Dragon Age

[Ingmar]

Re: Redcliffe section 1, part 2:

How well supplied are you with potions? Does Morrigan know the basic heal spell? Without a good supply of healing options - and really, a decent amount of lyrium potions for your mage(s), that second part can be very rough. Make sure you're doing as much focus-fire as possible, too, its easy for your party members to get split up on different targets, if you focus things down one at a time (as best you can, sometimes the militia dudes get in the way) the total damage dealt by your enemies will go down quite a bit. You might try tweaking your tactics stuff if you're relying on that a lot, too.

[rk47]

Re: Redcliffe section 1, part 2:

How well supplied are you with potions? Does Morrigan know the basic heal spell? Without a good supply of healing options - and really, a decent amount of lyrium potions for your mage(s), that second part can be very rough. Make sure you're doing as much focus-fire as possible, too, its easy for your party members to get split up on different targets, if you focus things down one at a time (as best you can, sometimes the militia dudes get in the way) the total damage dealt by your enemies will go down quite a bit. You might try tweaking your tactics stuff if you're relying on that a lot, too.

Here's a tip:  Let Tomas & the soldiers die and burn for all you care while you dish out the AoEs and plink away from ranged damage. Run back to the Templars on the topside when things get too hairy and the Templars will gladly assist you. Just keep in mind being KO'ed is not the end. If you can clear a wave or two, you have time to get the fallen party members up.

The trick here is to conserve all Morrigan's mana for Cone of Cold, Mindblast and buy Flasks if you have basic poisoning (Best investment imo) for cheap AoE Dmg.
Sten & Alistair should employ their critical hit skills to shatter the frozen mobs when they can.

[GenVec]

[Comstar]

I finished the game, took nearly 70 hours and I've only done 51% of the achievement and somehow missed 10% of the total map. This game is the RPG of the year, and for me, game of the year.

Played as a human male noble, tried to be mercenary about things, but ended up being nice and good to everyone, mostly. Morrigon stop's complaining after you start the main quest and get out of the village. Finished the game with as a duel rogue, Alistair the tank (spent half the game with Shale, until I got good enough gear for Alistair), Orgram (spent half the game with Sten but he's boring and not nearly as funny) and of course, Morrigon. She needs the party heal spell, but once she has that she's fine.

End game spoiler- .


It's also provided new hope for SWKOTROL: If they can spend the time to make the choices and characters as interesting as they have in Dragon Age, it will be well worth playing.

[Rasix]

It's also provided new hope for SWKOTROL: If they can spend the time to make the choices and characters as interesting as they have in Dragon Age, it will be well worth playing.

 

Can all of you that still think SWTOR is being made by the same Bioware team and not a Frankenstein's monster of MMO dev failures, please raise your hand?  You may also raise your hand if you think Bioware made NWN2 or KOTOR2.  (Might as well cover my bases here).

Those of you with your hand up, make a fist with that hand, and punch yourself in the genitals. 

Make a "thumbs up" gesture with your other hand and hold it.  Thrust thumb violently into your eye socket.

Thank you. 

[rattran]

Can all of you that still think SWTOR is being made by the same Bioware team and not a Frankenstein's monster of MMO dev failures, please raise your hand?  You may also raise your hand if you think Bioware made NWN2 or KOTOR2.  (Might as well cover my bases here).

Those of you with your hand up, make a fist with that hand, and punch yourself in the genitals. 

Make a "thumbs up" gesture with your other hand and hold it.  Thrust thumb violently into your eye socket.

Thank you. 

Post of the Year.

[stray]

I don't care about SWTOR. I'd rather see a Jade Empire sequel.

"Dev teams" aside, I really don't see how this will be anything like that Star Wars game though. Shit ain't happening. Everything about it is suited towards single player gaming. Umm, unless someone knows something I don't.

[Goreschach]

I managed to finish the Redcliff defense on nightmare without losing a single npc, thus receiving their incredibly shitty helmet reward. The key, as with all things in this game, is having enough magic. Three mages all chugging lesser lyrium potions and spamming heal, force field, and crushing prison, made short incredibly long, drawn out work of that fight.

[01101010]

This is one pretty game... Well worth the $28 I got it for at BBY on Friday with my 10 store credit.

[rk47]

Mages are too powerful imo. Having a warrior main pc relegated to supporting combat cast is an odd feeling when I focused on microing Morrigan & Whynne. Unlocking Morrigan's Cone of Cold & Electric shock is probably a good start for AoE fun. If you need slightly more defensive powers, grab Force Field next. Then onward to Tempest to spread the pain. With Whynne's Earthquake and Morrigan's AoE, Leliana and my Warrior is just there to clean up the survivors.

[Ingmar]

Grabbed a couple useful mods today off fileplanet (there's probably a less evil/annoying place to download them if I'd looked around a bit). One removes the initial points spent on things when creating a character and just gives them to you to spend, so if you for example make a dwarf noble warrior and want to go 2h, you don't have that wasted point sitting around in weapon/shield. The other one doesn't autolevel NPCs to your level when they join, so you can spend their points as you like, rather than getting a level 12 Shale that's already set up a way you don't want her or whatever.

[Fabricated]

I managed to beat the Redcliffe battle and only lost a couple no-name militiamen basically by micromanaging everyone and abusing the hell out of cone of cold and that aoe stun. Ugh.

However, can someone give an an answer on this choice I made so I don't end up wasting time like a retard?

[rk47]

I managed to beat the Redcliffe battle and only lost a couple no-name militiamen basically by micromanaging everyone and abusing the hell out of cone of cold and that aoe stun. Ugh.

However, can someone give an an answer on this choice I made so I don't end up wasting time like a retard?

I believe he is referring to the ferry boat at Lake Calenhad.

[Trouble]

Some of the evil bastard things in this are great. 

You can. My GF did it today on her second playthrough. She's one of those chain option/reload people to see everything that happens. You can easily break up the marriage stuff that way as a female.

[apocrypha]

Grabbed a couple useful mods today off fileplanet (there's probably a less evil/annoying place to download them if I'd looked around a bit). One removes the initial points spent on things when creating a character and just gives them to you to spend, so if you for example make a dwarf noble warrior and want to go 2h, you don't have that wasted point sitting around in weapon/shield. The other one doesn't autolevel NPCs to your level when they join, so you can spend their points as you like, rather than getting a level 12 Shale that's already set up a way you don't want her or whatever.

That sounds awesome and makes me strongly wish I could play this on the PC rather than the PS3. That said, I love the fact that playing it on the console makes it more comfortable for me to read every single bit of lore and info I find at my leisure.

I managed to beat the initial Redcliffe battle first time, but at the cost of pretty much everyone in the village.... I think Morrigan killed most of them tbh. Ooops. Sorry folks 

[Threash]

Are there any mods to give Sten his missing lvl 7 spec point?

[apocrypha]

The wiki says you can save spec points so do you get Shale's point back when he gets to level 14?

Secondly, at levels 7 and 14, specialization points are gained which can be spent to take any unlocked specializations. Taking a specialization grants a one time bonus to attributes, and allows you to spend talent points on talents tied to that specialization. Specialization points are scarce and spent independently from attribute points, talent points, and skill points. They can be saved for later levels.

I've been using Alistair as my tank and he does ok, despite my difficulties with the tactics commands, is Shale better or just different? I've just picked him up at level 10.

[Rasix]

Uhh, Shale doesn't have specializations.

[Threash]

The wiki says you can save spec points so do you get Shale's point back when he gets to level 14?

Secondly, at levels 7 and 14, specialization points are gained which can be spent to take any unlocked specializations. Taking a specialization grants a one time bonus to attributes, and allows you to spend talent points on talents tied to that specialization. Specialization points are scarce and spent independently from attribute points, talent points, and skill points. They can be saved for later levels.

I've been using Alistair as my tank and he does ok, despite my difficulties with the tactics commands, is Shale better or just different? I've just picked him up at level 10.

You mean Sten, and he gets one point at 14 everyone else gets one at 7 and one at 14 so hes at a disadvantage.

[NiX]

Uhh, Shale doesn't have specializations.

He perma-specced into bird crushing.

[stray]

I've renounced my vow off arcane warrior.. Gonna try it with spirit healer. Seems interesting. I named him Finn... maybe I'll just duo with Dog. "Finn MacCool" liked dogs apparently.   

No really, party configuration can make it interesting I suppose. Probably will be overkill to have too many mages.

[Tannhauser]

Mages are so overpowered that you can spec a mage without AoE's and they still pwn face.  My healer-less spec is doing well; my dual-weapon warrior drops stuff fast so they don't take as much damage.   And Shale is a good tank with a cool and unique skill set.

[Fabricated]

I'm in the mage tower now and suddenly the game is about 500 times easier when you have a dedicated healer with you. Who'da thought. Particularly when they have every healing spell in the game right off the bat.

[Reg]

Get Wynne her Stonefist spell as soon as you can so she can shatter the guys Morrigan freezes. It's really hard not to take both of them along if you aren't playing a mage.  They're an excellent team.

[rk47]

Yeah, overall team build up seems to revolve around those two exclusively. I wish there's a better way to balance it but fuck, it's just so convenient to have team rejuvenation opening at the start of boss fights and let Morrigan unload everything after the first hex lands.

[Merusk]

Arcane Warrior is balls nasty, Rob.

[stray]

It is, but I just think it's more fun to gimp yourself a bit. I mean, at least in the party. Play with/explore characters you haven't before, regardless of optimal usefulness. The characters/skills are worth exploring in their entirety anyhow (or so I think). I'd agree it's GOTY. So much to offer.. Been playing the shit out of it.

[BitWarrior]

Here's hoping Bioware will pull a Blizzard and implement popular mods on the PC into the official game, by extension porting them over to the console versions.

[tmp]

Yeah, overall team build up seems to revolve around those two exclusively.

You can generally roll with having either one or the other in the team just fine. The extra dps you get from replacing one of them with someone else seems just enough to keep things winnable still, and it keeps things more interesting both in terms of dialogues you get and well, it's not such complete snoozefest as it can get when you have both the heals and superior cc.

[Ingmar]

Yeah there's really no need to carry both. I'm rolling over stuff easily with Alistair/Sten/dw rogue/Wynne. Killed the high dragon first try with no cheesy kiting/hide under the bridge stuff this time through.

[Rasix]

I never carry both. I despise having to micromanage.  I do very little of it unless I really need to.  Plus, I like having Shale and a lock popper in my group.  Shale's conversations with Lel and Wynne are pretty entertaining so far.

Anyone used a good respec mod? I'm concerned that one might screw with talent points gained through books and ability points gained in the Fade.

[Fabricated]

My PC is a rogue so I don't need Ms. Lispy in my group. I usually take Sten, Alistar, and Morrigan. I haven't gotten shale yet since I'm doing the whole Redcliffe->Mage Tower->Redcliffe deal.

The fade is really fucking annoying by the way. I'm demolishing everything for the most part now that I got 3/4 of my special tricks in the place but man the place drags ass.

[Bismallah]

Beat it yesterday, was pretty good. Total play time was just under 45hrs. (on PS3)

Main character was an Elf Dalish Rogue, after I had already made an Elf Mage full healing and found out I couldnt do jack shit for some of the solo parts so had to restart. Sigh... I normally took Morrigan, Alistar, and Wynne. I would swap Sten in from time to time for Wynne if I had a bunch of health poultices and had a good tactic setup so they all automatically used them when they needed.

Ending wasnt bad. I still think I was more involved with both Oblivion and Fallout 3. I beat Dragon Age just to beat it, felt like it was really dragging on and I was always so worried I was making a decision that would totally screw me over.

[schild]

I still think I was more involved with both Oblivion and Fallout 3.

Bethsoft makes great worlds for tromping around in but can't craft a story to save their life. Here's to hoping on [sekrit projects].

[Riggswolfe]

I still think I was more involved with both Oblivion and Fallout 3.

Bethsoft makes great worlds for tromping around in but can't craft a story to save their life. Here's to hoping on [sekrit projects].

Their stories are alright, I always find their NPCs lacking though Fallout 3 was miles better than Oblivion in that regard.