The Dragon Age is Bloody Hard Thread

Games
1

Seriously!

I’m playing on normal and find my party routinely dying. I’m now trying to save the village of Redcliffe (I don’t think thats a spoiler) and just find there are to many enemies.

Whats the secret to staying alive and dishing out a good DPS?

2

play it like a MMO. have your party stand by, then lure group of enemies out one by one by scouting with your rogue.

or if you are loaded with aoe mage firepower, open a door, unload the aoe… and laugh.

3

Or play it on easy, so you don’t have to corrupt your soul by “dpsing your tank” to “aggro mobs” and “grind lore.”

4

So, my soul or my masculinity.

I’ve never played any MMO’s except Guild Wars, so I’m a little out of my element.

5

Start with focus fire and getting lots and lots of potions.

From there, start bitching about how the Tactic AI chooses to ignore your targets.

6

when does using strategy = corrupting your soul.

7

I found the first section on top fairly easy, certainly never came close to dying (you did find the oil right?). I did die once or twice on the bottom section, mostly because I let my guys get too spread out. Keep them back, let the militia take the brunt, and concentrate on taking down the skeletons one at a time. Which means either settting up tactics so they all share the same target or just selecting all and clicking from one to the next. Or AOE if you have it, but I didn’t then.

8

I love it when a good rant catches on.

Can’t you talk your way out of every single encounter like any serious role playing game? Fucking Bioware!

9

IMO defending the village has nothing on the battles in the castle. Those kill my inner child and entire party.

10

One of those was the hardest in the game so far for me. I ended up retreating 3 times back through doors to form choke points so Morrigan with her recently acquired cone of cold could work it’s magic.

Course now I have a healer so the dynamic has changed a lot.

11

Strategy, AI exploits - to-MAY-to, to-MAH-to.

Seriously, a few general tips:

  • If you don’t have a healer, remember to set up a “use poultice” command in everybody’s scripts. Actually, it’s probably a good idea to have your healer casting heals and everyone uses a poultice as a last resort.
  • Until you have some good AoE and/or CC abilities, you’ll usually want to focus on one enemy at a time. Usually I try to take down mages first, then melees, then archers. Sometimes I’ll tell my ranged units to focus on the mages while my melee units protect them from melee enemies.
  • Set up kill zones at chokepoints and lure enemies into them. E.g., place your units on either side of a closed door (so it’s harder for ranged units to hit you through it), then open it and ambush enemies as they come through. Maybe have your mage stand in front of the door so s/he can blast enemies with cone attacks.
  • AoEs are obviously your friend against mobs. Don’t forget about the medieval grenades (acid flasks etc.), especially early on when you don’t have many AoE spells.
  • For some boss fights (like your first ogre), kiting is still a classic. Have everyone use ranged attacks; whomever the boss chases, have them run around avoiding the boss. If someone else aggros the boss, switch off like tag-team wrestlers. Behold the power of cheese!
12

Cheesing fights and exploiting AI is very easy in this game. I consider it a trade off for all the times I have died.

13

And an additional pointer: make this the first item in the tactics list. Remember that characters will go through the tactics list in order, so if you put “use poultice” at the bottom and they find another valid order before they reach it, then they’ll go with the other order.

If you want to default to Heal spells first and poultices as a last resort, just set the health bar higher for spells; i.e. have spells fire at Health < 50%, and Poultices fire at Health < 25%.

14

Cheese tactics are less satisfying than clever tactics, IMHO, though the distinction can get fuzzy. But dying is a lot less satisfying than cheesing, soooo…cheesing FTW.

15

How big does your party size get in this game? I tend to pause a lot, and just give direct orders to most of my characters. I keep an eye on health/mana and just apply as needed.

The tactics bar seems great, and quite powerful, but perhaps more useful on the console, or if you want to stick to your main character, and let the other party members handle themselves.

16

Max of four characters plus any summons.

17

I dunno… having one character distract the ogre while other characters attack him from range doesn’t seem like a cheese tactic to me. That’s just a… tactic. A pretty good one, actually, given how nasty he is when you get in close. Tactics are all about exploiting weaknesses and playing to your strengths, and in that encounter your key strength is that you outnumber him.

18

Which is a bummer, as I’d like to take the dog along but can’t make it work. I wish the dog didn’t count as one of the three companions. He’s my pet, dangit.

19

Why hasn’t this been modded yet? I’m curious what the scene is up to.

20

It’s just not very heroic to have one character run in circles while that ogre chases after him and everyone else stands back and shoots the ogre. Effective, but not exactly a “hell yeah!” cinematic moment. EDIT: then again, when I tried the “heroic” approach - Alistair tanks, my rogue stabs from behind, mage and archer flank - I got my ass kicked, so as Columbus learned, maybe the lesson here is “don’t be a hero.”