Dragonmarks In DDO

[bennyson]

I run pugs alot and have seen people of all types and (almost) have never seen people using Dragonmarks, I do know that there's an option to "hide" that blue stuff on your character's face, but I only have seen one or 3 Chestbuffers (Dragonmark of Finding) in the past 5 years I've played this game.

What am really asking is just how "exactly" useful do Dragonmarks play in this game?

[Uska]

well on my Halfling monk the healing mark is pretty good on my cleric is just for flavor I made my cleric way back in head-start and gave him a name that stated he was a dragon marked member of a house so I keep the mark on him and occasionally the ddoor does come in handy

[TheGuyYouKnow]

part of the problem would be that the players of ddo went a real long time with dragonmarks only in feat form and thus largely useless because nobody had 3 feats to spare but now they cost 1 feat + enhancements and not many people realize the usefulness of them or have never needed them so why would they now

that being said the most useful mark would be healing and you have to be halfling for that so its a big turn off

[Dawnsfire]

I always hide them but I am growing very attached to the extended displacement Dragonmark on my melees. I think a lot of folks just don't like spending all the enhancement points they have to use in the racial tree. They work for some builds and not for many others.

[Thrudh]

I show my blue marks with pride!

My main character is a halfling with dragonmarks... Those heals are very nice, although sub-par nowadays... We really need ways to get more dragonmarks per rest or to regen them.

I also very much like the elf displacement dragonmarks if it's a newer character with no displacement clickables. My elf monk archer had those dragonmarks for a long time until I finally crafted up some Shroud displacement items for him.

[Stoner81]

I use the mark of passage a lot on my toons for the 25% run speed clicky and of course DDoor which is beyond awesome!

Stoner81.

[Dandonk]

Ddoor clicky is useful, though I rarely find room to spare the feat for it.

Displacement is awesome, especially if you find room for extend as well. Not to mention invis+shadowwalk for speed running.

Heal things are great as well, helps with selfhealing on classes that can't easily get it.

There are indeed some good dragonmarks, but the cost in AP can be quite steep for some builds. Yes, it's cheaper in feat slots, but the AP aren't exactly free either.

[Flavilandile]

part of the problem would be that the players of ddo went a real long time with dragonmarks only in feat form and thus largely useless because nobody had 3 feats to spare but now they cost 1 feat + enhancements and not many people realize the usefulness of them or have never needed them so why would they now

that being said the most useful mark would be healing and you have to be halfling for that so its a big turn off

I have 3 Dragonmarked characters ( out of 20 ).
- 1 Halfling Cleric with the Mark of Healing ( it's great in front of beholders and when you're OOM )
- 2 Elves with the Mark of Passage ( one Bard and one Rogue ).

In all the cases I did develop them fully ( yes it did cost a lot in Feat... but I'm not a super min/maxer and Flavor builds were not out of the loop when they were created ).

Now it's true that my Elves have the marks hidden, so you can't know that they have marks ( especially now that Displacement has been nerfed to death ).

[unbongwah]

We really need ways to get more dragonmarks per rest or to regen them.

They should just get rid of the largely useless top-tier DM abilities and replace it with, "You regen 1 of each DM every X mins."

- 2 Elves with the Mark of Passage ( one Bard and one Rogue ).

Elves get Mark of Shadow; humans get Mark of Passage. [Which I'm guessing you know, but just in case someone new wanders in here...]

Also: move Displacement back down to Lesser DM, please! Yes, we all know Displacement is more useful than Shadow Walk, but it's not our fault it's a lower-lvl spell. By pushing Displace up to Gtr, it's both more expensive and we get two fewer uses per rest. I know elves are OP `n all, but there's no need for this nerf!

[bennyson]

I guess Dragonmarks are useful when you have the AP and feat slot to spare.

Although I got to emit, the Mark of Warding is useful on my Dwarf Fighter; Spell Resistance and Radiant Forcefield is a nice combo.

[Flavilandile]

Elves get Mark of Shadow; humans get Mark of Passage. [Which I'm guessing you know, but just in case someone new wanders in here...]

Yeah I typed without thinking... oh well it's there for posterity now *shrug*

[bennyson]

Yeah I typed without thinking... oh well it's there for posterity now *shrug*

There's always the option of editing it...

[CThruTheEgo]

Santa's Little Slayer in my sig is an alf dragonmarked melee. Survivability and dps are top notch and it is a blast to play. I do use displacement clickies on other melees but they can be tedious to keep up, so I definitely enjoy the dragonmark.

I would not have made the investment to use the dragonmarks before the change, three feats is just too much. Now I think it is a minimal investment as long as you have something else useful to spend points on in the racial tree so you aren't just throwing them away to get to the greater dragonmark. That's the beauty of Santa's Little Slayer, spending so much in the racial tree nets me both defense and offense, so nothing is wasted.

[ForgettableNPC]

I personally am liking the usage of the Dragonmark of Finding on my "Rogue Mechanic Treasure Hunter" build (seen here: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...reasure-Hunter!) that I made myself a while ago (with a few adjustments) it gives good bonuses to search (although my spot is a bit questionable), but it also gives me a good excuse to run away from combat early to go ahead and use Treasure Finding on Chests while the other members of my Party kill off the bad guys.

Plus, it's amusing seeing them pick up the Temporary Items made with Locate Object thinking they can sell them later.

I'm thinking of possibly putting a Dragonmark of Sentinel on a Human Paladin if I True Reincarnate enough to cycle pack to it and take advantage of the ability of Chimera's Fang and Chimera's Crown combined, assuming I get those items to their Epic Versions first, of course.

But all in all, Dragonmarks are pretty neat bits of magic that you can get if you have a feat to spare, also giving you an opportunity for more wackiness in your build! You could have a:

A Human Favored Soul that can open locked doors easily with Knock!
A Human Cleric to heal fleshy races AND Constructs alike! (Mark of Making)
A Halfling Monk that can use Heal on themselves!
A Half-Elf Ranger to conjure up a Lightning Storm!
A Human Fighter that can Teleport, cast a Dimension Door, and run faster with Expeditious Retreat!
An Elven Rogue that can turn Invisible and become Displaced!
A Dwarven Barbarian to shroud himself in a Radiant Forcefield!

Just think of all the unique combinations that may or may not be effective (Don't call me on it)!

Plus, it makes it convenient to spend points in Racial Enhancement Tree if you're working for the 4th-Tier Racial Enhancements and don't know what to spend the Action Points on in order to work up to the said Enhancements (I personally went for Greater Heroism in the Human Tree for my Rogue Mechanic).

[bennyson]

I'm thinking of possibly putting a Dragonmark of Sentinel on a Human Paladin if I True Reincarnate enough to cycle pack to it and take advantage of the ability of Chimera's Fang and Chimera's Crown combined, assuming I get those items to their Epic Versions first, of course.

Not sure how that would work on a Pally, but ok.

[ForgettableNPC]

Not sure how that would work on a Pally, but ok.

Epic Chimera's Fang while you have Dragonmark of Sentinel gives more Incite, Fortification, and Parrying. Incite is good for when you want to generate more hate and you're running a Tanky Human Pally.
(Mark of Sentinel also gives Intimidate Bonus)

And Epic Chimera's Crown gives more HP per Dragonmark (Least, Lesser, and Greater).

[bennyson]

We really need ways to get more dragonmarks per rest or to regen them.

Farm a Epic Chimera's Crown or get the Dragonmarked necklace & ring, those give extra uses per rest.

[tracimatrix]

Question on the elf dragonmark, displacement. If you go pure fighter, you wont have sp pool. You can use extend (spending a feat, but fighters have feats to spare) without an sp pool? Or you picking up any item with sp do it, or would you need to add magical training (burning another feat)?

[Memnir]

Question on the elf dragonmark, displacement. If you go pure fighter, you wont have sp pool. You can use extend (spending a feat, but fighters have feats to spare) without an sp pool? Or you picking up any item with sp do it, or would you need to add magical training (burning another feat)?

Dragonmarks do not require spellpoints to use - they are clicky abilities, which is why they come in handy on some builds.
The bigger issue is that pure Fighters don't have an option to pick up Extend as a feat, I believe. You'd need to multiclass at least one level of a spell casting class to get it.


To the OP's point of why they're not used more... They were nearly unusable for most of DDO's history; only recent changes have made them more user-friendly. But, even with the changes, they are mostly for niche or flavor builds. And I say that as somebody who has uses them often in my builds.

[bennyson]

And I say that as somebody who has uses them often in my builds.

Before or after the changes?