How the heck do you kill Dragons?

[Poltergasm]

I'm around level 22, Magick Archer. Managed to quite easily defeat an armored cyclops. Then we came across a pretty large horde of Goblins, which was a nice change of pace. Well, it would have been if a dragon with 8 fricking health bars didn't drop out of the sky.
I assume I should aim for the glowy orange thing on its chest, but I was barely doing any damage. Bow attacks did the most damage, but I quickly ran out of stamina and was eating so many curatives I started to get indigestion.
After 30 minutes and 2 health bars down I gave up. I esc -> quit. It's not a bad fight by any means, but jesus christ, what the hell is this? All I can do is tickle the dragon. How are you supposed to fight one??

[zadymek]

1. Wow, already level 22 and a magick class! ;) But seriously, a magick class is the best one for the job. And the Forward Roll is another advantage.
2. Why esc -> quit? Why didn't ou simply escape?
3. How are you suppose to fight a dragon?
- You are definitely on the right track with the glowy orange thing. The beast is armored from head to toe and only certain parts are plain flesh. These would be wings (duh), face and the orange heart you mentioned.
- another tactics is knocking it down which increases damage it receives. On the ground it may be hard unless you are quick with exploiting the moments when you have staggered it (like when you prevent it from breathing fire at you, aim the heart) but if you could get to the high ground the drake (you are fighting a drake) will lift off to reach you. Grounding it while it is in the air is a piece of cake for a ranged class- aim the face.

Some strategies:
- obvioulsy use the ice. And Boost yourself with few stacks of Magick Rebalancer if you have it already.
- Best Pawns for the job are Sorcerers with Gicel and Rangers with Deathly Arrow.

BTW Drop out of the sky?

[Poltergasm]

Originally posted by zadymek:

1. Wow, already level 22 and a magick class! ;) But seriously, a magick class is the best one for the job. And the Forward Roll is another advantage.
2. Why esc -> quit? Why didn't ou simply escape?
3. How are you suppose to fight a dragon?
- You are definitely on the right track with the glowy orange thing. The beast is armored from head to toe and only certain parts are plain flesh. These would be wings (duh), face and the orange heart you mentioned.
- another tactics is knocking it down which increases damage it receives. On the ground it may be hard unless you are quick with exploiting the moments when you have staggered it (like when you prevent it from breathing fire at you, aim the heart) but if you could get to the high ground the drake (you are fighting a drake) will lift off to reach you. Grounding it while it is in the air is a piece of cake for a ranged class- aim the face.

Some strategies:
- obvioulsy use the ice. And Boost yourself with few stacks of Magick Rebalancer if you have it already.
- Best Pawns for the job are Sorcerers with Gicel and Rangers with Deathly Arrow.

BTW Drop out of the sky?

Thanks for the tips! Yeah I had no problem knocking it out of the sky with arrows.. I just had trouble dealing any damage at all. I was right under its belly slashing away and firing off arrows, and it took around 25-30 minutes to remove 2 of its health bars, which isn't even close to half.
I don't think I have any ice magic at all (at least not at my level). Some better suited pawns would definitely be beneficial, but I honestly had no idea I'd be facing a dragon.
As for running away, every time I use F2 to have my pawns follow, they have a bad habit of staying back and attacking, then eventually dying, so I have to run back and pick them up. This is generally why I'm not a fan of followers in games.

[Nightwalker]

The drake (which is one of the smaller sized dragons in the game) lives on the opposite side of the road from where you fought the armored cyclops and it's little band of goblins. He is weak to ice so any time you hit him an ice attack you do extra damage to him. Kill the cyclops and goblins then wander on over across the road to get the drakes attention. He will come after you but you can sling a few arrows at him while you retreat back across the road. He's going to stop at the road and won't cross it so you can be on the other side of the road and pepper him while you are in relative safety or simply give yourself time to rebuild your stamina. On drakes YOU have to deliver the final blow. Pawns can whack it down to 1 HP but can't put it out of it's misery. That glowing spot on it's chest is the weak spot so hit that as often as you can.

[Poltergasm]

Originally posted by Nightwalker:

The drake (which is one of the smaller sized dragons in the game) lives on the opposite side of the road from where you fought the armored cyclops and it's little band of goblins. He is weak to ice so any time you hit him an ice attack you do extra damage to him. Kill the cyclops and goblins then wander on over across the road to get the drakes attention. He will come after you but you can sling a few arrows at him while you retreat back across the road. He's going to stop at the road and won't cross it so you can be on the other side of the road and pepper him while you are in relative safety or simply give yourself time to rebuild your stamina. On drakes YOU have to deliver the final blow. Pawns can whack it down to 1 HP but can't put it out of it's misery. That glowing spot on it's chest is the weak spot so hit that as often as you can.

Appreciate the information :) Good to know about the road. Man, if that's one of the weaker dragons then I'm in a lot of trouble lol
Maybe I should try playing Sorcerer. Many enemies seem to be weak to the elements such as fire and ice.

[Bamcrash]

Something to note is that level 22 is pretty low to be fighting the drake, it's way stronger than everything else in the area and should be avoided for a while. In comparison to the armoured ogre you fought, the drake has roughly 4 times it's defence and health, with fewer chances for staggering. The rewards are good if you can beat it though.

[Poltergasm]

Originally posted by Bamcrash:

Something to note is that level 22 is pretty low to be fighting the drake, it's way stronger than everything else in the area and should be avoided for a while. In comparison to the armoured ogre you fought, the drake has roughly 4 times it's defence and health, with fewer chances for staggering. The rewards are good if you can beat it though.

I think eventually I would have brought it down, but it would have taken close to 2 hours, so I'd be expecting some pretty dope loot. I'll try and avoid it next time we cross paths.

[BurlsoL]

Damage in this game works on a sort of all or nothing rule. If your attack damage is lower than their defense, you will do basically no damage. Although there are weak spots on most enemies, if your damage is still too low, you'll do basically no damage against those weak spots. You simply did not have attack high enough to reliably pierce defenses.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by Poltergasm:

I don't think I have any ice magic at all (at least not at my level).

You say you are a Magick Archer, so you are starting with an ice spell.

Originally posted by Poltergasm:

Some better suited pawns would definitely be beneficial, but I honestly had no idea I'd be facing a dragon.

1. You don't have to fight everything you come across. That's the rule.
2. At the same time, you are playing an open world game. There's no way to expect such encounters in an open world. Be vigilant I guess.

Originally posted by Poltergasm:

As for running away, every time I use F2 to have my pawns follow, they have a bad habit of staying back and attacking, then eventually dying, so I have to run back and pick them up. This is generally why I'm not a fan of followers in games.

Escape is more of the option at the start of the fight. When you are well into the fray it's time to cut losses rather than "no Pawn left behind" approach.

BTW What about fast travel? If your Pawns are within minimap range teleporting to a "haven area", say Gran Soren, will take them with you, whether they are fine or unconscious.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Elemental weaknesses and accuracy. Also, like all ennemies, drakes have a pattern and mechanics that you need to learn and then manipulate to take the advantage against it.

Search for Nihil 0.0 and watch the "dragonkins" guide, this should teach you all you need against drakes.

Another trick, ennemies pattern depends on how far you are and your relative position:
- Stay far and it will use long range attacks (more damaging and harder to dodge than close range attacks), for drakes, they will mostly take off and use airborn breath attacks.
- stand at his face and it will either try to bite you or try to roast you with his breath.
- Stand on his side and it will use side clawing (super easy to dodge, lowest damage)
- stand behind it and it will use 360 tail sweep or smashing atttacks (take off and land immediately on you)
- stay close and their size will act against them...

So figure out which attack is less dangerous, slower, easier to dodge and create the biggest openings, then manipulate the ennemy into doing mostly this attack by carefull managing your relative position and distance.... then exploit openings to attack it with quick attacks untill it get staggered, then, while it staggers, attack his weak spot with your fastest high KD power skills, this should knock it down instantly. Now use your hardest hitting most stamina hungry skill on his weak spot while it's on the ground. Rince and repeat.

[Poltergasm]

Originally posted by zadymek:

BTW What about fast travel? If your Pawns are within minimap range teleporting to a "haven area", say Gran Soren, will take them with you, whether they are fine or unconscious.

I'm not sure how to fast travel yet. I heard you use stones or something, but I haven't come across any. Would definitely love to get my hands on them..

[Scrotumfiddler Phil]

Originally posted by Poltergasm:

Originally posted by zadymek:

BTW What about fast travel? If your Pawns are within minimap range teleporting to a "haven area", say Gran Soren, will take them with you, whether they are fine or unconscious.

I'm not sure how to fast travel yet. I heard you use stones or something, but I haven't come across any. Would definitely love to get my hands on them..

Ferrystones mydude. 1-time use items. You'll come across those ones many times over the further the game progresses. Outside of the pawn tavern above the everfall in Gran Soren there's a circle. In that circle you'll find one ever so often.

[라헬]

If you're playing on steam, you should automatically have the eternal ferrystone in your stash. Simply go to an inn and withdraw it. It should allow you to teleport to the capital, and Cassardis I think.

[Shelt]

I finally killed that Devil's Grove drake dragon thing at lvl 39 mage with a full party. I had like 30 curatives on each pawn and it still was barely enough. Ice affinity helps a LOT.

[Poltergasm]

Originally posted by 라헬:

If you're playing on steam, you should automatically have the eternal ferrystone in your stash. Simply go to an inn and withdraw it. It should allow you to teleport to the capital, and Cassardis I think.

No kidding?? Wish I had of known that sooner - would have saved me A LOT of time running back and forth lol. Thank you!

[zadymek]

Originally posted by Shelt:

I finally killed that Devil's Grove drake dragon thing at lvl 39 mage with a full party. I had like 30 curatives on each pawn and it still was barely enough. Ice affinity helps a LOT.

Ever tried the mighty Holy Focused Bolt?