Alpine Dragon is tough as hell & not worth it

[Buyung Kilat]

Took me hours and hours and hours to figure out how to kill this motherlover. Not as long as it took me to kill that son of a beauty, the Adra Dragon. But still it was extremely frustrating and in retropect, even more difficult because my party is already tough as nails at this point. This creature is immune to nearly everything and the confined space made it impossible to beat it using cheap tricks.

Anyway, I killed it. And what do I get? Some useless shield and bow, both not even top three in the game! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!! Thank you very much Obsidian. I will cherish this amazing experience forever.

I just gotta vent, I'm sorry.

Anyway, moving on...

[sonntam]

Killing the dragons is really only worth it, if you are going for the achievement. They are all hella tough and solving the quest through talking it out is way easier (and nets you basically the same reward).

[Marty Chonks]

Didn't you at least get some precious dragon meat?

[wendigo211]

It's not about the loot. It's about the challenge.

However, you get to enchant lengendary items with the loot from the Llengrath dragons. With the Alpine Dragon, I think killing it opens some of the WM 2 bounties (there's one bounty in the dragon's cave).

I do have to agree that the Alpine Dragon is the toughest of the solo dragons. Partially because it's immune to all the CC other than petrification (you can knock it prone but it has a +30 defense bonus), and partially because the combination of Spectral Undead and Blight adds is quite lethal.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by wendigo211:

It's not about the loot. It's about the challenge.

+1

As in enough other games, the ultimate reward is to beat him for the first time and to get better at it afterwards.

[Adelion]

Any tips on the Dragon? I know I will beat him earlier or later but at the moment his making me mad. Every attack he does makes 200 damage, one which can hit every party member in a 200 ° arc around the dragon.
I need a better strategy since I'm already at level 16. This is a lot harder than the Adra Dragon which took no effort and story related the Alpine Dragon is weakened at that point in the story O.o

Also if someone sees and knows by chance: So far I thought that Triple Crown achievement meant that i need to do all three conditions in the same playthrough. But with the Ultimate Achievement which says you have to do Triple Crown and kill all dragons alone I began the wonder. I can't imagine anyone soloing the Alpine Dragon. Can I do three playthroughs each with only one condition set and still get the achievement?

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Adelion:

Can I do three playthroughs each with only one condition set and still get the achievement?

No. For that you only get each of the individual achievements:

Path of the Damned
Expert
Trial of Iron

The TCS based achievements inherit from eachother, though. If you managed to do The Ultimate, you get all the other ones, too:

The Ultimate -> Frozen Crown Solo -> Frozen Crown -> Triple Crown Solo -> Triple Crown -> Path of the Damned + Expert + Trial of Iron

But in case you want to do only Triple Crown, well, then at least Expert, Trial of Iron, and Path of the Damned modes need to be enabled at once.

[Adelion]

Okay, that is then to much for my skill and patience level. Then I will probably just do another fast playthrough for some easier achievements (mainly the pacifist one, the one for not getting downed, the one for using less than 10 rests as well as playing solo, maybe I'll do it with Trial of Iron as well).

Thanks for the information.

[wendigo211]

Originally posted by Adelion:

Any tips on the Dragon? I know I will beat him earlier or later but at the moment his making me mad. Every attack he does makes 200 damage, one which can hit every party member in a 200 ° arc around the dragon.
I need a better strategy since I'm already at level 16. This is a lot harder than the Adra Dragon which took no effort and story related the Alpine Dragon is weakened at that point in the story O.o

Also if someone sees and knows by chance: So far I thought that Triple Crown achievement meant that i need to do all three conditions in the same playthrough. But with the Ultimate Achievement which says you have to do Triple Crown and kill all dragons alone I began the wonder. I can't imagine anyone soloing the Alpine Dragon. Can I do three playthroughs each with only one condition set and still get the achievement?

Are you fighting the upscaled dragon, or regular?

Here are the stats for the level 14 Alpine Dragon:
Endurance: 816
Accuracy: 135
Damage 74-101 Crush/Pierce (dual-wielding)
Attributes: M 26, C 24, D 24, P 26, I 18, R 24
Defenses: Deflection 123, Reflex 134, Fortitude 134, Will 118
DR: 32, Immune to Crush/Freeze, Shock 40, Pierce 24, Burn 16
Abilities:
Breath
Tail Lash
Fear Aura
Finishing Blow
Sneak Attack
Deathblows
Immunity to: Unconscious, Stuck, Frightened, Terrified, Paralyzed and Stunned
Resistance to: Prone

It likes to start the fight with its breath attack, so have one party member start the fight from a distance, while the rest of the party cowers as far away from the dragon as possible. Summon creatures and have them keep the dragon away from the party to start. Make sure you have a priest buff your party's accuracy and grant them immunity from fear.

Next wipe out the dragon's support. The gels and blights aren't so bad but the undead can cause some real problems in this fight with their CC. An AoE spam should wipe them out, if you have charm/dominate abilities you can control them and let the dragon wipe them out for you. While you can dominate the dragon, I suggest you avoid it, it will use it's breath weapon to clear it's adds (many of whom are immune to freezing damage) and it will probably kill some of your party members when it does that.

Once the undead are dead, focus on the dragon. Hit it with the best petrification you can, Gaze of the Adragan or Embrace the Earth Talon should do the trick, the trap could work too. Once the dragon is petrified hit it with everything you've got. It will take a lot more damage than normal while petrified so it should go down quickly. If you have the Scale Breaker ability it can help you land your petrification.

[Adelion]

Hm, I guess I fought the upscaled dragon? Although I thought this only counted for the main quest line of the white march and not for that evil dragon as well .....

Nonetheless. I got lucky (I think he didn't use his breath or area attack this time at all) and killed him with the one crucial information that I probably missed before (and would have never tried out). The Alpine Dragon can be petrified. Made the fight a whole lot easier. Also got lucky that he kept pounding my main character because he didn't like its damage output. I had to revive him 4 times so he got downed five times in the fight ....

[MassiveBallSack]

Yeahhhss mate, haven't seen this boss yet but if it is a tough fight you should feel great for beating it!:D I love it when I come across a more challenging fight, sometimes alot of the fights feel too easy, but I am only rocking it on normal difficulty:)

[Crom]

Originally posted by Buyung Kilat:

Took me hours and hours and hours to figure out how to kill this...

...

Anyway, I killed it. And what do I get? Some useless shield and bow...

I just gotta vent, I'm sorry.

Anyway, moving on...

Exaclty. This fight is extreme failure of Obsidian, even more visible in Ironman Mode. Its EPIC FAIL in game design. Dont care about nonsense called challenge or achievment. Those are autistic arguments.

Actualy entire loot and crafting in this game is very weak. So more fun is story. But its the same all over again...

[ShinsFortress]

Agreed.

[Adelion]

What I wanted to add for the Alpine Dragon. There is kind of an "additional item" you get after killing it. The third lock for Ryonas Breastplate demands for you to rest in the Alpine Dragons Cave after killing it. With this the Breast Plate gets +4 on damage reduction and its last skill.
It is not the armor with the highest defense stats but still one of the best. Especially this last skill will prevent a lot of damage (the first attack in every fight which causes damage for more then 10 % of your endurance will be negated and you will be immune against it for the next 15 seconds).

[Crom]

Yea, but what you need loot from that dragon, he is hardest enemy in game, so if you kill him, you basicly do not need anything from him... because you overpowered enough at that moment.

[Adelion]

Originally posted by zangori:

Yea, but what you need loot from that dragon, he is hardest enemy in game, so if you kill him, you basicly do not need anything from him... because you overpowered enough at that moment.

While I had trouble with him I'm not sure he is the hardest enemy in the game. There is still the second arch mage and his dragon pets. And just today I did fight against this ridicolous overpowered Magran's Priest Group at the Fire Falls.