Toughest fight in the game?

[Jajo]

Adra dragon? Alpine dragon? Concelhaut? Llengrath's little helpers (magnificent screenshot below)?

 

For me it was Llengrath - hands down - and then Alpine dragon and Concelhaut sharing second place.

 

300 damage non-crit hits, highest DR in the game... behold fear itself:

[why]

Actually, the adra dragon remains the hardest fight. Now, I only just got into the second act in my Path of the Damned run, so maybe that will change. On normal and on hard, the adra dragon was the worst. Worse than the final fight. Far worse than Concelhaut. Now, you might call it metagaming, but the second I see a bunch of bad guys standing in a room with some unique looking character, I say to myself, "Self, this looks like a boss fight," and position myself accordingly. For that reason, Concelwhatzits wasn't so bad, although there is a lot of magic flying everywhere. So, he went down on the first shot. The first couple of times with the Alpine dragon, he beat me, but that wasn't too bad. The only fight that really kept getting me was the adra dragon. I think I have some sort of mad dog psychological thing going with her.

[Ausir]

Gotta be Llengrath for me. After quite a few attempts on normal difficulty, I just gave up and finished her in Story Time mode.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Ausir

[Sceptenar]

I had no problem with Llengrath, killed her on my first try. Concelhaut is the hardest fight in the game for me, provided you don't cheese the encounter by pulling out a few creatures at a time.

[Wolken3156]

Radiant Spore for me, but that's because I didn't meet the check to get the Vithrack Brutes to side with me.

 

Ondrite Monks and the Adra Dragon would be the close seconds. The Adra Dragon's breath seems to hit a lot harder than the Alpine's, plus Adragans are annoying.

[why]

I had no problem with Llengrath, killed her on my first try. Concelhaut is the hardest fight in the game for me, provided you don't cheese the encounter by pulling out a few creatures at a time.

I fought the whole kit'n'kaboodle at the same time, but when I see a bunch of baddies standing around with some named dude, I put everyone somewhere safe.  So, I had my folks outside the door and sent in Eder to talk to the boss and then he flew out like a bat out of hell..  Hadn't read about the fight.  Didn't know for sure what was going to happen, but my practice in games these days is to assume I'm going to get the shiv.  However, some games have folks pop in behind the casters.  I try to account for that, but sometimes it screws me.  You can't account for everything and I think it diminishes a game if you don't have to reload every now and then at least on your first run.

[Teioh_White]

Probably the Dragon fights for me, Alpine more than Adra. Adra can be 'cheesed' a bit by killing all her dorks before engaging her, making it pretty trivial to control the fight. If you just try to make it a straight up, your team vs. hers, she's really rough. Alpine's a bit rougher to pull the same trick on, so I'd give him the edge. The rest of the tough fights in the game full of annoying enemies can usually be cheesed through a variety of manner, like pulling to choke points or using Charms/Scrolls against whatever their CC of choice is. Without cheese those fights can be hard, as they'll sure use some cheese tactics on you, so unless saves are boosted, it'll spiral out of control quickly.

 

Some of the new Elmshore fights are a doozy, and I'd rec everyone make sure they level scale the place. It's got 3 rough fights now, both against 3-4 casters and 6-8 melee dorks. Pretty much are just harder versions of the Ogre and Delmgan bounty fights.

[Jajo]

I didn't even know you could split the Concelhaut's group. I fought the whole group at the same time, but I did it like why said - I sent my main character in alone while leaving the others in a more favourable position.

 

@Teioh_White were these new fights added with WMp2? I've only come across one new encounter (the one near Magran's shrine in Dyrford crossing, I believe), which resulted in me taking an emo godlike prisoner. I sadly lacked the will to comb through all the maps again and since I was there on a quest, I figured, that the encounter could just as well have been quest triggered anyway.

[Teioh_White]

I haven't played through Elmshore without the level sync, so I don't know if it's the same number of mobs as it is with scaling on. But it's definitely more mobs in 3 of the pulls there in 3.0 with scaling than there was in 2.0 without it.

 

The Ogre's outside the Ogre bounty cave are the biggest example. Before, those dudes were like a slightly scaled down version of the bounty fight. Now, they're like two of the bounty fight at the same time.

[Crucis]

I haven't played through Elmshore without the level sync, so I don't know if it's the same number of mobs as it is with scaling on. But it's definitely more mobs in 3 of the pulls there in 3.0 with scaling than there was in 2.0 without it.

 

The Ogre's outside the Ogre bounty cave are the biggest example. Before, those dudes were like a slightly scaled down version of the bounty fight. Now, they're like two of the bounty fight at the same time.

 

When I first played PoE, that Ogre bounty fight and the Ogres/Ogre Druids on the 3rd level of the Endless Paths were among the toughest fights I had, UNTIL ... I learned that the key to taking down Ogres easily was mind control/affecting spells that targeted Will, such as Confusion, Charm, or Dominate.  Anything that will get the Ogres fighting each other. 

 

Remember to have your party NOT target the Ogre you're about to charm.  (Don't want to charm him and then void the spell in the next instant because you hit him with a stray arrow.)  And don't target the charmed Ogre after he's charmed, at least until he's the only Ogre left to deal with.

 

Ogres fighting Ogres mean that they're working for you.  Even the ones you don't charm, if they're pounding on charmed ones, they're still working for you, when you think about it.  Ogres fighting ogres is a no lose situation! 

Edited March 6, 2016 by Crucis

[Aramintai]

I'd say Alpine and Llengrath because there are no cheesy choke points. Adra can block her own adds with her fat ass if you lure her to the nook on the left. Same goes for Concelhaut - you can block the adds at the door. 

[kvaak]

Radiant Spore by far. I did kill it on my first try but only because high level priests can resurrect an absurd number of times, the fight was extremely hectic and by the end I had all chars but one at 0 health. One more hit from the boss could've killed me.

 

Adra Dragon, Sky Dragon and Alpine Dragon all went down on the first try. Llengrath took two tries but only because I was bored of nothing providing any challenge whatsoever and just charged in without even resting. I looked for Llengrath after killing the second dragon but she had already died to driving flight and/or carnage without me even noticing it.

 

Concelhaut also went down on the first try. Aloth disabled him like three seconds into the fight and he stayed that way for the entire fight. Devil's first hit ate more than half his HP...

 

Pre-WM Adra Dragon was something else, I'm fairly sure she was practically impossible without cheesing or chain disabling (which is difficult enough in itself).

Edited March 7, 2016 by kvaak

[Teioh_White]

I'd say Alpine and Llengrath because there are no cheesy choke points. Adra can block her own adds with her fat ass if you lure her to the nook on the left. Same goes for Concelhaut - you can block the adds at the door. 

 

While there isn't a choke point there in that fight, it is a massive arena with a big rock in the middle, so it's super easy to kite the dragons around it. Which is pretty much what I did; rest of the team dealing with the trash in the bottom right corner, while someone ran in circles with both dragons following. Once adds where dead, just kept running in circles while dragons got pinked to death.

 

Not to take away from their being cheese in the other fights; most everyone fight in this game lets you do cheesy strats to win, and sometimes, it's hard to win otherwise.Normally whenever I try to fight a dragon 'legit', it'll do something lame like spin around to insta Tail-gib someone in front of him, or turn and breath the squishes. And well, if that's how the dragon wants to play....

[Caribou]

For me it has to be the Adra dragon.  I think my first attempt everyone in the party got one shot except for my tank and ranger.

[Skladzien]

Alpine Dragon for me. With Adra i had funny glitch - My main was using some item that is giving Invisibility on critical hit and The Grey Sleeper and in first hit i scored critical and stayed invisible the whole fight so that everyone in team except my barb died, but he finished Adra. I think it is the glitch with invisibility as it should vanish on taking hostile action but it didn't. On my PotD run i didn't try to kill Adra (now playing hard), and in previous playthrough i did not manage to kill her as max level was 12 then. 

[Crucis]

I'd say Alpine and Llengrath because there are no cheesy choke points. Adra can block her own adds with her fat ass if you lure her to the nook on the left. Same goes for Concelhaut - you can block the adds at the door. 

 

Actually,as I saw suggested in another post and just now witnessed for myself, the Alpine Dragon doesn't block its adds.  Its adds actually block the dragon from getting to you.  So what you can do is ignore the blocking adds and just spam spells and ranged attacks at the Alpine Dragon (it's vulnerable to fire, so I had Durance spam away with his pillars of fire!).

[globalCooldown]

Honestly? First time through the game, I had the hardest time with the first floor of the haunted lighthouse in Defiance Bay. >.>

Don't go in there underleveled, kids!

 

Haven't taken a swing at adra or alpine dragon since WM2 came out, but I know I've had problems with them before. I did manage to get Concelhaut down without much cheesing, though.

[Crucis]

Right now, I'm having one heck of a time against the WM2 bounty group led by Brynlod.  They keep kicking my party around, battle after battle.  I think that I'm going to have to head back to Caed Nua and grab GM again.  It seems like the most effective spells against these guys have been mind control ones, getting to fight each other.  I think that Kana's gonna get benched, if only for a little bit.

 

(Note, I ended up not replacing Kana with Maneha, but did replace GM with a custom Mage.  I didn't feel like listening to Aloth.)

 

Update:  After replacing Kana with GM, I was able to beat Brynlod's pirate band and collect the bounty.  It was a very tough fight, but heavy use of Confusion and cipher spells did the trick.  There really nothing quite like getting the bad guys to start turning on each other and doing your work for you.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Crucis

[mishkoff]

For me it has to be Concelhaut, he always gave me a hard time, close second is Alpine Dragon.

[gogocactus]

Playing on PotD, without a priest:

 

N. 1: Alpine Dragon

N. 2: Lengrath

N. 3: Concelhaut

 

I managed to finish Lengrath with relative ease at 14 by equipping my party with anti beast equipment, engaging the adds first and having my rogue take Lengrath out ASAP. Even so, I had to wait until level sixteen before I could take the Alpine dragon out. I have no idea how other people are able to finish the alpine dragon at level eleven or even lower..

[Crucis]

Playing on PotD, without a priest:

 

N. 1: Alpine Dragon

N. 2: Lengrath

N. 3: Concelhaut

 

I managed to finish Lengrath with relative ease at 14 by equipping my party with anti beast equipment, engaging the adds first and having my rogue take Lengrath out ASAP. Even so, I had to wait until level sixteen before I could take the Alpine dragon out. I have no idea how other people are able to finish the alpine dragon at level eleven or even lower..

 

There are some keys to successful dragon hunting.  (Some might say cheese.)

 

1. Learn the dragon hunting skill from Falanroed as part of the Adra Dragon "hunt".  It reduces any dragon's defenses for a shortish but useful period of time.

 

2. Paralyze spell scrolls.  It may seem cheesy, but dragons are so incredibly powerful with their breath attacks that can just about nuke an entire party, I'd call it the proverbial case of "fighting fire with fire".

 

2a. If you have a high enough level wizzy, Gaze of the Adragan for more paralyzing.  A paralyzed dragon hurts no one.

 

3. Watch the dragon's DR's and immunities closely and use weapons, spells, chants, whatever that target the weak areas.

[Brimsurfer]

One of the following;

 

Alpine Dragon or Llengrath or Adra Dragon.....

[Cragen]

So far for me, the Magran's Faithful bounty by FAR. Honestly seems broken at this point. I never got around to finishing the game so been doing a full playthrough with a Barb on POTD.
Been some difficult fights and whatnot but nothing I couldn't overcome, but this bounty is kicking my ass its not even funny.

Every single NPC got 150 will/fort/deflection so no matter what I throw at them they just shrug it off like its nothing. They got 3 priests so Storm of Holy Fire just insta kill anything that is in the area, but there isn't really enough room to move around.

And then you got the druids who will kill anything that gets remotely close to them with firebug.

So far I just end up running out of resources before half the group are dead. Been trying to get Eder to tank all the melee while I send the rest of my party behind them to pick off the priests one by one.
Using Aloth to try and crowd control as much as possible, but at the end I just don't do enough damage. Eder runs out of health and can't stay alive anymore and they just slaughter me after that.

 

Update!
Somehow manage to pull it off in the end. Think that might be the first fight so far where I've damn near run out of spells on Durance and Aloth and had to ress people multiple times just to squeeze out slightly more damage.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Cragen

[Jajo]

 

Playing on PotD, without a priest:

 

N. 1: Alpine Dragon

N. 2: Lengrath

N. 3: Concelhaut

 

I managed to finish Lengrath with relative ease at 14 by equipping my party with anti beast equipment, engaging the adds first and having my rogue take Lengrath out ASAP. Even so, I had to wait until level sixteen before I could take the Alpine dragon out. I have no idea how other people are able to finish the alpine dragon at level eleven or even lower..

 

There are some keys to successful dragon hunting.  (Some might say cheese.)

 

1. Learn the dragon hunting skill from Falanroed as part of the Adra Dragon "hunt".  It reduces any dragon's defenses for a shortish but useful period of time.

 

2. Paralyze spell scrolls.  It may seem cheesy, but dragons are so incredibly powerful with their breath attacks that can just about nuke an entire party, I'd call it the proverbial case of "fighting fire with fire".

 

2a. If you have a high enough level wizzy, Gaze of the Adragan for more paralyzing.  A paralyzed dragon hurts no one.

 

3. Watch the dragon's DR's and immunities closely and use weapons, spells, chants, whatever that target the weak areas.

 

 

Paralyze scrolls didn't work well for me even before the dragons were buffed, but I agree that, sadly, immobilizing them is the (only) way to go. I just don't know how to deal with 300 non-crit semi-ranged butt attacks otherwise. The tools now have to be tailored somewhat to the dragon, because of the immunities, but not the process itself.

I find it, that despite them being resistant to prone, Concelhaut's Crushing Doom is still invaluable in these encounters, since it gives you multiple prone checks for the price of one spell (and damage's a nice bonus too). Dexterity's usually one of the lowest resistances on the dragons to begin with. The downside is, that you have to have already beaten Concelhaut to get it.

Stun weapons are a good choice too. Stunned affliction also suspends prone lengthening the effect.

[Crucis]

 

 

Playing on PotD, without a priest:

 

N. 1: Alpine Dragon

N. 2: Lengrath

N. 3: Concelhaut

 

I managed to finish Lengrath with relative ease at 14 by equipping my party with anti beast equipment, engaging the adds first and having my rogue take Lengrath out ASAP. Even so, I had to wait until level sixteen before I could take the Alpine dragon out. I have no idea how other people are able to finish the alpine dragon at level eleven or even lower..

 

There are some keys to successful dragon hunting.  (Some might say cheese.)

 

1. Learn the dragon hunting skill from Falanroed as part of the Adra Dragon "hunt".  It reduces any dragon's defenses for a shortish but useful period of time.

 

2. Paralyze spell scrolls.  It may seem cheesy, but dragons are so incredibly powerful with their breath attacks that can just about nuke an entire party, I'd call it the proverbial case of "fighting fire with fire".

 

2a. If you have a high enough level wizzy, Gaze of the Adragan for more paralyzing.  A paralyzed dragon hurts no one.

 

3. Watch the dragon's DR's and immunities closely and use weapons, spells, chants, whatever that target the weak areas.

 

 

Paralyze scrolls didn't work well for me even before the dragons were buffed, but I agree that, sadly, immobilizing them is the (only) way to go. I just don't know how to deal with 300 non-crit semi-ranged butt attacks otherwise. The tools now have to be tailored somewhat to the dragon, because of the immunities, but not the process itself.

I find it, that despite them being resistant to prone, Concelhaut's Crushing Doom is still invaluable in these encounters, since it gives you multiple prone checks for the price of one spell (and damage's a nice bonus too). Dexterity's usually one of the lowest resistances on the dragons to begin with. The downside is, that you have to have already beaten Concelhaut to get it.

Stun weapons are a good choice too. Stunned affliction also suspends prone lengthening the effect.

 

 

Apparently, some dragons (the Alpine dragon, maybe) are immune to paralyze spells.  But some are vulnerable to confusion.  Some are vulnerable to prone attacks.  All of this falls under point #3 about paying attention to a dragon's DRs and immunities.

 

One thing about dragons who aren't immune to confusion spells.    Getting a dragon confused isn't going to allow you to attack and damage it freely, like you could to a paralyzed target.  The moment you strike a confused target, the confusion effect goes away.  The benefits I can see of getting a dragon confused are: 

 

1)  Any adds the dragon has may attack him, and he may attack his adds.  But watch out, I don't know if a dragon's breath weapon is foe-only or not.   And if he were to make a breath (or wing buffet) attack on his adds, if not foe-only, those attacks may hit you as well.

 

2)  Having a dragon confused may give you time to re-position or cast buffs or healing, etc on team mates.  Note that this may not quite be the case in the battle where there are two dragons.  And in any case, whether one or two dragons, the other enemies may choose to continue attacking you.

 

 

And yes, stunning weapons may be nice, as long as that particular dragon isn't immune to being stunned.

 

 

One of the things I've learned in playing this (and the older IE games) is that sometimes one should look at your first attempt to any given battle (the tough ones, in particular) can be seen as gathering intel on the enemy.  Oh, at times you may win on your first attempt.  But even if you don't, you've learned what their strengths and weaknesses are, if you were paying attention to your enemies' DR's and immunities.   And then when you give it a second try, you should be more ready.

 

On this same line of thinking, something else I've learned is that sometimes the class mix of characters you have in your party may not be effective against certain enemies or groups of enemies.  I found fighting the monks in the Abbey very difficult with the first party I took into the Abbey (Rogue PC, Eder, Pallegina, Maneha, Durance, and a merc wizzy).  So, I retreated from the Abbey and went all the way back to Caed Nua and replaced Maneha, the barbarian, with Kana, a chanter, and replaced the merc wizzy with GM, a cipher.  And when I went back to the Abbey, things got a LOT easier.  Kana was more durable and his chant that does flame damage to all enemies nearby was quite useful.  And GM is more durable than a wizzy, and between her spells and her Stormcaller bow, she was very effective.

 

So it seems to me that the lesson is that there's nothing wrong with changing up the roster of your party if it will help you more easily deal with certain enemies.