After delivering the enemy’s standard, running the gauntlet of enemy arrows, and defending the camp from the perspective of the Visitor, you will be back in Geralt’s body. The Draug will quickly descend onto the battlefield, and you will be facing a very tough boss battle.
Boss Battle: Draug
If you can, it helps to meditate before this battle begins in earnest. Drinking potions here can mean the difference between life and death, especially when you will need a lot of Vitality to progress in the battle ahead. If you have anything that restores health over time, drink that too. You will be taking a lot of powerful attacks, especially if you haven’t mastered the timing on the dodging yet, and you will need to recover health quickly. Sometimes Quen might not be enough.
It goes without saying, but don’t let Draug hit you with any
of his attacks. This is a very powerful creature, and you will certainly feel
every hit that lands. Stay nimble during this fight. Dodge roll out of the way
and block or parry when you can’t. The Draug’s basic melee attack is strong,
but it has other abilities that are equally as dangerous, if not more so. Every
once in a while, you will notice the Draug reeling back and charging for an
attack. This is a charge attack in which the enemy will stampede towards you
and bowl you over for big damage. Be ready with a dodge roll every time you see
this attack beginning. More devious than the charge attack is the arrow volley
attack, which will bathe the area in arrows from the Draug’s supporting
archers. When you hear the Draug shout “Archers!” immediately run for cover. If
you can’t make it in time, dodge roll repeatedly to avoid the brunt of the
attack.
The Meteor Strike magic attack is similar to the arrow volley attack in that the Draug will send projectiles raining down from the sky, but this one is easier to avoid. Pretty frequently during the battle, an area will be marked with a red, circular beam. This beam will mark the trajectory of the incoming meteor. Move out of the way as fast as possible to avoid the meteor shower that will touch down where the red beam connects with the earth. This attack is the most damaging one in the Draug’s repertoire, so be sure to avoid it at all costs.
The Draug’s final main attack is a sort of swirling, tornado-like move that also doubles as a way for the Draug to move from place to place on the battlefield quickly. Use the rocks on the ground to keep some sort of cover between yourself and the rampaging Draug so that you aren’t caught in the maelstrom. This attack can also be damaging if it connects, but it’s mainly just annoying because, like the arrow volley attack, it can be difficult to avoid.
The Draug will be healthy as well as strong, meaning that you will have to whittle down multiple health bars. The boss has a Shield bar in addition to its normal health bar. This can be especially troubling when attacking the enemy from behind, but this remains the best way to deal damage because it will take you out of range of the enemy’s attacks and deal heavier damage than it would attacking from the front. Make use of your renewed Witcher abilities very frequently. Chances are that you will need to heal pretty often because of how strong the enemy is. Use Quen to heal in a pinch. Set traps with Yrden and try to lead the Draug into them. The Yrden traps won’t do the most damage to the Draug, but they will at least hold him long enough for you to get a few heavy sword blows in. If you have any more potent traps in your inventory, feel free to hotkey them and set them out across the battlefield. If you can get some sort of damage over time effect going on the Draug, you will be able to increase your chances of killing him greatly.
When the Draug gets trapped, run up behind him and wail on him with heavy sword attacks. This should deal pretty significant damage to it. When you see it recovering, turn around and run away so that you don’t get hit with a melee attack as the Draug is standing up. Use the previous paragraphs to avoid the Draug’s heavier attacks and repeat this strategy to damage the Draug until it dies.
After killing the Draug, you will automatically get the loot
from his body. This includes the materials to craft the Draug Armor, the
blueprints for which can be bought from Mael back in town. You should try to do
this after this mission completes, because the Draug Armor is fairly strong.
Don’t worry if you don’t have the blueprints, though, because you will get
something better in Act 3 anyway.
After the battle is over, you will see Sabrina casting the firestorm spell. You will be possessed again, this time by a soldier fleeing the battlefield, and you will have to run away as fast as you can to reach safety. Sprint towards the exit ahead to initiate a cutscene. The firestorm will rain down upon the battlefied and kill everyone. Afterwards, Henselt will sentence Sabrina to death for her actions. This will lead into Geralt recovering another portion of his lost memory. This will reveal the reason that Letho spared Geralt earlier. Apparetly (spoiler) Geralt was with Letho when they were battling a slizzard enemy. Letho will take a mean attack from the Slizzard’s tail, but Geralt will step in and save him at the last possible second (end spoiler.) After you wake up from the dream, you will find yourself in Philippa’s house. The Eternal Battle will now be complete. You will almost be done with all of the quests in the Aedirn area now, and almost ready to proceed into Act 3. The only quest left is the massive Vergen Besieged quest, which sees you fighting for Vergen and, by extension, all of Aedirn.
