I've played long enough that I tend not to have days that go this badly. I'll probably sound like a jerk but the first part would've been completely avoidable. Also it's common to waste 4m-5m on little side things, just hope that your luck with drops carries over to enhancing and enchanting. I spent 200m-300m in the course of a month just getting my two sets to where they are.

But on the downer note, I did time out 3 dragon runs in a row quite a few times. It's worth noting that damage numbers in a failed run are completely random and unreliable.

Still, glad to see that my advice in the other topic at least helped a bit.

The dragon has a terrible habit of breaking amber. So you'll likely have to avoid using Amber, but his moves are mostly dodgeable with Flying Sparrow, provided you aren't the target. I could go into a detailed breakdown of dodging his direct attacks, but that's sort of a pain to write considering most of my reactions come as a Fiona.

Also the DoT part is important to know. All DoTs are unable to kill you, and will just leave you at 1HP. Of course 1HP is a terrible place to be as you can't activate Life Flare at 1HP.

And as a little post script. I. Hate. That. Flying. Fireball.
I did two runs in a row (getting 17% and 19%) in my Raider's set, and both times I died once from full HP to those fireballs. It's annoyingly random and I enjoy taking the risk of not sitting in a shelter in order to get more damage dealt when he crashes. Not to mention that I die anyways if I try to get into a shelter. ;-;

[FONT="Garamond"]Aw misread 800k for 80k xD. At least the people with lots of gold got to waste it on something.
When Dragon first came out I had a couple fail parties too but now it's not that often. Sorry you got stuck with a bad party and wasted an hour.
Whenever I join a new Dragon raid and PUGs wipe too easily or have terrible ballista aim I usually leave within 10 minutes so at least someone else can take my spot. I have a bad habit of using mana amber in Dragon a lot but he only breaks it with that flamethrower attack.[/FONT]

I'm just not sure if the move where he slams the ground and shoots the fireball counts as breaking Amber or not. It's possible to actually be hit by it twice which will break Amber (and HS sometimes too ;-;). Regardless, it's probably a better habit to go around the attacks so you can attack more often.

Quote from Invertex;847683:

I've played long enough that I tend not to have days that go this badly. I'll probably sound like a jerk but the first part would've been completely avoidable. Also it's common to waste 4m-5m on little side things, just hope that your luck with drops carries over to enhancing and enchanting.

Well, so far so good. My current staff is +7, with no errors.
I also enchanted something at a 55% success rate, since I did not know you could only use up to 5 Enchanting Elixir things.

You must hate me now. :T_T:

I will admit spending 800,000 six times in a row was a complete and total dumb move on my part. Again, I am normally careful with my spending.

Quote from Invertex;847683:

But on the downer note, I did time out 3 dragon runs in a row quite a few times. It's worth noting that damage numbers in a failed run are completely random and unreliable.

Aww. It's funny since in one of my dragon runs - people were saying ... "Oh yeah. No one fails Dragon now, since everyone knows how to do it."

So, damage numbers are unreliable when you fail? Oh well, I'll still laugh about it.

Quote from Invertex;847683:

Still, glad to see that my advice in the other topic at least helped a bit.

The dragon has a terrible habit of breaking amber. So you'll likely have to avoid using Amber, but his moves are mostly dodgeable with Flying Sparrow, provided you aren't the target.

When you see the dragon coming straight at you though ...

Crys for dear life and hopes for the best T_T

Yes, your advice was helpful. I was like "Ok ... Let me try doing this."

With some practice I think I'll manage. Of course, it's a bit disheartening when I see a Lan simply dash to safety.
Oh well, more survival for them!

Quote from Invertex;847683:

And as a little post script. I. Hate. That. Flying. Fireball.
I did two runs in a row (getting 17% and 19%) in my Raider's set, and both times I died once from full HP to those fireballs. It's annoyingly random and I enjoy taking the risk of not sitting in a shelter in order to get more damage dealt when he crashes. Not to mention that I die anyways if I try to get into a shelter. ;-;

Full HP? Wow. No wonder they are deadly.

I just try the ballista. I'm getting better at it! I knocked it down one time. Felt like such a bad ass :XD:

I'd like to say that amber does have a purpose in Dragon but it's a not-so-obvious one. I mean, there's the obvious panic mode amber on some attacks, but it serves more of a purpose than that, one which I haven't seen others utilizing...

Getting to better attack positions faster.

Dragon jumps up and dives into you with the claw attack? Amber. Depending on when it hits you in its attack, it'll either place you right on the dragon or a bit behind it after you get pushed back when normally that'd be time you'd have to spend running.

This may or may not work with people with a lower level amber and/or less than 2,000 int. If it's breaking your amber, it isn't working right and you need to toughen up that amber with AP and int.

This also works on certain other attacks where the dragon lunges at you and attacks in a forward motion.

the only dragon attack that can kill you inside amber are attacks that involves fire.
dragon is pretty easy for Evies, since the have doesn't have combo attacks, you can just tank it with mana shield, and when it breaks go do water/ballistas/revives until it comes back and repeat.

If you only get hit by the lesser-damaging part of the fire breath, you can survive easily enough.

I never tried the +8 event. I don't know what the success rate is, but I'd be willing to bet that it's not worth the little ammount of money that I have.

I've been in many dragon runs that failed because people couldn't agree on one thing to go for (break-off).
Guess what? Breaking off the tail and wings actually DO help the run go faster, especially if you all suck at aiming the ballistae and can't get the horns or the spine.
And not to mention that I've been in many runs (with sucky parties) where (many of) the 40 - 59's can't aim the ballistae worth shit, and refuse to get off to let the 60+ on them (many of whom are excellent at ballistae). If you can't aim the ballistae and can't do (much, if any) damage, the least that you could do is repair shelters and refill the ponds!

This pisses me off to no end. I see many PUG'ers who think that they can waltz into a party of 20~ 23 people (whom they know nothing about) and expect everyone to be boss at ballistae and they expect to get the horns off within the first 5 minutes, spine off in the next 5, and then have the battle over in 30. They then proceed to call everybody noobs, when they're spouting orders that are easier said than done. (The worst part is when they spend the entire battle sitting on their ass, and wonder why the battle's not being won.) Fact: Getting breakoffs typically requires people who know what they're doing and where they're aiming. Horns and Spine are especially so, since they're smaller hitboxes than the rest of the parts are. This is a problem, since we're at the point where many people are doing dragon because they think that they can get the horns or spine very easily. Some people can. There's no denying that.

So I've been in a lot of failed dragon runs, and this is why I rarely do ballistae. Yeah, I have loads of those types of days.

Edit:
About 53% of the dragon runs that I've been in were failures, because the ballistaes sucked, and people were telling them to go for the horns and spine first.
The other 47% were successful because people aimed for the tail (and sometimes wings), and broke it/ them off. Sometimes we got the horns and/or spine too.

So, I can successfully conclude that:

• Many of the people that I've encountered in this for the potential money, and have an "all or nothing" mentality. They don't care about the methods that might make it easier to get money.
  
• Most people (from what I've seen) aren't very good at ballistae. (Maybe it's because they are way too trigger-happy and don't take time to aim, and maybe it's because the dragon's a bitch. I don't really care.)

Now I don't wanna go end-game in Vindictus (Still in Hoarfrost Hollow)

Quote from Elleanior;849585:

If you only get hit by the lesser-damaging part of the fire breath, you can survive easily enough.

I never tried the +8 event. I don't know what the success rate is, but I'd be willing to bet that it's not worth the little ammount of money that I have.

Yeah, I've survived quite a few times - sometimes I only take like 500 damage O_O (That's with 1 Mana Shield)

As for the +8 Event, don't even think about it T_T

I could only see it useful for really rare and powerful items. Like level 70 equipment.

Quote from Elleanior;849585:

And not to mention that I've been in many runs (with sucky parties) where (many of) the 40 - 59's can't aim the ballistae worth shit, and refuse to get off to let the 60+ on them (many of whom are excellent at ballistae). If you can't aim the ballistae and can't do (much, if any) damage, the least that you could do is repair shelters and refill the ponds!

I like to consider myself good at the ballista ... But sometimes the dragon jerks unexpectantly, causing me to miss QQ

Therefore, I tend to focus on building and holy water refilling. And Reviving ... and Healing. So much to do!
Of course, my favorite thing to do is get on the ballista when the Dragon is flying. Knocking it down just feels so amazing :D

Quote from Dracius;849773:

Now I don't wanna go end-game in Vindictus (Still in Hoarfrost Hollow)

The dragon is only at level 40 - so have fun :awesome:

Quote from Episkey;849789:

Therefore, I tend to focus on building and holy water refilling. And Reviving ... and Healing. So much to do!
Of course, my favorite thing to do is get on the ballista when the Dragon is flying. Knocking it down just feels so amazing :D

What's awesome is when you knock it down and everybody's on the opposite corner of the field.

Quote from Elleanior;850200:

What's awesome is when you knock it down and everybody's on the opposite corner of the field.

Well yeah ...
But, I can't fully control where the Dragon will land.

[Image: http://www.laymark.com/l/o/79.gif]

In a round about way it's possible to control where he falls, but it's not really practical. Getting the knockdown is the most important thing anyways.

Well yeah it's possible, but you need to be one good shot. When you shoot the third ballistae determines the area of field he will fall, if he is flying in from the west area of the field and he is shot down, he will fall to the east side. By knowing this, you can choose specifically when to shoot the third shot in order to choose what area he lands in. Sadly, not many people know about this, making it ineffective in the actual field.

Quote from MareneCorp;850353:

Well yeah it's possible, but you need to be one good shot. When you shoot the third ballistae determines the area of field he will fall, if he is flying in from the west area of the field and he is shot down, he will fall to the east side. By knowing this, you can choose specifically when to shoot the third shot in order to choose what area he lands in. Sadly, not many people know about this, making it ineffective in the actual field.

Yeah. I noticed this, whenever I shot at it when it was coming right at me - it would land on top of my character.

But of course, he can shake off some of the ballista shots. I'm not always sure if I'm the third one :oops: