High dragon (strategy)

The High Dragon is a formidable opponent and this page details tips on how to defeat her.

High Dragon Capabilities
The High Dragon possesses the following offensive capabilities: Fire Spit, Flame Breath, Massive Attack, Grab, Buffet. It can also attack with its tail and hind legs when you try to flank it.

NPC Recommendation

 * Wynne's healing capabilities are invaluable when facing the High Dragon.
 * Shale is an excellent choice for the party main tank in this scenario. Equipping Large Fire Crystal will increase resistance to the dragon's fire breathing attacks. Shale is also immune to the dragon's 1-hit kill move; couple this with the Stoneheart ability to make her a very durable tank.
 * With Oghren as a tanking berserker with Yusaris(greatsword) and the Juggernaut set found to be a great team With a warrior Warden. (The team also used Wynne and Morrigan simultaneously for healing/ranged attacks)

Defensive
The High Dragon deals fire damage therefore fire resistance is recommended. Bear in mind that elemental resistances are capped at 75%. Here is a list of upper tier fire resistant items:

Large Fire Crystals

Note that getting Wade's leather armour sets involves returning to the High Dragon at a later time.

Spellcaster

 * The dragon is not immune, but merely highly resistant, to freezing or certain spell effects which halt the target.


 * The dragon seems to be vulnerable to most kind of Entropy spells


 * Hexes are an effective way to reduce the High Dragon's damage capabaility and defences:

Trap Layer

 * Another tactic to use is traps. Position your party and mark High Dragon's landing spot. You will have to place there about 50 Tier III traps, but don't use Fire Traps, because the High Dragon is 75% resistant to fire damage. After she lands, she will be killed instantly from the ~80 damage per trap triggered. Video demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFkR2qF7zs0

Melee

 * Weapon and Shield Warriors can use Shield Wall to ignore the dragon's knockdown attack.
 * A fully specialized Arcane Warrior also works very well as a tank if The Warden uses a combination of Combat Magic, Rock Armor, and Shimmering Shield. This will render the Arcane Warrior highly resilient to the dragon's physical attacks and almost impervious to its fire attacks. However, note that an Arcane Warrior is vulnerable to knockdown effects, unlike the Weapon and Shield Warrior, so the damage output is highly dependent on how well the Arcane Warrior can resist knockdown effects.

Ranged

 * It certainly helps to engage the dragon with long range weapons and magic, due to her Grab attack.

General Advice

 * The death of a melee character from the dragon's Grab attack can be prevented by using well timed healing spells. Freezing the dragon or casting a spell such as Force Field will stop the Grab attack. Stonefist can also stop the grab attack, but is significantly less reliable.
 * Using Force Field on your tank will stop all damage from the High Dragon. Unless you're within the safe spot where the dragon can't land, be careful of not losing aggro from the tank this way.
 * Assign your party members, especially the melee, to use lesser health poultice when below 75% health. Similiar tactic can also be used on mages to keep their mana available by using lesser lyrium potions.

Positioning Advice

 * There are various ways to exploit surrounding environment to escape the dragon's attacks or even cause it to become stuck.
 * One strategy is to hide behind the crumbled circle tower to evade the dragon's Buffet (pulling) spell. You will simply hit the wall and get back up in complete safety. When the dragon flies into the crumbed circle tower, simply move to the other side of the wall, but don't let yourself get caught on the same side of the wall as the dragon. If you have spells that can cast through walls, you can kill the dragon more quickly.
 * Another strategy involving the use of the crumbled circle tower is to use ranged characters (Leliana and Zevran) as well as spell casters and position them inside the tower against the wall at equal distances from one another. The dragon should land in the middle of the tower, using only flame breath on your characters. You just have to protect your team members with warmth balm or any other fire resistance means and use range attacks (and heal regularly). With the right strategy commands the fight is effortless. It may even happen than the dragon stumbles on one character and then get stuck in this position. Finish the dragon with range attack.