Drakes feel like they have terrible design; they don't feel any fun to fight.

[PeculiarTendencies]

Something is incredibly wrong with drakes. I am level 35 currently with Mage, Warrior, and Fighter pawns of equal level. I played the first game extensively, and I know that the heart is the weak point. It feels like in between absolutely horrendous ability spam, your entire party is one-shot with their meteor storm. I have NEVER beat a drake in this game despite trying different tactics and vocations. I always come well-equipped and put out a lot of damage. Despite this I am somehow going through five Wakestones and still losing once I get it down to 1 or 2 bars.

I think that a lot of this is attributable to terrible pawn programming as well, but this just feels miserable. I am popping defense potions, but even that doesn't appear to significantly contribute to NOT getting one-shot by the meteor spell.

In part this post is to vent, because drakes feel terrible to fight, but it is also to see if anyone has tips. Right now I am at a point where I am asking myself if I should even be fighting them, because so far there doesn't seem to be literally any benefit aside from crafting materials. They don't protect anything valuable and just don't feel fun to fight. Am I wrong about this, do they ♥♥♥♥ out 50000 gold to compensate you for the absolute misery of having to deal with them? In the original game I don't remember any reward outside of crafting materials, but at least they were manageable and fair.

[Kuma]

You will actually need to kill them if you ever want to get the good endgame upgrades for your gear. They are annoying and hard to fight in the beginning but just keep leveling and gearing up. Eventually they become incredibly easy if im going to be honest. The drakes in this game are so watered down compared to the first game. They had a lot more spells and a lot more melee attacks lol.

[Kashra Fall]

Drakes will only use meteor when they are "Enraged." which is more or less their last 3 health bars. That being said, if you bring an archer pawn with you, they can heavenly shot the heart and vastly lower it's HP pool, allowing a fighter/thief or any melee unit to scale the drake and knock it down/out of the sky depending on the situation. Once it is down, hit the heart and then use your heavy attack on the heart for a strong hit to it, normally killing it.

The easiest drake in the game to kill is by the ancient battlegrounds. It has a large ballista up on the tower, which you can use your pawns to aim down at it with and fire at its head. You'll only get one shot as the drake will seek revenge and likely blow up the ballista in the process. However, one shot is 4 and a half HP bars, but difference is, is the drake doesn't immediately enrage, so there's that =P.

[holi_shet]

hmmm wierd like mages have shield so as 2h spear has immune aoe shield too, killing drakes are like walking in the park

[ThatOneGuy]

Maybe try a thief and unlocking formless faint? Doesn't really get any easier than that, unless you just religiously hate using stamina consumables or something

[Three-Headed-Monkey]

the first dragon you encounter can be kinda tough but by the time you see the 2nd you should have adequate equipment.

their spells have a pretty long wind up so even if your pawns die, you shouldnt die to them.

[Balm]

I think you are doing it way wrong. You should bring enough knockdown to punish the drakes and open their heart to big burst damage and a finishing blow. A singe warrior pawn can usually accomplish this on its own, eventually. Two warrior pawns or 1 war and 1 thief can usually keep a drake grounded, and its not pretty for the drake.

I suspect your party is caster heavy and your are trying to kill a very magic resistant enemy with pure spell damage.

Sort of a spoiler also but I'll throw it out there. Silence skill for mage will knock drakes out of the sky when they are up there casting, essentially trivializing the fight.

As for the reward, drakes are on the few sources of wyrm crystals, which are the currency used to edit your skills, purchase dragon weapons and items from the dragon forged, and to wyrmforge equipment as their final enchantment.

[Lyote]

Originally posted by Balm:

I think you are doing it way wrong. You should bring enough knockdown to punish the drakes and open their heart to big burst damage and a finishing blow. A singe warrior pawn can usually accomplish this on its own, eventually.

I suspect your party is caster heavy and your are trying to kill a very magic resistant enemy with pure spell damage.

Sort of a spoiler also but I'll throw it out there. Silence skill for mage will knock drakes out of the sky when they are up there casting, essentially trivializing the fight.

As for the reward, drakes are on the few sources of wyrm crystals, which are the currency used to edit your skills, purchase dragon weapons and items from the dragon forged, and to wyrmforge equipment as their final enchantment.

Maelstrom absolutely destroys Drakes.

As does putting Flare on the Heart and spamming High Levin on the ball before it detonates.

[Balm]

Originally posted by Lyote:

Originally posted by Balm:

I think you are doing it way wrong. You should bring enough knockdown to punish the drakes and open their heart to big burst damage and a finishing blow. A singe warrior pawn can usually accomplish this on its own, eventually.

I suspect your party is caster heavy and your are trying to kill a very magic resistant enemy with pure spell damage.

Sort of a spoiler also but I'll throw it out there. Silence skill for mage will knock drakes out of the sky when they are up there casting, essentially trivializing the fight.

As for the reward, drakes are on the few sources of wyrm crystals, which are the currency used to edit your skills, purchase dragon weapons and items from the dragon forged, and to wyrmforge equipment as their final enchantment.

Maelstrom absolutely destroys Drakes.

As does putting Flare on the Heart and spamming High Levin on the ball before it detonates.

Maelstrom is pretty good, when the pawn bothers to cast it. I've had a really annoying time with caster pawns holding off on using flare and maelstrom in favor of lesser spells. I finally started taking a caster with ONLY flare and wouldnt you know it, they preferred to staff attack instead of keeping flare up all the time. Dang.

Dont really wanna play sorc myself, but if I did that's how I'd do it.

[Sel Und Irae]

Skill issue, If drakes are at all like they were in first game they aren't meant to be fought till high levels / Endgame, If you're fighting below level 80 you deserve to get onetapped.

[Revan619]

Beat it pretty easy with archer. Even easier with magic archer. You can very easily avoid all their attacks. Should be fairly simple from level 30

[Balm]

Originally posted by Sel Und Irae:

Skill issue, If drakes are at all like they were in first game they aren't meant to be fought till high levels / Endgame, If you're fighting below level 80 you deserve to get onetapped.

well this game forgoes leveled enemies/areas by having scaling difficulty, you can start reliably dealing damage to drakes around level 25ish if you have upgraded weapons

[Cairn.L]

Originally posted by Three-Headed-Monkey:

the first dragon you encounter can be kinda tough but by the time you see the 2nd you should have adequate equipment.

This is true, I died the first time because I was only level 15, lol!

By the second time I fought the dragon, it was quite easy to take him down at level 32 in a group of fighter (me), healer, thief and archer.

[BingusDingus]

I don't feel like they're terribly designed, just that they're way too tough to fight to the death when they start to do so. So far the only way I've managed to fight a dragon to death is with a ballista, outside of that all my party is pretty much on reserves by the time we reach the 2nd health bar.
They're actually quite a challenging fight, especially when they become enraged and you have to try to keep your pawns from getting grabbed by the dragon so they don't contract dragonsplague.

[Balm]

the first time I tried to fight a drake I was barely able to scratch it, I assume they have some baseline defense level that you need to overcome before you're allowed to tickle their healthbar

in ng+ I literally kill them in a few seconds since their heart is so easy to access and the overmatch between my combined attack stats and their defense is so extreme

[Matt Murdock]

That meteor storm is mechanic. You need to run until he will stop cast that ( he stands with claws up like casting) and next same is with electric shocks he cast. But ye pawns should be more smart ....bcs they always stay in meteor explosions + drake more likely harasss you when you try to revive them with multiple cast of spells instead one like normal