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Dragon Age Thread - [Please post in new thread]

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Posts

  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    Oghren in DA:A was like Kay in MIB2.

  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    Orca wrote: »
    Ogren was amazing in DA:A because he trashed the hell out of Anders

    Yeah, but Sigrun cuts his balls off. No coming back after what she says to him.

    I don't remember this. Refresh my memory, please

  • Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    Orca wrote: »
    Orca wrote: »
    Ogren was amazing in DA:A because he trashed the hell out of Anders

    Yeah, but Sigrun cuts his balls off. No coming back after what she says to him.

    I don't remember this. Refresh my memory, please

    http://youtu.be/KZCujMVEfd4

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  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    I'm just starting the second Act in DA2 but I'm already ready to kill Carver. His dead sister was a mage, hell, I'm playing Hawke as a Mage and he hates mages!?! I haven't used him in my party since I got Fenris who annoys me too with his "I'm a torture soul out for revenge" storyline. I'm half tempted to start a relationship with Merill since Isabella seems too easy and I got with her in Origins.

  • DragkoniasDragkonias That Guy Who Does Stuff You Know, There. Registered User regular
    I watched my brother play a female mage and saw Carver's constant haterade mode.

    I remember when my brother watched me play with my male warrior his response was "Why is your sibling so nice?"

  • SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    I'm just starting the second Act in DA2 but I'm already ready to kill Carver. His dead sister was a mage, hell, I'm playing Hawke as a Mage and he hates mages!?! I haven't used him in my party since I got Fenris who annoys me too with his "I'm a torture soul out for revenge" storyline. I'm half tempted to start a relationship with Merill since Isabella seems too easy and I got with her in Origins.
    Probably because he spent time with anders :P

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  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    Spoit wrote: »
    I'm just starting the second Act in DA2 but I'm already ready to kill Carver. His dead sister was a mage, hell, I'm playing Hawke as a Mage and he hates mages!?! I haven't used him in my party since I got Fenris who annoys me too with his "I'm a torture soul out for revenge" storyline. I'm half tempted to start a relationship with Merill since Isabella seems too easy and I got with her in Origins.
    Probably because he spent time with anders :P
    Fuck Anders. I'm tired of his "Justice" bs. If he wasn't such a good healer, I'd won't have him on my party. I wish that Merill could get access to Blood Mage power line so she could be some demon healer.

    Edit: I am enjoying this game, but I can't help but wonder why, in a world were being an mage is illegal unless you are part of the Circle, why no one will ask my mage Hawke why she has a magic staff and summons lighting down on people in the middle of the street?

    Grunt's Ghosts on
  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    Dragkonias wrote: »
    I watched my brother play a female mage and saw Carver's constant haterade mode.

    I remember when my brother watched me play with my male warrior his response was "Why is your sibling so nice?"

    Yeah, Carver's just an idiot.
    Let the darkspawn take him.

  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    Carver is a Misogynist and I should have brought him with me to the Deep Roads.

  • AspectVoidAspectVoid Registered User regular
    Spoit wrote: »
    I'm just starting the second Act in DA2 but I'm already ready to kill Carver. His dead sister was a mage, hell, I'm playing Hawke as a Mage and he hates mages!?! I haven't used him in my party since I got Fenris who annoys me too with his "I'm a torture soul out for revenge" storyline. I'm half tempted to start a relationship with Merill since Isabella seems too easy and I got with her in Origins.
    Probably because he spent time with anders :P
    Fuck Anders. I'm tired of his "Justice" bs. If he wasn't such a good healer, I'd won't have him on my party. I wish that Merill could get access to Blood Mage power line so she could be some demon healer.

    Edit: I am enjoying this game, but I can't help but wonder why, in a world were being an mage is illegal unless you are part of the Circle, why no one will ask my mage Hawke why she has a magic staff and summons lighting down on people in the middle of the street?

    Unless you're playing on nightmare, you can get away without a healer. I went through the game twice, once on normal, once on hard, and never had healing besides potions. Its a little difficult on Hard, as you have to keep a close eye on things and make good use of combos, but its perfectly doable.

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  • SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    You keeps saying thst, but the potions cool downs are pretty worthless

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  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    I've done it as well. It requires a bit more micromanagement, and it can make things a bit hairier, but it's quite doable. I found it was just fine using one character as a tank, and the rest DPS or crowd control.

    Just have to watch out for fuckers jumping down from the rooftops.

  • WotanAnubisWotanAnubis Registered User regular
    Spoit wrote: »
    I'm just starting the second Act in DA2 but I'm already ready to kill Carver. His dead sister was a mage, hell, I'm playing Hawke as a Mage and he hates mages!?! I haven't used him in my party since I got Fenris who annoys me too with his "I'm a torture soul out for revenge" storyline. I'm half tempted to start a relationship with Merill since Isabella seems too easy and I got with her in Origins.
    Probably because he spent time with anders :P
    Fuck Anders. I'm tired of his "Justice" bs. If he wasn't such a good healer, I'd won't have him on my party. I wish that Merill could get access to Blood Mage power line so she could be some demon healer.

    Edit: I am enjoying this game, but I can't help but wonder why, in a world were being an mage is illegal unless you are part of the Circle, why no one will ask my mage Hawke why she has a magic staff and summons lighting down on people in the middle of the street?

    Since you're a mage, too, I suggest you tough it out until you unlock Spirit Healer. It's better than what Anders's got.

  • SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    Orca wrote: »
    I've done it as well. It requires a bit more micromanagement, and it can make things a bit hairier, but it's quite doable. I found it was just fine using one character as a tank, and the rest DPS or crowd control.

    Just have to watch out for fuckers jumping down from the rooftops.

    I don't know, even on hard, with potions and a healer, the waves required way too much micro-ed kiting while the agro skills were on cooldown

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  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    The only time I've had any real problems with needing heals was the Dragon in the Deep Roads. I was left with a dragon just shy of half health and 3 dragonlings and I kept running around that alter taking pot shots and using Chain Lighting until I finally killed them. Oh, and that mission with the gas barrels. I still haven't completed it yet.

  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    edited May 2012
    Spoit wrote: »
    Orca wrote: »
    I've done it as well. It requires a bit more micromanagement, and it can make things a bit hairier, but it's quite doable. I found it was just fine using one character as a tank, and the rest DPS or crowd control.

    Just have to watch out for fuckers jumping down from the rooftops.

    I don't know, even on hard, with potions and a healer, the waves required way too much micro-ed kiting while the agro skills were on cooldown

    I am still waiting for @Z0re to tell me how he's been going on nightmare without the Black Emporium (I didn't even know I had the download code for it - hidden in the back of the manual, how sneaky!). Because I found that fucking difficult without having a healer (Namely Anders), but when you have the Black Emporium DLC any difficulty in the game is just instantly gone. The stuff from there is loltastically broken and makes the game so much easier - most importantly easier early on when it's most important. Later on it's pretty easy to just break the game three ways from sunday, so I've found I can use whoever I want without much of a consequence (not that it really matters, I finished the game on Nightmare ages ago and the combat isn't any good anyway, so might as well set it to casual to blow through it).

    Personally I hope that DA3 drops waves, drops reusing the same fucking dungeon 100x and gives me a camera that actually allows for proper tactical control (the current camera on 360 is way too zoomed in all the time and you can't get fine tactical control on anything using it). I really want my "Spiritual successor to BG2" back and less of whatever DA2 was. Much less preferably.

    Definitely want them to continue finding ways to make warriors and rogues interesting to use and play - but without the unneeded button mashing (honestly, what did this add to the game?). At least Aveline is one of the better characers because I use her just about every game. Varric is awesome as well actually. The rest go from utterly forgettable (Fenris) to just incredibly badly written (Anders). I actually really hated Isabella for being a walking cliche and not even that interesting a character. Noting that it took me reading the thread on this forum to even realize she existed in the first place, partly because I assumed she was another DLC character I didn't have (like Sebastion, who I've not got as I refuse to buy any DLC for DA2). Merril I was indifferent about, but at least her sidequest was pretty interesting in the long run.

    I will say that at least DA2 IMO with the Black Emporium stuff especially, lets you use a wider array of characters than DA:O. DA:O had even more generally useless characters than DA2 (because non-mages were ridiculously underpowered) and you still had only Wynne for healing. If Bioware do anything with DA3, I hope they find ways to make multiple characters much more generally useful so whenever I play I don't feel like "Well, I'm going to have Varric and I'm going to have Avaline, who else do I throw in there?" or alternatively "Well, I'm going to have Wynne and I'm going to have Alastair, who else do I throw in there?". This is more of a "If I want someone of X role, the game only provides me with these limited character choices" than anything else.

    Aegeri on
    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
  • WotanAnubisWotanAnubis Registered User regular
    Aegeri wrote: »
    Personally I hope that DA3 drops waves, drops reusing the same fucking dungeon 100x and gives me a camera that actually allows for proper tactical control (the current camera on 360 is way too zoomed in all the time and you can't get fine tactical control on anything using it). I really want my "Spiritual successor to BG2" back and less of whatever DA2 was. Much less preferably.

    Well, Bioware has publically admitted that both the waves and the repeat dungeons were mistakes. So there's that, at least.

  • JOE_1967JOE_1967 Registered User regular
    Aegeri wrote: »
    I will say that at least DA2 IMO with the Black Emporium stuff especially, lets you use a wider array of characters than DA:O. DA:O had even more generally useless characters than DA2 (because non-mages were ridiculously underpowered) and you still had only Wynne for healing. If Bioware do anything with DA3, I hope they find ways to make multiple characters much more generally useful so whenever I play I don't feel like "Well, I'm going to have Varric and I'm going to have Avaline, who else do I throw in there?" or alternatively "Well, I'm going to have Wynne and I'm going to have Alastair, who else do I throw in there?". This is more of a "If I want someone of X role, the game only provides me with these limited character choices" than anything else.

    That was one of the problems I had with DA1 and DA2 (and ME 1/2/3, for that matter): The tension between adding characters to my party because they were tactically useful vs. adding characters to my party because I liked them and/or wanted to hear them banter.

  • Z0reZ0re Registered User regular
    Yeah, I tried Nightmare without the Black Emporium and it was way more frustrating than I thought and I ended up leaning on Anders for healing. Which sucked.

    Happy to admit you were right, and I was wrong about that @Aegeri

    Aegeri
  • hamdingershamdingers Registered User regular
    JOE_1967 wrote: »
    Aegeri wrote: »
    I will say that at least DA2 IMO with the Black Emporium stuff especially, lets you use a wider array of characters than DA:O. DA:O had even more generally useless characters than DA2 (because non-mages were ridiculously underpowered) and you still had only Wynne for healing. If Bioware do anything with DA3, I hope they find ways to make multiple characters much more generally useful so whenever I play I don't feel like "Well, I'm going to have Varric and I'm going to have Avaline, who else do I throw in there?" or alternatively "Well, I'm going to have Wynne and I'm going to have Alastair, who else do I throw in there?". This is more of a "If I want someone of X role, the game only provides me with these limited character choices" than anything else.

    That was one of the problems I had with DA1 and DA2 (and ME 1/2/3, for that matter): The tension between adding characters to my party because they were tactically useful vs. adding characters to my party because I liked them and/or wanted to hear them banter.

    Yes - I felt very locked into Wynne. Good character but I like to mix things up. In a similar vein, I hated that Sebastian gave you nothing that Varric didn't give you better. There was no tactical reason to ever bring up. Why didn't they make him a alt-tank option instead?

  • Blackbird SR-71CBlackbird SR-71C Registered User regular
    Z0re wrote: »
    Yeah, I tried Nightmare without the Black Emporium and it was way more frustrating than I thought and I ended up leaning on Anders for healing. Which sucked.

    Happy to admit you were right, and I was wrong about that @Aegeri

    I might go back into DA2 these days. I was doing Nightmare with the Black Emporium and used Anders for healing, and I totally agree that he sucks. But who's a better option?

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  • Z0reZ0re Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    Z0re wrote: »
    Yeah, I tried Nightmare without the Black Emporium and it was way more frustrating than I thought and I ended up leaning on Anders for healing. Which sucked.

    Happy to admit you were right, and I was wrong about that @Aegeri

    I might go back into DA2 these days. I was doing Nightmare with the Black Emporium and used Anders for healing, and I totally agree that he sucks. But who's a better option?

    I've been able to get away without using him if I use my respecs wisely. Merrill, Mage Hawke and Aveline with a rotating fourth depending on what you are going against can clear most of the game by locking it down and just slamming through at the end once everything resists crowd control stuff. You don't even have to make Mage Hawke a healer though that obviously makes it easier.

    Rogue and Warrior Hawke will have a much more difficult time though in my experience. Having 2 mages for buffing and debuffing is makes things much easier, especially if you dump everything you can into health and run off full passives and blood magic. You basically have to Respec Merrill, Aveline, Isabella and Fenris to make it work though because their defaults are baaaad.

    Plus, you know, micromanage everything you can.

    Also on Insanity my experiences with Warrior Hawke were just awful. It was three hours of "Sorry for decapitating you again Varric, oh oops I'm dead again". At least Rogue Hawke can dodge ridiculously and has great mobility. I literally can't think of a reason to play Warrior Hawke, he feels so much worse than Aveline and Fenris.

    Z0re on
  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    edited May 2012
    Z0re wrote: »
    Yeah, I tried Nightmare without the Black Emporium and it was way more frustrating than I thought and I ended up leaning on Anders for healing. Which sucked.

    Happy to admit you were right, and I was wrong about that @Aegeri

    Isn't it amazing how one 38 meg (IIRC) download can completely change how we see exactly the same game in every other way (though you may have Sebastion, which I don't). Makers Breath lets you completely unsuck the utterly stupid initial choices that some characters have, letting you optimize them much more efficiently (which I note you bring up in a subsequent post).

    But yeah, playing the game without that DLC is substantially different. I have to wonder though, what's the intended DA2 experience: With the Black Emporium stuff being used or without it? The stuff in there is ridiculously broken compared to other early equipment, but the games difficulty curve is very borked when you don't have it (plus Makers Breath is really helpful).

    I agree with you about Warrior Hawke as well, I did nightmare with him the first time and it was a god awfully boring experience. Especially as I played post-two hander nerf as well, so Warrior wasn't really that great anymore. Rogue and Mage are both substantially better to actually play as.

    Aegeri on
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  • Z0reZ0re Registered User regular
    Aegeri wrote: »
    Z0re wrote: »
    Yeah, I tried Nightmare without the Black Emporium and it was way more frustrating than I thought and I ended up leaning on Anders for healing. Which sucked.

    Happy to admit you were right, and I was wrong about that @Aegeri

    Isn't it amazing how one 38 meg (IIRC) download can completely change how we see exactly the same game in every other way (though you may have Sebastion, which I don't). Makers Breath lets you completely unsuck the utterly stupid initial choices that some characters have, letting you optimize them much more efficiently (which I note you bring up in a subsequent post).

    But yeah, playing the game without that DLC is substantially different. I have to wonder though, what's the intended DA2 experience: With the Black Emporium stuff being used or without it? The stuff in there is ridiculously broken compared to other early equipment, but the games difficulty curve is very borked when you don't have it (plus Makers Breath is really helpful).

    I agree with you about Warrior Hawke as well, I did nightmare with him the first time and it was a god awfully boring experience. Especially as I played post-two hander nerf as well, so Warrior wasn't really that great anymore. Rogue and Mage are both substantially better to actually play as.

    It genuinely cked me how often I respec when playing and how annoying the game is when everyone has so many useless stat points allocated and terrible abilities picked. Similarly, I never really realized how crappy most of the equipment in the base game was because I'd been using a bunch of DLC stuff from the start.

    I do also have Sebastian, but he's a liability on anything higher than normal. He's Varric with a worse personal tree, terrible rivalry/friendship bonuses and is too generalist to ever really be useful in any niche. Even Fenris has some unique ability against mages and a good enough unique tree to be usable, if not optimal, but Sebastian is just not good in combat. I do like dragging him around the city with Fenris and Isabela though, he's pretty interesting

  • Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    It may be slightly cheating, but you can easily console or mod the healing tree (or any tree) into Merril (or any character). You can compensate by not giving her points in some other tree if you wish.

    Kinda fun to mess with the game that way. I was goofing around and made my 2h warrior have the force mage tree. Fun times.

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  • ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    I...I don't do higher difficulties in RPGs anymore.

    I tend to do RP decisions for most characters. So in the case of DA2, I maxed out each character's personal trees whenever possible.

    Even Normal was hard for me, although once I broke free of maximizing the one tree and one other that I thought was suited for them I was able to get a few that really tore shit up in conjunction with abilities they already have.

    (That was why I was so happy to get Bethany back at the end with like fifteen talent points to distribute and her without a unique tree...)

  • SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    Since the thread is bumped anyway, I'm just going to say that while of course mages were OMGWTFBBQ powerful in DAO (2 too for that matter), I was able to easily complete it on nightmare with the mage just being a heal bitch. And with the potions on separate cooldowns, I imagine that it would be quite possible to do it with how cheap and easy it is to get elfroot from the dalish.

    Whereas with DA2, the necessity of cross-class combos somewhat limits you to having multiple classes. Though the number of palatable characters really is way more limiting

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  • LanrutconLanrutcon The LabyrinthRegistered User regular
    DA2 difficulty levels added insane amounts of HP bloat to enemies. About as fun as watching Windows 7 install.

    Also: characters like Isabella just don't cut it on Nightmare and get lawned frequently. I did Nightmare with Mage Hawke (Healer), Aveline, Merril and Varric, but never finished. I found it tedious and prone to fuckups due to stupid AI.

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  • SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    In retrospect, some of my problems with DA2 could have been because I was a 2H warrior, rather than a mage. Because screw mage PCs

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  • -Tal-Tal Registered User regular
    Rogue for life

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  • Z0reZ0re Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    Mage is literally the only way to play. (for me)

    I can never understand why, when given the choice between manipulating reality and being able to stab someone with a hunk of metal people choose the latter. Mages can do just about everything the other classes can do, at range, and provide more utility in the form of buffing, debuffing and healing that they never can.

    Plus Mage PCs get the best unique content. The I'm Magic dialogue and action choice was solid gold every time it propped up in DA2 and made you into a badass when Warriors and Rogues were stuck being chumps.

    :p

    Z0re on
  • McHogerMcHoger Registered User regular
    Z0re wrote: »
    Mage is literally the only way to play. (for me)

    I can never understand why, when given the choice between manipulating reality and being able to stab someone with a hunk of metal people choose the latter. Mages can do just about everything the other classes can do, at range, and provide more utility in the form of buffing, debuffing and healing that they never can.

    Plus Mage PCs get the best unique content. The I'm Magic dialogue and action choice was solid gold every time it propped up in DA2 and made you into a badass when Warriors and Rogues were stuck being chumps.

    :p

    I enjoy the simple joy of whacking a dude in the face with a shield.

    Also Mages tend to be terribly balanced in games like this.

  • LanrutconLanrutcon The LabyrinthRegistered User regular
    If there was a proper healing Mage npc I'd go stick with Rogue Hawke, but fuck Anders and his useless shit.

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  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    When do you unlock Spirit Healer as Mage Hawke? I'm well into Act 3 and I haven't unlock any of the extra trees.

  • Z0reZ0re Registered User regular
    When do you unlock Spirit Healer as Mage Hawke? I'm well into Act 3 and I haven't unlock any of the extra trees.

    You get a specialization point at levels 7 and 14 that you spend to unlock the tree by clicking on the big square. Unlocking a tree gives stat bonuses so you should unlock two even if you only plan on investing in one.

  • -Tal-Tal Registered User regular
    who needs a healer anyway

    just crank that DPS as high as it will go

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  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    -Tal wrote: »
    who needs a healer anyway

    just crank that DPS as high as it will go

    This seems like my current plan as I go beast mode on almost everything. I beat that Mirror Demon (Merril's Quest) without anyone in my party using a health potion because I nuked the place.

  • C2BC2B SwitzerlandRegistered User regular
    So, it appears Stanley Woo got laid off or left in April for whatever reason (both are possible considering all the events in the last year)

    http://www.linkedin.com/pub/stanley-woo/43/14b/13b

    Considering how prominent his presence on bioware's social boards was this went awfully quite.

    Anyways, its the end of the end of line.

  • gjaustingjaustin Registered User regular
    -Tal wrote: »
    who needs a healer anyway

    just crank that DPS as high as it will go

    Seriously. I beat Hard using Merril, Varric, and Fenris for the vast majority of fights. The only fight I had to use Anders on was the High Dragon.

    That said, once I got Bethany back, I started obliterating everything.

  • never dienever die Registered User regular
    Has anyone else gotten the fade to black loading... issue that has popped up lately for DA2? I've started playing DA2 lately after finishing origins and I'm really frustrated with the game I'm on the Deep Roads Expedition Quest, around the time
    you have the option of helping or killing the rock demon abomination. I've both chosen to kill him and side with him. The issue is, not long after, when exiting the tunnel that is after his room and opens up into a larger area, the screen will get darker, loading... will pop up in the corner, and my game will inevitably crash.
    Its super frustrating as changing variables does not fix the issue, nor does changing video settings or rebooting the computer. I could reinstall the thing and see if it works, but considering I already had to do that when I got the game (had a bad install) I would rather not have to go through a four hour install again.

    I've tried the suggestion I found looking around the bioware boards which is to tap [ESC] once the screen darkens but that does not help. I'm hoping I don't have to what I had to do with the first Mass Effect game
    In the fight with mecha Seren, after you beat him and Sovereign is destroyed, my game would crash right before creating the save that you carry over to Mass Effect 2. Every single time I tried it. What i ended up having to do was load up an older save file right before starting the whole end sequence on the citadel and go through the whole thing. This fixed the issue, but I would rather not do that again for DA2, because there is a hell of a lot of challenging fights in this area.

    I guess the part that gets me bummed is the fact I was really enjoying the game before this happened.

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