Blue Dragon

Blue Dragon
Can Be Leader	Yes
Battle order	Magic (7th)
Unit traits	Guardian Colossal
Special traits	Damage boosted by Strength and Magic AoE attacks Magic Attacks Occupies a 1x2 space Costs 15 capacity Forces entire squad to be Heavy Infantry
Tier	3
Type	Dragon
Movement	Heavy Infantry
Reqs	48
Cost	-
Upgrade into units
Upgrade tier 1 units

The Blue Dragon is a Melee tier 3 infantry unit in Symphony of War and are the most skilled upgrade from dragons.

Stats

Stats		Base	Growth		Lvl 1	Lvl 54		From Tier 2
		Great	Great		~224	~638		45
		Low	Low		1	1		-
		Low	Med		10	54		-
		Med	Great		~30	~110		5
		Med	High		~33	~65		2
		Great	High		~53	~99		35
		Great	Great		~	~5866		~1006

The low Weapon Power on Dragons is also a little deceptive: given they benefit from both Strength and Magic in equal measure; their Strength or Magic can be viewed as their Weapon stat when comparing them to other classes.

Related Technologies

Tech:
	Martial Traditions	Gain Class Points 15% faster.
	Dragon trainer	Gain Class Points 25% faster.
	Spirit Piercing	Magic attacks from now will ignore 25% of the enemy's magic resistance.
	Dragon Bond	Allows Blue, Red, and Silver Dragons to take to the skies.
	Mixed Unit Tactic	Gains +3 weapon power for each different archetype of unit added to the squad, starting from the second.

Battle Details

Battle Detials:
Round 1	Magical lightning attack, Small Diamond AoE, Magical Volley (7th), performed at 1 range.
Round 2	Magical lightning attack, Small Diamond AoE, Magical Volley (7th), performed at 1 range.
Extra Attack	Magical lightning attack, Small Diamond AoE, Magical Volley (7th), performed at 1 range.
Other Detials:
Damage boosted by both Strength and Magic Occupies 2 tiles in the same Column. Requires 15 Capacity. Forces entire squad to be Heavy Infantry Suffers from Magic Fatigue during enemy phase

Strategy

Tactics

Blue Dragons can fire up and down walls, with their solid HP making them good at besieging fortified enemy positions. They're also one of the better sources of magic damage in the game, with 2 high-crit AoE hits.

Blue Dragons can loose steam as a magic unit; seeing as all magic units suffer Magic Fatigue effect the more battles they get into during the enemy's phase. Nevertheless: their high power and high crit rate do give them a bit of wiggle room.

Squads

Most of a Blue Dragon's bulk comes from HP, and not armor; meaning they take damage in large chunks. Double the survival from double health is nice, until it means double the healing necessary to maintain it: which is were most other front-line tanks gain an edge over Dragons. As such: most Blue Dragons enjoy their own personal healer in a 1:1 ratio. Templar are the most potent option.

Alternatively: Dragons can be used to maximize Capacity in any squad that's otherwise stuck in an awkward middle-ground of total Leadership given their 15 capacity cost; assuming the squad doesn't mind the Heavy Infantry movement type.

As Opponents:

Aggressive Attack is one of the best go-to options for most physical squads, enabling meaty hits that can quickly chunk through dragon's large health pools. This can be somewhat high-risk; given the counter-attack damage taken.

Any sturdy unit with Warrior's Hubris is also a good general answer to Blue Dragons, as are units with Unscathed: which mitigates the biggest draw (and threat) of Blue Dragons: their high crit rate.

Cloak of Cunning and Essence of Embor are good artifacts against Blue Dragons (or any high SKL units) for similar reasons; which Dragons themseleves tend to enjoy with how comparatively vulnerable to crits they are relative to other bulky units.

Otherwise: Valkyries and Paladins are the best counterpicks; given their access to Magic Armor and overall impressive bulk.

And Dragonslayer, Dragonslayer, and Dragonscale Armor are obvious choices.

Query whether or not Dragonscale Armor's -20 HP is even offset by -10% dragon-based damage taken though, that item might just be an always-sell.

+50% Damage from Dragonslayer or Dragonslayer has a much greater impact. Such options are also good tools to amp-up Firearm Units or the Crossbowman or Arbalest; given they benefit from neither Str or Mag and are pretty limited in good +DMG bonuses; were +50% damage is +50% damage.

Or +50% damage and +50% damage is +125% damage; assuming it's 100%+50% * 100%+50% = 225%.

Essentially fighting fire with fire; dealing functional critical strike damage (and then some) every hit vs. a unit who's main function is delivering critical strikes.

Builds

Traits

Blue Dragons do have the highest SKL of any other (non story character) class. They do lower general damage than Red Dragons, but will critical hit more often.

For this reason, it is good to lean into their critical, and give them traits that will enhance it, such as Lithe Assault or Assassin's Heart.

Arcane Speed is also a strong option to boost the SKL of the Blue Dragon even further.

Healing Attuned and Unscathed are solid go-to options to allow dragons to quickly bounce back from loosing big chunks of their HP, or prevent a lot of big hits from happening in the first place.

Overpower Can make excellent use of their Strength stat and Colossal, enabling them to rapidly tank enemy Morale. This also seems to occur before the battle starts and makes a visible difference in the Combat Forecast window relative to other squads; enabling an Overpowering dragon squad to potentially drop an enemy squad from Fair Morale to Fearful Morale and automatically win with a Forced Surrender victory.

Arcane Might is also one of the strongest options to put their good Magic stat to maximum use, gaining even more damage output every time they boost their damage.

Artifacts

Aldor's Tower Shield and Obsidian Plate Armor are one of the best one-two combos for any front-line unit; and for Dragons especially the combo can go a long way towards lengthening their impressive HP pool and helping healers keep them alive.

Refuge and Giant's Thresher are also good options that more directly target how dragons function. Refuge boosts in-combat healing by 20%, something Dragons and their healers appreciate, and Giant's Thresher takes advantage of dragon's space and capacity requirements resulting in their squad sizes having smaller quantities of units than most opponents they'll be fighting against; granting +25% damage vs. larger squads.

Cloak of Cunning and Essence of Embor are noteworthy options as well; given their ability to negate critical strikes against dragons and focus on other traits than Unscathed.

Affinity

Dark is the strongest overall option for Dragons, were the high STR and MAG combined, on units that put both to use, is a satisfying way to spoil a rare and powerful unit type.

Otherwise: Blue Dragons are in an interesting spot were wanting a good mix of HP, Str, Mag, and SKL results in a lot of one-step-forward, one-step-backwards situations. This does technically allow for a lot of freedom to tweak Blue Dragons to fit certain playstyles and roles, rather than gunning for 1 optimal pick. At least when the rare Dark Affinity isn't available.

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