Defense threshold on the Cursed Dragons of Bitterblack Isle?

[otakon17]

I'm arouind level 130 or so, alas still not rocking decent gear but my attack is naturally above 1,000(with appropriate Augments) striking the heart and I STILL need to use 4 Periapts(running Assassin) to do significant damage to them...or is their HP just that high?

[Forblaze]

Their HP is pretty high. If their HP is visibly moving then you're breaking the threshold.

[Candy Witch]

They indeed have high HP.

If you bring a mage or sorcerer with Holy Affinity and have holy enchantments up, that will also significantly boost your damage.

Getting better weapons will make a large difference.

Also, are you using daggers, sword or bow?

[otakon17]

Originally posted by Wratts:

They indeed have high HP.

If you bring a mage or sorcerer with Holy Affinity and have holy enchantments up, that will also significantly boost your damage.

Getting better weapons will make a large difference.

Also, are you using daggers, sword or bow?

A bit of each. I was using Fivefold Flurry to hit the heart at range then Scalding Razors when grappling. Also been running solo to avoid possessed Pawns trying to rip me a new one.

[TazoAll]

Which weapon have you used?

[otakon17]

Originally posted by TazoAll:

Which weapon have you used?

Doesn't matter, my attack rating is over 1,000 with the bow I'm using and daggers.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally posted by otakon17:

Originally posted by Wratts:

They indeed have high HP.

If you bring a mage or sorcerer with Holy Affinity and have holy enchantments up, that will also significantly boost your damage.

Getting better weapons will make a large difference.

Also, are you using daggers, sword or bow?

A bit of each. I was using Fivefold Flurry to hit the heart at range then Scalding Razors when grappling. Also been running solo to avoid possessed Pawns trying to rip me a new one.

Scalding Razors are a bit low on the damage side for BBI in general (due to the way split damage works), Dragon's Pain or Vein would be a better pick.

As far as pawns go, making sure the ones you hire have 100% Possession Resist is probably far better for your overall damage than trying to use the solo Augment to make up. At your level most useful pawns should have that without sacrificing anything. Also, pawns can deliver the killing blow to Cursed Dragons as opposed to all the other dragonkin and you'll still get the usual 40/55/65/75% chance of dragonforging.

[Candy Witch]

IME, it's usually when you break a total of 2000 Strength or Magick, depending on what you use to attack, when it really starts to really hurt Cursed Dragons, even without Periapts. I'd honestly recommend hunting down better weapons first. A sword and using Dire Gouge while grappling would also work well, especially if any sword you currently have is stronger than your daggers.

Edit: The post above essentially beat me to it, but permanently-enchanted, split-damage weapons like Scalding Razors or Heaven's Key (as in, splitting their power between Strength/Magick) aren't generally as good as high-Strength weapons. You need to break Defense thresholds to make Magick count, so you want to stack as high as you can with Strength.

[noir_7]

Originally posted by Wratts:

Edit: The post above beat me to it, but permanently-enchanted, split-damage weapons between Strength/Magick aren't generally as good as high-Strength weapons for vocations like Assassins.

I had been curious about that myself. I finally abandoned split damage weapons as I started finding regular weapons that were so much stronger.

[Blanc]

Buy some placative brews in the item shop (Gran Soren) and put them in the pawns inventory, so they won't get possessed. Holy buffed luncean/eagle sight in the heart works fine BTW.

[TazoAll]

Originally posted by otakon17:

Originally posted by TazoAll:

Which weapon have you used?

Doesn't matter, my attack rating is over 1,000 with the bow I'm using and daggers.

Weapon is the matter.
For the reference, don't use magik weapon which have both physical and magik damage when your skill only depands on the physical damage.

The magik weapon doesn't use primary magik attibute but only magik damage of the weapon.
The enemy defence for the physical damage of the magic weapon is also more high.
The enemy defence is differed by the weapon it self.

[Darkcloud]

Originally posted by TazoAll:

Originally posted by otakon17:

Doesn't matter, my attack rating is over 1,000 with the bow I'm using and daggers.

Weapon is the matter.
For the reference, don't use magik weapon which have both physical and magik damage when your skill only depands on the physical damage.

The magik weapon doesn't use primary magik attibute but only magik damage of the weapon.
The enemy defence for the physical damage of the magic weapon is also more high.
The enemy defence is differed by the weapon it self.

No it uses your Magick Attack too but is still a bad choice since its essentialy two attacks one compared agaisnt the Physical Defense and another one compared against the Magical Defense.

[TazoAll]

Originally posted by Darkcloud:

Originally posted by TazoAll:

Weapon is the matter.
For the reference, don't use magik weapon which have both physical and magik damage when your skill only depands on the physical damage.

The magik weapon doesn't use primary magik attibute but only magik damage of the weapon.
The enemy defence for the physical damage of the magic weapon is also more high.
The enemy defence is differed by the weapon it self.

No it uses your Magick Attack too but is still a bad choice since its essentialy two attacks one compared agaisnt the Physical Defense and another one compared against the Magical Defense.

It does not use magik attribute.
DDA doesn't have only two defence type: physical/magikal but it is differed by the weapon.

magik damage defence of the magik weapon is not same as the staff. All defence values are seperated by the weapon type not attack type.

[8kPKu-comfE]

Are you hitting the heart? I'm a level 130 assassin as well, using a silverforged Cursed light, before that it was a silver ascalon, and both of those deal a significant amount of damage at just 1300/600~ 1800/900~.

[Blanc]

Originally posted by zacUcCCOoRw:

Are you hitting the heart? I'm a level 130 assassin as well, using a silverforged Cursed light, before that it was a silver ascalon, and both of those deal a significant amount of damage at just 1300/600~ 1800/900~.

Your sword has much better stats and holy enchanted. OP uses crappy daggers. Nuff said)