Combat and Tactics

I think with all the changes and proposals going around, the devs might like to hear what we use regularly and how.

I tend to lead with tail whip or gold rage depending on the toughness of the mob.

Staggering Roar is great for delay on mobs. Best debuff we have in my eyes.

I dont use silver strike much other than another attack.

Rage, ravage, silver strike. most single mobs, non named die.

Gold shield helps me live and farm, something dragons cant do well, not as well as a good druid that is. Spiked scales aids in this.

I honestly dont have much use for breath attacks other than BOFB. Though I do like the dispell on lightning.

Sound overpowered? Watch a triple classed biped fight. Till we get classes or some form of advancement, we're on par. Such is my belief.

Lets try not to turn this into a hoard thread.

Please add to this and discuss tactics:) Together we can tel lteh devs what we like and don't:)

For most 1-on-1 fights with Grakk battle breaks into three phases:

The Pull -
I'll cast a Breeze then pull with a ranged-tech primal bolt or Dragon's Reach if it's up, then follow that with Snarl and Galewind while the mob is charging in toward me. If a named, or there are adds, insert Spiked Scales here.

Initiate Melee -
Once the mob reaches me I'll Tail Whip to buy a few secs, Staggering Howl, then Bite and Breath of Fire (hopefully proc Embers) to get the DoTs going. If a named, or there are significant adds, insert Shield of Gold here.

Finish -
Next I throw a Ravage and Silver Strike, then recast Breeze. If I'm fighting a named, an add is imminent, I've been lucky on hoard drops or I'm just plain feeling frisky I'll pop a Gold Rage. Repeat abilities and hit cleanse-tech'd buffs as needed until victory or retreat. ;)

I don't have too much experience AE farming with Grakk... only started doing that recently for some of the kill-50-of-these ability quests, so I'm sure there will be folks far more qualified to speak on that.

I agree, Silverblaze... Staggering Howl is GREAT, but don't under-estimate the power of Snarl. Slowed mobs are nice, but your staying power really increases when mobs can't hit the broad side of an Ancient. ;)

The similar biped Mind spell "Warped Perception" is probably one of the most under-rated, under-used spells in the game; I use it pretty religiously with Steele.

I have a 60 DRAG / 77 DCRA / 59 DLAR Helian dragon with all training points evenly split between Primal and Tooth & Claw, so that may impact my normal combats compared to higher level dragons. My craft rating certainly lets me wear stronger scales than just my adventurer rating would indicate, and I'm equally versed in melee or magic, so I use a combination of both. My scales are generally primal based, as that's more my bread and butter, but I do carry around a set of T&C scales if that's the role I'm needed for or I just want to change for a bit due to the specific combats or for the sake of change itself.

If the current hunting ground necessitates pulling from a larger than normal distance, I'll begin with a Dragon's Reach followed by Grazing Winds and Unrelenting Winds as I back up to get less chance for adds. Normally, I'd just begin with the two debuffs. I continue backing up as Spiked Scales goes off, then get ready to stand and fight.

If the battle is expected to be a long fight, I'll take a couple hits while I further debuff with Snarl and Staggering Howl. If its a normal, challenging fight I'll skip those and just go right to a round of melee beginning with Bite, Tail Whip, Galewind, Breath of Fire, and Ravage, then finish up with repeating Prime Bolts. If its expected to be an easier fight, I may skip the melee and just go with the Prime Bolts and reserve the melee (with their slower recycles) for those combats that prove to be slightly tougher. That tactic allows me to eliminate some down-time between combats.

I'm below where I should be with hoard, so I only use Silver Strike, Drain Strike (it was in my normal melee chain before the change, now its reserved as it takes hoard), and Gold Rage when the battle is tough and the mob needs to be taken down quickly. I'll use them in that order, to conserve my hoard and try to let it grow. Unfortunately, I'm not strong enough to hunt the really good hoard-increasing mobs, so I do the best I can. Insert plea for Gold Strike here.

If I get adds, I drop where I am in the chain and pop off Blast, Gust, Tempest, and Barrage, then pick up the chain where I left off until they recycle again, so that I work on taking them all down a bit faster.

Menacing Presence may or may not be remembered when I'm duoing or hunting with a group.

Shield of Gold I've only used once or twice ever since getting it. I'm more likely to try to fly up and out of a bad combat, and popped that before to give me a better chance when the combat was obviously getting too stacked against me too quickly to get away unscathed (stunning mobs playing pig-pile on my poor dragon).

How Epion rumbles is some what reckless but the Dp system has changed this *Sadly*

how i Normaly fight when i have no Death points what so ever is

Dragon reach (Replaced with Incandesent Gazing winds ) spiked scails bite gold rage silver strike ravage tail whip gal wind Breath of fire * crap your still alive * refreshing breeze stagering howl snaral Breath of Lightning breath of flame burst and if its still not dead chances are i am close to taking a dirt nap !

Yes i am a Member of shout first shout later shout some more and when every thing is dead around me i try to ask the withered ages a question or 2 :p

Player
Very disturbing
we are dragons we have massive power among our claws we do not swing weapons like bipeds we should NOT have our ability's linked

If this is the way things go down then you will cripple the Damage dealing tanks of the game and you will slowly see Dragons will not be a selling feature

I'm a melee fighter, so I only have a few spells.

I'll pull with a Prime Bolt II. If the mob is out of PB range, I use Dragon Reach.

As the mob is closing in, I'll use spiked scales. If there are more than two coming or the mob is particularly difficult, I start breezing here.
If it is a notoriously difficult mob (but not epic-ROP type) I'll use Shield of Gold.

Once the mob gets close to me I'll open with a ravage then tail whip.

If there are more than two coming, I'll use Gold Rage and Silver Strike/Ravage to get rid of one or two of them instantly as other attacks have a long animation so the size of the group is more managable.

Once all that's out of the way, I'll go through all my other buttons:
Breath of Fire, Bite, Tail whip and galewind. My only other heal is Instant Heal, although I recently picked up Primal Health V. Does very little, but it's good to have in a pinch and I'm either bleeding to death or it's down to the wire.

If it's down to the wire, I'll use Lighting Breath. It's one of our most damaging attacks, but it misses quite often. I use it as a "last ditch" technique when I'm about to die anyways. I don't often use debuffs as most times they are not needed. Just hit the thing enough and it'll fall :D

so lets try to explain how i fight:

im a lunus and set my tps 50% in tc and 50% in primal (spiked scales and breeze are primal related, maybe i change this to health sometimes ^^)

1) pull with a range teched primal bolt (dragon reach is a joke (in range and recyle)

2) activate a breeze spell, if there are a lot of dangerous mobs then if available the breeze ability

3) cast grazing winds (area)

4) use ability snarl (area)

5) use spiked scales

6) if i fight against masses then i love to start my area breath (real cheap for this mass area damage)

7) gold rage/silver rage/ravage to get my uber rare dragonteched scales to trigger (very usefull for my valkor claw too)

8) because we dragons dont have a lot of abilities i click on bite/tail whip every time when its available, but its only nice to see another animation ^^

9) casting spells? hmm rarely, sometimes i use my gust/barrage/tempest/the other one, they are usefull but i would love to use other abilities instead

i love to battle more than a few enemies at a time, and my tps in health and aquireing health xtals and high armor does its job pretty well.

I normally pull if my teched imp prime bolt or just run into a big blob of mobs like giant fire beetles. I click my spike scales and refreshing breeze if more than 6, then i pummel away with all my abilities *usually our ancient dragon breath first*

i do use our new primal health (teched) every 10 seconds. shield of gold if i decide to go over 10 mobs or more.

with our new ability to heal ourselves, high hp and high armor it seems the closest we can get to a multi classed biped.

Hmmm depends on what I'm fighting, but my general setup if nothing is on cooldown is:

1. Make sure buffs are up (Dragon Gift, Determination, Promote Vit, True Grit, one of the resistance/ward spells)
2. Pull with Dragons Reach, hit Spiked Scales, if I remember throw in Staggering Howl/Snarl
3. Breath of Fire followed by Bite, then Tail Whip, Ravage, Galewind, Silver Strike, Gold Rage
4. Repeat as timers come up (most stuff is usually already dead by then anyway, if not it's generally a BoF/auto attack)
5. Throw in the most powerful breeze I can if needed, keeping Refreshing Breeze available for emergencies

I'm obviously a melee oriented dragon, with my TPs half in TnC and half in Health, with armour scales teched with sockets wherever possible, and TnC/Strength/Breath on them (or will be once I get the comps for the full set)

If I'm against something nasty, or beetles with harden shell, then I'll generally Dragons Reach/GR/SS (if time before Harden Shell) then BoF/auto attack until it's dead/killed itself on my spiked scales.

If I end up surrounded but think I stand a chance, I'll hit Refreshing Breeze, Gold Shield and start using our AoE spells (unteched). If I think I'm gonna die I'll try to use a breeze then either back off (if I think I can win with just a few more hp) or attempt to fly (if I'm blatantly gonna be taking a dirt nap)

I'll post a far more updated version of my tactics, I simply wanted folks to get started on this.

Also please, lets not start saying "don't link this or that timer." I'm certain the devs know we don't want anything linked. Coming out and saying it sounds like we're unreasonable. I don't mind if you say it I guess, but explain why. Tell people why our stun shouldnt be on the same timer as a multi hit attack. :)

Will post mroe later when I have time, but lately I'm a busy dragon/bklue lizard (minor diety of combat).

Peace

i thought id add my own combat style to this thread :) the following apply to a level 100 dragon adventurer:

The Hunt

Probably the safest and simplest technique to master, it involves stalking a desired mob to a range of about 50 meters and hitting them with Dragons Reach to get their attention. It is probably best to employ this tactic outside of a spawn area to avoid the 'spawn spam' problem of suddenly finding yourself rooted and aggroed by new spawn-ins or lag 'invisible' monsters. It also gives a chance to get airbourn if you accidentally pull more than one mob.

Generally i open the fight with Gold Rage, followed by Silver Strike and ravage. This should knock off a good 2/3 of the target's health ideally against a T6 Aegis, allowing you to finish up with whatever other skills you desire (bite is good for dealing damage over time, tail whip for a chance to cast a heal or spell).

This is the only truely effective tactic that a dragon can employ against T6 Withered Aegis safely. Getting closer to mobs brings you in range of casters and archers and leaves you open to mezz spam that is lethal to a dragon. It is effective against any mob that a dragon can solo regardless of tier, and can deal with everything up to (and sometimes including) named mobs T5 and T6. It can be used against Epics but it is advisable that you have a group to back you up ;)

The Berserk Charge

This is pretty unscientific: simply buff up, crack open Shield of Gold and charge headfirst into a mob killing everything that you can. It is not recommended (although fun) to try against T5 and T6 mobs, although expect to pick up a few deathpoints if you do it on a regular basis. It is surprisingly effective against T5 golems provided there isnt a named in the area of aggro. Make sure you have heals ready if you want to live.

Hit and Run

Very simple tactic. Simply get airbourn with buffs up, drop down directly onto your choice target and span multi-attacks on them until dead. Once your arget is dead, simply fly off and repeat. Not effective against any Aegis mob as they spam mezzes and roots that make the tactic dangerous to attempt.

Farming

A great method of collecting stuff, be it hoard, forms, comps or coin. it is not a particuarly effective stratergy for use in a quest, as quests tend to deal with mobs at roughly the same level as you whereas to farm effectively you should really go for mobs 10 levels or more below your current.

Implement this method by running through a mob, attracting all the aggro you thing you can deal with at any given time (with giant ice beetles, a level 100 should be able to cope with about 10 bugs). The important thing is to keep moving so as not to get hit until you are ready to start killing stuff. Pop Breeze, Spiked Scales and even Shield of Gold if you think you are in over your head and start hammering the mob with area of effect attacks such as Breath of Fire Burst, Gust, Barrage and Blast. Breath of Lightning comes into its own here. When you have expended all your area of effect abilities simply switch between regular abilities until the mob is dead. Voila: lots of goodies to loot.

The important thing with thistactic is to not overestimate your abilities and underestimate those of your enemy. I reccomend attempting pulling one or two to gague their abilities if trying this with an unknown mob. Remember, unlike the berserk charge you actually WANT to survuve!

Single Combat

This is pretty much the same as The Hunter technique described above, but your enemy in this encounter is very powerful; generally a T5 named or ARoP boss who you want to try solo before calling in the cavalry. The emphasis should be on defensive abilities in order to keep yourself alive in between dealing out damage to your enemy. It is important also to make sure that you are well away from the rank and file of the rest of the mob; the last thing you need when fighting anuber powerful named is interfering pansies sneaking up on you whilst your attention is elsewhere. Deviding your attacks here really isnt an option; if you distract yourself from the named chances are he will smush you.

This Technique makes heavy use of Spiked Scales and Shield of Gold. As dragons lack defensive abilities beyond GS make sure that all your heals are ready for use before attmepting this. Dragon Fear is also very useful here, as it gives you a few seconds grace in which to cast a heal, wait for Gold Rage to recharge or even to fly away if the going gets too tough and you need to bug out.

Linear Advance

A group technique. Simply advance in a staggered line formation, killing anything you tread over. Useful for dealing with large mobs across a large spawn area with a large group (if you are fortunate enough to find one). Can also be used as a defensive formation to keep lesser mobs away from your friends battling a named/epic or trying to gather resources.

Neophyte

a group (usually guild) technique. Very effective for looting hoard in preperation for RoP. A group of mostly high levels with a few low levels goes on a hunt, the high levels dealing with a mob whilst the low levels follow behind and loot hoard. Remember to keep at least one high level to bodyguard the lower levels in case of spawn spam. this cannor be considered powerlevelling as the exp gained by the lower levels is negligeble.

Stacking

The obiquitous technique for dealing with horrendously powerful critters that no dragon could ever hope to tackle alone: epic mobs, RoP/ARoP bosses, particuarly difficult named critters and certain T6 Withered Aegis mobs. The implementation is simple: stand on top of another persons charachter until you are all totally overlapping. This is effective in distributing attacks between group members and making sure that the mobs attention is not focussed on an individual for too long and (hopefully) allowing them to survive. Generally any healers in the group remain outside of the stack. THIS TECHNIQUE IS NOT USEFUL AGAINST FAFNIR THE DESPOILER

Intervention

A tactic for a smaller group of roughly the same levels who wish to gain higher levels. Pick a fight with a mob a tier higher than you and nominate a champoin to take the first swing. When the champion gets low in health, use Menacing Presence to transfer the aggro to a new champoin whilst the old retires, bruised but alive, to a safe distance. If done properly you should be able to kill the mob without losing any of your own number whilst still gaining experience for being in combat with the mob.

Well, guess i'll add mine in. :D

For hugeee bunches like giant ice beetles-

I do a tank run and bring 'em all together, casting breezes to make sure I stay at full health. Once I have them all, I run myself in to a corner and use spiked scales and a weak breeze. Follow that up with flame burst and BoL if it's charged, and if that doesn't kill them, spiked scales will. ;) Normally i'll also cast a few primal healths on myself to keep my HP high enough to immediatly take more. With this strategy, I can take 15+ of them in a matter of seconds.


Single but non-named/boss mobs-

Pulled with reach or PB, then I cast grazing winds and snarl. AFter, tail whip, GR, SS, ravage. Typically enough to take anything out.

Named/boss mobs-

If it's more than 20 levels over me, I combine tanking and kiting. I get a good distance away and pull with reach, then quickly use refreshing breeze, gold shield, and spiked scales, then cast grazing winds and snarl on it. The entire time SoG is on I tank it, starting with tail whip, gold rage, silver strike, and ravage, then staggering howl and all other attacks I can fit in. After SoG runs out, and if my health is a bit low, I kite and cast breezes until I am healed enough to continue. If i still am at good health, I continue tanking. If the named is my level or so, I do pretty much the same minus SoG and kiting.:D