Dragonborn breath dissapointment

[drjoans]

I hadn't done a dragonborn life since it first came out and back then didnt have the racial ap to even consider it. Now I do and got all excited to roll a dragonborn warlock and use the breath for aoe especially early on. Right now its 1 in 10 of hitting anything when surrounded by monsters. Feels like such a waste of what should be a hallmark ability that everyone cant wait to use. Now i just feel like I got all hot and heavy for nothing. :/

 

[Striga]

You have to stand still when using the Breath.

 

[Pinecone]

It takes a little practice, but it's a cone effect, so direction obviously matters. I find that moving backwards and making mobs line up nicely in front of me works wonders. But as Striga points out, using it while moving causes it to bug quite a lot, so you want your character not to be moving when you use it

 

[Dandonk]

Usually DB works for me if I move forward or backward, but if I move to either side or change my movement in any other way, it goes into the ether.

 

[Onyxia2016]

Its getting nerf'ed so it will be more of a disappointment in the near future.

 

[Grunndi]

Its getting nerf'ed so it will be more of a disappointment in the near future.

Is the racial Dragonborn breath getting changed? I didn’t notice that one.

 

[DBZ]

No at least not yet maybe thats the next update think he meant the epic strikes getting gutted

 

[Speed]

I used dragon breath on previous charisma based favored soul character a lot and it works fine.
It has pretty long cone range and I was able to hit 5+ enemies per each use.
You need to practice a little at first, just choose right moment and remember about animation delay.
Do not use it when moving backward, because it spreads from your mouth, not hands, so changes direction to right side with your head.
You can turn around when using it.
Due to some casting time, it is better to use before enemy reaches your cone range (if too late, then they may spread around and you will hit less targets).
It supports empower/maximize, costs no sp, increases dc 10 with charisma modifier, avocation (conjuration if acid), breath bonuses.
Heighten is sadly not supported.

 

[Tonquin]

You have to stand still when using the Breath.

This has been fixed internally, and will be in an upcoming patch. Thank you!

 

[rabidfox]

This has been fixed internally, and will be in an upcoming patch. Thank you!

Awesome! So it'll just fire forward then (and not be linked to head rotation)?

 

[Xaxx]

This has been fixed internally, and will be in an upcoming patch. Thank you!

probably "fixed" so it just doesnt work at all lookin at this upcoming "patch"

 

[GrayJedi AntiProPaladin]

yeah so like you're disappointed now? wait until u find out the big news....

 

[drjoans]

yeah so like you're disappointed now? wait until u find out the big news....

Big news wut dat?


Honestly i specc'd out of it, I used it for a little longer up till level 6. Quicken helps, and standing still. but still very underwhelming.
Once I got cone shape it made it obsolete to even use the breath because the transition time from blast to breath is just not worth it when the cone can be used while moving.

 

[gravisrs]

Big news wut dat?

Draconic incarnation Dragon breath takes ~60% nerf in next patch
- 50% less base damage (including gaping maw) - drops from 2d6+20 to 1d6+10 per CL
- 33% from MCL adjustements - MCL drops from 30 to 20
- cooldown is reduced by 20%, so it's actually 20% increase in DPS, still not helping this nerf much

Melting icecreams is the max you will do using both fire breaths.

 

[Speed]

Once I got cone shape it made it obsolete to even use the breath because the transition time from blast to breath is just not worth it when the cone can be used while moving.

For warlock that is built with Soul Eater to use its cone, might be underwhelming, but I do not remember if range is as long?
Favored soul, sorcerer and bard can use it with empower+maximize and no sp cost, so it is still usable and effective on some builds if someone practice a little to hit 5+ targets each time.

 

[SteelStar]

Is the racial Dragonborn breath getting changed? I didn’t notice that one.

No, other than the fix to using it while moving mentioned by Tonquin above.

Awesome! So it'll just fire forward then (and not be linked to head rotation)?

More specifically, the animation and detect for the spell no longer gets canceled by certain movement animations. But yes.

 

[Fleming]

No, other than the fix to using it while moving mentioned by Tonquin above.

More specifically, the animation and detect for the spell no longer gets canceled by certain movement animations. But yes.

This is very good news, thanks both!

 

[Desirdes]

Draconic incarnation Dragon breath takes ~60% nerf in next patch
- 50% less base damage (including gaping maw) - drops from 2d6+20 to 1d6+10 per CL
- 33% from MCL adjustements - MCL drops from 30 to 20
- cooldown is reduced by 20%, so it's actually 20% increase in DPS, still not helping this nerf much

Melting icecreams is the max you will do using both fire breaths.

Just to clarify on the MCL nerf. It is actually a little less than a 33% nerf. MCL is going from 30 to 20 BASE. But it still gets boosted like all other spells by every other epic/legendary level. So at max level it is going from 36 to 26 MCL before any other effects that can raise it, so it is really about a 27.8% nerf that will get even smaller as we get more legendary levels as the relative % gap between them gets smaller. Still a nerf just not quite as bad as first glance.

Personally, I agree with nerfing it as it has been way too strong compared to other strikes. However I would like them to add another SLA spell into the later parts of the tree to add some overall power back to DI decoupled from the strike. But I doubt they will do that as they likely view the ruin/g.ruin buffs in the final tier to count towards that despite not every caster even taking those feats. Kinda would like that node to be a multi-select between buffing ruins or getting a new spell entirely like a 'Greater Dragon Breath' or something.

 

[DBZ]

With a 33 reaper penalty using it on r10s soon is just 1 step short of suicide theres better options

 

[Aaabbbcccddd]

No, other than the fix to using it while moving mentioned by Tonquin above.

More specifically, the animation and detect for the spell no longer gets canceled by certain movement animations. But yes.

That's great news. Is it also possible to give it the "higher of cha, wis or int scaling" treatment or is that unwanted because it does not fit the dragonborn theme? It would be pretty neat because every time I make an alchemist I think:"that's a nice leveling skill plus it fits the alchemist breath theme." But then I realise it only scales with cha.