March 2019 Dragon Lord Spotlight - LizDrakemoor
This month, we’re celebrating the strong female fliers of War Dragons for Women’s Month. What better way to feature these powerful women than with a Dragon Lord Spotlight of LizDrakemoor? Liz is a positive force in the Dragons Community, providing tons of productive conversation on the Dragons Forums and as a part of the Gameplay Faction. Read on to learn about a day in the life of this Dragons players!
Dragon Lord Spotlight: LizDrakemoor
What is your current level, team, and league?
I am currently level 275 and am on the team ForsakenGenius up in D2. It has been an amazing experience for me being on this team, especially since I’m one of the lowest level players on the team. When I first joined ForsakenGenius, I was a lowly level 226 player. Being in a Diamond League at that level wasn’t easy, even though I did have obsidian dragons. I absolutely love my teammates and I am apparently doing something right since they haven’t kicked me off the team!
When did you start playing War Dragons?
I believe I started playing War Dragons in April of 2016. That was when I got my first iPad Pro. I had been doing digital art on an iPad before that, but I had been using a finger to draw with. I finally reached the point of wanting to do my art using an Apple Pencil, which meant I needed a new iPad. I was browsing through the app store after getting my new iPad looking for apps to add to my app library. I saw an advertisement for War Dragons in the app store…the rest is history.
What initially drew you to War Dragons?
Like I said above, I saw the ad for the game in the App store. I’ve always loved dragons and drew them while growing up (and I continue drawing them to this day). I got my love of dragons from my mom, who decided she wanted to collect something when she got married. Unicorns were popular at that time, so she decided to collect dragon figurines (which weren’t as popular when she first got married). While I was growing up, I would love to stare into her glass display case and look at all the beautiful dragon figurines that she would store there.
The fact that War Dragons let me collect and breed a lot of different dragons made it appealing. I had been playing another dragon game (Rise of Berk) but that game was a lot more simplistic and not nearly as fun as War Dragons. (For one thing, there are no bases for you to burn down.) I stopped playing Rise of Berk a long time ago…I’m still playing War Dragons.
Out of all the various things to do in the game, such as collecting dragons, building up a powerful base, forming powerful guilds, ect., what is your favorite aspect and why?
Collecting new dragons has always been my favorite part of the game. Although I have to admit that it is a lot of fun building my base up and shooting down other people’s dragons.
What are your current goals within War Dragons? (Medal count, aiming for a specific dragon, etc.)
My current short term goal is to reach level 300 so I can upgrade my castle and den and hatch Estril and Opes so I can breed them together to get Rajin. My next short term goal is evolving my divine dragons into Harbinger tier. But the next long term goal that I have that will take a while to reach is to get Jormungandr. I absolutely loved testing that dragon as a member of the GPF and am a bit sad it’ll take me quite a while to unlock them.
What are some things you wish you knew when first beginning to play War Dragons? Do you have any tips for newer players?
That ballistas are awful and shouldn’t be built. Also, that building long is a stupid idea. Luckily, I started turning my base around at approximately level 50 and it’s now about where it should be. I was fortunate enough to discover a breeding path very early on. (Sadly at that point I hadn’t discovered Red’s awesome paths and I used the one that Amoeba had on his site. But at least I had a breeding path instead of breeding willy-nilly!)
My best advice to new players is to use a breeding path and don’t go crazy building towers. Mechengg has a guide that is great for base building fundamentals, and TheRedDelilah has the best collection of breeding paths in the entire game.
What is your current favorite event type and why?
Breeding is obviously my favorite because it lets me get new dragons! Fortification is also fairly good since base improvements are necessary to let me keep getting new dragons…! As for PVP, I enjoy Team Gauntlet and the Temple Guardians in Temple Raid.
What dragon are you going to be targeting in the next breeding event?
Hopefully Rajin (with Morthil as a freebie dragon), but I have to get to level 300 first and hatch Estril and Opes.
I really enjoy the chance to test out new dragons before the rest of the game sees them. And I have to say, getting to test them ahead of time makes it way easier for me to decide which dragon to go for in a given season. I just wish other players had a similar opportunity to be able to test drive the dragons before they actually purchase them. It’s been asked for before, and it would be awesome if the people who code the game could figure out a way for everyone to be able to test fly seasonal dragons at their current tier.
One part of the testing process that I usually help out a lot with is defending against Lutrus (another GPF member). This can be an exercise in extreme frustration (lmao). That man can do things with dragons that leave me absolutely befuddled as to what the heck I’m supposed to do to shoot that beast down. Even though it can be frustrating having my base killed over and over again, I still enjoy watching Lutrus’ skillful piloting. I’m not sure I’ll ever be as good as him, mostly because I do enjoy doing things besides War Dragons on occasion!
Anyone on the War Dragons Forums is sure to know your name! How many threads would you say you read each day?
Good question. It honestly depends on how active the forums decide to be on a given day! I’ve mentioned before that I have OCD. It’s usually mild and fairly selective, but my particular flavor of it pushes me to pretty much read all the threads…except Recruitment. I don’t typically peruse those threads. Usually, I try to have zero unread updates in the categories that I follow before I go to bed each evening… which is all of them (except Recruitment).
Sometimes I can’t read them all before turning in for the night (especially if I have to also take care of mining gold and doing egg token missions). It’s also harder to go to bed without unread updates when the forums explode for various reasons. And when I first joined the GPF I read the huuuge backlog of threads that had been created by the GPF so I fell behind on regular forum reading until I caught up with the posts in the GPF section of the forums… I think I had something like 30,000 posts to read? Although it was probably more than that… Either way, it was a lot and it took me several days.
But even if I don’t get around to it right away, I do eventually read those posts, or at least skim through them. Walls of text without punctuation tend to get skimmed or scrolled past. There are other posts that tend to get skimmed past, but I won’t say what causes that.
What have been some of your favorite moments on the War Dragons Forums?
Explosive threads where Rogue drops his nuclear blast mushroom cloud gif are usually rather amusing (if somewhat exhausting to keep up with). I also love it when Jared gets all sarcastic when responding to individuals who don’t seem to be making the brightest choices with what they post.
Although I do have to say that the one thread that ended up starting the whole “being panned” forum meme was absolutely hilarious. It’s amazing how one simple typo of “banned” could end up sparking such an entertaining part of the forum’s culture.
Also, I really, really love Tinsir’s writing style. His after action report on what he was doing in Fight Pits was absolutely fantastic. “You Are In Gold 5: a Fight Pits” after action report is definitely a must read if you haven’t read it already. His “The Lawful Good Breeding Path (Revised Third Edition)” was also extremely entertaining. I hope he comes up with more fantastic stuff in the future!
When you’re not playing War Dragons, what do you like to do in your free time?
When I’m not playing the game, or prowling the forums (which I probably spend as much time doing as actually playing the game itself), I enjoy reading, writing, and drawing. For reading, I typically enjoy reading science-fiction, fantasy, mystery, and thrillers.
For writing, I typically do something that’s part of a series. I actually write collaboratively with my best friend and former roommate from college. We use Google Docs to write in and each of us has our own set of characters that we control. It’s actually a lot of fun and I find it a lot more enjoyable than trying to write alone. It can be really cathartic getting into my character’s heads as my friend and I basically role-play the characters off of each other and react to what the other person has written.
Sometimes, I get so caught up in writing that if the character I’m writing has really strong emotions, I end up feeling them too. There have been times where it becomes hard to write because the character is so wound up with what is happening that I end up crying because of the pain they are in. Unfortunately for my poor characters, I have a habit of making them go through a lot of difficult situations. They don’t always have the happiest lives.
For drawing, my favorite subject matter is usually dragons, although I do have a few other things in my portfolio besides that. I like my more recent drawings much better than my older ones. I can actually see my growth as an artist as I look back at some of the art that I created even two years ago… It makes me almost want to draw it again to see how much better it would look with my new skills.
And on the rare occasion where none of the above things appeal to me, I do enjoy playing a little PS4. I’m currently partway through a playthrough of The Last Guardian (although it has been a few months since I touched it). Once I finish that, I plan on starting Horizon Zero Dawn off and on when I’m not busy with War Dragons.
If you could design a new Dragon Rider, what would they look like and which Dragon would be the perfect fit for them?
So I randomly had the image of a rider who looks like Loki from the MCU as a rider, and obviously, the perfect dragon for him would be Jormundandr since that dragon is his son in Norse Mythology. That would be pretty amusing actually. (But since doing that would be copyright infringement, let’s go with the other idea I had!).
One combination that I would really like to see would be a grim-reaper type Rider, complete with black cowl, intimidating robes, and at least one skeletal hand, which would clutch the obligatory scythe. (I say at least one skeletal hand because I personally think an image of a grim reaper with one hand that is basically just the exposed bones, and one hand that was covered with desiccated flesh is more creepy than an entire skeletal figure.) Naturally, this reaper would ride on Wraith, who might not be the best dragon in the game by a long shot, but I absolutely loved the aesthetics of that dragon, especially the creepy ball of light that it clutches in one forefoot. I’d really love to see other dragons that have a similar look and feel to them.
If people want to connect with you, what is the best way for them to do so?
Probably shoot me a PM on the forums. I read all my alerts. I’m OCD about reading the threads, so of course I’ll read the PM.
If I happen to like the person who is contacting me enough (based on what I’ve learned about them from their posts on the forums), I may share my Line ID with them, though fair warning, I typically am pretty awful about keeping conversations going!
I am in a few generic War Dragons based Line chat groups, so they could always see if I’m lurking in the same chat room as them… My screen name is the same on Line as it is in-game.
What are some of your favorite portraits in-game, and why?
Let’s see, there are some really great ones. When I first started, I really like Laria because of her sassy attitude. The original Aurora is a major favorite of mine. I am so glad she was in Snowdrop’s line. I absolutely loved that portrait to pieces and I used it since got it until I got my fancy new Mod portrait (so, that would be about 2 years or so?).
Also Astrid. OMG that portrait is so freaking awesome. I love, love, LOVE her wings. I will admit to using some rubies on super sigil chests so I could acquire the 3rd level portrait for her...even though I might not ever use her (she’s really popular right now and considering how awesome she is, that is perfectly understandable).
Of course, my current in-game portrait is the Forums Moderator portrait. It’s nice having a unique portrait on my team! Plus, it’s a freaking dragon-like creature! How awesome is that? The only thing that would make it better in my opinion was if it was a dark sapphire blue (which is my favorite color), but the artists who designed it wanted the portrait to be like a shiny golden trophy, and it certainly is that.
For portraits that I don’t own, I think the following ones are pretty awesome: Shadow Knight, Empousai, Dragon Shaman, Alte Jager, Celestial Warrior, and the special portrait that team JAPANeeeeZE won as part of the previous Atlas season. (The one that Dreadnought also won is pretty cool but if I happened to have both portraits, I would use the one from JAPANeeeeZE. I absolutely love her long hair.)
Lastly…what’s got you most excited for the Springblossom Season?
Ohhhh, this is a tough one. I freaking LOVE the new season structure and both mythics are absolutely fantastic! I really wish I had the resources to get both! I think I’ll get Ronin, though; they’ll be a good replacement for Fohmar’s slot in my roster. One thing I am looking forward to is the base boost. I’m not sure I can say anything more on that line until week 5, though!
Our Dragon Lord Spotlights feature a stand out player in War Dragons to celebrate their accomplishments and contributions to our community. If you would like to nominate a fellow player for this honor, please let us know by sending us a message on Twitter @wardragonsgame and briefly tell us why you think they would be great to feature!
View our previous Dragon Lord Spotlights:
2019
January: slaps | February: PoseidonPQ
2018
August: forScience | October: xxBoudica | November: xxxDUNKxxx | December: IIIRogueIII
2017
January: Adored | February: ImanGHR | March: xOdinsNemesisx | April: Psarus
May: Red | June: Team Equillibrium | September: AirsGoddess
2016
March: Bulldog | April: JennaDragon | May: Amoeba | June: Mortium | July: SupermanRR | August: Gary72
September: Alleviates | October: BeledinesSoul | November: ChefJen | December: LegionSlayer13