Faerie Dragon is one of the most interesting Minis in Warcraft Rumble. This Mini had a lot of situational Talents, and Abilities that can be useful in a bunch of scenarios. We will explore everything that this Mini has to offer, and look into some new interesting mechanics like “Detect Stealth” and “Nullify”.
Note: If you are new to the game, check out our Warcraft Rumble Beginner’s Guide.
We will also explore what are the best Talents, because as we all know, this is one of the most important things in the game. All that said, let’s start by analyzing the main crux of Faerie Dragon that lies in its Traits and Abilities, then we will go over all the Talents and their use cases, and finally finish off with some exploring of the Stats and core attributes of this Mini.
Faerie Dragon Traits/Abilities Analysis
Resistant and Elemental: Most of the Spells, and Minis like Pyromancer, Whelp Eggs, and Jaina won’t be very effective against the Faerie Dragon, plus he deals more damage to Armored Minis.
Single Target, Flying, Ground/Air: Just one interesting note here, since Faerie Dragon is Flying and can have Stealth (with Talent), be aware that it will attack everything. This is not ideal since it isn’t specialized in destroying any type of Mini. For example, Wolf can also be Stealthed and is specialized in a single-target, this means that he will bypass any flying Mini and only attack ground Minis, which he can counter. This is not the case for Faerie Dragon, the Mini feels like it’s good against targets that don’t attack Flying (obviously), but if you encounter anyone that does, it’s going to struggle considering it costs 3 Gold.
Nullify: Immune to Poison, Burn, Stun, and Slow status effects. Honestly, there aren’t that many Minis that can do these status effects on Flying Minis. For example, Stonehoof Tauren, Cairne Bloodhoof, and Defias Bandits have extremely powerful Stuns and Poison (Bandits), but can’t reach Faerie Dragon so the Nullify is useless here. Burn “Nullification” is also somewhat useless, except when they have an Emperor Thaurissan build, because their Minis will have a lot of Burn damage. Slow is also kinda rare in this game, so the whole Nullify Trait really seems like a very good, but very situational effect, rather than a reason to pick this Mini in your Army composition.
Detect Stealth: This is a unique ability in the game, and Faerie Dragon is the only Mini that can actually reveal Stealth units. One important thing to note here is that the ability won’t “dispel” the stealth, rather the Stealthed units are “dispelled” upon hit. So for example, if your Faerie Dragon is hitting a Tower, and they summon Defias Bandits, once Bandits pass the Faerie Dragon, they will be fully Stealthed again. This may seem obvious, but the mechanics in this game are sometimes weird.
Faerie Dragon Stats Analysis
Let’s quickly analyze the stats that the Faerie Dragon and see if anything is interesting in the “core” aspects of this Mini:
- 3 Gold – This is not a very cost-effective Mini, rather it has a “normal” cost for something that can fulfill a certain role.
- 170 damage and 1.5 attack speed
- 113.3 DPS – this is not very high, it’s comparable to a single Harpy. Again, it isn’t that good for 3 Gold, but this is not Faerie Dragon’s main “job” considering all the other traits and abilities that Faerie Dragon has.
- Medium Speed – For reference, Bat Rider also has Medium speed, and Harpies have Fast speed.
- Range 5 – This is quite on the low end, nevertheless, if you pick the Stealth talent, it would be even less of an issue, since you will engage the enemy only once Faerie Dragon is in range.
Faerie Dragon’s Talents
Fae Blessing (Best Talent)
Grant Resist to a nearby Ally – This ability is very similar to Shamans Talent that gives Armor. It has one charge, it’s cast to the closest Mini once in range, and it lasts forever. Of course, the obvious choice to combine this talent with is a strong Tank, especially an Armored Tank like Tirion Fordring. This is especially good against some elemental-based Armies that revolve around General Drakkisath or Thaurissan Leaders, especially since the Faerie Dragon is Resistant and has Nullify.
Invisibility
Gain Stealth – While a lot of people like this talent, it seems very often redundant. The reason for this is somewhat simple if you think about it. Since it can attack both ground and air, the Stealth will not bypass anyone. For example, Defias Bandits benefit hugely from Stealth because they can bypass Minis like Batrider, and Dragon, and get in full close range against Range minis. Since Faerie Dragon is Ranged and can attack ground and air, the Stealth is not really useful except for starting the attack animation a bit earlier than its ranged enemy. We could be wrong, but this seems like the case for us.
Phase Shift
Teleport backward when attacked – The ability is fine on paper, but it’s not that impactful in real fights. The biggest downside is that it doesn’t offer any additional attacks or utility while doing the Phase Shift, it would be better if the Faerie Dragon just vanished for a split second, disjointed the enemy projectile, and continued attacking like in Warcraft 3, but it sends the Mini back instead, which is kinda awkward.
Faerie Dragon Mini – Is It a Viable Option?
Yes, but in some situations. The Faerie Dragon has a lot of interesting and unique capabilities and fills a very specific role. We find that it is very effective against Elemental enemies with the Resistance buff and its Traits. On top of this, it can be very useful in PvP Builds against players that use Smoke Bombs because of its detection, although this is very situational. Again, the primary reason why this Mini should be in your Army is for fighting Minis with Elemental damage, because there aren’t any more areas where this Mini excels, especially given its 3-Gold cost.
Credits: Blizzard Entertainment
