Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Originally posted by cdtm
Got the flaming sword, btw. 👆

That golem fight was really something. Probably hit that at just the right level to make it a bit challenging, without being frustratingly difficult.

Love how you run into this stuff just wandering around. Way more fun then Skyrim, that's for sure.

Was the flaming sword better for you or your pawn?

Yeah, I agree, there isn't as much as Skyrim, but it feels like there doesn't have to be, because the world and exploration in itself is so gratifying and interesting.

Originally posted by Jmanghan
I'm telling you, you could be level 5, and the tactic I told you would work, I just gave that advice to my level 25 Assassin friend and watched him personally take down a Drake on stream.

You'll also want sorcerer pawns with high magick attack.

I can't really imagine a level 40 physical-based character struggling even slightly against the Drake.

Earliest I killed him WITHOUT buffs was level 29. On another playthrough, I killed him again, at level 30. I had to heal a lot, sure, but this is the only way to fully upgrade your shit pre-Dragon fight.

That was as a Mystic Knight, btw, which means I only got 1 single point of strength per level up, which also means my strength gains (as a physical type, nonetheless), were very, very bad, which made my overall attacks not hit nearly as hard as if I picked an Assassin.

If you get those buffs I suggested, you will destroy him, also, switch your skills to Hundred Kisses while grabbing onto his heart, then chug down 4 Conqueree's Periapts and Liquid Vim, you will destroy him so fast your mouth will drop.

If you just want Dragonforged equipment (and you do, trust me), you can just shoot an a maker's finger at him and OHKO him. Maker's Finger is a OHKO for every monster, including bosses. They only things it can't kill are the Unique BBI Bosses, like Death.

The Drake is also weak to Ice Weapons AND Ice Spells. When he is staggered and a sorcerer casts the Ice Spikes, it will deal incredible damage, and will sometimes take out an entire health bar on it's own.

This is the last tips I can give ya, mate, Good Luck.

Yeah, there is the dragon forging.

So wait, you were a level 29 mystic knight, and you were doing damage? Did you have cold affinity?

If you could do straight damage, I have to seriously rethink my gear loadout. It's ether that, or I keep running in to bugged drakes (It happens.. And nearly every time I uselessly spammed the heart, it met those conditions that triggers it.

There's also the fact I'm hanging on to the heart while it's flying.. Wonder if that could trigger a bug or simply not be possible to hurt while airborn, because most times the things grounded in videos, and the wiki flat out states it takes more damage on its side....)

Originally posted by cdtm
Yeah, there is the dragon forging.

So wait, you were a level 29 mystic knight, and you were doing damage? Did you have cold affinity?

If you could do straight damage, I have to seriously rethink my gear loadout. It's ether that, or I keep running in to bugged drakes (It happens.. And nearly every time I uselessly spammed the heart, it met those conditions that triggers it.

There's also the fact I'm hanging on to the heart while it's flying.. Wonder if that could trigger a bug or simply not be possible to hurt while airborn, because most times the things grounded in videos, and the wiki flat out states it takes more damage on its side....)

There is no bug like that. Certain classes have augments that allow you to lose less stamina when climbing on a monster.

Ice Spells are absolutely devastating when its on its side, you are almost guaranteed to take down more then half a health bar.

Definately been glitching.

My overall strength level is 1100 something (Haven't changes out my armor since day 1, so likely underleveled).

Dragons defense is 400.

I noticed just running back and forth under the drake attacking the heart, I was whittling it's health down.. Took off an entire bar doing it

Another moment, it seemed to get stuck in one spot.. Nothing I did was dropping it.

I still haven't implemented throwblasts and stuff, but I wanted to test if I could even do physical damage on my own. Now I know I can, unless I can't. 👆

Originally posted by cdtm
Definately been glitching.

My overall strength level is 1100 something (Haven't changes out my armor since day 1, so likely underleveled).

Dragons defense is 400.

I noticed just running back and forth under the drake attacking the heart, I was whittling it's health down.. Took off an entire bar doing it

Another moment, it seemed to get stuck in one spot.. Nothing I did was dropping it.

I still haven't implemented throwblasts and stuff, but I wanted to test if I could even do physical damage on my own. Now I know I can, unless I can't. 👆

Elemental ice weapons will be devastating against him though, but you gotta find where those are.

That's the thing, I was using ice boon and conquerer's thingee, and spamming didn't do a thing. 👆

I've heard worse.. One guy was complaining about shooting the heart with ice affinity explosive arrows and not doing anything. It's accepted pure melee class is a "when it works" option (They also claim staggering helps, so I'll try a few full bends to the head if it happens again.)

And nearly every time this happens, the drakes flying in the air while I'm clinging to it, so I think that may be a key.. They probably didn't program it too well for that kind of scenerio, of someone grabbing on and riding it for minutes at a time..

No question whatsoever I can inflict damage if it's grounded, like after a fall from the sky.

Originally posted by cdtm
That's the thing, I was using ice boon and conquerer's thingee, and spamming didn't do a thing. 👆

I've heard worse.. One guy was complaining about shooting the heart with ice affinity explosive arrows and not doing anything. It's accepted pure melee class is a "when it works" option (They also claim staggering helps, so I'll try a few full bends to the head if it happens again.)

And nearly every time this happens, the drakes flying in the air while I'm clinging to it, so I think that may be a key.. They probably didn't program it too well for that kind of scenerio, of someone grabbing on and riding it for minutes at a time..

No question whatsoever I can inflict damage if it's grounded, like after a fall from the sky.

I had a level 23 friend use 4 conquerer's periapts and destroy him very quickly.

Its not a "when it works" option, your game is just glitched, no offence.

Whoops, was looking at my stamina. My strength level is 367.

And that's with bloodlust.

312 at base as of now.

Tried going to Fournival for more of those conquerer's buffs, but he only gave me the Escort Duty quest. Which I failed by stepping outside accidentially. And since the game auto saves when you do that, I'm out one quest.

Anyways, I finally gathered all the stuff, and it works like a charm. Haven't quite gotten the drake, but that's only because I need to clear out those goblins first. Just not this session.

Feels kind of like cheating though. But facing down 400 defense, with sub 400 attack even with night buffs, I probably would need to be a sorcerer spamming ice spells to solo without buffs.. 🙂

This one guy claims he had a level 25 assassin with vocation 9 skills, plus Warrior Clout, and he creamed the drake. Is that even possible..? Vocations take a pretty long time to level.. I'd say no less then 2-3 levels per upgrade, and 1-10 is usually spent on the core fighter/strider/mage..

Originally posted by cdtm
Anyways, I finally gathered all the stuff, and it works like a charm. Haven't quite gotten the drake, but that's only because I need to clear out those goblins first. Just not this session.

Feels kind of like cheating though. But facing down 400 defense, with sub 400 attack even with night buffs, I probably would need to be a sorcerer spamming ice spells to solo without buffs.. 🙂

This one guy claims he had a level 25 assassin with vocation 9 skills, plus Warrior Clout, and he creamed the drake. Is that even possible..? Vocations take a pretty long time to level.. I'd say no less then 2-3 levels per upgrade, and 1-10 is usually spent on the core fighter/strider/mage..

Vocations aren't based on XP, they are based on kills.

Is that so..

Damn, in a way it kind of penalize's you for shooting for the biggest dogs in the game. 😆

Makes leveling vocation a lot easier though..

Originally posted by cdtm
Is that so..

Damn, in a way it kind of penalize's you for shooting for the biggest dogs in the game. 😆

Makes leveling vocation a lot easier though..

Aaaaand, done.

Not exactly what I'd call easy, because didn't buy defense buffs (Didn't want to TOTALLY cheese this), and relied almost exclusively on melee attacks (The camera angles are... not good. Xbox Ninja Gaiden was bad, and this is somehow even worse.)

Also only had one liquid vim, and few stamina restoratives.

My pawns were also completely useless.. I bought ice affinity for my main pawn, and disabled every other skill but cure, and the bastard never buffed me once. So I left him and the other pawns to die. 👆

Which did make things a lot more complicated when the goblins started respawning.. Ehh, maybe fighting at night wasn't such a good idea, seeing the skill buffs left me five points shy of damaging the drake without the strength buffing items. Pointess really, and on the downside there's the goblin respawning, plus it's harder to track the drake.

Congratulations, my man.

Out of all the first kill experiences, the Drake is way up there.

Thanks. 🙂

It was dicey in the end, I won't lie. But when I got that opening, held on to it's chest with a death grip, and spammed away like there's no tommorow (You died for a noble cause, pawn in the dragons claw), and saw just one circle left, nothing on earth was gonna stop me from finishing the beast.

I was just running back and forth under it, swinging away blindly, eating healing stuff and emperer's whatchmacallits like candy.

And then had to avoid the goblin hordes just to collect my loot (They really could have finished me then), before ferrystoning away at the last minute.

it.was.AWESOME.

Originally posted by cdtm
Thanks. 🙂

It was dicey in the end, I won't lie. But when I got that opening, held on to it's chest with a death grip, and spammed away like there's no tommorow (You died for a noble cause, pawn in the dragons claw), and saw just one circle left, nothing on earth was gonna stop me from finishing the beast.

I was just running back and forth under it, swinging away blindly, eating healing stuff and emperer's whatchmacallits like candy.

And then had to avoid the goblin hordes just to collect my loot (They really could have finished me then), before ferrystoning away at the last minute.

it.was.AWESOME.

I'll tell you one thng, the end-gwme of this and BBI have much better stories then Skyrim, for sure.

You know what, I take it back about fighting at night.

Not much cooler then the dead of night being broken by a firebreathing dragon. Very atmospheric.

They already have a pc port, don't they?

Are the remasters supposed to top it? Or simply match it, by cleaning up the visuals and fov?