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Dragon Age: Origins Nightmare Guide by David Milward


INTRO & ABOUT  |  CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES  |  EQUIPPING CHARACTERS  |  COMBAT GUIDELINES  |  CHARACTERS
Areas in Order of Appearance:  
Origins  |  Ostagar  |  Lothering  |  Circle Tower  |  Warden's Keep (DLC)  |  Return to Ostagar (DLC)  |  Stone Prisoner (DLC)  |  Brecilian Forest  |  Redcliffe  |  The Urn of Sacred Ashes  |  Orzammar  |  Deep Roads  |  Denerim  |  Final Onslaught  
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Return to Ostagar 
Ostagar  |  Tower of Ishal  |  Battlefield  

OSTAGAR

A King's Confidant

Beginning the quest for Return to Ostagar involves making for Bann Loren's lands. Once I arrive, I witness the murder of one of King Cailan's former honor guards by Bann Loren's militia. I choose to fight the militia. I retreat a little, and toggle to 'move freely' so as to let them come to me. Aldarion carefully aims a Cone of Cold so that the three militia are stuck frozen. Aldarion Shatters one of the lower-level Militia members with a Crushing Prison, and Wynne another with a Stone Fist. This leaves their leader much easier to handle during up close combat. Once the leader falls, the two archers are much easier to kill off.

Now I speak with Elric Maraigne, in order to Return to Ostagar.

Key to Mages' Chest

There are only a few Darkspawn once I first arrive, so I kill them off easily.

I then go around looting nearby containers. The Charred Corpse a little towards the northeast has the Key to the Mage's Chest.

The Hurlock Strider

Now I go forward and up the stairs. The next fight is now a little to the east. A quick view of the field reveals that some Darkspawn are eager to charge forward, while others are hanging back, making this an opportunity for the 'drawing out' method. I let the eager ones come forward and then kill them.

Further east will be the Hurlock Strider, who can cast spells, and several Genlock Archers. The Strider must be the absolute first priority in order to minimize his spell casting. Aldarion gets him with Crushing Prison. Wynne further frustrates the Strider with a Stone Fist spell to knock him off his feet. Aldarion and Wynne are then able to wear him down and kill him by firing off their staves. After that, the Archers are much easier to kill. The Strider leaves behind Cailan's Greaves (+1 armor, +20% chance to dodge attacks). Alistair will wear these as part of a complete armor set for the rest of the game.

Further east will be the place where Aldarion first did the Joining. I find the Joining Chalice, which I gift to Alistair.

Mages' Chest and Elric's Buried Key

Now I go a little south of where I had first killed the Hurlock Strider. There will be a LOT of Darkspawn south of where the Quartermaster had been. I start off with the usual Earthquake + Blizzard + Tempest set up, but with an additional tactical theme. The Genlock Forgemaster is a distinct danger in this battle, as his arrows can be really damaging. Therefore I go back up the stairs and round the corner so as to hide in a cul-de-sac of sorts. The point is that all of the Darkspawn, the Forgemaster included, now have to slog their way through the crowd-control plus damage zone and then bend the corner as well in order to reach me. Once the Forgemaster bends the corner, he's now only a short distance away and therefore much easier to kill.

I go back down the stairs and either kill a few straggler Darkspawn or loot a few containers along the way. Two particular points of interest are the Key to the Royal Arms Chest that Elric had referred to, as well as the Mages' Chest. The Mages' Chest contains several random items, as well as the Corrupted Magister's Staff (+5 Spellpower, +15% spirit damage, chance to paralyze target). This will be Morrigan's staff for the rest of the game. As I previously stated, the bonus to Spellpower should be the prime consideration for Mage staves. The bonus to spirit damage will help Morrigan when she uses spells like Death Cloud and Blood Wound. The chance to paralyze its target (briefly) at a distance is nice when it happens, but that's not my key consideration when giving her this staff.

The Hurlock Vanguard

The next fight is a much stickier proposition. It includes the Hurlock Vanguard, several other Darkspawn, and a few Blight Wolves. This means that I will get easily overwhelmed if I am not careful. I go all out for the Blight Wolves first, with Aldarion catching them with a well-placed Cone of Cold. Wynne hurries matters along by Shattering one of them with a Stone Fist spell. I make sure to finish them (as they have the Overwhelm ability) before going to work on the Darkspawn. At some point Aldarion manages to catch the Darkspawn with another Cone of Cold. Wynne is also keeping everybody on their feet with her healing abilities. Note how she protects Aldarion with a Lifeward spell when it looks like he's about to get surrounded. Note also how Aldarion is scripted to activate his Shimmering Shield sustained ability only when he does get surrounded.

I loot Cailan's Shield (+1 armor, chance to dodge missile attacks) from the Vanguard's body. This will be part of Aldarion's interim shield and weapon set.

I loot the dead Mabari for the Firestone Harness (+4 attack, +25% cold resistance) and the Kaddis of the Trickster (+2 damage, +2 Dexterity). The latter item will be the Hound's warpaint for the rest of the game.

Royal Arms Chest

I check out Duncan's Bonfire, which has since been defiled, and then open the Royal Arms Chest with Elric's Key. It has Cailan's Correspondence with Empress Celene, which could be interpreted as Orlais coming to Ferelden's rescue or Empress Celene plotting another conquest of Ferelden but by a different method. The chest also has Maric's Blade (+0.75 Health regeneration in combat, +0.75 Stamina regeneration in combat, weakens nearby Darkspawn, +6 damage vs. Darkspawn). This sword combines with Cailan's Shield as a set to provide a +5 bonus to Stamina regeneration and +5 to damage. This is an ideal set for Aldarion as an Arcane Warrior, but I will end up with a different sword and shield much further down the road.

Repeater Gloves

There's a ramp to the south. There will be plenty of Darkspawn at the top on various sides. I have Alistair go to the top of the ramp and then regroup with the party. Aldarion and Wynne unleash their combination of Earthquake + Blizzard + Tempest to kill on the Darkspawn.

I then loot the various containers. The crate west of the ramp has a random item, and a pair of Repeater Gloves (Inscribed) (+1 armor penetration, rapid aim). The rapid aim property on these gloves is different from the rapid aim property on some bows found in the game. It reduces archery aim time by -3 seconds instead of -0.3 seconds. This means that Leliana can pretty much unleash arrows in a rapid non-stop succession even while she has the Aim sustained ability activated. The combination of Aim plus the repeater gloves by itself makes for a cost-effective and lethal archery build, since it allows all of the frills for the Aim ability (doubled critical chance, and bonuses to attack, damage, and armor penetration) without any of the spills (increased aiming time). There's some debate on the internet about whether the Repeater Gloves represent a bug that was never fixed or was an 'intentional bug' by Bioware to balance things out for Archers. Either way I don't mind, as there's another bug whereby Haste adds a +0.8 second penalty to aiming with missile attacks, so that in my view everything balances out. The Repeater Gloves will be Leliana's gloves for the rest of the game.

The next fight can be tricky because there are some Genlock archers further east along the battlements, as well as a Genlock using a ballista. I move east of the ramp and find a tripwire trap, which unfortunately I cannot disarm, so I just have to bite the bullet so to speak. Now the rest of the Darkspawn have seen me. Wynne has enough healing resources so that Aldarion and Alistair can rush them, while she and Leliana fire away at a distance. Leliana does indeed show the benefits of combining Aim with the Repeater Gloves in this video.

King Cailan's Body

I head east along the bridge and discover King Cailan's body. Now the Genlock Necromancer appears for the first time, and raises a few of the dead. The skeletal undead will be divided between once force at the west end, and a skeletal force at the east end. I head straight east since there is a Skeletal Mage there. Aldarion nails it right away with Spirit Prison. Single-target spells are next in order to bring it down as fast as possible. Alistair rushes forward, and is already on top of the Skeleton Mage by the time it manages to get out of the Crushing Prison, so it soon dies. It becomes a mop up after that.

The Hurlock Strategist

The lowdown for this part of the game is there's a large group of Darkspawn to the south and east, including three ballistas manned by Genlocks as well. The area is also blanketed with traps. I don't fight them on their own ground. I lead them away from the ballistas in a process of divide and conquer. Leliana will either lead the melee Darkspawn forward and away from the ballistas to be killed piecemeal, or will kill any distant Archers outright with her own missile fire.

I continue this process until there's only the three Genlocks left who are manning the ballistas. I don't want to rush them down the ramp just yet, as this will bring the Hurlock Strategist (who's an Emissary) into view. Instead, I have Leliana take her time to shoot down the Genlock who's manning the ballista to the west of the ramp. She then disarms the traps leading down the slope. Then she approaches the two remaining Genlocks from the west. They're helpless, as they can only fire their ballistas in the direction going up the ramp while Leliana is hitting them from the side.

Leliana then disarms the traps on the ramp. Just as she finishes, the Hurlock Strategist and two other Hurlocks show up well back to the east. This is the reason for my approach. I wanted to take out all of the support troops and the Genlocks manning the ballistas before bringing the Hurlock Strategist into view. The Strategist takes some killing, as he recovers from Aldarion's Crushing Prison only to hit Aldarion with a Crushing Prison of his own. Wynne nullifies this by protecting Aldarion with Lifeward. Wynne and Leliana sustain missile fire on the Strategist. The Strategist's fate is sealed once the Crushing Prison on Aldarion expires and Alistair kills off the other Hurlocks, meaning they both can now rush the Strategist.

The Strategist leaves behind Cailan's Gauntlets (+1 armor, +15% critical/backstab damage).

The Hurlock General

Now I head north, and then east. There will be a group of Darkspawn led by a Hurlock Emissary, who is still at quite a considerable distance from the party and thus has great latitude in using spells and stave attacks. Neutralizing him and getting rid of him is the immediate priority. Aldarion gets him right away with Crushing Prison. Aldarion and Wynne immediately follow up with single-target spells on the Emissary, while Leliana chips in with her bow. It's still not quite enough to kill him. He gets out of the Crushing Prison but is near death, so Wynne makes sure he dies soon and still unable to cast spells by hitting him with a Stone Fist spell. After that, the rest of the Hurlocks become much easier to kill.

Leliana advances to the 14th level and acquires her second specialization, Ranger. She then summons a Wolf and sets its script. Note that I have to resummon a Ranger pet and redo its script every time I enter a new area. It is a pain in the arse, but it's still well worth it, especially when the Wolf can use abilities like Overwhelm and Dread Howl.

There is a ramp ahead east. One thing to keep in mind is that if I plunge too far ahead, I'm out in the wide open against groups of Darkspawn not just to the east, but another contingent to the north. So Leliana leads the east group away west in a process of divide and conquer. Once the two helpers are gone, I then go to work on the Hurlock General. It leaves behind Cailan's Breastplate (+1 armor, +15 physical resistance).

Now I go up the ramp leading north. This times it's a bunch of Hurlock Archers at various points. I simply take them out by returning their missile fire while my Wolf will rush forward at the closest one.

At around 7:20, the last fight before the Tower is an ambush by three Shrieks. Aldarion waits until they are in a line next to Alistair and Leliana, and then unleashes Cone of Cold. He and Wynne then shatter two of them with Crushing Prison and Stone Fist respectively.

Now I have to enter the Tower of Ishal again.


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