Dragon Age: Origins Catch-All

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I'm playing the Golems DLC now and it's quite annoying. You often get attacked by multiple opponents with knockdown/paralyzing AOE attacks without having any kind of crowd control of your own.

The message I'm getting is that almost none of the DLC in DA:O is worth it

No it's really not. But when there's the Ultimate Edition and it was on Steam for $15 or something... might as well.

Yeah, I got the whole Ultimate thing on sale, so I'm not grumbling about how much they cost. Just how disappointing they are. Lelianna's Song wasn't bad because it mixed up the formula. You weren't just fighting a bunch of dudes and there were real conversations.

I keep thinking about replaying this and then I cannot decide if getting the DLC reinstalled is worth it. f*cking EA DLC sillyness.

NathanialG wrote:

I keep thinking about replaying this and then I cannot decide if getting the DLC reinstalled is worth it. f*cking EA DLC sillyness.

Yes, the DLC plus patching with Bioware games is why I really really wish Origin would just copy steam and centralise it all. It's all linked against my EA account, just sort it out.

Scratched wrote:
NathanialG wrote:

I keep thinking about replaying this and then I cannot decide if getting the DLC reinstalled is worth it. f*cking EA DLC sillyness.

Yes, the DLC plus patching with Bioware games is why I really really wish Origin would just copy steam and centralise it all. It's all linked against my EA account, just sort it out.

Well downloading now. I am sure I will be back tomorrow to rage about my DLC install problems.

Citizen86 wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

I'm playing the Golems DLC now and it's quite annoying. You often get attacked by multiple opponents with knockdown/paralyzing AOE attacks without having any kind of crowd control of your own.

The message I'm getting is that almost none of the DLC in DA:O is worth it ;)

Leliana's Song was quite good, and Golems of Angarmarnar (sp!) is worth it for being probably the most challenging bit of business in the whole game (the boss on hard/nightmare for achievement). Shale isn't really classified as DLC by most people, but the character and quests are well worth it.

Darkspawn Chronicles, Return to Ostagar, Witch Hunt, whatever else...the rest are all for DA:O junkies only, like myself. Not required reading by any means.

I still need to do all the DLC after getting the Ultimate Edition. Can I do it with a post-coronation save, or do I need to start over?

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

I still need to do all the DLC after getting the Ultimate Edition. Can I do it with a post-coronation save, or do I need to start over?

Yup

Blind_Evil wrote:
Citizen86 wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

I'm playing the Golems DLC now and it's quite annoying. You often get attacked by multiple opponents with knockdown/paralyzing AOE attacks without having any kind of crowd control of your own.

The message I'm getting is that almost none of the DLC in DA:O is worth it ;)

Leliana's Song was quite good, and Golems of Angarmarnar (sp!) is worth it for being probably the most challenging bit of business in the whole game (the boss on hard/nightmare for achievement). Shale isn't really classified as DLC by most people, but the character and quests are well worth it.

Meh, I'm giving up on Golems DLC. There's a spot where I fight 4 golems and they resist nearly all my powers, so even my stun abilities can't be used for crowd control. Then all 4 golems hit me with always-hit ranged knockdown AOE attacks. Just not fun.

Everyone talking about Skyrim got me in the mood for RPGing, so I'm finally starting up my first playthrough of Dragon Age. I was very tempted to go with a Darken Warrior for my first runthrough, but I decided to go with a human Mage, as the magical characters are usually my staple.

Yonder wrote:

Everyone talking about Skyrim got me in the mood for RPGing, so I'm finally starting up my first playthrough of Dragon Age. I was very tempted to go with a Darken Warrior for my first runthrough, but I decided to go with a human Mage, as the magical characters are usually my staple.

Good choice. I ended up playing as one of my usual two party mages during battle all the time because they are so powerful, and it's a little difficult to get them to damage the correct enemies automatically.

Yonder wrote:

Everyone talking about Skyrim got me in the mood for RPGing, so I'm finally starting up my first playthrough of Dragon Age. I was very tempted to go with a Darken Warrior for my first runthrough, but I decided to go with a human Mage, as the magical characters are usually my staple.

My problem with playing a mage is that their clothes are ugly. I'm serious. I had a hard time caring about my character because she looked so stupid.

You can wear whatever armor you want if you take Arcane Warrior, and it's one of the two specializations you should be taking anyway.

Yeah at least the first power to let you equip based on INT.

I thoroughly enjoyed my Mage playthrough. It's so useful to have one (or two) around that it's nice to always be one.

Stele wrote:

Yeah at least the first power to let you equip based on INT.

You mean Magic? There's no Int score.

Grey Warden Commander
"Of course I'll help you with your smuggling problem, Constable."

Loots chests of the City Guard

Crap. Looks like I overwrote the auto-save at the end and can't get past the post-coronation area. At least "new game" let me import Slutdwarf into Awakening.

Anders is instantly likable, and not just for the hilariously overpowered Storm of the Century.

I considered playing through Origins again with a female city elf, but decided I've got too much on my pile to play the whole game again, so I imported my male human, Warden Stone, into Awakenings.

But where the heck do I find Elfroot?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I considered playing through Origins again with a female city elf, but decided I've got too much on my pile to play the whole game again, so I imported my male human, Warden Stone, into Awakenings.

But where the heck do I find Elfroot?

Honestly, I don't think I've used a healing potion (or any potion) at all yet, and I'm probably 1/3-1/2 done with Awakening.

I've used a few health potions, but I want to make some stamina potions!

Pretty sure the Dalish sell Elfroot. It's cheap and in unlimited quantities.

Bullion Cube wrote:

Pretty sure the Dalish sell Elfroot. It's cheap and in unlimited quantities.

It's also a great way to gain xp; buy a few stacks and dump them in the supply boxes at the camp if you need a boost for that last level.

I meant in Awakenings.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I meant in Awakenings.

There's a merchant in Amaranthine that sells Elfroot. The smugglers/guards part pissed me off, because I couldn't rat them out to the guards, like in Fallout 3.

My choices were limited to swearing fealty to the smugglers, which everyone in town knows immediately, or the smuggler needs to hold still so Roberto can practice his stabbing.

Plus, talking to either locks out Sigrun's sidequest if you haven't found her yet. I just saw a quest arrow, and locked myself out of some character development.

Wow, just installed DA:O Ultimate edition and spent a lot of time getting the DLC to be "authorized." Turns out I had to manually install the DAUpdater service. Lots of hoops to jump through without the game telling you what is wrong.

cheesycrouton wrote:

Wow, just installed DA:O Ultimate edition and spent a lot of time getting the DLC to be "authorized." Turns out I had to manually install the DAUpdater service. Lots of hoops to jump through without the game telling you what is wrong.

I had the same problem with the update. When i got the newest patch though, it fixed it all for me.

Awakening discussion in this thread seems slightly less dead than the actual Awakening thread, so I guess I'll post about it here.

This expansion is pretty great! However, I find myself paralyzed by the choices regarding how to manage the soldiers and resources in the Arling. I've already made some choices that I worry will screw me over later. It also seems like a LOT of money is required for various tasks and quests. Any tips or non-spoilery advice on those management tasks?

Also, Nathaniel is a surprisingly compelling and interesting companion so far. I haven't gone anywhere except Vigil's Keep and Amaranthine, but I'm looking forward to seeing the other new areas.

So I dropped Awakening for a few months but returned to it this past weekend. I hit that nasty Silverite Mine bug that causes you to lose your main character's gear if you equip DLC items. Wish I had known about that before hand, and I didn't have a convenient save to go back to.

My biggest issue with the game, though, is that the plot really doesn't make much sense. I'm at what I think is the end-game, and I really have no idea who the Mother is or what her issue with the Architect is. The only reason I know anything about the Architect is because I read The Calling before playing this expansion. I'm hoping some info dump/revelations are coming soon to make things clearer.

However, like most BioWare games the smaller stories, characters, and side quests are frequently more compelling than the overarching plot. The new skills for each class are fun to use, and are fairly overpowered too. Only boss fights are difficult, but they're difficult in a good way. Lots of fun micromanaging required for those parts.

It's a shame the game is so glitchy and there are no patches for it forthcoming, but it's still a great addition to Origins.

beanman101283 wrote:

My biggest issue with the game, though, is that the plot really doesn't make much sense. I'm at what I think is the end-game, and I really have no idea who the Mother is or what her issue with the Architect is. The only reason I know anything about the Architect is because I read The Calling before playing this expansion. I'm hoping some info dump/revelations are coming soon to make things clearer.

I think there's an info dump coming, but it might have been in some journals you didn't find, so here's what I can recall:

Spoiler:

The Architect wants to free the darkspawn from the influence of the archdemons, so he's conducting experiments on darkspawn subjects. The Mother was one of his experiments. She was driven mad because she could no longer hear the call of the archdemons and hates the Architect for robbing her of it.