Dealing with Nefertaris

Nefertaris are probably some of the most challenging denizens in Drakensang-Online that you’ll have to battle with for two reasons:

1. They summon undead warriors to kill you
2. They try to avoid you when you’re trying to kill them

In my book, the only thing more annoying than a Nefertari summoning an undead warrior is a Nefertari summoning an undead archer. They can be found in dungeons (i.e., The Catacombs in Kingshill) and some regions (i.e., Slifmoor). Depending on their level (and yours, of course), they can dish out damage pretty fast not only because of the undead they summon but also because of the blasts they emit.

If you’re not carefully, you’ll find your hit points dwindling really fast.

In any battle situation involving Nefertaris, the first order of business is to take them out to prevent them from calling more undead warriors and overwhelming you or your party with sheer numbers.

There are three ways of doing this:

1. Driving them back to a wall
Since they tend to move away from you as you’re coming towards them, the idea is to back them up against a wall (or an immovable in-game object) and give ‘em hell once they have nowhere else to go.

2. Stunning then attacking them
For Dragon Knights, such as myself, I frequently utilize either the Paralyzing Onslaught or the Ground Breaker to stun a Nefertari trying to beat a hasty retreat. It is at this point that I dish out hell while they’re trying to recovering their wits.

3. Sandwiching them
In the event that you’re in an open space where the nearest wall is too far away, you can try trapping a Nefertari between 2-3 members of your party. This being said, this technique will only work with 1-2 Nefertari present.

What are your techniques for dealing with Nefertaris?

We KILLED Khalys!

Ysa and I haven't planned anything special for the day's incursion, actually.

We were both trying to level up and we figured we'd try Prison of Souls and Liar's Lair on the Difficult Level (as Gerry suggested) so we can gain more XP and level up faster. We got bored after touring the place about twice and I suggested we try out Khalys.

So, try her out we did.

As Gerry (in-game name: Komikero) found out (click here for his article detailing how he almost beat Khalys single-handed), Khalys is one tough cookie. She follows a pattern when attacking however and, once we figured that out, we stood a chance of beating her. Aside from that knowledge, we had the odds in our favor because Ysa's Level 35 Spellweaver can do long-range attacks while my Level 37 Dragon Knight likes to get up close and personal (perfect combination).

Here's how it all went down...

We found out early on that Khalys has the ability to teleport and will appear from any of the farthest point of the eight point start pattern depicted on the floor.

You have to be fast and get to her and do as much damage as you can while she's there. Make sure you have lots of health potions as she can inflict a high level of damage. Thankfully, there are regular drops of health balls all around the place but I wouldn't get too complacent just because they're there.

I was on point, being the tank, and took most of the damage to keep Khalys attention away from Ysa while she dealt out Lightning Strikes to devastating effect (she also called on her guardian periodically to distract Khalys away from me).

Khalys will only stay put for a certain time however before she teleports to the center of the star. While there she will regenerate her health (don't worry it's not going to be a full regeneration though it will certainly look that way at first) and unleash a maelstrom of energy. Before she has the chance to do this you must get to one of the circle of protection arranged around the star.

While within, you will not be affected by her devastating onslaught. If you don't make it to one of the circles in time, it's probably safe to say you'll be dead really quick. Once Khalys finishes her energy storm attack she'll head back to one of the points of the star for another round of attack using conventional means and the process I outlined is repeated.

The place is pretty big so it takes a bit of time to figure out where Khalys went once she teleports from the center (during which time you lose valuable seconds to deal damage to her before she returns to the center and she returns the favor). Ysa found a way to determine ahead of time where Khalys is going to be headed: she targets Khalys with her Lightning Strike just a split second before she disappears from the center and to one of the star's points. The lightning will strike exactly where she's headed giving us foreknowledge of where she's gone to.

It's going to take some time (a lot of time, actually) to take her down but it can be done.

Where Khalys met her end.

You just have to keep your focus, keep your timing tight, and you should be alright.

Commemorative shot at the center of Khalys' star.

And, just as a reminder, don't forget to finish your quest once you dispatch of Khalys (I almost went back to the Urban Area at the Werian Sanctuary after the battle without finishing the rest of my quest being overwhelmed with victory).

Had that happened and we returned, we probably would have found Khalys resurrected and we would have had to go through the whole thing all over again!

Komikero: I Almost Took Out Khalys Solo

One of the big challenges of the game are the three huge bosses: Khalys, Sigrisimarr Frostclaw, and Herald of the Anderworld.

When my Dragon Knight was at Level 19, I encountered Khalys for the very first time. I died even before I saw her. She hit me with some kind of energy beam that followed me where I went. It killed me instantly. Khalys herself is a Level 26 Unique enemy but, even if I went back as a Level 26 Dragon Knight weeks later, I still couldn't beat her.

Even at Level 32, which is 6 levels above Khalys, I still couldn't beat her. And as with how the game is designed, I can no longer gain experience points when enemies I encounter are more than 5 levels below me. I find it ridiculous that even when I can no longer gain experience points if I beat her, I still can't beat her.

Worse, the stun skills simply won't work on big bosses like Khalys. "Paralyzing Onslaught" simply doesn't work on her at all, the skill that I use to stun enemies as I hack away at them keeping myself free from damage.

I started to think that perhaps I wasn't meant to beat her alone.

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Grouping up with other players would probably be my only option, but since it's hard to find the time that syncs with Jonas and Ysa's free time and not wanting to group with people I don't know, I just went on playing the rest of the game. Unlike Diablo where you absolutely need to kill the big boss before you can progress into the next area, in Drakensang-Online you can actually skip killing these big bosses and play the rest of the game, allowing you to level up and come back when you're strong enough.

And so that's what I did. When I hit Level 37, armed with polished gems that made my armor stronger and weapons more powerful, I returned to face Khalys once again.

Frustratingly, some of the new stun skills don't work on her as well. Along with "Paralyzing Onslaught", "Iron Brow" and "Ground Breaker" don't seem to affect her at all. So my technique of stunning enemies almost perpetually with a combo of those three skills simply will not work. I would just have to go toe to toe with her.

As it turns out, the new skill "Smash" proved to the most useful, as it gave me 200% weapon damage. Since my Extraordinary Duria Mace already gives me a maximum of 111 damage, helped along with a couple of "Essence of War" boosts, I find myself remarkably strong enough to really go toe to toe with Khalys. The perpetual presence of the Powerful Health Drops around the battle area help me sustain my health long enough to keep fighting.

It took a long time of going at it, but I managed to whittle down Khalys' health to around 5%. Unfortunately, I got careless and got a little overconfident. Just as I was about to beat her, I got killed.

I thought, no problem! I could just resurrect myself and keep on fighting. This is when I discovered something even more frustrating about fighting big bosses. Unlike lesser bosses, Khalys' health returned to 100% after my resurrection. Holy crap. I couldn't muster the energy and the will to go toe to toe again right at that moment for another 15 minutes of fighting so I just allowed her to kill me.

I'll just recover, psych myself up for it, and I'll try again next time. Now that I'm level 38, going on 39, I hope it gets easier.

I mean... there's still Sigrisimarr and Herald to go!

Battle Tips: Choosing where to Fight

In the world of Drakensang-Online, you don’t usually get to choose where to fight but rather fight where your enemies find you.

The type of place you fight in however, offer its fair share of advantages and disadvantages and knowing these can be the difference between life and death for your character.

There are basically two types of battlefields you’re going to find yourself in: enclosed and open space.

Enclosed Spaces

These are spaces which, either because of man-made (fences, walls, etc.) or natural (rocks, trees, etc.) structures, forces your opponents into a bottle neck. Wikipedia defines a bottle neck as a term “taken from the 'assets are water' metaphor. As water is poured out of a bottle, the rate of outflow is limited by the width of the conduit of exit—that is, bottleneck’. Simply put, there’s not a whole lot of space to move.

Advantages
Since space is limited and by positioning yourself in the right place, a bottle neck will force your opponents to come at you 1-2 at a time, giving you a better than average chance of overcoming a horde which would have otherwise overwhelmed you in other environments. This is very helpful when you’re faced with monsters that can inflict high levels of damage (such as dragons) since they can only attack you taking turns instead of all at once.

Disadvantages
Since space is very limited you can very well get trapped with no means of escape. I normally employ this tactic when faced with 3-5 dragons. Beyond that I find that there is a better than average chance that I’m the one who’s going to be getting the short end of the stick.

Open Spaces

Open spaces are environments which don’t have a lot of hindrance for movement and you’re pretty much free to run (or dash) in whichever direction you might choose.

Advantages
These kinds of spaces are ideal for hit and run tactics when battling multiple opponents. You can just pretty much do damage and run away before the enemy can retaliate then swoop back in and repeat as needed. The new skills for Dragon Knights (Iron Brow and Ground Breaker) coupled with the Paralyzing Onslaught are perfect for keeping 3-5 monsters stunned while you whittle away their hit points bit by bit.

Disadvantages
If you’re not too careful however, it’s easy to get surrounded by enemies (especially in cases where you’ve taken on more than you can fight effectively). The thing to do in this kind of situation is try to get away, regroup, and resume your tactic before you get killed.

There are of course permutations to these two types of battle fields and how to use them to your advantage which I will discuss in a future article.

Where do you prefer to battle?

Battle Strategy: Dealing with Slifmoor’s Undead Guardians

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I mentioned during a past article that Slifmoor has one of the best places to go item farming in Drakensang-Online. If you’re going to go farming there though be prepared to deal with a horde of Undead Slifmoor Guardians, Archers (which I hate the most out of all the monsters and creatures in Drakensang-Online), and Nefertaris (who can revive the undead you dispatch).

Individually, these creatures are easy enough to deal with (the Nefertari can be a bit annoying though as they have an evade manoeuvre of sorts) but can be a real pain in great numbers. If you’re not careful, you can get over run without realizing it.

As a Dragon Knight, I employ a sort of priority list when faced all three in a combat situation (illustrated below).

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I take out the Nefertaris first (since they raise the dead from, well…the dead), archers second (because they can hurt you a lot even from a distance), and the guardians last. It goes without saying that, if the Nefertaris are not in the equation, then the first order of business is to dispatch the Archers and the Guardians next. Conversely, if the Archers are the ones not present (which is indeed a rare situation) then the Nefertaris gets it first. This is the kind of situation where I frequently employ the Paralyzing Onslaught as part of Melee Attack no. 2.

"I start off with a Furious Battle Cry to generate the needed Rage to use the Paralyzing Onslaught. After stunning the enemy, I use 2 Angry Strikes to generate more Rage then use a Mighty Swing and then another Angry Strike (in the event that the monster is still standing)."

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Just make sure to keep a close watch on your hit points lest you get carried away and lose sight that you’re bleeding to death.

Battle Strategy: Dragon Knight Battle Tips

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As a fledgling Dragon Knight, my battle style all but consisted of hitting the monster until it dies…or I do, whichever comes first.

Having reached Level 30 recently, I’m happy to say that I’ve developed five battle strategies that I use regularly. These techniques are the result of many hours of battling it out with hordes of undead ghouls, vile creatures, and other assorted monsters.

A disclaimer however: I use a hammer (and thus no shield) that dishes out high damage but is a bit on the slow side in terms of attack speed. I’m partial to these kinds of weapons so I haven’t had much experience trying out these techniques using sword and shield. You guys out there who use the sword and shield combo might have varying results and thus might have need to modify the techniques for your own specific situation.

With that said, following are the five most often used techniques in my bag of tricks.

Melee Attack 1
This technique is the one I use when dealing with monsters whose numbers I consider manageable (around 4-6 monsters for level 20-25 Dragon Knights or 6-8 monsters for level 25-30 Dragon Knights) and cannot inflict a high level of damage to my character.

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I start off with 2 Angry Strikes to generate the needed amount of Rage to launch into a Paralyzing Onslaught attack. After stunning the enemy (remember: they only stay stunned for 2-3 seconds) I deal out another two Angry Strikes and finish it off with a Mighty Swing (depending on your level, weapons, and your items' properties you may need to do another 1-2 Angry Strikes to finish the monster off).

Melee Attack 2
I use this technique when there's a sort of urgency involved in a battle (either when there's more monsters coming and I need to dispatch the first wave quickly or to prevent the enemy from building up steam and using a devastating attack).

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Instead of starting off with 2 Angry Strikes, I start off with a Furious Battle Cry to generate the needed Rage to use the Paralyzing Onslaught. After stunning the enemy, I use 2 Angry Strikes to generate more Rage then use a Mighty Swing and then another Angry Strike (in the event that the monster is still standing).

Shock and Awe 1
This technique is pretty fun to use and is quite nifty in rescuing on of your party who has gone off without the rest of the group and gotten himself stuck in the middle of a horde of monsters.

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Start off from the edge of the horde and generate the needed amount of Rage by using the Angry Strike (Required: 20 Rage) as many as necessary to use the Paralyzing Onslaught and the Mighty Wild Swing (Required: 60 Rage) or Bloody Swing (Required: 30 Rage). If the situation is dire you may need to throw in a Furious Battle Cry to generate the necessary Rage faster.

Once the needed amount of Rage is available, launch into a Paralyzing Onslaught into the middle of the horde (preferably, the monster nearest your team member in trouble and stunning all opponents in between) and then unleashing a Mighty Wild Swing or a Bloody Swing.

Depending on your level and the monsters your fighting, this move might not be enough to kill all of the creatures you're fighting but it just might give you and your trouble team mate a fighting chance (at least until the other members of your party can execute a more coordinated rescue).

Shock and Awe 2 
This is a good technique to use when surrounded with low level monsters and one (1) mid to high level monster capable of inflicting some serious damage.

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At this point I'm assuming you've already built up your Rage points to the necessary level to execute a Scream of Rage (Required: 60 Rage). In case you've forgotten, Scream of Rage allows a Dragon Knight to enter in to the frenzy of battle for 6.0 seconds. At this time use their skills and basic damage is improved depending on the level. Dragon Knights' attack and travel speeds are also increased by 35%.

Once you've done a Scream of Rage, let loose a Might Wild Swing or Bloody Swing to dispatch the low level monsters then use up you remaining Rage to take advantage of your faster attack speed and let loose a barrage of Might Swings at the top dog in the horde. Hopefully it will be enough to take it down but in the event that it's not, there's an escape option available.

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After you've used up your Rage, do a couple of Angry Strikes to build up Rage and use the Paralyzing Onslaught to high tail it out of the horde of monsters which I assume will have you boxed in and trapped by this time.

Make sure to aim for the monsters at the edge of the horde otherwise you're not going to get far and remain trapped until the skill cycles up and you can use it again (but chances are you'll be dead by this time).

Last Stand
Compared to the other techniques, the Last Stand is pretty straightforward. I use it most frequently when faced with a monster who is seriously hurting me, escape is not an option, and my hit points are dwindling fast.

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 Assuming your Rage points are at the required level, use the Scream of Rage (Required: 60 Rage) and then just go to town on your opponent with a barrage of Mighty Swings. You're either going to 1) die (most realistic), 2) deliver enough damage for one of your party to finish the monster off, or 3) actually kill it (it can happen).

I use a combination of these in succession just to mix it up a bit.

If you guys have your own special moves, I'd love to hear about it if you care to share.

Battle Strategy: The Paralyzing Onslaught

I don’t see the Paralyzing Onslaught used often enough by other Dragon Knights which is a shame because it is one of the most useful skills in the Knight’s bag of tricks especially when you’re going adventuring solo.

I employ the Paralyzing Onslaught for the following purposes:

Escaping a horde of Monsters that’s trapped you

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I’ve lost count of the times this scenario has happened to me, being prone to rushing into battle only to realize too late that I am vastly outnumbered. The sensible thing to do when this happens is to beat a hasty retreat but sometimes this is not possible either because:

1. Too many enemies surround you, blocking all escape routes
2. Enemies and your surroundings prevent your escape (I call this the “stuck between a rock and a hard place scenario”)

For Dragon Knights, the Paralyzing Onslaught can be used as a means of quick escape but it must be done correctly or you’re going to find yourself back where you launched.

The Paralyzing Onslaught only requires 20 Rage points for use. Starting dry, you can reach the required amount of Rage with two Angry Strikes on the nearest enemies. With so many enemies taking a stab at you however, you’re probably going to reach the required amount just by standing there since a small amount of Rage is generated with any attack against your character but I wouldn't recommend it (who wants to stand there doing nothing while taking a pounding?).

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Once the proper amount of Rage is reached pick the enemy farthest from the ring of marauders attacking you, preferably with lots of space to run around in. All the enemies between your launch off point to your landing point will be stunned for 2-3 seconds lessening the numbers of those who will be going after you.

A word of advice though: don’t panic and just launch into the Paralyzing Onslaught because chances are you’re not going to get far and you’re going to find yourself pretty much where you were with your hit points dwindling while waiting for the skill to recharge. Chances are you’re probably going to be dead before you can use the Paralyzing Onslaught again.

Don’t launch-off half-cocked. Take a second to figure out where you’re going to be headed after you land to regroup.

Fighting a number of 2-3 Tough Opponents all at once (or facing down the Boss)

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There are occasions that you’re going to have to fight 2-3 (even 4) tough opponents and retreat is not an option (I haven’t participated in a PVP battle so I’m not sure how useful it is against other players). Simple math will tell you that just standing there exchanging blows with monsters that can dish out high amounts of damage is not the wise thing to do even with potions thrown into the mix.

Sun Tzu, author of the classic The Art of War, said that mobility is key and that has never been more true here. Using the Paralyzing Onslaught, employ a hit and run tactic. Tear at your enemies’ hit points bit by bit and eventually they will drop dead. It will take some time especially for opponents that have high hit points but it is the most effective method of dispatching them without taking a lot of damage yourself.

The way to do it is to raise your Rage to the required level to be able to use the Paralyzing Onslaught skill (either by doing 1-2 Angry Strikes or using the Furious Battle Cry). Get your opponents to chase you until they line up then use the Onslaught hitting all your opponents (really useful when faced with 2-3 monsters but a bit more challenging with 4). After landing, use a couple of Angry Strikes at the enemy nearest you to make sure you maintain the required level of Rage then high tail it out of there. Two’s the optimum number of strikes you can land before you need to run and avoid retaliation (victims of the Paralyzing Onslaught will only stay stunned for about 2-3 seconds). More than that and you’re sure to receive damage when the uglies come to.

While waiting for the skill to recharge you basically execute evasive manoeuvres as your opponents chase you (make sure to set them up for the next attack). Once the skill is ready execute like before and repeat as necessary.

The tactic is basically the same for Bosses except for the really nasty ones.

How about you guys? Got any tactic you’d care to share?