Before reading this, some of you may already have, I want you to understand something very clearly. If you desire to attack dragons, or attack bipeds, or compare the two in anyway take it to my original thread that was moved to the dragon forums. If you wish to contribute to the suggestion here, feel free. If you wish to tear it apart, take it to the original thread.
As I stated before, the dragon adventurer school is for the most part well balanced. It seems some of you are starting to understand that, and are starting to realize that those of us (100/100 dragons playingfrom or near the beginning) that really know what we are talking about are not asking for anything handed to us on a silver platter. Here are a few minor tweaks to the school (and some major tweaks to the race)that I think should be added.
Skills:
Dragons should receive 10T&C and 10Primal per level BEFORE any quests or other bonuses. There really is no excuse for 8/Lvl as dragons are not a hybrid class, they are a single pure dragon class.
Magic:
- Promote Mind equivilant to the Promote Vitality line.
- Addition of a 'Rain-style' AoE (Damage comes down over a certain area in multiple waves. Monsters must remain in the same area to continue taking damage. Typically, there are no more than 3 or 4 pulses.)
- Addition of Primal Stuns, both single target and AoE versions.
- Addition of spell techniques for Primal. All other magic sets have them, primal should as well. A few good ideas would be DoT addon tech and a stun addon tech.
- Revamp of the Spell HoTs. Currently there are four lines. Two of these are never used. I suggest changing them so that (Spell lines 1-4):
1) Short term Hot, same timer as current Dragon HoTs. Heals aboutthree times whatQuickening Breezedoes currently for the six tic duration. Single Target.
2) Medium Term Hot, Three times the duration of current dragon HoTs, 2 minute recharge. Heals for the same amount as Quickening Breeze. Single Target.
3) AoE Group Version of 1. Higher requirements and slightly less effective.
4) AoE Group Version of 2. Higher requirements and slightly less effective.
- Dragon Buffs should last for 30minutes, not 15minutes.
- While this is not a balance issue, some actual spell graphics would be nice as well.
Gifts:
Three Gifts as following:
1) Pure Grit: Functions as the TG roughly two teirs below that of the spell. Does not stack with Gift of Health or Gift of Toughness.
2) Gift of Vitality: (T5) 65 STR/DEX
3) Gift of Mind: (T5) 65 POW/FOC
4) Gift of Flight: Functions as flight speed buff, equivilant gain 2x to gift of speed. Also grants an alacrity bonus at higher tiers (5% T3, 10% T4, 15% T5). This does not stack with Gift of Alacrity.
Spellbased Equivlants to Hoard Based Melee Specials
This is really more of an inner dragon balance than dragon vs. biped. In my opinion, being that we were forced into one class, there should be equal opprotunites to take the spell path or the melee path. With the addition of the spells above, the only other thing lacking is hoard focused spell abilities to Silver Strike and Gold Rage. I suggest the following two ability counterparts. The first would come a few levels after silverstrike, the second would be quested for like gold rage is.
1) Primal Infusion: Increases spell damage by a certain percent on the next spell cast. The highest level version would do something along the lines of 250% damage for a cost of 100 hoard. Recharge 1minute.
2) Primal Resonance: Functions as a multicast of 1 + Tier of ability. This quest is doable every 20 levels. Cost is 200 per teir. Recharge 2 minutes.
3) Primal Dominance: (Not actually an ability) Triggered when Primal Infusion and Primal Resonance are used in conjunction. Costs 150*Teir of primal resonance.
Note: Using Primal Infusion with Primal Resonance while powerful, carries quite a cost (1850hoard at max level), and have much slower recharge than does Gold Rage.
Quest-lines
-All ability quests need to go up to level 100.
-Teir 5Dragon's Gift Quest
-Healing Mastery needs to effect HoTs
-Smelting and Stoneworking Quest Lines
-Additional Crystal Quests (Especially when Claw Slots are finished)
-Probably something I am missing here
Breath Weapons
This is one of those places that are really hurting for dragons. Currently two breath lines exist, Fire and Ice/Lightning (depending on faction). Fire is on a five minute timer, Ice/Lightning on a 10minute timer. They have a small area of effect in front of the dragon (assuming they are adults).
I have 26million hoard, about 700k over the maximum cap (to get an idea just how hard it is to max hoard, I know of two other dragons that have a maximum hoard, and that encompasses all of the live shards). My ice breath, IF it hits does mabey 350damage to a mob much lower level than I. Afterwards, it has an effect that lasts for one minute that, while decent, is not all that amazing. Also understand that the breath weapons are on 100% linked timers relative to the time of the ability.
If you went around the world and asked what the trademark ability of a dragon was, about 90% would probably say the breath weapon. As it now stands, I hardly use my breathweapons do to how utterly worthless they are.
I suggest revamping the ability into three sections per type.
1) A breath weapon with the same effectiveness as is currently in the game. Reduced timer to 1 minute recycle for fire, 2 for faction breaths. Fire available to hatchling.
2) Linked timer to number 1. (Fire:3) (Ice/Lightning:5) minute Recharge. Much larger area of effect, much higher damage (Depending on level of ability, % Multiplier of hoard bonus - this is where the extra damage comes from. A dragon with 0 hoard would see minimal difference between this and 1). Ancient/Adult only.
3) Epic style Breath weapon. 30 minute recharge for fire, 1 hour for faction. Linked timer with other epic breath weapons. Massive damage dependent on hoard. Has extra nasty effects. For flame, this would probably be a DoT. Bears a hoard cost of around 1000 for fire, 2000 for faction. Impressive visual and deadly results. Ancient only.
Faction and Fire breaths are not on linked timers, with the exception of the epic version.
Hoard
Ah yes. The big tamalle. This is arguabley the place that hurts dragons more than anything. This is the place where rewards are so far out sinc with the effort it is near sickening. This is the one place that can make the biggest difference in rewarding a dragon for putting effort into their character. Here are some numbers to help you understand what the current system is.
The current (non-cumulative):
100k hoard: 30 breath damage, 120ac
1mil hoard: 50 breath damage, 200ac
25.3mil+ hoard: 100 breath damage, 480ac
As of now, there are three dragons I know of including myself that have reached the 25.3mil hoard point. The amount of effort required is probably somewhere around getting your fourth 100 class in adventuring from the point you maxed out your first 100. Roughly. Someone mentioned something about getting 50 levels of craft experience while getting hoard up and so its worth it. This is untrue. Not only is it not worth it to do untill you can craft mithril scales (even at 100 we are not 2:1 at mithril yet we can mine T6), but that is craft experience you would be sacrificing in deconstruction. Hoard is a completely seperate grind. It is comparable to multiclassing for bipeds, though, minus the rewards.
What Needs to Be Done:
First off, hatchlings should get the exact same bonus they do now. Nothing should change.
For adults and ancients, the system should be altered drastically. There should be multiple sets of teirs within the hoard which grant their own bonuses, one of those being the current teir. All teirs should be based on level and max out at ~25.3mil hoard.
Lets start with the current teir that exists which currently adds 4ac and 1 breath damage (postweighted) per level. At level 100, another 80ac is thrown in there. For adults, armor per hoard level should double to 8ac per level. Breath weapon damage should increase from 1 breath damage to 5. In addition, there should be a 1 damage postweighted bonus to melee and 1.25-1.5 to primal damage.
In addition to this, new teir systems should be added in that follow different numbers. One of these should be health, speed, attack speed/recycle,and stat bonuses, though mostly focused on health. This would have six levels with much larger gaps between.
Another should add in a few interesting active abilites. Perhaps 3 of these within the entire 25.3mil.
The end result for an adult at level 100 with maxed hoard should look something along the lines of:
+960ac (+710 if Scale changes went in)
+1000hp
15% Alacrity (Stacks and is Passive)
+100 meleedamage
+125-150 primaldamage
+500breath damage
+200 to all stats
+25 flight speed
3 interesting combat abilites
In my opinion, 25.3mil hoard should be part of the requirement for Ancient. If it is not, then proportionally, that difference in ability should be represented through hoard. Some of you may think the above seems overpowered. If you understood the amount of effort required, then you would see quite clearly that it is not.
Hoard is probably the easiest thing to change and it would have the greatest impact on balance. It would also be nice sometime in the future to have a UI window for it to really see where you were and to see what you were getting out of it.
Scales
This is another place where bipeds get alot more out of it than do dragons. As Teirs increase, the difference just becomes greater. Bipeds should also understand that a dragon cannot use all of his/her scale slots untill level 90 for a total of 10 (excluding the scalepack. I do not count this as a true scale.)
Scales function as the Teir*10 (with the exceptionof the tail scale. For some reason this is as if it were a teir higher)of whatever stat the scale stands for (Armor, Strength, Power, Health, ect). They have no base armor and can be teched normally. Foreleg scales and chest scales can be armor socketed. Wingscales can be speed/velocity teched.
So, a set of T5 armor scales at 100 would give you 510ac.
All scales should have a base armor to them. In my opinion 5ac per teir with the hoard changes would be perfect. Even cargo armor has some base armor to it, why shouldnt dragon scales?
Something After 100/100/100
Ancient RoP will be neat (hopefully...), but that, just like adult, is a one time thing. Dragons need a way to progress through killing/crafting after they have reached 100. For this I suggest an alternate advancement system much like what Everquest Live offers. It would accomplish the task quitewell without introducing multiclassing to dragons.
And thats it.
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Updates and Changes:
- Added 10 Per Level for Skills
- Important changes to Spellcasting Special Equivilants
- Additions to Magic Category
- Gifts Section Changed
- Some Adjustment to Hoard Bonus
- Dragon Buffs should last for 30minutes not 15minutes
- Gifts Section seperated from Magic. Details added.
- Technique Portion of Scale Suggestion Removed.
- Modified the HoT Magic Suggestion for Clarity