RuneScape Forum Archive | How Strong Are the Dragonkin?

Alktenalfh

Posts: 341 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

This is a question that's been boiling around in my head for a while now, and I want to see what y'all think of it.
Just how strong are the Dragonkin, at this exact moment in time? It seems to be a little bit inconsistent to me. Because in Ritual of the Mahjarrat, they killed Lucien, who was basically almost a god. But then things got really serious in Missing, Presume Death, were one Dragonkin made all of the gods flee in fear. And he took care of Icthlarin pretty easily, who is technically a god, albeit a weak one.
And yet . . . the player has beaten Dragonkin? The World Guardian beat Tarshak, who was not only a Dragonkin but a Dragonkin hyped up on . . . whatever he was hyped up on. And then there's Taraket and the Ambassador, both of whom you would think would be stronger than your average Dragonkin because they're on Xau-Tak steroids, but they can be soloed by the player (with difficulty).
So just how strong are these guys anyway?

Also, as an aside, while we're on the subject of Dragonkin, why are there no female Dragonkin? Because we know Kerapac has a son. So where are all the ladies?

15-May-2020 04:04:51 - Last edited on 15-May-2020 04:12:07 by Alktenalfh

Jan

2021

AesirWarrior

Posts: 1,060 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I think the dragonkin are usually a good chunk under the gods. It's very variable since their power waxes and wanes depending on how much the Stone of Jas is used, but I don't think they've quite been on their level in any of their present in-game appearances yet. They're strong enough to be a potential threat to them, but they don't quite rival most of them except maybe the lower ones like Icthlarin.

Lucien arguably seemed to be winning against them until he was smacked in the head with the Staff of Armadyl.

The gods in MPD, even though they're likely stronger, wouldn't risk fighting one unless they had to. That's just how the gods operate, I think. They are cautious and big on self-preservation. And they know from experience what these things can do. They've fought them before. Moreover, they can see that it's angry, ergo someone has used the stone, ergo it's empowered. If Sliske had actually ascended to godhood as he claimed (he hadn't, but they didn't know that), then that could be a significant boost. They know these things could threaten a god in their heyday. Is this one strong enough now? They're not staying to find out.

When it comes to the player fighting them, I think generally combat difficulty should be taken with a grain of salt. You get into some weirdness when you look at it to try to determine in-universe strength. Like, narratively the Bandos Avatar is technically invulnerable and you only beat it by modifying the Zanik crossbow to disrupt its connection to Bandos, but mechanically it's only level 77.

I think it's enough to say you beat it, but how hard that actually was for your character is determined by so many factors outside the narrative. And beating something doesn't mean you're stronger than that thing per se, at least not in any physical or magical sense, as much as you're just more skilled or quick-witted. Many boss mechanics rely on evading and deflecting, so you're not exactly fighting fair. -

I have noticed your kind does tend to blindly stumble forward towards danger simply because it exists. What is your word for that?

- We call it being a hero.

15-May-2020 18:33:52

Jan

2021

AesirWarrior

Posts: 1,060 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

With Tarshak, for example, we had the benefit of the Dragonkin protection charm, he had been stabbed by a bane dagger earlier in the quest, and we used his own attacks against him so that the ceiling collapsed and he was crushed under tons of bane ore. That's one I would definitely consider outwitting rather than overpowering. -

I have noticed your kind does tend to blindly stumble forward towards danger simply because it exists. What is your word for that?

- We call it being a hero.

15-May-2020 18:36:28

Alktenalfh

Posts: 341 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Hmm, these are fair points. So Tarshak we had the protection charm and tons of banite going for us. The Ambassador may be stronger than the World Guardian, but the World Guardian dodged and outwitted and so forth. Also Seiryu showed up, which helped.
So in the end we're saying Dragonkin are weaker than gods, but still really freakin' strong. Probably strong enough that 4 or 5 of them could beat a god. Maybe somewhere on the same tier as really high-powered Mahjarrat like Azzanadra or Sliske. Sound about right?
Which makes you wonder about Kerapac . . . having TWO Elder God artefacts . . . that can't be good . . .

17-May-2020 04:47:56

Nov

2013

Inque

Posts: 548 Steel Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The Dragonkin are supposedly tier 5 on the god scale, but I can't find the source for that statement anymore.

Let's say they're pretty strong, but exactly how strong is variable. Especially based on the False Users before the stone was destroyed.

2 of them were losing against Lucien and it took a third making a sneak attack and using the Staff of Armadyl to kill him - they didn't straight-up overpower and kill Lucien.

Sliske showed that it's easy to trap a Dragonkin in the shadow realm...he didn't overpower Strisath, though.

One of them nearly kills the WG in one shot during Hero's Welcome, which we only survived against because the Dragonkin was already wounded at the time. A decent feat for the Dragonkin, I suppose.

I believe that Taraket and Kranon were defeated by a group of adventurers in canon. The WG doesn't solo him. That's just a gameplay thing.

You can't read this signature. It's written in invisible inque.

28-May-2020 00:49:32

Apr

2020

Gaitman

Posts: 5,470 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I think that the Dragonkin are a sort of elder-god powered "Deus Ex".
They are as strong as they have to be in order to stop "false users" from using elder artifacts (which includes most if not all gods, as well as Sliske and Lucien), but the player isn't a false user persay.
Sure, the player used the stone, but these uses were either accidental or in order to stop a superpowered creature from wreaking havoc (doing the dragonkins' work for them).

This way; a dragonkin are not af souped up when engaging just the player: they fight for self-preservation, not on the gods orders.
This also explains how sliske could capture one; two reasons really.
1) Sliske also works for the elder gods (or, this is hinted at in 'sliskes endgame'), preventing the dragonkin from being souped-up
2) having a captured dragonkin would help spark the gods to actually compete in the game, causing some to die: making is a step towards the dragonkins' goals (perhaps the dragonkin wasn't actually captured at all, but merely playing)

28-May-2020 20:35:00

Deltaslug

Posts: 32,671 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

It's also possible that the Dragonkin aren't so much on their own having the power "of a god" but merely having the power to "hurt a god".

Think of it like an inverse of the World Guardian power.
The power we got made it so lower tier gods couldn't hurt us directly, and we had "some" ability to disrupt the abilities of Elder Gods.

The theory here is that the Dragonkin would have an ability where they can hurt a god while still being mortal.

Hence why the Gods teleported out of Sliske's big reveal party so quickly and had a tendency to avoid the Dragonkin moreso than other creatures.
As the others pointed out, their ability to hurt a god would go up the more False Users abused the Stone.

31-May-2020 20:35:12 - Last edited on 31-May-2020 20:37:01 by Deltaslug