Crucible Knight Tips
The Crucible Knight’s shield is incredibly strong and blocks both magic and physical attacks to the point where they deal a sliver of damage. However, it’s also a slow-moving boss and one that’s more prone to being baited into lowering its defenses compared to others. You’ll need to play this one defensively and keep your distance, whatever your class is. Don't be afraid to come back when you're weapon has been upgraded a lot more - if you're barely able to make a dent in their health, the fight will be that much harder.
The Crucible Knight may look slow, but they are relentless, and will constantly charge at you with surprisingly long-reaching swipes and thrusts. Because of this, you'll always want to wait until the knight has committed to an attack before dodging to attack yourself, or getting away to heal - as the Crucible Knight will often lunge forward to strike you when you try to heal or cast.
Crucible Knight Attacks
- Sword Attacks - The Crucible Knight slashes one to three times with his sword. It’s a slow move, but the important thing is the knight lowers his shield so you can finally deal damage after the last swing.
- Sword Thrust - The Crucible Knight lunges forward and delivers a thrust attack. It has decent range, but you can dodge to the side. Do not try to back up to heal during this move, it's unlikely you'll outdistance the thrust.
- Seismic Stomp - Taking a stance, the knight will stomp the ground, exploding shrapnel up from the ground in a wide cone in front of them. While it can be dodged, doing so too soon will still cause you to get stunned at the end and become susceptible to a follow-up attack - but it can be jumped over as well.
- Shield Bash - Reading their shield, the knight will prepare to ram into you - but have a sizeable delay first before dashing forward and slamming the shield upwards. You'll want to wait until the knight lunges before dodging, then attack while their shield is up in the air.
- Spinning Slash - Often performed right after a Seismic Stomp, the knight will put away its shield and prepare a lunging spinning slash with a second swing right behind it. You'll have to time your evasion to dodge twice in a row before its safe to attack while the knight pauses to take their shield out again.
- Flying Attack - When the knight’s HP drops to roughly half, it imbues itself with holy. Then it sprouts wings and, after a delay of roughly one second, it flies toward you. This, too, is a slow attack, so don’t dodge too soon.
- Tail Whip - After the flying attack, the Crucible Knight will often generate a holy tail. The Knight whips it once and then, after a slight delay, a second time with significantly greater range. Unless you’re at the other end of the arena, you’ll need to dodge this one to avoid taking damage.
Crucible Knight Strategy
A fairly safe way for any class to defeat the Crucible Knight is getting just close enough to bait him into dropping his shield. Magic users can then retreat and fire off a few spells – Glintstone spells are ideal, since it has high elemental resistances – while melee classes can dodge behind and attack a few times before retreating. It takes a while, but rushing in essentially guarantees you’ll be destroyed in a few hits.
Plan on tackling this one with an upgraded weapon to help end the fight more quickly.
Always wait for the knight to attack first, dodge the incoming strike or combo attack, and then retaliate with one more attacks of your own (depending on how fast your weapon or spell is). Never get too greedy - or you're likely to start trading blows, and it won't be a battle you can win at that point.
The best attacks to strike back after are the shield bash, spinning slash, and thrust attack, as they give the most time to get in your own hits. When the knight begins to fly around, focus on evasion - and be ready for the tail whip follow-up instead of trying to dash over and attack after the knight lands.
