White Knights

Gameplay summary

White Knights are patterned around two main areas: elemental attacks and defensive tactics. Their ability to use Fire, Ice, and Lightning charges makes them very strong against anything weak to those elements, outdamaging the other two classes over time and providing steadier knockback, although they deal less damage over time against enemies not weak to an element. Additionally, they can freeze and stun mobs; combined with Threaten, this provides them with a good balance of defense and offense that makes them the game's premier solo class.

For WKs, though the holy element wont be available until 4th, the only things set in stone about elements are that fire is good against ice, ice against fire, and holy against undead. For the rest, lightning is good against some fire monsters and some water monsters.

Damage against single targets

White Knights continue to use Power Strike (260% damage) and Slash Blast (130% damage) as their main attacks. However, they may use these with an elemental charge. The charges provide attack boosts as follows, on Power Strike:

* With Lightning Charge - 325%
* Fire Charge (on fire weak) - 468%
* Ice Charge (on ice weak) - 409.5%
* Lightning Charge (on lightning weak) - 487.5%

This steady string of damage results in more damage over time on a single target than Crusaders or Dragon Knights, as long as the monster is weak to fire or lightning. If not, Crusaders will deal more.

Damage on mobs

White Knights continue to use Slash Blast for mobbing; it always deals exactly half of Power Strike's damage, on a mob of up to 6. Therefore:

* With Lightning Charge - 162.5% per target
* Fire Charge (on fire weak) - 234% per target
* Ice Charge (on ice weak) - 204.75% per target
* Lightning Charge (on lightning weak) - 243.75% per target

They can also use Charged Blow, which deals base 250% damage to each monster in a mob, and stuns them; in exchange, you lose your elemental charge and have to use it again.

* With Lightning Charge - 312.5% on up to 6
* Fire Charge (on fire weak) - 450%
* Ice Charge (on ice weak) - 393.75%
* Lightning Charge (on lightning weak) - 468.75%

Unfortunately, due to Slash Blast and Charge Blow being their only arsenal for mobs, they do the least damage overtime to mobs of 5-6 Monsters. FA hinders this also as explained under the Crusader Section "Damage on Mobs." Only in 4th job will WKs truly shine, being able to spam Charge Blow, but until then, they remain a great soloer and #1 on overall damage to single targets that are elementally weak.

Defensive tactics

White Knights are very good at using tactics to avoid damage. Their second job skill, Threaten, reduces damage from any target; adding to the picture the ability to freeze with Ice Charge, or to stun with Charged Blow, also helps immensely. Charged Blow's stun, unlike that from Coma or Shout (Crusader skills), isn't interrupted when the enemy is hit. Finally, against any enemy with an elemental weakness, White Knights have the steadiest knockback of the three warriors, which helps to keep enemies at bay and prevents bump damage.

In parties

Since they have no party skills, White Knights are usually soloists. They do sometimes appear in parties for training monsters weak to an element, though, such as Duals or Grims, at which they would be the fastest killers of the warrior classes.

At bosses

White Knights dish out the most damage per minute of any warrior class at Pianus, which is weak to Fire, and Black Crow, which is weak to Lightning. They see limited use at other bosses, such as Papulatus or Zakum, since they have no party skills and Crusaders dish out more total damage than they do at those bosses. But as an exception, high lvl WKs are recruited into Pap runs for their constant KB.

Attack speed/weapon choices

See Crusader, above. Replace axes with blunt weapons.

Weaknesses

Due to their lack of party skills, White Knights aren't often sought as party members (exceptions include Grims, Duals, etc from levels 80-100); however, since they have tactics suited to avoiding damage and killing fast, they are gods of soloing anyway. Against an enemy which isn't weak to any element, White Knights also dish out less damage than even a Crusader without Panic or Coma. Since the two fastest leveling spots in GMS (Himes and Gobies) are currently both neutral, this poses a difficult situation for very high leveled White Knights.http://strategywiki.org/wiki/MapleStory/Warrior_Guide