There is one fantasy staple that never gets old: good

old-fashioned dragon-slaying. In some games, dragons are a dime a

dozen, and you kill dozens of them shortly after you are done

killing rats in the sewers, skeletons in the graveyard and goblins

in the ruins. In the

Lord of the Rings Online, there are currently only

two, and of those two, Draigoch is the more

archetypical fire-breathing death-tyrant.

The quest chain to slay Draigoch first becomes available at level

75. It starts in Galtrev, in the heart of

Dunland, and requires heading back to Enedwaith. Just past the

gwiber area at the bottom of Nar's Peak, you

will find an area patrolled by level 75 Dunlendings - this is the

path to the dragon's mountain lair. On the Enedwaith map, you can

see the lair at 67.2S, 6.6W - it's the grey dragon shape in the

crook in the mountains there.

When you have discovered the location and unlocked the raid,

gather up 11 or 23 friends and head in. Be warned - this raid

takes a while. It is a single-mob fight, but that mob has almost

10 million morale. An average run using all the fellowship

manoeuvres in the right sequence takes just over an hour. If the

FMs are not used, it can take closer to 2 hours.

Preparation

There is not a whole lot of preparation you need to do for this

raid. Draigoch doesn't apply any big debuffs like other raid

bosses, so you won't even need to bring curative potions. You will

need to bring lots of morale and power potions, though, and any

class consumables you normally use for raids. Much of the damage

you suffer in the dragon's lair is common/physical, but the breath

attacks are fire-based, which can be mitigated by boosting

Tactical Defense. Fire attacks are much less common than the

physical attacks and most players shouldn't need to worry about

them if things are going right. There are also lots of pauses

between combat, and healers will often be very busy, so increasing

non-combat morale and power regeneration will help a lot - use the

Destiny perk if you can.

For group makeup, this raid requires one main tank and one

off-tank, and one healer who only heals the tanks - a Captain

can keep up with healing duties for this, but a Minstrel

or Rune-keeper works well and is generally

preferred. The off-tank can be a Captain, Champion,

Warden or Guardian - basically

whatever is available. Captains work well in any role up here, and

are handy to have for their two in-combat revives. The tanks and

their "pocket healers" will spend a large portion of the fight

separated from the rest of the raid, and a third healer is needed

to keep the other 7 guys in fighting form. The group also needs at

least one Burglar who can reliably trigger

Fellowship Manoeuvers. The remaining 7 positions are flexible.

This raid is Hunter-friendly - there's really

no way to steal aggro from the tanks, and Hunters can stay in

Strength stance for the entire fight. If you bring one Hunter,

though, you'll need to bring a second to even things out - each

group needs to have a Hunter with the same non-combat run speed

buff, otherwise they risk lagging behind during the runs to the

different positions. Because the claws do distributed area-effect

damage, you want to spread it across as many people as possible so

that front-liners don't get 1-shotted. DPS classes can be as

aggressive as they please. If the healing situation is handled,

Rune-keepers can go all-out DPS.

The groups need to be divided in a fairly specific way:

Tank Group FM Group Main Tank Burglar Main Tank's Healer Healer Off-tank Hunter (with +21% Find The Path run speed from LI legacy) Off-tank's Healer DPS Hunter (with +21% Find The Path run speed from LI legacy) DPS 6th guy (DPS) DPS

This is for the 12-person Tier II challenge-mode version. It is

also possible to run this raid with a full 24-person raid using

these same strategies. The 24-person version is faster and easier,

and for group makeup, the remaining 12 spots can be pretty much

all DPS with one or two spots reserved for healers.

Getting Into Position

"Welcome, thieves. I can smell the dread in your sweat.

I hear the whistle of fear in your breath and feel the fluttering

of your little hearts as they race in your chests. But come now,

why do you fear? There is plenty of treasure here...enough for

all, and more to spare." - Draigoch the Red

The entrance to Draigoch's lair is a winding switchback tunnel

with ominous openings in the inside wall. This part of the raid is

possibly the most dangerous, and you're not even fighting yet. The

dragon will peek his head through the holes around the walls of

his cave, and if he sees anyone in the tunnel, he will incinerate

them with dragon-fire.

The blue line is the switchback path. The yellow rays are the

fire zones. You can tell where he is looking by the rays of light

shining through the holes - keep your distance from them, and

don't stand on any of the gold piles near the holes. The gold gets

cooked, and so does anyone touching them.

He positions himself randomly while he is searching, so if you

are blocked by the eye-rays, wait a moment for him to move and

then charge through. In the third tunnel, you will actually see

his giant, fanged snout and glowing eyes peeking through.

Fortunately, Draigoch has tunnel-vision, so if you're standing

next to his head he won't see you. This is beneficial when you

reach the end of the switchbacks and make it to the platform

overlooking his chamber. You can stand on the platform right next

to his giant head and watch him frantically search the tunnels.

Next to the platform, you'll see a flat circle on the floor. This

circle collapses when 6 people stand on it, and you fall through

into a giant pile of gold. The gold here cushions your fall so you

don't break a leg from the drop. From here, you will move to the

southwest corner to a glowing chest, on a ledge jutting out into

the cavern. This is where the fight starts - at Position A in the

Crude Illustration:

The main tank and pocket-healer will remain at Position A, and

the rest of the raid will move to position A-1. Draigoch is one of

the largest creatures in the game, and for most of the fight,

you'll only be able to fight one piece of him at a time - the

head, which stays at the top layer, or the individual claws, which

poke into openings in the inside walls of the lower tunnels. This

maze of tunnels can be confusing at first but, once you learn the

layout, it gets easier. In the illustration, the 3 levels are

represented by concentric rings - the outermost is the top layer,

and the innermost represents the bottom ring running around the

floor of the cavern. In actuality, the layers are one on top of

the other and not concentric rings, and the connecting tunnels

criss-cross and wind back around, but that is difficult to convey

in a 2-D illustration.

Positions A, B, C and D are ledges on the inside of the top ring

- this is where the tank will fight Dragioch's head. Lower

positions are reached by following the upper ring

counter-clockwise - the next downward ramp runs counter-clockwise

and leads to the lowest ring, and the second down ramp turns back

clockwise and leads down to the middle layer. The middle ring is

where the rest of the raid will fight the dragon's left and right

fore-claws. This level does not run all the way around - one end

connects to the upper ring, the other end to the lower ring. The

bottom ring is where the group fights the left and right lower

claws. Confused yet? Don't worry, it's not as hard as it sounds.

Just get the rest of the raid to position A-1, where they will

fight the Front Left Claw when the battle begins.

Phase One

"What's this? Come for your share of riches? Seek you

your place in history, as a slayer of dragons? Know you not who I

am? Allow me to introduce myself. I am DRAIGOCH! Long have I ruled

these lands. Ancient were my forebears, and many the ages that

have passed beneath my wings! Mighty was Smaug the Golden, brought

unto ruin by mischief and trickery, and still I, I persist! My

fire burns bright as ever! Come then, wretched fools. You death is

at hand. Here, let me give it to you!" - Draigoch the

Red

The tank will use the treasure chest, which will activate

Draigoch. The great, talkative dragon will go into a long-winded

introduction, letting everyone know how bad-ass and awesome he is

and how insignificant the invaders are.

The tank will stay out on the ledge, and his pocket-healer will

tuck in safely behind the wall, keeping the tank in healing range

but staying out of range of the giant head. All the tank has to do

here is keep the head busy and hold its attention. The head

doesn't need to be killed, just kept busy. As long as the healer

stays out of line of sight, this shouldn't prove all that

challenging. There is a similar safe-spot for healers at each of

the four ledges - usually marked by a treasure chest or gold pile.

The rest of the raid waits at position A-1 to fight the Front

Left Claw. The claws do an area-effect attack that is distributed

among the raiders in range. If only one or two people are within

the attack range of the claws, they can get 1-shotted, so the

group needs to stay clustered up to distribute the damage evenly.

Everyone in the claw group needs to soak up some damage or the

front-liners start dying, so cluster up close. When this claw is

defeated, move to position A-2 and fight the Front Right Claw,

then to A-3 for the Lower Right Claw, then to A-4 for the Lower

Left Claw, as per the Crude Illustration:

The reason for this pattern (top first, bottom after) is that

after all four claws are defeated, Draigoch falls to the ground in

the middle of the chamber. If you're fighting a lower claw, you

can get in there faster and take advantage of the full 80-second

span of his vulnerability. If you finish on a front claw, you have

to run down the ramps to get into the central chamber, losing

precious seconds.

During Phase One, claw fights are lengthy and slow, and Draigoch

may switch positions before the group defeats all four claws. The

claw will become unattackable, and the tank will be able to see

where the dragon moves to and follow it there - he will move

either left (clockwise) or right (counter-clockwise), one

position. In other words, from Position A, he will move to either

Position B or Position D, but not to Position C across the room.

When Draigoch moves, the tank will call out "left" or "right," and

the claw group will move accordingly, moving to the same relative

spot in the next position.

Another hazard to watch for in the claw fights is the fire

"puddle" that will appear at one of the claws. This puddle will

appear randomly at one of the claws after each fly-up, and melee

characters will want to skirt around it when fighting that claw.

If it's not possible to skirt around the fire, that claw will have

to be ranged down. It is usually possible to dodge around the

fire, though.

The tank and the healer have to move quickly, ideally before

Dragioch shouts to announce his intentions - when he moves, he

fills the top hallway with fire around the spot where the tank was

fighting the head. As soon as the head becomes unattackable, the

tank and his pocket healer need to bail, keeping an eye on which

direction Dragioch is heading, and get to the next position.

Example: Dragioch moves clockwise while

the group is fighting the Front Right Claw at A-2. The tank calls

out "left" and runs to position B to tank the head. The claw group

moves to position B-2, running down to the lowest ring and then up

the next ramp on the outside, and continues to battle the Front

Right Claw until it is defeated.

When all four claws are defeated, Dragioch will fall to the

middle of the cavern. Wait for him to finish falling before

running in, or you could get crushed and killed. When he lands,

the claw group runs in and attacks the body. This is a full-on

burn - use your cooldowns and do as much damage as you can.

Fellowship Manoeuvres

This is also the part where Burglars play an important role by

triggering Fellowship Manoeuvres. There's a new

mechanic in this fight for FMs - if the group does the right ones

in the right order, they apply debuffs that last the entire fight,

making it easier as the fight continues. The group has 80 seconds

to do damage and land as many FMs as possible - if the group is

experienced and quick, you can get 3 per ground battle, as there

is a 20-second immunity after the FM lands. Since the tanks stay

up top during this stage, they should not be in the FM-trigger

group.

The raid leader will assign everyone in the FM group a number,

and that player must hit the right color when his number comes up.

The raid leader then sets the FMs by posting the color order in

raid chat. These special FMs use only red and yellow, so when your

number comes up, be prepared to hit your color.

Example: Raid leader sets the order -

"1 - Stan, 2 - Kyle, 3 - Cartman, 4 - Butters, 5 - Timmy, 6 -

Kenny". The scheduled FM is YRYRYR - Stan hits Yellow, Kyle hits

Red, Cartman hits Yellow, Butters hits Red, Timmy hits Yellow,

Kenny hits Red. That one lands, and the raid leader sets the next

FM - RRYRYY. Stan hits Red, Kyle hits Red, Cartman hits Yellow,

Butters hits Red, Timmy hits Yellow, Kenny hits Yellow.

It may help to make a bunch of FM-order macros - use the /alias

feature, /shortcuts in unused quickslots, or programmable macro

keys.

To set up an /alias macro, the command is /alias (;command)

(action) - for example, /alias ;fm1 /ra RYYYYR. When the raid

leader types ;fm1 in chat, "RYYYYR" will come up in the raid

channel.

(action) - for example, /alias ;fm1 /ra RYYYYR. When the raid leader types ;fm1 in chat, "RYYYYR" will come up in the raid channel. To set up a /shortcut, free up 12 quickslots and use the

command /shortcut (quickslot number) (action) - for example,

/shortcut 13 /ra RYYYYR. This will give you a clickable "skill"

in quickslot 13 (first slot on bar 1) that will automatically

type "RYYYYR" in the raid channel.

command /shortcut (quickslot number) (action) - for example, /shortcut 13 /ra RYYYYR. This will give you a clickable "skill" in quickslot 13 (first slot on bar 1) that will automatically type "RYYYYR" in the raid channel. If you have a gaming keyboard with macro keys, the macro text

will be [ENTER] /ra RYYYYR [ENTER]

There are 3 sets of FMs, each with 4 manoeuvers, for a total of

12. For the first set, each successful FM will debuff one of the

claws, causing it to take +100% incoming melee damage and +50%

incoming ranged and tactical damage. These debuffs are permanent,

and when all four land, the claw fights will go much faster.

1. Just A Flesh Wound

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

style="font-weight: bold;">

class="fmred">

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201011" alt="RED" />

2. First Blood

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201012" alt="YELLOW" />

style="font-weight: bold;"> alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

style="font-weight: bold;"> alt="RED" />

3. Surgical Strike

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

style="font-weight: bold;">

style="font-weight: bold;"> alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

class="fmyel">

4. A Slight Sting

alt="YELLOW" />

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201011" alt="RED" />

style="font-weight: bold;"> alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

style="font-weight: bold;"> alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

With the second set, each FM applies a stackable +25% incoming

melee damage / +12.5% incoming ranged & tactical damage debuff

to the dragon's body. When all four land, the body takes +100%

incoming melee and +50% incoming ranged & tactical damage,

making the ground fights go faster.

1. Exposed

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

2. A Snail Out Of Its Shell

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201012" alt="YELLOW" />

style="font-weight: bold;"> alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

3. Deep Wound

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

4. A Chink In Their Armour

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201012" alt="YELLOW" />

style="font-weight: bold;"> alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

For the third set, each successful FM takes away 5% of the

dragon's maximum morale. When all four land, that's 20% of ~9.8

million = about 1,960,000 morale blasted away by the sheer power

of coordination.

1. The Sound of Inevitability

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/201011" alt="RED" />

style="font-weight: bold;"> alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

2. Twisting The Dagger

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

3. Sudden Death

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

4. Stroke Of Midnight

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

alt="RED" />

alt="RED" />

alt="YELLOW" />

After 80 seconds, Draigoch will recover himself and fly back to

the walls, always returning to Position A in the southwest corner.

Get back into the tunnels and resume fighting the claws. Rinse and

repeat as needed - you will need to engage him in ground battles a

few times to force him into the next phase - his phase changes are

based on morale thresholds. Ideally, you will want to get the

first 6 FMs off during Phase One to make the consecutive phases go

faster.

In the 12-man challenge-mode version, only one group will need to

worry about triggering FMs - the group with the Burglar and no

tanks. This is fairly easy to manage in terms of assigning spots,

but the one Burglar will have to make every FM count - Exploit

Opening, Trip and thrown Bags

of Marbles will need to be ready for each fight. In a

24-man raid with multiple Burglars, three groups will need to be

managed, but the raid leader can cycle through the available

Burglars if one of them misses on a FM attempt.

Phase Two

When Draigoch reaches the morale threshold, the battle music

changes and he shouts, "Scatter then, rats, hide in your maze!"

This signals the transition to Phase Two, and when this happens,

the off-tank needs to get up to the top layer. The off-tank has a

fairly boring job - he's the insurance policy against one of Phase

Two's more challenging aspects - the dragon dekes and head-fakes

when he changes position, and tanks can be fooled when determining

where he is moving.

It is important for the tanks to be able to pick up aggro on the

head as quickly as possible - when Draigoch has no target for his

flaming wrath, he takes it out on the entire cavern, causing

cave-ins. These cave-ins do around 770 damage per 2 seconds to

everyone in the tunnels, so the tanks need to get aggro on the

head as quickly as possible.

One way to do this is to position the two tanks on opposite sides

of the room, and have them move consistently clockwise (or

counter-clockwise) after each position change. As long as they are

on opposite sides and always move both in the same direction,

there will always be one tank in position to pick up the aggro of

the head when it is time. The healer will have time to get to the

proper spot without much fuss, even if he has to run all the way

around the ring. This is kind of boring for the person not tanking

the head - he will just hold his position and watch the dragon's

movements, and be ready to move to the next spot.

When the cave-ins happen, the claw group needs to huddle

together, against the outside walls and away from the claws, and

keep themselves alive. This part of the fight is kind of

interesting - the group can suffer a near-total wipe and still

have a chance to complete the instance, provided the healers can

keep themselves alive. There are long moments where the group is

not in combat, and healers can take this time to revive them as

long as they are still alive and kicking. If the entire claw group

dies except the healer, no big deal. Rez 'em and keep going.

Ideally, the claw group will have loads of morale, self-heals and

potions at their disposal and will be able to withstand the

cave-in damage until the tanks manage to pick up head-aggro. The

healers just need to focus on keeping themselves alive.

Other than these two things, Phase Two is basically the same as

Phase One - tank the head, burn the claws, engage in a ground

battle and trigger FMs when Draigoch falls. If the group manages

to pull off all 12 FMs in the sequence by the end of this phase,

the last stage will go much smoother and quicker.

Phase Three

The final stage, where the dragon begins to recognize his peril,

is indicated when Draigoch shouts, "Cowards! Stand and fight me!"

Everyone, tanks and all, drop down into the main chamber and fight

a ground battle on the big bed of gold coins.

During this phase, the claws still do distributed AoE damage, and

the claw group is still the claw group. The main tank still needs

to take care of the head, but this time the head is in a position

where it can hurt people that get too close. The tank needs to

stay in front of the face, and the claw group needs to attack the

claws from behind, but keeping in a fairly tight cluster so the

area-effect damage is distributed evenly.

Dragioch is huge- seriously massive, so big that screenshots will

mostly show only a part of his body, and so enormous that his

every step causes the entire cavern to quake. When the cave

quakes, everybody hops and inductions are interrupted. These

quakes happen often, so be prepared to be frustrated if you use a

lot of long-induction skills.

During this phase, he will shout "My breath is death and your

lives are but a trifle in my presence," and will then fly up and

create a flaming, coin-flying storm. When he shouts, the group

needs to run to the spot where his tail was to avoid the flames -

it is marked by a shadowy "cool spot" in the coins. Eventually, he

will land, and he will be rotated 90 degrees, either clockwise or

counter-clockwise, from his previous position. The tank needs to

run back in and pick up the head again, and the claw group needs

to get back to work disabling the feet.

Be careful heading back in to engage him after a fly-up. Some of

the coins are burning from his breath attacks and leave lingering

hot-spots that can do serious damage to anyone running through

them. Watch for the brighter patches of coins and don't step in

them.

When all four claws are disabled, he will be grounded again, and

everyone in the raid can attack his body. If the full sequence of

12 FMs has been successfully completed, this should go much faster

than it did in previous phases.

When you finally manage to bring Draigoch's morale down to zero,

he goes into his final soliloquy. Get out of the central chamber

as quickly as possible, because he means to take everyone out with

him when he goes. He rants and raves about how he will claim a

victory even in the face of clear defeat, and he flies up to the

cavern's roof, pulling it down. You don't want to be caught in

Draigoch's death throes, so go hang out in the tunnels until he

makes his final grand exit.

Loot Time!

"To the last, wretches, even in death, I shall not be

bested! With my last breath, I will make ashes of you! With my

demise, you will know the crushing weight of your failure...

Mightiest am I, and mightiest shall I remain! None shall face me

and live! To the last." - Draigioch the Red's final

words

If this is your first time beating Draigoch on Tier 2 difficulty,

and successfully complete all 12 FMs in the sequence, you will

complete the following deeds and receive their rewards:

Draigoch's Lair, Tier 1 - Title: Bathed in Fire;

Ornate Heritage Rune of Knowledge (167500 item XP); 10 Turbine

Points

Draigoch's Lair, Tier 2 - Title: Born From

Ashes; Greater Scroll of Empowerment; 10 Turbine Points

Draigoch's Lair, Challenge - Title: Manoeuvre

Master; Fused Deep Relics (Tier 7 relics); 10 Turbine Points

Draigoch the Red (3 of 3) - Title: the Red; Worn

Symbol of Celebrimbor; 10 Turbine Points

In other words, for completing the challenge the first time, you

automatically get the rare item you need to make a level 75

legendary item, increase its max level to 70, level it up a bit

and slot a Tier 7 relic in it. And if you're lucky on your rolls

(or have DKP to burn), you can make 2 of them. You also get 6

Superior Fourth Marks, which puts you well on your way toward

buying a new piece of raid armor from the vendor in Galtrev.

Additionally, there will be up to 3 more Worn Symbols of

Celebrimbor in the chests. There are also up to 4 barter tokens

for the new raid armor helmet and/or shoulders, a handful of teal

items (armor, off-hand weapons, jewellery, shields), and a bundle

of relics and item XP runes. Additionally, there will be a handful

of Draigoch Scales, used by Tailors to make one of four

orange-named level 75 cloaks.

There is a second chest that everyone can loot for more relics,

runes and coin. Unfortunately, the mountains of gold coins, gems,

chests and other riches lying scattered around the lair are not

lootable - likely fused solid now by the dragon's breath. But if

you feel like having a laugh, you can /groundroll around in it and

do your best Scrooge McDuck impression.

Many thanks to Khaurin, Ariahnnas and the good folks in Aesir!

Read about them in Understanding

LotRO Raiding Kinships with Aesir of Arkenstone