Dragon Age II

[Von Himmel]

Where can I get Ambrosia?

[Flying Dagger]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Spoiler for Act 2:

Forbidden Knowledge Quest
Is the only way to beat this boss and minions to pull them out of the room? I couldn't manage with just Anders as healer. Managed to kill the boss but other wave of minions still appeared and pwn me.

Make sure your staffs are actually hitting things (on higher difficulties) demons have immunity to some schools of magic.

I suspect the Revenant is killing you with its aoe spells. If your burst/crowd control are on cooldown you might want to run until they come back up.
Cold damage do extra damage vs rage demons (but revenants are immune to them).
You can get out of combat by running far enough away in which you reset combat (but mobs stay there).

Spoiler for Act3:

Mine massacre
Damn what the hell do I do if the dragon starts sending fire balls to my healer? Damn fireballs don't miss at all they are all guided.

If you keep moving and the fireballs will miss: they are AoE projectiles. Position your group on far away from the dragon. (ctrl-a and move as a group)

One of the many bonus items that can come with the game gives like 500 fire resist. I stack fire resist for dragon fights.

[-Sho-]

I did 22h of game so far , currently , i'm more dissapoint than cheerful. So many things...
well , i'll make my full statement at the end.

[synaesthetic]

The game is good, I just think far too many people are expecting it to be much more like Origins than it actually is. That was my initial problem, and when I stopped viewing the game as a sequel, I stopped feeling disappointed in the developers.

Really, I do wonder how opinions would differ if Dragon Age II was not billed as a sequel to Origins... and honestly, it is not a true chronological sequel to Origins. DA2 is a thematic sequel, and I think that appellation is hurting it among the fanbase.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Flying Dagger

If you keep moving and the fireballs will miss: they are AoE projectiles. Position your group on far away from the dragon. (ctrl-a and move as a group)

One of the many bonus items that can come with the game gives like 500 fire resist. I stack fire resist for dragon fights.

Well I killed it. This time he didn't target my healer much. The fireballs are guided if he is up in higher ground. Last time I took like 4 fireballs straight on the healer. Funny thing is that I can't get much fire resist for Aveline. My warrior dps had like 95% fire resist. Not that it helped much since the most dmg was done from biting.

[tkdtiger]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

The game is good, I just think far too many people are expecting it to be much more like Origins than it actually is. That was my initial problem, and when I stopped viewing the game as a sequel, I stopped feeling disappointed in the developers.

Really, I do wonder how opinions would differ if Dragon Age II was not billed as a sequel to Origins... and honestly, it is not a true chronological sequel to Origins. DA2 is a thematic sequel, and I think that appellation is hurting it among the fanbase.

I agree even with me I mention that a big part of the reason I feel that Origins was the better game was because I've grown so attached to my characters, but the more I play I actually find myself missing my side characters more as well. I don't know the new characters just doesn't mesh with me as well as the ones from Origins. Not only that I felt that Dragon Age 2 didn't have as epic a feel as Origins even though Origins was only a span of 2 years I felt my character did more in those 2 years than Hawke.

Now I think Dragon Age 2 did much better with side quests, even though I thought the main quests were a bit lacking. Graphically it is better than origins although I didn't like the way the elves look in the second game. It also doesn't have as much of an RPG feel to it.

[synaesthetic]

I can't understand why anyone thinks the Origins elves even look like elves... they look like Vulcans.

[Kyero Fox]

i want a DLC that gives us a female Qunari ... and male hawk romanceable only, dont you DARE say thats unfair, because it TOTALLY IS!

[Tokkan]

Originally Posted by Flyvedelta

Where can I get Ambrosia?

Spoiler:

Ambrosia is found in Isabela's act 3 companion quest.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

i want a DLC that gives us a female Qunari ... and male hawk romanceable only, dont you DARE say thats unfair, because it TOTALLY IS!

Sure, go for it, but it probably wouldn't be a party member. The Qun doesn't allow females to fight!

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Sure, go for it, but it probably wouldn't be a party member. The Qun doesn't allow females to fight!

exactly! could be a rebel or outcast XD

[tkdtiger]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

I can't understand why anyone thinks the Origins elves even look like elves... they look like Vulcans.

well now they look like ugly Vulcans Personally they just look weird to me. Anyways Tolkien type elves were very human looking the main difference being their ears and complexion and they're also somewhat shorter (although much taller than the traditional view of elves). Anyways what looks more "elven" is based on opinion.

[-KarumA-]

Just finished the Deep Roads and Sebastain's personal quest 2.
:/ I am unsure what to think of it all:

The positive thing might be that it is well playable, quite enjoyable even.

The bad thing is that this entire game feels incomplete, the entire time it feels like I am playing DA: 1.5 sub chapter of another person. Why does it feel this way? It plays too easy, it doesn't really feel like the 3 choices you can make during speeuch makes any difference and too many things are still missing.

When it comes to too easy, so far I've been running around and the only thing I had to redo was the final part int eh deep roads, the other previous bosses were easily beaten. Ice spells are far too overpowered, specially ice cone which is more of a wave now instead of a cone as it was in DA: o. I hardly even use potions while running around with no healer, though I was glad to have one in the deep roads which was so far the only difficult part.

What annoyed me most however was the AI, specially in boss fights. Casters do not move to the max distance but if something is int he way walk closer to the creature and stand right next to it. Aveline and my own character who keep on running back when I command them to move away, it is a contstant clicking fest with cuswords flying here and there. There are also many bugs, in the deep roads there was an annoying bug when the boss did a swing attack and my character who was on the other side of the room would still get hit by it when being obviously out of range.

That would be combat, though it is frustrating but enjoyable. Why it also feels incomplete would be locations, because it all takes place in 1 city and suroundings. What I liked about Origins is that you traveled all over the map it really gave a medival feel to it all of real fantasy. This is all cramped up in 3 minimaps and some other locations for main plot lines which takes away that feel of freedom DA: o was giving. And I am not even starting on all the copy paste caves/houses/dungeons I so far had to go through, it was madening

Also characters, I mad.. I very mad.. I hate Anders simply because he doesn't shut up with "I'm an apostate, hur dur I hate templars they are out to kill us", he's like *no offense* one of those black people that thinks anythign anyone says is meant as racism against himself or his race. So you're an appostate and there are templars.. deal with it. From what I remember from Awakening was that he wasn't as obnoxious back then but this constant whinning takes away any will to even try and romance him.

Fenris and Sebastian are the only semi likable characters in the entire game when it comes to romance. But again when it comes to laziness they excluded a romance scene for Sebastain I heard and read. Also the sausage fest is over the top int he game, I am planning on playing as a male character on my 2nd play through but even when i coems to the female characters I would hardly like anyone, Merril maybe but even as a male character the homolust that goes on is way too much for me. I agree there was a lack of it in Origins because all you had was Zevran but now it is too much and too open. I would've liked it better if there was at least a switch to determine your sexuality to not have such weird decisions like with Anders at some point where the only positive reactions were encircled as "I love you" and the only natural one was an agressive one which would lead to more rivalry.

As for the graphics. Do not get me started, I study 3d animations and if I hand some of the things in then they would flunk me without question. Bioware says it is to convert all console graphics into one game but that is just a made up lie. I mean the elf bystanders are simply low poly and do not even have a mouth just a mask-like face with pixel textures. Piles of bones are nothing but a plane in which they pulled up one of the middle verticies so you have a small bump and put a pixel picture on it of bones. The skeletons themselves are nothing but squares with pictures badly textured on them, no jaw bone just all consisting out of one piece and not even beginning over the books in the game: no pages just 2 thick squares. The textures are horrible as well, Feris's sword up close looked pixel-ish :/ you are not telling my that consoles play games that look like the beginning era of the PS1 / windows 95. For a game that takes place on such few locations they should have focused more on what they put inside it because if you walk through the city all day 'ery day then you notice these things. Of course I managed to look away but still it is horrible with no excuse. I also don't understand why they removed the speeuch part int he party select window. Which was a very good aspect in Origins, the yay and baww when you selected/deselected characters. Why Bioware why... the game is enjoyable but certainly not worth what they say it is because it is incomplete

[synaesthetic]

Shit, apparently Merrill's Act III quest has bugged out on me... I got the end dialogue without doing the quest at all, and the eluvian is not in her house anymore. WTF did I do... ?

Edit: The awkward male Hawke/Anders dialogue actually cracks me up. Partially because I could care less--I never play male characters! But it's especially funny if you've played Awakening and listened to Anders and Nathaniel Howe in the same party at once.

The Ho Yay flies.

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Shit, apparently Merrill's Act III quest has bugged out on me... I got the end dialogue without doing the quest at all, and the eluvian is not in her house anymore. WTF did I do... ?

Edit: The awkward male Hawke/Anders dialogue actually cracks me up. Partially because I could care less--I never play male characters! But it's especially funny if you've played Awakening and listened to Anders and Nathaniel Howe in the same party at once.

The Ho Yay flies.

one thing this game is definaly not lacking is companion gibber and arguments between them XD but this time the MC can actually say something.

[Von Himmel]

Great....I got the Isabella's quest but missed the damn Ambrosia >_>;
Oh well, there's always next time~

[Tiberium Wolf]

Well! Just look at Varric design. He doesn't look the typical dwarf. Varric and Isabella are the chars I like the most. The conversation that those 2 have during travel time with other chars are hilarious.

[felix]

Originally Posted by -KarumA-

When it comes to too easy, so far I've been running around and the only thing I had to redo was the final part int eh deep roads, the other previous bosses were easily beaten. Ice spells are far too overpowered, specially ice cone which is more of a wave now instead of a cone as it was in DA: o. I hardly even use potions while running around with no healer, though I was glad to have one in the deep roads which was so far the only difficult part.

Switch to Hard or the other one, Nightmare. You can do so at any time. (I’m going to assume you’re not playing on Casual)

Originally Posted by -KarumA-

Also characters, I mad.. I very mad.. I hate Anders simply because he doesn't shut up with "I'm an apostate, hur dur I hate templars they are out to kill us", he's like *no offense* one of those black people that thinks anythign anyone says is meant as racism against himself or his race. So you're an appostate and there are templars.. deal with it. From what I remember from Awakening was that he wasn't as obnoxious back then but this constant whinning takes away any will to even try and romance him.

My personal opinion is that bi = homosexual, so almost all except the prince, Varric, Carver and Bethany are gay in my mind. I have to agree with the option to choose sexuality would have been a far better alternative. Their improvement of the romance in the game is a total disaster. Also, I don’t think it’s actually bad if you get rivalry instead of friendship with characters. If I’m not mistaken either one will give you bonuses—albeit different ones. Oh and about romancing Merril, isn’t she underage?

Originally Posted by -KarumA-

As for the graphics. Do not get me started, I study 3d animations and if I hand some of the things in then they would flunk me without question. Bioware says it is to convert all console graphics into one game but that is just a made up lie. I mean the elf bystanders are simply low poly and do not even have a mouth just a mask-like face with pixel textures. Piles of bones are nothing but a plane in which they pulled up one of the middle verticies so you have a small bump and put a pixel picture on it of bones. The skeletons themselves are nothing but squares with pictures badly textured on them, no jaw bone just all consisting out of one piece and not even beginning over the books in the game: no pages just 2 thick squares. The textures are horrible as well, Feris's sword up close looked pixel-ish :/ you are not telling my that consoles play games that look like the beginning era of the PS1 / windows 95. For a game that takes place on such few locations they should have focused more on what they put inside it because if you walk through the city all day 'ery day then you notice these things. Of course I managed to look away but still it is horrible with no excuse. I also don't understand why they removed the speeuch part int he party select window. Which was a very good aspect in Origins, the yay and baww when you selected/deselected characters. Why Bioware why... the game is enjoyable but certainly not worth what they say it is because it is incomplete

There’s this hi-res texture pack; though I think it replaces some with totally different textures in some places rather then just improving, as the name would imply. You might also want to make sure you’re hardware supports the high end setting and the game is not just dumbing it down to be playable.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

The game is good, I just think far too many people are expecting it to be much more like Origins than it actually is. That was my initial problem, and when I stopped viewing the game as a sequel, I stopped feeling disappointed in the developers.

Really, I do wonder how opinions would differ if Dragon Age II was not billed as a sequel to Origins... and honestly, it is not a true chronological sequel to Origins. DA2 is a thematic sequel, and I think that appellation is hurting it among the fanbase.

I think that might be some of it, but I don't think a lot of the complaints out there would vanish even with that mindset. Issues with plot and companions isn't really about Origins.

Besides Bioware pretty much forces you to make those comparisons with it being a sequel and throwing in all the cameos. When a game is appreciated so well the pressure is there not to make a step backwards with the sequel.

[Von Himmel]

For me, the issue for the plot is probably because the game's focus is not about the whole world, but instead only with what happened in Kirkwall. I understand that the story is about Hawke, but Origins can focus on the warden while also explore the whole world of Dragon Age deeper than what DA2 does. While I dislike the way that it only focused on Kirkwall, I enjoy 'reading' Hawke story