Dragon Age IIFollow

SpoilerThat probably explains why you've gone missing at the end and folks are questioning Varric about you.


Not sure that needed to be in a spoiler since you find it out during the opening cutscene, but did so anyway.

Running through my second play through now and having a tough time finding ambrosia if anyone can point me in the right direction.

SpoilerAs for my what the hell moments in the game. I decided to court anders and successfully did so. And so this little prick decides to on his 3rd friend quest in act 3 ask me to help him make a potion to get rid of justice. So we can be together and justice won't get in the way of us and we won't be hunted as much since he wasn't an abomination.

*Detailed spoilers incoming*

Awesome. No problem let's go love. Finished the quest and headed for the final scenes of the game some time later. So it's at the breaking point between the mages and templars and I am trying to keep the peace. And ander says it's to late. And I am like wtf do you mean it's to late? He says he's sorry. I was thinking what the **** did you do! And all of a sudden the chantry ******* explodes with the grand cleric inside it.

My jaw it the floor and I literally screamed at my tv screen "YOU IDIOT!" DUPED ME INTO STARTING A ******* WAR. SHE ON OUR SIDE. SHE AGREE'D WITH US MARADETH WAS ******* PSYCHOPATH. SHE WANTED TO JUST KEEP THE PEACE. WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST BLOW THE ***** LEADING THE TEMPLARS AND NOT HER. YOU OBTUSE SINGLE-MINDED *******.

*breath*

Dragon age 2 officially one of the few games that had me so immersed I started yelling at my screen in disbelief.

Posting to say that I caved and bought the game on steam (I've got nothing to play in my spare time right now, as my PS3 is in another state).


I look forward to posting legitimate spoiler tags with all of you.

Edited, Mar 19th 2011 1:36am by Eske

Your focusing on the wrong part of that. I rage at my screen over stupid ****. Like when my character in DO:A would run around instead of attacking when I told it TO ******* ATTACK NOT RUN TO THE ******* LEFT WHERE THERES A CLUSTER OF FIRE THAT WILL ONE SHOT YOU YOU ******* ***.

*Cough*

What I meant by that was I so into the game I was yelling at the characters like I was standing right next to them as the event to unfold. The only other game that leaps to mind to do that was grandia II.

Kill it with fire.

Fenris is "viable" but I eventually switched to Aveline--too many close calls with him. Still, though, you can use him.

The problem is that my total healing options come down to Panacea, Heal, Aid Allies and Pots.

But if you are running a Warrior, you can handle some adds on your own, and Aid Allies/Panacea should keep you alive fine, taking some heat off of Fenris. I was running a Shadow/Assassin Rogue, so I just went down too fast to do so.

Yeah, I forgot to add that to my list of complaints. Despite having multiples of each class, we really only have 1 tank and 1 healer (the fact that Merril can't even learn Heal is absurd, imo).

It pretty much forces you to use Anders, unless you are running as a Spirit Healer (and, even then, I would still use him for additional security). You are less forced into Aveline, and if you have the Warden+Anders, Fenris should be more than sufficient, but you'll really want to use her in any other scenario.

So, assuming you don't want to tank or heal, we are down to 1 remaining party slot for Fenris, Merrill, Sebastian, Varric and Isabela. SpoilerBethany/Carver too, I suppose, if they can rejoin down the line--she's still shown on my character screen, just darkened. Bethany would be a very welcome addition at this point...

That's... not appealing. I like that each person specializes, but the presence of only 1 NPC Healer is not okay, imo. I like Anders, but I'm not going to want to use him for all of my play throughs.

I can see that--I'm just not sure how to handle AoE situations? You don't have any way to generate AoE threat, besides the decoy explosion and grenades, no? Meanwhile, Warriors get to transfer half the threat from everyone else to themselves...

Interesting...

I'm trying to figure out my next Mage build now. I'm thinking either:

1. A glass cannon Force Mage/Spirit Healer (I want to play a "good" character this time, so I don't want to use Blood Mage). Magic and Willpower are my primary stats, with only a minimal amount in constitution. I'm not sure I even want to invest in Rock Armor or Heroic Defense, though I might shell out a point for Force Field. But largely I want to aim for keeping opponents away from me, rather than enduring hits. I haven't really thought it out more thoroughly than this (as in what spells I'll take--only what I won't).

2. An "Arcane Warrior." I'll go for an extremely resilient Blood Mage/Spirit Healer who generally turtles and uses most of my mana on sustainables (perhaps casting a few big spells then turning them on). And this is kinda broken down into two categories:
a. A magic-based Mage who uses high-damage staff attacks, primarily, with only occasional spell usage (and mostly to debilitate rather than damage). Force Mage/Spirit Healer is an option, too, depending on how much magic I actually want to use. Stats are magic and con. Only problem with the build is that I'll be limited to lower-end gear, since the Champion set inexplicably requires willpower (you're out of luck blood mages!)

b. A strength-based Mage who has pitiful attacks, but can equip plate armor. That will (combined with an upgraded rock armor) make my damage resistance sky rocket. And Force Mage spec will make it nearly impossible to knock me over. Sustainables would be: Heroic Aura (10%), Rock Armor (10%), Arcane Shield (20%), Elemental Weapons (10%) = 50% lost. And that would make me kinda like an extremely durable bard. I might then take Healing Aura (30%) for the +50 health regeneration, leaving me with 20% left. I could either leave that or grab Death Syphon for 20% (leaving me with 10%). You start with 160 mana, so leaving Death syphon out means that I could cast almost any spell every x seconds (where x is the amount of time it takes to regen 30 mana). That might be useful, since it would let me use Crushing Prison, Haste or Barrier.

I'm leaning towards the first option, but not sure yet. 2a sounds fun as well... But I may go for the Force Mage variety so I can use that sexy Champion set. But even 2b is still in the running.

You can use the Maker's Sigh potion to respec any of the Warriors into a tank. I didn't bother with it myself, a tank is a tank in my opinion, who it is doesn't matter.

Edited, Mar 20th 2011 4:04am by Turin

This.

He's awesome, though I can't really say I wanted to romance him.

Sorry, I prefer to play on difficulties that take some planning and strategy management. Sword & Shield offers too much in the way of tanking abilities to pass over. I know about Maker's Sigh, as I mentioned respec'ing my main. I wasn't about to start a new game just to avoid using Aveline.

Started my 3rd go as a warrior sword and shield balanced between offense and defense atm. Most note worthy thing is that I decided to always answer with the joking/sarcastic remark and noticed that my character started talking sarcastically constantly even when I am not given a choice. Even the battle cries have changed. Nice touch there Bioware.

Edit: I noticed a solution to the Rogue tank problem but it requires a second rogue. "Goad" should make up for the lake of taunt and battle synergy.

Edited, Mar 20th 2011 3:43pm by Laxedrane