Dragon age discussion

[jaguars4ever]

99 elf roots from Varathorn: 59 silver

99 lyrium dusts from Circle quartermaster: 2 sovereigns

99 flasks from Bodahn: 1 sovereign

 

Having your very own Down

[Gromnir]

ohgren = lowbrow humor

 

if such doesn't fit your tastes, then maybe stick with sten. Gromnir also is preferring sten to oghren. there is some interesting conversations between shale and sten, and the morrigan and sten stuff is kinda amusing. you also pick up a good bit of qunari lore from wynne and sten conversations. have not tried sten with the other party members, but for the banter we would almost invariably prefer sten. from a combat efficacy pov... they is both 2h warriors. no real difference save that oghren is a berserker right out of the gate.

 

btw, on our second time through the game we were level 18 before we got ohgren. his level 18 stats are as follows:

 

str: 39/41 (+2 for berserker spec)

dex: 18

will: 23

mag: 14

cun: 16

con: 20/21 (+1 for item)

 

right or wrong, it appears that the biowarians has the same notions as Gromnir regarding the building of a 2h warrior.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited December 6, 2009 by Gromnir

[Tigranes]

Shale and Sten were the most likable to have around, for me. Leliana is pretty good, Morrigan would be too if she stopped talking in Ye Olde. Oghren's pretty funny but doesn't seem to have as much to say.

 

Level 14 now and halfway through the Denerim quests, before going Orzammar.

[Volourn]

"Don't do it! I hear chain lightning sucks, big time."

 

What's funny is that while I too find chain lightning 'weak' if I choose it as a player, it is deadly to me when an enemy caster casts it. L0L

 

Redcliffe is the eaisest main quest bin the game. I don't know why Grom tries to claim it as being hard. Only the Mage Tower isa rguably as easy but at leats that one has at least one challenging enemy.

 

 

Those explosive spells (the ones that make enemies explode when they die) are not that good, imo. I took them with my mage, and I find them a waste.

 

I do agree with Grom about Oghren. He is simply low brow. Soemtimes he gets a genuine chuckle; but mostly I just shake my head at him being a disgrace of a pathetic dwarf.

Edited December 6, 2009 by Volourn

[jaguars4ever]

Those explosive spells (the ones that make enemies explode when they die) are not that good, imo. I took them with my mage, and I find them a waste.

Effectiveness? Screw that! Didn't you see how awsum Walking Bomb spell looked in teh Sacred Ashes trailer?

 

Seriously though, early game when my mage was squishier than a Waseland ghoul's schlong, I thought it would be clever to take the drain mana spell. Boy, was I wrong. I was conned, pure and simple. The uselessness of this spell was borderline fraudulent. It would only drain 1 mana ponint. 1 freking mana. Disgraceful. In disgust I banished it from my spell quickbar and never looked back.

 

I do agree with Grom about Oghren. He is simply low brow. Soemtimes he gets a genuine chuckle; but mostly I just shake my head at him being a disgrace of a pathetic dwarf.

Volo's on teh money here. One of Oghren's finest moments were when the PC asks one the party members to help him out in delivering the condolence letters, and Ogrhen steps in.

Oh, er.. um.. hm. Good news, lady: You're single

But these moments are few and far between.

 

There's a reason he was ostracized by his fellow Dwarves you know.

Edited December 7, 2009 by jaguars4ever

[Monte Carlo]

Walking Bomb and Virulent Walking Bomb are acquired tastes. As I posted in the other thread they are a hilarious, if somewhat fussy, method of crowd control.

 

Personally I had loads of fun: Waking Nightmare > Virulent Walking Bomb > Archery = gooey, explosive hilarity.

[Volourn]

"There's a reason he was ostracized by his fellow Dwarves you know."

 

And, dumped by multiple women... for other women...

[HoonDing]

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.

[~Di]

...Yes, I know my twinky DLC gives me all sorts of Gucci kit and an XP boost. Bite me.

 

[Tigranes]

Walking Bomb and Virulent Walking Bomb are acquired tastes. As I posted in the other thread they are a hilarious, if somewhat fussy, method of crowd control.

 

I have to agree, they are a bother but if you want to use them they can be useful, enough bang for the buck. On Nightmare I was using the Glyph combo to paralyse enemies (long duration), walking bomb someone in the middle of a group (which they often will be), then peg with Leliana until they go boom; most of the time that takes care of ~3 enemies before they unfreeze, all the while the mage will have CoC'd another group for Shale and Alistair to shatter.

 

Going on virulent now to see whether it'll make things any more gooey.

[Gorth]

Something less "tactical"...

 

Is there any use for the tonnes of junk you end up with in your inventory? I ended up with vases, blank scrolls, private papers etc. that never saw any use. Is it origin specific or should I just sell it all during my second play through (as a mage, my first game was human noble/fighter)? Any special use for

the dirty old pantaloons gift

or should I keep them in my characters inventory for DA2?

[Oner]

Scrolls and the like are chum change.

 

And yes, keep the pantaloons, in DA 3 an NPC called Christopher Walken will make a special armor from it, though Bio didn't decide yet if it'll be a Michael Bay or an Optimus Prime armor.

[Tigranes]

Vases, trade manifests, private documents, blank vellum, engraved silver bowls = all junk, sell.

[jaguars4ever]

Vases, trade manifests, private documents, blank vellum, engraved silver bowls = all junk, sell.

But don't sell your love letters, scolls of banister, and whatever you do, don't get rid of the pantaloons!

[CoM_Solaufein]

^ I was wondering about Oghren, is his dialogue fun?

 

Personally I find Sten the best NPC in the game, but that's just me.

Sten is one of my favorites. Not only a good tank but also his lines are funny and frustrating.

[kirottu]

Trying to get to chain lightning now simply because shooting sith forks out of your hands looks cool, but leveling is slow now and all the steps along the lightening tree are more or less a write off.

Don't do it! I hear chain lightning sucks, big time.

 

I found chain lightning to be one the most usefull spells. AOE that never hits allys.

[Enoch]

So, what happens if

you surrender/lose to Cauthrien

?

 

 

I was spoiled beforehand that this is a "not expected to win" battle, and I realized why when I saw all those archers. I immediately pulled my party (PC Mage, Wynne, Al, Ogren, on Normal difficulty) back into the room that Anora had been hiding in, dropped a Blizzard in the hallway behind me to slow down the reinforcements, and closed the door after Cauthrien and one other melee mook followed me in. After a lot of micro-managing and fistful of healing potions, I dispatched them (Al went down in the fight, but Wynne revived him while Ogren took the pain for a little while), while the archers and Mage just stood still in the main hall. Another Blizzard + Tempest took care of them. Really, if the AI hadn't told the archers/mage to sit on their hands, the fight would've actually been close to unwinnable. But I guess that it makes some sense-- Cauthrien was confident in her abilities (she obviously didn't know how many healing potions we had in our collective pockets) and knew that we were cornered, so leaving the guards to watch the only escape while she pursued us isn't wholly illogical.

 

 

 

The problem with Chain Lightning is that it's one of the only direct-damage spells that doesn't scale with Spellpower.

Edited December 7, 2009 by Enoch

[HoonDing]

So, what happens if

you surrender/lose to Cauthrien

?

 

There's a prison section similar to the Leviathan from KOTOR.

 

[jaguars4ever]

So, what happens if

you surrender/lose to Cauthrien

?

 

There's a prison section similar to the Leviathan from KOTOR.

 

Yup, and it's my favorite part of the game. Watching the comedy antics of your

two rescuers

is PURE GOLD (I went with Leliana & Dog on my first playthrough);

Edited December 7, 2009 by jaguars4ever

[Enoch]

So, what happens if

you surrender/lose to Cauthrien

?

 

There's a prison section similar to the Leviathan from KOTOR.

 

Yup, and it's my favorite part of the game. Watching the comedy antics of your

two rescuers

is PURE GOLD (I went with Leliana & Dog on my first playthrough);

Damn.

The Leviathan was the best part of KotOR. I think I have a save that isn't too far away from there. I don't want to re-do the Alienage quests I've done since then, but a replay just to see how the rescue goes sounds like it would be worthwhile.

 

[Aristes]

Okay, someone spoilerize me.

 

I made it to the Mages Tower last night. Doesn't quite look the same as it did.

I'm in the fade and there are tons of these things that bump stats. I've been saving my stat bumps for folks who can use them better than I can. Strength, for example. Now, will my party be able to come back to use these? I thought maybe, but after I saved Morrigan, she up and disappears. That seems to verify that these stat bumps need to be used while I'm in the fade or they're lost. Now, str might not mean much to my mage, but the rest have at least a nominal use. For example, why save con for my tank only to have it lost completely to everyone? My gut tells me that the rest of the party won't be wandering these hallways with me ever.

 

 

Having played through the scenario that irked Dega, I have to say I agree with him. It's not that you can't make a case for the goodness of sparing the murderous wretch. That's fine. However, she's a dangerous person who has admitted using blood magic and murdering her fellows. There is no way in hell I'm going to let her run off the same direction as the children. I would like to be able to put her in the custody of the Templars outside. I'd be willing to hand her off to a neutral third party to hear her case. Hell, I'd even be willing, maybe, to let her go in an area where she can go her way while I go mine. What I'm not willing to do is set her loose when the only way out of the area that I know is through children I've promised to safeguard.

[Gromnir]

aristes,

 

your pc is the only one who will benefit from the aspect of the mage tower you reference. no return trips possible.

 

enoch,

 

Gromnir had a save immediate before ser cat, so were easy to reload. nevertheless, loghain's uppity tramp needed a smack-down. so as a mater o' principle we decided to see if she could be defeated. took us a couple attempts before we learned that a half dozen scattershot archers and an amazon all pumped up on estrogen and hero worship were a killer combo... but we eventual made like the italian army and beat a hasty retreat... and in so doing wasted her in the hallway.

 

however, is much more rewarding to not fight.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited December 7, 2009 by Gromnir

[Enoch]

Yeah, the game gave me an auto-save right before the fight, but subsequent auto-saves have almost certainly overwritten it. I'm pretty sure I have a hard save before the Dungeon area, so, worst-case-scenario, I have to put another hour or so into getting through there.

[Gromnir]

Yeah, the game gave me an auto-save right before the fight, but subsequent auto-saves have almost certainly overwritten it. I'm pretty sure I have a hard save before the Dungeon area, so, worst-case-scenario, I have to put another hour or so into getting through there.

 

 

the auto-save didn't do us any good either as we returned to the arl o' redcliffe's estate and listened to all the post battle conversations before we decided to replay the ser cat confrontation. Gromnir is a compulsive game saver. after some o' the unpleasant early game surprises we endured playing on hard (not even nightmare) we got to the point where we has a save for every level-up (in case we realize after the fact that some bio talents is worthless only after the fact) and am saving after/before every major battle... keep a queue o' five. pretty much allows us to return to any noteworthy point during the last 1.5 hours o' gameplay.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Morgoth]

Dragon Age 1.02 patch has been released.