Ardra Dragon - Caed Nua

[Berkyjay]

I've spent the past 3 hours trying to beat this waaaaay overpowered boss and I'm pissed at all this wasted time on it.  I've read all the "guides" on how to beat this crap and none of them worked.  I cast the gaze spell, I use the scale breaker.  Those don't do squat.  The only thing that works is using the wall of force to stall him and then blow ever damage spell I have.  But it's never enough.  I get him down to 2 health dots and I run out of steam with my characters.  I'm pretty much over this game now because of this.  Which sucks because I didn't even make it into the expansion.  Money wasted.

[Vorad]

You don't have enough cc in your party. Go there at level 14 if you can't kill it at level 10. Get 2 wizards 1 paladin with acuracy aura 1 second tank to keep things simple either paladin or fighter and the remaining can be priest(Shields for the Faithful and Crowns for the Faithful will help) and cypher(Good single target damae + cc). Pull the dragon with one of your tanks while the rest of your party is being buffed then jump in with the buffed party. Your wizards should max their accuracy from priest/paladin and use slicken/slumber yes those are better than gaze since it's easier for them to land. Proceed with weakening and other debufs from wizards and cypher and only then use gaze + direct damage spells like Minoletas Piercing...(aoe Piercing damage with -10 dr, can crit for 100+ on a fully healthy non-debuffed target). Your cypher can paralyze then proceed with damage on dragon as well.

 

First things first if you think the encounter is hard go there again when you are max level, secondly I don't know your party composition but if you don't have enough cc and nuke you need to change party members. Do you run the crappy premade npc or do you run your own customized characters? Is the difficulty easy or potd all these play role. Generally speaking with a self made full group with optimized stats at max level this fight is not as hard as you might think even at potd dificulty. Control everything with slicken/slumber then proceed to debuffs like weaken, miasma, - DR, then cast your gaze of adragan and then Nuke with lategame spells, with 3-4 spellcasters and 2 tanks you'll do fine.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Vorad

[Vorad]

Here is your party at the entrance of the lair.

Initiate with your strongest deffender in my case it's a Darcozzi Paladin full defensive with accuracy buff + aura

Combar initiated, your party will start buffing while your paladin will move to the corner  close to the stairs to lure the dragon there.

After you have finished buffing your party and summoning some minions start moving closer to your target make sure to be within the paladin's accuracy aura. Buffs used here were Crown + Shields from priest, Alacrity speed + accuracy buff from wizards while Druid and Chanter summon some minions.

 

[Vorad]

2d Part, the action!

Now that your minions and tanks are into place start debuffing the dragon. Prone, Weaken, Blindness, Hobble, Miasma etc etc everything counts and both Druid, Wizards and Priest got debuffs.

Now that he's Prone thanks to slumber from wizard you can start casting Gaze of Adragan on the Dragon. Check it's saving throws how low they are? with ~80 fortitude the gaze will most surely land(wizard thanks to buffs got 100+ accuracy now)

After Petrify start nuking with all the big damage nukes each class got!

 

[Vorad]

Dead dragon... profit!

This was my wizard fully buffed just before I cast gaze.

 

The party was full lvl 14 but the same exact tactic works since level 10 instead of gaze you can just leave the dragon prone and cast Citzal's Spirit lance and kill it that way 20-30 seconds of prone are more than enough. The difficulty was PotD.

 

I hope this mini guide will help clarify things a bit.

 

Good luck and have fun!

[Anaeme]

Well done Vorad

[Berkyjay]

Weird, I didn't get any email notifications for the responses.  I'll give the suggestions here a shot.  But I'd like to reiterate, I'm not a power player.  I don't have my parties stats calculated for maximum power.  My party consists of a fighter (main character) the rest are story NPCs (paladin, priest, druid, mage, chanter) all at lvl 12.  If I get anywhere near the dragion most of my characters are wiped out by its breath and then the rest are demolished very quickly by the other attacks.  I've tried staying back and pelting her with spells and using walls and wards to keep her at bay.

I play for the story and roleplaying experience.  It sucks that probably means I won't be able to complete this quest.

[Vorad]

Weird, I didn't get any email notifications for the responses.  I'll give the suggestions here a shot.  But I'd like to reiterate, I'm not a power player.  I don't have my parties stats calculated for maximum power.  My party consists of a fighter (main character) the rest are story NPCs (paladin, priest, druid, mage, chanter) all at lvl 12.  If I get anywhere near the dragion most of my characters are wiped out by its breath and then the rest are demolished very quickly by the other attacks.  I've tried staying back and pelting her with spells and using walls and wards to keep her at bay.

 

I play for the story and roleplaying experience.  It sucks that probably means I won't be able to complete this quest.

If you can manage around 250 hp and 130 base deflection with your main tank then you are good to go.

As I mention earlier you don't have to face the dragon with your party(and consequently get hit by his breath) only the defensive fighter/paladin/tank should be the one to initiate the combat! The rest of your party should stay behind as in the picture and start buffing themselves.

The power comes from the spells themselves Durance got the same spalls as my min/maxed priest just cast Crowns + Shields for the faithfull on your guys and they'll be good to go, cast some defense vs petrify as well to counter those adragans etc. Although my guide was really short I believe I haven't neglected to mention the key points of the strategy/tactics.

Just go there with a full level 14 party, you'll have every spell available in your arsenal and you'll do fine, actually there is no seirious need for power play, minmaxing if you go there at level 14 to begin with. Pay attention to the guidelines above and if you got any questions feel free to ask.

[Stoner]

There is an exploit, not sure if fixed already (probably is) because I had it on 2.0 IIRC, hadn't launched game since so not sure.

 

After finishing Cragholdt Buffs you get a special pet which gives you an ability to summon powerfull creature (no spoilers), this "thing" has a spell Concelhaut's Crushing Doom, so well, that spell used from the bar of summoned "thing" used to one hit kill ANYTHING, Adra Dragon incuded, you might try it tho I doubt it will work on newest version.

[Fenixp]

I play for the story and roleplaying experience.  It sucks that probably means I won't be able to complete this quest.

Adra Dragon is supposed to be one of the most powerful forces to exist in the game's explored universe. I too was kind of pissed when I encountered it for the first time by the massive difficulty spike - now in retrospect I realize that if the fight was too easy, it would kind of cheapen the game's lore, and that there's a reason why the fight is optional. It's far too easy to get accustomed to modern game design which hands you everything on a silver platter.

[Messier-31]

I've spent the past 3 hours trying to beat this waaaaay overpowered boss and I'm pissed at all this wasted time on it.  I've read all the "guides" on how to beat this crap and none of them worked.  I cast the gaze spell, I use the scale breaker.  Those don't do squat.  The only thing that works is using the wall of force to stall him and then blow ever damage spell I have.  But it's never enough.  I get him down to 2 health dots and I run out of steam with my characters.  I'm pretty much over this game now because of this.  Which sucks because I didn't even make it into the expansion.  Money wasted.

 

I agree. The difficulty skyrockets like a sonuvabiatch with Adra Dragon encounter.

 

But wait till you get to the Alpine Dragon - you're in for a repetition.

 

You always can talk your way out of the fight - I did it for roleplaying purposes. Smirk smirk.

[AndreaColombo]

That said, it is totally possible to beat the dragon at level 12 with story NPCs. A fully custom party just makes it easier; if you're level 14, it's a walk in the park with story companions too

[Stoner]

 

I play for the story and roleplaying experience.  It sucks that probably means I won't be able to complete this quest.

Adra Dragon is supposed to be one of the most powerful forces to exist in the game's explored universe. I too was kind of pissed when I encountered it for the first time by the massive difficulty spike - now in retrospect I realize that if the fight was too easy, it would kind of cheapen the game's lore, and that there's a reason why the fight is optional. It's far too easy to get accustomed to modern game design which hands you everything on a silver platter.

 

It cheapens lore anyway because combat can be cheesed out. There's no way to beat this boss in a fair fight, you have to go prepared a.k.a. know what types of spells and abilities work best against it. Not mentioning positioning with dialogue/ladder exploit... If fight would be fair and required player to micro and use tactics instead of paralize spam, I guess more ppl would be happy, along with the lore.

[Fenixp]

It cheapens lore anyway because combat can be cheesed out. There's no way to beat this boss in a fair fight, you have to go prepared a.k.a. know what types of spells and abilities work best against it. Not mentioning positioning with dialogue/ladder exploit... If fight would be fair and required player to micro and use tactics instead of paralize spam, I guess more ppl would be happy, along with the lore.

I absolutely see your point, and understand how it could feel aggravating. It's a videogame tho, and an RPG to boot. Main issue with these is that you'll either make a fight for which you need to play the game and actually game the systems or you make a fight which is too easy. There's hardly an easy way out of this - I kind of liked how the original Witcher handled this, as in it allowed you to research various monsters and prepare for them before you even encountered them, but even that system had its flaws.