Midway through my first play through I decided it would be nice if my whole party could sneak along to set up ambushes rather than just my rogue, unfortunately Leliana did not come with stealth and I gave her mostly bow talents so I decided I would try my next run with just my rogue and Leliana (no Zevran). I was surprised at how well this worked and how much more tactical and strategic I was playing as a result and how much planning I put into each battle, it was a great experience so I thought I’d share what I did.
I was thinking I’d solo rogue it until I got Leliana as I had seen some people do this, I managed the origin story but the Korcari (or Kokiri as I like to call them) Wilds and Ostagar were so tedious I just decided to use what I had ‘til I got Leliana.
So got to Lothering without any major difficulty, went straight to the tavern and recruited Leliana, dumped everyone else and went from there. Whoever designed Leliana’s stats wasn’t very clever as she has 4 archery talents, 2 ranks of Device Mastery, Below the Belt but no damn stealth and has higher strength that cunning. Leaving Lothering was tricky but manageable. As soon as you leave Lothering buy a tome of physical technique for Leliana to get a level of stealth.
Until you get combat stealth, the game is quite hard but once you finish the circle tower it becomes brilliant. From about level 10 to 17 it’s fantastic but then it gets too easy really.
Defence is what you want to focus on. It’s more important to not get hit than be a heavy hitter and go down fast (like tanks on nightmare!). Put about 5 or 6 points into cunning and everything else to dex. For the Warden max coercion quickly and Leliana stealing and for talents both will focus on stealth first.
Tactics I use:
Early Game (until both characters are about level 12)–
In general I start a battle with both using bows, and then switch to daggers stunning an opponent and having one rogue on each side of the attacker.
‘Tactical Withdrawal’
i.e. turn tail and run. I mostly use this leaving Lothering as Leliana doesn’t have stealth. Two variations I used for this, one is to get the cloaked warden to inch forward until you see the first members of an enemy group, keeping Leliana behind. Fire a shot and run to Leliana as soon as the arrow leaves the bow, don’t wait for it to hit (note if you miss sometimes you will stay cloaked). You can either run back to Leliana and get her to fire a Shattering shot to knock them down, turn and have both fire normally. This will usually take out that member, usually two or three enemies will follow the first, if it’s two you’ll be fine, three could be tricky in the Lothering region.
The other option is to run past Leliana and have her fire normally one the target gets into her range. The enemies will usually ignore her following the warden. Once a bit past Leliana turn the warden and fire. Though you cannot backstab with a bow, a shot in the rear will be critical, if Leliana gets two shots off here you’ll probably have taken the first out, often he’ll turn to take Leliana rather than pursue the Warden so you’ll have split them effectively, this
method also makes it easies to get to a backstab as your characters will be on both sides of the enemies.
‘Stun and turn’. Before you get coup de grace after you stun it’s no harm to move the warden to the side of your opponent (if you have combat movement) and keep Leliana behind the target, this way they’ll both be backstabbing and the target will go down fast (unless they’ve massive armour).
‘Share the pain’
Better off having two rogues on low health than one dead rogue. Enemies tend to focus on who fired with the bow first or who decloaked first so use the warden to do that, then use Shattering shots, Pinning shots and Crippling shots to increase Leliana’s threat so the enemies change attacker. They will also often turn to face a backstabber, which is ironic when there’s one on either side.
Once you have combat stealth, activating that will give a critical hit and the enemy will change target to the other rogue, this is very useful!
(The only problem with this is in the circle tower often I’d finish the combat with both characters on very low health and a couple of dead abominations can explode taking out both characters).
‘Drawing’
This is something I use for tough battles in open spaces (eg. The battle with Imrek to get into Ostagar if you’re low level). Equip one rogue with a bow and go a large distance away and put the other next to an enemy. Fire a shot and run away, as the group follow the archer have the other rogue attack. This enemy, and maybe one or two others near will change target, keep the archer running away until Stealth has cooled down. You will now have split the group putting a large distance between them making them more manageable.
Once you get combat stealth for both characters the game changes completely and becomes much more interesting. In a battle always take the mage first, one character with one stun should probably take the mage quickly, (stand behind them, attack once and then stun) but if unsure send both to take the mage, the cooldown for
stealth isn’t that long so if there’s a lot of other enemies run away and cloak, then reposition yourself and go again.
If there’s two mages and a lieutenant mage it can be tricky, I’d take the two lesser mages first, cloak, and then go for the lieutenant. If he has crushing prison though, you may want to take him out first instead.
Note that a stun will NOT work on an enemy immediately after the first stun runs out.
The only real dangers are Overwhelm, Grab (if your other rogue has used their stun) and Crushing prison. Stuns and webs are dangerous too as your defence drops so you get hit but you can usually cloak once it has worn off, Hale runes are useful. A stun on a grabbing ogre will work and he’ll drop the character but it will not stop an overwhelm (ridiculously).
The only really difficult battles I fought after the early game were:
The Spider Queen (damn long lasting high damaging poison and millions of webs)
Three drakes (overwhelm)
Entering Fort Drakon (two dragon thralls with overwhelm and two gunlock emissaries with crushing
prison)
6 suits of armour in Redcliff Castle
Werewolf’s Lair with the Shadow wolves (overwhelm)
The orphanage in the Alienage where you meet that female Elf, a few guards and three archers (using lots of scattershots)
In Arl Howe’s dungeon after the fire trap there were a few archers and mages there who didn’t like me (Arl Howe himself was simple)
I was amazed at how easy some other boss fights were, Ser Cauthrien did one-hit Leliana but only hit the Warden twice (each hit doing over 100 damage) but I survived. Branka and Brood Mother barely hit me. I didn’t even need Stealth for Jarvia’s hideout, I just stormed it and mauled everyone (I did the Orzammar stuff last and this is where it starting getting too easy). Revenants, while taking a few Health poultices, with Leliana shooting them in the back and my Warden evading most attacks weren’t too hard. I’ve never found the Arch-demon battle hard for some reason. With Wade’s Superior Drakeskin Armour on one character and the other character a good distance away the High Dragon and Flemeth didn’t do too much damage. Ogres are susceptible to stuns and go down fast. The Kolgrim battle was disappointingly easy, he went down super fast, though I took him indoors so he didn’t have a Drake). Note that while you cannot cloak directly in front of some bosses but if you are a good distance away (and
still in longbow range) you can. This can add critical hits and cause the boss to switch target.
Stats:
Warden; brought cunning to 26, everything else to Dex.
Leliana; cunning to 22 (for stealth rank 4), everything else to Dex.
Talents:
First play-through I got Lethality and Evasion quickly for the Warden. This was a mistake and on my second play through I left it Lethality 'til later. Evasion is not a good talent to take as the animation takes about a second. It's infuriating actually. I didn’t take the middle duel weapon branch for either character, there are some useful talents here but I found thinks like Momentum and Duelling with Keen Defence more important. I maxed Device Mastery immediately for the Warden and had 26 cunning, didn’t have trouble with any chests or traps. Arrow of Slaying is nice to get for Leliana.
Equipment and purchases:
The only thing I bought in Lothering was Thorn of the Dead Gods, i had about 25 sovereigns leaving. As soon as I left I bought a tome of physical talent for Leliana. After circle tower once you’ve 25 sovereigns go to Orzammer, take Harrowmont’s quest first and get 15 sovereigns as reward for getting Baizyl’s love letter. Go to Rogek and start the precious metals quest. Steal 20 sovereigns back from him and buy Shadow of the Empire for Leliana (unless you’re using DLC and have Battle dress of the Provocateur).
Deliver the Lyrium and return to Rogek (obviously you’ll need to persuade constantly for best results), you will have about 100 sovereigns now. I would say Lifegiver is probably the best buy now.
The next big purchase I went for was Andruil’s Blessing, however if you’re using The Stone Prisoner the Helm of Honnelath and the Harvest Festival ring won’t make this as necessary early (my first play-through I used no DLC as some items are too powerful really, none of the DLC is great in my opinion anyway).
It was just before I did the Orzammer stuff I bought Felon’s Coat and after the Deep Roads I got The Rose’s Thorn. Getting the Rose’s Thorn so late made it almost unnecessary and meant I got the Spellward even later. The Rose’s Thorn should probably be one of the last big purchases as with Runes it is not that necessary.
In terms of weapons I would make sure you have as many Crow Daggers as possible. By the end I had 6 with various combinations of runes. Use Figor to sell them to and buy them back as he charges the least. (Note that the one Alimar only sometimes will have rune slots after selling it and buying back causing multiple reloading.) I had one loaded with Hale runes, two with Dweomar runes. Runes can be taken off weapons (it's not like Diablo 2!). Use them as soon as you can. I put one paralyse rune on each weapon too.
I used no traps, bombs, poisons or salves. This was not an intentional choice, I just never really thought of them, trap-making is too expensive though I would like to use it at some stage. Poisons are useful too but I didn’t need them. The only time I could have used a salve was against the Spider Queen because of all the nature damage but I got through it without one.
My main reason for playing it like this is because I felt I wasn’t using much strategy in my first play-through on nightmare, I played every battle the same, run in, kill everything, regardless of the location, setting, enemies. Playing it with two rogues made me plan each battle, look for corners I could back myself in to, analyse the enemies to see the order to take them out. I could have used Zevran too and had a triad of rogues but I took him once and felt it was too easy again.
Modifié par moktir, 21 août 2010 - 09:37 .
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