Dragon Age: Inquisition

[Bryy]

Started a Nightmare run.

 

Trying to recreate Azog's face. Like this magnificent b-sterd did:

 

 

[Elerond]

 

 

Are there any tier 3 masterwork mage schematics for staff, armor, and upgrades?

 

I didn't find any masterwork/superb tier 3 stuff for mages. But many schematics are random drops, so it isn't guaranteed that you find them. Although I would guess if you farm giants in Emerald Graves you probably eventually get every random drop schematic that there are.

 

I know there's the Archon Staff, which you get for doing a long string of missions for Iron Bull, but no word on any other schematics.

 

 

I found archmage's staff, which is tier 3 schematic but it isn't masterwork/superb. It is about as good as best unique(purple) staffs that you can find, but relatively to schematics that I found for other weapon types it is quite weak, but if you make one from dragon parts and attach superb rune on it it has something 170-200 dps. 

 

Here is reddit thread where they speak about good place to farm tier 3 schematics 

http://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2nrfup/tier_3_schematic_farm_method_1080p_60fps_available/

Edited December 3, 2014 by Elerond

[archangel979]

Can anyone playing DAI but that has not played any MMORPG (at least not any that they liked) tell me how do you managed to stand to play all the MMO parts of DAI?

 

I hate MMORPG and any I tried were not fun. And many people say DAI is full of MMORPG gameplay. How do you do it?

[MrBrown]

Can anyone playing DAI but that has not played any MMORPG (at least not any that they liked) tell me how do you managed to stand to play all the MMO parts of DAI?

 

I hate MMORPG and any I tried were not fun. And many people say DAI is full of MMORPG gameplay. How do you do it?

 

I haven't played any MMORPG. Hence, it's kinda hard for me to say what exactly are the "MMO parts".

 

The exploration didn't feel to me particularly different from BG1 and ME1, for instance.

[Amentep]

Yeah not playing MMORPGs I'm not sure what are the MMO parts.

 

The exploration did make me think a good bit of BG1 (with big maps to explore - some areas with barely no content). Dialogue wheel is like previous games with some added info. Combat is similar to DAII imo.

[Gromnir]

 

Started a Nightmare run.

 

Trying to recreate Azog's face. Like this magnificent b-sterd did:

 

 

 

we played a bit of da:i on a cousin's machine over the thanksgiving weekend. am pretty sure our female elf mage ended up looking like that, purely by accident.  kidding. no chance we would ever play an elf.  even so, the face generator is quirky.

 

on a more serious side, the picture actual looks rather close to the stock male qunari head #3 (maybe? our memory is excellent, but hardly perfect) w/o horns, add hook nose, wider eyes, thin lips and scars... and flatten the ears back against the head.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[MrBrown]

The exploration did make me think a good bit of BG1 (with big maps to explore - some areas with barely no content).

 

I thought the content-density was just right for most maps - Hinterlands had too much, Hissing Wastes too little.

[Amentep]

BG was like that.  I see similarity in DAI but not at the same kind of scales (which had more maps in general to spread out stuff).

 

I haven't been into Hissing Wastes yet, but Hinterlands is Jam Packed but the Swamp is really fairly straightforward (and a fraction of the Hinterlands size).

[archangel979]

 

Can anyone playing DAI but that has not played any MMORPG (at least not any that they liked) tell me how do you managed to stand to play all the MMO parts of DAI?

 

I hate MMORPG and any I tried were not fun. And many people say DAI is full of MMORPG gameplay. How do you do it?

 

I haven't played any MMORPG. Hence, it's kinda hard for me to say what exactly are the "MMO parts".

 

The exploration didn't feel to me particularly different from BG1 and ME1, for instance.

 

Ah, I assumed it is well known how MMORPG work.

The MMO parts are simple grindy quests that ask you to bring X of something or kill Y of some creatures.

They are also about combat being full of cooldown based skill and respawning monsters.

Oh and collecting crazy numbers of components.

[TheChris92]

 

 

 

 

So, everything, Tale.

I think you're making a big deal out of nothing. Bioware is coming across as tolerant of the LGBT community in their writing? *gasp*

 

They have consistently pushed a socially progressive agenda, it's not new. If it bothers you, there are plenty of games out there that avoid social issues.

drowsy and bioware is both silly.

 

drowsy is silly for making a big deal over nothing.

 

bioware is silly 'cause they is trying to fix a seeming inconsistency between sten comments from da:o regarding female roles in qunari society, and subsequent dragon age content that makes apparent that females is able to fight. enough people complain over the years about sten comments that bioware felt need to explain? either shoulda' stuck with original qunari perspective we got via sten, or shoulda' simple ignored the inconsistency they created rather than giving a silly in-game explanation-- let geeky fans come up with a resolution beyond the scope o' the game.

 

regardless, is silly... drowsy and bioware.

 

HA! Good Fun!

He doesn't say that Qunari women can't fight he just says that they "don't fight" because their role in the Qun adheres to being priest, artisans and farmers. There are also Qunari, who are born outside of the Qun, and thus they have no obligation that prevents them from picking up a sword. That's basically your character if a Qunari is picked. Edited December 4, 2014 by TheChris92

[Agiel]

Companion observations (note that between working overtime five days a week and sleeping nearly 12 hours a night to recover I have only gotten to around after I get Skyhold):

 

Cassandra: Ambivalent. I think I can get hints of her underlying motivations (that which don't relate to stopping the Fade Breaches and the Elder One). We'll see how it pans out, but so far I don't find her offensive.

 

Varric: He remains great as of yet.

 

Solas: A *good* character so far. Fairly amicable.

 

Sera: Kudos to the writer for her and Robyn Addison for getting her voice pitch perfect. However I find her motivations at a high level too nebulous. I like her dialogue save for that which relates to her motivations and the Friends of Red Jenny.

 

Vivienne: Don't quite think her being a mage and her support for the Circle system meshes that well. Otherwise she's fairly inoffensive.

 

Iron Bull: Pretty good character. I think it's interesting to see how the "Shell-Shock" condition plays out in a fantasy world. That said, I actively avoided the dialogue that related to romance or bad sexual innuendo so that opinion isn't spoiled (the Ostrich Effect).

 

Blackwall: Okay personality-wise, but from a gameplay perspective that guy keeps trucking, so he's a winner in my book.

 

Dorian: Okay.

 

Cole: Surprisingly not horrible. Perhaps it's because unlike most other Bioware characters he doesn't open the emotional floodgates on you right away (if he will at all, I suspect).

 

In summation: So far my fears that there would be a character that was Bastilla Shan/Dragon Age 2 Anders/Jacob Taylor levels of bad have been allayed, for now. We'll see how they all shake out once I do all their companion quests.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Agiel

[IndiraLightfoot]

*Not reading, not reading*

 

I just pop in here to tell you a little story from Nightmare Difficulty (which I experienced a while back) with a level 7 party deciding to spend 15 points on that "In Hushed Whispers" assignment. Sure, it said "trap" right there on the box, but...

 

 

 

...I was naïve enough to think it wasn't a real trap, as in once you enter, you cannot leave until you finish the whole thing and kill the boss.

Even worse, one character got locked in and was forced on me - Dorian, the wizard, and my only experience with a DA:I wiz was a few minutes with Solas in the Hinterlands.

When I entered, I picked my all-Rogue setup: myself (DD), and Varric (crossbow Bianca) and Sera (longbow), which actually never had been tried against any bigger obstacle yet, just skirmishes in the Hinterlands, where you have free-roaming and generous terrain, etc. 

Well, except for some decent crafted daggers, all my equipment pretty much sucked.

Let's just say I was in for a surprise!

Even the ordinary rifts in that one-year-ahead-dimension was almost impossible with no tank in my party - and no protection - no barrier, no guard - we were just like ranged idiots, except for Dorian, which I had made into an infernal mage with lots of nice fire mines and fire walls and immolates at his disposal.

We found a few supply caches lying around. At first, we were wasteful with these, but soon we realized that was stupid. At the end, when we had all five red lyrium shards, we had only four party healing potions left and no supply cache to fill up with. Then we opened that door to the throne room, and had to confront the boss (which I later read is most likely the easiest one in the game), which opened up two rifts (one harder than the other) during the fight.

It was hell. We died over and over, but I refused to restart this trap mission - it goes against my nature. There had to be a way, strategiclally, to defeat that Tevinter guy.

I guess I spent like four hours on it, repeating it (refusing to lower the difficulty - I intend to finish it on Nightmare), and it took extreme use of corners and movement of my party members (and breathing after each rift, saving those precious healing potions to the last rift, and then go all in against the boss at the end.

I'm not kidding, but when I made it at like my tenth try, all my party members laid dead (Dorian having been the most useful, with all his fire mines and immolates from afar), and the boss had 424 hp left. I had kept my sneaker hidden behind a corner in sneak mode, and then I lurked up behind that maniac and killed him with a Shadow Strike.

That felt so, so, so good! Now, I am free to play the game again, it feels like, and I've learned a lot about combat and tactics in DA:I.

In fact, I've learned enough to realize that there will be no romance with Sera at least (she has an annoying manner and voice), and I won't drag around ranged pew-pewers anymore.

After that, I have a new take how to do manage in Nightmare DA:I, and that's with Blackwall (Cassandra was so prudent and pretentious, she even strongly disagreed on my choice after killing that boss, just as Sera did) for tanking and guard, and then Dorian and Solas as my mage combo duo, along with my sneaking death dealer with twin daggers. It's going pretty nicely so far, 40h in.

 

Gosh, what a game!

 

 

 

[Amentep]

 

 

Can anyone playing DAI but that has not played any MMORPG (at least not any that they liked) tell me how do you managed to stand to play all the MMO parts of DAI?

 

I hate MMORPG and any I tried were not fun. And many people say DAI is full of MMORPG gameplay. How do you do it?

 

I haven't played any MMORPG. Hence, it's kinda hard for me to say what exactly are the "MMO parts".

 

The exploration didn't feel to me particularly different from BG1 and ME1, for instance.

 

Ah, I assumed it is well known how MMORPG work.

The MMO parts are simple grindy quests that ask you to bring X of something or kill Y of some creatures.

They are also about combat being full of cooldown based skill and respawning monsters.

Oh and collecting crazy numbers of components.

 

I've found no required quests that require bring x/kill y. There are some side-quests that follow this model, but are usually easily done just through the normal wandering-fighting-harvesting in my experience without a lot of need to go further (the only real benefit seems to be increasing influence, so I'm not sure if later I'm going to feel I should need a higher influence for the Inquisition).

 

So far the only respawning monsters I've seen make sense (bears...omg metric tonnes of bears. Bears who follow other bears. I got a TPK because I attacked a party of mercenaries and then we all were attacked by two bears. ****. Bears).

 

Combat does involve cooldowns, but that's very much like how DAII worked, so if you played that you have an idea of how cooldowns work.

 

I've not found a real need to collect a crazy number of components either (although I also don't feel a pressing need to have the ultimate tricked out equipment, either). Most components are easily found in good quantities during your adventuring.

[Enoch]

In my present DA:O game, I just completed an optional sidequest to collect 10 Deep Mushrooms. 

[Amentep]

^I thought that was the case but wasn't 100% sure if my memory was faulty on that or not. I seem to recall some skills/talents having a cooldown period in DAO (IIRC that ressurection spell Wynne had was on a long cooldown) but again not sure if my memory is accurate.

[Enoch]

^I thought that was the case but wasn't 100% sure if my memory was faulty on that or not. I seem to recall some skills/talents having a cooldown period in DAO (IIRC that ressurection spell Wynne had was on a long cooldown) but again not sure if my memory is accurate.

 

Oh, yes, all the abilities have a cooldown of some kind.  Basic stuff like Arcane Bolt comes back quickly (roughly the time it takes to make 3 autoattacks), but higher-level stuff takes long enough to effectively limit it to once-per-encounter. 

[Gromnir]

 

 

 

So, everything, Tale.

I think you're making a big deal out of nothing. Bioware is coming across as tolerant of the LGBT community in their writing? *gasp*

 

They have consistently pushed a socially progressive agenda, it's not new. If it bothers you, there are plenty of games out there that avoid social issues.

drowsy and bioware is both silly.

 

drowsy is silly for making a big deal over nothing.

 

bioware is silly 'cause they is trying to fix a seeming inconsistency between sten comments from da:o regarding female roles in qunari society, and subsequent dragon age content that makes apparent that females is able to fight. enough people complain over the years about sten comments that bioware felt need to explain? either shoulda' stuck with original qunari perspective we got via sten, or shoulda' simple ignored the inconsistency they created rather than giving a silly in-game explanation-- let geeky fans come up with a resolution beyond the scope o' the game.

 

regardless, is silly... drowsy and bioware.

 

HA! Good Fun!

He doesn't say that Qunari women can't fight he just says that they "don't fight" because their role in the Qun adheres to being priest, artisans and farmers. There are also Qunari, who are born outside of the Qun, and thus they have no obligation that prevents them from picking up a sword. That's basically your character if a Qunari is picked.

 

nonsense. your (gaider's) explanation would be ok if there were no da:o and no sten, but that ain't the case. sten is perplexed by some female party members in da:o and their actions.  sten disapproval and commentary regarding the actions o' the women in your group makes little sense if we accept dave explanation.  what were point o' sten if not to be giving us the qunari pov? 

 

am expecting that sometime after da:o were developed, the biowarians came up with some nifty qunari-related ideas that didn't mesh with their original notions o' qunari.   a qunari female assassin?  a female qunari pc? should writers and developers have abandoned "good" ideas simple because they didn't mesh with the original biowarian qunari concept? well, we know biowarian answer and their answer is a legit answer. qunari ain't real. qunari is imaginary.  lose sleep over notions o' video game canon is ridiculous.  personally, we would prefer consistency, but biowarians did not feel any particular need to let the writer o' sten from five or more years ago hamstring their current efforts. fine. am ok with change. even so, dave and bioware comes up with a weak explanation to justify the change? we say: why bother with the explanation? let game geeks explain so biowarian hands could remain clean.

 

regardless, is silly.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[archangel979]

In my present DA:O game, I just completed an optional sidequest to collect 10 Deep Mushrooms.

Well I am not saying DA:O did it perfectly but I don't remember being many such quests. Only grinding from DAO was the caves under the dwarves where you grinded same groups of enemies in same corridors while trying to move on with the story. It was only "I want to pull my hair out because this is so boring and tedious" moment in that game.

[TheChris92]

nonsense. your (gaider's) explanation would be ok if there were no da:o and no sten, but that ain't the case. sten is perplexed by some female party members in da:o and their actions.  sten disapproval and commentary regarding the actions o' the women in your group makes little sense if we accept dave explanation.  what were point o' sten if not to be giving us the qunari pov?

The major difference is that you aren't playing a Qunari of the Qun, but someone who was born outside of it. Sten says that women do not fight, in a conversation with a female warden, because their duties do not adhere to fighting (male ony) and is confused as to why women would want to be men. I suppose you could view this as the Qunari living in denial over women's inability to fight, but if that's the case then Sten wouldn't have changed his mind or viewpoint at all during the game, and the Arishok would certainly not recognize a female Hawke in DA2. It's more or less just dedicated bias towards the Qun that places Female Qunari in roles such as, merchants or farmers. I think it is meant to be taken as such; Their abilities to fight wouldn't mark them as 'female' by Qunari standards, it's basically the overall point of the conversations with Sten. There were some stupid backpedaling in regards to the functions of the Ben-Hassrath, which I did find quite jarring.

In terms of consistency, my major gripe in that department are mostly tied around dead characters coming back to life in rather questionable fashions.

 

Not necessarily wholly disagreeing in regards to it being a bit wonky, especially considering the 'explanation' for why you don't see many female Qunari outside of Pal Vollen. But it's not like BioWare is alone in this department.

Edited December 4, 2014 by TheChris92

[Amentep]

 

nonsense. your (gaider's) explanation would be ok if there were no da:o and no sten, but that ain't the case. sten is perplexed by some female party members in da:o and their actions.  sten disapproval and commentary regarding the actions o' the women in your group makes little sense if we accept dave explanation.  what were point o' sten if not to be giving us the qunari pov?

The major difference is that you aren't playing a Qunari of the Qun, but someone who was born outside of it. Sten says that women do not fight, in a conversation with a female warden, because their duties do not adhere to fighting (male ony) and is confused as to why women would want to be men. I suppose you could view this as the Qunari living in denial over women's inability to fight, but if that's the case then Sten wouldn't have changed his mind or viewpoint at all during the game, and the Arishok would certainly not recognize a female Hawke in DA2. It's more or less just dedicated bias towards the Qun that places Female Qunari in roles such as, merchants or farmers. I think it is meant to be taken as such; Their abilities to fight wouldn't mark them as 'female' by Qunari standards, it's basically the overall point of the conversations with Sten. There were some stupid backpedaling in regards to the functions of the Ben-Hassrath, which I did find quite jarring.

 

Sten is actually shocked and confused a woman would want to be a man; why would this be if the Qun acknowledges that a fighting woman - who is seen as male per Iron Bull - would exist in the Qun, if rarely? Its clear this is something he's never heard of, much less experienced.

 

I agree with Gromnir; its a distinct retcon to the Qun's roles as set up in DAO. Not that I care - for all we know the Qun leaders took Sten's report on the Warden and/or female companions and decided that maybe some women could be men in the 10 years since the Warden ended the blight.

[TheChris92]

 

 

nonsense. your (gaider's) explanation would be ok if there were no da:o and no sten, but that ain't the case. sten is perplexed by some female party members in da:o and their actions.  sten disapproval and commentary regarding the actions o' the women in your group makes little sense if we accept dave explanation.  what were point o' sten if not to be giving us the qunari pov?

The major difference is that you aren't playing a Qunari of the Qun, but someone who was born outside of it. Sten says that women do not fight, in a conversation with a female warden, because their duties do not adhere to fighting (male ony) and is confused as to why women would want to be men. I suppose you could view this as the Qunari living in denial over women's inability to fight, but if that's the case then Sten wouldn't have changed his mind or viewpoint at all during the game, and the Arishok would certainly not recognize a female Hawke in DA2. It's more or less just dedicated bias towards the Qun that places Female Qunari in roles such as, merchants or farmers. I think it is meant to be taken as such; Their abilities to fight wouldn't mark them as 'female' by Qunari standards, it's basically the overall point of the conversations with Sten. There were some stupid backpedaling in regards to the functions of the Ben-Hassrath, which I did find quite jarring.

 

Sten is actually shocked and confused a woman would want to be a man; why would this be if the Qun acknowledges that a fighting woman - who is seen as male per Iron Bull - would exist in the Qun, if rarely? Its clear this is something he's never heard of, much less experienced.

 

I agree with Gromnir; its a distinct retcon to the Qun's roles as set up in DAO. Not that I care - for all we know the Qun leaders took Sten's report on the Warden and/or female companions and decided that maybe some women could be men in the 10 years since the Warden ended the blight.

 

As I understood it, he was talking about the Qunari player character, at first, who isn't really a Qunari at all, she's of the race but not the belief. So it doesn't count for the player character. In regards to the Qunari -- Sten will call the Warden a "warrior" regardless of class, because the PC is a leader and proves she has the skill to build an army -- This relates to howgender becomes superficial if they've proven worthy to serve, or honour, the Qun; It also reflects on why they'd convert outsiders, regardless gender and race into the Qun. Women of the Qun most likely aren't trained as "soldiers" or "fighters" and such. Sten questions why a woman fights. The original intent of Sten's line was his inability to understand why a woman "fights". He will ask that of a mage or a warrior as well. His question isnt why a woman is a soldier, but why a woman is taking up arms and fighting at all. He goes on to mention that woman are priests and bakers and such.

 

It only, really, starts to become contradictory with the Ben-Hassrath, where women are clearly used as spies, so that's the part where BioWare had to backpedeal, this is true. They had to go in and say the Ben-Hassrath, are spies, not to be confused with scotus however, these are a different variant of spies simply because they're priests, and because they're priests it's OK that shes a woman, and typically they try to take non-violent measures etc. I get the feeling that this is what both of you have been talking about, in which case I'd agree.

It's not like I'm completely disagreeing with him.

Edited December 4, 2014 by TheChris92

[MrBrown]

There's a scene in DA:I where Iron Bull says something to the effect of "this is why we don't let women fight in the Qun". It's said jokingly, but apparently the idea is still there.

[TheChris92]

I haven't seen that scene yet, so I'm gonna keep a look out for that one.

[ShadySands]

Just finished my second game

 

Will probably give a rest and wait for some DLC/expansions before giving it a third go

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Just finished my second game

 

Will probably give a rest and wait for some DLC/expansions before giving it a third go

What were the best schematics you found?