I’ve read that a lot of people think the Deep Roads section was too long, but I don’t remember a noticeable difference in length between it and any of the other parts. I didn’t care for The Fade at all, though. It was too long by however long it was. That whole thing felt like I was playing a completely different (and stupid) game.
The Fade seemed like the dream sequence from Max Payne all over again. It should have been great, but instead it came off like a weak attempt at being deep.
The Deep Roads never bothered me, however. I’ll probably pick this one up.
Sarkus
1783
In my current replay I did the Deep Roads section early. While I still think it’s too long, it didn’t bother me as much as it did on my first play, where that section was the last major area I did. I do think it’s probably 1 area too big, though. Meanwhile, my replay has hit a wall once I entered the fade sequence. I just can’t get excited about it.
What’s odd to me is that the major mid game areas are not really similar in length. The elven forest section is relatively short. The Redcliffe section is longer, but not anywhere near as long as the mage and dwarf areas. It’s just a weird design.
I thought the Fade was fine; I am glad there is a mod to skip it next playthrough, but I thought it wa s clever and well done the first time. I am only a bit into the deep roads, having taken a break to finish the only part of the game I truly don’t like (Elves/Brecilian forest) and go to Warden’s Keep.
What I have played, however, I like. I like the combat in DA a ton, and this is good old school dungeon crawling, ala Icewind Dale, and that game was awesome too!
Continuing to love the game, though I still cannot find any decent application for 2 handed warriors. Sten is a complete waste of space and Oghren, while amusing, I will only use for the deep roads-again, because the 2-h warrior spec just sucks. Bersker helps a bit, but not enough. Alastair does reasonable damage, and is a brick wall with shield/sword. Shale is far and away the best tank in the game, almost impregnable against all but orange enemies, and I can also use him for offense, support, and range. No brainer. My warrior, a dual wielding dexterity freak, is frighteningly powerful, fast, and with death blow, can sustain his stamina throughout almost any fight. I just see no need for those two, especially with two mages, and two competent rogues to choose.
2-Handers get a lot of useful skills like Indomitable, Powerful Swings, Two-Handed Sweep, etc. In my current game with my PC as an Arcane Warrior I usually use Shale as my damage-absorber, Sten as backup to handle specific melee targets, and whoever else I feel like bringing along at any given time. He’s not as useful as a “tank” as someone like Alistair is with a sword and shield, but Sten really comes in handy against enemies with stun/knockdown attacks (dragons, ogres) and being able to knock a half dozen darkspawn on their asses with a Two-Handed Sweep is always great.
Of course, Shield Wall w/ Shield Expertise makes a sword-and-shield warrior like Alistair immune to knockdown as well. But I’m bored with Alistair.
Sarkus
1786
I’ve found 2H to be pretty awesome. My main in my first playthrough was a 2H warrior and I never felt handicapped by that choice. In my current game I’m using Sten as a common party member and he’s been pretty valuable. You do have to make sure you aren’t missing the best 2H weapons, though, as they are not easily found, and you do have to give that character the best armor.
Alright, I will put Oghren back in when I get to deep roads, set up some new tactics, and give him Juggernaut armor or Blood Dragon if I can be bothered to go get the Warden set first for myself and see how he does. I agree that Alastair can be a bit vanilla, but he is funny, I have had him since the beginning, and I like rotating him in the party. Shale and Wynne are pretty much always in the party, though occassionally I will replace Shale with Alastair. That usually leaves one free spot for me to choose a companion, so each area I change it up usually: sometimes a 2-hander to experiment, sometimes Morrigan as a second mage (though I need to get her a good ranged paralysis spell to make her AOE blizzard and tempest spells useful), sometimes Leliana with a sick elven bow I found, etc.
Question: though I like using plate on my warrior just for fun even though he is a dual wield dex build, is there any super duper hi-yo awesome medium that I can find for when I am min/maxing? I know there is ancient elven armor somewhere, but I am done with the Brecilian Forest and I would like to never, ever go back.
I am already thinking about a second playthrough, most likely a mean and nasty Arcane Warrior elvish mage with a chip on his shoulder. I know you can roll a new character in Awakenings, so I am not sure if I will continue on with this guy or start someone new just for fun, but hey, I have like…20 hours of Origins still left!
Two things: Still lookign for advice on some kick-ass medium armor if anyone knows of any. I love wearing massive, but for big fights I need the stamina.
Second thing: I am at a point in the game where I am brutally powerful with my preferred party: dex-dual wield warrior, shale, morrigan(lightning/fire) and wynne (support) or replace Morrigan with Alastair. There are only two situations that continues to screw me up.
The first is enemies with mass stun. I don’t know why my dudes have such little stun resistance, but enemies that can chain stun just give me the pain. Any advice here?
The second is mages with chain lightning. Yeah, it’s awesome when I use it, and when it’s used against me it’s nasty and overpowered and it stunlocks me and I hate it! What is the best defense against the chain lightning, or conversely, what is the best way to disrupt the mages casting or silence them at range?
I believe stun falls under Physical Resistance, which means your Strength, Dexerity, and Constitution all contribute. In-depth information here. On top of that and as previously mentioned, 2-handers using the Indomitable skill are immune to stun and knockdown.
As for chain lightning, I think the only thing that is going to help you is your characters’ electrical resistances. Strategy-wise, just kill those mages quick.
Sarkus
1790
One thing that’s odd about the way DA was produced is that in the vanilla game special gear is relatively rare. Desslock even commented on that in his early posts about the game when he played it prior to release. But the various pre-order bonuses and DLC have added stuff across the board. So, for example, I have a really nice set of medium armor in my current game that my mage is wearing, but it’s from the Leliana’s Song DLC. Other times there are either/or situations with special gear. You can have the elven craftsman in the forest make you either a bow or medium armor if you complete a specific quest, and the armor is pretty nice, but if you didn’t do the quest or if you chose the bow, you aren’t going to have that.
According to the DragonAgeWiki, the best medium armor in the vanilla game isn’t available until you talk to a certain crafter in Denerim who requires special rare materials to make it. Otherwise the best is the Ancient Elven sets, available in three places, including Lothering and the forest area.
Sarkus: thanks for the tips. I actually have that armor crafted from ironbark, and it’s good, but my god it doesn’t provide much protection. My warrior is nasty powerful, but anything orange and above takes long enough to kill that the full plate defense seems necessary. I don’t even really struggle with stamina unless the fight is longer. Maybe I will go back and try to collect the ancient elven armor.
I know what you are talking about in Denerim-the Drake scale-but I would rather have it be AWESOME and massive armor! Actually, let me check the wiki…I think i can commission a set of lesser scale in medium then return with more scales and get the ultimate version. I see!
If worse comes to worse I will also run through Leliana’s Song and get that armor. I am so into Dragon Age right now I bought all the DLC the other day!
Eh, the game seems to provide quite a few impressive Massive Armor sets, including the DLC Blood Dragon Armor (should come with the game), the Warden Commander Armor (From Warden’s Peak DLC), and the Juggernaut (in Vanilla DA, but requires the player to kill some pretty powerful monsters to acquire all the pieces). That is what I can recall off the top of my head.
Some thing to keep in mind is party roles. A tank should be the one getting attacked, and hopefully with a mage to keep him alive. Damage avoidance is the most important trait, not the ability to deal damage. That means a tank should really only have enough strength to equip the heaviest of armors, and the rest of the points should be put into Dexterity to avoid damage overall.
There are other ways to play, for example an Warrior Archer actually makes a good alternative to the Shield Warrior for tanking, since Dexterity benefits of damage and damage avoidance plus the ability to attract threat from a greater distance (and Arrow of Slaying does awesome damage to a high priority target).
However, beginners are recommended to stick to the shield tank, probably Alistar, combined with at least one rogue, one healer, and the PC.
Sarkus
1793
Ah, I didn’t realize you were trying to make a warrior class character work with medium armor. I don’t see how that will work, as nothing I’ve seen compares in protection to the best heavy stuff. And even with the best heavy stuff, your warriors will still get taken out. On my first playthrough, my dead main character arose to get the cinematic kill to win the game because he was long gone at that point. In other words, even with the best heavy armor, warriors are hard to keep alive; I can’t imagine trying to do it with medium armor on.
Just finished Leliana’s Song.
While obviously short, it was a well-done bit of DLC and served to add some lore to one of the more interesting characters. The story is what made it worthwhile, and while there wasn’t a whole lot of suspense there was some attempt at character development with mixed results. Worth the money? Well, not when it comes to length of play. However, I felt the original purchase was an absolute bargain given the amount of enjoyment I’ve had with the game and this DLC made the experience even better, so I’d say paying the extra $7 was certainly worth it in that context.
Having the great armor isn’t a bad bonus either, but I’m not silly enough to pay real money for in-game trinkets so that didn’t tip the scales for me. Besides, that sidequest felt a little tacked on.
With the full set bonuses, some of the massive armors really don’t drain your stamina much (the superior drake scale and the Warden armor in particular). I had a dual wield fighter, and wore massive…just because if my main tank died, I could then serve as the 2nd tank.
Warriors work fine with medium armor as long as they aren’t being actively targeted, meaning they aren’t the tank. I would actively active recommend lighter armor for DPS warriors to both lower threat and maximize fatigue for skill use.
Finished the game over the weekend. There are some difficult decisions you have to make toward the end, pretty cool! The last battle seemed to last forever and I wasn’t all that impressed with it, but I suppose it was epic enough.
One thing, though…and maybe this deserves its own thread…
Game credits are getting out of hand. Sitting through the credits (which I feel obligated to do) for Dragon Age felt just as long as the playthrough. Do all the marketing people really need to be included? Do the head-honchos at EA? When I sit down and watch a movie, I don’t see credits for Billy the popcorn-dispenser-guy, or Sally the phone operator at Miramax. Why are there seventy thousand people listed in the credits for a AAA game? Show me the designers, programmers, and voice actors and call it a day.
Marketing people and others who worked on the title are not equivalent to “Billy the popcorn-dispenser-guy”. Those people worked on the game; no reason they shouldn’t have credits for it. Movie credits are often ~6 - ~8 minutes long. Dragon Age’s credits clock in at about 6 minutes themselves. What’s the difference?
What did people not like about The Fade? I just finished it on my second playthrough and had probably more fun than the first time through. I find it an interesting change of pace with some problem-solving and some interesting fights. I never felt like it dragged on. I didn’t even realize it was something people disliked until I saw that “skip the fade” mod out there.
So even with my baby-stolen time, I am making good progress. I am in Denerim doing a few quests leading up to the Landsmeet, and I REALLY want to finish the game this week. Not because I don’t love it-I think it’s one of the best RPGs of the decade, but with my time so limited I want to move on to other games and the Awakenings expansion.
I did play both Warden’s Keep and Return to Ostagar this weekend, and I enjoyed them both a lot. Not sure they were worth the money, but the items you get are crucial for playing on Hard, and I enjoyed the content quite a bit.
Hope I can finish in the next few days, and will report back! By the way, my plate armor wearing dual wield warrior is brutally powerful. He can tank (though not nearly as well as the almost indestructible Alastair and Shale), and his burst damage is pretty terrifying.
I still think Mage’s are obscenely overpowered though. I frequently don’t use Morrigan and her spam chain lightning, tempest, blizzard, and mass paralysis because it honestly is a little too easy.
