14 réponses à ce sujet

[LeviathanZero]

Hey all. Being the only Sword & Board warrior, how necessary is it to use Aveline? 
I'm wondering if say Fenris with a few points in Defender (and his personal specialisation) and either Varric (though that may leave me with too little melee) or Isabella (since she gets plenty of +Defense from her tree) would work or if a "Tank" is a necessity.

[dkh5mac]

I can't speak for Nightmare difficulty, but on Hard, it is entirely possible to play the game without Aveline without making the game more challenging for yourself. You just need another way of mitigating damage. In my current playthrough, I'm accomplishing that with Anders' healing abilities and a mage Hawke specialized in control through Force and Entropy spells. I'm sure there are other combinations that work just as well on that level or lower.

EDIT: If you are playing on Nightmare difficulty without Aveline, a good place to look for advice would be the Vanguard thread. That style does not involve any warriors other than Hawke (by necessity, since 2H warriors do huge AoE friendly fire damage if there's another melee team mate in the fight).

Modifié par dkh5mac, 24 mars 2011 - 02:47 .

[SlamminHams]

Any Warrior, whether it be Hawke or an NPC, can tank in this game. It's more of a factor of how you compose your party and how you build your party.

[knownastherat]

Apparently, there are some who use 3 mage party and Varric, talking NM.

Personally, and at low levels, I found such setup quite complicated. Aveline is a born winner. Fenris on the other hand needs more attention. Both can do the job, and they even work well together. Isabela has nice pair of blades, but Fenris likes to kill her, probably jealousy. Why to give up a tank?

Define necessary ...

[LeviathanZero]

Righty, so if I have a Mage Hawke with Primal, Force & Spirit healer, and Anders with his healing, Creation & Arcane (loads of buffs there!) then we should be fine (playing on Hard)?

[Whitestrake]

Aveline's by no means a must. Fenris can become a phenomenal avoidance tank, & warrior Hawke can do much the same. However, I don't know that anyone can tank better than Aveline. The woman's like a ginger Abrams.
You can definitely get by without her though.
But who'd want to? She's one of the best characters.

[LeviathanZero]

knownastherat wrote...

Apparently, there are some who use 3 mage party and Varric, talking NM.

Personally, and at low levels, I found such setup quite complicated. Aveline is a born winner. Fenris on the other hand needs more attention. Both can do the job, and they even work well together. Isabela has nice pair of blades, but Fenris likes to kill her, probably jealousy. Why to give up a tank?

Define necessary ...

The reason behind 'giving up' the tank is basically:
Playing with two mages
Need a rogue for lock picking
That leaves me with one slot, so I wanted to know if I'll be 'forced' to use Aveline, or if I can use someone with a two-hander instead (dear gods Carver lives up to his name ><)

[naughty99]

I used Aveline as my tank and she really dragged me down during the Deep Roads quest.

After I watched some 2H warrior tutorials, I realized that Fenris is a much better tank for me (playing as a Rogue on Nightmare with Fenris, Merril and Anders).

I never used Aveline again after the Deep Roads.

Modifié par naughty99, 24 mars 2011 - 03:06 .

[knownastherat]

@LeviathanZero: Been facing the same question. Save, try it and see if it fits you. Fenris can do, if you are willing to take care of him. Isabela's so-called defensive talents are not as strong as it seems. Without a warrior CCC oportunities become rare too. Again, talking NM, if it works elsewhere .. Should be possible, by fiddling with Tactics for her, to work with Fenris as efficiently as with Aveline, but again, test it.

Modifié par knownastherat, 24 mars 2011 - 03:13 .

[godlike13]

Aveline's not a must, but she certainly does make some of those tougher boss battles a bit easier.

[CubbieBlue66]

If you're a warrior, Aveline is not necessary.

If you're a mage or a rogue, you're probably best off to bring either Aveline or Fenris. But even at that, I prefer to bring Fenris. His specialty tree makes him an excellent tank character.

[Lialdia]

Alrighty so I just finished second playthrough.

First time I went with DW Rogue Hawke, Isabela, Varric and Fenris (Fenris has Taunt, basically the only 'tanking' ability he had, aside of his own personal buff).

Second run was with SnS Warrior Hawke, Aveline, Fenris, Isabela (with only Aveline having Taunt, no one built as tank).

Both parties did fine on Hard difficulty (note the no healers, no Haste) from beginning to end. So you should be just fine with either Fenris or Aveline for dedicated tank. Or then with no tank at all, and just kite your way through the fights (or if playing below Nightmare, just use things like Sleep, Gravitic Pull and Tempest to keep all them monsters from coming at you).

[nicethugbert]

I played most of the game with rogue, varric, merril, and anders, and isabella bug, and it was fine. It could have been easier sometimes with Aveline but I played to the end. This was on normal difficulty.

I respeced Anders to primal and elemental and it was brutal. Two Tempests in one area will disrupt opponents, add Appocalyptic Firestorm and Hail of Arrows for MOAR. Piling on AOE spells was my defense basically, defense through disruption while Hawke Assasinates elites and bosses.

[Ulquiorra_4_Esparda]

Fenris can be just as good, and in my opinion, a better tank then Aveline. Even if his survival isn't as great from a pure mitigation standpoint he can still take a good beating AND just carve through lesser enemies with massacre. What makes him a better tank then Aveline (again for me) is he is naturally able to produce more threat, which means less time running around grabbing agro and more time focusing on your enemies without your allies getting interrupted.

A note about the defender tree however is that it is almost useless in my opinion, and forget Arcane shield or cunning (defense). Some people like it but I would far rather focus on on health and strength as the most damaging abilities on nightmare will never be blocked (e.g. rogue/mage aoe) anything that can be blocked is likely barely going to scratch you anyway + if you get massacre in Vanguard you will be clearing out normal/critter enemies without even trying, Which allows your single target allies to focus on the enemies that really matter.

Overall Fenris is my prefered tank.

[EDIT] If you are gonna go with Fenris then Spirit Healer or Anders is even more vital + Haste from the Creation tree will benefit Fenris if you go Vanguard cleave + Massacre +Sunder = alot of easy enemies dying + massive amounts of sunders (+ Brittle abuse from Cleave) for cross class.

I Only play on nightmare and I love it, 2H tank works from beginning to end.

Modifié par Ulquiorra_4_Esparda, 24 mars 2011 - 05:17 .

[Gamer Ftw]

I have never used her in any playthrough so not very.