Archdemon (strategy)

This page contains detailed tips on how to fight the Archdemon.

Archdemon Capabilities

 * The Archdemon is immune to the effects: Charm, Confusion, Fear, Knockdown, Slip, Stun.


 * The Archdemon has some powerful attacks, including Massive Attacks from the side, Cleave from the front, and Sweep from the back. Further, it has a Spirit based breath attack, along with several other long range Spirit attacks such as Archdemon Corruption Blast (single target), Spirit Smite (bombards in area of effect), and Vortex (dark purple tornado). As it summons darkspawn reinforcements, it may use Darkspawn Detonation to make them explode on your allies.


 * The Archdemon is not classed as either a dragon or a darkspawn, therefore it is immune to the bonuses from weapons against dragons, e.g. Yusaris and bonuses against darkspawn, e.g. the Silverite Rune.

Army Recommendation

 * Choosing the Dalish elves (who use ranged attacks) as the support army can be useful, because melee will suffer much more damage from his cleaves, and the area spells from the mages can interrupt your melee attacks as well.

Party Members Recommendation

 * If you have Wynne or another healer, have them save their mana to restore your party's health and attack the Darkspawn hordes that will arrive later in the battle.
 * If Shale is in the party, turn on Crushing Blows and, by default, it will Slam as often as it can. Also, have Shale equipped with flawless nature crystals to take advantage of the Archdemon's low resistance towards nature damage.
 * Have at least two ranged party members fire enchanted arrows. For instance, at high level Leliana is capable of doing 40+ damage per hit.

Defensive
The Archdemon deals Spirit damage, so stock up on those resistances where possible. Corruption is espescially effective on tanks as it maxes out Spirit resistance without any other gear. Note that elemental resistances are capped at 75% so bear this in mind when swapping armour pieces and potentially losing set bonuses. Here is a list of recommended upper tier equipment specifically to defend against spirit damage:

Offensive
If you wish to take advantage of the Archdemon's weaker nature resistance, here is a list of upper tier items which deal or enhance nature damage:

For mages it is recommended to use a staff which does physical damage, or secondarily, nature damage (as above), unless the current staff you have provides significant bonuses in other departments such as spellpower, stamina regeneration, etc. Recommended physical-damage, upper tier staves:

Spellcaster
For heavy magic users, note that the Archdemon has enormous resistance against just about everything, so mages must maximise their Magic attribute in order to do at least some damage by brute force or through prolonged duration.

Recommended spells that may work on the Archdemon:

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Recommended spells that will cause continuous sustained damage:

Very effective in conbination with Affliction Hex

Spells which will take advantage of the Archdemon's weaker resistance against nature damage:

Melee
For melee combatants, you may find it difficult to remain within striking distance of the Archdemon due to its ability to knock you back and its ability to fly to different locations. If you're a heavy melee user, it's recommended to try and attack from various sides at the same time, separating your combatants in order to avoid having all of them knocked down with a single blow. Use Shield Wall (with Shield Expertise) and Indomitable for your melee characters if available. This will prevent them from being knocked down.

Ranged
Ranged combatants will find it easier to deal continuous damage to the Archdemon, whether it is on the main platform or across the fissure. The best type of arrows to use are Elf-Flight Arrows followed by Arrows of Filth.

Early Phase
The Archdemon flies from place to place on the main platform. It is easily attacked but will use various knockbacks, wing buffets, grabs and other attacks, making it difficult for melee fighters to engage it. You will be joined (PC only) by Arl Eamon, First Enchanter Irving or Knight-Commander Greagoir (depending on choices made during Broken Circle), Zathrian or Swiftrunner (depending on choices made during Nature of the Beast), and/or Kardol (if you persuaded him to join your armies), who can help you with the Archdemon. If any of your mages can spare some healing spells, use it on them, as they are all valuable allies.

If your party is having trouble defeating the Archdemon, call an army (if applicable) to distract the dragon while retreating to the ballistae on the towers. These siege weapons auto-target the Archdemon and, if it is within range, fire bolts that do between 40 and 120 damage. When hit with a ballista bolt, the Archdemon will roar in pain, interrupting its attacks and giving the ballista enough time to reload. Though significantly less exciting, this is an efficient way to chip its health away without actually fighting it. On any difficulty above Easy, though, the ballistas will jam and require a Rogue to fix them, the Archdemon may jump onto a tower, and the ballistae may jam indefinitely.

Middle Phase
In this phase, the Archdemon will jump to an isolated platform; melee fighters will not be able to reach it due to a fissure in the roof. At this point, darkspawn reinforcements will pour into the roof to assist the Archdemon (as before, the Alphas, Emissaries, and Shrieks have normal health, while the Grunts are still generally one hit kills).

The Archdemon will simply sit and fire Spirit attacks at its enemies during this phase, so feel free to throw area of effect spells at it or use either of the two ballistae in range. If you choose to camp near the ballistae, be sure to have a strong army to keep both the Archdemon and its Horde busy, as either may attack you here. If you have ranged combatants active (i.e. Dalish Elves or Mages) on the field, make sure to engage the Horde yourself, as these units are better left to shoot across the fissure at the Archdemon; similarly, if you have melee combatants (i.e. Dwarves, Soldiers, Golems, Werewolves, or Templars active), they can attack the Darkspawn (either with you or for you).

To avoid becoming overwhelmed by the vast number of Darkspawn, you should use area of effect abilities - almost all of the battle will take place in a small pocket, directly in front of the Archdemon, as it is a common spawning place for both sides. You may also want to crowd your offensive forces on a spawn door to stop Alphas from getting too far into the fray. Shrieks usually run out too fast and Grunts aren't always worth attacking, while Alphas usually activate a buff once they arrive, so use that time to engage them. Alternatively, if you wish to take on Archdemon by yourself using bow/staff/ballistae, and you have 2 melee characters with you, then you can send each of them to the spawning points, they can keep the horde busy while you chip down Archdemon's health.

At this point it may prove difficult keeping your allies alive. Arl Eamon (as do other allied melee fighters) usually insists on moving close to the spawning points effectively creating a double front to administer. Do not worry about losing any of them in this battle however. They will not die permanently if slain. Your main focus is the Archdemon.

Late phase
This phase begins when the Archdemon is approximately at 15-20% health but can actually be avoided if the Archdemon is killed quickly enough - it has nothing to do with its health, but rather how fast you can deal damage. The Archdemon flies to the upper part of the main platform, while Darkspawn continue to spawn from the doors at an increased rate.

The Archdemon will continue to attack anything within range, while many of the Darkspawn will switch to ranged weapons. There are two ballistae in range of the Archdemon: one that was used in the middle phase and one on the opposite side of the Archdemon from the other. Use them until they jam as they can do up to 115 damage per shot. Any of your melee combatants (i.e. Dwarves, Templars, Soldiers, Golems, or Werewolves) can distract any enemies while you use the ballistae, while any of your ranged combatants (i.e. Elves or Mages) can support you as you attack the Archdemon yourself.

Keep an eye on the party in case their tactics allow changing target - the tanks should concentrate all their efforts on the Archdemon. Any rogues should engage other darkspawn to keep them off the tanks whenever they aren't needed to unjam ballistae. The final stage is the hardest to keep track of since you may be firing and repairing ballistae, healing, and making sure your tanks don't forget what they're supposed to be attacking. As a final aesthetic note, it is perhaps worth having a melee combatant make the killing blow, as the Archdemon has a unique deathblow animation should you kill it this way.

Bugs

 * Possible Bug: After battling with the Archdemon for awhile, he will summon several darkspawn minions to attack you. After defeating them, the Archdemon stays in place for a time and you can use one of the ballistas to constantly fire on the Archdemon, however, it does not move thus making the battle much easier.
 * There is also a helpful bug where the likes of Arl Eamon and Zathrian will not join you but the darkspawn minions will not spawn.
 * Also: during the Early Phase of the battle accidentally talking to Wynne can bring back dead members of the party. Occurred on PS3 while trying to operate one of the ballistas; after the initiated conversation two dead members had respawned next to us.