Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Purpose
2. Recommended Build
3. Attack and Defense: A little bit of theory
4. Equipment
5. AoE Techniques
6. Closing Comments

1. Introduction and Purpose
There are many very good AoE Knight guides currently, and this guide is not an attempt to replace or undermine any of them, nor the information that they contain. What I would like to do is to elaborate on a very specific build for AoE Knights, one which can be more effective than many of the current popular builds, and, in my opinion, more enjoyable to play. I’d also like to address some of the finer subtleties required for AoEing in a time efficient manner, as well as a few misconceptions I’ve heard often, but here on the forums, and in game.

2. Recommended Build
Str: xxx
Sta: 60
Dex: 15

This build assumes that you will be leveling solely as AoE, and will always have a partner. If you wish to level solo, it’s certainly possible, but it will not be anywhere near as efficient as with Ringmaster buffs and heal. If you want to make a more versatile character which can also 1v1 effectively, perhaps for Giant Hunting or Clockworking purposes, I would recommend tuning your character for 1v1, and then AoEing with a slightly Sta-high 1v1 build. The reasoning behind this is relatively simple: no matter what build you use as a Knight, you will still be able to AoE relatively well. However, in order to 1v1 well, you do need to pay particular attention to things like Hit rate and Attack Speed. For more detailed information on Hybrid Knights, I recommend reading the Hybrid build section (found under Alternative builds) of this guide: [Guide] Low-Cash 1v1 Knight.

This build embraces a sort of ‘kill them before they kill you’ philosophy. For many classes, this strategy can be quite dangerous, but not so for Knights. Knights are different in this regard. How so, you may ask? Knights have an incredibly overpowered skill which, regrettably, most Knight builds make little to no use of. This skill is of course Guard, which grants the user Defense+400 for 20 seconds. It’s hard to overstate exactly how much Defense+400 actually is. That’s like wearing 4 extra Plug+9s. It’s the amount of Defense you get from 200 additional Sta. If your base Defense is 1200, that’s like adding 33% more Def – more than four 7% cards. For this reason, high amounts of Defense are not necessary; as I alluded to above, Sta is a terrible source of Defense anyway (for a Knight, one point of Sta increases your Defense rating by 2), and the Sta added to this build is for HP reasons only. What is important, first and foremost, is being able to finish an AoE in less than 20 seconds so that Guard remains in effect the entire time, and second, not wasting any time while gathering, which will be discussed in detail later on.

3. Attack and Defense: A little bit of theory
When choosing between equipment options, particularly piercings and jewelry, our goal is to maximize both our Attack and Defense ratings. We have two options for increasing either of these: percentual modifiers (Suit piercings), and static modifiers (Earrings). Take a look at your stats window, in particular at the Attack and Defense ratings. Notice that Attack is a much, much larger value; 2-3 times as large as Defense (if it’s not the larger of the two, you’ve done something terribly wrong). Since we want to maximize both of these, we will be applying our percentual modifier to Attack (the larger value), and our static modifier to Defense (the smaller value). In plain text, that means using Attack piercings with Plugs. By using a percentual modifier on the larger value, we get a larger benefit from it, and the same is true for the static modifier (Def+192 is a larger relative increase to say 1400 Def (14% more), than Attack+210 is to 3000 Attack (7% more)). If you want to confirm this, the Character Simulator is an easy way to do so. Make a Knight character, using any build you want, any equipment you want, any level you want. Using Attack+16% piercings with Plug+9s will always have higher Attack and Defense, than the same build using Defense+16% piercings with Demol+12s.

4. Equipment

Levels 15-60, in a nutshell
With a 15 Dex build, your hit rate will be quite low, and you won’t be reaching any speed breaks of note. I have two recommendations regarding this. First, use a Sword. Not only do one-handed Swords attack notably faster than one-handed Axes, but the buff Blazing Sword will also increase your Hit rate by 10% – no small amount. Max Blazing Sword and Sword Mastery as soon as they are available, followed closely by Empower Weapon. After you start using an Entanale Sword at level 30, always element your weapon to +3 against what you are fighting. My second recommendation is to get a shield with a Dex awakening, at least Dex+16. Not only will this help your Hit rate, but it will also put your total Dex at 38 with Pang Buffs, which is a Sword speed break. At level 45, I recommend buying a clean Panggril/Stitch set, which will give you Attack Speed+20%. Don’t dump a whole lot of money into this set, don’t bother upgrading it, and don’t even bother piercing it. Use it as you bought it, and sell as you bought it. If you’re lucky, you might even be able to turn a small profit, if you shop around and buy under market value.

If you’re not particularly well funded, take heart. Levels 48-50 offer an excellent opportunity for new players to make a little cash, although it can be rather time consuming. I’m talking of course about Plug Farming. Normal and Captain Rockepellers (the flying monsters between Flaris and Darkon continents) can drop Plug+9s with certain frequency, each selling for 35m-50m each, depending on your server. I’ve found that in a Red Scroll party, I was able to get one plug every 45-60 minutes. Many party leaders, particularly those using Red Scrolls, will want paired fillers, so it might be wise to log another character on a separate account to act as your ‘partner’. Flying combat can be difficult if you’re not used to it, but you should get the hang of it before too long. I recommend reading this guide for more details: [Guide] Plug Farming for Mercenaries. If you have a clean Panggril/Stitch set, it will speed things up a lot, and you should be able to afford one after selling just one Plug, as well as some Vigor+9s. I recommend continuing to Plug hunt until you have at least 200m in funds, or at very least until you have two for yourself.

Levels 60-65
Weapon: Dretra +3, Element of Choice +3 (no higher)
Shield: Dex+16 and/or Attack Speed awakens
Armor: Panggril/Stitch +0/+3, Attack +0%/+4%
Jewelry: Gore +3, Vigor +9s, Plug +9s/Demol +3s

Levels 60-65 can be slow levels for aspiring AoE Knights. The best method I have found to level during this period is to use a Dretra, which has Hit+20% and Attack Speed+5% bonuses. Once again, shop around before buying. Check every shop on a daily basis, make sure you have a good idea of the average selling price on your server, and only buy when you see one below market value. You only be using it for 5 levels anyway, and hopefully you can turn a small profit when you’re done. If you spent a few levels Plug Farming as suggested above, Vigor+9s should be well within your price range, as should a clean Panggril/Stitch set. You also should have found a number of Demol+3s in the process, which can be used here.

Level 65
Weapon: NPC Axe+3 or G Ambi Axe+3
Armor: NPC +0/+3, Defense +4%
Jewelry: Gore +3, Vigor +9s, Plug+9s

Why am I using a Defense piercing here? We’re not going to be spending a whole lot of money on this set at all, and a single Attack piercing isn’t going to make a significant difference. Your damage isn’t going to be all that high either, so a little extra Defense will prove useful. You can sometimes find pre-awakened, pre-upgraded level 59 Knight gear for sale, but if you can’t just buy some from the NPC vendor. I usually pierce NPC suits once without a GPro, and it almost never fails (success rate seems to be ~90% or so). You might also consider awakening a few Helms to see if you can get a decent Sta and/or Str awaken. It’s the cheapest piece of the set, so it’s not too expensive. Buy a G Ambi Axe only if you find one for cheap, otherwise use a level 65 NPC Axe at 65, and a level 70 NPC Axe at level 70 – it has the same attack rating as a G Ambi Axe!

Level 75
Weapon: Lusaka’s Heavy Axe
Armor: War(s)pon/NPC +3-+6, Attack +12%/+16%
Jewelry: Gore +3, Vigor +9s, Plug +9s

Still have a few hundred million left over from Plug Farming? Good. Now’s the time to start spending it. You are going buy a Lusaka’s Heavy Axe – this is not optional. The introduction of this weapon is the single largest boost to AoE Knights since Empower Weapon was changed in v13, and is a key component to making this build work. It’s nearly as good as an Ultimate Bloody Two-Handed Axe, and can be used 45 levels earlier. And because Lusaka Weapons are so easy to farm, you should be able to find one for relatively cheap. On Lawolf, for example, I’ve often seen them selling for less than 100m. Don’t worry about piercing it quite yet, but when you do pierce it, pierce exculsively with Wind B cards (or, if using a one-handed gathering approach, Fire Bs for additional damage).

For your set, I don’t recommend upgrading yourself, if it can be avoided; you will almost always lose money on the investment. Once again, shop around, and look for pre-upgraded War(s)pon and/or level 71 NPC armor pieces, either is fine, mix and match as you see fit. Anything higher than +6 is not necessary, and +3 is fine as well, as upgrades will not increase your Defense by any significant amount (the difference between +3 and +6 is less than 40 Defense at this point). A low upgraded set with good awakens will benefit you far more than a poorly awakened set with high upgrades, see the awakening section below for what to look for. The only real benefit from +5 is the HP+5% bonus, and +6 the Block+6% bonus. Both are kinda nice to have, but neither absolutely necessary. What is necessary, however, is the Attack piercings. Once again, I would avoid piercing it yourself if at all possible. Search for a Suit already 4/4 pierced, or 3/3 minimum, and swap out the Defense piercings (which it will more than likely have) for Attack piercings instead.

Level 105
Weapon: Lusaka’s Heavy Axe
Armor: Knighert/Knighz +3-+8, Attack +16%
Jewelry: Gore +3, Vigor +9s, Plug +9s

At 105, we’ll be switching to a Knighert/Knighz set, which has Defense+15%, HP+15%, and Block+15%. This will be the last set you use for AoE, so feel free to upgrade it if you want to, although once again, it’s not absolutely necessary. I personally used a +3 set from 105 onwards to Master, and that was with a 35 Sta build. A fair argument can be made for upgrading to +8, which can be done relatively cheaply if you use Smeltings, but I personally wouldn’t go any higher than that, and I’d likely stop at +6. If you do choose to upgrade, do not upgrade anything much past +3 unless it has a very good awaken. The reason for this is the folowing: buying and upgrading a +0 piece with a very good awaken is much, much cheaper on average than spamming Reversions on a highly upgraded piece until you get something good. The exception to this is Suit awakens. Because Suits can have absolutely any awaken at all, it’s hard to awaken suits for anything in particular. I would concentrate instead on finding one with 4/4 piercings, rather than a clean one with a good awaken, and then having to pierce it yourself.

Awakenings
Of the awakenings which are available on various armor pieces, I would prioritize them in this order:

1. Speed - While AoEing, the majority of time will be spent gathering, so movement speed should be one of your top priorities. This is the best awakening to look for on Boots.
2. Str/Sta - Str awakens will increase your damage, and Sta your HP, both of which are desirable. These are the best awakenings to look for on Helms.
3. Attack Speed - Attack Speed affects your gathering speed more significantly than one might at first assume. This is, in my opinion, the best awakening to look for on Gauntlets.
4. Defense - A little extra Defense certainly won’t hurt. However, I would not sacrifice a Speed awaken for it unless it was very, very high. This is the second best awakening to look for on Boots.
5. Attack - The biggest effect that Attack awakens have is on your reflected damage from Pain Reflection. This is, in my opinion, the second best awakening to look for on Gauntlets.

As stated previously, Suits can be hard to awaken for anything in particular. Whichever Suit awaken you do end up with, try to make sure that it’s one of the things on the list above, preferably one of the top three.

5. AoE Techniques
AoEing, as you’re probably aware, consists of two major subparts: first gathering, and then killing. It’s important to do both of these efficiently in order to have good results, particularly with this build. In this section, I would like to highlight the techniques that I use, and find to be most effective. Much of this will be intuitive, but there a few things that I’d like to share which I learned only after many hours of frustration.

Gathering
Gathering will make up the vast majority of your time while AoEing. Increasing your movement speed with Cloaks, Speed awakens, and Wind piercings will obviously help quite a bit. But it is also imperative that you attack each monster you gather exactly once. Because their native attack speed is so horrendously slow, this is more true for Knights than for any other class. The best procedure that I know of to achieve this is as follows:

• Turn off Auto-Attack - Turning off Auto-Attack has two benefits. First, it will prevent you from attacking more than once, and second, it will prevent you from attacking in between uses of the Action Slot, without having to deselect your target. Auto-Attack can be found in the Options window in the Game / Audio tab.
• Click the ground near or behind the target - Relatively intuitive, this will cause you to move towards your target. If the target is very close to you, it is often better to click the ground behind them, instead of stopping to attack them directly.
• Click-and-hold - If Auto-Attack is turned off, clicking on a target and holding the left mouse button down for approximately a half second before releasing will cause you to run up to your target, and attack itexactly once. This is precisely our goal. Make sure to click the ground first, so that you begin moving towards your target, otherwise you will stand around for a half second until it activates. If you clicked behind your target, and have moved past them, you will swivel around and attack them from behind, losing no time.
• Do not move too early - If you click the next location before you have completed your entire attack motion, this can sometimes cause you to begin auto-attacking. And this is the reason why Attack Speed is so highly prioritized. Even if you’re not using this technique, the game will not allow you to move until the attack motion has completed, so Attack Speed, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, is very important for gathering efficiently.
• Gather in arcs - While using this build, you will be most vulnerable while gathering, because you will not have a lot of Defense, nor a very large HP buffer. Gathering in continuous arcs will allow you to stay ahead of the pack you’ve previously gathered. Avoid abrupt changes in direction whenever possible, because this will allow them to catch up to you. I typcially encircle the area I wish to gather from first, and then clean up the middle before beginning AoE, traveling more or less in a spiral.
• Attack from below - If you try to attack your target from a higher elevation, a lot of times you won’t make contact. To avoid this, simply take the one or two extra steps to ensure that you are below your target, if they are on a slope. Even if it takes you a little out of your way, it’ll still save you time on average.
• Be courteous to others - Believe it or not, one of the best situations is to have another AoEr leveling nearby. If they’re doing a good job cleaning out their area, it will ensure that your spawn stays full as well. In the case of 1v1s, you may need to wander towards them if your spawn starts to thin. Try to be considerate about it, though. Always leave the ~5 or so nearest to them, so you don’t hinder their ability to grind.

Killing
As with gathering, it’s important not to waste any time here either, because you need to finish before your Guard timer has expired. I also have a few helpful suggestions for this as well.

• Get some distance - Before using Guard, make sure you have a little distance between you and the pack; four or five paces should be enough. This will ensure that Guard is active when the majority of them hit you for the first time.
• Use the Action Slot - Using an Action Slot with three Power Stomps will finish in about the same time as two Power Stomps used without the Action Slot. That’s 50% more damage, and 50% faster killing speed. This is an advantage that should not be wasted.
• Do NOT use the C button - There are a few ways to activate the Action Slot, one of which is using the C button. I highly recommend against this, for several reasons. Using the C button takes your hand away from important hotkeys, such as food and pills. You will also need to press it repeatedly, and it often causes your action slot to lock up. Instead, you should drag the Action Slot icon onto your Hotkey bar, and use the appropriate hotkey.
• Use good hotkeys - While AoEing, it’s important to have all of your important hotkeys underneath one hand, without having to move it around. I use and endorse the following hotkey layout:
  
  During AoE, the fingers of my left hand rest on the F1 to F4 keys. The majority of the time, I hold the F3 key down with my middle finger. When I need more FP, I ‘twiddle’ F4 a few times (whenever you use another hotkey, you need to release the Action Slot key, and repress it, hence the twiddling motion). Every 1.5 seconds (or 2.5 if using Star Candies), I twiddle F1 with my little finger to assist my partner with healing as much as possible, and when necessary, F2 to use a pill. As you get to higher levels, I recommend having a ‘Super Food’ item, such as White Cakes or Hot Ddukgduk, on F5. You won’t need it often, but should there happen to be a crit chain while your pills are not ready, it will allow you to heal yourself, and avert a dangerous situation.
• Share the drops - One of the best ways ensure repeat partners is to be friendly, and to share drops. When your inventory and/or bag is full, don’t immediately go sell. Give your partner ~6 or so drops, and then continue grinding until your inventory fills again. Then you can both go sell together.

One-handed Gathering
This is an alternative gathering method, utilizing a one-handed Axe and shield. The main idea is to boost your movement speed and attack speed as much as possible while gathering, and then switching in your two-handed Axe directly before AoE. This idea was originally suggested to me by forum user garythesnaiil.

Weapon
There are two very good options for one-handed Axes to use. One is to use a Historic Axe. Athough it is unlikely that you will be able to find one with a high Speed awaken, the native bonuses (Attack Speed+7%, HP+20%) are still quite useful while gathering, as you won’t be losing your HP bonus, and will be attacking faster besides. The other option is to use a NPC Axe (preferrably higher level), with a Speed+7% awaken or higher. This is a bit more dangerous, because you lose your HP bonus while gathering, but it allows your to maximize your movement speed. Either of these can then be pierced with a few Wind B cards, to increase your speed even more.

Shield
For shields, there are once again two good options. One is to look for a shield with a high Speed awake, 7% or higher. The other, perhaps less intuitive, is an Attack Speed shield. The idea is the following: without any Attack Speed awakens, an AoE Knight will have 62% Attack Speed while buffed. Using a shield with Attack Speed +15% or higher will allow you to move faster from mob to mob. Whereas additional movement speed will eventually suffer from diminishing returns, attack speed will not before your have reached max (77% Attack speed is actually 24% higher than 62% (77 / 62 = ~1.24). In comparison 159% (59% additional) movement speed is only 6% higher than 150%, even though the awaken in this example was 9%). The optimal solution involves increasing both your attack speed and movement speed as much as possible. For either option, pierce with a few Wind Bs for additional movement speed.

Cloak
Because you won’t need the movement speed bonus while killing, switching your Cloak to increase your damage is also a viable option. The best Cloaks to use while gathering are anything with a Speed bonus, and for killing a Cloak of the Dragon (Attack+320). However, my personal recommendation is not to do this, and simply to use a Kuma Cloak instead; the cost of a CoD + Speed Cloak is about the same as a Kuma. Although CoD will give you more damage before your Attack rating reaches ~5.5k or so, even before then the difference in damage is not too extreme, and not having to switch saves you hotkeys, and inventory space.

Method

1. At the end of your previous AoE, use Rage. Even with a low Sta build, Rage will still last for more than 3 minutes, which gives you enough time to gather and kill before having to recast.
2. Swap in your one-handed Axe and Shield. All of your Mercenary buffs will remain active when you do this, as will Rage (be sure that your one-handed Axe is elemented at least +1, for Empower Weapon). The only buff that won’t remain is Special Two-Handed Mastery, the Master skill.
3. Gather as per normal, see above.
4. Swap in your two-handed Axe, and use Guard. If using the hotkey set up recommended above, your two-handed Axe can be placed on F6, and Guard on F7 (Rage will need to be relocated to another hotkey bar, or the click bar). Pressing F6 and F7 in rapid succession will equip your Axe, and immediately cast Guard. This takes no longer than casting casing Guard normally.
5. Kill as per normal, see above.

When doing this, it’s important to keep an eye on your inventory after every AoE. If you don’t have at least two spaces free when you try to equip your two-handed Axe, you won’t be able to equip it, and you won’t use Guard. Obviously, this can be dangerous if you don’t notice it immediately, so be sure to keep an eye on your inventory periodically.

How much movement speed have we gained? Assuming that your Axe and Shield are each pierced three times, and one of them has at least 7%, this will give you over 30% additional movement speed. This is the same amount you get from maxed Quick Step, and a decent attack speed boost as well. Using this method will improve your gathering speed greatly, and therefore your overall exp per hour, without much additional effort. Definitely worthwhile 

6. Closing Comments
Most proponents of high Sta builds will argue that it is a ‘safer’ route to take. While this may have been true to some extent in previous versions, I don’t believe that this is true currently. With the loss of Sword Cross, an AoE Knight will now need to tank everything until the very end of an AoE. If you are unable to finish before the Guard timer expires, this will put you at much higher risk than previously. Fortunately, with the modification of Empower Weapon in v13, and the addition of the Lusaka Weapons in v15, it is now much easier to achieve faster AoE times, if your build and equipment are tuned for it. I especially hope to encourage those who have given up on their AoE Knight, due to low damage and slow killing speed, of which I have met many.

Credits go to aria_sama.