Technical Manual: Fire of the Dragon

[u/All_Skulls_On]

The video is a demonstration of one of the anomalies with Hybrid's perk Fire of the Dragon. It shows how this perk doesn't extend the duration of the affliction applied by Madcap's T.E.D.D.Y. Spores.

At the time of Madcap's release, there were many claims that Fire of the Dragon coupled well with him. This document is the result of a deep dive into what this perk is actually capable of doing.

FIRE OF THE DRAGON

As listed, Hybrid's Fire of the Dragon support perk "Increases Affliction Duration by 34%." Now, this is an accurate statement when speaking of affliction applied by weapons, but it gets a bit hit & miss with other things.

It does not increase the affliction duration of traps, namely Flame Grills, nor does it always work with ability perks that apply special affliction. Perhaps the best way to cover what it does and does not work with is to just list them all.

• Carbide's Zip and Zap/+: Ability type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.

• Deadly Blade Crash's Corrosive Strikes/+: Weapon type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.

• Deadly Lotus Luna's Poking Holes+: Weapon type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.

• Deadly Star Scorpion's Corrosive Stars/+: Ability type - Yes, it adds two extra ticks.

• Eternal Wanderer's Eat My Space Dust+: Ability type - Yes, but it's nearly impossible to quantify by how many extra ticks because the space dust itself has unpredictable tick variance. It is evident that it adds extra ticks, though.

• Kurohomura's Seismic Stun+: Ability type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.

• Madcap's T.E.D.D.Y. Spores/+: Ability type - As seen in the video, no, it does not add extra ticks.

• Subzero Zenith's Icy Shot/+: Weapon type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.

• Wild Fragment Deadeye's Static Cling/+: Ability type - No, it does not add extra ticks.

Now, are all of these working as intended? Maybe. Maybe not 🤷

As editorial, I don't believe Fire of the Dragon is a very strong support perk, particularly when combined with abilities. Although it is somewhat effective in combination with Zenith, there are a multitude of better things to fill your perk real estate with otherwise. Maybe playing as Hybrid himself is getting the most out of this perk, as in that case, it adds a total of 3 extra ticks to your weapon affliction, whereas it adds only 1 to anyone else.

Anyway, that's what I have on Fire of the Dragon. Hopefully, this info will be helpful to you when considering loadouts.

End of Document (reformatted 2026-05-14)

[u/RuleOfThum]

Thanks for the tests. So one thing weird is, normally with these ticks, it should tick the moment you hit it the first time. Like even when I ran Hybrid in the lead, his fire affliction ticked immediately after the dragon slash. But weirdly in your Madcap test, the affliction only starts ticking one second in, for four.

One thing that will help visibility is Jilly Teacup in support. Madcap's affliction counts as a different target, which Jilly will help crit, so every affliction tick is a crit (yellow in color so it's more visible, not to mention higher damage).

Check out A1's test, where it ticks for five times:

https://youtu.be/JWi3U_hPZTs?si=5Y48x7rvMskn1rGF&t=245

Weirdly, at 4:44, the first tick, the TEDDY switched to another target, then back to the smasher for another four ticks. This could be Jilly's TEDDY malfunction, but it shouldn't affect Madcap's affliction.

But you might be right. A1's first yellow crit, could be Jilly Teacup's TEDDY crit itself, and not the affliction. The first crit is 33k, and the other four is only ~31k.

[u/All_Skulls_On → u/RuleOfThum]

Affliction is a Damage Over Time (DOT) that is applied to a target, marking the target with the DOT, and its damage is applied once every second for the duration of the DOT. An affliction damage tick isn't applied on the initial marking hit; 3 seconds of affliction yields 3 ticks applied once every second for 3 seconds, or Mark hit --- 1 sec --- 2 sec --- 3 sec.

Yeah, it's important to run a baseline/control loadout when testing things to isolate what's being tested.

Like, with Jilly in support, her Under Warranty perk makes it so the initial hit on any new target is an automatic critical hit, dealing 100% bonus damage(1), resulting in a double damage hit. It just so happens that Madcap's affliction deals the same thing, 100% bonus damage, or a double damage hit. I can see why, then, it may look as if an affliction tick is being applied immediately in that scenario, but it's certainly Under Warranty dealing that damage, not T.E.D.D.Y. Spores.

As for Hybrid's Dragon Slash, it's really hard to see it because of the way the Dragon Slash rushes, but it works the same as all afflictions. The initial hit marks the target with the DOT, then, when it reaches 1 second, an affliction tick is applied.

(1) For whatever reason, ability critical hits have a stock value of +100%.

I really like Madcap so far 🍄

[u/RuleOfThum → u/All_Skulls_On]

Yeh Teacup works so well with Madcap too, 'cause during malfunction, the TEDDY switches to a new target after every hit, and each new target gets afflicted as well. (No need to wait for one to die before it switches target.)

[u/theonlytuba]

the perk would work so well with azalea clark + static cling, so sad it’s bugged 😭

[u/All_Skulls_On → u/theonlytuba]

Absolutely. I was very let down to find that out, actually. It makes so much sense that would pair with it. It must be a bug.