Kit Kit: Knight

[Mythless]

Kit Name: Knight
Kit Icon: Shield
Armory: Diamond Helmet, Diamond Chestplate, NO LEGGINGS, Iron Boots
Gear: Stone Sword, Shield, Fuse

Credit Cost: 400

Description: A fighter-oriented kit that relies on defense as its best offense. It is given a shield that can mitigate frontal attacks by 50%. As it blocks attacks, it gains EXP that then accumulates to a level, which enhances its armory! However, as the Knight levels up, its shield becomes worn--lessening its effect. It also gains less EXP when blocking projectiles, and it cannot block explosions.

RUNDOWN OF THE KIT:

The Knight is an interesting kit that utilizes a shield. This shield does not block 100% of the incoming damage like it normally would; instead it only mitigates the damage by 50%. Additional effects inflicted from melee attacks and projectiles (fire, poison, etc.) will be completely nullified when blocked.

When the Knight blocks a melee attack, it gains a set amount of EXP. When it gains enough EXP (via blocking enough attacks), it gains a level. This level translates to an additional Protection enchantment on either its Diamond Helmet or Diamond Chestplate. As it levels up, its shield mitigation effect is reduced to balance out its enhanced permanent defenses. The Knight can only gain up to 5 levels. If the Knight blocks a projectile, it will receive only half of the normal EXP amount compared to blocking a melee attack. When successfully blocking any attack, a sound cue (entity.zombie.attack_iron_door at Pitch 2.0) will play.

Whenever it uses its shield, it can hold it up for up to 10 seconds at a time. When dropping the shield, it must wait 5 seconds before using it again and will be given the message "You dropped your shield..." in light red text. When the shield is ready to use again, the player is given the message "Your shield is ready to use!" in light green text. Also, when the Knight reaches Level 4, its Shield will break completely. (the wear level is indicated via the Shield's durability, and it gets lower and lower with each level until it reaches 0 at Level 4.)

Here is a little table that neatly explains and lays out information regarding the quality of the Knight's items, and EXP:

KNIGHT'S LEVEL	EXP/BLOCKS REQ. (FROM PREV. LEVEL)	HELMET & CHESTPLATE PROT. LEVEL	SHIELD MITIGATION
1	6 Melee Blocks (= 12 Proj. Blocks)	Helmet = 0; Chestplate = 1	40%
2	8 Melee Blocks (= 16 Proj. Blocks)	Helmet = 1; Chestplate = 2	30%
3	12 Melee Blocks (= 24 Proj. Blocks)	Helmet = 2; Chestplate = 3	15%
4	15 Melee Blocks (= 30 Proj. Blocks)	Helmet = 3; Chestplate = 3	BROKEN
5	Receive 20 Hits (= 40 Proj.)	Helmet = 4; Chestplate = 4	BROKEN

The idea of Knight is to be a front-liner that is unafraid to charge head-first into battle (for the most part). The shield can be used to mitigate some damage while also improving its armor; it can either use such a tactic to level up themselves or to be a meatshield that draws the enemy's attention away from the Knight's allies.

Every time it is in combat, it is left with the choices to attack or defend. This is the key feature of Knight, as it requires a keen sense of timing and making on-the-fly decisions. If it defends too much, they will either have to retreat after being too much at a HP disadvantage, or they will get caught up in a swarm of enemies trying to kill them. Hence, balance between defense and offense is advised.

 

[Onett]

This is a cool idea but its pretty overpowered imo. Overall I feel like it does too many things as a kit and could be simplified.

Reasons
Even without the scaling mechanic this kit seems broken. It doesn't have to choose between offense and defense because it can do both quite well. It can 1v1 melee well thanks to its shield and can also completely deny enemy archers from the start. As well as this it has armor equal to full iron, and gets more tanky with pretty much no consequence. Its pretty much strong against everything.

Suggestions
I think adding a cooldown to the shield would be a good overall nerf. I was thinking that it should be able to hold shield for 10 seconds max, however once it puts it down, it must wait 5 seconds before being able to use it again. This would nerf its melee and ranged effectiveness. It forces it to choose between offense and defense.

I think armor should also be nerfed to armor equal to that of ninja with the same scaling. Right now, it has armor equal to full diamond at level 3, which isn't hard to reach. That on top of the fact it still has its shield gives this kit too much tankiness imo, especially since this kit retains its ability to deal with ranged.

I also thought of a new direction to take the kit that keeps its core design intact. I think this version would be more balanced:

New Idea:
The shield is lost at level 4, and the shield damage reduction decays much faster before level 4. This way, it starts the game off as mostly anti-range kit, and can then transition into a tank. This also nerfs its anti-range capabilities since if you are too careless with how much you tank, you will lose your ability to deny archers. This requires the kit user to be more strategic about how they use shield. There are some instances where the overall tankiness will be more useful and times when the anti-range is more important.

Personally, I feel like your kit idea gets most of its utility out of its ability to deny archers, so I don't really feel like the scaling mechanic is neccessary. I would instead just choose to focus on either the shield or the scaling mechanic. In comparison to its shield ability, the scaling seems like a minor feature in your original idea.

 

[Mythless]

This is a cool idea but its pretty overpowered imo. Overall I feel like it does too many things as a kit and could be simplified.

Reasons
Even without the scaling mechanic this kit seems broken. It doesn't have to choose between offense and defense because it can do both quite well. It can 1v1 melee well thanks to its shield and can also completely deny enemy archers from the start. As well as this it has armor equal to full iron, and gets more tanky with pretty much no consequence. Its pretty much strong against everything.

Suggestions
I think adding a cooldown to the shield would be a good overall nerf. I was thinking that it should be able to hold shield for 10 seconds max, however once it puts it down, it must wait 5 seconds before being able to use it again. This would nerf its melee and ranged effectiveness. It forces it to choose between offense and defense.

I think armor should also be nerfed to armor equal to that of ninja with the same scaling. Right now, it has armor equal to full diamond at level 3, which isn't hard to reach. That on top of the fact it still has its shield gives this kit too much tankiness imo, especially since this kit retains its ability to deal with ranged.

I also thought of a new direction to take the kit that keeps its core design intact. I think this version would be more balanced:

New Idea:
The shield is lost at level 4, and the shield damage reduction decays much faster before level 4. This way, it starts the game off as mostly anti-range kit, and can then transition into a tank. This also nerfs its anti-range capabilities since if you are too careless with how much you tank, you will lose your ability to deny archers. This requires the kit user to be more strategic about how they use shield. There are some instances where the overall tankiness will be more useful and times when the anti-range is more important.

Personally, I feel like your kit idea gets most of its utility out of its ability to deny archers, so I don't really feel like the scaling mechanic is neccessary. I would instead just choose to focus on either the shield or the scaling mechanic. In comparison to its shield ability, the scaling seems like a minor feature in your original idea.

Gotcha, just updated the post to reflect some of your suggestions. I kinda had a feeling it felt too tanky after posting, so thanks for pointing it out xD