Skeletal Dragons (if you're curious)

[SouthPaw]

You can't tame these, but there's been a few posts here about how you can get up to 2 skeletal dragons using the Necromancy mastery ability Command Undead (they take 2 slots). I recently got GM necro/ss and the level 1 primer and thought I'd give it a shot. The first one took 3 tries, after the first 2 attempts I got a message "you anger the beast", I ran down the hall, cast invis, and then tried again. The second one I got on the first try, so it's clear you don't have to have super high skill or primer to have success with this. Also FYI, after I "tamed" the first one another one wouldn't spawn, I spent quite a while killing other stuff trying to get one to spawn but it didn't happen. Finally I left the dungeon, went to Luna, and then went back and then another had spawned. So if you want 2 I recommend leaving and coming back because I don't think another will spawn until you do.

They are like tamed pets in every way, except you can't stable or level them. Also just like all unbonded pets, they won't recall with you and you can't rez them if they die, but you can gate, cast heal on them, and vet. You can rename them if you want, you can feed them, and they follow all the standard pet commands. Both of the ones I got had just under 1000 STR and about 600 HP. They had nearly GM wrestling, magery, and eval int, they have necro/ss around 110, and resist spells around 115. The Command Undead mastery states they get life leech, but I didn't see any evidence of that-it doesn't show on the animal lore screen and I never noticed them draining health, maybe I'm doing something wrong or maybe it's broken. They don't have very good resists (in the 50's mostly, physical was around 70) and they have no regens. As far as I could tell I had 100% control, they never disobeyed me.

I had fun with them in Destard, they hit hard, but they also take quite a beating without max resists/regens, also no parry skill unless you skill them up to GM wrestling. When it was the 2 of them vs. 1 GD it went down pretty fast. After awhile I got too much agro and died and then they died. In hindsight I think it would be easier to just get 1. If you wanted, you could run around with 1 of these and a 3 slot CU, or you could get 2 of them and a 1 slot giant beatle to ride and hold loot.

 

[celticus]

Interesting.. How long is their lifespan? And how do you park them on log off?

 

[SouthPaw]

Interesting.. How long is their lifespan? And how do you park them on log off?

They live until either they're killed in battle, or you log off, or you release them->you can release them just like all other pets.

*Update*
I "tamed" another one. This time I went back to Destard with just 1. It had 79 physical/poison resist, but all others were in the 40's, ouch. I did a 1v1 against a greater dragon. It was a very long drawn out battle. I've seen people post that these are the best pets in the game, I completely disagree. This experience has reminded me how important good resists and regens are. This seems more like a novelty than anything else, though I suppose if you had necro on a non-tamer character having a couple of these skeletal dragons to help you out would be better than nothing, but then I don't know how you would heal them, unless you had magery. While the high strength is nice, it doesn't make up for the lack of resists/regens and the fact that you can't stable them and nobody wants to spend time skilling a pet you can't keep longer than 1 day or less if it dies.

*Edit/Update*
That last one I had, I released in Destard. I took my Cu there tonight and it was surprisingly still there, so I had my Cu fight it. Shockingly it nearly killed my AI/Chiv Cu, so now I don't know what to think. That really surprised me, I thought my Cu would easily kill it, which it did, but only with me vetting/healing him, and out of the 3 skele's I got that one was the weakest. Maybe the rng was just against me.

 

[celticus]

They live until either they're killed in battle, or you log off, or you release them->you can release them just like all other pets.

*Update*
I "tamed" another one. This time I went back to Destard with just 1. It had 79 physical/poison resist, but all others were in the 40's, ouch. I did a 1v1 against a greater dragon. It was a very long drawn out battle. I've seen people post that these are the best pets in the game, I completely disagree. This experience has reminded me how important good resists and regens are. This seems more like a novelty than anything else, though I suppose if you had necro on a non-tamer character having a couple of these skeletal dragons to help you out would be better than nothing, but then I don't know how you would heal them, unless you had magery. While the high strength is nice, it doesn't make up for the lack of resists/regens and the fact that you can't stable them and nobody wants to spend time skilling a pet you can't keep longer than 1 day or less if it dies.

*Edit/Update*
That last one I had, I released in Destard. I took my Cu there tonight and it was surprisingly still there, so I had my Cu fight it. Shockingly it nearly killed my AI/Chiv Cu, so now I don't know what to think. That really surprised me, I thought my Cu would easily kill it, which it did, but only with me vetting/healing him, and out of the 3 skele's I got that one was the weakest. Maybe the rng was just against me.

You have to have both necro GM and SS GM to cast these right? Necro alone not enough?

 

[Khyro]

They live until either they're killed in battle, or you log off, or you release them->you can release them just like all other pets.

*Update*
I "tamed" another one. This time I went back to Destard with just 1. It had 79 physical/poison resist, but all others were in the 40's, ouch. I did a 1v1 against a greater dragon. It was a very long drawn out battle. I've seen people post that these are the best pets in the game, I completely disagree. This experience has reminded me how important good resists and regens are. This seems more like a novelty than anything else, though I suppose if you had necro on a non-tamer character having a couple of these skeletal dragons to help you out would be better than nothing, but then I don't know how you would heal them, unless you had magery. While the high strength is nice, it doesn't make up for the lack of resists/regens and the fact that you can't stable them and nobody wants to spend time skilling a pet you can't keep longer than 1 day or less if it dies.

*Edit/Update*
That last one I had, I released in Destard. I took my Cu there tonight and it was surprisingly still there, so I had my Cu fight it. Shockingly it nearly killed my AI/Chiv Cu, so now I don't know what to think. That really surprised me, I thought my Cu would easily kill it, which it did, but only with me vetting/healing him, and out of the 3 skele's I got that one was the weakest. Maybe the rng was just against me.

Skeletal Dragons can do 3x damage against pets, so that's probably why your Cu had a rough time with it.

Skellies are definitely fun, and in the right situation can be really good. My one tamer used to be full necromage weaver with Necro mastery and 2 skeleton dragons. It was a great spec and lots of fun. There are a few issues with skeleton dragons though that made me switch off of them.

First, "command undead" can be extremely temperamental. I've lost countless skeleton dragons in transit through gates, crystal balls, disconnects, and crashes. They really need to add a buffer before they disappear so you don't instantly lose them on crash/disconnect.

Second, they use corpse skin which lowers their own melee hits. This may have been fixed when they changed the AI for necromancy pets, but I haven't done necro mastery in a while.

Third, as you mentioned above, their resist spread can be pretty bad. Definitely an asset for a non-tamer necromancer, and great if they aren't tanking. The innate life leech from command undead helps, but they will die much easier than a normal pet.

They also don't have 150 stamina, are capped at GM skills, no Armor Ignore etc.

I miss the conduit/poison strike combo and I miss the uniqueness of having skeleton dragons, but I do much better in content with my tamer necromage than my pure necromage. Much better for my sanity too, as I got really annoyed when I would lose a skelly when transitioning between zones (just ask @Khaelor~).

It's a great spec to have fun with. However, since you already have taming I would suggest trying to work taming into your necromage template, as I feel a trained pet makes for a better fighting companion overall.

 

[Khyro]

You have to have both necro GM and SS GM to cast these right? Necro alone not enough?

GM Necro and SS is required, yes. I believe 105 Necro/SS is actually the number you need to have them never fail a command. You have to "Tame" them with Command Undead, which is a Necromancy Mastery ability. You can find Skeleton Dragons in The Rat Cave in Illshenar.

You can get Skeleton Dragons from Animate Dead on high fame corpses as well, but those will be the Red/Murderer kind that you can't command.

 

[SouthPaw]

I had 2 of the regular ones with command undead, and 3 more from animate dead on greater dragons-those ones are not nearly as strong and sadly don't take commands.

FYI Khyro, the ones I got had up to 150 stamina. Their stam is = to their dex, but caps at 150. The weakest of the 3 had 137 dex/stam. The first 1 I got had 165 dex/150 stam. Not sure if they were casting corpse skin or not, I'll have to watch for that.

 

[Khyro]

I had 2 of the regular ones with command undead, and 3 more from animate dead on greater dragons-those ones are not nearly as strong and sadly don't take commands.

FYI Khyro, the ones I got had up to 150 stamina. Their stam is = to their dex, but caps at 150. The weakest of the 3 had 137 dex/stam. The first 1 I got had 165 dex/150 stam. Not sure if they were casting corpse skin or not, I'll have to watch for that.

Yea, they can spawn in a range. It's been a while since I used them though. I was curious and went and got 2 of them again, one was 124/124, the other 160/150. I guess you could just kill them until you get 2 of them > 150 dex/stam for optimal performance.

 

[belkins]

They ever fix the skeleton dragons wither spell? I remember they would start attacking other people in my group if they where in range of its wither spell when casted.

 

[SouthPaw]

I was surprised that the wild ones (not sure about the "tamed" ones) cast Revenant on me. Darn thing chased me all the way out of the cave.

 

[Max Blackoak]

some additional info/corrections:

to get 2 skeletal dragons you have to "tame" the first, then take it to a different sub server (malas for example) to spawn another one. Go back and tame the 2nd one.

spirit speak is not required to "tame" and control these skeletal dragons. 90+ necro is all you need. I know because I used to play around with them when they first came out with my sampire template. I never had trouble commanding them but they might have reduced life leech ability - not sure about that.

the best use for these is rat spawns. they usually one hit kill the monsters on all levels and they're a great shield if you're a caster in thick spawn. I used to use them on a necro weaving disco template (magery, necro, ss, weaving, music, disco with 4/6 casting). I had them guard and follow me and kept casting thunderstorm in wraith form and with a str 6 focus over and over while they would turn on everything that attacked me and kill it instantly - I rarely needed to heal myself at all. While corpse skin did lower their own damage output a little it did help with the champ when using animate dead to have 3 liches help you kill the champ - they love to cast fire spells. meanwhile I was casting strangle, evil omen poison strike etc until the champ was ready for WoD.

they work to a lesser degree on other champ spawns. skeletal dragons work best on tons of minor spawn but anything above demon strength means you have to constantly heal or vet them to keep them alive, so not really worth there in my opinion.

 

[SouthPaw]

I also found out that you have to take the dragon to another server before a 2nd one will spawn. After taming the first one I would go down to the sacrifice gate, go to Luna, go back, and usually the 2nd one would be there waiting for me.

The first time I tried this I had 100 necro/ss and the level 1 primer. I've tried it since with 105 necro/100ss and the level 3 primer; success seems about the same, average about 2 tries to "tame" it.

 

[Max Blackoak]

oh and one more thing. You can release these skeletal dragons and re-tame them later. release them in your house for example, just make sure they're in separate rooms and that they can't get to where you are because they will be super aggressive... I found they last around 24 hours that way...

 

[celticus]

I was surprised that the wild ones (not sure about the "tamed" ones) cast Revenant on me. Darn thing chased me all the way out of the cave.

Could you not dispell that mf? Put dispell all on a hotkey and spam it when rev shows up..

 

[celticus]

oh and one more thing. You can release these skeletal dragons and re-tame them later. release them in your house for example, just make sure they're in separate rooms and that they can't get to where you are because they will be super aggressive... I found they last around 24 hours that way...

Cool so that you can refresh them every 20 - 24 hous or so..nice to know..

 

[SouthPaw]

Could you not dispell that mf? Put dispell all on a hotkey and spam it when rev shows up..

Good question! Not sure if revenant can be dispelled, I didn't think to try. All I know is that mf can move fast and find you even when hidden. Fortunately damage is pretty low so I just healed and they auto die after about 1 minute.

 

[Khyro]

oh and one more thing. You can release these skeletal dragons and re-tame them later. release them in your house for example, just make sure they're in separate rooms and that they can't get to where you are because they will be super aggressive... I found they last around 24 hours that way...

Just a warning if you do this. They are subject to the same skill reduction as a normal pet when you release them. So if you tame a pair and fight with them until they GM Wrestling/Tactics, then release them in your house to tame them later, they will now be ~66 Wrestling/Tactics. Do this a few more times, and well you see where I'm going

 

[Maker2014]

Good question! Not sure if revenant can be dispelled, I didn't think to try. All I know is that mf can move fast and find you even when hidden. Fortunately damage is pretty low so I just healed and they auto die after about 1 minute.

I have gotten killed by some of these. Dispell the bigger dispels works, so have it ready on hotkey. Area dispel.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

They also don't have 150 stamina, are capped at GM skills, no Armor Ignore etc.

Actually, Skeletal Dragons can spawn with up to 200 DEX, and therefore have 150 Stamina after Command.

Yeah, Skele Drags are pretty fun for a non-tamer Necromage to play with. Whenever i do Travesty, my Necro/Mage/Mystic has 2 Skele Drags with him to help dish out damage as i spam Conduit+Poison Strike on Travesty. My Necro/Mage/Mystic has GM Necro/120 SS/Lvl 3 Primer, so his Skele Drags get a decent amount of Life Leech.
Skeletal Dragons are basically equivalent to Shadow Wyrms, just with higher DEX potential.

I have gotten killed by some of these. Dispell the bigger dispels works, so have it ready on hotkey. Area dispel.

6th level Dispel has 100% chance to work on Revenants, unlike on EVs/RCs. The Chiv spell, "Dispel Evil" can also quickly and easily dispel Revenants.

 

[Khyro]

Actually, Skeletal Dragons can spawn with up to 200 DEX, and therefore have 150 Stamina after Command..

Yes, as I said above, they have a range Just because they can doesn't mean they always will~

To quote myself...

Yea, they can spawn in a range. It's been a while since I used them though. I was curious and went and got 2 of them again, one was 124/124, the other 160/150.