Silver Dragon Rider

The Silver Dragon is a Melee tier 3 infantry unit in Symphony of War, and can chill enemy units with it's icy breath.

Stats

Stats		Base	Growth		Lvl 1	Lvl 54		From Tier 2
		Great	Great		~292	~706		113
		Low	Low		1	1		-
		Low	Med		10	54		-
		Med	Great		~30	~110		5
		Med	High		~33	~65		2
		Low	High		~15	~61		-3
		Great	Great		~	~5839		~979

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.
	Hex Mastery	Causes status effects to be applied more often.
	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 ice attack, Small Diamond AoE, Magical Volley (7th), performed at 1 range.
Round 2	Magical ice attack, Small Diamond AoE, Magical Volley (7th), performed at 1 range.
Extra Attack	Magical ice attack, Small Diamond AoE, Magical Volley (7th), performed at 1 range.
Other Detials:
Attacks apply the Chill status. All targets hit by the AoE are effected. Enemies can resist. Damage boosted by both Strength and Magic Occupies 2 tiles in the same Column. Requires 15 Capacity. Suffers from Magic Fatigue during enemy phase

Strategy

Tactics

Silver Dragon Riders 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.

Silver 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 Silver Dragon Rider'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 Silver 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 overwhelming HP pools Silver dragons have.

Any sturdy unit with Warrior's Hubris is also a good general answer to Silver Dragons, as are squads led by Tundra Warrior: the latter of which mitigates one of the Silver Dragon's major assets in their Chilling attacks.

Otherwise: Valkyries and Paladins are the best counterpicks; given their access to Magic Armor and overall impressive bulk, and lack of reliance on SKL if Chilled.

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%.

Builds

Traits

Silver Dragons do have the highest HP of any other (non story character) class. They do lower general damage than Red Dragons, but are notably sturdier.

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.

And Cloak of Cunning is a 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: Earth and Fire are strong fall-backs, pushing Silver Dragon's massive health pool to even greater heights. Fire more for pushing Dragons up to the STR levels necessary to promote.

Gallery