Hello, I am ForgottenReams. I am writing this guide because I believe I have learned to master Skat, and hopefully with this advice you should be able to master Skat as well. With Skat I can fairly consistently score around 1000 points in Deathmatch, using the skills I have recorded in this guide.

This is Skat. He's going to be your best friend for the next few minutes as you read this article, and perhaps for the rest of the time you spend playing Time of Dragons.

Skat has low health, but this is offset by a very high speed in all directions.
His acceleration is below average, as is his endurance. However, he has a good heat limit, with average cooling rate and endurance recovery.
Skat's special ability disables enemies weapons in a burst for a short time. This would be more useful, if not for the fact that you need to be close to an enemy to use it, and most times you are close to an enemy, they end up facing away from you and unable to fire their weapons at you anyway. However, it does have its uses in certain situations, and is certainly better than nothing.

So, if Skat's ability isn't that great, why play him? His primary advantage is his speed and agility. The ability to speed round a corner and turn around ready to fire on your pursuer is an amazing advantage. Overall, assuming you can manage not to get shot too much, Skat isn't that hard to play as, and can easily be used to out-manoeuvre your foes.

Skat's "space" maneuver moves him directly upwards, allowing you to easily dodge incoming fire. When ever you see an enemy's primary weapon fire coming at you, press space. You should be able to dodge the attack, while firing back at them with reasonable accuracy.

If you get blinded by Fury's special ability, drop a mine if you have one, and then be unpredictable. Don't fire your weapon, and instead dive around all over the place until you can see where you are. This should reduce your chance of getting hit while you are vulnerable.

I personally, do not use the shield much, as it does not provide as much cover with Skat as with other dragons, and since you're an agile dragon anyway, the extra protection is not worth the damage that you're missing out on.

If an opponent is using their shield, keep firing the occasional shots with your primary weapon, to either force them to keep the shield up, or still do some damage if they drop it. Eventually, once you think that they've overheated, hit them with the big guns.

Primarily target those with low health bars, or dragons that you know have low base health, like Skat, Fury, or Inara. Toxor is also a pretty good target as he has fairly low health, and is bulky and not particularly agile. If you get a good set of shots lined up on these sorts of dragons, you can drop them from full health usually just using one Cooling Kit, or sometimes none.

This is my primary build, but I'll go through each step anyway. The most important thing to remember when creating your own build is to make sure you have a high enough damage output. Make sure that anything that reduces your damage output has the extra utility to make it worthwhile.

Slot 2:

Plasmaball is a simple, and always reasonable choice. It does 300 damage, and you can fire off three shots in quick succession before you overheat. It takes longer to travel to the target than your primary weapon though, so you will need to aim in front of your target to hit them at range. The plasmaball is also fairly large compared to other weapons, meaning you don't need to be quite as accurate as you would with a railgun.

Rocket is less good. as one shot uses up almost all of your heat, meaning you can usually get off only two shots before dying. Each rocket deals 350 damage in a small area, once it hits the target. It travels at around the same speed as a plasmaball, but requires more accuracy as it is much smaller than the plasmaball. The extra area damage is rarely useful, as enemies aren't often close to each other, and if they are, the rocket makes barely a dent in their health.

Railgun is my favourite, but requires the most skill. On its own, it uses up all your heat, and does 800 damage at the moment you press the button, which makes it slightly easier to hit with than one bullet, since you don't have to account for where the dragon is going to be. However, missing carries a massive penalty of overheating with nothing to gain for it. The real advantage with using railgun, however, is that you can fire with your primary weapon until you've nearly used up your heat and then swap to your railgun for an extra 800 damage. While you are cooling down, though, you have to make sure you swap back to your primary weapon.

Either Plasmaball or Railgun are the best choices, Rocket just doesn't have the necessary damage output. When using Plasmaball you don't really need to worry about swapping between it and your primary weapon, while with Railgun you have to keep swapping back and forth. This means that i'd probably recommend Plasmaball for beginners, but recommend that you try Railgun once you get used to Skat.

Slot 3:
You always want Cooling Kit on this, as it is the key to allowing you to take out a target in one pass.

Slot 4:

This is where the build can vary quite significantly.

Smokescreen is probably not worth using, though it can be handy for an escape. The primary problem with it is that it is as much a hinderance to your enemies as it is to you, and as a result it is not worth losing the extra damage output you could be getting.

Mine is useful when being pursued or when charging at an enemy. You can also use your superior speed to dash past a near-finished enemy and drop a mine to finish them off. However, when the mine detonates, you will also be damaged if you are caught in the blast, and since Skat has a low starting health anyway, it can be quite dangerous to use.

Cooling Kit is probably best for this slot as it allows for an extra boost in damage, which is much higher than what Mine will give you. However, in order to use this, you have to sacrifice some utility.

Stamina Kit is really not worth using, as all it does is reset your endurance, and all endurance does is give you a slight burst of speed while holding shift. I would not recommend equipping this.

Overall, Skat's greatest advantage is his speed and manoeuvrability, so don't be afraid to use it! Stay unpredictable and you can dodge anything that comes at you. If you can, attack enemies from behind, but don't be afraid to attack from the front, because you should have the damage capabilities to take them out.

I hope you've enjoyed this guide, and hopefully I will write some for other dragons as well. I will also try to keep this guide updated with any game updates, and maybe add in a section on the various maps as well later. Please leave a comment f you found this guide helpful, or spotted something I could improve on.