Hey folks, after trying out a myriad of dragon bgs, including acid/fire amp bgs with mixed stuff and spell comboes/peridot, I decided to write a bit about them, and what I think is wrong with them. Keep in mind that some variations of dragon bgs work fine until you stumble upon someone competent with a super-efficient deck (FS/ST meta), but they all suffer from same issues. Underlying issues: Lack of range. This is supposed to be somewhat remedied by bombs/cones and sheer power of melee units. It is not. Vindrax is okay, nothing wrong with big guy, but the rest of bomb/cone units, as well as most melee beaters with race: dragon are underwhelming. Cones got hit, and they were already average/bad on low damage units - which is pretty much most of SL. If SL is supposed to be a bit more of a melee - centered faction it needs more anti range. Lack of tankiness. Again, our bonus is pretty much what justifies lack of defensive abillities on our champions. Vindrax is cool, but vindrax is 100 nora. Drakewing swarm has evasive + numerous, but it also doesn't do anything apart from buffing up rumblers into insanity. Krikkin alpha is carrying the fire by being super good, but that's about it. Dragons simply don't have much to put in a font. Lack of synergy. There is surge and surge and that's it. Rumbler is insane and transmission relay is stupid, but there is nothing else. Lack of fun. Coming very likely from the fact that rumbler is insane, but also because there isn't much you can do with the units. Some of them function fine on their own, but together they don't really bring much else. They don't become that much better, rather than playing them on their own (apart from rumbler), they don't have unit to unit interactions, they have no real supportive abillities. Thoughts on units: Skywing Acidcraw is confused. It wants to apply -3 defense from melee range but has 45 hp, 0 defence and costs around 66-70 nora. It wants to harrass stuff with the bomb, but he has 10 dmg, 6 speed, and nothing to do when it is on cooldown. A prime example of a unit trying to do too much, and ending up doing way too little. Important! : The art is badass. Skywing Agitator is confused. It has a medium range but it also has flamestrike. It has exertion, but it also has 45 hp and 0 defence (do you see a pattern here?). Destroyer is confused. It wants to cleave people for big damage, but it has 9 dmg. Suddenly rend. Even in our boring beater standards, this beater is terrible. Important!: The art is badass. Drakewing Swarm doesn't do anything. It can sit in a font for a bit, but can't tie enemy ranged units unless your opponent is bad. It has multiattack and 8 damage. It's sole purpose is to sit on a font and then stick around buffing rumblers. Rumbler is insane. 66 nora unit with initiative, easily getting into 20- mid 20 damage range with 1-3 range. I want dragons buffed, but this Firker needs to lose surge. Patrol is too costly for its pathetic stats, better run beacon without him. Sunder Hellion is meh. At least it has a clearly defined role as a tanky meatblock. New Eminent is cool, although not particularly efficient. If you can get 5 charges without losing the game, there is potential for taint/band shenanigans and with 50 hp and range he might even live to tell the tale. Prismatic Skywing scales so hard, that it needs trash stats to gimp it down with. Gravity well feels super random on him. Probably the worst dragon, right next to imperator. My biggest issue with all this mess is that these units do not work better together, than on their own, apart from rumbler, ofc, because 30 dmg init 2 units are cool. If bombs weren't gimped so hard, and imperator didn't have electricity acolyte you could make a case of putting high hp dragons in front of your bomb dudes, and play some kind of a stupid siege game, but that's simply not possible, and if it was it would probably not be particularly fun to play against. What I think dragons need, is: Some inter-unit interactions. Morph is pretty nice, rumblers are sick, Vindrax has surge, but apart from that there is not a single dragon which does anything worth mentioning in presence of other dragons. Think about this for a moment. Here are some interactions in other SL themes, which I consider "fun" and "synergetic": Skeezicks rely on warcry and sacrificing some of their units (tiny hp, your stuff WILL eventually die) to let other units make sick powerturns. They also have a variety of good ranged units and a decent supportive cast. Their reliance on powerturns, and their poor hp makes for an intense positional play and poking/baiting play. Very satisfying. Draksars, while boring, get some good buildup mechanics with violent and hp buffs coming from other units. Violent in itself is pretty cool because it forces different positioning from you to be utilized/you choose to sacrifice positioning for violent procs - or not. Not counting lol7rangerocket. Myx rely on stalling and a strong supportive cast from matriarch/coordinator -> summon spam to eventually overwhelm the opponent. Both matriarch and coordinator have 0 combat prowess and because of delayed summon mechanic can be tricky to get out through the early game, but the power of their summons eventually makes up for it. Somewhat unique, somewhat interesting. Dragons have surge. That's it for now, I'm not gonna give any solutions to what I consider to be the dullest and most gimped race in our faction, but I'd like to hear your opinions.
This. So much this. Most of it mirrors my thoughts very well. I used to play a silly dragon/draksar hybrid pre-revamp and I played Dragons for many months after the revamp. They are indeed boring and you've identified all the problems and described the champions pretty well. I honestly wanted to say more, but I'd just be repeating what you said. I do want to emphasize just how boring Sunder Hellion is. I think a simple "meh" is not enough for it. He's one big pile of stats which "amazingly"... gets even more stats!... Drakewing Swarm is worse though. Speaking of which, is Evasive+ Numerous really an ok combination? He's quasi-immune to range and that is a good thing going for it, but somehow it feels silly. I have tried Skywing Patrol at first, but it was bad so I too concluded that Skywing Beacon by itself is just better. Especially for those Rumblers. I did actually use Beacon the entire time I played Dragons and I learned to make use of either the deployment zone or the fact that it makes my opponents act against it asap. The rest is, again, pretty much what you wrote.
It's curious to read all my experiences with that great Artworks right here. I fell in luv with em just to aware that it's nearly impossible to compensate their lack of range and what'S their only lonely tool is.... u said it....... .. surge
I do think a bunch of stuff got "lost in translation" in regards to Skywings during the revamp. For example, the Acidcraw was never tanky, but he was cheaper, had 7 SPD, Swoop and Opp. Assault so he could actually get in and be annoying, while Sundering people. Plus Skywing used to actually give Blitz so you had damage going in with him, instead of not. Sunder Hellion was never all that interesting, but he had Oblivion Shield and some other interesting upgrade options that made him annoying. Ultimately still was just a slab of meat you shove in people's faces and they can't deploy against it without being punished. Tho he wasn't a Skywing back then.
Honestly, I don't even know skywings pre-revamp. I stopped playing around plague expansion with all the dual faction runes coming in, and that's before skywing were a thing. My opinion is based purely on post-revamp dragons.
Skywings used to rule the air. Many people actually thought they were OP and called them "Skywins" but what they were in actuality was a complete theme that worked off of each other. The patrol would drop a beacon on the fringe of combat to release the rumbler that would blast through the enemy while the acidcraw would blitz and swoop behind the lines to hit fragile range units. The opponent had to be VERY wary of the agitator because of his multi attack-exert-fruit combo. And the imperator drop rains of death with his bombs and sustain. He used to have a basic attack upgrade and majestic on base with 2 bombs and acolytes, he was a pure beast. Now he is pure pansy. The nerf to bombs have left him a dried shell of a great unit. Before the infamous revamp, the skywings were a solid theme and extremely fun to play. They were meta worthy and imo I believe these two designs (meta & thematic) should be coexistent.
