Dragon Age II

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Irkalla

I always make Fenris my main tank, just can't go anywhere without the broody elf. It's those damn puppy eyes + Gideon Emery voice , they cave me in everytime. He works just fine on nightmare, boss or not, since I usually have 2 mages and one rogue that keep mobs immobilized almost the whole time. I'm playing a force mage on my current playthrough, killer skills for crowd control, might just be my fav mage specialization. Blood magic is not really worth the trouble -_-

It is if you do it properly. You need to find the blood magic efficiency items and stack them up. Granted, Merrill makes a much better blood mage because you can completely ignore Willpower when leveling her (as her armor has no stat requirements) and her friendship bonus gives her 3 MP for every HP spent efficiency (as opposed to the default 2 MP per HP spent).

Get Talisman of Sarebaas, Ring of Ruin and Voracity, and Merril spends only 1 HP for every 6 MP a spell costs! If you get lucky and the trinket seller in Lowtown gets a randomly-generated ring with blood magic efficiency, that can be 7 MP per HP spent. Combined with her sustainable Wrath of the Elvhen (when fully upgraded) she usually heals for more than she uses, thus has essentially unlimited ammo.

She just gets knocked down a lot, is all. BM/FM Hawke with the +100 fortitude talent makes for a crazy awesome mage.

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by Kleo Scanti

Oh, I always keep Fenris and Anders in my party for both usability and party banter. They make a great team in all meanings of the word. The rogue position was usually filled with either Varric or Isabela (in those cases when Hawke was not a rogue herself). With rogue Hawke I usually added Merrill to the third party slot.

I picked Isabela and bro/sis because she just LOVES to pick on them XD

[Irkalla]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

It is if you do it properly. You need to find the blood magic efficiency items and stack them up. Granted, Merrill makes a much better blood mage because you can completely ignore Willpower when leveling her (as her armor has no stat requirements) and her friendship bonus gives her 3 MP for every HP spent efficiency (as opposed to the default 2 MP per HP spent).

Get Talisman of Sarebaas, Ring of Ruin and Voracity, and Merril spends only 1 HP for every 6 MP a spell costs! If you get lucky and the trinket seller in Lowtown gets a randomly-generated ring with blood magic efficiency, that can be 7 MP per HP spent. Combined with her sustainable Wrath of the Elvhen (when fully upgraded) she usually heals for more than she uses, thus has essentially unlimited ammo.

She just gets knocked down a lot, is all. BM/FM Hawke with the +100 fortitude talent makes for a crazy awesome mage.

I died a hella lot with my blood mage, even with a 1:6 hp-mp ratio or something like that by the end of the game. I could have gotten more, but I couldn't afford that staff the vendor at the Wounded coast sells >.< I read on Bioware social that you can have as much as 1:11?, not sure how that is possible. I'm talking about nightmare here tho, it's fine on lower difficulties when you don't have a bunch of assassins backstabbing you XD Maybe if I had Aveline as my tank with that taking damage on my behalf skill, oh well. What I haven't tried is the bloodmage/force mage, maybe that would work better, need to try it next time. Merrill is indeed the superior blood mage with her auto heal, I wish the pc had something like that as well. Or pets, or the group heal working like in Origins, lol that was way too easy.

[synaesthetic]

I told you, I don't play on Nightmare. It's Fake Difficulty, and I don't need to compensate for anything... I'm perfectly big enough in the chest.

[Irkalla]

Explains what I'm compensating for then But no really, I like the challenge, fake difficulty or not. It's fun to put a little sweat into it and try out different strategies, ie tactical retreat into backrooms, barring the doors etc Certain magic immunities can get frustrating, especially on the Qunari, damn giants and their fire/electricity immunity, so much for my aoe mage ownage, but it's things like this that make the game more real.

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

I told you, I don't play on Nightmare. It's Fake Difficulty, and I don't need to compensate for anything... I'm perfectly big enough in the chest.

Hahaha you remind me of a game character i like

[Flying Dagger]

Originally Posted by Irkalla

Explains what I'm compensating for then But no really, I like the challenge, fake difficulty or not. It's fun to put a little sweat into it and try out different strategies, ie tactical retreat into backrooms, barring the doors etc Certain magic immunities can get frustrating, especially on the Qunari, damn giants and their fire/electricity immunity, so much for my aoe mage ownage, but it's things like this that make the game more real.

My view of nightmare:
95% of the fights in the game are the same. They compose of
- grunts (melee or archers)
- assassins
- mages
- commanders (the ones with an aura)
- hybrids (ie reverants, dragons)


I feel that once I fight them all in act 1 I have beat the entire game. In fact the game only gets easier due to "trash" becoming insignificant (can 1 shot easily and does no damage - in fact buffs me due to my "on kill" abilities). Assassins were a pain in act1 because I do not have a ton of CCs to use, by act 3 they are no longer a challenge.

I guess I expect "nightmare" to be more than just spam pause, friendly fire, abuse CCC, and fights to be more interesting than running around in circles during the duel with the arishok for 5 minutes - admit it, its pretty pathetic.

As I was cleaning my shelf I found my very old copy of diablo 2: as old as that game is, I believe it brought us fights that far suppress what DA2 offered. Maybe the DA2 team should all pick up a copy and learn a thing or two.

[Ending]

Zero Punctuation reviewed DA2 recently: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...-Dragon-Age-II

Lean to agree. Haven't played the game yet. Need a new PC before giving it a go.

[Kyero Fox]

I agreed with everything he said on that review, except why he went with the "gay" mage is wonderin on me.

[Irkalla]

Originally Posted by Flying Dagger

My view of nightmare:
95% of the fights in the game are the same. They compose of
- grunts (melee or archers)
- assassins
- mages
- commanders (the ones with an aura)
- hybrids (ie reverants, dragons)


I feel that once I fight them all in act 1 I have beat the entire game. In fact the game only gets easier due to "trash" becoming insignificant (can 1 shot easily and does no damage - in fact buffs me due to my "on kill" abilities). Assassins were a pain in act1 because I do not have a ton of CCs to use, by act 3 they are no longer a challenge.

I guess I expect "nightmare" to be more than just spam pause, friendly fire, abuse CCC, and fights to be more interesting than running around in circles during the duel with the arishok for 5 minutes - admit it, its pretty pathetic.

As I was cleaning my shelf I found my very old copy of diablo 2: as old as that game is, I believe it brought us fights that far suppress what DA2 offered. Maybe the DA2 team should all pick up a copy and learn a thing or two.

Can't really argue with your points, it's true. They recycled mobs way too much, dungeons and attack patterns. They could have improved the first two, but I can't see how they could change attack patterns much to make them more interesting. They can't and couldn't afford to make all the fights boss level to begin with. The whole fighting is a huge step up from Origins and it's endless dungeon grinding, tho. I like the pausing as well, but maybe that is because I come from years of playing turn based strategies ie homm. I don't like mashing buttons either, so generally I'm fine with it, and when it comes down to it, I play it mostly for the story and character development anyway, for which I personally have more complaints about than for the fighting mechanics

[kujoe]

I finally got around to finish this. All in all, it's a pretty good game, but looking back I would have to say that DA:O is still the better game—if only because it feels a bit more polished than DA2. Considering that DA:O had a longer development schedule, it shouldn't come as a surprise. DA2 however does some things better than the first.

The battles in particular, are much better... to some extent. I don't like how every battle is reduced to waves of grunts with tiresome teleporting mages and rogues, but the flow of fighting itself feels a lot smoother. It still doesn't erase the aftertaste of cheapness in most of them. It's raining templars and thugs everywhere, and how come my mages can't do the same things their mages can? DA:O places everyone with a class under the same rules, whereas it feels as if DA2 just arbitrarily does things in a fight.

On another note, I like how every character has his or her own conversation scenes with others within the party. Seeing Isabela and Merill having quite the sisterly chat is adorable, and there are other moments such as this throughout the game. The banters are as good as the first game, but DA2 does it a bit better, as it presents these as they change in time. I can fondly remember how the banters of Aveline and Isabela would go from outright hostility to friendly barbs as the acts rolled on.

As for my favourite characters, I find myself having the soft spot for Aveline and Bethany, almost feeling protective of them even. I chose to romance Isabela of course, and I particularly enjoyed the work her voice actress has done for the character. Her voice exudes both the confidence and the facade put up around her, and the actress' performance communicates what the character is all about well. I was very conflicted about Anders, and while I so wanted him to pay for what he has done, I couldn't help but let the guy go. And as for Varric, the guy is simply sidekick quality.

There is of course, room for more criticism. It seems as if Hawke was just like the one moderate guy in a city of desperate extremists, but I suppose this gives the story its much needed 'grayness'. Still, the whole story feels like a bunch of sidequests with the endgame as its biggest saving grace. Personally, the qunari siege and the final battle should've been given more weight in order to justify the title of Champion—but as they are, they feel like two separate events that suddenly take place in two separate nights.

Too many repetitive areas is another thing that I don't like, and bugs are abound as we all already know. I feel lucky that playing this on the PC gives me the chance to use whatever temporary solutions are out in the community. If Bioware just had more time for testing the entire game, it would've been a much, much better product overall.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

I agreed with everything he said on that review, except why he went with the "gay" mage is wonderin on me.

Yahtzee always goes for the weirdest options available to see just how far he can get away with things. With ME2's customizable armor he dressed his Shepard in, and I quote, "hot pink in memory of his long forgotten comrade commander Goblecock."

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Yahtzee always goes for the weirdest options available to see just how far he can get away with things. With ME2's customizable armor he dressed his Shepard in, and I quote, "hot pink in memory of his long forgotten comrade commander Goblecock."

Oooh yea XD i remember that Review, been a while. but anders? I thought he'd go mage and gay romance fenris

[Keroko]

Fenris is an elf, going gay with elves doesn't push any weird buttons.

[kujoe]

I think it would be interesting if somewhere down the line, (let's say in DA3...)

Spoiler for ending of DA2:

... supporting the mage rebellion will tragically lead to another Tevinter in the end—totally affirming the fears of Fenris and others who hold a similar view—while supporting a much more militant Templar faction would actually instill peace and order, albeit in an iron-fisted manner.

I'm reminded of the conundrum of choosing between Bhelen's heavy-handed but socially progressive rule, and Harrowmont's benevolent but doomed-to-fail reign. You can't really call either choice as clear cut right and wrong choices, and I think it would spark a good discussion or two in the community.

[synaesthetic]

I think going with your idea would just basically be a rewind and reset. That's how things already are.

What will probably happen is a lot of dead people and a lot of alliances and sharding--some mages will seek to regain the glory of Tevinter at its peak, others will band together with the rebelling templars in order to re-establish the Circle system on equal terms. Others still will try to return things to the way they were, and still others will try to force the will of the Chantry upon all of Thedas.

I always thought the templars should be working with the mages, not necessarily against them. A similar issue actually comes up in my original story I've been working on for quite some time--where magic-users are typically assigned a non-mage partner whose job isn't merely to support them, but also to take them out if they become corrupted.

[kujoe]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

I always thought the templars should be working with the mages, not necessarily against them. A similar issue actually comes up in my original story I've been working on for quite some time--where magic-users are typically assigned a non-mage partner whose job isn't merely to support them, but also to take them out if they become corrupted.

Spoiler:

That seems to be case with guys like Thrask and co. Heck, even the Grand Cleric comes across as a reasonable person, despite being marred in highly sensitive politics. Of course, all of that gets blown up (heh) after Anders steps in. Things are such a mess right now that it would take a miracle to execute a solution that satisfies everyone.

And it's not exactly the same. The criticism and reaction towards the Templars under Meredith is a Kirkwall issue, which resulted in a number of mages resorting to extreme measures such as blood magic—further exacerbating the tensions between the two groups. (Even Orsino has been keeping the crimes of his fellow mages hidden... like Quentis' foray into blood magic which killed Leandra).

In other parts of Thedas, the Circle and Templar relationship was still a lukewarm but manageable flame. The Circle and the Templars in Ferelden for example, have practiced temperance as much as they could. While there are apostates like Morrigan who is right in placing value in freedom, there are also those like Wynne who understands that absolute power can corrupt absolutely.

While mages have lived under the scrutiny of their Templar handlers, there was a cautious mutual understanding between Greagoir and the First Enchanter in order to keep tensions on the low. With the events in Kirkwall, everything is beginning to change. It's all out in the open now, either one or the other. True freedom for the mages or die trying. A mage rebellion that could possibly change the political landscape. That's the context in which Cassandra and the Seekers are working in right now.

I feel that at some point, whatever choice will be made could be world-changing for Templar and Circle relations.

Then again... I could also be blowing this way out of proportion. It'll all depend on where Bioware wants to take the story from here. Not to mention, there's still that darkspawn/Architect/eluvian mirror/Flemeth plot detail to worry about.

On another note, am I the only one who thinks the Seeker symbol resembles the Neverwinter insignia?

[Flying Dagger]

Both symbols shares the same real world origins.

Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him.
Foul and corrupt are they
Who have taken His gift
And turned it against His children.
They shall be named Maleficar, accursed ones.
They shall find no rest in this world
Or beyond.
-Transfigurations 1:2

No parts of this mentioned anything about mages having to be imprisoned or should they hold a inferior/superior status over regular humans.

There are many questions in the DA setting: who exactly is the maker? What exactly is in the golden city? Since the taint "darkspawnize" you, what if the golden city is a prison of the origins of darkspawns?

Church conspiracy is not unheard of in game settings.

[Kyero Fox]

Only mages yyou have broken laws should be hunted. And they need to make upp some fair laws like NO blood magic unless to save a life that doesn't require a living sacrafice. (Like in dao with redridge)

Instead "omg he can make fire with his hands! He's more deadly than a murderer!"

[Flying Dagger]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

Only mages yyou have broken laws should be hunted. And they need to make upp some fair laws like NO blood magic unless to save a life that doesn't require a living sacrafice. (Like in dao with redridge)

Instead "omg he can make fire with his hands! He's more deadly than a murderer!"

Both the warden and the champion can possible have a blood mage background, and they are still "fine".
In the warden's keep (one of the DLCs) I think some alchemist strengthened the abilities of a warden via blood research.

Is blood magic really that bad?