63 réponses à ce sujet

[JaykoVetinari]

Okay, so at first I was thinking, why would I want to cast from an HP bar that is already exceedingly tiny?  Doesn't seem to make much sense, even if her wrath ability could siphon some off.  I tried tinkering around with it, and found she as just dying way too much.  But then I had a thought....

From the moment you get her, use the re-spec potion from the emporium.  Dump exactly 0 points into willpower.  She will not need it.  Dump all your points into constitution and magic.  When gearing her, take any item that gives her extra conversion on hp > mana and take hp items.  Never take an increased mana regen item, never take an increased mana pool item.

My level 21 Merrill has over 400 hp.  She is getting 8 mana per hp for spells cast.  I just run her around the battlefield using AE abilities and standing on top of hordes.  Not only is she almost impossible to kill unless a boss mob gets on her, but generally speaking because of all of her hp rate increases and because Wrath is based off % of HER hp, she does not drop below about 70%hp.

Let's say she has wrath up and is standing next to two NPCs.  It's pulling 2% hp from each, so 4% total.  She has 400 hp...1% of that is 4...so, 4 x 4 = 16 hp...and then she's getting 8 mana per hp used in casting...16 x 8 = 128 mana if she's not actively taking hits...every 4 seconds.  She's more durable this way than if you're using her as a normal mage or jumping between forms.

Furthermore, because I don't care if she has any mana, I have her running elemental weapons and upgraded arcane shield full-time.  With the bloodmage skills and those two on she has 100% of her mana reserved at all times...and I couldn't care less.  She's brutal and hard as all hell to kill, does just as much damage as any other mage would because damage is determined by magic skill and not willpower.  She actually has more hp than Aveline in my current game.

The potions a small price to pay for taking a character with a less than impressive offering in skill trees as far as I'm concerned and turning her into a very durable AE utility/DPS character that you'll never have mana issues on.  Unlike Ander's weaksauce self you will not have to worry that she will get basically one shotted when those assassins disappear on you.  Any fight where I die she's either the last person standing or its just her and Aveline, and those two have won so pretty long odds just the two of them.

[reddragon567]

Anders you wanna dump in CON as well if you don't care about the staff they equip. The items that give 1 mp per HP help a lot.

Hawke is tricky. As the 2 spec armor forces you to make a decision.

[The Night Haunter]

Actually if you go for warrior armor instead you can just put points into str instead of willpower. Better armor - less damage - more fortitude.

[Boss Fog]

You pretty much nailed it on the head: Merril is a beast if built properly. Plain and simple.  I remember during my first fight with Meredith, Merril drew aggro on her for awhile.  Meredith hit her with scythe twice and only knocked her down once.  That plus about 4 spells prior to the scythes dropped Merril's health to about 75%.  I was like, "heh good luck trying to kill her!"

Modifié par TelvanniWarlord, 14 mars 2011 - 09:31 .

[Gaidren]

Interesting. I may have to try this with her late game when she has enough talent points to really max out her personal tree.

[MachDelta]

I cannot picture using Merrill any other way than as a primal blood mage.

Also, for some reason she reminds me of River Tam: Small, cute, innocent... and probably the deadliest mofo on the whole team.

[YoLaGringo]

This is a brilliant suggestion and so obvious I am ashamed for not even thinking about it. Can't wait to respec her later!

[skippy1776]

yeah never used her as a blood mage, and was getting rather frustrated with her, but now on my hard play through definitely going to use her.

[ilostmycookie]

I was thinking of doing that, but I started the ;ast part already so there's no going back

W/E, I'll do it on my next playthrough in a month or so...

[JaykoVetinari]

Yeah, I was definitely frustrated with how little utility/damage she provided for the trade-off of being so easy to kill. Re-speccing her to constitution totally changed that.

I'd imagine she would make a better blood mage than the PC character would make (I play rogue, so not sure. This is because her companion armor provides hefty bonuses to health regen rates (more than you could get from armor) and does give a hp/mana point and you would not be able to wear good mage armor as Hawke without dumping points into willpower.

[pedulla]

thanks for sharing. great built!

[Stevie 402]

She is a beast. Especially when equipped with the amulet of sarebas and the other blood mage rings, belts and staves a that add extra points of mana for what ever points of hp used. I have her use primal + her bloodmage and I rarely have to ever worry about her getting knocked out.

[Beerfish]

Never occurred to me, excellent build tips.

[TG-Nalfen]

Personally i like her with a tiny bit of willpower for those moments when she needs to be healed. Nice thing with blood mages is that you can give them all the substaineables in the game with no impact.

[Nathan Redgrave]

Blood Mage, in both Origins and DA2, is definitely both one of the more complicated routes to take, and one of the most rewarding. I was happy to see they gave you one as a party member, since that lets players experiment with the skills without necessarily committing to them.

[caradoc2000]

I haven't used her as a BM for role play reasons - her dealings with demons were motivated with her desire to fix the mirror and uncover the lore of her people. They were not motivated by (combat) power. Hence in my games her BM has been restricted to the few cutscenes.

[Merchant2006]

I've pretty much focused on Merril's Constitution and Magic attributes while probably chucking a few minor points into Willpower just to increase her magic bar in order to keep up some sustains (Blood/Rock Armour/Elemental Weps etc) but I'm proud of how great she is. If you set her tactics right, she can completely destroy the battlefield. It's a matter of choice but I wonder whether I should replay DAO/A as a blood mage as I've only played as a S/S Warrior, nothing else.

Like everyone else says, it's all up to experimentation on how to make a good build along with your current Hawke but maxxing out her constitution means she's a solid wall and is constantly firing away, and her health is hardly affected.

Try setting the tactics so that she disables blood magic once her health is below 50, to which Anders (who is best IMO as a healer... atleast I think so) to heal her up with uh... Heal xD or Aid Allies, to which her health goes up and if her health is >=50% then she reactivates blood magic. If it's desperate then <25% use a health potion and she will be back to max hp, in which she can do Blood Magic again. It's like an endless cycle.

So in a nutshell, I really like her with a high Constitution/Magic, with a few Willpower points and having:

Merril Self --- Health --- >=50% or 75% (your choice) --- Activate: Blood of the First
Merril Self --- Health --- <50% or 75% --- Deactivate: Blood of the First
Merril Self --- Health --- <25% --- Use item: Health Potion

I've noticed several other people enjoy those 3 tactics if your making a Blood Mage and want Merril to damage people without having to worry about managing her and you can just focus on annihilating your enemies as she stays at a distance with Anders as her healer and.. well she's pretty damn good IMO. Anders can have some Health too as his Const is seriously low x.x but I totally agree with OP on many areas, Merril is just brilliant

What's that phrase? High risk high reward? Whatever, I enjoy BM a lot on DA2 ^^

[MachDelta]

Merchant2006 wrote...

I've pretty much focused on Merril's Constitution and Magic attributes while probably chucking a few minor points into Willpower just to increase her magic bar in order to keep up some sustains (Blood/Rock Armour/Elemental Weps etc)

You don't need any willpower points. Zero. Sustains are a percentage of total mana, so it doesn't matter if she has 10mp or 1000mp, you will always be able to run Blood of the First (50%), Wrath of the Elhven (20%), Rock Armor (10%), and Mage Armor (20%) (or Elemental weapons, etc)

[Haasth]

This is pretty much what my Hawke has. Spirit Healing + Blood Magic + Almost all the sustain abilities out there. Makes for a great asset to the team. Merrill I didn't give any of her Pariah abilities because managing two Blood Mages is a bit odd in my opinion, and use her 100% of the time purely as raw AoE DPS with Elemental, Primal and crowd control through Entropy. Which works really great.

But yes, for those that don't already have a Blood Mage it is indeed a very great strategy to use for Merrill.

[Merchant2006]

MachDelta wrote...

Merchant2006 wrote...

I've pretty much focused on Merril's Constitution and Magic attributes while probably chucking a few minor points into Willpower just to increase her magic bar in order to keep up some sustains (Blood/Rock Armour/Elemental Weps etc)

You don't need any willpower points. Zero. Sustains are a percentage of total mana, so it doesn't matter if she has 10mp or 1000mp, you will always be able to run Blood of the First (50%), Wrath of the Elhven (20%), Rock Armor (10%), and Mage Armor (20%) (or Elemental weapons, etc)

Oh!!! Wow well I guess I didn't read the details enough xD Thanks for letting me know, I'll be sure to remove those 5 points in willpower that I gave her. Thanks ^^

[Jack-Nader]

Nice. I've never really given Merril much thought but judging by the posts here she is definitely worth looking into.

[Att3r0]

from what i've heard she is quite OP if built this way (as she dont need willpower for armor like hawke, and also the regen on Wrath of Elvhen is stronger then what blood mage has (1% every 4s vs 10% every 45s ) The only thing she lacks is unshakable but there is ring with immune to knockdown.
Just that respecing companion is almost like cheating ...

Modifié par Att3r0, 24 mars 2011 - 04:10 .

[ForTheWynne]

Ok, I've finally given Merrill the respec she deserves. 

Sorry I had to... 

If possible, it would be awesome if anyone can post where to find any of the particularly good items for Blood Mages.  I'm still in Act 1. 

Oh, and thanks OP! 

Modifié par ForTheWynne, 24 mars 2011 - 04:45 .

[errant_knight]

If I used her blood magic, I'd have to kill her.

[Chromie]

So what gear does Merrill have by Act 3? Just so I could have a guideline and experiment with.