I found stealing pretty underwhelming and annoying (I might be blind, but there doesn't seem to be a way to use a tactic slot on stealing (360 version) which means a lot of self casting it for fights).
I can't speak for the 360 version, but you can definitely set up a stealing tactic on the PC version.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
I liked the Deep Roads in large part because it's the only freakin place that I
fought DarkSpawn in my near-panic crusade to stop the DarkSpawn invasion of the area. Every place else was something evil, but not darkspawn. Not even random pockets of darkspawn in the areas. Walking through the countryside I hit a few random encounters, but I have killed far more PEOPLE than anything else. :-/
So on my mage playthrough, a couple of points I'dl like to make. Spoilered, just in case:
* I thought it'd be fun to focus on the Fire element, since neither of the party member mages start with fire spells. Can't help but feel that this was a mistake, however, since so many things seem to be highly resistant or outright immune to fire. Rage demons and dragons, to be specific.
* Speaking of fire spells, Fireball is a major attention grabber, whic I suppose makes sense. Enemies quickly focus in on my mageling after setting them on fire; luckily they will usually fire before reaching me, or a Mind Blast / Flame Blast combo tends to finish them off. I also can't wait until someone learns Mass Paralysis so I can make better use of Firestorm.
* Good spells for the Arcane Warrior? I'm guessing the defensive toggles, like Rock Armor obviously. And will the Arcane Warrior only sword allow me to cast spells without switching back to my staff?
Asunder seriously feels like an incomplete quest. It's one of the most disappointing things.
It would have been funny if it turned out to be hugely important.
Like, you get out of the Deep Roads, and everyone in Orzammar has been killed because you needed that 25 gold. Or at least a mention in the epilogue.
It wouldn't even have to be that monumental. Maybe the next time you set out in the world map, you happen upon an encounter where a bunch of people (either refugees or maybe members of one of the factions you've recruited) have died because of your greed.
Iron Weasel on
Currently Playing:
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
So on my mage playthrough, a couple of points I'dl like to make. Spoilered, just in case:
* I thought it'd be fun to focus on the Fire element, since neither of the party member mages start with fire spells. Can't help but feel that this was a mistake, however, since so many things seem to be highly resistant or outright immune to fire. Rage demons and dragons, to be specific.
* Speaking of fire spells, Fireball is a major attention grabber, whic I suppose makes sense. Enemies quickly focus in on my mageling after setting them on fire; luckily they will usually fire before reaching me, or a Mind Blast / Flame Blast combo tends to finish them off. I also can't wait until someone learns Mass Paralysis so I can make better use of Firestorm.
* Good spells for the Arcane Warrior? I'm guessing the defensive toggles, like Rock Armor obviously. And will the Arcane Warrior only sword allow me to cast spells without switching back to my staff?
For AW spells, though I've never played one yet, I've always assumed that Death Siphon (dead enemies give you mana back) and the entropy equivalent of Death Siphon (but for health) were good ones to have off the bat. They're persistents though, so having them both on at low levels would leave you with little casting options.
Havelock on
0
jefe414"My Other Drill Hole is a Teleporter"Mechagodzilla is Best GodzillaRegistered Userregular
I just could not bring myself to give a shit about anything or anyone in Nature of the Beast. It was bog standard fantasy with almost nothing to make it feel like it was linked to the Dragon Age setting. The other main quests on the other hand had more Dragon Age specific lore to them, if that makes any sense.
Yes but from my stand point, I was out to build an army powerful enough to stop the blight. This was part of it and I got into it thinking that way.
As soon as:
I met werewolves I immediately began thinking of ways I could recruit them instead of a bunch of stupid elves.
From that angle, I became VERY interested in "Nature of the Beast". Greater good and all that. Besides, my main was a dwarf. My people have been in a life and death struggle with the Darkspawn for centuries. Who gives a shit about elves.
Also, since this thread moves hella fast, quoting my question from last page.
Unrelated:
I must have like some sort of curse when it comes to making money in this game. Is there some stat that governs the amount of gold you can get, or am I missing something? Because holy shit am I poor*. Seriously, expensive awesome vendor items should be boss/elite mob drops, not store stuff. I have friends who own the console version and they've had enough around level 14 or so to be able to buy the 148 gold staff, and then been able to go out and quest and make that gold back.
*never greater than 25 gold on my person at any given time
So on my mage playthrough, a couple of points I'dl like to make. Spoilered, just in case:
* I thought it'd be fun to focus on the Fire element, since neither of the party member mages start with fire spells. Can't help but feel that this was a mistake, however, since so many things seem to be highly resistant or outright immune to fire. Rage demons and dragons, to be specific.
* Speaking of fire spells, Fireball is a major attention grabber, whic I suppose makes sense. Enemies quickly focus in on my mageling after setting them on fire; luckily they will usually fire before reaching me, or a Mind Blast / Flame Blast combo tends to finish them off. I also can't wait until someone learns Mass Paralysis so I can make better use of Firestorm.
* Good spells for the Arcane Warrior? I'm guessing the defensive toggles, like Rock Armor obviously. And will the Arcane Warrior only sword allow me to cast spells without switching back to my staff?
Continuing the discussion.
* There are all of four fire spells. How does one "focus" on that?
* Yes, it is.
* From memory, Arcane Shield, Rock Armor, Spell Shield, and Miasma are all excellent defensive Sustains. No, the Spellsword will not let you cast "staff" spells with it drawn. Check out this article for details.
Regarding Spellsword:
See, now that's retarded. Because if I'm not mistaken, it says in the damn description of the blade that it allows the Mage to use it as a focus, like a staff. Considering that it is only Arcane Warrior specific sword in the game, I don't understand why it doesn't allow for spellcasting. I mean, the class is already broken, so what's the harm in breaking it a little more and allowing spellcasting while using a specific sword?
Also, since this thread moves hella fast, quoting my question from last page.
Unrelated:
I must have like some sort of curse when it comes to making money in this game. Is there some stat that governs the amount of gold you can get, or am I missing something? Because holy shit am I poor*. Seriously, expensive awesome vendor items should be boss/elite mob drops, not store stuff. I have friends who own the console version and they've had enough around level 14 or so to be able to buy the 148 gold staff, and then been able to go out and quest and make that gold back.
*never greater than 25 gold on my person at any given time
The game has a very messed up economy. You get jack shit early on and a whole lot from selling things as drops become predominantly silverite and dragonbone. There's also a quest that gives a ton of money in Orzammar.
Also, since this thread moves hella fast, quoting my question from last page.
Unrelated:
I must have like some sort of curse when it comes to making money in this game. Is there some stat that governs the amount of gold you can get, or am I missing something? Because holy shit am I poor*. Seriously, expensive awesome vendor items should be boss/elite mob drops, not store stuff. I have friends who own the console version and they've had enough around level 14 or so to be able to buy the 148 gold staff, and then been able to go out and quest and make that gold back.
*never greater than 25 gold on my person at any given time
not really, item quality gets better the higher your level, perhaps they're saving deep roads/brecilian for last.
also, there's an additional gold farming technique you can use on consoles to boost your cash
It's not the gist of it that I have a problem with, it's the fact that it frankly doesn't need the Dragon Age setting at all nor tell us anything new about it. Nature of the Beast was a pretty run of the mill <fantasy elves> story and so I couldn't get very interested in it.
I understood exactly what you said before, and I don't disagree, except that the only main quest line that felt at all "different" from standard fantasy fare was Orzammar. The ridiculous amount of politics, intrigue, and backstabbing was not something I'd seen before.
The Daelish are about separating themselves from the rest of society and their lost history. How better to illustrate that than a romp through a forest and some forgotten ruins?
It doesn't have to be different from fantasy fare to feel Dragon Age specific, as such. Take Redcliffe, it's
a zombie invasion, that's run of the mill stuff but the why and how of it is tied up in the nature of magic (and mages) in Dragon Age. Demons and their penchant for possessing magi, the way they are creatures of a single emotion patterned on whomever they posses and so forth. Nature of the Beast didn't have enough of those kinds of "markers" if that makes sense.
Also I'd have appreciated it if we actually learned something from those ruins, but we really didn't.
This is more a dig at the Daelish in general than the Nature of the Beast quest specifically. You think they're generic. Considering that they're defined by their separation from the rest of Ferelden's society, it's a hard point for me to argue against: what makes them different makes them seem generic.
Regardless, the Daelish have Mages but no Templars. Interesting, that. Seems like a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone - explore why their Mages don't have to deal with demons, and differentiating them from elves in other fiction.
The fact that they're different from Fereldan society isn't what makes them generic, it's an overall lack of exploration of their society. Getting into the how and why of elven Keepers as you suggest (and more in depth on the elven religion as I suggested earlier) would be great ways to make them more interesting. I often wondered how elves regulate their magic users.
The issue is that we have a lot of good hooks, but not a lot done with them. And what we're left with is <fantasy elves who are [strike]hobos[/strike] home challenged>
@Havelock, Epic loots from unrelated boss mobs is pretty silly. DA kept the obnoxious loot to a minimum, I think. No finding greatswords off of spiders. I don't think they should take a step backwards in that regard.
But anyway, just selling trash armor/weapons to vendors got me through my game. I bought a couple high priced items, but couldn't afford more than that. Especially since I went through 97% of the game without a rogue.
chrono_traveller on
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
The thing I didn't like about this questline is much of what Fiaryn said... it didn't really feel like it was tied securely into the lore of Dragon Age, and was more about a personal quest of vengeance gone terribly wrong. I liked that angle, truly, but I got the feeling that the writers didn't really follow through.
For instance, the Brecilian Forest is supposed to be ancient and haunted because, due to how much death and mayhem has been perpetrated within its boundaries, the veil is thin and spirits can get through easily. In addition, the very spirit of those woods is on the side of the Werewolves, which means that the forest, as an entity, is against you.
Well, other than a few giant trees and that one (very well-done) camp of death, there really isn't much 'haunting' going on in the forest. Also, it doesn't really ever feel like I'm lost in the deep woods, and the only time the forest works against me is one little swirling cloud barrier that keeps me out of the ruins.
I will say that my first trip into the ruins, however, was utter mayhem. The way that hordes of undead just appear suddenly, coming at my party from every angle, was pretty freaky. Still kinda felt detached from any real DA lore, however... other than the Presence which didn't really give much info at all.
Ultimately, I can at least appreciate what the questline tried to do, which was set a stage where this insular group of people who absolutely revere their chosen leader, are being torn apart by the horrible choices he made in his past. They had nowhere else to turn and would have likely been decimated by their unquestioning loyalty and no one would have likely known the difference for a very long time.
It's not the gist of it that I have a problem with, it's the fact that it frankly doesn't need the Dragon Age setting at all nor tell us anything new about it. Nature of the Beast was a pretty run of the mill <fantasy elves> story and so I couldn't get very interested in it.
I understood exactly what you said before, and I don't disagree, except that the only main quest line that felt at all "different" from standard fantasy fare was Orzammar. The ridiculous amount of politics, intrigue, and backstabbing was not something I'd seen before.
The Daelish are about separating themselves from the rest of society and their lost history. How better to illustrate that than a romp through a forest and some forgotten ruins?
It doesn't have to be different from fantasy fare to feel Dragon Age specific, as such. Take Redcliffe, it's
a zombie invasion, that's run of the mill stuff but the why and how of it is tied up in the nature of magic (and mages) in Dragon Age. Demons and their penchant for possessing magi, the way they are creatures of a single emotion patterned on whomever they posses and so forth. Nature of the Beast didn't have enough of those kinds of "markers" if that makes sense.
Also I'd have appreciated it if we actually learned something from those ruins, but we really didn't.
This is more a dig at the Daelish in general than the Nature of the Beast quest specifically. You think they're generic. Considering that they're defined by their separation from the rest of Ferelden's society, it's a hard point for me to argue against: what makes them different makes them seem generic.
Regardless, the Daelish have Mages but no Templars. Interesting, that. Seems like a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone - explore why their Mages don't have to deal with demons, and differentiating them from elves in other fiction.
I always wondered that myself, about how the elves handle their mages. It could be that somehow through their training they don't have to worry about getting possessed, or they just have a self-policing method that isn't explored or mentioned in game. They could have a version of Templars, we just aren't made aware of it.
I also find it interesting that the Dalish isolate themselves out of a theory that removing themselves from interaction with other races will restore their immortality, and they cite Zathrian as an example of this. Considering that....
Zathrian was kept alive through a mystical bond with a spirit, is it possible that theory itself is a lie? That maybe the elves were immortal through other means, and they have just passed down the story of "isolate yourselves and you'll be immortal again one day" for so long that it's become a perceieved truth?
It's not the gist of it that I have a problem with, it's the fact that it frankly doesn't need the Dragon Age setting at all nor tell us anything new about it. Nature of the Beast was a pretty run of the mill <fantasy elves> story and so I couldn't get very interested in it.
I understood exactly what you said before, and I don't disagree, except that the only main quest line that felt at all "different" from standard fantasy fare was Orzammar. The ridiculous amount of politics, intrigue, and backstabbing was not something I'd seen before.
The Daelish are about separating themselves from the rest of society and their lost history. How better to illustrate that than a romp through a forest and some forgotten ruins?
It doesn't have to be different from fantasy fare to feel Dragon Age specific, as such. Take Redcliffe, it's
a zombie invasion, that's run of the mill stuff but the why and how of it is tied up in the nature of magic (and mages) in Dragon Age. Demons and their penchant for possessing magi, the way they are creatures of a single emotion patterned on whomever they posses and so forth. Nature of the Beast didn't have enough of those kinds of "markers" if that makes sense.
Also I'd have appreciated it if we actually learned something from those ruins, but we really didn't.
This is more a dig at the Daelish in general than the Nature of the Beast quest specifically. You think they're generic. Considering that they're defined by their separation from the rest of Ferelden's society, it's a hard point for me to argue against: what makes them different makes them seem generic.
Regardless, the Daelish have Mages but no Templars. Interesting, that. Seems like a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone - explore why their Mages don't have to deal with demons, and differentiating them from elves in other fiction.
The fact that they're different from Fereldan society isn't what makes them generic, it's an overall lack of exploration of their society. Getting into the how and why of elven Keepers as you suggest (and more in depth on the elven religion as I suggested earlier) would be great ways to make them more interesting. I often wondered how elves regulate their magic users.
The issue is that we have a lot of good hooks, but not a lot done with them. And what we're left with is <fantasy elves who are [strike]hobos[/strike] home challenged>
The whole quest is a big tease on lots of accounts.
Zatharian is important to the dalish because he is so long lived (and allegedly rekindled the ancient elven immortality), yet we discover this has nothing to do with being Dalish and is instead part of his own trafficking with spirits.
Werewolves are important to the history of Ferelden, yet these werewolves are completely different from those ones.
I also find it interesting that the Dalish isolate themselves out of a theory that removing themselves from interaction with other races will restore their immortality, and they cite Zathrian as an example of this. Considering that....
Zathrian was kept alive through a mystical bond with a spirit, is it possible that theory itself is a lie? That maybe the elves were immortal through other means, and they have just passed down the story of "isolate yourselves and you'll be immortal again one day" for so long that it's become a perceieved truth?
Given that in the Brecillian Ruins
Certain dialogue options with the Presence may indicate that Arlathan might not have been an "elven empire" at all, it's hard to say what is and is not true about what the elves believe of Arlathan. Pre-First Blight stuff we almost zero hard facts about.
@Havelock, Epic loots from unrelated boss mobs is pretty silly. DA kept the obnoxious loot to a minimum, I think. No finding greatswords off of spiders. I don't think they should take a step backwards in that regard.
But anyway, just selling trash armor/weapons to vendors got me through my game. I bought a couple high priced items, but couldn't afford more than that. Especially since I went through 97% of the game without a rogue.
To be fair, some of the best items in the game do come off random boss-like encounters.
Examples:
Gaxkang drops one of the best one-handed swords in the game. Keening Blade.
The Orzammar Castle Dragon has perhaps the best two-handed weapon. Ageless
Yusaris, a sword with +10 damage vs Dragons, is dropped by a secret enemy in the mage tower
A crapload of awesome equipment drops off the High Dragon
The Silk Weave gloves, which I find incredibly awesome, come off the Corrupted Spider Queen.
I think the incredible equipment is actually split fairly evenly across Quest rewards, elite enemies, and vendor purchases.
jefe414"My Other Drill Hole is a Teleporter"Mechagodzilla is Best GodzillaRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
I think it would be interesting if the elven immortality was a lie passed down from generation to generation. Remember, they tell stories to pass their history. Most of the past is lost to them forever.
"Hey kids, you are special. Our people used to be immortal and will be one day again."
I liked the Deep Roads in large part because it's the only freakin place that I
fought DarkSpawn in my near-panic crusade to stop the DarkSpawn invasion of the area. Every place else was something evil, but not darkspawn. Not even random pockets of darkspawn in the areas. Walking through the countryside I hit a few random encounters, but I have killed far more PEOPLE than anything else. :-/
The Deep Roads felt a little too Tolkien-derivative (hard to avoid that though, but I guess all Dwarves delve too greedily and too deep), but I still enjoyed them. Not too hard. The one thing I thought kind of distorted the atmosphere was
You are treated to a cinematic of the Archdemon and a literal sea of Darkspawn on the march. The Dwarves have entire castes and fighting legions devoted to holding back these supposedly unlimited number of Darkspawn.
My little troupe of four people (although admittedly, two Gray Wardens is worth at least say, the entire military might of the former USSR, nukes included), manage to clean out every section of the Roads that we can see and reach. After that, as we just cruised back and forth between vast swaths of map to finish up sidequests, I was kind of struck b how empty and how... relaxed... the place felt. It lost its sense of urgency and the fear of something popping out at you.
I'm not entirely sure it warrants a complaint, as I don't really care much for RPGs where the entire dungeon respawns as soon as you turn your back. But it did have an oddness to it.
I guess another thing that isn't brought up as a source of racial tension against the Dwarves (besides their near-xenophopia of outsiders)
Why aren't people more pissed-off at the Dwarves for digging up whatever started the first Blight? Their mining seems to be the direct cause.
It was the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate.
Or rather, based on what you learn leading up to the Broodmother, it would seem that the Blight is really just composed of completely ordinary critters mutated by whatever miasma the Dwarves dug up. And the Blight just nabs whatever it doesn't kill, and just adds to its ranks by some sort of supernatural press-ganging. The Archdemon sure looks just like a mutated dragon with bad othodontia, and probably is. Darkspawn are probably just mutated dwarves, elves and humans.
I guess another thing that isn't brought up as a source of racial tension against the Dwarves (besides their near-xenophopia of outsiders)
Why aren't people more pissed-off at the Dwarves for digging up whatever started the first Blight? Their mining seems to be the direct cause.
It was the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate.
Or rather, based on what you learn leading up to the Broodmother, it would seem that the Blight is really just composed of completely ordinary critters mutated by whatever miasma the Dwarves dug up. And the Blight just nabs whatever it doesn't kill, and just adds to its ranks by some sort of supernatural press-ganging. The Archdemon sure looks just like a mutated dragon with bad othodontia, and probably is. Darkspawn are probably just mutated dwarves, elves and humans.
Huh, fantasy Resident Evil.
Er...because the dwarves didn't dig up the cause of the First Blight? And if they did there's nothing indicating such anywhere.
I guess another thing that isn't brought up as a source of racial tension against the Dwarves (besides their near-xenophopia of outsiders)
Why aren't people more pissed-off at the Dwarves for digging up whatever started the first Blight? Their mining seems to be the direct cause.
It was the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate.
Or rather, based on what you learn leading up to the Broodmother, it would seem that the Blight is really just composed of completely ordinary critters mutated by whatever miasma the Dwarves dug up. And the Blight just nabs whatever it doesn't kill, and just adds to its ranks by some sort of supernatural press-ganging. The Archdemon sure looks just like a mutated dragon with bad othodontia, and probably is. Darkspawn are probably just mutated dwarves, elves and humans.
Huh, fantasy Resident Evil.
Er...because the dwarves didn't dig up the cause of the First Blight? And if they did there's nothing indicating such anywhere.
Different codex entries for the origin of the blight for the dwarves. Something along the lines of the darkspawn appeared in the deep roads first, not that they showed up there after some nonsense in the Fade.
Dwarf-land does kind of give a LOTR feel. It doesn't have the amazing sense of scale that the film versions had, though. Seriously, the entire Moria scene in the first movie is fantastic. Wish it had some of that instead of feeling like just some random tunnels out behind the main city.
Also, Orzammar is very Ironforge. With some Orgrimmar thrown into the name.
I thought the initial darkspawn were corrupted mages cast out of the golden city that ran around biting and murdering other people and at some point they decided to dig up a dragon, defile that and then go on a bleedin' march
Certain dialogue options with the Presence may indicate that Arlathan might not have been an "elven empire" at all, it's hard to say what is and is not true about what the elves believe of Arlathan. Pre-First Blight stuff we almost zero hard facts about.
The Dalish Origin story hints at this as well.
I sorta get the feeling that, if Bioware does flesh out the history of the Elves down the line, the real story is going to be far, far different from what the Elves in present time know.
Such as-
Maybe the way Zathrian attained immortality is closer to how the elves of old did it than any of them would like to admit. I mean... blaming the appearance of humans for ruining their immortality does seem to be a bit of a stretch, at least directly speaking. Maybe humans just helped to thicken the veil somehow, which broke a lot've spirit pacts and all that?
The whole forest thing itself was fine, but I do wish there was more lore behind the ruins themselves. They felt a little bland to me. I was hoping for some secondary quest that had to do with the ruins and is some kind of awesome lore relavence.
Mild Confusion on
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I liked the Deep Roads in large part because it's the only freakin place that I
fought DarkSpawn in my near-panic crusade to stop the DarkSpawn invasion of the area. Every place else was something evil, but not darkspawn. Not even random pockets of darkspawn in the areas. Walking through the countryside I hit a few random encounters, but I have killed far more PEOPLE than anything else. :-/
The Deep Roads felt a little too Tolkien-derivative (hard to avoid that though, but I guess all Dwarves delve too greedily and too deep), but I still enjoyed them. Not too hard. The one thing I thought kind of distorted the atmosphere was
You are treated to a cinematic of the Archdemon and a literal sea of Darkspawn on the march. The Dwarves have entire castes and fighting legions devoted to holding back these supposedly unlimited number of Darkspawn.
My little troupe of four people (although admittedly, two Gray Wardens is worth at least say, the entire military might of the former USSR, nukes included), manage to clean out every section of the Roads that we can see and reach. After that, as we just cruised back and forth between vast swaths of map to finish up sidequests, I was kind of struck b how empty and how... relaxed... the place felt. It lost its sense of urgency and the fear of something popping out at you.
I'm not entirely sure it warrants a complaint, as I don't really care much for RPGs where the entire dungeon respawns as soon as you turn your back. But it did have an oddness to it.
I guess another thing that isn't brought up as a source of racial tension against the Dwarves (besides their near-xenophopia of outsiders)
Why aren't people more pissed-off at the Dwarves for digging up whatever started the first Blight? Their mining seems to be the direct cause.
It was the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate.
Or rather, based on what you learn leading up to the Broodmother, it would seem that the Blight is really just composed of completely ordinary critters mutated by whatever miasma the Dwarves dug up. And the Blight just nabs whatever it doesn't kill, and just adds to its ranks by some sort of supernatural press-ganging. The Archdemon sure looks just like a mutated dragon with bad othodontia, and probably is. Darkspawn are probably just mutated dwarves, elves and humans.
Huh, fantasy Resident Evil.
I don't think it's as simple as that. The Archdemon has an Old God soul in it, and the Black City is a real thing (you can see it in the Fade). And everyone seems to think the Tevinter Imperium is responsible for causing the first Blight/making the Maker leave.
Which makes me wonder how it can still exist, when much of the world (including the Qunari) has reason to want them dead, or at least think they perpetrated the greatest evil in history....
@Havelock, Epic loots from unrelated boss mobs is pretty silly. DA kept the obnoxious loot to a minimum, I think. No finding greatswords off of spiders. I don't think they should take a step backwards in that regard.
But anyway, just selling trash armor/weapons to vendors got me through my game. I bought a couple high priced items, but couldn't afford more than that. Especially since I went through 97% of the game without a rogue.
To be fair, some of the best items in the game do come off random boss-like encounters.
Examples:
Gaxkang drops one of the best one-handed swords in the game. Keening Blade.
The Orzammar Castle Dragon has perhaps the best two-handed weapon. Ageless
Yusaris, a sword with +10 damage vs Dragons, is dropped by a secret enemy in the mage tower
A crapload of awesome equipment drops off the High Dragon
The Silk Weave gloves, which I find incredibly awesome, come off the Corrupted Spider Queen.
I think the incredible equipment is actually split fairly evenly across Quest rewards, elite enemies, and vendor purchases.
I can understand loot when you're going into something's den, say like the spider queen or a dragon's hoard. I could see that from the aspect of other travelers meeting their demise and leaving their stuff behind. Or, say, looting a sword off of some human you just defeated. That makes intuitive sense.
On the other hand, some people (which I has assumed was Havelock, though if not I apologize), were clamoring for say
the ogre at the top of ostagar tower
to drop something "epic" would make no sense at all.
chrono_traveller on
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
I liked the Deep Roads in large part because it's the only freakin place that I
fought DarkSpawn in my near-panic crusade to stop the DarkSpawn invasion of the area. Every place else was something evil, but not darkspawn. Not even random pockets of darkspawn in the areas. Walking through the countryside I hit a few random encounters, but I have killed far more PEOPLE than anything else. :-/
The Deep Roads felt a little too Tolkien-derivative (hard to avoid that though, but I guess all Dwarves delve too greedily and too deep), but I still enjoyed them. Not too hard. The one thing I thought kind of distorted the atmosphere was
You are treated to a cinematic of the Archdemon and a literal sea of Darkspawn on the march. The Dwarves have entire castes and fighting legions devoted to holding back these supposedly unlimited number of Darkspawn.
My little troupe of four people (although admittedly, two Gray Wardens is worth at least say, the entire military might of the former USSR, nukes included), manage to clean out every section of the Roads that we can see and reach. After that, as we just cruised back and forth between vast swaths of map to finish up sidequests, I was kind of struck b how empty and how... relaxed... the place felt. It lost its sense of urgency and the fear of something popping out at you.
I'm not entirely sure it warrants a complaint, as I don't really care much for RPGs where the entire dungeon respawns as soon as you turn your back. But it did have an oddness to it.
I guess another thing that isn't brought up as a source of racial tension against the Dwarves (besides their near-xenophopia of outsiders)
Why aren't people more pissed-off at the Dwarves for digging up whatever started the first Blight? Their mining seems to be the direct cause.
It was the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate.
Or rather, based on what you learn leading up to the Broodmother, it would seem that the Blight is really just composed of completely ordinary critters mutated by whatever miasma the Dwarves dug up. And the Blight just nabs whatever it doesn't kill, and just adds to its ranks by some sort of supernatural press-ganging. The Archdemon sure looks just like a mutated dragon with bad othodontia, and probably is. Darkspawn are probably just mutated dwarves, elves and humans.
Huh, fantasy Resident Evil.
I don't think it's as simple as that. The Archdemon has an Old God soul in it, and the Black City is a real thing (you can see it in the Fade). And everyone seems to think the Tevinter Imperium is responsible for causing the first Blight/making the Maker leave.
Which makes me wonder how it can still exist, when much of the world (including the Qunari) think they perpetrated the greatest evil in history....
Eh? We have no indication that the Qunari believe Tevinter is responsible for the Blight, or care at all. The Qunari simply hate all magic users period.
As for how Tevinter continues to exist, well for one they pretty much don't regulate mages. That adds up to quite the reserve of firepower. Plus they converted to the Andrastian faith, which helped soothe tensions up until the whole Black Divine schism.
It is said, several times by various characters and also in a codex entry, that the Deep Roads are significantly safer to travel during a Blight, because the Darkspawn Horde is organized and focused on invading the surface. Which explains the relative emptyness of the Deep Roads when you end up traveling it. I won't lie though, I shat bricks when I saw that cut scene and the veritable sea of Darkspawn. I'd imagine that once the Blight was ended, the Darkspawn would become a much stronger presense in the Deep Roads again.
I also want to mention this - after the coronation ceremony of the King, you're confronted by the commander of the Legion of the Dead. I was able to get him to agree to help the Blight on the surface, but the Legion never shows up as a commandable unit during the final scene in Demerim. Shitty. Next playtrough I'll just go with his original plan; that the Legion will lay in wait for fleeing Darkspawn, making sure they have nowhere to run after the Archdemon is defeated.
I liked the Deep Roads in large part because it's the only freakin place that I
fought DarkSpawn in my near-panic crusade to stop the DarkSpawn invasion of the area. Every place else was something evil, but not darkspawn. Not even random pockets of darkspawn in the areas. Walking through the countryside I hit a few random encounters, but I have killed far more PEOPLE than anything else. :-/
The Deep Roads felt a little too Tolkien-derivative (hard to avoid that though, but I guess all Dwarves delve too greedily and too deep), but I still enjoyed them. Not too hard. The one thing I thought kind of distorted the atmosphere was
You are treated to a cinematic of the Archdemon and a literal sea of Darkspawn on the march. The Dwarves have entire castes and fighting legions devoted to holding back these supposedly unlimited number of Darkspawn.
My little troupe of four people (although admittedly, two Gray Wardens is worth at least say, the entire military might of the former USSR, nukes included), manage to clean out every section of the Roads that we can see and reach. After that, as we just cruised back and forth between vast swaths of map to finish up sidequests, I was kind of struck b how empty and how... relaxed... the place felt. It lost its sense of urgency and the fear of something popping out at you.
I'm not entirely sure it warrants a complaint, as I don't really care much for RPGs where the entire dungeon respawns as soon as you turn your back. But it did have an oddness to it.
I guess another thing that isn't brought up as a source of racial tension against the Dwarves (besides their near-xenophopia of outsiders)
Why aren't people more pissed-off at the Dwarves for digging up whatever started the first Blight? Their mining seems to be the direct cause.
It was the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate.
Or rather, based on what you learn leading up to the Broodmother, it would seem that the Blight is really just composed of completely ordinary critters mutated by whatever miasma the Dwarves dug up. And the Blight just nabs whatever it doesn't kill, and just adds to its ranks by some sort of supernatural press-ganging. The Archdemon sure looks just like a mutated dragon with bad othodontia, and probably is. Darkspawn are probably just mutated dwarves, elves and humans.
Huh, fantasy Resident Evil.
I don't think it's as simple as that. The Archdemon has an Old God soul in it, and the Black City is a real thing (you can see it in the Fade). And everyone seems to think the Tevinter Imperium is responsible for causing the first Blight/making the Maker leave.
Which makes me wonder how it can still exist, when much of the world (including the Qunari) think they perpetrated the greatest evil in history....
Eh? We have no indication that the Qunari believe Tevinter is responsible for the Blight, or care at all. The Qunari simply hate all magic users period.
As for how Tevinter continues to exist, well for one they pretty much don't regulate mages. That adds up to quite the reserve of firepower. Plus they converted to the Andrastian faith, which helped soothe tensions up until the whole Black Divine schism.
See my edit :P
They're currently at war with the Qunari, but I think that's just because the Qunari are at war with everyone and Tevinter is closest.
If Tevinter has so many mages, I wonder how they avoid abominations. Gah! I can't wait for the sequel!
Or rather, based on what you learn leading up to the Broodmother, it would seem that the Blight is really just composed of completely ordinary critters mutated by whatever miasma the Dwarves dug up. And the Blight just nabs whatever it doesn't kill, and just adds to its ranks by some sort of supernatural press-ganging. The Archdemon sure looks just like a mutated dragon with bad othodontia, and probably is. Darkspawn are probably just mutated dwarves, elves and humans.
Huh, fantasy Resident Evil.
:^::^::^::^::^:
I've attempted to bold the thumbs up, to no avail. Regardless, I approve the reference.
That said, the theory has one hang-up for me:
(Archdemon spoilers)
Doesn't explain the whole Archdemon's essence jumping to another Darkspawn thing, assuming that part is true. If these were just mutated beasties, then killing the Archdemon wouldn't send every single one of them running for the hills like it did.
@Havelock, Epic loots from unrelated boss mobs is pretty silly. DA kept the obnoxious loot to a minimum, I think. No finding greatswords off of spiders. I don't think they should take a step backwards in that regard.
But anyway, just selling trash armor/weapons to vendors got me through my game. I bought a couple high priced items, but couldn't afford more than that. Especially since I went through 97% of the game without a rogue.
To be fair, some of the best items in the game do come off random boss-like encounters.
Examples:
Gaxkang drops one of the best one-handed swords in the game. Keening Blade.
The Orzammar Castle Dragon has perhaps the best two-handed weapon. Ageless
Yusaris, a sword with +10 damage vs Dragons, is dropped by a secret enemy in the mage tower
A crapload of awesome equipment drops off the High Dragon
The Silk Weave gloves, which I find incredibly awesome, come off the Corrupted Spider Queen.
I think the incredible equipment is actually split fairly evenly across Quest rewards, elite enemies, and vendor purchases.
Fair point.
I rescind my comment about more boss drops, but maintain that I am poor as hell. C'est la vie.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that there's something involving how the various Circles of Magi around the world operate and their methods of "training" their mages indirectly(or possibly directly) makes them vulnerable to demonic possession than other cultures who have Magic users in their society, bt don't operate under the rules of the Circle.
I believe it would be poetic justice if one day it is discovered that the Circle and the Chantry, in their efforts to prevent maleficars and potential abominations, actually are perpetuating the whole cycle of possession. Maybe it goes even deeper than that, and the Chantry is run by demons in secret, who enforce the rules onto the Circle that allow for potential possession!!!!
Regarding the Archdemon:
When I heard about the "jumping" power of the Archdemon essense, I came to the conclusion that the Darkspawn would still flee regardless, due to the Archdemon needing some time to regain it's power inside of it's newly aquired Darkspawn host. The Horde would likely be able to return much sooner than the every hundred or so years it usually takes.
But when Morrigan performs the ritual to take the essence into her unborn child, she specifically says it is "changed", so I believe it won't turn out a twisted corruption like how it would if it were to enter into a Darkspawn body.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that there's something involving how the various Circles of Magi around the world operate and their methods of "training" their mages indirectly(or possibly directly) makes them vulnerable to demonic possession than other cultures who have Magic users in their society.
I believe it would be poetic justice if one day it is discovered that the Circle and the Chantry, in their efforts to prevent maleficars and potential abominations, actually are perpetuating the whole cycle of possession. Maybe it goes even deeper than that, and the Chantry is run by demons in secret, who enforce the rules onto the Circle that allow for potential possession!!!!
This comes across as a really desperate desire to have a gotcha on the Chantry because "FUCK THE MAN".
A more likely explanation is simply that
The Tevinter and Dalish have all of the exact same problems to deal with as everyone else and
A) Tevinter, being a ruthless blood magic using mageocracy frankly don't care as much if you become an abomination. Somebody becomes an abomination, flips out, and kills a bunch of civvies? Oh well they're only civvies, have a REAL mage blow up the abomination and move on with our lives.
The Dalish are simply fewer in number and isolated. When magic goes wrong for them it's both less frequent (due to there being fewer of them) and less easy to hear about. I sincerely doubt the Dalish are "abomination immune".
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I can't speak for the 360 version, but you can definitely set up a stealing tactic on the PC version.
Not enough traps.
Shields down!
* Speaking of fire spells, Fireball is a major attention grabber, whic I suppose makes sense. Enemies quickly focus in on my mageling after setting them on fire; luckily they will usually fire before reaching me, or a Mind Blast / Flame Blast combo tends to finish them off. I also can't wait until someone learns Mass Paralysis so I can make better use of Firestorm.
* Good spells for the Arcane Warrior? I'm guessing the defensive toggles, like Rock Armor obviously. And will the Arcane Warrior only sword allow me to cast spells without switching back to my staff?
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Yes but from my stand point, I was out to build an army powerful enough to stop the blight. This was part of it and I got into it thinking that way.
As soon as:
From that angle, I became VERY interested in "Nature of the Beast". Greater good and all that. Besides, my main was a dwarf. My people have been in a life and death struggle with the Darkspawn for centuries. Who gives a shit about elves.
Regarding Spellsword:
The game has a very messed up economy. You get jack shit early on and a whole lot from selling things as drops become predominantly silverite and dragonbone. There's also a quest that gives a ton of money in Orzammar.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
not really, item quality gets better the higher your level, perhaps they're saving deep roads/brecilian for last.
also, there's an additional gold farming technique you can use on consoles to boost your cash
Morrigan is a witch-nazi.
(endgame spoilers)
The fact that they're different from Fereldan society isn't what makes them generic, it's an overall lack of exploration of their society. Getting into the how and why of elven Keepers as you suggest (and more in depth on the elven religion as I suggested earlier) would be great ways to make them more interesting. I often wondered how elves regulate their magic users.
The issue is that we have a lot of good hooks, but not a lot done with them. And what we're left with is <fantasy elves who are [strike]hobos[/strike] home challenged>
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
But anyway, just selling trash armor/weapons to vendors got me through my game. I bought a couple high priced items, but couldn't afford more than that. Especially since I went through 97% of the game without a rogue.
For instance, the Brecilian Forest is supposed to be ancient and haunted because, due to how much death and mayhem has been perpetrated within its boundaries, the veil is thin and spirits can get through easily. In addition, the very spirit of those woods is on the side of the Werewolves, which means that the forest, as an entity, is against you.
Well, other than a few giant trees and that one (very well-done) camp of death, there really isn't much 'haunting' going on in the forest. Also, it doesn't really ever feel like I'm lost in the deep woods, and the only time the forest works against me is one little swirling cloud barrier that keeps me out of the ruins.
I will say that my first trip into the ruins, however, was utter mayhem. The way that hordes of undead just appear suddenly, coming at my party from every angle, was pretty freaky. Still kinda felt detached from any real DA lore, however... other than the Presence which didn't really give much info at all.
Ultimately, I can at least appreciate what the questline tried to do, which was set a stage where this insular group of people who absolutely revere their chosen leader, are being torn apart by the horrible choices he made in his past. They had nowhere else to turn and would have likely been decimated by their unquestioning loyalty and no one would have likely known the difference for a very long time.
I always wondered that myself, about how the elves handle their mages. It could be that somehow through their training they don't have to worry about getting possessed, or they just have a self-policing method that isn't explored or mentioned in game. They could have a version of Templars, we just aren't made aware of it.
I also find it interesting that the Dalish isolate themselves out of a theory that removing themselves from interaction with other races will restore their immortality, and they cite Zathrian as an example of this. Considering that....
The whole quest is a big tease on lots of accounts.
Werewolves are important to the history of Ferelden, yet these werewolves are completely different from those ones.
Given that in the Brecillian Ruins
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
To be fair, some of the best items in the game do come off random boss-like encounters.
Examples:
Gaxkang drops one of the best one-handed swords in the game. Keening Blade.
The Orzammar Castle Dragon has perhaps the best two-handed weapon. Ageless
Yusaris, a sword with +10 damage vs Dragons, is dropped by a secret enemy in the mage tower
A crapload of awesome equipment drops off the High Dragon
The Silk Weave gloves, which I find incredibly awesome, come off the Corrupted Spider Queen.
I think the incredible equipment is actually split fairly evenly across Quest rewards, elite enemies, and vendor purchases.
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
"Hey kids, you are special. Our people used to be immortal and will be one day again."
The Deep Roads felt a little too Tolkien-derivative (hard to avoid that though, but I guess all Dwarves delve too greedily and too deep), but I still enjoyed them. Not too hard. The one thing I thought kind of distorted the atmosphere was
My little troupe of four people (although admittedly, two Gray Wardens is worth at least say, the entire military might of the former USSR, nukes included), manage to clean out every section of the Roads that we can see and reach. After that, as we just cruised back and forth between vast swaths of map to finish up sidequests, I was kind of struck b how empty and how... relaxed... the place felt. It lost its sense of urgency and the fear of something popping out at you.
I'm not entirely sure it warrants a complaint, as I don't really care much for RPGs where the entire dungeon respawns as soon as you turn your back. But it did have an oddness to it.
I guess another thing that isn't brought up as a source of racial tension against the Dwarves (besides their near-xenophopia of outsiders)
Or rather, based on what you learn leading up to the Broodmother, it would seem that the Blight is really just composed of completely ordinary critters mutated by whatever miasma the Dwarves dug up. And the Blight just nabs whatever it doesn't kill, and just adds to its ranks by some sort of supernatural press-ganging. The Archdemon sure looks just like a mutated dragon with bad othodontia, and probably is. Darkspawn are probably just mutated dwarves, elves and humans.
Huh, fantasy Resident Evil.
Er...because the dwarves didn't dig up the cause of the First Blight? And if they did there's nothing indicating such anywhere.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Different codex entries for the origin of the blight for the dwarves. Something along the lines of the darkspawn appeared in the deep roads first, not that they showed up there after some nonsense in the Fade.
Also, Orzammar is very Ironforge. With some Orgrimmar thrown into the name.
The Dalish Origin story hints at this as well.
I sorta get the feeling that, if Bioware does flesh out the history of the Elves down the line, the real story is going to be far, far different from what the Elves in present time know.
Such as-
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Which makes me wonder how it can still exist, when much of the world (including the Qunari) has reason to want them dead, or at least think they perpetrated the greatest evil in history....
The game is a steal at $50.
I can understand loot when you're going into something's den, say like the spider queen or a dragon's hoard. I could see that from the aspect of other travelers meeting their demise and leaving their stuff behind. Or, say, looting a sword off of some human you just defeated. That makes intuitive sense.
On the other hand, some people (which I has assumed was Havelock, though if not I apologize), were clamoring for say
Eh? We have no indication that the Qunari believe Tevinter is responsible for the Blight, or care at all. The Qunari simply hate all magic users period.
As for how Tevinter continues to exist, well for one they pretty much don't regulate mages. That adds up to quite the reserve of firepower. Plus they converted to the Andrastian faith, which helped soothe tensions up until the whole Black Divine schism.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
I also want to mention this - after the coronation ceremony of the King, you're confronted by the commander of the Legion of the Dead. I was able to get him to agree to help the Blight on the surface, but the Legion never shows up as a commandable unit during the final scene in Demerim. Shitty. Next playtrough I'll just go with his original plan; that the Legion will lay in wait for fleeing Darkspawn, making sure they have nowhere to run after the Archdemon is defeated.
Seriously, this.
At this time, having paid $50 for Dragon Age, that's less than 25 cents per hour of entertainment I've gotten outta this game.
And that doesn't even count the enjoyment I get from coming here to discuss it.
See my edit :P
They're currently at war with the Qunari, but I think that's just because the Qunari are at war with everyone and Tevinter is closest.
If Tevinter has so many mages, I wonder how they avoid abominations. Gah! I can't wait for the sequel!
:^::^::^::^::^:
I've attempted to bold the thumbs up, to no avail. Regardless, I approve the reference.
That said, the theory has one hang-up for me:
(Archdemon spoilers)
Fair point.
I rescind my comment about more boss drops, but maintain that I am poor as hell. C'est la vie.
I believe it would be poetic justice if one day it is discovered that the Circle and the Chantry, in their efforts to prevent maleficars and potential abominations, actually are perpetuating the whole cycle of possession. Maybe it goes even deeper than that, and the Chantry is run by demons in secret, who enforce the rules onto the Circle that allow for potential possession!!!!
Regarding the Archdemon:
But when Morrigan performs the ritual to take the essence into her unborn child, she specifically says it is "changed", so I believe it won't turn out a twisted corruption like how it would if it were to enter into a Darkspawn body.
This comes across as a really desperate desire to have a gotcha on the Chantry because "FUCK THE MAN".
A more likely explanation is simply that
A) Tevinter, being a ruthless blood magic using mageocracy frankly don't care as much if you become an abomination. Somebody becomes an abomination, flips out, and kills a bunch of civvies? Oh well they're only civvies, have a REAL mage blow up the abomination and move on with our lives.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787