatly increasing the chances of him resisting the oblivion effect applied from the boss.

With a well-runed Dias in your team, a 2-man frontliner is much more feasible. He’s a direct upgrade to Darion here, who is also considered a good raids monster. If you have him, he’s definitely worth your time building. However, only consider this if you’re still in the early stages for raids. Players looking for speed R5 teams (consistent sub 2-minutes) have no need for Dias there. But for everyone else, Dias is a welcome addition to any team.

ToA: Dias can be a great dark tank in the Artamiel and Akroma stages, doing a better job than monsters like Veromos here. His health block, which can be hard to find in other staple ToA teams, can also come in very handily against heal-heavy stages. The overall damage reduction also works wonders for newer players, allowing you to barely survive hits that should have normally killed you too. Overall, he’s a great monster for newer players and those looking for a good ToA dark tank.

PvP: Dias can often be found in PvP Defenses, often paired with very tanky monsters like Ariel and Eladriel. While he doesn’t bring much on his own, his resistance makes him a very annoying monster to deal with. He works well in both Arena and Guild Wars, the former as a support for Nemesis Healers and the latter for making a tanky and annoying teams to deal with. With the right monsters, Dias is a powerful support to have. However, if not, he’s just there to soak up some damage before falling.

How to Counter

A well-runed Dias can be difficult to counter. His anti-crit allows him to survive against monsters like Lushens and for his team to properly heal him up. Also, while he doesn’t do that much damage himself, his defense break on his 2nd (which he’ll target just about anyone he pleases), can cause issues if you don’t have a good means of removing it, especially if he’s paired with a monster like Theomars.

Oblivion bringers like Tesarion works fine, as well as as strong multi-hitters like Lushen and Julie if there aren’t any Nemesis healers with him. Also, most Dias will have more defense than HP due to the base stats, so ignore-defense monsters can work to a degree. Just hope the attacks will crit though!

Other advice:

• Dias should have a good balance between his HP and Defense since both are crucial for him to be tanky
• Dias shouldn’t be on a damage build despite his 2nd Skill HP-scaling, the damage just isn’t worth it
• An ideal Dias should have about 25,000 HP, 2,000 DEF and 70% resistance in total

Editor’s Note

Dias is definitely one of the best Raids frontline tanks in the game. He works very well in most team compositions, and his resistance leader skill makes it all the more easier to fit into your team. In my opinion, he’s one of the best HoH monsters Com2Us has released, on par with Aria, the Light Succubus and Delphoi, the Wind Undine. I definitely recommend building him for any players looking to break into raids, but end-game players can consider giving him a pass.

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