Volourn

"Would your mages (effective) armour rating by any chance be higher than that of your fighters?" I haven't checked in awhile but I'd be surprised about that because outside of Morrigan's SPECIAL SPOILER, I haven't given my mages (her and Wynne) anything special to wear while my PC character is tanked out with some awesome gear. And, I haven't bother with spell defenses. "Just wondering since the tips on the loading screens hints at high armour values being a magnet for enemies." Yeah, initially 80% of the time my PC (or my other melee character usually Oghren) are targeted but the moment Morirgan casts a spell (since Wynne rarely casts offensive spells) she is bummed rushed at least half the time. Normally, I'm successful and stopping the rush but not always and since any enemy that's an actual threat will kill her quickly. Scenario: Bunch of archers in the back. I cast blizzard. Most of them are frozen. the ones that aren't target her and if the ones who are frozen start moving they target her too. Like I said, I usually manage to keep her alive thanks to healing or my PC taunting but she is most certainly targeted more than her fair share consideirng she's usually far away from melee (barring times with cutscenes of course). P.S. Could it be a computer vs 360 difference?

"btw, is not even just initial... did you even play this game. mage can blast folks with spells all day long and if some armoured chap is closer chances are the armoured guy gets attacked 'stead of the mage. is not our fault if you use wrong.." You obviously haven't played the game. The enemy will go after the mage. It happens quite a lot. Archers love to target the mage. I've seen ogres completely ignore my warrior and go straight for the mage. I've seen dragons take off flying and land right on top of the mage. I've seenr evenants pull a mage right into them. Etc., etc. You must be playing BG2 - a game where enemies will NEVER target your mage unless you use your mage to kiss them. Bottom line is DA > BG2 Mage are awesome in DA; but they are not the be all end all. btw, Hot Shot, how many injuries does your mages have (barring you reload every time a character falls)? My mages fall the most. And, it's laughable you the one whoc ries about how 'hard' DA is tleling me I dunno how to play. Then again, you are probably playing on easy. HAHA!

"very few da enemies seek out mages as a primary target. mages can sit in the midst 'o combat and lob spells relative unmolested. " When an enemy decides to focus on Morrigan and never lets up the chase even when i taunt them and have them chase Morrigan all over the place, it's pretty obvious she's their primary target. Right? Right. Even if she isn't their INITIAL target.

"alan actually confirmed that enemies do indeed prioritize based on armor strength" I know this, and it is true. I did say once she casts a spell they target her.

No, it should be pointed out btw, that the movie is making tons of money internationally so not completely a 'Yank' thing.

"And if your mage is targeted by a tough opponent... force field/crushing prison/death hex serves as a thorough emasculation. " yeah.. But, I tend to use force field to remove the toughest enemy then crushing prison on a mage then death hex on whichever enemy is doing the most damage. The first two don't last that long seemingly, and prison pretty much never freezes the target. And, they take awhile to come back so not enough time to simply recast. And, cone of cold most certainly attracts enemy fire. I'm not saying this happens in 100% of battles; but it happens enough that the claim that 'mages never draw aggro' and 'ar enever in danger' just seems off. All I know is I have to work to keepo my mages alive (and, I do a decent job of it); but I can ignore my PC warrior for a long while and he won't be endanger of dying since low level enemies simply do piddly damage on him anyways thanks to the awesome armour and defence.

"If you play them wrong, of course they're useless." I agree. If you play rogues wrong, of course, they are useless. "Your rogues are fine defense boils down to saying L2rogue over and over, now your mages are fine defense is starting to revolve around playing like a spaz. Just admit the class balance is borked and leave it at that." What does your quote have to do with rogues? Why don't you admit that the balance isn't broken? If it was broken everyone would be forced to play with the same exact party. The balance is fine.

"If your mage is taking hits, you're doing something wrong, no?" Nope. My mage casts a spell and then suddenly all enemies decide to target it. And, with tons of enemies around no way my tanks can successfully block all of them even with the use of taunts. That's espicially true vs enemies with ranged attacks. And, since it doesn't take much for a tough opponent to kill a mage, that's all she writes folks. "Why do I even bother." Thanks for bakcing me up, and admitting I was correct. Nobody claimed that someone beat DA with a solo rogue. "very few da enemies seek out mages as a primary target. mages can sit in the midst 'o combat and lob spells relative unmolested. " O RLY? My foes seem to always target Morrigan. It takes everything I have to get them to target someone else.

"First, no one has yet soloed the game with a rogue." Who claimed this? Nobody in this thread. "Secondly, mages are powerful in the game." Yup. They are. And? They're mages> You would have to gimp mages beyond belief or makes supercharge rogues and warriors to ridiculous levels to baasically nullify the whole point of 'magic'. Still, as powerful as mages are, the other classes are very useful, and a well done warrior can handle a mage fine and/or do better than a mage in this game since a mage cna only take a few hits before dying - 2-3 against an actual tough foe.

All I gots to say is my mages (both Wynne and Morri) were almost useless versus the end boss. So much so, I just let them die, and I had my PC tank the thing with a bunch of elven archers/mages to help. It resisted any of their cool spells and any damage they caused was laughable. Mind you, my warrior didn't do much more damage but at leats he can take a hit and survive the breath weapon. *shrug*

" is people that solo bg2 with bards for chrissakes... " Yeah, but BG2 is a wussy game.

BTW, Mages are so 'overpowered' that people have completed the game with an all warrior party, and are going through with a solo rogue... *shrug*

DA DA DA DA DA

"one aspect that is slight disappointing is fact that the difficulty o' the game seems to largely depend on how jnpcs is built." Nope. This isn't true. The game can be beaten with npcs as is. Their builds are fine. Don't be upset that npcs aren't min/maxed. The game is finely beatable if you play SMART with any jnpcs. Not like all the BG2 npcs were 'optimized' (and thank god for that). Anyways,... I just started the last portion of the game (Landsmeet), and I'm level 19. I've done most quests i could, and have played for 50ish hours (not counting reloads). Nice thing about this game is not every one will play the game the same way. That's a good thing, not a bad thing. "obvious there is some significant balance issues with the game, particularly concerning mages" Nope.

"does Dragon Age's dialogue and story ever make you emotional? Stop and think? Get caught in a dilemma?" Yes. Majority of good RPGs do at one time, or another. Tigranes: The situation you are describing isn't neccessarily the 'evil' option, anyways. It's a matter of perspective. There is one npc I do believe whop does react negatively but then again, he's a racist turd. "Huh. As a dwarf the guard won't let me back in Orzammar... what am I missing here?" You should be able to get fine. Just tell him you a Gray Warden and are there to see the king.

THE RTEURN --------------- 1. NWN 2. DA 3. NHL 08-10 4. MVP Baseball 2005 5. BG2 5. FO2 7. FF8 8. ME 9. BG1 10. FO1

I hope not. The Codex/lore is one of the best parts of the game (as well as ME and JE). I'm sure we'll be travelling to new places so we'll get more codex entries. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it.

"Oh, and to update a post I made a while back, I did finally get the Leliana music video. Turns out that I had a backlog of conversations that trigger when entering Camp in the queue. Comedy gold. " Just listened to it on utube.. all I'll say is... interesting...

"Thanks for entering into the spirit of friendly assistance for your fellow gamers this thread was meant to encourage. " Hey, you are the one who decided to attack me promptly on the rogue issue. Bototm line is rogues aren't weak. Lots of people are bragging about the rogue being awesome with some super skills like constantly hiding mid battle (muicy like hid ein plain in sight ala D&D). Rogues are useful in this game, and if one knows what they are doing they can pretty darn good. Mages are very good but they are not the be all end all. My versions of Morrigan and Wynne don't seem to be as powerful as others who claim that their spells are never resisted. They even die rather quickly if targeted and some times it's near impossible to keep enemies away espicially when they use aoe spells and the enmy (like bosses) cna kill them in 3-4 hits which happens quick. Warriors are awesome espicially weapon and shield types as their surviveability is sweet and is a party saver.

I'm at 50 hours, and just finished gathering allies and completing as many side quests I could. People who are tkaing this long are likely taking our time, enjoying the game, and aren't rushing through so they cna brag how short the game is. btw, That's 50 hours not counting reloads. I spend my time reading the codex, inetratcing with party members, going back and forth from various areas, and just enjoying the scenery, and sexing up my girlfriend (which I'm not allowed to now though can still make it out :).

Rogues aren't weak in this game. If you don't know how to play one that's your problem. People are bragging about how their rogues are kicking butt.

"^ scratched record. " Look in the mirror, bub. But, alas, Alanshu called you out. Brokern records is a common theme on the interent and youa r ejust as guilty as others. Must I tell you the tale of stone and glass windows? It's a nice story.

Don't like the length, don't purchase it.

"I'm still trying to get over the idea of being Overwhelmed by a frigging spider. What are they trying to do, weave a cocoon?" He jumps on your face, and eats it. The crying about mages being overpowered is ridiculous. Seriosuly, how can anyone claim that and then point out D&D mages as an example of 'non overpowered' mages. LMAO I think it's funny that that people claim DA mages are overpowered yet there are people going through the game with an all rogue party. *shrug* Not to mention all the whining about rogues using scattershot and how 'overpwoered' that is. The classes don't need to be rebalanced though as I said before, I wouldn't shed a tear if they just combined warriors and rogues into one class.

."and why would we after so many years?" This is all I need to know. Things change over the course time. No entertain product is exactly as it was originally planned by the developers. Afterall, the golem is an example of this. First, it wa sin, then it was cut, then it was back in as a free DLC for new copy purchasers. As for links.. funny that you ask ME for links when you provide none yourself. Kinda underhanded right? Go figure. Secondly, I don't need to provide a link. If you really want to know do a search on the BIO baords. *shrug*. I'm not worried about whteher or not you go on your merry way thinking I'm a liar. I can live with that. It won't change the truth. Sure, BIO hyped them up. Then again, it's not my fault people take things at face value when a) things change, b) company hype things, and c) BIO is the same company that claimed that BG2 was 200+ hours long when it so obviously wasn't and that was 10 years ago. You cna't just read one post from BIo and expect that will 100% guaranteed that it'll be exactly like that in game since things changes. See, once again, the golem. Bottom line is origins (or should I say the one origin I've played) was the length I expected it to be, and it effected my game throughout espicially in the Orzimmar region (as expected) as well as others. Heck, the weapon I'm currently using (late in game) I have directly because of my origin. At least, I seriously doubt other origins get it since it's a gift directly from an old friend. Flat out evidence that at least one origin lasts a decent amount of time, and effects the future game. Then again, the Dwarf noble origin seems to be pretty popular so other origins may not have been so lucky... *shrug* P.S. DA > BG2