Dragon's Dogma demo (and beyond) - Page 2

Level 125. Yea, after I killed the Drake bunches of times with no great rank progress for my pawn Julie, she gained the last two ranks fairly quickly by our team killing cows and bandits and like one Griffin that tried to screw with us. I *guess* that rank-gaining points come from individual kills and no matter if I was getting over 40K XP per Drake kill, it would have taken more than I'd want to do to finish ranking Julie up.

So now Julie has all the benefits that come from a fully-ranked Sorcerer while playing a Mage healer again. Not like it makes a difference NOW, but later it will probably matter. Did notice a strong tendency to see/be attacked by a Griffin every time I walked back to Gran Soren from a Drake kill, so if I find a reason to collect more Griffin parts I know how to get them...

Once you move past a certain point, there's no more Drake farming allowed. Best guess, anyway. My log said 139 Drake kills. My inventory says I got maybe one Dragon Forged item per 10 kills. Not my idea of generous.

Level 130. The main Dragon was no big deal. Magick Archer tore him apart. And now here's where I need to add a spoiler tag just in case this is a Big Reveal. Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Anyway, I'm going to start the post-game now, where the scores can really change, as the put it in Die Hard. Not sure how much I'll do, but there are Achievements to get yet. The 150 location one tripped as I started into the Dragon's lair, so at least I don't have to wander...

Level 135. Jumping into the Everfall got boring fast, trying to find the ledges with the right bosses inside. Managed to get most if not all of the kill-this Achievements. Not sure I can 'beat' the online Ur Dragon, but since it is easily available in NG+ I went ahead and moved to that. Did all the variations of game-ending that brought distinct Achievements. Kinda laughed at the Job Board when, right at the beginning, it offered one minor task to kill 10 Chimera. Makes me wonder if 20 Drakes will be on the board in the main town once I arrive.

Playing the Strider just for sport. Mage has weak ranged power, Warrior has none, so Strider will do until a vocation change is allowed. All those blast arrows I never used are still in inventory. Good thing the stuff I sold as the first game went on was weapons and wearables.

Julie didn't 'start over' at Level 1, so I guess any pawn I saw do that was an intentional New Game. Did have to dress her quick so the people still using her wouldn't get upset with junky equipment. Now to carefully check the lists of quests so I do them all with no canceled ones. Not that many Achievements left so I might 100% this game if I'm careful...

Level 138. I found a decent list of quests and I think I just have 3 to do that didn't get done in the first playthrough. One requires the player to get brave and attack one of the Golems, so this is where having nothing to prove by beating up monsters that didn't bother me first isn't the way the developers wanted me to play.

Assassin can't steal stuff from wandering pawns, but has more interesting bow tricks. And, due to carrying plenty of blast arrows right from the start (thanks, loads of money) I killed the first Griffin I saw. What I need to learn is how you climb the big monsters. So far, nothing I do at a dragon's ankle gets me up higher. Apparently a must-do move for an Assassin, so I have to keep trying.

The online Ur Dragon 192 has way too much health right now. I don't recall seeing the bar change at all while my team beat on it. Saw a YouTube video where one guy who has beaten it dozens of times got there when it was quite killable. Not sure how that gets done, but I'll have to work on that too...

Oh, BTW, turns out that buying one thing with rift crystals turns on a character editor you see on the main menu when starting the game. Plan for now: when I'm in one of those places where the 'right' sized character could slip in, I'll edit my Assassin so she can get whatever's back there. Pretty sure I'll have to dump off some stuff to the team since she's now heftier than she used to be after some editing, and the smaller Assassin won't be able to carry that load...
Edited by mikepaul - 2/11/13 at 10:12am

Level 142. Got the Achievement for doing the side-quests. Three more to go.

I wish I'd practiced on the Ur Dragon more. When I walked in, Ur Dragon 195 (three higher than last I bothered) was like 99.9% dead. I really thought I was hurting it, but after a while I realized that the glowing spot I was knifing was a now-deceased heart. I *guess* the one on the tail was IT, but the darn dragon never stopped wagging it to make it possible for me to hit it. That ultra-expensive Maker's Finger arrow may just destroy one heart on him, but you do have to HIT that heart. I managed to hit it in the face but that really didn't faze him a lot. When I got back a few minutes later, my reward for 'assisting' in the kill was waiting for me. Now to see how long it takes for the next one to get whittled down enough.

Once I get the equipment acquisition Achievement and the secret one, I'll blow through the rest of the main quests for the done-twice one. Time for something else...

Level 144. I was getting DEEPLY depressed about the lack of damage I was doing to the online Ur Dragon. The rewards seemed so sweet. Unfortunately, the YouTube videos I watched seem well out-of-date. I get hit with ice and fire and meteors and just about every spell that exists, which either toss me around while trying to get to the dragon, or knock me off it while I try to dagger it. Over and over and over, and eventually all I get is a pile of stuff like wakestones and ferrystones to reward me for 'helping' in the most recent defeat. No sign of any REAL reward...

...then, I look at what I'm dumping into storage from the last Drake kill, and I see two weapons that I had ZERO recollection seeing picked up. I was carting around the Totem Mace, and one of the pawns had the Lustrous Greatshield. These are nearly the TOP of the line weapons for the Mystic Knight that the Ur Dragon drops, but I wasn't aware that they dropped without actually killing him. I have no idea if they were on the field, or in the pile of stuff I found after someone else got the kill. Either way, I now have them upgraded as far as I can (mace 3-star, shield 2-star) and will try getting them Dragon Forged for good luck. Then I'll beat on the Ur Dragon with those for a while, just to see if they work better.

If anybody knows where stuff like this gets dropped, on the field or whatever, let me know. I may never kill the online version of the Big Guy, but I do want all the benefits that fall my way for trying...

Level 146. Took a while, but the Ur Dragon weapons are now Dragon Forged. Even the staff I picked up by killing The Dragon. Not any easier killing a Drake than with lesser equipment, but a couple of Griffins were no trouble.

Got the Achievement for 350 weapon/apparel items. I had no idea how much gold I had in Drake parts. Sold just as much as I needed to get like 8,000,000 as I went shopping for everything available, deposited them in storage, then sold whatever I had more than 1 in stock. Ended up with 363. Still have millions and millions more of stuff I could sell if I had a reason.

Rapidly reaching the point at which I'll be too bored to continue, so if I can't get the online Ur Dragon down via some miracle by next weekend, I'll try the offline version. And get the NG+ finished too...

Level 147. Potential job interview changed my play schedule. I don't know why the online and offline Dragons are both called Ur. Offline is a chump, online is a champ. I knocked 97% of the offline versions health off in one session, and finished it in a few seconds of the next one. Meanwhile, the online version sucked up similar damage with no health loss that I could see. Got the Volant White staff as part of the offline loot, as well as the Achievement. All that's left is to end the game again...

Level 151. Two offline Ur Dragon kills per level right now. Happily, the wiki posts that said that Ascalon, what appears to be the best Holy sword, was only a drop for the online Ur was incorrect. Or, if you have the three different dragon tears, your odds improve. Either way, I have one now, and am trying to Dragon Forge it. Ur Dragon is an annoying fight, with all the dancing it does interfering with the 'guided missile' aspects of either the Mystic Knight or the Magick Archer, but three rounds is all it has taken so far to beat it. I don't think I have the patience to try to kill it with the other vocations. Actual aim with a bow is difficult, and jumping on to knife it might take a while. I don't need the ego boost from killing a dragon with some small knives: I need Dragon Forged weapons.

Now, MAYBE the Sorcerer and his AoE spells, but only when I'm done with most everything else...

Level 154. Finally found a decent offline Ur Dragon killing configuration. Weapons are Ascalon and Lustrous Greatshield but now (as of last kill) even Ascalon is showing up as online-assistance loot so they aren't hard to get. Zero armor drops though.

One should max out ALL vocations so every Augment is available to use. It also allows you to get all the Core Skills which all vocations can use. Best way I found: kill cows and bandits and whatever right near Gran Soren. Each kill adds rank points, and killing only big things does NOT accelerate that. May seem boring, but it makes the end-game easier.

Augments I now use:
Acuity
Articulacy
Attunement
Bloodlust
Conservation
Leg-Strength

The key was a suggestion I found to use Bloodlust. It boosts strength and magic at night. I tested and found that, despite the Chamber the Ur Dragon lives in always looking dark, you NEED to wait until it's dark before you go try to kill him. The extra boost from Bloodlust makes it possible for a Level 154 Mystic Knight to kill the offline Ur Dragon before it times out and flies away.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AlW0aqZ2hkx1dGlmZzFfRTRlak8wUGNGRTVkeE0xWFE&f=true&noheader=true&gid=9 gives the details on what vocation provides what augment. Mage, Strider, Sorcerer, and Assassin provide what I use.

The annoyance of killing the offline Ur Dragon and not getting anything Dragon Forged continues, but at least it goes faster now...

Level 185. Veteran's Periapt really helps gain levels. Offline Ur Dragon is still an easy kill, except when talking to friends makes you forget to run around enough to hit all the hearts before he decides to leave.

A couple of friends are working through the game now, so I passed on some extra Dragon Forged equipment. I tell them that leveling up is better than any armor I've stumbled across, but I doubt they want to put in the hours required to build their health bar up to safe levels. It's too bad that some equipment, like Mystic Knight shields, can't be shared since no pawn can equip it, but the best sword and staff can, so they'll do OK. I kinda wish I'd had that when I was starting.

I think I'll go back to the main quest at Level 190. That saves some level room to gain something from finishing the game...

Level 194. All done.

Post-game completely screwed up. Again, I worked HARD to get Madeline as my love interest. Even had the purple glow when I spoke to her. So who gets picked this time? Asalam, the Gran Soren innkeeper. He disappeared just before the end of the main game, and I thought he'd glitched out, but as my love interest, he had someplace else to be. So once I actually ended the game, he, again, was unavailable in Gran Soren due to where your love interest goes at that point, and that meant if I wanted anything out of inventory for enhancing equipment, or even sleeping in town while waiting for copies, I had to go elsewhere and I didn't WANT to.

So I collected some materials and equipment that only come from the Everfall, then ended the game and got the last Achievement. Did another NG+ and got as far as putting Julie back together then parked the game. Gonna see if I can find a friend to teach me Black Ops 2 multiplayer. Probably some Star Wars pinball too. No more dragons for a while...