Dragon Age 2 - Here be spoilers.

[Koyasha]

[Tannhauser]

[Sjofn]

Honestly though if you do another playthrough keep your eyes open and you'll be surprised at how downright negligent the Templars actually are at times compared to the caricature that Anders and the other mages keep trumpeting.

Honey, I'm pretty sure I have more playthroughs already than most people are going to have in their entire lives. 

[Sheepherder]

...if you had seen all the blood-drenched tortured mages all the time, would you ever have reasonably sided with the templars other than just to see what happened?

Hell yes.

You know what the best scene in any video game ever was?  In Planescape when you redeem Trias, and then Vhailor just walks over and saws his motherfucking head off anyways.  Because Vhailor just doesn't give a fuck.

[John Difool]

...if you had seen all the blood-drenched tortured mages all the time, would you ever have reasonably sided with the templars other than just to see what happened?

That's just it. You don't see ANY blood-drenched tortured mages.

[Koyasha]

...if you had seen all the blood-drenched tortured mages all the time, would you ever have reasonably sided with the templars other than just to see what happened?

That's just it. You don't see ANY blood-drenched tortured mages.

[John Difool]

[Sjofn]

[Ingmar]

Inconclusive arguments is exactly what they wanted.

[Tebonas]

[Sjofn]

[CmdrSlack]

Finally finished my first playthrough. (I took a break when AC Brotherhood came in the mail.) Wow. Now I want to try the other way and see how it turns out.

[tmp]

Now I want to try the other way and see how it turns out.

Sadly, pretty much the same. Railroaded story is railroaded.

[Khaldun]

Almost up to Act II. Without reading spoilers here, the general comments I completely agree with. Very transparently a rushed product in several respects, all of them annoying. And yet, damn, the storytelling is good enough to keep me going. But I'm feeling also the lack of branching narratives--feels much less like I'm making choices that matter than in Mass Effect or DA1.

[Sjofn]

So now I've done allllll the romances (although I haven't done the flip side of them, so it was friendship path for everyone except Merril).

[Morfiend]

Almost up to Act II. Without reading spoilers here, the general comments I completely agree with. Very transparently a rushed product in several respects, all of them annoying. And yet, damn, the storytelling is good enough to keep me going. But I'm feeling also the lack of branching narratives--feels much less like I'm making choices that matter than in Mass Effect or DA1.

Same for me.

It feels like none of the dialog really matters except for the few glaring choices where it was "Save everyone" vs "let the fuckers die" type of thing.

[Rasix]

So now I've done allllll the romances (although I haven't done the flip side of them, so it was friendship path for everyone except Merril).

Hah, still on playthrough 1 and the only one I've done is friendship Merril.


BTW, should we just make this thread open season after a few more pages?  It hasn't been out for a that long, but we're long into the discussion here.  Although I likely won't be done for another week. 

[Sjofn]

How about we wait until you're done? 

I got no conversations about humping Isabela from my companions, that was a giant flaw in the romance, I have decided. Varric is supposed to, but he eez bugged (he's only firing off for Anders properly, apparently). Anders has something bitchy to say about Merril and Fenris, but I guess he's cool with Isabela. Either that or even he could see what a fucking adorable couple my ManHawke and Isabela were. 

DA:O turned me into a gay man, DA2 might be turning me into a straight dude. DA3: Lesbian?

[Rasix]

How about we wait until you're done? 

You make that sound borderline unethical. 

Anders said something about my daliances with Isabella pre-Merril.  I think it was even addressed to Merril.

"So, why Hawke and you?  I can see Isabella, there's nothing to it.  Isabella is the village <I forget the comparison>.  It's expected."

Bioware games have turned me into a giant lesbian.

[Strazos]

Also, while Isabella is clearly there to deliver all sorts of fan service, her character is so consistent throughout that I have to forgive it. Also, she has really amusing conversations with Aveline and Merrill, and occasionally Fenris. Though Varris can definitely steal the show at times.

[Sjofn]

Also, while Isabella is clearly there to deliver all sorts of fan service, her character is so consistent throughout that I have to forgive it. Also, she has really amusing conversations with Aveline and Merrill, and occasionally Fenris. Though Varris can definitely steal the show at times.

I thought I would dislike her partly because of the LOL FANSERVICE vibe, but she really is done well and I heart her after all. Her banters almost always make me laugh, no matter who she's talking to. That didn't stop me from modding in some pants for her, though.  I also just don't ... build her right or something, she is always dying when I let her come with us, which was sort of traumatizing for this most recent ManHawke, I imagine. I don't like to SUPER DUPER micro-manage, so I find her sort of frustrating that way.

The more I play, though, the more I fucking adore Aveline. I can't even really explain why. But she's exactly what I want my own female PCs to be a lot of the time.

[Strazos]

I also just don't ... build her right or something, she is always dying when I let her come with us, which was sort of traumatizing for this most recent ManHawke, I imagine. I don't like to SUPER DUPER micro-manage, so I find her sort of frustrating that way.

Not sure - I mostly just maxed her Swashbucker tree and build her for +PhysicalDamage% and the stun/confuse bombs. May also be due to tactics.

[Ingmar]

The -25% threat in the blue tree helps.

[Sjofn]

Sweet pea, I'm the one who told you about that tree for Varric. I am aware of that tree.  

But yeah, this time I built her mostly to be a controller. She just dies really fast the second any AE rears its head, seems like. I understand "don't stand in the blood magic fire" well enough, it's just it two-shots the non-tanks. ><

It's not a big deal, I just didn't take her with me for hard stuff (minus the final fight, I had to take her with me then, as she's my GIRLFRIEND. My died four or five times during the final fight girlfriend!). Aveline + Fenris + Anders + archer me = lollerskates

[tmp]

Isabela gets quite more survivable if you stack some +defense runes in her gear, and turn on that ability in her tree which grants her some extra defense per each nearby enemy. She becomes nearly untouchable (yes, Aveline, i know) with that, and you can add on top of her tactics pile a rule or two to activate evade and/or stealth when she's under attack, for extra safety.

[Sjofn]

See, I totally specced that, had those tactics and everything! Maybe she just hates me.

[Mavor]

Defense is one of the worst stats to buff up if you want to avoid damage. Most bosses and elites get massive default cuts to it so that unless your char is a rogue you are usually sitting at effectively 0 defense.

(Bosses are something like -60% defense stat on all their attacks, so you end up with 0% unless you have more then a 60% defense rating). Much better to buff armor.

[caladein]

Defense and Attack both drop by a set percentage versus lieutenants and again against bosses.  It's -20% each step for Defense and -15% each step for Attack.  These reductions will take into account if you're over 100% for either stat normally.

Because of the vs. Bosses reduction and the 5% floor, you're going to need north of 45% Defense normally for it to have any effect against standard attacks from bosses.

[tmp]

The more I play, though, the more I fucking adore Aveline. I can't even really explain why. But she's exactly what I want my own female PCs to be a lot of the time.

She's the only sane person in the cast and not a whiny, obsessed emo fuck like the rest of them. Well, she and Varric, and Isabela to a degree.

she's also intraweb-savvy

[Azuredream]

That whole image is awesome, but my favorite is Fenris at the bottom of the image for some reason.

[El Gallo]

I find I miss most of the banter because the chat bubbles appear offscreen behind my character.  Is there some UI setting or mod that will give me a chat window or have banter show up in the journal?

[Job601]

I find I miss most of the banter because the chat bubbles appear offscreen behind my character.  Is there some UI setting or mod that will give me a chat window or have banter show up in the journal?

Me too!  I always play with the sound off.  I ended up spending most of the game running blindly into the camera so I could see what my party was saying behind me (luckily, there are so few maps that pretty soon you don't need to see where you're going.)

[tmp]

No setting that i know of, but a workaround could be to lead the party using one of the companions rather than Hawke -- then if their banter triggers it's not so easy to miss?

[Khaldun]

You know, I really got to the point where I was wondering how the Invisible Sisters were staying in business. If anyone at all steps out of their house in Hightown at night, they apparently get swarmed by forty or so Invisible Sisters in the course of a short stroll. So I assume nobody goes out. This means no one to rob. This means hundreds of thieves with no livelihood. I guess maybe that explains why they keep suicide-wave attacking me: they have so many people in the organization and no money to support them that I'm doing them a favor by killing them all.

[Ingmar]

I find I miss most of the banter because the chat bubbles appear offscreen behind my character.  Is there some UI setting or mod that will give me a chat window or have banter show up in the journal?

Me too!  I always play with the sound off. 

/head explode

Man you are missing out on possibly the best voice acting in any game, ever. It is in the conversation, anyway (no pun intended.) I can't imagine how much the game must lose without it.