Asol

I am biased towards Demon's Souls but he mailed this one in. There was fair warning to every element he complained about and he couldn't be assed to get to/passed the tower knight at that? Its more of a negative take preview.

In this setting elves are essentially beheaded as a people seperated from their heritage and nature they are lacking in self reliance and individualism with some seeking a return to form and others just lost and needy. Its almost entirely parallel to District 9 and I think most of the folks here raved on that. Its not the greatest but I wouldn't say there is no appreciable material.

Such a downer this got cancelled.

None of the mechanics being that transparent as a new player I found rogues to have the most early game pitfalls in builds. You have to go more out of your way to have an ineffective warrior or mage in the early game even if spells or mechanics are hazy at first. Later on rogues catch up and perhaps bypass warriors as a player option particularly with the influence of the NPC field. Warriors are a dime a dozen. Leilani is a lockpicking archer bard. Zevran requires enough micro to really maximise his damage that you may aswell play your own rogue.

The global warming fetish is not necessary to feel or promote responsibility, part of the problem with the idea is compartmentalizing responsibility for personally driven environmental impact into a limited flawed and very rejectable package. Never mind why scientific authority has to be absolute and centralized, while glossing over apparent indiscretions like those linked. People shouldn't need an authority to tell them they are demonstrably destroying their environment when they consume and reproduce like run away bacteria on a finite globe. The fossil fuel part is a scapegoat, or more probably the vilifying is a natural lead into years of peak oil which is the actual pressing issue supported by virtually anything I would call a responsible source.

As far as the backbacks and so on go I hope that ME2 doesn't have quite such an MMO encroachment feel to it. I really don't care to be gunning my way down an extra hallway between objectives for the promise of ??0 hours. That said none of it really bothered me but there was an appreciable sense of a content stretch at points.

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.

I played a rogue game on a ps3 version at 'hard' diff I avoided the dagger dex issue by building in the other direction after level 9-10 dex for the most expensive talent you plan to take then jack strength for swords and axes. Momentum and coup de grace are critical to sustained damage and line you up to have aoe attacks as well. I didn't bother with cunning and lethality. I went full ranger line and 1 assassin for mark and the crit. The pets can tank cc and overwhelm. This and stealth allowed an easy duel at landsmeet with no potions or anything. I used poisons for grenades and also the frost and stun coatings for weapons which complements the runes and coup de grace. Character ended up seeming rather strong. The device points also payed out in the end sequence.

I have to laugh at the population over there that howls "OMG go back to WOW" at any poster who points out any of the game balance issues that DAO has. I agree, can't people admit an issue may exist when number and build of mages has more effect on challenge than the difficulty slider. Player options don't need balancing in a single player game? The sentiment is that the balance is not important without PVP and that sounds more like the wowers arguement than general players... Rogue and warrior have some effective builds but the rogue/warrior distinction is kind of nonsensical, in DA it seems like the lionshare of the eggs are in one basket... I wouldn't even call it a big deal, its just baffling to me they created their own IP with creative freedom and this is what they came up with for player options and class and skill balance. They stuck to D&D type mage overlords.

Mera what game is that? Thanks.

Bos you may consider editing you post, you spoiled a possible player path then put a tag over your prequel conclusion...

I'm guessing no one read the prequel novels. Of course I could be wrong, it might of been entirely innocent.

the staves do single element damage based on the staff when auto attacking the mods apply to spells of that school of damage.. ed also way late.

This is a boondoggle like global warming.

Its easier when you Finished a rogue play through, damage pretty much revolves around momentum and coup de grace. Ranger spec turned out surprisingly strong, cheap ccer/tank worth 1-4 points; Thinking either a ranger archery build or arcane warrior for a replay now...

This is a cop out, mages have the lion share of all the bells and whistles, why on earth does rogue have a summoning tree(which tanks pretty effective)? Probably because mages were already way too overpowered. The stamina issue could use an adjustment, rogues can slack and save for burst damage warriors generally need to spam abilities and end up waiting for stam, there is no potion cap or cooldown so mages have no real governor to spaming cooldowns. Mages tank, cc, dps and heal and affect difficulty more than the difficulty slider, I would call that fine balance for sure.

These are the most noticeable design quirks to me, especially after taking all the time to develop their own fantasy IP its a wonder they biffed the class balance so bad, mages out and out own rogues and warriors are just kind of there in comparison. Rogue also has potential early game pitfalls that almost require some fore knowledge of mechanics etc. These are not killers but kind of surprising after the time going into the game. Also playing on hard the difficulty is uneven after level 14 or so most fights are a faceroll with the ocassional speed bump here and there. Time sinks have been over engineered into aspects of the game. I have worked to the lands meet for what seems like ages and had a couple days sessions in the orzammar lines. Rather have shorter more gratifying areas and chapters, then again I am never one of the ones complaining if a game doesn't last weeks and weeks or XX hours. On the positives battles are fun even if balance can be off kilter, the stories and different ethical dilemas I am enjoying a lot. I think the NPCs are generally top notch.

My rogue revolves around the coup de grace skill, momentum and +%critbackstab mods on gear, after getting coup de grace i started getting respectable damage out of my rogue since you benefit from stuns from all sources and etc, it allows your rogue solo a stray archer or what ever with dirty fighting which could possibly out melee a low level rogue which can be comical. Depending on build rogues can be pretty crappy out of the gate, I have some utility points pretty much eclipsed by an auto leveled leilana, and stealth which is not often worth bothering with. There is a problem with dexterity contribution to dagger damage with a fix available for the pc version i believe and i payed a price for scrimping strength, around level 10 I had my rogue balanced out and doing some damage finally

What is it that makes the rogue such a handicap in combat? The lack of equivalence in a general index of dps, survivability, utility and crowd control etc... with other the other two classes, also I am talking about the early game. If there is no ability to tank dps or cc then they are just a liability or variable speed bump tank. The other classes have much more transparency in generating strength, ie non existant dex bonus to daggers etc... If you believe it fine make that case the early game gives no reason to expect rogues to be even marginally functional... etc...

Good Lord are you really thinking you can make this case? You would have to find the game easy on what ever difficulty you played to include a rogue for rogue perks versus rogue draw backs in combat. Sheesh if you got nothing just stfu or back out, I play my rogue for the challenge and the game is relatively addictive it self. The fact is a balance issue is most likely there whether you can cop to it or not is irelivant.

I posted in MC's thread as an attempt to avoid trolls like yourself, rather than unintentionally draw them like a jerk, you have got to be a bio employee or something. In any case are you for real on the rogues issue or just trying to blow smoke? The only reason the first npc rogue isn't complete crap is bard skills and the potenial to set her down the archer's path. Rogue perks require talent and skill investment and still don't [payout unless you are trying to say it works out later in the game than I am in which case you should say that rather than blowing hot air. I have tried the other early games everything > rogues, its borderline wasting your own party slots to include your pc when their is no real payout. The fact is other classes are easier with less thought required to meet objectives.. Rogue should be as good as mage or fighter 'all around'. The utility and other aspects don't come near to making up the combat deficiency that is the case I am making that you decided to ignore. I assume you must be playing a rogue and your points in lock pick, coersion and pick pocket talents must be compensating the lack of ability to win critical combats on difficulty ratings above normal in your opinion otherwise you are just completely FOS and need to STFU. Thanks.

Got PS3 version which was a mistake. Rogue balance seems way off, the utility is not there rogue skills require a solid investment to keep up but don't pay out at least not early, combat no damage survivability cc or utility. They're just bad. I end up doing everything with the other useful characters to make sure my rogue stays alive to do his mediocre damage. I have a mage clearing the same areas easier on a higher difficulty, so far it seems like rogues are just too gimpy. The regen thing doesn't matter, the consequence is that every fight generally has plenty to kill you for mistakes or put a learning curve on an encounter. The graphics and general art(game too) come off overall as worse than JE/Kotor. There are good points but a lot of weird decisions...

That ring is a major perk. The mage on the other hand is probably the most difficult start, has to be stingy with mana and is physically weak with poor gear.

This game is excellent just got my knight to 1-2 and a +1 longsword. The difficulty is pretty stern, I have lost heads up to the red face knight with a spear probably 10 times now he always gets a herb in before i can get that last back stab.

Well for the one cent crowd after transaction costs they have payed some 20ish cents to give you the game. I guess on the low end they consider it an advertising investment to pay to give the game to non-buyers for exposure and so on. After costs? No one is saying they don't know what they are doing...