33 réponses à ce sujet

[hornacek]

In every game I've played, I've never really used the salves and balms, but I always kept them instead of selling them because I figured "hey, I'll eventually be in a situation where I'll need them".  But that never happens because I really don't have a clear idea of when they should be used.

For example, the warmth balm.  Are there specific enemies I should know that when I see them I should say "oh, these guys do fire damage, I should use the warmth balm".  One of the demons look like they are made of fire, would this balm be good against them?  Who else?  I mean, Mages can cast Fireball, but when I've attacked Mages sometime they cast Fireball, sometimes they don't.  It'd be nice to have some idea of what enemies/situations this salve is good for.

This also applies to the other salves/balms:  ice salve, nature salve, spirit balm (there may be others).  And take nature salve - this does nature salve, but how do I know what enemies are immune to this type of damage?

Also, coatings.  Never really used them for the same reasons - why use a nature coating if I have no idea what type of enemies are immune to nature damage?

[ArawnNox]

On easy, they were pretty much pointless for me. I'm sure on my current playthrough on normal I'll get more use from them.

As far as I know, I can tell, Dragons/dragonlings/high dragons and rage demons are the best opportunity to use warmth balms.

I've also popped a grounding potion when I see a mage winding up a chain lightening spell and I cant get off an interrupt.

Other than that, I'm not very experienced with using the items you want advice in. Hopefully others will have more to offer.

[eucatastrophe]

Question: What difficulty are you playing at?

I have only played in Normal so I might be wrong but I think they are of great use in Hard and Nightmare where your AoEs hurt your party and yourself a lot more.



I do agree that a description of some sort (in the Codex maybe?) of what creatures tend to use what type of attack and who is immune to what.



IIRC, Darkspawn are immune to fire and undead are immune to frost. Nothing is immune to lightning.



I also wish in the vendors, a description is present for the various coatings and poisons. I hate having to Alt Tab and look it up outside.

[hexaligned]

Vendor trash for the most part, I play on Nightmare and I've never used them. I mean you can, but you don't need to , so you might as well sell them.

[Spazztik]

I sell them, granted I only play normal. Its more like gettin a lil bit extrah moolah is all I use them for.

[Urshakk]

I only hold onto Greater Warmth Balms for when I fight dragons, and Swift Salve for when I want to go to town on a mob of enemies. I also use the Deathroot coatings as a backstab rogue for the stun proc, goes well with Coup de Grace.

[Rhys Cordelle]

Highly agree with Urshkakk. Deathroot is wonderful for rogues.



For the balms, I wouldn't recommend ever crafting them yourself. You pick up soooo many of them as you make your way through the game, and there aren't many instances where they will be significant, so if you want to use them, just hold onto the ones you find. The components you need to make them are better put to use by making acid flasks and other such bombs.

[hornacek]

To answer the various questions:



I play on Normal. I'll wait a few more games before I switch up to Hard.



The swift salve seems to be good for any fight, so I've used that one a lot. It's just the damage-specific balms/salves that I'm not sure about.



In my current game I'm using Zevran for the first time ever, so I will start using Deathroot coating (as well as the other coatings) with him, see how it goes.



I've never made any balms or salves, but I seem to pick up a lot. It's just until I complete Warden's Peak and get the inventory chest I have to play inventory-management, and found salves/balms take up a lot of slots, so I figure I should be using these since they're found items.

[eucatastrophe]

relhart wrote...

Vendor trash for the most part, I play on Nightmare and I've never used them. I mean you can, but you don't need to , so you might as well sell them.

Good to know, I'll vendor mine

[hornacek]

What about nature salves/coatings? What exactly is "nature damage"? Killer sap?



Seriously, does "nature" mean "animals", like bears, spiders, etc? If so, would that mean that nature salves protect you from attacks from animals, and nature coating/bombs cause damage to everyone but those animals?



You think this is exactly the sort of thing that would be on the Wiki, or at the very least, provided with the original game!

[DWSmiley]

The warmth balms are great vs. dragons and spirit balms vs. the AD. Cold balms are good against opponents who use cold spells. I've never made of list of which ones do but desire demons have chain-colded me to oblivion a few times.

[mousestalker]

Nature damage is done by acid bombs, the broodmom, spiders and other assorted nuisances.



I like swift salve a lot. It stacks with momentum (unlike haste) and really speeds up fights. Poisons that stun (deathroot, crows, quiet death) are great for rogues and other poison users. The magebanes are specific against magic users, but I generally just go with stun poisons and take what comes. Different poisons can be stacked. So if you want some stunning fun, use four or five different ones against a boss mob.



Bombs are just lovely. It took me a while to become a bomb user, but my latest character could truthfully be called a mad bomber. They are especially nice against dragons as the blast radius is smaller than the beast, so no friendly fire.



The only resistance salve I use is greater spirit balm. That and spirit resist gear reduce the AD fight to a triviality. Just pop Corruption on the main tank, resist gear on any ranged types and use spirit balm on the off tank, easy as pie.

[Rhys Cordelle]

I agree, I'm developing a fondness for bombs myself. They go off quite quickly, so you can position them close to your own characters, in such a way that they'll hit your attackers without doing friendly fire.

[hornacek]

The best part about bombs is when your Rogue is throwing them and he has enough stealth so that he throws them (when he's stealthed) and does some damage, the enemies run around a bit and then stop, and then the Rogue throws another bomb. Repeat.

[Wintermist]

I play on Hard and I haven't used any kind of ointment yet. Only potions. I think the reason I don't use them is because for the most part, it's not clear when a good time to use them would be.

[hornacek]

Wintermist wrote...

I play on Hard and I haven't used any kind of ointment yet. Only potions. I think the reason I don't use them is because for the most part, it's not clear when a good time to use them would be.

That's my problem exactly.  Despite the useful info I've gotten from starting this thread, I still have NO idea what enemies nature balm is effective against, and what enemies nature coating is not effective against.

[beancounter501]

Nature Balm: Use against Broodmother to protect from her spit. Also, if an enemy mage hits you with Sting Swarm use a Nature Balm.



Fire Balm: Dragons, or on your tank and then have him taunt and cast Inferno right on top of him! Works with all the balms!



Nature Coating is not effective against Undead - Skeletons, Arcane Horrors, Revernants. Plus Giant Spiders have high nature resistance. Best used against non monster people,

[hornacek]

Nature balm - so all this nature balm I'm finding and it's only good for one fight, the Broodmother? I've encountered lots of Mages, but never been attacked by Stinging Swarm, but I'll file that away in the back of my head, thanks.



Fire balm - I knew about Dragons/Drakes/Dragonlings, but finally, a use that I can use more often. My tank is an Arcane Warrior with Fireball, so I'll have them get Inferno and then watch out!



Nature coating - not good against undead or giant spiders, good against people. Got it.



Thanks!

[Demx]

Thanks beancounter, I learned something new today.

[Random70]

All spider poison attacks are Nature based. The Spider Queen, in particular, has a very strong poison attack. Unlike every other spider poison attack, hers will stack with itself, meaning you can have multiple copies of this poison running concurrently. Very painful without Nature Balm.

[Wintermist]

In an optimal world, I'd lvoe a system like this:



Every enemy has a tooltip with weaknesses and strengths. These will get added onto as you figure them out. Like; If you cast a fireball on an enemy and it apparant they're really weak vs fireballs, it would get added to their weaknesses list so next time I'd know that yeah, these are weak to fireballs. Well, you get the idea.

[AlgolagniaVolcae]

eucatastrophe wrote...

Question: What difficulty are you playing at?
I have only played in Normal so I might be wrong but I think they are of great use in Hard and Nightmare where your AoEs hurt your party and yourself a lot more.

I do agree that a description of some sort (in the Codex maybe?) of what creatures tend to use what type of attack and who is immune to what.

IIRC, Darkspawn are immune to fire and undead are immune to frost. Nothing is immune to lightning.

I also wish in the vendors, a description is present for the various coatings and poisons. I hate having to Alt Tab and look it up outside.

Darkspawn are not immune to fire, and undead are immune to nature damage. They only have high resist versus frost.

Nature damage is good against spiders if you debuff them by stacking Vulnerability/Affliction Hex on them for negative resistance to nature damage.

Modifié par AlgolagniaVolcae, 27 avril 2010 - 01:17 .

[Janni-in-VA]

Deepstalkers also do nature damage. Have I mentioned I really hate being spat upon?

[Sammy0721]

Here is quick guide to using Balm's.



1. High Dragon/ Flemeth (Warmth Balm)

2. Uldred - Crushing Prison (Spirit Balm especially against on a nightmare solo run)

3. Archdemon (Spirit Balm)

4. Spider Queen (Nature Balm)

5. Mage in Denerim Warehouse (Grounding)

6. Slaver Mage in Elven Alienage (Ice Balm) Calendrous

7. Arcane Mage in Werewolf Ruins (Grounding)

8. Desire Demons (Ice Balm)



The most useful salve (after bombs and Claw traps) is swift salve which is great for speeding up slow attacks (AW, two handers and archers).

[jfb3neo]

Stupid question, but I really enjoyed this thread, and had to ask, "What is AD?" I've seen two references that spirit balm is good against AD, but what is that? I can't find it anywhere.