Best/Worst Draconian Transmuter Colors

[Petro]

I recently got back into Draconian Transmuters and I'm wondering if my assessment matches other people's experiences.

Top Tier

1. Grey
Pros: Amphibious. Gets a bevy of resistances (asphixiation, clouds, AC). Gets bonuses to the best transmutation school and penalties to one of the worst. Ages well into the late game. Earth magic's highest level spell requires no crosstrain. Can murder Ilsuiw horribly, like she deserves.
Cons: No breathe. Takes penalties to one of the better charm schools, which is bad for a melee caster.

2. Pale
Pros: A good spread of skills bonuses with no penalties. The ability to block line of sight with steam breathe only gets better as the game progresses.
Cons: Steam resistance is a bit of a joke. Steam breathe has marginal damage.

Mid Tier

3. Purple
Pros: Magic resistance is broadly useful. Buff stripping breathe ages well into the late game. The most skill bonuses of any color.
Cons: Breathe does minimal damage. Bonuses are spread thinly and among schools you won't immediately make use of. Difficult early game.

4. White
Pros: Breathe pushes flying creatures. Breathe bypasses AP. rC negates cold blooded. Your starting book's ice form offers good poison resist and water walking options.
Cons: Bolt ages poorly in late game. Not a lot of good ice transmutation spells.

5. Red
Pros: Fire cloud can be targeted to block hallways. Ignite poison makes a mockery of the spider's nest.
Cons: You're doubling down on your cold blooded penalty in dragon form. Not a lot of good fire transmutation spells. Bolt ages poorly in late game.

Bottom Tier

6. Mottled
Pros: Sticky flame eats things early game.
Cons: Sticky flame ages poorly in late game. Sticky flame resist is only really useful in a very limited time window. Minimal bonuses.

7. Green
Pros: Aux poison melee stacks up damage very quickly. Mephitic breathe is amazing early game. Your starting book's spider form spell gives you added survivability and utility. Great early game crowd control transmutation/poison spells.
Cons: Everything they have ages terribly in the late game, leaving you nothing to compensate for Draconians' horrible penalties. You will probably die in hell.

8. Black
Pros: Perma-fly is handy. Gets bonuses to one of the better charms schools. Breathe is extremely powerful early game.
Cons: Air is one of the worst transmutation cross schools while earth is the best. Electric breathe is loud, unreliable, and virtually useless late game.

Scum Tier

9. Yellow
Pros: Not many things resist acid. Resist corrosion is nice if situational. Aux acid bite adds melee punch.
Cons: No skill bonuses. Not many things deal acid damage. Your breathe attack isn't a beam, isn't particularly strong, and degrades things you might actually want to wear.

[Laraso]

I think the differences between the colors are largely irrelevant for a transmuter.

[duvessa]

my god why would you get statue form on drtm why

[wheals]

Cons: No breathe.

How is this a con?

9. Yellow
Pros: Not many things resist acid. Resist corrosion is nice if situational. Aux acid bite adds melee punch.
Cons: No skill bonuses. Not many things deal acid damage. Your breathe attack isn't a beam, isn't particularly strong, and degrades things you might actually want to wear.

In trunk, acid spit does better damage and has a more powerful effect (halve AC of monsters wearing armour). I feel like yellow isn't as bad as people make it out to be, just probably more boring.

[Petro]

How is this a con?

Sorry, no breathe weapon.

And yea yellow aren't terrible, I've just had a terribly time with them. I think a lot of it for me is that I like to go Jiyva late game with transmuters (if you're going to gamble, may as well go big) so they miss their one big chance to shine.

[KoboldLord]

For DrTm, the only thing I'm really going to care about the color for is whether I can use my breath weapon to murder things that I can't easily spider to death. If I've outgrown Spider Form, it doesn't matter whether my breath weapon has aged well or not, and while some resistances are better than others it isn't by so much that I particularly care.

I have no idea why yellow gets so much hate. Acid breath one-shots brute enemies like naga and merfolk all the way through the midgame for 0xp investment, using a resource you are unlikely to be using for anything else anyway. I'd be happy to see black, green, or mottled on any DrTm, too. Purple is less great, since not very many enemies bother to buff themselves in the first place, particularly in the early game which is where every bit of advantage counts the most. Grey is great for a conjuror or hunter that doesn't care quite as much about a no-xp ranged attack, not so much for a Tm.

[Petro]

Acid breath one-shots brute enemies like naga and merfolk all the way through the midgame

I have never had this experience with it. I don't have the numbers but anecdotally I always found it doing less damage than it's other counterparts. Maybe I just perceived it that way because it missed its target so often.

Maybe it's an AC thing? I'm assuming it doesn't bypass currently. That's probably the one reason I put white atop red. Being able to blast through plate thickies like orc knights is just wonderful.

[duvessa]

Acid breath one-shots brute enemies like naga and merfolk all the way through the midgame

I have never had this experience with it. I don't have the numbers but anecdotally I always found it doing less damage than it's other counterparts.

That's because it does less damage than some of its counterparts. It does do more damage than purple, pale, or green though.

[ElderVIII]

I honestly think mottled is worse than yellow. The whopping ten times I get Stickied in any given game is usually irrelevant come rF+ and becomes laughable with preservation. At least rAcid has relevance in Slime.

Anyways, there's not really "bad" color for a DrTm. Really the only time I consider color on a Dr is when I play DrCj.

[netkitten]

honeslty as drtm i would be unhappy to get white draconian the most because one of the reasons to play drtm it's dragon form and ice dragons absolutely suck in zot with their fire vulnerability

[Osgoodbad]

Mottled is very good for the same reasons that the sticky flame spell is good.. Sticky flame hastens the deaths of people you're already going to melee anyway, and has a chance to splash onto multiple targets. If the opponent is too difficult, sticky flame kiting makes short work of them, and is useful against those that you don't want to use spider form against. It can be a lifesaver against unseen horrors. And it takes no xp investment to get it online. They get no resistance penalties in dragon form. Any time that i roll a mottled draconian transmuter, I consider myself lucky.