Dragon Age: Origins

[JackAxe]

I appreciate your help and I'm a duntz. I did not remember Denerim was a town with a city map and selectable destinations. :\ I found the Pearl. And I may have found the bad person you mention, maybe not, but in a deserted warehouse, there is the leader of the Blood Mages. This room as two powerful Blood Mages, and my party can't take them on "easy". Very sad. I went away and will try another day.

There are times when I wish I could just worry about my character and not try to do better by switching around. In the dual Blood Mage fight, if I focus on one of them as my primary mage, I've all most killed him, but the problem is the other Mage and the sword wielding grunts. Near the end of the fight, I'm the only one left and all the mobs pile on me. If I had a wish for this game it would be to be able to give group orders, such as "go in and kill the blood mages first" as they are the most powerful, but the easiest to kill. For me this makes the game more difficult than it should be.

Nope on the mage being the EVIL. All the the guys in the warehouse except the mini-boss were a breeze, but only because I encountered them at LVL 14-ish from what I recall. It was when my Morrigan had the lighting storm, but not the ice storm. The main guy was fairly easy to take down, but only because I got him to run out of the room alone.

I have a cheese tactic, where as if needed and the area allows it, I'll sometimes move far enough away that the game will think the battle is over, then I'll save and recharge before going back in to kill the rest.

The guy I'm referring to isn't really a guy, he just poses as one. He's behind one of those doors in the back alleys. :O

 

[MRU]

The guy I'm referring to isn't really a guy, he just poses as one. He's behind one of those doors in the back alleys. :O

You on one of your dodgy nights out Jackaxe









I hope back alleys wasn't a euphemism...

 

[MRU]

OMG.. Best conversation ever.

So I 'shafted' my elf chum and anyway in my party are elfy boy & shale and they strike up a conversation between themselves.

Lets just say it was the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life.

Shale made reference to elfy boy & my mage coupling, and that there will be kids next.

Elfy say's that's highly unlikely, and as much chance of shale of reproducing.

Shale then says that they are created by grabbing the golden rod.

Elfy intimates his relationship with my mage is much the same..





Did I get the extra smutty camp version of Dragon Age or somthing

 

[JackAxe]

That sounded weird, I probably should have rephrased it differently.

To clarify, this guy is not a woman, AND you have to knock on the door and respond in the right way to get it to open it. THEN PREPARE TO BE WORKED!!! Now if the room weren't so small, I might have a chance like I did with Reverts early on when I really wasn't strong enough to fight them, but this guy is WAY more powerful than those foes. Not only does he have skills like pull, but cone freeze and cleave(hits all of my characters in one swing). I usually get him down about maybe 15% before my party dies. I figure that when I'm about lvl 22, I'll be able to kill "IT."

 

[Huntn]

Nope on the mage being the EVIL. All the the guys in the warehouse except the mini-boss were a breeze, but only because I encountered them at LVL 14-ish from what I recall. It was when my Morrigan had the lighting storm, but not the ice storm. The main guy was fairly easy to take down, but only because I got him to run out of the room alone.

I have a cheese tactic, where as if needed and the area allows it, I'll sometimes move far enough away that the game will think the battle is over, then I'll save and recharge before going back in to kill the rest.

The guy I'm referring to isn't really a guy, he just poses as one. He's behind one of those doors in the back alleys. :O

Oh... I'm level 10ish. I decided to come back later. You are so smart...how did you get him to run out of the room alone??

 

[JackAxe]

Archery! I ran out of the room right off the bat on my second, or third attempt from what I recall. My first encounter left me dead quickly. I was expecting him and his supporting mages -- I think there were two? -- to be as easy as the rest of the blood mages I had encountered. (Even after it automatically saved my game and then showed me the cheesy confrontation.)

Oh, this was the area my party slipped on what I originally thought was ice. I found that really funny, as it was unexpected.

On the archery, I found that some enemies -- always the lower ones -- will come chasing after you if you hit them from a distance. This has been really useful -- SUPER useful in the wilds. Now I can kill some guys with one shot and take down others before they get to Alistair -- he's my tank.

Have you started on the dwarven area yet?

Fug, I'm tired. Anyways, I look forward to getting back on this game, hopefully later today. I'm behind on a project, which was supposed to be all working yesterday, so my clients aren't too happy with me.

 

[Huntn]

Archery!

I have tried some different techniques, but have not focused on archery. I'll try that now. The problem with the head Blood Mage is that it seems like you have to go into that room to start the encounter and then you are locked in. But I'll see if I can shoot anyone prior to committing.

Have you started on the dwarven area yet?

I need to go there. Or should I go to the circle before doing the dwarf area?

I went to Denerim because that is where I needed to go to get info to continue the quest looking for the...the... you know that thing to save the guy at Redcliff. Once there, I tried to complete as many local quests as I could. Oddly enough I ended up warning some blood mages, the authorities were coming for them, and then I started taking out blood mages in the deserted warehouse, hmmf.

 

[JackAxe]

After you talk with him, you'll be able to run your party out into the hallway.

Archery is quite useful, but only because of my other party members. I had to max it out before I really starting seeing a benefit. Now I'm always looking for a better bow. I want one that has rune slots!

The Broken circle is easier, so I'd go there first. I'm at the very end of the dwarven area that I know of and it had 3 really freaking hard bosses.

I got side tracked with the dwarven area, then when I got stuck there and was a few more levels headed back to Denerim, which I had left earlier, because I was getting worked by the the last back alleys encounter. Anyways, I hadn't asked any further about the ashes, so the blood mages building wasn't available on my map. I think I finished the werewolve quest before the ashes quest.

 

[JackAxe]

OK, this is a cheesy spoiler, but I found it funny:
*That bastard Zevran turned on me and attacked me during an ambush by his fellow crows. Anyways, I reloaded my game, removed all of his armor and weapons, so this time when he popped up during the confrontation, he was in nothing but his underwear and of course an easier kill. :]*

Huntn,

Have you chose a dwarf to support yet? I just finished this quest.

 

[Huntn]

OK, this is a cheesy spoiler, but I found it funny:
*That bastard Zevran turned on me and attacked me during an ambush by his fellow crows. Anyways, I reloaded my game, removed all of his armor and weapons, so this time when he popped up during the confrontation, he was in nothing but his underwear and of course an easier kill. :]*

Holy crap, I've been using that guy extensively. I wonder if there is any way to avoid it? I might have to dump him and go back to Leliana, the former priestess rogue girl I picked up in Lothering, that first little town I stumbled into a while back.

Huntn,

Have you chose a dwarf to support yet? I just finished this quest.

I've not come across a dwarf who offered to join my party. Maybe because I've not done the dwarf area yet?

 

[lancestraz]

Holy crap, I've been using that guy extensively. I wonder if there is any way to avoid it? I might have to dump him and go back to Leliana, the former priestess rogue girl I picked up in Lothering, that first little town I stumbled into a while back.

If he likes you enough he will stay and fight with you.

 

[JackAxe]

I didn't exactly try to keep him. I kind of said get to the point, or something.

OK, I killed a high dragon and made armor out of it, but YET, I can not KILL that GUY in the back alley! I got him down to about 30% with luck, before my entire party was dead, but all my other attempts weren't even close.

Bleh, must KILL-i-FY IT!!! I have a feeling I won't be able to do so until my entire party is at max level. Maybe I should try with Shale.

 

[JackAxe]

I KILLED Gaxkang! He is BY FAR the hardest battle I've fought so far and the EVIL I've been mentioning. My characters are all level 19 and as noted earlier, this is on nightmare difficulty.

He's worth destroy-i-fying, as he has a really nice item.

Anyways...

There's a bug in the game, where as if you have a Tome of Physical Technique in your inventory, the Tome of Archane Techniques won't work. I had to use the physical books first, then the mage books to get them to register with Morrigan -- I bought 2.

 

[JackAxe]

Gaxkang was the hardest battle in the entire game for me.

Anyways, the credits for this game take about 19 hours to scroll through, if not 3 months, since they decided to list every single person that has ever worked for EA!

 

[Huntn]

If he likes you enough he will stay and fight with you.

Oh, good, I've been working on his friendship. I guess the outcome remains to be seen.

Gaxkang was the hardest battle in the entire game for me.

Anyways, the credits for this game take about 19 hours to scroll through, if not 3 months, since they decided to list every single person that has ever worked for EA!

The guy in the Denerim back alley who sounds like a girl through the door?

 

[JackAxe]

Funny, I don't recall him sounding like a girl.

But he's in the back alley and you have to knock on the door and say the right thing to get in, then he brings on a TON of hurt!

I started on my second play through on nightmare again. Even though wolves are still a EVIL SOBs (That will eat my entire party alive if I get rushed by all of them at once!), I'm able to survive most battles without anyone dying. I killed the ogre on the first try when going up to the tower to light the beacon. I even killed the EVIL spiders in Loathering-er-town-place without an issue.

Anyways, I chose a rogue this time around specializing in dual weapons. I'm also tinkering with traps making.

 

[Huntn]

I KILLED Gaxkang! He is BY FAR the hardest battle I've fought so far and the EVIL I've been mentioning. My characters are all level 19 and as noted earlier, this is on nightmare difficulty.

Grats dude! My nightmare difficulty on some occasions is "normal difficulty". Ok, tell me how many time do you have to repeat fights to succeed? Come on be honest!! For me if I have to repeat a fight more than 3 times, it is no longer fun and more like work. And it completely removes the spontaneous, I can take on anyone feeling because in real life you'd be dead after the first failed fight.

Funny, I don't recall him sounding like a girl.

But he's in the back alley and you have to knock on the door and say the right thing to get in, then he brings on a TON of hurt!

I started on my second play through on nightmare again. Even though wolves are still a EVIL SOBs (That will eat my entire party alive if I get rushed by all of them at once!), I'm able to survive most battles without anyone dying. I killed the ogre on the first try when going up to the tower to light the beacon. I even killed the EVIL spiders in Loathering-er-town-place without an issue.

Anyways, I chose a rogue this time around specializing in dual weapons. I'm also tinkering with traps making.

Oh, I thought someone (you?) said he sounded like a girl through the door, really...

I've been taking this game slowly over the holidays. I just finished the Broken Circle/Lost In Dreams quests at the Mage tower. They were great. Nothing too hard to fight. And I got Wynn (the healling mage) who I'll be keeping. This game does not seem to me to be very craft friendly. I went with herbs, but then discovered that another of my party also does herbs, so I should have done poison or traps. I need to find that re-spec mod that someone mentioned. Why not re-spec? Did it all the time in WoW.

 

[Huntn]

And I just finished the Witherfang encounter in the Brecilian Forest- very enjoyable! Happy new year!

 

[JackAxe]

Yep, Happy New Year!

Yep, I liked that quest, especially because there was more to do in that area after completing it.

OK, on that quest, I sided with the werewolves at the end, BUT yet afterwards I got ambushed by them. Now in my book that I bought, which I'm reading over now, as I've finished the game, it states that that ambush should not have happened and that the werewolves should have been fighting the darkspawn and needed my help.

On the fights and repeating them, outside of the bosses and EVIL ambushes, most battles were fairly easy once I figured things out -- especially with Morrigan's freeze cone and later her blizzard nuke -- so rarely did I have to approach any fight more than once. With two archers, a mage, and a tank, I was able to keep large groups at bay and fight only a small number at a time, which was very manageable.

If I did hit a wall where as I could not win a battle after a few attempts, I'd leave that area as to not spoil the fun and go some other place I could level. The only non-boss that really kicked my arse, was a Genlock I encountered in the Dalish ruins at the very beginning of the game. I think I died about 8 times before I got lucky and killed that mofo.

I did die about a dozen times on Gaxkang alone, but since he wasn't a game stopper I never got frustrated.

Anyways, the game's battles were kind of unbalanced, where as Branka was somewhat easy as an example, but a lesser rogue from DustTown -- forget here name -- took me about 4 or 5 trys to bring down.

I mentioned in response to MRU, that Gaxkang wasn't a woman, maybe that's where you got it?

 

[Huntn]

The Respec Mod you all have been clamoring for. Here it is and it works beautifully (the one time I used it!) Now I can see if I can fight any better with new spells. Read more in the DAO Q&D here at MacRumors. See the Game Mod section of the guide.

Suggestion: Consider backing up your saved games before using this mod. How? See the MacRumors DAO Q&D.

More DAO mods here! Have you DAO women wear sexy undergarments!!

 

[Huntn]

Yep, Happy New Year!

Yep, I liked that quest, especially because there was more to do in that area after completing it.

OK, on that quest, I sided with the werewolves at the end, BUT yet afterwards I got ambushed by them. Now in my book that I bought, which I'm reading over now, as I've finished the game, it states that that ambush should not have happened and that the werewolves should have been fighting the darkspawn and needed my help.

spoiler>Did you get the elf guy to volunteer to kill himself to lift the curse? <spoiler. That's what I did. Happy ending. He lived too long anyway.

On the fights and repeating them, outside of the bosses and EVIL ambushes, most battles were fairly easy once I figured things out -- especially with Morrigan's freeze cone and later her blizzard nuke -- so rarely did I have to approach any fight more than once. With two archers, a mage, and a tank, I was able to keep large groups at bay and fight only a small number at a time, which was very manageable.

If I did hit a wall where as I could not win a battle after a few attempts, I'd leave that area as to not spoil the fun and go some other place I could level. The only non-boss that really kicked my arse, was a Genlock I encountered in the Dalish ruins at the very beginning of the game. I think I died about 8 times before I got lucky and killed that mofo.

I did die about a dozen times on Gaxkang alone, but since he wasn't a game stopper I never got frustrated.

Anyways, the game's battles were kind of unbalanced, where as Branka was somewhat easy as an example, but a lesser rogue from DustTown -- forget here name -- took me about 4 or 5 trys to bring down.

When I die more than 3 times, it's time to switch to "easy". I don't like micromanaging a group. It takes a lot of the fun out of it, if I have to constantly switch around to different characters. But with the party concept I do like if I get tired playing a mage, I could switch to another class if I wanted.

I mentioned in response to MRU, that Gaxkang wasn't a woman, maybe that's where you got it?

Maybe.

I am not convinced I have the best class builds. If anyone finds a good DAO class build resource especially for mages, I'd like a head up. It seems like with the different mage spell trees you end up duplicating some capabilities, for example, enhanced party weapons, I'm happy with just one, like telekenetic, but I've also go cold weapons which I supposed in some instances might make a different. I've decided the Mage speciality spell tree is not that good. Now that I have the respec mod installed, I can experiment on the best spell build to have.

Jack, what mage specialty did you go for? In the Witherfang quest I saw that area in the ruins, where (I later found out) you can get Arcane Warrior, but then I got swept up in the fighting and quest conclusion and promptly forgot about it. I'm half way through the Haven temple, and decided to break off and go get trained as an Arcane Warrior. I was sure Arcane Warrior would be a good fit but now Wynne (my primary healer) is talking about dieing a lot and I'm not sure how long she will be with me. Anyone know how long she lasts? I like not being the dedicated healer.

 

[Huntn]

I've had a chance to play around with new spells with my mage. I was really comfortable using the cold spells, including blizzard. I'm still convinced that blizzard is better than earthquake, however, blizzard is at the top of the cold spells (which I may reinvest in the future). Some of these new skills are killer 2 click kills which I've not had before. I'm thinking Petrify-Stonefist or Crushing Prison. Sleep followed by Horror is also pretty good...

My understanding is with the arcane warrior mage specialization, you can now wear armor. However, at this point I'm not sure I want to give my mage magic attributed clothing for real armor. Should I?

 

[JackAxe]

Yep to your question about the spoiler at the end of the werewolf section. Persuade is a good skill.

CHEATER! *I kid* The only time I really had to micro-manage to the point of being anal, were on the super hard battles, like Gaxkang or the Corrupted-Spider. But I don't mind managing my party. It does make some battles easier, it's why on my second play-through I haven't been dying like I was in the first game -- except for the EVIL WOLVES!!!

For Morrigan I went with Spirit Healer, since I didn't use Wynne. It really helped later on, since beyond the nukes, her close attack weren't as powerful as the rest of the party.

Thanks for the links.

Blizzard is actually quite useful. Combine it with earthquake or another nuke spell -- probably not Inferno(since it's fire and melts ice.). It will knock down all in its area, freeze most of them -- more than once, and do damage. When coupled with Tempest as an example, most will die before its time is up, or be quite low in health.

I never put armor on Morrigan, since rarely was she in line of sight of being attacked and I also didn't want to give up the benefits of mage clothing. If anyone got too close to her, they were frozen or repulsed by mind-blast, or Alistair or my warrior/archer could draw that attacker away. I would only do Arcane Mage, if I wanted my mage up front, so something I'll try in one of my future play-throughs.

Oh, and don't worry about Wynne dying, unless there's some way to kill her.

 

[Huntn]

I never put armor on Morrigan, since rarely was she in line of sight of being attacked and I also didn't want to give up the benefits of mage clothing. If anyone got too close to her, they were frozen or repulsed by mind-blast, or Alistair or my warrior/archer could draw that attacker away. I would only do Arcane Mage, if I wanted my mage up front, so something I'll try in one of my future play-throughs.

Oh, and don't worry about Wynne dying, unless there's some way to kill her.

You know about Wynne right? spoiler> She would be dead if not kept alive by a Fade spirit.<spoiler. Maybe Bioware justed added this in to worry me. I've spent so much time healing as a priest in another game in WoW, I really don't want to be a healing mage so arcane warrior seemed like a natural choice. I let my tank stand out front so, I'm thinking of keeping her (my mage, not Wynne) in her magic attributed clothing. However now she can carry magic swords! The choices never seem to be clear.

CHEATER! *I kid*

You referring to the respec mod? Well, why the heck not? A real mage versus the ignoramus player (me), it is a necessity! The real mage should have received some training in their lives. When players jump in we don't know squat. The game doesn't even offer mage education.

 

[JackAxe]

Nope, didn't know that about Wynne... DAM YOU.

That's what I like about this game, the choices are rarely cut and dry. It really makes me think about weather or no I want to equip any given item. Then whenever I did get an item that is clearly better, it made me happy.

I was joking about the cheat, since you were choosing easy, but come to think of it, CHEATER!!!

I agree with what you say. The game throws you into things with little to no help. I really didn't have a grasp on things until much later in the game. Now when I read the descriptions on skills and so on, it makes sense, but that's because I spent so much time learning.

Bioware does include a tutorial under other campaigns that might be helpful? I have yet to try it. Anyways, after so many games holding my hand unnecessarily, I like how this one just said f-it and kicked me arse from the get go with only a bit of minor help.

Anyways, this book I bought from Primas is overall helpful, maybe something worth considering. There's lots of info and descriptions to look through, but on the down side, it's kind of a poorly structured book. It doesn't even have an index and it really does need one.