The Power of Tazar in Dragon Invasion by Bloodlilith

(guide brought to you by Bloodlilith)
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Within the Era of Chaos community, it is (more or less) common knowledge that Solmyr and especially Gelu are the “kings” of Dragon Invasion. While this still holds true in the mid- to long-term, on new servers there is a different Hero dominating the DI damage leaderboard: Tazar.
The reason for this is that he neither needs to rely on damage from units (as Gelu), nor is he scaling heavily with investment into artifacts (like Solmyr or Ciele with Sword of Frost). Instead he leverages the unique debuff ability of his ultimate Death Match, which circumvents the defense of the Azure Dragon and thereby creates significant damage output.
Spell	School	Type	ManaCD	Description
Hero	Specialty	Rank	Description
=Death Match DoT=
For Dragon Invasion, Tazar’s Death Match triggers 2 damage over time effects (DoTs) on the Azure Dragon, that tick with either 50k, 100k or 200k every 2 seconds. As a result, one Death Match can achieve a damage output of over 2M. 
Important to note here is that it is not possible to influence the value of the triggered DoTs by any means – As a result, the output per try will differ highly dependent on your luck (I have seen values between just above 2 million, up to 6.13 million damage per try from my own Tazar at 3* - level 70). Of course it is possible to extend the duration of the DoTs by upgrading Tazar’s Ultimate, as upgrading prolongs the duration, to add some additional damage.
As a result of that, to maximize damage across the 3 tries, it is sometimes required to restart the game and re-enter Dragon Invasion thereafter – you will not waste your attempt and can hope for better luck regarding the overall damage. 
Based on the long cooldown of Death Match (43s) it is only possible to have two complete cycles until the Azure Dragon wipes the field at the 30s mark.
=Death Match Unit Synergy=
Luckily there are some units in the game that allow us to cast a 3rd Death Match, just before the end of the battle. To achieve this, it is recommended to run the following two units in the Tazar setup for DI:
* Monk: The Meditation skill increases the "Hero’s spell recovery speed" by a certain value (0.65 at level 8 of the skill), which enables us to cast Tazar's ultimate faster
* Firebird: The Resurrection ability of Firebird allows us, to continue with the damage after the global wipe of the formation at the 00:30 second mark, until the Firebird is revived and immediately killed again.
Note: It is very important to keep the Firebird alive until the 00:30 second mark, to save its Resurrection. To achieve this, I use the spells from Titan's Thunder, Earth Arrow and Petrification only on the Dragon Spawns. Quicksand can still be cast on the Azure Dragon for some additional damage as it doesn't affect flying units.
=Unit Damage=
To further maximize the damage there is one additional way, which is leveraging units that deal Max HP % damage:
* Giant with Nemesis, Thunder Rage and Magic Awakening
* Berserker with Peerless Dance
* Devil with Withering
These units are from my experience not mandatory though, as they only add some additional damage (3-4% of total damage each, the remaining about 0.5 – 1% total damage each), leaving Tazar with approximately 90% of the total damage done as the clear MVP.
=Formation=
Based on the above, you can find the formation that I am currently using with great success for Dragon Invasion below (15.49 million damage at player level 70, while Gelu and Solmyr currently struggle to achieve more than 2.5 million):
Going forward I see a few additional possibilities to optimize above formation for Dragon Invasion:
* Incorporate Devil (which I currently do not own) in the setup to deal additional Max HP % damage, likely replacing Manticore (currently used due to the Darkness Enlightenment emblems, reducing opponents damage reduction)
* Replace Behemoth with Centaur Captain (for the damage reduction decrease of Battle Stomp after his first awakening)
* Use Bone Dragon to leverage his ability to decrease opponents’ damage reduction
As stated before, I am aware that mid- to long-term especially Gelu will start to outscale Tazar in Dragon Invasion. Therefore, in the future, I am planning to transition to Gelu, too – but until he can achieve similar damage numbers in Dragon Invasion, I will continue to leverage Tazar to dominate the Azure Dragon.
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