Ancient rock wraith

The Ancient Rock Wraith is the last boss of Act I of Dragon Age II, and is found in the Deep Roads.

Background
An old, powerful and very resilient Rock Wraith of dwarven legend.

Involvement
After Bartrand leaves you to die in the deep roads, Hawke encounters the Ancient Rock Wraith guarding the exit to the Primeval Thaig, along with a large amount of valuable treasure.

Whether the Hunger demon's proposal is accepted or not, Hawke will have to defeat the Ancient Rock Wraith. This is the last boss for Act 1.

Skills

 * The Creature has two forms: One wields two rock blades and the other is a Shield form.
 * In the shield form, the Creature transforms to a ball and will roll towards party members, doing damage as well as causing knockdown.
 * The Creature moves to the middle of the room and casts a form of chain lightning that deals damage throughout the room. The lyrium pillars shield party members from damage.
 * The Creature is immune to attacks during its chain lightning attack.
 * The Creature creates a vortex drawing your party towards him. Your party will lose footing and take minor damage, but can attack him after the stagger animation has finished.
 * The Creature can become a flying rock ball, then move towards one of your companion's locations. If he hits any party members, significant damage and knockback are dealt. After finishing this move, he usually follows up with melee attacks and repeats it.
 * The Creature in shield form can self-implode, causing 360 degree damage. The starting animation is similar to rock ball attack, but differs in shape seconds into the animation. There is a 5 seconds leeway until damage is inflicted.
 * Additional Profanes will spawn during the fight after chain lightning.

Items
The items dropped by the creature appear to be random, but can include many high quality Greater and Enchanted varieties of items featuring two or three bonuses or as much as 5+.

Strategy
It is important to note that the Rock Wraith has two forms: a Dual-blade style and a Shield style. When you first encounter the Rock Wraith, it is by default in its Dual-Blade style. Each style has its significant differences and will require a shift in strategy to keep your party alive.


 * Regardless of the form, however, most rogue combat abilities that deal extra damage (such as twin fangs, assassinate, explosive strike, archer's lance, etc.) have their damage dealing effects greatly reduced or completely negated by the Ancient Rock Wraith, at least on Hard and Nightmare difficulty levels (patch version 1.02).   As such, if the PC is a rogue, and the party's melee fighter for the expedition, this is an important issue to keep in mind during the fight: save stamina for useful talents, such as mark of death and backstab (which can be used to avoid attacks by quickly appearing behind the Ancient Rock Wraith).  This also seems to apply to Varric, whose stamina is better spent on the archery talents of his that are effective, such as Hail of Arrows.

The Dual-Blade form has the following abilities and attacks:
 * Default Attack: Swings blades and shoots lightning bolts. Both of these do damage and can hit separate targets.
 * Spike Attack: The Rock Wraith crumbles back, transforms into a spike that lunges into a party member. Causes Knockback and heavy damage. Nearby non-flanking party members will stagger.
 * Teleport: The Rock Wraith can teleport to any position in the map.

To counter this style requires heavily on your tank, while your archers and mages are out of the wraith's attention. If you can, make sure that the tank receives both forms of this damage by moving vulnerable members out of the wraith's view. The Spike attack can be avoided by strafing the tank to the side of the wraith. This requires close monitoring of the wraith's attack patterns, which is more difficult than it looks. The signature animation is the wraith's disassembly. If the Wraith crumbles back, and NOT straight down, you know a spike is incoming.

Once you've chipped its health down to 90%, the Wraith will teleport into the centre of the chamber. This attack is widespread and can only be avoided by moving your party into any of the four corners. Once this attack is finished, the wraith's core is exposed, only to be surrounded by weak Profanes. These can be easily handled with Hail of Arrows and AoE spells. When the Profane are dispatched, hit the Wraith with everything you've got.

The wraith will reassemble into a new form: the Shield form. The shield form attacks are:


 * Default attack: Swipes a target for damage. Deals damage to party members nearby.
 * Heavy Swipe: Has a wider angle than the default attack, causes stagger for all caught in range. This goes through the columns.
 * Rollin' : Forms into a ball and rolls into party members. Fun.
 * Explosion: Charges and explodes, dealing 360-degree heavy damage. When you see this, run to the corners. The pillars will block the blast. Additionally, if you are far enough away, damage will be avoided.
 * Vortex: The Wraith becomes a black hole pulling your party into it.

The Shield form's damage is, luckily, reduced, but it is still capable of a lot of punishment. If you do not have a solid tank and damage dealers in your party, this fight becomes one of attrition. Dual wielding rogues aren't helpful against the shield style and are better off with equipping a bow to join with the casters. Tanks are essential, and making sure they don't drop should be key. Since the shield form cannot teleport and would rather make your party a chainmail pancake, there is time to move your archers and/or mages away from the rolling attack's trajectory. If you're lucky, the wraith will roll into one of the pillars and keep on rolling while your tank can dish damage safely.

At times, the wraith may transform into a form of shards, ready to explode. If your party is positioned correctly, the only concern should be your tank. Move your tank to a safe distance until the attack finishes.

Keep maintaining a safe level of health for all your party members and look after your tank. Spells like Barrier will help in the tight spots. The wraith can change its form anytime it wants, so keep changing your tactics. If you're confident, rogues can go dual-dagger against the blade form.

At the instance of dealing enough damage, the wraith will do its teleport and widespread attack again and Profanes will show up. In each round, more Profane show up, or less, but stronger Profane will spawn. Dispatch them and focus on the core.

The spell Hex of Torment is useful in this battle as it helps you deal more damage to the rock wraith. An ability similar to the spell above, such as Mark of Death are of assistance.

If you lack a tank, try changing the difficulty to Casual to make the fight easier.

Nightmare Mode Strategy
The strategy itself stays mostly the same in Nightmare mode: The group should consist of one tank and 3 ranged damage dealers, because the Wraith's abilities make him quite hard for a more melee orientated group. A healer is also a good choice, and cuts down on potions needed. Depending on how much you are able to avoid damage in the Shield phases, you will need between 10 and maybe 30 (elfroot) potions. If Dog is present, he should be cast on "Self: Any", the group itself on "Hold" all the time, as positioning and movement are vital.

The 3 phases in Nightmare:
 * 100 to 90% health: Phase 1, Dual-Blade form: Try to keep the Wraith looking in a different direction than the rest of the group. Spread the ranged members out to avoid the Lightning hitting all of them. Besides, use the strategy described above. The wraith's single-target damage is monumental in this phase, so burn it down quickly.
 * 90% to 85% health: First Lighting Sphere: Make sure you place the group shielded from the Sphere, kill the Profanes and hit the Wraith again.
 * 85% to around 60% health: Phase 2, Shield form. Keep the group members away from each other, dodge the rolling stone attack and stay focused! One error can kill a party member, making the fight truly a war of attrition. Avoid melee most times. Needle the Wraith while he is rolling, provided the ranged damage dealers are out of the way.
 * 50% health until the end: Phase 3, the Wraith will switch forms now. This phase begins as soon as the Wraith teleports into the middle of the room and uses his Lightning Vortex again. After you kill the Profanes, he will change to dual-blade form and using his new skill, a channeled spell which deals minor damage and draws all players in line of sight towards him. It interrupts casts every time you get drawn closer. After Vortex is cast, he tends to use his Explosion attack, so move away quickly. One or two times the Wraith will teleport into the middle and cast his Lightning Vortex and afterward draws the group closer. He may also use the Explosion skill, so avoid melee unless you are confident you can move out of the way quickly enough - it has a fairly long charge-up time.

Useful Items and Talents
Armor Runes: It is highly recommended that as many characters as possible have armor enchanted with Rune of Lightning Warding. Most of the Ancient Rock Wraith's attacks are lightning based. Varric, for example, with 1 Rune of Lightning Warding on his armor gets 90% resistance to lightning. Even on Nightmare mode, Varric can easily tank the ranged electrical attacks and easily survive the lightning sphere out of cover. Lightning resistance from accessories is also useful if you can get a hold of some.

Weapon Runes: Spirit and Ice work the best. Avoid Enchanting a weapon with Lightning Runes, or using weapons with lightning based damage.

Talent:
 * Stonewall - Can stop the rolling Mode of the Ancient Rock Wraith with no damage taken.
 * Hail of Arrows, Cone of Cold, ext (any AOE damage dealers) - To take out the Spawned Profane quickly. No lightning based attacks.
 * Revival / Regroup - Mistakes happen and you'll need to revive some one at some point. *The Regroup regenerating health glitch can also be very helpful*
 * Arcane Shield with Elemental Shield and Arcane Wall - The more lightning resistance the better.

Bugs

 * There is a glitch which seems to work with a sword and shield warrior. If the wraith turns into a ball and starts rolling, have the warrior shield bash the wraith. He may be in front of it, but does NOT get knocked back by the wraith's attack as you normally would.


 * Aveline's retaliation talent may prevent her from being knocked down and slow down the ball.