Guides

Do you...
...want to play around with taking two fodder dragons into the Golem Workshop or the Forbidden Portal?
...need to take out some aggression against the coli by sitting back and mocking it to stop hitting itself?
...have a dragon with a deep and abiding need to show off before lowly fodder by taking down bosses solo?
...have more time than treasure, and need a build (at least to start with) that can train without requiring any expensive stones?



But first, some disclaimers:

• This is no speed-trainer. I don’t know how it compares to other non-eliminate builds, but an eliminate build will trounce it for speed every time. First, it mostly runs against casters only, with most scratchers requiring a refresh, even on battles after your first. This means a lot of refreshing. This part is not necessarily as bad as it sounds - while you can get stuck with strings of scratcher mobs sometimes, you can also get very respectable strings of casters. But it has to be noted. Then, once you get a mob you can fight, it’s always going to take time rather than getting to the “few seconds each match” rate you can reach with eliminate.
• If you’re a new player interested in this as a budget build, just know that it kind of has an “easy mode” and a “hard mode.” Running it just against casters is relatively simple and doesn’t have to entail much risk. If you want to go up against Workshop bosses, it starts getting a little trickier, and you need to start forming a sense of when the battle’s going your way and when it’s going against you. If you want to push the margins of what it’s technically capable of in order to fight a wider range of battles, you’ll need an ability to evaluate your risks as well as some sense of elemental strengths and weaknesses. I’ll be honest: the learning process might cost you some losses. On the other hand, it can be more engaging than just a mindless grind.
• I’m not a numbers person – not my strength, not my fun. I’ll share the stats I’ve used, and I have tried to do some tweaking, but I’ve had it work on more than one set of numbers, and in short, I make no claim that these are the peak efficiency, optimal stats. In my opinion, this build works mostly based on stones, strategy, and elemental dynamics rather than being truly stats-crucial. Then again, with the perfect stats, maybe it could run a lot better. If you love numbers and optimizing and squeezing the most out of every possible stat point, then hey, I welcome you to take this idea, play around with it, improve on it, and even post your own “inspired by” build... as long as you let me know, so I can see if I want to try it out. ;-)

Nuts and Bolts

So... if you still find yourself intrigued after all of the above, let's get down to how this works. I've divided things up into different posts to make things easier to navigate, but in order to make the whole thing work, you'll need to know about:

1. Trainer Elements
2. Stones
3. Stats
4. Strategy

If anything leaves you with questions, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer, though I'll say now that as mother of an infant, I'm usually typing one-handed right now, which is laborious and might delay me somewhat in getting to it.

Trainer Elements

First you need to pick your dragon, and for that, you’ll want to give consideration to its element.

Workshop
(TLDR:
Best –
Probably Wind, with Shadow a close runner-up. I can’t claim any measured comparisons, though, and I’ve never actually run Wind.
Still Usable –
Fire and Lightning against casters and the Frost Delver but NOT the Stone Borer.
Water and Nature against casters and the Stone Borer but NOT the Frost Delver.
Arcane and Earth are strong against a lot of the casters, but not very viable against bosses. If you happened to be interested in keeping just to casters and maybe the occasional regular scratcher or so, but not bosses, these might be possibilities.)

I'll start the discussion of elements by saying that I started using this build on a Nature dragon. I have spent by far the most time running it with her. Recently, though, have I begun experimenting with other elements, and once I really started looking at it, other elements could be even better in terms of elemental strengths. I can’t claim to have tested them all, but I’ll share what I’ve reasoned out and what I’ve tried and let you go from there.

Do note that when you’re going against casters, the only difference element makes is how many enemies (and which ones) you kill faster due to your element getting a bonus to damage against theirs. From this perspective, almost any element could technically be made to work, though some would be more work than fun.

However, one of the key features of this build is that you can survive going up against bosses solo, and that is definitely element-dependent. For this purpose, Shadow and Wind are good because each is extra-strong (dealing added damage while taking less) against one of the bosses, and neither is weak to the other boss. This means that though one boss will be slower going (and maybe a bit riskier) than the other, you can the down both bosses with the same dragon. (I actually didn’t think this would be possible, but I’ve tested it with a Shadow dragon now, and it is.) Wind is additionally strong against 3 of the caster enemies while Shadow is strong against 2, so Wind may have some slight speed advantages there, but I have never tested it to know by how much.

Fire and Lightning for the Frost Delver or Water and Nature for the Stone Borer could also still be workable choices. Again, it’s worth remembering that I’ve done most of my work with a Nature dragon (and there are things I really, really like about having Envenom). And Fire was the first alternate element I branched out to. However, you have to bear in mind that any of these would only be good against one boss or the other: while your trainer can survive not having the elemental advantage over the boss, it can’t sustain an elemental disadvantage.

Forbidden Portal
(TLDR:
Best –
Water or Shadow

Still Usable –
Earth or Wind, but beware Wind boss
Nature maybe, but beware Fire boss)


Shadow and Water are each strong against both Forbidden Portal bosses. Water has weaknesses against 3 of the caster enemies. Shadow has weaknesses against 5 of the caster enemies. I will say I have run with a shadow dragon, and despite the prevalence of enemies with strong attacks against her, it's felt fine, because the whole idea is to reflect back their attacks, anyway. You just need to be more careful if you're starting on a pack you're vulnerable to, and you have to keep vigilant about maintaining Reflect.

Earth is strong against the Fire boss but weak to the Wind boss. Wind is weak to the Wind boss and neutral against the Fire boss. The perks of these is that both are strong against Arcane, which represents four total enemies, three of which are casters. I personally have run with Earth. It feels pretty decent on the whole, though it can be tedious when up against the Wind boss, since the lower-damage attacks mean it's longer about taking it down. Strangely enough, I have yet to test a Nature dragon, but it's the other option that would be strong against your prevalent Arcane enemies.

[size=4][b]Stones[/b][/size] From there, since I said this build was mostly (for me) about stones and strategy, let’s move on to stones. [b][u]Must-Haves:[/u][/b] [columns][item=meditate][nextcol] [u][i]Meditate:[/i][/u] This is a plain old caster, meditating for energy.[/columns] [columns][item=reflect][nextcol] [u][i]Reflect:[/i][/u] The stone that makes the whole thing possible. Inside your handy reflect bubble, no caster can touch you. And the Workshop actually has a pretty fair number of all-caster or mostly-caster mobs.[/columns] [columns][item=regeneration][nextcol][u][i]Regeneration:[/i][/u] Occasionally you’re going to take a hit before you’ve gathered the breath to get Reflect up. And then there’s boss damage to deal with. And on certain occasions (more on this later) you may also be able to face down scratcher mobs. The advantage of Regeneration over Aid is that you can get it running “behind” Reflect if you need to, and against bosses it just feels more comfortable to me to keep up with the damage rather than wait until you’re low enough on health to make Aid worthwhile. Occasionally a boss can get in a pretty painful crit and even manage to knock you out when you would have thought you were safe, so it’s nice not to get too low if you can help it.[/columns] [columns][item=scholar][nextcol][u][i]Scholar x3:[/i][/u] Augments the abilities that matter to you as a caster.[/columns] [b][u]Variable or negotiable:[/u][/b] [u][i]Elemental Attack:[/i][/u] This will, of course, depend on which element you choose to run. I’ll give a rundown of the elements I mentioned above as possibilities for this build, though with the caveat that I have no direct experience with several of them. [LIST] [*][columns][item=disorient][nextcol]Wind will have Disorient, which has the chance to afflict the Berserk debuff. I’ve not run with this element in the Workshop (nor much generally elsewhere), but from having dragons afflicted with Berserk, I can see where it could be exceptionally helpful against bosses and scratchers. [/columns] [*][columns][item=shroud][nextcol]Shadow will have Shroud, with the possible Blinded debuff. I’ve got some experience with this, and I can say that the occasional incoming misses from Blinded can, again, be quite helpful when you are up against a boss or scratcher.[/columns] [*][columns][item=envenom][nextcol]Nature will have Envenom, with a chance for the Poison debuff. I have by far the most extensive experience with this, and I have to say that as elemental debuffs go, I [i]love[/i] Poison. As the only caster-afflicted damage-over-time ability, it’s going to help you against both casters and scratchers equally. The abilities that variously weaken or disable enemy attacks, in contrast, may be nice against scratchers and bosses, but they start working slightly against you with casters, whose damage would otherwise get reflected back onto themselves.[/columns] [*][columns][item=drown][nextcol]Water will have Drown, with possible Slow debuff. I’ve not run with this. If it slows enemies enough to grant you extra turns, it could be nice, but I can’t speak to how noticeable a difference it might make.[/columns] [*][columns][item=sear][nextcol]Fire will have Sear, with the possible debuff Burn. Since this debuff increases vulnerability to physical damage, and you’re not doing physical damage, this is unfortunately a null – doesn’t work against you, but also does nothing for you. Except, of course, the damage from the attack, which still counts for something, right? ;-) [/columns] [*][columns][item=shock][nextcol]Lightning will have Shock, with possible debuff Paralysis. I haven’t run with this, but the benefits would probably be similar to those of Blinded, only with shots that aren’t taken rather than hits that don’t land.[/columns] [*][columns][item=fossilize][nextcol]Earth will have Fossilize with possible debuff Petrify. This increases the enemy’s defense while rendering them unable to act. Fortunately, defense reduces [i]physical[/i] damage, and you’ll be dealing magic damage. Otherwise, the benefits would be similar to Paralysis above.[/columns] [*][columns][item=enfeeble][nextcol]Arcane will have Enfeeble with possible debuff Amplify. I’ve never tried this, but its magical damage increase could prove beneficial, depending on how much of an increase it is.[/columns] [/LIST] [item=bolster][item=contuse][item=concentration][item=haste] [u][i]Bolster, Contuse, Concentration, or Haste:[/i][/u] For the last ability slot, I’ve mostly tried either Bolster or Contuse, with a little time using Concentration. Bolster and Contuse are each, in their way, nice when you are facing bosses or other scratchers, since the reduction in damage lets your regen more closely keep up. The advantage of Bolster is that one cast is good against all comers if you’re facing scratch damage from more than one enemy. Its disadvantage is that it has to be cast before you get Reflect up, which can more risk than it’s worth, and therefore limits how often it’s usable (Concentration and Haste would also suffer from this disadvantage, and I’ll say here that I, at least, didn’t find Concentration worth it). The advantage of Contuse, conversely, is that you can use it while Reflect is up. Its disadvantage is that you’d need more than one cast if you ever wanted to reduce damage from more than one enemy. In the end, I’d say to choose this stone based on your play style. [columns][item=discipline][nextcol][u][i]Discipline x2:[/i][/u] For this build, I’ve found the chance of double breath to pay dividends, and low-breath rounds to sometimes hurt considerably. A normal meditate does not give you enough breath in one go to cover either Reflect or Regenerate. Double breath gives you enough to cast one of those with some to spare. You [i]will[/i] be using Meditate enough to benefit.[/columns] [b]Or[/b] [columns][item=discipline][item=ambush][nextcol][i]1 Discipline, 1 Ambush:[/i]@Rhabdo below has run a variant of this build using an ambush instead of one of the disciplines, and reports enjoying the opportunity to get in an early Regen where needed. I've never tried this, myself, but I'd say this decision would come down to your playstyle and budget.

[size=4][b]Stats[/b][/size] Now let’s cover what I can of stats. If it helps you to see stats directly on a dragon's page, here are the dragons I've tested using this build: [columns][url=https://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=5555952] [img]https://flightrising.com/rendern/coliseum/battlesprites/55560/5555952.png[/img] [/url][nextcol][url=https://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=8780561] [img]https://flightrising.com/rendern/coliseum/battlesprites/39782/3978177.png[/img] [/url][nextcol][url=https://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=3978177] [img]https://flightrising.com/rendern/coliseum/battlesprites/87806/8780561.png[/img] [/url][/columns] Below, I have the stats on my Nature dragon (with what attempts I’ve made at optimizing to the purpose) in bold. The stats on my Fire dragon (similar to the Nature dragon, but tweaked) are in italics. The stats from my Shadow dragon (which, tbh, may be a basic Kiena or Culex distribution; I don’t remember which) are last with just the underlining common to all three. [i][Later edit: I think I've decided to tincture and experiment with my Shadow trainer's stats, so her page will no longer reflect the numbers below, but I'll leave them as a record of one of the distributions I've used.][/i] [LIST] [*][u][b]INT: 120[/b]; [i]120[/i]; 125[/u] – Determines not only damage, but also the amount returned each turn for Regen. I will say that at 120, I’m finding that the recurring heal keeps up pretty well with the damage generally asked of it. You’ll generally need three shots to take out a normal enemy unless you’ve got crits or elemental factors coming into play. [*][i][b]121 INT[/b] might be an optimal from one perspective: The Sentry Squawker is the highest-HP enemy you'll be trying to face aside from bosses, and 121 is the lowest you can go and still expect to take it out in 3, non-crit hits. 120 actually leaves 15 health still to go after 3 hits. Otoh, you're not going to get your INT high enough to 2-shot even the lowest-health enemy without a crit or elemental advantage, so unless I'm missing something, extra points beyond that won't offer much benefit... though I earnestly invite feedback on this reasoning. [/i] [*][u][b]QCK: 57[/b]; [i]58[/i]; 58[/u] – You’re not usually going to get first turn with these values, but you don’t actually need it. To be honest, I’m not sure what “optimal” would be for this. [*][i]Enemy QCK stats run 2 @ 68, 2 @ 64, 3 @ 63, 4 @ 60, 11 @ 56, and the rest lower than that. I think I went with 57 on my main dragon because it put me just above that large block of enemies with a speed of 56. And the enemies with speeds of 60 and 64 are new ones, so at the time, that left 5 enemies faster than me for a savings of quite a few increasingly-expensive stat points. But I'd say to decide when the stat points in Vit or elsewhere will be more valuable than getting first turn against another couple enemies, and go from there. With the new enemies to consider it might be worth aiming higher than I originally did.[/i] [*][u][b]VIT: 37[/b]; [i]34[/i]; 14[/u] – You need enough to be able to take *some* hits, especially, again, if you want to try to go against the Stone Borers. At one point, I was trying to see if I could get this high enough to take on mixed caster/scratcher groups, but I never landed on something that really satisfied me. Tbh, I’m surprised the 14 points does as well as it does. [*][i]What you aim to put here might need to depend on how you want to ultimately play. Even my 14-health dragon does fine against bosses, so if casters and bosses are all you want, any points above this may be better spent elsewhere. I am finding her awfully squishy when I try to expand my battle types to include mixed caster/scratcher groups, though. So if you're interested in a wider range of battles, extra points here may still be worthwhile.[/i] [*][u][b]AGI: 10[/b]; [i]11[/i]; 12[/u] – Probably where leftover stats went. I don’t know if the points could have gone somewhere more beneficial – again, I’m not an optimizer. Crits and dodges can be boons on this build, though, so that's something to consider. [*][u][b]MND: 5[/b]; [i]10[/i]; 8[/u] – Probably also leftovers. [*][u][b]DEF: 5[/b]; [i]6[/i]; 5[/u] – Probably also leftovers in the (middle) Fire dragon’s case. [*][i]If it's a choice between leftovers here or in MND, I'd say this might be the place, especially if you're aiming to take on the occasional scratcher in a mob. Wile you may occasionally get hit by a faster caster, Reflect is usually going to prevent that. Otoh, hits from bosses, at the very least, are inevitable.[/i] [/LIST] Now that that’s all set up...

Strategy

First, get a caster pack. Or an appropriate boss. Yes, this can indeed start on a boss... and even end up in a really good place in terms of health and breath if the coli is kind. But more on that later.

Once you get a caster pack, Meditate until you have enough breath to cast Reflect. Ideally this will be just one Meditate due to the double breath from Discipline, but occasionally you’ll need two rounds of Meditate. (Usually) Cast Reflect ASAP.

Now that you’re safely behind your shield, you can either attack or meditate as needed. The one key to remember is to ALWAYS WITHOUT FAIL have enough breath to renew Reflect when it falls off. And watch closely to make sure you don’t autopilot to your attack on the turn you should be renewing Reflect instead. Reflect lasts for six turns, including the turn on which you cast, and after a while you can start to feel the rhythm of that without counting. Though tbh, I never tried to keep count, so if you keep alert, just watching your status bar can work, too. As long as you have enough health to survive a round of hits and enough breath to get Reflect up next round, you can recover from a miss, but it’s obviously not ideal. On the same token, if you are a bit damaged, you can sometimes afford to throw Regeneration on and then wait to put up Reflect next turn. You need to have at least enough health to survive the hits you could possibly take in the coming round, and you’ll want enough breath to cover both Regenerate and Reflect.

Basically, though as long as you have Reflect up, you get to sit back, laugh at your enemies hitting each other, throw in your own damage, and enjoy watching your enemies’ health dwindle. You’ll enjoy the crits against whatever enemies your element is strong against, and perhaps equally entertaining are the packs with enemies that can crit against each other. In terms of speed, your best bet will be to focus down one enemy at a time until it’s gone, because waiting for each enemy to take its turn can burn a fair bit of time. If you’ve got one that’s on just a sliver of health, though, it’s sometimes fun to leave it for the other enemies to finish off. ;-) And when I’m running my Nature dragon, I’ll often leave a poisoned enemy to be finished by the debuff, regardless – it may take a few turns, but the damage is usually enough to finish it off in the end.


Special Cases:


Bosses

Since both the Forbidden Portal bosses are casters, you just handle them the exact same way you would a caster mob. You can even take on a boss that's strong against your dragon's element so long as you're extra-vigilant about keeping Reflect up and you're willing to spend the time chipping away its health with your weakened attacks.

Your lifesaver for Workshop boss battles is Regenerate: you’ll want to get it up, if not first thing, then as soon as you’ve used a damage-reducer like Bolster or Contuse. I’m on the fence about which is preferable to do first, but I will say that you don’t want to let your health fall too far behind right up front. Once the boss starts hitting you instead of your fodder (even if they’re still standing), I’d say bump Regenerate’s priority up to first. I don’t bother with Reflect – the boss casts can be annoying (especially Ice’s Congeal, since damage is not reduced if you get frozen like it is if you end up petrified by Boulder), but the cast itself will do very little damage, and having Reflect up complicates keeping Regeneration renewed.

Basically, though, once you’ve used Regenerate and your damage-reducer, from there on out you’re just throwing damage as fast as you can unless you need to rebuild breath or renew Regenerate and Bolster or Contuse. The tricky thing with these battles is risk assessment: you need to keep watch on how fast the boss’ health is falling compared to where your health is after any crits or elemental slashes the boss might land. These battles aren’t without their risk, but they are pretty consistently doable once you get a feel for them.



2 Caster/1 Scratcher Combo Mobs

If you get a mob with 2 casters and a scratcher, you may be able to take them on. This is most viable if you hit them after a previous battle and you’re high on health and breath. I wouldn’t suggest it as a starting battle – it can be possible, but it’s risky. Basically, the strategy on these is to take a round to get Regenerate up before putting up Reflect. Then, with both of those up, focus down the scratcher as fast as you possibly can. Ideally, the scratcher will be gone before you need to renew Reflect. If it looks like it won’t, though, you’ll need to make sure to have enough breath to renew both Regenerate and Reflect (in that order).

These battles require some decent risk assessment. Before deciding to go for it, pay attention to how the scratcher’s element relates to your own. If it’s weak to your trainer’s element, that’s a bonus. If it’s strong against your trainer’s element, it’s still not impossible if things go your way, but if your first meditate gives you low breath, it’s going to be an uphill battle. If the casters start hitting you before you get reflect up or the scratcher manages a crit or elemental slash, it may be time to refresh. This is something you really have to develop your own feel for (even if at the cost of some losses), but low meditates and extra enemy hits and crits are generally signs you should move on.



2-Scratcher Mobs

The key with these mobs is element. If your dragon is strong against that element, have at them using tactics similar to those you’d use against a boss. Definitely try to focus one down asap – the damage of one alone is much easier for your regen to keep up with. If your dragon is weak against the element, don’t bother; it’s probably not worth the risk. If you don’t have an elemental strength/weakness going either way, you can try it, but definitely keep your risk assessment up. This goes double if you’re dealing with Wind scratchers (like the Copperplate Longmechs or Barhide Menace), since Disorient’s berserk status really can be a killer.



Night of the Nocturne

Since they tend to release new enemies each year, it’s hard to tell what next year will be like. I will note that of the 2019 enemies, though, a number of the scratchers had exceptionally low strength and therefore did negligible damage. Once I figured out which those were, I could take even a party of three of them almost without Regenerate, making training while farming in the Workshop quite viable. I will be interested to see if something similar happens next year.



And for now, I think that’s about it. If I have time later, I might come back and add a bit more about elements and workshop enemies, but we'll have to see if I can make that happen. At any rate, I hope this offers at least a few folks some fun and variety in their training!

Pinglist:
@Sterlingstars

@Rhabdo - Thanks for the info! I'm definitely still open to refining stats; as the guide says, that's a weak point for me. I did start questioning how much the VIT was really helping me when I tried out my Shadow dragon, who comparatively has minimal VIT. I'm going to have to spend more time on her and keep considering. (I've been spending most of my time on the Nature dragon, still, because she's on a quest to win our clan's Stone Borer. She's been after it so long, I'd be sad if the Shadow girl beat her to it! [emoji=fae laughing size=1])