Dragon Age

[Jae Onasi]

Burn baby burn...Disco Inferno? With a drunken Dwarf, homosexual Assassin, Ornithophobic Golem, lesbian bard, sarcastic bastard (literally) ,

Dead

mage and dry-witted sadistic apostate. Fun times.

 

It certainly gives 'motley crew' a new definition.

 

whips and chains and such too, i believe

But he'll stare at you luridly while he uses them.

[SpaceAlex]

The DLC overall seems to be somewhat unstable. Have had a weird incident with the Stone Prisoner twice now where Shale lose all dialog/quest progress. So if you speak with her while she's in your party (or in camp) you'll warp outside the map (unless you're on Honnleath) and get the first "Activate the golem" conversation instead of the regular greeting.

 

Managed to fix the dialog the first time it happened by using the console to re-set the plot progress variables, head back to Honnleath and go through the Shale recruit sequence again (even though she was already in my party). It has happened again though and since I'm on the endgame railroad track I can't go back there to fix it again. I just hope this doesn't mess up the ending.

 

Both times this has happened party members have had equipped DLC-related items unequipped (or perhaps removed and then re-created in inventory) as well. So I'm guessing it might have something to do with that annoying online authentication of DLC content misfiring on occasion.

 

I had that happen to me as well (fixed it by combining two saves [don't ask], using the toolset), and it is most definitely a problem with authentication. The solution that I believe worked for me was setting "RequiresAuthorization" to 0 in AddIns.xml. It might even be a good idea to play the game logged off, though I found that unnecessary.

 

Other than that annoying "little" bug, the game has worked flawlessly for me so far.

[JediAthos]

[quote=Ztalker;2688626

 

Anyway, what's your guys favourite party set-up?

-PC: Warrior DPS (dual wielding)

-Allistair: Tank

-Morrigan: Ranged support

-Wynn: Healer

 

 

I'm essentially the same setup atm on my first play through, but I have Lelliana in atm as ranged support.

[stoffe]

 

Anyway, what's your guys favourite party set-up?

-PC: Warrior DPS (dual wielding)

-Allistair: Tank

-Morrigan: Ranged support

-Wynn: Healer

I'm essentially the same setup atm on my first play through, but I have Lelliana in atm as ranged support.

 

My core team is currently made up of:

 

PC: Female elven mage

Alistair: Hitting things over the head with his shield

Shale: Dry humor and squishing things

Leliana: Bow sniping, pulling, scouting/spotting, lockpicking, disarming traps

 

Seems to work pretty OK so far. Shale is pretty flexible and can switch from melee grunt to team defense to nuking on a moment's notice.

[Ztalker]

My core team is currently made up of:

 

PC: Female elven mage

Alistair: Hitting things over the head with his shield

Shale: Dry humor and squishing things

Leliana: Bow sniping, pulling, scouting/spotting, lockpicking, disarming traps

 

Seems to work pretty OK so far. Shale is pretty flexible and can switch from melee grunt to team defense to nuking on a moment's notice.

 

Hmmm..I was thinking about using both Alistair and Shale too. Might try it next time But...your PC is a spirit healer I take?

[JediAthos]

Does anyone use the qunari guy? (can't remember his name) I've tried to toss him in in place of Alistair a couple of times but he never seems to stay alive very long.

[DarthParametric]

Sten. My 2nd playthrough included him, until it was cut short by my desktop dying. I found him thoroughly disagreeable. All he does is complain about every decision I make. It seems the only thing that would make him happy would be for me to strip naked and run screaming headlong into the oncoming darkspawn horde. I don't think he quite gets the whole "gathering an army" thing.

 

The only time he ever agreed with one of my actions was in the alienage when

 

I let the head slaver go in exchange for using the captive elves as fuel for a blood magic spell that enhanced my stats

 

but even that was only given very grudgingly. I think he may well be the most dislikeable NPC that I have ever encountered in an RPG. If you want a 2H warrior, I'd suggest going for Oghren instead. He's much better value.

 

As far as 2H warrior utility is concerned, my first playthrough I played as one. I didn't find it to be much to my liking. You really have to max out the 2H tree to get any useful abilities. By far the best is Indomitable.

[igyman]

I've used Sten, but yeah, his low constitution stats don't allow him to stay alive very long. As for his personality, he is the most difficult to figure out, that's for sure, but I don't hate the character.

 

I do have to point out that I've found Alistair even more useless to have with me, since he seems to die even quicker than Sten, regardless of armor, weapons and stats.

 

I must admit, Loghain was far more useful to have around.

 

 

Now, a question completely unrelated to the stuff above, but it might be worth a few laughs - what name did you give Dog (and why)?

Me, on my first playthrough I didn't really have many ideas so I typed the first name that came to mind, which was Bolt for some reason. On my second playthrough, however, I named him Peanuts, because I thought it would be a funny name for a huge war dog. On my third playthrough, I named him Tiny for the same reason as the 2nd playthrough name. Still haven't finished the third playthrough though, I've decided to wait for "Return to Ostagar" to be released in order to freshen up the game a little.

[mimartin]

Now, a question completely unrelated to the stuff above, but it might be worth a few laughs - what name did you give Dog (and why)?

Sugarboy

 

It seems to fit his personality. Really it is the name of my mother’s rat dog and the two do have very similar personalities and both are able to find interesting stuff.

[DarthParametric]

All dogs must be named Meathead.

[Astor]

My Dwarf named his dog after his father (Endrin), but for most of the other characters i've either named it after Duncan (sentimental, I know), or called him Ozzy.

[stoffe]

Hmmm..I was thinking about using both Alistair and Shale too. Might try it next time But...your PC is a spirit healer I take?

 

Going as a Spirit Healer + Blood Mage in this game (had the blood mage spec unlocked in an earlier game so no need for any vile actions to get it ).

[mimartin]

stoffe as a blood mage. I just can't see it.

 

I'm playing as another Rogue this play through. Rogue has to be my favorite class. Not crazy about Specialization of Bard, but Duelist and Ranger seem to fit my playing fine. Have been using different party members on this play through, my main party is Wynne, Morrigan and Leliana, but have used Shale, Oghren, Sugarboy and Stern at one time or another. Even Zevran has left camp this play through, but not to fight (just to hear his comments).

[Mav]

I named my dog Mugen

 

 

Samurai Champloo

[Jae Onasi]

Alastair stays alive just fine, but I have him working up the shield and templar trees and that works pretty well with his play style. Set up his AI to take a potion at 50% health automatically and you'll have less problem with him dying. For really tough fights I have Wynne cast lifeward on him, since I'm playing a rogue and he's my tank.

 

I named my dog Sirius.

[Rake]

New patch up, v1.02. Mages received a much needed nerf.

 

Balance

 

* Daggers now apply 0.5 points of damage per additional point in dexterity and 0.5 points of damage per additional point in strength, as originally intended. This increases dagger damage for high-dexterity characters.

* During combat, mana or stamina reserves now correctly regenerate more quickly when reserves are low. This allows players to occasionally use an talent or spell in the later stages of lengthy fights.

* When exploring, mana and stamina now regenerate more quickly at higher character levels. This reduces downtime between fights.

* The spells Force Field, Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard now have shorter durations and/or longer cooldowns. This ensures that combatants can no longer stun-lock each other by repeatedly casting the same spell.

* The cooldowns for several low-level sustained abilities are now shorter. This ensures that players are not penalized for accidentally deactivating them.

* Certain battles were not scaling properly, resulting in excessively difficult fights. They now scale as intended.

* Enemy corpses now drop health poultices and money more appropriately, resulting in less clutter in the player's inventory.

 

Gameplay

 

* In rare cases, enemy corpses were selectable when they contained no loot. This no longer occurs.

* Party members whose combat tactics were set to defensive behavior no longer stop attacking after using a spell or talent.

* In rare cases, combat tactics conditions could fail to determine whether a character had enough mana or stamina to use an ability. This no longer occurs.

* The Rally talent no longer repeats its audio effect if it is active during certain conversations.

* The Rally talent no longer deactivates upon area transitions or conversations.

* The Shimmering Shield spell now deactivates when the character is out of mana.

 

There are a few other plot and PC specific fixes I didn't quote.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

stoffe as a blood mage. I just can't see it.

 

I'm playing as another Rogue this play through. Rogue has to be my favorite class. Not crazy about Specialization of Bard, but Duelist and Ranger seem to fit my playing fine. Have been using different party members on this play through, my main party is Wynne, Morrigan and Leliana, but have used Shale, Oghren, Sugarboy and Stern at one time or another. Even Zevran has left camp this play through, but not to fight (just to hear his comments).

 

i extolled the virtues of being a blood mage to stoffe so i'm claiming credit for this

[stoffe]

stoffe as a blood mage. I just can't see it.

 

After coming to the realization that Blood Magic is nothing like what they make it out to be in the story (doesn't seem to actually make your spells more powerful at all, no actual bloodletting to use it, no evil acts required to get it if previously unlocked, not even Templars care if you use it right in front of their eyes) I figured I might as well pick it this time around.

 

Shapeshifter is pretty worthless (weak shapes since spellcasting gets disabled, that takes forever to activate and forever to recharge) and Arcane Warrior didn't match the caster play style of my mage, so not much else to choose from for the second spec. Spirit Healer seems to be the only mage specialization that actually makes a big difference.

 

New patch up, v1.02. Mages received a much needed nerf.

 

Much needed?

 

It was completely unnecessary if you ask me, it's a single player game, and it's not like it's easy even on the Easy difficulty setting as it is. In fact I'm going to hold off on patching until someone releases a mod that reverts the spells back to their old behavior. (I'd do it myself but I'm getting neck pains from all the dejected shaking of my head when trying to use the Toolset.) I'd prefer if they kept their patching to fixing actual bugs rather than screw around with working gameplay mechanics.

 

Spells that costs a ton of mana, takes a long time to cast (leaving you open to interrupts) and can only be cast once per minute does not need reduced duration and even longer recharge in my opinion.

 

(Yes, I play as a mage as my main character )

[Rake]

Just because it's a single player game doesn't mean they shouldn't fix up shoddy balance.

[stoffe]

Just because it's a single player game doesn't mean they shouldn't fix up shoddy balance.

 

Assuming there is even need for such a thing as balance in a single player game, which there really isn't, in my opinion. Different classes are good at different things.

 

Besides, there was nothing wrong with mages before.

[DarthParametric]

They didn't need a nerf, they just need more useful spells/abilities - primarily the shapeshifter alluded to by stoffe.

[Q]

What about the plot elements that the new patch fixes? Are these fixes necessary? I didn't read about them because I'm not very far into the game and I didn't want to spoil anything.

 

I've played enough to agree that the mages did not need a nerf, BTW. I almost always play as a spellcaster, myself.

[mimartin]

The main thing as far as plot that the patch fixes is downloadable content item now stay in inventory at the end of the dwarf noble origin. This is something that has been mentioned needing fixing in this thread.

 

They fixed a XP exploit and a few bad placements of creatures/NPC.

 

“Certain battles were not scaling properly, resulting in excessively difficult fights. They now scale as intended.” This is the one I like the best. Fights against fodder opponents should not be more difficult then facing a boss. A few of the boss fights have been extremely too easy, while what should be a mediocre opponent at best has been a nightmare.

 

BioWare should have nerfed Mages altogether, Rogues are the only way to play.

 

Joking – Mages are fun, and I don’t believe they needed to be modified.

 

[igyman]

What about the plot elements that the new patch fixes? Are these fixes necessary?

 

Damn, they've fixed the Duncan XP bug. That's one thing that definitely didn't need fixing.

On the other hand fixing the items thing in the dwarf noble origin story was definitely necessary.

[SpaceAlex]

To get the pre-1.02 patch spells back, I just exported spell_blizzard, spell_cone, and spell_singletarget from the toolset (which has the old source scripts). Seems to be working fine.

 

Oh, the activation cost and cooldown duration can be tweaked easily by editing ABI_base (no need to use the counterintuitive toolset).