Monte Carlo

I politely asked the mods for a tactics thread and they demurred, we are now stuck with a generic comment thread where we have to wade through all the other chat to get some actual advice.

Hey, if it turns out to be a portal, a la the HoW XP entry point in IWD, and you have to pay more to go back in then sign me up for the mob of wailing, pitchfork armed villagers.

I like Claudia Black's VO and there are only two mages to choose from ::shrug:: but she is the Jaheira of DA. Snarky, difficult to win over and pretty useful to have around.

If you look at my record, I'm not exactly a Bioware apologist. Quite the opposite. But the rabid reaction to some people about this issue (not on this forum, most people have have been very measured about it) is a bit... silly. It has full V.O. It has development time. OK, if in six months people are knocking out stuff like this using the toolset, for free, of comparable quality then serve me a big slice of crow pie. I've tried to get upset about it... I just can't. It's the price of a stupid Xmas coffee in Starbucks. Am I missing something? Cheers MC

^ No Shale, but I did beat it in the end. My tactic was to lure the hordes up to the knights at the windmill, who helped me whup them. Then I advanced down, lured up another bunch (rinse and repeat) then headed down to take on the last lot (lost Sten, who dies with alarming regularity, his rubbish CON score doesn't help). You can't really use chokepoints in this game, enemies just squeeze past you like an oiled pig. It's a bit of a pain. Cheers MC

OK, help required. I have a level 6/7 party - My warrior (shield), Sten, Alistair and Morrigan (just levelled her up and gave her a healing spell). I'm at Redcliffe and have defeated the first two waves of zombies, have retreated up the hill and have full health and mana. All the militia are dead. Down the hill is another horde of undead, have re-loaded three freaking times but they won't stop coming. If I turn it down to easy I will never be able to live with myself. We are reasonably well equipped / armoured but have no AoE spells to speak of and are down to 4 health poultices. Any ideas? Cheers MC

Bio made BG1&2, Obz returned the serve with IWD. Let's see them do it with DA:O.

Cup of coffee and a muffin in the Starbucks in Borders = About

Annoying NPCs I'm meant to love (but don't) is all part of the Bioware experience. Enough of their fans love it, so I just spend a lot of time hitting ESC as they warble on. My main beef is the obtuse NPC combo / skill / class decisions endemic in Bio games (why I love IWD and latterly SoZ). The mod that allows you to meet every NPC at level 1 and level them up as you would choose (Sten with sword and shield, Morrigan with a freaking healing spell, Imoen Chick not as a bloody bard) can't come quickly enough. Cheers MC

^ Yeah, it checked it once after I bought it, and once when I started a new game then that's it. I'm going to burn the files to disc anyway in case I change machines.

^ You see, it's this type of tactical acumen and cunning that would make the thread a treasure trove of solid advice.

Hmmm. So I re-started. It had to happen. Again, I'm a human fighter. I rushed other parts of my last game and I'm sure you know the feeling when you want to start again and apply some of the lessons you've learnt before you've done 3/4 of the game (I'd put in over twenty hours and done about 18%!). So, I'm in the Tower of Ishal and start applying sensible tactics and simple things like using the Tower Mage to make 10 health potions, via the bottles I bought from the merchant. I now have decent kit because I took the time to do the Chasind marker quest in the wilds. I utilized the neat-o ballista in the tower to play Genlock ten-pin bowling. I use Alistair and my shield dude to play shield-bash pong in melee, which is lots of fun. Dog now charges properly. I have figured out tactics slots so all the guys drink potions un-prompted. The tactics slots are groovy, it's just that you need to spend some time figuring them out (I was too keen playing to bother for about fifteen hours!). So, moderators, a question. Would you object to a Dragon Age: Tactics thread (I know there's an abundance of them) so we can help any guys having problems with combat without having to trawl all the other threads or (gasp) go on the Bioware site. It's much nicer here Let me know if it's OK, or one of you lot open it I don't mind. Cheers MC

The guy in the link Alan provided hits t'nail on the head - I don't want to play a character that only starts revving at level 15. Given the way dialogue works in DA I can spend 2 skill points as a warrior on coercion and rely on my uber-strength as a multiplier to intimidate people (I get very cool intimidate options and 40-odd STR wrapped in Dragon Armour is very persuasive). Plus, my warrior was useful at level 1. And 2. And 3. Rinse and repeat.

Di, I found the quickest and easiest way of managing this problem was simply opening a new account in-game if that makes sense. All of a sudden it worked very quickly, maybe a server issue or something.

Imoen chick? Great at locks and traps, complete liability at everything else. If you take her along, stock up on injury kits.

Yeah, I think you are right and that rogues could become a bit of a cult for people who like a challenge - next run through I'm going to make one (not least because it means you can try different NPCs) and I'll go for the duellist skill tree. Alistair, PC Rogue and both the NPC mages = teh win.

^ There aren't many 'rogues are gimped threads' that I've seen over there, more general comments in threads about tactics. To be fair, some people are finding their rogues more powerful than their fighters - these I suspect are very skilled players who have discovered how to integrate the rogue and spellcasters together in combat. Anecdotally, people appear to be missing their BG2 style thieves (i.e. broad skillset and more visibly effective backstab). Cheers MC

Jaesun that's heroically good, if I was Vol I'd be delighted and have a laminated copy blu-tacked above my puter.

Why do human warriors start with one point automatically allocated in a shield skill, unlike elves? Rather annoying. How have folks found DW and 2H warriors in comparison with Walking Panzers mit Shield? Given the high dex for the elite DW skills + high STR for armour / warrior stuff it doesn't seem particularly optimal. My 2H guys always get killed because they don't have shields. Blimey, in Ferelden you really do come home with that shield or upon it [/300spartan gag]. Anybody found the best 'combat rogue' build yet to de-gimp the class? I've yet to meet Zevran but Bio forum peeps find him weak too (mind you most of them find the game a handful on Easy, not that I can talk I'm finding it sublimely challenging on normal). Come on, where are the DA min / maxers for chrissakes, you are needed more than ever! Cheers MC

Zweihander warriors die surprisingly easier - basically they need to be used (ironically) like BG2 rogues backstabbing - step in / use 2H uber-damage ability / step back (behind the shield dude). This is how I work with my party - I taunt and suck up damage with my walking shield schtick and Sten steps around hacking at people. He dies quite a lot, and I've given him the best armour I can find.

Alan, if the other two classes weren't quite so strong and fun to play I doubt this would be a major issue. I can't praise the design of the mage class enough, they are really good fun to play. I think the sowrd & shield warrior is slightly OTT (in a good way), to the extent that my attempt to build a dual-wielding warrior was quickly dropped in favour of the Walking Panzer.

^ Honestly, the rogue is pretty much a spare part. They are sub-par archers, their backstab requires excessive in-combat attention (considering how hectic it can get), the ability to throw grenades is OK but not as good as a spell, the locked containers never contain plot-critical items (if they did you can get a key) and de-trapping is useful but not essential given how quickly you regenerate health after combat. They are, basically, sub-par. The other classes have meaningful, clearly defined roles in a game of brutal melee combat, i.e. fighting and spellcasting. I'm happy to be educated by someone who has studied this class and mastered it, please share, I suspect it's gimpiness will make it the class of choice for the expert player looking for a challenge in the future. But as it stands give me three warriors and a mage any day, or two mages and two warriors.

^ The people have spoken. As someone who likes playing rogues, can they please be fixed?

The rogue issue is simple - people want a light fighter with some meaningful, chunky skills. Not a support guy (especially as the player character). If a rogue can scout, be an effective archer (you mention, and I agree, the general pointlessness of archery - the enemy have the advantage of using six or seven of the suckers in a cover / attrition role), scout and have a couple of decent melee skills (that don't require intense in-combat management) then I think we are away and running. As it stands, the rogue is the weak link in a tough tag team, especially in mob combat. Imoen chick dies as much as her namesake. So I gave her archery. So she's useless, or simply not as useful as the other NPCs. I'm spending an inordinate amount of effort keeping her alive. Honestly, if lock-picking was a cross-class skill (modders please note) I wouldn't bother at all, I'd be rolling over Ferelden like a panzer division with my uber-armoured sword and board protagonist, Alistair, Sten and Morrigan in the artillery support role!

Alan, Seeing as you are kind enough to drop by these threads, a quick question. When QA'ing was there a suggested critical path? For example, is there an expectation that most parties will stomp off to Redcliffe then, in turn, be led to the mage tower? (that would make sense, I decided retrospectively). No biggie, it's just that I headed east and ended up helping the Dalish elves and found the boss fight of that quest virtually impossible to finish. I ended up poking around the DLC quests to bump my levels up and now, at level 12, I'm finally in the mage tower and finding it embarrassingly easy (it's not as if I'm a mentat, I've yet to do the Brescilian woods boss-fight having had my arse kicked several times trying and dragging a rogue around has only added to the problem). What do you think about the scaling? And do you think the complaints about rogues are valid (my alt.account on the social networking site has led me to espy many players with similar views)? Valid enough for them to be patched, perhaps? Cheers MC