NOTE: Videos of 3 star attacks using all dragons and lightening spells have been added 10/2/2014.
Summary
Mass Dragons are the most reliable 3 star army against TH8s and below, and do not require any dark elixir. However just spamming dragons will often result in 1-2 stars instead of the 3 star results you are looking for. Despite the power of dragons, I see people fail ALL THE TIME with them in clan wars. This advanced guide will provide the finer points to help you get more predictable results. Using this guide I claim that you will achieve the following performance.
Opponent TH7 TH8 TH9 TH10 Outcome (with Confidence Level) 3 star (100%) 3 star (95%) 2 star (80%) 2 star (50%)
Disclaimer: Most of my experience is with TH7-9s. I don’t have a lot of experience attacking as, or against, TH10s.
PART 1: Start with Reasonable Goals
Not all dragon attacks have the same goals. Clarify your objectives. Your objective will influence your strategy.
- 3 stars: In war or trophy hunting, this should be your goal on all opponents TH8 and below.
- 2 stars: Against mature TH9s, TH10s, or maybe a TH8 with max air defenses if your dragons are low level, it will be very difficult to get 3 stars, and a poorly executed attack can result in a “87% 1star” outcome. It may be wiser to devise a plan with a high probability of getting the Town Hall and 50%.
- 1 star: Don’t use dragons for 1 star. There are cheaper and more predictable armies that can do this like barbarians and archers.
- Farming: It may seem odd to use such an expensive troop to farm, but they can be useful in particular for hunting dark elixir which is often heavily guarded behind several layers of walls.
PART 2: Troops
- War/ Trophy against Centralized Air Defenses: all dragons plus a dragon in clan castle.
- War/ Trophy Against TH9 or 10 Bases with an Air Defense Behind one Wall: consider replacing two dragons with 8 lvl 5 hogs or lvl 6 balloons. Not usually needed against TH8 and below.
- Farming: 8 dragons and the rest archers.
Why? The power of dragons comes from their ability to work as a team to burn through bases faster than the (air) defenses can kill them. A single dragon is a waste of elixir – with three air defenses firing on it will die in about 5 seconds. The dragons must far outnumber the air defenses for this strategy to work. Also, the beauty of air attacks is that you don’t need to worry about mortars, canons, giant bombs, or Xbows on ground. So try not to mix ground and air unless the sole purpose of the ground troop is to take out an air defense.
PART 3: Spells
Vs. TH7 and TH8: There is no debate on what spells to bring. Three lightening spells aimed properly can be used to destroy the highest level or hardest to reach air defense. With one or two remaining air defenses victory is all but a guaranteed with smart deployment. End of discussion! The great thing about lightening is there is no need for guessing the timing of the drop and you don’t need to predict the path of your troops.
3X this level lightening spell … 1 2 3 4-6 …can destroy this lvl air defense or lower 3 5 6 Any
You need to be careful, for example, using lvl 3 lightening to destroy a lvl 6 aire def. It requires a direct hit. I discuss the drop technique below.
Vs. TH9-10: Rage and Freeze
However, on larger TH9 and 10 bases with 4+ strong defenses, simply killing one air defense won’t guarantee victory. With more buildings and hit points rage spells are helpful since dragons are slow moving. Freeze spells are the best way to neutralize an inferno or multiple high level air defenses defenses located in the core. We will talk more about using these in the deployment section.
Why not Heal? I see people suggest heal all the time on the forums. It is a waste of a spell slot. Even a maxed heal spell cannot heal faster than a lvl 3 air defense can do damage (140 DPS). Also, recall that infernos block the heal spell’s effect.
Lvl 1 2 3 4 5 6 Heal HP/sec 50 66 83 100 116 133 Air def DPS 80 110 140 160 190 230
If you have to use a heal spell, it is best used after the air defenses have gone down, to stall for time while the dragons are attacking the TH in a 2 star plan. Note that the heal amounts roughly equal the dps of couple of archer towers or x bows.
Heros: If you want 3 stars bring them along as well. Their damage on outer buildings can be used to path the dragons to the core. In 2 star attacks they can be saved to catch the TH if all else fails.
PART 4: Deployment
Step 1. Lightening Option (used against TH8 and below)
Which one to zap?
· 3 star strategy: The highest level and most centered one. Typically opposite your attack side (see below).
· 2 star or farming strategy: find one that is high level and centered, but also along the shortest path between you and your target. Do not zap a defense that is out of range of your target and approach path.
How to drop? Damaging an air defense for 90% of its hit points is completely useless. Make sure you drop lightening correctly for full destruction.
· Do not select the spell button yet to avoid accidentally dropping.
· Zoom in on the air defense
· Triple tap in center of Air def. The center is defined as the center tile on the ground.
· There is no need to wait for the first spell to finish before dropping the next. Dragons are slow so don’t waste time.
· Pro Tip: Once you get good it may be possible to time your lightening drop with the emergence of the clan troops. If the clan castle is nearby you may be able to kill some of them in the process. This takes timing and luck.
Step 2 Destroy the exposed air defense (if applicable) If your opponent is stupid enough to have an air defense enclosed by 1 layer of walls or perhaps not surrounded by wall at all, drop the heros or hogs to take it down.
Step 3: Select an approach side
Select a side. Now select a side to attack from.
· 3 star strategy: Attack from the side closest to the remaining air defenses -- opposite of the lightening strike.
· 2 star or farming: attack from the closest side to your target (town Hall or DE storage).
If multiple sides are equally good choose the path of “least resistance”, which means a path through the lowest hit point buildings. It will take your dragons a while to burn through the clan castle and storages. If there is an air defense behind them it will have a lot of time to inflict damage.
(Non-) Step 4: DO NOT lure the clan troops or Heros! Why? Two reasons: Dragons are not encumbered by walls and they do splash damage. Together this means, as a group, they will quickly roll over the clan troops. In fact the Dragon AI makes them move toward the troops which, assuming the clan castle is centered, can actually help them path to the core.
Step 5: 4. Clear a Path:
Doing this will correctly will dramatically change the outcome of the raid reducing the chances of an “87% one star” outcome. Use your clan castle (which may include a dragon along with other troops) and your heroes and possibly 1-2 other dragons. Drop them on the corners of the side where you plan to attack from. Now count to 5 before going to the next step.
If you are farming, use the archers instead of dragons to take out the corners.
Step 6: Dropping in a line (particularly on Free Buildings)
If there are outlying buildings on the deployment side that are out of range of air defenses (either in the map corners or just outside the walls) drop one dragon on each. Spread the rest of dragons along that side in a line- not all in a single spot! You don’t need 5 dragons attacking a building at once. They are slow and spreading them out will help speed their progress. Make the line denser, by adding an extra dragon or two, toward the middle.
If you are farming, drop the archers to clear out all the buildings along this line so the dragons can get into the base quicker. Then drop the dragons in a short line near your target.
STEP 7: Rage? The role of the rage spell is to minimize the amount of time the dragons are within range of air defenses by having them move fast and destroy the air defenses quickly. Ideally you will use them early – but only after the dragons are finished attacking the free buildings. You want to rage as many dragons at once as you can. That is easiest to do when they are still all alive. Be sure to drop the rage over dense groupings of buildings (not single isolated buildings) with the center point *just slightly ahead* of the dragon pack to maximize the time they are enraged. Do not lead them too far with the spell. They are slow. A good rule of thumb is to drop the spell on the nose of the lead dragon in the pack. You may consider saving a rage for the core since the TH and CC have a lot of hit points.
STEP 8. Freeze? Save freeze for when a group (not the just the first dragon) comes in range of the infernos or multiple high level air defenses in the core. Always attempt to freeze multiple defenses at once. Disclaimer: I don’t have a freeze spell yet I am not an expert on this.
VIDEOS (courtesy of Rylan, Rizen and NotUsedBrain)
These two videos illustrate how this technique (lightening spell option) can be used to 3 star TH8s with strong, centralized air defenses. Not how the dragons are deployed in an arc around two air def and lightening is used to take out the one behind the town hall.
Appendix A: Air Defense Identification and Strength
Number of seconds it takes for an air defense to kill a dragon.
Drag Lvl\AD lvl 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 24 17 14 12 10 8 6.75 6 2 26 19 15 13 11 9 7.5 6.5 3 29 21 16 14 12 10 8.2 7.1 4 31 23 18 16 13 11 8.9 7.8
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Appendix B: Inferno identification
Appendix C: X Bow identification
Appendix D: Dragon AI
Priority 1: enemy clan troops and activated heros
Priority 2: nearest building, with no preferred building type.
Ranged Attack: The attack is ranged so after a building is destroyed they can just rotate their direction of fire, without moving, to the next closest structure. This is occasionally the explanation for “unexpected pathing” complains by dragon users.
Originally Posted by coltonspoppa
