Guides

First off, I'd like to give major credit to Lamentations for coming up with the Ghostlight Ruins Monk build this is based off of. While the original thread had information about a Mire build, the ideal stats and usage changed considerably after the Coliseum update. They are no longer active and people have been asking about how I level dragons so quickly, so I decided to make my own thread. I hope that's alright.




Are you...

• fond of leveling dragons?
• sick of running out of breath because of dodged Eliminates?
• absolutely done with resetting for a good opening group of monsters?
• prone to wiping out from lack of HP?
• jealous of how much breath your mages get in one turn, while your grinders have to scratch over and over?
• hungry for Wartoad meat?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then this is the build for you!

The Mire Monk is a two-dragon trainer that uses Meditate instead of Scratch. I prefer using Meditate because it produces far more breath than Scratch, which makes the inevitable dodged Eliminates far less likely to end a training run. As well, the Monk has more bulk, which allows for safely setting up on almost any starting group of enemies, along with generally less dying over the course of a training run. Did I mention it can take out bosses? Because it can do that too! (Sometimes!)

Upon reading this, you might be going "What? How? I tried this once, and my attacks barely did any damage..."

So, yes, Meditate does apply a cooldown that reduces physical damage by 75%. However, the cooldown only lasts for 3 turns. It's perfectly possible to stall out those 3 turns without taking too much damage, then go on a breath-laden rampage.

If you're still confused, I did a short video demonstration of leveling two of my dragons.

I'll go into more detail about the stats, stones, basic usage, and extra tips in the following sections.

[center][size=2][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2499369#post_2499369]Introduction[/url] | [b]The Dragon[/b] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2499369#post_34663080]Basic Usage[/url] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2499369#post_34663081]Additional Tips & Info[/url][/size][/center] [center][b][size=5]The Dragon[/size][/b][/center] Here are the stones and stats I use. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/vGAvZiP.png[/img][/center] [center] [columns=2] [quote=stones] [center]Meditate (silverglow, prismatic, regular, whatever) Eliminate | Rally | Haste | Shred Berserk | Berserk | Berserk Ambush | Ambush [/center] [/quote] [nextcol] [quote=stats] [left] STR 120 AGI 9 VIT 30 QCK 62 INT 5 DEF 6 MND 5 [/left] [/quote] [/columns] [/center] [b]The most important stat is 120 STR.[/b] Without that, this build will not work. Older 117 and 119 STR Mire fliers should be given a Tincture of Dissolution ASAP. (Still a good idea if you're using Scratch, but it's especially critical here.) The Augment and Accessory stones are what you'd expect for a standard physical dragon, three Berserkers and two Ambushes. Eliminate, Rally, and Haste are required. For your last move, I recommend Shred instead of Sap for a variety of reasons. If you get Contused, you'll need a substitute for Scratch, and Shred uses less breath than Sap. Shred is also incredibly useful for defeating Wartoads, due to the bleeding damage. And if you need to heal, you can just use a Health Potion instead. When you distribute stat points, there will be an extra point. You can throw this wherever, I put it in DEF. As for element, Arcane (no weaknesses to mages and 2 resistances) and Earth (no weaknesses) are the best choices for the Mire. You can use a different element dragon if that's all you have, though you will need to be more picky with your starting group of enemies and you may wipe out more often.

[center][size=2][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2499369#post_2499369]Introduction[/url] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2499369#post_34663078]The Dragon[/url] | [b]Basic Usage[/b] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2499369#post_34663081]Additional Tips & Info[/url][/size][/center] [center][b][size=5]Basic Usage[/size][/b][/center] So you've got your monk, you've got two dragons you want to train in your party with it, what do you do first? [b][size=4]Step One: Swamp Meditation[/size][/b] Go to the Mire, and check out your the starting group of enemies. The Mire Monk can set up on [i]most[/i] groups, but there are a couple you'll want to avoid. If the starting group contains: [list] [*] either wartoad [*] 2 or more healers (Wetland Unicorn or Salve Kamaitachi) [*] 2 or more mages that your monk is weak to [/list] ...then you should leave the Mire and come back. Once you've got a decent starting group, use Meditate. In most cases, you should use Meditate [i]again.[/i] Yes, you heard me. If are up against a group containing a healer, a mage that your monk is weak to, or a group of 4 enemies, you should go straight to the next step without using Meditate again. You can also just Meditate the one time if you only need one or two battles worth of EXP. [b][size=4]Step Two: Chill For A Bit[/size][/b] As I mentioned in the introduction, after generating a ton of breath, Meditate applies a 3-turn cooldown, shown by a blue icon by your monk's name. While this cooldown is active, you do 75% less physical damage, which is bad. [img]https://i.imgur.com/GcPLQPE.png[/img] You will need to stall out for the rest of the cooldown. This seems silly, but if you managed to get those two Meditates in, you'll have way more breath than you would have generated by just using Scratch. To stall, use (in order): [list] [*] Haste (improves quick, giving you more turns; also +5 breath) [*] Rally (improves strength, allowing you to 1-shot every enemy; also +5 breath) [*] Defend (halves all damage for next turn) [/list] You may want to switch up Defend and Rally if you're up against a group containing a Scythe Kamaitachi; check the turn order to see when you'll be hit the most. Ideally, during these turns, your enemies have opted to attack the dragons you're training, rather than your Monk. Regardless, with the Monk's natural bulk and the use of Defend, you probably haven't taken too much damage. [b][size=4]Step Three: The Reckoning[/size][/b] Once you have satisfied the following conditions: [list] [*] over 35 breath [*] rally is active (orange strongarm icon is visible) [*] meditate cooldown is over (blue meditate icon is no longer visible) [/list] Proceed to use Eliminate on all remaining enemies. Prioritize, in order: [list] [*] healers [*] attackers [*] any mages that haven't attacked yet [*] anything remaining [/list] Or whatever works for you and your monk. You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. If you're completely unfamiliar with the Mire's enemies, brokenstone wrote a great guide on them [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2234398#post_28335768]here.[/url] [b][size=4]Step Four: Grind[/size][/b] At the start of every subsequent battle, use Rally first. At 120 STR, a Mire Monk can Eliminate every regular enemy in the Mire, but only after using Rally first. Occasionally, but not often, Eliminate will miss enough that you'll run out of breath. Depending on how much health you have, what enemies you're up against, your mood, the phase of the moon, et cetera, you can either reset or try to get your breath back, using the same meditate-haste-rally-defend setup as you started with. Always remember Meditate's 3-turn cooldown and to make sure that Rally is active before using Eliminate. Captchas can also interrupt your rhythm, so be extra conscientious about using Rally after solving them. Aaand at some point, you may run out of health or breath and need to leave the Mire and come back. I can't promise NO wipeouts or resets, just fewer.

[center][size=2][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2499369#post_2499369]Introduction[/url] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2499369#post_34663078]The Dragon[/url] | [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/2499369#post_34663080]Basic Usage[/url] | [b]Additional Tips & Info[/b][/size][/center] [center][b][size=5]Additional Tips & Info[/size][/b][/center] While everything above should cover basic usage, this section talks about unusual situations and other possibilities. [b][size=4]Healing[/size][/b] Eventually you may run low on HP. Since we're not using Sap, Health Potions are your only healing option. Go buy yourself a couple of regular Health Potions (the orange kind) if you don't already have some. The Mire drops them at a fairly constant rate, so you probably won't need to buy any more after you've got a couple in your inventory. The ideal place to use a health potion is when you're up against a group of two mages, but you may find other spots to wedge one in. But unless you're on death's door, it's generally better to take your chances with low health than try to heal up. [b][size=4]Getting Contused[/b][/size] I mentioned healers (Salve Kamaitachi and Wetland Unicorn) in the basic usage guide. These enemies have a chance of using Contuse. If this hits your monk, it applies a status that slightly reduces physical damage. Because of this debuff, you'll need to do a smidge of damage to enemies before you can take them out with Eliminate. Obviously your monk can't use Scratch, so if you have enough breath, use Shred instead. This is part of why I recommend using Shred over Sap, the other reason being bosses. If you're low on breath and you get contused, it's best to just reset. Ideally, you won't get contused at all; it can only happen if you miss an Eliminate AND get unlucky with how the enemies behave, so it's a rather infrequent occurrence. You can also buy a Cleansing Tonic in the Battle section of the marketplace and use that instead if you really, really hate resetting. [b][size=4]Bosses[/size][/b] Most two-fodder trainers can't take out bosses, and for a while I thought this one was the same way. After some testing, it turned out I was wrong! Behold: [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/fOpynJi.png[/img][/center] However, it's still difficult. You can only win if: [list] [*] your monk isn't weak to the element of the wartoad in question [*] you're at 85+ breath [*] you're at full health or nearly full health [*] your trainees are level 5 or higher, and also preferably at full health [*] you're feeling lucky [/list] If all those conditions are satisfied, then you may be able to take it out. I do: [list] [*] rally, shred, eliminate, eliminate; [*] then, meditate twice, haste, rally, defend; [*] then, shred, eliminate, eliminate. [/list] If possible or necessary, you can sprinkle in some health potions. Ideally, you'll finish with 35 breath remaining and be able to continue grinding. You can also watch a video demonstration of the process [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTxrFBbNRhI]here.[/url] (I did mess up the turn order a bit, but it still worked, so whatever!) I'd like to reiterate that bosses are not easy to defeat. A single missed Eliminate from your monk or a critical hit from the boss can spell doom for you. They also take quite a while to defeat for the amount of EXP they give. And even if you win, you'll be at low health. It's probably more efficient to just reset. But at the end of the day, nothing beats the satisfaction of giving one of those wretched amphibians the business. [b][size=4]Starting Against Mages[/size][/b] I mentioned during the guide on basic usage to prioritize mages that [i]haven't[/i] attacked yet. You might be tempted to fire back at the ones that attacked you first as vengeance, but it's a bit safer to leave them alone. Let's look at a typical setup against a starting group of 3 mages. [quote=A Hypothetical Battle Begins] you meditate you meditate you use haste enemy 1 meditates enemy 2 meditates enemy 3 meditates you use rally you use defend enemy 1 attacks! enemy 2 meditates enemy 3 meditates [/quote] Enemies are bound by the same constraints as dragons - they need breath in order to attack. Enemy 1, after using an elemental attack (which uses 20 breath), literally does not have enough breath remaining to attack again. It will meditate on the next turn - it cannot do anything else. Enemy 2 and 3, meanwhile, have 60 breath each, and could attack 3 times in a row if they wanted to. That's why you should take them out first. [quote=A Hypothetical Battle Ends] you use eliminate on enemy 2! you use eliminate on enemy 3! enemy 1 meditates (because it ran out of breath and can't do anything else) you use eliminate on enemy 1! battle end [/quote] Nice and clean. [b][size=4]Other Venues[/size][/b] If you get sick of the Mire and need to take a vacation, you can take this build to the Ghostlight Ruins without too many issues. Of course, it'll be a bit less effective than a dedicated Ruins monk ([url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gde/1344211/14#post_37194674]updated Ruins build[/url]), due to different elemental weaknesses and the extra STR investment, but that same bit of extra strength means bosses are a little easier to defeat. I personally prefer the Mire. It has smaller groups of enemies, so it tends to be a bit easier and more consistent. But, the Ruins gives almost as much EXP so it can be nice as a change of scenery. Both the Mire and Ghostlight Ruins are considerably more efficient for leveling than any of the level 25 venues. [b][size=4]Caveats[/size][/b] Finally, while I personally find this build way less frustrating than a more typical two-dragon trainer, due to the excess of breath, there are some caveats: [list] [*] the Monk build can be weirder to use as a regular grinder because it lacks scratch (though you can just swap out scratch for meditate if you really need it to pull double duty, it's not that expensive) [*] the setup punishes mistakes heavily - if you zone out and Eliminate early, or forget to Rally after a captcha, you may have to start all over [*] if you get Contused you can lose a fair bit of breath to using Shred [/list] ...but if you're willing to try the Mire Monk, I can't recommend it enough. Thanks for reading, and happy levelling! I hope you enjoy this build. Please feel free to post any questions or comments.

And one last reserved post, just in case.

@acrylicdog13

Pinging myself so I remember this thread.looking for a build for my light dragon.