49 réponses à ce sujet

[Suron]

disclaimer - I ask this because I really like her, didn't think I would but she's almost too naive/innocent not to like..and I like using her....so it has NOTHING to do with the character herself..but her "abilities" and my obviously (at least I hope) not "playing her right."

if it matters I'm playing sword/shield warrior.

she's CONSTANTLY getting knocked out in fight no matter what I do.  I can't draw enemies off her long..even with taunt they soon return.

in almost EVERY fight (save the REALLY short ones that area gainst really weak enemies) she's knocked out...

Why am I forced to take Anders with me for any healing and how can I make her not suck?  I seriously don't get why she can't heal at all.

thanks in advance.

EDIT: And pleast avoid spoilers if you can.

Modifié par Suron, 11 mars 2011 - 02:54 .

[Sidney]

She is quite a survivor for me -- Varric on the other hand apparently has no will to live. If you do not have her configured to use her Rock Armor that might make her very fragile. I just have a line in her tactics Self>Any>Rock Armor and it is the second line after Self>Health 10%>Heal so it always triggers.

[soteria]

Well, for starters I raise her constitution instead of willpower because she starts with quite a bit of willpower and she's a blood mage (potentially, in gameplay).

How to make her not suck? Depends on your party. I have a 2h warrior who is always staggering folks, and gave her improved chain lightning--the class combo is great. What you should do is look at what your group can set up, be it stagger or disorient, and direct her toward exploiting that. Then take CC spells. Mind blast is also a great defensive spell, since it knocks enemies away and reduces threat.

[Lungo]

I completely ignored her specialisation and went into the Spirit and Entropy, putted her into a aggressive range tactic. I strongly exploit the fully upgraded walking bomb and both my Hawky (a rogue) and Varric's disorientation skills. That work wonders. I have basic everyone else go down before her.

Just make sure that you don't forget all those mobs who spawn behind you in close to every single fight.

Note: Playing on Hard

[Cloaking_Thane]

either fully invest in Constituion and her blood mageness (this includes + health amulets rings and belts)

or ignore her specialty and focus on the entropy, rock armor, spirit route.....I agree she doesnt have the greatest skill set but is def valid

[Dirhyn]

First of all, I level her with 1 point magic, 2 points con. I Start the fight with blood of the first turned off, and when her mana is depleted, I enter the mode. I have her equiped with 2 rings, a staff and an amulet that increases mana per health spent. I am not yet friendly with her, but I still have 1 hp = 3 mana. That means a spell costing 30 mana costs 10 life, wich is literally nothing. With upgraded nature's wrath (or something) she heals for more than the dmg she does to herself when casting spells.

A side effect of high hp is raising the threshold of force impact, wich means she can still do stuff while being hit, as opposed to Beth or Anders. She is an AoE beast, and your problem is probly because you taunt and stop attacking the targets with your warrior. Threat decays, so if you do not beat on mobs, they will turn around and hit your other allies (which is normally Merill because she does a ****on of dammage and is in close combat).

[BattleRaptor]

if you are playing on nightmare you cant.
Even if your main char is a mage.

[StilRH]

She's been working a charm for me - maxed out the primal tree and spent a few points in her blood magic. She draws threat like no bodies business, but rock armour petrify and her uniques keep her alive

[k1dbLubo0]

you know i thought merril would suck as my main battle mage, but apparently shes pretty good toward later levels. i always used bethany though, till...they...took...her.... (unless she comes back which im not at yet in the game hahaha)

[shaneho78]

I think i found an ok way to use her.

1) Respec her
2) put everything into spellpower and constitution ONLY(don't increase willpower at all)
3) Make sure to put a skill pt into Blood of the First
4) equip her with the Talisman of Saarebaas
5) get her friendship (it's not that hard)

4 and 5 will boost her blood magic so at this point you get a pretty good ratio of 4 mana to 1 health. That means an ability that costs 20 mana now costs 5 health. You can also get the staff has boosts blood magic to get a 5:1 ratio but in my opinion not necessary. Get a more powerful staff like Stone's Breath instead.

6) get sustained abilities that suits your playing style such as rock armor (20% of mana to sustain) , elemental weapon (10%) , arcane shield, death syphon (important to blood mage for obvious reasons) etc...make sure they add up to 50% exactly.

It doesn't matter that your willpower is super low as these abilities take up a percentage not an actual amount

What i do with her before battle:

A) Activate all 3 buff spells that take 50% of mana to upkeep in total
Activate Blood of the First.
C) Activate a 5th buff spell or save it for your first attack spell (she will use up her remaining mana before using health)

Hope this helps.

[rumination888]

Merrill is who I take whenever I wanted to steamroll through a section on hard difficulty to get to the next story arc.

I used a respec potion then raised magic and constitution evenly. I ignored the other stats. I gave her every "Blood to Mana conversion" equipment piece I could find. She has Blood of the First, Wrath of the Elves, Rock Armor, Arcane Shield, and Elemental Weapons up at all times. She ends up with better armor, health, and magic resistances than Fenris with those toggles and stats. Wrath of the Elves and Wounds of the Past deal a lot of AoE damage and they don't deal friendly fire on nightmare, which is a huge plus.

As for her other spell choices, it depends on the difficulty.

If you want to see her turn hard difficultty into a joke, pick up Walking Bomb and the entire elemental tree of spells.

If you want to build her for nightmare without worrying about friendly fire, pick up winter's grasp, rock fist, and crushing prison. All 3 deal large amounts of single target damage and have the added benefit of helping with survivability. Barrier and Mind Blast are good, too.

[shaneho78]

rumination888 wrote...

Merrill is who I take whenever I wanted to steamroll through a section on hard difficulty to get to the next story arc.

I used a respec potion then raised magic and constitution evenly. I ignored the other stats. I gave her every "Blood to Mana conversion" equipment piece I could find. She has Blood of the First, Wrath of the Elves, Rock Armor, Arcane Shield, and Elemental Weapons up at all times. She ends up with better armor, health, and magic resistances than Fenris with those toggles and stats. Wrath of the Elves and Wounds of the Past deal a lot of AoE damage and they don't deal friendly fire on nightmare, which is a huge plus.

As for her other spell choices, it depends on the difficulty.

If you want to see her turn hard difficultty into a joke, pick up Walking Bomb and the entire elemental tree of spells.

If you want to build her for nightmare without worrying about friendly fire, pick up winter's grasp, rock fist, and crushing prison. All 3 deal large amounts of single target damage and have the added benefit of helping with survivability. Barrier and Mind Blast are good, too.

great minds think alike...coughs. ..i Use Wrath of the Elves as well and also upgraded Mind Blast to dispere threat.

Modifié par shaneho78, 11 mars 2011 - 03:54 .

[Daveastation]

Good info on Merrill in here. Thanks!

[BattleRaptor]

people should state what difficulty they use the build on.

[Nooneyouknow13]

A quick note for nightmare - nothing in the Dalish Pariah tree causes friendly fire.

[Mifune013]

You know what's funny. I just auto-level her and she just devestates the field. Then again I have Varric and Anders (support) in the party, and I'm a two-handed warrior so we have lots of AoE. I've had times when guys who have a health bar bigger than my 40 con bar go down in less than a second.

[atheelogos]

Suron wrote...

disclaimer - I ask this because I really like her, didn't think I would but she's almost too naive/innocent not to like..and I like using her....so it has NOTHING to do with the character herself..but her "abilities" and my obviously (at least I hope) not "playing her right."

if it matters I'm playing sword/shield warrior.

she's CONSTANTLY getting knocked out in fight no matter what I do.  I can't draw enemies off her long..even with taunt they soon return.

in almost EVERY fight (save the REALLY short ones that area gainst really weak enemies) she's knocked out...

Why am I forced to take Anders with me for any healing and how can I make her not suck?  I seriously don't get why she can't heal at all.

thanks in advance.

EDIT: And pleast avoid spoilers if you can.

Really!! She is one of my best. What spells do you give her? I give her primal and Entropy spells. She is near unstoppable with those.

[atheelogos]

Sidney wrote...

She is quite a survivor for me -- Varric on the other hand apparently has no will to live. If you do not have her configured to use her Rock Armor that might make her very fragile. I just have a line in her tactics Self>Any>Rock Armor and it is the second line after Self>Health 10%>Heal so it always triggers.

Yes I have the same problem with Varric. The man goes down in heartbeat.

[crapmonster13]

If its down to taking only one mage in your party then yea, Merril is fairly useless. But I almost always have her and Anders with me. Basically Merril focused on attacking, and Anders almost solely there to support/heal.

[TheOneAndOni]

Playing on Hard and just finished act 1. She has the Primal tree completely maxed out (for excellent synergy with my 2H Warrior Hawke) along with Blood of the First. I've been pumping her magic and constitution in roughly equal parts and giving her a decent amount of +health gear on top of it. I also pretty much always have Varric in my party, who has tactics set up to use Goad on Hawke and Armistice on my other characters when they are under attack.

[Mifune013]

I honestly think you're a fool or a masochist if you don't have Anders with you. Even with the long cool down times with heals, the fact he can revive, buff, and perform group heals makes him the best character in your team.

I could see how Merrill would be useless without that support. I've seen her go down really quickly, but then again I've seen my character go down really quickly and she has the most health.

[MetallicaRulez0]

For me she was many times over more durable than Anders. I picked up Rock Armor early for her, and she had as much armor as my tank throughout the game. Here's a few of the things I did:

1/1/1 Magic/Will/Cons spread, as with all Mage companions.
Horror + upgrade
Sleep + upgrade
Cone of Cold + upgrade
Mind Blast + upgrade
Crushing Prison + upgrade
Barrier + upgrade

I know a lot of people go the Blood Mage Route, but I really don't like it. I have enough mana to get the job done without leaving myself vulnerable via health usage. I much prefer to keep all of my Mages as defensive support and CC. My Anders is setup in a similar way, although I have the Creation tree instead of the Entropy tree, obviously.

My guess? You don't have Rock Armor or Mind Blast. Those 2 abilities are mandatory in my opinion.

Modifié par MetallicaRulez0, 11 mars 2011 - 07:45 .

[Suron]

thanks all..this helped. Respec'd her using some suggestions here matched with my playstyle for her and so far it's going well.

much appreciated.

[The Night Haunter]

Max out her specilization tree, max her out on sustainables and kick ass. She does a good job of it.

[MadCat221]

Where are these respec potions I hear about?