Ranger solo vs Adra DRagon (PotD)

[dreamrider]

 

Kaylon,

 

After copping out on the murder, thereby acquiring Scale Breaker AND pissing off the AD, how did you get past the AD and the adragans to the alcove that was your start point for the attack.  I agree that it is an excellent jump off point to clear out the backstabbers, but I have never been able to get over to it after the hostility of the dragon and his helpers was triggered.

 

Further, how did you get the 2nd adragan to leave you alone while you finished the first, not to mention the AD itself?  Is that just a Ranger thing where they did not react to the first attack because it was just an animal companion?  Because when I try to attack just one end of the adragan line, the others all react right away, as does the dragon albeit more slowly.

 

Finally why was the dragon apparently not reacting to you the first time or two you ran past it?  Was it because you were approaching it from behind?

 

What was your Item load-out for this?  Its a little hard to read, although several items/scrolls can be inferred from the action.

 

vr

dreamrider

 

It was one of my first attempts to solo the AD in the early versions of the game and thus I tried to make it as easy as possible. When I recorded the fight (maybe it was patched in the next versions) It was possible to kill one of the adragans without making the dragon/adragans hostile to you - I don't know if it's still possible. If you tried to position yourself as I did and attack the same adragan as I did and it didn't work, then it was patched. However that step isn't needed, you just have to fight all the adragans first - use maelstrom scrolls if you can't kill them fast enough (use that instead the scrolls of nature's mark which are useless in my video)

 

My experience attempting something like this with a solo L12 monk in v1.06 is that if you have warned off the dragon hunter at Black Meadow, and consequently received the Scale Breaker talent?/ability?, when you return to the depths of Od Nua the AD is immediately hostile if s/he sees you, as are the adragans.  With all of them hostile, it is possible for a fast character to run or sneak past the dragon and get near the adragan positions, but with 4 of them, all hostile on sight, it is not possible to reach that alcove at the north of the cavern before they intercept (and mob, petrify, etc) you.  All adragans react to an attack on any adragan, even if it is a ranged attack from the angle most distant from the other 3 addies.

 

The adragans do not seem to react to an attack on the xaurips, if it is far enough away from them.  The AD may activate, and s/he definitely will chase/enter the fray if the fight with the xaurips goes up toward the treasure room, as will the adragans.  However, if you lure the xaurips to the extreme southwest corner of the cave, skirting the cliff edge to avoid coming into dragon-view, neither the AD nor the adragans seems to join in the fight with the xaurips.  (However, it may just be that my running fights with the xaurips down to the southwest corner went fast enough that the dragon never got there.)

 

Then you can assault one end of the adragan line by sliding up along the side of the statues foot on the east of the main cavern.  The addies and the dragon will come after you, but if you are fast, with powerful shooting, you can string the addies out up toward the treasure room and take them out one by one as they catch up.

 

The problem with all that is that there is no way to pre-position a paralyzing trap to later freeze the approaching dragon in the treasure room tunnel, since before you begin the attack the xaurips are in the mouth of that tunnel.  There are ways around that, of course, paralyzing scrolls being the most obvious, but the monk I was testing this with was not built with enough lore to use scrolls higher than level 2.

 

At this point, I'm not sure that THIS monk can successfully solo the AD, for lack of any feasible way to immobilize the dragon for a few seconds of heavy pounding, and lack of ability to use high damage scrolls.  But I am still experimenting.

 

I am getting pretty good at killing off all the xaurips and adragans beforehand, however. {grin}

[Nobear]

I can finally look at AD kill videos as I've just defeated it for the first time! It was on PoTD with a full party of companions, no food, only a weak stronghold resting bonus, and fighting everything at once aggroing the dragon first. I also didn't try to perma-CC the dragon, and none of my characters have the 12-yard range of a bow either. I found it to be a satisfying challenge for me, taking a few attempts (and a few tank resurrections) before I prevailed. So now I can join in on the AD discussions...

 

My experience attempting something like this with a solo L12 monk in v1.06 is that if you have warned off the dragon hunter at Black Meadow, and consequently received the Scale Breaker talent?/ability?, when you return to the depths of Od Nua the AD is immediately hostile if s/he sees you, as are the adragans.

 

Good discussion in general, but I wanted to emphasize this point, which was my experience as well. Kaylon mentioned he used the console, but I don't know if his experience was partly due to that, or if these mechanics were the norm in an earlier version and got fixed at some point. I will give him credit for cleverness in learning (possibly discovering) and using exploits that may no longer be possible, but the whole point was to make the fight itself trivial, and I would have considered this a cheesy way to do that even if/when it was possible without console commands.

 

One thing that caught my eye is that his superb clothing would have required a scale from the dragon he was fighting to enchant legitimately. Another thing I noticed is that he had two active effects listed on his character sheet with generic names that gave the bonuses you might expect from a shield with the Herald property. I don't know what that's all about.

 

To be fair, I am probably coming into this discussion too late, where it may have at one time been relevant as a way (which no longer seems to work) to trivialize an encounter that would otherwise be very challenging, if possible at all, for a ranger to solo.

[tnb234]

I wonder if it's still possible to defeat the AD in PotD solo with the current patch.

That would be an extraordinary accomplishment!

[Nobear]

Yeah, especially if you had to fight all the adds at once, I can't think of a class that could make short work of this. Dreamrider has some good ideas, but it'd still be a hell of a fight for any class, if even humanly possible lol.

[Raven Darkholme]

Most people who soloed her, fought all the adds at once.

[Kaylon]

I wonder if it's still possible to defeat the AD in PotD solo with the current patch.

That would be an extraordinary accomplishment!

 

I just tested with the latest patch and it works exactly the same. As long as he's out of the sight of the others you can kill the adragan at the top without making anyone hostile, however a xaurip will come to attack you (killing him out of sight of the rest will keep everyone neutral also). Since attacking anyone there will put you in combat until everyone is dead you can use your scrolls/summoning items before starting the next fight.

[alexis13]

 

I wonder if it's still possible to defeat the AD in PotD solo with the current patch.

That would be an extraordinary accomplishment!

 

I just tested with the latest patch and it works exactly the same. As long as he's out of the sight of the others you can kill the adragan at the top without making anyone hostile, however a xaurip will come to attack you (killing him out of sight of the rest will keep everyone neutral also). Since attacking anyone there will put you in combat until everyone is dead you can use your scrolls/summoning items before starting the next fight.

 

She's a woman.

[Raven Darkholme]

 

 

I wonder if it's still possible to defeat the AD in PotD solo with the current patch.

That would be an extraordinary accomplishment!

 

 

I just tested with the latest patch and it works exactly the same. As long as he's out of the sight of the others you can kill the adragan at the top without making anyone hostile, however a xaurip will come to attack you (killing him out of sight of the rest will keep everyone neutral also). Since attacking anyone there will put you in combat until everyone is dead you can use your scrolls/summoning items before starting the next fight.

She's a woman.

It's an imaginary beast, who cares about the gender?