274 réponses à ce sujet

[EzFlyer]

KitsuneEclipse wrote...

AUGH... Fight him on Nightmare for 2 hours using a spirit staff with spirit weapons and spirit this and that, also with Crushing Prison (seems to work alright, no CC but damage is okay), FINALLY, FINALLY kill him... just as they finish conversation and I'm going to save (even before levelling up) my game crashes. CRASHES. I prayed it auto-saved just after the fight, but alas...

"Would you like to send this error report?"
"MOTHER @^@#&#$&*$%*@*%#*%^#*%%$%^&$*@$* STUPID ^$&#&*%$*$*$*^$$ PIECE OF ^@#&#$&*%$*$*$"

P.S. Only the second time it has ever crashed, so I never imagined this would be a problem .
P.S.S. I woke the neighbors .

omg, i'd die.  i'm so scared that'll happen if i manage to down him w/out dropping it from nightmare.  it happened TWICE the fight RIGHT BEFORE him (where you refuse the abom's help)

[x-president]

I'm working on a strategy, but I think a 3 mage and 1 tank party against him would just own on any difficulty.

Each mage needs either Winter's Grasp or Spirit Bolt upgraded if possible.  Then have one mage get Arcane Shield upgraded and have one Mage be able to revive.  All mages could get heal, but not necessary.

- If you can gut out the running around, it is best to save and unload when it is down on the ground inbetween phases. 

- Also it is almost better to just let your teammates die.  It is much easier to kit the ARW solo and there is less screwing around with party management.  Just make sure your revivng mage stays alive and then revive after the mega blast.


If the mages are setup right you could potentially get 1000 dmg per mage when the ARW is onthe ground.  So that is 3k+ with just a single spell.  Yesterday I was doing some testing and my mage was getting 800+ with Winter's Grasp and 400+ with Cone of Cold when the ARW was down on the ground.


The section where the ARW roles around is the most leathal time imo.  Sense it has increased defense it takes much less dmg, moves faster, and requires complete party control.

[gr33n3]

second playthrough
anders on grp heal, hawke on elemental + single heal. i lacked 2 lvl to go into spirithealer since i finished elemental first. but 1 grp heal is enough ;> if you have only anders you will just need to use some potions where i used the heal of my mainchar. because i only used 1 potion in the fight. 3stamina for fenris to cast rally tough.
then fenris 2h specc + avenger for rally(stamina mana restore for party!)
oh ya and varric ofc.
so ya the fight went pretty long but fenris unlike aveline had the aggro at least.
which is kinda essential to kill this boss. at least in my tactic ;>

i mean phase 1 is easy. spread ur ppl so his attack (which jumps) only hits 1 partymember.
if ur mage gets hit or someone with low hp run around a pillar to prevent dmg.

phase 2: when he ports to the middle and does the red-ray-attack hide behind pillars.
just klick on hold position and send 2 guys behind 1 pillar and 2 behind another one to kill spawns faster.take pillars next to each other or they try to run to each other despite hold position(max range on that is annoying.)
after the red-ray-attack he summons some creeps. aslong they live and you do dmg on the boss u get hurt badly. so i was still on hold position mode and killed the spawns manually using breaks to not loose time. because if you are not on hold position they go and hit the boss and get dmg.

once the mobs are dead, the boss still stays in the middle but you can attack him without getting dmg. its your chance to use firerain and such. if u kill the spawns fast u get quite a long dmg phase here.

now phase 3 is the most tricky in my opinion. here aggro is essential and so is spreading across the room. with my 3 range-dps+ fenris it was pretty easy to dodge dmg here.
the boss will transform into a ball and target someone of your party. he crashes every other dude standing in the way. thats why we spread our party so only the one targetet by the boss has to run.

after the roll attack he will do some aoe attack with his weapon on the one he has aggro on and not on the one he rolled upon!
so in my case fenris. so after u dodge the roll-attack the boss is close to you and does his ae attack. now just dont run anywhere near where your tank is. like this only fenris gets dmg. worked all the time for me after i got the hang for it.
well if the ball hits you and you get knocked down. he sometimes hits the one he rolled upon. and if that someone was anders in my case he died.(i normally go manaregen dmg and not hp^^). so dodge it lol.

if u manage this phase the rest is pretty easy again. he has another red-ray-attack which draws u to him. well i just let him do that while doing dmg^^ at the end of it just spread over the room again to dodge rolls.
so basicly fenris took perma dmg all over the fight while my party actually got 0 dmg.

ya that was my heal tactic. without healer i gave up on the boss.
since i was a melee rogue and had aveline varric and merril. and i did like 0 dmg on him while my rogue + aveline always got hit by the roll attack and the following ae hit
but ya it was 4 am or something. i guess it works if u dodge all the roll attacks. also his normal attack is pretty slow so i guess the tank can dodge kite that aswell.
its just annoying to do so with 2 melees.

[masterkajo]

Having a really hard time with this guy. Playing on nightmare on Xbox360 and micromanagment of the party is really hard but not the problem. My problem seems to be A) when he shoots his electricity I lose control over the hit character for some seconds (not enough fortitue it seems) and he continues to do so until he/she is severly damanged or dead and I cannot kill the reinforcements fast enough before they severly damage my party. On a side note I am trying to get the achievement for keeping all characters from being knocked out for one entire act so I would have to win this fight without one character falling... seems almost imposible.

My setup:
Hawke: Rogue Archer level 12 specialised in Assassin
Bethany: Mage level 12 with points in Arcane/Entropy/Spirit plus Healing spell
Varric: Rogue Archer level 12 with Miasmic Flask and his own tree
Aveline: Warrior Tank level 12 with Taunt, Stonewall and a lot of sustained defense abilites

It seems that because my Hawke has such high DPS she always gets the attention of all of enemies most significatly that of the ARW which kills her with his electricity attack almost right at the beginning. When the reinforcements show they all automatically attack Hawke with their electricity and then it is mostly game over.

I still have 2 Maker's Sigh potions with me (always thinking ahead). So I could try to respec 2 of my guys. I will keep trying again but maybe if some has some nice tips for my setup I would really appreciate it.



EDIT: Got him!! (though story wise I wish I wouldn't have... ) After about an hour of fighting. Did a lot of repositioning my ranged attackers and trying to kite him with Aveline. Also the dog helped a lot as a substitute tank so that Heal would become ready again Aveline could be healed again. Just used normal attacks on him and saved all good talens and spells for the reinforcements. Took me about 8 Health and 4 Stamina drinks.

Modifié par masterkajo, 15 mars 2011 - 11:35 .

[lazuli]

termokanden wrote...
And bosses like the Rock Wraith should have just had fewer hit points if you ask me. But I guess nobody did

Agreed.  This fight would still be challenging enough if the ARW had a third of his current HP.  As it is, there's too much repetition.  It's a grind.  I don't want battles to last more than twenty minutes.

[OneTrueZed]

Yikes, you people are talking about beating him on hard/nightmare, I have been trying for the last 3 hours or so on normal and getting my tail kicked. I have him down to under 5%, but my life is at a sliver so it probably aint gonna happen his time either. I brought Varric, Isabella, an Merril, with me as a dual-wield rogue.

[naughty99]

So does he take more damage from a frost staff than a spirit staff or force staff?

[x-president]

naughty99 wrote...

So does he take more damage from a frost staff than a spirit staff or force staff?

ARW is weakest against Ice and Spirit.  I think they are almost equal.  It'll depend more on your attack score and if you have dmg boosts for those areas. 

[Sabresandiego]

The key to beating him is in this thread. heroic aura, haste, cold and spirit damage, and good party movement. Having anders specialized as a strong healer really helps.

[Vaeliorin]

First off...hardest fight in a Bioware game I've ever encountered (admittedly, I haven't finished DA2 yet) and I've been playing since BG1.

Took me probably a dozen tries, but I finally beat him on Nightmare. It wasn't that I didn't know how to do it (it's pretty obvious) it just seemed like there was always one little thing that went wrong, and that was pretty much game over.

Was using Bethany/Archer Hawke/Aveline/Varric (stupid forced party members forced me to kite/cheese through the other two boss fights down here...I want my second healer!) It always seemed like I'd need to heal Aveline and she'd be out of LoS, or Bethany would be in the middle of some animation and be a second or two slow getting out of the way of the roll...or the party members would start running into each other and not move. Eventually managed to have nothing go wrong (partly by micro-ing Aveline to keep her out from behind pillars) and took him down.

That rush, when I finally got him down? That's why I play Nightmare.

Really wish I'd taken Anders instead of Bethany, though...

Now if I can just beat those 2 assassins that like to 1-shot my mages even with heroic aura/rock armor/arcane shield up...

Modifié par Vaeliorin, 16 mars 2011 - 06:32 .

[rumination888]

Rock Wraith is hardest during main phase 1 and 2. Thats when it uses its impale of doom most often because it doesn't have any other attacks.

Main phase 1 ends very quickly if you burst it down 10% of its health.

Main phase 2 doesn't even occur if you beat it down during its first add phase. During the add phases, the ARW seems to have 0 armor, so all of your attacks deal increased damage. Take advantage of it. The first add phase spawns only a small amount of wraiths. You can ignore some of them and just wail on the big guy.

It gets a little trickier during the second and third add phases, but by then, the third and fourth main phase will be much easier provided that you make sure your ranged party members stay out of the way.

So, if your DPS is high, you can effectively skip the hardest parts of the fight. If you know how to min/max your party's damage, you can even skip main phase 3.

The first time I attempted the fight on Nightmare with my new shield Hawke, I easily beat it and the only person who died was Anders because I wasn't paying close enough attention. (I did it before on my rogue, so I knew what the fight was like beforehand). I was so impressed at what a shield warrior could accomplish with the above strategy that I redid the fight, but this time.... I took a video. www.youtube.com/watch

Modifié par rumination888, 16 mars 2011 - 08:31 .

[Primaldo]

Just killed him on nightmare last night, 2nd try and used only 1 or 2 health potions. Anders with upgraded heal and group heal kept the tank up almost 24/7. Aveline is my tank, which ive build pretty badly so lots of room for improvement.
The only hard part i found was when the adds spawn, picking of the caster types first was top priority as they chain stun/disorient varric and my hawke (rogue) if i dont get them down quickly enough.
But the fight took bloody ages, only varric and hawke was doing any dmg. Anders full healing/buff build, and aveline couldnt kill a fly.

[jbblue05]

Just beat this on nightmare it took me about 5 tries, the rock wraith kept on going straight for Anders. I beat it with my 2 handed warrior,Merril. Varric, and Anders.

Anders and one warrior is key to winning this battle but Anders is more improtant if he dies than you might as well reload..
Spam Health potions, Anders' Group Heal and Greater Heal.

[L33TDAWG]

Dear BioWare,
While I enjoy the challenges on boss fights, there's a certain point when you know the developers and level design team put in an overly difficult fight that you can't beat without spending 1 hour slowly killing the f***er on purpose. This fight is overly difficult for no apparent reason except to frustrate and ****** you off (like Harvester).

Modifié par L33TDAWG, 16 mars 2011 - 03:48 .

[DM Veil]

With the proper build he can be killed in under 8 minutes on Nightmare mode. A two handed warrior with cleave will wreck him, add that with frost damage which he seems vulnerable to and I ended up going from the first aoe/adds phase to the second one, completely skipping his phase of rolling around everywhere.

Did it this morning on Nightmare and got Unstoppable as a bonus. *cheers*

Modifié par DM Veil, 16 mars 2011 - 04:18 .

[bluedevil99]

I beat him on Hard, not nightmare, but from my experience the optimal config has to be one tank, three ranged: I went with Varric, Merril, and Anders together with my S&S warrior Hawke. I spent probably the majority of the fight with the game paused manually positioning my party.

Obviously you want to keep your ranged chars far out of the fight. I found it best to keep Merril and Varric together but separate from Anders. That way, if the tank loses aggro, the RW is more likely to go for someone other than your healer. Anders's regroup skill is a nice reset button for when you screw up and somebody gets stuck in a corner.

For the record I had all three of my non-tanks set to 'Ranged' in the tactics menu but Anders seems to be (in any fight, not just the RW) the one that likes to try and commit suicide by running up to the tank. Strange. Really I can't stand Anders but he's incredibly useful as a party member, oh well.

[naughty99]

For anyone considering dropping down to Normal to beat him, DON'T DO IT.

I tried a few attempts on Nightmare, but he was moving very fast and one-shotting everybody except Avelline and she wasn't lasting very long either, so I dropped down to Hard, after about 5 or 6 more failed attempts (each one lasting 20-30 min), I dropped down to Normal.

He's way too easy on Normal. It didn't feel satisfying and I still want to try to beat him on Nightmare or Hard.

[BomimoDK]

This bossfight is just the worst bucket of **** and ****** that ever came out of bioware. The fight is simple enough, but the fact that i have to yell and **** at the screen for the pathfinding to budge and beat the living **** out of my mouse to get the ****ing curser to respond to me clicking on a destination makes this **** impossible. More responsive they said. Well, my animations just freeze whenever this "boss" decides to randomly port while rolling along. WHAT THE HELL!

What do i do? It's just a cluster**** of bugs and fail making this impossible. My own bad character builds and gearing doesn't make it any better at all. I enjoyed the earlier fights where you got punished for doing it wrong, but this is retarded. I've already figured out the solution, but ****ty responsiveness and broken pathing just makes this impossible. **** MAN!
Doesn't help either that curser targeting obviously still is meant to be done from an isometric view. It's just insane that i have to click somewhere midair to target an enemy that is 5 ft from that location. I also seriously NEED isometric view to micromanage the party at the level required here. This whole boss is really an untasteful joke.

Also, profanity filter needs to go. All of these stars make genuinely angry people look like walking jokes.

Modifié par BomimoDK, 16 mars 2011 - 06:42 .

[Daeltaja]

Absolutely loved this boss. Took me 4 tries on Nightmare to get it down. Didn't come across any bugs or pathing issues as mentioned above though.. Played out exactly as I wanted, on the PC. Loved when he ported to the middle and you had to hide behind the pillars. Burn down the add spawns then pop improved Haste and nuke the fecking **** out of him. Awesome!

Plenty of micromanagement and pausing is in order though.

I took Anders, Bethany and Varric with me. Bethany with frost damage gear. Melee on nightmare is horrible.

Bloody lovin' it!

Modifié par Daeltaja, 16 mars 2011 - 06:45 .

[BomimoDK]

It just ****ing killed anders from the other side of the room? WHAT THE FLYING ****!

[EzFlyer]

here is how i did it, took me 5 total tries.

first 3 tries were all about learning the fight's mechanics. i felt a little defeated and chagrined to admit that i CONSIDERED dropping it from nightmare. i came back tuesday after work and i used the only respec potion i had on me (thank goodness i had it). i turned my rogue into an archer.

4th try i had a bs death to my healer, 5th attempt it was gravy. long, slow gravy

my party:
aveline - tank
varric - ranged rogue
neverdawn (my rogue) - ranged rogue
anders - healer mage

i set my tactics to be nothing more than "atk enemy with lowest health" for all but aveline, who was "atk nearest target"

i summon the dog everytime as soon as an add phase ends, mostly as a soaker for some of the boss's abilities.

i pause constantly. CONSTANTLY. all of my team is on HOLD POSITION command almost at all times. (and 100% throughout this fight). i use anders STRICTLY FOR HEALING and autoattacking.

boss's mechanics, as i interpret them, and how i dealt with them:

phase 1: boss warps to set locations. as soon as he's attackable/hittable, taunt with aveline for initial (and permanent) aggro. keep aveline right up in his grill, use bolster every second of the day and stonewall everytime he's about to atk. her or do a point-blank-area-effect ability. repeat this with her THROUGHOUT THE FIGHT besides during add phases. always move the 3 non tanks AWAY from the boss, preferably spread out.

phase 2: first add phase. first, manually move everyone behind pillars, in this phase, i put one person behind each pillar. after the ae, the adds spawn. the adds are very spread out. use the mage and the two archers to take them out ASAP. use rain of arrows right off the bat. if any add stuns one of the ranged w/their ability, have the other two kill that one IMMEDIATELY. have aveline bolstering the entire time to have full energy when boss is live again, but otherwise, atk nearest add. after the adds are dead, use mark of death on the boss & every possible dps ability w/the two rogues. anders just autoattack, always save his mana for heals.

phase 3: when boss goes live, he has a couple new tricks. he will pick a random group member and turn into a ball and try to roll to them, damaging/knocking stuff down in his path. you need to identify immediately who he's rolling into. MOVE THAT PERSON to a safe spot, even if it means next to one of the other two ranged. but i find a new spot for ranged if they're ever bunched, so as to not have to move them as often (if there are two in same spot, you have to move both). aveline constantly chases after the boss, bolsters & bulwark's (stone walls) the entire time. she will halt his rolling, too. also, his rolling can run him into pillars, which is nice, cause you don't have to move your ranged.

phase 4: 2nd add phase. this time, they're not as spread out, but instead, in groups of 3 on the north and south side and a couple sparsely occupying east/west. for this ae barrage, i bring EVERYONE to the same pillar, so that the mobs are more controlled being in packs. after the ae, i send aveline to taunt the 3 pack nearest the group (so if you went to the northeast pillar, she went to the north 3 pack). the ranged quickly kill the individual ones near the group and then they AE the 3 pack in the south, kill them FAST. then, kill the individual ones on the far side (west in our example), and then burn down the 3 that aveline's been holding. mark of death on boss, lay into him, use your stamina pots for this phase if needed to get as much damage as possible. then spread out again.

phase 5: the boss now has a suck-in ability that is LOS'able. everytime he balls up to do this, get your 3 ranged out of LOS. stop atking him. when he's done, make sure to stonewall aveline because he'll AE the immediate area. as soon as the sucking in is done, you can also immediately jump out from behind the pillar and start drilling him. the ae is a small range.

burn his ass down

please let me know if i mixed up any of the phases...

anyway, be smart w/your heals (mana potion quanitity dependant), use health pots on aveline if needed, time your barriers from anders on aveline smartly if she wont' be able to stonewall before a big hit, etc. NEVER EVER LET YOUR RANGED TRIO GET HIT, especially anders, by anything.

long fight, but hella satisfying when done.

other specifics for me: i had 10 restoration potions, 6 healing potions, 1 elfroot, 5 stamina, 6 mana (and 2 injury kits but i never need them... but if you lose a rogue or something and have to rez them w/anders, use the injury kit on them otherwise a mistake could get you 1-shot)

don't forget to use that dog! he can soak a lot of damage.

[Sabresandiego]

Here are some more tips for people on how to beat this boss.

Click on the link in my signature, which is a guide for warriors but has useful info for any class. Notice how I give all my companions constitution? Constitution is extremely important for nightmare, your companions will get 1 shotted by assassins and AOE attacks like the rock wraiths explosion if you dont pump constitution on everyone!

The only person who I didnt pump constitution for is Varric because he is my locksmith, and ofcouse he dies more than anyone else in my party (even though Ive pumped his cunning to the max). Cunning fails because it doesnt protect against burst damage that gets through your defenses, it doesnt protect against huge aoe damage from bosses and magic attacks. For nightmare dont invest anything in cunning on any character except 1 rogue for locks. Put it in consitution.

Aside from that, you need a good healer in Anders or yourself as spirit healer. Watch my video where I beat him on nightmare. Notice my liberal usage of the select all party members key (which I bound to and hold position. Giving commands is very buggy in this game, youll notice in the video I am often clicking on the ground twenty times before the move command finally registers.

Modifié par Sabresandiego, 16 mars 2011 - 08:35 .

[bluedevil99]

EzFlyer wrote...

don't forget to use that dog! he can soak a lot of damage.

That's a nice guide.  Two quick thoughts:

1)  I found it most useful to pop the dog in phase 2, just after the boss's massive aoe finishes and the adds spawn.  The dog gives you another tank/aggro magnet to hold the adds' attention so your ranged characters can do their thing.

2)  In phase 3, your point about spreading your ranged characters out is a good one.  I actually preferred putting Merril and Varric together with Anders off by himself.  The boss seemed to go for the paired characters more often and I knew I had Anders's Regroup ability as a 'reset button' in case I messed up.  I tried to keep my ranged characters toward the sides of the room rather than in corners, as a couple of times I had them get hung up on walls and die to the boss's roll or to his attacks after coming out of the roll.

[naughty99]

Sabresandiego wrote...

snip

wow that is an excellent youtube tutorial, man!

I'm really impressed that you did this almost without pausing. I think I made a huge mistake in bringing Avelline into the Deep Roads instead of Fenris. (playing as a Rogue)

Also, great suggestion about boosting CON for all the party members, you have confirmed my suspicions about how little cunning helps defense. Once you hit 20 cunning, that is high enough to open Master locks if you wear 2 items that boost lockpick.

Modifié par naughty99, 16 mars 2011 - 10:12 .

[EzFlyer]

bluedevil99 wrote...

EzFlyer wrote...

don't forget to use that dog! he can soak a lot of damage.

That's a nice guide.  Two quick thoughts:

1)  I found it most useful to pop the dog in phase 2, just after the boss's massive aoe finishes and the adds spawn.  The dog gives you another tank/aggro magnet to hold the adds' attention so your ranged characters can do their thing.

2)  In phase 3, your point about spreading your ranged characters out is a good one.  I actually preferred putting Merril and Varric together with Anders off by himself.  The boss seemed to go for the paired characters more often and I knew I had Anders's Regroup ability as a 'reset button' in case I messed up.  I tried to keep my ranged characters toward the sides of the room rather than in corners, as a couple of times I had them get hung up on walls and die to the boss's roll or to his attacks after coming out of the roll.

yea definitely the dog is useful in several spots, i re-summoned him several times heh

i think the boss went for the two non-healers just cause it's equal chance for it to go to anyone, i don't think it makes it less likely for him to pick anders

but yes, totally, don't let yourself get cornered.. that's how i lost anders on the 4th attempt, he was stuck in the southwest behind those stupid boxes lol