23 réponses à ce sujet

[corey_russell]

(EDIT: This is on normal difficulty)
I've read in the forums that most people have the most success against Ser Cauthrien at the "unwinnable" fight by withdrawing. So we withdrew to Anora's room at Howe's Estate. Apparently we were so fast, no one followed!

Oh party was Warden (warrior-archer), Zevram, Alistair and Wynne. Wynne's offense spells was mostly petrify, stone fist, winter's grasp and cone of cold. In any case, I had Zevram stealth (rank 3) and peek outside - he was detected! He ran back to the group in Anora's room. Only a single Loghain melee and Ser Cauthrien followed. Whoever had Ser Cauthrien's attention was hit very hard, however thanks to my good tactics programmed for Wynne, everyone stayed alive. However, Wynne apparently annoyed Ser Cauthrien too much with the stone fist after stone fist knocking Ser Cauthrien down. A single hit would drop Wynne to less than 1/2 life. Wynne would respond with cone of cold, etc. Eventually though it was getting too close and so had her force field herself. Meanwhile the rest of the party whaled on Ser Cauthrien. Cauthrien unwisely ignored Zevram stabbing her in the back with the Rose's Thorn. Ser Cauthrien however was so mad at Wynne, she ignored everyone else for the entire force field duration and was duly slain.

There are still a lot of guys left. Alistair charges, taunts, health drops fast then Wynne does force field on him. Zevram bravely charges. Wynne throws in a blizzard in the room. The Warden concentrates on taking down the enemy mage as soon as possible. Takes a while, but the mage finally goes down. After that, the party had little trouble mopping up the archers, they don't survive Zevram or Alistair very long in melee. The Warden's arrow of slaying, Holy Smite, scattershot etc. weren't helping the archers either. Success! Then we just walked out the Estate and left...fortunately the game did recognize that we defeated Ser Cauthrien and she did NOT spawn at the Palace, so that was nice.

I did one more thing new this run, and made Anora Queen and spared Loghain. This made Alistair leave with the best equipment, including that expensive chest piece from Wade's Emporium. C'est la vie I guess. Loghain had decent armor and shield, but had  Tier 1 long sword. Fortunately we had a Tier 5 Bloodline hanging in our inventory and gave Loghain that.

Currently we (Loghain, Zevram, Wynne) are just about to get to the ground level (outside) of Fort Drakken. I have to mention, I hate the massive lag that happens in these final battles. My Warden died senselessly because the game refused to acknowledge me pressing potent/greater healing potions, and if it did, he would lived easily. I always get this horrendous lag in the Palace area, but we made it through despite it...Oh, should mention I did NOT do the ritual, so I can get the ending where Loghain finishes the arch demon, falling the process.

Modifié par corey_russell, 21 janvier 2013 - 04:45 .

[DWSmiley]

Defeating Cauthrien without leaving the room is Dragon Age graduate school, imo. What finally tipped the scales for me was seeing a video where grenades were used to take out the four nearest archers. Two or three characters can do this very quickly while the fourth character does crowd control on the rest of the room. Paralysis Explosion is the best. Then the most unhittable character tries to keep Ser C’s attention while the others deal with the horde. Watch out for Cauthrien firing up Perfect Striking; she can kill anyone quickly then. If you save a Concentrated Soldier’s Bane from Jarvia’s lair, a dw dagger character with momentum and swift salve can deplete her stamina (and Final Blow damage) while stunning her often with Quick Death.

[dainbramage]

Yeah, Cauthrien can be a complete ****. It's essentially impossible to stop her doing damage to you. High armour? Good luck with that, she has 18 armour penetration and that's before sunder armour -- but even without that her 100+ damage per hit doesn't really care about being reduced by 30. High defence? Perfect striking. Oh, and her final blow can do 450+ damage and just one-hit-kill you if she uses it early. So you're pretty much forced to use a ton of poultices or heal spells. The archers are also incredibly lethal, as 10 scattershots is usually instant death to the whole party if you let them.

The key is basically incapacitating the archers ASAP. Whether killing outright or keeping them disabled (or leaving the room), you can't let them get off all their scattershots. So bring your paralysis explosions and blood wounds and waking nightmares and fireballs and war cries and two-hand sweeps and grenades and whatever else. Then spam heals on whatever Cauthrien's hitting.

[Mike3207]

I finally beat her on Normal, pretty much by myself. My 3 companions stayed in the room, did the noble bit and were quickly killed. I ran away with Cauthrien and one guard after me. Stealth, Riposte on Cauthrien, run away again, Stealth, Riposte-you get the picture. I used quite a few grenades after that on the remaining guards, and eventually take all the rest out.

Still, it adds a lot to the game when you convince her to let you in at the Landsmeet. It was a tremendous achievement, nonetheless.

[cJohnOne]

I've never beaten Ser Cauthrien. I spec. Wynne to do healing paralyze and petrify. So I wouldn't be able to utilize the same tactics. Your story was very interesting corey-russell. Oops this a necroed thread.

[keeneaow]

I go solo on hardest setting with arcane warrior,
what i do is blast a mage destroyer (cant remember name, its an area spell, last in line)
then retreat out of archers reach, then take her two companions, then her, H2H.

Modifié par keeneaow, 17 décembre 2013 - 06:00 .

[Cobra's_back]

I always kill her in normal mode. First have Morrigan put everyone to sleep. I move everyone in the room where Queen Anora was in and we attack her. 

[DarthGizka]

Yes, Sleep is incredibly useful in occasions like this.

[themikefest]

What I did was go back through the door I came in from luring everyone to come through the door making it easier to defeat them.

[caradoc2000]

First have Morrigan put everyone to sleep.

Wouldn't Alistair be better at this?

[Lulupab]

Easiest way to defeat her on nightmare.

 

Be a mage, cast spell ward on yourself, it makes you immune to all magic, hostile or friendly. Use your companions as cannon fodder to distract enemies as long as possible. Cast storm of century. It will not harm you because you are immune to magic and all enemies will be obliterated in matter of seconds.

[luna1124]

I only killed her once, then felt bad about it because she is just Loghains pawn. I like escaping from the fort better

[Mike3207]

I only killed her once, then felt bad about it because she is just Loghains pawn. I like escaping from the fort better

You can still escape from the fort if you kill her, take her sword, and let the rest of her party take you out. Best of all worlds for me. That way, you still meet up with her at the Landsmeet.

[DarthGizka]

Easiest way to defeat her on nightmare.

 

Be a mage, cast spell ward on yourself, it makes you immune to all magic, hostile or friendly. Use your companions as cannon fodder to distract enemies as long as possible. Cast storm of century. It will not harm you because you are immune to magic and all enemies will be obliterated in matter of seconds.

 

Do you mean Anti-Magic Ward, perhaps? Spellward is an amulet.

 

Anyway, Inferno plus Tempest is more effective than SotC at half the mana cost, since the area to be covered is small enough not to need the bigger AoE. However, you're glossing over the little detail that Ser Cauthrien won't stay in the raging inferno on her own. And she is likely to lose interest in the tank the very second you force-field him or her, unless there is no one else. But if there were no one else then you wouldn't have lived long enough to cast two long spells, meaning that this 'strategy' depends on feeding your companions to the wolves.

 

Just been there with my elven mage. A well-placed Sleep covers all enemies, and with Force Field on Cauthrien you can hex her up in peace and set up a Paralysis Explosion. On your way out of the room, cast Inferno and then Earthquake to slow Cauthrien down and prolong her exposure.

 

With Glyph of Warding and Heroic Defence, Cauthrien won't be able to scratch your tank or rogue. Everyone else can have at her with ranged attacks and magic if you keep her well taunted; otherwise only bows and staves.

 

You don't want her to chase after your squishies; she nearly killed Alistair in two hits because I had forgotten that he had been on the bench for umpteen levels and wasn't prepped. After slapping some suitable kit on him and the two buffs he had 200 defence, although the glyph alone was quite sufficient because it brought him to around 170.

[Mike3207]

I think it was a reference to Spell Shield. You still have to come up with a way to keep the enemies from rushing you.It's not going to take Cauthrien that long to take care of your allies.

[DarthGizka]

You still have to come up with a way to keep the enemies from rushing you.It's not going to take Cauthrien that long to take care of your allies.

 

Hard to say. At 100 spellpower plus Spell Might, SotC does almost 1000 damage to each enemy, and the twin hexes can double that for priority enemies.

 

My current team has incinerated many a minor boss with a measly Inferno (640 damage at SP 100), by hexing them up and keeping them in there long enough with Earthquake, Petrify and two sets of glyphs. Plus the usual barrage of Fireballs, Crushing Prison, VWB and staff blasts, naturally. SotC does 50% more damage and its AoE is twice as wide, for even longer exposure.

 

On the other hand, Cauthrien is a bloody monster with 3415 HP, almost as much as a High Dragon. So we always settle for the long haul and use our dragon strategy, minus the healing since she has no way of actually hurting the tank.

 

None of her adds ever makes it out of the big room. Most of them are stationary anyway and thus won't even try.

[Mike3207]

On Cauthrien, keep in mind that if she runs into a challenge, she will turn on Perfect Striking. It'll add +100 attack for 15 seconds and has a very quick cooldown-30 seconds. 200 defense might not be high enough, if it boosts her to 250 or 300 attack.

[DarthGizka]

116.5 + 100 = 216.5, so not yet a serious problem.

 

Perfect Striking is almost as silly and annoying as Scattershot, the War Cry knockdown and Overwhelm, but at least it is somewhat manageable. If Cauthrien actually used Perfect Striking - or her other abilities - with any consistency then she would be dangerous opponent indeed. For one thing, she could almost certainly one-hit any squishy by activating Perfect Striking and then using any of her many abilities that deal double or critical damage. She could certainly kill any party with ease by starting with the squishies and leaving the tank for last.

As a two-hander she has Indomitable but apparently she fails to use it. As a result, my soloing mage could toss her back into a raging inferno with Stone Fist and Fireball whenever Earthquake, Force Field and the glyphs were all on cooldown.

As a sidenote, the perfect place for roasting Cauthrien is the cross-shaped hallway, because there she has to pass through the centre of the inferno in order to get to you.

Cauthrien can be safely cone-kited like a revenant or ogre, but it takes a while to wear her down with cones, flame blasts and fireballs. If you see her taking a swing then it is mostly too late to run away but you can still stop her with Stone Fist, Cone of Cold, Force Field etc. if she doesn't resist the spell. You can change direction in Howe's room, by kiting Cauthrien around the pillar there.

The perfect place for kiting is the library, though, because you can safely cone/blast her through the shelves but she has to walk around in order to hit you. It also gives you a safe way of prepping her for an inferno. If you manage to force-field her when she is in a far corner of the room then you are home free and have a Cauthrien roast coming up.

Hit her with a hex and a Paralysis Explosion. Then run through the cross-shaped hallway towards the room on the Howe side and lay down an Earthquake that fully covers the centre of the cross as well as the library side. That should give you ample time to cast an Inferno and the remaining hex, and to prepare your arsenal for the second phase.

Between Earthquake, Paralysis Explosion, Petrify and Blood Wound you can keep her pinned in the fire most of the time; with Stone Fist and Fireball you can push her back into it whenever she comes out in your direction. Force Field can bridge a few seconds of cooldown. Tossing the rest of your arsenal at her can speed things up, but it is more important to keep mana replenished. Cauthrien getting out of the fire on your side and resuming the kiting game would slow things down much more than a less intense cooking process.

Recommended equipment: Blood-Gorged Amulet and Lifegiver, plus spellpower to the max.

[Cobra's_back]

If she uses perfect striking for plus 100 attacks use misdirection hex. It works well. I think she uses powerful swing instead of Indomitable. You can knock her down. Mages should have at least misdirection hex, stone throw, cone of cold and petrify. Use the lock down spells only if she becomes interested in your mage. Keep Alistair and any other high defense hitter on her. Her attacks are 116.5 +100 = a hit . Her defense is 101. You really need to save your lock down spells and misdirection hex for when she activates perfect striking. I just did this again on hard mode. DW dex rogue. Used true death poison, mark of death, paralyze runes, Alistair, Wynne and Morrigan. I always take her to the far room for more space where Vaughan would be if you let him live. DW rogue with four points stealth. The paralyze rune 5% each but together give you P=1-(.95*.95) = 9.75% chance to hit. two daggers for max speed. 

[BronzTrooper]

My most recent victory against Ser Cauthrien:

 

My Warden (Berserker/Reaver city elf 2-hander warrior), Alistair, Wynne, and Zevran fell back through the door, Cauthrien and her melee crew following behind.  Me and Alistair did our best to keep their attention on us with Zevran backstabbing them and Wynne keeping us all in fighting condition.  I spammed Frightening appearance to keep Cauthrien in one place while using Sunder Arms and Sunder Armor over and over again.  An occasional two-handed sweep to knock back the other two melee guys and the occasional lyrium potion/health poultice to keep Wynne working and eventually, they were killed.  I went for the mage while Alistair and Zevran got the archers on the right side of the room.  After a few swings, the mage fell.  I felt brave, so I decided to take on the archers on the left side of the room on my own.  Spammed two-handed sweep to keep them on the ground, as well as Sunder Arms to keep their accuracy down.  One, two, three, four of them fell, leaving the fifth on his own.  Used Devour to bring back some of my health and attacked, unleashing a barrage of abilities.  Then, Alistair and Zevran ran up next to me as I dealt the killing blow.

 

I had a paralyzing rune, as well as a flame rune and a spell resistance rune (forgot how to spell the name) on my greatsword, Starfang.  Wore the Juggernaut armor, Alistair wearing the Legion of the Dead armor, Zevran with Wade's Superior Drakeskin Leather armor, and Wynne with the Vesments of the Seer.  Alistair had Duncan's sword and shield, Zevran with the Biteback axe and Rose's Thorn, and I'm not sure what staff Wynne had.  Basically, I had the best equipment money I could find.  Alistair and Zevran had runes on their weapons.  Alistair's runes focused on spell and physical resistance and Zevran's focused on dmg and tripping up the enemy (paralysis and slowing mostly).

 

That was my easiest playthrough of the battle yet.  Curious to see how it'll go with my human mage Spirit Healer/Shapeshifter.

[DarthGizka]

The worst thing is, the moment Loghain joins your team he turns from an orange bossy über warrior - who would definitely be an asset - into some kind of sick joke. Although to be fair, even his yellow incarnation during the duel he is already rather pathetic.

 

In the beginning I railed against the absurdity of Cauthrien & Co., now I see them simply as bosses with a peculiar - humaniform - shape. A shape that can be knocked over with Stone Fist. Or overwhelmed. Or knocked over and overwhelmed. Or knocked over and overwhelmed and then overwhelmed again. Say first by Barkspawn and then by Morrigan. Which makes them much, much nicer bosses than those pesky ogres or the spider queen.

 

P.S.: their being surrounded by minions is the whole point of the challenge. A group of enemies is no problem. A single boss is no problem (except maybe for Uldred and High Dragons at lowish levels). A boss with a group of minions can be a very big problem indeed if your team doesn't have the tactical wherewithal or a magical bullet.

[DarthGizka]

Loghain is a boss during the Landsmeet brawl but during the duel he is a pathetic sort of yellow fish. Probably so that Alistair has some sort of chance of beating him when possessed by an average first-time player, whereas otherwise it would pretty much require a well-built Warden and an experienced player.

 

Yep, that switching around is really annoying. They make you fight a beast and give you a mouse.