Seems like you can cheese a lot of areas by telling your party to wait, and sending one dude to scout ahead, peel off one or two mobs, and bring them back to the party for slaughter... I do feel cheesy doing this, but NOT doing this is often unfair in the other direction. If you move your party together into a room with a few mobs that looks manageable, often 3 more groups from 3 different side rooms will hear and come to join the fun, and you get completely overwhelmed...
<!--quoteo(post=1736923:date=Nov 9 2009, 06:27 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DiscoZombie @ Nov 9 2009, 06:27 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1736923"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Seems like you can cheese a lot of areas by telling your party to wait, and sending one dude to scout ahead, peel off one or two mobs, and bring them back to the party for slaughter... I do feel cheesy doing this, but NOT doing this is often unfair in the other direction. If you move your party together into a room with a few mobs that looks manageable, often 3 more groups from 3 different side rooms will hear and come to join the fun, and you get completely overwhelmed...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=1736959:date=Nov 10 2009, 12:23 AM:name=spellman23)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spellman23 @ Nov 10 2009, 12:23 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1736959"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So you're playing it like a MMO? Genius!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I enjoy the difficulty, it was KotoR's only failing IMO.
I'm only 3 hours in (fantastic game already and I've yet to come to any decision-making parts that are the supposed bread and butter) and I've finally learnt to open doors with my hound and let him tank.
Tactics are a nice addition but I don't think the number of tactics you can use should be a learnable skill. I'd rather you have as many as you wish. Two or three are fine for my tanks but I feel like my mage needs 50 of the damned things. STOP PUTTING SHEILD ON AND CHARGING INTO MELEE, I'VE SET YOU TO RANGE.
Yeah, I refrain from using tactics for changing weapons. Doing it normally isn't much of a pain once you discover the tiny little button on the left of the quickbar; no need to open theinventory menu anymore (dumb me)
EpidemicDark Force GorgeJoin Date: 2003-06-29Member: 17781Members
<!--quoteo(post=1736913:date=Nov 9 2009, 01:03 PM:name=Corporal_Fortier)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Corporal_Fortier @ Nov 9 2009, 01:03 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1736913"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yeah, the difficulty isn't always consistent. Sometimes you can take down half a dozen demons storming at you without problem, but a couple of bandit will kill you in a matter of seconds..<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That reminds me of mass effect which I just completed today, I could breeze trough hordes enemies with ease to just later be instagibbed by a rocket I didnt see coming. Must be a BioWare thing.
<!--quoteo(post=1736923:date=Nov 10 2009, 01:27 AM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DiscoZombie @ Nov 10 2009, 01:27 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1736923"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Seems like you can cheese a lot of areas by telling your party to wait, and sending one dude to scout ahead, peel off one or two mobs, and bring them back to the party for slaughter... I do feel cheesy doing this, but NOT doing this is often unfair in the other direction. If you move your party together into a room with a few mobs that looks manageable, often 3 more groups from 3 different side rooms will hear and come to join the fun, and you get completely overwhelmed...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I started doing this after I kept getting caught in non-detectable traps and then fireballed to half my party health and then the weak mages get aggro for countering and filled with arrows, while the rest dies from being overwhelmed and potshotted by the opposing mage. I also don't get the usage of maces and such that do less damage but has great armor penetration. Do normal grunts have light/med/heavy armor, cant really tell by looking at them? Do bosses have it? The first one isnt wearing armor but I imagine it have some hefty natural AC.
Also, telling the AI to keep attacking after knocking an enemy down is ###### silly.
<!--quoteo(post=1736923:date=Nov 9 2009, 08:27 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DiscoZombie @ Nov 9 2009, 08:27 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1736923"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Seems like you can cheese a lot of areas by telling your party to wait, and sending one dude to scout ahead, peel off one or two mobs, and bring them back to the party for slaughter... I do feel cheesy doing this, but NOT doing this is often unfair in the other direction. If you move your party together into a room with a few mobs that looks manageable, often 3 more groups from 3 different side rooms will hear and come to join the fun, and you get completely overwhelmed...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Normally I bypass this problem by telling my party to hold position around a corner and stealthing my rouge to a vantage point where I can aggro a small group of four or five baddies and lure them to their slaughter. However, I am having a problem with a particular group of baddies. In Denerim in a back alley, there is a group of thugs with a gang leader. Problem is they are not automatically hostile. You have to walk close enough to trigger a small in-game cinematic of this gang leader saying "kill em now, we'll sort through the loot later." After this your party is automatically teleported in front of his group where conveniently you are in line of sight of three other groups a grand ass spanking total of 11 baddies...... WHAT THE ######!?!?!?
I've ran through this battle like six times now and there's no way to not aggro all the baddies yet. The sleep spell doesn't last near long enough mindblast and affliction hex don't help quite as much either. I know I can take em, if I can take em one group at a time..... Currently the situation is fubar. Anyone figured a way around this BS? Unless there's some way I can attack them before they become hostile I have to skip that area for now.
Oh, I know how you feel; that's one of the situations I was referring to when saying you tend to get overwhelmed. After dying about 10 times trying to win this fight, I skipped it. Even when combining Earthquake, Mind Blast, two Petrify/Stonefist combos right from the start and such, I just ended up being overwhelmed. My party consisted of my char (mage), Alistair, Leliana and Wynne, although I tried bringing more melee to the fight but it didn't seem to make a difference. So I went back and did some more main questing (the elves and the dwarves) and yesterday I came back to Denerim and the fight was a joke. I might have been lvl10-12 back then, now I'm 17, so yeah... I sticked to the same tactic which was Erathquaking the mobs a little behind the leader, then Petrifying/Stonefisting (they'll almost always shatter if you don't know about this combo) the two beside the leader so I get some heat of my meat shield, and then I turn on Wynne's Cleansing Aura (+40hp healing every 4-5 seconds -- you get it after a cutscene when you get ambushed when traveling with her) and focus to take down the bandits.
Yeah... after skipping that area I ran into another group that was pretty much the same. I figured that I may just need to get some more lvls before taking them on. I just aggroed the white falcons though so after that fight I'm vacating Denerim for a while.
there was a similar fight in the mage tower, an optional fight with a desire demon and friends. Teleports your whole party right in front of her and immediately stuns your whole party for like 5-10 seconds. Very hard to recover.
Just a note to people playing on the PC - I just discovered there are console commands in case you want to "respec" or anything. I am very happy to find this out. With the vague spell descriptions and such, it's pretty easy to wind up wasting extremely valuable spell or skill points on something useless. I was considering throwing away my 20 hours of playtime and starting over because I'm unhappy with the Entropy spell lines I've been going down. Now I can just unlearn some abilities, and learn the other ones I want to try. Of course you can also use the console to outright cheat, but where's the fun in that?
<!--quoteo(post=1736959:date=Nov 9 2009, 11:23 PM:name=spellman23)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spellman23 @ Nov 9 2009, 11:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1736959"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So you're playing it like a MMO? Genius!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> There are other MMO tricks you can do, too, like kiting... the boss of the mage tower just chased my mage around in circles while my other 3 characters wailed on him :D
<!--quoteo(post=1737262:date=Nov 11 2009, 08:38 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DiscoZombie @ Nov 11 2009, 08:38 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1737262"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->There are other MMO tricks you can do, too, like kiting... the boss of the mage tower just chased my mage around in circles while my other 3 characters wailed on him :D
also, triple post ftw<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I did that in the beginning with the troll. After my entire party died I had like five acid grenades left and just kept tossing them at the bugger til he fell over. Kiting worked for a little while on a small mercenary mission against some Quanari mercs, but they got wise and stopped chasing my rogue and went after the DPS mage.
images courtesy of <Cyanide> on IRC<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> haha, that is pretty priceless. so far my female heroine has only had hetero relations. Haven't managed to get into Leliana's pants yet.
Speaking of love making bunch of pixels, did anyone get to the final battle yet? I've been wondering <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>what Morrigan suggests if you play a female character. As a male, she wants to bear your child so it can then absorb whatever the archdemon is. But what if you're female? Will Alister do it? Or the other Warden you rescued? Or does she proposes nothing? Or maybe someone else proposes something similar? Just curious about that.</span>
Thanks DiscoZombie for the 'respec' trick. Had I known that earlier, I might not have ditched my warrior. It'll surely help in the future!
Had anyone troubles with NPCs threatening to leave your group? I read in a review that "one has to be careful because a party member may desert at any time" or something like that. I found it pretty easy to avoid given all the gifts you find; even characters I never put in my party are like +50 or so. Maybe it's because I'm playing a "good" guy; I guess if I start slitting throats every five minutes, this could change. The only time I think I was close to losing someone was when <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>I considered sparing Loghain's life, but Alistair was reeeeeeeeally not in the mood, and I had leaned he'd leave you if you go through with it.</span>
<!--quoteo(post=1737288:date=Nov 12 2009, 01:41 AM:name=Corporal_Fortier)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Corporal_Fortier @ Nov 12 2009, 01:41 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1737288"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Thanks DiscoZombie for the 'respec' trick. Had I known that earlier, I might not have ditched my warrior. It'll surely help in the future!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> no problem. I'm thinking about cheating to give my characters more tactic slots, because I love the talent system but think it's silly that you have to waste talent points on them... and it wouldn't be game-breaking, it would just mean I have to babysit a little less.
So I picked this up and I must be a strange person because I find this game dull and slow. The world/lore of Dragon Age has been clearly well made but they throw so much of the story/names at you at times I feel overwhelmed by the lore alone. It almost feels like a written math question where the it gives you the life story of Dave and his family when all you need to do is find out how many apples Dave has left. I also found the combat system vastly inferior to KOTOR. In KOTOR (and I think Mass Effect) i was bouncing between party members and queuing up abilities which gave me something to do during combat. In this, I just set the tactics once and hope they follow it while I cast spells and wait for cooldowns on a single party member and if I want to bounce back and forth between members I can only queue one ability. In an RPG I like backstory and side quests but I feel like there's just so much going on it's easy to lose track of the big picture, especially when you only play a couple hours at a time.
It does seem a little too rich at first, but you only have to pay attention to the main plot dialog if you want to know what's going on. everything else is just filler for people who are really into lore. The important stuff can probably be summarized in a few sentences. I won't spoiler them because you can pretty much know them all by the time you're a gray warden.
-The fade is the place you go when you dream, and demons live there. Mages get their power by tapping into it. -A long time ago, mages of some old empire got too cocky and were messing with a lot of blood magic because they wanted more power. Sacrificed tons of people, got into the golden city in the fade, where the Maker (God) lived. Somehow it wound up corrupting the golden city and made it into the black city. they became the first darkspawn. -ever since then, the darkspawn continue to flare up once in a while. A blight is basically when a darkspawn army comes out and attacks the surface, generally led by an archdemon. I think this one is in the form of a dragon. -since magic is so risky and brings you into contact with demons, a lot can go wrong, so magic is strictly regulated by the church police (templars). All mages must be licensed and regulated or else they are hunted down and killed.
those are pretty much all the fundamentals you need to understand to follow the main plot. As for the combat, believe me, it gets more complicated as you get farther along. Tactics can do a lot of the tedious stuff for you, but you can't rely on them 100% of the time, especially if you want to pull off some crazy AoE and spell combo tricks. I loved KotOR, but I tried playing it again recently, and its battle system bored the crap out of me now :( yeah, it's nice that you can queue up 3 things, but it's usually just flurry flurry flurry... in this game, like a hundred different spells and abilities are flying every which way...
I hardly ever rely on automated tactics, they are just there to save me when im not fast enough to tell someone to heal up at 10% and when I forget to activate common abilities.
Spell combos, do share these, please. I cant bring myself to try strange things on easy fights and then maybe end up having someone killed, those wound kits aren't easy to come by. Neither are loading times very quick about reloading a quicksave.
<!--quoteo(post=1737664:date=Nov 15 2009, 12:21 AM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Svenpa @ Nov 15 2009, 12:21 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1737664"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I hardly ever rely on automated tactics, they are just there to save me when im not fast enough to tell someone to heal up at 10% and when I forget to activate common abilities.
Spell combos, do share these, please. I cant bring myself to try strange things on easy fights and then maybe end up having someone killed, those wound kits aren't easy to come by. Neither are loading times very quick about reloading a quicksave.
So far: Ice + Smash ??? ??? ??? ??? (profit)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sleep + Horror Affliction/Vulnerability hex + Drain Life
That's all I've come across so far.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Petrify + Stonefist or critical hit = shatter almost any "white" enemy and "yellow" ones sometimes too. A must to deal with enemy mages imo.
And a little trick: you can cast AoE spells without being in the line of sight of your target (so you can cast through walls). It's cheap, but it's often one of the only way to get the upper hand in a fight...
As for the combat system, I didn't like it at first either, but I quickly got used to it and I like it since there's not this turn-based feel during fights where people just look at each other. If you play a mage, then yes, you'll pretty much end up controlling him/her all the way while the other members tank. I don't know how far you're into the game though, because encounters with multiple enemy mages for example, or bosses, or drakes, or mages with bosses and drakes require quite a lot of coordination, unless you play at "easy". God knows there are mages pretty much everywhere, and tactics won't help you much. True, you can't queue commands, but stuff happens so fast sometimes you'd just have to empty the queue to make someone drink a potion or the queue would empty itself after getting stunned or knocked down, which happens very regularly.
little note: I don't think you can queue stuff in Mass Effect, at least I didn't find out how after about 400 hours of play. Then again, I really like Mass Effect, but I only found myself pausing the game to give orders once every 30 fights or something, so I may have missed it.
<!--quoteo(post=1737641:date=Nov 15 2009, 12:24 AM:name=SentrySteve)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SentrySteve @ Nov 15 2009, 12:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1737641"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So I picked this up and I must be a strange person because I find this game dull and slow. The world/lore of Dragon Age has been clearly well made but they throw so much of the story/names at you at times I feel overwhelmed by the lore alone. It almost feels like a written math question where the it gives you the life story of Dave and his family when all you need to do is find out how many apples Dave has left. I also found the combat system vastly inferior to KOTOR. In KOTOR (and I think Mass Effect) i was bouncing between party members and queuing up abilities which gave me something to do during combat. In this, I just set the tactics once and hope they follow it while I cast spells and wait for cooldowns on a single party member and if I want to bounce back and forth between members I can only queue one ability. In an RPG I like backstory and side quests but I feel like there's just so much going on it's easy to lose track of the big picture, especially when you only play a couple hours at a time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree with the names thing. I've just finished Redcliffe and the only characters' names I can remember are my own(!) and Morrigan. I recruited some hulking giant before Redcliffe and can't remember his name. Likewise the regent who betrayed the king.
Disagree with the combat comment. After 3 or 4 hours the battles require work. I spent SO LONG trying to get past the 2nd wave of baddies when defending Redcliffe I was getting really pissy :p
I believe you can go cheaptastic on redcliffe too, not sure though. Try running back to the main force at the top of the cliff when every other village militia has died, the zombies should have you aggroed and follow whereever you go. I have yet to face something that gives 'game over' other than your own death. The game suggested 'concentrate fire' on a single target, which might seem obvious but actually forcing everyone to always only have one target did help a lot. And yes, those militia dudes are toast irregardless, use em as shield for as long as possible. Striking flanks + back is also useful for fighters, not just rogues.
Spell combos, isnt freeze/petrify + smash pretty much the same thing or does it count as a different combo? Sleep and horror, I think it's even spelled out on the description iirc. Gotta try hax + life drain :D Grease? Havnt seen that spell but I'll take a look around, doesnt sound too high level-ish.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->And a little trick: you can cast AoE spells without being in the line of sight of your target (so you can cast through walls). It's cheap, but it's often one of the only way to get the upper hand in a fight...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I so do this all the freaking time in the deep roads, sadly blizzard + eartquake wont shatter anyone but it sure weakens em enough to actually charge in than aggroing a few at a time.
some other spell combos are force field + force cage (or whatever it's called, in the same line). The cage bounces off the force field and explodes in an AoE. Also, glyph of repulsion + glyph of paralysis creates a huge, long-lasting, AoE paralysis (FF possible). There's also "storm of the century", which is blizzard + tempest while affected by a certain spell power buff that I forget the name of. It basically doubles the size of the AoE effect. Oh, and the death cloud + death hex combo is supposed to be the hardest hitting single attack in the game I think.
From reading up on forums, it sounds like these are some of the more overpowered spells and combos:
force field - makes a person invincible for a time, but they can't move (and can't act either I think). the enemies will keep wasting their time hitting you if you have it on, and you can use it on an enemy instead to take them out of comission for a while. cone of cold - can freeze a whole group, hard to resist, they can then be shattered with criticals or stonefist glyph of repulsion - bounces enemies back if they don't resist. Stick it in a doorway and no enemies can get through. then you can AoE the other side of the door with all the enemies in it. Also, throw the glyph of paralysis on top of it and you get the long-term AoE paralysis. earthquake or paralysis + any AoE - enemies will usually try to move out of an AoE, but if they're stunned or keep falling down because of earthquake, they'll be stuck there til they die.
also, the most overpowered character setup is a mage with the Arcane Warrior and Blood Mage specializations. Arcane Warrior mages in massive armor are practically unkillable. They have too much fatigue so they can't really cast any spells, so they just stack lots of toggle spells so they can't be hurt and to weaken the enemies. Throw in blood magic, and you can cast out of your health pool instead of your mana pool, which is unaffected by fatigue, and you turn into a real monster. I hear these can solo the game on nightmare mode.
Of course I don't abuse any of these OP abilities and combos. I've just been spending my spell points in entropy, trying to stick with a theme. It's sort of gimping me. :(
EpidemicDark Force GorgeJoin Date: 2003-06-29Member: 17781Members
EAstore has Dragon Age: Origins on sale for 34 dollars. If I don't know if it is that simply, but if I can get a proxy working, I might be able to be billed in dollars, getting it for 23 euros due to currency differences. For a total of 54% discount ^^
Comments
So you're playing it like a MMO? Genius!
You spank it! You tank it!
At least WOW taught us something =P
I'm only 3 hours in (fantastic game already and I've yet to come to any decision-making parts that are the supposed bread and butter) and I've finally learnt to open doors with my hound and let him tank.
Tactics are a nice addition but I don't think the number of tactics you can use should be a learnable skill. I'd rather you have as many as you wish. Two or three are fine for my tanks but I feel like my mage needs 50 of the damned things. STOP PUTTING SHEILD ON AND CHARGING INTO MELEE, I'VE SET YOU TO RANGE.
At least WOW taught us something =P<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ehm, I think that was Leeroy who taught us something :P
That reminds me of mass effect which I just completed today, I could breeze trough hordes enemies with ease to just later be instagibbed by a rocket I didnt see coming. Must be a BioWare thing.
I started doing this after I kept getting caught in non-detectable traps and then fireballed to half my party health and then the weak mages get aggro for countering and filled with arrows, while the rest dies from being overwhelmed and potshotted by the opposing mage. I also don't get the usage of maces and such that do less damage but has great armor penetration. Do normal grunts have light/med/heavy armor, cant really tell by looking at them? Do bosses have it? The first one isnt wearing armor but I imagine it have some hefty natural AC.
Also, telling the AI to keep attacking after knocking an enemy down is ###### silly.
Normally I bypass this problem by telling my party to hold position around a corner and stealthing my rouge to a vantage point where I can aggro a small group of four or five baddies and lure them to their slaughter. However, I am having a problem with a particular group of baddies. In Denerim in a back alley, there is a group of thugs with a gang leader. Problem is they are not automatically hostile. You have to walk close enough to trigger a small in-game cinematic of this gang leader saying "kill em now, we'll sort through the loot later." After this your party is automatically teleported in front of his group where conveniently you are in line of sight of three other groups a grand ass spanking total of 11 baddies...... WHAT THE ######!?!?!?
I've ran through this battle like six times now and there's no way to not aggro all the baddies yet. The sleep spell doesn't last near long enough mindblast and affliction hex don't help quite as much either. I know I can take em, if I can take em one group at a time..... Currently the situation is fubar. Anyone figured a way around this BS? Unless there's some way I can attack them before they become hostile I have to skip that area for now.
<a href="http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=706790&forum=140" target="_blank">http://daforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html...0&forum=140</a>
There are other MMO tricks you can do, too, like kiting... the boss of the mage tower just chased my mage around in circles while my other 3 characters wailed on him :D
also, triple post ftw
<a href="http://img109.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2009110517521.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img109.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2009110517521.jpg/</a>
<a href="http://img504.imageshack.us/i/dasex10.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img504.imageshack.us/i/dasex10.jpg/</a>
<a href="http://img194.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2009111119462.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img194.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2009111119462.jpg/</a>
<a href="http://img40.imageshack.us/i/1257293702886.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img40.imageshack.us/i/1257293702886.jpg/</a>
images courtesy of <Cyanide> on IRC
also, triple post ftw<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I did that in the beginning with the troll. After my entire party died I had like five acid grenades left and just kept tossing them at the bugger til he fell over. Kiting worked for a little while on a small mercenary mission against some Quanari mercs, but they got wise and stopped chasing my rogue and went after the DPS mage.
<a href="http://img109.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2009110517521.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img109.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2009110517521.jpg/</a>
<a href="http://img504.imageshack.us/i/dasex10.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img504.imageshack.us/i/dasex10.jpg/</a>
<a href="http://img194.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2009111119462.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img194.imageshack.us/i/screenshot2009111119462.jpg/</a>
<a href="http://img40.imageshack.us/i/1257293702886.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img40.imageshack.us/i/1257293702886.jpg/</a>
images courtesy of <Cyanide> on IRC<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
haha, that is pretty priceless. so far my female heroine has only had hetero relations. Haven't managed to get into Leliana's pants yet.
Thanks DiscoZombie for the 'respec' trick. Had I known that earlier, I might not have ditched my warrior. It'll surely help in the future!
Had anyone troubles with NPCs threatening to leave your group? I read in a review that "one has to be careful because a party member may desert at any time" or something like that. I found it pretty easy to avoid given all the gifts you find; even characters I never put in my party are like +50 or so. Maybe it's because I'm playing a "good" guy; I guess if I start slitting throats every five minutes, this could change. The only time I think I was close to losing someone was when <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>I considered sparing Loghain's life, but Alistair was reeeeeeeeally not in the mood, and I had leaned he'd leave you if you go through with it.</span>
no problem. I'm thinking about cheating to give my characters more tactic slots, because I love the talent system but think it's silly that you have to waste talent points on them... and it wouldn't be game-breaking, it would just mean I have to babysit a little less.
-The fade is the place you go when you dream, and demons live there. Mages get their power by tapping into it.
-A long time ago, mages of some old empire got too cocky and were messing with a lot of blood magic because they wanted more power. Sacrificed tons of people, got into the golden city in the fade, where the Maker (God) lived. Somehow it wound up corrupting the golden city and made it into the black city. they became the first darkspawn.
-ever since then, the darkspawn continue to flare up once in a while. A blight is basically when a darkspawn army comes out and attacks the surface, generally led by an archdemon. I think this one is in the form of a dragon.
-since magic is so risky and brings you into contact with demons, a lot can go wrong, so magic is strictly regulated by the church police (templars). All mages must be licensed and regulated or else they are hunted down and killed.
those are pretty much all the fundamentals you need to understand to follow the main plot. As for the combat, believe me, it gets more complicated as you get farther along. Tactics can do a lot of the tedious stuff for you, but you can't rely on them 100% of the time, especially if you want to pull off some crazy AoE and spell combo tricks. I loved KotOR, but I tried playing it again recently, and its battle system bored the crap out of me now :( yeah, it's nice that you can queue up 3 things, but it's usually just flurry flurry flurry... in this game, like a hundred different spells and abilities are flying every which way...
Spell combos, do share these, please. I cant bring myself to try strange things on easy fights and then maybe end up having someone killed, those wound kits aren't easy to come by. Neither are loading times very quick about reloading a quicksave.
So far:
Ice + Smash
???
???
???
???
(profit)
Spell combos, do share these, please. I cant bring myself to try strange things on easy fights and then maybe end up having someone killed, those wound kits aren't easy to come by. Neither are loading times very quick about reloading a quicksave.
So far:
Ice + Smash
???
???
???
???
(profit)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sleep + Horror
Affliction/Vulnerability hex + Drain Life
That's all I've come across so far.
Affliction/Vulnerability hex + Drain Life
That's all I've come across so far.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Petrify + Stonefist or critical hit = shatter almost any "white" enemy and "yellow" ones sometimes too. A must to deal with enemy mages imo.
And a little trick: you can cast AoE spells without being in the line of sight of your target (so you can cast through walls). It's cheap, but it's often one of the only way to get the upper hand in a fight...
As for the combat system, I didn't like it at first either, but I quickly got used to it and I like it since there's not this turn-based feel during fights where people just look at each other. If you play a mage, then yes, you'll pretty much end up controlling him/her all the way while the other members tank. I don't know how far you're into the game though, because encounters with multiple enemy mages for example, or bosses, or drakes, or mages with bosses and drakes require quite a lot of coordination, unless you play at "easy". God knows there are mages pretty much everywhere, and tactics won't help you much. True, you can't queue commands, but stuff happens so fast sometimes you'd just have to empty the queue to make someone drink a potion or the queue would empty itself after getting stunned or knocked down, which happens very regularly.
little note: I don't think you can queue stuff in Mass Effect, at least I didn't find out how after about 400 hours of play. Then again, I really like Mass Effect, but I only found myself pausing the game to give orders once every 30 fights or something, so I may have missed it.
I agree with the names thing. I've just finished Redcliffe and the only characters' names I can remember are my own(!) and Morrigan. I recruited some hulking giant before Redcliffe and can't remember his name. Likewise the regent who betrayed the king.
Disagree with the combat comment. After 3 or 4 hours the battles require work. I spent SO LONG trying to get past the 2nd wave of baddies when defending Redcliffe I was getting really pissy :p
Spell combos, isnt freeze/petrify + smash pretty much the same thing or does it count as a different combo?
Sleep and horror, I think it's even spelled out on the description iirc.
Gotta try hax + life drain :D
Grease? Havnt seen that spell but I'll take a look around, doesnt sound too high level-ish.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->And a little trick: you can cast AoE spells without being in the line of sight of your target (so you can cast through walls). It's cheap, but it's often one of the only way to get the upper hand in a fight...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I so do this all the freaking time in the deep roads, sadly blizzard + eartquake wont shatter anyone but it sure weakens em enough to actually charge in than aggroing a few at a time.
From reading up on forums, it sounds like these are some of the more overpowered spells and combos:
force field - makes a person invincible for a time, but they can't move (and can't act either I think). the enemies will keep wasting their time hitting you if you have it on, and you can use it on an enemy instead to take them out of comission for a while.
cone of cold - can freeze a whole group, hard to resist, they can then be shattered with criticals or stonefist
glyph of repulsion - bounces enemies back if they don't resist. Stick it in a doorway and no enemies can get through. then you can AoE the other side of the door with all the enemies in it. Also, throw the glyph of paralysis on top of it and you get the long-term AoE paralysis.
earthquake or paralysis + any AoE - enemies will usually try to move out of an AoE, but if they're stunned or keep falling down because of earthquake, they'll be stuck there til they die.
also, the most overpowered character setup is a mage with the Arcane Warrior and Blood Mage specializations. Arcane Warrior mages in massive armor are practically unkillable. They have too much fatigue so they can't really cast any spells, so they just stack lots of toggle spells so they can't be hurt and to weaken the enemies. Throw in blood magic, and you can cast out of your health pool instead of your mana pool, which is unaffected by fatigue, and you turn into a real monster. I hear these can solo the game on nightmare mode.
Of course I don't abuse any of these OP abilities and combos. I've just been spending my spell points in entropy, trying to stick with a theme. It's sort of gimping me. :(
Run into a group of enemy's on anything but easy and expect to get your ass handed to you FAST.
That said, I love it, and on my second play through atm :)