Dragon Age III: InquisitionFollow

Speaking of, when you go through the elf ruins (spoiler alert! There's elf ruins!) and can either go the short way chasing after some dudes or go the long way with some song & dance to make the ancient elf spirits happy or some crap, did anyone take the short route? Because I'm sorely tempted to this time around and avoid the "light up the dance floor" game.

I plan on going the short route and SpoilerHaving someone else drink from the primordial soup. If not me someone else if possible. I have a feeling Solas or Vivienne would volunteer!

From what I've read, Spoilerit is Flemeth's model, but younger, wetter, nuder, and blonder. So... Mythal. Which sorta makes sense, as the Well of Sorrows invokes her "curse"

It's not that KE does stupid high damage, though it does respectable numbers (especially when paired with a Champion using To the Death), it's that a KE is damn near unkillable.

Yeah I have all those passives for shield rate decay, increased shield , 30% damage etc. I'm telling you guard is still flat out better. My champ soloed the crestwood dragon on level and was never in any real danger. With to the death I hit some 7k shield bash combos towards the end of the game.

I'm just amused that everyone got all crazy for KE and honestly I think champs or even just SnB + Vanguard are equally strong.

I'll probably eat those words once I get to level 15+ and my KE starts going crazy though. I'm setting myself up aren't I?

I need some guard on hit for my KE with guard + barrier I think things could get spiffy. I never bothered to craft much of that first run. I'm going to try and really break things more on this one for shiggles.

Yeah, my KE never hit like a truck, but he also never died (ok, he died once when I was stunlocked, didn't have guard, and was late with a barrier). I think a well-played SnB warrior probably survives just as well. In most boss fights it would end up being me and Blackwall left at the end; him usually in worse shape.

Ke gets stronger defensively when you take some of Spirit's abilities that boost barrier (Strength of Spirits and Rejuvenating Barrier) and stronger offensively when you take some Inferno abilities (Fire Mine/Searing Glyph, Clean Burn, Flash Point, and especially Chaotic Focus. Immolate for filler/AoE). Also, if you craft a masterwork with +Guard on hit, you can get a fully guarded mage.

But you never do a ton of damage. I think the highest my mage would pop off would be about 4.5k with Fire Mine. Most of my lightsaber swings would be about 600 damage at the end game, maybe a bit more. Veiled Blast would add a few thousand every few seconds.

The only thing I haven't learned for sure about Guard is the maximum value. I recall reading it's normally only 200 at its normal highest. While that means it is 200 with your defensive stats backing it up (unlike barrier), that's still not much.

Dorian is ******* awesome. Glad I got to know him and his personal quest on this second run.

I've been working on the assumption that passives are universal unless stated otherwise. Mage ones definitely specify if they apply only for one element.

And I figure they'd largely HAVE to be universal, just because of the sheer number of points you get vs. the limited ability slot options and weapon specialization.

Good questions. I don't know the answer but good questions. I've been letting Sera autolevel on a whim while controlling everyone else skills. She picked up some stealth attacks and seems to be able to use them even with a bow. I have seen her zip in and strike as if melee. So my assumption is that they work outside of respective weapons groups.

A large portion of the accessories don't even work. Like they add nothing to nothing. No idea if they stack or proc.

My second run is on a female elf rogue on Nightmare. It's definitely tougher than my last run (which was on Normal), but not impossibly so. The main difference is that I can't take on enemies 3+ levels than me, and Terror demons are even worse when they come in groups.

However, I decided to break this run with some glitches Spoilerspecifically, the item duplication glitch. If you open a chest with multiple items and leave at least one, exiting and reentering the zone will refill/reroll the chest. For random chests this means you can farm schematics or weapons; for static chests, this means finding as many Amulets of Power as you want. The trick is knowing which chests are worth it; the vault in Valammar (in the Hinterlands) has a chest with an Amulet of Power for Varric, and another chest that has tier 3 items/schematics. Later on, once you find enough shards to unlock the entire Cold path through the shard temple, the last treasure room contains a chest with an Inquisitor Amulet of Power and another chest with tier 3 items. This means you can get tier 3 items before Skyhold... but your choice of materials is quite limited. Paragon's Luster can be found in some places of the Hidden Oasis, and Obsidian can be found in the dragon area of the Hinterlands; both are tier 2 metals. And bears in the Hinterlands drop tier 2 leather bear hides. That's the best I've found outside of random drops..

This has resulted in me taking 25 hours to get to Skyhold (well, to the attack on Haven so far), but unlike my last run where it took the same amount of time, now I am decked out with mostly tier 3 schematics, and my main character has every rogue ability in the game. And I have 70,000 gold. Yeah, pretty ridiculous

I'm still getting the hang of my rogue; especially combining the archery part with the subterfuge parts. My abilities line-up is:

Long Shot
Explosive Shot
Full Draw
Leaping Shot
Poisoned Weapons
Stealth
Evade
Shadowstrike

Shadowstrike works with a bow, but requires you to be in melee range; I decided it would be better than, say, knockout-powder. Though that may change if I take another mage (currently using Cass, Sera, and Solas) so I can proc some Nightmares. My rogue definitely hits harder than my mage, but I feel very squishy; I'm probably tied with Sera for most deaths so far. So... any other tips before I pick up Tempest and continue on my merry way breaking the game?

I haven't crafted at all, beyond parts for Varric, really. I should probably pay some more attention to that.

I'm just now getting the mission to the arbor woods or whatever it's called. I think I'm level... 19? At least 18.

This game is infuriatingly large. I know I still have a lot to see, and I don't want to just... leave it.

Well everyone complains about having to much money. Why not just go the shop that literally sells your power for perks.

Edit: also I really like to know where all the Agents are becuase on my second play through I think I already found 2 or 3 I missed the first time round hahaha. I never could find much for poor Liliana though.

Edited, Dec 14th 2014 7:32pm by Laxedrane

Yeah, that's very true. And there's really no mechanism to even encourage you to move the main story forward.

I feel like I'm in the minority, but I'm actually really disappointed in the game so far. Which isn't to say I'm not enjoying it, but I'm not enjoying it nearly as much as I should.

A bunch of complaints below. SHOCKINGLY most of them center on writing, or content delivery systems. Though there's a special place of hatred in my heart for the freaking tactical camera.

SpoilerI'm so freaking annoyed that they decided to use such lazy writing as including the archdemon. It's ******* awful, and I'm so disappointed in them.

They also fall prey to the horrible "YOU'RE A HERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" sinkhole that made me hate WoW: Cataclysm so much. It's NOT interesting to be lauded all the time. That makes everything feel stale - you lose the context to evaluate your successes. In DAO, your successes were tempered by how horrible the situation was, and the gratitude extended to you was actually sort of linked to how much energy, desire, and time people had to express it. And people weren't falling over themselves to tell you how great you were. They acknowledged your successes, and your failings, and how much more ****** stuff was left to handle (or couldn't be handled). But that actually helped create a benchmark between ****** state A, *********** state B, and **************** state C.

I hate that the approval system was so reduced (particularly away from the friendship/rivalry system). And even worse, I hate that there are so few approval triggers, and that those almost completely depend on final quest decisions, with nearly no regard to your personalities or how you get along (though some companions remedy that a bit in their personal conversations, though out in the field its still pathetic).

I HATE the effect of the dialogue wheel. Essentially every conversation is so formulaic - you select the "?" options until you run out of questions, and then you give a value judgement. That makes every conversation feel forced, and it keeps me from feeling like any of the companions actually have any kind of personal connection to the Inquisitor.

In DAO, the conversation trees weren't designed to let you ask every question, your companions would counter with questions of their own (that weren't just yes/no approval questions), you'd get lost in tangents about shoes and pigeons, they'd disapprove of you in ways that stated fights (or they'd start angry, and then move towards forgiveness). It was so much more like a real conversation - like they were part of it. Instead, it feels like the Inquisitor forces every conversation that isn't a cutscene.

I really, really hate whatever it is they gave us instead of the isometric camera. It's AWFUL. I will go to great lengths to avoid using it, and I was CONSTANTLY using DAO's isometric camera.

I'm really unhappy with the character building systems. I miss stats. I miss needing to decide between wanting a more persuasive character or one who could pick locks or one stronger in combat. I miss thinking about stats I wanted - about whether or not I needed more mana, or more firepower, or how much dexterity/con my Arcane Warrior needed, etc. I'm also really unhappy with the ability bloat, particularly considering how many ability points you get. I miss having two specializations - it so drastically increased your build potential.

I already mentioned being dissatisfied with how little party banter there was, but seriously.

And lets just say this one - the game isn't Skyrim, and how much it's trying to be Skyrim hurts it. Why? Because Bethesda put all of their energy into the immersive ambiance of Skyrim. DAI isn't designed to be so immersive, and that makes the huge geography really. freaking. annoying.

Running from city to city in Skyrim was fun. Running from the Crossroads to Orgrimmar in WoW was not fun. DAI feels like the latter, not the former.

It's just sad, because I feel like BioWare could have done so much better. Their writing department IS better than that archdemon ******** (which you can tell from the characters, if you aggressively repair the damage the dialogue system causes). And it's better than letting the game just be nonstop hero moments. If it wasn't for the fact that I was interested in seeing some of the character story lines play out, I honestly might consider just dropping the game.