Clash of Clans Using Dragons in War Guide

Clash of Clans Using Dragons in War Guide by lucideye

Mass drag is just one of those strategies that is just part of the game. It is the go to attack for town hall seven and eight. This causes some major issues. It gets boring, the dragon AI can make you want to throw your phone at the wall, and there is not really a good way to defend against it without making your base weak to other attacks. This guide is here to make it go as painlessly as possible.

First we will go over the spells. I have seen people use all lightning, rage and heal. All of these strategies work, but some work better depending on the base you are attacking. Rage: Basically you drop it when they get near the ad, so the drags destroy the air defense quickly before they take too much damage. Lightning: If you drop all your lightning on one AD, then that is one less drag killer to worry about. Heal: I don’t have much luck using heal and do not suggest it, because most air defenses will do more damage per second than the heal per second you get from the spell. However, there are players that swear by using heal.

Here is a post discussing Lightning vs. Rage

And a thread arguing pros and cons of heal

Clan castle luring is not necessary for the most part. If the clan castle is in the middle, those troops will actually draw your dragons towards them. However it is often advisable to attack from the side furthest from the CC so they do not get tripped too early.

As I said before their AI can be maddening. I am one of those that bitched about it quite often. I later learned that most of my failed attacks could have been prevented. I had been just dropping all of my dragons and then screaming at them as they went in circles around the base. Here is a base I picked at random and the path these drags would likely take.

So how do you prevent this? It is very simple really, eliminate that path. Drop a dragon, a barb king, wizards, anything to destroy some of those buildings. If you drop two dragons for example and destroy the buildings with an X, You will end up with a dragon pattern similar to this. Granted I really simplified both of these paths. If there are multiple dragons they will mess with each others next nearest target. But that is the main thing to remember. Dragons don’t care if there is a town hall or a builders hut near them, they will attack the NEAREST building.

Edit: Since making this post I have discovered that wiz and BK are not needed to funnel the drags, just use two drags. I have also learned to not drop the BK right away. If you see a clump of drags veering off course use the BK to destroy some buildings in their path and redirect them to the core.

Another point about the example base I used above. I often see people dropping dragons as far from the air defense as possible. The opposite is what you want to do. You want those dragons battling their arch nemesis as soon as possible. Take down the AD and then sit back an relax.

Finally how do I drop my dragons? Again this really depends on the base. There are times that you want to use a straight line or an arc. Basically spread them between the buildings that are within the the gaps your ground troops made. Just keep working at it and see what works best for you.

In conclusion, don’t yell at your dragons when they screw up. They can’t hear you, and if they could, they would say that your strategy was shit. When your attack fails, chill out and try to figure out what happened. Granted there will be times that a dragon leaves a town hall to attack a gold mine halfway across the screen, but this is not as common as most people think it is.

Update: Drag and Dragloon technique are ever evolving. Here is some more great videos that go into way more depth, but cover the basically same material covered above

Styx was also gracious enough to expand on mass drag with the guide below.

I have observed a lot of easy to avoid mistakes being made by people who were using mass dragons. In this post I will try to pin point a lot of common mistakes, why they are bad and how to avoid them. Using dragons entails a lot more then just dumping your dragons and hope for the best.

DISCLAIMER: This post is not meant as a call out thread. All mistakes mention are done by multiple people and it is not my intention to attack someone personally. Also please note that English is not my native language, so excuse me for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Also before I start I like to share two OneHive videos where a lot of techniques are discussed. These videos are a must watch everybody.

DragLoon 1

DragLoon 2.

Common made Mistakes

• Using Wrong Spells

  Why it is bad: Spells are an important part of a strategy and specific bases call for specific spells. The wrong spells can turn a easy three star into a difficult two star. Some people even take whatever spells they have at that moment to war, this is not acceptable especially in this clan since you know long ahead who you are going to attack.

  Solution:

  • When attacking a TH7: When attacking a town hall 7 the choice of spells is easy. Triple lightning. Always. Period. At TH7 people only have two ADs. Lightning one AD brings the number of ADs down with 50%. Everybody can three star a base with only AD (but be sure to place your dragons right). Also, try to take down the AD that is buried deepest into the base.
  • When attacking a TH8: When attacking a TH8 choosing spells becomes a bit more hard and should be done based on the lay out of the base. It is almost universally known that there are three good spell combinations. All rage, all lightning, and two rage and one heal. I will discuss what spells to use on which base below.

1. Three Rage: This is the combination I like most. The main disadvantage of dragons is their speed, or rather lack off speed. Rage cancels this disadvantage. Rage is especially good on bases with ADs close together and in the core. Also a lot of people defend their ADs using storage buildings which have a lot of hit points. So rage helps to quickly wipe those out when the dragons are under attack. Example base to use three rage on.
2. Three Lightning: This spell combination is used best when there is one lonely AD and the other ADs can be reach easily by a tunnel. Example base
3. Two Rage, One Heal: This is not my favorite combination so I don’t use it very often. This combo is used best when there are two AD which are easily reach by a tunnel and one rage and when one AD can be taken out by raged loons. (see the second OneHive video for an example.

• Wrong Spell Placement When using rage spells timing is everything. Dropping the rage spells too early or too late can really screw up an attack. You want to rage your dragons when they are getting engaged by the air defenses. That is the moment dragons are vulnerable and you want to keep this moment as small as possible. Try to drop your rage at the moment the dragons are already tunneling to the ADs and place it so that it covers multiple dragons at the same time.
• Using Troops other than Dragons: Some people like to take trade one dragon in for 20 ground units. Do not do this. The strategy is called mass dragon for a reason. Because you use mass dragons. Bringing archers or wizards means that you have to worry about both ground and air defenses and that the CC forms a real danger for your troops. Most of the time one dragon can do the same damage as twenty archers.
• Luring Clan Castle: When using dragons you don’t have to worry luring the clan castle. When spotting clan castle troops or heroes, dragons will stop whatever they were doing and attack those troops.Important: this can be an advantage or a disadvantage. Using this knowledge you can use the CC troops to tunnel the dragons more towards the core. However if the CC is behind the ADs this means that the dragons will attack the CC troops while being engaged by the ADs. So the position of the CC should play a role when you think about the placement of your dragons.
• Wrong Dragon Placement Since there are a lot of different ways to screw up dragon placement I will discuss the different mistakes that are made in this category. Please note that the dragon AI is really simple, but at the same time hard to master. Dragons always go for the nearest building. Exception when dragons see troops or heroes they will target these immediately.
  • Dropping dragons in one place: dropping dragons all in one spot. Since the dragon AI is so simple this will often cause the dragons to circle around the core of the base. Since most of the time the core is where the ADs are placed, this means that all the dragons will be taking out freely while they circle the base.
  • Not using tunnels: By creating a tunnel you steer the dragons towards the core and the ADs. You create a tunnel by first attacking two outside buildings, these spots will form the boundary of your tunnel. The rest of the dragons are placed in a line between these two spots. Because the buildings on the outside of the tunnel are already taken down the dragons will automatically advance towards the core of the base. See both the first and the second HoneHive video for a more clear and visual explanation.
  • Dropping dragons in wrong location: When attacking a base you have to consider the positions of the ADs when considering from which side you are going to attack the base. You probably want to attack the side of the base that is closest to the ADs.
• Wrong clan castle troops: There are often only two valid troop options. Another dragon or 5+ balloons. Balloons are often ideal since they target defenses and can used to easily take out an AD. However, when using balloons you have to make sure the dragons take the ADs fire, since balloons have very low health and are really slow.