Dragon Mage - Challenge

[chattius 2,523]

The local youth club did a challenge with following rules:

• 1. Everyone should play a dragon mage.
  
• 2. Only one of the 3 magical lores is allowed.
  
• 3. In the aspect you have chosen the lore only one of the spammable combat arts is allowed to be modified.
  
• 4. Spammable combat arts are: dragon strike, destroyer, gust of wind, mind strike and energy blaze.
  
• 5. You can play whereever you want: youth camp, beach, lake, at home, ....
  
• 6. End of summer breaks the character would be installed at the machines of youth camp. Then it has to do 8 different boss runs and speed leveling in 4 different areas, both chosen by a lottery at day of challenge.
  
• 7. A jury will give points for speed of solving the areas, creativity and fun.
  

 

My oldest was winner of last challenge and couldn't chose freely from the 5 combat arts. She has to play a dragon strike build. My second can choose freely. How would you design your build if you would be in the challenge?

 

My dragon strike build would be a high hitpoints approach:

All vitality, constitution, high level familiar modified for hitpoints and having the lore, toughness for damage mitigation and more virtual hitpoint

so far chosen: dragon magic focus, dragon magic lore, constitution, toughness

 

High hitpoint defense demands fast hp refilling:

alchemy for 100% heal in niob and to boost attack speed for x% life leech weapons

so far chosen: dragon magic focus, dragon magic lore, constitution, toughness, alchemy

 

Adding damage to dragon strike:

ancient magic, combat discipline

so far chosen: dragon magic focus, dragon magic lore, constitution, toughness, alchemy, ancient magic, combat discipline

 

Armour lore is a must have:

so far chosen: dragon magic focus, dragon magic lore, constitution, toughness, alchemy, ancient magic, combat discipline, armour lore

 

We will need spell block in niob:

mentalism focus and concentration to take runes of protection

So the 10 skills will be: dragon magic focus, dragon magic lore, constitution, toughness, alchemy, ancient magic, combat discipline, armour lore, mentalism focus and concentration

 

The Buffs:

Runes of Protection: awe, stone skin, runes - without the lore physical resistance wouldne be that high

Familiar: fire bug (experience-mod is buggy), quick mind (to compensate no lore in mentalism), life force

 

Main CA:

Dragon Strike: heat, heat, fury - to do as much damage as possible as quickly as possible

 

Support CA:

Maelstrom: grind, extension, demoralize - decided against slow arrows because RoP already have arrow block

Energy Blaze: confusion, zone, experience

Mind Strike: weakness, expansion, drill

 

Dragon strike is hard to use indoor. But boss enemies have normaly enough room around them. Some time has to be spend to test if a dragon strike build ca nhold on its own. I think that dragon strike will be the hardest of the 5 Combat Arts as main ca.

[chattius 2,523]

After some discussion my daughters decided to do the challenge with an identical character for both of them. An evil adult forced them to reduce play time to finish school projects. The character will not take any magic lore to modify combat arts. So the same character can be used for the dragon strike challenge for my oldest and a destroyer-build for my second. In the start they didn't know if it is possible to play without a magic lore. So the first magical skill to modify a combat art was not taken before level 35. It is a strange start, using several unmodified combat arts in combinations.

 

Stf #Md Arm Cnc Shi CDi Tou Con AMg DFo MFo EFo
006 --- 004 005 001 --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
012 --- 005 005 005 005 005 --- --- --- --- ---
018 --- 005 005 018 006 005 005 --- --- --- ---
024 --- 005 005 024 018 005 005 --- --- --- ---
030 --- 005 005 030 030 007 005 005 --- --- ---
036 003 005 005 036 036 011 005 005 009 --- ---
042 003 005 005 042 042 023 005 005 009 --- ---
048 003 005 005 048 048 035 005 005 009 --- ---
054 006 005 005 054 054 044 005 005 009 009 ---
060 006 005 005 060 060 060 005 007 009 009 ---
066 009 005 005 066 066 066 005 011 009 009 009
072 009 005 005 072 072 072 005 023 009 009 009
078 009 005 005 075 075 075 005 044 009 009 009
084 009 005 005 075 075 075 005 074 009 009 009
090 013 005 005 075 075 075 005 075 031 016 009
096 017 005 005 075 075 075 005 075 031 031 024
102 018 028 005 075 075 075 005 075 031 031 031

Stf-Level, #Md-number of mods to CA, Arm-armour lore,
Cnc-concentration, Shi-shield lore, CDi-combat discipline,
Tou-toughness, Con-constitution, Amg-ancient magic,
DFo-dragon magic focus, MFo-mentalism focus, EFo-elmentalism focus

 

Attributes:

All points into vitality

 

Combat Arts were modified in this order:

 

To add damage to all our spells:

Familiar:

fire bug - other mod is bugged,

quick mind - castung speed, because no lores taken

energy flux - the character is played without reg per hit

 

To counter ranged enemies:

Runes of Protection:

awe - stun is better than just physical protection

stone skin - same for arrow block

runes - to counter these nasty x% life leech attacks

 

9 quick points to boost one damage spell, no buff in this aspect used

Destroyer:

explosive - they should have found a target in 10s already

swarm - they should have found a target in 10s already

explosive - With 30+ destroyers around, the ones finding a target should do real damage

 

A universal spell: damage and protection in a wide area:

Dragon Strike:

terror: adds protection - stunned targets can't hit us

heat: faster damage because reducing attack value is already in the unmodified spell to some degree

scatter: to stun enemies in a wider radius, so they are easy targets for the destroyers

 

Another dual purpose spell:

Energy Blaze:

confusion - reduce enemy attack speed, its attack value is lowered by dragon strike already

zone - more radius, DoT will get them earlier

afterglow - more DoT damage

 

And another:

Gust of Wind:

poison mist - dragon strike should have stunned already, and another damage type is handy

radius - 240 instead of 180 degree covered, or more hits on a single target

impact - GoW is last in combination, so it often autotargets on a distant enemy, all gusts hitting a single target

 

Why should it be possible to play without a lore:

The familiar gives the needed casting speed.

Combat discipline adds around the same x% damage than a magical lore, but it will add it to all 3 aspects.

This character uses some attack spells to lower the offense on the targets.

Instead one hard hitting CA it are 3-4 Combat Arts which cover a big area and do DoT.

Maelstrom should reduce attributes and physical resistance of enemies in later levels, so destroyers should kill faster.

In the challenge dragon strike will be a pain to use in caves, so trying to boost other spells without taking the lore was an idea.

 

The used combination:

Dragon strike (takes time for the dragon to attack), destroyer, energy blaze, gust of wind

Edited August 9, 2010 by chattius

[Furian67 14]

Yes I think this works very well. I didn't take Dragon Lore and I have 33 points into Dragon Focus at the moment, I just recently tried to use Dragon Strike solo, not in a combo and was very impressed. I have no weapon lore but I use a LL% throwing star with 3.0% Regen per Hit socketed. The speed at which the Dragon Strike attacks is incredible. Even with all my CA at malus the offensive power the Dragon mage can unleash is awesome. I am excited to find out what my CA will be like once they get modded. I am currently at level 93 running all three buffs that are modded, along with Eternal Fire, Gust of Wind, Tornado, Maelstrom, and Combat Trance, all other CA I'm using are not modded but I would not know that by the effectiveness they still have.

[Legend Aadil 4]

Does this mean you have unselected the option which takes regeneration from other aspects? And individually wait for the recharging times rather than waiting.

So while you wait for Dragon Strike to recharge, you use the next aspect's spell?