Most important tip of all by Mormaer
SAVE OFTEN!
Before every encounter, every five minutes, use that F5 key like it's a religion!
By Mad Method
Keep your game up to date. The recent patch 1.01 makes Normal mode a little easier
Link to the patches
Change log
1.0: Info on party management without tactic dependance by Infiltrator
Planned
- Re-compile all the info into one solid topic, instead of tips by submitter to easier find the info you need
- Select your party by utility, not their looks & coolness
- If you need a tank, don't go 2xRogues 2xMages combo. You need a meat shield to keep your party alive sooner or later. Be sure to keep spec'ing the party members for their role. - Review your party tactics.
- If you have problems with your party members dying, set a tactic on each of them saying "Self : HP < 50%" - "Use lowest health potion" - Low on Mana Potions / Health Potions?
- Morrigan is a Herbalist with 3/4 skill. A lot of vendors sell everything you need to make an infinite amount of either Lyrium or Health potions or both.
- Keep your melee close, and your mages / archers far away
- This is a very basic tactic, but it should be noted that unless your mage is shape shifted / arcane warrior, he should stay as far away from the other mobs as possible. - Focus fire
- Take out the most dangerous mob first. The mage nuking your entire party should go first. If there is a lot of melee guys mixed in the fold, have your ranged party memebers take out the mage(s) and let the melee keep the mobs off them.
- Have a healer
- You don't need a dedicated healer, but putting one point into the first healing spell will save your tail more than one time during the game. You're not playing a mage you say? Grab Morrigan or Wynne!
- Pause
- In the heat of battle it's easy to loose focus. Remember to pause often, re-initiate orders to focus fire, throw a healing potion on your guys and so fourth. - Don't go into battle wounded.
- Rest up so you have 100% mana, stamina and HP before each fight. Also, remember to heal all injuries! A warrior with 2 broken arms and a bad eye might look scary as hell to you, but to the enemies he's free lunch! - Don't skip all the side quests
- Side quests will grant you a lot of XP, additional spells, new items! They are often well worth it! - Bring a rogue
- He/She will greatly help the party in terms of detecting and disabling traps, opening locked boxes and so fourth. Just be sure to place him behind the tank target to get maximum damage output. Backstabbing for the win!
- Get every backpack
- See a vendor selling a backpack, but don't have the money? Come back later and fetch it then. More inventory space = less headache and more money! - Equip your characters
- New armor will save your life! Keep your party members up to speed on the armor front. New weapons will kill stuff faster. Needless to say, combine the two and woilah! More survivability!
By Nazo
- It's not a bad idea to visit the various town-like areas and pick up all the backpacks you can afford, first.
- Also, in multi-part dungeons (i.e., most of them), feel free to go back to town after an area, sell off stuff, and refill your potion supplies.
- Having two tanks is very useful. I usually set the shield/super-aggro one to taunt and to defend my mage (You can set up rules like 'shield bash whoever is attacking Wynne'). The other (2hander or dual wield) I send against any mages around (Always, always kill them first). Rogue is setup to attack the same target as one of the tanks.
- A useful tactic setup if you've got a two-handed user in the party (and if you tend to control them):
- Set a mage/ranged user (I used Wynne) to have an 'Attack lowest health enemy' as their lowest-priority tactic. Then, while steering your two-handed user, take an enemy down to near death, then switch. It's a waste to take an entire swing to shave off that last few hit points, and a single swing and skill use will often take someone down that far. Best to have a ranged ally doing the cleanup, so that they don't have to run all over cleaning up after you.
- Switch party to "Hold" instead of follow or whatever it is for every (or at least almost every) battle. This gives you better control over where the party members are moving during the battle and also allows you to make use of bottle-necking stratagies (using a repulsion glyph in a doorway whilst peppering the enemies with ranged attacks is fun).
- In this game it means if you've reached a point in battle where it seems you cannot win, don't automatically reload. Pause the game and think out a solution before hand--this can turn what looks like a wipe at the later stages of battle into a miraculous recovery (Say boss sitting at 15% health and the only surviving member is your mage-planning out crowd control and mana management can turn this into a potential save). And if you do wipe two minutes later (One and a half minutes of planning and 30 seconds of being squished) you really didn't waste THAT much time (and had it worked you may have saved yourself four minutes of battling + one or two minutes of loading time).
- Most everywhere you go there will be more difficult areas. You can sort of tell this when you have trouble disarming traps or unlocking chests and obviously a boss that is really tough to beat. Take a step and walk away for a bit.. travel to other areas and nitpick at them (quests, sidequests, monsters etc.) a little until you find it easier to comeback at a higher level and better gear. Sometimes just one level can make difference because of a certain ability or spell that changes that tide in battle.
- Tactics are executed in order.
- Setting up the first slot for every member to be something like "Use health poultice at < 25/50%" is a good idea. For my second slot I have "Attack target of main character." That way I know at least that everyone will try to heal themselves and attack my target, which is a good start. For your mages, telling them to heal members under X%
health is useful as well. - After that, it's useful to set up potential spell combos. Cast horror on sleeping targets, or auto-critting abilities on frozen/petrified ones (I forget what the debuff is called). The last tactic slots I have set up on my characters is some generic damage ability like Arcane Bolt to be used only when their stamina/mana is >= 75%. That way if they're full on mana and nothing more important is going on, they'll be kicking out some extra damage.
By Aeshyn Stormsinger
I myself am a Mage, and I use Leilana converted from rogue-like to warrior-like, Alastair, and Wynne - so essentially two warriors and two mages. Have either Mage able for healing and the other for crowd-control (ice spells, paralyze, etc). Set party tactics all to Defensive, and have the first tactics as Enemy - Target of Main Character = Attack. Also make use of the button under the party portraits that allows you to hold them all back. Try and pull a group of three or four enemies, and freeze them with Cone of Cold. Then unclick the button that holds your party back, click on one enemy, and attack, and your team will each attack your frozen targets.
Whilst your warriors are attacking the frozen group, stand on an angle behind the enemies and make sure to only have enemies selected, and use Flame Blast, then if Cone of Cold is regenerated, use that. Rinse and repeat.
For a group involving a boss as well, use the same tactics but use them to go for the group first, then the boss after. Assist the party by using Paralysis on the boss, then Cone of Cold for the group. Micro-manage the defeat of the group using these tactics, then hold your party back, use Cone of Cold on the boss, then attack with yourself and party
members. Just before the boss thaws, attempt to cast Paralysis on him. If he resists, use Winter's Grasp for a possible temporary hold. Use Cone of Cold and Paralysis as much as you can, but time it proper - improper timing will screw this over.
Note by Soteria: On harder difficulties, sometimes you absolutely have to kill the "yellow" monsters first.
By ViessaKarde
I think an important thing to note is that the auto-level feature will more often then not, shoot you in the foot. I am... a very heavy roleplayer. One of the first things I did to my party members is set the auto-level feature on. I liked the idea that my party was developing as they should be in a canonical sense, that "This is how Bioware envisioned these characters to develop, why should I step in when this is how these characters should grow?"
Oh GOD huge mistake. Lili was doing some crazy amalgimation of rogue, archer, bard, and who knows what else. Morrigan was doing this mixmash of shapeshifting, hexing, and destructive magic. Alistair took NO strength, Lili lacked dex for her good bows. And by the time I realized what I had caused it was to little to late and I had to play catchup.
Make sure you A: Learn what the stats do, and learn how to work out what you need, what you want, and how to accomplish that with the team you're planning. It was absolutely painful having Al not be able to wear any good massive armor when I planned him to be the tank. Dude took hits like a 3 year old lepper until I sorted him out.
By Voidwalker
I found a great tactic also is to set your rogue character (or off-tank) to intercept any mobs that slip through and start attacking your mage. I did this by setting a tactic up for enemy>attacks Morrigan (or Wynne - whichever you are using - or yourself if you are the spellcaster), and the response as attack. This helps to keep those vital healers alive,
and means you yourself can concentrate on killing off the other mobs. This is especially useful if you are playing as the main tank (as I am).
Gotta keep those squishy mages up and running.
- Also if you are using Morrigan aways train her in at least some basic healing, it's well worth the one skill point for the amount it cuts down on potion usage and deaths.
- Always make sure you set a high priority tactic for a mage to heal a party member who's health falls under 50%, setting it any lower than this is risking them being taken out by a critical hit. Also if you have a heal over time spell with your mage, setting a tactic to start this regeneration process off when they drop below 75% helps to counter the damage they will receive. I managed to more than half my party deaths by incorporating these tactics.
Warriors are the muscle of your party, rogues are the claws, but the mages are the backbone that hold everything else up, so don't let them die.
By Johohoho.Ehehehe
- Use abilities when appropriate. Micromanage you party so it won't happen that one target receives Shield Pummel and Dirty Attack from both the warrior and the rogue at the same time. Two stunning attacks do not stack (wow, it is almost a rhyme). Time your massive stunning abilities like Dread Howl or Mind Blast so they come twice during the battle when most needed (they have an unpleasant cooldown so use them wisely with maximum effect).
- Learn the abilities and make your own routine combos, such as Dirty Fighting + attack with passive Coup De Grace. Do not underestimate the abilities that don't make an immediate effect, such as Below the Belt, Disorient etc. They slow down the enemy or at least impose some penalties on them, so use it on the strongest adversaries.
- A wounded enemy does the same damage as a healthy one unless they have an injury or other penalties. So focus on one or two enemies until they are down. It's pointless to wound all enemies and then start finishing them.
- Tactics are not everything. Consider them a safeguard in case you miss something in the heat of battle, such as dispatching the enemy attacking you mage (as already pointed out by Scorus). Don't be lazy, try flanking you enemies and especially rogue must always strike from behind or to flanking area respectively. Enemy is following you? Throw some dirt into their eyes and get around them!
- Know your inventory. Use poisons with you rogue, use protections against the element used by an enemy mage.
- Lure some enemies out of the battle. If anyone attacks your mage or archer just run away in circles. They might become occupied by pursuing him and the rest of the party would have easier time for a while. For instance, the Ogre in the Towe of Ishal fell in love with my archer, so I make him pursuing him while getting punishment from my mage sniping him. Such a battle would not occupy Top 10 in Bards' Chart but it did a job done, right?
By TimeStreamer
Prioritize Targets. In general, I recommend thinking about 2 quantities: (A) Offense (how much damage can this enemy do to my party) and (
- Mages
- Archers who are readily accessible (They usually have noticeably less health and armor than their melee counterparts, and their range makes them more of a threat to your squishies)
- Rogue types (high-ish offense, low-ish defense)
- Warrior types (high-ish defense, low-ish offense)
- Hard to reach archers
The one complication is the yellow/orange enemies. Since they often have high offense and high defense, their A/B is in the middle, but fighting them in the middle of the encounter is usually sub-optimal. Decide early on to kill them right after the mages or to save them for last, and stick to that plan unless you have a good reason to change it.
Balance the Party. I’m not saying that you must have at least 1 representative of each base class… but you should (at least until you get the hang of things). Who you should take depends on how you’ve built the PC, but in general:
- Healer = Wynne. Her name is pronounced “Win” – this is not an accident. Unless your PC is a Spirit Healer, you should be very reluctant to leave her at camp. Having said that, Morrigan with Heal is a viable, albeit inferior, substitute – just be prepared to spend more money on potions.
- Tank = Alistair. Every party needs a tank, and his Templar abilities can be a lifesaver against mages. While 2 tanks can work, you’d be better off with someone more offense oriented if the PC is a tank.
- Skills = Leliana. Picking locks and disarming traps are important jobs. You can eventually replace her with Zevran, but you’ll want to improve his picking/trap capabilities first. If the PC is a skill rogue, build Leliana and Zevran for DPS, or vice-versa.
- DPS = your choice. I suspect this will often be the PC. If not, try to pick someone who offsets the weaknesses of the other 3. Pretty much anyone can fill this slot if you build them for it. Focus on damage and crowd control.
Mage
- Every mage should strongly consider taking Heal (it’s great value for 1 talent point). Group Heal is really awesome, but don’t feel forced into taking Spirit Healer just for that.
- Having damage spells is good (and fun) but stuns, knock-downs, etc. are very important. Aim for a diverse set of abilities, rather than many flavors of damage. Unlike warriors and rogues, there is no incentive to stick to one school; cherry pick the best spells from all four. Look for combos and synergies.
If you focus on one damage type (e.g. cold) you can load up the tank with resistance gear for that type. - The usefulness of some spells is highly dependent on the party composition. If you have 3 melee combatants, then Flaming/Frost/Telekinetic Weapons is great. If you have 3 ranged combatants, it’s a waste of mana. Note that archers get no benefit from these spells (you have to buy/find magic arrows).
- Glyph of Repulsion is big enough to completely block doorways. Most enemies will be trapped in the room for a while, so cast an AoE in the room as soon as the glyph appears on the floor. Usually you can position the mage so that enemies don’t have line-of-sight on the mage, and thus cannot interrupt the casting. Any enemies that do make it past the glyph will be easy pickings for your other 3 party members.
- Death Cloud + Death Hex is possibly the most lethal attack in the game. On Normal, this alone can kill almost anything.
- Vulnerability Hex + Drain Life will hurt an enemy a lot and heal you a lot in one go.
- Spell Might + Blizzard + Tempest can kill a whole room (including your party – use with care!)
- Spell Might + Animate Dead is an expendable, renewable off-tank.
Flank. Flank. Flank. Flank. A rogue should get behind whoever the tank is fighting and backstab away. Failing to do so is throwing away damage.
The Deft Hands branch is vital.
Decide right away which branches each rogue is going to take or not take. If you dabble in everything you will be lousy at everything. It is generally better to continue one branch until you reach the end (or a level restriction) before moving on to another branch.
In particular, decide ASAP whether or not the character will eventually take Lethality. Distribute attribute points with this choice in mind.
Pick dual weapons or archery; do not pursue both. If you can’t decide, dual weapons is less trouble (trying to keep the mage and the rogue out of melee is harder than just the mage).
Warrior
Pretend the archery tree isn’t there. I mean it; look away now.
Choose your role and focus on doing that one thing well.
- Tank. Focus on the Weapon and Shield tree, and the Powerful branch.
- Hard-hitter. Focus on the Two-Handed tree and the Precise Striking branch.
- Squishy-slayer. Focus on the Dual Weapon tree and your 2 specializations.
Keep upgrading your equipment.
You are not invincible, even in your top-tier super armor. Watch your HP and heal as needed.
By Reddragon567
Pull the enemy to your group.
- Pretty much saying Hold on the group and get them out of sight of the enemy group, usually behind a wall.
- Use your Archer or Mage to hit the target at a long range, they will give chase.
- Hide behind the wall with the rest of your allies then turn of Hold. This will allow them to move around freely, then kill the enemy that is creeping around the corner.
This really helps against mages and archers as well, Because it puts them into melee range without you trying to approach them.
With rogues, pulling then having Stealth at rank 3-4 will allow you to stealth while in combat. Meaning that as soon as they can attack you, you stealth meanign that you clear aggro off of yourself and they will go for a new target.
Traps and poisons
Honestly, these things are amazing.
- You can use stealth and walk up to an enemy unit, lay down some traps all around them then sneak away. Either pull them or just turn off stealth to get thier aggro and watch as they set off all the traps.
- Caltrops don't cause damage to party members, they cause slow but that's it. Use this to your advanatage either mid or before battle set up some caltrops (Not to mention poison caltrops) and you'll do 8 damage a second and slow everything in an area. While the 8 damage doesn't seem like much you can even get dragons to 1/2 thier health using caltrops alone.
Poison Bombs and Poison weapons.
Poison weapons stack, meaning that you can lay 8 different poisons on yourself and they each will buff you up. So
imagine if you have 10 different poisons on you each doing an extra 4 damage.
That's 40 extra damage per hit.
Now couple that with somthing like Duel Weilding and Haste and you turn into a DPS monster.
Poison bombs.
Did you know you can throw them while in stealth and remain invisible?
That's right. You can just stay hidden while throwing bombs that can do huge damage and tons of effects. Even if you're not a rogue, throwing them can still be the same effect as a mage throwing a fireball or some-such. They can hurt your allies however.
By Mordaedil
- Have your fighters set up to consume the weakest potion and the mushrooms for stamina when it gets too low, even with your healers on healing duty. The weakest potion doesn't completely cure your character, but it does allow him to take that extra hit before being hit with a cure.
- Do not underestimate the use of stun abilities. Better rogues can backstab the enemies even from frontal assaults and the enemies can't hit while stunned. Whether it is mindblast, shield pummel or distraction, any stun skill can save your party a quick death.
- Positions. If you send your troops forward in a cluster, they make a nice saucy target for a fireball, even if they hit harder as a group. Space your people out and only risk being close together when there is a danger for the enemy for friendly fire. Move the archers around in close battle, while they are safe from far away, they will all of a sudden lose vital time moving closer to hit some target they can't see from the start. Same goes for mages, but even to a greater degree because of Areas of Effect.
- Use Lyrium potions only when you're facing dangerous opponents. If you are low on mana, don't waste Lyrium potions by drinking them willy-nilly. That vital power source can always come back after a battle and as a mage you should already be supporting the team pretty well without using a million spells every fight.
- Set up hotkeys and know who has what at any time. It also helps if you put up some format, so you don't suddenly select an NPC who has a poison coater where normally you keep healing potions.
By SheffSteel
To win most battles without using potions on Normal (PC) or Hard (console)...
Choose your killing ground and use Hold Position (H on PC, under the radial menu -> Advanced on console) to position most of your party.
- Ideally, position your Mage(s) in a position where they will have a clear view of advancing enemies but where those enemies have to take the long way around to get at them. You want to be able to cast any friendly-fire spells without hitting your own team.
- Position your Warriors at the narrowest point on the route to your mage. If you're worried about who's going to be coming, place traps and/or glyphs ahead of the fighters to slow/stop the enemy.
- Send out your rogue, stealthy, to find the enemy (activate Aim before Stealth). If all goes well, you will be able to stand a long way from them while keeping line of sight - ready, aim, and... pinning shot. Two or three enemies may charge, but one will be stuck or slowed down.
- Run laughing back to the mage's position. Double-check your fighters have their missile weapons out.
- When your mage starts penk-penk-penking away at the incoming enemies, you know it's time to start casting spells, choosing tactically. Slowing or stopping the first enemy can bunch them up for a bigger spell. Slowing the second can stagger the group so you don't have to fight them all at once.
- Don't forget to switch your warriors back to melee weapons.
By Zergy
Zergy's Dragon Slaying Guide
- First of all, make sure your tank is the only one standing in front of the dragon; dragon breath and wing buffet can be a huge pain if your party is in front of it.
- Don't put the rest of your party behind the dragon; they really like to slap people around with their tail.
- Spread out your party; if the dragon ever decides to turn around and spit a fireball at you, you'll be happy you did.
- Try to have your healer keep a heal ready in case the dragon grabs your tank in its mouth, can't use potions while in there.
- Make sure you have enough of potions to last the whole fight, dragons can take a while to take down.
- Once you kill the dragon zoom in to the character doing the finishing move, enjoy the show and take a screenshot!
By TheWabbit
In the early game
- Always take Wynne, Morr when possible. I use either Alistair or Lei, depending if I need the firepower or want the extra loot. Sten and Dog are worthless imo.
- My character is a Templar/Champion Tank but I control Morr predominately during the fight. Use Wynne's quake to slow down large groups closing in on your group or knock down a group of archers until their melee friends are dealt with. Otherwise, just put Wynne's tactics on Healer and let her do her work.
- Use Morr's Winter Breath, Frost Cone to keep the strongest enemy immobile as your tanks whack on them (and Morr uses lightning).
- Sleep, Mind Blast to keep groups of archers or rushing melee groups frozen or stunned as your tanks take them out one by one. Horror can be used for individuals that you want to keep from attacking until they can be dealt with.
Against the High dragon
- Setup using the hold command. When the fighting starts, click h and set them to free again.
- Think 12 o'clock [oc] as the dragon's front, my character tank was at 12 oc, Wynne was at 2 oc, Alistair was at 9 oc, and Morr was at 7 oc, at long range. Turn off all Morr's buffs and use lightning only. Don't waste the mana on the cold spells. Let the tanks get bashed and Wynne heal them. If you do it right, Morr won't get tail whipped. If the dragon turns on Morr, run quickly to the new 7 oc position before you get blasted by fire but watch for the tail. Alistair got wasted with 75% of dragon life and my tank still finished the job. You may need to pause and make the main tank drinks of the health juice if Wynne can't keep up. The dragon does like to try and swallow him.
By Jonray from the thread Some combat tips...
- Combat is NOT easy. Many of the complaints I've seen on the boards have been that combat is too hard. When I read deeper I realize that they're expecting to walk their whole party into a mass of mobs, barely pay attention to what's going on, and have the party win every time.
- Pause is your friend! With some encounters you will need to take the time to look at what your enemy is doing. Some fights seem to start out 4 vs 6, but if you're watching you'll realize that six more are ambushing you from the back, heading right for your mage!
- Pay attention to your enemy! One of the first major challeneges in the game is a fight with an ogre. The ogre was kicking my butt every time. Then on the 5th time through I watched his attacks. I realized that by paying attention to which attack he was about to do, I could move out of the way of AoE attacks, and take advantage of his focused 1:1 grab attack to whittle down his health. The 6th time through, I took him out without losing a single party member.
- Location, location, location. If there are several archers in the next room, draw them through the doorway into the hallway instead of running in. If you're fighting a major foe with a shield, remember that the shield doesn't cover his back. If there is a large group of mobs, see if you can pull just a few of them at first instead of engaging the whole unit. Choosing the battlefield you fight on is the first step toward victory.
- Better tactics makes better soldiers. Are your warriors fighting to the death when a well timed potion might have saved the group? Or (worse) are they just standing there taking a beating while they drink your potion stores dry? Do you wonder why your loyal friend, Dog, keeps wagging his tail at you while you're ground into hamburger? The answer is in the Tactics screen. Yes, I know that many of you are going to be daunted by the idea of tweaking the AI of your party. But assuming that you don't want to have to micromanage every single action they take during combat, you're going to have to spend a little time in the Tactics screen adjusting how they approach combat. This is especially true as they level up since they'll have empty tactics slots which won't be doing you any good at all.
- Aggression Management for the win! Anyone who's played much in an MMO knows how important managing which member of the party the mobs are attacking is. This is called managing aggro for short. Special abilities like taunt and threaten aside, the basic factor is whoever is hurting a mob the most is going to get attacked. But ... did you know that mobs in DA:O are intelligent about their targets? Before battle even begins, they figure that the big guy in plate armor is more of a danger than the girl wearing some flimsy cloth robe in the back of the group. If you keep losing in every battle, see if you can change up the mix somehow to keep aggro spread out among your warriors.
- Reload and pray? Einstein once said the definition of insanity was to try the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Don't just pray for better results from the Random Number Generator, change how you're approaching the battle! Maybe you'll have to draw the mobs into a running battle where your ranged damage dealers are plunking away at the ravaging horde. Maybe the key to the battle will be the mage NPC and you just need your fighters to do their thing automatically. If you don't try to adjust, you will quickly become more and more frustrated until you give up.
- Go easy on it. I know that it may hurt one's Geeky Pride, but if you're not having fun because you're stuck on one particular battle, why not drop it down to Easy, take care of the bad guys, then go back to your normal difficulty? Really, nobody cares if you beat the game on Normal, Hard, etc. What's the point in beating your head against the wall? Games are supposed to be fun!
By Infiltrator
Note by Scorus: These tips are very valuable, and goes a little into depth of controlling your party 100% without tactics. That means you will have to assign commands as you go, and will require a lot of learning on your behalf. If you are up to the task, this is definatly the way to go
Party composition doesn't really matter on easy/normal, come to think of it not even on Hard. You can go with pretty much anything.
I'm using Dog, with myself (melee dual-dagger rogue), Alistar (Tanking) and Morrigan (control).
No healers and dog is almost like a wasted slot. I'm going through Hard again as I don't have my old char, and it's quite easy.
- PAUSE - pause the game, do your commands, unpause, PAUSE, do your commands, unpause. This makes most fights trivial.
- Disable tactics except auto attack when in close range. Tactics are retarded, maybe on normal you can do with them, but I suggest not to. Use all abilities manually to ensure efficiency.
- Use abilities after you used your brain. Don't spam attacks. Think in advance. SAVE the damn stuns when the ogre does a grab attack, don't just blow it off immediately.
Of course, archers and mages require a different approach, but against melee-centric encounters, that's one way to easily dispose of them with no need for heals. The point is, the AI can never chain-disable enemies like a human can. No amount of tactic configuration will make them that efficient.
Hope these hints and tips will ease your travels in Ferelden somewhat. Remember, these are general pointers, not a rules to be followed! Best of luck!
Modifié par Scorus, 11 novembre 2009 - 11:04 .





Retour en haut






