Greetings my fellow Inquisitors, this is my second installment in the ongoing series of How I defeated the Dragon in Dragon Age Inquisition. For those of you returning to see how you can defeat your next Dragon, welcome back! For those of you interested in some friendly tips on how to defeat the Western Approach Dragon, welcome also!
In this segment, we are going to go over some descriptions of abilities on this particular beast. For those of you who have read "How I defeated the Hinterlands Dragon - Tips and Tricks" you will notice a lot of similarities between the two in there abilities that they do. However unlike the Hinterlands Dragon, this one does not have "Phases". So in the interest of clarity. I'll be going over each ability and the best/proper way to counter it.
First, some housekeeping. Below is my party setup used for killing the Western Approach Dragon. You will notice I have not included specific builds or tactic setups. Should you so desire, I will reply with that information upon request. In addition, I play DA:I on Nightmare mode, with Friendly Fire turned off. As well, I never use tactical mode, ever. Not because it is not the more efficient way (it absolutely is), but I prefer a more action-y approach to these game. That being said, any and all of these tactics will work for any player, on any difficulty, with some minor variations in builds of course (in the case of Friendly Fire being on).
Note, this is by no means meant to be the most efficient or "best" party for this task, it's just the one I used. As always, your mileage may vary.
The Prequel
Spoiler
So, before we can get to the killing of the Dragon, there are a few things we must do. It will require some time and setup before we can actually face this beast in combat. Step one however, is to head to Nazaire's Pass Camp, it is the camp to the far South of the map. Directly to the south of the camp, is a friendly Dracologist named Frederick. This man has a very interesting story to tell, but I'll let you discover that on your own.
Upon arrival at this destination, Frederick will send you on multiple missions, assisting him with his Dragon research. Overall this requires 2 trips back to Skyhold in order to complete the appropriate War Table missions required to unlock the Dragon. So allot some time for this in your playing. The fetch quests that he provides you with are very simple to complete, in fact I had unknowingly completed them prior to even receiving the quest! So this particular portion went quite smoothly for myself.
The last mission Frederick give you, is to plant lures for the Dragon. This obviously would be the worst idea in history, however, we are the Inquisitor, so eff it, jump right in!
Setting up the Fight
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Alright, so you've fetched and gathered an killed and its time to set the lures. There are 5 in total, once the last one is in place the first thing to do is dont panic. You have a substantial amount of time to prepare before the dragon will become a threat. Let's describe the battlefield really quick while we wait for the Dragon to get over here.
In the Wastes area of the map where this battle will take place there are a few defining landmarks to note. In the immediate area of there are multiple pillars and man-made rock formations sticking out of the ground. In addition, there is a small structure of these rocks at the south side of the battle field. However, outside of these rocks, there is just sand, lots, and lots, of sand. As in all things, especially when fighting a Dragon, cover is our friend. For myself, I found that running into the small structure in the South seemed to be the best location to start the fight.
After a few moments you'll notice a quite colorful variation of a Dragon circle the immediate area twice, and then proceed to land in the middle of these rock formations. That my friends, is the gong for round 1. However, as described previously there are no phases to this fight, so I will go over the abilities individually.
Armor Up!
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Ignore the lame title, however I decided to start with the ability that is the biggest change from the last Dragon I faced. The mechanic of this ability is really simple and we have seen it on previous enemies. The Dragon will slam her claws into the ground while raising her head up. The claws will glow a slight greenish color when this happens. All it means for us, is she will gain a full Guard bar over her health. That's it, simple right? This is designed to help the Dragon win the war of attrition, however some decent ways to counteract this ability are simple. Some +dmg to Guard abilities, or just simply damage her through the ability.
Fireball of DOOM!
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You guessed it, a fireball. Nothing fancy here, however it does give us our first realization that the is a fire Dragon. This means Ice attacks, and Fire Resist tonics are of great use here. I digress, this ability is used only if the highest threat character is not in melee range of her. When cast, it has a fairly slow travel time, so it is possible to avoid it at a certain distance. As well, when the fireball makes impact with the ground, it will leave a small patch of fire at it's impact point. A barrier on the targets is more than enough to eat the impact damage, however i would suggest moving yourself or your party members out of the ground fire quickly. As it can eat away at the already precious barrier you have up.
Breath of Fire
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No fancy title here, this is just what it sound like. However, this may be my experience, or a bug, or me not understanding the mechanic right, but this attack seems to target somewhat randomly at enemies in melee range. At least, in front of the Dragon. I noticed many times that the breath would actually target me instead of my tank when I clearly did not have aggro, but was standing on the front side of the boss. Also, the damage from this attack is quite significant and will deplete your health quite quickly without a barrier. The best tactic to use is to make sure multiple people are not in the path of the fire, as well as the target does not attempt to move out of the breath. The reason for this second part is that the Dragon will turn her head faster than a character can run, so unless you have some type of evade ability, its better to stand under it if you are the target with barrier, instead of possibly dragging the breath across another character.
Wing Beat
Spoiler
This ability while somewhat easy to avoid, is actually more difficult for a non-Tac Cam user such as myself. The Dragon wil gain a "circle of wind" around her, and begin to flap her wings. When this ability is active, two things occur. Every wing beat will attempt to drag you closer to the boss, if it successfully does so, you will take significant damage from it. However, in my personal experience, there are a total of 3 ways to avoid this damage.
1. Line of Sight. Putting an obstacle between you and the Dragon will prevent you being pulled in, hence, preventing the damage done to you. This is a pretty viable tactic in this battle field.
2. Melee Range. Characters within the "circle of wind" will not be sucked in, therefore they will also not take the damage. This tactic is doable, however slightly harder due to the nature of this bosses movement, as described below in the "General Tips" section.
3. Out Range it. Simply put, there is a maximum range on the AoE, some may see this as exploiting, however my definition would be if the Dragon could not then follow up the Wing Beat with more attacks due to range, then it would be an exploit. However this Dragon will hunt you down. This tactic is viable, but note that the actual max range is undetermined.
I personally used a mixture of 1 and 2 during my kill. Hide if it was convenient, Melee Range if it was easier.
Melee Attacks
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Pretty simple stuff overall, the first thing to worry about is the bite, simply will try and chomp down on the high threat target. The second attack is the front arm swipe. Think of this a frontal AoE that hits targets standing by the front legs. Thirdly, the back leg kick. Just like it sounds the dragon will raise its back leg and kick out at the target. This is actually a pretty slow attack animation, giving you ample time to get out of the way. Fourthly, the tail sweep, when the Dragon spins around, as described in the "General Tips" section, the tail of the Dragon will knock down anyone it makes contact with, this does very little damage but does take you out of the fight momentarily. Lastly, the jump attack. At certain points in the fight, the Dragon will hover in the air and land at a target location. Similar to the tail swipe this landing does little damage, but will knock down everyone it hits. The Dragon uses this to attack, as well as to disengage from the fight.
General Tips
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Okay, so now you know what everything does, but when does it happen? Simply put, after the Dragon lands in the middle of the rock formations your best bet is to engage as soon as possible. The longer you are out of melee range, the more fireballs she can throw at you.
The first thing you will notice about the Dragon is she moves a lot. She will constantly reposition herself, even jumping out of melee combat or back into it. This makes being melee quite the hassle, whether it is the tank, or DPS. The best advice I can provide is to try and limit the number of fireballs you take. Use your gap closing abilities like Charging Bull, Hook and Tackle and Lunge and Slash to get back into range. Doing this quickly will net you some free attacks while the Dragon ramps up the next ability.
This bring me to the next point, if you read through the "Wing Beat" section you'll notice I included the three ways to beat the Wing Beat. With all of the moving the Dragon does, getting into melee for a ranged character to avoid the damage is not always easy. Use the rocks! I cant stress this enough, if you cant close the gap, get behind something quickly. If your tank is built properly they can take a few hits while you reposition after the Wing Beat attack.
The Dragon will also, at times, spin around. This is especially annoying for melee characters as it might mean missing an attack or two. The worst part about this however, is the fact that if you are hit by the tail, you will get knocked down. Couple this with her then disengaging followed by a Wing Beat means almost certain death if you don't have a barrier ready. My suggestion is to be prepared with the potion if your RNG is bad. Best advice is to try and time you evasive or defensive abilities for this, so you can avoid the knockdown.
Map for those interested
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Conclusion and Loot
This fight is pretty straight forward. If you can survive the attacks and get her health to 0 you win. Overall I found this to be one of the easier of the Dragons I've faced due to the fact that the only special ability she possesses is to give herself more health. Other than that, avoid the fire, use potions wisely and profit.
All the usual disclaimers, however I will add this time, it's not that I don't care how you beat the Dragon, actually just the opposite, I would love to hear some other tactics on how to kill the Dragon. However if you say "I'm a Knight Enchanter and I just soloed it", that is really just rude. Yes, I admit and everyone admits the Dragons are soloable as a KE, however some of us like to play the game .
Again, this is not intended to be the most efficient or fastest or easiest way to kill this Dragon. I am just relaying my experiences in the interest that someone out there needs some information. Not all of us are gods at this game and everyone just needs some explanation some times. Thanks for your time folks! Enjoy!
Portion of the map borrowed from game-maps.com. Great site I strongly recommend.
Like with all dragons, a good offense is the best strategy, figure out a way to do crazy DPS in the first 10 seconds and the battle is half won. I have seen mark of the rift popping 72K damage, on top of the already insane amount of dps the rogue can do, you can literally bring the highland ravager down in less than three minutes, even on hard
Like with all dragons, a good offense is the best strategy, figure out a way to do crazy DPS in the first 10 seconds and the battle is half won. I have seen mark of the rift popping 72K damage, on top of the already insane amount of dps the rogue can do, you can literally bring the highland ravager down in less than three minutes, even on hard
Absolutely correct. I tend to do my plays with a more story based concept in mind. 'Hense the suboptimal party comp. So hopefully my tips can help similarly minded players.
I was going to offer a few tips but then I read your first post properly.
All I'll say is this: as a Tempest Rogue you can do some insane damage, if you invest in the Tempest tree.
Also, Mighty Offense Tonic (especially if fully upgraded) can help make your dragon fights much shorter albeit less epic feeling.
I've defeated that Dragon on Nightmare using two Mages (no KE) and two Archers. I don't remember what level I was, though it was certainly below 18.
Regardless, I found that attacking Dragons with a ton of damage burst attacks in a short time to be the most effective way. Kill the Dragon before you even need a Tank.
Sera in particular is a dragon-killer beast with Flask of Lightning + buffs.
I've defeated that Dragon on Nightmare using two Mages (no KE) and two Archers. I don't remember what level I was, though it was certainly below 18.
Regardless, I found that attacking Dragons with a ton of damage burst attacks in a short time to be the most effective way. Kill the Dragon before you even need a Tank.
Sera in particular is a dragon-killer beast with Flask of Lightning + buffs.
Yeah, I roll my eyes when I see people with big ass strategies for making a fight much longer than it needs to be by saying, "Leave the rogues behind."
FYI, that's not directed at you OP. You've already stated that you aren't looking for the optimal set up so feel free to ignore me
Yeah, I roll my eyes when I see people with big ass strategies for making a fight much longer than it needs to be by saying, "Leave the rogues behind."
FYI, that's not directed at you OP. You've already stated that you aren't looking for the optimal set up so feel free to ignore me
It's not that I don't mind the optimal setup, I myself have seen/used the strategies discussed and they are amazingly effective. However, I know there are people like me who sometimes like to punish themselves with sub-optimal groups for story/role playing purposes. I guess my stuff is more directed at those players.
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