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.

Click on thumbnail for a larger image.

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!

The Evil Miller

If you find yourself in the Resistance Command Center (RCC) pay the Evil Miller over at Stonekeep a visit if you can. It’s going to be worth your while though I’m sure he’s not going to be too happy to see you seeing as you’re there to, you know…kill him.

This particular trick was taught to me by Ysa Arce (in-game name: Xvii) who learned it from one of her party mates during one of her quests. The Evil Miller apparently gives high rewards in terms of XP points (assuming you succeed in giving him the boot).

The place is easy enough to get to from the RCC. Check out the map below:

It's just a short run from the RCC to Stonekeep but make no mistake: there're going to be Level 32 Dragons barring your way. It's probably best to party up with a few other characters to stack the odds in your favor but, if you're an experienced prudent warrior with a Level 32 rank or higher, you can probably fly solo if you wish.

You can opt to teleport instead if you got Andermant to burn. It'll set you back 40 Andermants however so I opt to just walk the whole way and slay a few dragons in between.

Once you reach Stonekeep, you'll find the Evil Miller at the following location:

Dispatch the unholy creature and see your Experience Points rise!

UPDATE: Vanslaugh, Community Manager for Drakensang-Online just informed me that the massive amount of XP for killing the MOB was given to the players by mistake. The MOB was bugged and gave a wrong amount of XP to the player. This bug was fixed with today’s server restart.

For those players who managed to strike while the iron was hot, consider yourselves lucky!