Bulwark DragonLord

For the base versions, see DragonLord and Patience DragonLord.
Bulwark DragonLord is the upgraded version of Patient DragonLord, enabled by equipping Dragon's Bulwark. Bulwark DragonLord passively increases damage output over time, at the cost of your trinket slot.
Bulwark DragonLord uses three special mechanics, Dragon's Bulwark, Dragon's Body, and Dragon's Spirit:
* Dragon's Bulwark is passively built over time, increasing the damage of all Bulwark DragonLord skills.
* Dragon Body is generated when using Dragon Body skills, and automatically empowers your third Dragon Body skill to gain additional effects.
* Dragon Spirit is generated when using Dragon Spirit skills, and can be toggled to empower your next Dragon Spirit skill to gain additional effects.
==Skills==
* Dragon Heart
** 15 MP, 1 CD
** Requires <=20% HP to use.
*** If empowered, can be used without meeting the HP requirement, but has 9 CD if used this way.
** Attacks for 7 hits of 42.9% damage (300% total).
* Dragon Eye
** 35 MP, 7 CD
** Attacks for 1 hit of 150% damage with +200 Bonus and +200 Crit.
*** If empowered, attack gains +75% damage (225% total).
* Dragon Tail
** 25 MP, 13 CD
** If empowered, automatically inflicts 'Dragon Tail Crush' for 1 turn inclusive.
*** -50 Immobility.
** Attacks for 1 hit of 120% damage.
** Inflicts 'Dragon Tail' for 3 turns, a stun.
* Water Dragon Spirit
** 0 MP, 10 CD
** Heals the player for 30% of their maximum MP.
** If empowered, purges the player of all effects besides 'Stuffed', permanent effects, and any DragonLord buffs, such as 'Dark Bulwark'.
* Wind Dragon Spirit
** 35 MP, 12 CD
** Heals the player for 15% of their maximum HP.
** Applies 'Wind Dragon Spirit' for 2 turns, a 10% HoT.
** If empowered, applies 'Wind Bulwark' for 1 turn inclusive.
*** +180 Block/Parry/Dodge.
* Earth Dragon Spirit
** 30 MP, 12 CD
** Applies 'Earth Dragon Spirit' for 2 turns inclusive.
*** +25% Non-Crit/Crit Damage Reduction (+75% total).
*** If empowered, instead applies 'Earth Bulwark'.
**** +30% Non-Crit/Crit Damage Reduction (+90% total).
** Applies 'Earth Dragon Spirit' for 4 turns inclusive.
*** +50% Non-Crit/Crit Damage Reduction.
*** If empowered, instead applies 'Earth Bulwark'.
**** +60% Non-Crit/Crit Damage Reduction.
* Darkness Dragon Spirit
** 30 MP, 8 CD
** Applies 'Darkness Dragon Spirit' for 2 turns inclusive.
*** +180 Melee/Pierce/Magic.
** If empowered, applies 'Darkness Bulwark' for (10 + X) turns inclusive (max. 16 turns).
*** +[Player Level + 10] END (100 at level 90).
*** Adjusts the player's HP equal to the amount of health gained by this effect (500 at level 90).
*** X is equal to the current number of Dragon's Bulwark stacks, divided by 5 (max. 6).
* Attack
** 0 MP, 0 CD
** Heals the player for 15 MP.
** Attacks for 1 hit of 120% damage.
* Dragon Bite
** 0 MP, 0 CD
** Attack for 2 hits of 80% damage (160% total).
*** If empowered, attack gains +75 Bonus.
* Dragon Claw
** 0 MP, 1 CD
** Only available if the previous move used was Dragon Bite; replaces Dragon Bite.
*** Dragon Claw is re-locked and replaced with Dragon Bite if another attack is used, but using a non-attack skill will still allow this skill to be used.
** Applies 'Protector's Fray' for 4 turns inclusive.
*** You gain control over the battle! +5 All resist, -5 Health.
*** +5 All.
*** -5 Health.
*** If empowered, increases effectiveness of 'Protector's Fray'.
**** You gain control over the battle! +8 All, -8 Health.
**** +8 All.
**** -8 Health.
** Attacks for 3 hits of 70% damage (210% total).
* Dragon Breath
** 30 MP, 2 CD
** Attacks all enemies for 1 hit of 125% damage.
*** If empowered, attack gains +20% damage (145% total).
* Energy Dragon Spirit
** 30 MP, 7 CD
** If empowered, automatically inflicts 'Energy Bulwark' for 3 turns inclusive.
*** -180 Melee/Pierce/Magic.
*** -180 Block/Parry/Dodge.
** Attacks for 1 hit of 150% Energy damage.
** Inflicts 'Energy Dragon Spirit' for 4 turns inclusive.
*** -25 All.
*** +25 Health.
* Light Dragon Spirit
** 30 MP, 7 CD
** Attacks for 1 hit of 150% Light damage.
** Inflicts 'Light Dragon Spirit' for 3 turns.
*** -60 Bonus.
*** If empowered, instead inflicts 'Light Bulwark' for 5 turns (effect is unchanged).
* Ice Dragon Spirit
** 30 MP, 8 CD
** Attacks for 1 hit of 150% Ice damage.
** Inflicts 'Ice Dragon Spirit' for 3 turns.
*** -50 Boost.
*** If empowered, increases effectiveness of 'Ice Dragon Spirit'.
**** -(50 + [Player's Missing HP %] / 3) Boost (-83 max).
* Fire Dragon Spirit
** 25 MP, 6 CD
** If empowered, applies 'Fire Bulwark' for 5 turns inclusive.
*** +40 Boost.
** Attacks for 1 hit of 150% Fire damage.
** Inflicts 'Fire Dragon Spirit' for 5 turns, a 33% Fire DoT.
*** This DoT will instead use the player's weapon element when inflicted after using Dragon Wings.
* Dragon Wings
** 30 MP, 12 CD
** Requires the use of a Dragon Spirit skill to unlock.
** Your Dragon Spirit is unbound! Next three Spirits are no longer element locked.
** The next 3 Dragon Spirit skills will instead use weapon element (even if they are not attack skills).
** If empowered, gain 2 stacks of Dragon's Bulwark.
** Attacks for 4 hits of 100% damage (400% total).
==Mechanics==
=== Dragon's Bulwark ===
* Every turn, Bulwark DragonLord gains 1 stack of Dragon's Bulwark, up to a maximum of 30. Each stack of Dragon's Bulwark provides +5% base damage to all class skills, for a total of +150% at maximum stacks.
** Dragon's Bulwark shines brightly! +X% damage!
** This applies on turn 1 and any turn when the player drinks a potion, uses an on-attack special, or is immobilized.
=== Dragon's Body ===
* Bulwark DragonLord has a Dragon's Body counter that starts at 0 and caps at 2.
* Each time a Dragon's Body skill is used, this counter increases by 1.
* The current state of empowerment can be seen with the left widget.
** Two Body attacks will empower your third.
* At max stacks, the next Dragon's Body skill will automatically be empowered, consuming the stacks to gain additional effects.
** Next Body attack will be empowered!
* The following skills are considered Dragon's Body skills:
** Dragon Heart
** Dragon Eye
** Dragon Tail
** Dragon Bite
** Dragon Claw
** Dragon Breath
** Dragon Wings
=== Dragon's Spirit ===
* Bulwark DragonLord has a Dragon's Spirit counter that starts at 0 and caps at 4.
* Each time a Dragon's Spirit skill is used, this counter increases by 1.
* The current state of empowerment can be seen with the right widget.
** Not enough Dragon Spirits. Have: 0/1
* At 2 or more stacks, clicking the right widget will enable your next Dragon's Spirit skill to become empowered, consuming 2 stacks to gain additional effects.
** Empowered with 2 Dragon Spirits. Have: 2/3/4
** Skill unempowered.
* The following skills are considered Dragon's Spirit skills:
** Water Dragon Spirit
** Wind Dragon Spirit
** Earth Dragon Spirit
** Darkness Dragon Spirit
** Energy Dragon Spirit
** Light Dragon Spirit
** Ice Dragon Spirit
** Fire Dragon Spirit
==Rotation==
Due to the defensive nature of the class, Bulwark DragonLord does not have a strict damage rotation, and it is more common to cycle defensive skills and slowly whittle down the enemy, as follows:
# Any Dragon Spirit
# Bite
# Claw
# Repeat
If in a situation where damage is needed, however, the optimal rotation is the following:
# eFire
# Energy
# Wings
# Eye
# eHeart
More often than not a rotation like this will not be needed, as the natural ramping of Dragon's Bulwark and strong defensive skills allow it to simply outlast most enemies.
==Strategy==
Bulwark DragonLord's incredible defenses allow it to survive against nearly anything that is thrown against it, where Dragon's Bulwark will enable it to do much more damage as time passes. The primary focus of the class revolves around Protector's Fray, which provides a minor +All buff of 5 (8 if empowered). While this may not seem like a significant buff, since elemental resistance provides increasing returns the higher it goes, it becomes incredibly powerful at high resistance (even more so if res stacking). At the soft cap of 80 resistance from gear, Protector's Fray effectively becomes a 25% reduction in damage taken, and a 40% reduction if empowered. This also means that effects that inflict -All are very dangerous to Bulwark DragonLord, and should usually be avoided if possible.
In between looping Protector's Fray, Fire Dragon Spirit and the other Body skills provide decent damage. Otherwise, most Spirit skills are used as defensive skills to fill in the rest of the gaps. Darkness Dragon Spirit is one of the best skills to empower, as its 100 END buff makes heals from Wind Dragon Spirit and Pet Dragon drastically stronger, as well as being a flat 500 HP heal unaffected by Health resist. The damaging debuff skills serve as good damage mitigation, though are usually not as powerful as hard defense. Against enemies that have high Bonus where shielding isn't as useful, Earth Dragon Spirit provides significant Damage Reduction, often knocking damage down to the double or even single digits. The primary gameplan will usually involve cycling between Darkness -> Earth -> Darkness -> Pet Dragon Scales to avoid the most threatening attacks, while the other skills minimize damage during the downtime.
STR/END is recommended for bossing due to no natural +Crit. Use Wrath DragonLord (or Rage) for farming instead.
Category:Class
Category:DA Class