How to beat a Stronghold dragon (guide)

randomdigits

Let's collect in one thread what we know about dragon fight in Stronghold.
There is of course the @ironzerg79 must-read guide here:
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1203340/unrepentant-guide-to-dragon-speed-dating/p1
Which is very educating and entertaining but focusing more on high-IL experienced end gamer perspective and may be a little bit difficult to understand and apply for the new level 70s and below. So why don't we list here some basic recipes - general and class-specific - how to prepare to the fight, what to bring, what to consume and how to actually fight. Please, share your advices. Don't forget to mention if they apply to the specific classes and/or dragons. I'm starting with some of my own thoughts and will update this post once I get some feedback.

All dragons, All classes
Soulforged Armor Enchantment
Terror and Plaguefire Weapon Enchantment on a couple of team members.
Greater Potion of Dragon Slaying. 10% more damage to dragons. This drops from HE events in WoD dragons, or you can buy it off the AH. It lasts 20 minutes and persist through death.
Potion of Dragon Slaying. 10% more damage to dragons (on top of the blue potion above). You can buy these from the Tyranny of Dragons store via the campaign window for Dragon Coins. It lasts 10 minutes only and do not persist through death.
Greater Protection from Dragon Scrolls. 10% less damage from dragons. This also drops from HE events in WoD dragons, or you can buy it off the AH.
Don't get near the dragon's tail and dodge the red spots on the ground.
Surround the dragon for the Combat Advantage bonuses.

Control Wizard
At-Will: Icy Rays or Magic Missile
Encounters: Chill Strike, Ray of Enfeeblement (DR debuff), Disintegrate, Entangling Force
Dailies: Ice Knife

Devoted Cleric
Encounters: Break the Spirit (empowered: team DPS buff), Divine Glow (DR debuff)

Great Weapon Fighter
Encounters: Daring Shout (DR debuff)

Guardian Fighter
Class Feature: Combat Superiority (DPS), Guarded Assault (Added DPS)
At-Will: Tide of Iron (DR debuff), Crushing Surge
Encounters: Into The Fray (group/self DPS boost), Commanders Strike (team DPS buff), Knights Valor (team protector) / Knee breaker (DoT) / Anvil (DPS)
Dailies: Fighters Recovery (HP heals) and Crescendo (DPS) /Terrifying Impact (DPS) / Villains Menace (DPS and DR Buff)
Mechanic: Mark You Target (DR debuff)
Bring a Lantern Artifact.

Hunter Ranger
Encounter: Thorn Ward (defense debuff), Commanding Shot (defense debuff)

Oathbound Palladin
Encounters: Bane (damage buff)

Scourge Warlock

Trickster Rogue
Encounters: Wicked Reminder (DR debuff)
Daily: Courage Breaker (damage debuff), Whirlwind of Knives (DPS buff)

Red dragon
(Unconfirmed) You can ignore dragon empowers near the end of the fight.

yourenext2die

TR: Courage Breaker

zman81420

Guardian Fighter:
Encounters:
1). Into The Fray (group/self DPS boost)
2). Knights Valor (team protector) / Knee breaker (DoT) / Anvil (DPS)
3). Commanders Strike (team DPS buff)
At-Will:
1). Tide of Iron (debuff)
2). Crushing Surge
Passive:
1). Combat Superiority (Added DPS)
2). Guarded Assault (Added DPS)
Daily:
1). Fighters Recovery (HP heals)
2). Crescendo (DPS) /Terrifying Impact (DPS) / Villains Menace (DPS and DR Buff)
Bring a Lantern Artifact.
HARD MARK THE DRAGON FOR THE LOVE OF ___!

randomdigits

It also seems like you should always try to join a group of you guild mates to make sure that the group-wide buffs apply to as many people as possible.

s4v10rx

yourenext2die said:

TR: Courage Breaker

or whirlwind of blades, is good daily as TR will gain significant amount of power for every hit they put out

randomdigits

Interesting fact: contribution score in the table shown upon completion of a Greed of Dragonflight event is largely influenced by the amount of time spent fighting Dragon Empowerers. Someone who is only focusing on the dragon(s) could get as little as half of the score he would receive if was focusing primarily on Dragon Empowerers.

randomdigits

I've updated the starter topic with all the comments.
Here is also a quick cheat-sheet to share before fight with new players:
CW: Ray of Enfeeblement
DC: Break the Spirit, Divine Glow
GWF: Daring Shout
GF: Mark, Tide of Iron, Into The Fray, Commanders Strike
HR: Commanding Shot, Thorn Ward
OP: Bane
TR: Wicked Reminder, Courage Breaker

spelldazer

TR: Drop Bait and Switch in a red zone or path of breath attack to fill AP, then use daily to teleport to dragon, debuff and deal damage

zman81420

randomdigits#2166 said:

It also seems like you should always try to join a group of you guild mates to make sure that the group-wide buffs apply to as many people as possible.

Yes I encourage this practice. Get all the high DPS grouped together with buffers and debuffers in groups. Also look at enchantments on support classes, terror which does not stack, plague fire, ect. utilized as much to your advantage as possible as I see you stated above.

Also an adjustment from above, change for GF Mark to a "Hard" MARK your target.
Stays proc'd longer than our other mark.

mrshabok

Warlock-

At will:
Essence Defiler
Dark Spiral Aura

Encounters:
Warlocks Bargain
Hadar's Grasp if Fury/HG if Damnation and have lolset, otherwise Harrowstorm is better
Soul Scorch

Daily:
Immolation Spirits
Other choice is Brood of Hadar only if Fury, though I feel Spirits is better

Passive:
All Consuming Curse
Dust to Dust/Borrowed Time

10-15sec before fight:
Potions mentioned in OP, Tymora's Lucky Coin, Elixir of Accuracy, Invocation Blessing

Rotation:
Warlock's Curse -> Spirits -> Wheel/Lantern/Some other DPS buff -- Always use artifact after Spirits because it takes the spirits a few seconds to ready, aim, fire. This way they are doing damage for the max time the buff is active.

[WC - WB - WC - HG - WC - Spam SS/ED] -- Repeat until Spirits up.

Cast HG immediately after WB. Timing is once HG is at 2 seconds cooldown, cast WB - WC and by then HG will be ready. Use SS/ED until HG is at 2 seconds.Recurse after a couple SS. Always do artifact after spirits because it takes the spirits a few seconds to ready, aim, fire.

zman81420

Another thing I have read on the PC side is that active companions Exe: Fire Archon, count toward player count when attacking a dragon. So if you have 10x Members attacking Red Dragon and 10x Fire Archons and one other person joins the fight at red the dragon will become immune. The game will see the attacking count at 21. Just a FYI.

zman81420

So some tips when attacking 4 dragons in the Dragon Flight Event:

KILL EMPOWERS this can take a sweet innocent lizard to a buffed steroidal dragon!
WATCH DRAGON HEALTH BARS, Once you have hit 5% health unless you are ticking down to seconds hold off to allow your other groups to catch up! FORM GROUPS, especially support classes that can add buffs to DPS! There is no reason to have 40 people in the event fighting by themselves. Take the time to sort groups before just running out to wherever. This is important not to stack to heavy in one section. Use Dragon slaying potions, and protection scrolls because why would you not?

Red: Does not require a OP, place 2 GF, and 6 CQC DPS and buff the hell out of them with Into the Fray. Protection from 2x doses of Knights Valor and DPS killing Empowers this is the easiest fight.
Blue: 2x OP, Take half ranged and CQC DPS. When a player is marked with the Shield the next time they are hit with a Lightning attack a AoE hits a huge range for 160K typically wiping the entire team. If the marked player sits back that is best to minimalize an entire group wipe. I do not see the reason for a healer here when the entire team is wiped in an instant.
Green: 2x OP, GF, 1-2x DC, mix of ranged and CQC DPS. The AoE poison is annoying but manageable. This will either be the 1st or 2nd dragon to fall.
Black: 2x OP, GF, 1-2x DC, ranged DPS is the most viable here. Keep tabs on your health, if you die a soul puppet is spawned and hangs around now. If your team is continuously wiping you will be doing a lot of dodging. Very manageable just be aware and kill empowers that hide on the far outskirts on this dragon.

Communicate amongst the leader of each dragon, if a group at red is burning through send help to blue is they are struggling and vice verse for green to black. And Keep aware the 5% health rule. People get so involved that they forget to slow up. This is where our success has been and wanted to share with you all. Also look at your support classes online prior to making the decision to attempt all 4 dragons. If there are only 2 OP and 2 DC on its probably only a 3 dragon night.