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#642885 27/02/18 06:15 AM
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I managed to finish this after multiple tries the first time but just barely. In later tries, even after hours of trying, nada. Yes, I used the armor that works (defense/offense/mana) at this stage, saved the number two for lightning towers (large island) and some nest/ballista concentrations, and destroyed as fast as number one cools down. Not as frustrating as, say, the General Raze battle (I just avoid it now) probably because I am destroying so much so fast with little threat to myself. The red zeppelin (hopefully not the led zeppelin smile ) is hardly damaged 2/3 of the way but as soon as the "last run" starts, it goes down in seconds. I doubt if there is much advise other then the vast number of write ups on this battle have already said but, if so, please don't hesitate to let it out!

Now, my question: I have tried lowering to "casual" for this battle but, I don't really notice a difference. Is there any?

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Hate.

Hate. Hate; hate hate hate, hate hate. Hate hate hate hate hate, hate hate hate. Hate hate. Hate hate hate hate, hate. Hate HATE, hate. Hate Hate hate.

Hate. Hate hate hate.

Hate.


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Also, that was not my favourite ever Divinity moment.


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grin

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So... I generally find it easier to fly way ahead of the zeppelin and destroy all the fortifications, rather than staying close to the zeppelin trying to protect it. After all, being just one dragon, you can't ever protect both sides of the ship, but you can clear the path fast enough so that nothing dangerous is left once it arrives there.

This has also been a valuable strategy in other games I've played, where the game instructs you to protect someone, but usually makes it harder for you if you take that advice literally. Playing the escort is harder than playing the pioneer, in a nutshell smile .

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I think that's what I eventually tried: but it was still really awkward. Usually if I'm lumbered with an escort quest I'll try to clear a path in advance (assuming it doesn't just respawn everything) but ISTR with the Zeppelin it would stop moving if you got too far ahead. Which wasn't really very far at all.


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You mean the game freezes / crashes if you do that?

Because if the Zeppelin merely stopped moving while you're clearing a path, that would be a good thing, wouldn't it? Then you'd have all the time in the world, and could then return to the Zeppelin to make it move on. smile

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--- I thought the same at first, then I remembered the flying demons.

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I don't remember the specifics (and curiously unhurried about refreshing my memory! biggrin ) but I vaguely recall it being a bad thing. Not in a crashy sort of way but at risk of failing the mission.


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Well, it's the only part I haven't tried on Nightmare difficulty yet (except for that situation in the Hall of Echoes-arena where Sassan would one-hit me with Magical Drumfire). But I certainly finished the game in both Flames of Vengeance as a CD expansion and in Developer's Cut, and flying ahead was the way to go.

If there are flying demons which can approach the ship, then you'll have to prioritise those before going after the edifices (and among those, prioritise the spawning towers so that no further flying enemies can follow).

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Let me know if you do - I tried changing it to the lowest difficulty and couldn't notice a difference.

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So, I've taken this as an incentive to finally finish my preceding playthrough which I had stopped just before starting the attack on the armada (I skipped finishing the big mindreading quest because since it's been so long and I don't remember who I'd still have to mindread in order to complete it, even though I have solved this quest before).

Indeed, lowering the difficulty won't help you much if you use the wrong strategy smile . Flying far ahead indeed was the way to go once again - however, on the Nightmare difficulty, that alone won't suffice.

Generally speaking, liberating Berlihn will make the armada quest slightly easier, but the final fight more difficult (obviously, because you'll have to face Berlihn and Ygerna rather than just her). If you choose to side with Bellegar, it will be the other way round, even though Bellegar's weapon, as far as I remember, isn't that much worse than Berlihn's "eye of the patriarch".

Correct use of this skill is vital! Since the ire of the patriarch destroys the building it hits plus everything around it, only use it on major platforms. Be as efficient as possible with the cooldown here; as soon as this skill becomes available again, stop whatever you're currently doing and quickly find a new huge platform to put it to use.

Do not use Dragon's Wrath, it's just an inferior version of the patriarch weapon, because you have to get really close to the targets and the radius is very small, whereas you can use the patriarch weapon across a much larger distance.

Do not use the regular flamebreath either (unless for doing the last bits of damage to destroy a fortification). It takes both too much time and mana; two flame spheres are perfect to destroy a ballista, and the cooldown is much faster than your mana regeneration after regular flamebreathing.

Most of the flying enemies can also be taken out by a single flame sphere. So occasionally shoot one at them whenever you come across one; since the flame sphere is homing, you usually don't have to worry about that foe afterwards anymore.

Otherwise, I summoned a Wyvern whenever possible, but didn't pay too much attention to it. Also, I occasionally switched on the Dragon Shield, but be prepared to swallow a lot of potions anyway.

Keep in mind you can combine a healing plus a revival potion, since the latter count as mana potions. This way, you can heal around 500 HP simultaneously, rather than just the 300ish the largest healing potion grants you.


Most importantly, keep the distance between you and the zeppelin as large as possible. You don't want it to catch up with you while there's still enemies around who are attacking you, because these will then consequently also go for the ship.

As long as you make sure to leave no building behind, you won't have to worry about anything in these further back areas where you have already been.

Even if you miss an occasional ballista or flying enemy, the zeppelin can handle a couple of those. Be sure to take out breeding nests and lightning towers above all else, and prioritise those targets close to the designated route of the ship (keep looking for the golden arrows; there's no need to clear buildings which are at the outer rim of the fortress).

The better you protect the zeppelin during the early stages, the higher its chances of survival during the final phase. I quickly decided to restart from Aleroth once, because I did fail on my first attempt and quickly realised it was down to the zeppelin having taken too much damage already, making it impossible to survive the final stage where it's supposed to crash into the fortress.

During that final stage, the ship will inevitably take damage, but during the earlier phases, you can keep it almost completely undamaged. If you manage to do that, then the damage it is bound to take during the final phase will not be enough to destroy it.

I was actually surprised how quickly the cutscene kicked in, just a couple of seconds after the captain had announced he would crash the ship into the fortress. I barely had time to destroy another lightning tower before the quest was already completed laugh .

Last edited by Strato Incendus; 21/03/18 11:33 PM.
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That's basically what I was trying early on - the red zeppelin would still ahve about 3/4 of it's health then the last run and before I could do much damage, eeeeyaah! (no more red zeppelin). I'm planning on trying again - got two characters waiting.

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Then let me do how it went for you once you get to it! smile Good luck already!

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I didn't try it with my two in holding yet but I did with the character I created new from scratch starting at FoV - took some eight tries but I did get it through - and without armor (most armor is useless the dragon form is maxed out on skills for this battle but the ones that add defense or offense still work but there simply is none with a made in FoV character - nor do you have a weapon at the beginning, etc.).

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Great, congratulations! And, how did you go about it, exactly? wink

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Mainly tried to follow the path closer - I'd get lost destroying things and lose time re-orienting myself so I concentrated on the path. I never did get real far ahead - so much to destroy. I was more liberal with the Belligar thing too - didn't charge in to a distant, lucrative target - attacked a moderately good target nearby instead. Probably got another two shots in, that way. Any way, the red zeppelin was down to about 10% when it went into crash mode so it was still close. I won't rule out luck until the next test.

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Made it through a second time, this time with the character Raze saved from my transfer issues. One heck of a final fight since I freed Berhlyn this time. Didn't notice any difference with the two big weapons. Well, I guess it's DC time.


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