MrBrown

Are you using dispels on the second wave? With two mages, you shouldn't have much trouble with second waves.

Which faction did you side with during your only play through? Mages or Templars? Because there's actually a bit of a difference to make a 2nd play through a bit of a change from the first. Not a huge difference, but a difference (ie. different second in command to Corypheus to fight/learn about, extra backstory on Corypheus). I was disappointed in the Celene/Gaspard/Briala choice though. The only thing that changes is the slideshow at the end. In-game, you don't see a single effect of choosing one over the other. I was under the impression that some stuff changes at the Exalted Plains. There's also a quest Leliana gives you that opens up a small area which allows you to learn more about Corypheus if you side with the templars (it's tied with Calpernia's backstory, so it's only available, AFAIK, if she's the sub-boss). You get it by siding with the Mages too, though the quests are given by Cullen and the area is different.

Scars etc facial stuff is part of the mesh-setting in the graphics settings. If you turn it too low, they'll disappear. Putting it back higher will make them show again.

I'm glad they didn't, the crossroads and Redcliffe in the Hinterlands already got me a huge performance hit.

Playing on Nightmare, I never felt the characters were frontloaded because I spend 20~ hours clearing everything that's available before Skyhold.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying a certain Orlesian ball right now, this mission is ace and totally makes me give this game more points. That's easily the best part of the game. Unfortunately made a bit worse by the long combat sequences within it.

Qunari are probably worse, what with those horns... I'd imagine priority for BIO is 1. Human, 2. Elf, 3. Dwarf, 4. Qunari. As for your second comment, find it on youtube. It looks weird, yeah. I don't think Dwarves are that bad with only two classes, they still have their uses. With DA:I though, race has become mostly a story choice than a stat choice anyway.

Apparently she's more likely to end up as the divine if you romance her. Bioware has always had easy achievements. Usually there's only a couple that take more effort than playing the game normally.

Yeah, you probably want to watch that. Maybe find it on youtube.

Two-handed warriors seem kinda pointless. I think it's between that or dual-daggers. DPS is good but damage per ability use isn't and survival is hard in melee. Admittedly I haven't done much with either though. How are Archers besides Varric? Good. Sera especially with Tempest-stuff. Varric's specialization is kinda underwhelming, IMO.

So how do you stay alive?

Two-handed warriors seem kinda pointless.

Unless I'm doing it wrong, I *do* put barriers up. I handle the mage usually and let the melee/ranged guys do their own thing. First thing I do when combat begins is put up a party barrier. Problem is, the barrier comes down off my party members pretty quickly and the ability is still recharging. So they'll stand in the way of fire coming out of a dragon's mouth instead of moving (unless I manually take control of them to move them when I realize they're burning alive). You have to use Barrier when the big AoE comes, and then hope it's recharged for the next. Don't use it unless needed. You might also want to use the various elemental resistance belts. If you're having trouble with the breath attacks, you might just want to use less melee characters.

Barriers, barriers, barriers.

Managed to beat the Fereldan Frostback before Skyhold, on Nightmare. No bugs abused.

I love that accent! The only accent I can't stand in DA:I is Mother Giselle. To each his own.

Hey, Sera is great! Just a bit nutty.

You both gain and lose a lot of approval in that scene. Dunno why.

Can't help being overleveled for some of them. Not that it helps that much on higher difficulties. The Crestwood dragon is really the easiest in the game. It has the least tricks, with basically just those "lightning circles" that keep dealing AoE damage to everyone.

The hotfix tonight should fix that. Or you can use the workaround posted on the bio boards. (One of the reasons of the patch was that low-end users couldn't turn off the grease. My Thedas has been full of oily hair, vegetation and whatnots since the release.)

In my experience, this is the case with just about every game. :D Oh well, is playable for me still.

All the pieces of one collection are not always in the same area. You're probably right about the ones in Hinterlands, though. And yeah, the dragon fights are pretty well done. Thankfully different dragons also use different tricks. The Fereldan Frostback is actually quite hard despite it's level because of the tricks it uses. Next you can aim for the personal achievement, beating the FF on Nightmare, before Skyhold (and without abusing bugs ).

The main villain could have been cool, but I don't think they fleshed him out enough. And the final boss fight was a joke (easier than fighting many of the mob bosses you face at various points in the game). Endings seem to have become Bioware's weakpoint in recent games. Though I think DA:I's was just underwhelming, rather than annoying like DA2 or ME3 (IMO anyway). Difficulty of final boss fights is hard to do right in open-ended games. I guess they just went with fixed difficulty, instead of level-scaling?

Apparently some of the romances don't have happy endings. There are some sad, sad people over on the Bio boards right now.

I don't like scores so I'm not going to give you one, but I really liked the game. I finished it a few days ago. Very Biowarean, though people might feel the exploration parts don't fit their games.