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Flying Dagger · 2012-09-17, 23:54

There are three problems with mages in DA2:
- Friendly fire: this pretty much renders 80% of your damaging spells useless on high difficulties.
- Bioware decided to put major emphasis on Cross Class Combos
- Lack of interesting skills

Point 2 takes away a lot of "fun" stuff away from mages, such as lightning oil on fire, or setting off an armageddon spell (you can't spell armageddon without "mage"!). Instead, we somehow end up with some sort of a super efficient combo: letting your warrior stagger everything (because they have a skill that makes them very good at it), and using chain lightning, which does a ton of bonus damage against staggered opponents AND also deals no friendly fire damage.

A combo that deals +100% damage may be justified... but once you get to the 300% range, I start to wonder why the base spell cannot just deal a little more damage...

Talking of spirit warriors: in DA2 we have those too! Instead of taking a talent tree to become a behemoth of annihilation, you just need to find a late-game elemental damage weapon - allowing your damage to bypass armor.

I dislike how sustained skills in DA:O and DA2 work. They pretty much take a giant chunk out of your stamina/mana. Instead I believe resources should be "generation" base. Say, you get +10 stamina every second, but by turning on a certain passive you drain 4 stamina/second. By switching to this system, resource regeneration items can be added into the game to make the game more interesting.

There are more interesting things you can do under a regen-based system. Blood magic can have an "amped up" mode where the player constantly loses health, but spell damage are boosted and a certain percentage of damage is converted into health. (image your health going through a rollercoaster ride in combat!)

I am aware that there are stats which increases your stamina and mana pool, but due to the lack of actual regen, those stats are pretty much worthless: those stats only delay the time in which you run out of resources.

More on spells:
I actually think part of DA2 is headed in the right direction. You don't really need a ton of different spells, rather, you want meaningful spells and associated talents to go along with those spells.

It would also be nice to see stronger elemental resistances on enemies.

Other than the every day direct damage single/multi target spell, I believe the mage should be able to bring a lot of crowd control options onto the battlefield. On higher difficulties I believe a lot of these "control" are reduced in power to a point where they are not worth using. This is something I do not agree with. The mage should be able to use paralysis, etc on that "commander" class enemy while the rest of the party deal with the underlings, or alternatively, some sort of a powerful AoE crowd control ability can be applied to the underlings while the "leader" is focused down.

Speaking of "underlings', the "trash" mobs in DA2 are way too weak. Merely cannon fodders. This may have to do with my min/max play style where my damage output far exceeded what was expected by the developers.

I believe fights, even trash fights, should still be meaningful. They should last more than 10 seconds. ME3 actually does this decently well: Cerebus have shielded troops that will lead a charge, with support units such as engineers laying down lethal turrets and other standard infantry-types behind the shielded troops.

Oh, bioware should consider giving melee character more access to life draining abilities, or more ways to control their hit points to eliminate the need of a healer in the group.

2012-09-17, 23:54	Link #30
Flying Dagger 大巧不工 Join Date: Dec 2003	There are three problems with mages in DA2: - Friendly fire: this pretty much renders 80% of your damaging spells useless on high difficulties. - Bioware decided to put major emphasis on Cross Class Combos - Lack of interesting skills Point 2 takes away a lot of "fun" stuff away from mages, such as lightning oil on fire, or setting off an armageddon spell (you can't spell armageddon without "mage"!). Instead, we somehow end up with some sort of a super efficient combo: letting your warrior stagger everything (because they have a skill that makes them very good at it), and using chain lightning, which does a ton of bonus damage against staggered opponents AND also deals no friendly fire damage. A combo that deals +100% damage may be justified... but once you get to the 300% range, I start to wonder why the base spell cannot just deal a little more damage... Talking of spirit warriors: in DA2 we have those too! Instead of taking a talent tree to become a behemoth of annihilation, you just need to find a late-game elemental damage weapon - allowing your damage to bypass armor. I dislike how sustained skills in DA:O and DA2 work. They pretty much take a giant chunk out of your stamina/mana. Instead I believe resources should be "generation" base. Say, you get +10 stamina every second, but by turning on a certain passive you drain 4 stamina/second. By switching to this system, resource regeneration items can be added into the game to make the game more interesting. There are more interesting things you can do under a regen-based system. Blood magic can have an "amped up" mode where the player constantly loses health, but spell damage are boosted and a certain percentage of damage is converted into health. (image your health going through a rollercoaster ride in combat!) I am aware that there are stats which increases your stamina and mana pool, but due to the lack of actual regen, those stats are pretty much worthless: those stats only delay the time in which you run out of resources. More on spells: I actually think part of DA2 is headed in the right direction. You don't really need a ton of different spells, rather, you want meaningful spells and associated talents to go along with those spells. It would also be nice to see stronger elemental resistances on enemies. Other than the every day direct damage single/multi target spell, I believe the mage should be able to bring a lot of crowd control options onto the battlefield. On higher difficulties I believe a lot of these "control" are reduced in power to a point where they are not worth using. This is something I do not agree with. The mage should be able to use paralysis, etc on that "commander" class enemy while the rest of the party deal with the underlings, or alternatively, some sort of a powerful AoE crowd control ability can be applied to the underlings while the "leader" is focused down. Speaking of "underlings', the "trash" mobs in DA2 are way too weak. Merely cannon fodders. This may have to do with my min/max play style where my damage output far exceeded what was expected by the developers. I believe fights, even trash fights, should still be meaningful. They should last more than 10 seconds. ME3 actually does this decently well: Cerebus have shielded troops that will lead a charge, with support units such as engineers laying down lethal turrets and other standard infantry-types behind the shielded troops. Oh, bioware should consider giving melee character more access to life draining abilities, or more ways to control their hit points to eliminate the need of a healer in the group.