Dragon breath

[Hynkel]

I'm talking about the dragons' unique attack, that one thing that can utterly destroy your entire party. 

 

How does it work ? Is there some kind of hidden cooldown between two dragon breaths, or is it completely random ? Does it have something like a per encounter limit ?

[Boeroer]

The breath is like a dragon's ranged attack. Most of the time the breath is used when there are no enemies in melee range. If you place a party member or summon right in front of the dragon he will usually not use his breath attacks and also not his AoE wing slams but attack that melee opponent instead with slashes and bites.

[Kaylon]

It has some kind of cooldown because the dragon will cycle through all his attacks periodically even if you always stay in the melee range. The only exception is one of Lengrath's dragons who has a ranged attack he keeps using all the time.

[Boeroer]

I once placed a withdrawn character in the way to block the dragon and he spammed breath attacks like crazy with no cooldown at all.

[ericdy]

What's the primary defend against dragon breath? Reflex?

[Boeroer]

Yepp

[MaxQuest]

How does it work?

It's an ability. Usually has a shape of a cone; but can also be a circular AoE (as in case with Turisulfus).

 

Depending on dragon, breath deals different amount of damage, different type of damage, has different angle and cone length.

I've set the mig/int to 10, and took a few screenshots. You can see them here, or check the following table:

 

Dragon Breath base (@ 10 mig/int) values:

- Adra Dragon:    cone (9.0m, 125°) | AoE | 100-130 corrode damage
- Sky Dragon:     cone (8.1m,  90°) | AoE |  75-100 burn damage | + dazed
- Alpine Dragon:  cone (8.1m,  90°) | FoE | 110-140 freeze damage | + hobbled
- Gafonercos:     cone (9.0m, 125°) | AoE |  60- 90 raw damage | + sickened
- Turisulfus: circular (2.5m, 6m d) | FoE |  55- 80 corrode/burn damage | + blinded

That's why Adra Dragon was so nasty. Not only it had higher relative damage (compared to hp of level 12 party); it also had quite wide cone angle. Provided that she has 30 Mig / 26 Int, her breath hits for 163-212 corrode damage, in a cone of 18.72m length.

 

Dragon Breath values at their own might and intellect:

- Adra Dragon:    cone (18.72m, 125°) | AoE | 163-212 corrode damage | 30 mig / 26 int
- Sky Dragon:     cone (13.93m,  90°) | AoE | 111-148 burn damage | + dazed | 25 mig / 20 int
- Alpine Dragon:  cone (12.96m,  90°) | FoE | 166-211 freeze damage | + hobbled | 26 mig / 18 int | note: dont forget about deathblows
- Gafonercos:     cone (17.64m, 125°) | AoE |  89-133 raw damage | + sickened | 25 mig / 24 int
- Turisulfus: circular (3.7m, 6m dst) | FoE |  86-126 corrode/burn damage | + blinded | 28 mig / 16 int

 

 

 

Is there some kind of hidden cooldown between two dragon breaths, or is it completely random ? Does it have something like a per encounter limit ?

There is a cooldown. For Alpine Dragon: Breath is on a 25s cd.

 

---

Bonus:

- Alpine Dragon active abilities and AI target preferences:

 

 

 

I've extracted related mono-behaviour from dragon's assetbundle, and figured out what those integers mean (and annotated in brackets / violet):

1. Breath
  Target = 5  ("CloseEnemiesCenter")
  PreferenceType = 0  ("None")
  AllowedMovementToTarget = 0  ("MoveWithinRange")
  DamageType = 8  ("None")
  DefenseType = 5  ("None")
  CastingPriority = 80
  m_PathID = 6447
  CooldownTime = 25.000000
  Conditions:
  [0]
    Target = 0  ("Enemy")
    Condition = 16  ("DifficultyIsNormalOrHard")
    Comparison = 0  ("Equal To")
    Value = 0
  [1]
    Target = 0  ("Enemy")
    Condition = 27  ("TimeInCombat")
    Comparison = 1  ("Greater Than")
    Value = 3
  
2. Breath
  Target = 5  ("CloseEnemiesCenter")
  PreferenceType = 0  ("None")
  AllowedMovementToTarget = 0  ("MoveWithinRange")
  DamageType = 8  ("None")
  DefenseType = 5  ("None")
  CastingPriority = 80
  m_PathID = 6448
  CooldownTime = 25.000000
  Conditions:
  [0]
    Target = 0  ("Enemy")
    Condition = 13  ("DifficultyIsEasy")
    Comparison = 0  ("Equal To")
    Value = 0
  [1]
    Target = 0
    Condition = 27  ("TimeInCombat")
    Comparison = 1  ("Greater Than")
    Value = 3
  
3. Finishing Blow
  Target = 2  ("NearestEnemy")
  PreferenceType = 2  ("LowestStamina")
  AllowedMovementToTarget = 0  ("MoveWithinRange")
  DamageType = 8  ("None")
  DefenseType = 5  ("None")
  CastingPriority = 100
  CooldownTime = 0.000000
  Conditions:
  [0]
    Target = 0  ("Enemy")
    Condition = 1  ("Greater Than")
    Comparison = 2  ("HealthPercentage")
    Value = 51

4. Use Weapon
  Target = 2  ("NearestEnemy")
  PreferenceType = 0  ("None")
  AllowedMovementToTarget = 0  ("MoveWithinRange")
  DamageType = 8  ("None")
  DefenseType = 5  ("None")
  CastingPriority = 20
  CooldownTime = 0.000000

5. Tail Lash
  Target = 0  ("CurrentEnemy")
  PreferenceType = 12  ("BehindAttacker")
  AllowedMovementToTarget = 0  ("MoveWithinRange")
  DamageType = 8  ("None")
  DefenseType = 5  ("None")
  CastingPriority = 60
  CooldownTime = 20.000000

6. Wing Storm
  Target = 0  ("CurrentEnemy")
  PreferenceType = 0  ("None")
  AllowedMovementToTarget = 0  ("MoveWithinRange")
  DamageType = 8  ("None")
  DefenseType = 5  ("None")
  CastingPriority = 60
  CooldownTime = 40.000000

 

Notes:

- I don't quite understand why Finishing Blow condition makes a GreaterThan check instead of LessThan. And why it checks for HealthPercentage instead of StaminaPercentage.

- Easy difficulty uses a different breath spell. It has the same name, but has twice lower base damage.

- As for PreferenceType = 0 - it means that AI uses the default target preference, i.e. it calculates a specific proportion (based on target's endurance percentage and distance to it) for all enemies and chooses the most damaged one from nearby. (although current engagements partially adjust that proportion)

Edited February 25, 2017 by MaxQuest