There are two versions of the Draconic Tree Sentinel in Elden Ring. One is a boss found in the Capital Outskirts while the other one on Crumbling Farum Azula doesn’t have a boss health bar. How to defeat the boss? What is the boss weak to? All of these questions will be answered in this ultimate boss guide to beating Draconic Tree Sentinel in Elden Ring.
The Draconic Tree Sentinel is a much harder version of the regular Tree Sentinel boss. His added ranged attacks, hard-hitting melee capabilities, and lightning attacks in the second phase make him incredibly deadly. Attacking from his shield side is best when you are on foot or employing Torrent’s help to essentially joust with the boss is the best way to approach this fight.
Let’s take a look at the best strategies and builds in this boss guide that can help us easily defeat Draconic Tree Sentinel in Elden Ring. We will talk about one variant in this article. The same strategy can be applied to the other Draconic Sentinel too.
Is Draconic Tree Sentinel Optional?
The Draconic Tree Sentinel is guarding the entrance to the Lyndell, Royal Capital, which is not an optional area. However, you can gain access to this area by other means if you have managed to progress Fia’s questline and defeated Fia’s Champions.
Doing so will open a portal that will transport you to the Capital without having to fight the Draconic Tree Sentinel making it an optional boss of sorts. Nevertheless, it is much easier to fight this boss than to venture into the difficult locations that Fia’s quest will take you.
Strategies for Defeating Draconic Tree Sentinel
Below are some strategies for defeating the Draconic Tree Sentinel boss in Elden Ring. The build you selected will determine the approach you should go for. We will cover the basic melee/magic caster strategies here:
Melee Strategy
Before going into this fight, equip yourself with lightning-resistant armor and Talismans that reduce lightning damage. Weapons that deal strike damage like hammers are preferred since they can stagger and break his poise relatively quickly. The ability to recover stamina faster (Talisman or Pickled Turtle Neck) will be a godsend too.
If you are confident with your parrying skill then his hammer attacks can be defended against without much trouble so stay at his hammer side.
For the rest of us, let us just stick to the side with the shield as the shield bashes he uses are relatively easier to dodge away from, giving you the time to poke him.
Every now and then his horse will back up and will either shoot a fireball at you or stomp the ground in front. In both cases, dodge to the left hammer side to negate the attack. Having a summon or NPC to cover your back and share some of the aggro will be worthwhile.
Charged heavy attacks and jumping attacks with a strike weapon (hammer, etc.) will eventually break the boss’s poise, giving you enough time to get in some free hits.
You should be using jumping attacks quite often since the boss will regularly be distancing himself from you. Sprint up to him while dodging any attacks and perform a jumping attack at the end.
If you have Poison or Rot Grease on you then you can take advantage of the boss’s weakness to these status effects.
Apply the grease before the fight commences and strike him enough times to apply the effect. You can even use darts or arrows to fill the poison/rot meter.
In his second phase, he will add a couple of lightning attacks to his arsenal. There is one where he raises his shield, and a few lightning bolts will strike at your location so roll away quickly.
Another one is where the ground will signal multiple spots where lightning is about to strike. For this attack, run out of the circle of the lightning since the boss will also perform a few melee attacks if you stay within it.
Fighting while riding Torrent is a viable strategy. You can outrun his attacks of all kinds and employ a hit-and-run tactic. Just be careful, if your mount gets hit, you will fall down leaving you defenseless from his attacks for a few seconds.
Magic/Faith Strategy
Magic and Faith builds should opt for riding Torrent at all times. You will have to stay mobile at all times since the boss has many ranged attacks. Torrent will allow you to keep running and stopping only to cast your spells and then repeat the run.
Quick-firing spells will be your best friends here so equip whichever you have at your disposal. Keep in mind the boss’s weaknesses and resistances mentioned below.
Faith builds can take advantage of the Rotten Breathe spell and cast it as soon as the boss starts walking towards you without starting the fight. Let the first cast chip away 30% of his health and then summon your Spirit Ashes to distract him.
Use the Rotten Breathe again to apply rot on him. This will take away most of his health. Just use any other fast spell to finish the job.
In most cases for such builds, spirit, and NPC summons will take away the aggro while you use this time to cast spells on him. Be aware, most summons won’t survive that long fighting the Sentinel alone so try to grab the attention every now and then.
What is Draconic Tree Sentinel Weak To?
Draconic Tree Sentinel is weak to the following damage types:
- Standard Damage
- Strike Damage
- Pierce Damage
- Scarlet Rot
- Poison
- Sleep
What is Draconic Tree Sentinel Strong Against?
Draconic Tree Sentinel is strong or resistant to the following damage types:
- Strong
- Slash Damage
- Fire
- Lightning
- Hemorrhage
- Frostbite
- Immune
- Madness
Can You Parry Draconic Tree Sentinel?
Draconic Tree Sentinel can be parried. His horse’s fireballs can also be parried using the Carian Retaliation spell or the Erdtree Greatshield.
He can be stance broken, but you can not perform a critical strike on him.
Can You Cheese Draconic Tree Sentinel?
This cheese strategy for the Draconic Tree Sentinel requires you to have Poison Mist only and a generous amount of Cerulean Flasks to recover FP. This cheese will only work on the Lyndell version of the boss.
When you see the boss at the entrance of the Capital stay at a distance from him where he doesn’t start to move slowly towards you. Take this opportunity and move to either side of the path leading up to him.
Hug the wall on the left side or hug the cliff on the right side and crouch your way to the wall behind the boss. The boss will not notice you if you do this right.
When you are behind the boss, start using the Poison Mist spell on him. This spell doesn’t register as a “hit” so the boss will remain inactive. Two to three casts of this spell will trigger the poison status effect and his health will tick away. Let the poisoned effect wear off and apply it again.
This is a lengthy process, and it will take up to 15 mins for the boss to die from this cheese so be patient. The boss will stand there, and you will defeat him without engaging in direct combat.
The Draconic Tree Sentinel is a hard boss and can easily one-shot you if you are not careful. Study his moves thoroughly otherwise the fight can go south in mere seconds. Luckily, we have pointed out the problematic parts of this fight in this article. Good Luck fellow Tarnished!