Elden Ring is full of fearsome riders whose mounts make our poor horse blush with shame. In this realm, the Draconic Tree Sentinel is probably the worst, with its horse breathing fire with fearsome precision. Combined with his lightning bolts, this makes for a tough fight, one that's hard to avoid.
Kill the Draconic tree sentry easily
It's always easy to abuse the world and the many tools at your disposal to easily kill outer bosses, the Draconic Sentinel is no exception either. It's not the only one available, but there is a very simple method available to almost any build to kill it, but it's going to take a lot of patience. It consists of abusing the Poison Cloud incantation. It's a great Souls classic. It only requires 12 Faith to cast, which is very low. This attribute will also give you access to other utility incantations that will greatly simplify your life, such as Bestial Vitality and "Flame, purify me". It is an investment that we warmly recommend.
The Poison mist can be found on a Weeping Scarab, in the eastern section of the Weeping Peninsula.
Now all you have to do is sneak up on the Dragon Sentinel's back of the tree, circling through the bushes and trees to the left. By crouching in the bushes behind the sentry, you can cast Poison Cloud at it without engaging in combat . Once the sentry is poisoned, all that remains is to be very patient, you have to wait long minutes for the effect of the poison to end. Repeat the operation several times, until the death of the sentry, or until you are confident in your ability to finish it off without dying first. Provide Mana Potions if you intend to abuse the poison to the end.
Preparations
- A very durable, ranged spirit summon is probably a good choice, at least if you're fighting melee. In melee she might get knocked down, ranged too, but at least she'll draw in some of the lightning and fire breaths, giving you a free rein.
- Lightning protection spells and consumables can help you survive this fight.
- This boss is resistant to Fire, Lightning and slashing physical damage, try to use other damage types if possible. Other physical damage types and magic are your best bets.
- The Sentinel is vulnerable to Poison, as we explained above, but also to Scarlet Rot. If you have Putrid Breath or projectiles with this affliction, you can do a double DoT combo to him. It is moderately vulnerable to Bleeding and Freezing.
Fight
The Draconic Tree Sentinel has a few things in common with the Tree Sentinel, but its arsenal is much larger and more formidable:
- As mentioned above, his horse spits fire, he likes to use and abuse it at mid-range. Always be ready to dodge, since it hurts enough and will create an opening for the rider's attacks.
- When you are at a distance, the rider will favor his red lightning. He's easy to see coming, since he'll raise his shield in the air. If you're playing a wizard, that's probably the only thing to be wary of, so the fight is pretty trivial, since the rider won't usually try to approach you. The lightning requires in any case to dodge very quickly, so you have to be reactive.
- The Sentinel has a lot of melee attacks, but also additional lightning attacks. He will sometimes cause red areas to appear all around him, and they will then be struck by lightning. It is better to move away and take the opportunity to heal yourself, or use ranged skills and items.
- Things go wrong when the dragon sentry charges his weapon, which will then be surrounded by lightning. He then attacks more aggressively in melee, and he ends up unleashing a huge stormy ground strike that hits a wide area and then unloads his weapon.
- In melee, it is better to try to stay as close as possible to the sentry, while circling him in order to waste his time and push him to attack in a vacuum. Try to stand on his left side (the one with the shield) and reach for his rear end.
- Confronting the Dragon Sentinel on Torrent is very difficult, since the horse's lightning bolts and fire breaths are difficult to dodge.
This guide has been translated from MGG France by bxakid and was originally written by Raiden Robin.
