Bryant Hawke Lives [Archive] - Boards o' Magick

Munchkin Blender

Wed, 9th Mar '11, 7:57pm

I got the Signature Edition, absolutely. I didn't think Bioware was going to let me down, so I took a *very small* risk and ordered early for extra goodies. I'm not regretting that decision at all.

I haven't spoken to Sebastion yet, though I saw him there in High-town. I think I'll save him for a little later, and see what I can accomplish with Hawke, Aveline, Carver and Varric as a team. It's a good, balanced team with your nuker mage, sword and board tank, damage dealing 2-handed guy, and a crossbow wielding rogue.

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It's amazing to look up while in low-town and see the huge foundries burning up in the distance. Low-town feels like a prison or sorts. Bioware did a brilliant job creating this city. It sucks me right into the experience.

DAO Character I have heard about in my 6+ hours

Shale - Talk to the bar keep at the Hangman - he mentions pegions and how they are all dying

Alister - after rescuing the miner and convincing them to go back to work they thank the Maker and their new King Alister

Anders - Met him and he asked me to help him - he talked about the GW and Ser-Pounce-A-Lot.

Bronan and Scandel - I thought Bronan died (I can't spell the merchant name right)

What I don't get is that the GW adventure between DAO and DAO-Awakening is two years; however, I met Anders only after 1 year the family left Lothering.... Something is not adding up...

If you noticed anything or heard about another DAO character please let me know..

Marceror

Wed, 9th Mar '11, 8:54pm

Will do MB.

So I was walking around the docks and this human passes by, looks at me, and says "Elf this and Elf that. I'll elf your mother." :lol:

Oh, I got a good laugh out of that. I'm digging how people react to you as you walk by. Ocassionally someone will rib my brother Carver for always being in my shadow. Or someone in the more opulent parts of town might comment that my low born presence isn't appreciated there. Sort of reminds me of PS:T, when I'd walk by Annah in the Hive, and she' say "looks like one of the dusties lost a deader" or something similar.

Death Rabbit

Wed, 9th Mar '11, 10:20pm

Reports on the love scenes......have not been kind. Likened in more than one place to "two mailboxes clanging together." Ouch.

And a surprise, I have to say. After all the complaints about the wooden underwear-clad love scenes in DA:O, I would have thought they would make them a little more compelling. The scenes are already up on YouTube. There isn't even any stripping - just rolling around kissing on a bed as the camera pans away and fades to black. Lame. Not that I was expecting Deep Throat or anything, but still - a disappointment.

Marceror

Wed, 9th Mar '11, 10:52pm

I haven't experienced any of these yet. I thought they were somewhat awkward in DA:O also. These have never been important to me, personally. I'd rather have fluid exciting combat and a gripping storyline over amazing, tantalizing love scenes.

If these are as bad as your report claims, well, at least Bioware got the more important stuff right. That said, as with everything in this game, I no longer trust other peoples' reports overmuch. Other folks would have me thinking DA2 is a bland, mindless console jockey game and little more. I'm glad I didn't give such reports too much credence.

I'll wait until a love scene naturally occurs in my game and let you know if I agree on this one or not.

Death Rabbit

Wed, 9th Mar '11, 11:02pm

Oh, they aren't that important to me either. But they do improve the immersion and the overall experience if done well. It makes the romance more believable and you connect to it better if it consummates in as believable a fashion as the medium allows. I quite liked them in DA:O, underpants and all. It was the music and campfire light that made them compelling. When they're bad there's this awkward "Um...whoah, uh...yeah, ok" moment that breaks the immersion.

BUT - I haven't played it yet, so maybe I'll feel differently about it in the context of the story and overall game. And hey, that's what modders are for, right? :)

Gaear

Wed, 9th Mar '11, 11:32pm

These have never been important to me, personally. I'd rather have fluid exciting combat and a gripping storyline over amazing, tantalizing love scenes.
At the risk of sounding like a smart ass, can you make 'moves' in the love scenes like you do in combat? Never played any DA ... I wouldn't imagine you can but if you could that would be something ... new.

Marceror

Thu, 10th Mar '11, 7:27am

No such luck Gaear in DA:O, but I suppose with the current dialogue implemention in DA2 you could have:

-Nice Hawke - Romances his/her mate gently, lovingly
-Snarky/humorous Hawke - Calls out like a wolf during the experience
-Naughty Hawke - Uses handcuffs and chokeholds to enhance the experience

In spoilers as this isn't one of my more appropriate posts.

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@MB

I just encountered Knight Commander Cullen, who was in the mage tower in DA:O, if I recall correctly

Munchkin Blender

Thu, 10th Mar '11, 3:47pm

At the risk of sounding like a smart ass, can you make 'moves' in the love scenes like you do in combat? Never played any DA ... I wouldn't imagine you can but if you could that would be something ... new.

You must be thinking of the game Heavy Rain on the PS3. That game is AWESOME! Yes you get to put the moves on the girl using the control and if you do the wrong move, well I won't get into details.

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@MB

I just encountered Knight Commander Cullen, who was in the mage tower in DA:O, if I recall correctly

Now I can see why the Chantry and the Mages are ready to kill each other....after you complete year 1.

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I wonder what DLCs Bioware has planend for DAII or expansion. I seriously hope they help with Hawke's development.

Marceror

Thu, 10th Mar '11, 8:52pm

Indeed. As I recall, this particular Templar was all too ready and willing to bring down the mage tower in DA:O. While it seems like he's maybe 1 or 2 notches better at his job now, he isn't exactly the cool, calm, and collected type like Knight Commander Greagoir was. In fairness, being good at being a templar doesn't exactly seem like an easy job.

Munchkin Blender

Thu, 10th Mar '11, 9:13pm

Marceror

Mon, 14th Mar '11, 4:40am

@DR I experienced my first romance, with the steamy hot Isabela. My take is that they are about as awkward as they were in DA:O (again, I always found them to be somewhat out of place), but WAAAAY less sensual. It reminded me of some horny school kids making out on the bed.

* * * * *
As for the game overall, at this point I'm early in chapter 2. I'm not finding that the game feels linear at all, as I always seem to have a good number of side quests to take care of. Quests are grouped into rumors, main plot, companions, premium content, secondary quests and side quests. I finished everything there was to do in chapter 1, and now that I'm in chapter 2 I've received a whole bunch of new quests.

I'm still finding combat to be enjoyable. Some of the gore is over the top, but it looks cool, so what the hell. For the most part combat is easy, but there are a number of far more challenging battles thrown in to keep you humble. Playing as a mage I find that pause and play style is necessary to get the best results from your spells. To me, it's not so different than DA:O, so I will just have to agree to disagree with the many that feel combat has been ruined and dumbed down since DA:O. It still comes down to auto-attack and your selection of spells/talents. You can still assign tactics, but now you have more of them, so you're not so limited. You can still select your entire party... action just moves at a faster pace and AoE spells don't hurt your party. On the other hand, MOST spells are AoE in DA2, so a mage would be very limited if they hurt party members.

The story is great so far. I like the companions, but there isn't nearly as much opportunity to interact with them as there was in DA:O. As for corners being cut, there is no denying this. Most of the game takes place in 1 of a handful of areas. Some areas, like warehouses and caves are nearly identical... occassionally a new skin will be used for a more important area. That said, the way the story plays out makes this work better than I would have expected. Because the game occurs over a several year period of Hawke's life, you can come back to a lot of these same places later on, but the way you interact with them is different.

All in all, I'm still digging the game, and fully expect to play it through until completion. I will likely start a second run as a rogue. Is it a perfect game? Certainly not. Is DA2 as good as the original... hmm, I would have to say no overall. While it's nice not to have the end of the world on the horizon this time, DA:O seemed like a spare no expense sort of affair. DA2 is more of a make the critical stuff great, but cut corners where you can to keep on target with the agressive release schedule.

Did Bioware ruin what they had with DA:O? In my opinion, still, certainly not.

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Well, if the romances are less than glorious, I just encountered something in the game that MORE than made up for that:

I won't spoil too much, even in a spoiler, but let's just say that Aveline is getting tired of being single, and her efforts to deal with that make for one of the most real, and hilarious gaming situations I've encountered before. Truly, truly great. My appreciation for Aveline as a companion has just increased dramatically.

omnigodly

Tue, 15th Mar '11, 9:00pm

Well, if the romances are less than glorious, I just encountered something in the game that MORE than made up for that:

I won't spoil too much, even in a spoiler, but let's just say that Aveline is getting tired of being single, and her efforts to deal with that make for one of the most real, and hilarious gaming situations I've encountered before. Truly, truly great. My appreciation for Aveline as a companion has just increased dramatically.

Yes... Just... yes.

I can say with absolute certainty that I enjoyed the game all the way through except for two things:

Why do I keep losing family members?!?!?!

and

That ending is HORSE****.

Still going to play through the game as a mage/rogue though :)

Munchkin Blender

Wed, 16th Mar '11, 6:06pm

Yes... Just... yes.

I can say with absolute certainty that I enjoyed the game all the way through except for two things:

Why do I keep losing family members?!?!?!

and

That ending is HORSE****.

Still going to play through the game as a mage/rogue though :)

I heard the ending is made that way for the expansion.

Marceror

Wed, 16th Mar '11, 6:17pm

Here comes one of my more critical posts about Dragon Age 2.

Dragon Age 2 is like a really hot girl who happens to be way too skinny. You'd go out with her without a second thought, but you'd constantly wish you could feed her a big, greasy cheeseburger to fatten her up a bit. What I mean by this is, a lot of corners have been cut with the game, presumably to allow it to ship on time in spite of a highly aggressive timeframe. I will give Bioware some credit in making what appear to be generally intelligent decisions in how and where to cut, but even still, the snipping effect is sometimes rather jarring.

*** Warehouses, Caves and Back Alleys, oh my! ***
The main place where they cut is in level design. Warehouses, back alleys, and caves tend to be rehashes of the same areas, with minor changes only from one to the next. In one warehouse you might be able to access certain sections, while in another you can access different sections, due to different doors being made selectable and other not. Trap placement, chest placement , etc is usually varied as well, but once you get familiar with these levels, you can’t escape the fact that you've “been here before” even if technically you haven’t. Of the various areas where corners were cut, this is the most troubling. Some of the more important of these areas are completely unique, but those are the exceptions.

*** Kirkwall, The Wounded Coast and Sundermount… oh my? ***
You also tend to spend your time in just a small handful of locations. Of course you spend most of your time in Kirkwall and its many districts. The city is masterfully created, so I don’t mind spending a lot of time there, but when I think of all of the amazing locations I got to visit in DA:O (e.g. Ostagar, Urn of Sacred Ashes, Orzamar (sp?), Denerim, etc) I can’t help but wish for a bit more variety in in DA2.

At the same time, this is one of the areas where I applaud Bioware for their creativity. Not every story needs to roam the full length and breadth of a continent, as is common in so many CRPGs. Coming back to these same areas at different points in Hawke’s life works well, but at the same time obviously has the benefit of requiring less development time over a game that takes you all over the world. I also think the idea of having the city having a distinct personality during the day and a completely different personality during the night is clever, and it works well. But there again, it sort of feels like there’s more to explore without a requirement to build completely new areas. You also spend a good amount of time on the Wounded Coast and Sundermount, which are areas in the outskirts of Kirkwall.

*** Armor, armor, and… okay, I give up! Let's call this "Point 3" *** :p
Even the concept of companions having pre-chosen armor, while it doesn’t necessarily bother me, is an obvious time saver for Bioware. Now they don’t have to worry about testing dozens of different armors to make sure they work on Dwarven bodies, human bodies, male bodies, female bodies, and otherwise gel with the various physical characteristics of your companions. The various armors just need to fit properly on and look good on Hawke.

Again this doesn’t particularly bother me, as it’s similar to another game that I love, Planescape Torment -- and in fact, provides a lot more options than that game did. Covering up Isabela’s ample curves with a bunch of heavy armor would be nothing short of a crime, and wouldn’t at all fit who she is. I also happen to feel that the companions, for the most part, look awesome. Sebastion’s armor is a work of art. The system to upgrade companion armor is interesting and innovative in its own way. Between this and the fact that you can equip rings, amulets, belts and weapons pretty much as you please (within class restrictions) still allows for some variety. On weapons, Varric is the exception as he can only use Bianca. I think this is cool actually, as it fits Varric’s personality. Bianca is a weapon that he loves and has no intention of parting with, and it’s exclusively what he chooses to use in combat. It also happens to kick plenty of ass. :)

There are other more minor points like the most limited dialogue options with your companions. I’m slightly annoyed that the highly manual method of distributing new game downloads from Mass Effect 2 has replaced the all but fully automated solution present in Dragon Age: Origins.

None of these things have ruined my enjoyment of the game. I think it’s going to go down in history as one of my favorite games, in fact. But I share this information in an effort to remain objective and honest with others who may be considering whether or not to pick the game up. I'm still in chapter 2, however, so my opinion is still something of a work in progress.

Munchkin Blender

Wed, 16th Mar '11, 8:29pm

Marceror

Wed, 16th Mar '11, 8:48pm

I agree with you 100%. I will add two more items….

Point 4 - Enemies

Enemies randomly appearing after you thought you beat the initial group. Enemy rogues being able to use stealth at will – at least that is how it felt for me on the console, and doing instant kills on Hawke or NPC that have low health.

Point 5 – Weapons

Random weapons found are mostly staves. I’m playing a rogue and all the mage NPC are already equipped with the best staves. Why not some nice daggers? Also, why do I have to access the inventory screen to swap out my weapons; in DAO I could setup a quick swap to my action menu allowing me to have two types of action menu – one for weapon 1 and another for weapon 2; that needs to be put back in place.

On point 4, I'm sort of liking this part. I don't see the additional enemies as "random" but as reinforcements, and I find that this makes for some exciting battles. As for rogues going into stealth... why should this be a problem if enemies do it? Your rogue can do it too, right? I'm actually surprised they are allowing some combats to be this difficult, pleasantly surprised in my case. I like the challenge. That said, more than likely they will tone this down in a patch. They did a similar tone down patch in Dragon Age Origins.

I haven't noticed the lack of daggers... maybe it's because I'm playing a mage. :p I do keep my eyes open for them, however, as I give the best ones I find to Isabela. It seems like I've found a good number of them, but probably have found more staves. I have heard that the game is a bit light on rogue weapons, so hopefully that will be addressed. I plan to run a rogue next, in fact.

I very much miss the quick swap feature for weapons from DA:O!! Good call on that!

Gothmog

Thu, 17th Mar '11, 4:53pm

I'm in ActIII at the moment, and the game feels very watered down. Combat is downright boring, i don't think i've had a challenging fight since becoming a champion. Fighting a zillion of slaver hunters in lowtown time and time again is, at first, satisfying in a evil wizard power obsessed laugh way, but it gets old if there's nothing challenging to compare itself to. There's a lot fewer side quests and one or two of those are bugged anyway. Overall, it hardly feels like another chapter has passed for Kirkwall, like it definitely did feel in Act I ->Act II transition.
This is an isolated case however, mostly combat is decently difficult. And i'm only playing on normal, without AoE abilities damaging party members. Legendary encounters especially do provide quite deep tactical possibilities, since now (as opposed to early game) you've the abilities to conjure up something effective without resorting to lame run-in-circles-while-the-rest-autoattack like in the beginning of the game (a certain Mature Dragon comes to mind), when bosses had too much health to be zerged down.

In a hurry atm, i'll edit/post more later.

Marceror

Thu, 17th Mar '11, 5:53pm

I just got to Act III last night. Regarding challenging fights in Act III:

If you're looking for a tough fight in Act III, go to the Bone Pit. I got my ass handed to me there. I'm going to try again today when I get a chance to play. If I can't work it out I'll probably need to come back later. My party is level 19, by the way.

Munchkin Blender

Thu, 17th Mar '11, 6:05pm

Marceror

Thu, 17th Mar '11, 6:20pm

I hit 19 when I won the final battle in Act II. I think I was level 18 for a good portion of Act II also, so that sounds about right. I have done every quest that has been presented to me. A lot of the quests in Act II are filler. Some are just interactions with your companions that don't yield any experience. If you're using items that grant additonal experience, that might give you a bit of an edge on me in that regard.

Gothmog

Thu, 17th Mar '11, 7:01pm

I think i've been in the same zone as Marceror. Not exactly sure, since i've had to backtrack somewhat because i took Arcane Wall upgrade to Arcane Shield and it doesn't work as the tooltip says.

Yeah, that's what i had in mind when mentioning legendary battles. More or less nonessential encounters (think from Firkraag to Twisted Rune in bg2) that are _the_ challenge of the game. I'm gnawing on this guy Hybris right now, he's a rock.
They're quite far beyond anything else, as is proper i guess.

I may be speaking out of place here, since i haven't tried all the abilities in the game, but in a few of these encounters, Walking Bomb from spirit magic branch has been the major hinge on which victory balanced. A certain three-revenant encounter in Act III is made uncomparatively easy with focus zerging one revenant down and blowing him for 15k damage on the other two. The spell is a variant of Diablo's Corpse Explosion, you cast it on a living enemy, then you've 10 seconds to kill him, he then explodes and does his max hp damage in a fairly small radius. It comes handy in boss-with adds fights as well.
Any other abilities that shine so disproportionately in ideal circumstances?

Marceror

Thu, 17th Mar '11, 7:59pm

My mage is a pretty standard elemental build. Fire and ice baby. It's simple, but effective. I have arcane shield fully maxed out also, but I can't really tell if it's helping me. I can't tell if I'm actually getting the defense and resistance bonuses, or if my companions are getting them. I do get a very dramatic spell effect around Hawke that is hard to look at for extended periods of time (I'm glad that these effects only show themselves during combat).

I'm using Cold Blooded as my staff so I'm particularly effective with cold based magic. It doesn't seem like a lot of enemies have much cold resistance, so it's consistently useful. And even the raw damage from my staff is pretty impressive. Outside of that, I have some of the force mage spells, which are nice. I'm likely going to try to obtain everything in that category to try it out.

I gave walking bomb to Merrill, but as I don't use her much, I haven't really seen what it's capable of. I'm certainly not coming anywhere close to 15k damage with what I'm using. A couple thousand damage on a lucky cold spell is about the best I've done so far.

omnigodly

Thu, 17th Mar '11, 11:06pm

Marceror

Fri, 18th Mar '11, 12:11am

Okay, interesting. I don't think I had ever turned the ability off since upgrading it. The ability was activated but there was no benefit shown on my companions' attribute pages. After turning the ability off, then on, I see some bonuses for them.

Hawke also has some bonuses, but in no case do they exactly match what the ability says they should be. I should have 20% to all resistances for example. Hawke gets 15%. The rest get 5%. Okay. Defense doesn't seem to match either.

I think there are still some glitches to be worked out with certain sustained abilities. I notice that my sustained ability to add elemental damage to my party's weapons occasionally needs to be toggled off, then on to work.

On another note, last night my uncle made this completely inappropriate comment about my girlfriend:
"So, I hear you've been slipping it to that pirate sl*t from The Hanged Man! The b*tch turned me down flat!"

And he sounded waaay to excited when he said it. Bad, bad uncle!

Novare

Fri, 18th Mar '11, 12:27am

As far as abilities go for a mage the ones I found useful are all the nice passives. Force mage go deep enough to get the, i forget exact name, but unless a boss pushes you around normal mobs wont interrupt your spells.

Also the spirit healer is quite nice as in battle if you need a heal or someone fell in battle just click it on click the spell and click it back off :)

I found also that you just about have to go fire ice or spirit if you want gear to give you + percent dmg. Until act 3, way to late, is when I finally saw some non random good nature dmg gear :(

An overlooked, from different forums ive read, companion is Fenris. His lyrium ghost stuff and 2handed weapon talents make him a powerhouse competing with my mage for top dmg honors.

Just on a side note

Varric is the best NPC ever with his Bianca banter hahaha.

Enjoy yer game gents.

Marceror

Fri, 18th Mar '11, 1:27am

I chose Blood Mage over Spirit Healer for my second specialization. I'm not actually playing as a Blood Mage, but the extra hit points seemed like a nice perk. Whereas the extra mana for Spirit Healer, when I so rarely even get low on mana, seemed less useful. I didn't like that Spirit Healer didn't allow other spells to be cast. I didn't really explore the possibility of turning it on and off, as that wasn't really the direction I saw Hawke going.

Unrelated Note - Warning: Apparently there's some sort of bug with Sebastion and Isabella, if they become your friends. The bonus to damage reduction and speed that they give can actually be counted negatively against your base stats in certain circumstances, like if they are automatically removed from your party (such as when you enter the Hawke estate). Apparently some people have had their Hawke's attacking in slow motion and with serious negative damage reduction after this occurring numerous times during the game.

You are well advised not to become friends with them until the bug is fixed. Unfortunately for me, they are both friends, but I'm not aware that I've been affected by the bug yet. I plan to stop using them in my party.

Follow up on difficult battle:
I just completed the battle at the Bone Pit in Act III. It was haaaaaard, and fun. The rewards were fantastic. Varric died near the end of the battle. Hawke, Aveline, and Sebastion (last time I plan to use him) managed to stay alive. Oh, and Munchkin (my Mabari) died once also. It's best to have a minimum of melee fighters for this.

omnigodly

Fri, 18th Mar '11, 2:19am

Follow up on difficult battle:
I just completed the battle at the Bone Pit in Act III. It was haaaaaard, and fun. The rewards were fantastic. Varric died near the end of the battle. Hawke, Aveline, and Sebastion (last time I plan to use him) managed to stay alive. Oh, and Munchkin (my Mabari) died once also. It's best to have a minimum of melee fighters for this.

I had 2 myself (warrior), isabela, varric and anders for this fight. If anders were a better healer I think it would've been much easier, but a lot of running around so the dragons fire balls didn't hit my characters :P. Helps that isabela was doing 200 dps (base in stats page)... gogo rogue talents to drop/give threat to my warrior :)

On a side-note. I like that having a shield is not a requirement of tanking until Nightmare :). I hate the world of warcraft system of groups. As much as some people maybe be tired of D&D, tanking with a 2hander and full plate is still the best ever ;).

Also it appears that blood magic items stack (according to some gamespot forum posts), so I'm going to test this with a few pieces and see if I can get 7+mana/1health :)

Gothmog

Fri, 18th Mar '11, 10:37am

Oh yea, Cold-Blooded is awesome. Went broke on buying it, despite me not using any cold (or blood magic) damage. There's a lot of mage stuff that's intended for elemental build, or really, just fire build. I've only seen a handful of items that increase other types than fire&ice of damage. Also, it's annoying how only elemental tree can Brittle opponents for major warrior smashfest. The one bad thing about cold damage is, skeletons (maybe most undead, dunno) have noticable resistance to it. I think i caught a loading screen advice that spirit is the one damage type that halves enemy resistance to it? something along those lines. Shame there's really only 2 spells that use it, one being mediocre, other highly situational and a major hassle. Maybe i'm just bad at this game, but often Walking Bomb hardly seems worth the effort of preping it, so many things can go wrong. At least for most of the battles where you can just stand back and whack em casually till they drop.

Arcane Wall is silly. As you figured out, if you take it, Arcane shield elemental resistances go down to 15% for the caster, the rest of the party get 5%. I'm not sure about defense, but i think it's the same. And it requires reactivating it to start affecting whole party. I thought, screw you guys, i'm keeping full effect for myself so i don't have to spend attribute points on health and keep stacking magic (@85 atm, wohoho) for bigger numbers on the screen :D

I went to slay the big bad drake yesterday as well. I was level 21 i believe, i just concocted that potion that "ages" you, giving you an extra level. Honestly, this was the first fight i really prepared myself, stocking on everything i could think of. Bought healthpots for the first time for a decent quantity, poison for Isabela, -15% enemy damage weapon coating for Aveline, 3 Might (or whatever they're called, +10%dmg) potions, fire resist gems in sockets until 3 of us had 95%+ fire resi - i left defense gems in Aveline's gear. And i took Heal and Improved heal spell on Hawke... still had to gulp 4 potions to live :(
I controlled Isabela majority of the fight and she pretty much carried it. The damage :love:

It's absurd the damage rogues (and warriors to multiple targets) do. Maybe it's because i haven't gone Elemental/Primal, but magic seems to me to be more of a support role.
For next run i'm probably taking a rogue, Fenris, Merril with full hp stacking, since you don't need Willpower to wear armor and Anders, to try what it's like to run with a healer.

@omnigodly
Do you control your warrior most of the time and run out of enemy attacks, or do you just stand and take it like a man?

Munchkin Blender

Fri, 18th Mar '11, 2:39pm

The most damage I have seen was completed by my rogue using a combo of special abilities. First Mark of Death on the target, second any ability to disable a target, Hide in Shadow, and finally Assassinate. This typically reduces any enemy life points in half or provides an instant kill. I try to makes sure all of the gear my rogue uses increase critical damage just for that and backstab. I found a way to increase the frequency of using backstab for my rogue.

Since my rogue is a front line fighter I have earned the friendship special ability with Alveine, which helps reduce the damage my PC receives from enemies. Good stuff since my rogue is in the thick of it for all battles.

omnigodly

Fri, 18th Mar '11, 5:19pm

@omnigodly
Do you control your warrior most of the time and run out of enemy attacks, or do you just stand and take it like a man?

I control my warrior a lot. He's a reaver tank so I generally don't let him take any extra damage than the aoe ability ticking away for 5%/second.

With the reaver abilities and cleave, he also ends up doing quite a bit more damage than isabela (500-700 damage crits sometimes).

Marceror

Fri, 18th Mar '11, 5:30pm

I miss the counters we had in DA:O for total damage, total kills, most powerful killed etc. It's sort of hard to judge based on the list DPS alone (the DPS listing is a nice addition, don't get me wrong), but there's so much else that determines how much damage a character is actually dishing out. Spells, abilities, critical hits, hit ratio....

It would be nice to have these stats back.

Marceror

Sat, 19th Mar '11, 10:18pm

*** Isabela/Sebastion Friendship Bug Update ***

Alrighty friends. The infamous Isabela and Sebastion friendship bugs both bit me. I had figured I was -5% attack speed from Isabela, as I had seen her bonus on Hawke one time when she wasn't in my party (the tell-tale sign). And then, even though I hadn't even touched Sebastion in any way for a while, I noticed his bonus on my character when he wasn't in my party. Sure enough, I checked my damage resistance and I was at -10%!!!!!

Okay, it looks like there's hope though, and I wanted to share this with everyone.

To fix damage already done: I downloaded this character editor and reset my character animation speed and damage resistance back to 0.0: http://social.bioware.com/project/1936/?v=discussions#files. It worked like a charm!

To prevent future damage from this bug: I downloaded this workaround to prevent the bug from recurring going forward: http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2299. It doesn't actually fix the bug, but it changes the modifier to Hawke to 0. So technically you might still have your DR and/or Attack speed reduced, but since it will now be by a factor of 0, it won't actually have any effect on you. There are 2 flavors of this workaround. One will apply the rival bonus to Isabela and Sebastion. The other will make their friendship bonus twice as powerful (effectively transferring the portion of the bonus that was meant for Hawke back to the companion). Choose whatever you prefer and drop it in your override folder!

I hope this helps some folks! I strongly recommend making a backup save game before messing with the character editor, just incase!

I had just completed obtaining my mage Champion armor, and when I went to check the full set bonus, I discovered that I also had this bug present. 45 minutes later I've discovered appropriate workarounds, applied them, and should be able to continue my game without issue. Phew!

---------- Added 1 hours, 20 minutes and 17 seconds later... ----------

I've had a chance to play a bit of the game with these fixes in place. They seem to be working perfectly! :)

On the other hand, as far as I can tell, I'm not receiving the +5 defense bonus for having the entire Champion armor set. I am receiving the +3 to Magic, however.

Marceror

Mon, 21st Mar '11, 1:25am

Munchkin Blender

Mon, 21st Mar '11, 1:59pm

I'm a good ways into Act III. I've seen a number of old friends from Origins/Awakening. I'll say who in the spoiler, so don't look if you want to be surprised:

In addition to those who have been mentioned earlier in the thread, I've seen King Alistair and Teagan, Leliana, and Nathaniel Howe. There have also been numerous Qunari called Sten, but as it turns out, that's a particular title rather than a name (Qunari don't actually have names), so there's no telling if one of those Sten's was the Sten from Origins.

EDIT: Just bumped into Zevran too!

Despite a few bugs and other imperfections, I really love this game!! I'm actually considering starting over again with a second mage run, doing a much more focused build (probably a primal mage rather than an elemental mage, and perhaps I'll go blood mage for the first time). This Hawke will probably take on the humorous persona, instead of the sensitive persona that I'm using most of the time. Then after that I may go for a rogue Hawke... or take a break for Shogun 2 Total War, before coming back with rogue Hawke.

On another note, there has been some discussion that there aren't many good rogue weapons in the game. I have found some AMAZING daggers and bows in act III.

Look at the stats on this dagger:

The Low Blade
Damage: 44 Nature Damage (81 per second)
Perks: 2 rune slots
Stats:
* +10 critical damage
* +3 attack speed
* 25% chance to reduce attack speed
* 25% chance to reduce movement speed
Requires Dual Weapon; Requires 42 dexterity

The Low Blade is the BEST dagger in DAII, seriously. The second best dagger is the Red Jenny dagger that you can purchase in Lowtown. I like using the Right Hand of Carta and the Left Hand of Carta because they go together and provide nice bonuses, but they do not have rune slot or they would be the best from my point of view.

I’m near the end of DAII now. I completed Merrill’s and Varric’s final companion quest. Just one or two more quests and I will be done with the game.

DAII is definitely not DAO by any means; however, it is a really good game. If you are expecting DAII to be exactly like DAO than you will be greatly disappointed and upset. Instead, just play DAII and let the game bring you in to its story. DAII has a very good story but you have to get past the first 6 or so hours to see it develop. As for the interface, yes I prefer how DAO was designed, but DAII was aimed as console gamers since they are more profitable for a software studio than PC gamers. It is unfortunate that Bioware went that way, but it is what it is. It is a great a game, but it won't beat the overall value that DAO offers.

Marceror

Mon, 21st Mar '11, 5:21pm

Munchkin Blender

Mon, 21st Mar '11, 6:24pm

I see DA2 as being very similar to DA:O AND very different, at the same time. My main beef, aside from a few bugs, is the reused levels. But I've decided not to let that really bother me, so it's not a huge issue. Otherwise I'm enjoying my runthrough quite a bit.

I do agree though, that in those areas where the game is different, it's best to take this game in as its own thing. Games are always initially much maligned for breaking a formula, but often times, months and years later those changes are praised. The point is, it helps to go in with an open mind. :thumb:

Here are the things I miss from DAO that was removed from DAII, these are not placed in any order of importance.

1) You don’t have your pick of race – I like being able to select my own race
2) Hawke does not receive the racial bonus towards his or her ability like in DAO
3) Weapon Restrictions - Warriors are limited to two weapon styles and not four – Why can’t a warrior use a Bow or two weapons– how lame is that…Rogues can’t use a sword and shield and mages can only use staves.
4) Skills are removed – Pick pocketing in DAO provided some nice FREE loot and having Persuasion/Intimidate provided more dialogue options
5) Talents/Spells – Some skills and talents now require upgrades to reach the level of effectives that they had in DAO.
6) Mana/Stamina Usage – I find myself running out of Stamina or Mana very quickly compared to DAO and using potions to restore it more often than in DAO
7) Specialization – Instead of being able to pick from four we only have three
8) Talent/Spell Tree – The new setup of the talent tree is easier to find and locate specific spells – however, instead of all Talents/Spells in one nice easy to get to column I have to scroll through a variety of groupings before I able to review and select the talent required for a level up

What I like about DAII
1) Story – it is different, but in a good way. Instead of trying to save the world you are playing a character that is doing his or her best to survive after the last blight and make a name for him or her self. Definitely a good change of pace compared to the last DAO story.
2) Combat has been greatly improved – console users can now direct there companions to a specific spot for attack, to drink a potion, what ability to use or who to attack in one set of command instead of running through each companion.
3) Now I can level up the character ability without leveling up the talent/spell
4) Dog does not count as a companion – One extra NPC to assist in a fight

If Bioware is smart, Bioware would find a way to combine the good of both games and make DAIII with those changes and continue on with the idea/story Bioware

Marceror

Mon, 21st Mar '11, 8:29pm

Here are the things I miss from DAO that was removed from DAII, these are not placed in any order of importance.

1) You don’t have your pick of race – I like being able to select my own race
Understood, options are generally preferred. At the same time, if we had been given the amount of options we had in Origins we wouldn’t have had a fully voiced Hawke and such a focused story. As is the case with most decisions, they come with good and bad. I tend to play humans, so didn’t mind this decision overmuch. At least I still get to travel with Dwarves and Elves in my party.

2) Hawke does not receive the racial bonus towards his or her ability like in DAO
Meh. They aren’t racial options, so the idea of a racial bonus seems somewhat redundant.

3) Weapon Restrictions - Warriors are limited to two weapon styles and not four – Why can’t a warrior use a Bow or two weapons– how lame is that…Rogues can’t use a sword and shield and mages can only use staves.

I hear you. I’m of mixed opinion on this. One the one hand it better differentiates classes, and makes a better rock-paper-scissor scenario. On the other hand, why in the hell shouldn’t a warrior be able to dual wield, or use a bow? It’s a very “gamey” decision Bioware made on this one.

4) Skills are removed – Pick pocketing in DAO provided some nice FREE loot and having Persuasion/Intimidate provided more dialogue options
I miss this to some extent also. On the other hand, I do appreciate in some ways the ways in which crafting has been streamlined. I found it to be too much of a time sink in Origins, personally. It's a lot less time consuming this time around.

5) Talents/Spells – Some skills and talents now require upgrades to reach the level of effectives that they had in DAO.
Not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. Spells now also don’t harm party members, so the greater investment to unlock their full power seems reasonable. I also find this an interesting way to increase the viability of early spells/talents over the course of the game.

6) Mana/Stamina Usage – I find myself running out of Stamina or Mana very quickly compared to DAO and using potions to restore it more often than in DAO
With my mage I’m having the opposite experience. I’ve been pumping willpower up to 32 in order to use the best mage equipment. Even with elemental weapons and arcane shield sustained at all times, it is VERY rare that I go low on mana. Only the longest battles result in me using a mana potion (I’ve used like 2 or 3 so far in my entire game).

Stamina does seem to run out faster for warriors and rogues, especially if they don’t put some points into willpower. That said, there are GREAT abilities for warriors that restore stamina, and since gaining those for Aveline and Fenris, stamina hasn’t been an issue at all.

Rogues have some options also. I’ve gotten Varric to a place where he maintains his stamina pretty well. If you’re having a problem some pumping of willpower and adjusting of tactics may be helpful. It doesn’t always pay to have every ability available… focus on your core few and upgrade them to maximum effect. Getting passive abilities is also a good idea.

7) Specialization – Instead of being able to pick from four we only have three
We only had 3 when Origins was released, and didn’t obtain the 4th until the Awakenings expansion. So there’s still hope to see another added with an expansion.

8) Talent/Spell Tree – The new setup of the talent tree is easier to find and locate specific spells – however, instead of all Talents/Spells in one nice easy to get to column I have to scroll through a variety of groupings before I able to review and select the talent required for a level up
There are things I like about the new approach and things I don’t. I do agree that in some ways it feels clunkier when trying to plan out your character, because you can’t see everything at once. It’s click into this tree. Go back to the overview page, and click into that tree. Rinse and repeat. It looks cool and everything, but with so many skills/spells to choose from, it becomes a little impractical.

What I like about DAII
1) Story – it is different, but in a good way. Instead of trying to save the world you are playing a character that is doing his or her best to survive after the last blight and make a name for him or her self. Definitely a good change of pace compared to the last DAO story.
One thing that became rather draining in Origins for me was the overwhelming lack of hope. Everything was so dire, and you had just a fool’s hope that you could overcome the Blight. If you didn’t, the Darkspawn would effectively take over the world. That situation becomes a serious bummer over a 60+ hour game.

In DA2, the story a lot lighter in comparison. For a change, the universe isn’t hanging in the balance. This is easier to digest. I also appreciate some of the storytelling changes that Bioware used. They took some chances and overall, the result was something really cool.

2) Combat has been greatly improved – console users can now direct there companions to a specific spot for attack, to drink a potion, what ability to use or who to attack in one set of command instead of running through each companion.
For Dragon Age 3, I hope for something in between Origins and DA2. I can appreciate that Bioware wanted to make warriors and rogues a bit flashier than what they were in Origins – which is to say, very realistic fighters and not very flashy at all. At the same time, I think they went a little too far in the other direction. Warriors that move into combat at super human speed and cause enemies to explode when they attack is just over the top. I guess since Varric is telling the tale, maybe this represents some of his embellishment. Okay, fine. But for the next title, how about a little more restraint from Bioware….

3) Now I can level up the character ability without leveling up the talent/spell
You could do this in Origins as well.

4) Dog does not count as a companion – One extra NPC to assist in a fight
Overall I prefer this approach as well. I would never want to use a companion slot for a dog that provides no banter. This way seems to make a lot more sense, and allows my Mabari to serve as the faithful companion he is meant to be.

If Bioware is smart, Bioware would find a way to combine the good of both games and make DAIII with those changes and continue on with the idea/story Bioware
Agreed. They have pissed a lot of loyal Origins fans off by pushing the envelope so far in certain regards. I hope they will find a happy medium between Origins and DA2 for the next title, and in so doing create a game that doesn’t alienate so many Origins fans.

Munchkin Blender

Mon, 21st Mar '11, 9:25pm

A few I have to comment on about your post Marceror in response to my post.

Actually in Origins you did have 4 specializations to pick from.

Rogue – Ranger, Bard, Assassin, and Duelist
Warrior – Reaver, Champion, Templar and Berserker
Mage – Arcane Warrior, Blood Mage, Spirit Healer, and Shape Shifter

At level 7 and level 14 you get to select a specialization for a total of 2 for the PC and most NPC also were able to have 2 specializations. It would be nice if you could select one specialization for the NPC in DAII or the NPC 2nd specialization opened up by doing a specific quest.

Excellent point that crafting is a lot better in DAII – it is simplified and makes it easier to make runes, potions, grenades, etc…It saves time and makes crafting more enjoyable.

As for the manna usage – I have Merrill’s willpower set to 42, and she runs out all of the time. She also is equipped with 3 items that increase manna regeneration rate. My rogue doesn’t because his normal attacks are so fast and replenishes the stamina very quickly.

On consoles in DAO when you leveled up the character you had to select a talent or spell along with adding points to the ability, and if you did not do both you could not level up the character.

I wish you could change the armor for all companions, but the actual image we see would not change.

Marceror

Mon, 21st Mar '11, 11:14pm

Just finished the game! Mixed emotions on the ending. I like where they chose to bring things... probably one of the most important issues facing Thedas.

Meredith's final moments were a bit much for me. It just felt a bit over the top for my taste. The ending made for some interesting battles though, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story progresses from here!

I'll have to find some time to write my formal review, hopefully this week.

@MB, you're absolutely right about the number of specs. As many times as I've played Origins, I can't believe I got that wrong. They say the mind is the first thing to go....

In my game Merril's default tactics have her using a couple of pretty heavy sustained spells, so she doesn't have great mana retention. I don't use her much, but if I did, I'm sure that with some adjustments to her tactics she could do a lot better managing her mana.

Well, Bryant Hawke saved the day. I'm so ready for another go...! :)

omnigodly

Tue, 22nd Mar '11, 1:20am

Munchkin Blender

Tue, 22nd Mar '11, 2:14pm

She must have taken lessons from Goku and the Ninja Assassin. I know EA had more to do with that fight than Bioware, I can feel it in my bones.

Meredith reminds me of Aribeth form NWN1, seriously. Templar vs. Paladin and both wielding a 2handed sword. Both of these characters seem over the top zealots for the order they serve.

I also finished DAII last night. I enjoyed the game overall and may replay it at least one or two more times depending upon the DLCs or expansions that maybe released. The story of the game was good, though not epic. The ending didn’t surprise me one bit. Meredith the Templar reminds me of the Paladin in NWN OC. I swear that Bioware lost it creativity with this game because at times I felt like I was playing BG, NWN1 and DAO all combined into one game.

The cameo appearances of NPCs from DAO were all placed in the same chapter, would of liked to see some of them maybe earlier in the game, but there appearance had no real impact in DAII game or story. The cameo appearance of the appointed king or queen in DAO stated something. I question what was stated, because my Warden in DAO left with Morrigan in the mirror, but the Fereldan king or queen cameo appearance stated they have a meeting with the hero of Fereldan. However, the final video in the game states that the Champion of Kirkwall and the Hero of Fereldan are both missing/gone. If that is the case, than the Hero of Fereldan will not be meeting up with the King or Queen of Fereldan.

As for what I expect to see for DLCs and expansion on DAII; the DLCs and expansion would cover the years that the game skips over. There maybe one DLC for Merrill that will end her quest and maybe finish similar to a DLC in DAO, which would match the ending that was mentioned in DAII for my game.

I will definitely have to play DAO again as a human mage, since the human mage is related to Hawke. And from there make choices different than my last playthrough and than play DAII as a mage and do the same to see if the story ends up being different. For instance instead of sparing the life of Zeveran, I should kill him to see if he ends up being in DAII, etc…

Gothmog

Tue, 22nd Mar '11, 6:50pm

I just started DAO as human mage (druid type), after finishing DAII with mage Hawke. Gone the other way around :)

I've only used Merril when mandatory for her companion quests and i haven't geared or paid attention to what she was doing, so i don't know how she did with mana. With Hawke however, i only ever put enough points in Willpower to wear gear, so 31 by chapter III. I've never had problems with mana, 0 mana pots used whole game. Major factors include spirit magic with it's % mana drain of corpses, it's final talent with 10 mana regen, Cold-Blooded staff early in chapter II for another 10 (or was it 5) mana regen. I guess i simply didn't have enough spammable spells in chapter 1 to be able to go oom.

I did feel i had to take Willpower for my warriors&rogues. Also, i went into stamina-regeneration ability tree with both Aveline and TheBroodyElf. With those abilities and ~20 willpower they were more or less fine. Isabela and Varric weren't. Constantly out of stamina with approximately same amount of Willpower. I never checked, but Isabela ought to have a huge edge over Varric with her onion-chop attack speed, compared to twang-a-minute of Varric. Unless autoattack stamina gain is calculated per minute and not per single autoattack..?

Oh, and i went to have a bit of fun with Black Emporium respecialization potions. Sorely dissapointed with the buffer/support/healer mage role. Spirit Healer specialization is all but useless with it's 8meter health regeneration aura... unless you're a glutton for punishment and enjoy getting cleaved on the front lines by every single dirty lowtown mugger. There's just the one Heal spell, you put 2 points there and you've done as much as you ever can... not to mention it's a straight %, completely unaffected by Magic attribute. All buff type abilities are a persistent, -% mana sustainable buffs. What fun is that, you only ever activate them once and they're up constantly, making you an autoattacking two-digit mana mage mule with a Heal spell every 40seconds. Woah, the excitement :rolleyes:

omnigodly

Tue, 22nd Mar '11, 9:39pm

I did feel i had to take Willpower for my warriors&rogues. Also, i went into stamina-regeneration ability tree with both Aveline and TheBroodyElf. With those abilities and ~20 willpower they were more or less fine. Isabela and Varric weren't. Constantly out of stamina with approximately same amount of Willpower. I never checked, but Isabela ought to have a huge edge over Varric with her onion-chop attack speed, compared to twang-a-minute of Varric. Unless autoattack stamina gain is calculated per minute and not per single autoattack..?

Oh, and i went to have a bit of fun with Black Emporium respecialization potions. Sorely dissapointed with the buffer/support/healer mage role. Spirit Healer specialization is all but useless with it's 8meter health regeneration aura... unless you're a glutton for punishment and enjoy getting cleaved on the front lines by every single dirty lowtown mugger. There's just the one Heal spell, you put 2 points there and you've done as much as you ever can... not to mention it's a straight %, completely unaffected by Magic attribute. All buff type abilities are a persistent, -% mana sustainable buffs. What fun is that, you only ever activate them once and they're up constantly, making you an autoattacking two-digit mana mage mule with a Heal spell every 40seconds. Woah, the excitement :rolleyes:

I thought Varric shot pretty fast with bianca talents/sustainables.

Spirit healer was really fun too, my mage became a tank almost instantly when I respecced from blood (+10con, +100health regen all the time). Made a lot of fights crazy easy too ;).

Marceror

Wed, 23rd Mar '11, 8:53pm

Bryant Hawke was a good warm up, but I missed a whole lot of content and didn't have an optimized build. So now it's time to do a mage runthrough "right."

I'm now well into act I with Marcere Hawke, who is a primal mage first and foremost, rather than an elemental mage. Wow, primal magic is impressive! I'm strongly considering going blood mage later on, but I need to play around with this specialization a bit more before I commit, to make sure I really understand how it works.

I've now upped the difficulty from normal to hard. I also went with a custom appearance with this Hawke and am playing the snarky version. Snarky is infinitely more entertaining than playing Mr. Sensitive.

This time around I'm planning to run with Marcere, Aveline (again), Isabela (I hear the banters between Aveline and Isabela are priceless, so I want to experience these). I will probably eventually add Sebastion as my final team member, but at the moment I've still got Varric.

My game review has been started also, and I should be posting it soon.

Novare

Thu, 24th Mar '11, 2:54am

Sorely dissapointed with the buffer/support/healer mage role. Spirit Healer specialization is all but useless with it's 8meter health regeneration aura... unless you're a glutton for punishment and enjoy getting cleaved on the front lines by every single dirty lowtown mugger. There's just the one Heal spell, you put 2 points there and you've done as much as you ever can... not to mention it's a straight %, completely unaffected by Magic attribute. All buff type abilities are a persistent, -% mana sustainable buffs. What fun is that, you only ever activate them once and they're up constantly, making you an autoattacking two-digit mana mage mule with a Heal spell every 40seconds. Woah, the excitement :rolleyes:

I found with spirithealer you do NOT keep that ability active. You choose your dmg type for me it was elemental.

You blast yer enemies and if ppl need a heal pop into spirit healer heal em then pop out and blast some more :)

I took willpower on everyone for more energy or mana then 1 in main stat one in stam, sometimes pass on stam for 2 in main stat.

I utterly hate locked chests, varric had no energy to speak of because you need 40 into cunning to open the highest chests. That is absurd and made him my weakest member.

I know I know I could forgo chests but I shouldnt have to just because of that stupid requirement :mad: Not enough lvls to up cunning and dex and willpower. Usually had to do all 3 in cunning :(

Anyway thats how I played the spirit healer.

Sorry for the rant on the chests :rolleyes:

Have fun gents :)

Tassadar

Thu, 24th Mar '11, 3:37am

As for the manna usage – I have Merrill’s willpower set to 42, and she runs out all of the time.

I have Death Syphon on for Merrill and it works well enough for pretty much everything except for solo boss fights.

Marceror

Thu, 24th Mar '11, 4:47am

I had Merril using Death Syphon also and it made a big difference. I think that with some careful planning on talents/spells, a modest investment in willpower and some tweaking of tactics you can pretty much get all of your companions to a place where they can maintain their stamina/mana pretty well. Also, don't overlook the usefulness of +mana/stamina items and mana/stamina regen items.

Obviously if you load up too much on the sustainables, you're going to have a problem. If your tactics are set up so that your companions are activating their abilities/spells constantly, you're probably going to have a problem. Simple things like changing a tactic's trigger from something like "Enemy - Any" to "Enemy - Health - >= 50%" can make a big difference. You don't want your guys wasting their abilities on enemies that are nearly dead. The more powerful abilities should generally be reserved for elite and boss level foes. The order of your abilities can potentially make a difference also. Order is akin to a priority level, so your 1st tactic has priority over your second, and so on.

Gothmog

Thu, 24th Mar '11, 6:55pm

Death Syphon is great, i've had it on 99% on Hawke. There's really just 1 or 2 fights that are single-target only. And they're not even the hardest.
What i've overlooked about it and only noticed near the end of the game is that it's a fairly short radius. Until then i've thought it had an internal cooldown, but it's like 8 meters radius in which the enemy has to die for it to replenish health&mana.
I think it should work wonders with Merrill, buff her health, rock&arcane armor, perma bloodmagic mode with improved Death Syphon and let her wade kneedeep in enemies, be it dead or soon to be dead. Attrition based party setup, toss in EmoElf for some cleavage (hah) and AoE Hawke. Sweeping ketchup harvest fest, not battle.
I'd try it, but i've decided on playing Origins in favor of 2nd DAII run. Very glad i did, i already prefer PC-ishness of Origins to consol-ishness of second installment.
What i meant by spirit healer limitation is clear with Origin comparison. Even at level 7, i've more party support/buff spells than DAII. I didn't think it was too much to ask for enough tools to make supporter a fulltime occupation. As it is, you HAVE to take either damage or disable spells, just cause there's simply not much to do/use as a support and/or buff mage. Huge downside for me right here.

I always found Varrics stamina exhaustible, it may well be because of his high attribute spread requirement (at least if you want him to pick locks&disarm traps). If you know where to find a certain awesome act III rune recipe, you can stop pumping cunning at least at 33.

Btw, was i blind whole game, or is there really no simple "turn AI off" button like even BG had 10 years ago?
All i wanted was for them to keep autoattacking if i rightclick them an enemy and deselect them, yet it took me nearly half an hour of tinkering in tactics screen to get just about halfway there.

omnigodly

Thu, 24th Mar '11, 8:02pm

The only way I know of is to just unclick all the check boxes in the tactics screen.

Also, just noticed that the R-key auto-attacks and auto-loots :).

Tassadar

Fri, 25th Mar '11, 2:10am

I have to say the tactics engine in DA2 is far superior to DA:O, even if the strategy involved in combat is way less. You really can leave your party members to their own devices and they do an incredible job of running around and staying alive.

Marceror

Fri, 25th Mar '11, 2:20am

Tassadar, I'm not sure what difficulty level you're playing on, but if you're finding the strategic/tactical requirements of the game to be on the light side, I would suggest upping the difficulty at least to hard.

I'm finding that the game gives a nice challenge on hard, along with my house rule that no companions can fall in combat. I'm having to reload plenty of battles, and have to be fairly thoughtful about how I engage enemies so that none of my party members become overwhelmed.

Tassadar

Fri, 25th Mar '11, 5:50am

Tassadar, I'm not sure what difficulty level you're playing on, but if you're finding the strategic/tactical requirements of the game to be on the light side, I would suggest upping the difficulty at least to hard.

Oh don't get me wrong, the game's plenty hard for sure, but nine times out of ten it pretty much still is run around like a crack addict and whack 'em till they die. And the brilliant tactics engine lets me do this quite easily. :)

Maybe it isn't so much the lack of strategy and more the improvement of party member AI.

Munchkin Blender

Fri, 25th Mar '11, 9:31pm

Oh don't get me wrong, the game's plenty hard for sure, but nine times out of ten it pretty much still is run around like a crack addict and whack 'em till they die. And the brilliant tactics engine lets me do this quite easily. :)

Maybe it isn't so much the lack of strategy and more the improvement of party member AI.

I used Bethany in the end game and she never ran out of mana; she had two sustain abilities activated too.

As for a second play through - not happening right away. I am going to play DAO with a Mage before I play DAII again.

omnigodly

Fri, 25th Mar '11, 9:32pm

Never found DA:O to be particularly challenging at any difficulty. The hardest part of the entire game was getting through the bridge puzzle of the sacred ashes quest without quick saving (I always forget to quick save). Even on nightmare I just auto-piloted most encounters.

DA2 on hard so far has been more challenging because of the random little things that can happen to low-HP party members. I'm not going to try nightmare until I get a better hang of the game and cross-class combos. ie: I love that enemy rogues do go out of their way to vanish and attack the casters, and that I can stun them with my warrior and turn them into charred flesh with a mage spell (REVEEEEENNNNNGGGEEEE).

Munchkin Blender

Fri, 25th Mar '11, 9:34pm

Marceror

Fri, 25th Mar '11, 10:16pm

I like tatics are acquired instead of using skill points. That to me makes sense.

Agreed. There was no good reason not to allow a player to set up a tactic to activate a sustained ability and then deactivate it later. But in Origins that would consume 2 of your limited tactics slots. There's no problem doing this in DA2, however, as you always seem to have an ample supply of tactics slots.

There were a number of "gamey" features in Origins that have been reworked to the players' benefit in DA2.

Tassadar

Sun, 27th Mar '11, 10:13pm

Now if only they allowed you to zoom the camera out more than currently allowed, so you could position your party members in a less frustrating way...

Munchkin Blender

Mon, 28th Mar '11, 3:52pm

Now if only they allowed you to zoom the camera out more than currently allowed, so you could position your party members in a less frustrating way...

On consoles, DAII camera is better than in DAO, but not by much.

I recommend viewing Bioware social forum. There is a forum now covering what we as gamers see as things that Bioware can improve upon for the next installment or things that should have never changed from DAO.

Bioware Social Forum (http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/315/index/6568680/57#6811084)

I posted my thoughts. My username as stated in another post is MEBengal2008.

Tassadar

Mon, 28th Mar '11, 10:41pm

Agree with pretty much all your points, Munchkin - except I actually love the exploding enemies lol. The whole OTT combat in DA2 feels like I'm playing with a party of Soul Calibur characters and extremely entertaining to watch. Gibbing an ogre with the assassination skill is somewhat mind boggling but makes me feel awesome haha. Although I do recall being able to gib enemies all the time in Baldurs Gate 2 with a backstab. Love it.

But yeah, I don't understand why they made the camera so claustrophobic - I mean it was fine in DA:O (although would be even better if you could zoom out even more). Maneuvering party members to flank has never been so difficult!

Marceror

Fri, 1st Apr '11, 6:28am

I think I've noticed the lack of isometric view more in DA2 than I did in Origins. I'm not sure why that is. I had Isometric in Origins, but I only occasionally had the need to use it.

In DA2 it seems like it's a lot more common that my character gets slammed against a wall, and I really can't see what's going on with him. Invariably, I just try to run my character until I can see him properly again.

I use WASD to move my character around exclusively. I've heard people say that it doesn't work in DA2, but I have no idea what they're talking about. It must be the same bunch of folks who incorrectly label the game a button (s)mash. /shrug

Another thing I miss from Origins is the special abilities that so many enemies had. Getting pinned by a giant spider was awesome, as was getting picked up by an Ogre only to be pummeled. It was great when Revenants "summoned" casters to their side to beat the living tar out of them

Those abilities occur occasionally in DA2. Dragons will still pick up a character in their mouth. A few "special" enemies have some great moves, like the Arishok. But I would love to see special attacks occurring A LOT more often.

Rawgrim

Fri, 1st Apr '11, 8:34am

The Arishok moves were abit...over the top. He impaled me on his sword 11 times when I fought him, and lifted me up like a fish on a spear. It would have been cool if he did that when winning the fight - like a finishing move, but being impaled every 20 seconds kind of ruined the belivability.

Marceror

Fri, 1st Apr '11, 9:01am

That's bizzare. It happened to me like twice. But again, I was a mage, and so was keeping my distance from him most of the time.

olimikrig

Sat, 2nd Apr '11, 8:40pm

Happened to me a lot of times on my warrior as well. Pretty much every time I messed up kiting him around the pillar and let him catch up to me :p.

Tassadar

Sat, 2nd Apr '11, 11:20pm

That's bizzare. It happened to me like twice. But again, I was a mage, and so was keeping my distance from him most of the time.

There was a weird bug in that fight where I was using the rogue's decoy skill. Arishok would attack the decoy, kill it, then stand around doing nothing while I stabbed him repeatedly. Qunari aren't very smart! :D

omnigodly

Sun, 3rd Apr '11, 2:05am

There was a weird bug in that fight where I was using the rogue's decoy skill. Arishok would attack the decoy, kill it, then stand around doing nothing while I stabbed him repeatedly. Qunari aren't very smart! :D

That, but with the force mage end-talent.

Gothmog

Mon, 4th Apr '11, 1:21pm

I abhorred the Arishok duel fight. As my Hawke was a non-direct mage, all i really had was Spirit Bolt and one other similar instant damage ability, i forget which.

I don't find it fun, clicking to run away again and again while autoattacking. Getting a spell or two in when he goes choo-choo in the wall. For 15 minutes of however long it takes.
And i suspect it wouldn't be all that more fun with a warrior or rogue protagonist either. It's not like you can stand there and take his normal blows, even if you're a full plate+tower shield warrior and he's a halfnaked barbarian.. can you?

olimikrig

Mon, 4th Apr '11, 3:15pm

Munchkin Blender

Fri, 8th Apr '11, 7:37pm

I agree, the fight is terrible. Probably the worst one in the game. Took me 30-40 mins to do it with my 2h warrior on nightmare, just running around a pillar, getting a few hits in here and there, then scythe after he charged. The worst thing is, imho, that the fight is not even very hard; it just drags on forever :facepalm:.

That fight wasn't bad for me. The HIGH DRAGON is the one I hated the most. I had to turn the diificultly from Normal to Casual and even at that level my companions and my PC kept dying.

olimikrig

Fri, 8th Apr '11, 7:51pm

Didn't think the High Dragon was too hard. The key is to stack Fire resistance via runes and jewelry (unless you want to run around to avoid the fire balls when it's on the cliff - I know I'm too lazy for that :p), and as soon as it flies up on the cliff, run to either of the two far sides, so you have all the dragons coming at you from one direction. You should have a mage with upgraded Chain Lightning - even if you only use one mage always take chain lightning and upgrade it imho - who should be able to make short process of the small dragons once your tank gets them gathered up nice and close (upgraded shield bash for stagger followed by (double) Chain Lightning), then focus down the big dragon(s).

If your tank is taking too much damage when fighting the high dragon, try and strafe around it. She will still hit you occasionally, but waste a lot of time on just moving around (although you're at risk of loosing aggro to your ranged people if you don't do enough damage). Also, I would only take ranged companions with me (preferably both Anders and Merril) unless you play a dw rogue yourself.

Marceror

Fri, 8th Apr '11, 8:29pm

I did a lot of micro on this fight. I usually tried to run my guys out of the line of fire. I didn't have chain lightning or any lightning spells, so I guess the fight might have been easier with it.

I found it to be pretty hard, actually. It was one of the first things I did in Act III, so I'm sure that was part of the reason it was so difficult. But a little persistence paid off, and I got through it with no party member deaths on the third try.

Gothmog

Fri, 8th Apr '11, 11:16pm

On ground phases, i gave up on trying to hold aggro with Aveline. I just controlled Isabela and kept circling him. He can't even hit once you're out of a ridiculously narrow cone of attack, he'll beat his wings while jumping to turn, which is realistic i guess, for such a large creature, but it takes a hellova lot of time.More than it does for anyone to get out of his cone yet again by the time he's done turning.
It's cheesy tactics actually, though i didn't think of that 'till now.
Fire resistance helps a lot, especially since you don't really need all that much of it to get near immune to fire. I think it's 2 or 3 fire res gems in highest or near-highest gear (since they scale with item level).

omnigodly

Sat, 9th Apr '11, 12:35am

That fight was the easiest boss fight in the game with a spirit healer PC or NPC mage and aoe heal spec.

When I attempted it the second run through with my mage I kept getting rocked (blood/Force), so I respecced blood to spirit and the fight was a bit of a joke :P.

Tassadar

Mon, 11th Apr '11, 12:43am

That fight is annoying as hell, but then with my current party I'm pretty much set up to fail lol. Two rogues, Merrill and Aveline. And I'm too stubborn to want to swap out Isabel for Anders. The healer makes so much difference.

Marceror

Mon, 18th Apr '11, 7:55pm

Well, runthrough number 2 is officially on hold due to Total War - Shogun 2. That is a bloody brilliant game, that I just can't seem to get out of my head.

At this point, it's likely that I won't come back to Dragon Age 2 until the first big DLC comes out (assuming the reviews are good).

I still hold that DA2 is a good game, but my enthusiasm has taken a hit as I've had time to fully digest how narrow its scope is compared to Origins. It's like someone bought a brand new, beautiful home. Everyone is envious of it! But when you go inside you see that most of it is sparsely furnished and some parts of the house still haven't been completed. It SHOULD be the most pimped out house around, but the buyer clearly ran out of money before arriving at that point.

A shame.

Death Rabbit

Fri, 22nd Apr '11, 7:07pm

I'm starting to wonder if I should pick it up at all - at least not until it drops to the $20 range. It really seems like a big disappointment. I'd almost rather dive into Starcraft 2 and/or Portal 2.

I haven't had time to play a game of any kind in about 2 months (and I'm getting busier all the time), so I'm more concerned with sure things these days.

Marceror

Fri, 22nd Apr '11, 11:39pm

If you have reservations about Dragon Age 2, I found the single player campaign for StarCraft 2 to be absolutely fantastic. It's worth at least 2 full playthroughs.

Another game that is utterly awesome and addictive is Total War Shogun2, if you like the turn based strategy meets real time battles concept. It's the best in a long line of Total War games (Shogun, Medieval, Rome, Medieval 2, Empire, Napoleon).

Dragon Age 2 is great in so many ways, but the reused levels ruin immersion and the specter of Origins ever haunts it. Seems like the sequel should have had a least as much content, as there was no engine to create this time around. Yeah, it's safe to say that I've grown accutely concerned that EA is going to murder Bioware. That said, I went into DA2 with an open mind and a positive attitude, and found many, many hours of enjoyment from it.

Tassadar

Sat, 23rd Apr '11, 1:11am

Pretty much what Marceror said. It's rushed, so a lot of things are reused. But everything that is in there already is extremely polished and well executed. So you get a very narrow scoped, but tightly focused game.

Death Rabbit

Tue, 3rd May '11, 2:19am

Steam got me with a 1-day 25% off special. So I caved. It's downloading now.

I am a weak, weak man.

Oh well. I may be weak but at least I have a toy. Besides, I've been itching to test-drive my new GPU with somethin' pretty to look at, and what better than those great big knockers on Isabe-... uh, KIRKWALL! Yes, Kirkwall, I meant Kirkwall. Totally. You know, like, on the gate. That's...yeah, totally. It has a gate, right? Yeah. That.

So...yeah. Um...(crap). :o

Marceror

Tue, 3rd May '11, 4:37am

Congrats Death Rabbit. At this point, you know what you're going into. DA2 is NOT crap, but it's not Origins either. Have an open mind, and if you look for what's good about the game, rather than obsess about what could be better you should find that you gain many hours of enjoyment from DA2.

And no, I never tried to look at Isabella's boobs either, and definitely NEVER tried to look up the crack of her arse! I mean, I'm a married man... and she's just a computer generated woman... who's in no way real. I'm not a pervert... or anything. So please stop looking at me like that. Why god is everybody looking at my like that!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. I'm going to go do... something else now.

Death Rabbit

Tue, 3rd May '11, 6:53am

40 minutes in. Pretty fun so far, though I'm trying to get used to the new camera angles.

I don't know why the developers and reviewers went on and on about "improved graphics" and "edgy art style" or whatever. This is NOT a prettier game than Origins. If anything I think the characters look a little goofier, but that's me.

Not impressed so far, but I've barely given it a look. I'll have a better picture in a week or so.

Death Rabbit

Wed, 4th May '11, 7:59pm

Gave it another 2 hours last night. It's growing on me, but I do think overall the experience has been dumbed-down WAY too much. Most of the changes they've made aren't necessarily for the better. Still, I'm having fun.

Also, after downloading the high-res texture pack, the game does look pretty sweet.

Marceror

Mon, 9th May '11, 6:44pm

So what's the verdict DR? Have you been sucked in enough that you expect you'll finish the game, or have you lost interest?

Death Rabbit

Mon, 9th May '11, 7:16pm

I just finished chapter 1 last night. Here are my thoughts.

Overall, it's definitely a fun game. The story is very good. And I like all of the companions; Bioware always does a great job with them. I am really enjoying playing. However, I see close to 0 replay value in it.

I'd heard that some maps were re-used here and there, but Jesus - EVERY cave is the same map, EVERY wilderness area is the same map, EVERY warehouse is the same map. Just sloppy, Bioware.

Which leads me to my next gripe: Darkspawn. Completely redesigning them was pointless. They look nothing like they used to. I know they play a much more limited role in DA:2, but that's all the more reason they shouldn't have been dicked with. They wasted development time on an unnecessary change while neglecting important and interesting things, like environments you don't have to re-use.

That said, the Qunari are GREATLY improved. Just outstanding. As is Flemeth, though I hope at some point they explain this rather drastic change in her appearance. At the moment it feels completely arbitrary.

I think the companion equipment setup is really stupid. Why my warrior Hawke can be wearing a suit of full plate that has an armor rating of 120, and Isabella wears a burlap sleeveless tunic with an armor rating of 178 makes absolutely no friggin' sense. And that armor rating GROWS BY LEAPS for no reason every time she levels...why? Is it MAGIC burlap? Ugh. I hate it when games insist that you turn your brain off and accept the unacceptable because they were too lazy to make a stylistic change make sense. And let's be honest - the companion outfits are nothing but style.

Combat is TOO fast. I know it's a video game, but I liked the way battles played out in DA:O. Your characters swung a sword at the speed a real human would swing a sword. It was nice, even if a little slow. In 2, my two-handed sword-wielding Hawke unleashes 5 swings with an enormous sword in less than a second. It's absurd. Even if you replaced the sword with a wooden yard stick it's still unrealistically fast. I hope in DA3 they find a happy medium here.

And the violence? It was PERFECT in DA:O. STUNNING battle animations. So pretty, so realistic, so visceral. Now? Critical hits explode enemies into a neatly stacked pile of body parts. Evidently when people get run through with a big sword, every joint in their body completely disconnects and the pieces fall to the ground like Jenga blocks. It looks like a death from a LEGO game, only with blood. And EVERY critical looks exactly the same. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID change.

The romances are a lot less believable and too dumbed down. One of the great things in past romances were that the options were unlocked in a series of conversations. It made it feel like you were really getting to know the person. Now it's one conversation with the little heart icon and you're in. Maybe this is just the case with Isabela, who's kind of a trollop...but still. Yawn.

Disappointed overall, but it is fun. We'll see how chapters 2 and 3 pan out. And GOOD GOD am I already sick of Kirkwall. Another reason I won't be replaying it.

olimikrig

Tue, 10th May '11, 3:23am

I'd heard that some maps were re-used here and there, but Jesus - EVERY cave is the same map, EVERY wilderness area is the same map, EVERY warehouse is the same map. Just sloppy, Bioware.

This was my biggest gripe with this game. Just the same few maps re-cycled over and over again.

I think the companion equipment setup is really stupid. Why my warrior Hawke can be wearing a suit of full plate that has an armor rating of 120, and Isabella wears a burlap sleeveless tunic with an armor rating of 178 makes absolutely no friggin' sense. And that armor rating GROWS BY LEAPS for no reason every time she levels...why? Is it MAGIC burlap? Ugh. I hate it when games insist that you turn your brain off and accept the unacceptable because they were too lazy to make a stylistic change make sense. And let's be honest - the companion outfits are nothing but style.

Yep this is pretty terrible. There is a mod somewhere on dragonagenexus (cannot remember what it is called) that removes the companion armour system and allow you to actually put armour/robes on your companions.

Marceror

Tue, 10th May '11, 6:33am

Your concerns are all reasonable DR, and I share all of them to varying degrees. That said, I managed to enjoy myself quite a lot for 1.5 playthroughs.

I really hope DA3 finds a happy medium between Origins and DA2. They really need to get closer to what they had in Origins with the next title.

Munchkin Blender

Tue, 10th May '11, 10:45pm

DR you may have seen my post about the issues I have with DA2. The one thing I would not change that DA2 improved upon was the speed of combat. I would slow it down a bit but not down to the speed of DAO.

Besides what you said DR you may also dislike how the story unfolds. First off you only play the game actually for 3 years, year 1, 3 and 7. The others years are skipped – great marketing ploy to get people to play but only offering 3 years of actually playing the PC and the final year can be completed in about 2 hours. That said I don’t like how we only got 3 years out of a 10 year story that Bioware and EA was boasting when DA2 was in development.

Here are the things that drive me nuts and in the order of it driving me nuts…

1) Not being able to talk to companions when I want to
2) Companion being restricted to one armor – I like being able to change armor set or pieces on companions – they could have set the appearance so that it does not change even if you changed pieces or the full set
3) Weapon Restrictions – I like my strength based rogue to wield a sword and shield, but instead I am now stuck with two daggers or bow, etc…
4) Lack of armor sets – WTF is up with Bioware charging for armor sets that should have been included in the game to begin with – I bet that DLC was already completed and Bioware/EA held off until a month or so after DA2 release to bring in $$$$ for something that should be free
5) The story as mentioned above

Check out my post to see my other issues.

As for replay value it would depend how you view it. I am going to play DAO again with a human mage and free the circle from the Chantry control. Once I complete that play through I will complete DA2 one more time. I want to see if DAO choices made to better the circle impacts DA2 or even DA3.

I hope Bioware/EA comes out with DLC or one expansion covering years 2, 4-6, and/or 8-10. This would round off the game nicely and make it worth playing 1 more time.

For me, replay value right now is one more time; however, DLCs and an expansion could make it a 3rd play through.

omnigodly

Thu, 12th May '11, 4:13am

The more I think about it, the more I'm glad I didn't have to manage my NPC's, because that is a massive waste of time. If they had allowed it, the playtime for the game would probably have doubled, because you have to examine every piece of gear that drops, against every character you have. If an NPC can do it for themselves, it not only makes it more fun for me to avoid it, but better RP-wise since I would never let you dress me :P.

Munchkin Blender

Fri, 13th May '11, 10:21pm

Does anyone know if the human mage origin story from DAO impact DA2 at all. Does anyone in the DA2 game state that Hawke and the hero of fereldan are related or anything like that?

Marceror

Fri, 13th May '11, 10:49pm

See below

Yes, I played through about a third of a game based off my human Grey Warden game. The family connection to the warden is mentioned several times. Whether there are any actual game impacts, beyond references, I didn't go far enough to know.

Death Rabbit

Mon, 16th May '11, 8:28am

I'm well into chapter 3 now. It's starting to feel like Bioware rushed the last chapter to get the game shipped.

Merrill is irritating as hell and I'm regretting siding with her. She is a perpetual bad decision machine and won't listen to anyone. And I don't think Bioware thought her ending story arc through all that much.

I feel like I'm getting stiffed on some big boss battles. To spend 10-15 minutes grinding away on what is supposedly the toughest form of demon in the game only to walk away with 5 silver (plus change) and 2 pieces of trash is, to put it mildly, stupid.

Speaking of stupid: TRASH. What the hell is the point of it? If it is merely to force players to travel to merchants to unload the crap after every quest, mission accomplished - but the least they could do is make it worth your while. Why "flawed diamond" and "moth-eaten pants" have the same sale value (aside from being a bit of too clever by half humor) is beyond me.

At this point I'm pretty let down. The game is fun, but not great by any means. I generally take it as a bad sign when I'm lacking motivation to even FINISH the game, let alone get excited for a second play-through.

And for the first time, I'm really starting to question the reviewers at IGN. I've always thought they were spot on, but this one declared Dragon Age II "the best game in its franchise." He must be a WoW fan. :(

---------- Added 14 hours, 14 minutes and 39 seconds later... ----------

Update: just beat it. 6 out of 10 is my overall score.

It was just...meh.

Munchkin Blender

Tue, 17th May '11, 10:01pm

Marceror

Wed, 18th May '11, 12:29am

I stand by my 8 rating, because I rated the game based on its own merits, not based on a convoluted comparison to Origins, or based on my growing concerns for where Bioware appears to be headed.

While I agree with much of what DR says, none of those things were major drawbacks for me. So junk is a bit pointless. Not a major gripe for me. At least I'm not doing the level of inventory management for junk (which wasn't called junk, but there was still plenty of it) that I did in Origins.

I have my reservations about Merril as well, but that's not a bad reflection on the game in my opinion. I regretted helping Yoshimo in Baldur's Gate 2 also. This didn't cause me to lower my opinion of the game. I helped Merril. I ignored the warnings from others. I wasn't happy with the outcome of events. Blame Merril, or blame me for not having more of a backbone with her? I knew I was playing with fire.

I certainly wouldn't call DA2 the best game in the franchise. Origins is standing tall with that distinction, by appearances, will never be dethroned.

Death Rabbit

Wed, 18th May '11, 12:50am

Marceror

Wed, 18th May '11, 1:31am

LOL... if you keep it up, you'll be assigning a negative number soon.

The ending wasn't awesome. What happened to Meredith made my cheeks hurt, truly.

With regards to Flemeth, there were 2 points to her presence that I recall:

1) She saved Hawke's life early in the game. Without her help, Hawke would have been overwhelmed just outside of Lothering.
2) Hawke saves Flemeth's life, in a way, or at least helps in this task. Because part of Flemeth's essence is stored within the amulet, when Morrigan turns against her (or sets the Warden against her) she isn't truly killed.

So Flemeth's role served some purposes, and I believe she has a greater role yet to play in the story.

dmc

Wed, 18th May '11, 1:39am

Given that I haven't even played DAO yet, it looks like I will start and end the series with that game.

Munchkin Blender

Wed, 18th May '11, 3:22pm

To be clear - my last laundry list weren't what BROUGHT ME to a 6, they were just the gripes fresh on my mind at the time I wrote that. They certainly contributed, though. I can forgive a mediocre second act if the finish is strong. It wasn't strong. I got a distinct "*sigh* well, it's only midnight, I guess I oughtta wrap this up" feeling going into the final battle(s). Bad sign. None of my characters were as finished as I thought they should be. No one had gear that felt top-tier in any way (Hawke's champion armor pieces notwithstanding). In fact, the way the final battles played out, the fact that you are forced to make a choice which side you're going to back sounds great but ends up being completely meaningless, since you end up having to fight BOTH Orsino and Meredith, anyway (and in that order). And Orsino, principled pragmatist up to this point, out of nowhere loses his sh*t and goes all blood mage at the very moment you choose to stand up for him and the mages because they aren't all guilty of turning to blood magic, effectively doing the very thing you've risked your life and the lives of your friends defending him as having the strength of character NOT to do. And this elicits precisely NO reaction from anyone. F*ck me..

I also felt afterward that there were too many "major" things from early on that ended up having no point later on whatsoever. Like Flemeth's appearance (her fantastic redesign and presence in the sequel served no purpose whatsoever, as I'd feared). Or the fact that there were dragons all over the place for no apparent reason. In Origins, fighting a dragon was a very big deal, partly because of their scarcity. There was a lot leading up to it, they were hard to get to, there was purpose in battling them, etc. In DA2? "Oh hey, it's a dragon. Another completely arbitrary dragon that no one has mentioned seeing, nor is there any evidence of his presence until this very second. What are the odds. Guess we better fight it."

Crimeny.

You know what - it just came down a half a point. 5.5 now. The more I think about it the more pissed off I get.

In DA2 it seemed like every mage that you ran into that was escaping the circle was a blood mage or was under the tutelage of a blood mage.

One of the best examples I can think of is there is a young lady mage who you can rescue or kill early on in the game that is under the tutelage of a blood mage. I saved her and she took off and promised never to use blood mage again; however, later on in the game I run into her and she is practicing blood mage and tries to kill Hawk once again.

Throughout the game every mage you run into who you fight is a blood mage and calls upon demons to help them. In DAO you ran into blood mages, but not every mage fought in DAO was a blood mage. Also, blood magic was less common and was demonic. I do know that in DAO the game focuses around the Blight and protecting the land from the Dark Spawns. In DA2, the game focus is on Hawke, but the secondary focus is on the conflict between the Chantry/Templars and Mages; more specifically, Meredith believes all mages are blood mages.

What I don’t get is the First Enchanter in DA2, because throughout the game he states that not all mages use blood mage and not all mages are evil, etc… However, he himself ends up using blood magic at the very end of the game after Hawke puts his life on the line to protect the mages.

Thinking back to what Duncan tells Gregor in DAO makes me wonder if that premises is what made DA2 story unfold the way it did. What I’m talking about is the mage origin story when you run into Gregor and the First Enchanter after destroying Jowan’s vial of blood. Gregor mentions something about blood mages, etc… Duncan states to Gregor “There are more dangerous things in this world than blood mages,” meaning dark spawn and the Arch Demon.

I’m not sure if I read it here or another website about art detailing an army Morrigan had vs. the Templar, etc… I believe that could be Hawke as a female siding with the mages over the Templars. Who knows.

The one thing I do know is that DA2 was a big let down but it leaves the doors wide open for Bioware to create a third game and many DLCs for DA2. With the way DA2 ended I serious want to know where DA3 will lead, but if there is no good DLC to cover all those missing years to fill out Hawke’s story, I more than likely will not buy DA3, if there will be a DA3.

Death Rabbit

Wed, 18th May '11, 6:06pm

@ Marceror,

True, but I think the two kind of cancel each other out. She saves your life so you'll save hers. Status quo is maintained. Remove the Flemeth diversion from the story and the end result is completely unchanged. She seems to have been put into the game just so the designers have an excuse to bring her back, complete with a needless (but impressive) makeover. But perhaps her deus ex machina thing will be her role in every Dragon Age game. A shame if that's the case.

@ dmc,

Filter my comments through the prism of my having paid (nearly) full price for it. Later this year when it drops down to the $19.99 range, give it a play. You'll enjoy the experience overall, as I did, but not without gripes. And definitely don't wait another minute to play Origins, it was outstanding.

@MB,

I agree. It seems like just about every mage in the Kirkwall area is weak willed and susceptible to temptation. I realize this is due mainly to the Templars being overzealous in this game and backing them into a corner, but still.

Marceror

Wed, 18th May '11, 6:40pm

True, but I think the two kind of cancel each other out. She saves your life so you'll save hers. Status quo is maintained. Remove the Flemeth diversion from the story and the end result is completely unchanged. She seems to have been put into the game just so the designers have an excuse to bring her back, complete with a needless (but impressive) makeover. But perhaps her deus ex machina thing will be her role in every Dragon Age game. A shame if that's the case.

This isn't so different from her role in Origins. She plays an important role in the early part of the game, saves the Warden, and then stands back and lets things play out. And of course, to thank her, you have the option to kill her later. I don't think she's meant to be an integral character in these stories. She's a powerful character in the world who asserts her influence where she feels it's necessary, but otherwise doesn't get involved in the affairs of other folk. That's why most people just believe her to be a myth. She's sort of like Elminster in the Baldur's Gate games. He's there, but at a distance.

I don't see an issue with this. I don't think her role needs to be more than it was. If Bioware can manage not to kill this IP with stupid decisions, I think Flemeth might be a more central figure in a future release, or at least the potential is there.

With regards to Blood Magic, I think we are seeing the results of another lazy/rushed decision. Bioware did a pretty good job making mages powerful foes due to the demons that they summon to help them. I guess it would have been too much work to create an equivalent challenge from mages that refuse to use blood magic. I mean, really, at least SOME mages would refuse to turn to this. Why did we apparently not encounter ANY such mages in and around Kirkwall? It sort of defeats the desire to support mages against the Chantry, because they are ALL willing to give themselves over to demons when cornered.

Remember from Origins in the Mage Tower, when a mage became an abomination he/she literally came to be controlled by a demon. The mage was all but gone and the demon took over. The mages in the tower were petrified of this, except for a small contingent of crazies.

But in DA2, this option is all too easily chosen. What's worse, being effectively imprisoned by Templars, or having your freewill brutally stripped from you, your body physically twisted beyond recognition, and becoming a vessel of evil?

It would make for a far more compelling story if some, or even most, mages were unwilling to choose the path of blood magic in their struggle to be free of the Chantry, with a few bad apples making the bunch look rotten.