Raising dragons

[harbinger]

:D Before everyone flames me, there are dragons in Tyria right? (Brill and bones...)

:D What would you think of adding a quest in FOW or UW where you get a dragon egg and raise him to be your pet (not a big dragon, even a micro dragon would be neat :) )?

Because I know there is the black widow in UW which is a ranged attack pet (if I am correct) why not a lvl20 pet that does close combat damage? :)

[Ray Of Light]

Little dragon pets would be cute, and it would be fun to quest for them ( or just keep one of Glint's eggs :) ), but just making them another melee pet would be a waste ; ranged elemental damage would be impressive and unique.

[LenyaWhitemane]

love the idea of a dragon pet,
and i second the suggestion of elemental damage :) :P



why not getting one of Glint's eggs as a reward for say...beating her under a time duration? i dont know just a dumb suggestion lol

[harbinger]

:? Why not let the player choose a facet for Glint's offsprings ?

If you prefer to have a necro or a mesmer micro dragon :)

[Ray Of Light]

I wonder that this has never occurred to me before : why not add some pets with a profession of their own ?

By this I mean that :
{a} They possess a few ( maybe even just one ) simple skills which they use when recharged according to regular AI.
{b} They possess profession qualities to balance the increase in power.

E.g. ( NB all dragons are micro )
* A benevolent White Dragon that attacks from afar with Light, chips in with some healing spells and is even capable of the simplest ressurection spell but has lower AL.
* A greedy Black Dragon that attacks from afar with Dark, saps enemies with leeching curses and regularly consumes corpses but receives double damage from Holy & Light.
* A plated Silver Dragon that attacks with Piercing sword skills to cause bleeding but suffers from lengthened knockdown and weakness.
* An aggressive Red Dragon that attacks from afar with Fire and fireballs but has reduced AL against all non-fire elements.

This would certainly make pet selection more tactical and placate people who resent having to give up many skill slots for pets. Obviously, the attribute levels of pets would have to be carefully balanced to keep power in check - maybe level 9 in their strongest attribute for a level 20 pet ? Overall ; non-profession pets would have to remain the toughest and deal the highest base damage to keep them competitive.

[harbinger]

:D I think the profession of the pet should be limited to the second profession of the master. If not, a ranger with a dragon could become a team by itself :)

We should refine details on this post and submit a poll after that...

[Sir Ention]

hmmm...it sounded kinda corny at first, but that other persons post about elemental attacks sounds really cool. But you really couldnt steal onna glint's eggs, she sees all and knows all (and shed own you in like 4 hits lol)

[harbinger]

But you really couldnt steal onna glint's eggs, she sees all and knows all (and shed own you in like 4 hits lol)

Well... an old sage told me :

Never run from a battle you cannot win. It will only make your victory that much more legendary.

:wink: And you Micro Dragon pet more valuable...

p0wn3d? (muahahahaha) :P

[LenyaWhitemane]

good one there *lol* :P

i think this discussion on dragon pets is going somewhere :wink:

[Ray Of Light]

Ok, a tide of ideas coming up ( I am trusting harbinger to sort the wheat from the chaff :) )...

Step One - The Dragon Quest

There should be a quest given to Rangers in The Dragon's Lar, either by a new Dragon Enthusiast. The quest is simply to retrieve a Small Dragon Egg, with no guidance from the quest giver, and worth a modest amount of XP.

Step Two - The Dragon Egg

Battle Glint in the usual Dragon Egg triggered way. When Glint is defeated, she drops a Small Dragon Egg quest item for each character with the appropriate quest.
This overcomes the issue of the current Dragon Egg being a burden-item and singular, and assigning the Small Dragon Eggs as quest items prevents people from trading in them.

Step Three - TLC

Complete the quest by giving the egg to the Dragon Enthusiast. They will be pleased to receive it, but also quite keen not to be caught with it :lol: : the Dragon Enthusiast will offer to look after the egg and ask that you raise the hatchling when you are able to give it the attention required ( = when you say goodbye to your current pet ).

Step Four - Shades Of Grey

Return with no pet and the Dragon Enthusiast will bestow into your care a level 1 Grey Dragon. The Dragon Enthusiast asks that you return when your small dragon has fully matured ( = reached level 20 ).
This Grey Dragon is essentially the same as conventional pets, except has less armour ( 3 - 70 rather than 4 -80 ) and uses long-range Air damage attacks.
As you raise your Grey Dragon, it will evolve in the same way as animal companions ( e.g. Hearty or Dire ).

Step Five - All The Colours Of The Rainbow

Return to the Dragon Enthusiast with your level 20 Grey Dragon and they will offer to teach your dragon using their encyclopedic draconic knowledge. This capability is a service, so can be used repeatedly, but it costs 1 skill point so it is not wise to be switching frequently. Training will cause the colour and capabilites of your dragon to change.
Note that your dragon retains its name and evolutions.
There are six choices, corresponding to each profession, to keep things simple.

Gold Dragon
Profession : Warrior.
Look : Heavy scale plates, elongated claws and horns.
Attack : Melee, Piercing, strong.
AL : 80
Skills : Sever Artery, Pure Strike, Disciplined Stance.
Weakness : Melee attacks only. Double duration of Knockdown ( heavy scales make it hard to lift off ).

Green Dragon
Profession : Ranger.
Look : Gossamer wings, long body.
Attack : Very long-range ( equal to longbow ), Earth.
AL : 70
Skills : Pin Down, Savage Shot, Whirling Defense.
Weakness : Double damage from Fire ( gossamer wings ).

White Dragon
Profession : Monk.
Look : Soft rather than angular.
Attack :Long-range, Light, weak.
AL : 60
Skills : Orison Of Healing, Guardian, Restore Life.
Weakness : Low AL and low damage attacks.

Red Dragon
Profession : Elementalist.
Look : Shiny scales, fiery wings.
Attack : Long-range, Fire.
AL : 70
Skills : Fireball, Immolate, Inferno.
Weakness : Double damage from Water ( fiery wings ).

Pink Dragon
Profession : Mesmer.
Look : Reflective scales, segmented wings.
Attack : Long-range, Chaos.
AL : 60
Skills : Arcane Conundrum, Clumsiness, Phantom Pain.
Weakness : Low AL and unreliable skills.

Black Dragon
Profession : Necromancer.
Look : Curled horns, tattered wings.
Attack : Long-range, Dark.
AL : 70
Skills : Parasitic Bond, Deathly Chill, Soul Feast.
Weakness : Double damage from Holy & Light.

[Sir Ention]

^^ his idea sounds kinda good :D even tho im not a ranger....

[harbinger]

:? Sounds pretty good actually. I like it.

:roll: Now is the perfect time to write a letter to Santa. I want my micro dragon for x-mas :)

[elsalamandra]

Ray Of Light,

Nice one mate :)

I just want to become a ranger now lol.

Seriously its a good plot.

How about making pets accesible to other professions.

I am a warrior monk mainly and want a hydra as a pet lol

[Sir Ention]

all i want for christmas is: A flaming arrow ballista, complete destruction of the white mantle (im workin on it...) an all expense paid trip to foW, and, um.....a piece of 15k gladiator. I know its not much,( :lol: ) but if santa could get it for me it owuld mean the world.....but micro dragons would make other pets obsolete wouldnt they? or wait, you could just have a different pet upto the mission right?

[Ray Of Light]

I think that dragons would be more popular than most other pets, but according-to-our-weird plan they would not quite make them obsolete because :
Regular pets would be tougher.
Regular pets would be more responsive e.g. your pet Red Dragon would be have to queue your pet attack because it is busy casting Fireball.

It would be nice to have non-ranger pets, but that would probably only work if such pets took up party slots like henchpersons do.

No-one is allowed to have a hydra pet until after I get one ! :evil: :lol:

[elsalamandra]

lol

interesting idead about having pet henches heummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

(putting on thinking cap now)

[Ray Of Light]

lol

interesting idead about having pet henches heummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

(putting on thinking cap now)

/suspendreality

Catch valid monsters as pets ( defeat them then use a Signet Of Taming ).
> They are stored at your Guild Hall ( hey, I already said no reality today ! ).
> Guild Leader can release pets to make room.
> Add them to your party, then go where you will ( yes - they stay in party after mapping :D ).
> Battle and raise their XP levels.
> Take them in to PvP.
> Feed them, take them for walkies and try to teach them not to eat Guild Members.

Why, practically no effort at all ! I expect that ArenaNet will have them ready to go within the hour.

:lol:

/resumereality

[harbinger]

:roll: Hey, this gives me a stupid idea...

Instead of wasting a skill slot for charm animal permanantly, why not let the ranger charm the animal, and receive a small token to keep in your inventory?

Once the animal is charmed, you receive a token that proves you are the owner of this pet (customized so nobody can resell pets to other rangers).
Each time you equip with this token, the pet follow you, and you don't need to have "charm animal" anymore :)

Token's could be :
Melandru's hand - for melandru stalkers
Feather of ownership - for chocobo birds :P
Boar tusk - for hogs
Wolf claw - for wolf
and so on...

This could leave some slots for more interesting pet skills, because "charm animal" and revive pet skills already take most of the place...

If the pet skills where in the pet own skill slot, it would be even better :)

[Ray Of Light]

Items would be cool, but I think that just including a pet resurrection item in Charm Animal ( and boosting Comfort Animal in some way to compensate ) would be enough to satisfy most players.

Although, with an item system you would be allowed multiple pets ( only using one at a time )...

[harbinger]

:roll: Didn't thought of this...

Multiple pets....

:? I miss the ravens in DiabloII :)
The druid had a flock of raven to do his dirty job :)

[Stretch]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of dragon pets and especially the quests brought up to get them. I just recently got my ranger to thunderhead and i dont even bother with my pet because i hate losing that skill slot as well as the silly 6 second disable when he dies, i am WAY too kill greedy to keep comfort et al.

[Ray Of Light]

Huh ; I did know that it was possible to add polls afterwards.

A big yes vote from me :D .

[anni]

Gold Dragon
Profession : Warrior.
Look : Heavy scale plates, elongated claws and horns.
Attack : Melee, Piercing, strong.
AL : 80
Skills : Sever Artery, Pure Strike, Disciplined Stance.
Weakness : Melee attacks only. Double duration of Knockdown ( heavy scales make it hard to lift off ).

Green Dragon
Profession : Ranger.
Look : Gossamer wings, long body.
Attack : Very long-range ( equal to longbow ), Earth.
AL : 70
Skills : Pin Down, Savage Shot, Whirling Defense.
Weakness : Double damage from Fire ( gossamer wings ).

White Dragon
Profession : Monk.
Look : Soft rather than angular.
Attack :Long-range, Light, weak.
AL : 60
Skills : Orison Of Healing, Guardian, Restore Life.
Weakness : Low AL and low damage attacks.

Red Dragon
Profession : Elementalist.
Look : Shiny scales, fiery wings.
Attack : Long-range, Fire.
AL : 70
Skills : Fireball, Immolate, Inferno.
Weakness : Double damage from Water ( fiery wings ).

Pink Dragon
Profession : Mesmer.
Look : Reflective scales, segmented wings.
Attack : Long-range, Chaos.
AL : 60
Skills : Arcane Conundrum, Clumsiness, Phantom Pain.
Weakness : Low AL and unreliable skills.

Black Dragon
Profession : Necromancer.
Look : Curled horns, tattered wings.
Attack : Long-range, Dark.
AL : 70
Skills : Parasitic Bond, Deathly Chill, Soul Feast.
Weakness : Double damage from Holy & Light.[/quote]

there sould be a meele dragon that cant realy attack at disstanceand i would make it that any proff can get any dragon not
ex:monks can get a monk dragon only
they should be able to sue any they want
(correct jme if i missunder stood)

[Ray Of Light]

The Gold ( Warrior ) Dragon suggestion is a melee only one, enabling nice melee attack skills.

There would need to be a serious balancing factor to allow other professions to have pets ( dragons or anything else ), or it would completely change the dynamic of the game - such as 8 person parties adventuring with 8 pets !
Note to self - try to form an 8 beast master party :D .
Maybe if dragons were raised as your own personal henchthing, and so take up a party slot when you choose to PvE or PvP with them, that would balance the impact.

[harbinger]

The best way to balance the team would be to make the pet as stupid as a henchman :)

Fire storm starting after the battle :P
Frenzy when in melee attack :P
Backfire on a warrior :P
Fertile seasons when surrounded by hostile tanks :P

That would make the pet dragon useless, but balance the game...

Nah just joking :)

Including magical pet is difficult here because... well... everyone like to have a magic pet. Not onlly rangers :), but in GW, rangers are the only profession (for now) who can have pets...
Plus, these pets sucks a bit...

Maybe magical pets would be yours if you can secure a sigil of ownership :)
This sigil would sever the melandru link to your usual pet (forever, snifff)
This way, even warrior could have their pet as long as they have the sigil in their inventory...

If not, you can buy some kind of ball, in which you store your pokedragon.
But I wonder if it hasn't be already trademarked :P

Meanwhile in the Dimension Of Dev...
pokewars.... Muahahahaha how evil :twisted:

[DarkSun]

OH HELL YEAH....All Hail the Dragons. I say all for it no matter what.

[harbinger]

As it seems a popular feature, I refresh the topic so it stay above the flow...
Come on, give your opinion !

Who want dragons :)

[S_H_R_i_K_E]

The idea sounds good, but.....dragons are supposed to be big. I think it would hinder any confined-space-combat situation. F.e: u want to reach your mate`s at the other end of the hall but some petdragon blocks your way.

In open spaces: you (tank) are on one side of the battle-scrum and you want to attack a certain monk on the other side so you have to go around the fighting... and offcourse there is someones pet-dragon hanging around...

On the other hand, if you get in trouble you could hide in a corner and let your dragon shield you from the baddy`s :P

[harbinger]

We were talking of having a small baby dragon :) (I think...)
If you see Glint's eggs, they aren't that big :)

I think a dragon the size of a bear or a wolf can be done :)

[S_H_R_i_K_E]

Well in that case...you have my vote :)

[anni]

ya but if every proffesion can get a pet well a dragon then it would make a ragers pet usless well more usless

[harbinger]

Notice that the black widow is a very interesting pet.
But because it is difficult to get, you don't often see spiders in game.

Same principle here ;)

[wood kid]

this is my suggestion: when u do quest for egg (really hard), you raise it, and it starts really smal, but each level it gets slightly biger, at levels 1-5 it can only attack in mele, with realy low damage, 5-10 it gets a short range fire attack, in close corteres will use mele, 10-15 mdeium range, more damage. at 20 it gets very large, and huge damage in range, and devistating damage in mele. For the difrent dragon types, each egg is colour coded for dragon type, u choose wich egg u want. to ensure that other pets arent made totaly useless: if your dragon dies, it stayes dead, and put in a way to conrol normal pets better (ie you can tell them to attack first), but dragons will just attack any enimy that gets too close. you should haveto keep the dragon happy (by feeding & other stuff) or else it will turn on you. Also i like the idea of giveing it skills, but they should be diffrent skills from player skills you could have:
fire dragon has:
dragon fire - does 100 fire damage, sets target on fire for 20 sec.
heated claws (mele) - 30 - 50 hot damage
ice dragon:
freezing breath - 100 cold damage 90% cance to freeze target to ground for 25 sec.
icy claws (mele) - 20 - 50 cold damage, 10% chance to freeze target for 10 sec
large dragon (mele only, 2x size of regualr dragon):
brutal slash (mele)- 100 - 150 damage
flight - dragon flies into air for 30 sec, making it untargetable, when it comes down it does 300 damage to anyrthing it lands on
(all skills aquired at 20)

[Thrain]

I like the idea of a mini pet dragon, although I think it should be something limited to rangers only. The only other profession that has anything like a pet is the necro, and those are only for a limited time duration. Elementalists don't have a familiar or anything, and I think the addition of 'pets' for all professions would require an extensive overhaul of the game and its mechanics. Also, if everyone could have a pet dragon, then the ranger should be able to keep their regular pet too. Also, beastmastery would have no effect on the dragon, as that would make only the ranger's dragon any good (comparatively).

On a pro-dragon note: how about instead of making the dragon's inherently weaker than other pets, why not make them equal, but much more difficult to get/lvl. For example: the "dragon quest" can only be taken if you DON'T complete the bonus for the dragon's lair mission, you are ascended, and you have completed all of the titan quests. Because you didn't steal her egg, Glint likes you, and as a reward for completing the titans quests, she offers you another quest. The quest is something hard, like you have to defeat Glint's evil dopple (either by yourself, or in a party of 4 max) and this is only available to rangers. The reward is a baby grey dragon pet that Glint gives you (as thanks for your help). She then gives you another quest: lvl up her baby to 20. The reward is -X skill points (where X is the number of skills the dragon will get) and the dragon 'evolves' into the type of your choice (however you also have to cap an elite <name your profession here> dragon skill inorder for that profession to be an option. This skill would then be one of the skills the pet dragon gets (but doesn't cost you a skill point, you paid that price when you got the cap sig.) but you can't use the skill. Another draw back is that since dragons live longer etc. it takes twice as long to lvl up.

If the mission bonus part is too much of an issue, instead of having the pet evolve (playful/dire) if you completed the bonus and killed Glint, then at the end of the titan quests Glint's evil twin shows up and does the same quests except you have to defeat reg Glint again, and the evil grey dragon is dire, the 'good' grey dragon is playful.

[harbinger]

:roll: mmmmh lots of good ideas. Dragon seems to be much more popular than giant snakes or phenix :)

I was thinking of an interesting evolution.
Let say you start with a dragon that has nothing special (aka grey dragon). You raise it as a normal pet (with the beast mastery skills) until it is level 10. A dragon is intelligent. More than a bear a spider or a wolf (or a hog, or a bird or ...). So I think the dragon could be self conscious and choose what he wants to be later :)

Why should he listen to a puny human? :)

So when the time has come, your micro dragon proposes a quest a bit like "the path of a hero" (I don't remember the exact names) where he chooses his secondary profession :)

A bit of randomness in the choice of your dragon :)

[Thrain]

hmm... what if you only had indirect control over the evolution of your dragon? for example: your dragon evolves to match the 'subtype' of the ranger skill(s) you use most. that is to say if you always use life stealing skills etc. your dragon evolves into a necro, or generic attacks esp. pet melee attacks lead to a warrior, interrupt leads to mesmer, healing/res leads to monk, if you use alot of spirits it becomes a ranger, (i'm not sure what would lead to nuker). perhaps fire damage skills would be nuker. or this could merely determine the 'special' attack your dragon has. like if you always (or mostly) deal fire damage (with skills) your dragon has a fire attack, either like a fireball, or melee attacks set things on fire (maybe 20% chance). if you use poison alot, same deal. if you use alot of interrupt, your dragon has a 33% chance to interrupt target foe with a melee attack (or ranged if ranged, but only on 'normal' attacks). if you use alot of life siphon, your dragon is constantly vampiric (for example 25% of the physical damage it deals is gained in health). same for cripple, bleeding, and blind.

on a slightly different note, i'd like to see more 'real' dragons in the game. so far glint is the only 'real' dragon in the game. i mean, the drakes are too small, and don't have much in the wing department, and the bone dragons are too small, and often laughably weak (this doesn't include the FoW bone dragons). glint's the only huge mega powerfull dragon in the game really. i'd like to see red dragons, and such as monsters to fight. and it might make sense to see this change before dragons start showing up as pets.

[Stretch]

Agreed, we definately could use more dragon opponents that are more difficult. Would be nice to ahve an addition like hte titan quests, to have "Dragon Quests" going into dragon's gullet (one of the few places no one goes) and killing them and so on. Would then allow for the raising etc.

[harbinger]

a dragon intelligent enough to adapt to your fighting skill? The other pets are going to grow jealous (if they know the concept of it). But that's a good idea...

:oops: And fighting more dragons would be fun IF and I say IF, you don't find them in 6-pack spiking fire spells or whatever spells they use.

What I would imagine is that a dragon would control a tribes of grawl or ettin... Then when you arrive, the dragon cast spells while ettins or grawl fight you.

If you just have bunch of lvl 34 dragons synchronizing a meteor attack, then forget it. Your are just as good as dragon fodder.

[harbinger]

:D I resurrect this old poll because of this post :)

http://forums.knights-templar.com/viewtopic.php?p=25336#25336

:D As I found an image of the ideal micro dragon pet I was refering to since the beginning.

:roll: Well, it might not be this talkative in game. But itshould be this small :)

http://brunothebandit.com/comics/19980731a.gif

[Viktor]

I like the Idea of having a Dragon Pet but it should come with some heavy penalties.

The charm dargon/special pet should be an Elite Skill. The dragon/special pet It should be allowed to have 0 - 2 choosable skills depending on beastmaster level. The penalty for dragon/special pet death should be death, Life - 50% of maximum or 30 energy exhaustion since the how would one otherwise be able to beat an Iway team with dragons! and the pet should be imobilized if its master dies.

[harbinger]

:shock: are there that much malus for black widow owners?

:D I just want more special pet. What if a ranger want a special pet, but is arachnopob :)?

[Coarse Humanity]

maybe get devourers like old mac have !! 8)