Spider

No, I'm wielding two swords, so I need a fair bit of strength (31 for the best swords) and dex is useless other than as a prerequsite for talents. So 31 Str (including item bonuses here) and 36 Dex is where it's at for me. The rest in cunning. Possibly some willpower, because stamina runs out fast. We'll see. Maybe mass rejuvenation will help once I remember to cast it. What items does the dagger build use that requires strength?

If you're going with the daggers, wouldn't it make sense to skip strength and put everything in cunning and dex? Isn't that basically what Lethality is for in the first place? Anyway, here is my character: http://social.bioware.com/playerprofile.ph...e=dragonage1_pc I'm going with DW mastery, so I can use big weapons in both hands. I've just gotten it too (I guess the character didn't upload last time I played, so it's one more level). I'm building the character to be combat efficient while not losing out on lockpicking, which means I've totally skipped stealth as of now, but might get some points in there eventually. I want to have the assassin tree, which'll be next, and possibly the diabloist tree as well. When my cunning gets high enough, I'll probably pick up Lethality as well. And I haven't really felt lika I need stealth, so it'll probably never be a factor. From a min/max point of view, I accidentally put one point too many in dex. I'm going to add duelist as my second specialization, which would add one more dexpoint. Since I have no use for more than 36 that bums me out a little (I just had no idea how the points you got in the Fade would be distributed). But it's no big deal really. This character packs a mean punch. Would be even meaner if I used poisons a bit more frequently. Momentum is possibly the best talent in the game (not counting spells), and that entire tree is just win. I'm not a fan of traps, so that just isn't a factor. Shale does the tanking, Morrigan the crowd control (not so much damage, more keeping enemies from hurting me. Well, she does do a fair bit of damage as well) and the fourth slot is currently Wynne's, but is switched around a little depending on what I'm currently doing. The character is a bit frail, but can usually be kept out of harms way with taunt and Cone of Cold. And it needs to stay mobile.

If all that's going to be in the network are those two, Windows 7 is the way to go. Homegroups are ideal for that scenario. Add in non-windows7 computers and it's kinda crap though, but then you still got the same basic networking that is in vista, so there is no reason to go with vista over 7.

And the least fantastic thing is the price. But it's one awesome card.

Ok, I just assumed since the name was thrown around just before. He only teleported once for me, in all my attempts. So if he was supposed to jump around more, thankfully I didn't have to deal with that.

What a difference a night's sleep make. Yesterday I was having sever problems against gaxkang. He would just paralyze my party to hell and back, and then kill us with fireballs and cone of cold. Yesterday I focused on keeping out of spell range and try to mop up the minions before assaulting him. That was the wrong plan and resulted in a fiery death most of the time. Today I realized I know his tricks, so I sent the most stun resistant party member to trigger him, while the rest was waiting at his destination, and proceeded to lay the smack down on him. In close combat he doesn't throw fireballs... And I don't think I was subjected to a cone of cold either, though there could have been on. Best of all, Alistair didn't get stunned, so I had all my meleers on top of him after a short while. And without him, the skeletons were a fairly simple mop-up job.

yeah, they're a chanter quest. I was the same as you, Morrigan hadn't gained a single level, so the only AoE I had was dual sweep (my love for that skill is verging on the edge of unhealthy by now, it's basically the answer to everything). The only other effects that would affect more than one enemy I had was Dog's Dread Howl (excellent skill) and Morrigan's Mind Blast (not so much on the excellent, the duration is awful). Fortunately, so far, that is the only fight that has been that frustrating. The spiders on the smae map could have been as bad, if you couldn't get them to attack two at a time. I never thought of running to the gates to put a limit on the wolves, but that was smart thinking. Will have to keep that in mind for the future.

And dual sweep and flurry. Those two really are the backbone of the dual wielder. Anyway, whoever designer the wolf encounter outside Lotheren is now on my list. First time the game difficulty earned it's name. I mean who thought 16 enemies with shred and OVERWHELM would be a good idea. Or even fun... But we're past that now and off to see the elves...

Perhaps. But I don't want to add an unofficial fix. Once it gets in a patch, I suppose I'll crya a bit at the inefficient character I've created, but I'll cope until then. But I don't get the maths to add up. Doesn't the dex fix make it so that you get 0.5 per dex point and 0.5 per strength? And when it comes to sword you get 1 point per strength? (or something similar, not sure about the numbers, just the ratio). So 15 strength and 30 dex will give you less damage bonus compared to 30 str and 15 dex. And the swords do more damage to begin with. Of course, when you factor in Lethality, I suppose you could get an improvement with the dex fix, since your cunning is likely to be very high (which is going to be the main issue for the current character I think, I'll need strength which will lead to lower cunning, making lethality less effective). Regardless, I don't see any need to get dex above 36.

I don't think she's bad, really. She can pretty quickly pick up Cone of Cold, Force Field & Sleep which are the win spells of the game. Not bad, as such. Just horribly unfocused. I'm pretty sure it'll improve once she levels up once or twice though. I'm not sure I remember the names. Keep in mind I'm only level 6. But so far I have the dual wield mastery tree, with two points in that. And the dual sweep tree (which is the better one, with sweep and flurry and then momentum). I've thrown two points into lockpicking (I hate not being able to open locks), and currently have Dirty fighting (which I started with) and below the belt. The plan is to go up to Lethality by level 8 (when I can get it). I think I'll skip the middle DW talent tree completely. I will probably invest in stealth instead. I also have the talent tha increases backstab angle. I'm wearing chainmail and using a longsword and a decent dagger. My strength is 18 I think, as is dex. Cunning is in lower 20. But since I need dex 36 by level 12 (for dual wield mastery), it'll be mostly dex from now on. I'm not even sure if the Lethality route is going to be worth it, given I plan on upping strength to get better swords. The key is to be backstabbing all of the time. Move about, do sweep, do flurry, but make sure you're hitting someone in the back. So manual control is essential.

So I finally got the game as well and started up with a rogue, playing through the origin during the weekend (and reached level 6). I'm playing on nightmare because it's been my experience that if I play RPGs on anything but the hardest difficulty these days, I'll end up regretting it. And so far it's been good. Now, I have a hard time seeing where all the complaints about the rogue are coming from. For me it plays pretty much exactly like I would expect. It's weak as hell if enemies are engaging it, but if it manages to stay alive, it will dish out some sweet damage. Without the use of abilities my character currently has higher damage output than Alistair. I've just gotten Sten, so I can't compare to him yet and I haven't been in enough fights with dog to do that comparison either. Now, if we add in dual weapon sweep and flurry, the rogue deals a lot more damage than Alistair, probably 2:1. And dual sweep is currently the only AOE effect I have, making it even more valuable. And this is without using poisons overly much (I've only used it once, in fact. On the first ogre). So the rogue plays pretty much like a MMO DPS character would. Frail, but can dish it out with the best of them, if you manage to get it done right. I am adding points in strength though, so currently my main weapon is a decent longsword. I'll need to focus on dex for the upcoming levels though, so we'll see how that changes things. Overly, I find the difficulty to be about right for me. Any fight is lethal if I'm not focused. I'm manually controlling everyone, which is a bit more work than I thought it'd be. Why you can't que things up is beyond me. I'll have to experiment with the tactics eventually, just so that none of my characters will stand still doing nothing. I've had a few party wipes, but I managed to beat the ogre on the first try, with both my character and alistair still standing (the other two had no such luck though). I am wondering about one thing though. Is the effectiveness of frosted weapons really that much worse than flaming weapons? With the flaming one, my characters did +4 damage I think, with the ice, it's just +1. That really affected difficulty. I also echo the frustration at thebad NPC design (from a technical standpoint). I don't think any player would be so unfocused with their spell selection as Morrigan is.

In Sweden the PC version is #1 and console version is #2 in overall sales charts. Don't think they're doing any differentiating between CE or not though. So yeah, Dragon Age is shifting a lot of copies.

Some builds replace cunning for strength, and they have been pretty powerful for rogues. But if you do that, what happens to the rogue skills like lock-picking? If you lose out on that, you might as well just play a fighter instead, no? I will most likely be playing a rogue my first playthrough (I usually do, and while the mages are interesting, it's not what I'd like to play) and I am trying to figure out how to build it. From what I've seen you want to have some strength to wield the better weapons. I've seen the number 31 will allow you to wield the strongest sword. Then you need dex for skill. 36 for dual mastery. And rest in cunning I suppose. The question is, how high would cunning reach then? Would lethality even be worth it, or will you end on something fairly similar to strength, so it's better to just get the cunning you need for talents and go all out on strength? How high of a boost can you get from stat boosting items? is it just +1 or +2 or does it go higher? (and why can't we have a DO:Tactics thread for these types of questions)

I think there's room for two threads. A general discussion one like this, and Dragon Age:Tactics that the other MC suggested. Other than that, I think we're good.

Is anyone playing on nightmare? I tried it at a friends for a little bit while waiting for my copy to arrive (the drawback of importing, it takes a lot longer. But it's also cheaper, so I'll wait). I played through the city elf origin (until you reached the camp anyway) and part of the Mage one (until you left the Fade the first time, in case you go in again). On nightmare. The city elf I played with a rogue and until I started to get the hang of things, I did die a lot. But once I got flanking down and started using my abilities as much as possible, it wasn't overly difficult. I even got an achievement for having my character be the last one standing in all encounters (apparently party wipes don't prevent this). As far as I got in the game, nightmare suited me just fine. It was hard, but doable. I had to plan and be careful as hell, though. Mess up and you die. I like that in a game. So I'm wondering what the different difficulty settings actually do? Do they just up damage and hitpoints on the opponents? The mage managed to go through the whole test part without going down, but did die to a bunch of spiders a bit later on, when I was careless enough to be attacked by three of them. Fighting against one or two by myself was still very doable.

Apparently so. Just out of curiosity, what would you have said?

As far as DRM goes, I think Dragon Age actually has one of the most inventive DRM-schemes, and it seems someone is finally getting the point. What I mean is that, in a way, all the free DLC available can be seen as a form of DRM. All the free items you can get through Journeys, the charqacter creator, pre-ordering, etc... is a real incentive to play with an original copy. So for once, actually buying the game adds value rather than detract. I think that was a great move on Bio/EA's part and I hope it pays off. It certainly feels like money better spent than investing in a loathed drm-system anyway.

Yeah, that could be the case. Or maybe they'd just sell you an upgraded roster each year, instead of forcing you to buy the new version of the game. I don't think anyone will go as far as you suggest. Or maybe they will, but then I think the game itself will be free. Publishers are out to make money. They won't make money if their customers won't buy their games. Which is what will happen if things go as far as you suggest. Besides, it's not even something similar to what has happened to Dragon Age. You're still getting a huge game (40-80 hours) with more content than most games out there. Even if Warden's Keep had been in the game to begin with and then ripped out, you'd still be getting good value for your money. That is not the case with NHL2011 without players. They could delay it, but that would probably mean lost sales. At least if they delay it as far as a month. I am under the impression that most gamers play the game until they finish once (if that even when it's a long game) and then move on. So if the content is delayed for a month, all gamers in that category who has already finished the game, will be a lost opportunity. I'm basically like that these days. I don't replay games the way I used to. I haven't been interested with DLC for FO3 at all for instance, because I completed the game long before it arrived and never felt it was worth it to restart just to get to play a few more hours.

Yeah, it kinda does. We need to have two computers that are decent in order to play newer games together. So a netbook just wouldn't do it for us. We ended up going with the Dell Studio XPS.

It's just that $50 is roughly

As if keeping up with all the latest hardware out there for stationary PCs wasn't enough, it's now time for our household to get a new laptop. And then I find out it's an even bigger jungle. There are so many manufacturers sporting so many different types of mobile graphics solutions that it makes my head spin. What we need is a laptop that is somewhat mobile. It doesn't need to be light as a Macbook Air or anything, but you shouldn't cry at the thought at carrying it around either. Something around 2.5 - 3 kgs should be decent enough. This pretty much rules out everything with a screen of 17". It needs to have decent performance. It needs to play HD video content and should be usable for gaming. It doesn't need to be fantastic at gaming, playing at low settings is an option, as long as it'll be able to handle Diablo III when that arrives we're good. (Yes I know there are no specs out for it, so it's a tough comparison, but Blizzard are kinda friendly in those regards. So I suppose if it can get something like Borderlands running, it should be good enough). This rules out all netbooks. If possibly, a nice design is a bonus (it makes it a much easier sell). And, of course, a favorable price is always nice, but not at the cost of (too much) performance. The only reference points I have that seem decent is a Dell Studio 15 or a Dell Studio XPS 16 (I'm leaning towards the latter). Are there better alternatives? Budget for this should be something around

Speaking of which, what is the level cap in this game anyway? And what level will you realistically reach if you're trying to be as thorough as possible?

Playing on what difficulty? I'm playing on very hard and if I'm being careless, I die. So for me, the difficulty so far is about right.

The raptors are loud when they're working, the velociraptor isn't.

Color me also a fan. It's great fun. I think me and my GF will need to have a fight about the computer from now on (she loves Diablo-style games). BTW, it has a Netbook mode. Just how low system specs can you run this on?