Delve into the (earthen) heart of the major changes and improvements coming to the Dragonknight Class. ESO’s Combat Team has returned to provide an update on the ongoing Class Refresh work. Specifically, they’re taking you through the Dragonknight changes you can expect to find in Update 49, going
live for all platforms on March 9. Part patch notes, part developer deep dive, this breakdown delves into the team’s thought processes behind almost every change to the Dragonknight. Be warned, this is a long read!
Hi Everybody!
As we mentioned in our
Class Refresh announcement, in an effort to modernize
ESO’s classes, address overall combat balance, improve look and feel, and alleviate the subclassing concerns, changes are coming to the class system. The first class we’re looking at is the Dragonknight.
As developers, we look at design from the perspective of "problem spaces,” which identify issues that need to be solved. We can identify these spaces through metrics, player feedback, surveys, our own playthroughs, etc. Through this process, we come up with solutions to any identified problem spaces in the form of designs, which lead to what you get in the game!
[h2]Dragonknight-sized Problems[/h2]
Based on your feedback, surveys, and in-game metrics, we have identified the following problem spaces to address within the Dragonknight class:
- Dragonknights are currently portrayed as powerful attrition warriors, but they lack the distinct ability functionality that helps bring this experience to life.
- As an extension of this, the Dragonknight’s damage-over-time effects are built the same as any other class, making gameplay across classes feel somewhat homogenized. This is a global issue; it especially hurts Dragonknights.
- Playing as a Dragonknight can often feel “swingy” in combat moments with their Ultimates and passives, which allow them to come back from the brink. While this is a satisfying experience in some cases such as Battle Roar, we want this to be a more central part of the Dragonknight’s rhythm in combat—where it builds up to deliver eruptive, punctuated experiences, like a volcano would.
- Skill lines are mostly focused on specific roles, while core functions are also split up. This makes Dragonknights suffer while subclassing compared to a class like the Arcanist or Necromancer, and it makes their lines less desirable to subclass into. For example, Burning Talons is locked behind an otherwise damage-weak skill line, making it a less optimal option to take despite being an iconic form of damage-over-time to the class.
- Dragonknights are significantly less effective and differentiated in the support role, lacking core tools in their kit, as well as a distinct gameplay experience for the role.
One of the major goals of the class refresh is making sure each class skill line offers something big and impactful for each role.
Setting the standard for ESO’s classes [h2]Dragonknight Solutions[/h2]
To tackle the issues we mentioned above, we’re looking to make the following high-level adjustments:
- Drive home the sensation of attrition by introducing ramping effects such as the Avalanche passive or the new Engulfing Dragonfire effect, which get stronger as you persist in active combat.
- To capture that feeling of building and erupting power, combat should reinforce rotations and a cycle with more clearly represented highs and lows.
- Dragonknights will have more nuanced effects that drive their identity. They’ll offer unique abilities or twists that other classes lack to make them stand out contextually, such as unique damage-over-time functionalities with their own durations and damage values.
- Improve the dispersion of role functionality among the Dragonknight’s skill lines. Each skill line should offer something meaningful for your role, while simultaneously making you pause to trade one of those skill lines for another in the context of subclassing.
- Introduce more abilities and passives that aid in carving a niche in the support role, with effects like Protect the Brood (previously Dragonfire Scale), which gives ranged damage reduction to nearby group members.
These high-level principles inform the more granular adjustments you’ll see below from skill line to skill line and ability to ability.
[h2]Upcoming Adjustments[/h2]
Skill Line Shuffle In light of subclassing, we’ve decided to look at skill line ability and passive distribution more closely than we have before. There are currently two distinct models of building skill lines for classes; a role-centric model (Necromancer, Arcanist, most of Warden), and one that focuses on theme or identity (the original 4 classes, with some exceptions such as the Nightblades’ Assassination).
Prior to subclassing, there was a strong internal sentiment that the newer class model of role-specific skill lines was a more successful system for newer players, building more digestible experiences, and building more modular buckets that could be more easily compared and balanced to one another.
With subclassing, however, this model introduced a slew of challenges and imbalances where now the ideal way to play would involve picking a role-specific line from every class. This created a sense that it was largely ineffective to stay true to your class, and that the power difference between those who do and do not was larger than any other build permutations before.
This also hurt and exasperated an already existing problem space of class identity feeling like it took a back seat to gameplay. As such, we’ll be adjusting skill lines to follow a more theme- and identity-focused model as we work on each class, where we blend a healthy mix of tools and effects for every role in each.
It is our hope that every skill line will offer something you can use regardless of your role, while simultaneously spreading out the power that makes a class come to life and drive home the sensation that staying true to your class is also a much more viable and distinct option.
Fire and fury in a class Here’s an outline of what each of the skill lines will look like for the Dragonknight. A crossed-out name means that ability or passive has moved, while “(originally X)” denotes a renamed or reworked effect. The movement of these abilities and passives does indeed change which abilities and passives interact with one another or even other effects (like class sets), so keep this in the back of your mind too!
We’ve also made adjustments to the movement of these abilities to ensure any previous progression is retained when an ability moves—and we will continue this effort through the class refresh.
Ardent Flame - Dragonknight Standard
- Lava Whip
- Searing Strike
- Fiery Breath Core of Flame (originally Inhale)
- Fiery Grip Hearthfire (originally Ash Cloud)
- Inferno
- Passives
- Combustion
- Traumatic Burns (originally Warmth)
- Fan the Flames (originally Searing Heat)
- World in Ruin A Soul Ablaze (originally Burning Heart)
Draconic Power - Dragon Leap
- Spiked Armor Dragonfire Breath (originally Fiery Breath)
- Dark Talons
- Dragon Blood
- Wing Buffet (originally Protective Scale)
- Inhale Chains of Flame (originally Fiery Grip)
- Passives
- Burnished Scales (originally Iron Skin)
- Burning Heart World in Ruin
- Elder Dragon
- Scaled Armor The Storm Voice (originally Battle Roar)
Earthen Heart - Magma Armor
- Superheated Ward (originally Stonefist)
- Molten Weapons
- Obsidian Shield
- Petrify
- Ash Cloud Earthspike Mantle (originally Spiked Armor)
- Passives
- Eternal Mountain Heart of Stone (originally Scaled Armor)
- Battle Roar Avalanche
- Blessing at the Peak (originally Mountain’s Blessing)
- Mountain Giant (originally Helping Hands)
Additional Changes and Improvements We’ve also made a series of additional tweaks, fixes, and improvements to the Dragonknight class.
- New visual and sound effects to every single Dragonknight ability.
- Updated animations for the following Dragonknight abilities. Some of these are completely new, while others are polish to existing animations.
- Dragonknight Standard and its morphs.
- Lava Whip and its morphs, including the specialized versions that make you do a sick flip.
- Searing Claw and its morphs. They also now alternate from a right and left variant as you cast the ability.
- Core of Flame (originally Inhale) and its morphs.
- Hearthfire (originally Ash Cloud) and its morphs.
- Inferno and its morphs.
- Dragon Leap and its morphs.
- Dragonfire Breath (originally Fiery Breath) and its morphs. The Engulfing Dragonfire morph also gets a special variant animation to denote the spicy morph change.
- Dark Talons and its morphs.
- Dragon Blood and its morphs. Get pumped (full of blood)!
- Wing Buffet (originally Protective Scale) and its morphs. Cue the food jokes.
- Chains of Flame (originally Fiery Grip) and its morphs. The Chains of Devastation morph also gets a fancy unique animation to differentiate it.
- Magma Armor and its morphs.
- Superheated Ward (originally Stonefist) and its morphs.
- Molten Weapons and its morphs. It also applies a unique weapon appearance for the caster that looks absolutely fire.
- Obsidian Shield and its morphs.
- Petrify and its morphs.
- Earthspike Mantle (originally Spiked Armor) and its morphs.
- Added cool new flavor text to all of the passive abilities in the Dragonknight skill lines.
- Renamed many Dragonknight abilities to better align with their functionality and overall lore.
- All sources of Poison Damage have been updated to Flame Damage in the Dragonknight kit. These changes were made to better focus on the core fantasy of the Dragonknight, where many affixes didn’t work, synergize, or coherently mesh with Poison across the entire kit. We’ll be re-introducing Poison Damage elsewhere in the game with other class refreshes, where it fits into the overall theme of said class rather than being tacked on.
Enjoy new Dragonknight animations and effects [h2]Specific Dragonknight Ability Changes[/h2]
For Update 49, we made the following changes to the Dragonknight’s skill lines and abilities. These details are typically found in the Patch Notes, but we wanted to delve a little deeper and share more of our thoughts surrounding each change with you.
Ardent Flame
Dragonknight Standard This Ultimate and the Standard of Might morph no longer deal damage to enemies inside or apply Major Defile. Instead, these Ultimates grant you and up to 11 allies standing in the area increased Weapon and Spell Damage (375) and reduced damage taken (12%). Note this effect cannot stack.
Standard of Might: This morph significantly increases these bonuses for the caster of the ultimate (adds 425 WD/SD and 13% reduced damage taken in addition to the base)
Shifting Standard: This morph continues to work as originally designed, dealing damage and applying Major Defile, rather than the new functionality.
Lava Whip This ability now becomes Volcanic Whip for 7.9 seconds after it damages an Off Balance enemy. The time window activation can occur only once every 20 seconds. Volcanic Whip costs half as much, deals 33.3% more damage, and deals its damage in a 5-meter radius around the original target. This change was made to help introduce the Flame Lash morph gameplay element sooner, while also making the window of interaction with Off Balance less restrictive. You now get a guaranteed window of time after hitting the Off Balance target, rather than being forced to drop everything you’re doing while Off Balance is active. These abilities no longer set Immobilized or Stunned enemies Off Balance. (We’ve sourced Off Balance on a new passive you’ll read about later in a different skill line.)
Flame Lash: This morph now heals you any time the ability deals damage, rather than only when the Power Lash version is active. This morph sees the same changes to activating Power Lash as the base ability does.
Molten Whip: This morph continues to rework the ability into a more self-contained building effect, focused on high single-target burst damage. It remains split in cost of Magicka and Stamina but now generates stacks when using any Dragonknight ability other than itself, instead of only building off Ardent Flame abilities. This should make the build-up more rewarding while using a more Dragonknight-ability-heavy rotation and feeling more organic and rhythmic to use. Adjusted the stack bonus to 33% per stack, up from 20%, but reduced the duration to 10 seconds down from 15 seconds to account for the new ability timers.
Searing Strike This ability and its morphs now last for 10 seconds, down from 20 seconds, but deal 50% more damage-per-second to make up for their shorter duration.
Venomous Claw: This morph has been reworked to Searing Claw, which deals Flame Damage instead of Poison Damage. It remains a Stamina morph that increases damage-per-tick, which has been increased to match the same power increase with the shorter duration.
Burning Embers: The heal from this morph now scales off Max Health, rather than damage done, to offer a more helpful tool for tanks to gain some staying power in combat.
Core of Flame This ability and its morphs no longer deal damage instantly or heal for the damage caused. These abilities now restore 15% of your missing Magicka and Stamina 3 times over 4 seconds. They continue to deal damage around you after the duration ends.
Soul of Flame (originally Deep Breath): This morph continues to add an interrupt on the initial activation, but it now interrupts after a 350ms delay instead of instantly, for better visual syncing and counterplay. This morph also continues to increase the damage of the explosion, which has increased to a 33% bonus, up from 25%.
Heart of Flame (originally Draw Essence): This morph now heals you for 15% of your missing Health each tick. It no longer adds Magicka when damaging enemies, as that function of resource recovery is now a part of the base ability.
Hearthfire This ability and the original Cinder Storm morph now grant Minor Fortitude and Heroism to allies inside the area, rather than slowing enemies’ movement speed by 70%. We increased the radius to 8 meters, up from 5 meters, on all versions of this ability.
Fire Keeper (originally Cinder Storm): This morph continues to increase the healing effectiveness by 50%, but now only does so if the caster is inside the area-of-effect. To make up for this, however, it also causes Minor Fortitude and Heroism to stick to allies for 15 seconds after being healed.
Hearth and Home (originally Eruption): This morph no longer reworks the ability into a damaging effect and instead remains a healing effect. This morph continues to reduce enemy movement speed inside the area by 70%. This morph now also grants the caster Major Protection while inside the area, to help the ability be more valuable to tanks.
Inferno This ability and the Flames of Oblivion morph now fire a massive wave of flame in an 8-meter radius, rather than firing a limited number of fire balls to enemies in a 15-meter radius. This removes the original target cap of the abilities. We increased the cost to 4050 per activation, up from 2160 to account for the new area melting potential. We reduced the chance of applying the Burning Status effect to 5%, down from 10%, to account for these changes.
Incinerate (originally Flames of Oblivion): This morph now deals 10% more damage and has a 15% base chance of applying Burning, now that the morph can no longer increase the target count.
Combustion This passive now grants you 112 Magicka and Stamina at rank 1 and 225 at rank 2 when applying Burning with an Ardent Flame ability slotted with a 1-second cooldown, rather than 211 Magicka and Stamina at rank 1 and 423 at rank 2 when applying Burning or Poisoned with a 3-second cooldown. This passive no longer increases the damage done by Burning or Poisoned (the Burning part has moved to a different passive and has been improved).
Traumatic Burns (originally Warmth) This passive now causes enemies you've damaged with a direct Ardent Flame ability to take 5% increased Flame Damage while reducing their movement speed by 15% at rank 1 and 30% at rank 2 for 5 seconds, rather than increasing your damage- over- time effects against them by 3% at rank 1 and 6% at rank 2 and reducing their movement speed by 15% at rank 1 and 30% at rank 2 for 3 seconds.
This is now where the old Engulfing Flames effect lives, and it should be easier to keep up.
Fan the Flames (originally Searing Heat) This passive now increases your chance of applying Burning by 25% at rank 1 and 50% at rank 2, and the damage it does by 12% at rank 1 and 25% at rank 2. These values increase by 5% at rank 1 and 10% at rank 2, and 2% at rank 1 and 5% at rank 2 per Dragonknight ability slotted. This passive no longer extends the duration or damage of some of your Ardent Flame abilities.
A Soul Ablaze (originally Burning Heart) This passive now increases Healing Taken at all times by 4% at rank 1 and 8% at rank 2, rather than 4% and 9% when meeting certain conditions.
Draconic Power
Dragon Leap We rebuilt how this ability handles the movement aspect under the hood to be more modern, fixing numerous inconsistencies compared to other movement abilities and unique bug cases. We fixed numerous issues with the knockback being desynced from the actual damage impact, which should also make it easier to counteract the CC effects as an opponent. This ability and the Take Flight morph now deal Flame Damage rather than Physical Damage. We reduced the damage of the base ability by ~16% to account for the damage change, as there are numerous ways to amplify this effect back to similar (or higher) values.
Take Flight: This morph now fills you with draconic fury for 15 seconds after activation, which increases your damage done by 10% and doubles against monsters. This morph no longer extends the range or reduces the cost. We decreased the base damage by ~19% to account for the other potential damage increases.
Ferocious Leap: This morph now instantly applies the Damage Shield for 10 seconds, instead of applying it after a delay for 6 seconds. Increased the potency by ~4%. This morph now knocks enemies up, rather than away, to make it more tank friendly so they can control the fight rather than disrupt it.
Depending on feedback, we may make this change to crowd-control a universal one, as there’s value in many cases to have it be less disruptive. The only reason we haven’t so far is because it takes away some of that badass feeling of crashing down like a dragon and pushing foes back in all directions. Let us know your thoughts.
Dragonfire Breath (originally Fiery Breath) Decreased the duration to 10 seconds, down from 20 seconds, and increased the damage-per-second by 50%. This ability is now a Stamina ability at its base.
Disintegrating Dragonfire (originally Noxious Breath): This morph now deals Flame Damage, rather than Poison Damage. It remains a Stamina ability and continues to add Major Breach while applying the respective status effect (now Burning) to all enemies affected by the initial hit.
Engulfing Dragonfire (originally Engulfing Flames): This morph is now the rework morph, which costs Magicka instead of Stamina. This morph now channels the flame attack in front of you over 4.8 seconds and deals 20% increased damage when it hits an enemy, up to once every second, and up to a maximum of 80%. While Take Flight is active, this deals maximum damage. The damage is considered direct damage.
For being called a
Dragonknight, the class has always been missing the most iconic feeling of being a dragon: unleashing unabated flame upon their foes with a channeled flame breath. We also realize that many of our players have expressed the desire to enjoy the game at a slower pace, and as we’ve introduced similar attacks into higher levels of play with Heavy Attack builds and Fatecarver, we want to make sure there are more flavors to this experience, each with their own distinctions in how you build and play. This morph won’t be bringing the same heat as either of those builds alone, but it should help take some pressure off constantly needing to press down the gas pedal (buttons).
Dark Talons No major changes to note outside of patch notes. This one just looks cooler and should look a little less buggy when used against immobilize-immune targets.
Dragon Blood This ability and the Green Dragon Blood morph now heal based on your Max Health and increase based on your missing Health, rather than scaling exclusively off your missing Health. This should make them more reliable and comparable to other self-heals. They’ll still be weaker at higher health, though, compared to other abilities like it.
Blood of the Green Dragon (originally Green Dragon Blood): This morph has just a slight name change.
Blood of the Elder Dragon (originally Coagulating Blood): This morph continues to change the heal scaling to offensive stats. It now also heals allies within 10 meters of you for 2/3rds of the original scaling. It also grants Minor Courage and Major Fortitude to any healed target, instead of just Major Fortitude to you. Support builds may like this one!
Wing Buffet (originally Protective Scale) This ability and the Protective Plate morph now knock enemies within 6 meters of you back 4 meters after a slight delay. These abilities continue to reduce your damage taken from ranged and projectile attacks by 50% for 6 seconds after activating. These abilities now grant Major Expedition (moved from Fiery Grip) for 4 seconds after activating as well. Let those wings unfurl!
Fleetstep Wings (originally Protective Plate): This morph has just a name change.
Protect the Brood (originally Dragonfire Scale): This morph has been reworked to be a support morph. It no longer deals Flame damage back to attackers while active and sacrifices the new area knockback on activation. This morph grants group members within 12 meters 25% reduced damage taken from projectiles for 6 seconds and adds Minor Protection for 20 seconds to you and group members affected. It continues to grant you Major Expedition as well. Note that this effect cannot stack with itself or any other version of the ranged damage reduction.
Chains of Flame (originally Fiery Grip) This ability and its morphs’ damage now always applies Burning, for more synergistic gameplay with other parts of the Dragonknight kit. We added a new special sound effect to the act of successfully pulling enemies, helping dial up the satisfaction of controlling your foes. This ability and the Unrelenting Grip morph now apply Major Cowardice for 10 seconds to the enemy, rather than granting you Major Expedition for 4 seconds, to make them more effective for tanks.
Chains of Domination (originally Unrelenting Grip): Increases the duration of Major Cowardice to 15 seconds to match taunt timers. Continues to refund the ability if the target is not pulled.
Chains of Devastation: This morph now grants Major Evasion for 10 seconds after activating to help you shrug off some of the damage you may receive for diving headfirst into combat. We increased the duration of the Major Berserk to 6 seconds, up from 4, to help it be more worthwhile to use in a rotation. Note that this with the Burning application helps it do notably more damage, so beware the Dragonknight who pulls themself to you.
Burnished Scales (originally Iron Skin) This passive has just a name change.
World in Ruin This passive now increases your damage done with area- and over-time attacks by 3% at rank 1 and 7% at rank 2, rather than increasing your Flame and Poison damage by 2% at rank 1 and 5% at rank 2.
Elder Dragon This passive now increases your Health Recovery by up to 350 at rank 1 and 700 at rank 2 based on your missing Health, rather than by 161 at rank 1 and 323 at rank 2 per Draconic Power ability slotted. This passive now grants you and nearby group members Minor Brutality for 20 seconds when you activate a Draconic Power ability (moved from what was originally Mountain’s Blessing).
The Storm Voice (originally Battle Roar) This passive now grants you 8 Health, Magicka, and Stamina per Ultimate spent at rank 1 and 16 at rank 2, plus 3 to these values per Dragonknight ability slotted at rank 1 and 6 at rank 2, rather than 18 Health, Magicka, and Stamina per UItimate spent at rank 1 and 37 at rank 2
This should make this passive relatively effective for any who obtain it, while being even more effective for those who go all in to the Dragonknight experience. This will be a buff at 3 or more Dragonknight abilities, while being weaker at less than 3.
Earthen Heart
Magma Armor We increased the base duration to 12-15 seconds of this UItimate and the Magma Shell morph, up from 7-10 seconds, but removed the Flame damage on both of these versions. This means these effects will no longer scale with the Elf-bane item set.
Magma Shell: We increased the radius of the shield granted to 28 meters for this morph, up from 8 meters, so more allies actually get the shield. Increased the shield size to 130-133% of the target’s Max Health, up from 100%.
Corrosive Armor: This morph now deals Flame Damage, instead of Poison Damage. This means the effect can now scale with Elf-bane. Base duration remains 10 seconds. We increased the damage per tick by 300%. This morph continues to cause you to ignore enemy armor while active but now affects all damaging attacks instead of just direct damage. To account for these massive power buffs, the damage limit has been adjusted to 8% of your Max Health, rather than 3%, causing you to take significantly more damage while the Ultimate is active.
This morph has always struggled to be a decent damage Ultimate outside of PvP, despite presenting as an incredibly potent one. Additionally, a lot of the balance for the Ultimate felt counterintuitive to the class design, failing to amplify the core part of their kit: damage-over-time effects. To compensate for making this more of a damage Ultimate, we’re dialing back how tanky you become while it’s active and will continue to monitor these effects. In general, seeing a Dragonknight activate this should instill
immediate fear into their enemy—but not hopelessness.
Superheated Ward (originally Stonefist) This is now a Magicka ability that grants you or an ally a sizable damage shield, scaling off your Max Magicka or Stamina. We increased the cost to 4590 at base. Think of this as superheating the air around your target so intensely that it prevents harm from coming through. This should help the support-oriented Dragonknights have a more direct option to protect their allies while offering something completely different from the standard burst-healing effect.
Volcanic Ward (originally Obsidian Shard): This morph adds a healing effect when the shield ends, to offer some supplementary healing to those you protect. It also reduces the next instance of damage taken by 10% from any attack. Note that “ends” means the following: the shield is replaced, the shield's duration runs out, or the shield breaks.
Magma Fist (originally Stone Giant): This morph continues to be focused on a Stamina morph for damage dealers at range with some support functions behind it, but it is significantly simpler to use. This morph now deals Flame Damage instead of Physical Damage. This morph no longer splits between two distinct versions or has a cast time. Its debuff has been renamed to Heat Shock (originally Stagger), lasts for 10 seconds, up from 5 seconds, and now causes enemies to take 33 more damage from all sources per stack, down from 65. It also no longer stuns enemies on the 3rd cast.
This should rectify much of the complaints of this morph, which rightfully deemed it “clunky” and difficult to manage. The duration now follows the Dragonknight’s DoT timer of 10 seconds, doesn’t require different range activations, and scales more effectively with the rest of their kit in general. We expect to hear some “back in my day” stories from tanks and DPS who lived with the previous version in the years to come.
Molten Weapons This ability and its morphs now cause the caster’s Light and Heavy Attacks to deal an additional hit of Flame Damage, up to once every 2 seconds. This is akin to a “sticky” damage-over-time effect in terms of number scaling and should add some more value to this skill line for damage dealers. While it may not boast raw numbers over other specialized effects, the group utility is more than enough to make up for that to warrant consideration.
Obsidian Shield No large base changes for this one—just some number cleanup to account for the removal of the Eternal Mountain passive being reworked.
Igneous Shield: We increased the shield size of the caster’s version of the shield (~12%) so it’s closer to a standard self-shield ability.
Fragmented Shield: This morph now scales with the caster’s Max Magicka or Stamina, rather than Max Health, so it’s more effective for support builds.
Petrify This ability and its morphs now have real, bonafide counterplay. Rather than instantly stunning the enemy target and ignoring both Block and Dodge, these abilities now reduce the enemy target’s movement speed by 50% for 1 second. After 1 second, the target will become stunned for 4 seconds, or 8 seconds if they are a monster. This stun continues to bypass Block but does not bypass Dodge. These abilities now also apply Minor Breach to the enemy for 10 seconds upon activation, helping give a potential (albeit rare) PvE use case. These abilities can now be cast on CC immune targets, so beware! This ability and the Fossilize morph no longer deal damage when the stun ends. We reduced the cost to account for these changes.
Fossilize: This morph continues to immobilize after the stun ends, but it now also applies Minor Vulnerability and extends the duration of the minor debuffs to 20 seconds.
Shattering Rocks: This morph keeps the damage and healing on stun end. We increased the amount of damage and healing done by 15% to account for the new delay.
Earthspike Mantle (originally Spiked Armor) This ability and its morphs now increase your damage done by 100 (all hits) while active, rather than causing you to deal damage back to melee attackers. This effect should make the ability far more useful to damage dealers instead of being a largely exclusive survivability tool. The damage-done bonus may seem small, but it adds up over the course of a fight!
Shatterspike Mantle (originally Volatile Armor): This morph’s damage-over-time effect now scales with your offensive stats, rather than your Armor, doubling down as a viable damage option for DPS, while also helping you stay in the fight in the front lines with the extra armor. Additionally, when dealing damage with the effect, you add one additional stack of Avalanche, up to once every 10 seconds. This should help slightly expedite the time it takes to reach max stacks.
Heart of Stone (originally Scaled Armor) This passive has just a name change inspired by lovers of rocks and stones.
Avalanche (originally Eternal Mountain) This passive now causes you to gain a stack of Avalanche when you deal damage, increasing your damage done by 1% per stack, up to 10 times. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds for rank 1 and 5 seconds for rank 2. Every 2 seconds you fail to deal damage, you lose a single stack.
Blessing at the Peak (originally Mountain’s Blessing) No big changes for this one—the group buff was moved to the Elder Dragon passive and the Ultimate generation remains here.
Mountain Giant (originally Helping Hands) This passive has been reworked. It now causes your fully charged Heavy Attacks to apply Off Balance to the enemy (this applies
after the damage, so you can’t instantly stun the target with this). Additionally, rank 2 of this passive causes your fully charged Heavy Attacks to generate 1430 Stamina (this is considered a proc, so no interplay with other effects) on top of whatever restore they’d normally grant, to help keep some of the original passive functionality.
This passive should pair nicely with Lava Whip, while also just giving you a much more controlled and simple way of triggering Off Balance in general.
Phew! As you can see, we weren’t kidding when we said we were doing a complete rework of the Dragonknight class. You can test all these changes for yourself when Update 49 arrives on the Public Test Server on Monday, January 12. We’re eager to hear your feedback and see how the fiery class performs in your hands. Don’t forget, the Dragonknight class refresh is part of Season Zero, but it will go live with Update 49 on March 9 for all platforms. Be sure to share your thoughts on the above changes with us via
Bluesky,
X (formerly Twitter),
Instagram, and
Facebook.
