Ur-Dragon Class Strategies

This section is strictly reserved for fighting strategies regarding the Ur-Dragon, both online and offline. These are some unofficial player-created guides in how to make a significant effect against the Ur-Dragon.

If you have an original strategy to contribute, feel free to add to this section, keeping it organized as it is.

Any other relevant information on the Ur-dragon should still be posted on its original page.

The following strategies works on both online and offline versions of the Dragon, but are more oriented to fight the online Ur-Dragon, since it's a more challenging foe.

About the Online Ur-Dragon
The online Ur-Dragon, especially after many generations, has an extremely large amount of health to the point that its health bar won't even visibly move to most attacks, even when it is clear damage is being inflicted.

Causing a significant amount of damage on the Ur-Dragon will grant you decent rewards even if you don't land the killing blow, so it's worth putting together a build that will inflict a good amount of damage to it.

Assassin (Invisibility)
A lone Assassin is probably the most effective vocation to choose when wanting to make a significant effect on the online Ur-Dragon. Pawns should not be used.

Preparation

 * Primary Weapon: Daggers
 * Secondary Weapon: Bow or Shield
 * Dagger Skills: Invisibility, Hundred Kisses, Gale Harness
 * Bow Skills: Any
 * Items: +10 Liquid Vims, 10 Conqueror's Periapts, 10 Demon's Periapts, 1 Maker's Finger, some Staminal Drenches.
 * Recommended Weapons: Heaven's Key, Fey Whisper
 * Recommended Equipment: Dragonroar, Chainmail Bracers, Golden Belt, Assailant's Bracers, Gleaming Bangles, Holy Cuisses, Baleful Nails.
 * Recommended Augments: Bloodlust, Autonomy, Exhilaration, Equanimity, Clout, Acuity

Get rid of your main pawn, then sleep til nightall. Before entering the Chamber of Lament, throw yourself off buildings until your health is in the red - if you can retain as much health as possible whilst still remaining on the brink of death, that is best. If you are using Heaven's Key, you will need to put your health permanently in the red so it can't heal you out of the brink of death, which may mean doing this in the day and then waiting til nightfall. Reduce your gray life bar by having a mage heal you to full and then giving yourself fall damage repeatedly, it should shorten each time.

The Strategy
After these preparations, enter the Chamber of Lament with Daggers and Bow equipped and kill the three corrupted pawns, taking care not to take any more unnecessary damage along the way - use Invisibility if you have to. When the pawns are dead, wait for the Ur-Dragon to descend. Just before he lands, activate Gale Harness. Once he has landed, equip the Maker's Finger and shoot it at the Ur-Dragon. When it hits, the Ur-Dragon should be momentarily stunned. Immediately change the bow to your shield, and activate Showdown. Activate Invisibility, then climb on to the Ur-Dragon and locate a heart before it starts moving again. Go to your menu and use Liquid Vim, Conqueror's Periapt and Demon's Periapt.

Once these are active, begin using Hundred Kisses, whilst making sure you're drawing purple blood. Avoid climbing near the mouth area if possible, or the Ur-Dragon will grab you. Continue using Hundred Kisses nonstop, pausing only to go into your item menu to renew your Liquid Vims and Periapts. You need to use a Liquid Vim every 45 seconds, and you need to use the two Periapts every minute. Continue this approach, checking back and forth between your health bar and your screen to make sure you're drawing purple blood and your items are still in effect. If the Ur-Dragon takes off to perch in the distance, there's little you can do except try and use your bow to do some more damage, but if fortunate, you should be able to remain on the Ur-Dragon for the whole 8 minutes. This strategy is a good way of making a great deal of damage against the Ur-Dragon, but more importantly it keeps you safely out of harm as long as you have stamina.

Final Considerations
The Dagger skill "Invisibility" will make you invincible to practically everything the Ur-Dragon throws at you, including magick attacks, hence why it's the main point of this strategy. If nothing else, make sure you can be Invisible at all times - if you don't want to stockpile Liquid Vims, Stamina restoration items can also work. Health Restoration and Status Cures can be used in case you make a mistake and need to be healed. The Maker's Finger is not absolutely necessary, but it will add a decent amount of damage on top off your dagger attacks, and it opens a nice window of opportunity at the beginning of the battle that will save time and effort in locating a vulnerable heart. Armor is not important, you could go naked and it would make little difference, but equipment that boosts Attack and Magick or your stamina limit is a good choice. The armor recommended above have such bonuses. All armor and weapons you use against the Ur-Dragon should be Dragonforged for maximum efficiency.

Heaven's Key is the best choice of dagger since it is powerful, and Ur is weak to holy magic - it is obtainable from the offline Ur-Dragon. An alternative choice is Dragon's Pain found in the Everfall, in which case the Magick-related augments and items should be replaced with ones based solely on Strength.

Most of the augments you choose are based around increasing damage output:
 * Bloodlust, Autonomy - the foundation of this build. They increase damage output immensely. Be sure to rest til nightfall before challenging the Ur-Dragon, and obviously don't bring pawns.
 * Exhiliration - when low on health, this will boost your strength even more. You really shouldn't take any damage with Invisibility, so you can reduce your health to critical before entering the Chamber of Lament and remain relatively safe. Just be sure your Invisibility never runs out.
 * Equanimity - the same as Exhiliration, but with Magick. Only use with Heaven's Key
 * Clout, Ferocity, Vehemence - For extra strength.
 * Acuity, Attunement - For extra magick. Only use with Heaven's Key.
 * Entrancement, Sinew, Efficacy, Potential - if you plan on using Stamina restoration items instead of Vim, these will increase the amount you can carry, or extend the limits of your stamina. Keep in mind you can use Sinew to fill up on items, remove it afterwards and you'll still keep them, you'll just be overencumbered.

With the right combination, your damage output will change significantly, often multiplying your basic attack stats by an average of 11x, not counting the attack boosts. This combined with Invisibility allows you to make a decent attack on the online Ur-Dragon and do visible damage, all the while unable to be killed.

Submitted by NDenizen 10:59, June 16, 2012 (UTC)

Alternate Strategy by azimsalimi
In addition to the above strategy which I am currently using, I would like to add a few. First, I'm using Female assassin with the above specs but I wish to share some of my stats for comparison purposes to other players. My level is 149 (my PSN ID is azimsalimi, if you wish to add or use my pawn - Coto Hikaru), my build is emphasized specifically to maximize my attack strength, so currently my attack strength is 803 (i.e. the strength in the bracket under Offense status. Magick 258, HP 2945, ST 3885. My augment used for this build is Bloodlust, Autonomy, Exhiliration, Clout, Equanimity, Acuity. My equipments are all dragon-forged and am using Heaven's Key, Fey Whisper, Dragonroar, Maiden Camisole, Golden Belt, Assailant's Bracers, Silk Lingerie, Striker's Greaves, and Baleful Nails. All of these are focused on raising strength and I think is cool looking.

So, with all these, my current Strength is 6225 and Magick is 3479 for Primary (Heaven's Key). This stats are after activating Bloodlust, Autonomy, Exhiliration, and Equanimity.

How do I go about a Ur Dragon Online run: (I'm in the post Dragon in the quest of Fathom Deep)

1) Make sure you buy Mushroom Potage (max is 999), Conqueror's Periapt (999) and Demon's Periapt (999).

2) Make sure you have Mithridate (i.e. to cure poison) can be bought at a shop in Gran Soren next to armor shop and Rotten foodstuff such as Small Rotten Fish (i.e. to inflict poison) can be bought at Cassardis from an old lady that sell vegetables.

3) About the funding to buy all these, you could fight Ur Dragon offline to gather experience as well as 20 Wakestones. For 100 wakestones, you can sell them for about 40k gold each while equipping Suasion augment to your character and main pawn. It should generate 4 million gold for each 100 wakestones.

4) What I would bring (after testing its suitability to my character - Chelsea) include 45 Mushroom Pottages (you will use 40 pottages in one run; extra 5 is for safety), 1 Mithridate (to cure poison), 1 Small Rotten Fish (to inflict poison), 10 Conqueror's Periapt and 10 Demon's Periapt (9 will be used, 1 extra for safety). By the way, Mushroom Pottages and Periapts can be bought at Fournival (in post Dragon, he should be behind the ale house with Black Cat owner during noon—about 20 minits wait if you rest till morning).

5) Before you start, ensure you are alone by releasing you 2 pawns and killing your main pawn (at this stage, I just run to the hole and pick up Coto Hikaru (my pawn) and threw her into the abyss hole. Being alone activates Autonomy.

6) To activate Bloodlust, Rest until nightfall. Now, at night time, quickly activate Gale Harness and run off the highest edge of cliff (i.e. above the Medeline's camp). 3 fall from there should give you a significant injury to cause your character to fall into critical state (red screen). Mine have around 400 health left. Now, to sustain the injury from being cured by Heaven's Key, eat the Small Rotten Fish to inflict poison to yourself while running towards the Chamber of Lament. Let your health drop from poison to the lowest possible (mine was 13 health) then eat the Mithridate to cure the poison (leaving your health to be as low as possible). This way, while Heaven's Key will cure your health, it won't be fast enough to bring you out of critical state until the fight with Online Ur Dragon is over.

7) In the Chamber of Lament, kill the 3 pawns while activating Gale Harness (for speed) and Invisibility (to avoid taking any damage - remember, your health is at the lowest possible, as mine was 13 out of 2945). Fighting Ur Dragon Online in this method allows you to activate Autonomy, Bloodlust, Exhiliration, and Equanimity with total attack of around 9.5k (this is my stats). Fight using the above strategy of using Heaven's Key and attack the Dragon's Heart. Testing this to Gen 80 Ur Dragon enabled me to cause damage around 75% of his health (i.e. from 1 full bar). It's not the best damage but at the moment, this is the best that I can do.

8) The pottages used for my fight is 40 and 9 Periapts which will act as a timer on when the fight will end. After you managed to fight the Ur Dragon, repeat the process.

By the way, I am currently trying to read the trend of Ur Dragon so that it can be easily tracked and all players can estimate when the grace period would come. It's kinda tricky so, until I can truly comprehend it, I will not write anything as mere speculations. So, hope that I can discover and pray that I can share them here.

Ok, based on my current observation of Ur Dragon, from Gen 78 to Gen 87, it seems that some Gen of Ur Dragon seemed stronger or weaker in relation to the rest. Before everyone who reads this starts cursing saying I do not know anything, YES, I admit, I'm a newbie in this area so, what I've written here is for Ultra-newbie. So, experts out there please don't get angry or better yet, correct me when I've made a mistake here.

How do I come to this assumption, 1) with all the stats of my attacks remains relatively constant (as explained in detail in the above section) I manage to cause damage to Ur Dragon in constant degree for each Gen of Ur Dragon. 2) In average, I managed to cause 50% of the health bar which I call as normal defense. When I managed to cause 70% up to 90% of damage, its considered as weak Gen of Ur Dragon. When I managed to only cause merely 20 to 30% of damage, its considered as strong Gen of Ur Dragon. 3) As example, Gen 78, I've managed to give constant 75% of damage. Gen 79, at 50%, Gen 80 and 81 around 30%, Gen 82 and 83 around 20%. Suddenly, Gen 84 is considered as super weak as I just missed him since other players managed to kill him within 3 hours (i was on my break). Gen 85 is quite weak as 75% of damage can be caused to him. Gen 86 at 50% and Gen 87 at 70%.

Hence, how to estimate the time of death for each Gen of Ur Dragon is simply based on his defense. Normal defense should take around 1.5 days. High defense took around 2 days or more. Low defense took about 6 to 12 hours and ultra weak like Gen 84 took only 3 hours. These are simply estimates where it all depends on the number of players playing or fighting him online.

With admiration and respect to everyone all over the world, I would generally say that most of the strong players are from Japan (based on my observation, this is not an absolute fact!). So, you should know that most strong players came when the Japanese time is in the evening and at night. About 80% or so of deathblows made to Ur Dragon are in this time. How do I know, I've check the global time for Japan which is similar to mine (i'm from Malaysia). Everytime it's evening and going to night time, Ur Dragon steadily decline in health and steadily killed in this duration. Hope this helps.

For detailed strategies on fighting Ur Dragon Online and analysis, check out this page:

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Azimsalimi/Ur_Dragon_Tactics

Assassin (Dire Gouge)
A similar build to above, though it forgoes the Dagger's Invincibility for the Sword's Dire Gouge skill, which is designed to do large amounts of damage to foes you climb on. Obviously the best choice for this approach would be Ascalon, which can be won from the offline Ur-Dragon. The next best option would be Carnation. You will need to be very cautious as you are not invincible and can take massive damage with no Pawns to help you.

Warrior
Warriors possess the weapons with the highest base damage output, so they make a good choice against the Ur-Dragon. Specifically Dwells-in-Light and Angel's Fist at their highest enhancement are excellent choices against the Ur-Dragon, due to their holy enchantment. Obviously the main issue is that these two weapons need to be won from the online Ur-Dragon, in which case Wounded Heart or Bloody Thistle are the next best option. The DLC weapon Dragon's Flight can also do a decent amount of damage, though at this point it is somewhat outclassed by the weapons mentioned previously. The issue with this class is its difficulty in hitting the wing tips, and climbing damage doesn't compare to more direct attacks. Additionally, since the Ur-Dragon likes to move around a lot, it can be very difficult to land a hit on certain parts, namely the tail and wings having such slow swings.

Magick Archer
This is less of a strategy regarding the actual Ur-Dragon fight, but simply a note regarding the Grace Period. The Magick Archers homing arrows make it the best choice for ensuring a kill in the Grace Period - particularly Hunter Bolt will make short work of any remaining hearts. If you want to ensure you don't miss your opportunity, this is the best vocation for it.

Another Note although you may aim for certain areas such as the wings with Sixfold Bolt but the extra shots will then aim for his heart which if already destroyed may do no damage. To destroy areas such as the wings and back aim instead at one or both the wings trying not to select any other areas and all the extra arrows will fall uniformly to the left and right letting loose a layer of hits all across the back.

A great strategy is to find the high ledge with the remains of a pillar to the left (west side) of the map [open world map and you will see what looks kind of like two squares connected (this is the ledge with one of two chests in the Chamber of Lament)] and spam Hunter Bolt. The Ur-Dragon should focus most if not all of its Holy Furor attacks on you and remain relatively tame. Throughout an entire battle period your pawns should stay safe and you shouldn't have to leave the ledge, just dodge Holy Furor and keep going. The area has plenty of space for you to dodge and fire. You should also be able to easily shoot it down when it hovers as well.

It's also worth noting that, if using daggers, Scension is very effective. It can sweep through the dragon doing highly impressive damage, hitting multiple hearts, multiple times. It also has the bonus of healing the player, and the Ur-Dragon being weak to holy magic, making it very effective. particularly useful near the start of the fight where all or most of the hearts are intact. It should be used from behind the dragon and launched forwards travelling up through the dragon for optimum damage and safety. If the player isn't using Heavens Key then it will be more damaging than using hundred kisses, especially so whilst most the hearts are intact.

Mage/Sorcerer
The standard light attack of the (Archi)Staff enhanced with Holy Affinity has good homing properties and can easily hit all parts of the Ur-Dragon with no stamina usage and from a decent range away. While it's strength depends heavily on Magick Attack, it is probably the safest way for these classes to do damage without having to charge up lengthy spells. This tactic is also good for the Grace Period, where it only takes a few hits to every heart to kill it, and the homing ability will help a lot with that. Also during Grace Period 1 or 2 sorcerer maelstroms usually kills the dragon.

Mystic Knight
This strategy takes advantage of the same behaviour exhibited by the Ur-Dragon while using the Magick Archer strategy listed above.

Preparation

 * Be sure to have a shield and sword (preferably Ascalon or Totem Mace) equipped instead of a staff. Set your shield skills to Blessed Trance and Blessed Riposte, and be sure to have Great Cannon as a sword skill.
 * Skills like Holy Furor and Sky Rapture can also be useful with precise timing; the latter enables the Arisen to escape oncoming attacks quickly, and Holy Furor can be a great opening attack with proper timing.
 * Having the Wyrmking's Ring in your inventory will help a little with casting times, and several augments available through the Sorcerer and Mage vocations (Acuity, Articulacy, Attunement, and Equanimity) will also help. The Fighter augment Prescience is highly recommended, and should be considered one of the key elements to this stragety.

The Strategy
After killing the three guardian pawns: sprint straight forward to the south end of the arena and stop about 60% to the other end; you want to end-up almost exactly where the Ur-Dragon lands, which is on the meridian of the arena towards the north end (there is a dark spot and some purple fires right about where you want to stop). Face the camera towards the portal from which the Ur-Dragon comes so you know how much time you have before it decends. Immediately begin casting Blessed Trance, followed by Blessed Riposte; you should be able to charge both to level 2 and cast if you have the Wyrmking's Ring in your inventory. If you are really good with your timing, you will still have time to cast Holy Furor, charged to level 2; release (cast the spell) when the Ur-Dragon nearly lands on top of you.

When you regain control of your character (which should not be knocked over if your timing was good; the casting animation should render you temporarily indomitable) sprint to the west (left) side of the map where there are a series of ledges. Jump to the first ledge, climb up, turn to face the dragon (which may have followed you) and cast Great Cannon. If the Ur-Dragon followed you, jump up on the ledge and keep ascending the other ledges while distancing yourself from the Ur-Dragon until it focuses its attention on one of your pawns or simply pauses. You may have to dodge a breath attack, but it's not difficult to do if you keep moving, as you are mostly above the breath attack. The closer the Ur-Dragon is to the ledge, the better.

Staying on this (west) side of the arena prevents the Ur-Dragon from roosting, and (as said above in the Magick Archer stragety) mostly causes the Ur-Dragon to attack you with Holy Furor and occasionally Frigor.

What you want to do now is get into a rhythm with the dragon where you are staying on one of the west-side ledges, have one or more Great Cannons between you and the Ur-Dragon at any given time, and Blessed Trance with Blessed Riposte also active as much as possible. Try to place your Great Cannons as close to the ledge as possible, and do not be afraid to stack them all atop each other.

The idea behind this strategy is this:


 * You are standing behind a Great Cannon (or several) which you created while Blessed Trance was active.
 * The Ur-Dragon will cast Holy Furor, which is indicated by a large, red-glowing circle forming around your character.
 * You have Blessed Riposte active, and perform a Perfect Block (made easy with Prescience) when Holy Furor activates (hold block until Holy Furor activates, then pump the block button until the perfect block animation begins).
 * Blessed Riposte will activate the Great Cannons upon a Perfect Block, showering the Ur-Dragon with a countless number of holy missiles.
 * Several Perfect Blocks may be performed during Holy Furor, drastically increasing the amount of holy missiles released at the Ur-Dragon; sometimes so many will be released that your console will experience significant slow-down, which actually makes performing additional Perfect Blocks easier.

You will generally find that after casting Holy Furor on you, the Ur-Dragon will cast another spell (usually on your pawns fighting it in the field, but sometimes on you again) and will then lift-off into the air. If it is within your range (and it usually is coming towards you) it will come down easily with a few blasts from a Great Cannon, which you should still have active; if not: you have enough time to summon one while the Ur-Dragon begins to take-off. Never be without at least one Great Cannon between you and the Ur-Dragon; it will enable you to deal damage while recharging your stamina, and will ensure additional damage while blocking Holy Furor.

After the Ur-Dragon takes off, you should be able to knock it out of the air with some Great Cannon blasts. As soon as it starts to fall: begin casting Blessed Trance, and follow with Blessed Riposte if necessary; if you don't need Blessed Riposte (which lasts much longer than Blessed Trance), then start summoning more Great Cannons, of which you can have up to 4.

The Ur-Dragon will recover from its fall, and will likely begin the whole cycle again; it will cast Holy Furor, you will do a perfect block behind a Great Cannon, countless holy missiles will rain upon it, the Ur-Dragon will cast another spell (usually at your pawns, but sometimes you'll get another Holy Furor or Frigor) and then it will attempt to take-off into the air; you will quickly knock it out of the sky, cast Blessed Trance, summon Great Cannons, it will recover and cast Holy Furor, etc.

A Ruinous Sigil + Great Cannon will create an automatic turret if the Ur-Dragon touches it.

Pros

 * The Ur-Dragon becomes incredibly predictable.
 * The Ur-Dragon will not cast debilitating spells like Petrification; it will mostly stick to Holy Furor and Frigor.
 * The Ur-Dragon will never roost as long as the Arisen occupies the west side of the arena.
 * Console slow-down makes performing multiple Perfect Blocks easier by "pumping" the block button during Holy Furor.
 * Potential for massive damage when the Ur-Dragon is fully in-range, and especially with augments which increase magick damage.

Cons

 * Sometimes the Ur-Dragon will be just out of your range if you are on the ledge. Sticking to the very edge is recommended to minimize this. Leaving the ledge is fine to close the gap, but this also activates different spell chains and different behaviour from the Ur-Dragon. Returning to the ledge quickly is advised once the Ur-Dragon notices you. Move around, staying on the various ledges, and positioning yourself as close to the Ur-Dragon as possible.
 * Pawns (usually Mages and Sorcerers) will die, and the best time to revive them is during the period where the Ur-Dragon falls out of the sky and is stunned. This usually results in your Blessed Trance wearing-off, and you not having time to place Great Cannons, or restore your buffs. Return to the ledge immediately after reviving pawns, and find an opportunity to renew the cycle.
 * Console slow-down. With 4 Great Cannons activated by a perfect block via Blessed Riposte, there will be a lot of things happening at once on the screen, especially if your pawns are casting spells at the same time. While my console has never crashed as a result of this activity, console crasing may still remain a possibility.

Ranger
First of all, this is a solo strategy that isn't really as overpowering as an Assassin or Mystic Knight but it's very simple, still effective and different, incase fighting Ur-D is getting boring after 50 runs in a row as an Assassin. Starting with writing the skills/augments I use/recommend and why I do before explaining this strategy;

Preparation
Dagger Skills:
 * Instant Reset - Incase you get knocked down.
 * Nothing else really matters.

Longbow Skills:
 * Tenfold Flurry - This is the main skill you will be using when Ur-D is roosted.
 * Comet Shot - Not exactly for damage purposes, more or less just so you can scope out spots that are vulnerable for Tenfold Flurry.
 * Crippling Arrow - Nothing else seemed useful so I decided to take this, not sure of it's effectiveness in this strategy yet.

Augments:
 * Clout & Vehemence - Obvious strength boost.
 * Autonomy & Bloodlust - Even more strength boost, similar to the assassin solo strategy.
 * Trajectory & Damping - This causes your Tenfold Flurry arrows to fly almost perfectly straight and also causes you to not have any recoil at all so you never need to re-adjust until Ur-D stops roosting.

The Strategy
Sleep till night-time etc etc. Basically what you'll want to do is head straight to the top of the eastern cliff after you kill the 3 pawns. Once Ur-Dragon lands he will either start casting some spells (easy to dodge and keep shooting from the cliff) or he will often go and roost. There is no real strategy for the casting spells except stay on the cliff, dodge and shoot.

Once he is roosted he will shoot purple balls of death at you every once in awhile, I believe 4 total until he stops roosting, this is solved by simply standing the correct distance away from the pillar type object inbetween you and Ur-Dragon, causing you to still be able to hit him, but his purple balls will hit the pillar thing. Use Comet Shot to see the areas that still have a heart and then start shooting Tenfold Flurry.

Wheither you use Vim's or any other stamina curative is up to you, you can still use regular firing instead of Tenfold Flurry and you shouldn't have to heal at all. That is basically the whole strategy. Feel free to modify if you figure out something more useful.

Pros

 * Simple and Laid back
 * Doesn't require stamina curatives for survival
 * Something different
 * VERY GOOD for attacking Ur-Dragon's left wing

Cons

 * Not as much damage output as Assassins or Mystic Knights
 * Generally a lot lower output if Ur-Dragon isn't roosting even tho he does pretty often
 * Not very capable of attacking Ur-Dragon's right side while he is roosted
 * Gets just as boring as any other strategy after 50 runs in a row.. heh