Here are some ideas that may work to balance out things:
1: Eating Birb punishes Crusaders by giving the Dragon a limited use flamethrower ability:
Mentioned this in my own idea thread for little Crusaders
Standing in fires on certain maps actually sets your Crusader Alight and triggers the ‘Spooked’ effect.
What if the Dragon got the ability to breathe controlled bursts of fire after eating Birb?
The duration of how long they can use it for could be 6 seconds, and the ability is locked for 0.5 (Ability continues for 0.5 seconds regardless of how long you have held down the button for), and can only be recharged by eating another Birb (To get the ability in the first place, you have to eat a birb, so the dragon doesn’t start with any breath charge)
Oh, and being able to aim it would be neat.
2: Tail whip effects people on top of the dragon
Simple enough, so people can’t essentially ride the dragon forever and taunt it.
3: Tail whip available during bite and roar animations. (Like the original UCH)
This is to force the Crusaders to be more strategic about how they approach the dragon, rather than trying to all charge at it at once hoping to overwhelm it after it has roared.
4: Roaring - 1.5X sprint duration and cooldown timer for Crusaders
This is simply a counter for both Crusaders who banzai charge towards the Dragon in swarms (No sprint left), and for dragons who try to catch Crusaders by spooking them (Currently, a roar almost negates any chance of the Crusader juking the Dragon and pressing the button. This meant a 100% chance of death if the Crusader was alone. This buff/nerf is intended to give Crusaders a chance to run away and get into an ambush position).
5: Dragon creates cracks in the ground when sprinting or landing
Also from my thread,
When a Dragon lands or is sprinting, it will create visible tracks + cracks in the ground that the Crusaders could use to hunt the Dragon down. Though the Dragon can walk or fly to avoid creating tracks for the Crusaders to follow, if it wants to set up an ambush
6: Crusaders all spawn in random areas (Nowhere that would be considered close to the Dragon)
This could allow the Crusaders to more easily flank the Dragon.
What do you think?