Jarvia (strategy)

This page contains strategies for defeating Jarvia, leader of the Carta in Orzammar. The party is tasked with killing her during the quest A Paragon of Her Kind.
== General information ==
Jarvia's level ranges from 11 to 17, determined based on the party's overall level when they first enter the hideout. She has access to all Dual-Weapon talents, as well as Evasion, Lethality, and Coup De Grace. She also specializes as an Assassin and can use Mark of Death. She is a deadly opponent in general.
At level 15, she has 39 Strength, 51 Dexterity, and 52 Cunning. Other statistics are as follows:
Health	Stamina	Attack	Defense	Damage	Armor	Mental Resistance	Physical Resistance
975 	226 	90(95)	91(96) 	~31-32	12 	30 	42
Jarvia is equipped with a full set of Dwarven Medium armor, a pair of Dwarven Waraxes, and a Whitewood Bow. Though she also has the Longrunner's Cap and the Pushback Strikers, they are not equipped.
==General strategy==
* During the fight, three waves of thugs will appear to support Jarvia. The last two waves appear after Jarvia has lost enough health. Each time a wave shows up, Jarvia will enter stealth, retreat into the trapped enclosure, and pull out the bow. It is recommended that all the thugs in each wave are dealt with before you focus on Jarvia, in order to avoid having to deal with too many thugs at once. Jarvia herself will switch back to melee after some time has passed and her Stealth is available again.
* The first wave of thugs consists of four Carta Thugs (two dual-weapon melee, two crossbow) and a Carta Assassin. Taking out the thugs first will make the fight easier. When the second group of thugs appear, four archers will spawn up the staircase, behind the tripwires, so hold back any companion or pets with aggressive tactics behavior from setting off the explosive barrels.
* Jarvia's room contains a number of explosive traps, triggered by tripwires. Thus it is handy to have a rogue in the party, as they can disarm the traps, possibly making the fight easier. These tripwires do not require any particular skill or cunning level to be detected or disarmed, only that the character is a rogue. However, these traps are actually much harder to detect. This is because it is coded that a rogue can only scan a maximum of 10 placeables (static objects) within 10m at any time, and there already are too many placeables - mostly barrels - around the tripwires. This explains why the tripwires to the sides of the enclosure are much harder to detect, while it is essentially impossible to detect the two tripwires in the back without moving to the back of the room where there are fewer placeables. 
** Note: In this case, an exploit with character teleportation can be used. Go far away with a group, then choose a character other than a rogue and give the group a stop command. Return with the selected character to the rear trap and position yourself close to it. We cancel the stop order which leads to teleportation of the rest of the characters. Try to position yourself so that the rogue is the one on the other side.
* Morrigan in her Flying Swarm form can move past the tripwires without triggering them.
* Melee fighters might have a difficult time engaging Jarvia and the archers in combat if the traps are not disarmed. The archers may stay or move behind the tripwires, while Jarvia herself will stealth and retreat into the trapped enclosure every time she summons her thugs. Magic and physical AoE can be very handy for knocking her out of stealth, and range can be used to avoid the traps. On Nightmare, these traps can deal a significant amount of damage (1.5 times Normal).
* If you have access to Animate Dead, you can summon an animated skeleton and have it trigger the traps when this proves advantageous. This will get rid of the traps for you, and will deal damage to nearby enemies as well as knock them down for a few seconds. If you use Animate Dead just to deal with the traps, you might want to do so after your character has lost enough mana so that the upkeep cost of Animate Dead is not subtracted from their remaining mana. In fact, you can have the skeleton trigger all three traps around Jarvia, dealing some damage to her while keeping her down. If the skeleton is being targeted by enemies, have it trigger one of the traps when it is almost dead (more dead). The same tactics can be applied if you have a Ranger pet.
* Holding your party at the entrance and casting Storm of the Century can prove effective; however, in Nightmare mode at least, some of the Carta members can move out of the spell's range to attack your party before casting has finished. 
== Specific strategies ==
Fisty's Strategy: 
With a mage with Force Field and a warrior with Taunt, run the warrior into the middle of the room when the fight starts and taunt. After the tank has drawn everyone's aggro, cast force field on him/her and have the rest of the party attack the enemies. Repeat as necessary. 
* Tested on Hard
Rock Barrage Strategy:
To use this strategy, you must have recruited Shale and had it learn Rock Barrage. Hold your party near the door and have them switch to ranged weapons. Position the Rock Barrage target marker so that it includes as many henchmen as possible. Three or so Barrages should take out or significantly weaken the minions; use many Deep Mushrooms to regain stamina quickly or Stoneheart in a pinch to regain stamina as necessary. Be ready with a mage (or two as one may be buffing/healing the team) with Force Field if Shale starts to get hurt too rapidly to quickly protect the golem.
* Tested on Nightmare with Warden at Level 12 and all other team members at Level 11.
Confederate's Rogue Tip for Rock Barrage Strategy:
Warden as a Level 12 dual-wielding rogue Assassin with Mark of Death, Coup De Grace, Lethality, The Tainted Blade and Dual-Weapon Sweep talents really helps after Jarvia hits the deck from Rock Barrage if you're quick, because you can rip into her for high damage and backed by the ranged attackers it can kill Jarvia if you're lucky. Just make sure you've got plenty of Health Poultices handy if her minions suddenly switch target to you before you escape or a mage standing by with Force Field.
* Tested on Nightmare
Setting Your Own Traps (Non-Stealth):
When you first enter the room, the fight will not start until you move a bit further in. If you have a character with Trap-Making, you can set up several layers of your own traps near the entrance before starting the fight. Good traps for this purpose would be the Small and Large Claw Traps, as they deal a good amount of damage, easy to make, do not risk friendly-fire, and can also root enemies for a time. This helps take out the initial enemy wave quickly, giving you time to set up a couple more traps for Jarvia herself. Having a mage who can cast Sleep is very handy, as you can set up more traps when enemies are asleep.
* Worked fine on Nightmare
Column Ducking Strategy:
This prevents Jarvia from being able to use her high-level archery skills when she positions herself in her trapped enclosure, forces enemy archers to move closer away from the trap-guarded stairs, and lessens the melee impact of her several waves of minions. Immediately after the initial cutscene have the mage run to the small alcove behind the column to the direct left or right (whichever is closer) just to the side at the bottom of the entry stairs. (Note: if you click the ground to move them there, they will run the long way around the front of the column, so you'll have to keyboard the movement to go faster.) Position the primary warrior tank with Taunt at the entrance to the small alcove to field the melee fighters fewer at a time with forays out to kill nearby archers. Position a rogue or warrior tank also at the other entrance to the alcove to provide a barrier to the mage. Cast Glyph of Repulsion, Grease, and/ or paralysis-type spells- as well as warrior and/ or rogue skills- to keep attackers from reaching the mage from the other side. Jarvia tends to be highly susceptible to the Repulsion field when she switches to melee to join the fight. This strategy does require a lot of maneuvering, but it reduces missile fire damage and the extra damage from being surrounded.
Also, given the poor pathfinding AI designed around the columns, you can keep an attacker running to both sides indefinitely by a very short key-based back-and-forth movement at its immediate entrance. 
* Tested on Nightmare with 10th-level party consisting of sword-and-shield Warden, additional tank, mage, and rogue (also with primal mage Warden, tank, additional mage, and rogue at 18th level).
Solo Rogue with Stealth and Traps:
* All you need is a level 8 rogue with at least one level in Trap-Making, level 3 Stealth, at least one level in Poison-Making (not required), one bomb of any type (not required), and about ten or more Claw Traps (Large Claw Trap is even better). Level 2 Stealth allows you to use items, which includes setting traps, without breaking stealth. When combat starts, all you need to do is have your rogue enter stealth then start laying down traps. Once you have set up enough traps, stay behind them and throw a bomb at Jarvia. This will cause her to run toward your rogue, and consequently step on all the traps you have set. This can in fact kill her without her calling for more backups, as she herself is not considered to be "in combat", even though your rogue is. With this approach, you can take down every enemy in the room without ever breaking stealth.
* While it is not required, it is recommended that you have Master Stealth (requiring character level 12) and at least level 2 Trap-Making, to make the job easier. Normally level 3 Stealth does not work in combat against bosses, but in Jarvia's case, your rogue can enter stealth whenever Jarvia herself enters stealth, because when Jarvia is in stealth, she becomes unperceivable to your rogue (that's how it works). Level 3 Trap-Making lets you craft elemental traps which can kill multiple enemies at once. The bomb (as well as Poison-Making) is also not required, but it allows you to provoke Jarvia without having to break stealth, and without having to directly target her (since she may be in stealth too). If you break stealth when the thugs are alive, they will start moving around and going for your rogue, making the situation more complicated. Also, keeping Jarvia out-of-combat means she will not call for backups when her health gets low.
* Once Jarvia is dead, you can simply leave through the main entrance, as the main door is unlocked upon Jarvia's death. If you want to get to the back area of the room, you probably want to deal with the remaining thugs first. As the two tripwires on the sides cannot be detected from the main side of the room (where the party comes in), it means you will have to trigger at least one of them with your rogue, leaving the character vulnerable. You can also just leave through the main entrance, bring some party members, then come back for cleanup.
* This strategy certainly works with a full party, but it is easiest to pull off when you are playing as a solo rogue (or having Leliana and/or Zevran if they also have Combat Stealth), since you do not have to worry about managing the other party members. Take out the initial thugs, then have the other members stall for time while the rogue sets up traps. Or you can simply let the other members get knocked unconscious then have the rogue set up traps in stealth and solo the rest of the fight. Difficulty settings do not matter.
Category:Strategies