Alpine Dragon (hard)

[happybuddha]

This dude took about 15 tries before I realised the main thing stopping me from killing him was the accuracy debuff

 

Eder - full deflection tank, away from main party, lots of endurance potions.

 

need: massive buffs to accuracy and immunity to paralysis and stun (thanks Durance you crazy old coot)

 

Get Eder to attack an ice blight and turn off his AI. keep him alive as long as possible (armor with 2nd chance can help).

DO NOT ATTACK THE DRAGON

 

kill off as many stray ice blights and oozes as possible without getting too close to the dragon (their damage is not that important)

 

get Eder to attack the dragon. a butt load of wraiths and spectres will appear. destroy them with your mad buffs and what not. prayer against paralysis is a huge help here.

 

hopefully Eder is still alive. take some time to rebuff your accuracy and might (prayer against fear doesnt seem to help too much as the dubuff is reapplied instantly)

 

smash dragon as fast as humanly possible and pray to Berath. keep him paralysed, petrified, stunned as much as possible (gaze of adragan, chaos orb, scrolls of paralysis)

 

THEN I realised scrolls of paralysis are craft-able, spam those as much as possible when you're going for the dragon kill, easy mode. then I was sad cos I realised I wasted 8 hours of my life NOT crafting these scrolls.

[khadoran]

I cant defeat alpine dragon, my party is lvl 11 and i think i have to kill him to progress.. cant seem to enter the last area of map.

Just crafted some paralyz scrolls to try, but i think its the ghosts that mainly kill me, they stun my priest until hes dead then its over

.

Edited September 2, 2015 by khadoran

[Heijoushin]

I cant defeat alpine dragon, my party is lvl 11 and i think i have to kill him to progress.. cant seem to enter the last area of map.

Just crafted some paralyz scrolls to try, but i think its the ghosts that mainly kill me, they stun my priest until hes dead then its over

.

 

Ha, I also tried at level 11 and got creamed! Hey, as the newest, most badass dragon boss, I assume we should be max level before tackling him.

[rockhut]

I also play on hard,defeated it at  level 12.I didn't find it very difficult,only Eder dropped 1/4 health once,others were intact.but I pre-buffed,don't know if it counts as cheese, rest in the inn,eat some food that kind  of stuff,Eder engages the dragon at the lower right corner,burns a scroll of +20 defense protection and uses his own +20 defense ability while the others station at the upper right corner, drink some speed potions,  burn a scoll of accuracy and a scroll of  defense,cast prayer against fear,send some figurine summon and cast confuse on the minions,then focus on debuffing the dragon,will attacks are more effective,miasma of dull-mindedness,borrowed instinct,and then veombloom and call to slumber,he's down for 20 sec,that's pretty much the end of it.if the druid's storm spells don't have bug,I think it'll be even easier,magic users are just that good.I used the same strategy on the adra dragon too.

[Judicator]

I beat him after a few tries. The spirits and ice blights that spawn around your party are the real problem, the dragon itself is not so hard.

[FacesOfMu]

Anyone know what the value difference is between killing it and talking it into allowing the soul severance? I got an ok bracer, and now looking at downing it to see the loot.

[rockhut]

Anyone know what the value difference is between killing it and talking it into allowing the soul severance? I got an ok bracer, and now looking at downing it to see thed loot.

I dont know if you can loot his pile without killing him.only dragon meat on his body, but the pile behind hime contains a good buckler that casts  warding seal when hit by crit and withdraw(3sec) ,a very good warbow with +0.5 crit multiplier,14m range and can confuse on crit,I am not sure about the last one ,golves with 3dr bypass? 

[Yaozers]

Just beat him today after struggling at level 11 and again at level 14. 

 

Wish I had the log but it went something like this. 

Send Eder to the left. Do NOT attack the dragon immediately. Engage with some ice blights. 

Cast suppress affliction on party as well as crowns of the faithful. Summon a bunch of trash for figurines. 

At this point, something hit the dragon despite Eder not engaging him and all the shades came up. Make short work of them with adds, Foe AoE spells, etc... 

 

Eder went down at this point (oops) after getting critted a few times. while I dealt with adds. This is because the dragon will do crazy damage to anyone with debuffs (sickened, frightened etc...)

 

At this point the dragon faced me and I hit him with every debuff I had. Scale-breaker, hunter's mark, slicken, gaze of the adragan, a couple of others, Ninagauth's shadowflame (amazing spell!). I then targeted his reflex, which was around 50, with spells (Shadowflame) from wizard and cipher. I also hit him with wounding shot and directed every add on him so he was flanked and being attacked from all sides. 

 

He went down in about 5 seconds. 

[Messier-31]

These here are some nice strategies, thanks guys. I will try to put it in use.

 

Been trying to deal with Alpine Dragon on easy, but still he beats the crap out of me, how lame.

[AndreaColombo]

The secret is to keep the dragon busy for as long as possible while you buff and wipe out his goons. Then you'll have a much easier time with him and and the ghosts.

 

I could not, however, beat this fight without a dedicated pure tank.

[KDubya]

At level 10 PotD scaled upwards,  my Monk is going to come back in a few levels. Most of all the things there including the Dragon are immune to crushing which is rather unfair to Monks

[Tennisgolfboll]

These here are some nice strategies, thanks guys. I will try to put it in use.

 

Been trying to deal with Alpine Dragon on easy, but still he beats the crap out of me, how lame.

Its because difficulty levels mean almost nothing in this game.

 

Alpine dragon is the same on easy as he is on hard (yes totally absurd).

[Tennisgolfboll]

At level 10 PotD scaled upwards, my Monk is going to come back in a few levels. Most of all the things there including the Dragon are immune to crushing which is rather unfair to Monks

Complete immunity is great game balance.

 

Reminds me of the demilich in bg2. Scroll and he cant hurt you. Dont and he auto kills with his spells. Awesome

[Tennisgolfboll]

A very lame way to kill the dragon is to spam the priest spell trap that knocks prone.

 

Just get a few adventurers and spam it on him, he will just lay there and not get a single attack off.

 

Great great game balance

[Ineth]

My level 13 optimized pure tank Paladin, buffed with the 3rd level druid spell Beetle Shell, was able to keep the dragon and the Ice Blights busy while the rest of the party stood back and got rid of the spirits.

 

 

Then Paladin + Barbarian + Monk circled the dragon in melee, while the Mage (self-buffed with Alacrity and Eldritch Aim) emptied all her Fireball spell slots on top of the dragon and the ice blights, and the Druid (without the buffs unfortunately) did the same with  Calling the World's Maw.

 

This got rid of the blights, and hurt the dragon too. After that, I just threw everything I got at him (drinking Major Endurance Potions as needed). The Barbarian and Monk got knocked out soon, but the Paladin was still at good health and revived the Barbarian (who did decent damage to the dragon with the Tall Grass spear) and after that it didn't take long for the dragon to die.

 

(Btw, the dragon also tried to use his breath attack at the mage once or twice, but luckily its attack animation gave it away ahead of time and I could move the mage out of the way.)

 

(This was on Hard difficulty btw. No idea if the same strategy would work on PotD.)

Edited October 1, 2015 by Ineth

[Torm51]

A very lame way to kill the dragon is to spam the priest spell trap that knocks prone.

 

Just get a few adventurers and spam it on him, he will just lay there and not get a single attack off.

 

Great great game balance

very easy to say and yes it works but getting to that point where you can get close enough with those likely SOFT priests is an issue. Especially on PoTD.  He has a lot of adds and he will dragon breath and one shot any non tank.  Confuse was CLUTCH in this fight.  I beat it on PoTD trial of iron(more at stake) no strat look ups on my first try ever.  I wizard with confuse makes the fight easier.  As it was stated it will buy you time to buff up and he will dragon breathe his friends/crush them (he was hitting his frost blights for 150 crush hits ouch) at that point I was everyone was buffed up and casters had the accuracy to debuff him and permanently cc him with prone.  My melee then went town on him and that was it.

[Torm51]

The secret is to keep the dragon busy for as long as possible while you buff and wipe out his goons. Then you'll have a much easier time with him and and the ghosts.

 

I could not, however, beat this fight without a dedicated pure tank.

Grab some hatchets as back up weapons.  It aint great but the Monks abilities and high Might themselves power a lot of the damage so it still works.

[Ineth]

Reminds me of the demilich in bg2. Scroll and he cant hurt you. Dont and he auto kills with his spells. Awesome

 

You should try the Tactics mod, it gives the demilich the ability to dispel your precious Protection from Undead. Good times!

[hilfazer]

I placed 6 Killing Bolt traps under his nose for 'free' 450 damage. Not an instant kill, but it helped a bit.

[Emerwyn]

I know it's a bit late, but I just now got to play the expansion (waited to have the two parts together to play it all in one go).

 

I'm playing Path of the Damned, level 12 party with Paladin (Tank), Fighter (2 handed weapon offtank/damage dealer), Rogue (Killing Machine), Priest (healer/support), Druid (support, spell damage), Wizard (AoE damage/CC).

 

What worked for me was triggering the encounter with my party sheltered in the lower right corner of the area (used my rogue to start the fight and had her zoom back with the rest of the party as everything turned hostile). Then it's matter of AoE'ing the living crap out of every add while I kept juggling the Dragon's attention with figurine summons until the dragon was left alone. At that point sent my tank in front of it and kept the damage fighter in one side and the rogue in the other, with the three spellcasters (priest, druid, wizard) tucked in some corner within spell range but away from dragon breaths or tail sweeps (important to keep your melee also safe from tail sweeps, as in, don't have them stand behind the dragon or they'll get decimated in an instant).

 

With my own buffs and some debuffs (debuffs are hard to hit in Path of the Damned Difficulty, but grazes should be enough if you've got the timing) You'll come to a position where you can petrify the dragon briefly, preferible using Gaze of the Adragan from the Wizard repertoire. At this point the dragon should be "softened" from taking all kinds of AoE damage while clearing the adds, so it's matter of using a few high damage abilities to finish the job. Druid's Sunlance, Rogue's Finishing Blows, or anything that hits hard really. Petrify status is really broken in this game, think I hit a 110ish damage Sunlance and couple of 90+ Finishing Blows with my Rogue, so it's really just matter of making the most out of those few seconds that petrification will last (assuming you get a Graze, if you get a hit then you've got more than enough time).

 

 

List of buff spells that helped:

 

Prayer Against Fear (crucial, keep it up at all times on all your party or you won't get anywhere)

Blessing (+ Accuracy, damage)

Dire Blessing (hits to crits)

Devotions for the Faithful (+Accuracy and Might for allies, -Accuracy and Might for foes)

Shields for the Faithful (+Deflection, mainly for the moments where you'll have the tank standing in front of the dragon, which shouldn't be too long anyway)

Crowns for the Faithful (Overpowered Spell, just get it up on all the party)

 

As for offensive spells, just AoE the mobs down, if possible using Fire or Raw damage spells such as Fireball and Plague of Insects, and try to make sure that each spell at least grazes the dragon to soften it towards the final phase of the fight.

 

 

Hope this helps people who need a hand taking down this beastie.

 

 

By the way, you can talk your way out of the fight in which case you get just some Vambraces which are decent but I couldn't find a main party member to wear them. If you kill the dragon, you'll get also get some Unique War Bow and Small Shield which are actually pretty good for different character builds. Those additional items are in the dragon's nest by the top left corner of the area. My rogue could also sniff out a "hidden" corpse under the ice with some White Forge iron bars for upgrading stuff.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Emerwyn

[zeldagaiden]

Necro them posts!

 

Playing on PotD, upscaled, finished WM1 and Act 2, no vancian casters (mage, priest, druid).

Got a cipher.

Currently struggling on beating this bad boy.

Think party is around lvl 12 (mc barb, pala, chanter, cipher, ranger and monk).

 

Fight starts.

 

I have the stag near dragon, behind an ice elemental thingy, so the dragon runs around a bit till he manages to hit the stag. This gives me more time to build up some focus on the cipher which will be the main dragon controler. I cast Protection from fear, Scroll defense and valor. When dragon comes, whispers of treason and spectres spawn. Basicaly rinse and repeat until all that's left is the dragon. Now comes the tricky part.

No one can realy tank him for long, nor can I build up enough focus to cast everything I need on the cipher (tactical meld, psy shield and borrowed instincts on self, and fractured volition on him). Not using pots/food yet, but will if I have to.

On a sidenote, I hit dragon with sworn enemy as I'm casting whispers, so I can have dominate (acra munet? names....) on dragon on a 54% chance. This will save some focus for the cipher.

Thoughts/advice? Got some durganized stuff, but my party is mostly melees.

[QuiteGoneJin]

With no priest it might be left to scrolls on your main tank so he doesn't get debuffed to oblivion, especially against fear.  And acc for your dps team. 

[Kaylon]

 

No one can realy tank him for long, nor can I build up enough focus to cast everything I need on the cipher (tactical meld, psy shield and borrowed instincts on self, and fractured volition on him). Not using pots/food yet, but will if I have to.

On a sidenote, I hit dragon with sworn enemy as I'm casting whispers, so I can have dominate (acra munet? names....) on dragon on a 54% chance. This will save some focus for the cipher.

Thoughts/advice? Got some durganized stuff, but my party is mostly melees.

To survive at melee with the dragon you need a very defensive build. You need strong CC or a real tank to stand toe to toe with him while the rest of your party uses ranged attacks.

[Boeroer]

No. 1 priority: Scroll against fear. Will give you +20 ACC because terrified aura will not work.

 

Then scroll of valor.

 

Then scroll of confusion, paralysis and whisper of treason.

 

If you manage to confuse or charm the dragon you don't have to tank him. If you manage to paralyze him: same.

 

If you manage to confuse or charm those around him it's the same because he will attack them instead of you.

 

Dragons are only resistant to prone, not immune. If tou manage to apply a Force of Anguish he will go down for a good amount of time. Don't use fists for this! Transcentend Suffering's ACC bonus doesn't get applied to FoA. Instead, use a single weapon for FoA. This will give you +12 ACC (which is badly needed because the dragon's fortitude is superhigh), plus the enchantment bonus of the weapon plus the ability bonus of FoE plus valor. It makes a huge difference to fists!

If you have, put a marking weapon into a char's hands who is also attacking the dragon. Only this one and the monk will attack the dragon! This way the monk's FoA will receive another +20 ACC from marking and flanking (if you attack in melee from opp sides). If your paladin has Coordinated Attacks, then use him to wield the marking weapon. This would add another +10 ACC to the monk.

 

Every now and then, try to charm the dragon with cipher's whisper. Even if you manage to charm him only briefly: use FoA with the monk! Charmed enemies have crappy defenses and that gives you more chances to land the initial FoA hit.

Same if he's paralyzed.

 

Once the dragon is disabled by prone or paralyze, attack with everything you have.

 

The trick is to defend yourself against afflictions (prayer scrolls), boost your ACC a lot (valor, marking, single weapon use and so on) and then disable him.

 

Since you don't have a priest you have to be creative.

With Coordinated Attacks + marking + single weapon + scroll against fear + exceptional weapon + FoA + flanking + valor + weapon focus + your monk's FoAs should attack with +108 ACC on top of his base ACC. It should work from time to time...

Edited February 3, 2017 by Boeroer

[MaxQuest]

A bit unrelated, just curious, which classes (besides priest) do you think could solo this dragon in ascetic (naked) way? (including no weapons)

Edited February 3, 2017 by MaxQuest