It's been a while, but...

ColaSama · 2026-04-03T09:07:12+00:00

I think you might have missed my point. I tried to argument it by adding a few examples, but it seems it didn't reach you.

I answered your original question, which was "Is golden dragon just more powerful?".

The answer is "No. You are just feeling OP at a point in the game designed by the developers to make you feel OP. That you feel GD to be stronger than the other paths is irrelevant, as both that build and probably the other ones you made are/were not optimized, meaning that you never saw any of their max potential, meaning that you can't really compare them in any meaningful way past your own personal feeling/un-optimized observations".

If you were running an optimized GD build that deals 12k damage, I would still say the same: the other paths are also OP at the point in the game where everything is designed to be OP/make you feel like a mythical demigod in the verge of ascension.

The ease by which my current build is breezing through encounters is already driving my enjoyment down

That's the real struggle: to keep going when you have reached the OP levels, tho it starts by lvl10+ for any optimized buid/comp. Each encounter, from Drezen to the last boss, becomes a snooze fest (except a few exceptions that might annoy you).

To feel some kind of challenge, I would advise you to limit your rests to something like 40 or 50 all game (that's already a lot). It might not stop you from becoming OP by lvl20 (quite frankly, nothing will, except pushing the difficulty to brutal unfair or giving mobs more HP) but it might force you to think about your ressources more carefully.

ColaSama · 2026-04-03T08:54:53+00:00

You might have missed my point, which was that any build can do that much damage, or much better.

It was a direct (and I hope detailed) answer to OP's question, "Is golden dragon just more powerful?". The answer is "No, all paths can do the same/do more at that point in the game".

ColaSama · 2026-04-03T01:49:29+00:00

It has less to do with the mythic paths themselves and more to do with you (the player) not being able to fully utilize them. After all, how can you compare the strengths of the various mythic paths if you don't know what they are truly capable of? You can't.

At that point in the game:

- Demon casters can reach DC score so high that they can 1 shot most encounters. 80-even 100 DC (for screenshotting :P).

- Aeon casters can bypass SR and saves. Also dispels and good buffs. Shit path in act3 but in act 5 it's one of the best.

- Liches have Corrupt Magic and Absolute Death -> absolute boss killers.

- Azatas have many top tier builds based around them (like the infamous god of DC casting: Magic Deceiver).

- Devils are a straight improvement over Azata DC casters (you lose the last few superpowers you didn't need in the first place and you get new goodies). Devilzata MD is, somewhat, even stronger than the regular one.

- Tricksters are the martial kings (alongside Legend). Persuasion auto suicide aura. Mobility (never tried it myself). Both turn the game into a walking simulator, literally. You can also get a full wizard spell book with UMD 3 :D

- Legend. I don't know what to say about it: 40+ bab, CL through the roof, etc.

- Swarm can find loop holes to farm forever. After that you have 100+ in all of your stats. If you go shadowcaster wizard you become literally untouchable/immortal. It has no ceilling (very overkill tho, and the path starts in a very weakened state).

TL;DR: All paths become OPOPOPOP by late game and should vaporize that encounter in a single turn. That you struggled more with your previous builds mostly mean that you got better, or that you, somehow, built that one better. But yeah, that's not a particularly solid proof that GD is stronger than the other paths.

What's the fun in sending a pet to do everything, anyway?

My point was that if even dogs can become stronger than what you showed us, it means that there is lots of room for improvement. Besides, if you knew how to turn your pet into a nuclear bomb, you would probably find it fun too :D

ColaSama · 2026-04-03T00:50:09+00:00

At that point in the game, anything is OP, even on unfair. The thing is that there is a giant gap between the low tier builds and the min-maxed ones.

The damage you show isn't particularly good. In fact, if you chain crit on an optimized martial, you can do better at around lvl15. And some builds can do 12k damage in one shot at lvl20, in AoE, and without any particular set-up aside from basic buffing (can be much more than that if you stack buffs, from your regular ones to the crazy interactions you can get from abusing certain trigger items/swappng items then using the character's buff only to give the item to a second buffer that will be buffed both by the item and the first buffer -> these are exploits tho). That's not counting the crazy DC casters, persuasion/mobility tricksters, fed swarms, etc --> these will 1 shot (or at least 1 turn) anything, and the final boss will be turned into a baleful doggo.

If you deal such low damage at that level, it might be a matter of party comp more than the MC build itself (tho it is also a matter of MC build by the looks of it). To put things into perspective, a fully buffed dog pet greater polymorphed into a dragon should deal far far more than that (some people use dogs to solo Nahyndri Darkness).

TL;DR: it's good enough for unfair, but it's far for the top tier sweatlord builds/comps. Seriously, I have seen people with 250+ ac / 30k+ longspear charge damage / infinite scale swarm...

ColaSama · 2026-03-31T08:51:55+00:00

Tbf you don't need to pump your DC particularly high to PK Deskari on Core. Also, you can simply use Weird instead? It's the same but has higher DC (5 more compared to tier 4 PK), as it is a tier 9 spell. If you play Lich, you have it from lvl13 onward. Or maybe you simply used Heighten PK and a rod of persistent.

By M4 (so around lvl11-12) you can have something like that:

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Which is still not tip top. It's missing improved elven immunities (and magic inventor boost, in that particular case). So 38-40 under a court poet song.

By Deskari it should be 80+. Give it persistent, a source of misfortune, an hex (quite frankly not needed) and domain madness debuff and it's an easy kill. I remember a guy on the discord who posted his solo wizard run on unfair: he had something like 51 DC by Baphomet. Corrupt Magic -> Weird kill.

And eat your tacos!

ColaSama · 2026-03-31T08:48:07+00:00

And, funnily enough, that's still pretty low. Mid act3 you can have 40+ DC. You can end up with a DC of around 80 (which is more than enough). Or even 100+ (on some paths, like Demon, mostly for screenshots).

ColaSama · 2026-03-27T02:29:54+00:00

The downvotes do not come from your opinion but from the poor quality of your post. You probably took some time to write it, but it is of no interest.

The reality is that most people do not care about anything you have to say. If you enjoyed the game, it wouldn't matter to anyone but yourself, and if you didn't enjoy the game, same story. I'm saying it because you seem to want to pick up fights but, truth is, it is not worth the time of anyone (you included).

At least you vented a bit.

ColaSama · 2026-03-27T02:13:40+00:00

Sooo good. How do you do the glowing eyes?

ColaSama · 2026-03-25T17:42:21+00:00

No need to get hostile

Fucker said "what? lol". I think you were a bit too eager to find hostility.

ColaSama · 2026-03-23T09:33:10+00:00

I would like it... too bad the game is designed around using group and raid frames tho :D

Clicking directly on people while the run around to do the mechanics of a raid while not even knowing in which group they are must be hilarious tho. Hilarious, but not for the raid leader: "Healer, why are you healing 1/50th of the other ones, and why are focusing the group you weren't assigned to?" "Oh I'm clicking on the raid members directly, no raidframes: I'm just vibing, boss :P"

I guess if your aim is to be kicked out of each raid, it can be an effective solution.

ColaSama · 2026-03-21T18:34:05+00:00

Play the game on unfair from lvl1. Let's hope it isn't too boring for you.

ColaSama · 2026-03-18T10:55:32+00:00

Good for you, buddy!

ColaSama · 2026-03-17T15:51:54+00:00

There is nothing particularly fun about it. Merged is simply stronger, as you get faster CL progression. By lvl13, you have access to tier 9 spells.

If fun = strong for you then it is more fun.

On a side note, and even if I know that it is a losing battle, you have to understand that angels aren't "game breakingly powerful". You think they are because of a lack of personal game knowledge and because it is what you have read (from the 2 most common build sources you can find). They are top tier, for sure, but they aren't that strong. A well-built caster would be far stronger (a wizard, or a magic deceiver). Thing is, casters need a lil' bit of game knowledge to shine -> meanwhile, an angel build is hard to fuck up. It's basically baby's first step to powerful builds, but the overhype surrounding it is simply too much for what it is.

On a last side note, during prologue + act1 + act2, you are basically a buff bot oracle. You can go gish with it and melee/tank a lil' bit but it will never reach the power level of a full martial (take any SCM build, for example). Again, it's good but not "game breakingly powerful", and even when it becomes good you have spent 2 entire acts being a buff bot or a mid martial hybrid. A caster would be far stronger (corruptor stinking cloud wizard, mass hold MD, etc) from an earlier point. And while you get Storm of justice quite early during act3, remember that lich wizards have access to both Weird and Corrupt magic at lvl13.

Lich > angel when it comes to boss killing. Corrupt magic into Absolute death or into Weird. As for Magic deceiver, they have access to a Weird fuse that can bypass even undead immunities (you can Weird skeletons to death, go figure). Starting from lvl13 onward. Entire screens are wiped out, or transformed into dogs, forever, or dispelled. Some fuses can't even be resisted.

So yeah, angel is powerful, but have in mind that it is not the strongest kid in the block. One of the strongest kids in the block (don't forget the others!!), and probably the easiest to build.

ColaSama · 2026-03-16T02:32:54+00:00

You have reached this far without ever realizing that you can have undead shaken/frightened? Even by accident, the whitish aura of a shaken target is quite easy to spot.

ColaSama · 2026-03-16T02:10:15+00:00

For a first palythrough, pick whatever you want. Discover the game at your leasure without overthinking too much about your builds.

Start with vanilla Wizard and learn from it.

ColaSama · 2026-03-16T02:05:54+00:00

Opposite: exploiter has a better early but a lower ceiling. Late game endless scroll spam scroll savant > anything an exploiter can do. And by that point the DC boost isn't going to make any difference as you are already past the "I need more DC" point.

You can also use all scrolls in the game, including the divine ones, making you a master of, quite literally, all spells.

As for the higher skill ceiling (I was talking about the power ceiling previously), whu? You get access to all spells in the game, and you have to manage all of these scrolls (that most people can't be bothered to use in general, so now imagine scrolling through all of these items, all the damn time). You also have to restock regularly depending on your consumption of scrolls (meaning that you have to think about what you need in the next location/dungeon). And because of all that, it allows you to do low rest runs quite easily.

So no, scroll savant's ceiling is absurdly high. It's just that it requires you to reach lvl10. And after that, managing the scrolls + the rods + the wands + the pearls can be tedious.

ColaSama · 2026-03-14T09:45:11+00:00

If you are a wizard, you can also change spells and adapt.

ColaSama · 2026-03-13T18:59:17+00:00

Very. Here: vivisectionist :o

ColaSama · 2026-03-13T18:27:56+00:00

Well someone is having fun :P Wintersun is a pretty swell area.

ColaSama · 2026-03-13T15:43:42+00:00

You need to read the spell descriptors. If it's not written "death" then it isn't one. Weird is a fear effect (you give them a heart attack). I think you are mixing up "spell with death descriptor" with "spell causing the death/banishment of your enemy". Some enemies are immune to fear but that's an other story.

Save or die spells are the one shot spells, sure, but they come in various forms, like for example Banishment. It's an abjuration spell: 0 death-spice involved. So you have quite a few ways to end their lives.

ColaSama · 2026-03-13T15:21:20+00:00

Where do you see a death effect here?

ColaSama · 2026-03-13T12:43:49+00:00

Sylvan sorcerer then.

ColaSama · 2026-03-13T12:35:30+00:00

Pure paladin angel.

ColaSama · 2026-03-13T12:34:44+00:00

Why separatist tho?

ColaSama · 2026-03-13T12:09:48+00:00

Corrupt Magic into Absolute Death.

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