Northern Hunter

The Northern Hunter is one of twelve high dragons encountered in Dragon Age: Inquisition. She is found lying asleep in an inaccessible location south of the dam in Crestwood. The draining of the lake during the side quest Still Waters will wake her and she will proceed to take residence in the ruins around the Fereldan Wyvern Statues landmark due south of the Village of Crestwood, Caer Bronach and the–fittingly named–Wyvern's Watch landmark, in the Black Fens region.

Background[]

Even when compared to other High Dragons, Northern Hunters are voracious eaters, who eat everything from nugs to wyverns to human foodstocks, like vegetables and cheese.^[1]

Quests[]

Dragon Hunter

Locations[]

Crestwood

Stats[]

Level 13 Boss

119000 HP (Nightmare difficulty) 113302 HP (Hard difficulty)

41 Armor

Greater Electricity Resistance

Spirit Vulnerability

Immunity: All Disabling Effects

Immunity: Slowed

Perceptive

Strategy[]

You must drain Crestwood's lake in order to fight the Northern Hunter. Draining the lake occurs as part of the Still Waters quest chain.

Out of all the high dragons in Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Northern Hunter is arguably the easiest to kill. She is relatively low level, does not summon allies, does not fly off in the middle of battle and does not generate a guard bar, which makes this fight relatively simple.

Normal Strategy[]

Your party should consist of one warrior and three ranged attackers. Mages should have fire or ice staves with spirit runes, if possible, and all party members should ideally have equipment that grants electricity resistance.

Like all high dragons, the Northern Hunter uses tail, claws and bite melee attacks. She also uses the following attacks:

Breath weapon: She will breathe out a burst of lightning that hits hard and leaves a damaging area of effect behind afterwards. She will broadcast her attack by rearing her head back and looking towards the companion she intends to hit. Take control of whichever companion she is looking at and move them out of the way - she may follow for a short time, but once her breath attack begins you can generally move out of the way faster than she can turn.
Berserk: Periodically, she will use a lightning-based berserk attack. This creates a ring of electricity around each companion that deals damage to them and anyone nearby. This effect will stack, so that companions standing next to one another will receive damage each other's electricity ring as well as their own. Having three ranged attackers helps to reduce damage by allowing you to keep party members spread apart. This effect can be removed by Dispel, or Spell Purge.
Vortex: Occasionally, she will rear up on her legs, beat her wings quickly, and pull all companions into melee range with strong winds. Each wing beat will also deal high damage to anyone it pulls in, but not to party members in melee range. When you see her start beating her wings, use Fade Step for mages and Evade or Hook and Tackle for rogues to quickly move them into melee range. Once the effect stops, switch to tactical camera and move ranged attackers out as soon as possible - she will often follows this attack up with Berserk, meaning your allies can quickly kill each other if they don't scatter as soon as the vortex finishes.

If you keep your party spread out and heal as necessary, this battle should be fairly straightforward. If you are having difficulty, consider equipping Electrical Resistance Tonic, Regeneration Potion and/or Healing Mist on your party members.

Cheesing[]

The Northern Hunter can be slowly shot to death by a mage from the rock outcroppings to the north of where she is found, near and above the cave entrance. This strategy works because she will not leave the area around the front of the ruin and mage staves have an effectively unlimited range.

Exploits[]

Once the Northern Hunter leaves her perch on the top of the ruin, she will land somewhat to the north of it. Skirt the entire area and head for Lawspeaker's Assembly. From there, work along the ridge to the back of the ruin. There is a rock outcropping just west of the ruin. Order all of the party members to hold and from this outcropping a single mage or archer can cheese her to death. Simply keep firing in normal (not tactical) view using either archery or a staff that is not electrical in damage type and she will not advance or attack the party in any way.