Going AGAINST Sigrisimarr Frostclaw

It was one of those rare occasions when Gerry Alanguilan (in-game name: Komikero), Ysa Arce (in-game name: Xvii), and I (in-game name: Jonasdiego) found ourselves all online at the same time. So, we party up and what do we decide to do?

Kill Sigrisimarr Frostclaw.

We were fresh from our own respective but separate campaigns against Khalys and we decided to try our luck with Mr. Frostclaw. After all, Gerry is already a Level 39 Dragon Knight, Ysa a Level 36 Spellweaver, and I'm a Level 37 Dragon Knight.

We should be okay, right? Apparently not.

We barely made a dent in Sigrisimarr's hit points and all of us died several times (that bastard's one tough cookie). While there were circle of protections all around in Kahlys' lair, there was nowhere to hide from Frostclaw. Worse, he periodically summons those spiky ice spirit things and you had to deal with them as well (as if Sigrisimarr wasn't problematic enough).

While Sigrissimar also followed a pattern in his attacks (energy tendrils, energy storm, summon ice spirits, repeat as needed) he was just too damn powerful to be taken down by just two Dragon Knights (Gerry and I) and one Spellweaver (Ysa).

It seems to me that we're going to need more manpower to take this baby down and a lot more firepower. We decided to call it a day, get stronger, maybe find some recruits, and fight Sigrisimarr Frostclaw when we're a bit more stronger.

Gerry logged out but Ysa and I took out our frustration on Khalys.

She, at least, didn't know what hit her.

Komikero: I Finally Killed Khalys Solo!

After realizing I could kill Khalys solo back when I was level 37, I decided to try again at a much later time after completing some other quests. I only got back to the task of killing Khalys when I was at level 39.

Surely this time, she won't stand a chance.

After receiving an unexpected bonus from the game, I equipped myself with 999 Essence of Destruction, a Delicious Hero's Breakfast which gave me additional 400 Life for one hour, and set off for Khalys' Elisium.

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Being careful not to repeat the mistakes I had when I first attempted to kill Khalys, I took my time, stayed calm, kept myself alert, and never allowed myself to be complacent. Since I had a generous amount of health potions, I used them whenever my life was at half, never allowing Khalys to get a lucky strike against me.

Fighting Khalys is kind of frustrating because after every minute or so, she teleports to the middle of the room and unleashes an incredible amount of energy that can kill you as she slowly regenerates. Fortunately, there are areas in the room where you can stand on where you can protect yourself from this relentless energy barrage (pictured above). Good thing also that while she does regenerate, she doesn't regenerate all the way through. Your damage is still higher than her amount of regeneration, so over time, you do chip away at her life.

She then teleports again to one of the corners of the room where you can run after her and fight her there. While you're running towards her, she unleashes one or two homing energy beams that follow you wherever  you go which deals out an incredible amount of damage. Fortunately again, scattered around the room are powerful health orbs that you can walk on to instantly regain your health.

This tedious pattern of fighting goes on and on as you slowly reduce Khalys' life.

After 10 minutes of pummeling her with Angry Strike, Scream of Rage, and Smash, I was finally able to kill her. After a couple of months of swearing revenge after the first time she killed me, it felt like complete and utter victory.

It did feel great but, at the same time, rather anti climactic. Since Khalys is Level 26, I didn't receive any experience points in killing her (although I did receive XP rewards points later on for completing this quest), and the loot she left behind were all rather useless to me, now that I'm Level 39.

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The best item I got was a Level 26 Extraordinary Chain Belt, and it was useless because  I already have a much better belt. The other items were an Improved Handaxe, a Studded Helmet, and a measly 10 Andermants. You would think a giant boss like Khalys would give out a Unique Item and at least 100 Andermants.

Again, I did receive Andermants and coins for completing the quest but still, I felt that beating her should have been more rewarding than this, considering how difficult it was to kill her.

Anyway, I got so excited at finally killing Khalys that I almost left the room without actually finishing the quest. Good thing I clicked on the map and saw a huge question mark in the room, indicating that there was something else I needed to do.

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All right! Now it's off to kill Sigrisimarr Frostclaw!

Komikero: Awesome Freebies! + Essences!

What keeps me playing Drakensang, and why it's a lot of fun to play is the awesome freebies that you get along the way.

Today I received an email from Drakensang-Online telling me to "Get your power boost bonus now!"

I'm like REALLY? I checked out what it was and the email said:

Greetings!
Sinister creatures from Anderworld are terrorizing the good men and women of Duria!
Rush to their aid and conquer those evil beasts with new battle skills and this strengthening bonus:
Your code*: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More energy: 10 health potions,
5 powerful spirit guards
More strength in battle: 5 kaboom explosives,
999 essences of destruction
Individual equipment: 5 pots of lunar silver dye

And true enough, when I started playing and looked at my inventory, this is what I got!

Exactly what the email said! And the thing is, they're all pretty useful! I can certainly use the extra health potions (as they drop rarely and are expensive to buy). I've used the Kaboom! Explosive once or twice and they're pretty effective. The Powerful Spirit Guards are also useful because they are items you can use to resurrect your character at the exact same spot he dies so you can continue fighting.

The dye is not particularly useful, but it's awesome anyway because I like dyeing my character. My character is all red and that's not because he's get Extraordinary gear. That's because I've been dyeing him red from red dyes I've got from the Valentine's Day event last February.

The most awesome freebie here is the 999 Essence Of Destruction. Oh man...even when I had Andermant to burn I held off buying this essence because it was too expensive. I just fantasized and dreamed about it, but I never thought I'd actually have it.

Essences are items you use to supplement your damage, and there are various essences you can buy that offers an escalating amount of extra damage, depending on the level of your character.

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Bought by Coins
Weak Essence of Aggression +5 Damage, 5 Silvers, Level 1
Ordinary Essence of Aggression + 16 Damage, 30 Silvers, Level 10
Larger Essence of Aggression  +26 Damage,  35 Silvers, Level 20
Mighty Essence of Aggression +34 Damage, 40 Silvers, Level 30
Potent Essence of Aggression +40 Damage, 45 Silvers, Level 40

Bought by Andermants
Essence of Combat + 100% Damage, 300 Andermant, Level 1
Essence of War +200% Damage, 600 Andermant, Level 1
Essence of Destruction  +300% Damage, 1,200 Andermant, Level 1

All of these essences get dropped by enemies when they are killed, except Essence of War and Destruction.

Essence of Destruction is the most powerful essence of all and, equipped with this, I believe I can kill anything...even Herald! But I'd start with Khalys first. Although with Khalys, I'm pretty sure to use up all 999 of it.

And all these freebies are on top of the Daily Log-In Bonus that you receive as long as you log in and play daily. This bonus gives you two free items. One is a jewel pouch which gives you a free random jewel and the other is a Box of Surprises which can contain practically anything from potions, to weapons, to essences and other stuff.

Thanks to Drakensang-Online for all the free stuff that makes the game even more fun to play!

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!

Meeting the Herald of the Anderworld

I’ve got three words for you: Frikkin. Big. Monster.

The Herald of the Anderworld is a Level 40 character, massive, and it packs quite a punch too. My Dragon Knight is currently at Level 37 and has a little over 3,000 hit points yet the Herald only took about two blows to kill me (I suppose I should be thankful I lasted that long).

At my current level I still can’t defeat Khalys solo (though Gerry, in-game name: Komikero, came really close...read about it here) so I figure I’m going to have to be at least Level 50 before being able to stand toe to toe with the Herald of the Anderworld (maybe not even then).

So it’s back to the grind again for me.

In the meantime I just took out my excess energy at a bunch of hapless undead archers and guardians in Slifmoor.

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!

Komikero: Level 37 Dragon Knight

Hello guys! It's Gerry Alanguilan again. Today, I'll be talking about my Dragon Knight character, holding currently at Level 37.

All these items above have been found while playing the game (as opposed to buying stuff with Andermant bought with real money). I used to have a Legendary Necklace, which I got through crafting, but for some reason it's disappeared. And I don't know how it happened. I think it was when I was trading medallions I found that my Legendary Necklace got dragged to the trading window instead.

I guess when fighting level 40 Dragons it can get pretty nerve wracking and I get confused.

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At this point, I no longer have any quests to finish, except for killing Khalys and Sigrisimarr, which I absolutely cannot kill on my own. I'll probably team up with Jonas and Ysa at some point when I'm free from deadlines.

What I do now to gain experience is to farm lower levels for Andermant, Crystals of Truth, and Essences of Combat. When I have enough blue essences, I go to Liar's Lair on difficult setting. There I get level 39 and  level 40 monsters: usually skeleton swordsmen, bog monsters, and dragons. The best thing? NO freakin' archers! My Level 37 DK can pretty much deal with these monsters capably, especially considering the new DK skills.

At first I thought the new DK skills, namely the "Iron Brow" and "Ground Breaker" were a little too weak and that the "Paralyzing Onslaught" is still more powerful. But I realized upon playing that I could use those three skills one after the other to keep monsters almost continually stunned. There would be a few seconds between using the skills where the monster would be "awake" but it's not enough time for it to actually attack or cause me damage. I found this amazingly useful with beating more difficult enemies.

I've used this technique quite effectively with boss dragons as well as the level 40 dragons.

With these new skills, the Dragon Knight has become amazingly powerful. I used to save up Andermant to buy Essences of War to combat the higher level creatures, but with the new skills, I can manage well enough with Essences of Combat.