Lord Xundrau
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Another huge fan of DragonLord here. I've always preferred the slow, strategic, methodical approach to combat in gaming and the DragonLord best captures that for me. Combat as a DragonLord is the management of resources and watching for the right moments for the right skills. And despite what some would say, it does have limitations and weaknesses; it cannot simply turtle through any fight. It has a higher threshold for pain, but once that threshold is passed, it falls quickly - enemies and bosses which can outpace the healing and penetrate the defenses can eat DragonLords for lunch.
I agree that having the Multi-hit element locked is highly unfortunate, and I'll agree that having all the Dots is rather needless. I understand wanting to make the class viable from a Melee or a Caster orientation. Perhaps with a merging of the Dots -as others have suggested- the remaining skills could become other, more magely abilities? Perhaps an attack on an enemy's Mana bar? Or a good debuff, like reducing an enemy's hit chance by a modest percentage? Or perhaps, since the DragonLord is designed to be accessible to all Base Class characters, perhaps it could use a more Roguish skill or two, such as a skill that does guaranteed Pierce-type damage? None of these should be powerfully offensive, but should make the class more adaptable to the demands of role and situation, and I feel that adaptability is one thing the DragonLord lacks, the one thing it probably shouldn't for being such a strategic class.
Artistically, I love the overall design of the armor and always have. I use the Color Custom Evolved version, despite the many disappointed bugs and glitches. I've temporarily set the customized colors to match the default so that I won't have to change armors when it is fixed. Silly? Perhaps. And I'll admit, I'm actually not a fan of the shield. I'm not bothered by it, I think it's good to have someone actually using shields and DragonLords are perhaps the most mechanically fitting to be seen with one. But I do miss the more classic appearance.
Hrmmm.. you know what might actually be interesting, from a purely hypothetical standpoint? Make the shield functional. Perhaps have it carried on the back for cut-scenes and running. In combat, you might activate a buff that will last nice and long - say ten turns - and pulls the shield out. It could provide a small but consistent bonus, perhaps lowered attack damage and raising avoidance by a roughly equal amount. You wouldn't need a shield for any old monster, but could deploy it to further defend against strong bosses. With the one of the chief vulnerabilities of the class being enemies that surpass their defensive threshold (Damage-Racing Bosses like Manacrest in the most recent release), it makes sense to me, logistically, that the class's abilities should further extend that threshold. Play to one's own strengths, and all that. Just a flight of fancy, though.
I think the most pressing issue with the class, though, is easily the Audio bugs. This is the one that genuinely makes the class functionally broken. A single attack noise and the background music is all I get, and if I disable the Music anywhere, that single swooshing sound also disappears leaving me in complete silence. That's how it manifests itself for me. I don't know if this is the exact way it appears to other players, but this is a bug that has been reported. There's a whole post dedicated to the DragonLord in the Bugs sub-forum that seems to have had little to no attention in some time, despite nothing having changed. We're told the problem is known, told not to mention it again, and that's been the end of it since 2012. I don't mean to sound sour about it, I'm just concerned, and I apologize if it's a sore issue to someone on the team. I hope it simply slipped through the cracks, and that there's not someone sitting at a desk who has been banging their head on this one since December to no avail. If there is such a person, please hug them, they probably need it by now.
Well, that's about all the input I have to offer. Praise and props to all the people at AE; both for the fun and engaging games, and for your interactivity with the community and fanbase! Rock on!
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