Dragon Mage changes

[mrDreadlock 0]

Hi! I've recently got back to sacred..again:)

Latest CM patch changelog says Dragon Mage: Dragon Berserk and Dragon Form have been pimped to be somewhat playable and useful.

That's great news, but is there a more detailed description of what changes where made to Combat Arts?

 

I couldn't find it anywhere, but maybe I'm just blind.

Thanks in advance to anyone who stop by with some knowledge/nubers/hints:)

[chattius 2,519]

Changes:

The berserk form and dragon forms got the alchemy skill build in. Even you don't choose it as a dragon mage skill, the transforms can use all trophies and have them boosted a bit.

 

All 5 resistances

The original transforms had only physical resistance. Now all 5 are covered.

 

I did some testing in CM-patch with a single aspect dragon mage (only dragon magic, no other aspect). The berserker could survive and kill even in niobium if you know what you are doing: where to hunt for trophies, knowing that you have no resistances against for example: Damage_over_time:_Magic, ...

 

A transformer is probably a build which is best played by a 200/200/75/75 approach: keeping bargaining at level, keeping dragon magic focus at level and bring dragon magic lore and ancient magic to mastery.

 

The good thing is: if you socket +allSkills into your bargaining gear you can use the very same gear to play transformed.

[Rickety 0]

I've been playing with the CM patch for a bit and decided to give the Dragon Mage another go. The changes to the Beserk form are pretty amazing and is by far the best boss killer I've found! I do have a few questions though regarding what actually effects the form itself.

 

Do any skills make a difference when you are in the form itself? As far as I can tell, both DM Lore/Focus change when/how fast you can actually change into the form but have no effect on the form itself when you are in it. Is this correct?

 

Does the Beserk form have a buff to Armour values? If so, would Armour Lore increase these values? What about Toughness? Would the all channel mitigation come into play while in Beserk Form?

 

Does Constitution change how much Life you have in Dragon form or is the life value set by the CA level?

 

Spell Resist/Combat Reflexes have any affect or evasion/resist based purely on the CA levels?

 

 

Essentially, does anything effect the Beserk Form once you are in it other than the CA level?

 

Any help would be appreciated!

[Jailbar 0]

I don't have the answers to your questions Rickety, but I'd like to ask another question about the Dragon Mage! Not about what it does, but are people happy with the change? Personally I never use Alchemy and I think it's a bit annoying to use. I'd prefer a change which makes the form just scale better, like increase the life leech per level, or turn it into % life leech.

 

I don't have a high level DM, but I made one to try it out, cast Ker's spell at level one, and killed the demon. At level one (level 1 Dragon Berserk, no other items other than what you start with). It was INSANE. Yet I hear people saying Dragon Berserk isn't as good later. I don't think weird things should be done like give it Alchemy, I think that the form should just scale better. Nerf the numbers at level 1, improve them as it goes.

 

Dragon Berserk is definitely one of the coolest spells in the game, but I'm not gonna bother to level that DM up if he'll just suck later unless I hunt for trophies.

 

Edit: Another idea is to turn one of the duration-increasing modifications into a damage mitigation, evade, or reflect mod. From what I've read, he has trouble surviving, and these are important things that most melee chars would get that he currently can't. Straight mitigation makes the most sense, as "Hardened Scales" or something. Combined with the recent armor buff, that should help.

 

Maybe I should actually level up that DM so I can know what I'm talking about, and find out what he's missing at high levels

Edited September 9, 2011 by Jailbar