Part 51: Game Mechanics: Dragon Skills

Game Mechanics: Dragon Skills

Dragon Skills are different than human skills. They are permanently capped at 5, they are all available from the start, and levelling up doesn’t give you Dragon skill points – you can only get Dragon skill points from finding books pre-placed in the world.


Firebreath
- "Almost synonymous with the Dragon is her most feared attack: the breath of fire, a huge cone of scorching flames that utterly destroys and disintegrates all it's stifling claws meet. Those Dragons that wield this mighty force may be confident their enemies will either horribly perish or flee, never to return."

Damage / Second: 40 -> 67
Mana / Second: 60 -> 93


This is the basic attack, left-click by default. Hold it down to use continuously. Good at taking down towers, not great at hitting fast-moving fliers. It drains mana quickly. When you run out of mana (because you used Firebreath constantly), you can still produce a weaker flame, but it would be better to stop flaming for a few seconds to get your mana back.


Fire Sphere
- "Even more formidable than the usual bellow of fire is this fully-fledged orb of flame capable of incinerating even the toughest of foes. It isn't subtle, but it gets the job done."

Mana Cost: 29 -> 44
Damage: 200 -> 320
Cooldown: 5 -> 4 seconds
Burn Duration: 8 seconds


Your main attack spell. This shoots out a homing fireball that hits and enemy and keeps burning them for 8 seconds. Very useful as a fire and forget most of the time.


Dragon Polymorph
- "Even a Dragon may find itself outnumbered by dangerous enemies.. Turning them into oblivious ladybirds so as to finish them off in more comfortable numbers is, in such an event, a wise course of action indeed."

Mana Cost: 49 -> 73
Targets: 1 -> 3
Duration: 20 -> 40 seconds
Cooldown: 5 -> 4 seconds

This polymorph spell turns any flying enemy into a ladybird for quite a while. Useful because some enemies have annoying full heal spells, and they can’t cast them while in ladybird form.


Dragon Spirit
- "When the fight is over, Dragons also tend to take time to lick their scales. If you feel like forgoing this lengthy process, this spell will heal the wounds you may have sustained - and save you the nuisance of a tired tongue."

Mana Cost: 49 -> 73
HP / second: 50 -> 74
Total Healed: 250 -> 370
Duration: 5 seconds.
Cooldown: 40 -> 36

This is the best way for the Dragon to heal its HP, although it’s still not that great because it doesn’t heal much compared to the HP pool of a Dragon.


Dragon Shield
- "Incredible though it may sound, there are foes in the wildest parts of the world that may challenge even a Dragon. You are therefore able to put before you a magical force that shields against the ferocious attacks of evil flocks of enemies."

Mana Cast Cost: 49 -> 73
Mana Cost / Second: 41
Damage Absorbed: 252 -> 372
Cooldown: 60 -> 52 seconds

A shield which absorbs a bit of damage. One drawback is that you can’t cast your healing spell Dragon Spirit while using this without it canceling the shield, nor can you cast this while being healed by Dragon Spirit.


Dragon Burst
- "The Dragon Burst is a powerful attack during which the Dragon very briefly meditates upon the sheer strength of its being so as to consequently release the devastating result all around itself in a burst of destructive magical energy. The grass will be greener on the other side after this happens."

Mana Cost: 74 -> 110
Damage: 240 -> 384
Cooldown: 30 -> 22

You freeze in place and emit a spherical burst of energy damaging everything around you. The problem is that the damage isn’t that great and having to freeze in place makes you vulnerable to taking damage of your own.


Summon Friend
- "When engaging flocks of airborne adversaries it is always handy to have a wingman, and you'll find a wyvern is perfectly suited to fulfill that role. Of course, it also gives the enemy something else to shoot at."
Mana Cost: 49 -> 73
Wyvern Level: 20 -> 32
Duration: 60 -> 100 seconds
Cooldown: 5 seconds

Summons a wyvern ally to attack and distract other enemies in the air. It might be useful to distract the more dangerous towers that have long cooldowns, but I’ll probably ignore or forget about this one.