11 réponses à ce sujet

[Tomomi]

 The spell Barrier in Arcane tree says "Damage resistance: +50%" and Duration 6s. Does it mean all damage does to this barrier is halved?  100 damage goes to 50, and 1000 damage goes to 500?  And if we upgrade to Arcane Fortress, which adds another 50%, would that equal complete immunity? for 6 seconds?  This sounds too good to be true.  If I am wrong, then how do I interpret these values?

On the same note, is Arcane Shield (+20% defense) or Rock Armor (+25% armor) better?  For mages that is, Hawke mage, Merrill, and Anders.

[Count Viceroy]

Yes, 50 % damage resistance is cutting incoming damage in half. Depending on how the math is applied it could be 50 % + 50 % = 100 % damage resistance or it could be 50 % + 50% of 50 % ie 25 meaning a 75 % damage reduction.

Defense is avoidance, armor is damage reduction. It's up to you which you prefer. My mage is very rarely getting hit so I have no need of either.

[TcheQ]

It only lasts six seconds, and has a cooldown of 45 (on nightmare at least). So...it sucks imo used it maybe once in 67 hours

[IN1]

An upgraded version makes you damage-immune for 6 seconds. However, please note spell- and spell-like effects like freeze/brittle can still affect you (FF included).

And no, it doesn't suck at all. In fact, it provides you with one of the most efficient ways to play on Nightmare in a full party formation: Fenris + 3 mages. Fenris can safely enter battles with 1 hp remaining to maximize damage. Since you can make him spell-immune or nearly spell-immune, all you have to do is spam Cones of Cold (3 CoC with Elemental Mastery will freeze/brittle the whole mob) and Barriers (to prevent stray hits), then make him use Mighty Blow, Scythe and Whirlwind. His AoE damage output will be sick. 18 seconds invulnerablity is usually enough to end most run-of-the-mill encounters if you coordinate your party manually. Have him carry a Life Ward potion, just in case

It's a high risk:high reward strategy that usually pays off nicely. Obviously, you'll need other party setups for boss battles, but that goes without saying, I hope (though most sub-bosses will be brittled and mercilessly pwn3d by a 1 hp Fenris scoring insane criticals).

Modifié par IN1, 20 mars 2011 - 01:13 .

[TcheQ]

I'm not a fan of power gaming. Fenris stays in his hole.

[Tomomi]

Count Viceroy wrote...

Yes, 50 % damage resistance is cutting incoming damage in half. Depending on how the math is applied it could be 50 % + 50 % = 100 % damage resistance or it could be 50 % + 50% of 50 % ie 25 meaning a 75 % damage reduction.

Defense is avoidance, armor is damage reduction. It's up to you which you prefer. My mage is very rarely getting hit so I have no need of either.

How do you people always say your mage is rarely getting hit?  It's brutal out there on Nightmare mode.  Even with Indommitable, Aveline still gets tossed around (no knock-back, no stun, but still pushed back and can't issue any command during this period). I used both Taunt and Bravery but its impossible to get everything on her.  My poor Merill getting pounded all the time in which I constantly have to get her out of Blood Magic to get healed.  She already dons Arcane Shield and Rock Armor.

[Waltzingbear]

Yeah it can be very useful in different ways (for example soaking a back-stab).
FYI - Arcane Shield Provides 15% all magic classes resistance plus 15% defense and the same but only 5% for the entire party upgrade, unlike what is mentioned in the description.
I think that generally Rock Armor does a better job except a few situations with heavy magical damage like the High Dragon.

[Count Viceroy]

Tomomi wrote...

How do you people always say your mage is rarely getting hit?  It's brutal out there on Nightmare mode.  Even with Indommitable, Aveline still gets tossed around (no knock-back, no stun, but still pushed back and can't issue any command during this period). I used both Taunt and Bravery but its impossible to get everything on her.  My poor Merill getting pounded all the time in which I constantly have to get her out of Blood Magic to get healed.  She already dons Arcane Shield and Rock Armor.

Anything not locked down by the tanks are instantly crowd controlled by horror, petrify, stonefist or similar. If those are unavailable, pommelstrike, assassins blade. If those are unavailable as well, there's the chameleons breath potion.

There's loads of options. What you need to do is prioritize. Grab the hard targets with the tank, cc a couple more and burn down the easy targets with a quick cross class combo. Any warrior + lightning mage will do quick work of even the largest groups of enemies. Since chain lightning crits staggered targets and warriors can stagger big groups at will with shield bash/ crits.

I do not mean to boast or anything, But I play tactical games on an almost daily basis. It's almost second nature to me.

Modifié par Count Viceroy, 20 mars 2011 - 09:44 .

[Tomomi]

Count Viceroy wrote...

Anything not locked down by the tanks are instantly crowd controlled by horror, petrify, stonefist or similar. If those are unavailable, pommelstrike, assassins blade. If those are unavailable as well, there's the chameleons breath potion.

There's loads of options. What you need to do is prioritize. Grab the hard targets with the tank, cc a couple more and burn down the easy targets with a quick cross class combo. Any warrior + lightning mage will do quick work of even the largest groups of enemies. Since chain lightning crits staggered targets and warriors can stagger big groups at will with shield bash/ crits.

I do not mean to boast or anything, But I play tactical games on an almost daily basis. It's almost second nature to me.

Well, I have my share of playing tactical as well.  It's the reason I am into DA.  I used to play WoW for Battleground PVP and Arena PVP.  Tactics and timing were up most crucial especially at high ranking arena battle. And I also played DA:O in Nightmare mode as well.  So I am not a button smashing XBOX 360 player who kept dying on casual mode.

But by reading your post people would have a feel that these spells last very long.  But in the grand picture of an encounter, mobs come in waves, and these CC abilities have long cool down and last only 5-10 seconds, that include the Taunt ability.  In nightmare mode the resist rate is like 30-50% chance.

Even assuming all CC spells went in, after 5 seconds, then what?  5 mobs at 5 corner, it's not like we can 1 shot them all at once.  And then rogue/warrior move in for another CC.  Doing this means taking them off dpsing, and their CC would last another 5 seconds.  Remember we are dealing with overwhelming mobs here, not mobs lining up at the door 1 by 1.

Edit: I have upgraded Shield bash, but I have yet to successfully Stagger more than 2 mobs.  And the last time I tried staggering a Rage demon, Chain lightning took off 1500 HP, which was merely 20% of his HP. That results in Merril's death since Aveline's Taunt was on Cool down and there was no other way to get the Rage Demon off her, even after a Mindblast stun that lasted another 5 seconds.

Modifié par Tomomi, 21 mars 2011 - 12:41 .

[pyre]

 The spell Barrier in Arcane tree says "Damage resistance: +50%" and Duration 6s. Does it mean all damage does to this barrier is halved?  100 damage goes to 50, and 1000 damage goes to 500?  And if we upgrade to Arcane Fortress, which adds another 50%, would that equal complete immunity? for 6 seconds?  This sounds too good to be true.  If I am wrong, then how do I interpret these values?

It adds 50 (or 100) to your damage resistance. So the actual # it reduces incoming damage depends on the target's previous damage resistance.

EG atm my Aveline has 30% damage resistance, 1 point Barrier raises this to 80% for her. 
For Isabela with 0% damage resist, it raises her to 50%.
For Anders using Vengeance with -50% damage resist, it will raise him to 0%.

On the same note, is Arcane Shield (+20% defense) or Rock Armor (+25% armor) better?  For mages that is, Hawke mage, Merrill, and Anders.

I prefer Rock Armor.

Unless you're stacking DEF specifically as a mage, Arcane Shield will only help vs the lowest rank mobs because DEF is reduced 20% vs Lts and 40% vs bosses.Most mages will have a fairly low DEF stat (unless you have a specific mage that stacks Cunning and +DEF items). So even with Arcane Shield, a Mage's DEF vs Lt. rank mobs will still be the minimum, 5%.  And on Bosses, it will be hard to get above 5% no matter what you do.

Armor only drops 10% per enemy rank, and even mages have a decent amount of armor, so Rock Armor is still useful vs any rank enemy, but Rock Armor only helps vs physical damage.

But Rock Armor can be rather ugly looking <_<

[Tomomi]

My latest creation I got Merril with high Magic and High Con, let the mana handle all sustainables, and cast spell entirely on HP. So she has Rock armor and Arcane Wall on at all time (Arcane Wall = Arcane shield upgrade that covers the entire group).

And yes, talk about being "fugly". Merril looks like a distorted rage demon with that rock armor on, and with Arcane Wall, the whole party looks like a bunch of whirlwinds running around, with Merril being the ugliest of them all. I am playing at the highest graphic options (but with older card ATI Radeon 4800s that does not fully support DX11). I paused and checked, it does look as intended and not really a graphical distortion.

All these make the game a mess. But here is my answer:

http://www.dragonage...ile.php?id=2296

This mod takes away all these fancy Rock armor and Arcane shield, so for the sake of sanity, we can have some normal looking players again, not some whirlwinds running around that makes everything so hard to see.

[KAAurious]

It has its uses. Especially if you think you might lose your mage to an impending backstab. Definitely situational. But not useless.