I wish the tactics had more options. Like, say, "Don't run into fire."
Or maybe, "hey dumbass, we're at the door for a reason, don't go in that room"
Or, "don't trigger identified traps."
Or "don't use cold spells on undead who are immune to cold."
I wish the tactics had more options. Like, say, "Don't run into fire."
The defense of Redcliffe made me wish that a lot.
You can disable Tactics on a case to case basis. If you're against Undead, you can simply disable Cold Spells in the Tactics menu.
For anyone having trouble establishing the motivation for a darker character, have them do the
Spoiler:city elf
origin story IMO. (Barely a spoiler, but better safe than sorry). That had me right in the mood for a cold-blooded character.
Quite possibly my favourite conversation option in the game came when the chirpy friendly king cheerfully asked what things were like in
Spoiler:the alienage
.
Very true, that's perfect preparation. Although it does show what a nice guy the king is. It felt like kicking a puppy.
Very true, that's perfect preparation. Although it does show what a nice guy the king is. It felt like kicking a puppy.
But hey, as an evil bastard that's what you do, right?
MrDeVil909 wrote:Very true, that's perfect preparation. Although it does show what a nice guy the king is. It felt like kicking a puppy.
But hey, as an evil bastard that's what you do, right? :-P
I snap their necks baby.
Oh, you mean in the game?
That's actually a conundrum, would this character help the kennel master? She is a raging xenophobe, but it's humans she hates.
Rallick wrote:MrDeVil909 wrote:Very true, that's perfect preparation. Although it does show what a nice guy the king is. It felt like kicking a puppy.
But hey, as an evil bastard that's what you do, right? :-P
I snap their necks baby.
Oh, you mean in the game?
That's actually a conundrum, would this character help the kennel master? She is a raging xenophobe, but it's humans she hates.
I got the thing the kennel master wanted (because I was told there was a reward, you lying bastard Daveth, glad you got what you deserved!) but I rejected his overtures to foist the animal on me.
I recommend you guys take a look at the Weapon Rebalance mod that I posted today. I have heard a lot of praises for it already. Also take a look at the Scaling Change mod, which make CON more useful and tweaks skills (Holy smite right now) to scale off of STR rather than WIL.
Speaking of mods, I would like some of your opinions on I shall be Queen mod.
Spoiler:The "I shall be Queen" mod lets you become Queen no matter your Background. So you no longer have to be a human noble to claim the Throne or romance Alistair to the end!
I didn't add it to the mod list, since it is not a "mod" in the sense that there is nothing to install. Rather it is set of instructions which involves the toolset, and editing of save game files.
I personally will never use it, because I always have issue "role playing" as female chars. (Yeah I have issues, but it just feel "weird" if I try to play a female character ). But I know this is something that some would love to make use of.
Please let me know of your thoughts, and whether or not I should add it to the mod list.
thanks
Ugh. That's terrible. I disapprove of mods that change the actual storyline/canon/history of the core game and would never use it. (Add-ons are cool, but this just seems like, defilement.)
But I know there is a huge demand for this kind of thing. Trolling the Bioware social site forums really puts in perspective how insane some people are.
My suggestion is to put it under a "fanfic" mod section. Next to the "Now you can have ghey sex with Alistair" mod.
You mean you can't have ghey sex with Alistair in the plain vanilla game? CURSES!
Katy wrote:I wish the tactics had more options. Like, say, "Don't run into fire."
The defense of Redcliffe made me wish that a lot.
I basically keep my finger over the H key whenever I start a fight. The hold position command has made things much, much easier for me. I just plunk away with my bow, get the melees to charge me and only release the hold position order once the enemy has closed with me. It also makes throwing blizzard into an adjoining room a riskless venture.
I can't imagine anyone complaining about a mod that makes your character godly. Just reading through some of the tweaks in that mod makes me nauseous. Do people really want an I WIN button that badly? Is the game really that hard? I find myself wanting to install one of the Nightmare+ mods.
I installed the combat/weapon balance mod last night mainly for my bows only ranger character. It definitely wasn't a game breaking I WIN mod. I honestly can't tell much difference at all in the grand scheme of things. Sten still drops like a sack of potatos in hard fights (though I later fixed this with the respec mod by essentially turning him into Alistair), Revenants still smack the bejeezus out of my group at lower levels, etc. The biggest difference I noticed was that my average ranged attack was doing 21 damage a shot instead of 18. Of course it also seems like I'm missing like crazy now and I have no recollection if that was the case before.
BTW, I can't say enough good things about the respec mod. Having gone through the game once "as intended" I can now customize my party members so that I can experience different party combinations, along with all their wonderful banter, while still keeping the utility I need. Turn Zevron into a lock-picker, easy. Have Morrigan as a spirit healer and get rid of the nearly worthless shapeshifting? Can do.
I've been running with myself (rogue), Alistair (tank), Sten (off-tank), and Wynne (healer). I'm getting tired of babysitting Sten, and he drinks health potions like an alcoholic on a bender.
Any thoughts as to bringing back Morrigan in Sten's place, and running two mages? I really need more crowd control. Sten isn't paying off much, even Alistair the tank is doing more damage than him.
I used both Wynne and Morrigan through most of my first play through and thought it worked really well. I mostly let Wynne handling healing, with Morrigan throwing an occupational backup heal. I focused Morrigan on CC and AoE spells, and that generally worked out really well for me. I used Sleep + Nightmare and Blizzard quite a bit, made a lot of the bigger fights with lots of enemies easier.
I've been running with myself (rogue), Alistair (tank), Sten (off-tank), and Wynne (healer). I'm getting tired of babysitting Sten, and he drinks health potions like an alcoholic on a bender.
Any thoughts as to bringing back Morrigan in Sten's place, and running two mages? I really need more crowd control. Sten isn't paying off much, even Alistair the tank is doing more damage than him.
I had a similar problem with Sten until I (upon reading the adivce of a fellow Goodjer) switched him from a two-handed weapon to a one-handed sword and a shield. He lasts much longer now and, in tough battles is one of the last standing.
I've been running with myself (rogue), Alistair (tank), Sten (off-tank), and Wynne (healer). I'm getting tired of babysitting Sten, and he drinks health potions like an alcoholic on a bender.
Any thoughts as to bringing back Morrigan in Sten's place, and running two mages? I really need more crowd control. Sten isn't paying off much, even Alistair the tank is doing more damage than him.
It's much more effective to have your mage use healing spells and drink lyrium as needed than have everyone chomping down poultices. Going Spirit Healer and getting Group Heal is essential.
I used both Wynne and Morrigan through most of my first play through and thought it worked really well. I mostly let Wynne handling healing, with Morrigan throwing an occupational backup heal. I focused Morrigan on CC and AoE spells, and that generally worked out really well for me. I used Sleep + Nightmare and Blizzard quite a bit, made a lot of the bigger fights with lots of enemies easier.
Morrigan and Wynne work really well together. Toward the end of the game, most fights consisted of Wynne throwing earthquake out there then morrigan setting off a blizzard and tempest while the enemies were trying to get off their keisters. Plus the damage from a regular staff blast ain't half bad. Alistair's pretty good about grabbing agro if anyone gets through your vortex of death.
Beat the game a few times over already, 97% world explored, level 23, a little over 120 hours (mostly because I took my time with battles and read every bit of lore in game). I'll write up some comments later when I have more time. But for now, a comment on the Army Picker in the battles leading up to the final battle.
I found the elf archers to be the most effective army. They hang back and waste enemy archers and mages. Had no issues with the generals when mixed with Allister's Holy Smite and Morrigan's crushing prison. The Circle Tower mages were a total liability though. They almost wasted my entire party when they launched fireballs as targets my party was in melee combat with.
Wow, my experience was the opposite. The elves did such little damage they were largely ineffective for me, while the mages were mowing down baddies. My strategy was to stay back and control the crowd from afar with mezzes and earthquakes though, so the fireball colateral damager wasn't much of an issue for me.
I was playing on easy so I don't imagine my experience will line up with anyone else's, but I was worried about my armies dying before I truly needed them. So I didn't use them until the very last fight. Any of them.
The Elven Archers were with me for that final fight though they didn't seem to do much other than distract the enemy.
You get an achievement if you keep most of your armies alive. For a bunch of those fights you don't really need help, it just adds to the atmosphere to have others fighting the good fight with you.
WALL OF TEXT
......
Are you guys as turned on as I am?
Did anyone manage to ever use shapeshifting as a decent spec? Seemed terrible to me.
Wall of theorycrafting crits you for over 9000!
I didn't really bother trying to cast anything if I was actually meleeing with my Arcane Warrior. I just used it for magic->strength. Shimmering Shield + Miasma + Spell Wisp cost too much fatigue to really be casting anything other than maybe a single buff or debuff. By the way, that's a good tip to use Spell Wisp to increase spellpower (and hence attack power)--I frequently forgot to use it.
When I wanted to use my Arcane Warrior as a caster I just kept all that stuff off and stayed at range. My Havard's Aegis shield helped against missile attacks.
I didn't go overboard trying to spec for spell power, but I still found my Arcane Warrior very effective in melee combat. I was using the Arcane Warrior-specific sword, and did good damage with it. The main thing that's a drag about fighting as an Arcane Warrior is you have practically zero threat management. Nuking once to get threat is not effective for long fights, and I never seemed to have enough mana to cast any crowd control.
Did anyone manage to ever use shapeshifting as a decent spec? Seemed terrible to me.
I found it very useful during one quest:
In Redcliffe, if you send Morrigan into the Fade to battle the demon the encounter seems to be designed for mages. Your enemies are ill-suited to face a bear.
No. Though it would help me to justify keeping Morrigan with me when I try to make a completely non-human party. I'll just keep her in spider mode all the time, with me as an elf wizard, my dog, and shale.
Did anyone manage to ever use shapeshifting as a decent spec? Seemed terrible to me.
The Master Shapeshifter forms are VERY powerful, and the swarm form in particular is very useful for tying up bosses while the rest of the party kills minions. You just don't take much damage in swarm form.
Shapeshifter is useful because of the flexibility it gives you. If you need another melee DPS, you can get one quickly. The Bear form is useful for a nuke & shift strategy, too.
I haven't played a shapeshifter as my main, but I had enough fun with it while using Morrigan as my Arcane Warrior's sidekick to make me interested in trying it out.
I just wish spiders could pick locks.
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