HoonDing

Morrigan & Shale.

I also finished a second playthrough but for now am going back to NWN 2. At least in that game 90% of battles don't boil down to "cast sleep, cast cone of cold, shatter enemies, rinse & repeat". The only challenge the game provides is either ambushes where the party is positioned in the worst way possible and/or being outnumbered 5 to 1 at least, but even those can be beaten fairly easily with said spells... not to mention health/lyrium potions are easy to come by in large doses.

In before Russian reversal.

Nope, its just slightly overzealous balancing. But thanks. Then one might wonder why Bio didn't nerf Mana Clash? It's an unresistable "Finger of Death" spell for enemy mages. And since most mobs only have one mage...

Turn-based combat, or at least the ability to pause every turn (if there even are turns) would make the combat much less chaotic & more palatable. This is what made Drakensang combat so fun & tactical. The reason why I'll probably never play a non-archer rogue, is that having to micromanage said rogue + a mage, would be a nightmare with having to pause every two seconds... similar to NWN 2 with Qara in the party.

Same reason why a mage should ignore Willpower. With unlimited potions to make and use without any consequences (unlike in the Witcher, where potions had Toxicity levels) one should simply pump Magic and get a 100+ spellpower. Willpower gives 5 mana per point, Constitution 5 HP per point... not enough pay-off.

Not all is drab in Oblivion. Thieves guild & Dark Brotherhood were decent in Oblivion. Some of the city quests were too. The either insipid or overblown delivery of the voice actors really drags everything down, though.

I noticed the level scaling with the Helmet of Honnleath, supposedly the best helmet in the game. It goes from Tier 1 all the way to Tier 7 depending when one goes to fetch Shale. It's like Oblivion, with the difference that nothing changes visibly, only stats change. So all those Denerim thugs might as well come charging in Dragonbone armour. EDIT: dyslexia

Mages really shouldn't be nerfed. They're already extremely squishy, being able to disintegrate & freeze mooks is supposed to compensate for this. There's supposed to be a reason why they're locked up in a tower. Fixing the AI would be better. I.e. enemies quit attacking Force Fielded allies, and go after the mages first in combat rather than attacking the person that take longest to kill. In both my playthroughs either Morrigan or my mage simply ran all over the place owning everyone without punishment. Imagine doing that with Edwin in Baldur's Gate.

Oblivion is a horrible anomaly in Bethesda's history. Then again, notice how similar the main stories of Oblivion & Dragon Age are, for instance? Both involve relative nobodies joining an elite organization and needing to put some secret heir on the throne, all the while fighting dremora/darkspawn (mooks with messed up faces) led by some huge demon. The difference between the two is just the execution.

Fixed.

Been there, done that. That would be unoriginal & disappointing, so it's probably gonna end up that way.

Not connecting to the social site is the key, I guess... As long as archery & memory leak isn't fixed, I'm not going to install any new patch.

Who's to say this new patch doesn't install itself automatically without you knowing? Just like with the Edge? I don't want it either. They even have the audacity to nerf Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold & Force Field. Bah. And those Denerim bandit encounters are awesome. Maybe for Nightmare difficulty they should've replaced all those 'generic' thugs with Ser Cauthrien duplicates.

I think most interesting new plotline would involve a war between the two Chantries. But that would probably be too complex for BioWare. They like to focus on their ancient evil thingie. Still, I'd like to be surprised. Something concerning a Qunari invasion is probably a bit too near in the future as well.

Cool ideas, but regardless of some new bells & whistles (new classes, another part of Thedas) it'll probably be something like this: DA2: DA3:

Knight Commander plate = 40% MR The Spellward (amulet) = 30% MR Key to the City (ring) = 4% MR Starfang with 2 grandmaster dweomer runes & 1 expert dweomer rune = 26% MR Total: 100% magic resistance Starfang, Knight Commander plate -> from Soldier's Peak, I wager?

Walking Bomb should be taken just for the lulz. Use it on a wisp in the Fade and watch it explode in a fountain of blood... hilarity.

Doing Orzammar early until you get Oghren, and then head out instead of doing the Deep Roads works fine too. Otherwise you're missing out on much of Oghren banter & quest input. Besides, Oghren > Sten.

Magic is much more fun in Dark Messiah. With Telekinesis you can pick up the statues outside the temple and throw them into the faces of the Orcs. Comedy gold.

Only way to get rid of Curse of Mortality is Cleanse Area or Dispel Magic. But putting the schmuck in a Force Field probably helps too. Wade's drakescale sucks since it looks like generic leather armour. At least Ancient Elven armour looks slightly different from chainmail.

If enemy 'blood' mages would actually use blood magic spells the game would be much harder. As it is now, the tag above their heads should be changed to "Amateur Poser". If enemy mages would use Mana clash, the game would be nightmare for PC mages. The only time my mage fell in her playthrough was when by chance that special mage in the Temple of the urn used Mana clash on her = instant 202 damage & knock-out. *giggle* Usually when Emissaries use Curse of Mortality or Crushing Prison, it's knock-out time for one of the party members too. But they hardly ever do. In Baldur's Gate at least enemy mages didn't hold back... but usually cast 500 spells instantly as soon as they spotted the party.

Arcane Warrior's attack rating is always going to be mediocre, unless your spellpower is very high which is a no-go since AWs need high willpower to toggle all the sustainables. I only picked it for Shimmering Shield so I could solo dragons. Even without wearing armour, my mage has a higher armour rating than Sten/Oghren in dragonbone armour with Rock armour activated & dressed in Reaper's vestments. Even Alistair's armour rating isn't too far away. I set her from "default" to "ranged" behaviour.