Dungeon Siege III - Lucas Montbarron - Walkthrough - Part 1 (Ravens Rill)

Here are general tips for playing Lucas Montbarron in Dungeon Siege III and the Treasures of the Sun DLC. A list of all our Dungeon Siege III posts can be found here.

We won't be hand-holding you through everything, but instead just give tips on situations that we found tricky.

Area 1: Montbarron Estate
Be careful not to advance too far between fights before searching for notes and things to bash. Some locations become blocked and you can't go back. For example, don't light any of the fuses until you go to the other side and loot all the containers there.

Area 2: Raven's Rill
Bogdan

• The trouble with this encounter is the camera angle. If you end up too close to the Chapterhouse door (e.g., if you use Blade Dash to try to clear most of the mercenaries early), your camera might spin or tilt such that you can't see enough of your surroundings. Instead, immediately retreat back across the bridge and lure the Lescanzi out.

Stormsong Cavern

• Vera
• On HardCore, Vera is a very challenging boss for a level 4 Lucas (your level is capped at level 4 until you start fighting her). It is not too hard to clear the rest of the room and to avoid her, but if he is too close to her, every bolt from her multi-bolt fan attack will hit for combined damage that can kill Lucas outright. She can also generate damaging auras, and does not seem to be stunned by Shield Pummel.
• Her swirling bolt attack that follows you around does no damage, but drops a summoning circle at your location. If you are inside it for too long, three skeletons are conjured. You can take advantage of this if you need Focus, Power for your power orb, or Health using Vampirism gear or Live by the Sword.
• When you get close to her, she stops using her fan bolts and starts a chant that creates a damaging aura. Since the fan bolts just force you to keep running and dodging, you want to stay close to her once you have cleared the room.
• When she starts chanting, back off and wait nearby. When she is done, she will be safe to attack until she comes out of teleportation. In the meantime, she goes through a sequence of spells:
• Damaging aura chant.
• Repulsion sphere.
• Summon undead -- The same as the tracking bolts. But since you are close or in melee with her, you probably can't avoid this and will cause the three skeletons to be summoned. Watch out for their spinning sword attack.
• Teleport -- After she has teleported, there is a short cooldown period during which it appears she cannot do anything.
• Anjali as a companion choice:
• Most creatures will have a maximum pursuit range, so you can sometimes retreat and when they turn away, stop and let Anjali shoot at them.
• Anjali tends to cover your retreat (her decision to follow you typically takes a few seconds and she needs to disengage from combat).
• If you have a bunch of enemies in pursuit and they run past her, she can attack then and keep them in hit-interruption, or possibly kill them before they change their combat decision to attack her.
• Give Anjali the Jackal power to further tie up enemies. The Jackal is often the last to retreat and doesn't draw a lot of enemy attention, so they will typically ignore it even if they are taking hits or being blocked by it.
• Give Anjali a lot of Stamina in boss fights because if the boss and minions focus on her, she's usually finished unless you are in a position to take pressure off her.

Gunderic Manor

• You can defer this mission, and the reward Leona offers to help against Rajani later is a unique item, but not superb in any way. It also does not have any special effect on Ranjani, and the Chaos: Withering attribute doesn't seem to do anything special against Rajani (at least not on Hardcore).
• During this mission you will probably get another Ability. If you are playing on HardCore, you might want to choose Heroic Charge because it can do a lot of damage and help you against bosses. Wind Shear is better against mobs.
• The gargoyles shoot fast and hit hard, but your companion is remarkably hardy against them, possibly because Anjali blocks well.
• If you have enough Block and Armor so that your block renders you immune to damage, dodge forward and take point, then just block. They will target you because you are closer, and Anjali can systematically take them out safely at range from behind you.
• The amount of damage you are taking from their attacks is the amount of Block you need. If you have less than that, the shortfall is taken off your Focus when you block.
• If necessary, retreat behind her and hopefully they will switch targets and let you get back into the fight. In the worst case, retreat into a room and try to handle them one at a time at the doorway.
• They dance around so it can be tricky getting close enough to Shield Pummel them. Even if you could, there are several and you'd be taking hits from the others.
• Once you talk to Alise, skeletons will spawn throughout the Manor. The largest concentration is the main lobby. Retreat up the stairs or out the door back into the garden to draw some out first before going back to handle the rest.
• If you are guessing the password at the Magical Guardian door (which you should try at least once to hear the responses), dodge forward into the magic bolt to let it pass you and continue safely behind and away from you.
• Lord Gunderic (Lucas level 6)
• There appears to be no difference whether the Heart of Nagog is destroyed before or after confronting Lord Gunderic, even though one of the texts found suggests that destroying the Heart would make Gunderic more powerful.
• Lord Gunderic cannot be stunned by Shield Pummel.
• Clear the room, then run around and wait for him to execute one of his powers. There is a short cooldown time afterwards which will allow you to get in one, possibly two, swings of your two-handed sword. He counterattacks very quickly, so two swings is probably the maximum you can do against him each time.
• If you can get his attention, you can literally run circles around him while Anjali kills him with her firebolts. Clear any skeletons summoned quickly and attack Lord Gunderic to get him to focus on you.
• If Anjali becomes unconscious, it is not impossible to revive her, but you might need to draw Gunderic to the far side of the room and get close enough so he starts his earthquake power.

Area 3: Mournweald

Wolves

• Wolves run fast, hit hard, and have no hit reaction. Generally you want to hit and run.
• Against a single wolf, use Shield Pummel to keep it stunned.
• Against multiple wolves, Blade Dash right through and behind them so that he ends his Blade Dash with some distance and can immediately dodge or run.
• If Anjali is swarmed, get back and use area effect attacks to take pressure off her and take advantage of free hits.

Elder Drakkenweyr

• Unlike the other Drakkenweyr on this map, it cannot be stunned by Shield Pummel.
• Draw the wolves away first with Wind Shear (if you have it) and fall back. Since they run much faster than the Drakkenweyr, you can fight them separately.
• The Drakkenweyr's boulder throw can stun. Once it picks up a boulder, prepare to run and let Anjali attack unhindered. When it throws, the boulder's path is set, so you can run sideways to avoid it if you are not sure you can time your dodge properly.
• The Drakkenweyr will not go too far from its cave, so you can keep drawing it out, running back, and letting it retreat again. It will turn back even if Anjali is shooting at it or her Jackal is attacking it.
• If you need to build Focus, there is a clump of spider eggs at the nearest Save Point. This clump always hatches two white spiders when you break it, and it always respawns when you load a save game.

Shadowrift - Palefang

• Impossible for Level 7 Lucas on Hardcore WITH the Treasures of the Sun DLC. I don't remember having trouble here without the DLC installed. With the DLC, Lucas could not inflict any damage at all even though there was damage floating text. Using Heroic Charge he could occasionally inflict light damage, but often the small spiders got in the way and wasted his Heroic Charge. In any case, Palefang can heal itself.
• It's possible that focussing on the Attack stat can make this fight possible on HardCore, but that requires too much grinding for money and a specific build based on gear. We won this fight on Normal and then switched back to HardCore.
• On Normal, it seemed easier to handle the spiders and take pressure off Anjali that way while she killed Palefang. Lucas can mass-attack the hordes of small spiders more easily with Wind Shear (if you have it) and Blade Dash.

Area 4: Upper Ravens Rill
Rukkehvahl Causeway

• The smaller stone outcroppings jutting out of the ground can be destroyed for occasional coin drops.

Gunderic Mausoleum

• North of the map, near the wheelbarrow, is a breakable wall.

Rajani

• It is very dangerous to try to revive your companion because Rajani will drop a column of fire on your location. It's not impossible to survive it, but you will need the health to spend doing it.
• Stage 1 is most easily handled by getting her attention, then running circles while Anjali takes her out. It's like fighting Lord Gunderic, except she acts faster.
• Whenever her attention is on Anjali, move in immediately and attack. If she turns toward you, get out immediately.
• Keep moving and don't double back. If you keep moving, you will generally run out of the fire column attack before it can inflict damage. If you are fairly close to her, watch for her to pull her weapon back for a throw so you can dodge her fire bolt.
• After her spear three-attack sequence, and after she uses each of her special powers, there is a brief pause in which you can attack without retaliation.
• Theoretically you can avoid taking damage here if you are very cautious and fairly lucky with your dodge timing. On Hardcore, the main problem is that two hits or a single weapon attack sequence can kill you.
• Stage 2 is about dodging a minefield and attacks that follow you around
• You cannot rely on Anjali because of the barriers and all the danger spots on the ground. She will likely go unconscious early. Do not try to revive her on HardCore unless your Stamina is obscenely high.
• If she casts the ground inferno that follows you, keep running. You will stay just ahead of the eruptions.
• If she casts her multiple blue bolts, just close on her quickly. It seems they will then strike harmlessly behind him. Heroic Charge is good here.
• Once you close with her, just attack as fast as you can as she starts to teleport to her next location
• If you execute Rajani you also get Heaven's Judgement for Anjali. It's main attribute is +65 Chaos: Lightning, which is an incredible boost at this point in the game, but you can do without it and in any case it doesn't suddenly make her a powerhouse in combat. Choose what you like here for how you prefer to have the story turn out.
• Fighting with Lucas:
• For a level 10 Lucas, this battle is basically about staying alive long enough to whittle down her health, so having a lot of Stamina helps. I was not able to complete Stage 2 on Hardcore without seriously focussing on Stamina-providing gear.
• Heroic Charge helps a lot here if you have it since it does a lot of damage and gets you in quickly during her vulnerable cooldown periods.
• Fighting with Reinhart:
• In the first Stage, Mirror Image is probably the safest power to use because it is fast. It will not necessarily distract Rajani from Reinhart, nor will it do a lot of damage quickly. A slow power will let her launch a fire spear or drop an incineration beneath your feet.
• In Stage 2, Mirror Image works very well because it runs quickly to her automatically (you have to find her on the map first after she teleports since you don't get enough of a screen view to see where she is) and attacking her in melee causes her to teleport. Keep dodging landmines and keep your Focus up to have Mirror Image on. Since she's unlikely to be busy with you, the slow (Lightning Bolt) is viable here.

Area 5: The Hall of Heroes
This place is crazy hard on Hardcore without a lot of Stamina, and is probably meant as a grind to give you XP since it is very far between each save point.

• Mobs can spawn with 3 mages or 1 Skeleton Champion, or, if you are lucky, no mini-boss at all.
• Be careful if you think you see only one enemy, because it might be a stack of 2-3 occupying nearly exactly the same position and taking the same action. Normally there is clipping and enemies cannot occupy the same space, but it is apparently not true here. (Witnessed on Hardcore).

Mages

• The mages are the hardest to handle because their bolts move faster than you can run, and can follow you even up slopes and stairs. The magic bolts cannot turn around, so if possible, dodge into and behind them. If there are too many enemies, retreat and draw them with Wind Shear.
• The mages also usually clump together, so if they all fire at you, you could be wiped out very suddenly by their combined bolts. Be careful when approaching.
• Combined with the narrow corridors here, either you can quickly take them out with Wind Shear / Blade Dash, or you need to close quickly and start hacking. But there is another way:
• Retreat and wait for them to all move back to their spawn position.
• Then move forward, but before they come for you (typically you can see them before they notice you), use Wind Shear to hit them from afar (a Wind Shear can go off-screen) and then back off.
• They move slowly, so by the time you are done with any skeletons that have run to your position, you can back away beyond their pursuit radius. Keep doing this until they are dead. If you gave Anjali the Jackal power, her Jackal might also cover your retreat.

Darkomir (level 11 Lucas)

• One of the easier bosses because his actions are predictable and slow. Easier than Rajani stage 2.
• The main risk is the wide radius of his swings and the fact that he hits so hard you can die in literally just one hit unless you seriously focus on Stamina. Even so, if you can survive his lesser hits and heal in between (or not take any hits at all) you can win.
• Lots of room to move and many opportunities for Lucas to run circles while Anjali shoots.
• Keep running circles so you don't get run over by his dash.
• If he attacks, it is usually a double swing or a swing, pause, and dash. If you are attacking him while he is attacking someone else, he swings all around him. If he is focussing on you, it is a powerful chop.
• As soon as you land a hit (usually with Heroic Charge), it is safest to just get out. If he has to turn completely around to face you, you might get in a couple of additional swings.
• The first time he summons skeletons, he will vanish for a while. The second time he does so, he will fight with them. Clear them first, and use Live by the Sword to regain lots of health doing it.