Finally decided to pay the End a visit today. Went in with my norm, diamond sword, bow, arrows, 2 potions of strenth II and 2 of healing II plus a few stacks of cobble. So I charge in and start working on destroying the crystals, I start building my way up to the first encased crystal and 4 blocks up I get blasted by acid. Ok no big worry. Half way up the dragon swoops down and flings me into the void. I'm sitting there with this dumbfounded look on my face. Reload, make it to the top. Dig out the crystal and hit it. The explosion drops me to my death.
At this point its war. I decide to kill some endermen for pearls, start destroying the open crystals. Go after the enclosed crystals again and after several times of getting blasted off like team rocket by the crystals, getting flung off by the dragon or being acid balled to death I finally get to the last crystal and destroy it. Pearl back down and the dragon immediately starts breathing on me. I die again. tm;dr I feel like the ender dragon ai was improved. But it wasn't on the changelog.
Four friends and I did a live streaming race to kill the dragon last night. Hard survival random seed we spent 10 hours straight. Biggest issue was getting the pearls. Playing solo I have no issues finding endermen but I guess with 5 people the spawn was skewed and it took hours to get the pearls. No pearls in the end portal or in chest in the stronghold. No villages or mineshafts spawned on the seed either.
I thought I was better prepared for the crystal explosion but it killed me. I couldn't get feather falling boots and I was trying to use a water bucket to break the fall but missed. The other friend that went up the other tower for the enclosed crystal also died and one guy got knocked into the void and one guy was killed by dragons breathe but we won.
If we were more organized and focused we could have done better but some guys did some PvP and others tamed horses etc.
... I keep saying, either climb up the inside of the towers (mining the obsidian) or dig into the obsidian when you reach the top. That way, neither dragon nor explosion can unseat you. You can shoot the caged crystals from within their towers several blocks underneath them to avoid some of the impact of the explosion and you can shoot the crystals on the other towers from atop the nearest caged tower once you've climbed up destroyed that crystal. When shooting from the top of the tower, since you're still dug in by a block and surrounded by obsidian, you still can't get thrown from the tower.
I should also say that when mining up the inside of the tower, I replace the blocks under me with endstone as I go... It's a block the dragon can't destroy to take my platform out from under me but it's still quick to mine out on the way down.
So, the sequence goes... emerge through portal, bridge across on obsidian if necessary, tunnel immediately into the endstone and dig to nearest caged tower, mine up inside tower jump placing blocks of endstone underneath me as I climb, break through the top and dig down again a few blocks to get a good aim on the caged crystal within the caged boundaries. Make a platform out of endstone so that I'm one block down from the top and mine out the cage. Take aim on nearby uncaged crystals. Mine my way back down and dig to next caged tower. Rinse and repeat. When all crystals are down, emerge and start taking aim on the dragon. Damage to player(s) - minimal. In multiplayer, it's also easy to set up a crossfire zone from the tops of the "caged" towers and one player positioned (under cover) near the nest.
the dragon bounced me around pretty good the other night and the crystal explosions are amped up more than i am used to, but the strategy above combined with the "stand under the dragon and stab, stab, stab" technique meant it only took 3 tries to take the monster down.
feather falling was only a little help from the dragon hits that sent me flying
Finally decided to pay the End a visit today. Went in with my norm, diamond sword, bow, arrows, 2 potions of strenth II and 2 of healing II plus a few stacks of cobble. So I charge in and start working on destroying the crystals, I start building my way up to the first encased crystal and 4 blocks up I get blasted by acid. Ok no big worry. Half way up the dragon swoops down and flings me into the void. I'm sitting there with this dumbfounded look on my face. Reload, make it to the top. Dig out the crystal and hit it. The explosion drops me to my death.
At this point its war. I decide to kill some endermen for pearls, start destroying the open crystals. Go after the enclosed crystals again and after several times of getting blasted off like team rocket by the crystals, getting flung off by the dragon or being acid balled to death I finally get to the last crystal and destroy it. Pearl back down and the dragon immediately starts breathing on me. I die again. tm;dr I feel like the ender dragon ai was improved. But it wasn't on the changelog.
Youtube-eonwolfx9, Twitter @eonwolfx9
Taking on the Ender Dragon later tonight. I'll see if I fare any better! (you don't take a piston to get the egg?)
You can get the egg without a piston just use a torch.
Four friends and I did a live streaming race to kill the dragon last night. Hard survival random seed we spent 10 hours straight. Biggest issue was getting the pearls. Playing solo I have no issues finding endermen but I guess with 5 people the spawn was skewed and it took hours to get the pearls. No pearls in the end portal or in chest in the stronghold. No villages or mineshafts spawned on the seed either.
I thought I was better prepared for the crystal explosion but it killed me. I couldn't get feather falling boots and I was trying to use a water bucket to break the fall but missed. The other friend that went up the other tower for the enclosed crystal also died and one guy got knocked into the void and one guy was killed by dragons breathe but we won.
If we were more organized and focused we could have done better but some guys did some PvP and others tamed horses etc.
... I keep saying, either climb up the inside of the towers (mining the obsidian) or dig into the obsidian when you reach the top. That way, neither dragon nor explosion can unseat you. You can shoot the caged crystals from within their towers several blocks underneath them to avoid some of the impact of the explosion and you can shoot the crystals on the other towers from atop the nearest caged tower once you've climbed up destroyed that crystal. When shooting from the top of the tower, since you're still dug in by a block and surrounded by obsidian, you still can't get thrown from the tower.
I should also say that when mining up the inside of the tower, I replace the blocks under me with endstone as I go... It's a block the dragon can't destroy to take my platform out from under me but it's still quick to mine out on the way down.
So, the sequence goes... emerge through portal, bridge across on obsidian if necessary, tunnel immediately into the endstone and dig to nearest caged tower, mine up inside tower jump placing blocks of endstone underneath me as I climb, break through the top and dig down again a few blocks to get a good aim on the caged crystal within the caged boundaries. Make a platform out of endstone so that I'm one block down from the top and mine out the cage. Take aim on nearby uncaged crystals. Mine my way back down and dig to next caged tower. Rinse and repeat. When all crystals are down, emerge and start taking aim on the dragon. Damage to player(s) - minimal. In multiplayer, it's also easy to set up a crossfire zone from the tops of the "caged" towers and one player positioned (under cover) near the nest.
the dragon bounced me around pretty good the other night and the crystal explosions are amped up more than i am used to, but the strategy above combined with the "stand under the dragon and stab, stab, stab" technique meant it only took 3 tries to take the monster down.
feather falling was only a little help from the dragon hits that sent me flying
I only play SPS but good tips. I'll have to remember that next time.
Youtube-eonwolfx9, Twitter @eonwolfx9