Ambushed by a Cursed dragon while .."fighting" the giant gore cyclops in BBI...HELP

[onlyadream]

Talking of course about the humongous chained up gore cyclops that most newbies ignore after poking it a bit,and confirming that we indeed do no damage to the guy. Which,incidentally, was also the plan for this particular l65 ranger...except while killing the skeleton mages,player 2 decided to show up.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1398857565 Shout out to Nours who wen't for the strongest foe.

Now I could ,of course, just keep going and not look back,but that doesn't sound very interesting in the least (the fact that a random elder ogre appearing in a previous room gave me 2/3 lvl ups also paints a rather pretty picture regarding the rewards here).

Obviously the plan is to have these two behemoths kill each other off,while i collect the goods afterwards.Which is exactly what I would be trying to do now,if not for the fact that it's well past 3AM and I'm fairly clueless as to the exact mechanics of the situation.

So!Hoping you smarter people here can help me out on capitalizing on the situation with some info before I muck it up:

-Do I/my pawns actually need to get the last hit to get the loot/xp?

-The dragon keeps flying in the air blowing...something around (ruined my blessed flower in the process,the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥),well out of the reach of the cyclops.Can I make it land the same way as the devilfire drake?If no,how.

-Any helpful tips/info on fighting either one.The dragon has a big shiny heart,and the cyclops still has an eye,beyond that I've no idea as I've yet to meet either one of these in nature.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by onlyadream:

-Do I/my pawns actually need to get the last hit to get the loot/xp?

-The dragon keeps flying in the air blowing...something around (ruined my blessed flower in the process,the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥),well out of the reach of the cyclops.Can I make it land the same way as the devilfire drake?If no,how.

-Any helpful tips/info on fighting either one.The dragon has a big shiny heart,and the cyclops still has an eye,beyond that I've no idea as I've yet to meet either one of these in nature.

1. For XP yes, loot drops anyway. Also prepare some gear as it can get dragonforged if Cursed Dragon will die (If Gorecyclops won't glitch or you won't help it CD has no chance). Also: Gorecyclops gives more valuable loot, ofc.
2. "Pardon my French" but
Are You eFfing kidding me? You're Ranger! Your Vocation massacres all flyers!
But yes, just do exacly the same as with Drake: shoot head, shoot wings to makie it fall from the skies.
3. Dragon is straightforward like all dragonkin: knock it down when he flies, and this one loves to fly, then attack the heart for maximum damage. Gorecyclops...use Ice if you got access to it. Remove the mask first (shoot the side straps) or you'll have a hard time critting it. And non-crit shots will only tickle it. Always use your hard hitting skills, Dins make wonders, Dire Arrow's great too.
The rule is: make it fall as often as possible so it start losing armor (his model won't change cause he's bugged, but Pawn will comment on that) and becoming weaker.
The knock down procedure is child's play for a Ranger: stagger it by shooting the eye, then shoot the leg (aim only unarmored parts) to make it fall to his knees, or torso to make it fall to its back. You can also attack weapon arm to disarm it, this will stagger it too. If you have rusted bow, slowing it down will make things even easier.

BTW Damage test: if you will even be able to harm it enought to make it break its chains you can try to kill it, otherwise I'd bail.

One more thing: there are plenty of such enemies around BBI, you'll meet those further too, even two Armored Gorecyclopes at once.

[Striker]

I go for first hit on each of them. Then use a couple shattered earth scrolls under one of the cursed dragons wings. That is usually enough to ground it for good. For the GC it's blast arrows on the helmet/mask. Then I get the heck out of the way and let those two monsters fight each other for a bit. Once the cursed dragon has been pummeled to near death I then attack and kill it, grab the loot and then it's up on the bridges time to finish off the GC. This duel battle is the only time I use the "come" command to get the rest of my party out of harms way and also the only time I'll grab loot while a fight still rages. I've watched loot drop from a dead CD and when I went to pick it up after finishing off the GC the dragons drops had vanished. Seems like there's a time limit involved somehow.

[onlyadream]

Ight,thanks for the tips guys.Time to give this a go.Sadly I don't have any of the magic tomes with me,but hopefully they'll soften each other enough.

@zadymek I'm uh...Shall we say ranger-lite at the moment :P .Transitioning into sorc soon so no real str from my character itself.And yeah I did get the helmet off easily enough even last time I was here about 20 levels ago,but after he starts rampaging around I just couldn't hit the eye reliably,and nothing else would do any damage.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by onlyadream:

@zadymek I'm uh...Shall we say ranger-lite at the moment :P .Transitioning into sorc soon so no real str from my character itself.And yeah I did get the helmet off easily enough even last time I was here about 20 levels ago,but after he starts rampaging around I just couldn't hit the eye reliably,and nothing else would do any damage.

That's cause it requires some magick tricks not just a skill ;)

Few tips about Cyclopes in general:
- when they rage, they become easier to harm and knock down. That's why I hate this Gorecyclops glitch where it stays calm - you shoot and shoot and shoot and nothing. I mean, I know, now, how to utilize this glitch, but it's a painful job. :/
- when they rage they actually get tired with time. You'll see what I mean if you'll watch it raging for like a minute. After around 30-40s of raging they are extremely easy to knock down.
- about the eye sniping. When you stagger a Cyclops (you saw this "aaaargh" animation, did you?) it takes it very personal. It'll flounce at first but right after that it'll smash the groung and... gaze at you and growl. After it was knocked down it can even do it twice. You know what to to do ;)
- if you have trouble hitting an eye aim for the armed hand's arm when it'll smash the ground with its cudgel.

Check this video for "more graphic" example
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1286292061

it's not an Armored Gorecylops just the regular one, but all the above (apart from glitches) apply to this one too. Oh, and since "Prisoner Gorecyclops" is so enormously huge you'll need high knock down power to make it fall (above 400 should work nicely) so, either wear some Barbed Nails and abuse Fearful Din or ...well you'll see in the video what I do with a crappy Bow ;)

[onlyadream]

@zadymek solid tips!noted for next time.

Righto.so both beasties down.Winner of the brawl itself,seemed to undoubtedly be the dragon.Although my game did crash in the middle,which respawned the dragon,giving it full hp,while the cyclops staid at it's current hp.He also got rechained.Poor clops!

Things I learned from this!
-You definitely need to get the last hit to gain XP.Seemed like you also don't get any loot if you don't get the last hit?Not sure,but the 1st try the dragon finished off the clops and there was no loot.Maybe I just had not attacked the clops recently enough?Dunno.

-Pawns really don't give ♥♥♥♥ about the "come" command.When they wanna brawl,they gonna brawl.Apologies to owners of the rental pawns with me for not getting the presumably sweet pile of rc out of all this.I tried to keep them alive,but after getting one shot one times too many while ressing them, twas not to be.

-The dragon CAN ENTER THE FRIGGING TUNNEL.That was a nice learning moment.In a remarkable display of extreme clipping,it can also fly in the tunnel.Wasn't pretty.

-Dragons and midnight helix DO NOT mix,at least for the dragons.Or maybe just the cursed kind,but ironically,dragons seem weakest while in the air.Which,in this place,of course is the only way they can reach you,and when they do,they reaaallly like to just float there giving you the scowl while you charge up a deathly arrow right at their heart.Drops them like a rock.Another deathly arrow while theyre flailing.1 hp bar gone,even with a ranger lite.Rinse and repeat,since the dragon seems to do exactly two things while at the bottom;fly up to scowl at you,or do the breath attack..followed by flying up to scowl at you.

P.s.Not entirely sure how the dragon forging works,but if it's entirely random between your equipped gear as I assume,oh boy do I appreciate the luck of getting the bow I literally just picked up from duskmoon tower getting dforged from 1 star!

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

Haha! I saw the words Ambushed by Cursed Dragon and immediately thought of how many times they have spawned on top of my head which usually means one shot insta death for me.

Nice work on one of the most BS spawns in the game.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by onlyadream:

-Pawns really don't give ♥♥♥♥ about the "come" command.

I slayed Armored Gorecyclops with Cursed Dragon numerous ties and believe me there is always loot. But just like all other loot drops it tends to "shoot" out of the host somewhere and dissapears after a time ofc.

Originally posted by onlyadream:

XP
-Pawns really don't give ♥♥♥♥ about the "come" command.

Yeah, I sometimes have the feeling that the game itself gives them Scather right after the entrance, even Sorceres wanna climb the damn Cyclops! Even staring away from enemy works better than commands. That's why I don't like to bring Support Pawns to Midnight Helix (the Main Pawn can die, idc ;).

Originally posted by onlyadream:

-The dragon CAN ENTER THE FRIGGING TUNNEL.

Yup, and it's helluva "Im-not-locked-here-with-you-you-are-locked-with-me fun itime in there. You can experience weirdest types of glitches on stairs. But don't get fooled by Cursed's agility, stairs restrain him more than Claptraps ;)

Originally posted by onlyadream:

-Dragons and midnight helix DO NOT mix,at least for the dragons.

Totally agree, the map designer must have been high or sumthn.I mean, Frostwyrm, OK, it's less prone to fly but why CD which was given Wyvern's AI?

BTW It actually scowls (and groans) to signal its breath attack. Also. Ranger doesn't need skills to knock down the dragon, Core shots are powerful enough, and if somehow they don't ...that's why I equip Fearful Din.

Originally posted by onlyadream:

P.s.Not entirely sure how the dragon forging works,but if it's entirely random between your equipped gear as I assume,oh boy do I appreciate the luck of getting the bow I literally just picked up from duskmoon tower getting dforged from 1 star!

It's RNG based but with varied % dragon forge chance: it depends on both dragon type and gear enhancement level. CD is third best dragonforger in game, where other two are guaranteed dragonforge ones.