Flemeth the Shapeshifter

Flemeth the Shapeshifter contains information on her altered form.

Strategy
In combat, Flemeth takes the form of a High Dragon. Like other dragons, she is able to breathe fire, perform wing buffets, fly rapidly from place to place, and perform powerful melee attacks. Her maneuverability is limited and she usually remains perched on the knoll near her hut.


 * Melee characters can flank her, although they risk tail sweep and hind leg attacks.
 * Ranged attackers should remain as far away as possible:
 * The edge of the lake works well; aim for near the house, on the slope to the perch, and at the platform's base (see map).
 * Setup archers for high damage. Shattering Shot and Pinning Shot work well.
 * Mages can heal, buff, and (if party is healthy) offer additional damage. Area of Effect spells, especially Blizzard, are also helpful.
 * Control which characters are hit with flame breath.
 * Fire resistance is helpful, but not essential.

Specific Tactics

 * Invulnerable Tank: Get your tank to Flemeth's perch and maintain Force Field on him/her. The dragon will waste time on the tank while everyone else can use their most damaging skills.
 * NOT POSSIBLE ON THE 360


 * Ranged Tank: Have a Warrior stand just outside her melee range and use Taunt on cooldown. Flemeth will do nothing but use her fire attacks on him. Make sure to position your warrior so nobody else gets hit. Combine this with the Resistant Tank tactic for best results.
 * Resistant Tank: With appropriate gear, you can buff your tank to high fire resistance. Shale and the Dog work well; the golem has suitable gear and talents to resist Flemeth's fire damage & the canine is immune to her special melee abilities. Alternatively, any Warrior with one of Wade's Dragonscale armor sets will do fine. Greater Warmth Balms can be used if you do not have much Fire Resistance gear, increasing Fire Resistance by 60%.
 * Runaway Tank: Run the tank between the Dragon's rear and front legs. When you hit the sweet spot, Flemeth will turn around to face the tank. Run back between her legs, forcing her to twist back. Keep doing this while your ranged attackers pick her apart.
 * All Ranged Party: Bring a party of Archers and a healer (e.g. Wynne) and stay spread out. Since Flemeth remains on her platform, she can only hurt the party using Flame Breath. When she pulls, walk the team members away; you can give the party some extra wiggle room by casting Winter's Grasp or Cone of Cold. Since the party can bring healing (spells or items), Flemeth has little chance to win a battle of attrition.
 * Trapper's Surprise: Before speaking with Flemeth, set up as many traps as possible (especially with Frost damage). When she spawns, the traps will go off leaving her easy pickings for your team.
 * Storm from the Shelter: One powerful mage is able to kill Flemeth alone with the Storm of the Century, while wearing high fire protection gear, since Flemeth is virtually motionless. The key to victory is to hide behind the corner of Flemeth's hut to prevent her to pull you into the storm and she will end up dead very quickly. On Nightmare difficulty a mage with effective Spellpower of 60 will kill her in 5-6 storms, while suffering only from fireballs and periodic pulls into the wall of the hut.

A Note on Strategies Proposed
The abundance of strategies proposed can make this fight look extremely challenging. In fact, that's a somewhat Broodmother-like fight: Flemeth cannot move much during the combat, so there is no real need to tank her. Strong ranged party handles Flemeth with extreme ease, even on Nightmare difficulty. Just don't leave the position you appear at after the dialogue (she cannot pull your party members from there) and make sure you don't forget to use Greater Warmth Balm, preferably before initiating the dialogue. This strategy is demonstrated here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHKTJLCkvjI

You don't even need a ranged party. This can even be done with melee party swapping to bows (yes, even if they are tier 3 bows...). If the tank has 75% fire resistance a mage with regeneration can keep your tank alive forever. Just make sure your 75% fire resist tank is much closer to the boss compared to everyone else, but still outside of her melee range.

70% fire resistance is easily attainable from http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Drake_Scale_Armor

Skills

 * Massive Attack Strong melee attack.
 * Sweep Attacking those close in front, sweeping them away.
 * Buffet While a short bit in the air, breathing fire.
 * Fire Spit Spitting a small ball of fire, that explodes when it hits its target.
 * Grab (Monster) A party member is grabbed, shaken and thrown away. For them to be dropped, the creature must be incapacitated in some way such as frozen, stunned, or paralyzed. Shale cannot be targeted by this attack. The grabbed party member themselves may also be frozen or otherwise held in place to halt this attack.
 * Flame Breath Burns player and or party members who are in its path does damage over time.
 * Roar (Monster) Briefly stuns all party members.

Loot

 * Flemeth's Key

Locations

 * Deep in the Wilds
 * Flemeth's Hut

Exploit

 * Flemeth would not regain health if the party returned to camp mid-fight prior to patch 1.02. This made it possible for a party to heal at the camp and return to Flemeth thus wearing her down.