63 réponses à ce sujet

[MarthofAltea]

THOSE RESPEC POTIONS ARE THE GREATEST THING SINCE SANDAL.

Thanks for these ideas, guys, can't believe I didn't think about this sooner.

[Jman5]

Ok, I just respec'd merril at level 16. What I don't understand is that she has 160 base mana without any items or willpower beyond default.

Is that normal, or is maker's sigh bugging? After putting her at 28 con she only has 195 hp while my warrior has about 400 at 28 con.

[cloudblade70]

You could be both Primal and Pariah, pretty feasible.

http://biowarefans.c...sEFHd1YzkmoMc0G

[Emperor Iaius I]

MachDelta wrote...

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

This. She looks amazing covered in bolders, chucking spells right and left and shrugging off damage as if it were nothing. Lately I've stopped using rock armor just because it's interesting to see her with the blood magic animations, with rivulets of blood gushing off of her as she blows things to bits.

Remarkable that such a slight little thing could be my best tank.

[Metal_Gorby]

I just love the animation as she rams the staff into her own chest as blood spurts out everywhere.

[LocutusX]

I agree Merill as a BM is just awesome.

It's actually making ACT 3 WAY easier for me, than any of the previous Acts (with the possible exception of the High Dragon which I have NOT fought yet).

My killer party is: PC (2h warrior) + Varric (comedic relief) + Anders (field medic) + Merrill (weapon of mass destruction)

I wonder if BioWare knew how awesome Merrill/BM is? I didn't even respec her, because if I did then fights would just get TOO easy.

[Ozzlok]

Using all the accessories that provide +1 mana per life the conversion rate is so high Merrill never drops below 50% life, even in long battles. So the last few level i have been able to pump all the points into Magic to increase the damage and effectivness. I don't use the AOE spells that th op suggested, have a slightly different build, but she is still just a beast!!!

[Heather Cline]

Merrill rocks as a party member. First play through I ignored her blood magic tree. Second play through I put all points into blood magic and constitution. only enough in magic to get 42 so she could equip the best staves in the game. She's like a mage jumped up on lyrium.

[Sentox6]

The only bugbear for me is that I will never get the +1 mana per hp bonus from friendship, because I can never bring myself to agree with the delusional little maniac.

By the time she realises I was right all along, we're permanent rivals XD

[Bakkerbaard]

I read that original post and I got a nosebleed.
That's bloody alchemy to me... Which strikes me as ironic, but that's beside the point.

Modifié par Bakkerbaard, 30 mars 2011 - 04:37 .

[muzluburz]

good thinking.. does anyone know if merrils blood magic skills leech from allies if on nightmare
?

[JaykoVetinari]

No, her bloodmage skills do NOT affect allies for some reason. Neither Ensnare nor the constant pulsing drain affect any allies. I have no clue why this is the case, but I'm playing on Nightmare now with the same basic build only I went archer instead of dual wield DPS. Doing a no KO for any character run.

Thought I would have to drop Merrill because of the constant AEs because it would require too much micromanaging of her to turn it on and off constantly but she does not hit allies with it.

As far as gear goes, I must have missed some on my second run through or just not gotten some random drops as I don't have two rings and a belt that provide extra bloodmage points, and then I got bugged and probably won't get the final armor component for her either if memory serves of when you get it. She's still a beast, but I swap her and Varric in and out.

As far as Nightmare goes, I will give this one piece of advice if you're using her. I'm going to assume you're using Aveline, because, frankly, you're doing it wrong if you're not. Even on nightmare she works very well with AEs and Aveline. Try this combo one day, and can do it with Aveline standing in AEs.

1. With several mobs on Aveline, activate Stonewall.
2. Cone of cold right overtop of Aveline into the group. She will take 0 damage, might get frozen, though.
3. Explosive arrow the entire group immediately. Aveline will still have stonewall up and take 0 damage. Any brittle enemies (normally about half) will take 4k+ damage.

Aveline also works very well with Merrill or any mage on nightmare using shieldbash on a group to stagger and then immediately chain lightning, as chain lightning will NEVER jump to an ally even if there are only 3 enemies on screen. These are both pretty safe tactics, but obviously require some good micromanaging as stonewall is not a long duration.

I literally have no tactics set for any of my characters, I manually control just about everything they do besides maybe one or two commands each to use potions under 25% or something to that effect.

Modifié par JaykoVetinari, 26 mars 2011 - 03:24 .

[Joy Divison]

JaykoVetinari wrote...

No, her bloodmage skills do NOT affect allies for some reason. Neither Ensnare nor the constant pulsing drain affect any allies. I have no clue why this is the case, but I'm playing on Nightmare now with the same basic build only I went archer instead of dual wield DPS. Doing a no KO for any character run.
.

Gaider has talked about this.  Blood mages choose whom they draw blood from and thus exclude allies.

[Well]

I don't use blood magic.Still she does fine.I set up her tactics and she gets it done.I don't use Anders so the only mage I have for the game except when I ran my mage.A F.I.E.L. mage works fine for me.I not sure if Merrill gets some special benefits but she always does good.

[kayangelus]

Jman5 wrote...

Ok, I just respec'd merril at level 16. What I don't understand is that she has 160 base mana without any items or willpower beyond default.

Is that normal, or is maker's sigh bugging? After putting her at 28 con she only has 195 hp while my warrior has about 400 at 28 con.

Based on the manual (page 4), yes she is supposed to have a starting mana of 160, with starting will power of 12. Although at 28 con, her she shoul have 190 hp, not 195.

And your warrior should (before equipment/passives) only have 240hp at 28 con, not 400.

[TcheQ]

I turned merrilkl and Anders both into attack mages

[Isifel]

JaykoVetinari wrote...

No, her bloodmage skills do NOT affect allies for some reason.

Awesome, thanks for that!

The only reason I've avoided the Dalish Pariah skills is because I run on Nightmare and I reckoned I'll be gibbing myself if I did. Good news.

[Pix]

I agree that Merril can be made into a beast. She was for me. I did not use blood magic for two reasons: 1-I think it's evil and 2-I didn't want to deplete her health to where I had to constantly worry over healing her. She was incredibly powerful and did a lot of damage without blood magic. The best stuff she had were the spells that paralyzed the enemy to make hacking it apart easier.

[DA Trap Star]

Yea at first I thought she sucked, but I've realized I didn't spec her right.
She's best as a Bloodmage cross combo'er, I actually decided to sit Avaline down and just roll with Merrill instead.

[Jman5]

kayangelus wrote...

Jman5 wrote...

Ok, I just respec'd merril at level 16. What I don't understand is that she has 160 base mana without any items or willpower beyond default.

Is that normal, or is maker's sigh bugging? After putting her at 28 con she only has 195 hp while my warrior has about 400 at 28 con.

Based on the manual (page 4), yes she is supposed to have a starting mana of 160, with starting will power of 12. Although at 28 con, her she shoul have 190 hp, not 195.

And your warrior should (before equipment/passives) only have 240hp at 28 con, not 400.

Ok thanks, everything is fine the. I didn't look at the hitpoints for hawke right, so this adds up.

[Radwar]

Pix wrote...

I agree that Merril can be made into a beast. She was for me. I did not use blood magic for two reasons: 1-I think it's evil and 2-I didn't want to deplete her health to where I had to constantly worry over healing her. She was incredibly powerful and did a lot of damage without blood magic. The best stuff she had were the spells that paralyzed the enemy to make hacking it apart easier.

Trust me, the usual mage Merrill is nothing compared to the Blood Mage Merril when it comes to power. And as for her health depleting, that's not even close to being a concern, since she has so much of it and she has insane protections against damage (If you build her correctly). Infact, Merrill was the only companion which I never worried about their health.

[Pix]

Hmm.. on 2nd playthrough now and might consider trying her blood mage stuff.

[FrozenDawn]

this is actually rly good, it also gives you the opportunity to use 100% of the mana pool for sustainables. My merril has shield rock armor and wrath of th elven permanently active, together with her high con she almost never dies.
thx for pointing that out

[Radwar]

Here are my Merrill's Stats and Abilities at the end of the game.



If I had to change a few things, it would be to lower her Willpower and place the points in Magic & Constitution
Also I would remove the spirit abilities (except for Death Syphon) & place them in Entropy. Entropy is just too amazing to pass on, especially the upgraded octopus icon (don't remember the name). Spirit was a test and I wasn't impressed and Merrill really didn't need the ultimate spirit upgrade (again, don't remember the name).

Merrill had Rock Armor (upgraded with the final ability in the tree), Upgraded Death Syphon, Upgraded Wrath of the Elvhen & Blood of the First activated at all times.

[rabbitchannel]

Am I missing something here? Wrath only gives you 1% per enemy so with 2 enemies in the vicinity and 400 hp you'd only be getting 400 x .01 x 2 = 8 hp per 4 seconds not 16. So with cost ratio 1:8 you'd only be getting 64 mana's worth per 4 secs.