Dragon Age: Origins

[ElvenFury]

Crowd control spells seem to be king, Mind Blast, Force Field, Crushing Prison, Sleep, Waking Nightmare are all pretty amazingly effective.

Very true. On normal, magic won't do friendly fire (although ice spells can freeze your allies for a bit, which is annoying as fuck), but if you play on hard they will, so the elemental nuke spells are really only good for pulling a group and doing some initial damage. I liked Inferno, since the fire keeps doing damage for a few seconds after they step out of the area.

Beyond that, though, it's mostly buff spells (rock armor, spell wisp, arcane shield), healing spells (regular heal, and the spirit healer tree) and crowd control (what Cel said). I tried to give all my mages Spirit healer as one of their two specs, since their final healing upkeep spell rocks.

[Kuyuk]

It's funny, I did my mages totally different than EF it seems.

I didnt really have any crowd control other than morrigans mind blast.

I did eventually get petrify with my healer, and used cone of cold, and winters grasp for (hopeful) crowd control.

Played on hard, so my nuke spells hurt my party if I wasnt careful.

[Ashliana]

Best crowd control spell I found, by far, was one of the blood mage spells (blood boil?). AoE in a HUUUUUGE area that not only does good damage, but stuns for 6 seconds. Both my main char (mage) and Wynne had the spell, and could use one right after the other if needed. That=goodbye mobs.

[Kuyuk]

I never unlocked blood mage :(

[Fallen]

Can you play with less than a full party?

[Kuyuk]

I would think so?

I think it'd be fun to try and solo it, but not sure if the xp goes up when you have less than 4 people or not

[ElvenFury]

Can you play with less than a full party?

You can. I'm not sure I'd advise it without modding, though. Facing a mob of archers is pretty brutal.

[AestheticDeath]

I haven't played it much but I guess I suck at strategy. How are you guys using the AOEs without damaging your party members? Even if I make all my guys ranged or something, I cannot control the whole crowd and keep them in one spot to stay in the AOE without my party being in it.

Or has someone tried all the resistance spells? Can you get the party like 90-100% resistant to the AOE you use and go at it without a care for them?

[Celephais]

Can you play with less than a full party?


I would think so?

I think it'd be fun to try and solo it, but not sure if the xp goes up when you have less than 4 people or not
It's extremely frustrating to play without a rogue in your party. I don't seem to recall any *must* haves in locked boxes, but early on when my rogue couldn't pick all the boxes it was infuriating to just leave one behind.

If you were planning on soloing the obvious choice would be a mage spec'd to arcane warrior (and either blood mage or spirit healer). I guess it could be possible to try to play a steath rogue, but you'd just be screwed in storyline encounters.

[ElvenFury]

I haven't played it much but I guess I suck at strategy. How are you guys using the AOEs without damaging your party members? Even if I make all my guys ranged or something, I cannot control the whole crowd and keep them in one spot to stay in the AOE without my party being in it.

Or has someone tried all the resistance spells? Can you get the party like 90-100% resistant to the AOE you use and go at it without a care for them?

Aren't you the guy always asking for advice in the WoW folders, and then ignoring what people say?

[AestheticDeath]

Do you have advice or are you just stupid?

[Celephais]

I haven't played it much but I guess I suck at strategy. How are you guys using the AOEs without damaging your party members? Even if I make all my guys ranged or something, I cannot control the whole crowd and keep them in one spot to stay in the AOE without my party being in it.

Or has someone tried all the resistance spells? Can you get the party like 90-100% resistant to the AOE you use and go at it without a care for them?
One abusive tactic is to have your tank AOE taunt, rest of your party far away, then force field your tank, while he's frozen in the force field you can AOE like crazy.

The same tactic of a single tank AOE taunting works fine for cone spells and if you're real careful with a fireball.

In line with what you said, the Superior Dragon armor is great for being able to cast fire spells on your own guys, as it provides a TON of fire resistance (but requires you kill a dragon... which is easy w/ force field).

[AestheticDeath]

When/where do I find a dragon?

[Celephais]

When/where do I find a dragon?
To try to answer with as little spoilers as possible: The urn quest will take you to the one I'm talking about, which starts in redcliffe, takes you to the mages tower, then to denerim, then to another area where a dragon will be. It's not exactly a short quest. (If you kill the dragon go back to denerim with it and there's a way to turn the scales into armor... just don't do it cheaply).

[Kuyuk]

I never had a rogue in my party

[AestheticDeath]

Thanks

[Ashliana]

I haven't played it much but I guess I suck at strategy. How are you guys using the AOEs without damaging your party members? Even if I make all my guys ranged or something, I cannot control the whole crowd and keep them in one spot to stay in the AOE without my party being in it.

Or has someone tried all the resistance spells? Can you get the party like 90-100% resistant to the AOE you use and go at it without a care for them?

The blood mage stun/damage AoE doesn't hit party members. :D

Super useful.

[Stanley Burrell]

I NAMED MY PET HOUND "DOG."

[Androidpk]

In order to get the dragon armor made you need to make drake scale armor first.

[Ashlander]

In order to get the dragon armor made you need to make drake scale armor first.

and make sure you offer to pay for both the drake scale armors for the best dragon armor.

[Rimalon]

I named my dog Barkspawn.

[Numbers]

I'm having a tough time keeping aggro as an arcane warrior. Morrigan keeps stealing it away from me.

[AestheticDeath]

http://forum.gsplayers.com/images/reputation/reputation_neg.gifDragon Age: Origins 12-03-2009 02:38 PM Here's some advice; go fuck yourself and have a nice day. -- EF

I took your advice and my day is so much better, thanks!@

- can't say i never took advice again btw :)

[AestheticDeath]

http://forum.gsplayers.com/images/reputation/reputation_neg.gif Dragon Age: Origins 12-03-2009 10:50 PM Or you can not be a raging douchebag in life. Play Tsin.

WTF, why would anyone want me to play more? Specially on Tsin.

Give me a set of pink clothing and I will log on Tsin more.

[Guarrin]

More exploits! Sorry if this has been mentioned already.

I haven't tried this, just heard about it today. When you are doing the intro quest for Duncan, where you have to collect 3 vials of darkspawn blood, and collect some other tasks, if you JUST bring him the darkspawn blood, you can repeatedly hand in the same quest.

Apparently you can rack up some serious xp for doing this.

[ElvenFury]

More exploits! Sorry if this has been mentioned already.

I haven't tried this, just heard about it today. When you are doing the intro quest for Duncan, where you have to collect 3 vials of darkspawn blood, and collect some other tasks, if you JUST bring him the darkspawn blood, you can repeatedly hand in the same quest.

Apparently you can rack up some serious xp for doing this.

For the 360, at least, this works. There are other exploits for free gold and duplicating items, as well.

[Numbers]

Just finished it the other night as an arcane warrior/blood mage using primarily Leliana, Morrigan, and Wynne as my party. All in all, I was pretty disappointed with the game, probably won't do a second playthrough. The Deep Roads quests were miserable, and The Fade went on forever. And the story overall was pretty meh.

Sidequests were also entirely pointless. The rewards made them not worth it at all. And as an AW, once I had Juggernaut Armor and Starfang, I was pretty much set equipment-wise.

I'd probably give the game as a whole a 6 or 7 out of 10.

[Fallen]

I'm playing through now, and am getting a pretty big case of the blah's myself.

[AestheticLife]

Time for ze bump, as I'm finally getting to play Dragon Age a decent bit.

I actually made Reaver work on a profitable level (which most immediately dismissed, it would seem). Using the aforementioned Taunt + Force Field cheese alongside Aura of Pain to speed up the process, I've turned into the second best tank I've made so far (the other being a massively abusive Arcane Warrior, obviously enough)! Woohoo. Devour is usually overkill, but it's still neat to finish every fight at 100% health for your entire party.

Next Up: 2 Scattershot Crossbowmen, 2 Laming Mages, Maxed Survival. Woohoo!

[Trouble]

I got bored with it shortly after meeting up with the witch & bitch. It just doesn't have the grip that WoW does.

[Fallen]

I got bored with it shortly after meeting up with the witch & bitch. It just doesn't have the grip that WoW does.

Yeah. The game is good. I finished it, but it didn't grip me like most Bioware games do.

[Androidpk]

To be honest I wasn't very impressed with the game. Sure the combat was fun, but the storyline wasn't the least bit enthralling.

[Bobmuhthol]

This is me LOLing at the statement "it just dosn't have the grip that WoW does."

[Fallen]

Anyone still playing this game? I am going through on hard, building up a non-mage character to play through Awakening, which I haven't completed yet. I've found that outside of playing a mage, this game can be tough! Has anyone played through as a warrior or rogue? I tried as an archer rogue on hard, and just couldn't hack it. I might have been able to keep going if I went to Redcliff or Denerim first, but those two boards bore me to tears. I always head straight for the Deep Roads.

Has anyone here beaten the game on Nightmare that WASN'T a mage?

[Rimalon]

I did a nightmare rogue run...

It absolutely means you have to bring Morrigan and Wynne along, though. Mage power is extremely necessary. Last party slot was Alistair, because he's awesome.

Archery is really bad, generally. Like, really bad. I was specced in two weapon, and the damage output can get REALLY ridiculous. Especially if you have a few of the DLC weapons and/or that dagger the one dwarf sells in the dwarf city... the rose's thorn or something?

The two weapon combat skills are also amazing... the one lets you hit all adjacent baddies INSTANTLY, and you can sort of combo it with your regular attack to do insane damage in a short amount of time.

I would also do a lot of solo sneaking around and tossing acid/fire/ice/lightning bombs from hiding. It doesn't pull you out, and is an easy way to shave off life from already-placed mobs.

Good stuff!

[StrayRogue]

Loved this game. It had the party dynamics done so much better than Mass Effect 2. Now if that game could steal all the party mechanics...well it would be the best game ever.

Anyway, first run through on normal I was a tank, with Alistair as off-tank (he'd always die anyways), Wynne as healer, and Lilianna as archer rogue. I do think archers do do less damage. However their "hit & stun everything" in one hit attack is pretty awesome, as is the ability to pin down multiple ranged/mages.

Next play-through I'll probably play a badass wizard. Just letting enough time to pass between the last play so it feels fresh again.

[Ashlander]

Archery does pretty much suck. If you download the dagger patch a dual dagger rogue can tear some shit up though.

[g++]

Its important to point out whether your playing on a computer or console as the game is actually fun on a console.

[Earthlust]

After doing a hard playthrough with an Arcane Warrior or whatever they're called, I did two nightmare games as a rogue and a dual-wielding warrior. It took some time because I refused to let anyone die, ever (I don't know why), so any time someone died I would restart the fight. If you build the dual-wielding characters decently, they are absolute monsters in combat. I send them on the dangerous targets and then micromanage the mage for the rest of the fight.

I do recommend getting the archery patch if you play any archers, but watch out for the NPC archers after that - any fight with more than a few of them is going to take a little more thought and management than before.

I also only had one mage for both of these games because both characters were evil and killed Wynne. My "tanks" (Dog for one, Shale for the other) chain-popped varying levels of healing poultices or whatever they're called to survive between heals.

This is a VERY slow way to play the game, though, so if it's not holding your interest as it is, I don't recommend it.

[Celephais]

Its important to point out whether your playing on a computer or console as the game is actually fun on a console.

lulwut? How do you figure? I watched my friend play on a console and it looked terrible, he had a much more difficult time targetting, and the limited hot keys meant he had to go into menus more often or simply rely on gambits to take care of shit.

You know you can change the angle to 1st person on the computer, right?

[g++]

lulwut? How do you figure? I watched my friend play on a console and it looked terrible, he had a much more difficult time targetting, and the limited hot keys meant he had to go into menus more often or simply rely on gambits to take care of shit.

You know you can change the angle to 1st person on the computer, right?

I played on both, with original unpatched release. The xbox version was like about a billion times easier on every difficulty and the no pause made the game way more fluid and enjoyable for me. Yes I used all the advantages on the computer...I found most of the features annoying necessities that made every encounter a grueling pain in the ass.

[StrayRogue]

I personally prefer harder games. There is seldom a challenging new release these days.

And yeah, it looked terrible on the console.

[Fallen]

No point in playing a mage unless you want to go through the game without much difficulty, Stray. Even on nightmare, once you have the ability to lock people up with Paralyze, Crushing Prison, Force field, etc the game becomes very, very easy.

If I do play through again I will likely try Nightmare with a TWC guy. I like Sword and board, as my main can tank just about anything with a bit of healing support.

The PC is by far the best way to play the game due to the mods. I use Quartermaster Tolby so I don't have to run to the damned Keep every time I want to store something, a few graphic fixing mods, and the stealing mod. One of the newer official patches BREAKS STEALING. You will see the message "steal successful" but you won't actually receive anything. Can't believe they would roll out a patch that buggy, but this is EA we're talking about.

Anyone else steal from everything/everyone? I couldn't imagine playing through the game without a character that is dedicated to robbing everyone blind. I will redo a fight until Leliana has a chance to steal from every single mob. It does irk me how hard it is to steal from magical Mobs. You would basically need to gen a rogue character as your main, put all the free points into cunning at the start, and put every point you get from then on into cunning to be able to steal from everyone.

[Earthlust]

I was a little more of a casual thief, here. My rogue was more dex based so I didn't bother on that character.

TWC is tons of fun. =)

[Numbers]

I never had an urge to play this game through twice. At the end of it, I was just like, "Meh." It's definitely not on par with other BioWare games like Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect.

I played an arcane warrior/blood mage, so it was pretty simple, though. I just remember getting really really bored during the mage tower level (where you go to all those different dimensions) and the dwarf tunnel levels.

They just announced Dragon Age 2 at Comic Con. Released a few screenshots, has an interesting new look.

[StrayRogue]

The dwarf bit was way too long, agreed.