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The Tree Sentinel is one of the first enemies the Tarnished will encounter in Elden Ring, and the Draconic version is his more intimidating cousin. Without any preparation, the player will likely be crushed immediately. The odds are certainly more in the player's favor after acquiring Torrent, allowing them to dart in and out of the Tree Sentinel's heavy swings.
The Tree Sentinels are some of the most brutal foes in The Lands Between. Throughout the rich history of this landscape, the Sentinels realized that in order to face dragons in combat, they would need to become part dragons themselves, and that's where the Draconic Tree Sentinel comes in. Here's how players can defeat this formidable foe.
Draconic Tree Sentinel Move Set: Phase One
In all regards, the Draconic Tree Sentinel is a more intimidating challenge than the regular Tree Sentinel. They are a big fan of using fireballs to cause damage to the player at close-mid range, as well as using their shield and hammer in extremely quick strikes to overwhelm the Tarnished.
Hammer Attack, Hammer Strike, and Lunging Strike
The Draconic Tree Sentinel will use a number of different attacks with his hammer at close range that cause a huge amount of damage combined into a combo. He will use the Lunging Strike to close the distance and begin a combo. Rolling towards the side of his massive shield should help the Tarnished in avoiding the combo.
The Hammer Attack is a massive overhead strike that will cause massive damage to anything stood on the left side of him. The Hammer Strike is a more deadly version of the Hammer Attack because there is virtually no windup to it; it will basically come out of nowhere. Therefore, sticking to his right side (his shield side) is a good method to make sure he uses these attacks as little as possible.
Sentinel's Slam
This AOE attack will be telegraphed by the Sentinel's horse rearing back as he holds his hammer up high. After a long delay, he will swing the hammer down and will cause damage to standing in the nearby area. This can be dodged by using invincibility frames to roll through the attack, but it's much easier to simply run away so that the player is out of range.
Horse Stomp
The Tarnished will also have to worry about the horse that the Draconic Tree Sentinel rides on. The horse will rear back and lunge forwards to leap onto the player. The tracking is extremely accurate with this attack, which will make dodging extremely difficult. Therefore, it is recommended that the player tries to get behind the horse by sprinting or retreating out of range.
Fireball
One of the most annoying attacks that the Draconic Tree Sentinel can use is a fireball, which is mostly used when the player tries to heal. To heal, the player can wait for the horse to shoot a fireball and then heal before he can shoot another. To dodge them, simply roll to the side and at close range roll towards the Sentinel's shield side.
Shield Attacks
The Draconic Tree Sentinel will also use a couple of shield attacks if the Tarnished is being wary of their massive hammer and sticking to his right side. These include:
- Forward Swipe: The Sentinel will raise his shield backward and swipe forward. This can be dealt with by using a well-timed roll. However, the Tarnished should also be aware that sometimes the Sentinel will use this swipe to leap away and reposition himself in front of the player.
- Backward Swipe: This shield attack has more range than the others, but other than that is essentially the same as the Forward Strike. The Tarnished will just need to be aware of the shield coming from a different direction.
- Shield Smash: Instead of swiping forward or backward, the Draconic Tree Sentinel will vertically smash the shield down on the player. This can be done in a couple of different ways: the Shield Smash can sometimes be used twice in a row or at a significant delay. To stay on the safe side, the player should always assume that the Sentinel will use this attack twice and be prepared to roll at the right time (right as the shield is slammed down).
Draconic Tree Sentinel Move Set: Phase Two
​​​​​​Lightning Strike
The second phase involves many lightning-based attacks reminiscent of the ancient lightning dragons. The Draconic Tree Sentinel's Lightning Strike attack starts similarly to one of his shield swipes (except imbued with lightning). When he swipes sideways, many lightning bolts will strike at random points around the boss arena with large hitboxes. The safest way to deal with this is a full retreat and then darting back in once the lightning stops.
Lightning Wave
The Draconic Tree Sentinel will swipe forward with his weapon, sending out a massive wave of lightning that will track the player for a long range. The only way to dodge this is to roll through the wave at just the right moment. The Tarnished should also be aware that this attack will usually be followed up with the Thunderous Smite attack.
Honed Bolt
The Draconic Tree Sentinel will start an attack similar to the Shield Smash, but as the shield is brought down, a bolt of lightning will strike right where the player is standing. Players can dodge by standing right under his shield or dodging right as he brings his shield down (the timing will be very precise).
Thunderous Smite
An even more dangerous version of the Sentinel's Slam, the slam additionally has random rippling waves of lightning coming from the AOE attack. This essentially means it is even harder to escape the range of the attack.
Strategies
The Tarnished should focus on staying on the shield side of The Draconic Tree Sentinel to avoid a number of his hammer attacks. In terms of how to deal damage best, the sentinel is very weak to blood loss and rot effects.
He can also be killed without ever entering combat, if the player wants to cheese the fight by sneaking up behind him and using Poison Mist multiple times over the course of about 15 minutes. This will gradually reduce his health until he eventually drops dead without him even noticing the player.