Harvester (strategy)

This page contains detailed tips on how to fight the Harvester of Dragon Age: Origins - The Golems of Amgarrak.

Phase One

 * The Reaper's Cudgel - The Harvester detaches one of its many limbs, and strikes out in a broad arc in front of it. Targets are knocked down and take critical damage unless they pass a physical resistance check. Targets that pass a physical resistance check are knocked back and take normal damage. (Activated, Range: Personal, Cooldown: 40s)
 * Bile Burst - The Harvester's putrefying organs burst with a jet of corrosive bile, which inflicts massive nature damage on targets in the area of effect. (Activated, Range: Touch, Cooldown: 30s)
 * Vile Disembowelment - The Harvester draws writhing entrails from its belly and hurls them outward, causing nature and physical damage on foes within the area of effect. The thrown entrails then transform into a walking corpse that attacks the Harvester's enemies. (Activated, Range: Medium, Cooldown: 30s)
 * Harvester Fury - The Harvester gains an increase to attack rate and movement speed for a short time. (Activated, Range: Personal, Cooldown: 60s)
 * Ground Slam - The Harvester slams the ground, damaging its targets and knocking them back unless they pass a physical resistance check. (Activated, Range: Personal, Cooldown: 30s)

Phase Two

 * Harvester Pounce - The Harvester leaps to a target point. (Activated, Range: Medium, Cooldown: 0.5s)
 * Aura of Undeath - An aura of vile, pulsating magic surrounds the Harvester. Corpses within the area of effect rise to attack nearby foes. (Sustained, Range: Personal, Cooldown: 0s)

Preparation
Since release of The Golems of Amgarrak DLC, the Harvester is commonly known to be one of the most - if not the most - difficult fight in the Dragon Age series.


 * Notice: If following preparation is not a viable option, or simply wasn't aware of the Harvester's ridiculously high damage and health, and still wants to obtain The Reaper's Cudgel, see the "Decoy Tactics" below Mage Guide.

At higher difficulty levels, the source of your character will play a key role in determining your options for this final battle: If you wish to fight the Harvester on Hard or Nightmare, the following preparations are recommended:
 * Creating a new Level 20 character is the most challenging, since you will not benefit from the attribute, skill and ability points from Tomes and the Fade essences, as well as not being able to import top-quality equipment, potions, poisons, recipes, runes, etc. This almost certainly constrains your class choice to Mage with Spirit Healer and Arcane Warrior specializations.
 * When importing a main character, don't forget to strip the rest of your party in order to import their gear as well. Also, if importing from Awakening, include a couple of Manual of Focus in your inventory.  They will carry over and allow you to set up the Dace brothers as you prefer (for example, turn Jerrik from a melee rogue to an archer or maximize Constitution for Brogan).
 * Importing from Origins probably produces enough of an edge to make Rogue a viable option, though threat management will be very challenging, and should the Runic Golem fall you will be without Revival options.
 * Importing from Awakening makes a non-Mage choice much more solid, opening up the possibility of success with a near-invulnerable Warrior tank (who should have the full Spirit Warrior tree), as well as further improving the odds for a Mage or a Rogue, who will have an abundance of ability points and top-tier equipment.
 * An imported rogue with Twin Strikes + Low Blow + Unending Flurry and a full shadow tree is able to solo this fight, with a couple of stamina potions and health poultices.
 * Threat management is central to success, regardless of other factors, and should play a key role in the choice of abilities/spells for your character, whatever their source or class.
 * Tactics should be carefully reset for each party member before the battle, and disabling tactics entirely for the Runic Golem (manual control only) may be a good idea if you want to keep it alive. Alternatively, you can only disable the attacks that cause friendly fire.
 * Jerrik's Bronto, Snug, will be useful (and easily revived as long as Jerrik doesn't fall) as a secondary threat manager to keep corpses off your other characters. His superior speed allows him to run around the room and avoid taking damage while Taunt cools down.
 * If using Brogan and/or Jerrik for melee damage, keep their weapons coated with poison. As the skeletons are immune to nature damage, you may want to use fire or spirit damage, and have the golem turn on Flaming Weapons.
 * The Runic Golem should be fully upgraded. Ensure you have fully completed Amgarrak's Secrets, otherwise you'll miss out on the XP for the final level-up of your party.
 * Ranged attack can be highly effective, using the Accuracy talent. Even a single rogue with a good bow and most of his points in dexterity will make this battle easier. Pull threat with your main character while the rogue shoots the Harvester to death. In many scenarios it is possible to equip both Jerrik and Brogan with good bows and Accuracy, with which they will score regular critical hits of 100-120 and 80-100 (at Level 23), respectively, in both phases of the battle without drawing much threat (apart from proximity).
 * If using an Arcane Warrior as the major tank, spells such as Death Cloud, the hexes and Walking Bomb all draw major threat, as well as being useful in their own right. Mind Blast is obligatory to clear the threat table should you get surrounded by skeletons. An Awakening Mage should also equip Hale runes to close a key vulnerability gap, particularly since many corpses favor Riposte to stun, which can be easily fatal if surrounded.
 * Haste can be a bit of an investment if you're starting from scratch with a Level 20 Mage, but it can make kiting as an Arcane Warrior much easier, especially when Phase Two begins. With a Level 20 party, it's recommended to keep threat focused on the AW Warden and Brogan, while Jerrik fights respecced as an archer with Accuracy, Rapid Shot, 20 points in Strength and the rest in Dexterity.
 * Party members likely to come under attack from the Harvester itself should be pre-dosed with Greater Nature Salve.
 * As an Awakening* rogue with very high dexterity (70 base works from experience, untested with lower) as well as momentum (to keep aggro up), evasion, duelist stance and keen defense as well as the dual weapon specialization, it is possible to have your rogue tank the Harvester as you take almost no hits throughout the entire fight, with Brogan using threaten to pick up the skeletons. (Works on Hard difficulty, untested on Nightmare.)
 * Don't be too frustrated if it takes a while to earn the achievement. The encounter contains elements of luck which have nothing to do with your skill as a player (e.g. number and type of the skeletons that spawn).
 * *An Awakening character is not necessarily required (at least in hard mode), however, you must have done most or all of the quests in Origins to be a high enough level to get away with this battle. (Just did it with a level 25 Duelist/Bard/Assassin with 102 base dexterity with the recommended skill setup)
 * Is possible to do under 2 minutes(both phases) and without being hit as a dual wielding rogue from Origins/Awakening. I had about 96 dex, around 55% dodge chance, 80% crit chance and +250% crit damage(runes and daggers) and didn't require any potions/heal or use of abilities except sustained.


 * As stated above, when the Harvester is low on health (around 5-10%), it is advised to finish Phase One in a red phase with an unused switch. Because this strategic element is not technically supposed to be available in Phase Two, the immediate use of the switch will wipe out any remaining corpses without fail and make Phase Two a cakewalk.


 * A mage with around 230 of spellpower can paralyze the Harvester in both phases. Since the common Paralyze spell has a relatively quick cooldown, his ability to damage the party is much diminished, however, be prepared, this will attract great aggro, which may leave your mage in a difficult position if threat management isn't well used.

Mage strategy

 * Spirit Healer
 * Arcane Warrior

Spells:Make sure to Have Mass Rejuvenation, Prison, Animate Dead as well as Full Spirit Healer and Arcane Warrior Tree. you will also want Spell Wisp, and Spell Might.Rock Armor as well, Frost Weapons is optional, though recommended, as it has proven to be more effective(in my opinion) then telekinetic weapons, you will not want fire, due to golem.


 * Recommended armor, Cailen's!!! this armor is by far one of the best in-game, and is obtainable very early in game, and can be upgraded, though it doesn't truly need to(did with tier 5)
 * Recommended Weapon, Highly recommend Spellweaver or Maric's Blade with Cailen's shield.

(for those who don't know, Use Spell Wisp, then might, Deactivate Wisp then Active again for an added Spellpower Bonus. as spellpower is now determining your hits this is very important) I would not recommend Shimmering Shield, if not say you do not even need it, as well as Healing Aura. they are a drain on your already halfed mana from everything else. You will not be using spells for this, you are merely "Invincible" DPS. and are merely going to hack and slash this battle, healing were needed, unless you have a bar minimum of 60-70 Lyrium potions.
 * Playstyle. you will be buffed by Rock Armor, Frost(or Telekinetic) weapons, Combat Magic, and Utilizing the Spell Wisp/Might trick to increase spell power.


 * Animated Undead, with Spell Might active this will create a Minion at .9*(Caster lvl) so with a new character, by the time you reach the golem you should be 22-23 so, .9*23=20.7 leveled Minion, with abilities, it is highly recommended that you either get a rogue, or a Shield wearing. dependent on what you have Brogan as. ( summoning this will kill the other minion, BUT once you enter combat he will summon it again so long as he does it without you telling him to, thus giving you a 6 member team to fight the golem with 4 tanks(you included) if you choose a shield Skeleton. The Golem should never be used as a tank, as its healing is much faster and cheaper then your own.


 * Stats, Magic 55 Wis 35 Con 25 is the bar minimum of what you should have. this will allow you to have enough mana after all your buffs and minion.

You will be able to cast 2-3 heals and a mind blast before needed either to use Mass Rejuvenation or a Lyrium potion. it is necissary to watch the Golems health, as you are it's healer since it is immune to potions, Health and Stamina. so you will need to use Rejuve,and Heal on him to keep him working.

With this you are Set without a doubt for Casual and Normal, Hard will take some Strategy and close management of your party's life, I had to revive all but myself twice on Hard. (Your revive is a larger AOE, so be sure to try and get as many into its area as possible)

Low Level Caster Mage Strategy
(tested on nightmare with level 22 end of origin mage import)


 * Spells: Waking Nightmare line. Spirit Healer line. Heal line. Crushing Prison line. Hex line. Fire up to fireball. Frost up to cone of cold. Grease.


 * Phase one: do NOT draw aggro with your PC. Kiting at this point will just drag on the phase. With a decently geared mage, you can heal through the tank and the party very easily on this phase. You should be getting through this phase consistently with everyone up.


 * Phase two: This is the more tricky phase. Put Jerrik on the Harvester ASAP and leave him on it for as long as you can keep him alive. Only spells that damage the Harvester in this phase are the spirit school, and he is still highly resistant, so you *need* physical damage.

Need your party up as long as possible, but once you are overwhelmed. Start kiting the skeletons and harvester by running in circles and only stopping to casting these crowd control spells: Mind Blast, Sleep, Cone of Cold, Crushing Prisoner (on non boss level skeletons), Force Field, Grease.

If Jerrik is dead, you want to use revive on him and then put him on the harvester again. He will likely die again, but just revive him as much as possible.

Now here is the main trick: when Harvester is together with the skeletons chasing you. You want to use Waking Nightware. If you are lucky, this will cause the skeletons to attack Harvester for you, and they do massive physical damage. A good roll on Waking Nightware threat will take out a large chunk of Harvester's HP.

Good luck!

Decoy tactics
This section introduces a universal tactic for all classes, without having to deal with Harvester at close range.


 * Preparation: Any kind of weapon that uses ranged attack, such as longbows, crossbows and staves (from imported character). Also, Group Heal upgrade for Golem is essential unless the main character have at least one healing spell.


 * Recommended class type: Rogue (with any kind of bow, but preferably high-tier bows with "slow" runes), mage (also preferably high-tier staves).
 * Notice that these "Recommendation" and "Preparation" are completely optional, but it would finish the boss much quicker. Even if these are not imported, the "Chasind Bow" can be found on one of the enemies prior to entering the Forge.


 * Prior to battle: First, set your party's tactic to and only to "Enemy - Rank - Boss or higher - attack (general attack, NOT skills) except your tank. Additionally, set the healer(s) of the party to heal the controlled member, where Runic Golem is viable option. Then, summon Brogan for threat control - you might want to get used to his control, as this strategy bases on his Taunt talent. Finally, "hold" your party via clicking the compass-shaped button, and save the changes.


 * Phase one - Golem form: After the Harvester head's rendezvous with its body, quickly move all your party memeber except Brogan to the corner, preferably to the "button" for controlling the lyrium flow. Then, taunt the Harvester and run around in circle so that harvester's focus is on Brogan while ranged attackers from your party attacks this helpless creature. Recommended route is to circle around the pillars right next to the party after the short cutscene. Be aware of skeleton summoning; although taunt's cooldown is relatively short, random summoning close to the ranged attackers may result death of summoner and the ranged attackers, rendering the last member to be surrounded by hordes of skeletons. It is useful to keep warrior close by, just in case of possible consequences.

Stay alert and keep your eyes on the red "dots" approaching the party on the mini map - divert their target to Brogan as soon as possible. When the skeleton numbers become incontrollerable, use the buttons to kill the skeletons. If done correctly, although time-consuming and quite boring, this would basically make Harvester to become nothing more than walking meat-mash.


 * Notice that Brogan is essential for this plan since rangers' summon does not include high threat-gaining ability like taunt - Wolf's "howl" only reduces the targets' defense. For especially mages, high-damaging spells draw the threats to your fragile mage, so it's best to use only normal attacks, if not occasional close-range summons of skeletons. Moreover, if too much damages are taken, simple taunt would not distract enemies from the ranged attackers. You can also use warrior for decoy, but it is safe to first use disposable summon and then your warrior for the cooldown.


 * Phase two: After defeating the Harvester in golem form, the head crawls out of its body. Since it jumps around the map, it can be rather tricky to taunt it follow Brogan. However, it goes same way for the first form - taunt and run as fast as you can without getting yourself surrounded. Since Runic Golem's group heal only provides 40~50ish even with full upgrade, where normal enemies gives 20ish and elite gives 40~60 damage, once Brogan dies, you need to restart the battle unless your tank didn't knocked unconscious during the first phase. For spirit healers, it is possible to use Revival, where there isn't much chance for the rest of the specializations. If successful, cutscene would play without you even noticing the Harvester's death!

Phase One
The battle will start as the Harvester's head enters its large golem-like body made of flesh. For the duration of this phase, remember that damage is key. There is no limit to the number of times you will have to press the switch or the number of minions the Harvester will summon, so the quicker you take him down the easier it will be. Jerrik needs to focus fire on the Harvester at all times (if respecced into an archer skill-tree).

As the Harvester will always first use Vile Disembowelment, you will want to avoid starting the fight with your party in its range. Start the fight by diverting the Harvester with your tank, making sure to sustain aggro (for those who are playing after Awakening, Air of Insolence is very useful to activate here). Start attacking the Harvester with your party, making sure to keep your golem at a good distance from it whilst also being able to benefit your team with Cleansing Aura. The Harvester's skills are powerful and quick, so keep a close eye on your tank's health; it will drop abruptly multiple times during the fight (for Awakening players: if you find yourself in a position where your tank's health is dropping fast and he's on potion/heal spell cooldown, don't forget to use Carapace to reduce damage).

The mechanics of the fight are organized such that when the Harvester switches from the "normal phase" to the "red phase," a switch on the side of the room will appear. The purpose of this switch is to remove any buff the Harvester gains from switching to the "red phase," whilst also eliminating any summoned skeletons. Do not always use this switch as soon as it appears! Sometimes the tank will do next to no physical damage whilst in the "red phase," in which case you will want to use the switch, but keep in mind that any skeletons that survive coming out of the red phase will be noticeably more powerful and will appear faded red. Sometimes there will be no significant alteration to the Harvester's defense or attack, in which case, you should be saving the switch for incoming skeletons who may be overwhelming you. The rank of the skeleton he summons is generally random. If the skeleton he summons is Normal, it will be mostly harmless and can be ignored or off-tanked by Snug. If it's an Elite skeleton, either take it down as swiftly as possible or immobilize it with an appropriate spell. If it's a Boss-ranked skeleton, you need to be very cautious; Boss-ranked skeletons hit as hard as the Harvester and will easily wipe your party if they are left to stray. Do not bother damaging the Boss skeletons; it is far more effective to focus fire on the Harvester whilst either kiting the orange skeleton with Jerrik's minion or keeping it in place with force field. Be wary that this fight is harder if the Boss skeletons make an appearance later into the fight when things are more chaotic; the idea is that you want to eliminate them by pressing the switch.

Whether you are playing on easy or nightmare mode, the best defense is offense; do not tarry the battle for long attacking the skeletons (although they are named corpses, they are supposed to be named skeletons). It is your best bet to throw everything you have at the Harvester itself. Skeletons will indeed bother you greatly, but if you are a powerful tanker or you are also a mage (preferably Arcane Warrior), then it will be possible draw all the attention on you or keep the party alive with healing magic from yourself and the runic golem. Never attack the skeletons unless there are so many of them that you can't keep your party alive or can't reach the Harvester. The Harvester will summon minions faster than you can kill them, so it is not a good idea to kill the skeletons unless you are sure you can deliver large amounts of damage with quick attack. Another method I have found to be useful if low on health poultices is to set the golem's tactics to group heal when health is below 90 percent for any ally and to have whoever the tank may be taunt and run around the room to give more time to get a few more group heals off. This tactic is especially useful if playing hard or nightmare difficulty.

Another useful tactic is to cast both walking bomb AND virulent walking bomb. This will cause a glitch in the damage check for lasting damage effects which will double the damage of all spells like walking bomb, stinging swarm, curse of mortality, and the lasting burns from flame spells.

Once you have defeated the first phase of the Harvester, the head will detach from the corpse body and fight with his lizard-like personal body.


 * Using Mark of Death and Twin Strikes + Low Blow + Unending Flurry with an imported Rogue AND Jerrik can almost end the first phase instantly on Hard difficulty.

Phase Two
Again, in this part of the fight you will want focus fire on the Harvester at all times. Jerrik - with Feign Death and/or Distraction - will be able to keep aggro off him at all times whilst dealing heavy damage to the Harvester. Your golem should try to avoid garnering any attention from the skeletons so it can revive your party if necessary. You may find this fight easier if you are an archer as the Harvester's speed will not hinder your damage. If you are not a Spirit Healer mage, then unless you are a powerful tank, the battle is essentially hopeless if your runic golem dies (especially if you are playing on hard or nightmare). Make sure the runic golem stays alive, as it will be the only source of healing in case you are not a mage. This fight is something of a perfect challenge because being a mage is extremely useful in this fight for the healing, but at this stage the harvester is all but immune to magic. This can be remedied by using an Arcane Warrior and equipping an ax or a sword.

This part of the fight is significantly harder not because of the Harvester itself, but because of the skeletons. First, the skeletons can no longer be eliminated by a simple press of a switch (although it is possible to kill them if you saved the switch and push it right after you enter the second phase); they stick around for a long time and need to be killed or crowd controlled. If you find it easy to eliminate the skeletons then you might be able to afford some time to kill them one by one, although you should keep in mind they will still spawn rapidly and randomly. However, once again, the orange skeleton(s) will prove very difficult to handle and you should attempt to either soak up all their damage with your tank or crowd control them for as long as possible. In addition to the skeletons the Harvester will make from the piles, they will still spawn randomly without the Harvester's action. There is a bug here where all your attacks on skeletons will be "miss", unlike attacks on the Harvester. The skeletons are so powerful that on nightmare unless you respec Brogan it will only take a few seconds for even two normal level skeletons to kill him. Mages are probably better off soloing this fight on nightmare, using Mind Blast to keep the corpses at bay.

Throughout the fight, the Harvester will travel around the entire room with great speed, usually traveling with its skeletons. In addition, the Harvester will switch phase from "normal" to "red," as it did in phase one. The difference this time is that the phasing will only improve the skeletons. Red-phased skeletons -- who will glow red and look transparent -- are significantly stronger and harder to hit. As soon as the Harvester switches phase, this is the time to control the skeletons or else you risk losing your entire party (for Awakening players: Carapace is invaluable at this part). Eventually, when you get the Harvester to around 20% HP, all the skeletons will die instantly. If you manage to reach this point, then you have a good shot at defeating the Harvester. The harvester will from this point revieve slain skeletons and switch rapidly red and normal light with the current glitch that makes skeletons immortal whith red light activated the fight should prove to be nearly impossible.


 * Note: Four normal ranked skeletons were capable of taking down a 500 health tank with 80 armor and ~200 defense in 3 hits. If all your party falls, and you have a lot of grenades, you may just want to run around the room and chuck grenades to damage the Harvester to 20% health then slaughter it.  It seems that Acid grenades do the most damage, where-as fire grenades do little and cold do almost none.