Just finished it for the first time...took a good 30 minutes, and only had to reload once because the Goddess is not very bright.
Main characters were a ranger and a witch, and I used the 2 most popular tag-a-longs (the fighter chick and the air/water magic dude...)
I had the same problem with Astarte getting her butt handed to her in the first or second round. The dragon appears to be nearsighted, because if you can get some cannon fodder in closer that she (Astarte) is, he'll focus on that. I healed her once or twice early, then let her do her thing, as I became the focus of the baddies...
My Ranger sat back at range (doi). Taking alternate shots at the dragon and the summons as needed. One of my key moves is Charming the summons. I usually charm the closest to me, then let the other summons vent their anger on him. I tried a variety of arrows on the dragon, but didn't get a feeling that any of them were doing any more damage than the standard set (knockdown arrows didn't work AT ALL). I think the "Curse" arrows were working fairly well.
The Witch was on Summon / Damage duty. Death Punch works *wonders* (if I remember right it was doing 600+ damage). I also had her Blinding the dragon, which seemed to work better for me than Freeze / Knockdown. She would summon a Death Knight on off rounds to help keep the summons occupied.
Air/Water Mage Dude: Fairly useless in this fight. Used him more as cannon fodder than anything else... I did have him keep a constant supply of Ice summons online, and his Teleport / Drop power came in handy when the bad summons got too close.
Fighter Chick: Straight Damage. None of her special talents worked very well either...the one where she Weakens w/ Hit worked a few times, but basically just plugging away at full power.
FOR ME: There were 2 main keys...
1. Keep the dragon from attacking. Figure out which interrupt works best for your set up. Having the witch cast Blind worked best for me.
2. When the dragon *does* attack, make sure he's attacking something other that YOU. I tried to keep summons to his left and right. He would turn to attack them and would barely put a scratch on my characters.
I had 2 blood gems going into the fight...had to use one about half way through before I figured out the "keep him attacking *sideways*" strategy.
Good luck man!
Gonna try my luck with a Rogue / Warrior Lone Wolf run now!!!
