Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Dragon Knight Saga: How long did it take you?

O yeah, I've listen & looked at the video that's just coming on the Newspage of LS side today ...
always find it very handy and good there is no "anti-dragon-zone" at the Dragon Cliff Castle ... but never thought deeper about it : to change into a dragon during that, indeed, very hard battle !!
So first killing Markthum ...and then, yes then ... ... I really wish to try that next time !

That battle involving Markthum and the others is bugged. Markthum does over 1600 damage per hit, which really doesn't make sense. He's so overpowered he makes Behrlinn and Ygerna look like a couple of imps. There's no reason for it, even doing half that damage he would still one-shot anyone, and there is no other character that does damage like that. I was more than six levels above him but it was still a time-consuming chokepoint. It's something I wished they had fixed, there's actually a few chokepoints like that. Zagan is also unusually tough and to beat him I had to fly up to the exit then shoot arrows for a long time. Small things they could have polished a little.

@Stabbey,

"you can kill Markthum and change back into a Dragon to kill the DTP"

DTP ? Not sure what your'e talking about. I know you can fly in that area but I don't remember killing anything in Dragon form there.

No boss should be doing 1600 a hit, it sounds like you've found the persistent bug with crazy boss damage in DKS.

Zagan himself isn't actually hard, it's the Demon Bosses that spawn in from the nests which have the Dragon Blast spell that are the real threat. That's because there's no room to avoid that spell in the small cave and the Dragon has no good healing options.

DTP = Dragon Terror Patrol.

Thanks. When I encountered Markthum and the others I was above level 30, and he's level 22. I almost couldn't believe it when he instantly one-shotted me but I checked my combat log and sure enough, 1600 + damage every time,and one of the others was also doing almost as much damage. There were also a few other fights that seemed almost as imbalanced.

As for changing into dragon form to kill the DTP I found that I could change into dragon form in that area but couldn't kill anything that isn't flying. At no point in he game could I kill enemies on the ground while in dragon form, in fact I can't even see anyone on the ground in dragon form.

You're right about Zagan. I took out the nest towers right away but trying to fly around and kill those Demon Bosses was almost impossible, I would just get killed in a few seconds.I got through it by flying up to the exit area to heal, then doing as much shooting as possible. Some of them fly into arrow range when you stand there, but to finish the fight I had to jump in, score one or two hits, then quickly fly back to the ledge to heal, then repeat over and over. It took a very long time.

This is why it puzzles me when people say they breezed through this game in 40 hours or less. It was some of these imbalanced fights that I found to be serious chokepoints, and it's not entirely because of the way I designed my character because if your character is doing well you shouldn't just instantly get one-shotted suddenly by some surprisingly overpowered enemy. If my character was adequately prepared for some of those bossfights the rest of the battles would be so easy that I probably would get through it in a lot less time but it would be a pretty dull playthrough. That's what I mean by balance problems that could have used a little more work.

OK I just went back to a savegame just before the DTP fight and did it again. Check out this screenshot. Combat log

Just did it again. Almost impossible because Tobelisk one-shots me too, but I did find that I can't shape-shift while the fight is going on, not before or after I kill Markthum. Only after the fight is completed.

One thing I only discovered about the three sleepers in this play-through is that they do actually turn up in Broken Valley village after all: I'd expected them to be in the Black Boar like every other wanderer, but they hang around at the back of the village between the chapel and the talking vendor's cart thing, and reveal that their ordeal started when a bottle of wine was provided by a "weird rhyming fellow"!

Oh, I didn't realise this was a known "feature". I had a real sulk when I took them on at level 25 or 26 and repeatedly had my bottom handed to me, eventually having to settle for running into one of the towers and sniping.

I knew someone had posted a solution! Tricky, but I just managed to follow it. Frustrating in a way as I'd used a similar method to get to the area right above the exit where you first arrive on Sentinel Island, but I guess I wouldn't have had the idea to continue running along the invisible walls even if I'd tried that other tree.

Lol, the only way I could kill them was to get them to chase me down that long flight of stairs to that open area in front of the castle, I guess it's the Zeppelin dock. Thanks to no fall damage I could jump straight down then pelt them with fireballs and exploding arrows when they ran down the stairs.

But the point is that this is why it's confusing when people talk about getting through DKS quickly. I wonder if we're talking about the same version of the game. Because I have it on Steam I know I have the latest patched version, and this is what you get, sudden chokepoints with vastly overpowered bosses. I'm wondering now if there are other patches or fixes for specific issues I may not know about.

For me it is still going, still haven't played FoV.
Don't feel like playing for some reason.

sudden chokepoints with vastly overpowered bosses.

That isn't a consistent bug. Some people have run into over-powered bosses, most do not.

I made a short video to show you what I'm talking about. This isn't the entire DTP battle, just a brief demo of how challenging some parts of this game can be on Hard difficulty, at least in my version. At this point my character is level 32, nine levels above the DTP. Check it out.

That is a BUG. It is NOT. Intentional. It is NOT supposed to happen. It is not related to the difficulty. Not even the final boss on Nightmare skill does that much damage.

I have encountered that bug once before, with my Geishneiz on my Warrior.

That fight is suppose to be challenging, minus the one hit kills.

In the video you don't have your creature active. They can target your creature, rather than you, giving you time to Rush Attack or use a Stun Arrow or Hide in Shadows, etc. Even if they target you, your creature (or a summon) may block an attack if it is in the way.
Running around in full view of all of the DTP probably wasn't helping much, either, and isn't the best strategy even without the damage bug.

I started that fight off with a Splitting Arrow (Way of the Ranger would have helped, if I had known it then), then after a few hits jumped back onto the ground behind that raised section to heal. Two of them ran around either side, with one taking longer than the other, while two concentrated on my creature. Once I took out the first couple (much easier one on one) the other two were not difficult.

In my case all I have to go on is the chat log, which claims I did it in about 40 hours, but as I mentioned, I'm pretty certain that figure has to be wrong.

Just looked at my achievements and there are still two that are locked: I dunno what they are, though, because it says they're a secret. I imagine one of them is the bunny (or is it chicken?) killer one, which I don't want to do because it's mean, not sure about the other though.

If you really want to know you can look through a list of the Dragon Knight Saga Achievements. There is one for the killer bunny and the white chicken, so that could account for the two you don't have.

Thanks! Fortunately I found the other one quite quickly: "You sided with Behrlihn." Which I didn't, and don't intend to, so I guess that'll remain locked! I dealt with the white chicken on a previous play-through as I didn't want to leave the quest unresolved, but it didn't feel quite right... I left it alone this time, alongside the chap with two personalities.

Well, I invite you to give it a try!

Despite us having to cut the area outside of the city and therefore leaving the player somewhat cooped up in Aleroth, Flames of Vengeance is in my opinion a really tasty slice of RPG gameplay. Sure I’m biased, but as far as dialogs and quest design is concerned, I think we did some of our best work here. After creating the rather more encounter-based Orobas Fjords, it was great to think up characters and write dialog for a more confined setting, for a more thematically bonded whole. RPG-wise that paid off.

Anyway, you definitely don’t have to take my word for it, but yeah, give it a shot I say!

I found that the creature doesn't do a lot, it's just a very tricky fight when two of them can one-shot you, and they're also difficult to see, at times invisible, another glitch. But it is doable without taking any significant damage. Check out this video in which I did summon the creature.

I loved FoV: I thought it would feel too claustrophobic but it actually worked really well. Reminded me somewhat of Morrowind's Tribunal in that regard: both existed in fairly limited spaces, but were strongly story-driven. It was nice seeing a bit more of Aleroth after the "teaser" we got near the end of ED.

I'd still like to visit its surroundings, though. Is it too late to ask for another expansion...?

I’m afraid it is.

Believe me, the design team (no more than four brave musketeers!) was heartbroken when we had to let go of this area. We had several quests already in place and we were really trying to create another Broken Valley, only more coherent and story-driven. We were rather well on our way, but it became clear at some point we would never be able to finish it properly and fill a city like Aleroth as well. Quite a shame really, it did look fantastic ... The swamp with warring goblin tribes; the wizard tower; the witch’s fort; the Black Ring battlements ...

Alas!