Posted on 9.9.2016 04:34
Last updated on 14.9.2016 19:22

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9435. on the Ladder (of 18813)
755. on the PosChengband Ladder (of 2395)
5. for this player (out of 27)

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On 9.9.2016 04:34 Shadowdweller wrote:
Have been playing a bit with riding. These guys seem to take a looong time to get started; ridable dragons start out pretty high level....only one I can consistently stay on at present would be the wyvern. Not sure exactly why that is - might be the level thing or possibly a training issue; I'm not sure eldritch blasts train riding proficiency, ranged weapons are effectively nixed for warlocks on dragon-back, and they also receive fewer attacks than cavalry. Anyway, base idea here was to offset golem speed penalty on riding. The eldritch blasts are lowish damage-wise but have decent AoE capabilities. Haven't had a chance to play with the lance of jousting yet, but looking forward to it.

On 9.9.2016 04:43 murphy wrote:
looking good! i got one to level 28 but still seemed to fall off my ride everytime me or the dragon took damage. i hope you can figure out a way to get your riding skill to improve!

lance of jousting is fun but i wish it recharged faster

On 9.9.2016 09:17 Shadowdweller wrote:
I may have discovered the problem. Using probing it seems that the levels of dragons are even higher than I initially thought. Wyverns seems the lowest rideable at level 20. Some young dragons are 29, but a fair few are lower 30s. Most matures seems to be upper 30s, and ancients surprisingly aren't all that much higher. Not too bummed about jousting cooldown - but I do wish it had better range. Eh well.

On 9.9.2016 10:01 Shadowdweller wrote:
Hmm...nope, still getting thrown a lot by the lower-level young dragons. More to it than that I guess.

On 9.9.2016 10:07 Shadowdweller wrote:
Needless to say - dragon warlocks aren't merely "slightly" inferior to cavalry at riding as the help files would suggest. They are hugely inferior.

On 9.9.2016 14:53 murphy wrote:
if you look at your proficiencies (by pressing ~P ) you can see your riding skill. this needs to be high to prevent getting thrown from the mount. i think cavalry starts and "beginner" and this skill seems to rise pretty quickly. but dragon warlock start at "unskilled' and seems to rise very slowly. maybe with enough patience it can increase to skilled or master level. but didnt survive to see it happen, and honestly was losing hope it was ever going to happen. I'm hoping you have better fortunes than me, it seems like such a cool class i'd like to see one get powerful!

On 9.9.2016 15:00 murphy wrote:
i do think you're on to something about the dragons level being high too. i hatched this crazy scheme to try to find a wand of charm monster or a staff of animate dead so i could get a horse pet and ride it, and maybe i could train riding skill faster that way. but those devices arent found much at low levels

On 9.9.2016 15:04 Shadowdweller wrote:
Yeah, the skill rises slowly...but I think there's also some sort of level cap on the skill. And/or other factors I haven't figured out yet. My cavalry was skilled by level 20 or so and just doesn't fall off - but then again the Cavalry class is not only devoted to riding, but gets riding and not much else. (Whereas the dragonlock gets decent utility spells, device skill, and crowd control blasting).

Anyway, just had one of those crazy knight fights. Found Galahad on a small level. He decided to bring Lancelot, Gareth, and hordes of Camelot knights, those annoying monks, fearmasters, and others. Was initially going to recall out until I realized how quickly Galahad went down once I actually closed. Ported around a bit until I decided that it was just more effective to focus fire on the knight uniques, since they were the summoners. Picked up a fair few artifacts and more egos than I could carry, but nothing fantastic for my riding characters. Still can't handle young dragons.

On 9.9.2016 15:11 Shadowdweller wrote:
Oh btw - dragonlocks unfortunately can ONLY ride dragons. So horses aren't going to happen at least for that class. Can snag a wyvern or young dragon with a capture ball in mountain areas if you're careful. The young dragons won't help much though...and you get Summon Dragon pretty early on.

On 9.9.2016 18:05 wobbly wrote:
Hmm, every time I've needed to train riding skill I've used the trick of digging in to a wall (no room to fall off) then spamming _summoning, haven't tried a dragon warlock though, may try later.

On 9.9.2016 19:44 murphy wrote:
ah, so my horse plan was doomed to fail anyway. well i like wobbly's idea!

On 11.9.2016 04:59 Shadowdweller wrote:
STILL at beginner riding skill. Young dragons are starting to become ridable - but they're flimsy at this level and die rapidly. I tend to keep breath weapons off because the dragons have a nasty habit of waking up things I don't want woken (at least before I close). Should play around with that a bit more. Reforged Sting into this lance - which would be awesome, except for the damned mana brand. (The brand does less damage than the Acid Brand also on the weapon but also eats mana or health in unavailable). I greatly lament the loss of my haste and heal monster wands. Have yet to find replacements.

I realize there's a lot of dungeon left to cover, and maybe the design intent is for dragonlocks to resist a blow or two before being dismounted. But I still kinda take issue with a class that can't really handle its signature supposed focus before finishing more than half the level range. I want to see how the riding thing performs for my dragonlock at 35 though. Also just got a staff of summoning, will see if I can speed train riding any higher.

On 11.9.2016 22:35 Shadowdweller wrote:
So it seems that even the dragons you summon in Chameleon Cave are Chameleons. That place cracks me up.

On 12.9.2016 09:55 Shadowdweller wrote:
Reforged Gondricam into this vampiric, frost-branded new lance. Interesting thing - despite having higher damage bonuses this thing deals about half the damage that my mana/acid branded Sting-Lance. Which leads me to believe that mana and acid brands DO stack somehow. Will play around with it a bit anyway to see how helpful vampirism is but likely to stick with the other since it also has charisma and stealth bonuses. At this rate, I'm gonna end up completely clothed in reforged artifacts; which may speak to how cowardly I am as far as progression goes.

I probably shouldn't complain so much about dragonlock riding, they're...semi-decent casters or caster hybrids. Not much in the way of (high-damage) nuking abilities, aside from a solid device skill; but it's hard to complain about zero cost AoE effects. Golem speed penalty starting to get painful. May actually eq some speed eq just so I don't get blitzed when I am invariably knocked off my dragon.

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