Quote :

"Is storm(the huge AoE lightning spell) any good? I just got it and it seems like the area is so huge that I'm hurting just about my whole party with it. Also, anybody know a good way of using walking bomb without hurting my allies?"

Quote :

"I don't remember exactly, but I think lightning storm is a pre-requisite to chain lighting, which is really useful because it doesn't hurt your party members (it could be the other way around, though). I only used lightning storm in conjunction with inferno, to damage large groups of enemies before they could really see me. Inferno is much better in my mind because of the continuous fire damage."

storm + blizzard is great for a room full of enemies. If someone in your party has the passive skill that detects nearby enemies you can come up to a closed off room and blast the entire thing with those 2 aoe's, pretty much destroying anything inside. if there are survivors they will open the door to find your melee waiting to finish them off.

didn't use walking bomb much but you could put it on some ranged, or put the prison on an enemy near others and then put walking bomb on them?

I haven't played this in a while, need to hurry up and finish it.

[Edited on December 30, 2009 at 10:56 AM. Reason : quotes]

12/30/2009 10:55:38 AM

Walking bomb was pretty useful, throw it on a bad guy that's close to death and near other baddies.

1/1/2010 11:16:33 PM

PAUSE

click click click click

PAUSE

click click click click

PAUSE

click click click click

PAUSE

click click click click

PAUSE

click click click click

Total fight in game time 10 seconds

[Edited on January 1, 2010 at 11:23 PM. Reason : das]

1/1/2010 11:23:06 PM

^ya, It'd be nice to see a replay of some of the epic battles in real time

1/2/2010 3:31:01 PM

I love this game, as I love all Bioware RPGs.

But their tried and true character archetypes are getting repetitive. O HAI, it's Carth Onasi/Kaiden/generic-annoying-first-party-member-dude. Then the non-human droid/dog. Then the dark chick and the goodie goodie chick. Then the mysterious foreigner/alien. Then another a snarky one.



Also-- rogue + dirty fighting + coup de grace is ultrakill.

[Edited on January 2, 2010 at 3:51 PM. Reason : ]

1/2/2010 3:50:54 PM

Shit Alistair is way better than Carth or Kaiden. Carth and Kaiden are basically the same (they even use the same voice actor) but Alistair is awesome, I actually liked him.

Who is the dark chick in Mass Effect? Who is the "snarky one" supposed to be in Dragon Age. The one that best fits that description is also the "dark chick"

1/2/2010 4:09:28 PM

damn, ive been so busy lately i haven't even touched this again. I think im gonna start over and play through again

1/2/2010 6:33:02 PM

I got werewolves in my army. awesome.

1/2/2010 6:42:28 PM

The dark chick in Mass Effect was the cyborg one with the Slovic accent.

The snarky one in Dragon Age is Shale.

1/2/2010 7:24:24 PM

20 hours in, have yet to see or hear of a dragon

[Edited on January 2, 2010 at 9:52 PM. Reason : still enjoying the hell out of it though]

1/2/2010 9:51:59 PM

^^ How was Tali dark other than that you couldn't see her face?

Snarky = testy or irritable. Shale wasn't really testy or irritable except when it came to birds, not any more than any of the other characters that is.

Morrigan was the far most irritable, and easiest to lose favor with. It's probably why every other gift you find is gold jewelry, which Morrigan loves.

[Edited on January 2, 2010 at 11:45 PM. Reason : ]

1/2/2010 11:44:25 PM

If anyone is interested in trading for my copy of DA pm me.

1/3/2010 12:07:25 AM

I love the casual interaction of the other party members. I find these combos hilarious:

Zevran + Wynne
Allistair + Morrigan

1/3/2010 9:49:22 AM

Another nit-picky thing with all Bioware RPGs-- if you don't roll a rogue-type character, you have to gimp yourself by adding persuasion and cunning/intelligence to your warrior/soldier, since you'll always be the one doing the talking.

1/3/2010 1:36:43 PM

Actually, I found that rogues are harder to stat for in this game because you have to mix between cunning, dex, strength and willpower. Mages, on the other hand, are just int & will and warriors are fine with Str, Dex and Will.

1/4/2010 1:09:10 AM

Quote :

"warriors are fine with Str, Dex and Will."

But don't you need Str, Dex, Will, and Cun, if you want to intimidate or coerce people?

1/4/2010 11:16:18 AM

You don't need that much willpower as a rouge or warrior. Certainly not as much as a mage needs.

Rouges don't need strength if they take Lethality, it uses cunning instead of strength for damage.

^ Intimidate uses strength, but you will need 16 cunning if you want to max your Coercion skill (or most other skills)

[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 1:11 PM. Reason : ]

1/4/2010 1:10:50 PM

BEU nailed it; I've been playing this game since christmas and damned if I'm enjoying it, the combat is cumbersome. Maybe I need to revisit the tactics better because my guys are doing stupid shit and not using abilities when I'm not micromanaging them. And I always have to make sure I switch back to my main character before I unpause or he'll go get himself killed.

I'm not very far (redcliffe, first place I went after lothering). I'm getting the sense that some of the encounters are really over-tuned. The ogre at the top of the tower of ishtal, for instance. The only way I could beat him was having one character aggroing him and running around in a circle. The revenant at redcliffe was tearing my ass apart until I saw the gate switch and let it munch on some NPCs. A lot of these encounters feel like trial and error and my quicksave button is going to break off before I finish this game.

1/4/2010 1:43:11 PM

Main - Elf Mage, Heals/Cold/AOEs, Spirit Healer, Arcane Warrior.
Alistair - Human Warrior, 1-Handed/Shield, Main Tank, Templar, Reaver.
Oghren - Dwarf Warrior, 2-Handed, Off Tank, Beserker, Reaver.
Leliana - Human Rogue, Archer, Bard, Ranger.

So far this is the best group I've made. I can play the game on nightmare and win most fights. I found that with a mage as your main character, you don't waste any stat or talent points like you do with Wynne and Morrigan. I've created a great mage, who can deal direct damage, crowd control, and AOE without losing spellpower or my mana pool.

1/4/2010 4:32:21 PM

I never thought to actually try to let the tactics fight for themselves. I micromanaged through the entire game.

You cant trust them not to run right into trouble.

Plus my strategy for the dragon on the ice mountain was to have an archer on one side and a warrior on the other. Get the attention to the archer, attack from behind with the warrior. Once agro switches, archer goes in for melee, warrior goes to archer. And repeat. Obviously dancing around it as it moves.

1/4/2010 7:42:21 PM

Just finished this game... loved it, but still not Baldur's Gate quality. Dwarven Noble Rogue (Assassin/Duelist, dual-wielding). Rerolling a mage now, and just finished Harrowing. I plan to be somewhat more evil this time.

Something I noticed is that in BG2, it was impossible to form a fully evil party (though it did end up being well-balanced and powerful), and as Bioware games have progressed, it's becoming harder and harder to form a varied "good" team (though to be fair, morality in games is also getting more ambiguous, which is cool). I ended up mainly using Alistair/Oghren/Wynne, since I didn't need Leliana except as a lockpicker (after a certain point I just started giving her 3 Cunning every level, since that's what it's based on)... problem is, till I got Oghren, I ended up having to use Sten who generally disapproves of being generous or helping people (Morrigan would have hated my actions even more, and Zevran was a carbon copy of my main character, only worse at everything, and Shale tends to dislike doing nice things for normal humans)...

Anyway, my point here, despite my long-windedness, is that developers have realized that American (and European) gamers tend to be more evil in games when given the opportunity, and it's amusing how Bioware is just sort of going with it. What I really want to see, though, is a return to having more characters... Since my main character wasn't a mage, I was stuck with either the ultra-good and ultra-lawful (Wynne, who was mostly useless for offense until near the end) or the closest thing to an evil character the game has (Morrigan, of course). This game was in dire need of a Jolee Bindo.

Quote :

"Actually, I found that rogues are harder to stat for in this game because you have to mix between cunning, dex, strength and willpower."

I mostly just put Dex and Cunning on my rogue and he was fucking phenomenal. Once you get the rogue talent that uses Cunning for damage instead of Strength, you've got it made. By endgame (level 22-ish), my rogue only had about 29 or 30 strength unbuffed, and that was only so he could wield dragonbone main-hand weapons, and he could have gotten by with much less by the time I got some of the best equipment. As for Willpower and Constitution, he was in the low 20s (if even that much) on both. I'm not sure what his Cunning and Dexterity were at that point, but with buffs they were both at least 50.

I'd say it's definitely the easiest class to make into a main character, since you naturally get huge bonuses to persuasion checks and get to pick so many skills. And leveling his trap making + 2nd level stealth talent ended up being a great decision, since he could scout out a room and then lay Fire/Ice/Lightning/etc traps right in their path... and none of the party NPCs come with trap-making. He also hit like a fucking truck (quickly, too), and was my party's strongest tank (though with Alistair in the party, he rarely got attacked).

Still not sure how I'm going to manage persuasion on a mage... they don't need much cunning and they don't need much strength, so I suppose I might as well just not bother as much as I did with my rogue.

Quote :

"Maybe I need to revisit the tactics better because my guys are doing stupid shit and not using abilities when I'm not micromanaging them. And I always have to make sure I switch back to my main character before I unpause or he'll go get himself killed."

I'd advise turning off tactics entirely for the main character. They do tend to get him killed, and since the Warden is basically going to end up being your strongest character, it's best to make sure they're doing something non-retarded.

As for the others, I'd advise turning off tactics for any mage (you'll end up wanting certain spells and then they'll be on cooldown when you need to use them)... and for the first half of the game tactics were useless for my non-main-character fighters, since it would cause them to use up all their stamina in the first couple of moves and they'd be helpless afterwords. Mostly I just left it on so I wouldn't have to manually turn their "Sustained" abilities on and off. Also, anything that has knockdown or stun, you shouldn't put on a Tactics slot, since they're basically necessary to save a character who gets grabbed (though I suppose you could do Enemy: Grabbing -- Use Ability: Knockdown).

Quote :

"The only way I could beat him was having one character aggroing him and running around in a circle. The revenant at redcliffe was tearing my ass apart until I saw the gate switch and let it munch on some NPCs."

That's actually sort of what you're supposed to do with the Orge, unless you can manage to get him to switch targets a lot mid-fight when one of your warriors gets near-death.

As someone who went in the same order as you, I can say that the Revenant was probably the hardest or second/third hardest fight in the entire game. I ended up beating him by hiding behind a wall and laying a forest of Large Claw Traps, and was a little pissed when I noticed that I could have opened the gate the whole time. Things start to get easier when your characters get stronger (and when you get more healing spells).

I recommend NOT going to Orgrimmar next, since the latter parts of that are pretty fucking hard without a few key things in your party... and even then they're difficult. And there's a shitload of expensive stuff to carry around, and you probably won't have many backpacks by then. I'd recommend doing the Circle of Magi or the Dalish Elves next, since both of those are more oriented towards early-game character improvement. Also it helps to pay a visit to Denerim, since there's a lot of good shops and good quests to get there.

Quote :

"Main - Elf Mage, Heals/Cold/AOEs, Spirit Healer, Arcane Warrior. Alistair - Human Warrior, 1-Handed/Shield, Main Tank, Templar, Reaver."

Where did you get the Reaver training from? I went through the entire game and it was the only one I never actually saw or knew how to get.

Also, how good is Arcane Warrior? I read the description and it seemed kind of shitty, since it was forcing a mage to not use the staff, and there's basically only one sword in the entire game (that I saw) meant to be used with it. I even went online and peeked at the talents, and from the looks of things it would only be good if you invested 4 whole points in it (as opposed to Spirit Healer, which I really only want for the group-heal).

Quote :

"Plus my strategy for the dragon on the ice mountain was to have an archer on one side and a warrior on the other. Get the attention to the archer, attack from behind with the warrior. Once agro switches, archer goes in for melee, warrior goes to archer. And repeat. Obviously dancing around it as it moves."

I was fighting it with Alistair/Oghren/Dual-wield melee-based rogue/Wynne, so it took forever... just had Alistair run up to its face, while Oghren and the Warden flanked it. It's got a tail-sweep and Massive Attack, though, which generally hits the stuff behind it, and it basically always used it when surrounded by all three. And I only had a handful of health potions left, and Wynne could only use lyrium potions so quickly...

Eventually I ended up with it around 1/3 health, with Wynne spamming her few damage spells as often as possible, and everyone else just lobbing Acid Flasks at it whenever they could... I would never have beaten it on the first try if Alistair and Oghren hadn't died in the exact same spot (out of sheer chance) so I could revive both of them. In retrospect, having Cone of Cold or even just more than one mage would have made things a LOT easier.

Turns out that giving someone 1 point in Poison Making allows them to use any poison that you've made, so it's actually really useful for any melee fighter. Same 1-point thing goes for traps as well, though those are less useful on a warrior.

[Edited on January 5, 2010 at 1:13 AM. Reason : that was long... maybe i should have made it multiple posts or something.]

1/5/2010 12:58:28 AM

You get Reaver training on the Ashes quest.


SPOILER






You have to talk with the main reaver guy, then agree to pour blood into Andraste's ashes.







/SPOILER

1/5/2010 1:44:17 AM

Quote :

"That's actually sort of what you're supposed to do with the Orge, unless you can manage to get him to switch targets a lot mid-fight when one of your warriors gets near-death. As someone who went in the same order as you, I can say that the Revenant was probably the hardest or second/third hardest fight in the entire game. I ended up beating him by hiding behind a wall and laying a forest of Large Claw Traps, and was a little pissed when I noticed that I could have opened the gate the whole time. Things start to get easier when your characters get stronger (and when you get more healing spells). I recommend NOT going to Orgrimmar next, since the latter parts of that are pretty fucking hard without a few key things in your party... and even then they're difficult. And there's a shitload of expensive stuff to carry around, and you probably won't have many backpacks by then. I'd recommend doing the Circle of Magi or the Dalish Elves next, since both of those are more oriented towards early-game character improvement. Also it helps to pay a visit to Denerim, since there's a lot of good shops and good quests to get there."

Well thanks, that makes me feel more comfortable about playing more. I guess Bioware decided that some fights (read: all boss fights) shouldn't be tank and spanks because even alistair with all his defensive abilities active wasn't lasting very long against either the ogre or the revenant. I'm actually at the Circle because I chose the option of not killing the boy at Redcliffe and I was worried that there would be more revenant-difficulty fights ruining my progression.

1/5/2010 9:05:47 AM

I played nearly the whole game with this group makeup: Human Noble Warrior, Wynne, Morrigan and Zevhran. For most fights, I would send in the warrior to get the enemies attention, then have him retreat past a corner to the two waiting mages. Wynne and Morrigan would both use Frost Cone & Fire Spray on the clustered enemies. Usually this killed the entire group in 3 seconds. Anyone still alive was whittled away by melee and staves.

This makeup was even better for bosses. I killed both dragons by giving Zev a bow and arranging the group in a BIG circle around the boss - just close enough for Wynne to reach with healing spells. I got him on my 2nd try. Of course, I equipped my warrior with a lot of fire-resist gear and fire-resist potions. All the revenants were easy fights once I figured out the catch (e.g. the Mage Tower one has a close-range damage-dealing something, so I put all DPS into ranged mode).

The hardest fight for me was probably the three drakes that come out of nowhere when you enter a certain part of Andraste's temple. Combined they were putting out more damage than most bosses, and they constantly stun you. Plus you have that confined space keeping you in close quarters with them.

1/5/2010 9:58:49 AM

Quote :

"I recommend NOT going to Orgrimmar next"

I'm going to have to play through again with an entirely different group setup, I never used a rogue the entire game and you guys are saying they are awesome.

1/5/2010 10:21:15 AM

Quote :

"Also, how good is Arcane Warrior? I read the description and it seemed kind of shitty, since it was forcing a mage to not use the staff, and there's basically only one sword in the entire game (that I saw) meant to be used with it. I even went online and peeked at the talents, and from the looks of things it would only be good if you invested 4 whole points in it (as opposed to Spirit Healer, which I really only want for the group-heal)."

Arcane Warrior is good assuming you have high magic. It allows your mages to wear the same armor as a main tank (Magic stat replaces Strength stat), but their casting speed is much slower based on fatigue penalties. In theory, you can be a Heavy armored tank mage that cases very slowly, but I didn't use it for that. Instead, I used arcane warrior, with just 1 point, so I could wear tier 7 light armor while maintaining good casting speed. If you strike the right balance, you can cast almost as fast as in cloth and triple your armor. It makes it so your mages are as resilient as your rogues, so you survive much longer and don't lose much casting speed. Plus, if you invested in Arcane Shield or any of the other protective mage shields, it just makes your mage that much more resilient. This is perfect for a direct damage mage that pulls aggro really quickly when bursting, and/or an AOE mage. There are quite a few shields that are decent for arcane warrior, and lots of light armor pieces have willpower stats for mana pool, health regen ticks, resistance stats, defense, dodge, missile avoidance, and other useful stats. The arcane warrior for my main is really just a means to make my mage less squishy, not to deal much damage. If you want to try that method, you need to allocate 4 points to arcane warrior. It wouldn't work for my main, but maybe Wynne.

[Edited on January 5, 2010 at 10:40 AM. Reason : -]

1/5/2010 10:32:41 AM

Expansion announced!

Quote :

"For centuries, the Grey Wardens—the ancient order of guardians, sworn to unite and defend the lands—have been battling the darkspawn forces. Legend spoke that slaying the Archdemon would have put an end to the darkspawn threat for centuries to come, but somehow they remain. You are the Grey Warden Commander and have been entrusted with the duty of rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens and uncovering the secrets of the darkspawn and how they managed to remain. How you choose to rebuild your order, how you resolve the conflict with "The Architect", and how you determine the fate of the darkspawn will be but some of the many complex choices that await and shape your journey as you venture to the new land of Amaranthine. A Stunning World Expanded: BioWare's deepest universe to date just got bigger with an all new area of the world to explore, Amaranthine * Unlock the secrets of the Darkspawn and their true motivations * Rebuild the Grey Warden order and establish their base of operations at Vigil's Keep All-new Complex Moral Choices: Embark on an epic story that is completely defined and reactive to your play style * Shape your entire experience based on the choices you make and how your handle complex situations New Ways to Customize your Hero: Experience additional spells, abilities, specializations, and items to further personalize and customize your hero and party * Import your character from Dragon Age: Origins or start anew as a Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais * Encounter five all-new party members and an old favorite from Dragon Age: Origins Even more Bone-Crushing, Visceral Combat: Battle against a new range of horrific and terrifying creatures * Put your skills to the test against an evolved, intelligent breed of Darkspawn and other menacing creatures including the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon! "

Spoilers in the video

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonageoriginsawakening/video/6244913/dragon-age-origins--awakening-announcement-trailer#toggle_video

1/5/2010 2:44:19 PM

^ Wow, I think I just squealed a bit. Esp since Alistair will be returning

1/5/2010 3:00:54 PM

So... in my first playthrough, I had one specific merchant who I started selling all my stuff to, and earned massive amounts of gold from it [very minor Dwarf Noble origin spoilers] ...this merchant was Gorim in Denerim, who buys items from you for about double the price other merchants will pay. On a side note, Gorim was easily one of my favorite Bioware characters ever. Not sure why.
[/spoilers]

Is there any similar sort of merchant for the Magi origin (I'm an elf, if that matters)... someone who buys things for almost twice the price of normal merchants? Or for any other origins?

[Edited on January 5, 2010 at 3:41 PM. Reason : .]

1/5/2010 3:38:52 PM

good game

1/10/2010 7:14:17 AM

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/11/mystery-dragon-age-project-dated-feb-1-2011/

3/14/2010 5:43:35 PM

so there's an expansion for DAO coming out in 2 days? and another game coming in like 11 months?

3/14/2010 7:19:06 PM

It becomes very easy to make new content once you have gotten all the initial work of building the game engine and all the developers have the experience in level design and gameplay.

3/14/2010 7:28:27 PM

im pretty excited for Awakening

3/15/2010 8:31:40 PM

fuuuuuuuuuck, this reminds me i STILL need to beat the first one

3/15/2010 9:06:17 PM

its so good

im thinking about starting another character, i had so many quests i didn't do in Origins

3/16/2010 12:20:00 AM

I Steamed the Expansion last night. Created a totally new character so I could start out with a new archetype (you don't start at level 1 in the expansion). Starting gear was surprisingly good.

It starts out with your main char and this Warrior/Champion chick in kick-ass red dragon plate-mail. Only played about 10 minutes before I went to bed - looking forward to playing after work.

3/17/2010 10:29:23 AM

Expansion is pretty fun.

Seems easier than the main game though, I guess because you're just so powerful even at the start.

3/19/2010 3:15:30 PM

i finished it

i thought it was fun as shit, i really liked some of the new characters a whole lot. but it was definitely easy, i think i'm gonna play it through again on the highest difficulty.

3/19/2010 4:55:42 PM

do i still have to have the original game to play the expansion?

3/19/2010 5:09:40 PM

I mean it is an expansion although if its still installed on your system probably not, if its not you'll need the original disc to reinstall the full game.

3/19/2010 5:13:08 PM

Yep

3/19/2010 5:13:22 PM

Fie....can't get busy with companions in the expansion.

3/21/2010 1:42:52 AM

Has anyone heard or seen any plans or time tables to have some kind of combo deal now that there is an expansion out? I find it a little hard to fork out $50 for a game that's been out since like November and then $40 for the expansion.

3/21/2010 2:30:58 PM

You might as well get your fork ready. Its not gonna be cheaper probably for a good while.

3/21/2010 2:35:56 PM

Bleh. Thankfully I still have Mass Effect 2 and God of War III to finish before I have to make that decision.

3/21/2010 2:43:16 PM

Just beat Awakenings. Felt more like a longer DLC than a full-fledged expansion. New story, companions and environments, but the rest of the content was the same. Same models, same weapon/armor textures, same combat, and same crafting. Most of the new abilities weren't useful. End-game gear was marginally better than the starting gear and looked the same. Also, it was really really easy.

Fun, but not $40 fun.

3/23/2010 1:56:23 AM

^thank you for that. i will not be buying the expansion

3/23/2010 9:34:40 AM

Dragon Age: Origins is free until the 14th. Fantastic RPG if anyone hasn't played it yet.

http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/news/dragon-age-origins-on-the-house

10/8/2014 5:28:48 PM