Draug Boss Fight

[Calchexxis]

I'm not sure I can actually beat this; I built myself as magic/alchemy only to start the fight without any of my potions running because of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ prior story mode stuff. Then I can't actually damage him with my spells.

I throw down Yrden, he LITERALLY RUNS THROUGH IT WITHOUT STOPPING.
I throw Igni, nothing. No damage, except a slight movement on his armor bar.
Aard literally does nothing. No stun, no damage, nothing. He just walks through it.
Quen keeps me alive right up til I'm out of vigor which takes awhile because I have six bars of it.
Axii is useless, natch.

Oh, and can I mention that I start RIGHT in front of him and he hits me with an unavoidable attack? Believe me I have tried but I spawn basically clipping into his groin while doing Geralt's slow-ass sword-drawing animation and he just smacks me, I spam roll, I tried spamming block, nothing. I just get a full THIRD of my hp chunked off for having the audacity to start the boss fight.

Seriously, what the ♥♥♥♥.

[Sunsetter]

Why would you focus solely on signs, he's a witcher, not a mage.

That said, you should still be able to get through with any decent sword (depending on difficulty)

[Calchexxis]

Originally posted by Samael:

Why would you focus solely on signs, he's a witcher, not a mage.

That said, you should still be able to get through with any decent sword (depending on difficulty)

So i've literally been just walking through this game, it's so easy, using my build. I nuked letho, and have blown down every single threat with zero effort. I'm not sure why you wouldn't, frankly.

Also, why put in a skill tree you're not supposed to put points into. The point of a full skill tree is that it's supposed to be a viable play choice. Not 'viable up to an arbitrary point in the game'. That's just ♥♥♥♥ design.

[max.strauss]

Originally posted by Admiral Akbar:

I'm not sure I can actually beat this; I built myself as magic/alchemy only to start the fight without any of my potions running because of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ prior story mode stuff. Then I can't actually damage him with my spells.

I throw down Yrden, he LITERALLY RUNS THROUGH IT WITHOUT STOPPING.
I throw Igni, nothing. No damage, except a slight movement on his armor bar.
Aard literally does nothing. No stun, no damage, nothing. He just walks through it.
Quen keeps me alive right up til I'm out of vigor which takes awhile because I have six bars of it.
Axii is useless, natch.

Oh, and can I mention that I start RIGHT in front of him and he hits me with an unavoidable attack? Believe me I have tried but I spawn basically clipping into his groin while doing Geralt's slow-♥♥♥ sword-drawing animation and he just smacks me, I spam roll, I tried spamming block, nothing. I just get a full THIRD of my hp chunked off for having the audacity to start the boss fight.

Seriously, what the ♥♥♥♥.

Oh, so sad. And mom and dad can't comfort you?

[Valden21]

If I remember correctly from playing on console, Quen was a lifesaver for me in that fight. The key to surviving that fight is two-fold. The first is to kite him. Use Quen, but the other signs are useless for that fight, so you'll need to use your silver sword. The second is that during the second half of the fight, he'll bombard you with barrages of arrows and catapults, launched from behind him. Use the pile in the middle of the boss arena for cover.

[Calchexxis]

Originally posted by Valden21:

If I remember correctly from playing on console, Quen was a lifesaver for me in that fight. The key to surviving that fight is two-fold. The first is to kite him. Use Quen, but the other signs are useless for that fight, so you'll need to use your silver sword. The second is that during the second half of the fight, he'll bombard you with barrages of arrows and catapults, launched from behind him. Use the pile in the middle of the boss arena for cover.

Wait, second half? He opens the fight doing that most of the time and I have sprint around the battlefield.

[Valden21]

Oh, then I miscalculated. Forget my mention of a "second half", but keep what I said about the pile of weapons and armor. That pile protects you from whatever barrage he sends your way, as long and you keep it between you and him.

[Calchexxis]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Oh, then I miscalculated. Forget my mention of a "second half", but keep what I said about the pile of weapons and armor. That pile protects you from whatever barrage he sends your way, as long and you keep it between you and him.

Finally beat it, so after talking to some friends I found out that whatever I was experiencing was a essentially a bug? Like, I was starting clipped into him and he would instantly swing for a third of my health and literally none of my friends were having that experience, so I just had to keep reloading til I started in the right place.

[tungstic]

I had set this game aside months ago because of this problem.

I have read many postings about this, and watched several videos. Many of the posts were from folks who apparently have nothing better to do than say that this boss is easy, and there must be something wrong with people who are having a hard time.

From the postings that were trying to be helpful by describing in detail what they did that was easy, I have concluded that those people's experience was different from mine: e.g., the draug was trapped longer and better, and their sword did a lot more damage. In my case, on Easy difficulty, a strong attack with a pretty good silver sword from behind would take off only 10% of his health. Further, a strong swing's repeat time is almost 2 seconds, so I can't many in before the Yrden trap ruins out. In contrast, at least one video showed several swings per second; my fast attack isn't even that fast.

One contributor suggested that folks having trouble may not have done all of the side quests. Based on the available walk-throughs, I'm pretty sure I have not missed any.

It teems like there is a subtle combination of factors that add up to making this battle harder for some gamers than for others

What I finally resorted to was the GodMode patch from NexusMods. That did the trick: Quen on, one swing, and he was dead. Now I can remove that mod and (finally!) get on with the rest of the game.

[max.strauss]

Originally posted by tuncstic:

What I finally resorted to was the GodMode patch from NexusMods. That did the trick: Quen on, one swing, and he was dead.

A declaration of bankruptcy, no doubt. But why do you think that we should take note of it, tuncstic?

[tungstic]

Originally posted by max.strauss:

Originally posted by tuncstic:

What I finally resorted to was the GodMode patch from NexusMods. That did the trick: Quen on, one swing, and he was dead.

A declaration of bankruptcy, no doubt. But why do you think that we should take note of it, tuncstic?

Sigh - yet another abusive, unhelpful response. The purpose in what you quoted was to help the many others experiencing the same problem. Telling us that we are not good enough to play a game you like doesn't make the world a better place. Let's keep these forums positive, folks.

[Cryiox]

The Draug is easily the hardest thing in the whole game. But it's beatable. Did it on Dark (without the Dark gear) with Geralt on all 3 builds. It helps it you go with a lot of bombs/knives into the quest.

[justin]

In case anybody else is struggling as I did with this for a few hours, here is what worked for me. First, I don't buy for a second the naysayers that act like there isn't some funky factor like enhanced edition or something else, this is a challenging boss for whatever reasons for some of us. The videos I watched are a cakewalk compared to anything I saw on Normal level. Most show getting behind the boss, which is extremely rare in my case. My side quests are all done and my equipment is tops.

I also experienced spawning right in front of him, so role or block immediately to minimize.

Potions get knocked out if you do them before the quest and there is no stop to do alchemy I have found.

I hit him with ranged attacks, superb throwing knives, and over a dozen bombs that did little but dent his shield. Seemed to work for others, but not in my first run-through. Getting behind him, doesn't work. Dodging and coming up just eats away at you.

The way I finally cleared him was old skool hack and slash. Get away, do Quen. Get back in, maybe take a hit and fast attack away. Get back when he goes into whirl where he comes apart. He tends not to call in other ranged when you stay close.

Didn't enjoy this boss so much and I hope this helps someone else out who is frustrated.

[max.strauss]

Originally posted by justin:

Didn't enjoy this boss so much ...

justin, here, too, the key to a short boss fight is Yrden (mandatory for the Kayran, extremely effective in the first Letho fight). The Draug can only be damaged directly if a rear attack occurs or if it is stuck in the Yrden trap. Whether with or without the cursed armor-set: the fight will be over in less than half a minute, also on "dark":

https://youtu.be/vVLRX4eQaf4

[Dethlane]

Jump behind his back and keep altering strong attack and Aard. With swords/signs build and decent gear it goes down in one sequence (IIRC Letho in last fight as well, though it's a bit trickier to execute).

[Weyrlock]

Impressive how nobody figured it out, besides the comment before mine, even if it is written in every walkthrough I remember reading, for this boss you just use Aard and strong attacks, and yes, you can do it even if the battle starts with you losing half or more health. I don't remember exactly, but even Yrden is not necessary/viable as much.