Dragon Age Tactics

[Volourn]

"unless you is playing a mage we would not recommend redcliffe first."

 

Kididn' right? Barring perhaps the mage tower, Redcliffe is by far the easiest of the main 4 areas. I'll take my chances with zombies over werewolves any day of the week. they even give you an easy out against one of the toughest enemy types in the game PLUS you do not even have to face the end boss if you choose not. Redcliffe, challenge wise, is the 2nd easiest one imo with only the mage tower being easier. The forest can be really tough, and no doubt about Orzammar's challenge level.

[mr insomniac]

Agree on the forest being tough for a low level party. Went there first after Lothering this playthru. Damn revenants. That's all I'm gonna say. Damn revenants.

[Gromnir]

Agree on the forest being tough for a low level party. Went there first after Lothering this playthru. Damn revenants. That's all I'm gonna say. Damn revenants.

 

the revenants is optional in the forest and forest ruins. the revenant at redcliffe is not optional.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited November 29, 2009 by Gromnir

[Oner]

There are a load of knights to tank it for you and they deal damage to it too. A lot.

Edited November 29, 2009 by Oner

[Gromnir]

There are a load of knights to tank it for you and they deal damage to it too. A lot.

 

agreed. doesn't change the fact that the brazilian forest revenants is optional and the redcliffe one ain't.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Volourn]

Nor does it change the fact that recliffe is easier than forest. R00fles!

[Spider]

Want crowd control? Just use Mass Paralysis, and Nightmare. Much better than Cone of Cold. I'm not using CoC my 2nd play through and I'm having an easier time of it. *shrug*

 

ok, I can't say anything about mass paralysis. it was never an option for me, since it's gourth on a tree Morrigan had nothing invested in. So it's probably potentially better. But CoC was the first spell I picked for her and it's definitely better than Nightmare that gets resisted a bit too often if people aren't sleeping first. Sleep has even been better for me, but since neither work on undead, the edge goes to CoC.

[mr insomniac]

Agree on the forest being tough for a low level party. Went there first after Lothering this playthru. Damn revenants. That's all I'm gonna say. Damn revenants.

 

the revenants is optional in the forest and forest ruins. the revenant at redcliffe is not optional.

 

HA! Good Fun!

I could have avoided them at the time and come back later when the gang was stronger, that's true, but I wanted that suit of armour. So I got greedy and used up much of my (then) small stock of health and lyrium, heh.

[Monte Carlo]

I went to the forest on my first game - slugged through it all with great difficulty (still learning the game) but couldn't beat

the dalish elf dude at the end

 

 

Second game went straight to Redcliffe - I never thought I'd be able to save the militia so slugged it out there too, Hamburger Hill style! Kept kiting the zombies under spell and missile fire back up the hill to fight the knights at the top, then found a little spot where the game lets you rest. Cheesy, but I was low level, out of poultices ammo and everything else. My S&S guy was last man standing with about 11 or 12 health left.

 

Then

we didn't get it that you could open the portcullis in Redcliffe castle

and fought the Revenant, about level 8 or 9, Alistair last man standing this time!

 

Now I'm on top of the combat mechanics and spell combos - next (and probably last for a while) playthrough will be my amoral Good Fellas dwarf barrio rogue.

 

For some reason I stop and make final end saves before the final battle - so I haven't finished the game! I'll have three level 20-22 characters with three end saves then decide which one to finish with. Strange, I know, it's just the way I've decided to finish what has been a really enjoyable game.

 

Cheers

MC

[SeanM]

Until you run out of Lyrium potions.

 

This is my first playthrough (Normal), and I barely survived the siege. Now I'm out of lyrium potions and dust (blacksmith doesn't seem to have any more), and wondering if I should continue through the remainder of Redcliffe in this state or try to go through the siege again and try to conserve a few more potions.

 

Once you defend the night siege at Redcliffe village. You can leave and come back.

 

One of the mid game locations sells unlimited lyrium dust and another sells unlimited Elfroot. You can visit their vendors without starting their quests. And unlimited flasks can be bought at your camp.

 

I would restock with potions and then continue on with Redcliffe Castle. I think you can leave the Castle at any point and return later if it gets too tough. A lot of people had trouble with the Redcliffe Siege. There are still hard fights coming up. But that is the case with all of the locations.

Edited November 29, 2009 by SeanM

[Gromnir]

Nor does it change the fact that recliffe is easier than forest. R00fles!

 

 

well, 'cause vol saying it makes it so. heck, have noticed that the opposite tends to be true: vol observations has a preternatural tendency to be wrong.

 

for Gromnir there were only 1 tough battle in the brazilian forest ruins, and that were a gimmick battle. took two reloads to figure out gimmick, and then it were easy as the pie you love so much. insomniac thought brazilian were hard, but he were including the optional revenants, which ain't really appropriate for comparing relative difficulty for a low-level party. the Big battle in brazil is tough or easy depending on the spells you has given your mage... which again speaks to the wacky balance o' da more than anything. with force field and cone o' cold, the end battle is somewhere between easy and manageable.

 

regardless, there is a considerable number o' people at bio boards and here who struggled mightily with redcliffe as a first stop... and there is few threads complaining 'bout overall difficulty o' the forest.

 

the following is not directed at the pie-lover:

 

one aspect that makes a considerable difference regarding why redcliffe is so tough early, is lack of lyrium potions. as a new player you has no idea how to get lyrium. after ostegar and lothering, Gromnir had two or three lyrium potions and maybe 8 lesser lyrium potions, with supplies to make a few more. the redcliffe battles is considerably longer than those in the forest, and you is far more likely dependent on potions (which you probable don't have) to complete battles. individual battles in the forest may be tough for some folks, but they is unlikely gonna exhaust potion supply... unless you get greedy and try to wipe out the revenants with a level 7 or 8 party.

 

a party with 1 mage, a paltry stock of potions, and no healing spells, makes the long battles at redcliffe a challenge for a level 7-8 party that don't benefit from meta-knowledge.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited November 29, 2009 by Gromnir

[HoonDing]

On my first playthrough I burnt all my lyrium potions during the Revenant battle in the Mage tower (level 7/:) and eventually I had to do the End boss of that level without any potions at all... without Force Field & Cone of Cold, it would probably have been impossible to win.

 

I was lucky that I had just continued developing the spells Morrigan started out with, instead of giving her fire spells...

Edited November 29, 2009 by virumor

[TheHarlequin]

As stated above redcliff NOT the first place to go to. Epic fail on devs for, as said above, having the npcs tell the player to go there asap.

 

here is a good order to address the treaties that worked for me;

 

elfs

mages

redcliff and assoicated quests

ozzy

 

From the easiest to most difficult I'd say. And anyone who tells you 'all the encounters scale equally you can do them in any order' is full of bunk. Period.

 

Why the elves first? Going to the elves first doesn't give you anything other than experience. Why not go to the mages first? The circle gets you a healer and all the upgrades in the fade.

 

I find wynn moot (I kill her in fact). With the respec mod I turned morg into a nice balance between healing and combat.

 

As for the mages tower you got a point. However I found the elves quest much more managable and as a whole combat easier. (NOT including optional fights) My party on normal chewed though the werewolves like a hot knife though butter. Not sure if it was my party comp (pc human DW warrior, alister 1h/shield, morg and leh) or simply luck. But went though it twice 2 far and both times found it a bit easier AND quicker then the mage tower. Plus those extra levels helps you by the time you do get to the mages tower and red cliff which in turn make those encounters easier to manage. A very nice domino effect I found.

 

Clearly the 'scaling' for DA is broken as grom implied.

[jaguars4ever]

FIREBALL

 

When you absolutely, positively, have to kill every motherf*cker in the room. Accept no substitutes.

[HoonDing]

Storm of the Century > Inferno > Fireball

[Monte Carlo]

This post is about armour, this is the only tenuous link to the topic. Then again, I started the thread yadda yadda.

 

There is a piece of armour crafted from a block of pure awesomeness. I wish I knew how to post pictures. I genuinely wonder if it's an Easter Egg.

 

Equip, on a human, the Armour of Diligence (I think that's what it's called) and the Heavy Dwarven Boots of Something or Another (I paraphrase). Result? I s**t you not, golfing plus fours. And they're plaid. Honestly, you look like Bob Hope in a screwball 50's comedy or something.

 

Either that or they were trying for a sort of Asterix the Gaul tartan type effect but honestly it looks like I'm playing golf in a New England country club circa. 1949. LOL!

 

Cheers

MC

[alanschu]

Print Screen to take a picture, now found in your BioWare folder.

Simply add them ass attachments to posts.

 

 

(sorry I didn't respond to you in CoH, I was watching a replay and the game wouldn't let me chat back)

[Pidesco]

The forced skills and talents in character creation are really annoying, and pointless too. Basically, if I start as a mage, I have one less skill point than with other characters.

[Deraldin]

I find wynn moot (I kill her in fact). With the respec mod I turned morg into a nice balance between healing and combat.

 

As for the mages tower you got a point. However I found the elves quest much more managable and as a whole combat easier. (NOT including optional fights) My party on normal chewed though the werewolves like a hot knife though butter. Not sure if it was my party comp (pc human DW warrior, alister 1h/shield, morg and leh) or simply luck. But went though it twice 2 far and both times found it a bit easier AND quicker then the mage tower. Plus those extra levels helps you by the time you do get to the mages tower and red cliff which in turn make those encounters easier to manage. A very nice domino effect I found.

 

Clearly the 'scaling' for DA is broken as grom implied.

 

I'll give you the point about Wynne. You only really need the first healing spell and your mage should have that before leaving Lothering anyway. Your point about the forest being faster is right on. It definitely doesn't take nearly as long to go through the forest as it does the mage tower simply because of the Fade area in the tower with all the backtracking to get the stats and forms. If you try to work things out peacefully I'd say the forest is much easier than the circle, but that final battle can be much more of a pain than the big fights in at the circle.

[Tigranes]

The forced skills and talents in character creation are really annoying, and pointless too. Basically, if I start as a mage, I have one less skill point than with other characters.

 

Yes, they are stupid. Get a respec mod, first one I got.

[HoonDing]

Anyone have any tactics for the cranium rats in the beginning of the Human Noble origins?

 

Oh, wait.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Genuine LOL!

[Spider]

Holy crowd control!

 

I got tired of all those packs of archers and decided to try and find a strategy to decimate them once and for all. I kinda did. earthquake (from Wynne) combined with Blizzard and Death Cloud (from Morrigan) makes for some very dead mobs. Good news for me.

[Volourn]

"well, 'cause vol saying it makes it so. heck, have noticed that the opposite tends to be true: vol observations has a preternatural tendency to be wrong."

 

cry all you wnat but youw ere wrong. Many people on the BIo boards and elsewhere believe that the the silly village/castle is the 2nd easiest behind the mage tower. On top of thta, the people whod eisgned the game, balanced with that in mind., So, poor little whiny Grom who plays the game on easy shouldn't be worrying about how hard an area is. LMAO

 

 

1. Tower (very short, and mostly easy fights)

2. Pathetic Little Village Where You Fight Wussy Zombies

3. Ashes To Ashes (minus one obviously optional fight)

4. Tough Forest With Overhwelming Wereolves & An Army Of Actual Deadly Skeles + Super Spiders + Tons of (Mini) Bosses

5. Orzammar

 

 

Also, i find it funny that youa re trying to use BIO posters to 'prove' your point whenm they cna't even agree amongst each other. Espicially since many of them think rogues are awesome and you think they are the worst ever. R00fles!

 

So, I guess someone's opinion is only right whenh it is yours. Dififculty/challenge is different for everybody. that's why you play on easy, and I play on hard.

 

 

As for balance/scaling or whatever being 'fubared', it beats 99% of RPGs including that pathetic BG2 garbage game. You can beat friggin' Gygaxx in exactly one hit or be completely immune to him with one scroll. Yup, that's balanced. L0LZ

 

 

 

"The forced skills and talents in character creation are really annoying, and pointless too"

 

Nah. It's your training before the game starts. You think your character came into being in a vcaccum?

 

 

 

"Basically, if I start as a mage, I have one less skill point than with other characters."

 

Are you truly trying to claim that mages are treated unfairly and are underpowered? Weird....

 

 

 

"Fade area in the tower"

 

Takes less than an hour, and very little backtracking even on my first time - I just had to go back to one place. I backtracked a lot more with the Forst/Ruins, and had to avoid some optional encounter smy first time through. Never had to do that with the Tower.

 

 

 

Mass Paralysis + Inferno (or any area of effect spells that persists) is an awesome combination espicially versus mages/archers who don't normally move around.

 

The 'necromancy' line is pretty sweet, too.

[Monte Carlo]

I'm sure Gromnir will speak for himself, but he played on Hard with a 2H fighter.

 

The Dawn of the Dead scenario at Redcliffe is an early game nightmare for a 2H fighter. 2H fighters excel in boss combat / one-on-one. Redcliffe is mobs.

 

My sword and shield guy was last man standing, my DW warrior went all Chuck Norris on them.... when Sten was my last dude in that battle. Hmmm.

 

This game isn't scaled for every class / specialisation / party combo... it couldn't be. I see why Grom struggled with that battle. Me? I'd have switched difficulty down to normal but I ain't Grom.

 

Cheers

MC