Divinity 2 Flying Fortresses

[Varn]

I'm playing as a level 27 duel wielding fighter/mage, I was a ranger but respecced into a fighter/mage once I got the battle tower so my DEX is quite high. My strategy in the first flying fortress i've encountered is to use charm on the groups of Black Ring wizards/fighters and then run away leaving the creature and charmed enemy to duke it out. I then lob arrows / magic missiles at the group until they come at me and then just smash them with my dual weapons - I managed to get a very high damage "Elder" purple vortex sword from the dungeon with the dragon at High Hall so can take enemies down quite quickly.

However I'm finding that with this strategy I still die tons mostly due to the skeleton archers who can 2-3 shot kill me, and it's also taking a damn long time to clear the fortress, which seems to be never-ending and absolutely huge with tons of enemies.

Has anyone got any better strategies for dealing with the fortresses? They seem to be exceptionally difficult and far harder than anything else encountered so far. I know you can just fly with your dragon to the end but I would like the XP and items from the mobs ideally.

 

[dr. one]

Has anyone got any better strategies for dealing with the fortresses?

dragon drop on chests, loot, then dragon drop in teleporter, clear HQ, next.
the tedium and sense of disconnection with the rest of the game isn´t worth it imo.

 

[Mastermind]

respec back to a pure archer, i don't find it worthwhile to split up like that and you focused on dexterity already. explosive arrow's the best skill in the game anyway.

 

[made]

Level some more first or do a different fortress. Some are easier than others iirc.

 

[Varn]

Yeah i didn't actually realize it was a Flying Fortress at first, I just entered a random portal in the Fjords and ended up at a huge castle in a hell-like burning area. I think i'm probably too low-level for it at this point, will try to level some more by doing some quests in the Fjords (which have been pretty easy) and then come back.

 

[abnaxus]

Some of those archers use Explosive Arrows. It's best to create a melee creature that can take a lot of punishment to distract them.

 

[Reptilian Shapeshifter]

respec back to a pure archer, i don't find it worthwhile to split up like that and you focused on dexterity already. explosive arrow's the best skill in the game anyway.

No. Splitting arrows do far more damage overall, and allow you to dump 10x damage into a single target at point blank range.

 

[Pablosdog]

Kite them, lead them out of that one entrance and kill them one by one if possible. I cleared nearly every fortress, but by level 32 it's not really worth it. The grind is LULZY

 

[Multidirectional]

respec back to a pure archer, i don't find it worthwhile to split up like that and you focused on dexterity already. explosive arrow's the best skill in the game anyway.

No. Splitting arrows do far more damage overall, and allow you to dump 10x damage into a single target at point blank range.

Ya. A lot of people think Explosive Arrow is the best one for some reason, but Splitting Arrow + Way Of The Ranger is the real killer. Also, archer tree is probably the most powerful overall. I had the easiest time with archer, than relatively easy one with a mage and now I have 25lv pure warrior which is the hardest one so far.

 

[Kotep]

From what I could tell, it's structured so that the 'on foot' parts, apart from boss fights and the actual interiors of the fortresses, are optional for people who want the challenge. You don't have to do them, but it's useful to use your creature/any summons to draw them out of the gates, then just kite them using your preferred kiting strategy.

 

[pocahaunted]

Pure archer is indeed awesome, I don't think I had any issues clearing the fortresses, as long as I didn't overpull.

 

[Eyeball]

The fortresses seems to be put in to appease the hacknslash crowd. "You want XP and item grind? Here's your fuckin' XP and item grind. Oh, and you will most likely get twoshotted by half the creatures here, so use cheap tactics."

They do become tedious quite quickly though, and I suggest not doing more than one of them. I did two and found myself totally overpowered for the rest of the game, breezing easily through what looks like it should have been tough encounters in the main quest due to the XP scaling system used in the Divinity series.

 

[Varn]

Yeah I respecced from Ranger as i found it was way too easy and there were only about 2 decent bows I found for the 25+ hours it took to get to the battle tower. I just now found a 3rd red / epic bow in this flying fortress.

Looks like i'll just do dragon drop then as the constant dying is tedious and it seems there's far better content to look forward to after these flying fortresses particularly in the expansion.

 

[Kotep]

Definitely. The Flying Fortresses are the most action-centric parts of the game, so to compensate, the expansion is more quest-oriented than action-oriented.

 

[Gord]

If you are playing Divinity 2: Ego Draconis without DKS then it's probably best to just gain 2 or 3 levels at some other place and then come back.

Difficulty scales strongly with the difference in levels between your char and the enemies in Divinity 2: Ego Draconis.

 

[kazgar]

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I'm probably close to the end, but all i've been doing the last two nights is fucken flying fortresses and broken valley, its been so samey and annoying. Guess i should've saved some of the sidequests around the fjords to alleviate the tedium, but I was having so much fun.

Between that and the dragon combat not being awesome as I hoped (why can't i burninate the peasants) and i'm struggling a bit. Might give it a break for a few days.

Ah, feel better now.

 

[Mangoose]

Just ignore the flying fortresses FFS. Get to Flames of Vengeance and never look back, it is too awesome to be bogged down by flying fortress grind.

 

[kazgar]

But but, battle tower quests!

I've given up on killing mooks and was just trying to drop in on named npc's. However stil have Aleroth and broken valley demon and endgame to go, probably a bit more grind to come. Guess its a problem with high level rpg type things, enemies need to be certain power level so act samey, and you don't have as many thrills of the new for your character (whether its level dings, or equipment or new skills) I'll get there.

 

[sea]

I admit that the 100% completionist in me made me do every last Flying Fortress. And although they were repetitive, I actually enjoyed the challenge and the more interesting level layouts they had.

 

[Zeriel]

I admit that the 100% completionist in me made me do every last Flying Fortress. And although they were repetitive, I actually enjoyed the challenge and the more interesting level layouts they had.

Yeah, maybe it's my background in MMO's, but I never minded the grind in the Flying Fortresses. Some of the quest-specific levels had some really interesting art and layout (and that fucking riddle keep). The only thing I remember pissing me off was some buggy behavior with the overlapping dragon shields in the exterior of some of the fortresses when it was first released.

 

[kazgar]

I admit that the 100% completionist in me made me do every last Flying Fortress. And although they were repetitive, I actually enjoyed the challenge and the more interesting level layouts they had.

Yeah, maybe it's my background in MMO's, but I never minded the grind in the Flying Fortresses. Some of the quest-specific levels had some really interesting art and layout (and that fucking riddle keep). The only thing I remember pissing me off was some buggy behavior with the overlapping dragon shields in the exterior of some of the fortresses when it was first released.

The actual boss levels are good, great and distinctive artstyles as well (Kali's fortress with all the ice/crystals spring to mind) but its the bloody endless towers/forts of black ring and skeletons, and the 30 minutes you spend pinging fireballs at rather harmless ballista towers to get anywhere..

Maybe i'm just upset because I died to that general with the healing chambers late last night.

 

[Mangoose]

Well, if you can stand the flying fortresses, go for them. But if they make you bored and stop playing then skip them, please, or you're missing out on an awesome expansion.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Sometimes I really hate my game completionist OCD. I really didn't like the fortresses too much, but continued onwards in the hopes of finding something interesting. The battles were difficult at the start, playing as a pure warrior, but once I got my vitality, life steal and regeneration decently high, I was pretty much immortal as long as I hit something every few seconds. With dual-wielded, level ten enchanted damage + magic damage weapons nothing lived very long. Game became far too easy after that.

 

[kazgar]

Powered through the hump, got to the end game, died to a succession of fireballs in that silly arena thing. (after raging at that portal closing bit for a wihile)

Oh well, reload tonight I guess.

 

[Angthoron]

I admit that the 100% completionist in me made me do every last Flying Fortress. And although they were repetitive, I actually enjoyed the challenge and the more interesting level layouts they had.

That, and some of the Fortress Lords are, hm... Interesting conversationalists.