Greater Dragon Bonanza!

[Kazumi the Wild]

So, its been an eventful evening.

Initially, I was simply hunting destard for A) money, B) hides and scales for library, and C) sin dungeon artifacts, with an eye out, as always for a greater dragon.

My current greater:

Phaera Hahka Tzukara
897 hp, 576 str, 125 dex, 664 int
84 phys, 88 fire, 53 cold, 55 poison, 69 energy
projected skills of
120ish wrestling, 120.5ish tactics, 113ish MR, 114.6 Magery

Pet Power Calculator, if fully trained: 4.3

Hard to beat, I think, without being a destard native for months, neh?

Well, I happened to spot a decent stat, okish skills 83 phys/85 fire resist greater, so with help from a friend, i tame it. There it goes, right to stables, for a guildie working on a tamer. A stranger noticed the greater, and after a bit of conversation, i offered to take her to destard to tame a new greater for herself (hers, she said, was gimp).

Off we go to destard...

3rd greater dragon in, we find a decent stat (625ish str/int, 850ish hp) greater with 81 phys 90 fire resist, albeit 55 energy resist... and with projected 120+ in wrestling, 124ish in tactics, and 118.9 magery. Keeper!

We lure it off to a no-spawn area, and with my first attempt, its tamed. HOO-AH!

There, I did something most unkind and selfish - i asked to keep the greater for my guildie, since i thought it better than the one i'd tamed minutes ago. She declined the other greater, which i'd offered her, and we parted ways for 5 minutes while I helped a destitute guildie regain the clothes and armor from a spawn.

Having a change of heart, I found her again, and gifted her the greater she wanted. Feeling generous (and sure my guildy wouldn't mind me trying to find another), I gifted the other greater in my stable to a stranger asking for a better greater.

Off I went to destard...

and 2nd greater in, I found ANOTHER keeper! Lure to no-spawn, honor self, 5 attempts later I have a greater (albeit not as good as either i had before). In my stable, it went.

Off I went to destard...

2nd greater in, I found... something more. Something special. Something so special, after I lured it to the no-spawn area I went to the stables and immediately released the other greater into the wild, after a quick see if anyone wanted a free greater.

honor self, 5 attempts later... i've failed to tame it.

Waited for the 5 minute timer for honor self to expire (I don't have the resistances nor gumption to do the Invis-self Wenchkin taming maneuver).

5 attempts later... i've failed to tame it, AGAIN.

ANother 5 minutes, hoping beyond hope no idiot would come to gank this beautiful, beautiful creature.

5 attempts later, in the 5th attempt... ITS MINE. 3 seconds later, honor wears off.

Without further ado, I introduce my newest greater, who will be bonded in about 6 days, 23 hours, and 50 minutes.

Morkeleb the Black
854 hp, 646 str, 125 dex, 647 int
85 phys, 89 fire, 54 cold, 58 poison, 74 energy
projected skills of
115.5ish wrestling, 116.9ish tactics, 107ish MR, 115.9 Magery

Pet Power Calculator, if fully trained: 4.3





I'm so happy. So happy. SO HAPPY!

 

[Farsight]

Good job, congrats on the new pet!

Oddly enough, I just had a similar night two nights ago when I decided it was time to get rid of the taming jewels and just work with a pair of bakes for a while.

I set myself up for a potentially long taming frenzy (my last half-way decent bake took two weeks to find and is only "pretty good" by my standards) and the VERY FIRST animal I saw beat out my own best bake in every single attribute (all 4 "low" resists are 56 or higher, fire resist is 88), strength, intelligence... skills don't matter for a fresh tamed bake), and my old one was a decent 3.8 on the scale (low strength killed it).

I've heard of others who have seen very good pets in the last few days too. I think there's something screwy with the RNG. After months of nobody being able to find a good pet, now I've heard of several stories over the past week of great pets being found (I had a similar story last weekend with cu sidhe, but even though that was better than mine in most attributes, I gave it away because I'm quite attached to old Snarl).

Anyhow, congrats!

 

[Kazumi the Wild]

Lets hope the RNG stays screwy... I might go hunting for new bakes, a new cu, and a new runie!

 

[Wenchkin]

Oooh, now that's a nice li'l draggy!

Congrats! Looks like a very eventful and fun evening, and a new pet at the end of it too

Wenchy

 

[RichDC]

I may be the only one...but why would you waste your time on the second drag???

The first is obviously better!!

Higher in all skills
Only marginally lower in resists (not enough to make a difference maybe 1hp per hit)
Higher mana
lower Str(maybe lose 5hp per hit he does)

 

[TimberWolf]

I may be the only one...but why would you waste your time on the second drag???

The first is obviously better!!

Higher in all skills
Only marginally lower in resists (not enough to make a difference maybe 1hp per hit)
Higher mana
lower Str(maybe lose 5hp per hit he does)

skills can always be trained......resists can't
that last drag is 5-6 pts off perfect for max resists!

A very rare pet indeed ..congrats

 

[RichDC]

Im not saying its a bad pet...

But according to his projected skills (im guessing based on pre-tamed) the first dragon is going to be a stronger pet.

and on a side note not one above 900hp shame

 

[TimberWolf]

I think most tamers will take MAx resists over max skills 9/10....but to each their own.

 

[RichDC]

I aim for both and on a GD definatly over 900hp

Almost all my pets i have full resists stats and skills...My GD is a trade of with high hp 950ish high mana 650ish high resists and uber skills 4x120

A gd really doesnt need that high resists, they can tank anything with low resits (for a Gd) as it is the high resists are just if you want to be UBER lazy

 

[Farsight]

I find hit points on a dragon rather insignificant. I can either keep them healed to near full health or I don't want the dragon, and for that, resists are key. Wrestling is my second priority.

But my dragon is for purely defensive purposes. He is the target while the mages and archers do the real damage. If I want offense, I switch to my beetle/bake and follow someone else's dragon into the fray.

 

[RichDC]

Must admit i personally dont use my drag...unless im soloing a peerless,

And Higher Hp is essential for that!!

Need to be able to do the most amount of damage with that firebreath!!!

&with resist above70 on the 3 primary resists he can tank anything to solo!

 

[Farsight]

My favorite uber dragon story happened just the other day. I was doing an arachnid spawn in off hours, and nobody else came to help. By the time I got to Mephitis, nobody still came to help.

I set my dragon on the spider, invised and prayed.

I didn't have to heal him once. It was beautiful! And rather boring, actually.
He has 84 physical/59 poison resists and 123.4 wrestling. And it was his lucky day. I think it was a mutant Mephitis, since I'm usually healing other people's dragons like mad while they're dead from getting pulled in.

 

[Kazumi the Wild]

Must admit i personally dont use my drag...unless im soloing a peerless,

And Higher Hp is essential for that!!

Need to be able to do the most amount of damage with that firebreath!!!

&with resist above70 on the 3 primary resists he can tank anything to solo!

Interesting observations, Rich - not all of which i agree with.

I've found the difference between 75ish and 85ish phys resistance is, in fact, huge. That 85 phys resist drag would take literally 3/5s of the damage a 75 phys resist drag would. Even accounting for, say, a near perfect 130 wrestling... the 75 resist drag would be taking more damage, and on the really high-end targets, especially solo, the rate at which damage is accrued is the difference between lasting 5 minutes before the greater is killed (as too much damage for even vet and GH to handle finally overcomes the 950 hp hurdle) and lasting effectively infinitely until you run out of bandages and/or mana.

The difference is even more obvious, in my opinion, when Vetting is basically impossible - when all you can do is chain GHs, an 85/90 phys/fire resist greater is, well, probably going to do just fine, if not stay at 100% health (this happens regularly against even moderately powerful untamed GD foes). When taking an extra 2/3s of damage from every attack, a 75 phys resist greater is not going to cut it, and those extra 100-150 hps are probably just delaying, rather than preventing, death against the 50k hp Peerless that make vetting difficult or impossible. This is made even more abundantly clear when poison is involved - if you're relying on GHs, even if you COULD keep up with the damage on a 75 phys resist drag otherwise, poison puts a huge kink in the works, while an 85 phys resist drag can probably come back to 100% health without too much trouble.

I also find it interesting you think a 5 point different in melee damage is negligable, and yet you seem to emphasize how important extra damage on the Fire Breath is.

How often does a greater use Fire Breath, anyway? I know that greaters reach the 1.25 second swing speed cap at 125 dex. This means I know that, assuming 1/2 of the attacks hit (slightly lower against some high end stuff, slightly or strongly higher against most everytihng else), a 5 point damage increase is an extra 20 points of damage every 10 seconds. Comparing even my new dragon's 850 hp versus, say, a 950 hp greater, the greater would have to use its fire breath at least once every 10 seconds to equal the extra damage output of a 5-extra-damage-per-swing greater (since, as far as I can tell, it uses the pre-tame HP stats, i.e. 1900 hp for that 950 hp greater, for fire breath damage).

This isn't even touching the fact that the Devs have stated they're going to be nerfing the greater's Fire Breath in some way or another - it might be just for PvP, but i wouldn't be surprised to see it halved to be in line with other fire breathing pets (basically, 10% of current hp, instead of what appears to be the current 10% of current % of pre-tame hp, or more simply, 20% of current hp).

Of course, I am something of a lazy tamer - my playstyle does prefer having a monster that I can basically ignore (except for occasional Greater Heals thrown its way) when its fighting another greater dragon while I loot the dragon or greater it just killed, looking at items and their mods, sorting the scales and leather, etc.

I do think that high HP, Str, Int, and skills (esp wrestling, but also tactics, MR, and magery to greater or lesser extents) have a place on a Greater Dragon - a PvP drag. In the midst of a PvP battle, it isn't going to matter if your GD has 65 or 85 physical resist... especially if they're hitting fairly often for 30-40 damage, breathing fire for 55-60 damage, and FSing/Expl/Ebolting for decent damage as well. If a foe has the time to actually beat your greater in combat, you're probably dead already - in those cases, 85/90 phys resist is just delaying the inevitable.

And for the record, I'm not even considering getting rid of Phaera - though I am really excited I tamed Morkeleb, Phaera will probably still be my primary greater. Most likely, I'll gift Morkeleb to a guildmate, or give it to my second tamer when i get her skills high enough. And I'm also on the lookout basically for the dragon you're describing - never know if there might be PvP in my future, even though I suck at it.

 

[5% Luck]

I find hit points on a dragon rather insignificant. I can either keep them healed to near full health or I don't want the dragon, and for that, resists are key. Wrestling is my second priority.

But my dragon is for purely defensive purposes. He is the target while the mages and archers do the real damage. If I want offense, I switch to my beetle/bake and follow someone else's dragon into the fray.

Fire breath is current HP based! Higher HP better damage and alot more effective than STR! 2 points of HP=1 point of base fire damage!