Crystal Desert's Reef Drake Warrior tactics

[tiewan.1086]

Hello,

 

I am quite new to Guild Wars, my first character. Recently reached 80, started exploring Crystal Desert, gaining mastery points etc.

 

There are some areas with NPCs called Reef Drakes (e.g. Imed's Grotto), which I have extreme difficulty with. All other NPCs, I can normally handle 3-4 in packs, any Veterans, sometimes couple of Veterans. But these one, I die 2 out of 3 attempts on just one drake.

 

It seems like brute force does not work at all with these guys. What's your tactics for a Warrior on this creatures? Which skills do you use?

 

Thanks,

Denis

[ReaverKane.7598]

Reef Drakes were actually first introduced with Southsun cove, which is core Tyria, so It's not really a Crystal Desert thing.

Basically they have a ton of confusion, which means if you cast skills you hurt. So basically, dodge their confusion procs (it's the "breath" attack), also avoid their tail swipes.

As a warrior you can either choose to burst it quickly with Whirling Axe, Hundred blades or other similar high damage skills. Or you can simply killed them from range.

[Blocki.4931]

It's mostly about learning their attack patterns and then best avoiding it, making use of blocks or dodges from Greatsword 3 for example.

[AliamRationem.5172]

If I recall correctly, their breath attack is directional and locks them in place once they commit. So just circle around them continuously and you will be able to walk out of the way. Watch for the animation indicating a tail swipe and be sure to dodge it. If fighting multiples, throw in some interrupts. They shouldn't take long to kill, so buying a little time should make a difference. If for some reason you get into trouble, retreat to range as they have no ranged attacks.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"ReaverKane.7598" said:

> Reef Drakes were actually first introduced with Southsun cove, which is core Tyria, so It's not really a Crystal Desert thing.

> Basically they have a ton of confusion, which means if you cast skills you hurt. So basically, dodge their confusion procs (it's the "breath" attack), also avoid their tail swipes.

> As a warrior you can either choose to burst it quickly with Whirling Axe, Hundred blades or other similar high damage skills. Or you can simply killed them from range.

 

Their confusion is a misdirection much like the torment on Mordrem Tormentors. It doesn't do all that much. Only 112 damage per stack when activating a skill.


Pretty obvious what their most damaging skill is. :)

 

As you can see Retreat can hit up to 10 times(actually might be more but I can't survive that long, the evade in the second image is me getting out to avoid dying) and does somewhere from 2500 to 2700 per hit so that is up to 27,000 damage total. It can also crit but the crit rate is low.

 

That was against normal ones and not veterans.

 

> @"tiewan.1086" said:

> Hello,

>

> I am quite new to Guild Wars, my first character. Recently reached 80, started exploring Crystal Desert, gaining mastery points etc.

>

> There are some areas with NPCs called Reef Drakes (e.g. Imed's Grotto), which I have extreme difficulty with. All other NPCs, I can normally handle 3-4 in packs, any Veterans, sometimes couple of Veterans. But these one, I die 2 out of 3 attempts on just one drake.

>

> It seems like brute force does not work at all with these guys. What's your tactics for a Warrior on this creatures? Which skills do you use?

>

> Thanks,

> Denis

 

Brute force should work fine if you are fighting one. They only have around 15k HP.

[tiewan.1086]

Thanks for all the comments.

 

@"Khisanth.2948" So how do you avoid the retreat? Is it directional or can it be dodged?

 

Denis

[perilisk.1874]

I hate those guys in Ember Bay, ridiculous to melee.

[Noodle Ant.1605]

> @"tiewan.1086" said:

> So how do you avoid the retreat? Is it directional or can it be dodged?

Retreat on the reef drake is an instant cast skill that makes the drake ‘retreat’ backwards whilst leaving a number of smallish-yet-still quite-big damaging fields behind. Because it is instant cast, there is no real way to actively mitigate the damage, besides not being within melee range at all when it decides to use this skill.

 

There been cases where I have had to fight 2 vet drakes at once (ember bay sloth escort), once they simultaneously timed their retreat which resulted in practically an instadown since it both crit for ~7k (base dmg was already at ~4k). There’s also been scenarios where I’ve noticed I’m fighting too many drakes at once, but then another one comes from somewhere with the pull skill while the rest proceeded to ‘retreat’... I practically skipped downstate.

 

This skill however is only one of many broken skills and mechanics that gw2 ‘trash mobs’ have.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"tiewan.1086" said:

> Thanks for all the comments.

>

> @"Khisanth.2948" So how do you avoid the retreat? Is it directional or can it be dodged?

>

> Denis

 

It is a point blank AoE with 130 radius(this is the same range as melee skills) it leaves behind an ordinary looking red circle. So the simplest solution is to stay out of melee range.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Headbutt (berserker) for a stun. You can also use Bull's Charge for a knockdown. That gives you a couple of seconds to burst it down. My normal power Berserker opening for pretty much everything:

1. Headbutt

2. Arc Divider

3. 100 Blades

4. Whirlwind Attack

5. Bladetrail

6. Bull's Charge if you need to CC it again, otherwise Rush

7. Repeat as needed, only interrupt your 100 blades attack to avoid an attack that will down-state you on low health. Arc Divider takes precedence over pretty much everything else when you are at melee range.

 

I don't play Spell breaker or core warrior, so I'm less familiar with them, however, opening with a Bull's Charge will still give you time to burst it down. You also have CC's on shield 4, mace 3, and a ranged CC on mace 5 if you're running it off-hand. Mace 2 and shield 5 are blocks, so use those as well.