19 réponses à ce sujet

[Sabresandiego]

Id like to see a mod that increases the difficulty of the game. Id like to see enemies be much harder to kite, Id like to see trap doors close behind you so that you can't drag out enemies into rooms they werent intended, and Id like to see some boss fights made more fun (for example the Arishok duel, reducing his health by 75% but making him run faster and attack faster but still be beatable) 

Maybe I will make this mod myself. Too bad I have no experience in modding. Things I would do:

-Change pathing AI for ranged companions when out of line of sight to maintain maximum range from target and strafe until in line of sight, rather then have ranged companions run into melee range of enemies like they do now.

-Increase the animation speed of enemies making them harder (but not impossible) to kite

-Add more waves to most fights (double or even triple the amount). Players should feel absolutely swarmed and it should be hard enough that most fights end with 2-3 companions knocked out and injured.

-Reduce the health of a few bosses but increase their damage

Modifié par Sabresandiego, 20 mars 2011 - 11:09 .

[Sabresandiego]

large

[Tomomi]

The current Nightmare mode is quite broken just so you know. The chain knock is a killer, and the action queue cleared while being hit ensures to make micromanaging very hard.

I am surprised you could just solo run your warrior in that fight without even bothering to control your companions. You must have the talent for immunity to stun and knock-down for sure. But your damage certainly is way too high against those mobs on Nightmare, and Danzig's spell barely scratched you. On my first play through, even on Normal, I had problem with that fight. Given I knew so much less about that game than I do now.

I wonder how you fare against bosses, like Ancient Rock Wraith if you play solo like that on Nightmare. Certainly you won't have to worry about the chain knock lock down for being a warrior and action queue being cleared since you only play on 1 character. But seriously, it looks too easy on Nightmare in those videos.

Edit: Just watched the High Dragon video.  It seems you managed through kiting the entire time.  Who was tanking the dragon anyway?  Or dragon just does range dps and doesn't need tanking?  I haven't got to that part yet.

Modifié par Tomomi, 20 mars 2011 - 11:04 .

[Chromie]

Tomomi wrote...

The current Nightmare mode is quite broken just so you know. The chain knock is a killer, and the action queue cleared while being hit ensures to make micromanaging very hard.

I am surprised you could just solo run your warrior in that fight without even bothering to control your companions. You must have the talent for immunity to stun and knock-down for sure. But your damage certainly is way too high against those mobs on Nightmare, and Danzig's spell barely scratched you. On my first play through, even on Normal, I had problem with that fight. Given I knew so much less about that game than I do now.

I wonder how you fare against bosses, like Ancient Rock Wraith if you play solo like that on Nightmare. Certainly you won't have to worry about the chain knock lock down for being a warrior and action queue being cleared since you only play on 1 character. But seriously, it looks too easy on Nightmare in those videos.

Edit: Just watched the High Dragon video.  It seems you managed through kiting the entire time.  Who was tanking the dragon anyway?  Or dragon just does range dps and doesn't need tanking?  I haven't got to that part yet.

Solo'd with a mage!

[Tomomi]

Post some video.

How would you solo against an onslaught of mobs where your best spell only does 10% at best to them each time. My mage at lvl 15, for the sake of testing, I put everything into Magic to get nearly 50 Magic. Tested out Fist of the Maker on a bunch of Skeletons in Sundermount. They barely took off 200 at most. And I would be constantly on the run. Now what happens if there is no where to run? You do realize on Nightmare mode they knock you around a lot? Even with 100% stun and knock back resist (Unshakable, Force Mage tree), you still get "pushed back" which basically stuns you for 1-2 seconds.

Edit: Not to mention your Glyph or Mindblast gets constantly resisted on Nightmare, so you must be constantly on the run, the moment a little mob hits you once, it's over, chain "push back" and your character gets pushed until death, sometimes there is not even room to drink a potion.  "Unshakable" does guarantee against "Stun: 4-5 seconds", and "Knock back: you flying far back and takes 3-4 seconds to recover", however, my test last night shows you still can't escape "Push back" in which happens a lot even to a normal skeleton, makes it impossible to even cast a spell if 2 of them are on you, no chance to run either.  And here you say you have a chance at soloing the game on Nightmare as mage.

I tried what Sabresandiego did with Carver and Fenris on Danzig, both spec quite similar to his warrior, same weapon, and I even put a whole lot into Strength while using my companions to keep Carver/Fenris up. The result is .... (on Nightmare anyway), I honestly can't 2 hit a normal mobs and raze through the enemies like he did in video. With 100% stun/knock resist I still get "pushed" back a lot, constantly with 2 healers (2x Heal + 2x Group Heal) and potions, I can't keep Carver/Fenris up. Mobs HP drop at ratio of 10% per ability (like Scythe) not 50% as in video.

Are you guys sure you are playing on Nightmare?

Modifié par Tomomi, 20 mars 2011 - 09:18 .

[JamesX]

The nightmare difficulty is broken for different classes. The Arishok fight on any sort of range attacker is a joke. it is just long and tedius.

On Warriors it is much much harder. Most cases, the game is easier when you play range attacker.

[Xodarap777]

Are you guys sure you are playing on Nightmare?

On my first playthrough, I played Nightmare, and was frustrated beyond imagine.  I thought several times that the game balance was broken, the classes were screwed up, and I didn't even believe people who posted their strategies and experiences for defeating, for example, the templar hunter in Tranquility or the Ancient Rock Wraith ("burn him down"?! how much health does he have in YOUR game?!).

However, on my second playthrough, I TORE through Nightmare.  No problems.  In fact, it was laughably easy.  No one ever died except on stupid mistakes (mis-timed whirlwind, usually), and bosses died so fast I had to reload and do it again just to make sure it wasn't a bug.  Hordes of normals, or even elites, die in one volley of skills, five seconds at most.

Here's an example, at level 12:  Aveline runs in to a mess of elites, taunts.  At the same time, Hawke (2H) hits cleave while running in next to her.  Then, Aveline hits Stonewall, upgraded, and Hawke hits Whirlwind.  WW does 400-600 damage to everything, leaving them staggered.  Merrill hits Upgraded Lightning Strike, comboing the staggers for about 1600 damage.  Elites/normals are dead or very close (Tempest cleans up the few stunned/knocked remains).  If a boss remains:  Merrill hits haste while Isabela side-by-sides Aveline, then backstabs the boss, following up with insanely-fast ridiculous DPS; Hawke delivers a Crushing Blow, staggering the boss right as Isabela hits number 10 on her chain, then gets the stagger upgrade for Explosive Strike, doing about 1600-2000 damage, boss is dead.  Archboss (Ancient Rock Wraith) is half dead, waiting for another volley.  Everyone runs back, hits a potion, runs forward, repeats: now even an archboss is dead.  It seriously happens in a few seconds, every time.  I'm going to have to mod an enhanced Nightmare...

For soloing, I do have to admit that it is really difficult for my mage.  The spirit healer fortitude upgrade is a *must* -- for those chain-knocks you refer to.  Knockback(s) on your staff are a must, too.  The CDs on mage skills are ridiculous.  My warrior solos like the game was made that way

Modifié par Xodarap777, 20 mars 2011 - 10:23 .

[Sabresandiego]

Maybe I will make this mod myself. Too bad I have no experience in modding. Things I would do:

-Change pathing AI for companions when out of line of sight to maintain maximum range from target and strafe until in line of sight, rather then have ranged companions run into melee range of enemies like they do now.

-Increase the animation speed of enemies making them harder (but not impossible) to kite

-Add more waves to most fights (double or even triple the amount). Players should feel absolutely swarmed and it should be hard enough that most fights end with 2-3 companions knocked out and injured.

-Reduce the health of a few bosses but increase their damage

[Tomomi]

Sabresandiego wrote...

Maybe I will make this mod myself. Too bad I have no experience in modding. Things I would do:

-Change pathing AI for companions when out of line of sight to maintain maximum range from target and strafe until in line of sight, rather then have ranged companions run into melee range of enemies like they do now.

-Increase the animation speed of enemies making them harder (but not impossible) to kite

-Add more waves to most fights (double or even triple the amount). Players should feel absolutely swarmed and it should be hard enough that most fights end with 2-3 companions knocked out and injured.

-Reduce the health of a few bosses but increase their damage

I agree on tactics of Ranged.  Companions never want to run away.  In fact, they choose to remain meleeing until death even if they are archer or caster.  Which makes micromanaging a pain, although nothing close to having command queue reset.  And when I am comfortable with Nightmare mode as it is now (mainly how to deal with being stunlocked), I do welcome more waves.  But I must warn you ahead of time, during the length of DA:O, nobody ever successfully made a mod that actually increase mobs per waves or increase waves of mobs.  It would have to go into the actual main campaign's plot file to twist each and every encounter.  In fact, I was looking for a mod to increase random encounter in DA:O and none was to be found.  I have no experience in modding either, but given the history of DA:O modding, people have done so much for the game, but nobody managed to do that.  It must be something that really stops them.

[Xodarap777]

 But I must warn you ahead of time, during the length of DA:O, nobody ever successfully made a mod that actually increase mobs per waves or increase waves of mobs.  It would have to go into the actual main campaign's plot file to twist each and every encounter.  In fact, I was looking for a mod to increase random encounter in DA:O and none was to be found.  I have no experience in modding either, but given the history of DA:O modding, people have done so much for the game, but nobody managed to do that.  It must be something that really stops them.

Entirely untrue:  http://www.dragonage...ile.php?id=1406

By FAR the BEST mod for DAO/DAA, so so so good.  Can't play without it!  Makes the game infinitely replayable, spawning new and different enemies with better AI, randomly-generated equip and loot, random (but makes sense to the scene/area/story) class/race/type combos...  Wave after wave on the higher internal difficulties, too.  Set both difficulty settings to 5 and you'll be facing waves of dragons in the swamps!  

[Toadbat]

Sabresandiego wrote...

Maybe I will make this mod myself. Too bad I have no experience in modding. Things I would do:

-Change pathing AI for companions when out of line of sight to maintain maximum range from target and strafe until in line of sight, rather then have ranged companions run into melee range of enemies like they do now.

-Increase the animation speed of enemies making them harder (but not impossible) to kite

-Add more waves to most fights (double or even triple the amount). Players should feel absolutely swarmed and it should be hard enough that most fights end with 2-3 companions knocked out and injured.

-Reduce the health of a few bosses but increase their damage

Yep, and you should call it Sabresandiego's Nightmare is for wimps!  So I can really feel inadiquate, 

Just joking, thanks for your guides and advice. I am at the point now that I am trying to run through nightmare without any injuries.

[Fadook]

Xodarap777 wrote...

Are you guys sure you are playing on Nightmare?

On my first playthrough, I played Nightmare, and was frustrated beyond imagine.  I thought several times that the game balance was broken, the classes were screwed up, and I didn't even believe people who posted their strategies and experiences for defeating, for example, the templar hunter in Tranquility or the Ancient Rock Wraith ("burn him down"?! how much health does he have in YOUR game?!).

However, on my second playthrough, I TORE through Nightmare.  No problems.  In fact, it was laughably easy.  No one ever died except on stupid mistakes (mis-timed whirlwind, usually), and bosses died so fast I had to reload and do it again just to make sure it wasn't a bug.  Hordes of normals, or even elites, die in one volley of skills, five seconds at most.

Here's an example, at level 12:  Aveline runs in to a mess of elites, taunts.  At the same time, Hawke (2H) hits cleave while running in next to her.  Then, Aveline hits Stonewall, upgraded, and Hawke hits Whirlwind.  WW does 400-600 damage to everything, leaving them staggered.  Merrill hits Upgraded Lightning Strike, comboing the staggers for about 1600 damage.  Elites/normals are dead or very close (Tempest cleans up the few stunned/knocked remains).  If a boss remains:  Merrill hits haste while Isabela side-by-sides Aveline, then backstabs the boss, following up with insanely-fast ridiculous DPS; Hawke delivers a Crushing Blow, staggering the boss right as Isabela hits number 10 on her chain, then gets the stagger upgrade for Explosive Strike, doing about 1600-2000 damage, boss is dead.  Archboss (Ancient Rock Wraith) is half dead, waiting for another volley.  Everyone runs back, hits a potion, runs forward, repeats: now even an archboss is dead.  It seriously happens in a few seconds, every time.  I'm going to have to mod an enhanced Nightmare...

For soloing, I do have to admit that it is really difficult for my mage.  The spirit healer fortitude upgrade is a *must* -- for those chain-knocks you refer to.  Knockback(s) on your staff are a must, too.  The CDs on mage skills are ridiculous.  My warrior solos like the game was made that way

Very interesting. I might try this. So you're using the console/mods to give Merrill the Creation tree. Did you give her Heal as well?

Modifié par Fadook, 20 mars 2011 - 11:48 .

[Tomomi]

Xodarap777 wrote...

However, on my second playthrough, I TORE through Nightmare. No problems. In fact, it was laughably easy. No one ever died except on stupid mistakes (mis-timed whirlwind, usually), and bosses died so fast I had to reload and do it again just to make sure it wasn't a bug. Hordes of normals, or even elites, die in one volley of skills, five seconds at most.

Here's an example, at level 12: Aveline runs in to a mess of elites, taunts. At the same time, Hawke (2H) hits cleave while running in next to her. Then, Aveline hits Stonewall, upgraded, and Hawke hits Whirlwind. WW does 400-600 damage to everything, leaving them staggered. Merrill hits Upgraded Lightning Strike, comboing the staggers for about 1600 damage. Elites/normals are dead or very close (Tempest cleans up the few stunned/knocked remains). If a boss remains: Merrill hits haste while Isabela side-by-sides Aveline, then backstabs the boss, following up with insanely-fast ridiculous DPS; Hawke delivers a Crushing Blow, staggering the boss right as Isabela hits number 10 on her chain, then gets the stagger upgrade for Explosive Strike, doing about 1600-2000 damage, boss is dead. Archboss (Ancient Rock Wraith) is half dead, waiting for another volley. Everyone runs back, hits a potion, runs forward, repeats: now even an archboss is dead. It seriously happens in a few seconds, every time. I'm going to have to mod an enhanced Nightmare...

Good thing about DA series is that no matter what class you play, your companions fill in different roles. I started a mage, I still have 2 warriors to stand in for me to fill the warrior role. Although I can talk about the limitation in choice of companions in DA2, and unique skill trees for each character (3 specialization for Hawke, 1 specialzation for each companion). But give or take, we do have a similar setup with similar abilities. With console command cheats, I can get to any level I want, and unlimited gold just to make experimentation easier. I do know about mobs scaling with my level so I am not going too far with level in Act 2. And this Cross-class combo guide:

http://www.dazzlenut...combos-indepth/

I am going to try out what you just said. But here are a few things still puzzling me:

- Usually mobs don't come with just 1 wave, but they instead pop around your squishy mages and Varric. How do you manage to lure them altogether. Given it takes time for Aveline (or any tank) to walk to them 1 by 1, not to mention CC does not even guarantee to work due to high resist rate.Like in the Templar fight you mentioned above, Templar Hunter showed up at different time and different spots, getting them together is not that easy.

- What do you do for mass Stagger? Shield Bash is single target only, Tremor and Cleave only give 40% Stagger rate, so at best only half the initial mobs would die, the other half ... I doubt Tempest would take them out completely (it's Nightmare mode we are talking about here, very high HP). Oh, I heard Tempest does not have friendly fire?

- Lightnight Strike has a very poor radius, even upgraded. So out of the initial 6 mobs I lured with Aveline, the combo will maybe take out 1-2 right out. The rest are still very high HP (90%), I coupled Tempest and Fist of the Maker, they still did not even take the mobs down to 50%.

So according to you, I must really have a warrior to do 400-500 damage per AE hit as it is the only way? Mage's AE damage don't do that much (in relative to Nightmare's HP) and have long cool down. So I am wondering how to deal with onslaught of mobs, and I mean those with high HP and high damage like Revenant, Rage demon, etc... Aveline, with both Taunt and Bravery upgraded, is still not very successful at grabbing mobs, especially those popping in mid fight. And since I have yet to really kill mobs that fast in 3-5 seconds as you said, Aveline does not last too long only with potion and Heal (both have high cool down).

I am not trying to doubt you, I just need to know more details. My current testing subjects:
- Hawke: mage with about 3 specialization points and 25 ability points at level 15 (Sigh's Maker's bug). Basically all spells at disposal.
- Aveline: Immovable and Indommitable (100% resist stun/knock), Shield Bash and Tremor (for Stagger), Taunt and Bravery for tanking
- Merrill: Max Magic and Con, Sustain: Wrath of Elhven + Arcane Wall + Rock Armor, Chain Lightning (for stagger) and Stone fists (for disoriented).
- Varric: Kick back (for stagger combo), Pinning shot (for disorient), and an arsenal of damage abilities. Miasmic for survival.

How would I survive nightmare mode with this? I am testing in "Abandoned Thaig" in Sundermount, Act 2. Rooms and hallways are tight, not much room to kite. First room's 2nd wave comes with Rock golem, Revenant, Rage Demon, and 1-2 surviving archer skeletons. I keep trying with different spec/setup/combo, and this does not seem to work out at all on Nightmare mode.

Edit: Just tested, Shield bash Rage Demon to stagger, Chain Lightning for 1500 damage, took off ... 20% HP. With 80% left, Rage Demon is so mad at my mage and went straight to kill him. I don't think Tempest will come close to finish it off.

Regarding that mod you said, I am glad you told me because by the life of me I could never find it via google or the bad search engine of Dragonagenexus.com.  Thanks much! 

Modifié par Tomomi, 21 mars 2011 - 12:07 .

[Desolution]

Wall of text. Love how this sort of thread always degrades into "What? You find Nightmare easy? You're lying."

I'd add that it's pretty important to
- Blanket multiply normal enemy health by the act number. By act 2, CCCs become available, and it's laughably easy to 1shot kill entire groups. When act 3 gets into full swing, all challenge is gone, with liutenants being 1shot by companions' CCCs.
- Increase enemy fortitude by quite a bit. As it is, two Tempests on top of each other cast one second apart chain-stagger foes almost indefinately. Which is stupid.
- I'd add more enemies to waves instead of adding more waves.More easy waves just makes the game drag more, wheras more enemies makes it more challenging.
- Teach Archers that if they do have to run around the corner, they should still stay at range. Clumping enemies up into a tiny ball for AoEs is painfully simple as-is.
- Increase the cooldown on Revive. By the time I had two revives and the no-injuries talent, I could play no-pause without needing to switch characters, as if anyone died to FF, instant ress.

And as for the end-bosses:

-Ancient Rock Wraith should spend longer in his painful Ranged-Lightening-Zap phase, and have a bit less health, since it's just a plain boring fight. Increasing auto-attack damage would help too, especially in slow-boring-wait phase.
-Arishok... eeh, I liked the enormous health bar. Could you make that optional in the mod? Especially as Dual Wield, if he had 75% less health, it'd be trivial, as boosted Assassinate already takes out about 1/8 of his HP, so he'd become a 2shot >.>
- Meridith - Needs more HP. I really like this encounter. The red zappy things that chase you should do more damage by far. Making the smaller statues have a longer range would be useful too, they're too easily kited right now...

[Sabresandiego]

Desolution you can do all this? I would want to see more health on casual, and normal enemies, and less health on elites and bosses. You can do all those AI improvements as well? Maybe I can work with you.

[naughty99]

Tomomi wrote...

- What do you do for mass Stagger? Shield Bash is single target only, Tremor and Cleave only give 40% Stagger rate, so at best only half the initial mobs would die, the other half ... I doubt Tempest would take them out completely (it's Nightmare mode we are talking about here, very high HP). Oh, I heard Tempest does not have friendly fire?

2H Warrior as Tank with Sunder generates lots of Staggers (every crit is a 50% chance to stagger).

I use Fenris - with his crit buff abilities, he often staggers mobs of critters with scythe and whirlwind.

Need to use upgraded Pommel strike for high health enemies that are harder to stagger. Tremor didn't seem to to result in as many staggers as I had hoped, so I respecced with Scythe instead of tremor. 

Modifié par naughty99, 21 mars 2011 - 02:40 .

[Tomomi]

Good info. I just hated Fenris, but I guess it's time to get him out as a serious companion.

Desolution, it's not that I said "you must be lying". It's more of how I want to dig into their secrets. Or maybe learn something didn't know. Simply said, I was hoping to Sabresandiego would comment over how he would succeed where I failed doing the same thing he did. It's not easy to learn martial art via movies.

I do feel that I attempted to hijack this thread. But here is to contribute to the topic, read this mod "Nightmare Difficulty Tweak":

http://www.dragonage...ile.php?id=2194

It was made to tone down Nightmare mode a bit. But this means someone already pinpointed out the resource values so you can save yourself digging database to tweak some of these values to your liking. The author made the tweaks on party and enemy's bonus value, set handicap, and increase usage of enemy's abilities. It may not be much, but it's a start, you can look into tweaking your values to your taste.

I didn't write the mod, and therefore not responsible for anything. Don't forget to ask author's permission or give him credit if you derive off his work.

[Trapslick]

I'd like to see tremors knockback ability taken away personally... causing them staggered just to be dispursed was kinda lame...

[M3thodm4n]

am using tactics in game a lot so i can focus on battleground. sometimes i became brittle due to anders' cone of cold or winters grasp. that's when **** starts to begin. 1 archer's lance or bursting arrow towards the brittle enemy near aveline and me and we die instant. (7k or more at lvl20 - 25) i agree when 1.3 patch came bosses die easier (am rogue) but stick to playing ur character and use tactics with allies makes the game more interesting and realistic.

and sometimes a random arcane explosion happens outta nowhere and all melee allies and me die instantly.. i dunno if its a bug or sumthing but i can't figure out how it happens. is there a combat log in the game that i dunno to check that kinda things?

(sry 4 my english)

[M3thodm4n]

**** i figured the random explosions now. its the walking bomb from the staff of violance.