Dragon Age Tactics

[Dark_Raven]

 

 

Any how, anyone take on that Dragon in the Ashes quest? I almost had my ass handed to me on that. I had one Sten left who was alive, low on hit points and he scored a critical on the dragon and won the day.

[Deraldin]

"Spamming Cone of Cold nicely keeps the Mage Tower Revenant in check. That is, until one runs out of lyrium potions. "

 

Only helps so much. Not gonna win just with that one spell since the duration is very short, and it takes a little while to come back. Good idea is to use spells to make his attacks weaker if you have them. And, get ready to run with whatever made is doing the most damage. L0L

 

I haven't used Cone of Cold on my current normal run, but on easy you can almost permanently keep a revenant frozen. It'll unfreeze just before the cooldown on the spell ends and shouldn't get more than one, maybe two attacks in if he's lucky.

[Volourn]

"but on easy you can almost permanently keep a revenant frozen."

 

Wow. Thank god I didn't play on easy. Revenants are so fun because they are hard (and the first one is *usually* surprising in its hardness). One simple cone of cold being all it takes to win would be.... uncool.

 

 

"Any how, anyone take on that Dragon in the Ashes quest? I almost had my ass handed to me on that. I had one Sten left who was alive, low on hit points and he scored a critical on the dragon and won the day."

 

yeah, pretty tough. Espicially if it is on the ball. Sometimes the AI gets stuck, though. One time I had to reload because I couldn't have had an easy win because it just sat in some place farting after it had killed all but Morrigan and she was able to just cast spam cast on her untouched. I had to come back to it after doing the Deep Road 'cause I wans't up to the task originally (it slaughtered me wholesale). Beat it, at level 18ish. With greater knowledge of the game, I can probably take it now at a lower level if I play smart.

[Dark_Raven]

After winning that, I went back to Denrim and had Wade

make me some neat dragon armor.

[HoonDing]

I haven't used Cone of Cold on my current normal run, but on easy you can almost permanently keep a revenant frozen. It'll unfreeze just before the cooldown on the spell ends and shouldn't get more than one, maybe two attacks in if he's lucky.

Cone of Cold still owns almost everything on normal, especially after a Vulnerability hex.

 

I figure Misdirection hex later in the game makes Revenants (and any other heavy hitting mini-boss) cake.

 

But on Hard/Nightmare most critters probably have ridiculous resistances against everything. Bio's idea of making a game hard.

Edited November 27, 2009 by virumor

[Gorth]

Revenants are so fun because they are hard (and the first one is *usually* surprising in its hardness).

You don't say

 

I got caught with my chainmail pants down the first time. No freezing or otherwise spells brought along (a relatively low level Wynne) when I succumbed to curiosity and poked my nose where it didn't belong. Cost me my little stockpile of health and injury potions and in the end, a party member (last man standing alive) with less than a handful of HP brought it down... in my third attempt or so. Second attempt was spend practising the for me relatively unknown buffs.

[Tigranes]

Cone of cold is the best spell in the game, hands down, on any difficulty, really (unless Nightmare is different). If you bring along someone with good healing skills and some decent fire resistance, the mountaintop dragon isn't hard - just slogging it out.

[Gromnir]

Here's an idea for finding things Grom. Look for stuff. Why the need for hand holding? There's already way too much of that in DA specifically, and RPGs in general. The less babysitting the better.

 

 

why? doesn't add to gameplay, and the biowarians has already supplied tab to reveal everything. the way we look for stuff is to hold down the tab button. maybe some dope pixel hunts with his cursor and adds 200 hours to game making sure he covered every conceivable spot in game, but Gromnir is not foolish to engage in such nonsense. the biowarians gave us the tab button, but tab only has a very limited range, so we effective gotta tab every few seconds o' gameplay... which we does. to what end? to stretch Gromnir's pinky finger? what is biowarian motivation?

 

in bg2 there were hidden stuff too, but the biowarians made entire map subject to the tab function. we could be on other side of slums and use tab to recognize that there were a hidden object in the wall at the base o' the jansen home. there were no walk-20'-and-tab silliness in bg2.

 

if "Look for stuff" made game more challenging or more fun, we would do so... but there ain't no challenge 'cause tab reveals all. and only vol could thinks 20'-n'-tab is adding to fun. if no challenge and no fun, then from game design pov there is no purpose, so why do it? is a somewhat tedious bit o' repetition... like arguing with vol.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Azure79]

I'm trying to make a dual wield fighter with some sword and shield talents. I'm trying to go for a fighter that dashes in, does WW and Dual weapon sweep for damage to a lot of enemies and then switches to weapon and shield to stay protected while using shield bash, etc, while other dual wield talents recharge.

 

I think with the books that give skill points it be viable.

[Volourn]

"Cone of cold is the best spell in the game, hands down, on any difficulty"

 

Nah. Plenty of other spells are better, imo. But, that's okay, nothing wrong with different people liking different spells.

 

 

 

"adds 200 hours to game making sure he covered every conceivable spot in game"

 

O RLY? 200 hours just on this? That's , let us agree, is just impossible. Took me 60 hours, and most people seem to have taken between 40 and 80 hours - so are you saying without this, it would take people - 120ish hours to complete the game. So, in conclusion, I hope you realzie that you silly situation is utterly impossible and doesn't make any sense? Right? Right.

Edited November 28, 2009 by Volourn

[Dakar]

You must be playing a different DA than. Now ay does 3 spells take down a revenant even on easy... so why do you lie?

 

On Normal that won't even bring a Rev's life down to 3/4s so... yeah.

[Gromnir]

"Cone of cold is the best spell in the game, hands down, on any difficulty"

 

Nah. Plenty of other spells are better, imo. But, that's okay, nothing wrong with different people liking different spells.

 

 

 

"adds 200 hours to game making sure he covered every conceivable spot in game"

 

O RLY? 200 hours just on this? That's , let us agree, is just impossible. Took me 60 hours, and most people seem to have taken between 40 and 80 hours - so are you saying without this, it would take people - 120ish hours to complete the game. So, in conclusion, I hope you realzie that you silly situation is utterly impossible and doesn't make any sense? Right? Right.

 

*sigh*

 

this is getting ridiculous. pixel hunting would indeed add 200 hours-- using cursor to actual look at every spot in game would take At Least 200 hours. yutz. use tab is a way to avoid pixel hunting, and the trade-off is the mildly annoying 20-second tab routine. if you can't keep up, then just go back to spewing nonsense 'bout the inevitability o' overpowered mages... who ain't actual overpowered... or something similar. is tough to keep track o' your nonsense.

 

in any event, why? elfroot, deathroot, and lootable corpses is clearly identified, but for some reason bio chose tab function for other stuff. is no challenge. is not fun. is simply an exercise in tedium. again, if search were attached to some skill or ability, then we could see usefulness of tab, but if is simple a mechanical response for the ocd crowd, then it does not improve game and should be corrected in bios next attempt at da.

 

"On Normal that won't even bring a Rev's life down to 3/4s so... yeah."

 

don't try to be reasonable. won't work.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited November 28, 2009 by Gromnir

[Spider]

Cone of cold is the best spell in the game, hands down, on any difficulty, really (unless Nightmare is different).

 

Nope, it's still the best.The impression I've gotten is that crowd control is more important on nightmare, so it's possible it's even better. I know the difference in difficulty with and without Cone of Cold is very large at least.

 

Basically there order is something like any crowd control spell is better than any other spell, then spells that isolate a single target, then healing, then damage.

[Tigranes]

Nope, it's still the best.The impression I've gotten is that crowd control is more important on nightmare, so it's possible it's even better. I know the difference in difficulty with and without Cone of Cold is very large at least.

 

Good to know. I'm at the endgame in my second playthrough and my next will definitely be on Nightmare.

[Volourn]

"Nope, it's still the best.The impression I've gotten is that crowd control is more important on nightmare, so it's possible it's even better. I know the difference in difficulty with and without Cone of Cold is very large at least."

 

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*

[Pidesco]

So, with my most recent character I decided to go to Redcliffe right after Lothering. My main character is a warrior and Morrigan has only leveled up once (picked cone of cold). As such, I don't have any healing spells. How do I beat the night battle while keeping all the militia, including the mayor, from keeling over in a second?

 

I managed to keep the knights from dying in the first sequence by engaging the undead as close to their spawn point, but in the battle in front of the chantry, when I get there the battle is already a confused mess without any way to keep the undead from reaching the militia.

[Gromnir]

So, with my most recent character I decided to go to Redcliffe right after Lothering. My main character is a warrior and Morrigan has only leveled up once (picked cone of cold). As such, I don't have any healing spells. How do I beat the night battle while keeping all the militia, including the mayor, from keeling over in a second?

 

I managed to keep the knights from dying in the first sequence by engaging the undead as close to their spawn point, but in the battle in front of the chantry, when I get there the battle is already a confused mess without any way to keep the undead from reaching the militia.

 

our only helpful advice is supremely unhelpful: reload from before going to redcliffe.

 

am only wondering what kinda sick joke the developers had in mind when they had allistar repeated suggest going to redcliffe as the initial stop after lothering. Gromnir went to the mages tower initially so we could recruit wynne... 'cause we needed a healer badly. 'course we heard all sorta people complaining that going to redcliffe first were a kinda death trap, so we reloaded an earlier saved and did redcliffe right after lothering.

 

...

 

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

 

HA! Good Fun!

[HoonDing]

Huh.

 

First time I did Battle of Redcliffe, militia got wiped out. Second time... same result. It's best to leave Redcliffe before the battle, and leave the schmucks to their fate, imo. Same difference.

[Oner]

Seconding Gromnir.

[TheHarlequin]

So, with my most recent character I decided to go to Redcliffe right after Lothering. My main character is a warrior and Morrigan has only leveled up once (picked cone of cold). As such, I don't have any healing spells. How do I beat the night battle while keeping all the militia, including the mayor, from keeling over in a second?

 

I managed to keep the knights from dying in the first sequence by engaging the undead as close to their spawn point, but in the battle in front of the chantry, when I get there the battle is already a confused mess without any way to keep the undead from reaching the militia.

 

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.

Edited November 28, 2009 by TheHarlequin

[HoonDing]

Brecilian Forest first, without Wynne? There are some very challenging fights there for a low-level party.

 

I'd take Circle Tower, followed by Redcliffe-Denerim, then Elves, Urn & Orzammar.

[alanschu]

What difficulty level are you playing at?

 

I went through Redcliffe on Normal with me (rogue), Alistair, Morrigan, and Leliana, and near as I can tell I don't remember losing anyone specific (yes some militia fell but hey, it's war). Even if I did, it didn't have any real impact on the game if someone did die, as far as it looks to me.

 

 

The encounters don't all scale evenly, but the only one I know of that is scaled higher is Orzammar. I usually do Broken Circle first though, to get the attribute bonuses as quickly as possible.

 

Having said that, each area does scale, as Redcliffe is more than possible as your first target. YMMV on higher difficulty levels though.

[Pidesco]

I'm playing on normal, and by the time I get to the second battle (that's a few seconds after the guy coming to fetch me), half the militia is already dying, including the mayor, and that's just with the first few undead. As there are still, what, 20 or 30 undead waiting to spawn after that, you can understand how I'm finding it impossible to keep anyone alive besides my own party.

 

The battle is much, much easier with healing, though.

[Deraldin]

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.

[neckthrough]

I'm playing on normal, and by the time I get to the second battle (that's a few seconds after the guy coming to fetch me), half the militia is already dying, including the mayor, and that's just with the first few undead. As there are still, what, 20 or 30 undead waiting to spawn after that, you can understand how I'm finding it impossible to keep anyone alive besides my own party.

 

The battle is much, much easier with healing, though.

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.