Well got to 32 on my first dragonlord build last night. I gotta say I am having a blast with it.
Pros:
1. Strong CC (with bonus helpless damage when they get CCed) and tactics DCs
2. Auras (if you build for them in the tree) provide some good utility to the Dragonlord. If you have the right party makeup they can be beneficial to others
3. Strong features like displacement, immunity stripping, trances and dragon leap provide a well rounded package
4. Supports all weapon styles/types. So many trees are built for specific weapon styles/types, so I really like the universal support here.
5. Enhancement tree seems to be built to support multiclassing with some very strong low hanging fruit
6. DPS is high for Dragon Lord/Ravager combo. It might be higher than base fighter with the extra melee power from Ravager added in
Cons:
1. Reckless Devotion is pretty bad. It is a long cast, with a very short range first of all. Second the character locks in place while using it. Minor nitpick, but it would be nice to be able to use this on yourself just to remove the status effects without having to use your second wind but that would just be icing on the cake for the class.
2. The graphical circle for the aura is just a bit over the top. Hopefully they tone that down some. I didn't mind it when I only had the first aura, but as it grew as you added auras its just too much.
3. Cruel Cut is broken good in heroics, doing hundreds of con damage (dual wield hits twice with it, and it seems doublestrike doubles the con damage as well). When you hit epics, the ability pretty much stops working. While I don't think it should be as good as it is in heroics there, I kinda wish there was a middle ground and it continued to work in epics some. That said, it's a minor thing in the overall package.
4. Ravager core three is still just meh. Having to roll a nat 20, then having the enemy fail a DC 20 will save isn't going to happen very often. Heck even at level six when you can get it, getting an enemy to fail DC 20 isn't going to happen. This core needs to be updated to scale, probably off your intimdate score since Ravager now has these built in intimidate mechanics (with the instakill, etc). All that said, the passive stats on the core is fine so maybe this isn't worth the squeeze.
5. If you aren't going to take the Dragonlord tree for some reason, the auras are pretty useless. You really need those Dragonlord cores to buff the auras to a decent measure. Just a little weird interaction with the base class and the enhancement tree there. It would be nice to give the Dragonlord the choice of aura vs feat in those levels instead of forcing the aura and removing the feat. That said, again it's not a huge deal.
Bug that I know of:
1. Festering Wound dot does not seem to scale off melee power.
2. Reckless Devotion healing doesn't seem to be scaling.
3. Laughter is not procing when using Slaughter.
Overall I give Dragonlord a 9.5 out of 10. Yes it is that fun to play and the majority of the cons above are a very minor thing in comparison. I know there is a perception that it might be too strong. I don't have enough experience in the higher end content with it yet to say for sure. I am also playing a triple completionist that has 136 reaper points with it at the moment, so my perception is very skewed with all that extra power. I have soloed some R6s with it so far, and it is probably the easiest melee solo in those I have seen. Generally I don't like to solo melee in Reaper due to the lack of control, etc so Dragonlord fits my playstyle a lot better since I tend to prefer caster control overall.
Pros:
1. Strong CC (with bonus helpless damage when they get CCed) and tactics DCs
2. Auras (if you build for them in the tree) provide some good utility to the Dragonlord. If you have the right party makeup they can be beneficial to others
3. Strong features like displacement, immunity stripping, trances and dragon leap provide a well rounded package
4. Supports all weapon styles/types. So many trees are built for specific weapon styles/types, so I really like the universal support here.
5. Enhancement tree seems to be built to support multiclassing with some very strong low hanging fruit
6. DPS is high for Dragon Lord/Ravager combo. It might be higher than base fighter with the extra melee power from Ravager added in
Cons:
1. Reckless Devotion is pretty bad. It is a long cast, with a very short range first of all. Second the character locks in place while using it. Minor nitpick, but it would be nice to be able to use this on yourself just to remove the status effects without having to use your second wind but that would just be icing on the cake for the class.
2. The graphical circle for the aura is just a bit over the top. Hopefully they tone that down some. I didn't mind it when I only had the first aura, but as it grew as you added auras its just too much.
3. Cruel Cut is broken good in heroics, doing hundreds of con damage (dual wield hits twice with it, and it seems doublestrike doubles the con damage as well). When you hit epics, the ability pretty much stops working. While I don't think it should be as good as it is in heroics there, I kinda wish there was a middle ground and it continued to work in epics some. That said, it's a minor thing in the overall package.
4. Ravager core three is still just meh. Having to roll a nat 20, then having the enemy fail a DC 20 will save isn't going to happen very often. Heck even at level six when you can get it, getting an enemy to fail DC 20 isn't going to happen. This core needs to be updated to scale, probably off your intimdate score since Ravager now has these built in intimidate mechanics (with the instakill, etc). All that said, the passive stats on the core is fine so maybe this isn't worth the squeeze.
5. If you aren't going to take the Dragonlord tree for some reason, the auras are pretty useless. You really need those Dragonlord cores to buff the auras to a decent measure. Just a little weird interaction with the base class and the enhancement tree there. It would be nice to give the Dragonlord the choice of aura vs feat in those levels instead of forcing the aura and removing the feat. That said, again it's not a huge deal.
Bug that I know of:
1. Festering Wound dot does not seem to scale off melee power.
2. Reckless Devotion healing doesn't seem to be scaling.
3. Laughter is not procing when using Slaughter.
Overall I give Dragonlord a 9.5 out of 10. Yes it is that fun to play and the majority of the cons above are a very minor thing in comparison. I know there is a perception that it might be too strong. I don't have enough experience in the higher end content with it yet to say for sure. I am also playing a triple completionist that has 136 reaper points with it at the moment, so my perception is very skewed with all that extra power. I have soloed some R6s with it so far, and it is probably the easiest melee solo in those I have seen. Generally I don't like to solo melee in Reaper due to the lack of control, etc so Dragonlord fits my playstyle a lot better since I tend to prefer caster control overall.
