Greater Dragons in PvM

[Caelas]

Greater Dragons...I hate Greater Dragons.

I (try) to go to Destard to hunt dragons for their skin to donate to the Library. I would e perfectly ok...except for the greater dragons that are mixed in with the wyverns, drakes, and normal dragons. I just can't handle the big guys. Obviously, I;m not the only one, because about half the time I go into Destard there is either a greater dragon RIGHT at the enterance, or a dead guy and a greater not far off.

How do I deal with these pains? Dragon slayer bows are hard to come by on my shard, and when I do get one (I have a kinda half-way good one) it only hits for 20-30 damage. The greater dragon's fireballs hit for about 60. So, two hits and a nasty poison later, and I'm calling the guild for a rez. Any suggestions on how to kill these dang things?

And why were they put in the dungeon in the first place? The other dungeons harder creatures are on other levels. Why have these big dragons right at the enterance?

 

[Nenime]

Tee hee *giggles* Yes, Destard has become a funny place. Basically it is a Tamer realm now, I hardly see others. Everytime an Archer (which were once the Destard kings) steps in, I count the seconds when his ghost will appear saying something like "OOoooOOO"

You can actually deal with them but you got to have some patience, the right tactic and gear. Dragon/Reptile slayer is almost mandatory and Stamina Leech really helps against their bad breath. Hit and run (and heal) is the key. After some trials you either get the rhythm or a nice collection of grey robes.

Oh yes, and if you think these are hard then go downstairs and try an Ancient Wyrm of which the fighting abilities were slightly raised too. Ancient Wyrms and Greater Dragons now have 160 Barding Difficulty so Bards are very rare guests too.

 

[Caelas]

See...the devs should consider moving the Greaters in with the Ancient. That way Destard becomes a viable dungeon for more than just tamers...who of course can do ANYTHING...

Not that I have anything against tamers.

 

[Nenime]

for more than just tamers...who of course can do ANYTHING...

Not that I have anything against tamers.

Naaa, of course not. I would never think of this.

Ok ok, it is true: the only one who can easily survive down there is probably a Disco-Tamer *coughs* and maybe I have one. But I've been in other Virtue Dungeons to get Arties for the Spring-thing and i.e. the lower levels of Hythloth are pretty lethal too. But I admit, Level 1 of Destard should be GD-free or at least only one or two of them at a time. Did you already try the Fire Temple north of Hythloth? Due to the location it's easier to lure them away one after another. If you're only looking for Barbed Leather you can instead hunt White Wyrms at Ice Dungeon. There are no Greater White Wyrms - till now!

 

[Caelas]

Ice Dungeon eh? I'll have to give it a look...thanks!

Haven't tried the Fire Temple...I'll give it a look also.

 

[Caelas]

Ok, so I found the White Wyrm "nest" in ICe Dungeon...and only thing there was snakes. Did the dragons devolve or something?

 

[Papadom]

I frequent the WW nest on GL and I find them to be spawning one after another within a few seconds of the last one that died.

The GD's are nasty! I think they have around 1200 HP's compared to the 465 HP's of a WW

 

[Nenime]

Ok, so I found the White Wyrm "nest" in ICe Dungeon...and only thing there was snakes. Did the dragons devolve or something?

Sometimes nobody is at home there. I don't know why. I used to think that somebody else lured them away but several times I searched the whole area and couldn't find them. When I come back a little later they are back again.

In view of the leather, if you don't mind the bad karma you could go for Serpentine Dragons too. Or maybe Nightmares but the only good (reliable) spawn I know of is in the Ki-Rin passage and it's everytime a long way from the nearest Moongate (Humility).

 

[hawkeye_pike]

How do I deal with these pains? Any suggestions on how to kill these dang things?

I find the Greater Dragons a nice challenge that was added, because Destard previously was way too easy a place to get barbed hides.

Soloing Greater Dragons is not easy... I never managed to solo them with my (very experienced and well-equipped) melee fighters. I can kill them with a mage, however, if I am careful. You need: Dragon slayer spellbook, high mana regeneration rate, a mount. You simply spam the Dragon with E-Bolts, while riding back and forth, keeping safety distance, casting an occasional heal or cure on yourself. This only works, because the Greater Dragon's teleporting abilities seem to be bugged currently. With this tactics I can take down a Greater Dragon in 3-5 minutes. There still is a risk of dying, but when I die then it is mostly a screen away from the Dragon, and Gift of Life brings me back immediately and safely.

If you find this kind of fighting tactics annoying, you still go in with your melee fighter and just avoid the Greater Dragons. Works pretty well for me, too. You'd need a mount though, to escape any Greater who's waiting by the entrance.

 

[Caelas]

Well, I hunted the White Wyrms last night...didn't go too bad. FOund them to be about as hard as a dragon, just different tactics and spells. I ended up using a non-slayer bow because it was doing better damage than my half-crap dragon slayer bow. If it had not been for missing a lot (guess I need more HCI) these guys would have been cake. Instead, they were...well, old cake? It wasn't too bad until I found my bug overburdened and couldn't run away to heal...almost died there.

I'll be back to kill them more

 

[Nenime]

Ok, I did some testing and after a while it went fairly good. (Please remember that my Archery skills are a bit rusty so this can be done better with some practice.)

Template is:
Human
Strength 100
Dex 125
Int 30

120 Archery
120 Bushido
100 Tactics
100 Anatomy
100 Chivalry
100 Meditation
45 Necromancy
and the rest few points Focus

Vampire Form
Protection Spell

Equipment:
Mace & Shield Glasses
Voice of the Fallen King
Keeonean's Chain Mail
Stormgrip
Leggings of Embers
Crafted sleeves with good Fire & Poison Resist and some +Mana
Crimson Cincture
Ring of the Vile
Bracelet of Health
Primer on Arms Talisman
Eclipse Robe
Quiver of Invinity
and a mount of course
(Odd combination, I know, but it was just for quick testing.)

Weapon:
I choosed to take the Horselord Bow with me. Mischief Maker is a lot faster and good against normal Dragons but you need to do high damage for the Vampire Life Leech thing.

Strategy:
Needless to say: don't get hit. First, make sure that it has no buddies around, one is bad enough. Then honor the beast. This worked only in half of the cases because this wyrms bless themselves on sight . After casting Enemy of One the party can start. Keep a little distance, cast Consecrate Weapon, cast Lighting Strike, run in, wait till you shoot, run away, repeat. That's it basically. The few spells won't do big damage if you got decent resists. Even the Poison and the Paralyse spell don't last long. Another thing is this Fire Breath crap. Especially in a row/combination with Flamestrike or Explosion your health goes down drastically (ya, ye know this already ). But one or two Close Wounds are enough to continue shooting.

I took down about 15 of them (sorry, not much time) and didn't flatline once - what surprised me too. When I managed to honor it, I could do damage between 100 and 200, sometimes even more. The lowest was 27. That was when I realized that EoO and CW was off.

I tried to count how many shots I need but I was too busy clicking and pushing makro buttons - haven't played the Archer for a looong time. But I think averagely I shot about 25-35 times, depending whether I honored it or not and how many health points and/or the resists it had.

BTW, I found out why they lurk at the entrance. Some players use this as a panic escape when things go to hot so the Drags follow and wait patiently for the next poor guy to come inside.

 

[Caelas]

HAha...well, compairing my suit and template to yours, I can see why I get slaughtered. I need to hurry up and get a soulstone so I can move fishing off of my archer and on to someone else to make room for Bushido. Or two soulstones so I can swap when I want to fish. Anyway...

Horselord bow...I think one of those is available on my shard for 1.75mil. Is it a worthwhile investment?

 

[Nenime]

Horselord bow...I think one of those is available on my shard for 1.75mil. Is it a worthwhile investment?

I would say no. Only if you're going to hunt Greater Dragons frequently. I remember I didn't use it for White Wyrms because it is too slow. A good player crafted bow is probably a better choice.

About the Greater Dragons: don't forget these are amongst the toughest non-instanced foes in the whole game. It's a thrill to challenge them but not necessary. For exceptional foes you need exceptional equipment - and this is not cheap . The loot is good, sure, but other monster have good loot too.

Bushido is great on Archers. I rarely use anything else but Lighting Strike and sometimes Evasion but even so. Lighting Strike caps out your Hit Chance and gives you a chance for a critical strike - awesome.

 

[Caelas]

Oh yes, I definatly plan on getting Bushido. Just gotta store the fishing!

I don't plan on taking on greater dragons...not now, anyway. The white wyrms are suiting my needs just fine for now. It is just going to take a long time to get all the leather I need for the Library.

With what I have now for skills/suit and the bow I was using I was hitting WWs for about 50-80 with EoO / Consecrate / Devine Fury running. Paralyze and Mortal Strike were deffinatly my friend last night. I just need to find a decent dragon slayer, player made bow to hunt with. Ugh.

 

[von Beck]

If you're serious about doing a big leather collection run you could consider using a stealth/herder to relocate all the greater dragons to an out of the way spot. I did this one morning in Destard/Fel (put all the greater dragons up by the stairs down to level 2), and had free run of the place for a great couple of hours' dragon slaughter. The good thing about Destard/Fel is there's no pesky drakes or wyverns.

 

[Arch Magus]

I suggest hunting the Shadow wyrms downstairs. They aren't as tough as you would think when using the right tactics.

I see you are an archer.
My Necro mage really tears them up with a Dragon slayer spellbook.