Introduction
This guide will focus mainly on the WoE and PvP aspects of playing a Lord Knight. A PvM section will be included, yes, but will not be a major part of this guide. This guide is dedicated to and based on Legacy RO, a 10/10/10 server, which may mean that some of its content will not apply to other servers. Lord Knight is a great character to play on, regardless of experience or skill level, as the unique high attack speed a Lord Knight can offer, or the mere power it can show in almost every situation may captivate any player. I recommend trying this class at least once in a person’s RO-career.

Table of Contents * I. Pros and Cons of playing a Lord Knight * II. Types of Lord Knights * III. Best places to Level * IV. PvP and War of Emperium (FE,SE) * V. Final Notes
I. Pros and Cons
Pros
Omnipotency – a Lord Knight is effective in almost all areas of the game. They can MVP, PvP, WoE, PvM. They can dish out an effective amount of damage in all these areas, they can tank, they can level solo, level in a party – they have the ability to do everything.
Attack Speed – Lord Knights can achieve the highest aspd available in game probably the most easily compared to any other class.
Variety – There are numerous builds related to a lord knight – Spear, One Handed Sword, Two Handed Sword, Bowling Bash, Spiral, MvP-Pierce, Berserk Build, and numerous more. Lord Knight is probably one of the most flexible classes in the game.
Cons
- LKs are good at everything, but not best at anything. They are able to do everything really well, but not the best in game. Lord Knight is basically “second” in everything – snipers out class Lord Knights for PvM, assassin crosses outclass Lord Knights for killing abilities, paladin outclasses Lord Knight for tanking.
Gear dependant – I would say LK is one of the most gear dependant character to play with in many situations. However, I would say this is a minor con, as this may apply to other classes as well.

II. Types of Lord Knights
In this section, I will only present the mainstream types of Lord Knights that are deemed to be the most efficient in their subject area. Finding your own build and skill tree to fit your taste is the best thing to do, but if you are not sure, taking these builds into consideration will be a great help to you.
First of all, the major types of Lord Knight depends on which weapon you wish to use – one handed sword, two handed sword, a spear (one handed) or a combination. I will not talk about two handed spears, as this is not an efficient or popular build for anyone. Keep in mind that in legacy RO, you have the freedom to change and try new builds to find the best fit for you (with a cost of zeny of course), so do not be afraid to try new things.
Two Handed Sword
This is probably the most popular LK build out there among new people (for a reason I do not know). The main focus of this build is 1) Parry and 2) Two Handed Quicken. These two skills alone give you a great advantage over other builds, as Parry blocks 55% of physical attacks, reducing the incoming damage by a great deal, and two handed quicken gives you a great ASPD boost. The main attack skill to use in this case would be Bowling Bash, Berserk, and Bash, depending on the situation. However, I do not recommend this build for PvP and especially WoE, for reasons which I will explain later in this section.
Builds (these stat points are approximate and include any item bonuses)
ASPD build (used for PvM, focuses on normal hitting) * 110 str * 80-90 agi * 50 dex * Rest into vit
High Str-BB build (Used for PvP/WoE, focuses on BB damage and berserk) * 120 str (130 with bless) * 70 dex (80 with bless) * 80-90 vit * Rest into agi
PvM: This is probably this best type for PvM, and an okay build for MvP. Parry is a great skill to use in many PvM situation instead of shield because of its 55% chance to block ALL physical damage, regardless of property/race. Weapons to use would certainly be a number of +10 Katana[4]s with size/race/property damage boost cards combined well to suit the place you wish to level/kill. (i.e. +10 Quadruple Bloody Katana in Sphinx 5).
PvP/WoE: first thing I will tell you is that I do not personally recommend this type of LK for pvp or woe. The lack of a shield is too great of an effect on damage reduction and trust me, things will hurt a lot in pvp/woe situations, especially woe. However, if you wish dearly to use two handed sword for pvp/woe situation, it is possible.

One Handed Spear
The best thing about using a spear as your main weapon would be versatility. A lord knight has many different spear skills to put to use in all situations – Spiral, Bowling Bash, Pierce, Spear Stab, Spear Boomerang, etc. One weapon that would put every lord knight skill (other than parry/two handed quicken) to use would be a spear. The biggest advantage would be versatility, but the biggest problem would be the low DPS/aspd. It is hard to get a good attack speed using a spear unless one uses a major part of their stat points into agi, which is not recommended at all for pvp/woe. There is no “spear quicken” skill for a lord knight to use, and even if you can deal as much damage in Bowling Bash using a spear as using a sword, achieving the same attack speed is almost impossible. For WoE, almost all spear-only skills (maybe other than spear boom/brandish) are totally useless both strategically and damage wise because of the ranged attack damage reduction and thus the low dps. Personally, I recommend using a spear as a secondary weapon for its versatility, but not as a damage dealer.
Builds

Pierce build (used for PvM/MvP mainly) * 120 str * 60-70 agi * 60 dex * Rest into vit
Extreme Spiral build (used for PvP/MvP) * 30 str (for weight purposes) * 80-100 vit (depends on your taste) * 80-100 dex (depends on your taste) * 30 int (for sp, not necessary but useful)
High Str-BB/Spear Boom build (used for PvP/WoE) * 120 str (130 with bless) * 70 dex (80 with bless) * 80-90 vit * Rest into agi
PvM: One Handed Spear is a great type for PvM. Having a shield for reduction as well as a high damage using spear skills is great for any pvm situation, and the low sp cost for most spear skill is also an advantage (compared to BB’s high sp consumption). Setting up one-pierce kills for leveling/hunting is great, and with an AK pike, you deal 9k pierces to large mvps at quite a fast speed (however, not recommended on legacy because of the competition against creators/snipers, and also pierce-mvp is not possible against high-end MVPs.)
PvP: If used well, a spear can become a deadly weapon in pvp. Spiral can hurt low vit characters (i.e. high wizards/snipers) and can hit lock them in one spot for almost a second. Spear Boomerang is extremely useful against all ranged characters and to break cast/cloak with hit delay, and status spears will help you a great deal when combined with boomerang. Spear stab can be used against champs/whitesmiths to repel them away and combine it with spear boomerang. However, you cannot expect high dps with a spear, and you certainly cannot kill a person with high vit and pots, much less so that other LK builds which have higher aspd/dps.
WoE: Do NOT use spear in WoE, if you want to do ANY threatening damage. The only good thing about spiral would be the hit lock and the little range it gives to your attack. You could try BB’ing with a carded pike with high str, or brocca for that matter, but you won’t be able to kill many people with 170 and below aspd. Spears can be annoying in woe, but not threatening. Use spear as a secondary weapon. One Handed Sword
I’ll tell you straight from the start, that this is the best pvp/woe build (at least imho). You have the advantage of a shield reduction against attacks, while able to one hand quicken and gain high aspd, with the help of a link. You can dish out the highest dps among these three types of builds if you can get ahold of a horn of buffalo. You can tank, deal damage and wreak havoc. However, I have to add that this build may not work in PvM situations unless you’re willing to get a number of differently carded shields and a dedicated linker.
BB and bash are your friends as well in this build. However, keep in mind that you must keep a spear for a secondary weapon, primarily to use spear boomerang and stab in specific situations, as you cannot depend solely on a one handed sword (no range attack other than charge attack which is pretty much worthless in many situations).
Builds
High Str-BB-stun immune build (PvP/WoE/PvM) * 120 Str (130 with bless, 140 with food) * 70~ dex (80 with bless, more with food) * 97 vit with food, unless you choose to 97 vit without food, and lowering dex/agi * Rest into agi.
*side-note: Bowling Bash takes into account both attack speed and dex. It has a cast time reduced by dex, just does not show the bar and is uninterpretable.
High Str-BB-aspd build * 120 Str (130 with bless, 140 with food) * 70~ dex (80 with bless, more with food) * 80~ vit (more with food, obviously) * Rest into agi.
Emp Breaking Build (not recommended to be honest, debuffs will make you go crazy and useless) * 120 str (+ bless and food) * 50 agi (+ agi up and food) * 60~ dex (+ blessing and food) * Rest into vit.
PvM: As I’ve mentioned before, if you can get a dedicated/slave soul linker for you and proper shields, it’ll work. However, I personally prefer two handed swords for PvM purposes.
PvP/WoE: Get a link, one hand quicken, and rape with your skills. Use BB and bash, spear for alternative skills/status/damage. You can get a very high aspd with one hand quicken + a bit of agi + horn of buffalo (optional), and BB at an extreme speed dishing out constant and fast damage. However, you will not be able to kill a tank/high vit character geared properly + potting, you will have to resort to other options which I will explain more in the pvp/woe section of this guide.
MVP: Don’t try to MVP with this build. That’s my suggestion.

III. Best Places to Level a Lord Knight
I will go over the best places to level a lord knight/knight. For the swordsman, I suggest simply bashing and hitting everything you can kill without dying – start at payon dungeon, move to orc dungeon/outside of orc dungeon, high orcs if you have the gears, leaf cats for jobs. If you have the money, you can ygg-leaf anubises and tele’ing very fast. For high swordsman, I highly recommending ygging anubises – trust me, it’s the fastest and easiest way (even though it may cost some zeny buying leaves.)
High Orcs (go outside Orc Dungeon, then go one map left to gef_fild14)
Ah, the high orcs. Probably the most traditional yet efficient and favored place to level. It’s very simple to level there. If you are spear, get an optimized pike for high orcs (the best would be double orc lady hydra vadon carded pike with tsunami endow), either mob + brandish, or pierce and tele. If you get the “high orc” pike mentioned above with water-property endow, and get around 110 str for knights and 100 for LKs with concentration, you can pierce or brandish one shot them at 100%. From what I’ve tested, mobbing gives you around 20% more exp than piercing. However, piercing is easier to do (especially if you’re the type of person who multi-tasks while leveling). As for two handed sword, it is very simple and same as always. Get a special katana for these high orcs (same cards as the pike), parry, and mob + BB. Plain and simple. However, I recommend going spear for high orcs as it is much more efficient and easy (uses much less SP). If you use the earth deleter card, then go spear for sure, as you basically gain 3 sp per each kill when you pierce, and you gain a bunch more when you mob and one shot them.
As for the zeny gain/item drops, it does not have any merit drops. If you kill orc archers, you can hope for orcish bows, but killing orcish archers will slow you down, and I do not recommend it. Save up the rough oridecons and the steels, use the yellow herbs when needed.
Recommended Equipment: * Feather Beret or Any str hats * Evil Wing Ears * (Lower Headgear does not matter) * Any armor with an earth deleter card in it (for infinite sp) * Double Smash Bloody Flammable Pike[4] * Any garment with raydric in it * Any shoes with matyr or green ferus in it * Str accessories, which ever one you can afford/wear
Anubis (sphinx level 4 or 5, I mainly used 5)
Anubis is sort of a unique place for me, as that’s where I leveled my LK on Legacy V1, and I still go there sometimes to level (however, rarely so because of better places). I will introduce it just for the heck of it. Your main targets are anubises (duh) and pasanas. Best weapon for this place would be a quadruple bloody katana, or a double bloody two handed sword if you do not want to spend too much money on this place. I highly recommend going two handed sword for this place, with aspersio (fire endow will screw you over against pasanas, but if you want to solely go for anubises, go ahead).
The method is simple; you buff, you zerk, you kill, you stay away from monsters when your hp is below 3k~, you use sp pots (or if you have earth deleter card, no need for sp pots), re-buff, zerk, repeat. No healing items needed. Simple as that.
As for drops from this map, the pasanas drop undershirt + stilettos which will give you good cash with OC when you npc it. The pasana card sells for 3m~ nowadays, so if you get lucky, you can scratch more money from this place. Other than that, nothing big.
Recommended Equipment: * Feather Beret or Str Headgears * Evil Wing Ears (str) * Earth Deleter Card Armor or ED Armor * Katana or Two Handed Sword with hydra cards * Any garment with raydric in it * Any shoes with matyr or green ferus in it * Str accessories, which ever one you can afford/wear
Thor Dungeon (mainly level 3, but level 1 is also possible)
You have two options for this dungeon. You can either zerk-solo on level 1, or go with a party to level 3. I’ll tell you right now, that this place has one of the best experience rates in the game. But I’ll also have to tell you that this place has some scary mobs. Just stay cautious at all times, and learn from your mates what to avoid and what to fight. (i.e. do not approach a sword guardian. Period.)
This place also has one of the best drops. Orleans Glove, Sword Guardian Card, Salamander Card, Meteor Plates[1]. Yum Yum.
Recommended Equipment: * Str Headgear * Evil Wing Ears (str) * Fire Property Armor (this is a must) * Valk shield with alice card (if using spear) * Vadon Carded Weapon (with water endow) * Any garment with raydric in it * Any shoes with matyr or green ferus in it * Str accessories, which ever one you can afford/wear
Lighthalzen Bio-Lab (level 3)
Best experience. (assuming your party knows what their doing) However, if you don’t know what you’re doing, do not go here. You will lose more experience than what you’ve gained. This dungeon is full of powerful mobs with a numerous threatening skills, and you must stay alert at all times and move very carefully. To be honest, this place has too many aspects to cover in this PvP/WoE guide. If you’re new to the game, do not worry about this place. After you get to play a bit, ask your friends/guildies about this place. (Quest guide to Bio-Lab can be found >> here.)
Abyss Lake Dungeon (All Levels)
Good Experience, good drops, but requires many consumables. The same rule applies here as the bio labs – If you’re new to the game, do not worry about this place. It requires expensive and very specific gears (dragon slayer for sure) to do some decent damage, and you have to burn some pots in order to stay alive. The easiest method would be berserk-leveling, but one screw up will kill you. Not recommended for noobs, but an option if you know what you’re doing.

IV. PvP/War of Emperium
One of my favorite aspects of Ragnarok Online. In this section, I will give specifics on how to deal with certain classes, and strategies to use against them. PvP’ing with a lord knight requires more than a couple of weapons, to maximize your power. The main weapons used are: Sword Guardian Carded saber or blade, Hydra-Skel worker saber or blade, edge, brocca, status spear. Use these weapons accordingly to what skills you use (i.e. sword guardian weapon for BB, hydra skel for bash) As for armors, you should be using all the reduction cards possible in the best given equip that you can get. However, default a marc carded armor. (or ED) Do not default anything else. Other cards are available to swap to, but you do NOT want to get frozen in pvp. The build that should be used for PvP is hybrid. You should be using all your skills in pvp in most cases.
BATTLE MODE IS A MUST Above are the hotkeys I use, during woe. Some items are missing ( in storage, ) This hotkey setup is for woe, and for pvp I use spear boom/spear stab in hotkeys as well.

PVP Gears/Stats The above stats has maximized damage out put (balanced dex/aspd for highest DPS), has stun immunity, has 250~ hit (should never miss in WoE because of flee).
The items are top tier gears, but does NOT include any mvp cards.
Tidal + Wool combo is another option for garment/shoes and is probably more affordable. If you cannot get thorn + horn of buffalo, stick with another vesper core and use a valk shield. Also, even if you hvae horn of buffalo, might want to swap to cranial valk shield when walking into precast in WoE FE.
These following skills should always be on in combat – Concentration (Spear Dynamo) and Aura Blade. These will maximize your damage output by a huge deal, so don’t forget to refresh them every now and then. The optimal setting would include the knight link, but not necessary (however, it makes a big difference). If you’re a hardcore pvp-er, using converters/foods/pots is an option. However, to be honest, save those for War of Emperium.
Tactics
Vs. Sniper
If you are fighting a good sniper in pvp, you will hate it. If you pot, he should not be able to kill you in any way (maybe except for bragi FA, but often times you should be able to out pot them). However, they can become hell of an annoyance to you. And if you do not pot, they have the fire power the kill you.
The biggest threat they have against you is traps. They have a variety of traps that will screw you over (sandman, ankle snare, shockwave) and you have to pay extra attention to the background to figure out where he places his traps. Do NOT simply run towards a sniper to bowling bash or whatever. He WILL trap if he’s good. One false move can get you asleep + stuck + sp drained.
The best tactic I can suggest would be to use a status spear and spear boomerang. If you’re confident you can one shot him (if he’s a double strafer in pvp) with a bowling bash, charge attack and go for it. However, if not, use a quadruple plankton card pike (sleep status) to spear boom him. It’s a 20% chance. After you sleep him, get to him in any way possible without stepping on his traps, and bash or BB the hell out of them. I would recommend bash with a one handed spear (hydra-skel worker) for the stun effect.
In WoE, they won’t be much of a killer threat to you, but the ankle snares in precasts and what not will be annoying. Let the snipers/stalkers do their job of removing traps, and support them until your path is clear. Trap sniper should be one of your targets in WoE to eliminate to facilitate the movement of your guild members.
Vs. Whitesmith
To be honest, this depends on both the gears of the whitesmith you’re fighting, and how many pots he has. If he has decent enough gears, his cart termination WILL hurt (stun shouldn’t be a problem for you especially if you have high vit), and you have to try to out damage him with BB while potting. However, they can break you weapon/armor by simply dealing damage to you. I recommend not facing a whitesmith unless you have Full Chemical Protection, or you’re sure that you can kill the whitesmith before he deals any significant damage to you. Without pots, it’s a “who has higer dps vs hp” thing. Lord Knights certainly have more hp than whitesmiths, and doing the same DPS as them will make you the winner.
One possible strategy against a white smith is using spear stab and spear boomerang. You stab them to prevent cart termination (spear stab gives range) and you spear boomerang them while backing up. If they switch to strong shield, take advantage of the 20% additional damage and BB them like hell.
In WoE, if you have full chemical protection, you should be able to face them without much problem. However, target the after high wizards, as they can wreak havoc to your wizard-line with stun.
Vs. Professor
If possible, avoid these. They will dispel you, drain your sp, fiber lock you, and basically become a huge pain in the ass. You should be able to out pot them, but if it is a 1 vs 1 situation, it’ll be hard to kill a properly geared professor who uses their skills right (fog of war, safetywall). Your best chance is to use edge and hope for a coma. In a WoE situation, profs are one of the highest priority targets for every killer class. After you kill the high wizards in the enemy guild and remove any urgent threats to your precast group, edge-BB the profs or move onto another class (sniper/sinx)
Vs. Paladin
An LK vs Paladin battle is a matter of pots. If both classes pot, they cannot kill each other without extreme buffs such as gospel. Do not target these in WoE unless you’ve killed the high wizards, snipers and assassin crosses.
Vs. Clown/Gypsy
A lord knight should not have problems against a clown/gypsy in pvp. The only problem they can cause you is if they are linked. Other wise, you should be able to out damage them and kill them. Another high priority targets in woe, but it may be difficult (not as difficult as killing profs/tanks) to kill them. If after a few BBs they do not die, swap to edge. However, note to stay away from slow grace, as it is the worst debuff (for a lord knight). It will lower your moving speed and attack speed by a significant amount.
Vs. High Wizard
If the high wizard has a very fast cast, use status spears, as used against snipers. However, stun may be more effective in this case. After stunning, dish out damage. They have a very low hp bar, and they will drop dead after BBs, regardless of potting or not. One tip would be to use elemental armors against high wizards, and keep on an ED armor the whole time. The only problem you will have against them is if they JT at a very fast cast speed, or freeze/stone curse you. Swap to your dokebi armor if you see them cast JT on you. Swap back to ED. If they fbolt, swap to ifrit armor. However, if you screw up swapping armors, they will deal an abnormal damage on you, so if you do not know what you’re doing, don’t try it. Also, no armor swapping in WoE even if you’re facing a high wizard. Stay on ED or marc at all times.
Vs. Champion
Use your hide clip to the max, against both TSS and Asura. Use spear stab at first to prevent asura, if they try to TSS, go up to them and BB. Status spear boom should work as well after spear stabbing them out of pneuma. Simply, don’t let them near you, unless you cut their hp down to one shotting them. If they use strong shield, try status spear-booming them, and get ready to use your hide-dodge. In a WoE situation, you should be able to tank their asura at full hp with raydric, feather beret, and thara frog card.
Vs. High Priest
They are like profs, except a bit less annoying. You could try using a force executioner and BB them at maximum speed and hope you out damage the heals. Often times it does. In WoE, do not use a sword guardian weapon or a hydra-skelworker weapon, as they will tank your bowling bashes. Edge is the way to go against high priests.
Vs. Stalker
For PVP, everyone knows how annoying a good stalker can be. They will status you, strip you, then rape you. They will FSK, taking off your precious berserk pot and link. However, you have to remember that you’re a better damage dealer and a better tank overall. The best thing to do against a sneaky little stalker is keep sight up, and follow the footsteps of chasewalk carefully. Use a status spear to boomerang with (preferably sleep or curse). Use magnum to kick them out of chase walk. Becareful of strip, and once you status them, BB the hell out of them.
As for woe, they’re not too big of a problem (if you’re in a guild thats any decent, you should have FCP on your 99% of the time you’re woe’ing). However, remember that most guilds have stalker as their recaller. Trying to remember the names of the guild leader stalker, as they should be one of your primary targets in woe. Kill them, stop their recalls, do whatever you can to bother the recaller.
WoE Specific Tips * Do not just BB the first guy you meet in a battle. Run into their “formation”, target their precast/wizard line first (status or damage, does not matter), and cause chaos to them. Kill of as many high wizards as possible, then change your target to snipers and assassin crosses. If you see your fellow assassin cross attacking a prof, help him out with edge. * Learn to use all your weapons accordingly, keep in mind your focus is to wreak havoc and tank. Yes lord knights can get kills as well, but tanking and screwing the enemies up is more important. * In a big mob of enemies, if you can tank them, use edge. If not, do not just stand in the middle of the crowd, but move around to minimize damage intake, while still targeting your priorities. If the mob is smaller, use your sword guardian blade. * Magnum/BB with status weapon (especially for FE). * When walking into precast, use a valk shield, even if you have a horn of buffalo. The elemental reduction will help.
V. Final Notes
I hope this guide helps those who wish to learn how to play a lord knight in all situations. I realize that some of the information included in here are obvious, and some are not. I consider myself a noob Lord Knight, as some of the information I’ve put in here I cannot even carry out. Simply, best thing to do is learn to utilize your weapons and your skills. This guide is dedicated to Legacy RO, Cya Later and any one who has helped me so far learn how to play Lord Knight myself (you know who you are).