Spider

Personally I feel Cunning does add a lot to the rogue. As has been mentioned, there is an assassin talent that makes cunning better, and there is the blood power as well. Since the fourth tier assasin talent is one of the best rogue talents (right after momentum), you'd want to go down that route anyway, so the question is how much of a benefit strength is. If we just go with damage, each point of cunning is then worth 1.17 points of damage and strength is worth 1 (yes, you backstab all the time, or you're doing it wrong). Assuming you'd want at least 21 strength no matter what, if you go the cunning route, you only add 10 more points in strength. So damage-wise, the waste going the lethality route is 10 points of damage. This loss is offset at a cunning of 58. But since you're probably going to have 22 cunning anyways, you'd really need it up to eighty before it evens out completely. But then there's armor penetration. That's 0,14 per cunning point. I'm not sure how armor works, but it reduces damage based on it's value, right? So AP is as good as damage against armored foes, I think. That'd make cunning worth 1.31 points of damage. That means the damage would be offset at 32 cunning (which translates to 54 then). My rouge, at level 23, had a cunning of 60, meaning the cunning build leads to higher damage output. This is without the blood power factored in, which is fair since it's not used that frequently (but has made the difference in some fights). So cunning seems to lead to higher damage per hit that connects in the end game. The question is, how many hits connect? Strength boosts attack rating, cunning does not. I have no idea how this is calculated though, so I have no idea. My character ended with a to hit ratio at 89%, but before the end game started it was at 81%, which is a more accurate number. Don't know what would have happened if I had more strength (also note that I ended on 45 dex, 9 coming from items, which helps more with to hit than strength). My conclusion? Cunning will result in higher damage, but probably with fewer hits connecting. But cunning will also help with stealth and other rogue abilities. I like being very good at all rogueish stuff, so I prefer the cunning build. This is if you're going for the two longswords. If you're going for a dagger build, cunning will increase your damage even more (because there is less waste), and since dex has more of an effect, you can boost that more to get a better chance to hit.

I was playing on Nightmare. I had Shale with two nature crystals which gave decent resitances. Maybe Alistair could have been better if I had invested more in his gear, but Shale was such an excellent tank that it was never needed. having two area stuns also helped a lot for my party.

Anyway, I finished the game last night and am contemplating a second playthrough. Since I played a rogue last time, I am playing either a warrior or a rogue. I am contemplating building an archer warrior that will go around with Leiliana, Morrigan (that will go spirit healer so she can fill both crowd control and support) and Alistair. I hate two-handed weapons and think the tank is boring to play, so it should be interesting, and two archers should be able to dish out a lot of damage. Just out of curiosity, has anyone seen if archers can do backstab attacks? It's been aksed before, but afaik never answered.

Funny that. When I had Shale in my party, she had a much higher survival rate than Alistair. Alistair went down a lot faster in comparison. So in my mind, Shale is by far the better tank. If you're using Shale in any other mode than Heart of Stone though, I suppose she could be a lot more vulnerable.

I think that's just The Edge downloading, not the patch.

Shadow of the Empire. Sold by one of the smiths in Orzammar, one of the outdoors fellows I think. Will cost you around 25 gold or so. but it's a nice piece of armor. Better than the drake scales imo.

Oh yes. I initially just didn't think of looking for the highlight button because I thought everything interactable was already hightlighted with the sparkles. But it wasn't, so then TAB came to the rescue.

No, I had a hard time with it as well. Fortunately I knew you couldn't go back, so I googled for it. Turns out I didn't have all the info required (I thought I did). That's when I learned about the magical tab button.

I'm doing a high cunning build (strength at 26, but 31 with items) and my hit percentage is 81%, which it has been most of the time. I certainly hit more than I miss by a fair margin. Even against bosses. It's possible that falnking plays into that though, maybe backstabbing brings with it a higher to hit chance? I was worried about the attack rating as well for a while, but so far it hasn't been much of an issue. My dex is well over 40 though ( with item bonuses) which could have an impact, I suppose. But since I have lethality, if I was to boost something else than Cunning, it'd be dex. I'm also considering getting dueling, which will also help matters, but I'm undecided if I want that or (more) stealth at the moment.

Holy crowd control! I got tired of all those packs of archers and decided to try and find a strategy to decimate them once and for all. I kinda did. earthquake (from Wynne) combined with Blizzard and Death Cloud (from Morrigan) makes for some very dead mobs. Good news for me.

Yeah, I also sell everything I'm not using. And I've bought all backpack slots I kind find (except maybe the one at ostagar, I think). 110 backpack space now. I'm contemplating getting some mage talent books for Morrigan next. The 131 GP weapon did take it's toll though, but all the board quests in Denerim helps a lot with rebuilding.

I just bought the 131 GP axe that is sold at the camp, I've previously bought two talent books, a skill book, full dragon armor and lots of other good armor. Also a lot of recipes and every gift I can find. And every healing potion. So money isn't a huge issue (I'm on the ashes quest, which is the last of the open). not sure how much came from me being a thief though, but it has contributed. Leave no chest unopened. As far as archery is concern... There is a talent that fires an arrow that stuns every enemy. I hate whenever that one is fired at me, so get that tree if you're bringing an archer. Rule of thumb, if I hate when something is used against me, it's probably good for me to use. That'd give your party above three mass stun effects that isn't tied to the mage. Good times.

shale were pretty effective for us on hard, but am not sure if that would be the case on nightmare. am also not certain that shale's ability distribution is ideal for higher levels o' difficulty. the big health of shale probable ain't gonna be as much benefit on nightmare difficulty... would be better to have higher armour and defense. dunno. next time, when we play nightmare, we will give it a looksee. HA! Good Fun! For me, Shale is the superior tank. Whenever I have Alistair in my party, I quickly run out of health potions, and he is worse at pulling aggro. Combine that with Bellow and Regeneration Stance (which is also a stun effect) and you have the make-up of an excellent tank. He is crap at doing damage in that form, but he doesn't need to, that is already covered. I've also had some use of the ranged stance (after a Blizzard), but mostly it's just Heart of Stone. I have used the offensive stance at times as well, and then he does deal more damage, but not enough for it to be worth it. The last stance that boosts the rest of the party I don't particularly like. Perhaps it's useful if you don't have Wynne in the party (and another tank instead), but I've never had to try that.

ok, I can't say anything about mass paralysis. it was never an option for me, since it's gourth on a tree Morrigan had nothing invested in. So it's probably potentially better. But CoC was the first spell I picked for her and it's definitely better than Nightmare that gets resisted a bit too often if people aren't sleeping first. Sleep has even been better for me, but since neither work on undead, the edge goes to CoC.

Nope, it's still the best.The impression I've gotten is that crowd control is more important on nightmare, so it's possible it's even better. I know the difference in difficulty with and without Cone of Cold is very large at least. Basically there order is something like any crowd control spell is better than any other spell, then spells that isolate a single target, then healing, then damage.

I actually didn't know about tab until way into the game. Which is why I missed the phylactery. I echo having everything interactable sparkle.

There was a revenant in the mage tower? I don't recall fighting one there. Where was it at?

Oh, I would have. Partly because the problem wasn't the damage output, but the survivability. True, with more damage I would have survived longer, so maybe I would have shaved an attempt or two off, but it would still have been very difficult. And the biggest problem wasn't the revenant himself, but the 10 skeletons he brought with him. I had a hard time clearing them out fast enough, and a 2-hander wouldn't have helped a lot there. What would have helped is Shale and Wynne. As it was, Sten was certainly the weakest link in that battle, and Alistair had some serious problem tanking. So maybe a 2-hander is better against a single heavily armored enemy. But that is typically not the type of foes I have problems with, it's when I get overwhelmed. Keep in mind I'm playing on Nightmare, that could change what kind of strategies you need to use. The mobs deal more damage, so maybe crowd control is more important?

That's not how it feels in the game though. doesn't deal much less damage per strike compared to a 2-hander. I'm going by the floating damage points, by the way, not any stats or guesses. And since I strike at least three times when the 2-hander strikes once, it adds up. And the 2-handers keep dying, which adds up even more. But I'm almost always backstabbing with my rogue. Especially when it matters against tougher enemeis. I didn't bring a 2-hander against the revenants, but I didn't miss it either. Shale tanking with rogue backstabbing is all it took. (Except for the first revenant I fought, at redcliffe, which I was somewhat underleveled for). But yeah, I'm comparing a player made character with an npc. So it's a bit unfair. But I don't see how a player made 2-hande will improve over Oghren that much.

Cleansing Aura is good for one thing. It makes injury kits completely redundant since it removes injuries as well. Don't think I've ever used it during a fight though, just afterwards.

Personally I love TQ. I've played it to death and think it's one of the best in it's genre, especially with the expansion which fixes a few things that make the game more enjoyable. Character creation is extremely varied and fun, surpassing any other game in the genre. The game has two drawbacks though (for this type of game). 1: All content is hand placed, nothing is random which could have an effect on replay value. It wasn't an issue for me, because I loved the character system and the game play, but it certainly is for some. 2: No dedicated servers. On the plus side is that the game released with a toolkit, so there are a bunch of interesting mods. There are even campaigns that are supposed to be very long and well thought out. I haven't played them, so I'm not sure. There are also external applications that enhance the game experience (although they are a kind of cheating). TQVault helps with inventory issues (there was no storage in the core game, and the one added in the expansion is very limited, and the game really promotes hoarding stuff). TQDefiler is a character editor that also helps adding a bunch of mods to the game, which is what I mostly used it for. Some of those are cheating mods, but some aren't. I'd check both out if I was getting the game. I definitely recommend it, one of my favorite games.

I honestly think that a rogue contributes more in combat than a fighter, as far as DPS is concerned. Since there are good tanks in the game as is (Shale and Alistair), you're going to need a good damage dealer, and the two handers just aren't cutting it. They're just so slow, and almost as fragile as the rogue is (since they wear heavier armor, they get targeted a lot more often, so I'm tempted to say more fragile). Since the rogues in the game are not all that (although I guess Zevran has the potential), I think the game becomes easier if you have the main chracter as a rogue rather than a fighter. Maybe if you make a dual-wield fighter, I suppose. I haven't tried that, but I'm not seeing it. Specifically, you won't get the wonderful assassin talents. But yeah, I can see how playing as a mage would make things even easier. At least if you get blood magic and arcane warrior. I failed to unlock both, afaik, so I can't say for sure.

If they allow you to continue with the same character, it's going to feel very weird. I mean we're getting to level 20ish as it is, which means we're maxing out pretty much all relevant talents, and then some. So keeping the same character in a second game would mean they'd have to invent really epic stuff to keep the same feel of progression. So it'd have to work along the lines of ToB or MotB. Those worked because they were expansions and thus fairly short (in comparison). By the end of those I had lost all sense of my character actually improving, I was just ppicking high level abilities because I had to more or less. So I hope a sequel will be with a new main character and in another country.

I need some input. I've planned from the get go to give my rogue the spcializations Assassin and Duelist. I never really planned on getting the duelist talents (I was calculating to level 20, and there just wasn't enough room), so I was picking Duelist only to get the stat bonuses. +2 dex was a nice way to reach those 36 needed for requirements. But events in the Fade led med to reaching Dex 36 without Duelist, so now those aren't as important. I'm using dual wield mastery, so I don't have weapons that do damage based on dex (with or without a fix). I also realized I'm likely to reach a level higher than 20, so I might actually have use for the talents. Maybe. So now I'm a bit torn between the duelist and the bard. The bard adds one point of cunning and two points of willpower, which is the interesting part. I do use up stamina with my rogue awfully quick, and although the top assassin talent helps a little, more is always better. We also get the benefit of the first bard song (the one that regenerates stamina), and possibly disorient. I just don't know if the first song is worth it, in terms of effectiveness. Rejuvenation, for instance, was a bit of a dissapointment. The dex points will increase to hit chance (something cunning doesn't do with Lethality, which is somewhat of a drawback to that approach), as will the duelist talents (which will join Momentum in talents that are activated after the initial skills have been burned, essentially making it free). So has anyone had experiences with either duelist or bard they care to share?

Hexes definitely can be resisted. At least vulnerability hex which is the only one I've got. It goes through a good deal of the time (compared to, say, crushing prison), but tougher mobs can shrug it off.