Good lord, I love Alistair and Morrigan so much. I could just sit and listen to them trashtalk each other all day.
I’m still trying to grasp exactly how to control these guys using presets… I had some annoyances during the fight with the Ogre at the top of the tower: I was using Alistair and the two soldiers to bait the ogre into chasing them while my mage recharged his mana, but he would begin attacking the ogre with that staff projectile attack instead of standing still, thus recovering almost nothing. I swear I had turned off all the presets and tactics and set him to passive, but he was still doing that unless I manually kept him still. On the other hand, even when set to Aggressive, Alistair and the soldiers would quit attacking the ogre as soon as he walked out of their range. I’m clearly missing some step while configuring these things…
The fight against the ogre was what really frustrated me when I first used my mage. I had a much easier time using my warrior. The character dialogue in general is excellent. Its not just Alistair and Morrigan. Morrigan actually doesn’t get along with anyone, so everyone tends to give her shit in different ways. Wynne, for example, doesn’t like references to her age. Shale tends to make hateful comments towards birds.
When I fought the ogre using my mage, I took control of Alistair. Hit. Run. Run. Run. Run. Hit if someone else threatens it. The thing didn’t even hurt me.
I managed to get through the ogre just fine, I’m just bothered by the fact that I was not fully in control of my party’s actions, which can cause trouble later.
I just got past Lothering, and yeah, the dialogue is great. Right now I’m laughing my ass off at everyone’s interactions with the dog, and I greatly appreciate the ability to be a sarcastic smartass myself, that’s one thing I dearly missed from Baldur’s Gate. Also, I love how Alistair seems to be fully aware of his role as friendly second banana (“That’s what I’m here for, unpleasant news and witty one-liners!”).
I probably need to find a way to make more money. I bought a staff and a backpack from the dwarves in the camp and I’m almost broke. Than again, I had barely bought anything before since the stuff I picked up was generally more useful. Speaking of equipment, I’m embarrassingly reluctant to put a helmet on anybody. It’s stupid, but I just enjoy their facial expressions too much, not to mention the mage cowls look reeeeally dorky.
Now you see what I meant about mages looking like ass , especially compared to the warriors :P. Poor itemization.
You will also not really make much money in the game. I think I made 3/4 of all my money ever in the dwarven section, most of it by scamming a lyrium dealer.
My GOD what is wrong with these fuckwads at Redcliffe. We set the goddamn fire trap to harm the zombies, DO NOT WALK INTO THE FUCKING FIRE YOURSELVES YOU INBRED HICKS, WE ARE DEFENDING, STAY IN YOUR GODDAMN POSITIONS!
I think I’ve solved my monetary troubles, I remembered that Leilana has pickpocket, so I can just rob everyone I see, I just gotta reload if she ever fails.
I just started a mage myself. My friend got the game for PS3 a while ago and I picked up the PC version. So far I’m likingit better because it plays easier with many skills I have as I can use the number keys like a MMORPG.
My friend still can’t beat Morrigan’s mother because of the similar problems you have SE. He’s got everyone on heal but they still run off and get themselves killed.
To anyone who’s taken the choice to ask the Circle of Magi for help when dealing with the demon in Redcliffe: Is there any actual time limit to finishing this thing? Because I need to clear out the shitstorm in the tower and I’d like to know if I’m really in a hurry.
There’s no time limit on any of the quests as far as I can tell. I accepted the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest and then decided to do like five other quests first before completing that one and Arl Eamon doesn’t seem to be any worse off for it.
It’s like you don’t care that the poor fictional Arl is suffering! SHAME ON YOU!
I murdered the Arlessa. Twice. It made me so fucking happy to do it. Oh god I’d go and do it again. Fuck the mage tower. If you make a deal with the demon, you get blood magic. I’d get that asap if I were you since you’re a mage.
My problem were the grunts from the Redcliffe militia, whom I could not control. If your own party members are charging at Dragon Flemeth, it’s because their tactics are set wrong. I beat that battle by having Alistair keep it busy with the greatsword I got from the tower, my character and Wynne healing him constantly or magic missile’ing the enemy, and Leliana just firing her crossbow. Poor Alistair took a huge beating, but I guess that’s what he gets for being my only melee character. I’ll have to see about checking out the Arcane Warrior specialization for my character.
Hah, I know what you mean, I wanted to punch the stupid bitch myself, but I guess knowing that she owes the brat’s life to a bunch of mages may be good enough. The tower is still a great dungeon, or at least the Sloth Demon’s Fade is. I got more stat upgrades there than I’d get in ten character levels. I just wish I could use the transformations in the real world too, fuck Morrigan’s shapeshifting.
Dragons are super easy to tank using Shale. Turn on the defense mode, use the super taunt to keep its attention on you and equip a fire crystal for armor and an ice crystal for damage. Use regenerative burst as needed. Keep everyone else on range dps with ice arrows or spells.
I just maxed out Herbalism so that I always have like a billion cheap Greater Health Poultices. It saves your mana and lyrium potions (since lyrium dust is harder to come by) for casting Death Hex, Misdirection Hex, Vulnerability Hex, and your arsenal of single-target spells. Alistar only needs healing if he’s being combo’d by the dragon.
The quartermaster in the Circle Tower has an unlimited supply of lyrium dust for sale.
On other news: SON OF A BITCH! I tried to do the Redcliffe defense without letting anyone die just to see if I could. I managed to pull it off by eating through ten or so lyrium potions, but even then the fucking militia had the habit of walking in the way every time I tried to cast Cone of Cold. And the zombies just kept coming. More and more and more and more and Loyd is getting hammered by four corpses at a time and some zombie snuck up on the archers and they all bunched together so Fireball is off and oh shit that militia guy is low on health and there come more corpses and more and more and GAHHHHHGLAGRABLAGRAHBRRRRRLLLLLL!!!11111
I used a mix of taunt, threaten with Shale as a tank and I kept an eye on who was getting attacked by what to do crowd control with Morrigan and my mage character. I used horror, cone of cold (when possible), ice blast and mind blast liberally. Other that that, it was single target spells like lightning and arcane bolt. I can imagine chain lightning would be useful, but expensive, here. Shale had his mass stun skill in defense mode and I had my dog also use his mass stun skill and offtank. I used the blood magic MP regen skill from the DLC to regain mana, but this is easily done using mana pots also.
The main problem for that fight was to address the initial mass of skeletons attacking everyone in a big mess. That’s easily handled by a taunt and a couple stuns and moving Shale a little away from the group. Once they’re delt with, you get a steady stream of skeletons from different directions. If you don’t want another swarm, the trick for me was to dispatch them fast enough so there are never more than a couple in the screen at a time, and to offtank using my dog or using stuns when I didn’t have taunt.
Currently swimming in cash through mass-producing of Potent Lyrium Potions. It does take traveling back and forth bewteen Denerim and the Circle Tower, but it means I’ll never have to worry about money again.
Arcane Warrior is a pretty cool specialization. It’s clearly not meant as a first-measure, but it’s a great resort when you’re low on mana and/or can’t afford to cast big AoE spells, so long as you keep an extra armor on hand to switch for the robes when going in melee. Mixing it up with the fourth Spirit Healer skill is extremely broken too.
DAYUM, the Juggernaut armor set is sweet. Alistair looks awesome in it, especially wielding Yusaris around. Speaking of which, is it just me, or does the hilt of that sword grow to about a meter every time I’m talking? It looks normal when walking, but when the camera focuses on Alistair while chatting, the hilt coming from behind his back looks about as long as his whole torso.
I resent Sinistral’s notion that mage equipment looks lame. Several robes I’ve seen look pretty cool, and although they lack the grand, mystical bulkyness I’m used to from Baldur’s Gate robes, they’re blingy enough. The only problem are THE FUCKING HOODS. GODDMANIT, THE HOODS DO LOOK FUCKING LAME. THERE’S NOT A SINGLE FUCKING GOOD-LOOKING HOOD IN THE GAME. DOES THIS UNIVERSE HAVE NO HATS!?
Hats are the worst. The robes do look lame in comparison to the armor. Warden Commander gear. Enough said.
This is why I made my MC an Arcane Warrior - it’s just so I could wear awesome Drakeskin armour to compensate for my refusal to wear a silly hat.