Adra Dragon on Easy - still unable to defeat - frustrated

[lost2morph]

Hello Kind Forum,

 

I have been playing Pillars of Eternity on Hard Level and have very much enjoyed the challenge.

 

Before I jump into the pit to take care of Thaos I want to beat the Adra Dragon.

 

I have read every post here and on other sites and I am still unable to defeat the dragon.

 

My party consists of: Eder, Aloth, Durrance, Grieving Mother, Cipher Watcher, and an Elf Fighter purchased adventurer.

 

I did get the Scale Breaker ability and use it but it does not seem to matter.

 

People mention getting lucky with the Dragon Breath...it uses it not only once but sometimes up to 4 times during my fight thus decimating my party.

 

My Fighters withstand the breath for a little while...they consume Major Endurance Potions but before they can fight to attack the dragon it breathes on them. There is never enough time for them to get attacks in to even slightly weaken the dragon.

 

I try Paralyze scrolls but they never seem to last long enough...same thing with Gaze of the Adragan that Aloth uses.

 

Cipher "spells" are supposedly powerful in this game and they have been up until this point.

 

I have two members of this class in my party that try to use Metal Binding...Soul Ignition...Detonate...Disintegration.

 

These always fail...the Adra Dragon "eats" these and My Party Dies.

 

I am VERY FRUSTRATED especially since I tried this fight Over 20 times on Hard and now Over 20 times on Easy.

 

THANK YOU.

[Mocker22]

Some more information about how your party is specced might help us give more specific advice, but here are some general tips.

 

Start the fight with your party far to the bottom left of the map and have your highest endurance tank take the first breath attack. Make sure your party has consumed food items to boost key stats such as Con, Mig, and Per. While your party is out of range of the dragon, have durance buffing them with the best preist buffs possible(Devontions of the Faithful, Champion's Boon, Crown of the Faithful, and Dire Blessing would be the most important). You want to get their accuracy and damage as high as possible. Accuracy buffs will help immensely with making hits and spells land. I would have Aloth and/or one of your ciphers use AoE CC to keep the adds from piling up on your team. Ideally once Aloth is buffed you'll get lucky and have a Gaze of the Adragan actually land on the dragon....but don't cast it until your party is in position to make the most of it. Also any debuffs you can land could help a ton, but in the end getting any spells to stick on dragons is going to be tough. Adra dragon should be a lot easier than the Alpine though.

 

Again, specifics about your teammates skills and gear could help. At a glance that team does not have a lot of damage output which could make this fight even more difficult.

[Boeroer]

What is your character level?

 

You really have to know how to play the game if you want to kill the adra dragon.

Just shouting "Geronimo", engaging and hitting won't work.

 

First of all: use scrolls and potions. It's important to use scrolls/spells that prevent that you get terrified. -20 ACC against the adra dragon is just too much, so get rid of it.

 

Then there are two cheesy ways to beat him: Turn AI on and choose aggressive mode. Stand on top of the stairs and don't climb down. Try to get as near to the dragon without climbing down the stairs as you can. Cast a spell with a huge aoe damage effect in the direction where the dragon waits. He and his adds will turn aggressive. Use ranged weapons and spells to kill the mobs that gather at the foot of the stair. Then kill the dragon. Try not to get breathed at. Keep your healers/revivers in the background in case you get hit.

 

Second cheese: use a paladin with "Deprive the Unworthy". This ability always hits and removes the immunities against afflictions from the dragon. Then use the priest's Repulsing Seal (nearly autohit) to knock down the dragon for a long time. This should be enough to handle him if you repeat that enough times. Cast Repulsing Seal right under him when he's down. If he gets up again, it will trigger and knock him down again.

 

Some tips for your ciphers: use Tactical Meld and Borrowed Instinct. Together it will give your cipher +40 ACC against the dragon. If you combine Scale Breaker and Expose Vulnerabilities and maybe Body Attunement the DR should also be low enough.

 

And use Combusting Wounds. This is really good against dragons. When the dragon is knocked down, cast Combusting Wounds on him and then let both ciphers use Ectopsychic Echo on the dragon.

[Kaylon]

Scale breaker should be used to lower enough dragon's defenses in order to be able to debuff him with your strongest spells. One of the best CC to use against him is blind - which can be cast by many classes (Sunbeam, Searing Seal, Curse of blackened Sight, Eystrike, Blinding Strike) - not only it will lower his defenses and you'll be able to hit him, but it will also root him in place. From here you can keep all your party out of his breath range and attack him only with long ranged weapons/spells. You could give to anyone in your party scrolls of stag horn and he will drop in a few seconds...

[rheingold]

Ok doke, let me first lay down my credentials:

I am the worst dragon slayer bar none, about the only dragon I have an easy time with is the sky dragon. And lets pretend the alpine dragon doesn't exist. About the only thing thing my characters are good at is feeding the damn dragons.

 

But, a couple of points.

Firstly the Adra dragon has exactly the same stats on easy as on hard. That means it's deflection is as high, does the same damage etc.

The difference is the number of adds, that's all. This is why Obs are creating a story mode which would adjust the actual stats of various creatures( currently only POTD modifies the stats). Of course not having those adragans makes it easier, but the dragon is still capable of one shotting most of your party.

 

Secondly I have tried all the different ways to kill the dragon, including the cheese.

1: retreating up the stairs and shooting the dragon from above.

 

Never worked for me, mainly because the dragon would occasionally flame my archers. No idea why this happens to me, others don't seem to have the problem. It is still possible, though you need tons of revive scrolls for your archers.

 

2: placing gaze of the adragan traps around the dragon before initiating the fight. Also never worked, found that the traps were not reliable.

 

3: this works consistently for me, though it requires like the previous method you don't have scale breaker. For some reason she really doesn't like being betrayed, so she aggros on sight.

You need to be able to walk past her, smile and wave and continue towards right, past the xaurips and on to her treasure. At some point, by the xaurips she will initiate a fight, seems to like thieves as much as traitors. Don't stop to fight the xaurips. Move your characters all the way to the end, right by the treasure chests.

You can now take the xaurips out, chances are the dragon will still not be in sight, buff up and then send one character to pull her. Move your tanks out ahead to engage her and try and keep them alive as long as possible.

 

Rangers are great for this because of their accuracy, if Sagani has storm caller put it aside and use persistence instead which has a nice DOT effect. Use combusting wounds as well. Don't send the animal companions in. Normally rangers have such good accuracy it dosnt matter if the pet dies, this time it does. Keeping the pet on the side also means you have a fighter in reserve.

Not kidding Itumak did kill the dragon once... While everyone else was dead or dieing.

Important - persistence, wall of force, combusting wounds, scrolls of paralysis, defense.

[Grumpy Sorc]

Some piercing weapon ( like The Rain of Godagh Field, Tall Grass or summoned Kitzal's Spirit Lance ) will be good against the dragon. Also, corrode spells, spells with any pierce or crush effect, various buffs/debuffs ( Devotions for the Faithful, Dire Blessing, Expose Vulnerabilities, etc. ). Confusion is OK too.

 

Consumable - Scrolls of Paralyses and Valor, Potions of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion.

 

The easiest way to win - Scrolls of Paralyses spamming.

 

P.S. Just in case ( spoiler alert ! ) - Adra Dragon has immunity to Burn, Shock, Petrified, Terrified, Prone, Stuck, and DR 21 against Slash and Freeze ( PoE Bestiary info ).

[Boeroer]

The easiest way definitely is to use Deprive the Unworthy & Repulsive Seal. It's cheese of course (bug abuse), but it's also a very reliable way to keep the dragon down permanently.

[lost2morph]

THANK YOU...THANK YOU....THANK YOU.

 

Hello Forum,

 

The Adra Dragon is Dead  !...YEAH !!!

 

My party was on Level 12 for those of you that are / were curious.

 

I have been trying some of the strategies that many of you have mentioned.

 

However...what I believe to be the real difference is the fact that I BUFFED MY PARTY WITH PRIEST SPELLS .

 

I never thought to do this Before I read All of Your Responses.

 

To me Durance was just for Healing and Fighting.

 

The spells that I used were:

 

Prayer Against Fear

Devotions Of The Faithful 

Crowns Of The Faithful

 

These made all the difference...it seemed like a completely different battle.

 

Thank You Again.

[PrimeJunta]

Congratulations!

 

Durance is actually one of the most powerful party members: the buffs will turn a tough fight into a cakewalk and a near-impossible one into something manageable. They're large-area and relatively long-duration too.

 

Most of the time, you shouldn't need the heals: use his spells to avoid taking damage in the first place.

[rheingold]

Think this explains why I'm a terrible dragon slayer. For some reason I've never liked priests/clerics. So while I like Durance or at least his writing I only use him to finish his quest. Come to think about it, I don't use ciphers/mages as well. It would probably make the game a lot easier if I did.

[DeathHouseInc]

THANK YOU...THANK YOU....THANK YOU.

 

Hello Forum,

 

The Adra Dragon is Dead  !...YEAH !!!

 

My party was on Level 12 for those of you that are / were curious.

 

I have been trying some of the strategies that many of you have mentioned.

 

However...what I believe to be the real difference is the fact that I BUFFED MY PARTY WITH PRIEST SPELLS .

 

I never thought to do this Before I read All of Your Responses.

 

To me Durance was just for Healing and Fighting.

 

The spells that I used were:

 

Prayer Against Fear

Devotions Of The Faithful 

Crowns Of The Faithful

 

These made all the difference...it seemed like a completely different battle.

 

Thank You Again.

 

I know I am necroing this thread but it really helped me beat this thing. lvl 12 and it was giving me hell until I used the buffs recommended here should have paid attention to the debuffs screwing me over. Lots of great advice here especially knocking the sob down with prone skills and debuffing the hell out of it first. 

 

I few more spells that really helped a ton from my priest was keeping buffs up with the increase buff duration 2 times during fight and making sure u reapply the immunity to fear skill. I had 3 druids built for rotting skulls, priest built for damage and long duration buffs, a great tank, and a chanter which was awesome for paralyzing and giving my guys positive buffs. I completely wrecked it first try after reading this thread but had many attempts trying to work things out before hand sow as very familiar. 

 

I used lots of pierce, crush, corrosive, and prone skills from druids. I would have turned on rotting skulls if I had time =) This was a fun and challenging fight to learn.