Dragon lord tips?

[Malaficus Shaikan]

So i got a good idea about how the wizard king and champion work.
I however struggle to understand the dragon lord.
He seems to be nothing then a big beatstick.
I mean sure starting with a dragon is nice but it is just a dragon.
Killing dragons isnt that hard.

[mk11]

1. big nasty fighter from the start, becomes less valuable as game progresses
2. gets money as you accumulate unused artifacts so works well with things that give more artifacts - reclaimer, etc.
3. option to take two level-ups for a substantial governor boost on your capital

[Kit Fulvas]

Originally posted by mk11:

1. big nasty fighter from the start, becomes less valuable as game progresses
2. gets money as you accumulate unused artifacts so works well with things that give more artifacts - reclaimer, etc.
3. option to take two level-ups for a substantial governor boost on your capital

As mK said, good early game lead, that slowly develops into a decent Large Scale generation on empire management.

Plus iirc, you get bonus Affinities. Meaning your Empire exclusive skills progress faster than other Heros too.

[GrandMajora]

When you gain enough levels to upgrade your Breath Attack, the best option seems to be Meteor Breath.

Breath attack is also considered a Magic based attack, and scales its damage off that.

Tail Swipe is also a valuable skill to grab as early as possible.

Beyond that, I would recommend that early game, you separate the Dragon Lord from the rest of the army and have them solo all the marauders littered around your territory. The Dragon Lord should be powerful enough to handle them, and it will earn them some very rapid level increases because they won't be sharing the XP with any soldiers.

Once your DL starts having issues, join them back up with the army again and proceed as normal.

[The Former]

Big beatstick is one way to play a dragon, but a dragon can basically become a lot of things. A mass buffer, a mass debuffer, a tank, an AoE damage-dealer... The dragon leader's greatest strength is the ability to become many things in a powerful and impactful way, without requiring casting points or other important resources to do it.

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by Malaficus Shaikan:

I mean sure starting with a dragon is nice but it is just a dragon.
Killing dragons isnt that hard.

Dragon Lords have access to a unique skill tree that Champions and Wizard Kings do not. This skill tree offers some pretty significant buffs to them.

One such buff is the Dragon Scales, which provides additional defense on top of the ones you get from Tough and Resistant.

If your racial form has access to the Tough trait, the Dragon Lord will also benefit from it. And if they are a Materium Dragon, they get even more resistance on top of that.

When fully combined with Defense III and Dragon Scales II, a Materium Dragon can reduce physical damage by 79%, making them one of the greatest tanks in the game.

But that's not all, because Nature Dragons get an aura that gives all nearby units Regeneration every turn, and Chaos Dragons get an aura that inflicts nearby enemies with random status ailments.

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In short, Dragon Lords are way more powerful than the standard dragons you recruit from tomes. They're quite possibly the strongest leader type in the game at the moment, which is balanced out by the fact they can't use most forms of equipment.

[catquiet]

Dragon's Hoard plus Artifact Hoarders is nice. Magic and gold income for every item in your hoard. And you get extra magic items every time you clear an infestation.

If you are taking chaos tomes, you can also cast Incite Revolution on enemy cities to make bandit camps to clear.

[AnemoneMeer]

Dragon Lords are all about power consolidation. As others have said, they get to be tanky as hell. But they also get a wide array of other powerful benefits. Multiple AoEs with rider effects, flying, demolisher. The list goes on and a Dragon Lord is bar none the most powerful single unit in the game when properly levelled up.

You are basically starting the game with a T4 unit on the board, and it will upgrade to the point where it rolls over T5s singlehandedly. Playing a Dragon Lord well is all about turning that earlygame momentum into lategame advantage state. Dragon Lords may scale harder personally than Champions and Wizard Kings, but they get absolutely destroyed by both when forced to play on equal terms. Every fight your Dragon Lord is not is is a fight you are in a disadvantage state to your opponent. Champions out-eco you. Wizard Kings out-magic you. It is up to you to acquire as much earlygame dominance as possible, by clearing out infestations and sites earlier and more often than others through the use of your overpowering leader, collecting magic items to help to patch your economy and flat resource drops to jumpstart your progression to try and hold an advantage state as long as possible through more cities, more population, and so on.

[Yandros]

Well, the battle part is covered in the other answers, but I just want to add that the synergy with industry culture is very nice; you can send the scouts to prospect the mountains and the items they find go straight into your gold income, picking reclaimer gives you even more items, which means more income, and you get the other one that makes items give mana income. I got absurdly rich in a map with regenerating infestations clearing them for items.

[GrandMajora]

Dragon Lords just got a buff. Was playing last night and I noticed we can forge 'Augmented Talons' for them in the item crafting system.

So now if you want your Order Dragon to have Fiend / Undead Slaying on their attacks, in addition to their passive ability to inflict Condemned and deal Spirit Damage, you can do so.