Dark Knight

Overview
Dark Knight is a hyper-aggressive early-game bruiser. The base damage of its Dark Blast skill is incredibly high and can wipe out an entire minion wave in one hit at Lv.1. As such, Dark Knight is considered the strongest class in the game during the early-game.

However, the damage scaling of Dark Blast is poor and Dark Knight's stats barely increase on level-up after Lv.10. As a result, Dark Knight's effectiveness sharply falls off during the mid-game and the Dark Knight must amass enough early-game kills and lane advantage to remain relevant.

On top of that, all of Dark Knight's skills cost HP on top of MP so it gradually burns itself out by using its kit. By playing defensively against a Dark Knight on lane, it's very much possible to stall the Dark Knight out and make it run out of resources. In addition, Dark Knight doesn't have any mobility tools so it's very prone to ganks and has to think twice before committing to a push.

On low levels of plays, many players don't know how to play solid defense or gank correctly so Dark Knight stomps them. However, in the competitive scene, it's considered a mid-tier class that requires an exceptionally skilled player to deliver results. It's also often viewed as a taunting pick which implies the player is confident in their ability to completely dominate their lane opponent.

In the Novel
During the selection match for StormBlitz's first-string, Yuel made Roi pick Dark Knight even though it wasn't one of the Roi's best classes. The idea was for Roi to dominate the lane against Gregory and generate unstoppable early-game momentum for the team that'll convert into a quick win. This plan worked well in the first match.

However, in the following game, Howard made Gregory pick Druid and turtle. That stalled Roi out and made him anxious, to the point he let his guard down and allowed Taison to gank him to death. This death set Roi back a lot and made him feel powerless for the rest of the match.